# Hitler lied about his First World War record **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 21, 2010, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384 "2010-11-21T00:25:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384/1 "2010-11-21T00:25:30Z")
[Apparently, you just can’t trust Hitler for beans](http://blog.oup.com/2010/11/hitler/): > [@](#): > > For two years I had been working through pile after pile of archive documents in Bavaria, Northern France, the U.S., and Israel. As I did so, it had become increasingly clear to me that Hitler’s own version of his war experiences – which had never seriously been challenged by Hitler’s many biographers – were close to fictional. An anonymous 1932 newspaper article was a key document that undermined Hitler’s account; but historians had long dismissed it as a desperate attempt by his political opponents to derail his career with made-up allegations about his war record. To me, though, it increasingly had the ring of truth; but the word ‘anonymous’ really did make it unusable. The guy who wrote the anonymous article was Korbinian Rutz, Commander of 1st Company, in which Hitler had served. He was a dispatch runner, like Hitler, and he said that Hitler’s accounts of his war years were largely fictional. This has been backed up by recollections from people like Hugo Gutmann, the highest-ranking Jew in Hitler’s regiment, and Jakob Weiss, one of Hitler’s closest peers from the war. In specific: > [@](#): > > Was Hitler a hero of his Regiment? No. Was anti-Semitism rife in the Regiment? No. Did his fellow soldiers support his rise to power? In the large majority, No. This is interesting largely because, as per the linked article, previous historians have never seriously questioned Hitler’s accounts of his Great War record; now that we have better evidence it was fabricated, it may well cause a spate of new Nazi-sploitation documentaries on the Hitler Channel. OK, that’s a bad reason to be interested in this. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384/2 "2010-11-21T04:49:31Z")
What has the world come to that we can’t trust Hitler? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384/3 "2010-11-21T04:56:24Z")
Next you’ll tell me he wasn’t a terrific dancer. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384/4 "2010-11-21T04:57:58Z")
A little off-topic, but Stalin was an excellent mechanic. You can trust your car To the man who wears the star ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384/5 "2010-11-21T05:18:44Z")
Asked for comment, Hitler stated _Ich bin gewesen schnellesbooten!!_ ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384/6 "2010-11-21T05:45:43Z")
There don’t seem to be any startling revelations here, even with the supposed identification of the anonymous author of a 1932 newspaper article by a non-Hitler fan. > [@](#): > > Was Hitler a hero of his Regiment? No. Was anti-Semitism rife in the Regiment? No. Did his fellow soldiers support his rise to power? In the large majority, No. Discovery after discovery confirmed that the received wisdom was wrong. I don’t recall the “received wisdom” of historians insisting on any of these things. For instance, the accounts I’ve read all suggest that Hitler was viewed as odd by most of his fellow soldiers, in part because he didn’t take part in typical grousing about Army life and was a standoffish sort. If there’s definitive refutation of the long-held view that running dispatches between units (Hitler’s job for the most part) was a dangerous occupation, I don’t see it. And it’s interesting that the blogger left out the fact that Hitler was recommended for an Iron Cross by that Jewish commanding officer who was mentioned (Hugo Gutmann). I’d be among the last to defend Hitler, but there’s considerable well-supported evidence that he was a brave soldier who served his country in WWI honorably and was highly decorated. Postwar his “service” to his country takes on a noticeably different tinge. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384/7 "2010-11-21T12:48:06Z")
Man, that guy was a DICK! ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384/8 "2010-11-21T13:19:04Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > Man, that guy was a DICK! Typical anti-Hitlerist, resorting to ad hominem attacks because your arguments aren’t strong enough. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384/9 "2010-11-21T13:41:47Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Typical anti-Hitlerist, resorting to ad hominem attacks because your arguments aren’t strong enough. Yeah, you know who else used ad hominem attacks against his… …wait a second. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384/10 "2010-11-21T14:20:33Z")
You know who _else_ lied about their WWI record? That’s right, Hitl…oh wait. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384/11 "2010-11-21T14:29:56Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Typical anti-Hitlerist, resorting to ad hominem attacks because your arguments aren’t strong enough. Well what else are ya gonna do? It’s not like you can Godwin your way out of this! ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384/12 "2010-11-21T15:10:09Z")
> [@Unintentionally\_Blank](#): > > Well what else are ya gonna do? It’s not like you can Godwin your way out of this! You know who else can’t Godwin their way out? HITLER! Yeah, I’ll say it! Because he’s been dead since the 40’s. He’s unlikely to fall afoul of Gaudre’s law either. And holy crap the typos poured forth as soon as I invoked Gaudre. I don’t even know if I spelled “Gaudre” right. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384/13 "2010-11-21T15:25:17Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > And holy crap the typos poured forth as soon as I invoked Gaudre. I don’t even know if I spelled “Gaudre” right. I’ll give you one geuss… ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384/14 "2010-11-21T16:31:47Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > There don’t seem to be any startling revelations here, even with the supposed identification of the anonymous author of a 1932 newspaper article by a non-Hitler fan.I don’t recall the “received wisdom” of historians insisting on any of these things. Yea, I’m kinda underwhelmed as well. The historian seems to be kinda assuming what he was trying to prove, that the anonymous article writer was in Hitler’s unit. A regiments got a few thousand people in it, that he was able to find one whose biographical details match the anonymous writer seems like it could just as easily be coincidence. That said, kinda bizarre to learn that Hitler was swift-boated. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384/15 "2010-11-21T16:55:20Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > I’ll give you one geuss… Uhm… how is it properly spelled? ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384/16 "2010-11-21T17:46:32Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > A little off-topic, but Stalin was an excellent mechanic. > > You can trust your car > To the man who wears the star That was [Queen Elizabeth](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CAoFDpupTaY/SipJPfLmBnI/AAAAAAAABsM/QK8o3LAab2A/s400/PrincessElizabeth-AuxTerrSvc-1945%5B1%5D.jpg) (well she wasn’t queen yet) ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384/17 "2010-11-21T17:51:34Z")
Are only the cool kids allowed to hate Hitler or can we all join in? ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384/18 "2010-11-21T18:00:34Z")
Even _[the Family Circus](http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/1649/174gj.jpg)_ has covered Hitler ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384/19 "2010-11-21T19:53:35Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Are only the cool kids allowed to hate Hitler or can we all join in? I can tell you who wouldn’t hate Hitler. [Hipster Hitler](http://hipsterhitler.com/). Well, he might hate Hitler, but only _ironically_. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2010, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384/20 "2010-11-21T22:38:36Z")
I had never heard that Hitler was regarded as anything apart from a serviceman, who fought at Fromelles. Some other Nazi’s (Goering in particular) referred to him as “The Corporal” in a derogatory manner so it would appear that they were under no delusions. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-lied-about-his-first-world-war-record/561384.md?page=2)