# Hitler Wasn't Aryan... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 11, 2003, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-wasnt-aryan/187646 "2003-07-11T04:11:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-wasnt-aryan/187646/1 "2003-07-11T04:11:44Z")
Something that has long puzzled me about Hitler’s racial superiority philosophy. Unless I’m recalling wrongly, he was of the opinion that the superior man has blonde hair and blue eyes, wasn’t he? Seeing as how that described neither his own features nor that of Eva Braun…did he intend to not reproduce? How, after convincing all these German Aryans to be proper Nazi racists, did none of them say, “We should be commanding _him_!” How did his own superiority in Germany not belie his purported beliefs? Were there any German Aryans who tried to oust Hitler based on that (only to find themselves put down by the secret police or some such)? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-wasnt-aryan/187646/2 "2003-07-11T04:22:07Z")
[Cecil touches on the subject](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_269.html). Unfortunately he doesn’t directly address your question. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-wasnt-aryan/187646/3 "2003-07-11T05:18:15Z")
Charlie Chaplin made the exact same point in _The Great Dictator_ in 1940. I do not believe that Hitler responded to the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-wasnt-aryan/187646/4 "2003-07-11T05:33:35Z")
When the Nazi Race Laws were enacted, two people were explicitly defined by name as being Aryan: Adolf Hitler and Jesus Christ. ---
**Author:** ![Daoloth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/82dd89/32.png) [@Daoloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daoloth)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-wasnt-aryan/187646/5 "2003-07-11T05:35:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Little Nemo \* > \*\*When the Nazi Race Laws were enacted, two people were explicitly defined by name as being Aryan: Adolf Hitler and Jesus Christ. \*\* Are you sure about Jesus? I know neither Hitler nor Rosenberg were particularly fond of him… ---
**Author:** ![Blalron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@Blalron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blalron)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-wasnt-aryan/187646/6 "2003-07-11T05:47:18Z")
> [@](#): > > Something that has long puzzled me about Hitler’s racial superiority philosophy. I’m also puzzled that someone from Austria would make such a huge platform about German nationalism and supremacy. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-wasnt-aryan/187646/7 "2003-07-11T05:55:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tomndebb \* > \*\*Charlie Chaplin made the exact same point in _The Great Dictator_ in 1940. I do not believe that Hitler responded to the movie. \*\* He prohibited it from being shown in Germany. That’s a response, I’d say. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-wasnt-aryan/187646/8 "2003-07-11T06:48:57Z")
\*\*cmkeller[/B, the short answer is that an Aryan was not formally defined as being blond or blue-eyed. **Blalron** , Hitler defined the German nation as the cultures that spoke German, hence his idea of a Greater Germany, and his justification for the occupation of Austria and the German-speaking portion of Czechoslovakia in 1938. Hitler, a native of Austria, did become a German citizen before becoming Chancellor. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-wasnt-aryan/187646/9 "2003-07-11T08:21:51Z")
Further answer: Hitler gave his ideas on the history and character of the Aryan people most directly in the [Nation and Race](http://www.hitler.org/writings/Mein_Kampf/mkv1ch11.html) chapter of _Mein Kampf_. In it, the only reference he makes to the _physical_ characteristics of Aryans is lighter skin (“After a thousand years and more, the last visible trace of the former master people is often seen in the lighter skin color which its blood left behind in the subjugated race, and in a petrified culture which it had originally created”). ---
**Author:** ![Atreyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-wasnt-aryan/187646/10 "2003-07-11T11:31:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Daoloth \* > \*\*Are you sure about Jesus? I know neither Hitler nor Rosenberg were particularly fond of him… \*\* In Cecil’s article [Was Hitler part Jewish?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_325b.html), he references historian John Toland’s statement that Hitler had the Nazi laws defining Jewishness written to exclude himself and Jesus Christ from that definition. Although it is not the same as defining an Aryan, this may be what **Little Nemo** is thinking of. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-wasnt-aryan/187646/11 "2003-07-11T11:36:26Z")
Well, you know what they said, the perfect Aryan is as tall as Goebbels, as slim as Goering and as blonde as Hitler 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-wasnt-aryan/187646/12 "2003-07-11T11:38:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Daoloth \* > \*\*Are you sure about Jesus? I know neither Hitler nor Rosenberg were particularly fond of him… \*\* It was probably an appeasement move. Hitler certainly didn’t care, but plenty of German would have. ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-wasnt-aryan/187646/13 "2003-07-11T11:40:54Z")
Yes, I remeber a quote from one of the Nazi leaders (who IIRC was involved in the adminstration of territiories on the Eastern Front) which went along the lines of: "If I looked like Himmler I wouldn’t go on so much about the ‘master race’ " ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-wasnt-aryan/187646/14 "2003-07-11T15:04:46Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Little Nemo_ > When the Nazi Race Laws were enacted, two people were explicitly defined by name as being Aryan: Adolf Hitler and Jesus Christ. I doubt this. Any cite? The Nuremberg Laws themselves did not define their classifications of “German and related blood” and “Jew”. A later government ordinance defined “full Jew” as a person with three or more Jewish grandparents. Which _could_ be have been construed as exluding Jesus as he had only two grandparents at all (St. Joachim and St. Anna). The ordinance also defined categories of people to be discriminated against to a lesser degree, including persons with two and one Jewish grandparents - Jesus clearly qualifying. To mention Hitler by name would have been too blatant - would have made people wonder, obviously. BTW sorry to disappoint, but in Germany blonds are in the _minority_ - are now, were then. I haven’t any cite but looking at groups of middle-aged German men (excluding women and teenagers for obvious reasons) I’d estimate less than one in ten is blond. Probably more like one in twenty. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2003, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler-wasnt-aryan/187646/15 "2003-07-11T15:28:00Z")
**tschild** , thanks for raising that question. I too have been unable to find such a document specifically excluding Jesus and Hitler.