# Hitler
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 23, 2004, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381 "2004-12-23T20:29:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381/1 "2004-12-23T20:29:39Z")
Okay, so possibly dumb question, but … how do you spell his name, anyway? Was it “Adolf” or “Adolph”? I’ve seen both, frequently, but which is right?
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381/2 "2004-12-23T20:32:49Z")
I’ve seen ‘Adolf’ far more commonly used than ‘Adolph’. In fact I don’t remember seeing ‘Adolph’ much at all.
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### Author:  [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381/3 "2004-12-23T20:41:25Z")
Perhaps I exaggerated when I said that I’ve seen “Adolph” _frequently_. But I have seen it quite a few times, enough that I’m uncertain of the answer.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381/4 "2004-12-23T21:33:55Z")
Google.
“Adolf Hitler” 835,000 hits
“Adolph Hitler” 161,000 hits
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381/5 "2004-12-23T21:38:59Z")
Well I never. All those documentaries I watched on adolf and ww2 and I never thought of his name having two common spellings.
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### Author:  [@Julius\_Henry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Julius_Henry)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381/6 "2004-12-23T21:43:01Z")
> **[Amazon.de: Günstige Preise für Elektronik & Foto, Filme, Musik, Bücher,...](https://www.amazon.de/)**
>
> Entdecken, shoppen und einkaufen bei Amazon.de: Günstige Preise für Elektronik & Foto, Filme, Musik, Bücher, Games, Spielzeug, Sportartikel, Drogerie & mehr bei Amazon.de
“Adolph Hitler” returned 1 book written about Hitler by Walter Adolph Broschiert.
“Adolf Hitler” returned 460 books about Hitler, including _Mein Kampf_.
I’m going to go with Adolf.
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### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381/7 "2004-12-23T21:46:12Z")
> [@Julius Henry](#):
>
> [amazon.de](http://amazon.de)
>
> “Adolph Hitler” returned 1 book written about Hitler by Walter Adolph Broschiert.
>
> “Adolf Hitler” returned 460 books about Hitler, including _Mein Kampf_.
>
> I’m going to go with Adolf.
It surprises me that amazon._de_ would carry _Mein Kampf_. I do know that Germany has banned anything Nazi inside its borders since the late 1940s at least.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381/8 "2004-12-23T21:53:05Z")
Doing some googling for Hitler’s signature, he seemed to spell his name “Adolf” (although he didn’t have very good handwriting…here are some signatures)
[http://www.handwriting.org/images/samples/ahitler.htm](http://www.handwriting.org/images/samples/ahitler.htm)
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381/9 "2004-12-23T21:54:06Z")
> [@Derleth](#):
>
> It surprises me that amazon._de_ would carry _Mein Kampf_. I do know that Germany has banned anything Nazi inside its borders since the late 1940s at least.
I don’t find it that surprising.
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### Author:  [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381/10 "2004-12-23T22:00:01Z")
Nazi Campaign poster uses Adolf. 2nd link has a cover of MK using that spelling
[http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/posters/hindhit.jpg](http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/posters/hindhit.jpg)
[http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/posters/mk.jpg](http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/posters/mk.jpg)
[http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/posters/hand.jpg](http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/posters/hand.jpg)
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### Author:  [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381/11 "2004-12-23T22:06:01Z")
Very, very minor historical-related mini-rant:
it annoys me out of all proportion to hear the name pronouced as “_Ay_-dolf,” rather than the proper “_Ah_-dolf.” US documentaries seem to be the worst for this.
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381/12 "2004-12-23T22:08:14Z")
It used to be the convention in the American press to Anglicize the spelling of all foreign names, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you found a lot of 1920s or 1930s American examples of “Adolph.”
I think it’s fairly recently that the American press had largely adopted the rule of spelling foreigners’ names exactly how they want them spelled. Roberto Clemente, the 1960s baseball player, was routinely referred to as “Bobby Clemente,” in order to avoid that _furrin_ “Roberto,” even though Clemente himself made it clear that he didn’t want to be called “Bobby.”
In fact, my AP Stylebook still says, for example, that Russians named “Aleksandr” (the spelling you would get by transliterating from Cyrillic) should be referred to in print as “Alexander.”
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381/13 "2004-12-23T22:10:54Z")
> [@Rodd Hill](#):
>
> Very, very minor historical-related mini-rant:
>
> it annoys me out of all proportion to hear the name pronouced as “_Ay_-dolf,” rather than the proper “_Ah_-dolf.” US documentaries seem to be the worst for this.
ay-dolf was as bad s’DAM hasseyn, who was leader of ay-raq, a place where ay-rabs live.
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### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381/14 "2004-12-23T22:36:07Z")
> [@Lobsang](#):
>
> I don’t find it that surprising.
Why not?
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### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381/15 "2004-12-23T22:45:07Z")
> [@Derleth](#):
>
> Why not?
Well Germany is a modern european capitalist country, World War 2 and Hitler were over 60 years ago why would a valid piece of Germany’s s history be unavailable on the german flavour of Google?
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### Author:  [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381/16 "2004-12-23T23:18:50Z")
It’s a question having to do with the German Spelling Reforms.
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### Author:  [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381/17 "2004-12-23T23:19:58Z")
There’s a scene in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” where the actor playing Hitler signs a book for Indy…he signs it “Adolph Hitler” with his right hand. This scene never fails to crack me up because:
A: It is spelled Adolf.
B: Hitler was left handed.
Oh, well.
And I think Germany has a law against buying or selling Nazi stuff, not against owning it. My host mom’s dad was in WWII and he had plenty of Nazi shit in his basement. I doubt it was illegal for him to keep it.
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### Author:  [@rfgdxm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rfgdxm)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2004, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381/18 "2004-12-23T23:39:00Z")
> [@Lobsang](#):
>
> I don’t find it that surprising.
Nor do I. How could someone condemn Hitler’s ideas without having access to his book?
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### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2004, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381/19 "2004-12-24T01:03:11Z")
**Lobsang** , **rfgdxm** , can a person buy a swastika in Germany as of now? Can a German in Germany legally try to resurrect the NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, aka National Socialist German Workers’ Party, aka the Nazis)? [To my understanding, both of those things are illegal.](http://www.fotw.us/flags/naz_ban.html)
If those things would be illegal, what would legitimize the seminal work of the whole Nazi movement in the eyes of the German government?
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### Author:  [@rfgdxm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rfgdxm)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2004, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hitler/281381/20 "2004-12-24T01:20:49Z")
> [@Derleth](#):
>
> If those things would be illegal, what would legitimize the seminal work of the whole Nazi movement in the eyes of the German government?
Common sense?
[http://www.hitler.org/writings/Mein\_Kampf/index.html](http://www.hitler.org/writings/Mein_Kampf/index.html)
The full text of “Mein Kampf”, in many different languages, is easy to find online.
[http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/3471665536/302-8593713-6393629](http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/3471665536/302-8593713-6393629)
[Amazon.de](http://Amazon.de) has a print copy for sale online.
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