Hitler's Mustache...what's the deal?

[Slithy_Tove]

@leenmi

I saw mustaches similar to Hitler’s in the military. Regulations required men to keep their mustaches from extending past the corners of the mouth. Some men trimmed a little too much off one side, balanced on the other and ended up with a Hitler 'stache.

Not sure why they didn’t just shave the whole thing. Maybe they believed it was a little wider than Hitler’s, so it was okay.

Hmm, so Che Guavara’s moustache was the opposite of Hitler’s (not that it reversed his zeal for having people shot).

[Absolute]

I had a teacher in high school (only two years ago) whose face looked like Hitler’s. Same shape, same wrinkles, same everything. Including the mustache.

The general facial resemblance was bad enough, but why he had to complement it with the mustache I’ll never know. Nice guy, though.

[sjc]

@W.C. Privy's Original Bathroom Companion

He began wearing his famous little moustache during Word War I. More of a British Style than a German one, he may have adopted it in imitation of English officers, whom he grew to admire during his years at the front.

I don’t know that the source is particularly reliable, they don’t provide a citation of where they got this information, but this seems plausible enough.

[The_Scrivener]

Mugabe’s is just a… philtrum filler. Yecch.

[Number]

@Cagey Drifter

It’s a symbol that came from Aryan tradition, and became part of East Indian symbology. It’s a symbol of good luck, and to this day you can see it all over the place if you go to India. Almost every single commerical truck has the symbol on it, and many other things do too; I have dinnerware that has the swastika embossed on the bottom. However, one difference is that the Indian swastika goes counterclockwise.

A certain distinguished authority doesn’t agree with this last part.

@Cecil Adams

Time to lay off the airplane glue, West. As a glance at a history book would show, the Nazi symbol was oriented in a clockwise direction. So, as often as not, was the ancient good luck/sun symbol sometimes known as the Wheel of Life. It’s true that swastikas come in both clockwise and counterclockwise versions, and some scholars maintain that they represent opposing principles–e.g., yin/yang, male/female, and presumably good/evil. On occasion, as you correctly note, the counterclockwise swastika, more properly known as the sauvastika, has had black-magical significance, symbolizing night and/or the terrifying goddess Kali. But you can find examples of both types of swastikas being used in what are clearly benign contexts. In any case, the wicked sauvastika was not the Nazi symbol. You got anything else you want cleared up, just let me know.

[pool]

I’ve heard Hitler sported his mustache in orde to distract attention away from his horrible teeth. :eek:

[pool]

order*

[Tuckerfan]

According to a piece I read in Omni ages ago, when comets enter the atmosphere, they tend to break up in patterns which resemble swastikas. The thinking, according to the piece, is that folks looked up and saw this giant swastika in the sky and took it to be a divine symbol of some sort.

[C_K_Dexter_Haven]

The “bonus material” on the DVD of Charlie Chaplin’s THE GREAT DICTATOR claims that Hitler in fact copied the Chaplin moustache. They offer no site or verification, so it might just be Chaplin’s emotional response (as per NDP’s comments above) – commentary tracks on DVDs are not necessarily well researched. On 'tother hand, there might be something to it – Chaplin was certainly immensely popular in Germany and throughtout the world, and commentary tracks on DVD’s don’t feel obliged to provide sources.

(Actually, this is a question that has been sitting in the huge pile, waiting for someone from the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board to tackle as a Staff Report…)

[Paul_in_Qatar]

Supposedly (and I offer no cite), Hitler banned the Chaplain film, but got a copy through some German embassy or something. He watched it by himself, alone. Twice.

(“Gee, do I really look like that? They should have had Clark Gable play me in the movie.”)

[Acsenray]

@Number

A certain distinguished authority doesn’t agree with this last part.

Thanks, Number. Cecil saved me from a rant. It’s really hard to cut through the layers of misconceptions with regard to the swastika. It’s an area where a little knowledge truly is dangerous.

1. The swastika did not originate with the Nazis. It did not originate with Hinduism (although the word “swastika” did; its name in English is fylfot and in German Hackenkreuz). It has been used all over the world by unconnected cultures. The symbol was in fairly common use in Europe and the United States before the Nazis picked it up.

2. The Nazi symbol is not the “reverse” of the Hindu symbol; in fact, the most common uses of both are in the same direction. Swastikas have been used as a “good” sign in both directions.

[bonzer]

@C K Dexter Haven

The “bonus material” on the DVD of Charlie Chaplin’s THE GREAT DICTATOR claims that Hitler in fact copied the Chaplin moustache. They offer no site or verification, so it might just be Chaplin’s emotional response (as per NDP’s comments above) – commentary tracks on DVDs are not necessarily well researched. On 'tother hand, there might be something to it – Chaplin was certainly immensely popular in Germany and throughtout the world, and commentary tracks on DVD’s don’t feel obliged to provide sources.

Discussing the origins of The Great Dictator in his Chaplin: His Life and Art (1985; Penguin, 2001, p519), David Robinson refers to the notion in these terms:

There were even those who believed that Hitler had first adopted the moustache in a deliberate attempt to suggest a resemblance to the man who attracted so much love and loyalty in the world.

It is, of course, a rather weaker - and altogether more readily believable - claim that Robinson is making here. But it’s not one he footnotes either, so this doesn’t even help identify who the contemporaries who thought this might be.