His distinct style was pretty unique as far as I can tell. Other than Charlie Chaplin, (who seemed to have adopted it before Hitler), I haven’t seen too many other examples of this style.
Was it a popular look at the time of Hitler’s reign? (I guess I’m asking about Germany… I’m theorizing outside of Germany it wasn’t popular for obvious reasons) Or was it considered bad taste to copy his “look”? I seem to remember from one picture in a book I read a long time ago that one of his inner circle had a similar style, but not nearly as distinct as Hitler’s. (sorry, no cite)
And a follow-up of sorts. Was it common when Chaplin was popular, or did it never catch on? And has anyone ever seen someone sporting the Hitler mustache in his/her lifetime? I mean, as far as styles go, I guess losing this one wasn’t much of a loss, but can anyone sport one now without automatically receiving strange stares?
“Adolf Hitler was a big fan of Chaplin, so big in fact that he grew his mustache like Chaplin’s character “The Little Tramp.” Before that, Hitler’s moustache was a 1880’s type handlebar.”
I’ve just flipped through the pictures in my volume of Kershaw’s biography, and the WWI picture of Hitler was a handlebar. The first picture after the war shows him with his standard style. As to why he changed styles, I can’t offer a guess. Not much help, eh?
I’ll add that on closer inspection of the picture, it appears that the handlebars began at the edge of his standard style, rather than at the end of his lips. Perhaps he simply tired of caring for the bars?
I tried to Google for a cite, but it just lead to lots of whacko conspiracy sites instead of to the story I read a few years ago in the papers.
Apparantly, during Hitler’s reign, there was a Germany citizen who looked physically similar to Hitler and went all the way to impersonating him by adopting his haircut and moustache. Needless to say he received a visit from the Gestapo who surprisingly gave him the option to lop it off before they took him away. Strangely the guy refused and was whipped off never to be seen again.
According to Alan Bullock’s biography of Hitler, he trimmed his handlebar moustache to the toothbrush style in imitation of Gottfried Feder, one of the founders of the Nazi Party, whom Hitler admired. It was apparently a speech by Feder that drew Hitler into the party in 1919. Nothing to do with Chaplin at all.
In his WWII strip Male Call ( Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Male Call ) for the Army Newspaper, cartoonist Milton Caniff took time out from drawing sexy women to pen a strip about facial hair styles. One entry was:
“The only good thing Adolph Hitler did was put the stink on the OCS “toothbrush””.
From which I gather that the Hitler/Chaplin style “toothbrush” moustache used to be insanely popular with lieutenants at Officer Candidate School, and universally hated by everyone else.
We have a full-size blowup standup photo here in the Fort of one of the WWI Royal Canadian Artillerymen who served in Victoria, and he has the toothbrush; this would be circa 1916.
And yes, we do refer to the standup as “Hitler.” Visitors comment on the mustache all the time.
