# That Schickelgruber Guy **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 18, 2003, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-schickelgruber-guy/155814 "2003-02-18T05:01:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![raisinbread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8491ac/32.png) [@raisinbread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raisinbread)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-schickelgruber-guy/155814/1 "2003-02-18T05:01:26Z")
I’ve heard stories where Adolph Hitler was assigned to some dangerous missions or missions that ended up being deadly in WWI but he came out unscathed or the sole survivor. Are these apocryphal stories made up by propagandists and armchair historians or is there any basis to these tales? Sorry, I don’t have actual cites for the situations where Hitler was involved in World War I. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-schickelgruber-guy/155814/2 "2003-02-18T05:04:34Z")
FWIW, I have it on some semblance of authority that Hitler was a message-runner in the war. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-schickelgruber-guy/155814/3 "2003-02-18T06:10:42Z")
From [this site](http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~lenin/ADOLF_HITLER_BIOGRAP.html): > [@](#): > > In 1913, Hitler went to Munich, Germany and when World War I began in 1914, he volunteered for service in the German army. Hitler was twice decorated for bravery, but only rose to the rank of corporal. When World War I ended. Hitler was in a hospital recovering from temporary blindness possibly caused by a poison gas attack. I’ve seen references elsewhere to the “what if Hitler had died in WWI” theme, but haven’t seen any “sole-survivor” stories substantiated so far. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-schickelgruber-guy/155814/4 "2003-02-18T06:15:24Z")
If he was a messenger, he went on his missions alone. By definition if he survived, he was the sole survivor. Haj ---
**Author:** ![xejkh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/22d042/32.png) [@xejkh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xejkh)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-schickelgruber-guy/155814/5 "2003-02-18T13:55:43Z")
I’ve heard of this before… Apparently Hitler was off-duty and was with his mates (hmm… mates? Adolf was a loner) when this Allied shell landed near them. Most of them died but Adolf survived. ---
**Author:** ![Flying\_Monk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/48db29/32.png) [@Flying\_Monk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flying_Monk)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-schickelgruber-guy/155814/6 "2003-02-18T14:17:13Z")
I’d hardly call losing a nut “unscathed”. ---
**Author:** ![raygirvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@raygirvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raygirvan)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-schickelgruber-guy/155814/7 "2003-02-18T14:17:42Z")
“The Secret Life of Adolf Hitler” by David Lewis (sensationally presented, but apparently well-researched paperback) confirms the basics: that in WW1 Hitler was a message runner and had some near-misses - a bullet ripping through his sleeve, a shell explosion killing or seriously wounding a group of soldiers in a trench that he had just left - but later suffered a severe thigh wound from grenade splinters, and (as Ice Wolf says) ended the war hospitalised with temporary blindness - psychosomatic, the Lewis book argues - following a gas attack. ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-schickelgruber-guy/155814/8 "2003-02-18T14:22:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Flying\_Monk \* > \*\*I’d hardly call losing a nut “unscathed”. \*\* ::sings:: Hitler - he only has one ball. Georing has two, but they are small. Himmler has something similar, but Goebbels has no balls at all. ::marches off into sunset, whistling:: ---
**Author:** ![raisinbread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8491ac/32.png) [@raisinbread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raisinbread)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2003, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-schickelgruber-guy/155814/9 "2003-02-18T17:28:41Z")
[The Master speaks](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_128b.html) on Hitler’s missing testicle. Thank you for the information though!