# Was there anything good about Hitler? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 12, 2002, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620 "2002-06-12T10:54:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sau\_chitnis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@sau\_chitnis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sau_chitnis)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620/1 "2002-06-12T10:54:15Z")
True that he was a great leader and has a mind of a great tactitian but is that it. Anything else about HItler that can be classified as good? JeDi 0nLiNe ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620/2 "2002-06-12T11:43:48Z")
Well, political tactician, maybe. He was a half-decent soldier, I hear, but a lousy commander-in-chief. I will say this: he managed to get Germany up and moving again. As they say, “At least Hitler made the Trains run on time.” He was not neccessarily a “great leader”, though his impact on the world was important. In the end, he screwed up Germany pretty badly. He also manahged to rise to the top of German politics by using popular sentiment quite effectively, and stayed on top thereafter, gaining power alll the time. ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620/3 "2002-06-12T11:49:18Z")
It was Mussolini who was renowned for making the trains run on time. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620/4 "2002-06-12T11:51:27Z")
He was mortal. ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620/5 "2002-06-12T11:55:58Z")
I suppose it depends on how you define “good”. If you mean it in a moral sense, I don’t know. I never knew him. His actions would generally suggest not, but some might suggest he was capable of love for certain individuals. If you mean it in the sense of “was he good at anything”, definitely. He was an expert manipulator of people; a powerful orator and occasionally a brilliant - or was it just lucky? - military tactician, although that faded into blind obstinacy and self-delusion by the end of the war. ---
**Author:** ![miamouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ad7895/32.png) [@miamouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miamouse)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620/6 "2002-06-12T14:08:55Z")
I think he had a hand in creating the volkswagen. [http://www.serial-design.com/mechanical\_design/vw2.htm](http://www.serial-design.com/mechanical_design/vw2.htm) [http://www.hitler.org/artifacts/volkswagen/](http://www.hitler.org/artifacts/volkswagen/) ---
**Author:** ![Go\_alien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@Go\_alien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_alien)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620/7 "2002-06-12T14:10:41Z")
He was a vegetarian and liked small children and dogs. Oh, and he had no children. ---
**Author:** ![DemonSpawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@DemonSpawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonSpawn)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620/8 "2002-06-12T14:11:38Z")
As my grandmother (unfortunately) used to say: “Hitler was good for Germany in a way - he had all these nice Autobahns (highways) built!” ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620/9 "2002-06-12T14:50:16Z")
Actully, he was a bit more than a half-way decent soldier… He earned an Iron Cross for gallantry in action, as a messenger. Messengers had _short_ life expectancies, and Hitler survived the war. So: He was a pretty darn good Corporal. Oh, and he could paint passably well… Probably well enough to survive on a NYC street-corner. ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620/10 "2002-06-12T15:11:51Z")
Just for future reference…Hitler was NOT a brilliant military tactician. Several of his generals were brilliant military tacticians and strategists. Hitler essentially told them to have a plan ready by a certain date and left them to it. Hitler was a brilliant politician. He understood how to get and solidify support within his own country, and more than any other world leader at the time, read several newspapers from neighboring countries to divine what the public mood was and then making predictions about how they would react. He was usually pretty accurate about that. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620/11 "2002-06-12T15:13:22Z")
He committed suicide. That’s one good thing he did for the world. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620/12 "2002-06-12T15:15:53Z")
He was a good rabble-rouser, a brilliant orator, a clever tactician and an absolutely hopeless strategist. His strategic thinking brought utter defeat and destruction to Germany and the downfall both of himself and his grand scheme for the future. If he`d been as good at strategy as he undoubtedly was in other spheres, this might have been a very different world and a far, far darker one. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620/13 "2002-06-12T15:51:19Z")
> [@](#): > > It was Mussolini who was renowned for making the trains run on time. [Falsely renowned](http://www.snopes2.com/). ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620/14 "2002-06-12T15:54:01Z")
Sorry, here’s the [train link](http://www.snopes2.com/history/govern/trains.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620/15 "2002-06-12T16:00:03Z")
Sorry. I should have said “it was Mussolini that was _reputed_ to have made the trains run on time”. Didn’t think before I posted. ---
**Author:** ![ResIpsaLoquitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@ResIpsaLoquitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ResIpsaLoquitor)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620/16 "2002-06-12T16:04:09Z")
Sigh. One of Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s best quotes in “The Life of Christ” was (paraphrasing) “the biggest tragedy about Judas is that he could have been SAINT Judas.” That says to me that it’s our individual choices that determine whether our talents get used for good or for evil. Nature or nurture might be a strong influence, but we make the decisions in the end. Hitler COULD have been a great guy. More’s the pity that he wasted his abilities, instead of using his oration the way Frederick Douglass or Abe Lincoln did. Phooey. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620/17 "2002-06-12T18:54:56Z")
Since Hitler was a vegeatrian, I imagine he must have been pretty regular. 😉 (Hey, everyone else took the other points…) ---
**Author:** ![Sparc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Sparc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparc)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620/18 "2002-06-12T19:19:59Z")
No. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620/19 "2002-06-12T19:40:37Z")
He was evil incarnate. However, he was good for mobilizing the rest of the world against him and bringing the US out of the depression. (My history is a bit shaky, so if you need to snatch me bald-headed for my ignorance, please do it gently.) I would submit that at times during our evolution, we need these evil people to help humanity evolve. That which does not kill us makes us stronger. Where would the world be if there were no Hitler? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620/20 "2002-06-12T19:49:38Z")
Actually, I don’t even think he was a true vegetarian-he just had to cut back on meat due to…hehehehe…flatulence! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-anything-good-about-hitler/113620.md?page=2)