# Were The Nazis a Puritanical Lot? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 12, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201 "2010-05-12T18:51:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201/1 "2010-05-12T18:51:27Z")
Hitler and the Nazi hierarchy seemed to have a problem with sensuality. The “art” of the Nazi era is cold and sexless-actually (to me) pretty scarey. I think that it was frowned upon to talk about sex, or anything regarding human pleasure-the Nazi idea was that women should be just baby-making machines, and whatever fun you had was incidental to the task of serving the fatherland. Hitler seemed a pretty sexless person-there is no record of him ever fathering a child. The Nazi party also had a thing about jazz-supposedly, it was “degenerate” music, becuase it was invented by Black (inferior) musicians. So, were the nazis sexually uptight? They all looked like they were. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201/2 "2010-05-12T19:22:33Z")
Hitler, at any rate, was famously abstemious – vegetarian, teetotaler, nonsmoker. His only indulgence was watching movies, for which he had a passion. [His sexuality](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexuality_of_Adolf_Hitler) is a more complicated question, and still controversial. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201/3 "2010-05-12T19:27:28Z")
It is possible, but by no means certain, that Hitler [fathered an illegitimate son](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Marie_Loret) while doing military service in France during WWI. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201/4 "2010-05-12T19:31:32Z")
The Nazis were very much down on homosexuality – and SA leader Ernst Rohm was definitely homosexual, which provided a convenient additional pretext to get rid of him in the [Night of Long Knives.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_long_knives) Later on, known homosexuals in Reich territory were rounded up and interned in concentration camps, with [pink-triangle badges](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camp_badges) on their uniforms. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201/5 "2010-05-12T19:35:54Z")
“Der Fuerher found out that Roehm was homosexual, and he was furious! Just wait until he finds out that Goering is fat and Goebbels is short!” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201/6 "2010-05-12T19:36:24Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > The Nazi party also had a thing about jazz-supposedly, it was “degenerate” music, becuase it was invented by Black (inferior) musicians. See the [Swing Kids.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_kids) An ill-fated counterculture. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201/7 "2010-05-12T19:40:28Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > It is possible, but by no means certain, that Hitler [fathered an illegitimate son](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Marie_Loret) while doing military service in France during WWI. According to that cite, it’s _not_ possible. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Poster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Happy\_Poster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Poster)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201/8 "2010-05-12T19:47:25Z")
The best way to describe the Nazis, culturally speaking, is “arbitrary”. Puritan isn’t quite right. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201/9 "2010-05-12T19:51:53Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [His sexuality](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexuality_of_Adolf_Hitler) is a more complicated question, and still controversial. Jeez, there sure seem to be a lot of suicides among his lady friends. Creepy. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201/10 "2010-05-12T20:04:43Z")
Great, now I’ve got this image in my head of Rex Harrison singing: _Oh the Nazis were A most puritanical lot If you were young and gay You’d be taken out and shot_ ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201/11 "2010-05-12T20:07:58Z")
> [@Angry Lurker](#): > > The best way to describe the Nazis, culturally speaking, is “arbitrary”. Puritan isn’t quite right. I dunno. It seems to me that repressive regimes usually try to maintain a facade of asceticism. For one thing, it makes it look like they’re sacrificing all for the sake of the Glorious Cause, which is good propaganda; for another, it makes it easier to demand sacrifices from the commoners. After all, you can’t very well ask the peasants to live on beans and rice while you’re living on steak and lobster. And if you can persuade the worker bees out in the factories and on the farms not to use alcohol or screw around or have any fun at all, you might get more work out of 'em. Even the ugliest regimes must have some moral rationalization for their claim to power. Asceticism (or at least the appearance of it) makes it easier to sell others on that rationalization. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201/12 "2010-05-12T20:10:59Z")
I don’t think there was any particular oppression against unmarried heterosexual sex. I’ve read somewhere that the SS had – I don’t know that you’d call them brothels because they weren’t based on payment for sex – houses where SS men were encourage to attend, with actual procreation the specific goal. I don’t know how the women were recruited – I don’t think they would be Polish or Russian slaves, for instance, becaue they wouldn’t want to breed any ‘mongrels’. So presumably they must have come up with a rationale for Aryan women to participate in this as well. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Poster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Happy\_Poster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Poster)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201/13 "2010-05-12T20:12:04Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > I dunno. It seems to me that repressive regimes usually try to maintain a facade of asceticism. For one thing, it makes it look like they’re sacrificing all for the sake of the Glorious Cause, which is good propaganda; for another, it makes it easier to demand sacrifices from the commoners. After all, you can’t very well ask the peasants to live on beans and rice while you’re living on steak and lobster. And if you can persuade the worker bees out in the factories and on the farms not to use alcohol or screw around or have any fun at all, you might get more work out of 'em. > > Even the ugliest regimes must have some moral rationalization for their claim to power. Asceticism (or at least the appearance of it) makes it easier to sell others on that rationalization. I don’t disagree, but there was limited consistency to the way in which the Third Reich treated, er, deviants (in the defined sense) - 'twas very much who you knew. Didn’t just apply to art of course. I believe Goering said something along the lines of “I decide who is a jew” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201/14 "2010-05-12T20:25:10Z")
[This](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkajXeVLpk4) is the Nazi equivalent of sex. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201/15 "2010-05-12T20:27:21Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I’ve read somewhere that the SS had – I don’t know that you’d call them brothels because they weren’t based on payment for sex – houses where SS men were encourage to attend, with actual procreation the specific goal. Not exactly, but there was the [Lebensborn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensborn) program. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201/16 "2010-05-12T20:44:13Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Not exactly, but there was the [Lebensborn](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensborn) program. Yes, I believe that is what I was thinking of. So the homes were not in fact brothels. I found a [NY Times article](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/07/world/europe/07nazi.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1)on the subject with one interesting addition: > [@](#): > > Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, encouraged his men to sire children outside of marriage as a way of building a German master race. Though obviously only with the ‘right’ kind of woman: > [@](#): > > To be accepted into the Lebensborn, pregnant women had to have the right racial characteristics — blonde hair and blue eyes — prove that they had no genetic disorders, and be able to prove the identity of the father, who had to meet similar criteria. They had to swear fealty to Nazism, and were indoctrinated with Hitler’s ideology while they were in residence. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201/17 "2010-05-12T21:27:26Z")
They were puritans in that they were obsessed with purity. Racial purity, emotional purity, ethical purity, intellectual purity… they had no room for ambiguities or diversities of any sort. How much more puritan can you get? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201/18 "2010-05-12T22:58:19Z")
“Come, my dear - it’s time to indoctrinate you with my…ideology.” ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201/19 "2010-05-12T23:07:18Z")
“Um… is your ideology in yet?” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201/20 "2010-05-12T23:08:59Z")
> [@LonesomePolecat](#): > > Jeez, there sure seem to be a lot of suicides among his lady friends. Creepy. Wouldn’t you? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-the-nazis-a-puritanical-lot/539201.md?page=2)