What's it like to be named Hitler?

[Hayduke_Lives]

Take a look in a BIG city phone book and you might find one or two people with the last name of HITLER:eek:

Does anyone know anybody with the last name of Hitler?
I wonder what it’s like to have Hitler for a name. Do people f**k with you constantly? Make fun of your name every single day.
I imagine the first time someone asks for your last name and you say Hitler, they freak!

Does anyone know a Hitler?

[Hayduke_Lives]

Oh, God. So many things I forgot to include.

You get kind of assertive towards someone and they say “Who do ya think you are? Hitler?”

How would a girl tell her parents she’s dating Hitler? Especially if she were Jewish?

Then, I bet there is some kook out there named Hitler who wears the name like a badge of honor! Maybe even grows one of those mustaches.

[syncrolecyne]

I thought you must have been joking so I did a little phone directory search.

I don’t think I could post private residence listings on the board, but you’re right, there are Hitlers out there.

I couldn’t imagine being their neighbors. “Honey, I’m making a roast, the Hitlers are coming over tonight”.

In defense of these “Hitlers”, Adolf Hitler’s father was born Alois Schicklgruber, and changed his name to Alois Hitler under rather murky circumstances. Furthermore, the name “Hitler” as used by Adolf’s family was a corruption of either “Hiedler” or “Huettler”; and even Adolf himself spelled his name “Hittler” as a young man. (I have Ian Kershaw’s biography of Hitler at hand for a WWII course). So these American Hitlers are probably no relation (and maybe one or two are nuts who have changed their name to honor Adolf).

Also, phone listings are not legal documents. I swear in my El Paso listingings there was a “Hitler Gonzalez” listed once. (I’ll scan it if you don’t believe me!)

[Coldfire]

I can’t really speak for North America, but in Europe, most people named Hitler changed their names after WWII, for understandable reasons.

I’m sure there are still some Hitlers out there, but a quick search for the major Dutch cities didn’t give me any results. So either all the Hitlers aren’t listed, or having the name of one of the most infamous fascists in history really is a problem.

[G.Nome]

This link is relevant and interesting. You may have seen it, you may not. I found it fascinating.

http://www.fpp.co.uk/Hitler/family/STel200102.html

[CalMeacham]

Similar statements can be made about other famous names. Crack open the Science Citation Index and you’ll find other scientists named Einstein. There are probably a few Alberts among them. Imagine the pressure! (“Who do you think you are? Einstein?”)

For that matter, imagine the pressure young Elmer Bernstein must have felt starting out as a composer. (“Hey, just because your name’s Bernstein doesn’t mean you can write music!”)

[Annie-Xmas]

My phone book does not list any Hitlers. However, there are a few Hittman’s. I think that’s even funnier.

[RealityChuck]

*Originally posted by CalMeacham *
Similar statements can be made about other famous names. Crack open the Science Citation Index and you’ll find other scientists named Einstein. There are probably a few Alberts among them. Imagine the pressure! (“Who do you think you are? Einstein?”)

Actually, another Albert Einstein has been fairly sucessful in the entertainment world. Of course, he changed his last name to Brooks.

[bdgr]

I have friends who just invent names to put in the phone book, that way, they dont have to pay for an unlisted number. A drummer I used to play with had his phone listed under Neil Peart. It was really cool to see that come up on the caller ID. You can have the phone listed any way you want, so just because its in the book, doesnt mean its really thier name.

[Eve]

I read a piece in The New Yorker a few years back about a 50-something tour-bus driver in Germany named Adolph Hitler. The bus company made him cover up his nameplate when they had a Jewish group. He steadfastly refused to change his “good family name,” and was annoyed with his children for taking their mother’s maiden name.

Even worse is a Chinese guy in New York named Fuk Yu. Imagine what HIS life must be like!!!

[Enderw24]

*Originally posted by bdgr *
I have friends who just invent names to put in the phone book, that way, they dont have to pay for an unlisted number. A drummer I used to play with had his phone listed under Neil Peart.

Are these two seperate thoughts? I can’t imagine someone who, wishing to choose a number where no one would call him, settles on one of the most famous drummers in history.
I mean, why not go with Mike Hunt and get the prank-calling-at-3AM demographic?

[Mojo]

From the sorely missed Mister Show:

We have a saying around here- “Get used to it, Hitler.”

[CaptMurdock]

There was a story arc on Hill Street Blues about an out-of-work stand-up comedian named Vic Hitler, Jr. (Personally, it’s the “Jr.” that makes me chuckle.) The story was that the station’s perenially cash-hungry detective J.D. LaRue met Vic, wanted to bankroll him after hearing some of his material and seeing his act, but was very leery about the surname. He kept suggesting alternative stage names: “Vic DiMon, Victor Vegas,” etc.

Finally, Vic (played by Terry Kaiser, who would go on from obscurity to fame and fortune as the eponymous departed character in Weekend at Bernie’s, retorted, “J.D., the name’s been in my family for four hundred years! – which is three hundred and fifty years before that Austrian ex-house-painter who, by the way, came into this world with the moniker of ‘Schikelgruber!’” Then he tells of his granddad’s deathbed request to “never give up the family name.”

The punchline of all this was Vic’s premiere night at the local comedy club, where half-way through his killer routine…he falls asleep.

“Vic Hitler, The Narcoleptic Comic.”

[KarlGauss]

(Let me paraphrase something I read in the travel section of my newspaper a while ago):

As remote as Easter Island is now, it was even more so in the 1930’s. Essentially all contact with the outside world was via the radio. This was somewhat problematic since most broadcasts were in English and few people on the Island spoke anything other than Spanish.

But, even if you didn’t speak English, it was pretty clear that someone named Hitler was a pretty important guy. After all, you couldn’t listen to the radio without hearing his name. So, the story goes, many Easter Island babies born during that era were named “Hitler”.

One recent visitor was speechless when he walked into a restaurant with his local host and heard him shout out to an older man seated at the bar, “Hola Hitler!”.

[syncrolecyne]

A professor I know who once lived in Kenya told me that a man named “Hitler ___” (some long surname I can’t remember) was a local politician of some renown.

At first it seemed strange, but the professor reasoned the man was probably born in the early 1940’s. Since Hitler was giving Britain a pounding at that time, a few people who weren’t to favorable to British colonial rule probably saw Hitler as an ally - in an indirect way. So a few boys in Kenya were named “Hitler” at that time.

[gex_gex]

In defense of these “Hitlers”, Adolf Hitler’s father was born Alois Schicklgruber, and changed his name to Alois Hitler under rather murky circumstances. Furthermore, the name “Hitler” as used by Adolf’s family was a corruption of either “Hiedler” or “Huettler”; and even Adolf himself spelled his name “Hittler” as a young man. (I have Ian Kershaw’s biography of Hitler at hand for a WWII course). So these American Hitlers are probably no relation (and maybe one or two are nuts who have changed their name to honor Adolf).

big fat false urban legend there.

cite: the dictionary of misinformation by tom burnam (1975):

Hitler’s name was never Schicklgruber… That Hitler preferred to go by his mother’s name, which was indeed Schicklgruber, until he was in his middle thirties no doubt accounts for the belief that adolf Hitler’s name was “really” Schicklgruber. But of course it was not; he was born Adolf Hitler, son of Alois Hitler.

(p123-4)

[Who_me_1]

What’s the big deal?

---

Joe Caligula

[Olentzero]

Originally posted by gex gex *
big fat false urban legend there.*

You’ve misread cuate’s post, gex gex. He didn’t say Adolf Hitler was born Adolf Schicklgruber, but that Alois Hitler - Adolf’s father - was born Alois Schicklgruber.

Backed up by the Master himself here:

Here’s what we know: Hitler’s paternal grandmother, Maria Schicklgruber, gave birth to Alois, Hitler’s father, in 1837. She was 42 and unmarried at the time and apparently never revealed the father’s identity. Five years later she married Johann Georg Hiedler or Hitler (spelling was a bit casual in those days). But Alois kept the surname Schicklgruber until he was 39 years old.

In one respect, Tom Burnam’s spreading some false information as well. Regarding Hitler’s mother’s maiden name, per Unca Cecil:

So who really was Hitler’s grandfather? Werner Maser thinks it was the brother of his legal grandfather, one Johann Nepomuk Hiedler. But that’s not all. J. Nepomuk was also the grandfather of Klara Poelzl, Hitler’s mom.

Still, that doesn’t take any of the edge off of a headline I saw in the Nashua (NH) Telegraph many years ago: “Hitler Gets Four Years for Manslaughter” - some drifter with the name got busted for killing a guy.