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The Hitler Deception
Originally posted by AlreadyGone
Our own B-2 stealth bomber is based on prototypes found in 1945.
Originally posted by AlreadyGone
by the way, were the prototypes we found in Germany, made of plywood and resisn, based on his design?
Originally posted by demonseed
Please be advised: this thread may piss you off. If it does, you probably wont get it.
The hitler youth was voluntary and 70% of the army had their children enlisted as well. George W. Bush has a 30% apporval rating. So, theoritically speaking, Hitler was actually a better political figure when posed against George Bush.
Except that the Nazis never won a majority of the german vote even in their heydays. And the Hitler Youth was not voluntary; at least not de facto after 1939.
Most history books simply say Hitler marched on and killed his rivals and took over the country's parliment.
I never read that in any of the many books I read about this topic.
Well, theoritically yes. The parliment has troops stationed everywhere, roughly a few hundred. Hitler marched into the parliment building with thousands of followers. Many armed. Germany did not have a 2nd amendment(which is partly why rounding up jews was so easy for them, remember that when hearing about current events) so these people went out of their way knowing they might die to fight for hitler's cause. They marched in, a few shots where fired but the majority of the standing army fled because they where overrun. Hitler did not go through the political process, yes, but he certainly did not take over and entire country with a maniacal ragtag underground skinhead club. he had the country at his fingertips.
Uhm.. Either it's the drugs I took or you are confusing the Beer Hall Putsch with the Reichstag Fire? Or something like that? As far as I know the Nazis did most decidedly never storm the Reichstag - der was no need to after the fire and the Ermächtigungsgesetz.
As mentioned, Hitlers approval ratings where through the roof. Germany doesn't like to admit it, but they believed his propaganda.
Sure, Germans were sympathetic towards him. But his numbers - I guess you mean the NSDAP's never were through the roof; they took over power and shut down democracy as soon as they had gathered a significant portion of the german vote. After the fire they didn't need any approval anymore.
But I guess I can agree with the general premise of this thread - that Hitler should be demystified...
Originally posted by EraofAnarchy
Hitler was an awesome man til Gobells drove him crazy.
Originally posted by AlreadyGone
It is oft stated in academic and historical circles..." If Hitler had died in 1938, he would have gone down in history as one of the greatest statesmen to have ever lived."
That's something I have never read, and I highly doubt any serious scholar would entertain such notions. Might be that at the time that was the perception, but people back then couldn't see through the farce.
However, he was directly responsible for the concepts of an interstate system, the Autobahn, which we copied as our own US interstate by former General and President Eisenhower.
While he gave the impetus for building the Autobahn, it was Todt who built and organised it. The idea for a Reichsautobahn was as old as WW1 and was already widely discussed and accepted in the 20's by people like Hugo Stinnes - that's where Hitler picked up the idea in 1924.
As for the Autobahn being succesfull or copied in America: Both are somewhat untrue. While the Autobahn was a success (it got built), the conditions for the laborors, their pay, and the timescale given for ending the construction program made the project a horror for everyone who participated in building it. Many workers were injured and had to live on a pittance from there on - there was no just compensation or reward for ruining your health for the Führer. Long story short: It was a gigantic project created by cheating common laborors and treating them like slaves.
While the US-ISH-System did get inspired by the Autobahn, the US paid the people who built it a living wage and didn't force them to ruin their health just to finish the project on time. (American planing was more realistic, more humane.)
Hitler was the main impetus to the People's Car, the Volkswagon..had to carry 4 passengers at 60mph and get 35 mpg. Mnay of our own cars can't do that almost 75yrs later.
While this particular Volksprodukt was Hitlers idea, it was completely unrealistic and unobtainable. The goal of producing a car for 1000 RM was never achieved and even if it had 1000 RM was way beyond what the average worker in germany could have paid. Also, the KdF-Wagen was to be made cheap by importing american production methods (Fordism) - something that only happened after the war and explains most of VW's success in that time.
He pushed for the developement of Jet Propulsion and developement, 2-3 stage rockets, pushed for Space Travel.
Hitler was very reluctant about the V-programs and if they would not have hidden it from him in the early stages he would have killed the program. Only in 1943, when the german illusions began to fall did hitlers consultants push him to throw in his cards for the V-project; with great success, achieving mass production etc - but way to late and to minimal to have a play in the outcome of the war. Also don't forget that this isn't very modern technology. The theoretical physics underlying Rocketry were 50+ years old, it was a question of good engineering, not of making ground-braking theoretical discoveries. In engineering, they weren't all that bad.
Our own B-2 stealth bomber is based on prototypes found in 1945. Our spoace program, NASA, is based on technology he pushed and his scientist developed...aka Werner Von Braun.
The b-2 isn't based on the Horton Nurflügler. Hitler did not once give a technical input to the rocket program. If you wanna praise someone for the V-2, praise the german school system of the 20's.
How about battle tactics, weaponry, largest airborne invasion(Malta) up to that time, nuclear weapons and fuel, the developement of synthetic fuels from coal or liquid coal, we could go on.
Hitler was catastrophic with tactics. He had no formal training and risked and wasted millions of lives. Malta was bold, agreed. No nuclear weapons. Synthetic fuels was a great idea but completly unrealistic and not decisive for the war effort. Conceptually, that was a game changer, but since synfuel was so expensive they still relied on