Guttentag Herr Leser

We see the search 'book with Hitler as an imaginary friend' brought someone here.

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Hitler is no Joke

Narrator: Yes, he is.

My dear friend from back in the day posted this:

Not a bad idea for a farcical story.

Imaginary Hitler

This...

...looks absolutely hilarious.

Anyone who thinks Will Stroock doesn't think Nazis are funny doesn't know Will Stroock. The boots, the shorts, the armbands, the whole getup is silly. Why their very language is ridiculous and faintly comedic. Krankenwagen!

We once had to call a German magazine to pay for an add, it was hilarious, 'Guttentag, spreichen ze English, frauline?'

It's almost as if the studio execs asked, 'What kind of movie would Will like?...Well....Will has always had a weird sense of humor about the Nazis....ok let's make that.'*

Quite right.

Say what you want about the Nazis, but they looked good. Don't tell us you people never watched the Der Panzerleid scene in Battle of the Bulge and thought, Ja, I'm rolling with Hessler.

Anyway....From the friendly Hitler, to the over enthusiastic Nazi kids, to I'm a Believer sung in German Jo-Jo Rabbit looks like a comedic masterpiece.

Hitler as an imaginary friend, why not?

We wrote a book about an imaginary Hitler, and in it he was a reasonable and sensitive guy.

*Also funerals and funeral homes.

Hitler: Worse than Hitler

So we have this stupid controversy:

[Erykah] Badu says she can see the best side in anyone and then uses Hitler as an example saying, “I saw something good in Hitler."
Interviewer David Marchese replied with, "Come again?"
The 46-year-old singer then adds, "Hitler was a wonderful painter" and that "he had a terrible childhood."
Erykah Badu gave an interview to Vulture with a slew of problematic opinions - including one about Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Well duh!

Lemme tell you folks something. Hitler was a decent enough painter and was actually making a living at it by 1914. He was something of loner. He was also a mama's boy who was greatly traumatized by her death. Hitler loved art; architecture was his real passion. He was also an auto enthusiast. He enjoyed Disney films and American westerns. He was a good soldier, and though considered a strange bird, was liked and respected by his comrades.

He didn't care about politics or Jews until after the war. Like the 20th century, the Great War made Adolph Hitler.

Yes, even Hitler was human.

Keep an eye out for The Austrian PainterT. Coming real soon now. Here's one of our sources:

The Austrian Painter

When we conceived this project we envisioned the Austrian painter living in a musty old apartment and living the life of an old bohemian.

This was certainly true of Hitler who was a flop house artist more or less supporting himself.

Hitler lived in a one room sublet until the late 20's. In 1929, we think, with the success of Mein kampf He moved into a nine room 3rd floor apartment complete with three bedrooms, two baths and a maid. Hitler spent much time decorating his knew digs and spent lavishly on furniture and other  home items. Later he redecorated the Reich Chancellery and official residence.

It looks like the Austrian painter is going to have to be more than a solitary old man in a cramped apartment.

Writing Hitler

Writing The Austrian Painter been a little a weird in that these days when we think of Hitler, we think of the character we've invented. That is, we think of the nice old man down in the hall in The Austrian Painter's 1964.

As noted in a previous post, we have not read Mein Kampf. That Hitler does not exist in this universe.

There's little that we (meaning I) do not know about the man prior to 1918.

Hitler was a mama's boy. Hitler could be a difficult student. Hitler was an art and architecture enthusiast. Hitler liked neo-classical design. By 1914 Hitler was actually supporting himself as an artist and cranked out four or five paintings a week. He was a Vienna bohemian and a loner, happy to go to museums and read by himself. He liked the philosophical works of Schopenhauer and the Westerns of Karl May. Hitler was an excellent soldier.

The bizarre thing about the man is he left nothing to indicate that he had strong feelings about Jews or anyone else before the war. In fact the family doctor was Jewish. he served with Jewish soldiers in the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment.

The war transformed Hitler [obviously-Ed] and fifteen years after being a discharged soldier with no place to go he was Chancellor of Germany.

The tyrant of World War Two simply did not exist before World War One.

You know, Underneath all those Swastikas Hitler...

...is almost impossible to fathom.

So we're 6,000 words into the Austrian Painter It's coming along nicely. We have this nice old painter camped at the Brandenburg Gate, selling postcards and doing quick portrait sketches.

We've really tried to get to know the man. Here's the sketch of young Adolph before 1919:

A loner and bit of an oddball. Always an outcast. Whip smart, he had a photographic memory. Loves art of course, but also loves architecture. A young man perfectly happy to wonder the streets of a city taking in the sites. Hitler has a great eye for detail and a great ability for getting that detail down on paper. In the prewar years he was a Vienna Bohemian. Hitler was a vegetarian and more or less asexual or at least not interested in sex the way most 25 year old men are.

Hitler was an excellent soldier. Personally brave. He won several medals and commendations. His commanders never recommended him for promotion. One said at Nuremberg that he did not believe Der Fuhrer possessed leadership qualities.

He loved dogs, Disney, and Karl May Westerns.

We have always believed that as Branch Ricky said, 'Luck is the residue of design', but Hitler seems lucky anyway. In October of 1914 his regiment rook something like 70 percent casualties but he came out of the 'race to the sea' without a scratch. Later in prison, Rudolph Hess described Hitler breaking down when writing about one battle.

So basically in a any group of friends, Hitler is the quiet eccentric.

The loss of 1918 transformed the man. Just how much of what the man was made of in the 1920-1945 period should exist in our alternate 1964 is a matter we are grappling with now.