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Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Nazi Party and a chief instigator of World War II. As leader of the Nazi regime, he was the Führer of Germany between 1933 and 1945.
Biography
Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)
In 1903, after receiving a wealth of information from the future, Grigori Rasputin foresaw, among other things, Hitler's rise to power. (AUDIO: The Wanderer)
Hitler joined the Nazi Party in 1919 and became its leader in 1921. During this time, the Timewyrm, looking for a way to hurt the Seventh Doctor by destroying the planet he loved, chose Hitler as a figurehead for her plan to manipulate human history. However, she did not expect his mind to be so powerful and became trapped in it. Hitler began subconsciously accessing the Timewyrm's vast psychic powers and using them to become an even more compelling speaker.
Also during this time, the War Lords discovered Hitler's psychic abilities and decided to use him in their second attempt to conquer the universe. They set themselves up as the Black Coven and allied with him, while the War Chief, as Doctor Felix Kriegslieter, used psionic technology to boost Hitler's abilities even more.
On 9 November 1923, the Doctor and Ace witnessed Hitler leading the unsuccessful Beer Hall Putsch. The Doctor reset Hitler's dislocated shoulder and gave words of advice and encouragement to him, later explaining to the shocked Ace that it was necessary to ensure history would run its proper course. Hitler was later arrested and imprisoned, but was released the following year. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus) He became Chancellor on 30 January 1933. (AUDIO: Neverland)
In 1936, King Edward VIII of Great Britain, Sir Oswald Mosley and Joachim von Ribbentrop planned to establish a government sympathetic to Hitler, the players assisting von Ribbentrop and Wallis in "encouraging" Edward to dismiss the government for not allowing him to marry Wallis, but this plan was defeated by the Sixth Doctor, Peri Brown and Winston Churchill. Peri replaced a list that von Ribbentrop had assembled of British citizens friendly to Nazis with a laundry list. (PROSE: Players)
In 1938, Hitler acquired a validium bow, one of the components of Nemesis. (TV: Silver Nemesis) In the same year he was almost killed prematurely by the Teselecta, only to be accidentally saved by the Eleventh Doctor when his TARDIS was out of control. After thanking the Doctor for saving him, he asked what the TARDIS was. The Doctor (who clearly resented Hitler) responded by saying it was a London police box, issuing Hitler with a chilling warning about his future defeat. After shooting at the Teselecta, Hitler was punched by Rory Williams and locked in the cupboard. A stray bullet from Hitler's gunfire struck Mels and lethally wounded her, forcing Mels to regenerate into her new appearance and identity as River Song. (TV: Let's Kill Hitler)
Hitler invaded Austria in 1938 and drove straight to Vienna to obtain the Spear of Destiny from a museum. He took the spear back to Berlin, and from then on believed that he was invincible. (PROSE: The Spear of Destiny)
In September 1939, during the German invasion of Poland, Hitler was reunited with the Doctor and Ace in Berlin and took him on as an advisor. In this capacity, the Doctor exposed the schemes of the Black Coven and Kreigsleiter, all of whom were killed in a conflict with German soldiers. The Doctor also inadvertently taught Hitler how to control the Timewyrm's power.
In May 1940, on the night of the Dunkirk evacuation, the Doctor and Ace visited Hitler for a third and final time. The Doctor banished the Timewyrm from Hitler's mind, scattering it throughout time and space. Unstable and disoriented without the entity's power, Hitler was convinced to allow the evacuation to proceed. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus)
A piece of chronosteel was found beneath the Rhineland by the Nazis, believed by Hitler to be Thor's Hammer. A squad of Nazi soldiers led by Koenig arrived on the English coast with the Chronosteel, intending to use it as the main component of a device that would block out British radio signals, allowing the German ships to attack without being detected. This plan was foiled by George Woods and the time travelling Clyde Langer, who retrieved the Chronosteel object. (TV: Lost in Time)
In August 1942, the Sixth Doctor, investigating reports that Hitler might have survived his apparent death with the aid of alien technology, visited him in Berlin, accompanied by Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. Introducing himself as Major Johann Schmidt of the Berlin Fifth Medical Corps — the Brigadier introducing himself as Brigadier General Braun when lost for ideas — the Doctor acquired blood samples from Hitler and Eva Braun. From these, he learned that, while Hitler had indeed died as history reported, Eva had survived and been smuggled to safety while pregnant with Hitler's child.
In August 1944, while planning a raid on Turelhampton to acquire alien technology, Hitler insisted that Major Schmidt be included as part of the team (Interestingly enough, this marked the Doctor's first use of the Johann Schmidt identity, the Doctor using his contacts with Winston Churchill's government to plant fake personnel records in Germany so that he could infiltrate the Turelhampton raid).
On 30 April 1945, near the end of the war, the Doctor, Lethbridge-Stewart, Claire Aldwych and Hitler's son visited Hitler in his bunker. Hitler's son had forced the Doctor to take him back in time to meet his father. Aided by the Doctor's prior "friendship" with him influencing his decision to believe the Doctor over this stranger with his face and name, Hitler dismissed his son as a madman and shot him. Shortly afterwards, he committed suicide rather than face defeat. (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass)
After World War II, the name "Adolf" virtually disappeared not only in Germany but all over Earth due to its association with Hitler. This came to be known as "the Adolf Effect". (AUDIO: The Lights of Skaro)
Alternate timelines
In an alternative timeline in which Hitler did not lose the power of the Timewyrm, Germany conquered the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe. The Seventh Doctor and Ace, after visiting the occupied London of this timeline in May 1951, prevented it from coming to pass. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus)
In a different alternative timeline in which Nazi Germany won World War II and eventually conquered Africa as a result of the Seventh Doctor and Ace accidentally leaving laser technology in Colditz Castle in October 1944, the Mau Mau Uprising against Nazi rule took place in Kenya in 1953, with Hitler sending in the Luftwaffe immediately. On Hitler's orders, they proceeded to carpet-bomb the tribal areas and wipe out most of the native population. Within three years, a virulent plague had broken out in Kenya which killed many German soldiers. In 1957, Hitler placed Elizabeth Klein in command of a team of medical doctors and scientists who attempted to discover the cause of the plague. However, they were unable to do so. (AUDIO: A Thousand Tiny Wings)
In 1961, Hitler died at the age of 71 or 72. Prior to his death, he had stockpiled a large number of alien artefacts, including the TARDIS, but had kept them contained because he had feared the implications of intelligence superior to humans. (AUDIO: Klein's Story)
Klein later told the Doctor that Hans de Flores was "always the Führer's favourite." She hoped that he would succeed Hitler as the Führer when the Fourth Reich was established. (AUDIO: A Thousand Tiny Wings)
References
When the Master claimed that he wanted to rule people "for their own good," the Third Doctor wondered if he had heard Adolf Hitler say the same thing (implying that he had heard Hitler speak before). (TV: The Dæmons)
Millington maintained a copy of a Nazi office in the naval base at Maiden's Bay, including a portrait of Hitler. The Seventh Doctor considered Hitler to be "a dreadful man." (TV: The Curse of Fenric)
Winston Churchill once mentioned that that "If Hitler invaded Hell, I would give a favourable reference to the Devil." After the attack on the Dalek ship put London back under cover of blackout, an officer shook his fist towards the oncoming bombers and said, "Do your worst, Adolf!" (TV: Victory of the Daleks)
Hitler's appointment as German Chancellor was noted as a key event by the Matrix while attempting to keep a clear record of the Web of Time during an outbreak of anti-time. (AUDIO: Neverland)
After the Germans took Paris, Hitler wanted his photo taken at the top of the Eiffel Tower. This was impossible, however, as the tower's keepers had scuppered the lifts, and so he settled for a press conference in the monument's shadow instead. (PROSE: History 101)
In high school, Mels stated to her teacher that the reason Hitler came to power was because the Doctor did not stop him. This got her sent to the head teacher's office. (TV: Let's Kill Hitler)
The physical resemblance between Hitler and Charlie Chaplin was once remarked upon by Fey Truscott-Sade who once told Nazi Colonel Kessler that she thought that it was "mad" that "millions of people [were] following a disgusting little man with a Charlie Chaplin moustache." (COMIC: Me and My Shadow)
The Twelfth Doctor told Clara Oswald that he wouldn't kill Hitler as it would mean changing the course of human history. (TV: Kill the Moon)
Behind the scenes
- In the novel Timewyrm: Exodus, the Seventh Doctor stated that he had never met Hitler before, even though he had done so in his sixth incarnation in the novel The Shadow in the Glass; considering that Shadow saw the Sixth Doctor meeting Hitler in 1942 while the Seventh met him in 1923, the Doctor may have been looking at the encounter from Hitler's perspective, or simply preferring not to remember his prior meeting with Hitler due to the painful circumstances.
- When asked what historical figure would make the best Doctor, Russell T Davies controversially said: "Hitler. He was stern and strong. He would be great." He claimed afterwards that this was sarcasm. [1]
- Long-time Doctor Who actor Michael Sheard played Hitler several times but never in Doctor Who.
- The only portrayal of Hitler outside a novel or a mention in audio adventures was in Let's Kill Hitler, where he was portrayed by Albert Welling.
- Hitler has been portrayed by Frank Finlay in The Death of Adolf Hitler, Derek Jacobi in Inside the Third Reich, David Bamber in Valkyrie, Ian McKellen in Countdown to War and John Cleese in a Monty Python sketch.
- Albert Welling called Hitler: "The biggest Doctor Who monster ever."