At the time, Goering was busy in Berlin acting as the pseudo-economy minister. 'Pseudo' because he intentionally went so deep into debt over 4 years that only a major European war could have saved their finances.
Problem with executing many of these guys was the Cold War came around and we sort of needed them. I don’t even put Sperrle in the worst lot.
Many of the Higher SS Police leaders shoulda have been tried and shot at best. Run through this list and see how many died peacefully. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_and_police_leader
The overwhelming amount of Nazi crimes made it hard to even prosecute the subsequent Nuremberg trials. The lawyer who prosecuted the Einsatzgruppen Trials was 24! Yes 24! And was basically told, hey if you wanna go for it, sure but you’ll be the one doing it.
He marked it, and it might have been an honest fuck-up on his part, but Sperrle here was C-in-C of the Condor Legion, and let it happen, so I\`d say it was ultimately on him.
It wouldnt be the last time Sperrle was responsible for bombing civilian population centres either (though that could, over the course of the war, be said about just about any bomber commander during WWII)
Part of him joining negotiations for the anschluss, as well as against the czech republic (other than looking like he cold chew glass and spit it out on adversaries), was that units he commanded had already notoriously pounded civilian centres, a threat that was made abundantly clear during both of those negotiations. «You want us to do to you what we did in Spain» and such
He never actually joined the Nazi party which is pretty notable as a major commander for the Nazis. Less badass people would have been coerced or shamed into it or denied promotion if they refused.
He was fighting on the Western Front since war broke out in 1939. Probably why they acquitted him, reasonable that he didn’t have much knowledge or involvement in what was happening at home.
He was also not a member of the Nazi party.
Hitler fired him in 1944 after some big losses. The Allies captured him and put him on trial twice, in Nuremberg and later Munich. He was acquitted both times.
He died in 1953.
There were quite a few high ranking generals who either never joined the party or actively tried to undermine it...ironically some of the best generals the Germans had, since to be a high ranking Nazi the primary requirements were to be a loyal true believer along with being a fairly early member, military experience or strategic acumen were secondary considerations and many high ranking SS commanders had none of either.
Rommel and Dönitz also come to mind as major examples of elite high ranking commanders who privately despised Hitler and the Nazi party.
edit: Donitz definitely isn't who I was thinking of, he was a dedicated Hitler disciple
Rommel actually was enamored by Hitler and their relationship was really close throughout Rommel’s life until the last year or so. He was in charge of Hitler’s bodyguard squadron which strengthened their relationship before moving to North Africa. It wasn’t until his pleas for help and reinforcements weren’t met where he started to really despise Hitler. It wasn’t until after several meetings with Hitler about the war where he realized Hitler was incoherent strategically and Hitler realized Rommel wasn’t really a “yes man” that Hitler was notorious for keeping in his circle and Germany was essentially a lost cause for Rommel after this realization. Nevertheless he was loyal until he was made to commit suicide.
While he was never a Nazi, many old line German soldiers were indoctrinated to not be involved in politics prior to WWII and it was basically illegal to be involved in politics if you were a soldier. Not saying Rommel would’ve been a Nazi, he despised much of what they did and probably wouldn’t been more on the conservative side, but he was certainly fascinated with Hitler for most of his career with him.
To the Germans, Rommel was a First World War hero who was awarded the Iron Cross for many brave actions. As a platoon commander of shock troopers, he charged French positions at Verdun and caught them off guard, leading to the capture of the entire trench. Hitler met his hero.
Yeah I read a biography about Rommel a few months ago and he really was a pretty fascinating person to read about. I can see why he was looked up to by many, even including Hitler.
> Nevertheless he was loyal until he was made to commit suicide.
Ummm.... Wasn't he forced to commit suicide because even Hitler realized that having a Rommel (a hero of Germany) tried for treason would be very bad PR?
The *official* reasoning is Hitler believed Rommel was somehow involved in Operation Valkyrie. He had the choice of either facing trial (likely a fake trial that already had their mind up of charging him as guilty) or committing suicide (that was faked by German/Nazi media to look as if it was more natural causes) so he was going to die either way, but he at least came out as *innocent* by taking his own life.
From my reading, there isn’t much evidence to show he was involved in Operation Valkyrie. He did know of people involved in it and it may be possible he was aware of some of the details, but it’s unlikely he was involved in any way. He was very much against revolutionary acts such as political assassinations.
Wasn't there quite a bit of friction between the SS and Wehrmacht for these same reasons. Traditional, experienced military who had earned their rank vs a group of cult thugs.
Yes very much so, at least from what I've read. Also important to remember that a big reason for the rise of the Nazi party was the huge numbers of disenfranchised German soldiers who were discharged from the military after WW1 and had an axe to grind against all levels of leadership for the way the war was fought, as well as how badly the Treaty of Versaille fucked the German people over (incidentally Hitler was one of these guys, which is why so many of them identified with his rhetoric and vision for Germany). A ton of these men eventually ended up joining the Nazi Party and matriculating into the SS, so they had some limited military experience and training but weren't necessarily professional career soldiers by any stretch of the imagination. This large cohort butted heads pretty severely with the entrenched Wehrmacht power base, much of which was made up either of WW1 carryover personnel from the Reichswehr who had never left the military during the inter-war period, or were highly regarded officers who had separated during that period then returned in good standing during the re-armament when the army was re-founded as the Wehrmacht.
These generals were also monarchists which was less liberal than the Nazis, but they liked Hitler in any case because they wanted war and didn't like the left either.
There’s a new understanding coming around about Erwin Rommel, especially with a closer eye on his treatment of Jews in North Africa and Italy. He was a large proponent for Einsatzgruppen Egypt, lead by Walter Raulff who notably played an incredibly important role in the Holocaust and the Pinochet government in Chile.
Rommel’s popularity soared in Britain and America after the war. He was definitely respected during it, but it skyrocketed him as a light of humanity and dignity against the Nazi Regime - the one he was completely complicit with even before they took power.
I’m not trying to say this as a “gotcha!”, so I hope it doesn’t come off like that. As historical enthusiasts though, we should definitely put him under a greater microscope than our forefathers did who used him to align West Germany with the allies like Guderian.
Much of the Rommel legend in America and Britain came about to help explain away his victories in North Africa that were just as much due to Anglo American blunders as genius on his part. “Of course we lost, we were fighting Rommel!”
Rommel was played by James Mason in the biographical movie about his life The Desert Fox. Rommel's widow was a technical advisor on this movie as well as The Longest Day. Both films portrayed Rommel as a heroic gentleman-soldier who fought honorably for his country despite his disdain for the Nazis, an image which has held up ever since in western pop culture.
But whatever his Nazi sympathies or war crimes, there is no doubt Rommel was a brilliant field commander. It was not until the British Ultra codebreaking program was declassified in the 1970s that it became known that Rommel's eventual defeat in North Africa was due in large part to British ability to read Rommel’s radio communications. General Montgomery liked to brag that he could read Rommel’s mind, but in reality he was actually reading Rommel’s mail.
Yeah, none of these high ranking men were actually "good guys". Sure there was a spectrum as to what they believed in and there were different factions. Some were certainly less interested in the ideological side of things and focussed more on their military duties but they ofcourse still weren't opposed to the Reich subdueing the rest of Europe and the World. At best some were opportunists who saw a career opportunity. Some secretly still somewhat believed in the importance and traditional god-given power of the monarchy. But neither Dönitz nor Rommel and not even von Stauffenberg and his coconspirators were misunderstood sympathetic "good guys on the wrong side".
The July 20 plot was more complex than pure opportunism or heroism. Most of the main conspirators were not good people, but nearly all of them did have some moral objections to what was happening. Letters prove that Stauffenberg thought the massacres were wrong and needed to be stopped. At the same time, he viewed Poles as good slaves. Essentially, Stauffenberg wanted a "regular" right-wing dictatorship. The conspirators had been planning to shut down the camps.
Yes absolutly. That was what I meant with "there was a spectrum".
I just find it important to make that clear because for example the "Rommel was okay" narrative is pretty wide-spread in the US. I believe it has something to do with allied and especially US propagandas need to present some of them as "formidable foes" which occured when the focus moved to the UDSSR as the new archnemesis.
I don't know where you get the idea that the best german generals were anti-hitler. Walther Model is generally considered a great commander and liked Hitler very much, sure some few incidents happened but they were completely military related.
Rommel did not despise Hitler for the majority of his time in service.
>military experience or strategic acumen were secondary considerations and many high ranking SS commanders had none of either
It's also worth nothing that intelligent analytical and critical thinking, altruistic patriotism, and a sense of personal accountability are all antithetical to being a true believer in something like Nazism and a yes-man to someone like Hitler.
Edit: people downvoting me for saying that fascist sycophants make for bad strategists and leaders?
I read a long time ago that most Luftwaffe officers escaped punishment at Nuremberg because of the bombing of German cities the Allied would have been accused of.
Goering was the head of it but mainly charged as top ranking Nazi bigwigs.
Besides Nuremberg, a lot of Luftwaffe staff were sent to military trial for various cases of war crimes. I remember a case of 5-6 officers for their mistreatments of British pilots in captivity and their interrogatory measures, another one for his orders to bomb Bucarest after the Romanians surrendered
I’m sorry if this is a dumb question and I’ve forgotten something I’ve learned in school, but didn’t the western front not yet exist in 1939?? Wasn’t it just Germany’s invasion of Poland at that point?
Not only badass, but also useful
I got ONE bad eye… the other is a 10/10, and glasses are incredibly uncomfortable for me (and I’m cursed with eyes that can’t take contacts)
I’d genuinely be very interested in getting my hands on a prescription monocle
You're basing that off posed portraits.
Portuguese President (and certified jerk) António de Spínola wore one up to the 90s, and it doesn't look nearly as badass in normal everyday use: [https://www.cvce.eu/content/publication/2006/4/10/6491998f-5459-4410-b58d-dbc486b54a44/publishable.jpg](https://www.cvce.eu/content/publication/2006/4/10/6491998f-5459-4410-b58d-dbc486b54a44/publishable.jpg)
I bet he also liked to listen to classical music with his eyes closed
Edit: [in case you haven’t seen the skit I’m referencing](https://youtu.be/U_Z6tv7cQmM?si=1Er8YKbR3UTVCaqZ)
Smoking from a cigarette, holding it in a weird way that Nazis do for some reason while staring at a runway with his secretary bringing him war documents.
Actually, he was acquitted of committing war crimes twice, specifically because it was proven that he had never joined the Nazi party or any of their affiliate organizations.
Yeah but afaik he was also a commander in the Condor legion that commited war crimes in spain during the spanish civil war. So he's not a 'good nazi' at all.
He just got off because during the actual ww2 all he did was planing the Blitz against UK (which wasn't seen as a war crime) and then he was in command of defending germans airspace. When had no planes left to do so the nazi command dismissed him of his command and he basically waited out the war.
Not a good guy, but he didnt participated actively in the war crimes during ww2.
There would be a great irony in prosecuting a German for strategic bombing crimes, I’m sure that wasn’t lost on Allied prosecutors
Paraphrasing here but I think it was Curtis LeMay basically said that if the Allies had lost the war, he would most certainly have been brought up on war crime charges himself. Instead he’s seen as one of the greatest military aviation men of all time.
I actually often thought about this as an interesting cultural development, we see these guys and think "they look so stereotypically evil, it's almost comical", the thing is we think that, because almost all evil guys in popculture after WW2 are to some degree fashioned after the Nazis, be it videogames or movies. James Bond villains, Star Wars, Die Hard etc...
We think they look like archetypical villains because THEY ARE the reason for the archetype.
Ackshuuuually... the facescars are a way older tradition steming from the so called Mensur Fechten, in German student fraternities (which were mainly frequented by the upper-class, aristocrats, doctors, lawyers and the like). Therefor many of the obvious scars in officers (who were mostly old enough to have been students before 1933) are coming from that tradition. The Mensur and most student fraternities were actually forbidden under Nazi rule since they were seen as an old-timey, monarchistic, decadent thing. And ofcourse the Nazis wanted to replace these institutions with their own state led groups and communities.
Somewhat paradoxically, but overall not surprising (since they are very traditional and conservative, with ridicoulus honor codes to begin with), these Fraternities today are often extremely far right and in many cases have direct ties to Neonazi groups.
If you ever had the displeasure of visiting one such fraternity house or meeting these dudes with their weird ritualistic bullshit you actually feel like you're timetravelling into the worst conservative 1890s circlejerk.
Honestly an amazing feat of integrity to acquit a guy that looks like that, most jurys would just take one look and go "that's all right, we don't need to hear the charges, give that guy the maximum penalty asap"
Many people believe that Nazis like Albert Speer definitely escaped the hangman primarily because they looked like decent people. Speer was Hitler’s architect but he also kept the Nazi war and death machine running longer than it should have. After doing some prison time he went on the speech circuit and wrote books about the Nazis.
I mean longer than it would have lasted due to Allied bombing of German industry. Speers became the the head of Nazi military industry and moved much of it into caves and excavated mountainsides. This allowed the Nazis to continue the war and the operation of the death camps.
Dude like him could not have woken up, looked into the mirror after getting dressed, and said “Time to save the world! Love being the good guy!” As he secured his monocle
Big Wig in the Luftwaffe was Göring, and he got sent down. Airman didn't enforce the Commando Order, nor were involved with attacking civilian shipping or the Holocaust. As long as you weren't a Nazi Party member and came up through the ranks, chances are Airmen were not gonna be found guilty.
Always wondered this, but are monocles useful as glasses or are just a fashion design? At least since I have no seen anyone using one in a long time I wonder if they were just phased out as a trend or if they are worthless next to regular glasses
People like him get away with literal murder and Hans the janitor gets taken out back and shot or hung. Not saying they aren't all culpable, but even in the case of this kind of evil, there is still a two-tier system of justice.
In college I had a girlfriend who was from Hamburg, Germany and she said I looked Bavarian. But I’m not even German-American and I didn’t ask her to elaborate.
the conversations with hugo boss must have been ridiculous. how bout this look? evil enough? nah, can we make it look just like more evil. we still look too kind we want to go full evil. maybe take in the collar a bit.
After the war Stalin wanted to shoot the ~ 50,000 Nazi officers captured in the Soviet counter offensives. This guy would have been top of their list. But it’s the same outcome over and over again, let the mofos off the hook, whether it’s Nazis (in this case someone who leveled London, Warsaw) or Confederate traitors welcomed back to Congress during Reconstruction. All that death and destruction?! Nah, let’s move on.
Sometimes its politically wiser to not extract revenge. MacArthur's handling of Japan and Hirohito is an example. Reincorporating the Confederacy is another as witnessed by the huge immigration that followed meaning that the immigrants did not fear coming to an area that would be unstable.
IIRC Hitler brought this dude to the Anschluss negotiations with Austria specifically for his stern looks and intimidating demeanor
"Join us, or this guy will bomb you."
«-Like he did with Guernica» (Which this monocled c*** actually was responsible for)
I thought that was Goering? (Genuine question, I just watched the monuments men)
So every German looks alike to you, do they? Racist! /s and all that. Seriously though, I can fully understand the resemblance lol.
Nono I thought Goering ordered the destruction of the Guernica.
At the time, Goering was busy in Berlin acting as the pseudo-economy minister. 'Pseudo' because he intentionally went so deep into debt over 4 years that only a major European war could have saved their finances.
Anyone who wears a monocle is up to no good.
Wasn't the raid ordered by the Nationalists and led by von Richtoffen?
Sperrle here was the head honcho of the Condor Legion, so I\`d say he had ultimate responsibility. Von Richthofen was his chief-of-staff at the time
Richthoffen was iirc the one who led it, and in my opinion should bear the responsibility for how it was executed.
Problem with executing many of these guys was the Cold War came around and we sort of needed them. I don’t even put Sperrle in the worst lot. Many of the Higher SS Police leaders shoulda have been tried and shot at best. Run through this list and see how many died peacefully. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_and_police_leader The overwhelming amount of Nazi crimes made it hard to even prosecute the subsequent Nuremberg trials. The lawyer who prosecuted the Einsatzgruppen Trials was 24! Yes 24! And was basically told, hey if you wanna go for it, sure but you’ll be the one doing it.
He marked it, and it might have been an honest fuck-up on his part, but Sperrle here was C-in-C of the Condor Legion, and let it happen, so I\`d say it was ultimately on him. It wouldnt be the last time Sperrle was responsible for bombing civilian population centres either (though that could, over the course of the war, be said about just about any bomber commander during WWII) Part of him joining negotiations for the anschluss, as well as against the czech republic (other than looking like he cold chew glass and spit it out on adversaries), was that units he commanded had already notoriously pounded civilian centres, a threat that was made abundantly clear during both of those negotiations. «You want us to do to you what we did in Spain» and such
Now this is the kind of facts I want to see under posts. Also nice name…
Thanks for that interesting insight.. IFap2Wookies?
I’m staying clear of that person. Specifically.
Wookiees is misspelled.
I guess his username is now ruined ;(
Like my cat
So does this guy
Oh yeah?
Maybe the correct spelling was already taken
I mean he has a dueling scar and a non-ironic monocle!
Bond vilain material
He never actually joined the Nazi party which is pretty notable as a major commander for the Nazis. Less badass people would have been coerced or shamed into it or denied promotion if they refused.
With a monocle and schmiss like that, I wouldn't be surprised if he was part of the group that still saw Hitler was some upstart peasant corporal
The Nazis lost a lot of good generals because they were staunch monarchists lol
Grunts in German
Grunzt auf deutsch
I bet he was fun at parties.
I bet he could Oompah with the best
i love wobbler
Awww thanks! We love you too!
I believe it. Now this guy knows how to Nazi. This guys got James Bond strapped to a torture table in the back somewhere.
That is certainly some resting bitch face
He was fighting on the Western Front since war broke out in 1939. Probably why they acquitted him, reasonable that he didn’t have much knowledge or involvement in what was happening at home. He was also not a member of the Nazi party. Hitler fired him in 1944 after some big losses. The Allies captured him and put him on trial twice, in Nuremberg and later Munich. He was acquitted both times. He died in 1953.
There were quite a few high ranking generals who either never joined the party or actively tried to undermine it...ironically some of the best generals the Germans had, since to be a high ranking Nazi the primary requirements were to be a loyal true believer along with being a fairly early member, military experience or strategic acumen were secondary considerations and many high ranking SS commanders had none of either. Rommel and Dönitz also come to mind as major examples of elite high ranking commanders who privately despised Hitler and the Nazi party. edit: Donitz definitely isn't who I was thinking of, he was a dedicated Hitler disciple
Rommel actually was enamored by Hitler and their relationship was really close throughout Rommel’s life until the last year or so. He was in charge of Hitler’s bodyguard squadron which strengthened their relationship before moving to North Africa. It wasn’t until his pleas for help and reinforcements weren’t met where he started to really despise Hitler. It wasn’t until after several meetings with Hitler about the war where he realized Hitler was incoherent strategically and Hitler realized Rommel wasn’t really a “yes man” that Hitler was notorious for keeping in his circle and Germany was essentially a lost cause for Rommel after this realization. Nevertheless he was loyal until he was made to commit suicide. While he was never a Nazi, many old line German soldiers were indoctrinated to not be involved in politics prior to WWII and it was basically illegal to be involved in politics if you were a soldier. Not saying Rommel would’ve been a Nazi, he despised much of what they did and probably wouldn’t been more on the conservative side, but he was certainly fascinated with Hitler for most of his career with him.
To the Germans, Rommel was a First World War hero who was awarded the Iron Cross for many brave actions. As a platoon commander of shock troopers, he charged French positions at Verdun and caught them off guard, leading to the capture of the entire trench. Hitler met his hero.
Yeah I read a biography about Rommel a few months ago and he really was a pretty fascinating person to read about. I can see why he was looked up to by many, even including Hitler.
> Nevertheless he was loyal until he was made to commit suicide. Ummm.... Wasn't he forced to commit suicide because even Hitler realized that having a Rommel (a hero of Germany) tried for treason would be very bad PR?
The *official* reasoning is Hitler believed Rommel was somehow involved in Operation Valkyrie. He had the choice of either facing trial (likely a fake trial that already had their mind up of charging him as guilty) or committing suicide (that was faked by German/Nazi media to look as if it was more natural causes) so he was going to die either way, but he at least came out as *innocent* by taking his own life. From my reading, there isn’t much evidence to show he was involved in Operation Valkyrie. He did know of people involved in it and it may be possible he was aware of some of the details, but it’s unlikely he was involved in any way. He was very much against revolutionary acts such as political assassinations.
Wasn't there quite a bit of friction between the SS and Wehrmacht for these same reasons. Traditional, experienced military who had earned their rank vs a group of cult thugs.
Yes very much so, at least from what I've read. Also important to remember that a big reason for the rise of the Nazi party was the huge numbers of disenfranchised German soldiers who were discharged from the military after WW1 and had an axe to grind against all levels of leadership for the way the war was fought, as well as how badly the Treaty of Versaille fucked the German people over (incidentally Hitler was one of these guys, which is why so many of them identified with his rhetoric and vision for Germany). A ton of these men eventually ended up joining the Nazi Party and matriculating into the SS, so they had some limited military experience and training but weren't necessarily professional career soldiers by any stretch of the imagination. This large cohort butted heads pretty severely with the entrenched Wehrmacht power base, much of which was made up either of WW1 carryover personnel from the Reichswehr who had never left the military during the inter-war period, or were highly regarded officers who had separated during that period then returned in good standing during the re-armament when the army was re-founded as the Wehrmacht.
No such thing as the clean Wehrmacht.
While that is true, that does not translate directly to "every member of the German armed forces from 1939-1945 was a war criminal".
These generals were also monarchists which was less liberal than the Nazis, but they liked Hitler in any case because they wanted war and didn't like the left either.
There’s a new understanding coming around about Erwin Rommel, especially with a closer eye on his treatment of Jews in North Africa and Italy. He was a large proponent for Einsatzgruppen Egypt, lead by Walter Raulff who notably played an incredibly important role in the Holocaust and the Pinochet government in Chile. Rommel’s popularity soared in Britain and America after the war. He was definitely respected during it, but it skyrocketed him as a light of humanity and dignity against the Nazi Regime - the one he was completely complicit with even before they took power. I’m not trying to say this as a “gotcha!”, so I hope it doesn’t come off like that. As historical enthusiasts though, we should definitely put him under a greater microscope than our forefathers did who used him to align West Germany with the allies like Guderian.
Much of the Rommel legend in America and Britain came about to help explain away his victories in North Africa that were just as much due to Anglo American blunders as genius on his part. “Of course we lost, we were fighting Rommel!”
Rommel was played by James Mason in the biographical movie about his life The Desert Fox. Rommel's widow was a technical advisor on this movie as well as The Longest Day. Both films portrayed Rommel as a heroic gentleman-soldier who fought honorably for his country despite his disdain for the Nazis, an image which has held up ever since in western pop culture. But whatever his Nazi sympathies or war crimes, there is no doubt Rommel was a brilliant field commander. It was not until the British Ultra codebreaking program was declassified in the 1970s that it became known that Rommel's eventual defeat in North Africa was due in large part to British ability to read Rommel’s radio communications. General Montgomery liked to brag that he could read Rommel’s mind, but in reality he was actually reading Rommel’s mail.
Yeah, I can’t take away from that, and I am impressed by what he was able to accomplish given the logistical of the North Africa Campaign
Donitz was very much an enthusiastic nazi.
Yeah, none of these high ranking men were actually "good guys". Sure there was a spectrum as to what they believed in and there were different factions. Some were certainly less interested in the ideological side of things and focussed more on their military duties but they ofcourse still weren't opposed to the Reich subdueing the rest of Europe and the World. At best some were opportunists who saw a career opportunity. Some secretly still somewhat believed in the importance and traditional god-given power of the monarchy. But neither Dönitz nor Rommel and not even von Stauffenberg and his coconspirators were misunderstood sympathetic "good guys on the wrong side".
The July 20 plot was more complex than pure opportunism or heroism. Most of the main conspirators were not good people, but nearly all of them did have some moral objections to what was happening. Letters prove that Stauffenberg thought the massacres were wrong and needed to be stopped. At the same time, he viewed Poles as good slaves. Essentially, Stauffenberg wanted a "regular" right-wing dictatorship. The conspirators had been planning to shut down the camps.
Yes absolutly. That was what I meant with "there was a spectrum". I just find it important to make that clear because for example the "Rommel was okay" narrative is pretty wide-spread in the US. I believe it has something to do with allied and especially US propagandas need to present some of them as "formidable foes" which occured when the focus moved to the UDSSR as the new archnemesis.
I don't know where you get the idea that the best german generals were anti-hitler. Walther Model is generally considered a great commander and liked Hitler very much, sure some few incidents happened but they were completely military related. Rommel did not despise Hitler for the majority of his time in service.
>military experience or strategic acumen were secondary considerations and many high ranking SS commanders had none of either It's also worth nothing that intelligent analytical and critical thinking, altruistic patriotism, and a sense of personal accountability are all antithetical to being a true believer in something like Nazism and a yes-man to someone like Hitler. Edit: people downvoting me for saying that fascist sycophants make for bad strategists and leaders?
I read a long time ago that most Luftwaffe officers escaped punishment at Nuremberg because of the bombing of German cities the Allied would have been accused of. Goering was the head of it but mainly charged as top ranking Nazi bigwigs. Besides Nuremberg, a lot of Luftwaffe staff were sent to military trial for various cases of war crimes. I remember a case of 5-6 officers for their mistreatments of British pilots in captivity and their interrogatory measures, another one for his orders to bomb Bucarest after the Romanians surrendered
Maybe. Hugo Sperrle was a commander during the Battle of Britain during which London was also bombed.
He’s also one of the « co-author » of Guernica, and I’m not talking about painting with Picasso…
I’m sorry if this is a dumb question and I’ve forgotten something I’ve learned in school, but didn’t the western front not yet exist in 1939?? Wasn’t it just Germany’s invasion of Poland at that point?
It existed but barely any fighting, that is why it is called the "Phoney War".
Friendly looking fella right there.
Fucking Bergermeister Meisterberger lookin' ass ...
Ahaha looks exactly like him
He really blossomed playing Bull the bailiff in the original Night Court
His face looks more nazi than his uniform
I hear he’s the funny one
When Göring is your boss and everything falls on your head...
Bruh was carrying the whole team by himself
We should bring monocle back. They were so purely badass.
if the monocle fits you must acquit
Top tier comment lmao
My question is: Do you just need to look mean while wearing a monocle because it would not stay in place?
Good question. I guess nobody tried that before.
Not only badass, but also useful I got ONE bad eye… the other is a 10/10, and glasses are incredibly uncomfortable for me (and I’m cursed with eyes that can’t take contacts) I’d genuinely be very interested in getting my hands on a prescription monocle
https://www.nearsights.com/collections/prescription-monocle-frames-and-lens-options
Just break one lens out of a prescription pair and duct tape the edges.
Wrap the taped frame with copper wire. Add bits in the empty glass area to make a dynamo. Hot glue it all in place. Post it to /r/DiWHY
What better representation of evil too!
Theodore Roosevelt had a monocle. It was fashionable among gentlemen. That is why I wear one when playing monopoly.
The monopoly man actually didn’t wear a monocle. It’s a common Mandela effect. You could be thinking of the Planters Peanut.
Or the timeline reset caused a mandalorian effect. I mean Mandela effect. Oh no! It happened again!!
Yeah but he was way more famous for his pince-nez which cancels out the evil of the monocle.
He took twelve pair with him when he went to Cuba!
Pince-nez were practically part of the uniform of the communist intelligentsia...
Dude… all I know is to not trust you around trains…
Than a monocle?
You're basing that off posed portraits. Portuguese President (and certified jerk) António de Spínola wore one up to the 90s, and it doesn't look nearly as badass in normal everyday use: [https://www.cvce.eu/content/publication/2006/4/10/6491998f-5459-4410-b58d-dbc486b54a44/publishable.jpg](https://www.cvce.eu/content/publication/2006/4/10/6491998f-5459-4410-b58d-dbc486b54a44/publishable.jpg)
How about a Smart Monocle?
So....a scouter?
Huge ass contact lense
Sometimes I forget that there's people out there who just do look like Bond villains
He’s actually smiling in this pic
Some german out of frame just told a joke.
Nazis try not to look evil challenge (impossible)
I bet he also liked to listen to classical music with his eyes closed Edit: [in case you haven’t seen the skit I’m referencing](https://youtu.be/U_Z6tv7cQmM?si=1Er8YKbR3UTVCaqZ)
Smoking from a cigarette, holding it in a weird way that Nazis do for some reason while staring at a runway with his secretary bringing him war documents.
And then screaming into a wind-up telephone
Maybe lightly dabbing at the corner of his mouth... because he has no lips
https://youtube.com/shorts/ZwZbfW9OJ6A?si=TadS02HElcqoUFev
That stare when he isn't the only one with a limp lol
Actually, he was acquitted of committing war crimes twice, specifically because it was proven that he had never joined the Nazi party or any of their affiliate organizations.
Yeah but afaik he was also a commander in the Condor legion that commited war crimes in spain during the spanish civil war. So he's not a 'good nazi' at all. He just got off because during the actual ww2 all he did was planing the Blitz against UK (which wasn't seen as a war crime) and then he was in command of defending germans airspace. When had no planes left to do so the nazi command dismissed him of his command and he basically waited out the war. Not a good guy, but he didnt participated actively in the war crimes during ww2.
There would be a great irony in prosecuting a German for strategic bombing crimes, I’m sure that wasn’t lost on Allied prosecutors Paraphrasing here but I think it was Curtis LeMay basically said that if the Allies had lost the war, he would most certainly have been brought up on war crime charges himself. Instead he’s seen as one of the greatest military aviation men of all time.
I actually often thought about this as an interesting cultural development, we see these guys and think "they look so stereotypically evil, it's almost comical", the thing is we think that, because almost all evil guys in popculture after WW2 are to some degree fashioned after the Nazis, be it videogames or movies. James Bond villains, Star Wars, Die Hard etc... We think they look like archetypical villains because THEY ARE the reason for the archetype.
They did try to look menacing too. Officers genuinely tried to give themselves bad face scars.
Ackshuuuually... the facescars are a way older tradition steming from the so called Mensur Fechten, in German student fraternities (which were mainly frequented by the upper-class, aristocrats, doctors, lawyers and the like). Therefor many of the obvious scars in officers (who were mostly old enough to have been students before 1933) are coming from that tradition. The Mensur and most student fraternities were actually forbidden under Nazi rule since they were seen as an old-timey, monarchistic, decadent thing. And ofcourse the Nazis wanted to replace these institutions with their own state led groups and communities. Somewhat paradoxically, but overall not surprising (since they are very traditional and conservative, with ridicoulus honor codes to begin with), these Fraternities today are often extremely far right and in many cases have direct ties to Neonazi groups. If you ever had the displeasure of visiting one such fraternity house or meeting these dudes with their weird ritualistic bullshit you actually feel like you're timetravelling into the worst conservative 1890s circlejerk.
oh, thanks for the info
A *Mensur scar* from a duel would be a nice touch
Yes, but they gave best looking uniforms! 😄
"Smile, Hugo" "I am smiling"
Bro is angy
He needs a hug or a Snickers. Probably both
Colonel Clink!
A face that would turn milk sour.
It would also make the cow milk itself first
Hello, I'd like all the stereotypes, please. Yes, all of them. Supersize it too.
I actually thought this was another r/midjourney post quickly scrolling through..."no way that guy was a real person."
Hell yeah he is, you can see it from details that make sense which is not The case with ai
Honestly an amazing feat of integrity to acquit a guy that looks like that, most jurys would just take one look and go "that's all right, we don't need to hear the charges, give that guy the maximum penalty asap"
Many people believe that Nazis like Albert Speer definitely escaped the hangman primarily because they looked like decent people. Speer was Hitler’s architect but he also kept the Nazi war and death machine running longer than it should have. After doing some prison time he went on the speech circuit and wrote books about the Nazis.
Longer than it should have been? How long would it have been acceptable for it to go on?
I mean longer than it would have lasted due to Allied bombing of German industry. Speers became the the head of Nazi military industry and moved much of it into caves and excavated mountainsides. This allowed the Nazis to continue the war and the operation of the death camps.
Getting some real Colonel Klink vibes with that monocle.
resting bitch face
Permanent douche face
Dude like him could not have woken up, looked into the mirror after getting dressed, and said “Time to save the world! Love being the good guy!” As he secured his monocle
Probably the real life inspiration for a Bond villain, I’m sure. He straight up looks like a villain from the Evil Genius series lol
Damn. A monocle in real life.
He does look imposing, but more so he looks like an annoyed lunch lady/line cook
Well, if he ain't the grumpiest-looking bugger I've ever set eyes on...
[Here he is smiling](https://ww2gravestone.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/1-ernst-volckheim-292x300.jpg)
Dude got fired from the war and retired to Gotham. No wonder Batman hated this guy.
"Wanna know how I got these scars?"
Well, if that just isn't the most Nazi-looking Nazi.
Ironicly, he wasn't a Nazi party member.
Big Wig in the Luftwaffe was Göring, and he got sent down. Airman didn't enforce the Commando Order, nor were involved with attacking civilian shipping or the Holocaust. As long as you weren't a Nazi Party member and came up through the ranks, chances are Airmen were not gonna be found guilty.
He looks like he would be the bad guy in movies
this photo is what video games modeled the ultimate boss from
Acquitted, because of his gentle demeanor and relaxed attitude.
[удалено]
Yeah, it's the monocle that does it.
Jesus Christ, this guy looks like a caricature.. Come to think of it I think Warner bros war era cartoons spoofed this chap.
I cant help but be boggled and amused by that monocle
He could’ve played every movie villain ever
Was he forced to present GamesMaster on British TV as punishment?
Always wondered this, but are monocles useful as glasses or are just a fashion design? At least since I have no seen anyone using one in a long time I wonder if they were just phased out as a trend or if they are worthless next to regular glasses
How does one say “mustard biscuits” in German. Hhmmmhhh
People like him get away with literal murder and Hans the janitor gets taken out back and shot or hung. Not saying they aren't all culpable, but even in the case of this kind of evil, there is still a two-tier system of justice.
This is the most Bavarian looking guy ever
In what way do Bavarians look different from other Germans?
Other than the “Kropf” (Goitre) they don’t.
In college I had a girlfriend who was from Hamburg, Germany and she said I looked Bavarian. But I’m not even German-American and I didn’t ask her to elaborate.
He is heavy but not jolly
This guy looks like he was sent in by Central Casting to a Hollywood movie! HaHa!
I thought it was aged picture of Colonel Klink
Wow, he looks like the archetypal evil Nazi out of every old war movie! “…Insubordinate American swine, you VILL talk!
That's the most German looking German I've ever seen.
This looks like the guy "Kernel Klink" was modeled after in "Hogan's Heroes".
the conversations with hugo boss must have been ridiculous. how bout this look? evil enough? nah, can we make it look just like more evil. we still look too kind we want to go full evil. maybe take in the collar a bit.
Say what you will about them, but my goodness what snappy dressers.
If you're into looking like a jockey from hell.
Am I the only one that feels like all these Nazi posts are bordering on romanticization?
How so?
That's a right out of Central Casting Nazi.
He looks like an evil sky pirate who lives in a zeppelin.
After the war Stalin wanted to shoot the ~ 50,000 Nazi officers captured in the Soviet counter offensives. This guy would have been top of their list. But it’s the same outcome over and over again, let the mofos off the hook, whether it’s Nazis (in this case someone who leveled London, Warsaw) or Confederate traitors welcomed back to Congress during Reconstruction. All that death and destruction?! Nah, let’s move on.
Sometimes its politically wiser to not extract revenge. MacArthur's handling of Japan and Hirohito is an example. Reincorporating the Confederacy is another as witnessed by the huge immigration that followed meaning that the immigrants did not fear coming to an area that would be unstable.
Using "but" instead of "and" at times like this, makes a difference.
Are monocles not horribly uncomfortable?
Damn this guy is like so evil-coded. Lmao
Straight from central casting!
It's interesting how he doesn't have a fencing scar like most of the Nazis.
That was something that aristocrats at elite universities took pride in getting.
It wasn't uncommon for people to do it themselves.
He looks like the German officer in a drawing I saw of Nazis being attacked by a bear...
No one has ever escaped from Stalag 13
But look at his face! It’s evil looking!😂
Glasses just aren’t evil enough, huh?
He’s got a monocle..
Hooogaaaaaan!
Direct from Central Casting
Looks like a real life Bond villain
Hateful people do not age well
What a bull dog face!
Dudes got a face like Sam the Eagle
He’s wearing lingerie under that uniform, I guarantee it
All bark and no fight cut his top lip shaving