So... the Nazis.

[Vern]

Well, it's widely known that Erwin Rommel's nick-name was "The Desert Fox" due to the extreme effectiveness of the Panzer divisions under his command in North Africa. What's not well known is that in the highest Nazi echelons he was referred to simply as "Thunder Buns".

 

[Clearing the Eye]

The Nazi party was, for about a decade, the best thing that ever happened to Germany. They were fantastic leaders, responsible for saving the country from totally dissolving. A shame they so quickly brought it back to the edge of ruin.

 

[Torrasque]

How about how Hitler was Time's person of the year in 1938

Actually, they choose "Man/Person/Thing of the Year" by whoever was the most influential, not who was a good guy. Time was very clear that they did not consider Hitler a hero. It's still interesting to bring up (especially if you can find a cover) as they haven't done an out-and-out villain in a while.

Oh I know that, they also almost made Osama the man of the year, but didn't for obvious reasons. It is important to note that they named Hitler the man of the year before he became the pinnacle of assholery, back when he was helping Germany get itself out of dire straights (as @GartarkMusik pointed out). As you said <quote=Veylon>It's still interesting to bring up (especially if you can find a cover) as they haven't done an out-and-out villain in a while.
it is an interesting thing to point out, but should be fully explained and analyzed so Time doesn't look like a bunch of Fascist sympathizers, lol.

 

[bauke67]

Well, they didn't like Jewish people.... In fact, I believe for a fact, based on documents and recorded events, that they actually despised the Jewish people, and sent them to their deaths in specialized containment facilities hidden from the eyes of civilization...

Actually, these facilities were sometimes right under people's noses, where a whole town had a great view them.

 

[EMFCRACKSHOT]

Von Paulus was promoted (commander of the German 6th army at Stalingrad) to Field Marshall before surrendering to the Russians under the expectation that he was to commit suicide instead.
He was promoted with the words "no German Field Marshall has ever been taken prisoner"
The failure of operation citadel ( the battle of kursk, a major turning point in the war- to quote chrchill "if stalingrad was the end of the beggining then kursk was the beggining of the end) was in large part due to Hitler's order to delay the operation until june. A decision that could be said to have cost germany the eastern front.

 

[Sexy Devil]

The Nazis were actually the first people to ban smoking in public places, such as hospitals.

They knew the health dangers of smoking.

I say we start allowing smoking in public places. We don't want to be like the Nazis now, do we?

That's not distancing ourselves enough from the Nazis, we need a law that requires you to smoke at least once per trip outside the house.

 

[renegade7]

Ha. Godwin's law was satisfied right from the start

Well I do know that Hitler was part Jewish, that he was a vegan, had some sort of health issues (he had a private doctor) and conspiracy theorists will tell you he was obsessed with the occult.

Additionally, there is a rather common story (urban legend?) that a soldier in World War 1 had a chance to shoot Hitler (he was a young German soldier at the time) but didn't take it because he had been wounded and the British (I think it was British, though it may have been American, I can't remember right now) soldier thought it wasn't necessary to kill someone who was already out of action.

 

[Wintermoot]

Hitler was a animal lover and vegan
Hitler was a tactical idiot (see campaign towards Stalingrad Hitler planned to have it before the start of summer and only sent soldiers with summer uniforms)
the Nazi party practiced occultism and Hitler was convinced that he would win with the Lance of Longinus (we all know how that turned out)
the Nazi party was busy with the development of UFO,s
Hitler commissioned the development of a car for the people resulting in the VW bug
the reason the US had a rocket project was thanks to German rocket scientists
whoops got this one horribly wrong
Germany was defeated by the Soviets not the USA (although the USA did liberate West Europe)
the liberation was started by the UK and later included Canada and the US, the US only joined the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

 

[Vegosiux]

you can talk about how they manipulated the democratic system in germany to legitmately be the ruling party, why is this interesting because alot of people think they just showed up and did a military coup or something along those lines.

They're mixing up with fascists, Italy had a coup. Well so did Germany, but Hitler ended up doing hard time for it instead of seizing power. So he went the democratic route next time.

@OP: As for the less-covered stuff? I'd try to sneak in something on Stauffenberg and the assassination attempt on Hitler. It's a good case to show there resistance against Hilter's regime in his own ranks.

Captcha: Adidas. Why yes, Adi Dassler equipped the Wehrmacht with boots. Maybe you can include that too.

 

[Amaror]

From what I have heard, if Hitler had not embarked on the campaign of genocide that he did, he would have been remembered as one of the greatest leaders in European History. I hear that Germany at that time was in a major economic downturn due to still feeling the scars of WWI, and Hitler was a driving force for revitalizing Germany. If this is true, it is a terrible shame he chose to do what he did.

Well but his hate against jews helped him to become the leader in the first place. The killing of the jews was not something the people wanted, but in the working class the jews were hated really bad.
After the first world war the country was pretty screwed and people needed support to get back on their feet. Thing is, in that time, when you wanted a loan, you didn't went to a bank, you went to "The jew" of the village who basically acted as a bank.
Problem was, as a bank they often took the property and the belongings of the people, when they couldn't pay the depths.
That's the reason why many people were so pissed of about the jews.

For the record, i am not defending anything here, i am just repeating what i heard.

 

[GonvilleBromhead]

Ha. Godwin's law was satisfied right from the start

Well I do know that Hitler was part Jewish, that he was a vegan, had some sort of health issues (he had a private doctor) and conspiracy theorists will tell you he was obsessed with the occult.

Additionally, there is a rather common story (urban legend?) that a soldier in World War 1 had a chance to shoot Hitler (he was a young German soldier at the time) but didn't take it because he had been wounded and the British (I think it was British, though it may have been American, I can't remember right now) soldier thought it wasn't necessary to kill someone who was already out of action.

He was a British soldier - and the myth was largely perpetuated by Hitler himself. The chaps name was Private Henry Tandey, VC - Hitler kept a portrait of him to remind of the fickleness of fate.

A couple of myths posted here need to be refuted: Hitler was not a vegetarian, and Hugo Boss did not design the SS uniform (during the war his company - at the time just a bog standard off the peg clothes manufacturer, did make uniforms for the Third Reich)

The Nazi government was ruthlessly inefficient, in large part due to Hitler's belief of apply social Darwinism to government departments in the hope that the better one would win out. This, in fact, meant that government departments with overlapping responsibilities were too busy competing with one another to be competent. Classic case in point would be in foreign intelligence, with the Abwehr (under command of the Wehrmacht, effectively the governments intelligence service) and the SD-Ausland (Sicherheitsdienst-Ausland - Overseas Security Service; part of the SS and thus the Nazi party's intelligence service), which were in competition and hurt (along with the Abwehr general anti-Nazi viewpoint, personified by it's head Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, who ended up being executed in the July 7th Plot. There were even Jews working for the Abwehr) the actual practice of intelligence gathering. For example, all spies the Germans had in the UK were captured almost immediately, or were actually controlled by British Intelligence. All of them. The SD eventually won out, but less due it's sterling intelligence but more because they were...well..nazis, and they told Hitler what he wanted to here rather than actual facts.

 

[astrav1]

I have my History GCSE exam on Tuesday, and it's on Germany from 1918-1945. I'd like to sneak in some interesting facts that we haven't been taught in class, just to be a smartass. So, has anyone got any interesting facts about the Nazis (as you may be able to guess, they feature rather prominently under that heading). In fact, anything interesting about the topic at all would do for me. I'll soon see how quirky I can make my essay...

I believe Hugo Boss designed their outfits, also they were one of the first governments to be anti-smoking.

 

[Eddie the head]

I can only think of two. I think it was British spys could have killed Hitler near the end of the war but they didn't because if you kill him you make him an icon. And German solders in the last days of the war would fight there way form Russian lines to American lines because Americans might not kill them out right. I'm not sure about that first one but the second one makes sense when you think about it.

 

[mysecondlife]

I think they invented night vision.

 

[Cbargs]

Hitler was friends with an openly gay Nazi officer. The officer, Ernst Rohm, was the only top Nazi that addressed Hitler with an informal 'du', and was also the only one to call him Adolf instead of 'mein Fuhrer.' Rohm was eventually killed during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934.

 

[Ironside]

Some interesting facts you say? Well the term "European Economic Community" was thought up by Goering i believe. Several Nazi officials also got together when it became apparent that Germany would lose the war militarily and came up with a plan where German dominance of europe would be able to continue through Economic means through an organisation very similar to that of the European Union. I found that interesting anyway - maybe someone should have told them to try that before their country was demolished by the rest of the world.

From what I have heard, if Hitler had not embarked on the campaign of genocide that he did, he would have been remembered as one of the greatest leaders in European History. I hear that Germany at that time was in a major economic downturn due to still feeling the scars of WWI, and Hitler was a driving force for revitalizing Germany. If this is true, it is a terrible shame he chose to do what he did.

It was more like the Wall Street crash that had caused the economic downturn rather than ww1. However I wouldn't say the Nazis did a good job of fixing the problems - sure they provided jobs and made sure it didn't cost a wheel barrow of money to buy a loaf of bread, but the industrial base and whatnot they created was very fragile and just appeared strong and robust from the outside.

I can only think of two. I think it was British spys could have killed Hitler near the end of the war but they didn't because if you kill him you make him an icon. And German solders in the last days of the war would fight there way form Russian lines to American lines because Americans might not kill them out right. I'm not sure about that first one but the second one makes sense when you think about it.

Its not that they would be killed outright by the Soviets - its that if they were captured they may be sent to one of the camps in Siberia. Only a handful of the Germans captured by the Soviets ever returned to their homes.