While I was attending Dr. Losier Middle School in New Brunswick, Canada, in one of my English classes, one of our final projects was to do a ten minute speech in front of the class and a few teachers on a subject that was within good taste, and me, being the military/history nut that I am, I decided to base my speech on........... The good that Hitler did for the world. Immediately upon starting my speech, once I announced what the topic of my speech was going to be, my teacher immediately Pearl Harboured me and told me to sit down and that my speech was not in good taste, me being the history fanatic as mentioned before, stated to my teacher that my speech was in my mind in good taste and I was not condoning the things that he had done and never will but there was more to Hitler than what everyone knew about said actions. My teacher allowed me to continue my speech but made me be fully aware that if she decided it was taking the wrong path, I would be sitting down. As I enjoy history, i like to think about what life would be like if certain events had not happened when we did, and as we all know, some of the greatest technological advances have come from times of war. I mentioned in my speech that, due to the First World War, Germany was broke, there were no jobs, and along came this fellow who promised he would change that. He produced jobs, people could put food on the table. Germany's economy was getting better, and most people don't know, but Hitler was AVIDLY against smoking, while the allies seemed to condone it. EVERYONE was smoking. And most of my focus on the speech revolved around, not Hitler, but his scientists....While the Allies were still using Propeller aircraft, the Germans were able to build aircraft that used Jet engines (the first ever) due to the work of people like Werner Von Braun. He is responsible for the unholy creation of the Beetle.....Someone that creates that mustn't be that evil of a person....Because he wanted a vehicle which the people could afford. Now, I do not want to give the wrong impression. I am not a hitler supporter. I do not condone the things that he did and what he ordered his troops to do. I shall now end this post with a quote from the ending of my speech..... "And so....I would like to mention.....that the one greatest thing that Hitler had done for the world, was not the creation of jet engines, the rocket propulsion of Werner Von Braun, the creation of the Beetle and the Autobahn, but the one greatest thing he did was killing himself in his bunker..." When it came to it.....Hitler was not a great tactican, or a expert in the movement or shipping out of soldiers, and the dumbest thing he did was attacked Russia...Had he waited, maybe the war would have been different...But things happen for a reason and I bet during his final moments in his bunker he thought to himself "I should have stuck with art!'
Maybe you should have titled your speech war and technological inovation. Hitler did no good for any of us on this planet. Welcome to the forums.
I would have cautioned you if I were the teacher to make people doubly aware that Hitler could take no credit for what his scientists accomplished as many of them were innovators separate from the theories of Hitler and his influence. In fact there was a brain drain in Germany as a result of his persecutions, many scientists refusing to do their science under the influences of Hitler, many who spent their time devising ways to leave Germany with their knowledge. There is a lot of admiration for German technology, as I am one who does admire their innovations, but I do so fully understanding that Hitler had little to do with this ability of the German people to build and in fact he can be seen to have slowed and damaged what was accomplished by his persecutions and diversions for war purposes.This damage he did spreads across society as the arts and music of Germany was to suffer in the years of his influence and the large effect this may have had on the world was greatly reduced in influence. For every way Germany was strengthened militarily by Hitler, some important aspect of German culture was sacrificed until reaching the ruined state they experienced at the close of the war.
Jet engines were being developed in several countries in the 1930s; the first operational jet fighter was the British Gloster Meteor. Von Braun worked on rockets, not jets, and acknowledged that his work was derived from Robert Goddard's, even helped Goddard's widow win a patent lawsuit after he came to America ($1 million, largest patent settlement ever at that time). As for "peoples' cars", ever heard of Henry Ford and the Model T? Even the autobahns were conceived before Hitler, although he does merit credit for implementing the idea on a national scale. Limited access highways originated as early as 1907 with the New York Parkway* system. None of these things would not have existed without Hitler. * as George Carlin put it, we drive on the parkway and park in the driveway.
First off, welcome to the forum, that said it should be remembered that Hitler did NOT invent the Autobahn, a hundred kilometers of that structure had been completed two or three years (Cologne to Bonn) before he was even appointed Chancellor. The Italian Auto-Strada had been completed while he was in Landsburg, and it was copied from an existing limited access "experimental roadway" constructed outside of Berlin in 1921 while Hitler was deciding on his mustache shape. Hitler did continue its expansion as a "works project", and he took great pleasure in cutting ribbons and opening new stretches of the roadway. He did NOT save the German economy, that hyper-inflation post-WW1 had been controlled by the American Dawes and later Young plans long before. He did NOT stand up and refuse to pay the reparations, they had been put in moratorium. Again, all before he was appointed Chancellor. He did NOT cut un-employment by creating jobs for the jobless exactly, he cut un-employment by making 10% of the Germans non-citizens and throwing them out of their jobs (all Jews). He further "opened up" jobs by making it illegal for married women to hold jobs. In many cases you ended up with inferior workers producing less efficiently, some genius he. Hitler further "inflated" the employment numbers by making the workers literally the "property" of the companies they worked for, freezing wages, making unions illegal, making quitting illegal, and making moving to another city illegal. Do it "our way, at our price" or serve some time in jail. Disgruntled workers do NOT always work well either. He did NOT design the "peoples car" Volkswagen, he sketched an idea for a small four passenger car (copied from the Czech, T97 Tatra) and submitted it to Dr. Porsche who had been trying to find a "home" for his little air-cooled flat four. The Tatra was also an air-cooled, rear engined, flat four with an aerodynamic shape. Hitler had that model banned from import into Germany after he saw it, and so it appeared in limited numbers in Germany. The Volkswagen also appeared in "limited numbers" (not by design), and two years after the Tatra had been in production. Just before Hitler invaded the remaining portion of Czechoslovakia, he was informed by Dr. Porsche that the Tatra company had won a civil suit against him for patent infringement as his VW used Tatra designs. Dr. Porsche was honest enough to acknowledge the facts, and informed Hitler he was going to settle. Hitler told Porsche to "just wait awhile, I intend to handle this matter myself". I doubt that Dr. Porsche knew Hitler intended to occupy the whole of Czechoslovakia when he agreed to not make his settlement payment. You have already had information which puts the turbo-jet engine as a co-invention by both von Ohein and Britain's Frank Whittle. Of course Whittle patented his design first, and the graduate student Ohein read about it while in college and started working on a similar concept. I'm glad you enjoy history "GeeDubayou", but don't buy into too many of the "good things Hitler did" myths.
Geedubayou, I do appreciate that you did take up a study of history to speak on and realize you had all good intentions, and am glad you brought your comments here to spark some flint towards the subject you have spoke of in your class. I advise you to be forgiving of us for presenting so much information so quickly for you to absorb. I hope that you enjoy that you triggered some sparks from your endeavors of study in a very touchy subject matter for so many of us. As you can tell we on this forum wish to be very accurate about things "historical" and we may forget to voice that we also appreciate that you have begun to think about the things you chose to speak of in your speech. You have made a good beginning and I for one do welcome you to continue to share your thoughts with us here on this forum and realize some times in talks and debate, there has to be a spark, sometimes the spark of debate......that leads to ignition of a solution to these subjects we so constantly examine for finally deriving some truth. Welcome to participation in this forum.
You know there's another angle, a point Guu brings up by example (anyone who calls themselves G dubya I think deserves to be referred to as goo lol), see when I was a kid we did the big german christmas y'know, and a couple of grandma's friends were vets, not hard seeing where this is going. Yes I nearly got slapped once for referring to Hitler as insane. Renaté (my gram) words were, he saved the country, Hitler was a genius, everything you hear in australian books is propaganda which all countries do to govern their populations with, America and Australia are no different to Germany (they lived in the US for a few years before Oz) so don't you dare speak that to me again. Seriously she was pretty angry but I can see where she was coming from, it wasn't about Hitler per se, but that her grandson reads three words in a book and thinks he knows it all. The point I'm trying to make with this gem of a memory (I say with a frown, fml), is that despite the fact that we know so much better about Hitler due to an interest in research. That's not to say the German people at the time knew any more than, he saved the country. He was a genius. And whilst it maybe politically correct to refer to him in the opposite extremes as patriotic un-nazi nations, as insane and evil and angrier than a cut snake, the truth is that's just the flipside of thinking he's a genius and saviour. It's just as extreme, and just as childish. Unconscionable, now there's a word I like.
Thank you guys for all your comments Definately is insightful. As always, you folks here are quite awesome. I enjoyed reading all of the posts and again, I would like to stress that I have no kudos to give to Hitler, as he was in my mind, one fellow who should not have existed, and I find it dispicable that there are people out there that deny the holocaust. That is disgusting. I still have much to learn from all of you here. Thank you all! As for my screen name....It is merely my initials spelt out G.W not to be confused with George W....
The only admiration I have for AH is the fact that when the chips were down (during his rise to power), he never let it defeat him. AH believed in himself and his "struggle". Time and time again he and his cause were everything but dead. AH refused to accept defeat and found a way to win. His political campaigning was exhausting to say the least. Speech after speech plane ride after plane ride. His oratory skills are something to be (I hate to say admired) appreciated to say the least. His ability to bring the other side (the reds) into his corner and assimilate them into Nazism was a definite plus for him as well. FT
I see things in a slightly different way........he took advantage in "war reparations Germany" when his countrymen's chips were down, to sell his false solutions,.......and I would say his struggle was only dispensing propaganda as to who and what to blame that were false as well......and I would question his great oratory skills which succeeded in emotional spreading of more propaganda, that was summarily rejected by a great portion of the intelligentsia of his country that soon chose to leave this country if possible.......and the only success I would count him as having was his ability to launch all resources(minus the smartest who left if possible) into military goals by which he instilled fear amongst his own population to prevent interference in his abuses of military and political power to rail his country down the path of defeat and destruction, and at the end choosing the coward's way out to avoid answering to his own countrymen for his actions. When scapegoating and propaganda are equated with political campaigning .........I think that is a sugar coating of the obvious that won't sell well in free societies. As to his exhaustion.....there is a lot of evidence he was an addicted user of drugs to give him his oratory quickness that is said to be the lift that inevitably culminated into his downer aftermath most users of speed experience.....so that exhaustion was indeed drug derived not earned on some campaign trail. Let us really examine him closely so that we can spot his modern counterparts by their tactics of oration and propaganda.
I don't know Mr Gomez, I respect what you wrote but only speaking as to the premise aside content, important to note that the term "Hitler" has become a many-headed God describing a very wide array of political, sociological and corruptable factors at play, even the construction of Party policy was largely a headlong fall and the results where chips fell. This was very much Hitler's approach. As the various Generals who knew him put it repeatedly, when asked of his strategic involvement, was a competent strategist? No, they say, he was very intuitive. When we say "Hitler did this" almost all the time, every time in fact someone else was the instrument or originator. Almost everything people attribute to him, he was merely senior to and facilitative of. There is no question of culpability, but when discussing Hitler, smart to deal like a law case, and not a superhero/antihero one. Tempts fate otherwise.
