History Main / WeDidntStartTheFuhrer

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': The episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E106HesAlive He's Alive]]" suggests that Hitler is some kind of supernatural being able to give advice (and orders) to those venerating his image.

* ''Film/WonderWoman2017'' features [[ANaziByAnyOtherName General Erich Ludendorff]] as the primary BigBad. He is given a HistoricalVillainUpgrade with him murdering the German High Command and intending to continue UsefulNotes/WorldWarI (that the Germans already effectively lost) with a new gas weapon that can murder hundreds of civilians. This, combined with his WarIsGlorious speech, convinces Wonder Woman that [[GodInHumanForm Ludendorff is really Ares, the God of War, in disguise]] and that killing him would end the war immediately. Subverted: [[DeathByAdaptation When she finally did kill him]], to her dismay, the Germans still continue to fight and the ''real'' Ares reveals that while he did gave humans new weapons and formulas over the eons, he never pushed them into war... [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters They went to war by their own choice]].

* ''Film/{{Downfall}}'' took some criticism in Germany for portraying Hitler as a flawed and broken human. The director actually invoked this trope in his defense: if we continue to act like Hitler was some alien monster teleported to Earth to do very bad stuff, we as a nation and a race are never going to learn from the past.

* The ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'' prequel ''Literature/{{Triplanetary}}'' says that Hitler was actually an Eddorian agent in disguise. The same agent was also Kaiser Wilhelm and the guy who started WorldWarIII. (This would require him to be in two places at once, since Hitler and the Kaiser were both alive at the same time, but this is hardly the most implausible thing in ''Triplanetary'', which Creator/EEDocSmith originally wrote as "a yarn in which scientific detail would not be bothered about, and in which his imagination would run riot". In ''First Lensman'' he compounds the improbability, perhaps lampshade-wise, by adding Mussolini to the list.)

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]
* ''Film/{{Wonder Woman|2017}}'' features [[ANaziByAnyOtherName General Erich Ludendorff]] as the primary BigBad. He is given a HistoricalVillainUpgrade with him murdering the German High Command and intending to continue UsefulNotes/WorldWarI (that the Germans already effectively lost) with a new gas weapon that can murder hundreds of civilians. This, combined with his WarIsGlorious speech, convinces Wonder Woman that [[GodInHumanForm Ludendorff is really Ares, the God of War, in disguise]] and that killing him would end the war immediately. Subverted: [[DeathByAdaptation When she finally did kill him]], to her dismay, the Germans still continue to fight and the ''real'' Ares reveals that while he did gave humans new weapons and formulas over the eons, he never pushed them into war... [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters They went to war by their own choice]].

* The ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]'' episode "Wolf in the Fold" has an entity that was UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper on Earth.
* On an episode of ''Series/TheXFiles'', they meet a JackassGenie who was responsible for Mussolini's rise and fall.
* In an episode of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', the musical demon Sweet (who causes people to spontaneously burst into song and dance until they catch fire and die) claims to have given Nero his first fiddle. Another throw-away line suggests Caligula became a vampire and later the serial killer called Jack the Ripper.

** The demon [[TortureTechnician Alistair]] implies he had a hand in the creation of the extermination camps in Nazi Germany. However, [[WasOnceAMan given the nature of demons]] in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', it's possible that the Nazis are supposed to have [[OriginStory started Alistair]] instead.

* The ''TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness'' has another Inverted example, as of ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasqueradeFifthEdition'': [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror September 11th, 2001]]. Sadly, no one told the Camarilla this before they pulled every string they could trying to confirm The Sabbat's (non-existent) involvement... [[BrokenMasquerade And reviewed the existence of the Kindred to the Global Intelligence Community]]... [[NiceJobFixingItVillain Whoops...]]

* The Literature/{{Lensman}} prequel ''''Literature/{{Triplanetary}}'' says that Hitler was actually an Eddorian agent in disguise. The same agent was also Kaiser Wilhelm and the guy who started WorldWarIII. (This would require him to be in two places at once, since Hitler and the Kaiser were both alive at the same time, but this is hardly the most implausible thing in ''Triplanetary'', which Creator/EEDocSmith originally wrote as "a yarn in which scientific detail would not be bothered about, and in which his imagination would run riot". In ''First Lensman'' he compounds the improbability, perhaps lampshade-wise, by adding Mussolini to the list.)

* {{Subverted}}: Despite ''Literature/TheCampHalfBloodSeries'' implying that the Axis leaders [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy were sons of Hades/Pluto]], WordOfGod specifically says that Hitler wasn't a demigod at all. Which is weird, because Hazel actually notices a resemblance between him and Pluto.

* An old ''ComicBook/BlueBeetle'' comic from back during WW2 (pre DC) had Dan Garrett go to Germany, only to discover to his horror, that Hitler, was in fact, The Devil!

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* An old ComicBook/BlueBeetle comic from back during WW2 (pre DC) had Dan Garrett go to Germany, only to discover to his horror, that Hitler, was in fact, The Devil!

* The French comic ''ComicBook/{{Iznogoud}}'' has Hitler be an emissary of the Devil who is sent to our world to create destruction and terror.
* In Red Raven's ''Mercury'' comics (based on the god of the same name), {{Expy}} "Rudolph Hendler", the dictator of "Prussland", is secretly the god Pluto (EverybodyHatesHades). Since the time of writing, Marvel has acquired the character, retconned him into Makkari of the Eternals, and Pluto into Warlord Kro the Deviant. No word on Hendler's status.
* ''ComicBook/NemesisTheWarlock'': It turns out that Hitler was one of the past incarnations of BigBad Torquemada, who is a warmongering fascist dictator in his own right, but unlike Hitler already rules over all humanity in the far future, so his enemy are the [[FantasticRacism "alien vermin"]]

* In the ''1923'' flashback issue of ''ComicBook/TheWickedAndTheDivine'', it is revealed that the 1930s dictatorships and hence World War II were at least partly the result of a ritual by three particularly elitist and anti-democratic members of the Pantheon ([[spoiler:Baal, based on T S Eliot, Set, based on Virginia Woolf, and Woden, based on Josef Goebbels]]) intended to set Earth's history on a path that would be agreeable to them.
* A story in the sixties weird-humor comic ''Plop!'' invoked this at the end of a story that [[ClicheStorm intentionally invoked many old comic book cliches]] with the biggest cliche of all...when the guy whose face you don't see until the end turns out to be Hitler.

* [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] in the ''[[FanFic/DayOfTheBarneyTrilogy Day of the Barney]]'' trilogy. In the prologue to Part III, Adolf Hitler is still human, but his life is saved and his plans encouraged by the AnimalisticAbomination BigBad [[Series/BarneyAndFriends Barney]].

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Film/IronSky'''s upcoming sequel, ''Iron Sky: The Coming Race'', has Hitler surviving to the present day as a UsefulNotes/TyrannosaurusRex-riding Creator/DavidIcke-style [[ReptilianConspiracy reptilian]] in the HollowEarth, who presumably orchestrated the events of the first movie and will use the resulting chaos and destruction to try to TakeOverTheWorld once more. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWo3ydIY_sc Enjoy the trailer.]]

* In ''Literature/PrinceOmbra'' by Roderick [=MacLeish=], a supernatural evil from beyond time is periodically embodied on Earth to cause trouble. Last time around, it was Hitler.
* In ''Literature/TheSecretVisitors'' by James White, aliens are trying to wipe out the human race so they can take Earth's riches for themselves. The protagonist learns that Hitler's mania was caused or at least aggravated by the aliens, who deliberately egged him on in the hope that the Second World War would do the job for them. (The first World War was all our own doing, though.)
* Implied in ''Literature/OperationChaos'' by Creator/PoulAnderson, where a group of demons in Hell includes one who bears a striking resemblance to Hitler (although the protagonist, being from an AlternateHistory, doesn't recognise him).
* In the ''Literature/CallahansCrosstimeSaloon'' story "Unnatural Causes", the alien Broodseven-Sub-Two Raksha claimed to have been Hitler and the entirety of WWII an alien plot designed to push humanity into developing atomic weapons.
* The Literature/{{Lensman}} prequel ''Triplanetary'' says that Hitler was actually an Eddorian agent in disguise. The same agent was also Kaiser Wilhelm and the guy who started WorldWarIII. (This would require him to be in two places at once, since Hitler and the Kaiser were both alive at the same time, but this is hardly the most implausible thing in ''Triplanetary'', which Creator/EEDocSmith originally wrote as "a yarn in which scientific detail would not be bothered about, and in which his imagination would run riot". In ''First Lensman'' he compounds the improbability, perhaps lampshade-wise, by adding Mussolini to the list.)

* It seems that Hitler himself was totally human in ''Literature/NightWatchSeries'', but he and the Nazis in general were strongly influenced by the Night Watch's [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans attempts to create a utopia]]. (There have actually been several such attempts, and they all backfired horribly in one way or another.)
** In another novel by the same author, ''Autumn Visits'', Hitler had a supernatural clone, the Vector of Art, who competed with six others like him (e.g. Stalin's clone, the Vector of Power, who [[KillAndReplace killed and replaced]] the original) to TakeOverTheWorld and lost.

* Another Creator/JamesPHogan book, ''Literature/TheProteusOperation'', has it that in himself Hitler did not amount to much - the Beerhall Putch fiasco in 1923 was the peak of his career and in the "original timeline" and he faded into obscurity after some years in prison. The world went on to prosper, the League of Nations was a great success and went on to unify the world, eliminate war and reduce the gap between rich and poor in a worldwide social democratic utopia. But the people who didn't like losing power and privilege went back in time, funded and advised Hitler into power, and in 1942 provided him nuclear bombs to conquer Russia - but when the privileged and powerful people of the future got ready to pack their bags and go to the nice spot which they prepared for themselves in the past, Hitler cut the line and kept the power to himself, engaging in further conquest and genocide in Africa. Then, in the 1970's President John Kennedy in the US, knowing that nuclear war with Germany and Japan was a just a matter of time, that the US was likely to lose and that in any case there will not be much left of the world, sent his own team into the past - whose interference created the world we live in.
* {{Subverted}}: Despite ''Literature/TheCampHalfBloodSeries'' implying that the Axis leaders [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy were sons of Hades/Pluto]], WordOfGod specifically says that Hitler wasn't a demigod at all. Which is weird, because Hazel actually notices a resemblance between him and Pluto.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': Bob implies that the evil necromancer Kemmler is ultimately responsible for WWII (he works with corpses and needed raw materials). Whether or not he's involved specifically with Hitler is less clear.
* In the Dutch YA novel ''Face in the Mist'' (by Paul Van Loon), it's mentioned that the demonic {{Cult}} villain used to be Adolf Hitler in one of his past incarnations.

* In the {{Magitek}}-based AlternateHistory of ''Literature/TheCaseOfTheToxicSpellDump'', the Hitler-analog is widely suspected to have born with [[TheSoulless "apsychia"]], meaning he had no soul. Hence, he felt no fear of damnation, no matter what horrors he wreaked.

* ''Series/TheTomorrowPeople1973'':
** The episode "Hitler's Last Secret" had neo-Nazis possessed by the same alien power that had been Hitler.
** An earlier episode, "The Medusa Strain", featured a [[ContinuitySnarl completely different]] "explanation" for Hitler: He was a con artist from the future who'd travelled back in time to evade justice. Although at least he was still human in that version.

* The Great Leader of Shocker from ``Series/KamenRider`` is not only implied to have been behind Hitler's rise, but also is secretly several 'later' [[HijackedByGanon Showa Rider main villains]], due to him being [[AsLongAsThereIsEvil a living embodiment of evil.]] He's also an alien... [[MultipleChoicePast or a mutant... or a demon...]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In the first arc of Creator/GeorgePerez's run on ComicBook/WonderWoman, Ares, the God of War, wanted to get all the glory of an atomic war. When he shows up, moments before the bombs were fired, Wonder Woman described him as the architect of all the madness around them. But Ares pointed her that she was overestimating him: he simply took the already existing madness, and shaped it for his own agenda.

* In ''Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space'' the BigBad reveals that he's actually been various notorious villains throughout history, including the most evil man ever: Adolf Hitler! No-one is impressed, because in their AlternateHistory Hitler [[RichardNixonTheUsedCarSalesman is just a hack writer of]] [[Literature/TheIronDream pulp sci-fi novels]].

[[folder:Film]]

* Inverted in the classic ''[[TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness World of Darkness]]''. Though the setting attributes many historical events to hidden supernatural causes, the creators felt putting one of the (many) supernatural groups in the FantasyKitchenSink behind the Nazis' horrors would cheapen the sheer horror of the Holocaust. If any supernaturals were involved in the conflict, they were either a) corrupted monsters (the Sabbat, Black Spiral Dancers and fomori, Nephandi, etc.) picking at the sides of the conflict, or b) trying to stop the carnage.
** Seriously, though-- ''inverted'', not ''averted.'' The lack of supernatural involvement in the Nazi atrocities is distinctly notable in a world that otherwise takes BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy to its limits. There's a joke in the fandom that the reason Hitler went insane(er) was from [[GoMadFromTheRevelation realizing]] he was the ''only'' normal human being around.

* In the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' AlternateHistory, Hitler was actually a Templar, using the Apple of Eden to control Nazi Germany to start UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. In an interesting twist, Hitler was working with Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin, who were also Templars, and the entire point was to reshape the world order to be more favorable to the Templars. It is worth noting that in one of the letters than can be read in the game, it is all but outright said that Hitler was a lunatic anyway. And they would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those darned Assassins!

* The ''TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness'' has another Inverted example, as of ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasqueradeFifthEdition'': [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror September 11th, 2001]]. Sadly, no one told the Camarilla this before they pulled every string they could trying to confirm The Sabbat's (non-existent) involvement... [[BrokenMasquerade And reviewed the existence of the Kindred to the Global Intelligence Community]]... [[NiceJobFixingItVillain Whoops...]]

[[folder:Tabletop Gamess]]

* ''ComicBook/FlashGordonZeitgeist'': Adolf Hitler is a puppet to Emperor Ming of Mongo, who is backing the Nazis to take over the Earth and rule it in his name. Granted, this series is set in a [[AlternateHistory alternate timeline]] and the planet Mongo serves as a portal to TheMultiverse, meaning Ming just influenced a different Earth than ours.