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->''"During my wartime years in the United States, I heard not a single 'morale-building' story about Central Europe that did not involve a 'Nazi nobleman.'"''
-->-- '''Erik Maria Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn''', ''Leftism Revisited''

The Nazi Nobleman is an [[AristocratsAreEvil arrogant aristocrat]] who has embraced [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi ideology]]: [[MightMakesRight might makes right]], he would agree, and [[TheSocialDarwinist the strong should dominate the weak]]. [[BlueBlood As he is to his fellow Germans]], Germany will be to the world.

He disdains democracy and egalitarianism, and hates Communism with a passion; he might believe in Nazism sincerely, or might [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfried_Krupp_von_Bohlen_und_Halbach be using Hitler]] ([[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler who he might know personally]]) [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney to preserve his family fortune]]. He could be a [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate leading scientist]], an [[CorruptCorporateExecutive industrial business employer]], a [[TortureTechnician sadistic jailer]] or even a [[EvilColonialist genocidal colonialist]], but is likeliest to be a CulturedWarrior -- if you don't look too closely at how his troops behave. His uniform is immaculately starched and pressed, [[TheVonTropeFamily his last name begins with "Von"]], and [[HighClassGlass a monocle]] is mandatory. He probably has a DuelingScar, from his university days. As the page quote suggests, this is a very appealing trope, fusing two classic villain archetypes, the [[AristocratsAreEvil decadent nobleman]] and the [[ThoseWackyNazis genocidal fascist]], thus also making a good example of EvilColonialist in some cases.

This was more complicated in real life. There really were Nazi noblemen of exactly this type, especially in the SS, which only accepted applicants who could prove their non-Jewish ancestry back to the 1700s (which aristocrats tended to find much easier, given that their livelihoods literally depended on having provable genealogies, and who historically would not have married Jews, partly for religious reasons but also because they would not have the right pedigree). The Wehrmacht also had a long aristocratic tradition; that tradition [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Wehrmacht wasn't enough for them to act honorably,]] but it was enough to make Hitler nervous. He weakened the German military by giving [[StateSec the SS]] [[PraetorianGuard a parallel army,]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blomberg-Fritsch_affair didn't trust the army until he had filled high command with possibly incompetent yes-men,]] and had a point in his mistrust: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_July_plot the most serious attempt on his life]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claus_von_Stauffenberg came from an Army aristocrat,]] whose fellow conspirators were also disproportionately aristocratic. [[Analysis.NaziNobleman See the analysis page for more information.]]

There were Nazi noblemen, LaResistance noblemen, and various people in between; but the German nobility had irresponsibly flirted with race-supremacist (or race-and-class-supremacist) ideas for a long time, and was almost reflexively hostile to the Jews. This trope isn't for racism or anti-Semitism outside the 1920s-1940s, though; it should be limited to German aristocrats supporting the Nazi Party, [[ANaziByAnyOtherName or approximations of the same]].

----
!!Examples
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''Manga/HonooNoAlpenRose'': Count Gourmant is a French nobleman who supports the Nazis financially, and aids their silent invasion of Switzerland. He also has a VillainousCrush on Jeudi because she looks like the woman he once loved. [[spoiler:That woman was Jeudi's mother, and ironically, she's an anti-Nazi activist and joined LaResistance.]]
* Prince Gihren Zabi of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' is what happens when this trope meets ANaziByAnyOtherName. He's a [[TheSocialDarwinist Social Darwinist]] who sees UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler as someone to look up to, going so far as to take being compared to him as a compliment ("I'll show you what a man who follows in Hitler's footsteps can accomplish!"). He's also TheEvilPrince and a member of the ruling Zeon nobility. The comparison was made by no less than ''his own father, Degwin Sodo Zabi, the ruler of the Principality of Zeon'', and Degwin pointedly did ''not'' intend the remark as a compliment. The scene may count as a final definitive confirmation that Gihren has crossed the MoralEventHorizon by his [[InsultBackfire pride in being compared directly to Hitler]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Baron Heinrich von Helsingard, despoiler of ancient civilizations, arch-enemy of ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo'', and Brain-In-A-Jar of Science. Also, doesn't know when to quit while he's ahead.
* Many war-themed comics set in [=WW2=], such as ''ComicBook/CommandoComics'' would inevitably have stories portraying German Officers as [[AristocratsAreEvil Evil Noblemen]].
* ''Franchise/TheDCU'':
** Baron Blitzkrieg, a Prussian nobleman and personal friend of Adolf Hitler, gained superpowers and became one of the Nazis' top super agents.
** ComicBook/{{Blackhawk}}'s TokenMotivationalNemesis Von Tepp was retconned into a Baron in some later retellings, though originally the title belonged to his (equally evil) brother. And of course, lesser Nazi nobles showed up all over the stories, such as [[http://doctor-k100.blogspot.com/2009/11/blackhawk-wingsdays-11-niptuck.html this torture-loving chap]] from a 1942 issue.
** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' villain [[TheBaroness Baroness]] Paula Von Gunther, who's eventually revealed (possibly an early {{retcon}}) to be working for the Nazis because her daughter was held captive by them. It's interestingly averted with her husband Gottfried, a Baron who almost immediately opposed the Nazis and got shot for it.
** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'' villain Rudolph Hessenpfeffer (the Gentleman Killer) is a Nazi spy and nobleman who wears a monocle and nearly kills Steve Trevor.
* The ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'' has a plethora of Nazi barons:
** Baron Heinrich Zemo, a [[StupidJetpackHitler Nazi super-scientist]] and enthusiastic believer in his own racial superiority.
** Baron Zemo's son Helmut, the second Baron Zemo, is a subversion. While he was brought up to follow in his footsteps, he's generally an EqualOpportunityEvil type employer. He's also more of an AntiVillain, and was, for a while, actually ReformedButRejected. He's still generally seen as a Nazi, but he apparently doesn't actually hold the same views.
** Baron von Strucker, a Prussian nobleman who was the arch-nemesis of ''ComicBook/SgtFuryAndHisHowlingCommandos'', and later went on the head the NebulousEvilOrganisation Hydra.
** Baron von Blitzschlag; in this case a Nazi [[StupidJetpackHitler scientist]] modeled on Werner von Braun.
** Because ''three'' German Nazi barons weren't enough, Marvel also created [[http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix4/blacktaloncaga.htm#boche Baron Boche]], a Nazi spymaster whose name ("Boche") is an anti-German slur from the French language. It's hard to tell from such a small picture, but he appears to be complete with [[HighClassGlass monocle]].
** One shows up in the Creator/GarthEnnis version of ComicBook/NickFury's WWII career. However, it turns out he's part of a plot against the regime. When he tries to get friendly with the English soldiers who've caught him by telling them he might have known one soldier's father at Oxford, the soldier replies "If you mean in the biblical sense, I believe you. Father's proclivities never cease to amaze me."
** Non-German example: Baron Blood, a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Nazi vampire British aristocrat]] and foe of ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and ComicBook/{{the Invaders|MarvelComics}}.
** While neither a true Nazi nor a true nobleman, ''ComicBook/XMen'' villain Mr. Sinister has seen his character increasingly take on the trappings of this trope due to {{Flanderization}} after a 2002 storyline made his character take a veer from "mysterious MadScientist with a fixation on Cyclops" to "immortal British {{Expy}} of Josef Mengele".
** In the ''ComicBook/AvengersDefendersWar'', the Swordsman finds a castle in South America built by an escaped Nazi who modeled it after his original castle in Germany.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film -- Animation]]
* Count Volpe in ''WesternAnimation/GuillermoDelTorosPinocchio'' is really trying to become this, as he's a former aristocrat stuck with a CrappyCarnival who decides to exploit Pinocchio to get back to the top through a song-and-dance number that embraces Fascist ideologies, with the goal of impressing UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/AddressUnknown'', made in 1944, has a classic example of this trope in "Baron von Freische" (Carl Esmond). Turner Classic Movies is helpful enough to provide [[http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index.jsp?cid=293398 two]] [[http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/index.jsp?cid=293396 clips]] of the Baron being as haughtily aristocratic and casually anti-Semitic as you'd expect, even praising the Führer to the stars in the latter.
* Baron von Sepper (Creator/RichardBurton) in ''Film/Bluebeard1972''.
* This trope possibly appears in the 1943 war movie ''Film/BombersMoon''; the villain of the piece is a Luftwaffe Major named Von Streicher -- given the name, very likely an aristocrat of some kind. While it can't be said for sure whether he is an actual Nazi ideologue or just an ordinary soldier, he displays the kind of ruthlessly amoral behavior one would expect of a Nazi, such as machine-gunning an unarmed man.
* Johann Schmidt in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger''. While it's hard to tell if he's actually a noble descendant and he actually renounces any ties to the Nazis, he deliberately invokes this Nazi Nobleman imagery anyway with his fancy suits, handsome rubber masks, and love of portraits of himself, not to mention SocialDarwinism so strong he believes PsychoSerum [[MightMakesRight Makes Right]].
* ''Film/TheDamned1969'' has a whole family of Nazi noblemen (and women) backstabbing each other to curry favor with Hitler's government. It's not exactly a feel-good movie.
* ''Film/DeadMenDontWearPlaid'' features as its main villain a "Field Marshall von Kluck" (Carl Reiner), whose surname, in combination with his starched-and-pressed uniform and neatly shined boots, suggest a probable aristocratic background. He is also an enthusiastic Nazi, referring to the heroine's family as members of an "inferior race", and trying to destroy the Third Reich's enemies long after the war has ended. It may be worth mentioning that von Kluck was an actual German general in ''UsefulNotes/WorldWarI'', whose inability to coordinate with von Bülow's signaled the failure of the Schlieffen Plan and led to the extended trench warfare of that conflict.
* The film ''Film/EnemyAtTheGates'' depicts a ruthless Bavarian aristocrat sniper by the name of Erwin König; in [[RealLife real life]] it is not clear that König even actually existed, though the film is [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory supposedly based on a true story]]. Supposedly. Though in König's case it wasn't so much Nazi ideology as it was his wish to avenge his son's death, his son having been killed in the earliest days of the battle. However, the Soviets [[PlayingWithATrope invoke the trope]] because their guy is a poor peasant who learned shooting hunting goats for food. The German guy learnt sniping on his family estate. They turn the sniper duel into class warfare.
* Creator/ErichVonStroheim was famous for playing villainous German officers before and during the war, always with a monocle and cigarette holder. In ''Film/FiveGravesToCairo'' he portrayed the MagnificentBastard UsefulNotes/ErwinRommel.
* Creator/AdrienBrody's Dmitri Desgoffe und Taxis becomes one of these in the third act of ''Film/TheGrandBudapestHotel'', where the "ZZ" stormtroopers are effectively PuttingOnTheReich.
* 1945's ''Film/HotelBerlin'' features an apparent Nazi blueblood named "Von Stetten" who attempts to escape to South America and start a new Nazi regime there.
* ''Film/TheMasterRace'', made in 1944, depicts unrepentant Nazi "Colonel Friedrich Von Beck" deviously fomenting hatred and dissent in a liberated Belgian town.
* 1942's ''Film/NaziAgent'' stars Creator/ConradVeidt as a Nazi [[TheSpymaster spymaster]] named "Baron Hugo von Detner", the twin brother of a kindly American stamp dealer (also played by Conrad Veidt), playing this trope completely straight. The Nazi aristocrat in question even has an [[OldRetainer old family butler]]. Veidt pretty much codified the trope. As early as 1940, he played an aristocratic Nazi general opposite Norma Shearer in ''Escape''. His character runs like a list of everything associated with this trope. Monocle... check. Fanboying Wagner... check. Talking about the survival of the fittest... check. Chatting casually about concentration camps... check. Veidt hated the Nazis in real life, though, and only agreed to play them because the movies were good anti-Nazi propaganda. He donated his entire salary from ''Escape'' [[MeanCharacterNiceActor to help the British war effort]].
* Obliquely referenced in the Creator/MarxBrothers movie ''Film/ANightInCasablanca''. The Nazi agent Heinrich Stubel goes by the assumed identity of "Count Pfferman"; while his noble title appears to be false, he nonetheless projects a vaguely aristocratic image, in keeping with this trope.
* ''Film/OnceUponAHoneymoon'', a 1942 Leo [=McCarey=] film, features an Austrian Baron named "von Luber", played by Walter Slezak, who provides P.R. for the Nazis in countries they are planning to annex.
* Captain von Berkow in ''Film/ThePassage''. He even smokes a cigarette in a fancy cigarette holder.
* ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' invokes this trope in typical B-movie style (which is to say, reversed) where referring to Dr. Scott as Dr. Von Scott is enough to establish him as a Nazi (even though this is never actually said). He's presumably a former Nazi scientist, rather than a nobleman. The United States recruited such scientists in droves after the war in an effort to keep them from being recruited to the USSR instead. "Von" typically [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von indicates nobility]] in Germany. As the intro and Comicbook section to this page indicates, science is a quite popular career choice for Nazi Noblemen in fiction, so it was probably both this trope and the evil [[MadScientist scientist]] one.
* In ''Film/Sahara1943'', we get Luftwaffe pilot Captain von Schletow, who is every bit the dedicated, arrogant Nazi, up to and including flying into a rage and assaulting the Italian soldier who talks smack about Hitler. He is also startlingly racist, refusing to let a black soldier search him when he's captured.
** These elements of von Schletow's character are downplayed somewhat in the 1995 remake. There, the character of Major von Falken (who was also in the original film) is a fervent Nazi supporter, even shooting his own men for weakness.
* ''Film/SecretServiceInDarkestAfrica'', a 1943 film about an American agent battling Nazis in Africa, features a "Baron von Rommler" as the head of a sinister Nazi conspiracy.
* Colonel von Waldheim in ''Film/TheTrain'' (1964) is not explicitly stated to have a title, but the "von" in his name, along with his demeanour and taste in art, suggest that he comes from an upper-class background.
* Subverted in ''Film/VonRyansExpress''. German prison train commander Major von Klement isn't actually a nobleman. As is discovered by the main character, the "von" in his name is self-given.
* In ''Film/WhereEaglesDare'', we have Gestapo officer Major von Hapen. His name aside, though, he otherwise seems like a typical working-class SS man, and it is the Wehrmacht's General Julius Rosemeyer who more fits the aristocratic Nazi trope, monocle and all.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Literature/{{Biggles}}' arch-nemesis Erich von Stalhein, both during and after the war.
** Although, really, his attitude is closer to MyCountryRightOrWrong, and he ends up defecting later.
* Graf Otto von Schlick, [[spoiler:whose identity was taken over by Dr. Perseus Friend]], in the ''Literature/YoungBond'' novel ''Literature/ByRoyalCommand''.
* The von Shrakenbergs in ''Literature/TheDraka'' novels fit this trope... never mind that at one point they were fighting the actual Nazis.
* Creator/PGWodehouse included a British variant in his ''Literature/JeevesAndWooster'' stories. Roderick Spode, 7th Earl of Sidcup, is the founder of a Fascist organisation informally known as the "[[BlackShirt Blackshorts]]" (so named because "by the time [he] founded his organisation, there were no shirts [as in shirt colours] left"). Fortunately, Wodehouse knew enough to depict Spode correctly as an ''exception'' to the general rule -- most of the other [[BlueBlood upper-class]] characters think he is bonkers.
** It should be pointed out that Spode abandons his attempts to become a dictator precisely when he succeeds to the title. Moreover, when "Joy in the Morning" was written, Wodehouse probably had not yet invented a title for Spode to inherit.
* Norman Katov's novel ''The Judas Kiss'' depicts an Austrian Nazi Baron who collaborates with [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]] in [[TortureTechnician torturing prisoners]].
* Several members of the Vanger family in ''Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy'' were enthusiastic supporters of Nazi ideology.
* The short story "Poison Victory" uses a Nazi Nobleman, and [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] the inaccuracy by having one character remark "Another Nazi nobleman... And to think how Hitler hated the aristocracy!"
* The 1952 novel ''The Sound of His Horn'' features the hero being captured by a sadistic Nazi Nobleman who [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame hunts human beings for sport]].
* Leader von Braun, the ruler of the neo-Nazi state in post-apocalyptic ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'', claims to be one. However, protagonist John Rumford doubts whether his name and title are legitimate.
* Erik von Ulrich from ''[[Literature/TheCenturyTrilogy Winter of the World]]'' is ''technically'' this, but his parents' lifestyle is not very typical for aristocrats. Ironically, a straighter example would be his cousin Boy Fitzherbert's short stint at being a [[NaziNobleman British Union Of Fascists Nobleman]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* Colonel Gustav Wendt of ''Series/BabylonBerlin'' is an interwar example of this trope. A supremely arrogant, hyper-conservative Prussian aristocrat and military officer, he is working under wraps with the Nazis to sow political chaos and bring a right-wing government to power in Germany. Although the Nazis' views and goals broadly align with his own, he has a more traditionalist bent and he views the Nazis as merely useful pawns and thugs to be used for his grand design.
* ''Series/TheChampions1968'' episode "The Final Countdown" features Nazi war criminal Field Marshall von Splitz being released from prison and attempting to detonate a German atom bomb in order to start WorldWarIII; given his name, he is almost certainly an aristocrat of some stripe.
* ''[[Series/TheCrown2016 The Crown]]'' deals directly with the Nazi associations of several of the [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishRoyalFamily Royal Family]]'s relations. The most shocking (in-universe at least) is the revelation of the Nazi sympathies of the Duke of Windsor (i.e. the former Edward VIII), but references to Prince Philip's heavily Nazi family (several of his sisters married high-ranking German nobles who joined the Nazi apparatus) are also common.
* ''Series/EnemyAtTheDoor'': Hauptmann von Bulow, the title character of "The Prussian Officer", is a Prussian nobleman but objects to being called a Nazi, and explains at length that he is not a Party member and that people of his class regard the Nazis as inferior and common but temporarily useful in the pursuit of increasing Germany's imperial dominance.
* Colonel Wilhelm Klink from ''Series/HogansHeroes'' was depicted as a man of Prussian aristocratic descent (if somewhat [[ImpoverishedPatrician impoverished]]), though his apparent lack of enthusiasm for Nazi ideology may exempt him from this trope.
* ''Series/JeevesAndWooster'': Lord Sidcup, mentioned in "Literature" section above, made an appearance on several episodes.
* ''Series/TheRatPatrol'' gives us the insane SS officer Colonel von Helbing and the vengeance-hungry EvilCripple Major von Brugge.
* "Max Otto von Stierlitz" from ''Series/SeventeenMomentsOfSpring'' pretends to be one (in reality, he is a Soviet spy and a former Red revolutionary).
* ''{{Series/Timeless}}'': Flynn poses as one in "Party at Castle Varlar".
* The aforementioned "Baroness von Gunther", from the ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' franchise, made an appearance on [[Series/WonderWoman1975 the 1970s TV show]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* While not ''exactly'' a Nazi, Music/DavidBowie described his "Thin White Duke" persona (which was during his transition from "plastic {{Soul}}" to NewWaveMusic and/or PostPunk-ish {{Krautrock}}) as an "emotionless ''Aryan'' [[{{Ubermensch}} superman]]," playing off this trope. This is best reflected on his album ''Music/StationToStation''.
* In the 1940s Soviet wartime song "Baron von der Pshick" by Leonid Utesov, the titular baron is the AnthropomorphicPersonification of the Wehrmacht and gets his ass totally handed to him in Russia.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Many Nazi enemies from ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'' fit neatly into this category.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* Baron Max von Alvenstor from ''Theatre/MarginForError'' is blond-haired, blue-eyed, and helped beat a Jew to death in Berlin on the night of November 7th, 1938. Though a loyal German, he speaks perfect Oxford English, and his Nazi sympathies are doubtful, especially after it's revealed that his grandmother was Jewish.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Baron Rudolf von Strumgeist in ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonorFrontline'' is a Hauptsturmfuhrer, or the SS equivalent of a Captain. With his vast amount of wealth and influence in the Nazi Party, he uses this to help fund [[StupidJetpackHitler new Wunderwaffe projects]] for the Luftwaffe, namely the [[SuperPrototype Horten Ho 229]], a fast, heavily-armed jet fighter that outperforms the already deadly Me 262 already in service with the Luftwaffe.
* ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'', being an AlternateHistoryNaziVictory, naturally has its fair share of blue-blooded brownshirts. Notables among them include Josias, Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont serving as the reichscommissar of the Caucasus and Count Schwerin von Krosigk as reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia.
** Sergey Taboritsky from Komi is a very unusual example. He is a hardcore Esoteric Nazi[[note]](A breakaway ideology that fuses the racist and social Darwinist aspects of National Socialism with a theological character, [[EvenEvilHasStandards and is so batshit-insane that most mainstream Nazis in this setting vocally denounce it]])[[/note]] monarchist who models himself as a Russian aristocrat. In real life, Taboritsky was a Nazi collaborator who faked his [[UsefulNotes/GermanRussians German-Russian]] noble background to hide the fact that his mother was Jewish from the NSDAP (that's right, he was a [[BoomerangBigot half-Jewish anti-Semite]] - [[AxCrazy surprisingly the man wasn't very well upstairs]]).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* Of the Nazi characters from ''VisualNovel/DiesIrae'', two are confirmed to be of noble birth, Eleonore von Wittenburg and Beatrice Waltrud von Kirscheisen. Eleonore fit's into the archetype quite neatly, being a [[TheFundamentalist Fundamentalist]] FemaleMisogynist and is the most openly racist out all the characters. Beatrice meanwhile plays with it as while she is both of nobility and part of the Nazi party, she is the {{Foil}} to Eleonore by being an unfailingly good and kindhearted woman who is the TokenGoodTeammate of the Longinus Dreizehn Orden. How she became part of the Nazis is never elaborated upon but is implied to be due to her family and misplaced idealism.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In ''Webcomic/TheSpecialists'', [[http://thespecialistscomic.com/page-57/ Baron Crossbones]]. He even submits to that ridiculous code name in public.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Von Reichter in ''WesternAnimation/{{Cybersix}}''. Despite his name implying German nobility, he is a former SS member.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In the "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E22 Flying Hellfish]]" episode, Abe Simpson's platoon acquired a [[NaziGold highly valuable art collection]] from one of these. At the end of the episode, said art collection is returned to the wealthy Eurotrash descendant of the original owner, who is even stated to be a baron.
* Baron von Unterbheit from ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros'' is royalty of a country that is fairly Nazi-like.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_August_Wilhelm_of_Prussia Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia]], son of former emperor Wilhelm II and SA-Obergruppenführer.
** Wilhelm II himself was something of an aversion. He lived into WWII, dying in 1941. While very definitely anti-Semitic and racist, he had little use for Hitler or the Nazis, seeing them as jumped-up parvenues of no breeding. He still tried to use them to get back in power and was in turn used by them. In the 2020s a public debate in Germany erupted over precisely how much contribution the House of Hohenzollern made to the rise of Hitler
* Infamous [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_von_Bolschwing Otto von Bolschwing]], one of the Holocaust masterminds, also known as "{{The Butcher}} of Bucharest".
%%* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_von_dem_Bach-Zelewski Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski]] a ruthless SS officer, infamous for his atrocities in Warsaw.
* Successful tank commander and nobleman [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyazinth_Graf_Strachwitz_von_Gross-Zauche_und_Camminetz Hyazinth Graf Strachwitz von Gross-Zauche und Camminetz]] nicknamed by his troops der Panzergraf (Tank Count).
* German [[AcePilot night fighter ace]] Major Heinrich Alexander Ludwig Peter Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, a night fighter pilot with the Luftwaffe with eighty-three aerial victories to his name before he was killed in action by the Royal Air Force. Despite his undeniably superlative flying ability, he was something of an InsufferableGenius and SpoiledBrat, at one point confining his radar operator to quarters for three days in retaliation for losing a contact and also ordering his wingmen to leave enemy planes airborne for him to kill. Despite this, his contemporaries say he became disillusioned with the Nazi regime and may even have been planning to kill Hitler before he was shot down by the RAF in 1944.
** His equally aristocratic colleague, Egmont Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld, also a night-fighter ace in his own right, is another example. The two are buried together in the massive German cemetery at Ysselsteyn in the Netherlands.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Pfeffer_von_Salomon Franz Pfeffer von Salomon]], first commander of the [[BlackShirt SA]] after 1925.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf-Heinrich_Graf_von_Helldorf Wolf-Heinrich, Count von Helldorf]] - a bit zigzagging real-life example - an ImpoverishedPatrician turned ardent Nazi official (and a really DirtyCop), but later became disillusioned and tentatively joined the anti-Hitler plot.
* UsefulNotes/HermannGoring started styling himself as one once in power, and by the end of the war he had made it the last [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything "job"]] he actually did.
* At least one aristocratic German relative of Britain's Prince Philip attained a high position in the Nazi Party. Prince [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Christoph_of_Hesse Christopher of Hesse-Cassel]] was an intimate of Hermann Göring and became head of the [[BigBrotherIsWatching Forschungsamt]] wiretapping unit organized by Göring that became the forerunner to the Gestapo. The aforementioned Major Heinrich Alexander Ludwig Peter Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein was also closely enough related to British royalty for it to be notable, and he remains the only "British royal" to have - officially - received the Iron Cross for bravery in [=WW2=].[[note]]Well-founded speculation about the former King Edward VIII notwithstanding - he was considered of ''very'' dubious loyalty during the war and was effectively exiled as governor of a remote colony, well out of the way where he could be watched.[[/note]]
* The Mitfords were perfect examples of British nobility who sympathised with the Nazis; though a distinct minority, their massive publicity over the years has caused many in the public to believe their position was reflective of opinion among the vast majority of British nobility. As among German nobility, ''it wasn't''. It wasn't even a majority position within the Mitford family: Of the eight Mitfords whose political opinions are known or at least guessed at, only two were full Nazi sympathisers; of the remaining six, two were quasi-fascist British ultra-nationalists, two were more or less classic Tories, one was a socialist, and another was a communist, as follows:
** First of all, there is the patriarch, David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, an ardent reactionary and xenophobe, he was described as "one of nature's fascists" (by his own daughter, no less--and it was meant as a compliment). However, his sympathy for the Nazi party was tempered by his knee-jerk hatred for the Germans and his fierce patriotism.
** The most strongly Nazi Mitfords were Unity (whose middle name was [[PropheticNames Valkyrie]], once traveled to Germany just to fangirl over Hitler--the Fuehrer put her in his inner circle to give it a bit of the feminine touch and declared her "a perfect specimen of Aryan womanhood", and attempted suicide when Britain declared war on Germany) and Diana (who married Sir Oswald Mosley--for whom see below). Of the two, Unity was by far the more committed; she had a massive crush on Hitler (she was 19 when he took over Germany) and is rumoured to have had an affair with him.
** Their brother Thomas was vaguely fascist, and refused to serve in Europe; however, he gladly served in Burma, where he was killed by the Japanese in the last year of the war.
** Pamela and Deborah were more or less typical British gentry, unimpressed with Nazism and content with the British system as it stood (although some say Pamela was a rabid antisemite in private). Deborah and her husband (the Duke of Devonshire) actually joined the Social Democratic Party when it formed in 1981, attracting much-needed attention to the party from centrist Tories who were increasingly alienated by the hard-right government of UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher (just as the "Gang of Four" original party founders drawn from the Labour Party right were alienated by the more left-leaning Labour leadership).
** Nancy, the eldest, was a moderate socialist and could be fairly said to have hated the Nazis. In 2003, newly released [=MI5=] documents revealed that [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3263733.stm Nancy had spied on her fascist sisters]]. In the file, Nancy said that Diana "sincerely desires the downfall of England and democracy in general."
** Finally, the second-youngest Mitford, Jessica- who shared a room with Unity (she and Unity had been inseparable as children, even developing a private language)- was an ardent communist--she was blacklisted when her move to Hollywood happened to coincide with the [[RedScare McCarthy era]]. Indeed, Jessica later recalled that the room she shared with Unity was [[ThisIsMySide starkly divided with a chalk line down the middle]], with Unity's side being decorated with swastikas and portraits of Hitler, while Jessica's was decked out in hammers and sickles and pictures of Lenin. TheGloriousWarOfSisterlyRivalry, indeed.
* Sir Oswald Mosley, 6th Baronet, was a real-life example of the British variant (though [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever technically not a true "Nobleman"]], he was the equivalent of a German "Junker"), and was the inspiration for Roderick Spode, listed above. He was married to Diana Mitford (see above).
* Josias, Hereditary Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont became a senior SS officer and served as High Commissioner of Police in German-occupied France. He served three years in prison after the war. Himmler was godfather to his son.
* [[AssInAmbassador Franz von Papen]] was an opportunistic supporter of the Nazis and Hitler's vice-chancellor from 1933 to July 1934. He was a widely disliked figure and German political exiles compared him to Judas or even to {{Satan}}. This was not least because until 1932 he had been a member of the Centre (Catholic) party, one of the pillars of the Weimar Republic, and then formed a government that did not dispose of a majority in the Reichstag but governed via the emergency powers of President von Hindenburg; Chancellor von Papen's antidemocratic cabinet consisted in the majority of noblemen and was called "the cabinet of barons". Some of the most momentous acts of the short-lived Papen government were the rescinding of the ban on the SA and SS, and the deposition of the democratic government of the Free State of Prussia in a military coup. In UsefulNotes/WW1, Papen had been the head of Imperial Germany's intelligence effort in the US, where his recommendation that German submarines should start sinking American merchant ships [[TakeThat did so much to keep America neutral and win the war for the Kaiser.]] He was appointed Hitler's deputy by President von Hindenburg, who figured that Papen would be just the fellow to keep this damned "Bohemian corporal" in line. However his ineptitude allowed Hitler to outmanoeuver him after the burning of the Reichstag, and his most notable act as vice-chancellor was the signing of the concordate between the Reich and the Vatican in 1933, which only helped Hitler to achieve a better standing with German Catholics. Papen sometimes appeared as a kind of opponent of the Nazis (though [[WithFriendsLikeThese counterproductive]] to say the least) prior to the Night of the Long Knives when various associates of his including his personal adviser were [[http://books.google.com/books?id=xvZmPB8W1WwC&pg=PA171&dq=von+papen&hl=en&ei=06mNTYCuFZSssAPY05WOCQ&sa=X were killed]], and he personally only [[http://books.google.com/books?id=zjkcgDyJPmsC&pg=PA112&dq=narrowly+escaped&hl=en "narrowly escaped"]] Hitler's purge by the SS. After this he became Hitler's ambassador in Vienna and helped prepare the ''Anschluss'' (fortunately for him, this help didn't take the form of Hitler's original plan, which was [[FalseFlagOperation to have von Papen assassinated and pin it on the Austrians]] to give him a pretext for invasion). Furthermore, he had the dangerous combination of a delight in intrigue with an overestimation of his strategic talent. When an attempt was made on his life in Ankara the Turkish investigators were presented with a problem well known from detective novels: [[EveryoneIsASuspect anyone might have wanted to kill him]].
* Baldur von Schirach was ''Reichsjugendführer'', leading the Hitler Youth and other Nazi youth organizations.
* General Franz Ritter von Epp (1868-1946), a decorated officer of UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany's war against the Herero in Southwest Africa (1904-1908) and UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Born Franz Epp, he was knighted after fighting with the Bavarian ''Leibregiment'' in the battle of Verdun. In 1919 he founded a free corps (at first sponsored by the central German government), which participated in the bloody suppression of the Munich soviet republic in 1919 and the Kapp-Putsch of 1920 (in the process deposing the democratically elected Bavarian government). The "Freikorps Epp" was eventually absorbed into the Reichswehr, and Epp through his chief of staff, Ernst Röhm, used his position to supply arms to right-wing paramilitary formations. Epp became involved with the Nazis from the earliest days of their existence at the beginning of the 1920s, but only officially joined the party in 1928. He used 60,000 Reichsmarks from secret army funds to help fund the Nazi newspaper, the "Völkischer Beobachter", and even provided the khaki uniforms that would later become the iconic brown shirts of the SA from UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany's army surplus.
* Hans von Tschammer und Osten (1887-1943) was the head of German sports organizations in the Third Reich; he instituted the German Football Cup competition (the original trophy was the "Tschammer-und-Osten-Pokal").
* [[UsefulNotes/DichterAndDenker Rocket scientist]] Wernher Freiherr (baron) von Braun was a member of the Nazi party, rose to the rank of ''Sturmbannführer'' (major) in the SS and would have had to face trial for war crimes, especially regarding the use of slave labour in the building of V2 rockets, if he had not been considered too useful by the Americans for their space program. His association with the Nazis is generally considered to have been opportunistic; joining the SS was the best way to guarantee his rockets got built, so join the SS he did. Or as Music/TomLehrer put it on ''Music/ThatWasTheYearThatWas'':
-->"Once the rockets go up, who cares where they come down?\\
That's not my department," says Wernher von Braun.
* Erich Ludendorff, even though his mother came from an ennobled family, chose not to become ennobled during World War I, when he was essentially co-dictator of Germany through 1917-18. The author of the stab-in-the-back legend, Ludendorff's refusal to admit that Germany had been beaten in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI was the seed from which the Nazis were eventually born. While never officially a Nazi, he sympathized heavily with the movement and helped kick off the Beer Hall Putsch. Ludendorff turned on Hitler only when he realized that the Nazis were co-opting the ultranationalist movement away from him.
* While not a Nazi himself, president Paul von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg was the man responsible for bringing Hitler to power. That said, he beat Hitler in Weimar Germany's last presidential election and tried to prevent that "Bohemian Corporal" from forming a government after the Nazis held the most seats in the Reichstag.
** Hindenburg still is a bit of a controversial figure to this day, as it was long believed that he was too senile to be held responsible for bringing Hitler to power, with a lot of emphasis being put on the back-chamber dealings between people like compulsive conspirator Franz von Papen and Hindenburg's son, General Oskar von Hindenburg (the "son of the president not provided for in the constitution"). However, more recent evaluations would indicate that Hindenburg did not do anything he did not want to do, and he apparently had no second thoughts about appointing Hitler chancellor. Indeed, shortly before his death, he congratulated Hitler on the "Night of the Long Knives".
* After Hindenburg's death, Field Marshal August von Mackensen (1849-1945) became the "venerable old soldier" to be featured at official occasions, prompting the nickname ''Reichstafelaufsatz'' (table decoration/conversation piece of the Reich). His position was ambiguous; although he hated the Weimar Republic and vaguely sympathized with the Nazis, he was not blind to what they did and e. g. used his influence to protect oppositional Protestant pastors and during World War 2 protested against atrocities that came to his knowledge. But to the end, he considered Hitler innocent of any evil committed by the Nazi party and Hitler's government. However, Mackensen was only ennobled in 1899.
* Even after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII was over, the Allies were convinced that it was "Prussian militarism", embodied by the German landowning nobility ("Junkers") that was to be blamed for Germany going to war again, not merely the Nazi Party and its ideology. The Free State of Prussia was thoroughly dismantled in 1947 in an attempt to deprive the supposed Prussian militarists from their powerbase. Considering the track record, [[UsefulNotes/OttoVonBismarck they had a little]] [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI justification for thinking so]], but that never meant the Junkers were Nazis. And what remains of the Prussian traditions later found its way to East Germany via Wehrmacht officers who had enough of that Austrian lowlife & surrendered with their men to the Red Army earlier in the war, with the [[PuttingOnTheReich little-changed uniforms]] of the East German army as a visual example.
** The eastern part of Prussia was even thoroughly de-Germanized, divided between Poland and USSR, and resettled by Poles, Lithuanians, and Russians; this was not ''entirely'' about the Junkers and "Prussian militarism", however, as the Soviets took a massive chunk of pre-war Poland to give to itself and were "compensating" the Poles with the German land. Of course, the Soviets planned to have Poland as a buffer state in case the Western Allies tried anything funny, so the further away from Moscow Poland's western border could be, the better. After the end of the Cold War, the land that was once East Prussia remains in this state to this day, divided between Poland, Lithuania, and the Russian Federation's Kaliningrad Enclave.
* Josef Terboven, the Reichskommisar of Norway, was the son of landed gentry. He joined the Nazi Party early on, however, and never actually managed his family's holdings. He was close enough with Hitler that the glorious leader was a guest at his wedding, and as the reichskommisar of occupied Norway, he developed a reputation for being a particularly nasty tyrant.
* The close blood ties between the British and German royal houses meant that strange anomalies happened, such as Major Heinrich Alexander Ludwig Peter Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, a second cousin of King George VI who was closely enough related for him to be - theoretically - on the line of succession to the British throne[[note]]albeit in the lower 700s[[/note]] - who won the Iron Cross as a night-fighter pilot for shooting down British planes. The abdicated [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VIII King Edward VIII]] has been alleged, with good circumstantial evidence, to have been a Nazi sympathiser and fellow traveller. His meetings with Hitler in the 1930s are well documented. Given a sinecure and honorary General's rank in 1939, it is alleged he passed French military secrets to German intelligence, in return for a guarantee that when Germany defeated the western allies, he would be re-instated as King and head of a puppet government. (The mechanism for passing on these secrets was via contacts with German noblemen in then-neutral Holland; one boasted in February 1940 that Edward was a spy working for Germany). He was abruptly relieved of duties as a liaison officer with the French Army, and when he was reluctant to leave France during the 1940 surrender, was forcibly evacuated back to Britain at gunpoint, then packed off as Governor of The Bahamas, a backwater Caribbean colony a long way from Europe (but a short distance from the US - all the easier to keep an eye on him). Documents relating to the former King's conduct in [=WW2=] are permanently locked and will never be released on grounds of "national security"; and up to her death in 2002, the Queen Mother, widow of George VI, adamantly refused to have anything to do with him and blocked all moves for him to be reinstated as a working royal with full status. Edward, Duke of Windsor, died in exile in Paris in 1972.
* Gabriele d'Annunzio was a proto-fascist and friend of Mussolini who appearance-wise fit the trope pretty well.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Edward,_Duke_of_Saxe-Coburg_and_Gotha Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha]], a grandson of Queen Victoria. He lost his status as a British prince after serving the Kaiser. He also backed the loser in [=WW2=].
* UsefulNotes/FranciscoFranco was descended from the Galician-origin[[note]]with branches throughout the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking worlds[[/note]] Andrade noble family on his mother's side. After he won the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar he declared himself Captain General (a title used by Kings), ''Caudillo'' of Spain ''by the Grace of God'' (the latter italics a formulation only previously used by absolute kings - and he did have absolute power) and walked under a canopy (a privilege usually reserved for kings). After he died, the new Spanish king Juan Carlos gave one of Franco's children the title Duke of Franco and made his widow Lady of Meirás and a Grandee of Spain.
* Gian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari, was UsefulNotes/BenitoMussolini's son-in-law (he married the latter's oldest daughter, Edda). He participated in 1922's March on Rome and from 1936 to 1943 became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Italian Fascist government, although he voted for Mussolini's dismissal in 1943. He was executed for "treason" (i.e. having voted for Mussolini's dismissal) by Mussolini's Italian Social Republic puppet government.
** As was his father, Costanzo Ciano, 1st Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari, who was a founding member of the National Fascist Party and also took part in the March on Rome.
* Ziggzagged by Julius Evola. For starters, his noble ties were rather loose. Secondly, though respecting the SS he didn't have the highest view of Hitler. That said he did (if perhaps somewhat jokingly) call himself a superfascist. Additionally, his ideas and works both emphasized race and class; however, unlike most fascists, they had a spiritual basis instead of a biological one.
* Pyotr Krasnov, a Russian Cossack nobleman, hated Jews and communists so much after his defeat in the Civil War that he headed a Cossack organization in the Third Reich. For this, he was sentenced to death in 1947.
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