Two quick Hitler PoDs [he doesn't die]

[Krall]

I believe Hitler was shot in the leg in 1916 whilst serving as a private [or the German equivelant], now, these two PoDs are based off this event, read on:

PoD 1: The shot hits the bone in his leg, causing Hitler great pain and leaving him with an eternal limp.

When he becomes Fuhrer, he is even more bitter and angry than OTL Hitler, the concentration camps are set up and implemented even before Germany begins occupying other countries. Hitler is even more evil, bitter and nasty than OTL.

What might this change?

PoD 2: The shot causes considerable, but repairable, damage. Hitler is not in much more pain than OTL, is not permanently injured or scarred, but he does get a longer stay in hospital, this, coupled with his close brush with death, makes Hitler think about his life and those around him.

This time of calm and thought makes Hitler less evil and bitter than OTL, meaning he thinks the Jews didn't really deliberatley cause the depression [or whatever], and he never decides Aryan supremacy is 'the way to go' and is just generally not as much of a d*ck as he is in OTL.

What might this change?

[cra0422]

POD 1: Hitler might possibly be overthrown by his own people who believe that he was out of control before he could begin annexing territory to Germany or outright invading other countries.

POD 2: A lot of Hitler's beliefs and attitudes were in place before World War I started. Anti-semitism was quite common in Vienna prior to the war. A near-death experience might change him or might not. He did spend the last months of the war in a hospital after being blinded from a gas attack, and look how he turned out.

[ninebucks]

POD1: The German people wouldn't elect a cripple, not while they need a strong and decisive ruler.

POD2: I would suggest that a calm person wouldn't really want to enter Weimar politics... it was pretty hectic.

In both cases, Hitler would never become Chancellor.

[Krall]

...I haven't thought this through.

Oh well, thanks anyway.

[a989chris]

POD 2: Someone already mentioned that hitler was anti semitic from his time in Vienna. Thats true so theres no way that he would change his mindset concerning jews. I remember reading once that an incident at the end of the war set him perminently over the edge. He was in the hospital when germany surrendered and two soldiers came in waving a red flag of revolution. The two men turned out to be jewish and the scene became a trigger for hitler's deep hatrid.

[Calgacus]

Originally Posted by a989chris

POD 2: Someone already mentioned that hitler was anti semitic from his time in Vienna. Thats true so theres no way that he would change his mindset concerning jews. I remember reading once that an incident at the end of the war set him perminently over the edge. He was in the hospital when germany surrendered and two soldiers came in waving a red flag of revolution. The two men turned out to be jewish and the scene became a trigger for hitler's deep hatrid.

His attitude towards Jews seemed to gradually harden from about 1910 to 1920. He was certainly quite anti-semitic from his pre-war days, but it may not have been an obsession until the end of the war. Interestingly, I read somewhere that the officer who recommended him for his Iron Cross was Jewish.

[Xen]

I think the only thing that might make Hitler think less of the Jews is if he had his life saved by a Jewish soldier, who knows?

[Calgacus]

Originally Posted by Xen

I think the only thing that might make Hitler think less of the Jews is if he had his life saved by a Jewish soldier, who knows?

Possible. Although he was awarded his Iron Cross by a Jewish officer for actions which were not normally worthy of decoration, and never actually was open about what he was awarded it for. He also claimed that this silence was because the officer in question, one Guttmann, had also received an Iron Cross, despite being a "coward" (he was not). So I suspect he would have found a way to resent being saved by a Jew anyway. There was an irrationality behind his anti-semitism, beyond the normal level. Hindenburg was an old school Prussian right-winger, but he objected to the laws enacted by Hitler banning Jews from the civil service and from pensions - the laws were enacted with exceptions for Jews who had served in the armed forces. Hitler promptly removed this exception once Hindenburg was dead.

The best chance for a different Hitler would be before WW1, and preferably before 1912 or so. I started a TL where he is accepted to Art School in 1911, and does not become an anti-semite.