Adolf Hitler born in France

If Hitler were born in France he would almost certainly have been amoungst the thousands of Frenchmen who died at Verdun

Good point.

I think that growing up in France would make him a completely different person. I don't think upbringing is all, but feel it to be more important than genetics (given the subject, oh the irony:rolleyes:).

He could have grown up to do anything. Why even assume that *Hitler will be any good at painting, let alone politics. He could be anything - a novelist, a journalist, an architect, an office worker, a cook, a gardener, a soldier, a toilet cleaner... anything at all! Hell, given the different circumstances, and (I assume) the different timing of his birth (and therefore, different sperm involved from Hitler Snr, as well as possibly different egg from Mrs Hitler), he probably wouldn't look much like OTL Hitler!
Imagine if *Hitler was tall, blond, blue-eyed, athletic - the very ideal of the Aryan superman - but in this timeline, cared nothing for ethnically-based politics, becoming instead a member of the increasingly moderate Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party. Hitler does not get deeply involved with the party, he's simply a paying member like any other - he's never really liked politics.:D
 
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When Adolf is born he shows problems in school, but great imagination and creativity. After viewing Charlie Chaplin films he enrolls as a film school and immediately falls in love with the media. He also grows his mustache during this period.

However, when war broke out he was conscripted and was made to help develop propaganda films and newsreels for the French Army. He was exposed to enemy fire during this time period and the death and destruction that ensued.

As the war progressed and anti-germanism and the death toll rose Adolf was placed in more and more dangerous assignments, leading him to be wounded twice and subsequently discharged. He received no medals from the French Government.

After the war Adolf starts writing screenplays, but the bad economic situation and his Austrian heritage keeps him from getting much work in France. He soon changes his name to Adolphe and his dark movies about disillusioned protagonists in an uncaring world attract a wide audience throughout France and Germany.

He becomes involved with French veteran's associations and gains much prominence, especially among disillusioned black Africans who were brought in to fight for a country that has tossed them aside. Adolphe develops a real connection with the unrepresented and with the French upbringing, he feels a profound distaste for war. His natural charisma and acting training makes him an extremely popular public speaker and his opinions soon carry much weight throughout Western Europe.

In an effort to promote post war peace and resolve a conflict between the Austrian Nationalist Heimwehr and the Republican Schutzbund, Adolphe travels to his parent's homeland, passing through French occupied Germany. Astonished by the oppression he sees there, he will travel to Germany often, eventually moving to the liberal capital Berlin. His speeches calling for greater representation of what he calls "The People's Will" and interdependence resonate throughout Germany and Austria, damaging Nationalist movements and increasing international discussion on oppressed peoples and the heavy war burden placed on Germany. He continues to write movies, but finds less and less time for his favorite pastime.

By 1930 Adolphe's influential speeches, powerful movies, and cross-national appeal has forced a change in policy so that most of the reparations were canceled. The Weimar government agreed to continue to honor the DMZ. An economic and social organization was created between France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy, Austria, and Czechoslovakia to organize coal and steel production and foster international cooperation. Adolphe is selected as the Social Chairman. He is profoundly popular among the populous of these nations, but rails against the imperialist governments for their treatment of imperial subjects. Threats against removing Italy from the organization forces that nation to remove themselves from a war against Ethiopia in 1935.

In 1936 he issues a message of support for the elected Republican government of Spain, though he condemns actual military support and reprisals against civilians on both sides. Without German support tilting the balance the war grinds on and on.

He steps down from his post in 1938, following a democratic Anschluss between Austria and Germany, saying he looks forward to the day when all nations throw off the shackles of mistrust and unite, a final solution to the burden of war.

In 1939 the Soviet Union attacks Finland in the Winter War. The Union of Europe and England guarantee independence to any nation on the European boarder with the USSR. German is allowed a partial remilitarization. In 1944 the USSR invades Poland and the second great war begins. Adolphe grows more and more depressed as the war continues and he sees his mission to foster peace fail and in 1945 he commits suicide after finishing his last script. History would eventually call him one of the greatest humanitarians in the 20th century.

(When I started I didn't expect to cast him as a good guy, but I'm usually optimistic when it comes to history.
 
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There's no chance he'd become a French version of OTL Hitler. Why would radical nationalists appoint an immigrant as their leader?

(Obviously Hitler wasn't born in Germany either - but Austria was at least Germanic)
 
There were already racial purity themes in Germany before WWI. Homer Lea wrote a book "The Day of the Saxon" in 1912 which predicted German politics would become obsessed with ethic purity and seek to dominate Europe.

Incidently Homer Lea also wrote books in the pre-WWI era predicting the rise of the Slavic superpower and Japan's attack on the US.

Adolf Hitler built on what was already happening in Germany. He did not bring it about all by himself. If he were French he would not do much to change France. Without him Germany would be different but not entirely unrecognizably so.
 
If Hitler were born in France he would almost certainly have been amoungst the thousands of Frenchmen who died at Verdun

that would have made things a little less evil during the 1930s and 1940s. it probably would have been ww2 against the communists at that point. and that would have been over and done with soon after it began due to allied atom bombs raining over the soviet fronts and eventually the heartland as more advanced bombers come online.

who knows where we would be now if that had happened. i think Europe would be a lot less populous ITTL.
 
Hitler's parent immigrate to France where their son Adolf is born.

Discuss.

He gets his left foot crushed in a childhood accident, injuring himself enough to be ineligible for combat during WW1. Instead, he is drafted as a clerk. After the war he returns to his home village and works as a clerk in the town hall. He marries at the age of 26 and has many children. He dies in 1952 of a massive heart attack.

Look guys, as demonkangaroo said, it's not as if he was destined from before birth to become an evil dictator.
 
He gets his left foot crushed in a childhood accident, injuring himself enough to be ineligible for combat during WW1. Instead, he is drafted as a clerk. After the war he returns to his home village and works as a clerk in the town hall. He marries at the age of 26 and has many children. He dies in 1952 of a massive heart attack.

Look guys, as demonkangaroo said, it's not as if he was destined from before birth to become an evil dictator.
True, But his Exact Mix of Personality Traits would have Tended to Bring him at Least Renown ...

However I Find I have to Agree with Alt-Historian's Assertion ...

At Best a French-Born Adolf Hitler would've been his OWN Brother!
 
Alois establishes with his family in the suburbs of Reims and takes a low position in a factory, where he suffers discrimination from both his bosses and co-workers and receives a lower payment than that of a Frenchman in the same position. His deep German accent (no matter it’s Austrian in reality) and some strange customs make him and his family victims of cruel jokes and general hostility in a city that resents the Germans since their harsh occupation during the Franco-Prussian War. Unable to fight these attacks, Alois becomes a deep alcoholic that beats his wife and children for whatever reason. Due to the premature death of most of his issue, his only remaining son Adolf receives more than anyone.

Meanwhile Adolf is beaten and insulted too by the other children in the school and discriminated by the ubernationalistic teachers of the French III Republic. His marks drop to the deepest levels and any time he returns with a new bruise his father slaps him for not defending himself. From his desk Adolf observes the map of France with Alsace and Lorraine painted in black and dreams to see that country wholly covered in ink. As Hitler grows, he hates more and more his country of adoption and everything that makes it characteristic: republicanism, laicism, parliamentarism, French imposed monolithic language and customs… One day, during a History class, he learns about the constant aggressions that the home-country of his parents suffered during the wars of Italian and German unifications and identifies it with his own situation. France is a bully, Italy the weak henchman of the bully that would be shit without him, Prussia and then Germany seems to be the opportunistic new bully, and Bavaria and the other lesser German states the other neutral or even sympathetic children that chose to follow the occasion’s bully and beat the nerdy Austria in order to not appear to be potential targets. Austria-Hungary becomes a paradise in the eyes of young Adolf who grows as a die-hard monarchist, devout catholic and opposed to democracy and anything that has its roots in the French Revolution. Soon, he obtains a portrait of Emperor Franz Josef that he hides under his bed and talks to when nobody is around, and promises the Emperor that he will go to Austria to serve him as soon as possible.

After his mother’s death in 1907 the 18-year-old Adolf travels finally to Austria with the little money he inherited from his family. Once in Vienna, he actively tries to enlist in the Austro-Hungarian Army and finally achieves it. The assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 outrages him and as a result Adolf asks to be sent to the Serbian front once war is finally declared, determined to avenge him. He is killed in action during the disastrous Battle of Kolubara in December 1914.
 
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