Hitler comes to America

Interesting Thread

Good read, though it would seem to me to be difficult not to repeat earlier tries at this timeline or just to mirror his OTL career. Hitler might also have become a decor-builder in Hollywood, making the backgrounds of famous movies (I have this image of him recieving an Oscar for his work..) At the website of Big Head Press there is a free comic about an independent and libertine Texas, where Hitler became a famous painter, but was overshadowed by his daughter. On the other hand, OTL before WW2 there was wide support for many things we now describe as ''too much like the Nazis'', like wide-spread racism, segregation with effective ghettos, and a large eugenics movement, including euthanism and forced sterilization. OTL Hitler praised the USA for some eugenic laws the State of California had approved! So, a Hitler in America with similar ideas as OTL might be a big succes.
 
On February 15, 1933, President-Elect FDR is giving a speech in Miami Florida, when Giuseppe Zangara opens fire with .32 pistol, and kills FDR with his first shot.

"My esteemed fellow Congressman, I present to you the new Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Mr. Anton Cermak." (Unfortunately, I can't get him to president since he's not natural-born)
 
What if Klara gets on the boat when pregnant, Hitler is born in the United States... he serves in the Great War in the US army,

On July 17, 1932, thousands of World War I veterans converged on Washington, D.C., set up tent camps, and demanded immediate payment of bonuses due them according to the World War Adjusted Compensation Act of 1924. This "Bonus Army" was led by Adolf Hitler a former Army sergeant...

In this case, what if his parents decide to give him a more "American" name, to help the kid blend in American society easier. Maybe a name found both in English and German ... What kind of alternate names could Hitler had ? Adrian, maybe ... what else ?
 
In this case, what if his parents decide to give him a more "American" name, to help the kid blend in American society easier. Maybe a name found both in English and German ... What kind of alternate names could Hitler had ? Adrian, maybe ... what else ?

Albert, Alfred, Michael...
 
Adolph was already in the top 200 in the US, I don't think it would be seen as really foreign.
http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/decades/names1890s.html

Of course, it was right below Manuel and Jose, and most of the Adolphs probably lived in the Midwest, but still, it's better than Heinrich.

On the other hand, a certain Adolph Marx of about the same age had his name changed to Arthur. He later took on the stagename "Harpo". But his reason for changing had nothing to do with sounding more American. He just didn't like his childhood nickname "Addie".

The name Hitler, on the other hand, while not difficult for Americans to pronounce, might be changed during WWI. But, not sure to what. Hill?
 
Heinrich Himmler ? :p

More seriously now, I don't think he needs to change his name. Like you say, Hitler isn't that hard for Americans to pronounce and it isn't that German sounding at all ... I mean an American hearing the name Hitler won't immediately say "Oh, he's a German !"
 
Interesting Thread here, but wouldn't Hitler change his name during the first World War? Now that would require the US to enter the War on the Allied side, so what if the Hitler family move caused a large enough butterfly to have America enter the Central Power's side?:eek:
 
Interesting Thread here, but wouldn't Hitler change his name during the first World War? Now that would require the US to enter the War on the Allied side, so what if the Hitler family move caused a large enough butterfly to have America enter the Central Power's side?:eek:
No. That is over-butterflisation. America was alreay on good relations with Britain an France.
 
Why not Hiller?

Still sounds German.

...an American hearing the name Hitler won't immediately say "Oh, he's a German !"

I think around the time of WWI they would say that. That's certainly no English name. Today, it's a lot harder to tell because there are so many German last names that are very common in the U.S. and we've forgotten what it was like.

But then again, a lot of people didn't change their names as well (as I can tell by just looking in my phone book), and apparently survived the war at home just fine.

It probably depends on how much of an accent he has.
 
Wasn't Hitler an economist?

WWI happens as in OTL, Depression or Rescission (depending on butterflies) hits, guess who is there to offer his advice?

Hitler becomes governor of NY?
 
How about "Hitter" ? This is how it could turn from Hitler to Hitter :

September 1888 – Klara Hitler informs her husband, Alois that she is pregnant. The couple already had 3 children but all of them died very young. Gustav (born in May 1885) and Ida (born in September 1886) died during an outbreak of diphtheria, Gustav in December 1887 and Ida in January 1888. Their third son, Otto (born in 1887) survived only three days from his birth. With this negative record in mind, Alois Hitler decides to emigrate in the USA, so that his fourth child with Klara would get a better chance.

18 October 1888 – The Hitler family departs from Bremen on board of the SS Adolphine, with the destination New York. The family consists of Alois Hitler, the pater familias, Klara Hitler, Alois’ niece/wife pregnant in 3 months, Alois Jr., aged 6 at the time and Angela Hitler, the 5 year old daughter of Alois. Alois Jr.’s and Angela’s mother was not Klara, but Franziska Matzelberger, Alois’ second wife (his first wife, Anna Glassl, didn’t gave him any childs).

2 November 1888 – SS Adolphine arrives in New York City. After being kept four days on the ship anchored just off shore the immigrants are taken to Castle Garden Immigration depot to be processed. Without the ability to speak English, Alois unsuccessfully tried to argue with the clerk who registered the family as “Hitter” instead of “Hitler” (probably a baseball fan).

December 1888 – The Hitter family, as it will be named from now on, settles in Little Germany, Manhattan.

January 1889 – Unable to speak English Alois can’t continue his career in the civil service. He starts a small business opening a shoe making shop and working there himself as a cobbler (he worked 5 years in Vienna as an apprentice cobbler).

20 April 1889 – The fourth son of Alois and Klara Hitter is born. The devout Roman Catholic, Klara, convinces Alois to name the child “George” as the Saint George Day (23 April) was only three days short. Although his parents will address him with the German “Georg” for all their life, George Hitter will always refer to himself with the English “George”.
 
...Maybe we can hope that the family, desiring to integrate, takes inspiration from their new name and enroll young George Hitter in the baseball league :D?

He can still become a WWI-vet, but unless our Hitler-equivalent was an early volunteer he would not have been exposed to the trenches as OTL. Maybe a pilot in the Lafeyette-squadron?

What is now the ''main'' timeline for this thread?
 
...Maybe we can hope that the family, desiring to integrate, takes inspiration from their new name and enroll young George Hitter in the baseball league :D?

He can still become a WWI-vet, but unless our Hitler-equivalent was an early volunteer he would not have been exposed to the trenches as OTL. Maybe a pilot in the Lafeyette-squadron?

What is now the ''main'' timeline for this thread?

George Hitter, an American Icon :D ... Well I don't think it would work, as OTL Hitler was a sickly child from what I know and he never was an athletic kind of guy.

I thought there was no "main" TL and everyone could throw in his ideas.
 
George Hitter, an American Icon :D ... Well I don't think it would work, as OTL Hitler was a sickly child from what I know and he never was an athletic kind of guy.

I thought there was no "main" TL and everyone could throw in his ideas.

Well he may not be sickly anymore - how much was genetic and how much was environmental? I read somewhere (but of course I can't find it now...) that he could have been exposed to high levels of lead during his childhood.
 
Well he may not be sickly anymore - how much was genetic and how much was environmental? I read somewhere (but of course I can't find it now...) that he could have been exposed to high levels of lead during his childhood.

I really don't have the sources to find out, how much of Hitler's bad shape was genetic and how much was environmental ... In my short timeline, I imagined that Alois left Austria because of his last three kids dying prematurely ... so it may be environmental.

Edit : Wait, if you add the trait "inbred" to the mix it becomes much clearer ... Alois was Klara's uncle ... that may explain a lot.
 
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Wow, I'm not sure if my own Hitler involved TL might work, but what I'm trying to write in my planned PoD is that Alois Hitler doesn't get permission from the Catholic Church to marry Klara Podzl (mainly because she is Alois's niece, so the relationship would have been considered incestuous), and as a result, he gets depressed. Another rejection from a woman he tried to court results in him taking his own life, while Klara Podzl moves to Vienna to work as a maid. Curiously enough, she works at Hotel Metrople where Jose Rizal and Maximo Viola are staying. I mean, there were some sites dedicated to such bizzare rumors about linking Adolf Hitler to Jose Rizal.
 
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