W.I. Hitler dies fighting?

Some have said he wasn't up to it, most likely not. However he only has to be out of the bunker, held up if it came to it. It would be a plus for the Russians, they will know he's dead, and they did it
Unless his at the wrong end of a T-34, that is.
 

Geon

Donor
I can imagine Hitler shakily firing shots from a Walther PPK while giving a vicious rant only to be shredded by Soviet machine gun fire.
The soldier who fired that machine gun had better immediately find a way to defect to the west. Stalin most emphatically wanted Hitler captured alive. Any Soviet soldier that killed him would likely not receive a medal but a bullet in the back of the head (at least) for his troubles.
 
The soldier who fired that machine gun had better immediately find a way to defect to the west. Stalin most emphatically wanted Hitler captured alive. Any Soviet soldier that killed him would likely not receive a medal but a bullet in the back of the head (at least) for his troubles.
True but I was thinking he gets killed by soldiers who think he's just another German from a distance and don't realize until afterwards that it's Hitler.
 
The soldier who fired that machine gun had better immediately find a way to defect to the west. Stalin most emphatically wanted Hitler captured alive. Any Soviet soldier that killed him would likely not receive a medal but a bullet in the back of the head (at least) for his troubles.
That would be one unfortunate consequence with this PoD. I'm not entirely sure Stalin would do that, though. It'd be very difficult to capture Hitler alive — essentially, the decision is with Hitler, because you can always keep a cyanide capsule in your mouth or set off a grenade at the last minute. Faced with the death of Hitler as an accomplished fact, Stalin may decide it's better from a propaganda perspective to celebrate the event. Or he might want to cover it up. That decision is with Stalin.

For all the talk of neo-Nazis being emboldened by Hitler's last stand, I think it's probable that a KIA Führer ends up less of a legend. There may be film of the event, and there will be photos of the corpse. Images of people who have died violently are ghastly and hard to forget. They remind us that humans, even ones who think they were chosen by Providence to lead the German Volk, are flesh and blood. If there are photos of Hitler's corpse, then seeing him give those impassioned speeches in the 30s will remind people that he ended up dead in a gutter in Berlin, with whatever catastrophic injuries caused his death. Even just seeing his body without a uniform has a similar effect — Hitler, in life, was preoccupied by that, and would permit his doctors to see only as much of his body as was absolutely necessary.
 

Geon

Donor
That would be one unfortunate consequence with this PoD. I'm not entirely sure Stalin would do that, though. It'd be very difficult to capture Hitler alive — essentially, the decision is with Hitler, because you can always keep a cyanide capsule in your mouth or set off a grenade at the last minute. Faced with the death of Hitler as an accomplished fact, Stalin may decide it's better from a propaganda perspective to celebrate the event. Or he might want to cover it up. That decision is with Stalin.

For all the talk of neo-Nazis being emboldened by Hitler's last stand, I think it's probable that a KIA Führer ends up less of a legend. There may be film of the event, and there will be photos of the corpse. Images of people who have died violently are ghastly and hard to forget. They remind us that humans, even ones who think they were chosen by Providence to lead the German Volk, are flesh and blood. If there are photos of Hitler's corpse, then seeing him give those impassioned speeches in the 30s will remind people that he ended up dead in a gutter in Berlin, with whatever catastrophic injuries caused his death. Even just seeing his body without a uniform has a similar effect — Hitler, in life, was preoccupied by that, and would permit his doctors to see only as much of his body as was absolutely necessary.
There is merit to what you say. But human nature is strange. The Nazi mythos was partially built on a "cult of martyrs", i.e., the 16 members of the Nazi party who died in the Munich putsch. The so-called "blood flag" was practically a sacred relic for Nazis. Hitler consistently ordered German soldiers in untenable positions to fight to the end. Now in this scenario he is doing exactly what he asked them to do.

The death of Hitler in the manner you portray, might be the thing that breaks his hold over the German people as his suicide in the bunker did in OTL. Or it could provide the basis for a whole new "Hitler myth" with a strong heroic Hitler, not a man broken in mind and body, is portrayed leading a final charge. The circumstances of how all of this happens and how it is portrayed to the Germans is important. As one example, if Goebbels survived it is likely he would portray Hitler's death in the "noble martyr" terms. On the other hand, if someone like say Edward R. Morrow were allowed to cover the death it would likely short out such a myth.
 
If Hitler was going to go out and die fighting, he’d go out like this:
omSLcsdMBszMcHNugmwy5B-1200-80.jpg

In all seriousness, if Hitler died fighting, he’d be viewed as martyr by his staunchest supporters and neo-nazis, while viewed as a lunatic to the end by mostly everyone
 
Top