Perhaps a small misconception, but there might be a misconception that the Nazis were against all forms of homosexuality; in reality, the Nazis only appear to have been extremely hostile to male homosexuality--while lesbianism remained legal under/throughout their rule.What are some common historical misconceptions that people have about Nazi Germany, Hitler and his inner circle, and Nazism as a whole?
Also, one more point--the Nazis only appear to have become consistently anti-gay after the Night of the Long Knives; before that, their attitude towards homosexuality--at least in regards to their own members--was relatively ambivalent--indeed, to the point that the open homosexuality of Ernst Rohm and some other SA members was tolerated (including by Adolf Hitler himself).Perhaps a small misconception, but there might be a misconception that the Nazis were against all forms of homosexuality; in reality, the Nazis only appear to have been extremely hostile to male homosexuality--while lesbianism remained legal under/throughout their rule.
Perhaps a small misconception, but there might be a misconception that the Nazis were against all forms of homosexuality; in reality, the Nazis only appear to have been extremely hostile to male homosexuality--while lesbianism remained legal under/throughout their rule.
Well, while we're on the subject, they were also supportive of male homosexuality, provided that it took place among untermensch whose numbers they wanted to reduce anyway.
Well, while we're on the subject, they were also supportive of male homosexuality, provided that it took place among untermensch whose numbers they wanted to reduce anyway. Their 'morality' must be understood in the context of their natalism--reproduction of the Master Race is good, everyone else, bad.
Also, there is a common misconception that Mengele and co. actually made useful medical advances in the camps. They did not, unless you count 'hypothermic death rate of prisoners warned up by hot baths vs. by prostitutes' or 'effects of injecting ink into prisoners' eyes' as useful.
Now that is a new one. Any sources for that so I might indulge myself at understanding Nazi logic?
That the stupid Wunderwaffen actually had some chance of working.
That one might be correct![]()
*hyperventilates*
Nah but Belton Cooper's book "Death Traps" is nonsense. The Shermans were as safe as any other tank and the range at which they couldn't penetrate German tank armor was way beyond what nearly all tank battles actually occurred at.
And then you consider the German tanks' superior Aryan ubermensch exploding transmission technology and the tendency of their armor to shatter and spall even when rounds didn't penetrate...
*hyperventilates*
That one is easy to explain - the average German was better off economically in 1938 than 1933, thanks to the tank bubble and the Arisierungen, which were basically the pre-war beginnings of the looting economy. Nothing about this was sustainable in any way, but the average German blamed the later shortfalls solely on the war itself, as getting your house bombed and your son brought back in a coffin does make more impression on people than something about foreign currency reserves...That their government was efficient and they made the economy strong. In reality corruption, kickbacks, and general ineptitude weakened them immensely. Germany was on the razor edge of a massive financial collapse in '39.
The tank bubble as a result of the German military building a lot of new tanks?That one is easy to explain - the average German was better off economically in 1938 than 1933, thanks to the tank bubble and the Arisierungen, which were basically the pre-war beginnings of the looting economy. Nothing about this was sustainable in any way, but the average German blamed the later shortfalls solely on the war itself, as getting your house bombed and your son brought back in a coffin does make more impression on people than something about foreign currency reserves...
You mean...Robert Goddard? I'm not aware of any "Johnathan" Goddard in rocketry.The other one that really needs to die is all the woo around the German rocket program ("Nazi scientists sent us to the moon!"). The Reich's V-Weapons program was an utter train wreck and it was based at least as much on American research from Jonathan Goddard as anything NASA did was on Werner Von Braun and Co.'s work. Probably even more so; Von Braun openly praised Goddard and said that his published work on liquid-fueled rocketry before the war saved the Reich years and years of development.
That one might be correct![]()
You mean...Robert Goddard? I'm not aware of any "Johnathan" Goddard in rocketry.
Most historians of space that I'm aware of agree that the German rocketry program was very important for the Soviet and American rocket programs post-war. Both sides got a large amount of material that they directly copied and then went on to improve, many engineers in both countries greatly benefited from studying V-2s, and the Americans even had a lot of the Nazis in top positions, all over the place. Sure, Goddard had developed a lot of the theory, and a considerable amount of the practicalities, but he just never had enough cash to develop really big rockets. The Germans, obviously, didn't have this problem, which let them actually build full-scale ballistic missiles and discover a lot of the problems in full-scale ballistic missiles.
I'll be the first to say that the German program is overrated--sometimes people act like no one would ever have built an ICBM or launched anything into space without it--but it was important to the development of spaceflight in both the Soviet Union and United States, and that's no misconception.