What if Hitler died fighting the Soviets at Berlin ?

Let’s say Hitler, while pathetically weak at this point, decided to fight. He has some of his men put him in a mounted position most likely to inflict casualties. Hitler basically just has to sit in a chair and pull the trigger on a machine gun while some grunt helps him (is he too weak to do this? If so then he gets some sort of modification to the weapon or plan).

Hitler shoots a half a dozen Soviet soldiers dead before being hit by a stray bullet, and dies sitting in his comfy chair. The Soviets eventually find and recognize him in that position, take a few photos and docement things, and figure out that Hitler pulled the trigger on a gun that killed six of their men.

The Soviets either report what happened, or lie only for the story to be revealed after the Cold War when the Soviet archives open up.


I can’t imagine very many far reaching effects. But what impact could this have? Would it encourage the Germans to fight another week or for more soldiers to carry out an insurgency? Make Hitler less of a joke in pop culture, or did Chaplin ensure that it is too late? Embolden Neo Nazi groups?
 

Nick P

Donor
Take away the machine gun (and any witnesses) and make Hitler out to be an idiot who thought his very presence would stop the Soviets. Something on the lines of the "King Canute holding back the tide" story. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Canute_and_the_tide

Hitler is then seen post-war as a deluded drug-addled old man who ruined his country. With photos there is no doubt that he is dead and that he died sat in a comfy chair shows he was no hero, thus a lesser neo-Nazi movement.
 
Take away the machine gun (and any witnesses) and make Hitler out to be an idiot who thought his very presence would stop the Soviets. Something on the lines of the "King Canute holding back the tide" story. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Canute_and_the_tide

Hitler is then seen post-war as a deluded drug-addled old man who ruined his country. With photos there is no doubt that he is dead and that he died sat in a comfy chair shows he was no hero, thus a lesser neo-Nazi movement.
If this gets shown as false and the real story comes out after the Cold War, will this remain true?
 
I think he didn’t do this IOTL for a reason. His health was so bad he was practically a walking corpse. With the Parkinson’s he had he couldn’t have served any useful function. Couldn’t have shot accurately, probably couldn’t have even gripped one. I think even he knew he’d be a liability.
 

hammo1j

Donor
Goebbels announced Hitler's death on the radio saying that he went down fighting so there must have been some merit in the idea.

I think Hitler weighed up the risk of being captured alive and decided that it wasn't worth it for the benefit of getting a glorious death.

Certainly there would be more appeal to future generations of neo-nazis if he had been killed in battle.

Conspiracy theorists would be at a loose end though.
 
Goebbels announced Hitler's death on the radio saying that he went down fighting so there must have been some merit in the idea.

I think Hitler weighed up the risk of being captured alive and decided that it wasn't worth it for the benefit of getting a glorious death.

Certainly there would be more appeal to future generations of neo-nazis if he had been killed in battle.

Conspiracy theorists would be at a loose end though.

Goebbels knew that saying Hitler went down fighting instead of shooting himself would be more inspirational. This merely shows that it makes good propaganda to make it appear like that no that Hitler was thinking about it.

The biggest problem I have with this scenario is that him actually hitting anyone. They might be able to prop him up behind a gun and he may have been even to pull the trigger but he would have had to have gotten extremely lucky to even hit one. With his health problems his shots would have been wild and like as not shooting straight up into the air or down into the dirt.
 
I think he didn’t do this IOTL for a reason. His health was so bad he was practically a walking corpse. With the Parkinson’s he had he couldn’t have served any useful function. Couldn’t have shot accurately, probably couldn’t have even gripped one. I think even he knew he’d be a liability.

That he would be a liability would matter less to him than having his corpse desecrated. If he decided going down fighting would cement his legacy and that it mattered more than his corpse being desecrated he would have done what was proposed. That more German soldiers would die as a result wouldn't have made him hesitate 2 seconds . He couldn't care less about them, as far as they failed him so deserved to die.
 

MadDog

Banned
I noticed several people trying to divert topic, i understand that bigger influence for neonazism is bad we can all agree on that, but the premise is that hitler goes down fighting, so lets respect the premise,

In my opinion they could drugged hitler to temporarily allow him to get over the weakness, still unless the machine gun is in his bunker he wouldnt take many down. Still Hitler dying in bunker machine gunning down people, or even in the street, i wonder how the film Downfall would look like throught
 
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