How Hitler Conquered The World With The Chaplin Mustache

Adolf Hitler, often cited as the evilest man in recent history, had a very distinctive mustache and a stark resemblance with a certain someone called Charlie Chaplin who became a worldwide icon in the same era in his own rights. Oddly enough, Hitler and Chaplin were both born in April 1889 with just four days setting their birthdays apart. However, despite their similar appearances, what life had in turn for them was poles apart and their legacies could not be any different both in terms of their work and their political ideologies. 

Born in Austria, Hitler had a tough childhood to begin with as he lost his beloved mother and brother at a very young age while constantly getting berated by his father. Since Hitler disliked his father, he tended to go against whatever his father said or believed. Hence, he sided with German nationalism as his father was an Austrian Public Official. He always had a very keen interest in art as he dropped out of school and tried quite a few times to get a career in Arts in Vienna but failed. Another thing Hitler loved other than Arts, was killing Jews.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when and how his extreme ideological beliefs formed but his time in Vienna could have played a key role as anti-semitism was widespread in the city at the time. Moreover, he also followed many anti-semitic and right-wing newsletters such as Ostara and Kikeriki. He bought into those conspiracy theories that led him to believe that many races are in constant struggle with one another and the purest of which were the German Aryans and the worst of which were Jews. 

In 1914, when the long-standing conflicts in Europe exploded into the first world war, Hitler volunteered for the German Army and he was awarded the iron cross first class. After Germany lost the war and suffered humiliation worldwide, hatred grew in Hitler for communists and Jews whom he believed were responsible, and stabbed Germany in the back by spreading dissent. While working as an informant for the Army to identify communist threats, he went to a German Worker’s Party meeting and then joined them as they shared his beliefs. 

On the other hand, in 1915, Charlie Chaplin soon rose to fame with “The Tramp”, which was a silent comedy film and Chaplin’s most memorable on-screen character who also had a similar mustache to what Hitler put on later. Chaplin quickly climbed to be the highest-paid actor in Hollywood. His little tramp character is the most famous character to ever exist and he was so beloved that even someone like Hitler having the same mustache didn’t ruin him for us.

Because of his immaculate speaking abilities, Hitler despite having a Chaplin-esque mustache made people to take him and his ideas seriously and he quickly rose to the top of the German Worker’s Party and he renamed the party for a makeover. Thus, he created the Nazis. In 1923, inspired by what Benito Mussolini did earlier, Hitler stormed a meeting to call for an uprising against the government and marched on the streets of Munich with his supporters and he was sentenced to jail. In prison, he wrote his famous manifesto, Mein Kampf, which made him famous and his beliefs spread nationwide.

In 1932, the Nazis became the biggest party in the German parliament and became the chancellor since he couldn’t become the president. But soon after president Hindenburg passed away and Hitler introduced a law to the parliament that would allow him to make all future laws and decisions which were passed. Just two months after becoming a chancellor, Hitler was now a dictator. 

Combined with the Army, the Nazis ensured the desertion of freedom of the press, expression, and public assembly. Now, der Führer established absolute control. Jews were initially branded and boycotted. And eventually, Hitler would go on to have six million Jewish people including children killed in concentration camps. From 1933 to 1945, Germany became a totalitarian state presided over by Hitler and anyone who would oppose him in any way would be sent to concentration camps to suffer. He would drag the world into a second global conflict, known as WWII.

Not only did Chaplin live a different life than Hitler but also had different political beliefs. During the WWII raging in Europe, Chaplin, bearing in mind the physical resemblance between him and Hitler, created his first talking picture called “The Great Dictator” in which Chaplin mimics Hitler’s rhetorical style and makes a parody of national socialism in general. Thus, summarising both their lives that even with similar appearances they lived a totally different life and became known to people for different reasons.