I don’t.
When Hitler blew his brains out in the bunker, he splattered the upholstery with blood. An American soldier cut out a swatch of bloody cloth and kept it as a morbid souvenir, eventually donating it to a museum, and recently, geneticists sequenced the sample. Guess what they found?
Most of the interpretations were ambiguous, but they did find one specific abnormality in his genome.
The research is due to be published in a scientific journal, but the key finding is this: Hitler had Kallmann syndrome, a genetic disorder that hinders the normal progression of puberty and the development of sexual organs. Derogatory songs from the war about Hitler’s anatomy may have been meant in jest but, it transpires, they were not just accurate but probably did not go far enough.
A 1923 medical examination of Hitler, which was uncovered in 2015, showed that the Nazi leader did indeed have an undescended testicle but, while we do not know exactly how it manifested, Hitler’s newly discovered genetic condition would have also affected his testosterone levels. It means he had a one in ten chance of having a micropenis. This is suggested by stories from the First World War, where Hitler was bullied over the size of his genitalia.
The genetic finding, while definitive, can only allow for speculation in terms of its impact on Hitler. However, it seems likely that he would have struggled to form sexual relationships, and one historian believes this could prove critical in our understanding of Hitler’s rise to power.
Speculation. That’s an important word. There’s only a limited set of conclusions one can draw from the genetics…but hey, some people are going to go wild with it.
Alex J Kay, a historian at the University of Potsdam, who specialises in Nazi Germany and is a key authority in the documentary, said: “This would help to explain Hitler’s highly unusual and almost complete devotion to politics in his life to the almost complete exclusion of any kind of private life.
“Other senior Nazis had wives, children, even extramarital affairs. Hitler is the one person among the whole Nazi leadership who doesn’t. Therefore, I think that only under Hitler could the Nazi movement have come to power.”
Ugh. No. Those are some sweeping conclusions to draw from a genetic sequence. The geneticists seem to be well aware of the limitations of their analysis, but fortunately for their sensational documentary, they managed to find an irresponsible historian to draw excessive conclusions.
“Compensating for something” in an environment of toxic masculinity would be something worth exploring as a hypothesis.
“Hitler is the one person among the whole Nazi leadership who doesn’t.” Ahem, Eva Braun?!
All of that speculation from a drop of blood.
It ignores the facts and circumstances of that time in Germany.
Hitler had millions of willing helpers and accomplices.
Without the Nazis and a large segment of the German population, Hitler would just have been a troll, hanging out in bars, and waiting for the Internet to be invented.
Hitler might have had a genetic excuse for something somehow.
What is the excuse of the other Nazi monsters like Goebbels, Goring, Himmler the SS, the Gestapo, the concentration camp guards etc?
But, but I was told that “Mussolini bit his weenie, now it doesn’t work.” Did bawdy WWII music lie to me??? ;)
Very true. If Hitler hadn’t risen to the top of the Nazis, there would have been no shortage of people who’d take that place.
Alex J Kay: “They were just roommates.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unity_Mitford
It seems likely to me that modern analysis could find some sort of generic abnormality in virtually anyone if they looked carefully enough. I fancy the number of possible genetic abnormalities in the human genome is much greater that the number of people alive. But I would defer to the experts about that.
How the news got out to Britain
You don’t have to look very hard to find deleterious genes in any human.
The average human is carrying one to two lethal recessive mutations.
There are also a lot more alleles and mutations that aren’t lethals but show various deleterious effects.
25% of the US population carry the APOE4 allele, which raises one’s risk of Alzheimers.
This source states in their abstract that…
It has been argued that the average human may carry ~250-300 mutations that are mostly deleterious, as well as several hundred less-deleterious variants.”
I didn’t read the article so I don’t know how this estimate was determined or how reliable this number is.
A short look at Pubmed shows that there hasn’t been all that much research in the genetic load of modern humans.
And on the subject of men with penis problems, the new congresswoman is sworn in and signed the petition to release those pesky files. Democrats have already exposed some of them, and the Republicans have released 23,000 per the NYT. Frankly, I don’t expect surprises, just confirmation that he was raping children.
… Hitler had Kallmann syndrome, a genetic disorder that hinders the normal progression of puberty …
How long until the transphobes use this as an argument against puberty blockers in general?
Ed Seedhouse@9–
I too have misgivings about this story.
(1) The DNA was degraded, as 80 years in an unprotected environment will do. (2) Kallman Syndrome is not a simple genetic condition, it is a range of mutations of variable chromosomal location, dominance, and penetrance, and as a result several of the mutations associated with Kallman Syndrome are not, in themselves, diagnostic; therefore it is crucial to know which mutation was identified, and none of this is mentioned in the story. (4) Cryptorchidism is not a rare condition while KS is very rare, in other words, almost all cases of cryptorchidism are unrelated to KS. Hitler’s undescended testis is supportive evidence presented as determinitive. (5) My antennae always go up when the research remains unpublished when giving extensive interviews to press.
Having said that, Turi King has an excellent track record and I hope these skeptical thoughts will be resolved once the paper gets into print.
Damn, lost the count there. I only had 4 points!
“Other senior Nazis had wives, children, even extramarital affairs. Hitler is the one person among the whole Nazi leadership who doesn’t. Therefore, I think that only under Hitler could the Nazi movement have come to power.”
Yeah, right, because only men with genetic defects and micropenises can ever lead a movement to take power in any country.
And putting a guy with such genetic defects at the top of your ticket gets you MORE votes — who knew?
Wonder how many of the modern nazis and Trumpists (but I mostly repeat myself there) are similarly motivated and under endowed shall we say? (Okay, yeah its speculative & obvs not all those with below average genitals – not causative – determinatively anyhow – but still..)
Might explain some of the focus on hyper-masculinity from some on the reichwing?