A picture has surfaced that may depict Hitler playing chess with Lenin. There is cause for skepticism, of course:
Historian Helen Rappaport, who has just written a book called “Conspirator: Lenin in Exile”, said the etching was probably a “glorious piece of fantasy”.
She said: “In 1909 Lenin was in France and there is no evidence that he was in Vienna.
“In October he went to Liege in Belgium and in November he went to Brussels. He would have visited Vienna before and after that year.
“He liked the place and went there because he travelled around Europe on trains, but he wouldn’t have been there long enough to meet a young Hitler.
“He was also as bald as a bat by 1894 with just hair on the sides of his head.
“And when in exile he was not known as Lenin and instead used a number of aliases.
“The person believed to be Lenin in the etching may well have been one of his revolutionary or Bolshevik associates who was misidentified.
“It may even have been an Austrian socialist with whom he associated in the Second International.
So, maybe it wasn’t Lenin. That right winger Adolf Hitler was hanging out and playing chess with some other socialist.
Well, remember, this was 1909 – Hitler wasn’t a “Right Winger” yet (even by Soviet abuses of the term), though he was an anti-Semite.
He didn’t, as far as anyone can tell, become “politically aware”, as the Socialists might put it, for another ten years, after the Great War, when he encountered the German Worker’s Party.
The idea that he might have played chess with a Russian Socialist and his then-art-teacher might have thought it worth etching merely for aesthetic reasons, is plausible – though by no means certain, and I’d not be surprised to see the signatures revealed as false.
I like to associate with people who don’t agree with me politically. Many people who enjoy debate find friends with whom they disagree. “Guilt by association” appears to me to result from unwarranted psychological projection. Just because you prefer like-minded friends doesn’t mean that other people do, or, in colloquial terms: opposites attract.
You know how you get exasperated when the “chicken hawk” fallacy comes up over and over again? I get exasperated when “guilt by association” keeps coming up.
Also, want to see something funny? Check this out!
http://images.google.com/images?&q=hitler+wittgenstein
Birds of a feather? Hardly!
I like to associate with people who don’t agree with me politically. Many people who enjoy debate find friends with whom they disagree. “Guilt by association” appears to me to result from unwarranted psychological projection. Just because you prefer like-minded friends doesn’t mean that other people do, or, in colloquial terms: opposites attract.
I like the way you give Hitler the benefit of a doubt like he was some anonymous stranger.
Heh. Titus, that’s a good point. What was Hitler like when he was 20?
It seems highly unlikely that they ever met, let alone were together long enough to have been sketched.
But if they did, who won the chess match?
What, they couldn’t find the one of Hitler playing chess with George W. Bush?
What next…a velvet painting of Hitler, Lenin, Churchill, and two dogs playing poker?
At any rate–could have happened, but I think Hitler would have raved about it at some point in time later on, especially after the start of the war during a conference with his generals. Don’t know, but that is where I would look for verification.
Titus, that’s a good point. What was Hitler like when he was 20?
A xenophobic loner. The thing about Hitler is that he never seemed to grow as a human being. He was a lazy narcissist whose only passion in life was self-aggrandizement.
At least this serves to show that Hitler is not a savage…he had culture, he could run a country effectively, organize wars and negociate treaties….He is a great man…not a vallain the ‘prostitute media’ run by the jews want us to believe he is….
Wish Hitler could come back and put some order in Europe..rid it of so many foreigners, communist, gays, leftists, radicals, and bring the jews back to their ghettos…..and submit them to Christianity!!!!
Um, yeah. Suddenly I’m reminded of this video.