Hitler still casts long shadow over Germany

ADOLF as a German first name is now all but extinct - but 60 years after Hitler killed himself on this date, he still casts a long shadow and his birthday is looked on with superstition.

As weary of their past as many Germans are, they retain a lingering fascination with one of history’s greatest villains.

Hitler’s face pasted on Germany’s big-selling magazines and mass-market dailies regularly boosts sales.

“There is a concentrated focus on that 12-year era of German history that will never let up,” said Heinrich August Winkler, a leading German historian at Berlin’s Humboldt University.

“The responsibility for the Nazis and the Holocaust have become part of Germany’s identity,” he says.

Few Germans will mark today’s anniversary of Hitler’s suicide. Yet Hitler’s birthday on April 20 has acquired some sensitivity.

Some years ago, a Germany-England soccer match scheduled for that date was cancelled and last week a new state premier delayed his swearing-in to avoid the connection. Their guilt-inducing past may fatigue Germans, yet the recent film charting Hitler’s final days, Der Untergang (Downfall), was a German hit.

But, says TV producer Guido Knopp, “They’re not obsessed but interested. Hitler is the best anti-Hitler therapy available.”

According to Berlin media professor Lutz Erbring, the focus on Hitler comes chiefly from abroad, observing Germans were aghast when British newspapers tried to connect Hitler with the new German Pope.

“The English press is obsessed by Hitler,” MrErbring said. “It gets ridiculous at times.”