105 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: Was Hitler a virgin?
It is reasonably grounded and non-speculative to say that he did have a sex life and he was not an asexual being or devoid of sexuality
I'm kind of curious about this, because much of what admittedly little I've read regarding his sexuality, including your post, at least hints that it wouldn't be out of the realm to speculate that he might be asexual. Of course, not to say he absolutely was, but even his endless chats with Kubizek sound like that could still come from an asexual - perhaps one who recognizes that obviously sex is necessary for procreation, as well as someone who might take in interest in it from a social and morality based viewpoint as part of their growing rhetoric/philosophy/political discourse/etc. And not all asexuals completely abstain from partaking in the act, or talking about it, be it from pressure to fit in/appear normal, or many other potential reasons.
(You're obviously much more well read and informed on the topic than I, so please don't take my comment as argumentative or trying to be a correction! Rather I'm probably just missing something and just curious if you might be able to expand on that particular aspect and why it seems to be ruled out)
Comment by Georgy_K_Zhukov at 03/11/2024 at 22:23 UTC*
33 upvotes, 0 direct replies
So three things I would expand on, since (obviously) I didn't include every single tidbit we know there.
The first is that I definitely see what you mean for a reading Kubizek'z summations of Hitler's early views, but I would generally not read it in that kind of abstraction (nor, would I say, do most historians). The general tenor of Hitler's obsessions with sexual purity and such don't end up coming off as someone asexual, but, not to get overly presentist but more for a handy analogous shorthand, instead often comes off similar to what we would describe as "incels" in modern discourse, or "nofap". Not that there can't be ace incels, nor to *literally* say "Hitler was an incel", but the discourse ends up feeling very similar in how it is best framed as certainly having a personal component, often misgynistic in the perspective on how women's sexuality needs to be controlled and is owed men (the superior men that they are, of course), and some disgust perhaps, but likely because, as someone ranting about prostitutes, for instance, he likely was at least on some level wanting to do like the other fellows and patronize one.
To be sure, that is a little bit leaning into being an arm chair shrink, but on the second point, it does tie into what limited evidence we have which generally portray Hitler as the *pursuer*, and his choice of women to be strongly based on power dynamics. I find Kershaw's description of Hitler's approaches to relationships (characterizing what we know about Reiter, Braun, and of course Geli) to be very compelling:
Like his father, he preferred women much younger than himself – girls he could dominate, who would be obedient playthings but not get in the way.
Again, not that it is *impossible* for that to describe someone who is asexual, but taken in its totality it doesn't end up feeling like the right description, unless we are perhaps constructing an argument that he was putting on *two* acts, one public persona of the unmarried man sacrificing his happiness for Germany by remaining so, and then *also* a private persona for his close inner circle of a man who took young lovers over whom he could exercise power, but *both* essentially were facades constructed to serve the image he needed in a given context (if I was going to be wildly speculative, I would if anything rather argue that he was *aromantic* than *asexual* given how descriptions of his few relationships show a lack of meaningful romantic attachment, but that might be too narrow as it is often noted he had no real, close friends *at all*, whether romantic or platonic, so focusing through that lens might be overly limiting).
Finally though, while Hitler left us nothing in his own words, and Braun left nothing direct either, as noted there are a small number of things beyond that which we can base off of. Braun did make comments *to others* at a few points which were explicit enough that they had, indeed, had sex, and Heinz Linge for instance wrote something similar in his memoirs, although in that case, it does require a note of caution, since Linge's memoirs, written decades after the war, have several questionable points, and as Roger Moorhouse notes in the introduction to the 2009 edition, Linge was *absolutely* aware of the weird rumors about Hitler's sex life that had been bandied about through the years, as well as the alleged monorchidism. As such while we shouldn't reject that, it nevertheless needs to be considered that the inclusion was very much defensive, as part of a broader book from Hitler's former valet who clearly *at best* was conflicted about his former boss, and certainly had never entirely lost his favorable memories of the man.
So *anyways*, while I wouldn't ever state it with 110% certainty, since we can only know Hitler through others, really, taken all together I do think that the reasonably grounded argument is against asexuality.