Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler are arguably the two most important figures of World War II, if not the twentieth century. Churchill served as prime minister of Great Britain during the war while Adolf Hitler led Germany. Though the two men never met, it is certain that they were mortal enemies. ⁽¹⁾ The two's differences are common knowledge: Churchill championed democracy, while Hitler advocated totalitarianism. However, the pair also shared similarities that are not so well-known. This paper will address some of the differences and similarities between these giants of history.
    Their backgrounds were quite dissimilar. Churchill, born in Blenheim palace November 30^th 1874, was the issue of parents wealthy in social status, if not riches. Winston Churchill was the latest in a long line of famed and influential Churchills. From his seventeenth-century ancestor John Churchill, first duke of Marlborough, to his grandfather, duke at the time of Winston's birth, to his father Lord Randolph, who entered the second most powerful office in the British government at the record age of thirty-seven. Winston was the eldest of the two Churchill children. ⁽²⁾
    Adolf Hitler's family, in contrast, reminds one of of an episode of Jerry Springer. Baby Adolf was born April 20^th 1889 in Braunau, a small town in Austria near the German border. Unlike the patrician Churchill, Adolf's parents were commoners. His father Alois was a customs inspector, the bastard son of one Maria Schicklgruber, while his mother Klara was the niece of Johann Nepouk Hiedler, Alois' stepfather. Adolf was fourth of the six children born to Alois and Klara, and also had at least three more older siblings from his father's previous marriages and affairs. ⁽³⁾
    A similarity that the two men bore was that they were both indifferent, if not poor, students in their youth. Churchill just barely squeaked into college, and on a stroke of luck at that. ⁽⁴⁾ One of Hitler's teachers reported that Adolf "had definite talent . . . but he lacked self-disipline." ⁽⁵⁾ Both future leaders held an intense dislike for mathematics, ⁽⁶⁾ and a love for the fine arts such as theatre and poetry. ⁽⁷⁾ The pair also shared an intense love of history. ⁽⁸⁾
    The two men also lost their fathers when they were fairly young. Lord Randolph Churchill died when Winston was twenty, while Hitler lost his father at the age of fourteen. ⁽⁹⁾ Though neither boy was close to their father, Churchill greatly admired Lord Randolph and wished to follow in his footsteps, while Hitler saw his father as an obstacle to his dream of becoming an artist. ⁽¹⁰⁾
    Both Churchill and Hitler loved to paint. However, whereas Churchill began painting in his early forties as a form of therapy after the Dardanelles disaster of 1915, ⁽¹¹⁾ Hitler took up the brush early in life, completing his first sketch at age eleven and dreaming of a career as an artist. ⁽¹²⁾
    One thing the two did not agree on was the consumption of alcohol. Hitler only got drunk once in his entire life, at the age of sixteen after passing a school exam. He was so embarrassed at being awakened at dawn by a milkwoman on the highway and not remembering the night before that he swore never to get drunk again, though he did have the occasional beer. ⁽¹³⁾
    Churchill, on the other hand, was notorious for his drinking excesses. The prime minister would have several drinks daily, and once, at the age of sixty-five, lamented about how little time he had left in his life to consume enough alcohol to fill a room all the way to the ceiling. ⁽¹⁴⁾
    Both men also suffered political setbacks before achieving the pinnacle of their careers. Churchill was ousted from the office of First Lord of the Admiralty for the Dardanelles disaster in 1915, though he was more a scapegoat than truly at fault. Hitler's great setback was the failure of his Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 in Munich, in which he tried to seize the reins of power in Germany, failed, and was sent to prison. ⁽¹⁵⁾
    Another similarity shared by Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill was their mutual hatred of communism and their ironic alliances with Soviet premier Joseph Stalin. However, their takes on communism were quite different. While Churchill viewed Bolshevism as a "disease" that was in danger of infesting other nations, Hitler viewed communism as part of a larger Jewish plot to dominate the world. ⁽¹⁶⁾ Despite the fact that neither trusted or like the Soviet dictator, both chose to ally with Stalin at different times out of necessity. Hitler viewed the non-aggression pact as a means to keep the Soviet Union from interfering with his designs on Poland, while Churchill, after the German invasion of the USSR in 1941, vowed "Any man or state who fights on against Nazidom will have our aid." ⁽¹⁷⁾
    Both leaders were also very fond of dogs. Churchill's reddish poodle, Rufus, was his constant companion during World war II, whom the British prime minister hailed as his "only uncritical audience!" ⁽¹⁸⁾ During World War I, Hitler's dog Fuchsl even slept beside him in the trenches, and was so fond of the little terrier that after being offered 200 marks for the dog he claimed he wouldn't sell Fuchsl for even 200,000marks (Fuchsl was believed stolen shortly afterward). ⁽¹⁹⁾ During World War II, Hitler was often seen with his Alsatian Blondi, whom, in the Fuhrer's more relaxing moments, he would often play with in the morning at his bunker at Werewolf. ⁽²⁰⁾ In the early thirties, Hitler even passed laws against animal vivisection. ⁽²¹⁾
    Two talented political leaders, one who is almost universally hailed as a "champion of freedom" ⁽²²⁾ and the other as "an evil murderer beyond redemption." ⁽²³⁾ What drove one to choose the path of light and the other the path of darkness is not the purpose of this paper, but simply to compare and contrast the two. Despite the differences and similarities of Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler, they were both two of the most fascinating individuals of their era, and the separate paths they blazed through history continue to influence events far beyond their time.
 
 

Humes, James C. Eisenhower and Churchill: The Partnership That Saved the World. Roseville, CA: Prima Publishing, 2001.

Toland, John. Adolf Hitler. Volumes I and II. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1976.
 
 

1. James C Hume, Eisenhower and Churchill: The Partnership That Saved the World (Roseville, CA: Prima Publishing, 2001), 156, 158. See also John Toland, Adolf Hitler (Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1976), 523-524, 860.

2. Hume, 17-20, 27.

3. Toland, 3-7, 10-11. Though Alois' birth name was Shicklgruber, he later changed it to "Hitler," which was similar to his stepfather's name. Though Alois' real father remains unknown, it is possible that it was Johann Nepomuk or his brother Johann Georg, who was previously married to Maria Anna. There is also a possibility that Adolf Hitler's paternal grandfather was a Jew named Frankenberger or Frankenreither, whose family Anna Maria worked for as a domestic.

4. Hume,27-28.

5. Toland, 18.

6. Hume, 115-116 and Toland, 15-17.

7. Hume, 22-23 and Toland,21.

8. Hume, 25 and Toland, 18-19.

9. Hume, 43 and Toland, 16-17.

10. Hume, 7 and Toland, 14,17.

11. Hume, 82-83.

12. Toland, 13-14.

13. Toland, 20, 136, 163.

14. Hume, 132, 138.

15. Toland, 165-166, 179-181, 184-185.

16. Hume, 95 and Toland, 107.

17. Toland, 618-620 and Hume, 158.

18. Hume, 165.

19. Toland, 66, 71-72.

20. Toland, 836-836.

21. Toland, 616-617.

22.Hume, 14.

23. Toland, ix.