It is a scientific study that reignites the debate surrounding the personality of Germany’s bloodthirsty dictator World War II, Adolf Hitler. According to DNA analysis to be featured in a Channel 4 documentary in Britain, Hitler is said to have suffered from Kallmann syndrome, a genetic condition that disrupts normal sexual development and can make it difficult to form intimate relationships.
The study was based on a piece of cloth with traces of blood, which had been cut in 1945, at the end of World War II, from the couch where Adolf Hitler committed suicide. The geneticists, led by Professor Tory King — known for locating the remains of Richard III, King of England — said they had worked with extreme caution, pointing out that denying such research would be tantamount to putting Hitler “on a pedestal,” as the Independent writes.
This hormonal disorder, already mentioned in stories of World War I, could also explain some of the humiliations Hitler is said to have suffered regarding the size of his genitals.
The increased possibility of microphallus and an undescended testicle, confirmed by a 1923 medical examination, provide an unexpected basis for taunts of the time, such as the well-known British World War II song “Hitler Has Only Got One Ball.”
Beyond the medical dimension, the findings shed new light on Hitler’s complete absence of a personal and emotional life — something unusual for a top figure in the Nazi regime. “Hitler is the only party leader without a wife, children, or extramarital affairs; this may explain his total devotion to politics,” notes historian Alex J. Kay of the University of Potsdam.
The genetic analysis also dispels a persistent rumor: that Hitler had no traceable Jewish ancestry, contrary to what various theories held. However, certain genetic markers put him at high risk for autism, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder — without being retrospectively diagnosed.
The researchers, however, warn: linking the extreme ferocity with these diseases would be scientifically unfounded and dangerous. “Behavior is never 100% genetic,” reminds psychologist Sir Simon Baron-Cohen. “Associating Hitler with these diagnoses stigmatizes those who suffer from them, while the vast majority are neither violent nor cruel.”