One for the Hitler

Sunday, August 9. 2009

As a foreigner in India one often enough has encounters of the strange kind. Fair enough...

As a German in India however, you are in for some odd encounters that non-German people most probably don't come across. Yes, you guessed it, it has got something to do with Adolf Hitler (ok, maybe the title gave you a good hint). So, I just give you an example of a situation that happened to me at least 5 or 6 times during the time i spent in India (which is altogether something like little less than 2 years):

You meet an Indian guy (never happened with girls so far) in a bar, hotel, tourist attraction or any other place, and once he finds out that you are German, the weird part starts usually with some words along the line of:

"Oh, you are German? I like Germany, Hitler was a great man!"

Most Germans in India I have asked about their own experiences can tell you some similar story. In discussions, both with Indians and Germans, I tried to find out why that is. There are a couple of theories that we came up with, none of which is entirely conclusive on its own. It might be because during the Indian independence struggle (which lasted throughout decades at the beginning of the 20th century and ended with independence in 1947) Hitler kept the British busy, and by doing so maybe forced them to quit India sooner than they had planned for. The fact that Britain was some kind of "common enemy" for Germany and India seems to create some admiration for him over here. But, whatever the reasons might be, one thing is certain: his popularity manifests itself in awkward ways. The latest seems to be that MBA students rely on his "wisdom" that he put into "Mein Kampf".

The funniest however was the one a friend on mine stumbled upon when reading the dessert section from the Italian restaurant we order pizza from regularly. Cake number SC16 features the name: "One for the Hitler"

We joked for weeks about ordering it, and finally found a good occasion and did so. And here it is: