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So I was watching Downfall last night (good movie by the way) and I noticed that whenever Hitler walked around, the movie always showed him with his left hand behind his back and it was always kind of shaking, especially when he was doing things like praising his soldiers and generals etc.

Did Hitler actually do this? If so, why? Is this some sort of Nazi gesture? Was he sick?

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Downfall is a movie, it is a fabrication and should be acknowledged as such. – Hermann Ingjaldsson Jun 29 '12 at 10:50
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@HermannIngjaldsson so what? That thing could still be based on some historic fact. – Lohoris Jan 30 at 20:23
Yes maybe theoretically possibly. But at it's core it is a movie and not a historic documentation. This should be asked in some questionare about movies, not history. History is butchered in movies all the time and if you take them for reality you will become one misled fool. – Hermann Ingjaldsson Jan 30 at 23:17
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movies.stackexchange.com has been set up for such questions. – coleopterist Jan 31 at 17:25
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Reworded this a smidge to make it more appropiate to this site. I don't think the core of his question was about the portrayal, but the historical facts behind it. – T.E.D.♦ Feb 1 at 21:47
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5 Answers

up vote 8 down vote

The encyclopaedia, following Kershaw, Ian (2008). Hitler: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton & Company p 782, claims Parkinsons. This is I believe the standard account.

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He believed he had Parkinson's, however he found no evidence of it. – Hendrik Jan 31 at 9:05
up vote 5 down vote

It wasn't Parkinson's, it was a nervous tic. Why? Because he was losing the war and slowly breaking down. It all culminated in the famous meltdown scene that has been parodied so many times. Notice he loses the tic during that scene.

PS Downfall is just a movie. It is neither historical fact, nor a documentary.

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Do you have any sources? – Luke Jun 25 '12 at 21:27
@Harland, welcome to the site, and I hope you will please take the time to read our faq. (See link at the end of this comment.) Without any references to a source for this information, the community as a whole is likely to vote to close this answer. Any supporting information for this response would be appreciated. history.stackexchange.com/faq – Steven Drennon♦ Jun 26 '12 at 14:06
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It's indeed a nervous tic, but it's not caused by the fact of losing the war (which to the end he didn't believe was happening, at least publicly) but by his medication which contained among other things high doses of mercury and other neurotoxins (Hitler was a hypochondriac, his physicians had a field day trying all kind of obscure things on him). For sources I'd have to refer to printed material I don't remember the titles of, but no doubt it's available online as well. – jwenting Jan 31 at 7:28
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@jwenting: Perhaps you can turn the comment into an answer? – Felix Goldberg Jan 31 at 9:39
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I did, and it instantly gets downvoted without comment by someone of course, probably someone who wants his own comment to appear higher on the list – jwenting Feb 1 at 4:58
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up vote 3 down vote

Joachim Fest, who wrote a major Hitler biography in German, cites four sources and concludes thus (in footnote 63 on p. 807 of the English paperback edition):

Probably the exact nature of Hitler's illness can no longer be determined, since no examination with a specific investigatory aim was ever undertaken. Because of the extremely inadequate documentation, none of the various diagnoses can be persuasiverly supported or rejected; the principal symptom of both Parkinson's disease and the Parkinson syndrome, namely the shaking arm or leg, can also be caused by many other diseases.

The shaking of Hitler's left arm and the fact that he tried to hide it is also mentioned on several occasions in this biography.

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up vote 1 down vote

If we consider Wikipedia a reliable source, especially on a sensitive topic and on a person like Adolf Hitler, there is no room for speculation, but only factual information.

Looking at the Wikipedia page for Adolf Hitler on the health section. We can be sure that if Ian Kershaw, one of the top historians about the Third Reich and Hitler, did not find any convincing evidence about Parkinson's disease. He believed he might have suffered from Parkinson's disease, which is what he wrote in his book, but he found no compelling evidence. He was able to remove fact from hearsay and speculation, which is what we should do.

A movie script, has the freedom to use the speculation and other wild stories to make the script more exciting, and to make you love/hate/understand the main character better.

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up vote 0 down vote

Hitler was a hypochondriac, and received many "experimental" medications from his "doctors" (many of whom would be called quacks now, and then, were it not for their powerful protectors in the Nazi hierarchy).
Some of these contained mercury, a known neurotoxin, and other nasty things that will have caused neuromuscular problems.
Combined with stress, that's understood to be the main cause for his "tic". All this was mentioned in several programs on NGC and History a few years ago before both degenerated into conspiracy theory central, and I've read things about it as well in books over the years (maybe the (in)famous doctor's diaries have some information as well, never read them).

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