| “ | This vill be ze final push, mein komrades. Zair resources are poor, zair vill ist veek! Ve can crush zem, ve can grind zem into zer dirt, ve can chew up zair bodies and spit zem out as if zey are sauerkraut! | „ |
| ~ Adolf Hitler |
Adolf Hitler is a supporting character in Red Dwarf.
He appears as the main antagonist from the series 4 episode "Meltdown" in which he is a waxdroid designed to both look and act like the real dictator of Germany and leader of the Nazi Party where he acts as the leader of Waxdroids from Villain World. He also appears as a minor antagonist in the series 3 episode "Timeslides" and as a brainwashed man put into his persona in the series 12 episode "Cured".
He was portrayed by Kenneth Hadley in Meltdown, Ryan Gage (who also played Alfrid Lickspittle in The Hobbit trilogy) in Cured, and by archival footage of himself in Timeslides.
Biography[]
Hitler, as well as the other Waxdroids, is originally designed to entertain the visitors in a colossal waxdroid theme park on the planet Waxworld. However, when they are able to break their limited programming and act like real people, the Wax War between the Heroes and Villains begins. Hitler becomes the leader of the bad guys. Under his control, they capture many good guys to melt them down, insert new programs and turn them into villains.
Years later, the Red Dwarf crew travels to the Waxworld by the Matter Paddle, but they split up. Lister and the Cat end up in the war room where Hitler, Hermann Goring, and Joseph Goebbels are planning another action against the Heroes.
Lister and the Cat attempt the flee by the Matter Paddle, only to end up in the fireplace in the same room where Lister defames the trio to Cat until they are both captured and thrown into the prison.
During the attack of the Heroes under Rimmer on the Third Reich building, Hitler leads the defense while his Villains shoot the good guys from the windows of the building. With help of the minefield, they are able to kill all of them. However, Hitler doesn't know the attack is arranged only to decoy them.
The main part of Rimmer's plan is Queen Victoria who sneaks into the Villains' building with a machine gun and blasts away at them from behind, killing them all. She eventually dies, too, as dying Hitler shoots her before his death. To be sure they are all dead, Kryten is ordered to turn on the thermostat, so they will melt once it hits 100 degrees.
Real-life Hitler[]
Lister in the photo of Hitler.
The Red Dwarf crew gets in contact with real-life Hitler in the episode Timeslides when Lister enters the moving photo of Nuremberg where Hitler speaks to the crowd from the balcony. Lister tells people not to listen to Hitler, then gives him a finger and even steals his briefcase before returning from the photo.
As the crew looks through it, they find a pair of manacles attached to a pink bow, sandwich with banana and crisps, Hitler's diary and a present by Staff Colonel Von Stauffenberg. Rimmer then calls the mind that Von Stauffenberg tried to assassinate Hitler by putting a bomb in his briefcase.
The crew runs away, except Lister who quickly drop-kicks the present into the photo and ducks. The bomb explodes there but actually doesn't kill Hitler.
John Asquith[]
Decades later in the episode Cured, the crew come across a United America research facility housing such historical figures as Messalina, Vlad the Impaler, Joseph Stalin, and Hitler. However, as claimed by Professor Telford, they were "cured" of their formerly villainous ways.
Red Dwarf - The Happy Wanderer
This Hitler attempted to make friends with Lister, who obviously reluctant to the idea, warmed up to him and even played "The Happy Wanderer" on guitar with him. After the crew were knocked unconscious and put into traps, the crew turned on them, suspecting they were never cured to begin with. However, it's revealed they were merely reprogrammed androids of Professor Telford (in-reality the only prisoner onboard the station), and Hitler was simply the android of Telford's former colleague, John Asquith.
Trivia[]
- In Timeslides, Lister comes back with Hitler's briefcase with a bomb Staff Colonel Von Stauffenberg put in. However, in reality, the bomb was hidden in Von Stauffenberg's briefcase, not in Hitler's.
- When Lister is reading newspapers after he kicks the bomb to the photo of Hitler, the headline says "HITLER ESCAPES BOMBING AT NUREMBERG", with Lister's photo under it.
- After the episode Timeslides was remastered in 1998, the special guest star Adolf Hitler mention was removed from the opening credits.
