What Was Up With Hitler's Mustache?

I could never understand it. Why did he wear it? It looked so ridiculous!

I am talking about Adolf Hitler and that toothbrush mustache he wore most of his life. During WWI we see pictures of him wearing the rich, luxurious handlebar that most other German soldiers also wore, but when he showed up in a suit ready to tackle politics he had trimmed the thing down. Well, now I know, and it makes perfect sense: Hitler and other WWI German soldiers had to trim their flowing mustaches to facilitate the wearing of gas masks; it makes sense that Hitler would wear it from then on, despite the changing styles and jibes from friends who dared to jibe him. His WWI experience was so important to him, it defined who he was and why he did what he did.

From Wikipedia a bit more background on that mustache: The Toothbrush moustache (also called Hitler moustache or Hitlerstache, Charlie Chaplin moustache, 1/3 moustache, philtrum moustache,the postage stamp, or soul (mou)stache) is a moustache, shaved at the edges, except for three to five centimetres above the centre of the lip. The sides of the moustache are vertical rather than tapered. The moustache became popular during the 1920s as a response by working-class men to the flamboyant, flowing Kaiser-style moustaches of the upper classes.[1] It was also quite popular among German soldiers during both World Wars.


This moustache is most famous for having been worn by German dictator Adolf Hitler, although it was already well-recognised as part of the movie star Charlie Chaplin's iconic Little Tramp costume (Chaplin did not wear the moustache in daily life). In a 1933 interview, Chaplin said he added the moustache to his costume because it had a comical appearance and was small enough so as not to hide his expression.[2] Chaplin took advantage of the noted similarity between his on-screen appearance and that of Adolf Hitler in his 1940 film The Great Dictator, where he again wore the moustache as part of two new characters that parodied Hitler.[1]

The style is now less popular in the West due to its strong association with Hitler earning it the nickname "Hitler moustache". Hitler originally sported a longer, "Kaiser"-style moustache, as evidenced by photographs of him as a soldier during World War I.[3]