Was Adolf Hitler the most historically significant person of the 20th century?

Haha, that scene was hoot! :-D

This just made me realize how every Tarantino flick since Kill Bill ends in a gloriously fun ballet of violence. He's probably going to pull out all the stops for his final project.

I watched Nosferatu (1979) last night with Bruno Ganz and I kept thinking surly Ganz would stop Dracula in his tracks at any moment with a Hitler like tirade! Lol

His performance in Downfall was amazing.

I have to disagree
FDR guided (not always ably to be fair) a vast, stumbling country into an agricultural and industrial powerhouse while the whole time juggling foreign and domestic troubles

Honestly, Adolf was playing checkers and FDR was playing chess

Here in America we still benefit from some of FDR's economic programs and the Presidents that followed him carried on with the same appropriate American self interest internationally and a high level of suspicion towards fascism and communism anywhere

Hitler was a lucky lunatic that got way farther along than he should ever have

Ah, difficult question but I'll play anyway. America bankrupted England with its Lend Lease deal for war materiel in WW2 and that combined with the ruin inflicted by fighting two world wars meant that the already faltering British Empire was done and England sank into serious decline. To the extent that England embodied Western Civilisation and I think you can make an argument that more than any other country it did then that is one of the chief differences if Hitler had never existed and WW2 had never happened.

Well if you can't or weren't around to see the decline in standards over the past fifty years for yourself then it might be difficult to believe. But here goes with a quick grab bag in no particular order:

- Once being a Professor meant something. Now there are thousands of mediocre hacks at Universities with the job title.
- Once Governments used to actually govern instead of ducking every decision and engaging in a continuous election campaign as their main function.
- The Civil Service believe it or not used to be professionally run by competent people not the Keystone Cops outfits we are saddled with these days.
- Western Civilisation was synonymous with white Europeans. Now mass immigration, "multi-culturalism" and globalisation have well and truly begun the process that will finish it off once and for all.

That's enough to be going on with.