Opinion of Hitler's normal voice?

[Mr. Ukucasha]

There exists only one recording of Hitler's normal voice and it's absolutely mindblowing.

It's known as the "Hitler and Mannerheim recording" and took place in Mannerheim's private wagon on a secret visit made to Finland by Hitler to honor Mannerheim's 75th birthday on June 4, 1942. In this wagon, a large and visible microphone had been set up by Thor Damen, a sound engineer for the Finnish broadcaster Yleisradio (YLE), who had been assigned to record Hitler's official speech and birthday message to Mannerheim. After the official speeches, Damen continued to record the now-private conversation, with Hitler unaware that the conversation was still being recorded. After eleven minutes, Hitler's SS guards realized what Damen was doing and made a cutthroat gesture to demand that he cease recording. The SS guards demanded the tape be destroyed, but YLE was allowed to keep the tape in a sealed container with the promise that it never be opened again. The tape was given to the head of the State Censors' Office, Kustaa Vilkuna, returned to YLE in 1957, and made publicly available a few years later. It is the only known recording of Hitler speaking in an unofficial tone and one of the very few recordings in which Hitler may be heard delivering a narrative without raising his voice.

Listen to the recording here and prepare to have your mind blown (the recording is a little fuzzy at first, but his voice becomes much more clear a little later in the recording):

For some reason, it's common to assume that Hitler had a high-pitched, whiny voice. But his voice was actually extremely deep. He sounded like James Earl Jones or Darth Vader.

The comments on the video above and other parts of the internet where the recording has been shared largely express absolute and utter levels of shock. Most seem to agree that his voice was much, much deeper than they expected.

The funniest story I've seen regarding this recording was someone on Quora claiming that when they listened to this recording on their laptop, their girlfriend (who was nearby) said something like "who is that?" That is the sexiest voice I have ever heard," only to be in utter disbelief and shock when he revealed to her that the voice belonged to Hitler.

But it's definitely easy to see how he was able to attract so many people to his cause with a voice like that. I guess being utterly charismatic is unfortunately common in the world's most nefarious super villains.

[Alben Barkley]

It's still Hitler's voice so horrible.

And not too surprising to me since I've seen Downfall/Der Untergang, one of my favorite films actually, and I wasn't too surprised to read in the Wiki article that Bruno Ganz used the recording to study Hitler's voice for his portrayal. While that movie is known for the famous scene where he shrieks at his generals, in most of it he speaks in a voice more like this and is shown to be friendly and charismatic with his secretaries and the like. An accurate portrayal from what I've read.

[Mr. Smith]

Pretty remarkably different I guess?

[NewYorkExpress]

If Hitler actually gave speeches like this normally, he would have beaten Hindenburg in 1932.

[parochial boy]

Noticeable Bavarian accent

[President Johnson]

Noticeable Bavarian accent

More like Austrian, though both are somewhat similar.

[Sir Mohamed]

Aside from what he's saying, actually pretty masculine and eloquent. I take absolutely no pleasure in expressing that opinion. Still kind of interesting that physically the dude was rather unimpressive (just like Stalin, who had a weird voice).

Given that Hitler wasn't such an impressing appearance, it wasn't some coincident he gained so much power and became the head of the Nazi movement. All that said, this creature remains the biggest war criminal in world history and the one person responsible for carrying out one of the biggest crimes in history, if not the biggest overall.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

LOL. When speaking with his "normal" voice his Austrian accent totally comes through (with a touch of Bavarian), which makes him sound so much nicer. Interesting that he never lost it. You can't be angry with anyone who puts on a loveable Austrian accent.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

He is right about the winter efforts. The course of history might have been different, but 3 of the most severe winters in the last century happened in the second world war II.

The three war winters are "legendary" cold ones in Dutch history.



See the red square i made, these are the winters of '39-40, 40-41, and 41-42, all three among the top 10 coldest winters of the 20th century, the first one the fifth coldest and the last one the third coldest in that century.

In my life, i've not even experienced a winter that was even remotely comparable to one of these.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

If Hitler actually gave speeches like this normally, he would have beaten Hindenburg in 1932.

It's the German accent I struggle most with. I think i would be able to understand Northern and Western German accents far better than Austrian/Bavarian ones.