Hitler baby one more time

Remember the Soup Nazi? That character from an episode of Seinfeld — the one that also involved an armoire, a couple of street “thugs,” and an excessive use of the word “schmoopie” — has become as legendary as the NBC sitcom from which it originated, earning a place in the pantheon of ’90s’ pop culture touchstones.

Talking and looking like Borat on hindsight, the grouchy immigrant chef was played by Larry Thomas, who was nominated for an Emmy in 1996 for his memorable performance. As his schtick went, the overbearing Soup Nazi required all clients in his restaurant to conform to his Type-A queuing, ordering, and payment policies. When said rules weren’t followed, disobedient customers were rebuffed with a booming “No soup for you!” Unaware that the role was inspired by a real person — Ali Yeganeh, who ran Soup Kitchen International in New York City — Thomas took a page from Omar Sharif’s Lawrence of Arabia.   

For the team of writers behind Seinfeld, the term “Nazi” summed up the chef’s tyrannical demeanor and, like Kramer’s testimonial about the new soup stand, it was clearly meant to be hyperbolic. However, it turns out Yeganeh took offense to the comedy tribute and kicked out Jerry Seinfeld and some of the show’s crew members when they stopped by his establishment weeks after “The Soup Nazi” episode had aired. 

Führer Furor

From the 1996 to 2009, furor over that N word is expected to be brought back into our collective consciousness. It’s because the Austrian city of Linz, a.k.a. Adolf Hitler’s home town, is all set to become Europe’s Capital of Culture next year.

A report from the Liverpool Echo’s Ian Hernon said that Linz “will be celebrating cultural achievements at the same time hidden Nazis will be celebrating the 120th anniversary of the Führer’s birth and the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War ll.” Hernon viewed the distinction with a fair amount of skepticism, writing that Linz’s own history in combating evil is not so proud and may even be non-existent. “Heaven only knows what tricks were deployed to win 2009, unless it was a heavy-handed sense of irony.”

And, as Spiegel Online’s Nicole Büsing and Heiko Klaas explain in an article published in September, anxiety over the glorification of a city with a rather unpleasant past is understandable. “The idea of Linz as a ‘cultural capital’ is far from new. Adolf Hitler wanted the city where he had spent nine years of his childhood to become one of the five ‘Führer Cities’ of the Third Reich. Along with Berlin, the Reich’s capital; Munich, the capital of the Nazi movement; Hamburg, ‘The Gateway to the World’; and Nuremburg, ‘The City of Party Congresses,’ Linz was scheduled for refurbishment as the ‘City of the Führer’s Youth’ — completing a series of ideological centers upon which the Nazi regime was based.”

It’s Like, Kinda Awkward

Though the Alpha Nazi’s grandiose schemes were never realized, the specter of what might have been still looms large over Linz. On New Year’s Eve, as Liverpool passes the Capital of Culture baton to the Austrian city, an exhibit zeroing in on Hitler’s brutal megalomania is set to kick off the festivities. Called “The Culture Capital of the Führer — Art and National Socialism in Linz and Upper Austria,” the city’s offical site says that this exhibition “will put cultural politics and everyday life between 1938 and 1945 on show, find these footprints and see where they lead.”

Had it materialized, the “Führer Musuem” alone would have taken up a building 1,100 meters long, housing around 16 million works of art mostly taken from private Jewish collections. “It would also include works plundered by German special commandos from museums, churches and castles throughout the German-occupied territories,” continued Büsing and Klaas. “The so-called ‘reserve of the Führer’ was a legal instrument that allowed Hitler to grab whatever he wanted.”

See, all the fuss about Linz’s swastika-soaked roots has gotten intellectual panties in a bunch. As Spiegel Online put it, it’s hard to revisit the past without recreating it. “The show claims to want to educate the public, but it repeatedly refers to exhibitions that kept in line with Nazi doctrine. The entire undertaking of ‘The Culture Capital of the Führer’ is therefore awkward, if not questionable. One can only hope this major exhibition won’t become some kind of mecca for die-hard reactionaries. So will the “The Culture Capital of the Führer” and its so-called footsteps lead to more enlightenment? Or will it only stoke more skinhead flames?

SRSLY, Scientology?

Don’t look now, but even Hollywood is somewhat set to pay its own lip service to the Hitlerian era. Based on the plot of German army officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Valkyrie is a World War II thriller headlined by Tom Cruise. To prepare for his role as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, the Catholic aristocrat who led the conspiracy, Cruise hired a researcher, studied history books, and spoke with some of von Stauffenberg’s family.

Despite having X-Men and Superman Returns director Bryan Singer on board, the multi-character ensemble piece set in Germany has had its share of negative buzz. “In June 2007, prior to production, a German Defense Ministry spokesperson said that filming of Valkyrie would not be allowed at the country’s military sites if protagonist Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg was portrayed by Tom Cruise, due to the actor’s adherence to Scientology, which has been labeled a dangerous cult by the German authorities. The spokesperson further indicated that the ministry had not at that time received official filming requests from Valkyrie’s producers,” the ever-reliable Wikipedia claims.

From Hitler To Xenu

“Colonel von Stauffenberg’s son also voiced concerns over Cruise’s portrayal of his father, saying that he would not oppose the film’s production, but hoped that Cruise would drop the role. “I fear that only terrible kitsch will come out of the project. It’s bound to be rubbish,” Berthold Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg said. “Cruise should keep his hands off my father.” What would Xenu say?

After its release date was moved back and forth — from August, June, and October 2008 to February 2009 — the troubled Valkyrie is supposed to finally drop in theaters on December 26, 2008. But with the film’s trailer leaving viewers snickering, was this project even a good idea to begin with? (An eye-patched Cruise is absolutely lulzy as he declares “We have to kill Hitler” in his Serious Thespian Voice.) I guess it’s only proof that anything associated with the Führer is doomed to be regarded with equal parts contempt, cynicism, and eye-rolling sarcasm.