There is, let’s face it, something genuinely bizarre about the fact that Adolf Hitler might have indeed had, to all intents and purposes, one ball. Analysis of his DNA, obtained from a bloodstain on the sofa in the bunker in which he shot himself, indicates that he very probably had a genetic condition called Kallmann syndrome, which produces incomplete development of the genitals that may include an unusually small penis and undescended testicles. The truth is that we had some indication of this already: a medical examination during his time in prison in 1923 for the failed “Beer Hall putsch” in Munich recorded “right-sided cryptorchidism”: no visible right testicle. The DNA analysis offers a very likely reason for that.
The revelation appears in a new Channel 4 documentary, Hitler’s DNA: Blueprint of a Dictator. Just to clear up doubts on this score: it has been carefully confirmed that the DNA is indeed Hitler’s, and the genome sequencing was done by reputable scientists. So this much can be assumed to be true.
This much – and no more. “Blueprint of a dictator” is an understandable choice of title, but also very unfortunate. Dictators do not have blueprints, genetic or otherwise. The invitation is to suppose that Hitler’s genome will give us insights into his character: into what made him, in the words of historian Ian Kershaw, “the embodiment of modern political evil.” It won’t.
The DNA analysis puts paid to rumours that Hitler had Jewish ancestry. Fine. It has been reported as indicating that Hitler was schizophrenic, which it does not and cannot. Schizophrenia seems to be associated with some genetic variants, but it cannot be diagnosed from genetics. The genetic component is complicated, and only by psychological evaluation can diagnoses be made.
The documentary makers make a big play of how Kallmann syndrome could have affected Hitler’s private life and (lack of) sexual intimacy. The latter is well documented: Kershaw has commented that he seemed to show “acutely disturbed and repressed sexual development.” Unlike other Nazi leaders, he never married or had children. This absence of intimate relations, the documentary-makers say, might explain why Hitler was so single-mindedly devoted to politics.
That’s possible, but it is sheer speculation. The consequences of Kallmann syndrome – which affects one in 8,000-10,000 men and one in 40,000 women, and is generally treatable today with hormone therapies – are complicated. Unsurprisingly, the physical effects on genitals can lead to low self esteem and shame, and there is a wide range of secondary physiological consequences, from hearing impairment to low libido, cleft palate and colour blindness, as well as infertility.
But there is no indication of any particular mental disposition that cannot be attributed to the social implications of the condition. There is no reason to suppose that we learn anything significant from the genetic data about what made Hitler the man he was.
The documentary-makers try to be cautious. One of them, Alex Kay, stresses that “no attempt to explain the man he became and the extreme inhumanity he exhibited can be reduced to a question of genetics.” But such disclaimers land weakly in a culture primed for decades to believe, as James Watson once put it, that “in large measure, our fate is in our genes.”
Companies like 23andMe encouraged the same idea with their cheery “welcome to you.” And what else does a title like Blueprint of a Dictator imply if not a key to Hitler’s nature? In reality, genes say little – and even less that is interpretable – about personality. As geneticist Adam Rutherford notes, Hitler’s DNA “does not give any weight to the ill-conceived notion that evil is somehow biologically encoded,” though it risks whispering it all the same.
Kay points out that “Hitler now joins other famous historical figures, including Ludwig van Beethoven, whose genomes have been sequenced.” But Beethoven’s genomic sequence, deduced from a strand of his hair, revealed that, if we believe efforts to infer musicality from genetic profile, he would be predicted to have poor rhythmic ability. We can’t even be totally sure of the diagnosis of Kallmann syndrome for Hitler, which would require physiological examination. Between 35 and 45% of cases have no identified genetic correlates at all.
Hitler’s genome sequencing has not been conducted irresponsibly (the same cannot be said of all the reporting). But it offers very little historical (and arguably no scientific) insight, and the inadvertent result could be to encourage suspicion of people with Kallmann syndrome. Public interest in the outcome is understandable, but all the same I’m unsure whether, on balance, the effort was worth it.
