How Hitler's Mustache Came to Be

By TOM WELLS
May 07, 2007
ADOLF Hitler used to have a bushy handlebar moustache — but trimmed it down to his trademark “toothbrush” to wear a gas mask. The revelation emerged after papers belonging to a soldier who served with the Nazi dictator were discovered.

Alexander Frey and Hitler were lowly privates in the German army in World War I. They were among thousands of soldiers who were ordered to cut their beards and moustaches to fit under respirator masks — introduced to combat mustard gas attacks. Until then Hitler had a thick, full moustache. Frey later wrote that the tyrant’s former bushy moustache “covered the ugly slit of his mouth”. Even though Hitler shaved his moustache, he was left temporarily blinded by a gas attack in 1918.