Claims thatAdolf Hitler had only one testicle (monorchism) have been scrutinized by historians. A 1923 medical report from Hitler's arrival to prison after his failedBeer Hall Putsch states that his right testicle wasundescended – for which he may have had a predisposition, according to 2025DNA analysis. Although Hitler often refused to fully undress for exams, his doctors denied that he was monorchid.

During World War II,a song maligning Hitler as monorchid was popularized. Subsequently, some secondhand accounts about Hitler's genitals were shared relating to his time as a soldier during the First World War.An alleged Soviet autopsy published in 1968 claims that Hitler's left testicle was missing, but the report is most likelydisinformation; only Hitler's dental remains have been positively identified.

Documents fromLandsberg Prison (where Hitler was held after his failedBeer Hall Putsch) were released by December 2015. A note in theAufnahmebuch (book of arrivals at prison) by prison doctor Josef Brinsteiner, who reportedly examined Hitler in 1923, states that he hadcryptorchidism (an undescended testicle) on the right side.^[1][2][3] Ananalysis of Hitler's DNA performed in 2025 suggested that he had the genetic markers forKallmann syndrome, which hinderspuberty and increases the chance of cryptorchidism.^[4][5] However, Hitler's ability to growfacial hair, as well as the relatively deep tone of his voice inthe only known recording of him speaking regularly, implies that he entered puberty.^[6]

Although Hitler often refused to undress fully for exams,^[7] his doctorErwin Giesing [de], personal physicianTheodor Morell, and childhood doctor Eduard Bloch stated that Hitler's testicles were normal.^[8][9] During World War II, the British song "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball" maligned the dictator and other top Nazis as having substandard genitalia.^[10]

In his 1957 book, Hitler's former friendErnst Hanfstaengl claims that a story was often told that "Hitler's old army comrades, who had seen him in thewash-house ... noted that his genital organs were almost freakishly underdeveloped."^[11]

In the 1960s (although not published until 2008), Polish priest Franciszek Pawlar recorded the alleged account of formerGerman Army medic Johan Jambor, who claimed that he helped bring Hitler to safety after he was injured by bomb shrapnel in October 1916 during theBattle of the Somme.^[12][13] Jambor purportedly stated: "His abdomen and legs were covered in blood. Hitler was wounded in the abdomen and had lost a testicle. His first question to the doctor was: 'Can I still father children?'"^[13] According to historianIan Kershaw, the wound was to Hitler's left thigh.^[14]

In 1968, Soviet journalist Lev Bezymenski published his bookThe Death of Adolf Hitler. Bezymenski describes a purported Soviet forensic examination and published the alleged autopsy led byFaust Shkaravsky.^{[15][16][17][18]} The book states that:

The autopsy performed by theRed Army pathologists on Hitler's body... [produced clear] findings:The left testicle could not be found either in the scrotum or on the spermatic cord inside the inguinal canal, or in the small pelvis ...

Although Hitler's 1923 prison examination (only released in 2015) states that his right – not left – testicle was undescended,^[1][3] the Soviet report prompted psychohistorianRobert G. L. Waite to write in 1977 that he found it likely that the dictator was monorchid, citing the identification of the dental remains.^[10] However, only Hitler's dental remains were positively identified, similar to those ofEva Braun – with any remainder of his and Braun's corpses subject to debate (helping fuelsurvival theories).^[19][a] Meanwhile, the Soviet book's claims that Hitler died bycyanide poisoning or even acoup de grâce, contrary to eyewitness reports, have exposed it aspropaganda,^[b] as Bezymenski admitted in 1992.^{[26][15][27][23]} In 1998, American journalistRon Rosenbaum suggested that the missing testicle was a similar falsified detail to portray Hitler as a coward,^[28] which historian Sjoerd de Boer agreed with in 2022.^[29]

• Health of Adolf Hitler

Footnotes

Citations

• Daly-Groves, Luke (2019).Hitler's Death: The Case Against Conspiracy. Oxford, UK: Osprey.ISBN 978-1-4728-3454-6.
• Eberle, Henrik; Uhl, Matthias, eds. (2005).The Hitler Book: The Secret Dossier Prepared for Stalin from the Interrogations of Hitler's Personal Aides. New York: Public Affairs.ISBN 978-1-58648-366-1.
• Fest, Joachim (2004).Inside Hitler's Bunker: The Last Days of the Third Reich. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.ISBN 978-0-374-13577-5.
• Joachimsthaler, Anton (1999) [1995].The Last Days of Hitler: The Legends, The Evidence, The Truth. Translated by Helmut Bölger. London: Brockhampton Press.ISBN 978-1-86019-902-8.
• Kershaw, Ian (1999) [1998].Hitler: 1889–1936: Hubris. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.ISBN 0-393-04671-0.
• Kershaw, Ian (2001) [2000].Hitler, 1936–1945: Nemesis. London: Penguin.ISBN 978-0-14-027239-0.
• Kershaw, Ian (2008).Hitler: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.ISBN 978-0-393-06757-6.

• Graphic showing the prison doctor's note from 1923

• Adolf Hitler
• Monorchism
• Health by individual

• CS1 German-language sources (de)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from November 2025