Alleged doubles of Adolf Hitler

There is no evidence that Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler used look-alikes as political decoys during his life, but it has been the subject of speculation. Some stories about his death and replacement by a double were propagated as early as 1939. After capturing Berlin, the Soviet Union claimed that the dictator used a body double to fake his death and escape, which Western scholars regard as disinformation. The Soviets supposedly found a number of similar bodies, with only Hitler's dental remains ever positively identified.

The most prominent evidence of a Hitler double is Soviet footage of a body with a gunshot wound to the forehead, ostensibly found in the Reich Chancellery garden. The Soviets initially thought this body was Hitler's (and later sometimes claimed it was), but dismissed it partly because it was wearing mended socks. Fringe and conspiracy theorists cite the body's existence as evidence that Hitler faked his death.