Had this been a real conspiracy, do you think the plan would've worked?

European Hitler lookalikes and soundalikes would just be fringe figures these days I'm sure.In the UK the far right British National Party are virtually bankrupt with a measley two councillors in the whole of the UK.Maybe France has some interest in the far right but Fascism/Nazism has had little appeal for decades in Europe.

I agree. The "times make the man", as they say. How to duplicate the humiliation of Germany, after WWI? Impossible.

Good chance a few of the clones end up serial killers or Wall Street thieves as they would be sociopaths and megalomaniacs.

End of the world? So what.

it might work. most leaders, especially american leaders, are voted in on charisma and money alone.

a modern day Hitler could easily win an election. he was a political genius. he would not campaign the way he originally did. he would be a Hitler of our times

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That's what I was thinking too. It's very doubtful that such a Hitler-clone conspiracy would have the desired result. For the plan to work, two conditions would have to be met:

First, you would have to create a man who is a copy of Hitler in terms of physique as well as psychology. The physique part is easy, cloning can create a person looking like Hitler. But how do you expect to get his personality and world views to be the same as Hitler's? It's nice how Mengele tried to mimic the life events of young Hitler (father dying at 65), but that's clearly not a guarantee that this new Hitler would have the same psychological make up as the original.

Second, you have to have similar social conditions that allowed the original Hitler to possess the kind of power he had in Germany. Now that's even more difficult to achieve than the first point. Manipulating social conditions is obviously very difficult. If you are somehow able to do that, then there's no need for you bother with the cloning. The movie alluded to the fact that the social sentiment might have been favorable to Nazism ("people are fascinated by Hitler" said Mengele). But overall, I think that the movie paid far too little attention to the sociological side of the conspiracy. Or perhaps the viewers were supposed to think that Mengele was a just crazy for believing that simply by cloning Hitler it is possible to create a new Reich.

It's a ridiculous concept that only makes sense in the world of books and movies. Even if they could clone Hitler, it ignores the fact that what made Hitler the man we came to know and hate was his early life experiences. Gassed in World War 1, the shame of Germany's defeat, his time as a failed artist in Vienna and time as a vagrant. The death of his mother and the indifference and brutality of his father. What was their plan, realistically? To recreate those scenarios? Hilarious! I do enjoy the film, but the idea behind it is pure sci-fi.

Assuming they did come to realize their potential. The clones would probably start killing each other off in order to obtain the top spot.

I started thinking about this while watching the film. I severely doubt the plan would work because as others have said, the boys would be growing up in an entirely different set of circumstances and conditions than what Adolf did. Even the most minor detail being changed for Adolf as a boy could have vastly altered his future outcome, so imagine what it would be like for Adolf boys in a different era without the massive influences of things like their countries being defeated in a global war and enduring the humiliating political and social struggle to rebuild it back up again, which is what primarily gave Hitler his platform to rise to power.

I guess there may have been certain boys that followed a path of getting into politics and may have even had darker motives, but doubtful they'd even hold the same views as Hitler did at the time, and even more unlikely they'd get into a position of power that he did.

What's also worth mentioning is how actually looking exactly like Hitler would probably be a hindrance more than anything. Is the world supposed to just ignore that someone rising to power, is the spitting image of Hitler? This reason alone could strongly dictate, if you'll excuse the pun, how far up the ladder they are able to climb.