Most people by now know that Adolf Hitler could just as likely have been named “Adolf Schickelgruber,” since that was his dad’s original name before he changed it to something much easier to spell. But not everyone knows that one of the most terrifying dictators in history was once a soft-hearted aspiring artist who loved his mama, was a vegetarian and didn’t drive a car. Well, that isn’t so bad, right? Almost makes up for all that genocide and destroying most of Europe and such. Let’s take a look back at a few other things you probably didn’t know about the biggest jerk in modern history.

20. Hitler’s “toothbrush” mustache was a result of WWI trench warfare

When Private Adolf Hitler joined the German army at the start of World War I, he sported a full, gloriously waxed “Kaiser” mustache that would have been the envy of hipsters everywhere today. Before WWI, facial hair was actually a requirement in most armies. However, the brutal warfare of the trenches revealed a major follicular flaw: mustaches and beards prevented gas masks from sealing properly. A few chemical attacks later, and shaving became the hottest new fad on the Western Front. Maybe Hitler didn’t get the message in time: in October 1918 he was temporarily blinded in a British gas attack. However, Adolf couldn’t bear to part with the mustache entirely, and instead trimmed the ends away and neatened it up. History doesn’t record why he decided to keep that silly-looking patch over his lip after it fell out of fashion, but it certainly looks … dictatorial.

19. Hitler could stink up a room

The Fuehrer suffered from chronic flatulence, constipation and diarrhea—what would probably be diagnosed today as irritable bowel syndrome. Under the care of his personal doctor, a dubiously credentialed celebrity physician named Theodor Morell, he took dozens of medications to try and cure it, including a drug containing strychnine, which is straight-up poison. Strangely, that just made things worse—Hitler often had to duck out of dinner parties right after dinner for his own personal fart session, baffling guests, who didn’t realize he was probably doing them a favor. Unfortunately, not much help would have been available anyway: Germany’s once top-notch medical system was in shambles by the 1940s, what with its most progressive doctors having emigrated or been drafted or shipped off to concentration camps.

18. He had only one testicle

According to medic Johan Jambor, who treated him during World War I, Hitler was badly injured during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. “His abdomen and legs were all in blood. Hitler was injured in the abdomen and lost one testicle,” said Blassius Hanczuch, a friend of Jambor. Although Jambor died in the 1960s and only told the story to close friends and his priest, war records do show that Hitler was wounded at the Somme. And even in wartime, rumors tended to get around: a popular British marching tune from World War II starts off with the lyrics, “Hitler has only got one ball,” and just gets more creative from there.

17. A British soldier had the chance to kill Hitler—and didn’t

Private Henry Tandey of the 5^th Duke of Wellington Regiment once had Adolf Hitler in his sights. During a ferocious battle around the French village of Marcoing on Sept. 28, 1918, Tandey took aim at a German soldier who stumbled out of the smoke. “I took aim but couldn’t shoot a wounded man,” he later said, “so I let him go.” Tandey’s act of mercy would haunt him in later years. How did Tandey learn who it was he’d spared? Hitler recognized him in a painting by Matania (above), which depicted Tandey (who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his role in the battle) carrying a wounded soldier to an aid station. During a 1938 diplomatic visit to Germany, then-Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was shown the painting by Hitler, who said, “that man came so near to killing me that I thought I should never see Germany again…” He asked Chamberlain to thank Tandey personally.

16. Hitler nearly drowned when he was a child

Tandey may have felt guilty about sparing Hitler’s life during the First World War, but he isn’t the only one who helped Hitler catch a lucky break. In 1894, Hitler fell through thin ice on the river near his home in Passau, Austria. Luckily, a boy near his own age, Johann Kuehberger, saw him go under and dove in to rescue him despite the freezing temperatures. At the time, it was a feel-good story: a local newspaper published a small item about the rescue. Considering that three of Adolf’s siblings did not survive childhood, the rescue was considered a lucky break for the boy and his family at the time.

15. He won the Iron Cross twice

Historians tend to portray Hitler as a low-ranking slacker who spent most of his World War I service safely tucked behind the lines as a message runner, but he actually had a pretty decent record. He was awarded the Iron Cross twice during World War I, was wounded three times, and served through four years of an absolute slaughterhouse of a war, where the odds of survival on the front lines were measured in weeks. The experience left him utterly changed, angry and bitter over Germany’s defeat—planting the seeds that led to the formation of the Nazi party.

14. He joined the German army in WWI even though he was Austrian

At the outbreak of World War I, the future dictator opted to join the German army, even though he was Austrian. The reason for this isn’t exactly clear. Hitler said in later years that he didn’t want to be drafted by the Austrian empire because he was disgusted by the way the army allowed different races to join. But word on the street is that he was rejected by the Austrian army as physically unfit for service. Austria’s military was not necessarily one of the best in the world in 1914, though, while Germany had one of the stronger and better-equipped modern armies. And Hitler was already living in Munich, where he’d moved after his disastrous stay in Vienna. So it was easy enough to volunteer for the Bavarian army.

13. D-Day succeeded because no one wanted to wake up Hitler

The German army could have shifted more troops into Normandy to beat back the Allied invasion on June 6, 1944. But as the situation unfolded, crucial hours were lost…because German generals were afraid to wake up Hitler, or deal with his temper when he received the bad news. By this point in World War II, Hitler was making all the big decisions on war strategy, and didn’t trust any of his surviving generals. The situation was one of the worst examples of having to “manage upward” without any real upside for the officers stuck with the job of telling Hitler that Allied forces had established an irreversible foothold in France.

12. Hitler’s relatives were initially proud to say they knew him

For a few years after coming to power, Hitler’s story was a “local boy makes good” special-interest story, with a few disturbing flaws–like persecuting Jews, rounding up political opponents, and walking into neighboring countries without bothering to knock. Some of his relatives took advantage of his popularity, like William Patrick Hitler, the son of Hitler’s half-brother Aloise, who had settled in the U.K. He wangled free drinks and dinners, and even talked the dictator into getting him a job in Germany. But as Hitler’s horrible agenda progressed, all of his relatives began to deliberately withdraw from society. By the end of World War II, finding anyone with the surname “Hitler” was almost impossible: the Fuehrer’s surviving relatives changed their names and supposedly made a pact to never have children so the Hitler bloodline wouldn’t continue.

11. He protected his childhood doctor from persecution

Dr. Eduard Bloch was Hitler family’s doctor from 1904, when the family moved to the Austrian town of Linz. He often treated the family for free or at a steep discount due to their impoverished circumstances. That kindness saved Dr. Bloch’s life in 1938, shortly after Hitler annexed Austria. “The Fuehrer asked for news of Linz. How was the town? …He asked for news of me. Was I still alive, still practicing?” Bloch said in an interview with the Office of Special Services, the predecessor to the CIA. “Then he made a statement irritating to local Nzis [sic]. ‘Dr. Bloch,’ said Hitler, ‘is an Edaljude—a noble Jew.’…” Bloch was put under special protection at Hitler’s request, and did not have to wear a star of David. However, he wasn’t going to take his chances; after the Gestapo forced him to close his practice, Bloch used his status to get himself, his daughter, and son-in-law out of Austria and to the U.S.

10. Hitler was once Time Magazine’s Man of the Year

Joining the ranks of other influential figures, Hitler was declared Time’s Man of the Year in 1938 after bullying his way into Czechoslovakia without a single shot fired. “When without loss of blood he reduced Czechoslovakia to a German puppet state, forced a drastic revision of Europe’s defensive alliances, and won a free hand for himself in Eastern Europe by getting a “hands-off” promise from powerful Britain (and later France), Adolf Hitler without doubt became 1938’s Man of the Year.” Time didn’t exactly fawn over the dictator. “More significant was the fact Hitler became in 1938 the greatest threatening force that the democratic, freedom-loving world faces today,” the article went on.

9. He was totally devoted to his mother

Despite being history’s biggest jerk, Hitler had a soft spot for his mother. She nurtured his interest in art, against his father’s wishes, and encouraged him to apply to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (he didn’t get in). “While he was not a ‘mother’s boy’ in the usual sense, I have never witnessed a closer attachment,” Dr. Bloch told the OSS. “When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, he slept in a tiny room adjoining her bedroom so he could be at her side when needed, caring for her until she died in 1908. Hitler carried his mother’s picture with him into the bunker where he committed suicide in 1945.

8. Hitler was obsessed with the Old West

Young Adolf grew up reading stories about the Old West, mostly written by a German named Karl May—who never stepped foot in the United States, much less the West. Most of his stories were inspired directly by James Fenimore Cooper’s works, but read a lot like Mary Sue fanfic, with a manly German hero teaching both cowboys and Indians alike how manly German know-how overcomes all odds. For German and Austrian kids in the 1890s, May’s books set in the Old West were as popular as Star Wars is today. But Hitler used that fantasy to push his ideas of conquest. Manifest Destiny, in Hitler’s mind, became Lebensraum, the doctrine behind his annexation of Czechoslovakia, invasion of Poland and later the Soviet Union. “There’s only one duty: to Germanize this country [Ukraine] by the immigration of Germans, and to look upon the natives as Redskins,” Hitler wrote.

7. Hitler was never elected

Today, most people don’t think about how Hitler became the leader of Germany, or get the impression that he was elected by a landslide. But he actually wasn’t elected at all. Paul von Hindenburg was elected president of the country’s Weimar Republic for a second term in 1932. But the Nazi Party won enough seats in government to become the dominant party and demanded that Hitler be named chancellor of Germany. From that seat he engineered his takeover of the government, using a supposed terror attack (a fire at the Reichstag, or main government building) to abolish the office of president and establish himself as dictator. It’s nice to know that sort of skullduggery would never work today.

6. Hitler couldn’t drive (probably)

There is conflicting evidence that Hitler never drove a car in his life, but that isn’t entirely clear. What is known is that he never got a driver’s license. However, he did receive a speeding ticket in 1931—but whether he was actually driving is debatable, as the policeman who issued the ticket didn’t stop the car. Rather, he wrote down the license plate number after gauging the car’s speed, and sent the ticket to the owner of the speeding Mercedes, Adolf Hitler. Hitler probably didn’t drive at all once he became prominent, instead riding with a driver to public appearances. And when he was younger, he was too poor to own a car.

5. Hitler promoted development of the Volkswagen

That’s right, the adorable VW Bug and all of the Volkswagen models that have been on the road for decades indirectly owe their existence to Adolf Hitler. Hitler in the 1930s advanced the idea that every German should have access to a car, and a nice highway to drive it on (see: autobahn). However, the plan covered up the dictator’s real intent: gearing up war production under the guise of civilian industry. An entire factory and town was built to produce the “KdF-Wagen,” a “people’s car” that Germans could save up for and affordably purchase. However, none of these cars were produced before or during the war: Hitler instead re-geared the factory to produce military vehicles like Kubelwagens. The first civilian car didn’t roll off the line until 1946, after the war had ended, and under the control of the British occupation government.

4. He was nicknamed “The Little Tramp” in the U.S. and U.K.

Charlie Chaplin was the top comedian of the 1930s, wandering across the screens in his trademark bowler hat, cane and bottle-brush mustache. It wasn’t a stretch to compare Hitler’s similar-sized mustache with that of Chaplin’s character “The Little Tramp,” and the nickname became a fast way to identify which international D-bag one was referring to. Chaplin himself saw the resemblance—he even produced a movie starring himself as a lookalike Hitler, “The Great Dictator,” in 1940, which was one of Chaplin’s biggest hits.

3. Hitler loved to whistle

When Hitler was in a good mood, he’d break out his favorite pastime: whistling campy tunes like, “When You Wish Upon a Star” and “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf.” He really went off after the fall of Paris in 1940, whistling an impromptu performance for dinner guests on receiving the news. He also tended to whistle after bad news, but probably the tunes weren’t as chipper. One story claims that as the Germans began to retreat from Russia, he became so preoccupied and stressed out that he would whistle while eating. Which probably didn’t impress his dinner guests so much.

2. He promoted animal welfare

Despite having no qualms about murdering political opponents and ordering the genocide of an entire people, Hitler was very concerned about the treatment of animals. He implemented laws protecting wild animals as well as the treatment of cattle and poultry. A vegetarian who often lectured dinner guests about the gory conditions in slaughterhouses, Hitler had plans for after World War II to convince Germans to eat less meat. His diet was likely spurred by his chronic digestive problems, although he pointed to an autopsy he witnessed during his rise to power as convincing him that eating meat was terrible for health.

1. Hitler was supposed to infiltrate the Nazi Party, not join it

After World War I ended, Hitler stayed in the army—he had no prospects as a civilian, what with never finishing high school and that art school thing not working out—and was assigned to an intelligence unit. Germany in 1919 was a hotbed of political turmoil, still reeling from the economic effects of the war. The army assigned him to infiltrate the German Workers’ Party, monitor their activities and influence other soldiers. (That’s him at the far left, looking a little inconspicuous in his silly hat during a 1926 march through Munich.) But Hitler was pretty attracted by their ideals: he became member number 55 by the fall of 1919, the group changed its name to the National Socialists German Workers’ Party, and the rest is, well, history.

Sources: foxnews.com, theguardian.com, vulture.com, msn.com, bbc.co.uk