Namibian politician called Adolf Hitler runs for re-election

A politician named after Adolf Hitler is running for re-election in Namibia as he hopes to secure his fifth term in office. 

Adolf Hitler Uunona - who has been burdened with the Nazi Tyrant's name - went viral during the elections in 2020 where he won a landslide. 

And he is set to retain his seat with another huge majority as voters go to the polls on Wednesday according to the country’s electoral commission.

Hitler is running for the role of district administrator in the Ompundja region. 

Namibia is a former German colony in southern Africa, which is still home to a small German-speaking community and some people still have German names. 

Hitler, who has been in power since 2004, confirmed that he was running in the elections to Bild newspaper but gave no further details. 

He previously said: 'My father named me after this man. He probably didn't understand what Adolf Hitler stood for.

'As a child I saw it as a totally normal name. Only as I grew up did I understand that this man wanted to conquer the whole world.'

The politician said his wife calls him Adolf, adding that he usually goes by Adolf Uunona but that it would be 'too late' to change his name officially.

'The fact I have this name does not mean I want to conquer Oshana,' he said, referring to the region where he won the election in 2020. 

'It doesn't mean I'm striving for world domination.'

Hitler won 1,196 votes in the 2020 election compared to 213 for his opponent, returning him to a seat on the regional council which he previously won in 2015.

His name was abbreviated to 'Adolf H' in a list of candidates printed in a government gazette, but his name appeared in full on an official results website.

Once known as German South West Africa, Namibia was a German colony from 1884 until the empire was stripped of its possessions following World War I.

The real Hitler would later use the humiliation of the post-war Treaty of Versailles as a propaganda tool to win support for the Nazis in the 1920s and 1930s.

While Germany has spent 75 painstaking years trying to atone for the war and genocide that it unleashed under Hitler's rule, its colonial atrocities in Namibia are little discussed - but pressure for reparations has been growing in recent years.

German soldiers slaughtered some 65,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama tribespeople in a bloody campaign to suppress a local revolt between 1904 and 1908.

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Adolf Hitler wins election in Namibia: Politician named after Nazi leader sweeps to victory but promises 'I'm not striving for world domination'

The killings came after German occupiers forced native tribespeople off their land and recruited them for forced labour, leading to an uprising in which Herero people killed 123 German settlers.

In addition to the slaughter, thousands of Hereros were driven into the desert and died of thirst and starvation, and the rest were sent to prison camps.

The German government says it has a 'special responsibility' towards Namibia 'on account of the two countries' shared colonial past'.

But in August, Namibia turned down Germany's £9million offer of reparations for the colonial massacres, stating that it needs to be 'revised'.

The German community in Namibia has occasionally been associated with displays of neo-Nazi sentiment, including a celebration of Hitler's 100th birthday in 1989.

And in 2005, a German-language newspaper ran an advert voicing 'joy and satisfaction' over the death of Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal.

The German ambassador to Namibia demanded that the newspaper apologise, which it subsequently did.

The 20th century's first genocide: German massacres in Namibia  

German soldiers killed tens of thousands of indigenous Herero and Nama people in colonial Namibia between 1904 and 1908 in what has been labelled the first genocide of the 20th century. 

Namibia, then known as German South West Africa, was one of the few German possessions overseas - after its 1871 unification meant it arrived too late to capture much of the colonial spoils. 

The German occupiers forced native tribespeople off their land and recruited them for forced labour, leading to an uprising in which Herero people killed 123 German settlers. 

The German Reich sent reinforcements in response, and its soldiers carried out a brutal four-year campaign of slaughter in which 65,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama people are thought to have been killed.  

In addition to the slaughter, thousands of Hereros were driven into the desert and died of thirst and starvation, and the rest were sent to prison camps.

In the Battle of Waterberg in August 1904, around 80,000 Herero fled including women and children. 

Germany recently handed over a cache of skulls and other remains of massacred tribespeople, which were used for experiments to push long-debunked claims of European racial superiority.  

The German colonial empire was disbanded after World War I when the country was stripped of its possessions, and the colonial past has since become largely overshadowed by the horrors of Hitler's rule. 

Namibia was later handed to South Africa by the League of Nations and finally achieved independence from the apartheid state in 1990.