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Politician named Adolf Hitler wins election in Namibia

<p>Adolf Hitler Uunona has distanced himself from the Nazi leader</p> (www.elections.na/PA)

Adolf Hitler Uunona has distanced himself from the Nazi leader

(www.elections.na/PA)

A politician named Adolf Hitler has distanced himself from the dead Nazi leader after winning election in Namibia, saying: “My name doesn’t mean I’m striving for world domination”.

Adolf Hitler Uunona won more than 85 per cent of the vote for the ruling SWAPO in a regional council election in Oshana.

The Southwestern African country was a former colony of Germany and shares many street names and family names with the European nation.

“My father named me after this man. He probably didn't understand what Adolf Hitler stood for," he told Bild.

“As a child I saw it as a totally normal name. Only as a teenager 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. “It doesn't mean I'm striving for world domination.”

Uunona won 1,196 votes in the recent election compared to 213 for his opponent, giving him a seat on the regional council.

<p>Uunona won 1,196 votes in the recent election</p>Electoral Commission of Namibia

Uunona won 1,196 votes in the recent election

Electoral Commission of Namibia

His SWAPO party won 57 per cent of the vote across the country, a sharp decline from the 83 per cent they took in the previous regional elections in 2015.

Germany was forced out of the colony in 1915 with Namibia passed to South African rule before gaining independence in 1990.

The killings under German occupation there are seen by some historians as important steps towards the Holocaust in Europe during the second world war.

Colonial rulers massacred tens of thousands of Herero people after they revolted against the Germans. The Herero were forced into the Kalahari desert, and their wells were poisoned and food supplies cut.

Gen Lothar von Trotha, sent to quell the revolt, ordered his men to shoot “any Herero, with or without a rifle, with or without cattle”.

It was reported as many as 3,000 Herero skulls were sent to Berlin for German scientists to examine for signs that they were of racially inferior peoples.

Last month handwritten speech notes by Adolf Hitler have sold at auction in Munich despite concerns from Jewish groups they could encourage neo-Nazis.

The Hermann Historica auction house defended the sale of the manuscripts, all dated before the outbreak of World War Two, saying they were of historical significance and deserved to be preserved in a museum.

The documents all sold to anonymous bidders for well above their starting prices.

A nine-page manuscript by Hitler outlining his speech to new military officers in Berlin in 1939 about eight months before the beginning of the war fetched the top price of 34,000 euros (£30,000).

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