Hitler Has Only Got One Ball - Origin of The Song

Origin of The Song

In his autobiography Fringe Benefits, writer Donough O'Brien says that the original was written in August 1939 by his father, Toby O'Brien, as British propaganda. Toby O'Brien was a publicist for the British Council at the time. This version started with the words "Göring has only got one ball", and went on to imply that Hitler had two small ones. In virtually all later versions, the positions are reversed. The statement that Himmler was "sim'lar" appears in all versions. The final line of this original and some later forms ends with the word play that Goebbels had "no balls". Both these variations argue strongly in favour of O'Brien's version being a very early version, and a Daily Mail report of the time states that it was "attributed to someone not unconnected with our old friend the British Council".

O'Brien's claims have not been substantiated, and no author has ever been identified for the more popular versions that begins "Hitler has only got one ball". There is no known attempt by anyone to claim or enforce a copyright on the lyrics. It is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index, number 10493.

The numerous versions, including the frankly obscene, reflect the enthusiasm with which it was first adopted as a British Army marching-song, then as a popular song of British defiance against Hitler's Nazi-German regime in the other branches of the British armed forces and amongst British civilians, from 1940 onwards.

It has been suggested that the pre-Glasnost Soviet descriptions of what remained of Hitler's corpse reported his monorchism (having only one functional testicle) at the suggestion of Kim Philby, who wanted to make a joke based on this song. Whatever the cause, there was psychodynamic literature produced outside the USSR after WWII which sought to explain Hitler's personality and behaviour, as a genocidal megalomaniac, which drew on his alleged congenital "semi-castration" and/or the child-rearing practices of his family. It has been established, beyond reasonable doubt, that Hitler had two fully descended and matured testicles.