The most influential European of the 20th Century

[Tank-Ace]

Still, I've gotta agree with Kilo. He did the work in the late 19th century...... really a bit sketchy to say hes one of the most influential people of the 20th century.

[wil3ur]

Still, I've gotta agree with Kilo. He did the work in the late 19th century...... really a bit sketchy to say hes one of the most influential people of the 20th century.

Maybe he meant the band....   

[nrshida]

I'm just sketching here so don't take this too seriously but I don't think Hitler will leave much of a legacy when all said and done. Like Ardy said he was just another common or garden megalomaniac, who just happened to be in the right place at the right time: a socially and politically unstable Europe and in a tragically malleable and obedient Germany. A particularly destructive post Industrial Revolution bullyboy in a human history replete with bullyboys. It's important to separate circumstance from individual contributions. If it hadn't been Hitler it would have been someone else in that environment. Similarly with Gavrilo Princip. One man's actions could not have lead to a World War, in my opinion you are focussing on the wrong component regarding those world events.

If we are discussing 'influential', then I think of far more importance are those contributors in the chain of human development & progression. I suppose if pressed to name one I'd have to agree with Ardy that Turing is responsible for setting off a Computing Revolution which is comparable in magnitude to the Industrial Revolution.
 
But I would say something like that, I'm technologically biased. Perhaps Yarbles or Zack will show up shortly and make a convincing case for Nelson Mandella or Mr Kipling.  

[Rob52240]

Did you pick a person yet?

[Ruah]

Martin Heidegger or Ludwig Wittgenstein

i tend to say Heidegger, but my colleagues here continue to argue for Wittgenstein - but both of them are indispensable for many ideas circulated today.

'influential' is a tough category, far too broad to be meaningful tbh.  The usual politician answers all focus around the geopolitics of the 30s (Hitler, Stalin) and the rise of nationalism (Mao, Ho Chi Min) or even the radical changes that came about during and around the fall of communism (Regan, Gorbachev) - but these are all historical actors in my opinion - an intimate part of the tapestry and hard to isolate - so I settle on intellectual history since their influence far exceeds someone who is blind to the spirit of history.

[nrshida]

Did you pick a person yet?

Who?

[-tronski-]

Einstein or Alexander Fleming

 Tronsky

[Rob52240]

Who?

the guy who started this thread

[nrshida]

the guy who started this thread

Well I don't think he was very influential in the last century, but there's plenty of time for the new one 

[Slate]

   George Washington

  He has influenced every century since born and I have his picture in my wallet. 


  But if you want someone who lived in the 20th century it would be........................... ..............

[Shuffler]

Einstein...... I find anyone thinking Tesla to be shocking.

[Rob52240]

Better go find a Faraday cage to hide in Shuffler.

As far as Einstein goes.  He invented nuclear power and nuclear weapons and came up with the theory of relativity.

Tesla came up with the first practical way to generate electricity and send it considerable distances.  With or WITHOUT wires.  He is responsible for the electrification of the industrialized world.
He is also the inventor of Radio, Radar, the concept of an internet, a death ray, weather control and a whole lot more than I can list on a thread.

[Banshee7]

Did you pick a person yet?

No, not yet.  Although Hitler was my first choice, I'm starting to turn away from him after speaking with several of my classmates....who all picked Hitler 

[Rob52240]

Pick someone that will impress the teacher.  Like Tesla, the most under-appreciated scientist of all time.

[Banshee7]

I was going to try impressing him by picking someone that was French (his wiffe is French and he's spent many years there), but....well....it's the French