Lessons learned from Adolf Hitler’s rise towards power in 1920s Germany are “still very relevant today,” according to a leading UK broadcaster.

On Newstalk Breakfast today, Adrian Chiles said the dictator was once considered a laughing stock - but used that to his benefit.

He referenced a quote by Hitler as proof:

“Whether they represent us as clowns or criminals; the main thing is that they mention us, that they concern themselves with us again and again,” the dictator once said.

Mr Chiles said the passage “jumped out of the page” at him when he came across it recently.

“I thought there are certain political figures we’re so busy laughing at saying they’re buffoons and idiots, that we kind of underestimate them,” he said.

“The Hitler of the 1920s was this slightly ludicrous figure, going red in the face, yelling and stamping his feet, and not being taken entirely seriously.

“It seems very relevant for today.”

Trump

The former host of The One Show on BBC said Donal Trump is someone laughed at today.

“Trump is the one that jumps out of the page where we sort of laughed at him," he said.

“We laughed with him sometimes because you couldn’t help but laugh at some of the outrageous things he said.

“To some extent, I think we can underestimate people as we’re so busy thinking, ‘They’re hilarious, nobody can be taking them seriously.’

“All of a sudden, you’ll find people are taking them seriously and I think that’s worth bearing in mind because when you underestimate somebody, in a bizarre way it empowers them.”

Thick skin

Mr Chiles said the remarks from Hitler that concerned him are phrased differently in today’s world.

“The way we express that now is we say ‘there’s no such thing as bad publicity’ – you often hear it,” he said.

“If you have thick enough skin, you can take bad publicity if all you care about is being mentioned, even if people are mocking and laughing at you.

“It just gives you a way in for some people and I just think we need to be careful about that.”

'Ludicrous' figure

He said Hitler was always considered a “ludicrous” figure, even during his reign as dictator.

“In the past, we always looked at Hitler thinking, ‘How could the Germans be so stupid to be taken in from him, couldn’t they see he was a ludicrous figure?’ he said.

“What I take from what I’ve read now is that they weren’t taken in by him, a significant number of people thought he was ridiculous and didn’t take him seriously at the time.

“They feel the same way we feel about him now, looking back at the young Hitler”.

Mr Chiles adds, “There’s a real lesson there”.

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Main image: Adrian Chiles. Credit: michael melia/Alamy Live News