Tintin Forums

"Who was Musstler?", is a question that has come to my mind a number of times.

No matter how many times I read the book, I just can't seem to figure it out, so hope you guys here would help me?

If I am not mistaken, I guess - except for his mention in the letters - Musstler (the leader of the Iron Guard) never actually appears anywhere in the book? Isn't that so?
If he does appear somewhere, please correct me.
I have been wondering about it for so long - and if he really doesn't appear anywhere, does anyone know why Hergé mentioned him, but never actually showed him throughout the book?

Would love to get some answers!

P.S. Love this website!!!!

First of all: Welcome to the forum.

Indeed, Musstler does not appear in the book, he seems to have been some kind of figure who manipulated events behind-the-scenes.

The name actually comes from a combination of Mussolini and Hitler, the rulers of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany at the time.
The Iron Guard was the name of a similar Fascist party, based in Romania.

Hergé used the book in order to highlight the threat of Fascism at the time.
His sharper readers would have noticed how the name Musstler was based on that of two of Europe's leading dictators, but he may have felt that including a character that combined their physical characteristics (short, fat with a Charlie Chaplin-like moustache) would have been going too far.

mct16
Thanks for the welcome :) I was so excited to find this forum that I forgot to introduce myself :P

Well, so I was right all along that Musstler doesn't actually appear! Whenever I read the book, I always went through it again and again trying to find him, but your post above explains a lot. :D
Yeah, if he was meant to be based on Mussolini and Hitler, actually showing him in the book would've definitely got Hergé in trouble (he already was in trouble quite a few times because of his books I guess) and also the issue of accurately depicting him is there - but your description does make me imagine how he would look like, though!! :D

Thanks a lot for clearing my doubt!! :)

I'd like to ask a couple of things.

1) I have always assumed (since I have never heard anything to the contrary) that the name Musstler appeared in the original strips in Le Petit Vingtième, and it's not a change Hergé made for the publication of the book in 1947 - I take it that I'm correct in this?

2) Is there any proof that Musslter is indeed a splicing together of 'Mussolini' and 'Hitler'? Again, I think it's a fairly safe assumption - in the 1930s Hergé often used the names of real people and places slightly altered (e.g. Basil Bazarov for Basil Zaharoff and Gran Chapo for Gran Chaco) - but I'm curious whether there's any proof, e.g. a recorded comment dating from between 1939 and 1946 about Hergé's rather bold choice of the name?

The name Musstler features in the book version of King Ottokar's Sceptre, when it was first published in black-and-white in the late 1930s, so I think it safe to assume it was used in the original newspaper publication.


Michael Farr's Tintin: The Complete Companion quotes a passage from Hergé's meetings with Numa Sadoul, in which he himself points out Musstler's name is a combination of Mussolini and Hitler.
These interviews were made in the 1970's, but I think it again safe to assume that Hergé's use of the name was - even in the 1930s - directed against the Fascist leaders.

The threat posed by Mussolini and Hitler was felt by many people, even before the Second World War had actually started. Churchill was one of many who warned of the danger when Hitler rearmed Germany in the early 1930s.

When "Ottokar" was published Hitler had already merged Germany with Austria in what was called the Austrian Anschluss.

Herge refers to Borduria's attempted takeover of Syldavia (mentioned in the Musstler documents that Tintin gives to the King) as a "failed Anschluss".

I guess I really should buy this book.. :D

Thank you, that was very informative. :)

I must say, it was really brave of Hergé to include actual events and situations and even people, (even though with slight alterations) in his books in those troubled times of war and unrest.
I believe he even faced a lot of trouble due to it throughout his career.

By all means, do. It's a great book, that does a brilliant job of describing how the series developed and looking at the political and social issues that it raises.

Hergé's problems however were not due to his having indirectly denounced the rise of Fascism, but that - by working for a paper that was under direct control of the Nazi army of occupation - he was guilty of collaboration with the enemy. Even after the courts found in his favour, and he was allowed to work again, a portion of the Belgian people never forgave him, and the restored to freedom Le Soir newspaper had a policy of never mentioning his name in print, a policy that wasn't broken until the late sixties.