Richard Wagner: for Hitler, Wagner was the musical genius. Ever since seeing his first Wagner opera as a young man, Lohengrin, Hitler was transfixed. His friend during his time in Vienna, August Kubizek, later wrote that "Listening to Wagner meant to [Hitler], not a simple visit to the theatre, but the opportunity of being transported into that extraordinary state which Wagner's music produced in him, that trance, that escape into a mystical dream-world". Wagner's themes of heroism, heroic death and sacrifice appealed to Hitler. During his time as Fuhrer, Hitler was friendly with Wagner's family and he was known to them as "Uncle Adolf".

Frederick the Great: Another example (in Hitler's eyes) of the heroic Great Man, the eighteenth century Prussian king was to him a German hero. During the Second World War, he would repeatedly compare himself to Frederick; the embattled leader often doubted by his own generals but in the end triumphant. That was how Hitler saw himself in the latter stages of the War.

Hitler had other heroes, such as the sixteenth century Protestant reformer Martin Luther (who was also a raving anti-semite) and the nineteenth century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. However modern scholars claim that Hitler's appropriation of Nietzsche was a misinterpretation of his ideas. (Nietzsche was against nationalism and anti-semitism.)

Sources: Ian Kershaw's two volume biography of Hitler.