Yes, dictators have been known to have body doubles. And it was an EXTREMELY dangerous job, especially if the regime was failing. A prime example of this was Gustav Weler. That name will most likely not ring any bells to anyone who reads this answer. However, his death arguably helped spark one of the more profound conspiracy theories in modern times. Basically Gustav Weler was one of Adolf Hitler’s body doubles. Towards the end of World War II Hitler was becoming extremely agitated, and his physical health was in full decline. He had tremors in his hands, and had major gastro-intestinal issues – and of course extreme paranoia. Hitler was also prone to manic episodes, followed by extreme rage and out bursts. Hitler at the end of the war became a recluse, who retreated to the relative safety of his underground Führerbunker. He planned and oversaw the war from there, as Germany, and even his capital was crumbling to ruin all around him.

Now not much is known of Gustav Weler, other than that he was a double of Hitler’s for some time, and made appearances around the end of the War in Berlin. Actually the only things really known about Weleri s that he stood in for Hitler, as Hitler’s doppelganger during a few political rallies. The other known thing about Weler is that as the Soviets were advancing on the Reichstag and later the Reich Chancellery (the building above the Führerbunker) Hitler’s SS security detachment shot Gustav Weler in the forehead with a 9mm pistol (most likely a Walther P38, or Luger P06), and then displayed his corpse in such a way so as to prove to the advancing Soviets that Hitler was killed in the bunker. There are photos throughout the internet of Gustav Weler with a bullet hole in his head, and picture of Adolf Hitler on his torso. These were taken by the Soviet advancing troops. At first they believed that this was Hitler. After all Weler and Hitler looked almost identical – except one was a little taller, and their dental records were different. Eventually the Soviets learned of the real Adolf Hitler’s suicide in the Führerbunker, and how the SS security detachment dragged his and Eva Hitler (nee’ Braun) bodies to the Reich Chancellery gardens, poured gasoline over the bodies and set them alight in a shallow grave.

For many years Conspiracy Theorists believed that Gustav Weler’s photos were actual proof of Hitler’s death (and that the burned bodies in the Chancellery garden were decoys). Other Conspiracy Theorists believed that the body was Weler’s, but that raised the question of why would the Nazis go through all of that trouble of killing Hitler’s body double for Hitler to only eventually kill himself? Thus proving to theorists that the charred remains in the shallow grave in the Chancellery garden were decoys, just like Weler’s body, and that this was done so Adolf Hitler and Eva Hitler could escape and live. And of course theorists suggest Hitler fled to Argentina where he spent the rest of his days, and eventually dying in obscurity in the 1960s. That is of course if you believe those theories (which I, and the vast majority of Historians do not believe).

Either way, being a body double for a politician, especially an evil dictator during the waning years of his empire, was a very risky business and situation to be in. In the case of Gustav Weler he did not die at the hands of the Soviet advancing troops, or the Soviet Secret Police (the dreaded NKVD), but rather died at the hands of Hitler’s personal SS security detachment. All as a way to throw the Soviets off the scent of what the real Adolf Hitler was planning to do. Ironically Adolf Hitler and his new wife Eva Hitler committed suicide shortly after Gustav Weler was murdered – thus making Weler’s death irrelevant, and pointless. But in a war with so much death and destruction death permeated the air, and effected everyone in some way or fashion. And for Gustav Weler his death was simply because he look liked and spoke like Hitler.