A very old thread but an interesting one indeed!!
I think that Hitler understood some English and French, but he prob. didn,t want to embarass himself trying to speak it in public. Also he prob. thought that to be seen speaking anything else than German would undermine his German Volk theories. (that is just a pers. opinion though! )
It is common knowleadge that a lot of world leaders use translators even when they know how to speak the other language. for example, Jacques Chirac when meeting W Bush has a translator. Doubtful that Chirac doesn't understand english; ditto for Angela Merkel.
A leader using a translator has an advantage. He/She has more time to think strategically when the interpretor speaks. A recent example is Saddam Hussein; while leader of Iraq he always had Arab/English translators w/him. But when he was captured by the Americans, an American GI of Arab origin was with them to help translate; the group was very surprised to hear Saddam say:"please don't kill me, I am who you are looking for", in heavy-accented English, but in English nonetheless. There was no mention of anything relating to him being able to communicate in English in any of the US briefing papers.Also I read an article in a GQ summer 2004 edition where the young Marines (aged 20-25 y-old) who guarded Saddam told of the three months spent with him; that he was a nice and agreeable fellow, they played chess and dominos w/him, that he sometimes laughed alone, danced alone, and refered to himself as the President Of Iraq...Most of the conversations where in English; when there was communication troubles an interpretor was summoned, but it didn't happen often. All in all it was a great article, wish I could find it.
Sorry for bringing that up but I felt it was relelvant to the Hitler-languages subject!!
Man that forum is addictive!