Adolf Hitler
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Adolf Hitler
Hitler was born in a small German town, Braunau, at an inn. Hitlers parents had always lived there and were of Bavarian and technically Austrian descent. His father Alois Hitler was a civil servant and had been married three times. Alois was born illegitimate, and for the 1st 39 years of his life went by his mothers last name Schicklgruber until he changed it. His last name Hitler means “one who lives in a hut”. Later on in Adolfs life the allies tried to exploit his fathers illegitimacy, by saying Adolfs real last name was Schicklgruber. Adolf was born to his fathers 3rd wife, Klara Polzl . He had six siblings and he and his younger sister Paula were the only ones to survive to adulthood. Hitler as a child had ambitions to go and be a civil servant of some kind. His great oratorical abilities were even being formed as a child, arguing loudly in the classroom. Adolf was somewhat of a ringleader in his class, and even acknowledges that he was hard to handle as a child. His father failed to realize or encourage his sons abilities. Adolf was given singing lessons at the cloister in his village, and at one time when he was young, thought he should pursue being a priest in adulthood. He then was sent to high school were he was to be taught the liberal arts, so he could grow up to be a civil servant. Adolf no longer wanted to grow up like his father though. He was already becoming interested in warfare at age 11, because he found books on warfare. Adolf had great skill in drawing and painting in school, He even once thought being an artist would be a fit profession for him. His father hated this idea which, created tension between the two. His father beat him regularly, Adolf admitted to his secretary years later. Alois his father died when Adolf was only 13. He wrote that at age 15 he had become a fanatical German nationalist.
There were rumors that Adolf himself was one quarter Jewish. The rumor has it that his mother became pregnant while working in a Jewish household. In later years he took great strides to conceal his identity. He had a law made against women working in Jewish households. He also had his fathers hometown turned into an artillery practice range, completely destroying the town. At age 16 He left high school with “no qualifications.”
(Mein Kamppf ch.1/Wikipedia.com)
Adolf went to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna when he was 16. His mother died in the 1st six months he was away from home in Vienna. In the academy Adolf wanted to study architecture, but he did not have the proper credentials to. He even made postcard paintings to make money. He at one time ran out of money, and found himself homeless. He struggled for five long years in Vienna, he wrote that those were the worst years of his life. He was a sort of construction worker for some time in Vienna. He often ,at work, got in heated arguments with the capitalistic workers. He was forced to leave the job site one day when he was given the option of leaving, or being thrown off the scaffolding for his political views. The racial melting pot in Vienna has many Jews in it. This is when Adolf first encountered the strange and evil, in his eyes, Jews. His anti-Semitism came from many different people, one of the people was even the mayor of Vienna, Karl Lueger. Also he may have been influenced by the book Luther wrote “The Jews and Their Lies”. The anti-Semitic newspapers were influential also, because he often read them for their other political views not necessarily just anti-Semitic views. The views of these newspapers and books are commonly shown in his later years as a ruler. ( wikipedia.com)
Adolf inherited the rest of his fathers estate, and moved to Munich. Living there was like a dream of his. He became more interested in architecture while he was there. Not long after living there World War I had started. The strange thing is this made Adolf happy. He was quite enthusiastic about joining the army as soon as possible. On August third, he submitted a petition to King Ludwig the third, to join the Bavarian army regiment. (Funk and Wagnalls) He fought very valiantly, and was awarded two badges of bravery. On October seventh 1916 he was wounded by poisonous gas. He was in the Battle of the Somme when he was wounded, and was shipped to the field hospital at Hermies. He was glad to be sent back to action in the beginning of March in 1917. On October 13th 1918 British Yellow cross gas shells bombarded Adolfs regiment. He was struck by this gas very severely. He was sent to the hospital in Pomerania. While there the talk of the ending of the war, had increased. He saw the people who wanted the end to come as evil, and un loyal. A lot of the people wanted to overthrow the current government and surrender. Most of these seemed to be Jewish, which was another reason for him to despise the Jew. On November 10th it was announced that the impearial government had been overthrown by a republic. That Germany was to surrender to the allies and all their demands.
After the war ended it became apparent to him that he wanted to go into politics. He then returned to Munich in 1918 with a faithful war comrade Schmiedt Ernst. After listening to Gottfried Feder at a political lecture he, got an idea for the foundation of a new political party. He was sent by the army to investigate the German workers party meetings. He was interested in their beliefs and once again heard Feder speak. He quickly became part of and climbed the rankings in National Socialist German Workers party, or Nazi party. He recognized he could change the beliefs of the party, and incorporate his own ideals into theirs. (mein Kampf ch. 9)
An amazing orator as he was, he got into the minds of all the old war veterans. He organized a group of soldiers called storm troops, that were first active in Bulgaria. The field Marshal Luendorf then helped him attempt to stage an attack on Munich in 1923. The attack was meant to overthrow the government. The attack was called “the beer-hall putsch”. The putsch failed and Adolf was imprisoned for nine months. This is when he wrote his book Mein Kampf, which was dictated by his close friend Rudolf Hess. He and his close associates pushed their party throughout Germany very successfully. The depression in 1929 gave his party a boost in political supporters. The party had many German industrialists backing it. Adolf and his conservative counterparts feared