Adolf Hitler Early Life

Quote From Klara Hitler's Doctor, Dr. Edward Bloch

"Outwardly, his love for his mother was his most striking feature... I have never seen a closer attachment between mother and son."

Afolf Hitler Quote, From Mein Kampf

Klara Hitler's Death

"I never loved my father, but feared him. He was prone to rages and would resort to violence. My poor mother would then always be afraid for me." (9)

- Adolf's mother died in the autum of 1907 of breast cancer

- While his mother was in the hospital, Adolf, was constantly at her side

- After his mother's death in 1907, Hitler failed to gain acceptance into the Vienna Academy of Arts

Vienna Period

Family History

- Alois Schicklgruber (1837 - 1903)

• Adolf's father
• He was a mid-level customs official
• Changed his name to Hitler in 1876
• Hitler was the Christian name of the man who married his mother
• He could be described as "authoritarian, overbearing, and a stern, distant, and aggressive and violent father"
• It was still unknown who Alois' biological father was --> either Johann Georg Hiedler or his brother Johann Nepomuk Hiedler

Personal and Politcal Views after WWI

Service and Injuries During WWI

References

- Enlisted for the German military at the start of WWI at the age of 25

- Sent to the "Bavarian Regiment"

- Hitler was mainly used as a dispatch runner

- Wounded in the leg by a shell fragment during the Battle of Somme on October 7, 1916

- In August 1918, Hitler received the Iron Cross 1st Class --> a high honor for a foot soldier

- Adolf Hitler is wounded on September 28, 1918

- A British soldier by the name of Henry Tandey encounters the wounded German and spares his life

- Hitler was temporarily blinded by mustard gas in Belgium in October of 1918

- History.com Staff. “Adolf Hitler.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/adolf-hitler.

- “Adolf Hitler: Early Years, 1889–1913.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007430.

- "John Simkin. Spartacus Educational," Spartacus Educational, http://spartacus-educational.com/GERhitler.htm

- “Adolf Hitler: 1889-1924.” Spartacus Educational, 22 May 2014, http://spartacus-educational.com/GERhitler.htm

- “Hitler in WW1.” The History Place, 4 Jan. 1996, www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/warone.htm.

- “British Soldier Allegedly Spares the Life of an Injured Adolf Hitler.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/british-soldier-allegedly-spares-the-life-of-an-injured-adolf-hitler.

- History.com Staff. “Adolf Hitler.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/adolf-hitler.

• Hitler lived in Vienna between February of 1908 and May of 1913
• He had originally moved to the city with the dreams and aspirations of becoming a painter
• Hitler created a political autobiography of his early life detailing his dreams and ambitions of becoming a painter/artist, during his time in Vienna
• In his book, Hitler also described several of the harsh conditions he faced while being impoverished
• By the end of 1909, Hitler was completely immersed in what can be considered as “real poverty” as his sources of income had completely dried up, and he was forced to move into a myriad of different homeless shelters around Vienna
• In the winter, Adolf Hitler began to paint watercolor scenes of Vienna for a business partner, and he eventually made enough to live on until his departure for Munich, Germany
• He applied to the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts twice and his rejection both times shaped his hatred of Marxists and the cosmopolitan Habsburg monarchy
• Marxism is a theory in which class struggle is a central element in the analysis of social change in Western societies
• This is an early example of how Hitler was easily able to develop hatred towards a particular group of people, based on the early hardships that he encountered in his life (poverty etc.. )
• He was homeless for some years and sold his artworks to earn a little income.The prevalent racial and religious prejudice in Vienna at the time is said to have sown the seeds of anti-semitism

Linz Period

Early Childhood

- The Hitler family moved to Linz, Austria in 1898

- At this time Adolf began to seek a career in the visual arts

- Adolf's father wanted him to enter the Habsburg civil services

- After the death of his father, Adolf convinced his mother to allow him to become an artist

• Born April 20, 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Austria
• Located 65 miles east of Munich
• The area was filled with many German nationalists
• Adolf was baptized as a Catholic
• Hitler was born in a middle-class family with relatively few contacts with Jewish families

Hitler's Education

After World War I, Hitler stayed in the army, which was mainly engaged in suppressing socialist uprisings across Germany, including in Munich, where Hitler returned in 1919.

He took part in "national thinking" courses organised by the Education and Propaganda Department (Dept Ib/P) of the Bavarian Reichswehr, Headquarters 4 under Captain Karl Mayr. Mayr recruited Hitler to help re-educate soldiers in the wake of the social revolution occurring across Germany.

The aforementioned specialized courses took place at the University of Munich in June 1919, where Hitler heard lectures on Germany's economic situation, the political history of the war and other matters, all delivered in an anti-Bolshevik disposition, inciting him to proselytize nationalist messages to his comrades.

These helped popularize the notion that there was a scapegoat responsible for the outbreak of war and Germany's defeat. Hitler's own bitterness over the collapse of the war effort also began to shape his ideology

Like other German nationalists, he believed the Dolchstoßlegende (stab-in-the-back myth), which claimed that the German Army, "undefeated in the field", had been "stabbed in the back" on the home front by civilian leaders and Marxists, later dubbed the "November criminals"

"International Jewry" was described as a scourge composed of communists relentlessly destroying Germany

- Hitler left formal education in 1905

- Adolf did very well at primary school and appeared to have a bright academic future,

Hitler was then sent to a monastery school at Lambach but was expelled after he was caught smoking on monastery grounds.

- 17th September, 1900: Hitler began secondary school.

- He did not overachieve in secondary school, as well as having troubles in and out of school.

- His father, Alois, wanted him to join the Austrian Civil Service.

- Hitler originally attended a school called Volksschule (a state owned German school) in nearby Fischlham, Germany

- He experienced a major change in his life when his brother, Edmund, died in 1900 from Measles.

- In 1905, after enrolling in a classic High School named Realschule Steyr, Hitler passed a repeat of his final exam and suddenly decided to leave school with no future ambitions or clear plans for a “schooling” path.

Hitler lived in Vienna between February of 1908 and May of 1913

He had originally moved to the city with the dreams of becoming a painter

Hitler created a political autobiography of his early life detailing his dreams and ambitions of becoming a painter/artist, during his time in Vienna

In his book, Hitler also described several of the harsh conditions he faced while being impoverished

By the end of 1909, Hitler was completely immersed in what can be considered as “real poverty” as his sources of income had completely dried up, and he was forced to move into a myriad of different homeless shelters around Vienna

In the winter, Adolf Hitler began to paint watercolor scenes of Vienna for a business partner, and he eventually made enough to live on until his departure for Munich, Germany

He applied to the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts twice and his rejection both times shaped his hatred of Marxists and the cosmopolitan Habsburg monarchy

Marxism is a theory in which class struggle is a central element in the analysis of social change in Western societies

This shows how Hitler was easily able to develop hatred towards a particular group of people, based on the early hardships that he encountered in his life (poverty etc.. )

He was homeless for some years and sold his artworks to earn a little income.The prevalent racial and religious prejudice in Vienna at the time is said to have sown the seeds of anti-semitism

Quote From Adolf Hitler's Secretary, Christa Schroeder:

"I never loved my father, but feared him. He was prone to rages and would resort to violence. My poor mother would then always be afraid for me." (9)

Service and Injuries in WWI

Hitler's Connections to the "Inferior Races"

- Enlisted for the German military at the start of WWI at the age of 25

- Sent to the "Bavarian Regiment"

- Hitler was mainly used as a dispatch runner

- Wounded in the leg by a shell fragment during the Battle of Somme on October 7, 1916

- In August 1918, Hitler received the Iron Cross 1st Class --> a high honor for a foot soldier

- Adolf Hitler is wounded on September 28, 1918

- A British soldier by the name of Henry Tandey encounters the wounded German and spares his life

- Hitler was temporarily blinded by mustard gas in Belgium in October of 1918

Hitler's Connection to "Inferior Races"

• Hitler's relatives' most dominant haplogroup(a group of genes that are inherited from a single parent), known as E1b1b, which is rare in Western Europeans.
• However, it is common among North Africans, the Berber tribes of Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia; as well as being the major founding lineage of the Jewish population.
• All in all, Hitler’s family tree could have included Jewish and African ancestors.

Hitler's Anti-Semitic Views

• It is most likely considered that Hitler experienced the general mannerisms of anti-semitism, which was common among middle-class German nationalists. Nevertheless, he maintained personal and business relationships with Jews in Vienna and was, at times dependent on part of the Jewish population for his living.
• This may have been a cause for discretion about his actual feelings about Jews. It was not until after World War I that Hitler can be demonstrated to have adopted an “anti-semitic” ideology.
• Hitler was greatly influenced by two political movements in Vienna. The first was the German racist nationalism propagated by the Upper Austrian Pan-German politician Georg von Schönerer. The second key influence to Hitler's ideology was that of Karl Lueger, Mayor of Vienna from 1897 to his death in 1910.
• Where he was still in power when Hitler arrived in Vienna, Lueger promoted a practice of anti-semitism that was more practical and organizational than ideological. Nevertheless, it reinforced anti-Jewish stereotypes and cast Jews as enemies of the German middle and lower classes.
• Finally, unlike Schönerer, who were always comfortable with the elitist nationalism of the student fraternities, Lueger was comfortable with big city crowds and knew how to channel protest into political gain.
• Hitler drew his ideology in large part from Schönerer, but his strategy and tactics from Lueger.

Hitler's Early Life

By: Patrick, Darius, and Evan