Adolf Hitler: Early Life

Before Adolf Hitler was Born

Alois Hitler, (Adolf Hitler’s dad,) was a public servant, beekeeper, and customs officer. But before Adolf was born, Alois had affairs with many different women. He married his first wife, Anna Glasl-Hörer, in 1824, who was a wealthy custom official. But Alois started to have an affair with another woman. She was young, with the name Franziska Matzelsberger. Adolf tried to divorce his other wife, but the government did not allow split-ups at that time.

Instead, he waited for his wife to die and had two new children named Angela and Alois Hitler Jr. with Franziska. After a couple of years, his first wife died in 1883, and Alois married his second wife.

A year after marriage, his new wife began to feel ill. Alois quickly called his younger cousin, Klara, to be an aid. Unfortunately, Franziska died in 1884.

After she passed, Alois got Klara pregnant. They had 6 children: Paula, Edmund, Adolf, Gustav, Otto, and Ida Hitler. However, Gustav, Otto, and Ida all died before they were even two. Edmund followed, dying at age five. Only Adolf and Paula survived through adulthood.

Childhood

Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, in Braunau am Inn, Austria. He was raised by Alois and Klara Hitler and lived with his siblings: Angela, Alois Hitler Jr., and Paula.

The Hitler family moved to Passau in 1893, then to Lambach, and lastly to Leonding. Adolf had to attend five different elementary schools, but regardless of all the moving, he was still a good student. Adolf was also studious and sociable with the other kids, reading books about cowboys and Indians, and playing war games.

But as he got older, he started to get in trouble quite often. He was caught smoking and even organized a raid on a local orchard. In class, he taunted his pro-Austria teacher with gestures displaying his commitment to the idea that the united Germanic people were a greater state than Habsburg, Austria. His father was enraged by his behavior and punished him severely.

Alois Hitler was strict, quick to anger, and took most of his anger on Alois Jr., Adolf’s eldest brother. Alois Jr. soon gave in and ran away at age 17, leaving seven-year-old Adolf to take his place.

Adolf’s mom, Klara, was the polar opposite of Alois. She was constantly worried about Adolf and his siblings and formed a loving bond with each of them.

The area of Austria-Hungary where Adolf lived was called the German Confederation and was established in 1815. People who lived there considered themselves to be German.

Adolf tended to go against his father’s say, so when he was an Austrian Public Official, Adolf got big in German nationalism.

During that time, his younger brother, Edmund, died of measles at age 6, 1900. At this time, Adolf was just 10. He had a strong connection to his sibling and was devastated when he passed.

Then, Adolf’s behavior started to change. He would talk to trees, stay up late staring at the stars from the cemetery walls, and lost interest in religion. His school grades dropped and like always, his father was enraged.

If things couldn’t get worse, he had entered high school and the city boys treated him like a peasant. Because of his declining grades, he had to repeat a grade. When he was done with his final semester, his dad died of heart failure in 1903.

Adulthood

After finishing his last semester, he didn’t take his last final exam and instead pulled out of school. At age 16, Adolf was unemployed and had no importance in life, and continued this behavior for the next three years.

Hitler barely went out, and when he did, he went to the opera with his only friend, August Kubizek. Fun Fact: Later in life, August wrote a book about Hitler called, “The Hitler I Knew,” in 1953. To summarize the book, August listed that Adolf was passionate about many things, felt that he was better than others, was quick to anger just like this father, and an incredible speaker.

When Hitler was 18, he said goodbye to his mom and went to Vienna to take an entrance exam for art school. He failed to get in and returned home. But, sad news was waiting for him. His mother, Klara, was sick and her health was rapidly deteriorating. Hitler stayed by her side but she unfortunately died at age 46 in 1907 from breast cancer.

Adolf was devastated and was overwhelmed by grief. The family doctor, Eduard Bloch, said that he never saw someone that overwhelmed. “Outwardly, his love for his mother was his most striking feature,” he wrote. “I have never witnessed a closer attachment.”

Hitler returned to Vienna, hoping to find a career in arts, but never did. He ended up on the streets in his early 20’s and moved in and out of homeless shelters. He attempted to make some money by selling postcards and art but made very little. Despite all the bad side effects that happened when he moved to Vienna, Adolf had just opened an opportunity that would change his life.

Anti-semitism

Although people do not truly know how Adolf became an anti-semite, these theories do make sense since Adolf arrived in Vienna at the right time.

In Vienna, anti-semitism was widespread in the city. The mayor who Hitler supported was an outspoken anti-semite, so he read into the conspiracy theories and became a firm believer. Note: There were many different anti-semitic newspapers, so there were many different beliefs.

Definition of anti-semitism: hostility to or prejudice against Jewish people

Definition of anti-semite: a person who is hostile to or prejudiced against Jewish people.

Hitler believed that there were many races in constant struggle with each other. He also believed that one of the purest were the German Aryan people and the worst people were Jews.

There were many other races that were ranked ‘low’ to Hitler. And Since Austria-Hungary had a big population of the ‘lesser races’, Hitler was not happy. Therefore, he moved to Munich, Germany at age 24 to avoid doing military service. He again drifted on the streets until something huge happened. Long-standing tensions in Europe erupted the first World War. (Also called World War I.)

The Beginning of Hitler’s Change

Hitler decided to volunteer for the German Army and had many positive benefits from it. It gave him a purpose in life, friendship, and brotherhood. Surprisingly, Hitler considered it to be the best time of his life, despite the horrors.

He reportedly a great soldier who was brave, and was awarded the iron cross in first class. During war, he had many close encounters to death. But his time ran out in 1916, when an artillery shell injured his leg.

Caption for picture above: Picture of artillery shell.

He went back to Germany to recover, but was quickly outraged. He found people who wanted the war to stop and with the war turning against Germany, he returned back to Vienna. But after heading back, Hitler was temporarily blinded by the British’s gas in 1918.

Things were not looking good for Germany. The peace treaty was tough and Germany still had a lot of debt to pay. (800 billion.) During the war, they also lost a lot of soldiers. These conditions weakened and humiliated the German people.

The world started to change. New countries were formed from Russia’s lost territory, Austria-Hungary dissolved, and a new country formed, splitting Germany into two. Hitler watched the changing world and grew a hatred for the people that caused the ruckus. ‘The people’ he believed that caused the downhill turn for Germany were the Communists and Jews.

Definition of a Communist:  a system in which goods are owned in common and are available to all as needed

This is just part one of Adolf’s Hitler’s history. Keep updated to hear the second part of Adolf’s story, which he is most famous for.

Sources:

Link to Video: https://youtu.be/ATlila3e9dM

WARNING: This video has some not child-friendly words. However, it is a cartoon and will help with understanding Hitler’s life history.

This has not been fully edited yet, so please keep in mind when reading that there might be some grammatical errors.