Hourly History - Adolf Hitler: A Life From Beginning to End

Adolf Hitler: A Life From Beginning to End

Hourly History

Published by Hourly History, 2016.

A dolf Hitler - he is arguably the most notorious person in the history of the world. There are few people alive who dont know something about him and the horrors he perpetrated on millions during the Second World War. Fewer people, however, likely know the story of his life beyond the role he played in the war. Just who was the man behind the monster?

Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, a town in what is now Austria, on April 20, 1889. His father was Alois Hitler, Sr. and his mother was Klara Plzl. He had 5 full siblings, three of whom died in infancy, and two half-siblings. During his childhood, Hitlers family frequently moved, first to Passau, Germany when Hitler was 3 years old, then back to Austria when he was 5, and at 6, the family moved to Hafeld near Lambach after Alois retired. The family then moved into Lambach after Alois efforts to farm bees failed. Hitler was 8 years old at the time, and he was active in the church there. He sang in the choir and considered becoming a priest. Only a year later, however, the family returned to Austria and settled permanently in Linz, the capital of Upper Austria. When Hitler was 11 years old, his 6-year-old brother, Edmund, died from measles. This greatly affected Hitler, who was formerly an outgoing, confident, and conscientious young man; after Edmunds death, he became a morose, detached child who fought with his father and teachers regularly 11,13.

After Hitlers father died suddenly in 1903, his performance in school deteriorated even further, and his mother allowed him to leave. He then enrolled in a secondary school, or Realschule, in Steyr. There his performance and behavior improved, but in 1905, Hitler left the school without plans for more education or a career. After the death of his mother in 1907, he then went to live a Bohemian lifestyle in Vienna, working as a casual laborer, and on occasion, as a painter. He even sought a formal education in art, applying twice to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, but he was rejected on both occasions. Because he had never finished secondary school, he lacked the academic credentials to pursue architecture, another interest of his and one which the director of the art school in Vienna suggested he should pursue. He subsequently ran out of money and was forced to live in homeless shelters and mens hostels. In the winter of 1909, he received help from an aunt and began to work as a painter. He painted watercolor scenes of Vienna and made enough to live on until he left the city11,13.

Early on in his life, Hitler, like many Austrian Germans, had developed strong German nationalist ideas. He had expressed his loyalty only to Germany, used the German greeting Heil , and sang the German national anthem, Deutschlandlied, instead of the Austrian Imperial anthem. His ideals may have been further shaped by the political climate in Vienna when he lived there. At the time, spurred on by fears of being overrun by immigrants, Vienna mayor Karl Luegerspouted virulent anti-Semitic rhetoric to great political effect. Additionally, the district in which Hitler lived was steeped in German nationalism, and the local newspapers promoted prejudice and fanned Christian fears of the area being swamped with an influx of eastern Jews. Still, despite the anti-Semitic attitudes of Vienna at that time, there is strong evidence that Hitler had Jewish friends in his hostel as well as in Vienna in general. While he would later state in his book, Mein Kampf , that he first became an anti-Semite in Vienna, most historians now agree that Hitlers murderous anti-Semitism didnt develop until after Germanys defeat in World War I1,11,13.

In 1913, Hitler received the final part of his fathers estate, and he then moved to Munich after failing a physical exam required to enter service into the Austro-Hungarian Army. He would later claim that he hadnt wished to serve because of the mixture of races in the armed forces there. Hitler was living in Munich when World War I broke out. He volunteered for the Bavarian Army, and although historians now believe he served in the army by error, he reportedly served with honor and was praised by his commanders for his bravery. He was, however, bitterly disappointed by the collapse of the war effort and Germanys capitulation in 1918. He believed that the German army had been stabbed in the back by civilian leaders and Marxists, who were later described as the November criminals1,8,13.

Following the war, Hitler returned to Munich, where he remained in the army. He served as in intelligence agent, and his assignment was to infiltrate and monitor the German Workers Party, the DAP. He became enthralled with founder Anton Drexlers ideas, which were nationalist, anti-Semitic, anti-capitalist, and anti-Marxist, and he became increasingly involved with the party, finally joining in 1919. He was discharged from the army in 1920, and he began working full-time for the DAP, which had, by that time, become known as the National Socialist Germany Workers Party or NSDAP. The shortened version of the name was the Nazi Party. Hitler had designed their banner, which consisted of a swastika in a white circle with a red background. Hitlers involvement with the group grew, and he began to play a more prominent role. Despite the conflict, his hypnotic effect on audiences propelled him to the leadership of the party. During this period, he was heavily influenced by the Aufbau Vereinigung, a group of white Russian exiles who introduced Hitler to the idea of a Jewish conspiracy8.

On November 8, 1923, Hitler and the NSDAP attempted a coup known as the Beer Hall Putsch. The revolutionaries initially succeeded in occupying the police headquarters and the local army unit, the Reichswehr, but key supporters withdrew from the effort, and neither the police nor the army joined forces with the group. The police were successful in dispersing the revolutionaries the following day. Hitler was arrested for his role in the coup on November 11, 1923. His trial began the following year, and after a verdict of guilty, he was sentenced to five years in prison. He served his time at the Landsberg Prison, where he received friendly treatment from the guards and was allowed frequent visitors as well as mail from supporters. He was pardoned by the Bavarian Supreme Court on December 20, 1924, after having served just nine months of his sentence. It was in prison where Hitler dictated the majority of the first volume of Mein Kampf (My Struggle). The book was originally titled, Four and a Half Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice 8.

Upon his release, Hitler began the task of rebuilding the NSDAP. Though he had been banned from public speaking, he was eventually able to get the NSDAP officially recognized as a political party in Germany. He took advantage of the dire consequences in Germany as a result of the US stock market crash on October 24, 1929. He and the NSDAP promised to strengthen the economy and provide jobs. The Great Depression that followed the stock market crash would provide Hitler with political opportunities he may not have had otherwise. With moderate political parties in Germany increasingly unable to control extremist elements, the NSDAP was able to rise from obscurity to win 107 parliamentary seats in the 1930 election. Though he played a prominent role in reviving the group, Hitler himself, was unable to hold public office; although he had renounced his Austrian citizenship, he had not yet become a German citizen. In 1932, he was appointed as administrator for the states delegation to a legislative body in Berlin by the interior minister of Brunswick, Dietrich Klagges. This act made Hitler a citizen of Brunswick, and consequently, a citizen of Germany. After this, Hitler was able to gain support from many quarters and eventually gained full power over Germany in March of 19338,12.