ADOLF HITLER
THE EARLY LIFE
SUMMARY
Adolf Hitler was born in a small town of Austria. His father was an Imperial Custom Officer. He never had good relationships with his father, though he died when Adolf was just 13.
Hitler always loved art. He wanted to be an artist and had an artist’s temperament. He was never good at studies. He always hated hard work and regular work. He did never care about job or career. One might say that he was aimless. He was always lost in his own world.
He spent few years of his life in Vienna. Where he learned some very important lessons of life and formulated his ideas. His days in Vienna were not very good. He earned his living by selling paintings and manual labor. There in Vienna he got the hatred for Jews and his basic political ideas.
Then he moved to Munich where he spent some good days of his life. During World War I he joined the army.
Everyone that knew him considered him useless. But letter on, he became the Chancellor of Army and led Germany just on his will-power and self-believe.
I conclude from his early life that we must believe in ourselves. If we believe in ourselves and have will-power, we can achieve any goal.
1- Introduction:
History is filled with such personalities who moved the world with their ambition, determination and will power. On of these personalities is Adolf Hitler. He was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau-am-Inn, a small town at frontier of Austria and Bavaria. He latter on became the founder of Nazi Party in Germany and played a very pioneer role in World War II. He caused the death of thousands of peoples, especially Jews.
2- Family Background:
Hitler’s family belonged to Waldviertel- a poor district on the north side of Danube. His family name is Czech in origin.
His grandfather Johann George Hiedler was a trader. In May 1852 he married a peasant girl of Stones, Maria Ana Schicklgruber. Five years ago, in 1847, Maria gave birth to an illegitimate child named as Alois. As accepted in traditions he was child of J. George Hiedler, but he never bothered to give the child his name. Alois was named after his mother, Alois Schicklgruber (Bullock 24).
Alois was brought up in his Uncle Johann Nepomuk Hiedler’s house. In 1876 J. Nepomuk Hiedler took step and legitimized the boy. He presented a statement, signed by three witnesses, to the priest at Dollersheim, which read that J. George Hiedler is accepting Alois as his legitimate son. Since then Alois called himself as Alois Hitler (Bullock 24). Alois modified the name a bit.
When Alois was 13, he left his uncle’s house and went to Vienna as a cobbler’s apprentice. From 1855 to 1895 he served as a custom officer in Brunau and other town of upper Austria. He was an Imperial Officer.
Alois had three marriages. Out of these three, one was Klara Polzl- grand daughter of J. Nepomuk Hiedler. From Klara he had 5 kids and third of them was Adolf Hitler. Alois had 7 kids out of three marriages. One of the 7 was illegitimate and two were born shortly after the marriage.
Alois was a hard and unsympathic person. After retirement, he spent his life in Linz- a city at Austrian-German frontier.
3- Schooling:
After primary education, 11 year old Adolf entered the Linz Realschule in September 1900. It was a secondary school for technical education.
In 1903 Alois died and in 1904 Adolf left the school, not because his mother could not pay the fee, she received a very adequate pension of Alois, but because Adolf’s record at school was not so good so he was transferred to a boarding school- Styre, where he completed his education.
Dr. Eduard Humer, one of Adolf’s teachers, said: “I can recall the gaunt, pale-faced youth pretty well. He had definite talent, though in a narrow field. But he lacked self-discipline, being notoriously cantankerous, willful, arrogant and bad-tempered. He was obvious difficulty in fitting in at school. Moreover he was lazy… his enthusiasm for hard work evaporated all too quickly…” (Bullock 27)
Hitler never liked his teachers too. Once he said in 1942: “when I recall my teachers at school I realize that half of them were abnormal… the majority of them were somewhat mentally deranged.” (Nardo 15)
4- Passion for Art:
Hitler always wanted to be an artist. He even had arguments with his father on this. His father wanted him to be a civil servant, just like him. But he always refused.
Hitler used to visit theaters a lot, with his childhood friend August Kubizek. Hitler had unusual love for Wagner’s Opera. They visited Vienna- capital of Austria, in May 1906 and Hitler was filled with the enthusiasm for art and opera of the city.
Hitler was desperate to take admission in the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna after coming back from Vienna. His mother was anxious but finally she agreed. In autumn 1907 he went back to Vienna with his friend Kubizek and applied for admission in Academy of Fine Arts, but he failed. As a matter of fact the list of ineligible students contained only one name and that was Adolf Hitler. He failed because of his poor drawing.
He stayed there in Vienna. He only came back on his mother’s death (she died of cancer) on 21 December 1907 and her funeral in February 1908. He went beck and lived in Vienna.
5- Life in Vienna:
Hitler shifted form Linz to Vienna in October 1906, when he was just 17 years old. He spent seven years 1906-1913 in Vienna.
Hitler used to live in his own fantasy world. He was sort of careless. He never was concerned about materialistic things such as job, money and living. He never even applied for a regular job. He hated regular work. It was his mother’s duty to provide him the elements of life. After his mother’s death he just received an orphan’s pension from which he carried his expenses.
Hitler and his friend Kubizek shared a small room in Vienna. Hitler lived a lonely life. He had not many friends. He had no particular interest in women. He was always lost in his own world. He used to wander around in the streets of Vienna for hours. He and his friend visited theater and opera many times.
In July 1908 Kubizek went beck to Linz for a while. But when he returned to Vienna he could never see Adolf again because Hitler applied in Academy of Fine Arts again and he failed this time too. He was so much disappointed that he could not even face his friend and buried himself into obscurity.
The four years 1909-1913 were the hardest years of his life. He spent his days in harness. He had nothing but a shabby overcoat. He used to earn his living by manual labor or by selling some self-made paintings of the buildings of Vienna. He spent most of his time on construction sites or stations, reading books in public library, talking about politics and when he had enough money he used to sit around in café and read newspaper.
Hanish, Hitler’s friend in Vienna says: “one evening Hitler went to a cinema where Kellermann’s Tunnel was being shown, in this piece an agitator appears who rouses the working messes by his speeches. Hitler almost went crazy the impression it made on him was so strong that for days afterwards he spoke of nothing except for the power of the spoken words.” (Bullock 35)
After this Hitler worked on his speech power and tended to become a great speaker and convinced peoples by his words.
Everyone who knew him in Vienna was impressed by him. He was a blend of ambition, energy and will power and had great ideas but drawback was that he did not stick to an idea for long. His mood was unpredictable.
Hitler left Vienna in 1913 for good. However, days in Vienna were very important in his life. These made the basic ground of his thoughts. He himself said in his book Mein Kempf: “Vienna was a hard school for me, but it taught me the most profound lessons of my life.” (Bullock 36)
Hitler got his basic political attitude, anti-Semitism and hatred against Jews here. He had very little changes in the ideas, through out his life, what he got here. He followed them all in his life time.
6- Basic Attitude:
Hitler always believed in struggle. He believed that man has got its position in this world due to his struggle. He once said: “Whatever goal man has reached is due to his originality plus his brutality.” (Bullock 36)
What Hitler learned at Vienna was that ability to lie, cheat, fraud, twist thing up and present the things as they are not are the abilities that made the man rise.
He never trusted anyone, was not loyal and never committed himself to anyone. All he believed was: get your goal, by hook or by crook.
7- Hatred for Jews:
Hitler hated Jews very much. He considered them intruders. Hitler thought that Jews are taking over the Germany which is rightful property of Germans. They are becoming leaders and pushing the Germans backward.
Hitler disliked the modifications, made by Jews, in literature, culture, theater, politics and many other things. What Hitler felt about the Jews is: “through a thousand years of inbreeding, often practiced within a very narrow circle, the Jew has in general preserved his race… much more rigorously than many of the people among whom he lives. And as a result, there is living amongst us a non-German, foreign race, unwilling and unable to sacrifice its racial characteristics…. [The Jew’s] weapon is the public opinion which is never given utterance by the press, but always led by it and falsified by it… Everything which makes men strive for higher things, whether religion, socialism, or democracy, is for him only a means to an end, to the satisfaction of a lust for money and domination. His activities produce a racial tuberculosis among nations.” (Nardo 16)
Hitler started blaming Jews for everything that went wrong in the country. There seem no solid reasons for his hatred. Many writers say that his hatred for the Jews was due to some sexual disease or child-abuse experience. A psychologist might say that Hitler had made Jews a scapegoat for his own inadequacies. (Nardo 60)
whatever the reasons might be, he hated the Jews so much that he wanted to eradicate them from the world.
8- Life at Munich:
in 1913 Hitler left the Vienna forever and moved to Munich- a city of southern German region.
when Hitler moved to Munich, he was just 24. He lived there with a tailor’s family. Those who knew him said that he was awkward, fascinating and lost in his own world. Those were the happiest days of his life. He wrote about Munich: “by far the happiest time of my life… I came to love the city more than any other place known to me. A German city. How different from Vienna.” (Bullock 48)
There in Munich his ideas and hatred rooted deeper. He even applied in the army but was rejected due to his poor health.
9- Hitler in the Army:
in 1914 World War I broke out. Hitler enlisted himself as a volunteer and joined the German Army.
he served as a message carrier, from head-quarter to the battle field, in the army. He never asked for a leave, never received a letter or parcel form the relatives. Even in the army his attitude was the same. One of his fellows in the army writes: “he sat in the corner of our mess holding his head between his hands, in deep completion. Without warning, he would leap up and, running excitedly, say that in spite of our big guns victory would be denied us, because Germany’s invisible foes posed a greater danger than the enemy. Then he would launch into a tirade about these foes, namely the degenerate Jews and communists.” (Nardo 17)
He was not a coward person. He got two meddles for his bravery in the battle field and was even temporarily blinded due to poison gas. He never rose above the rank of corporal but he never even demanded a promotion. This matter was letter raised by the parties that how can a corporal become Chancellor of the Army but he took over the matter.
10- Conclusion:
Records show that he never even applied for a job. Most of the people, who knew him, considered him a pathetic, lost, useless and aimless person. But letter on this same person became the Chancellor of the Army. He led the country and changed its fate. All he did was only on his will-power and self-believe. So we must believe in ourselves.
11- References:
1- Bullock, Alan. Hitler- a Study in Tyranny. New York and Evanston: Harper & Row, 1964.
2- Nardo, Don. The Rise of Nazi Germany. California: Greenhanven Press, 1999.
