Matthew Tucker Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler was born April 20th, 1889 in Austria to Klara and Alois Hitler Sr. Through out his life Hitler experienced both the good and the bad. His father drank heavily, which left his family at his mercy. He usually beat his wife, kids, and sometimes even his dog. Most of his tempers were taken out on Hitler’s older half-­‐ brother, who got the worst of the beatings since he was older. At age fourteen he ran away from home to escape from his father. That led to Hitler getting beat more often. His mother, Klara, on the other hand was completely opposite from Hitler’s father. She was often too caring and overprotective and that bothered Hitler as he got older because he longed to be independent. At age six, Hitler was finally able to get a small sense of freedom and self-­‐independence when he entered Volksshule. According to his classmates, Hitler was very smart and excelled in academics. “Schoolwork was ridiculously easy, leaving me so much free time that the sun saw more of me than my room.” His teacher also noticed his alertness and his organization. At the age of eleven he had to choose between Realschule and the gymnasium. The gymnasium was a secondary school that focused more on the arts and preparing students for college. This, in Hitler’s mind, was the only option as he had the desire to be a painter. Realschule was a school that prepared you for a career. His father forced him to go to Realschule because he wanted Hitler to follow in his footsteps and be a government agent. In 1900, Hitler entered Realschule. The school was much larger than his old Volksshule. Because of this Hitler felt he didn’t get the special attention that he used to by both teachers and by students. Everyone thought of him as nothing special; just another country boy. His second year at the school he started to come out of his shell so to speak, and became more known in his class. He became fascinated with his appearance, brown hair with blue eyes. Thought this to be the mark of true Germanic people. Even though he was becoming a leader once again at school, his academic future held close to nothing. The following year of school he began having more problems, both at home and school. Finally on January 3rd, 1903 Hitler’s dad suffered internal bleeding and died shortly after. Leaving Hitler,13, the head of his household.

His dad’s death impacted Hitler greatly, as it left him in charge of his own future. He started doing poorly in school because he became lazy. Despite his failing interest in school, his history professor Leopold PÖtsch introduced Hitler to the Volkisch movement. The Volkisch movement was, at the time, a group of German people who thought that foreigners, especially Jewish immigrants, threatened the people of Germany. Hitler, being quite a German fanatic, took very well to this idea that the governments job was to protect and promote the people. The movement even influenced him after he was expelled from the school in 1904 for failing grades. The next fall his mother entered him into the Realshule in Steyr, Austria. Even with being miserable here his grades improved and he was asked to take the exams to enter into Oberrealschule. The summer after, he and his mother went to Spital, Austria to visit his Aunt Theresia. During his stay, he contracted a severe lung disease that would greatly affect his breathing for the rest of his life. This was a legitimate reason to end his schooling for good. So, at the age of sixteen, Hitler’s formal schooling came to an end. After he quit school Hitler had a lot of free time on his hands. Most of which he spent drawing and reading. One of his favorite things to read was the American cowboy and Indian stories written by Karl May. He was still living with his mom at the time, and she was still caring and providing for him. Opera was another love of Hitler’s and he often visited the Linz Opera House. In 1905 he met a young man by the name of August Kubizek. Hitler considered him to be his first real friend. They, almost religiously, walked around Linz talking about the future and going to opera’s. The opera Rienzi was one of Hitler’s favorite opera’s and, according to Kubizek, changed Hitler’s course of life. One day after seeing the opera, Hitler and Kubizek climbed a mountain. Kubizek described Hitler as becoming distant and withdrawn, ”My friend, his hands thrust into his coat pockets, silent and withdrawn, strode through the streets and out of the city…. Never before and never again have I heard Adolf Hitler speak as he did in that hour, and we stood there alone under the stars…. It was a state of complete ecstasy and rapture, in which he transferred the character of Rienzi…with visionary power to the plan of his own ambitions.'' Architecture was also another thing that Hitler and Kubizek kept themselves

occupied with. He and Kubizek would spend endless hours roaming Linz admiring the architecture and discussed how they would change the designs of some buildings. Hitler never spoke about being attracted to women until one day when he and Kubizek were strolling the streets of Linz. Her name was Stefanie Jansten. He saw her from across the street and instantly fell in love with her. He often wrote love poems, which were read by Kubizek but he never sent them to her. He remained madly in love with her for three years, yet he never spoke a word to her. He was scared to introduce himself to her because he didn’t want to tell her that he had no career. After she becomes engaged to an army lieutenant, Hitler plotted a giant suicide pact for himself and Stefanie at a bridge in Linz. In 1907 Hitler left Linz and traveled to Vienna, Austria to follow his dream for becoming an artist. His goal was to gain admission to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. In the fall of 1907 he took the entrance exam. He did well but was not accepted. He then returned to Linz to be with his mother, whose health was declining fast. She passed away on December 21st, 1907 from breast cancer. He, once again, returned to Vienna in 1908 to continue trying to get into the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. Kubizek also returned around the same time to study music. With the little money Hitler got from his mothers death he and Kubizek rented and shared an apartment. Hitler, trying to better his chances of gaining admission to the academy, enrolled in lessons. Sadly, he didn’t pass the exam again but it was suggested that he try his hand in architecture because of the complexity of the building in his drawings. Down and distraught, Hitler moved out of the apartment while Kubizek was at military training and left Kubizek no way to contact him. Around 1909 Hitler really started to hate Vienna because, with no career and nowhere to go, he didn’t fit in. He began to hate those around him for this reason as well. A little before Christmas of 1909 he moved into a homeless asylum. One day, while reading in his cot, he was approached by a man by the name of Reinhold Hanisch. He took Hitler under his wing and taught him how to live homeless. He taught him how to bundle up in the winter, how to beg for food and money on the streets of Vienna, along with many other things. Even with having a new friend, Hitler continued to stay secluded reading, painting, and forming ideas on how the

world should be. Throughout his readings he developed an even stronger sense of nationalism, claiming that Germans and Germany were superior to everyone in the world. He also developed what would become the basis of the National Socialist German Workers Party; Nazi Party. Later that year, Hitler and Hanisch moved to the Männerheim, a higher-­‐class poverty home for men. Soon after the move, the two opened up a business where Hitler painted pictures for frame makers as well as postcards and Hanisch sold them. The spilt the profits evenly. Hitler soon found out that Hanisch had been taking more than his share of the profits and had Hanisch arrested. Hitler then started reading newspapers and any history books he could get his hands on and became more involved in politics than ever before. Surprisingly, Hitler never smoked or drank considering that the people who he spent most of his time with did. He had always loved public speaking and often explained his political views with anyone that would listen. He also had a passion for the power of the spoken word. During his time in the Männerheim he became good friends with two Jewish men. He especially liked Jewish businessmen because they often took business risks. Considering that most of the people in Vienna we anti-­‐Semites and disliked Jews, Hitler never spoke or showed towards Jews until the 5+ years he had lived in Vienna. With the poverty, humiliation, and rejection he faced in Vienna, Hitler chose the Jews as a scapegoat because while he was failing at most everything he tried his hand at, the Jews were very prosperous. He gradually became persuaded by anti-­‐Semitic pamphlets and his own anti-­‐Semitism began to slowly take root. There is no doubt that Hitler’s terrible experiences in Vienna started his mental downfall. It was rumored that Hitler left Austria to escape military duty. He had been old enough to enter into the military since 1904, yet he never registered. The police had been looking for him and he was finally caught in January of 1904. He was ordered to return to Linz, Austria but couldn’t due to his lack of money. Instead of returning to Linz, he wrote a letter to the government asking if he may instead serve in Salzburg. He was allowed to and in February 1904, reported for duty in Salzburg. When he got there, he was considered, “unfit...too weak...and unable to bear arms”. Even with this minor inconvenience, the events leading up to WWI completely

changed Hitler's mind about military service and after the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand he was eager to enlist. In August 1914 Hitler wrote to Bavarian King Ludwig III asking permission to enlist in the Bavarian army and received an acceptance letter the day after. Being accepted into the military was very exciting for Hitler because it meant that he would have guaranteed food and shelter. It also gave him his first real purpose in life; to fight for Germany. Finally, in October 1914 he was on the front lines of battle. Later during the war, Hitler was a dispatch messenger for his regiment. Meaning he would run messages from one part of the battlefront to another. After the English and Germans got engaged in trench warfare, is when Hitler received the Iron Cross, Second Class, for bravery. “It was the happiest day of my life. Unfortunately, my comrades who also earned it are dead.” As for the ones who fought with Hitler, they showed nothing but admiration towards him. Although they respected him, they found it odd that he never took an interest towards women and never talked about family or anything. He did, however, take a liking to a dog that wandered into the trenches one day. He named it Fuchsl. On a mission one night in October a shell exploded near Hitler sending a sharp piece of shrapnel into his thigh. The injury was severe enough to have him be sent to a hospital in Berlin. He was very excited to be going to the capital of the country he envied. When he arrived he was sorely disappointed to find men who were bragging about how they avoided military service and people speaking in parks about how Germany was going to lose the war. While visiting Berlin he found the answer as to what was causing Germany’s problems: the Jews. In November 1917, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (Joseph Lenin) led communist revolutionaries to overthrow the Russian government. The first plans of the new Russian government were to sign an armistice with Germany. It was signed in March 1918. In January 1918