Adolf”s father was Alois, an illegitimate child, his mother was Marie Schickulgruber. Alois took his fathers name Hitler before Adolf was born. Alois was already a successful border guard when he was 18, and later became an Austrian customs official. He retired in 1849 after 40 years of service. He was 58 and retired early because of bad health.
After he retired he bought a nine acre farm near the small town of Hafeld. His dream was to live a country life, but the farm took much more work than he expected.
Since his health was poor, he had a very hard time making a living on the farm. He had always found that spending time with his children was irritating, but on the farm they were forced to work side by side. This was difficult for Alois, who was very hard on the children. He often beat them when they didn”t mind. Adolf”s father”s main hobby was bee keeping, often the mother had to remove 30 or more bee stingers at the end of a day.
Alois married his former house keeper, Klara Poelzl, in 1885 she was already pregnant. Klara had three children who died when they were very young, before she had Adolf. Five years late she had a daughter, Paula. Even though Klara was kind to her step children she showed favoritism to her own children. Adolf was fond of his sisters but never got along with Alois Jr., A step child from a previous marriage.
Alois Jr. especially disliked Adolf because their mother always loved Adolf more.
Alois Jr. resented his father, who often beat him with a whip for disobedience, and ran away at the age of fifteen and never came home. He was jailed twice for theft and led an unhappy adult life. He lived in Paris for a while and then moved all the way to Ireland, but when Adolf became famous he moved to Berlin and opened a cafe hoping to take advantage of his brother”s popularity. Adolf disliked him and told his friends never to mention his name.
When Adolf was born his mother was afraid he would die so she gave most of her attention to him. She treated the other two kindly but never with the same affection as she treated Adolf. Adolf liked his half sister Angela much better, but his baby sister Paula was his closest sibling. Paula too charge of his household, and remained faithful even after he became famous.
Adolf was born in 1889 in Brounan, Austria, a small city on the German border.
When Adolf was young, he took singing lessons and sang in the choir in a Benedictine monastery. Adolf did very well in elementary school until he became interested in art. As soon as he saw all the attention he could get from drawing he immediately began drawing pictures of castles and landscapes that amazed his peers. Much to his fathers disappointment he decided to pursue a career in art instead of following in his fathers footsteps. Since he did his drawing in class his school work suffered.
Hitler said later on in life that he did bad in school so his father would let him pursue his career in art. At this time children either went to Gymnasium or Reilschule. Gymnasium was for people who wanted a classic education and Reilschule was a technical and scientific school. His father wanted him to go to Reilschule and Hitler agreed mainly because it offered a drawing class. Every day Hitler walked 3 miles to attend Reilschule in Rintz.
Reilschule was much bigger than his old school and he didn”t get the attention he was used to. After a while though, he started to fit in. He often organized the children into groups to play war games in which he was always captain. He based many war games on the stories he read out of James Cooper. Even as a child he was a convincing speaker, organizing the children into debate teams. He wrote later in Mein Kampf that he thought that this is where he got his speaking and organizational skills Hitler was fourteen when his father died. He could now follow the career of his choice. When he was 16 his grades were to poor to continue in school so he moved home to his mother.
He spent his time drawing and sketching. In 1906 Klara gave her son money to go to Vienna to go and enjoy the music and architecture. In 1907 his mother gave him permission to use his inheritance, about 150 American dollars, to go to the academy of fine arts. This would have paid for one year of study. When he applied his application was not accepted. The director said he had little talent or creativity and should become and architect not a painter. Shortly after this his mother died.
Adolf then decided to stay in Vienna and become an artist. He applied one more at the academy and was again turned down. He spent a year painting pictures to show the academy. His application was again turned down. More and more his talent for architecture was beginning to show. However since he was lacking a high school education he couldn”t become an architect. That was the time in which he became interested in German culture. Many of the students had a special admiration for Otto von Bismarck who had died in 1898. He was also very attracted to the characters of German mythology.
Two years later his money ran out and he had to move into a poor house where he could get free soup. He spent his time going to libraries and theaters and continued his interest in German culture. He would sit quietly and paint until politics were mentioned, then he run over and harass any within hearing range.
Three years later he moved to the Home for Men. Here he would scratch out a living by selling a few paintings. For a long time he wandered the streets. His family thought him to be dead. His friend Hanisch told Adolf that he could make a lot of money by making post cards to sell in taverns and on street corners, he tried this and for a while they sold very well.
Hitler first took up anti-Semitic views when he began reading about it in a local Jew hating magazine. His mother dying and his artwork being rejected at the academy, caused Adolf to develop a lot of bitterness toward the would in general, this is where he started blaming the condition Germany in on the Jews. Adolf began to hate Jews violently, He started attending anti-Semitic meeting and speaking in them avidly, often arguing his view until having to be escorted to the door.
After his art work was rejected Adolf had a very disappointing year in 1913 and he finally moved to Munich, Germany. He liked the city immediately. In spite of his rejection in Vienna, Adolf moved to Germany hoping to study art even though the Munich art market barely existed. He was forced to sell his artwork in beer halls to the drunken occupants. Hitler was not discouraged though, he liked Munich much better than Vienna.
He had time to go to libraries and participate in debates in lecture halls and taverns.
Adolf Hitler”s early years had a derogatory out come on the way he became. later In life he became very bitter. He turned this bitterness on Jews, communists and the world in general. He focused this hate all through his life.
