Hitler

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Adolf Hitler

• Born 1889 20 April in Austria to Alexois and Klara Hitler who then moved the Linz in Austria

• Grew up and happy and cheerful boy with his 5 brothers and sisters before his family moved to Lambach in Germany after his father failed in being a farmer

Early Years

• When his younger brother Edmund died in 1900 Adolf’s personality changed

• He changed from being a confident clever boy to one who constantly battled with his teachers and parents

• He had a good relationship with his mother but often fought with his authoritarian father

• His father wanted him to follow in his footsteps of being an Austrian custom official whereas Adolf wanted to a classical high school

• His father never relented and Adolf become more bitter• He did not consisder himself Austrian or Austrian

German but purely German (think back to the early units)

Continued • His father died in 1903 and Adolf’s behaviour become more

uncontrollable• He was expelled from school twice • From 1905 (16) he was living a bohemian life in Vienna on a

orphans pension and rejected twice from the Vienna School of Fine Arts who suggested he was better suited to architecture

• In 1907 his mother died and he continued to live in Vienna trying to make a living as a painter

• At this time Vienna had many Jews who had escaped the pogroms' in Russia, but it was also a place of wide spread anti-Semitism and racism

• This may have influenced his views later on, as well as the teachings of Martin Luther and Wagner

• In 1913 he recived the final part of his fathers estate and moved to Munich

World War 1

• First he managed to avoid military service in Austria due to ill health but when Germany joined he joined a Bavarian regiment

• He served in the Western Front as a runner and rose to he rank of Lance Coporal

• He participated in a number of battles including Ypres, Somme and Passcendale

• He was decorated twice for bravery (Iron Cross) and was wounded in 1916

• In 1918 he was blinded in a mustard gas attack and placed in hospital

Post War

• Hitler had long admired Germany, and during the war he had become a passionate German patriot, although he did not become a German citizen until 1932.

• Hitler found the war to be 'the greatest of all experiences' and afterwards he was praised by a number of his commanding officers for his bravery.

• Hitler believed in the Dolchstoßlegende ("dagger-stab legend") which claimed that the army, "undefeated in the field," had been "stabbed in the back" by civilian leaders and Marxists back on the home front.

• These politicians were later dubbed the November Criminals.

Entry to Politics

• In July 1919, Hitler was appointed a Verbindungsmann (police spy) of an Aufklärungskommando (Intelligence Commando) of the Reichswehr, both to influence other soldiers and to infiltrate a small party, the German Workers' Party (DAP).

• During his inspection of the party, Hitler was impressed with founder Anton Drexler's anti-semitic, nationalist, anti-capitalist and anti-Marxist ideas, which favoured a strong active government, a "non-Jewish" version of socialism and mutual solidarity of all members of society.

• Drexler was impressed with Hitler's oratory skills and invited him to join the party. Hitler joined DAP on 12 September 1919 and became the party's 55th member.

Review

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