WHO WAS HITLER?

Youth• b. April 20 1889• d. April 30 1945 (suicide)

• Born in Braunau am Inn, Austria- Hungary

• Father Alois, Mother Klara, sister Paula (he had 5 siblings, 4 of which died in infancy)

• His father was a customs bureau chief (after failing at farming and apiary)

• His education had been highly studied using primary sources (report cards, interviews, etc.)- he seemed only to excel in physical education and visual arts

• Leaves school at age 16 with no qualifications

French Unsatisfactory Geography Satisfactory

German Adequate Gymnastics Excellent

History Satisfactory Physics Adequate

Math Unsatisfactory Art Excellent

Chemistry Adequate Geometry Adequate

Hitler's final school report (September 1905) was as follows:

Vienna• Father dies in 1903- small inheritance/support from his

mother moves to Vienna

• He worked as a casual labourer and as a street painter- painting watercolours on the streets

• He was a skilled artists, his favourite themes being nature, women and animals (dogs)

• 1907 and 1909 Hitler applied to the Academy of Arts in Vienna and was rejected both times for “unfitness in painting”

Vienna• 1907 Klara dies

• Hitler becomes homeless living in shelters throughout Vienna

• Vienna just happened to be a hotbed of racism and prejudice

• It was here, evidence suggests, that Hitler started to develop his anti-semitism

Munich and the War• 1913 Hitler received the rest of his father’s inheritance and moves to

Munich Germany

• The purpose of which was to escape conscription into the Austrian army which was “overrun with other races”

• In Munich he spent most of his short time reading and sneaking into Operas (Wagner)

• He was caught by the Bavarian police and sent back to Vienna where he was deemed “unfit for military service”- likely due to his health

• Interesting fact- according to his physical he was 5’8

The War• When war broke out he volunteered into the Bavarian army (its own

unit fighting closely with the Germany army)

• Dispatch runner, spent most of his time behind the front lines but did serve at Ypres, Somme and Passchendaele- he was wounded at the Somme (shot in the thigh)

• He received the Iron Cross- highest military award in Germany as well as the Black Wound Badge

• “Respect the superior, don’t contradict anybody and obey blindly”

• October 1918- temporarily blinded by mustard gas and was in a hospital when Germany surrendered.