Hitler
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• To know who Adolf Hitler was and his background
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• To know the early years of his career
• To see how the NSDAP developed
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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