Adolf Hitler: Early Life

Adolf Hitler had a lot of problems in his early life that could have affected him later on to hate or blame another group, this is Adolf Hitler’s early life. Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, in upper Austrian border town Braunau am Inn and was baptized as a catholic. His father Alois Hitler (1837-1903) had changed his name to Hitler, the chrstain man who married his mother five years after birth. His father would be questioned for eligibility as early as the 1920s and Hitler’s grandfather was jewish.

In 1885 two important events happened first the unrestrained and carefree days that he had enjoyed came to an end as he entered primary school. Secondly, his father retired on a pension from the Austrian civil service. This meant a double dose of discipline from school and his strict father at home. His father was 58 and had spent most of his life working his way up the ranks of the civil service. He was used to giving instructions and expected the same from his children.

Hitler’s household consisted of Adolf, little brother Edmund, little sister paula, older half brother Alois Jr., older half sister Angela and his parents who were home all the time. The oldest sibling was Alois 13 he was beaten and took harsh words from his father and a year later when he was 14 ran away. That meat that the all the abuse would be shifted to Adolf. Also at this time the family had moved off a farm to a town Lambach,Asturia, halfway between Linz and salzburg.

That was the first of several moves that the family would endure during the retirement of Hitler’s father. For Adolf, the move to Lambach meant no more farm chores and more time to play. There was an old Catholic Benedictine monastery. Adolf went to school there and the building was decorated very well and Adolf saw that every day. Adolf did well in school and joined the choir. It was said that he had a very good voice. Hitler also was very interested in becoming a priest and for 2 years seriously thought about becoming one. Adolf really admired the abbot in charge, This person ruled the black robed monks with all authority. At age nine Adolf got caught smoking by a priest but was forgiven and not punished. His favorite game to play outside was “Cowboys and Indians” Tales of the west coast of America was popular with the boy of Austria and Germany. Books by James Fenimore Cooper and especially German writer Karl May were eagerly read and played out. Hitler had read a book by may called “Old Shatterhand”, he read this throughout his life and even as Führer. He ordered his men to all carry May’s book. Hitler later said of himself that he was an argumentative little boy or “ring leader” who liked to stay outside and hang around the “husky” boys.

In 1889 Hitler’s family moved to Linz, the capital of upper Austria, They had settled into a small house with a garden next to a cemetery. This meant yet another change in schools for Hitler. Hitler found school easy and got good grades with little effort. He also discovers that he had admirable talent for art, especially sketching buildings. He had the ability to look at a building and remember it and draw it.

One day Hitler was going through his father’s stuff and found a book with pictures and writing about the war (1870-1871) between the Germans and the french. By Hitler’s account this book became an obsession and he was convinced that this was a glorious event. ‘It was not long before the great historic struggle had become my greatest spiritual experience. From then on, I became more and more enthusiastic about everything that was in any was connected with war or, for that matter, with soldiering,’ Hitler stated in his book Mein Kampf. For Hitler the cowboys and Indians gave way to war reenactments and when he was 11 years old there was a war in africa between them and britain and he always took the africans side. Hitler would go and play Cowboys and Indians with the other boys and wear them out and then he would sometimes go and find other boys to play with.

At this time his younger brother had died Edmund at age 6 from measles and from the games with pretend death he had to confront real death for the first time and was shookin from it. Also to make matters worse his little brother was buried at the graveyard right next to his house and from Adolfs window he could see the graveyard. Years later his neighbors recall seeing him at night sitting on the wall of the graveyard and looking up to the stars.

But there were more problems rising, Hitler’s grade school years were coming to an end. He had to choose which type of secondary school that he would go to classical or technical. Hitler of course wanted to go into classical but his father wanted him to follow his footsteps and become a civil servant. So he had sent him to the technical school in Linz in September 1900. Hitler was a country boy and he had a hard time in the big city and his big school. City kids would look down on the country boys and Hitler was very lonely and did very poorly in his first year so he got kept back. Hitler later stated that he was just trying to get his father to see how bad he was failing, and then thought that he would let him into art school. There were frequent arguments between Hitler and his father, and to the mind of his authoritarian father. To his father the thought of becoming an artist just seemed ridiculous. But to Hitler’s view, sitting in an office all day doing nothing but paperwork was ridiculous. Hitler began his second year at highschool being the oldest one there, his age gave him an advantage over everyone else and became the ring leader once again. Also he even lead the game cowboys and indians, became old shattered. He had managed to get good grades in his second year, but still failed mathematics.

Another interest rose to the surface at this time, German nationalism. The area of Asturia where Hitler grew up is very close to the German border but is Asturia territory. But most people consider themselves the be Germans-Asturians, but are the subjects of the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy and its multiracial empire. But they did express loyalty to the German Imperial House of Hohenzollern and there Kaiser. But in defiance of the Asturian rule Hitler and his friends had singed the german nationalism song instead of the Asturian song, and they had also used an german greeting called “Heil” amd the german anthem is ‘Deutschland Über Alles.” Hitlers father had worked as an Astrian imperial agent and also expressed loyalty to the astrian gaurd alot in his house. This couldve had sparked his rebelios sons actions even more. There was also the history teacher Mr.Leopold Pötsch He had taught Hitler all the glorious storys of German victory.

When Hitler was in hitler wanted a career in visual arts and fought bitterly with his father who wanted him to join the Habsburg civil service. After his father’s death Hitler eventually persuaded his mother to permit him to pursue his dream of becoming an artist.

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