Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889, Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary – 30 April 1945, Berlin, Germany) was a German artist, statesman, theoretician, politician, soldier and writer. He became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, and Führer from 1934 to 1945. He led the Nazi Party and created the Greater German Empire. He is considered to be one of the most evil people to have ever existed.
Childhood[]
Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary (now in modern Austria) right on the Austro-German border. He was the fourth of Alois and Klara Hitler's six children.
When Adolf was three, his family moved to Kapuzinerstrasse 5, where Adolf would acquire his lifelong accent. As a child he tirelessly played "Cowboys and Indians" and became fixated on war after finding a picture book about the Franco-Prussian War in his father's room. When Adolf was 11 years old, his younger brother Edmund died of measles. This caused change in Adolf's personality He went from a confident, outgoing boy to a detached, sullen boy who constantly battled his father and his teachers.
Adolf's father wanted him to follow in his footsteps and become a high-ranked official, and this became a huge source of conflict between them. Adolf wanted to go to classical high school and become an artist but his father sent him to the Realschule in Linz, a technical high school.
For young Adolf Hitler, German nationalism quickly became an obsession, and it was a good way to rebel against his father, who served the Austrian government. Like many Austrian Germans he showed pride in his German ancestry, he expressed loyalty only to Germany despising the multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire.
After Alois' sudden death on January 3, 1903, Hitler's behaviour at the technical school became even more disruptive, and he was asked to leave. Adolf erolled at the Realschule in Steyr, but was expelled during his second year. He never returned to school again.
Early Childhood[]
From 1905 on, Hitler lived a bohemian life in Vienna on an orphan's pension and support from his mother. He was rejected twice by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, citing "unfitness for painting", and they told him his abilities should be used for architecture. He followed this recommendation, and he became convinced that this was his path to pursue, but he lacked the academic preparation for architecture school.
In 1907, Adolf's mother died of breast cancer, and he was forced to give some of the money his mother had sent him to his sister. He ran out of money after the second time he was rejected by the Art Academy. Adolf Hitler always said he first became an anti-Semite in Vienna, which had a large Jewish community.
Hitler claimed that Jews were enemies of the Aryan race. He held them responsible for Austria's crisis. He also identified certain forms of socialism and bolshevism, which had many Jewish leaders, as Jewish movements, merging his antisemitism with anti-Marxism. He later blamed Germany's military defeat in World War I on the 1918 revolutions and he considered Jews the culprits of Germany's downfall and economic problems.
In 1913, Hitler moved to Munich, where he became more interested in architecture. When Germany entered World War I in August 1914, he asked permission to serve in a Bavarian regiment. This request was granted, and Adolf Hitler enlisted in the Bavarian Army.
World War I[]
Hitler served in France and Belgium as a runner for the 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment, which exposed him to enemy fire. Hitler was twice decorated for bravery, once in 1914 receiving the Iron Cross Second Class and in 1918, the Iron Cross First Class. Additionally, in 1917 he received the Wound Badge for injuries he suffered on his leg. On October, 15, 1918, Hitler was admitted to a field hospital, temporarily blinded by a mustard gas attack.
His duties at regimental headquarters, while often dangerous, gave Hitler time to pursue his artwork. When he had the time he drew cartoons and instructional drawings for the army newspaper.
Hitler had long admired Germany, and during the war he had become a passionate German patriot. He was shocked by Germany's capitulation in November 1918 even while the German army still held enemy territory. Like many other nationalists, Hitler believed Germany was "stabbed in the back" by civilian leaders and Marxists back on the home front. These politicians were later dubbed the November Criminals.
World War 2[]
Adolf was injured, and during his stay in a hospital he received news that Germany lost World War I. To Hitler, as to many other Germans and German-speakers, this was a betrayal by the cowardly politicians, so he tried a failed coup. This was a one way ticket to prison for 6 months. During his stay he wrote a book/rant/ political treatise called "Mein Kampf". This bought him publicity and revealed his true and dark intentions. He joined the then-tiny Nazi party, made it into a giant, and in time he became both president and chancellor of Nazi Germany. He outlawed his competition, re-militarized Germany, and started World War II in Europe in a bid to control much of the world by military means. By mid-1945, Hitler was utterly defeated, and, finding no way out of the situation, killed himself.
However historian Simon Dunstan and BBC reporter Gerrard Williams in the book "Grey Wolf" believed that Hitler faked his death and fled to Argentina with other Nazi war criminals and died there on February 13th, 1962.
Legacy[]
Hitler has been widely regarded as one of the most evil men ever to have existed. Nevertheless, given the fear and disgust that surrounds them, Hitler and the Nazis still have many admirers and followers of him and their ideologies. Nazis have been rather popular as villains in fiction, and Hitler has been a character in alternative history novels, WWII novels, movies, and at least one rather popular Internet meme.
He was mentioned as being a painter in the Only Fools and Horses episode The Sky's the Limit Uncle Albert says that he used to be a painter but Raquel asks how long he has been french to which Rodney asks "And who in their right minds would call a hotel "The Hotel Hitler?""