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Hitler’s birth
Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary (in present-day Austria), close to the border with the German Empire. He was the fourth of six children born to Alois Hitler and his third wife, Klara Pölzl. Three of Hitler's siblings – Gustav, Ida, and Otto – died in infancy. Also living in the household were Alois's children from his second marriage: Alois Jr. (born 1882) and Angela (born 1883). -
Conflicts with his father and his life throughout the stay in different cities
The move to Hafeld coincided with the onset of intense father-son conflicts caused by Hitler's refusal to conform to the strict discipline of his school. His father beat him, although his mother tried to protect him. Alois Hitler's farming efforts at Hafeld ended in failure, and in 1897 the family moved to Lambach. The eight-year-old Hitler took singing lessons, sang in the church choir, and even considered becoming a priest. In 1898 the family returned permanently to Leonding. Father’s photo: -
Dead of his brother and the change of his behavior
Hitler was deeply affected by the death of his younger brother Edmund, who died in 1900 from measles. Hitler changed from a confident, outgoing, conscientious student to a morose, detached boy who constantly fought with his father and teachers. Here is a photo of his house in Leonding where he lived the most of his adolescence -
Hitler realizes he wants to become an artist
Alois had made a successful career in the customs bureau and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps.Hitler later dramatised an episode from this period when his father took him to visit a customs office, depicting it as an event that gave rise to an unforgiving antagonism between father and son, who were both strong-willed.Ignoring his son's desire to attend a classical high school and become an artist, Alois sent Hitler to the Realschule in Linz in September 1900. -
Moving through Germany
When Hitler was three, the family moved to Passau, Germany. There he acquired the distinctive lower Bavarian dialect, rather than Austrian German, which marked his speech throughout his life. The family returned to Austria and settled in Leonding in 1894, and in June 1895 Alois retired to Hafeld, near Lambach, where he farmed and kept bees. Hitler attended Volksschule (a state-funded primary school) in nearby Fischlham. -
His fathers dead
Alois Hitler died in 1903 but left an adequate pension and savings to support his wife and children. After Alois's sudden death, Hitler's performance at school deteriorated and his mother allowed him to leave. He enrolled at the Realschule in Steyr in September 1904, where his behaviour and performance improved. In 1905, after passing a repeat of the final exam, Hitler left the school without any ambitions for further education or clear plans for a career.
Photo: house at a lake with mountains. -
Appeal to study art in Vienna
In 1907, Hitler left Linz to live and study fine art in Vienna he applied for admission to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna but was rejected twice. Then in 1909 Hitler ran out of money and was forced to live a bohemian life in homeless shelters and a men's dormitory. He earned money as a casual labourer and by painting and selling watercolours of Vienna's sights. -
His mother’s dead
Although Hitler feared and disliked his father, he was a devoted son to his mother, who died after much suffering in 1907, she died of breast cancer at the age of 47, when he himself was 18.
Photo:tree at a track, 1911 -
Enlisted on German army
In August 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, Hitler was living in Munich and voluntarily enlisted in the Bavarian Army he served as a dispatch runner on the Western Front in France and Belgium,
spending nearly half his time well behind the front lines. On 15 October 1918, he was temporarily blinded in a mustard gas attack and was hospitalised in Pasewalk.While there, Hitler learned of Germany's defeat, and – by his own account – upon receiving this news, he suffered a second bout of blindness -
Rise to power
Hitler took up political work in Munich in May–June 1919. As an army political agent, he joined the small German Workers’ Party in Munich (September 1919). In 1920 he was put in charge of the party’s propaganda and left the army to devote himself to improving his position within the party, which in that year was renamed the National-sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (Nazi). Conditions were ripe for the development of such a party.