Adolf Hitler was born on 20th April, 1889, in the small Austrian town of Braunau near the German border. Both Hitler's parents had come from poor peasant families. His father Alois Hitler, the illegitimate son of a housemaid, was an intelligent and ambitious man and later became a senior customs official.
Klara Hitler
was Alois' third wife. Alois was twenty-three years older than Klara
and already had two children from his previous marriages. Klara and
Alois had five children but only Adolf and a younger sister, Paula,
survived to become adults.
Alois, who was fifty-one when Adolf was
born, was extremely keen for his son to do well in life. Alois did have
another son by an earlier marriage but he had been a big disappointment
to him and eventually ended up in prison for theft. Alois was a strict
father and savagely beat his son if he did not do as he was told.
Hitler did extremely well at primary school and it appeared he had a
bright academic future in front of him. He was also popular with other
pupils and was much admired for his leadership qualities. He was also a
deeply religious child and for a while considered the possibility of
becoming a monk.
Competition was much tougher in the larger
secondary school and his reaction to not being top of the class was to
stop trying. His father was furious as he had high hopes that Hitler
would follow his example and join the Austrian civil service when he
left school. However, Hitler was a stubborn child and attempts by his
parents and teachers to change his attitude towards his studies were
unsuccessful.
Hitler also lost his popularity with his fellow
pupils. They were no longer willing to accept him as one of their
leaders. As Hitler liked giving orders he spent his time with younger
pupils. He enjoyed games that involved fighting and he loved re-enacting
battles from the Boer War. His favourite game was playing the role of a commando rescuing Boers from English concentration camps.
The only teacher Hitler appeared to like at secondary school was
Leopold Potsch, his history master. Potsch, like many people living in
Upper Austria, was a German Nationalist.
Potsch told Hitler and his fellow pupils of the German victories over
France in 1870 and 1871 and attacked the Austrians for not becoming
involved in these triumphs. Otto von Bismarck, the first chancellor of the German Empire, was one of Hitler's early historical heroes.
Hitler's
other main interest at school was art. His father was incensed when
Hitler told him that instead of joining the civil service he was going
to become an artist. The relationship between Hitler and his father
deteriorated and the conflict only ended with the death of Alois Hitler in 1903.
Hitler
was thirteen when his father died. His death did not cause the family
financial hardships. The Hitler family owned their own home and they
also received a lump sum and a generous civil service pension.
Klara Hitler,
a kind and gentle woman, tended to spoil her son. Like her husband she
was keen for Adolf to do well at school. Her attempts at persuasion
achieved no more success than her husband's threats and he continued to
obtain poor grades.
At the age of fifteen he did so badly in his
examinations that he was told he would have to repeat the whole year's
work again. Hitler hated the idea and managed to persuade his mother to
allow him to leave school without a secondary education qualification.
He celebrated by getting drunk. However, he found it an humiliating
experience and vowed never to get drunk again. He kept his promise and
by the time he reached his thirties he had given up alcohol completely.
When he was eighteen Hitler received an inheritance from his father's
will. With the money he moved to Vienna where he planned to become an
art student. Hitler had a high opinion of his artistic abilities and was
shattered when the Vienna Academy of Art rejected his application. He
also applied to the Vienna School of Architecture but was not admitted
because he did not have a school leaving certificate.
Hitler was
humiliated by these two rejections and could not bring himself to tell
his mother what had happened. Instead he continued to live in Vienna
pretending he was an art student.
In 1907 Klara Hitler
died from cancer. Her death affected him far more deeply than the death
of his father. He had fond memories of his mother, carried her
photograph wherever he went and, it is claimed, had it in his hand when
he died in 1945.
As the eldest child, Hitler now received his
father's civil service pension. It was more money than many people
received in wages and meant that Hitler did not have to find employment.
He spent most of the morning in bed reading and in the afternoon he
walked around Vienna studying buildings, visiting museums, and making
sketches.
In 1909 Hitler should have registered for military service. He was unwilling to serve Austria,
which he despised, so he ignored his call-up papers. It took four years
for the authorities to catch up with him. When he had his medical for
the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1914 he was rejected as being: "Unfit for combatant and auxiliary duty - too weak. Unable to bear arms."
The outbreak of the First World War provided him with an opportunity for a fresh start. It was a chance for him to become involved in proving that Germany
was superior to other European countries. Hitler claimed that when he
heard the news of war: "I was overcome with impetuous enthusiasm, and
falling on my knees, wholeheartedly thanked Heaven that I had been
granted the happiness to live live at this time. Rejecting the idea of
fighting for Austria, Hitler volunteered for the German Army. In times of war medical examinations are not so rigorous.
Hitler liked being in the army. For the first time he was part of a
group that was fighting for a common goal. Hitler also liked the
excitement of fighting in a war. Although fairly cautious in his
actions, he did not mind risking his life and impressed his commanding
officers for volunteering for dangerous missions.
His fellow
soldiers described him as "odd" and "peculiar". One soldier from his
regiment, Hans Mend, claimed that Hitler was an isolated figure who
spent long periods of time sitting in the corner holding his head in
silence. Then all of a sudden, Mend claimed, he would jump up and make a
speech. These outbursts were usually attacks on Jews and Marxists who Hitler claimed were undermining the war effort.
Hitler
was given the job of despatch-runner. It was a dangerous job as it
involved carrying messages from regimental headquarters to the
front-line. On one day alone, three out of eight of the regiment's
despatch-runners were killed. For the first time since he was at primary
school Hitler was a success.
Hitler won five medals including the prestigious Iron Cross during the First World War.
His commanding officer wrote: "As a dispatch-runner, he has shown
cold-blooded courage and exemplary boldness. Under conditions of great
peril, when all the communication lines were cut, the untiring and
fearless activity of Hitler made it possible for important messages to
go through".
Although much decorated in the war, Hitler only
reached the rank of corporal. This was probably due to his eccentric
behaviour and the fear that the other soldiers might not obey the man
they considered so strange.
In October 1918, Hitler was blinded in a British mustard gas
attack. He was sent to a military hospital and gradually recovered his
sight. While he was in hospital Germany surrendered. Hitler went into a
state of deep depression, and had periods when he could not stop crying.
He spent most of his time turned towards the hospital wall refusing to
talk to anyone. Once again Hitler's efforts had ended in failure.
After the war Hitler was stationed in Munich, the capital of Bavaria. While Hitler was in Munich, the capital of Bavaria, Kurt Eisner, leader of the Independent Socialist Party,
declared Bavaria a Socialist Republic. Hitler was appalled by the
revolution. As a German Nationalist he disagreed with the socialist
belief in equality.
Hitler saw socialism as part of a Jewish conspiracy. Many of the socialist leaders in Germany, including Kurt Eisner, Rosa Luxemburg, Ernst Toller and Eugen Levine were Jews. So also were many of the leaders of the October Revolution in Russia. This included Leon Trotsky, Gregory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, Dimitri Bogrov, Karl Radek, Yakov Sverdlov, Maxim Litvinov, Adolf Joffe, and Moisei Uritsky. It had not escaped Hitler's notice that Karl Marx, the prophet of socialism, had also been a Jew.
It
was no coincidence that Jews had joined socialist and communist parties
in Europe. Jews had been persecuted for centuries and therefore were
attracted to a movement that proclaimed that all men and women deserved
to be treated as equals. This message was reinforced when on 10th July,
1918, the Bolshevik government in Russia passed a law that abolished all discrimination between Jews and non-Jews.
It was not until May, 1919 that the German Army entered Munich and overthrew the Bavarian Socialist Republic.
Hitler was arrested with other soldiers in Munich and was accused of
being a socialist. Hundreds of socialists were executed without trial
but Hitler was able to convince them that he had been an opponent of the
regime. To prove this he volunteered to help to identify soldiers who
had supported the Socialist Republic. The authorities agreed to this
proposal and Hitler was transferred to the commission investigating the
revolution.
Information supplied by Hitler helped to track down
several soldiers involved in the uprising. His officers were impressed
by his hostility to left-wing ideas and he was recruited as a political
officer. Hitler's new job was to lecture soldiers on politics. The main
aim was to promote his political philosophy favoured by the army and
help to combat the influence of the Russian Revolution on the German soldiers.
Hitler,
who had for years been ignored when he made political speeches, now had
a captive audience. The political climate had also changed. Germany was
a defeated and disillusioned country. At Versailles
the German government had been forced to sign a peace treaty that gave
away 13% of her territory. This meant the loss of 6 million people, a
large percentage of her raw materials (65% of iron ore reserves, 45% of
her coal, 72% of her zinc) and 10% of her factories. Germany also lost
all her overseas colonies.
Under the terms of the Versailles Treaty Germany also had to pay for damage caused by the war. These reparations amounted to 38% of her national wealth.
Hitler
was no longer isolated. The German soldiers who attended his lectures
shared his sense of failure. They found his message that they were not
to blame attractive. He told them that Germany had not been beaten on
the battlefield but had been betrayed by Jews and Marxists who had
preached revolution and undermined the war effort.
The German Army also began using Hitler as a spy. In September 1919, he was instructed to attend a meeting of the German Worker's Party (GWP). The army feared that this new party, led by Anton Drexler,
might be advocating communist revolution. Hitler discovered that the
party's political ideas were similar to his own. He approved of
Drexler's German nationalism and anti-Semitism but was unimpressed with
the way the party was organized. Although there as a spy, Hitler could
not restrain himself when a member made a point he disagreed with, and
he stood up and made a passionate speech on the subject.
Drexler
was impressed with Hitler's abilities as an orator and invited him to
join the party. At first Hitler was reluctant, but urged on by his
commanding officer, Captain Karl Mayr, he eventually agreed. He was only
the fifty-fourth person to join the GWP. Hitler was immediately asked
to join the executive committee and was later appointed the party's
propaganda manager.
In the next few weeks Hitler brought several
members of his army into the party, including one of his commanding
officers, Captain Ernst Roehm.
The arrival of Roehm was an important development as he had access to
the army political fund and was able to transfer some of the money into
the GWP.
The German Worker's Party
used some of this money to advertise their meetings. Hitler was often
the main speaker and it was during this period that he developed the
techniques that made him into such a persuasive orator.
Hitler always arrived late which helped to develop tension and a
sense of expectation. He took the stage, stood to attention and waited
until there was complete silence before he started his speech. For the
first few months Hitler appeared nervous and spoke haltingly. Slowly he
would begin to relax and his style of delivery would change. He would
start to rock from side to side and begin to gesticulate with his hands.
His voice would get louder and become more passionate. Sweat poured of
him, his face turned white, his eyes bulged and his voice cracked with
emotion. He ranted and raved about the injustices done to Germany and
played on his audience's emotions of hatred and envy. By the end of the
speech the audience would be in a state of near hysteria and were
willing to do whatever Hitler suggested.
As soon as his speech
finished Hitler would quickly leave the stage and disappear from view.
Refusing to be photographed, Hitler's aim was to create an air of
mystery about himself, hoping that it would encourage others to come and
hear the man who was now being described as "the new Messiah".
Hitler's
reputation as an orator grew and it soon became clear that he was the
main reason why people were joining the party. This gave Hitler
tremendous power within the organization as they knew they could not
afford to lose him. One change suggested by Hitler concerned adding
"Socialist" to the name of the party. Hitler had always been hostile to
socialist ideas, especially those that involved racial or sexual
equality. However, socialism was a popular political philosophy in
Germany after the First World War. This was reflected in the growth in the German Social Democrat Party (SDP), the largest political party in Germany.
Hitler,
therefore redefined socialism by placing the word 'National' before it.
He claimed he was only in favour of equality for those who had "German
blood". Jews and other "aliens" would lose their rights of citizenship,
and immigration of non-Germans should be brought to an end.
In February 1920, the National Socialist German Workers Party
(NSDAP) published its first programme which became known as the "25
Points". In the programme the party refused to accept the terms of the Versailles Treaty
and called for the reunification of all German people. To reinforce
their ideas on nationalism, equal rights were only to be given to German
citizens. "Foreigners" and "aliens" would be denied these rights.
To
appeal to the working class and socialists, the programme included
several measures that would redistribute income and war profits,
profit-sharing in large industries, nationalization of trusts, increases
in old-age pensions and free education.
On 24th February, 1920, the NSDAP (later nicknamed the Nazi Party)
held a mass rally where it announced its new programme. The rally was
attended by over 2,000 people, a great improvement on the 25 people who
were at Hitler's first party meeting.
Hitler knew that the growth in the party was mainly due to his skills as an orator and in the autumn of 1921 he challenged Anton Drexler
for the leadership of the party. After brief resistance Drexler
accepted the inevitable, and Hitler became the new leader of the Nazi Party.
Hitler's ability to arouse in his supporters emotions of anger and
hate often resulted in their committing acts of violence. In September
1921, Hitler was sent to prison for three months for being part of a mob
who beat up a rival politician.
When Hitler was released, he formed his own private army called Sturm Abteilung
(Storm Section). The SA (also known as stormtroopers or brownshirts)
were instructed to disrupt the meetings of political opponents and to
protect Hitler from revenge attacks. Captain Ernst Roehm of the Bavarian Army played an important role in recruiting these men, and Hermann Goering, a former air-force pilot, became their leader.
Hitler's stormtroopers were often former members of the Freikorps (right-wing private armies who flourished during the period that followed the First World War) and had considerable experience in using violence against their rivals.
The SA wore grey jackets, brown shirts (khaki shirts originally intended for soldiers in Africa but purchased in bulk from the German Army by the Nazi Party),
swastika armbands, ski-caps, knee-breeches, thick woolen socks and
combat boots. Accompanied by bands of musicians and carrying swastika
flags, they would parade through the streets of Munich. At the end of
the march Hitler would make one of his passionate speeches that
encouraged his supporters to carry out acts of violence against Jews and
his left-wing political opponents.
As this violence was often
directed against Socialists and Communists, the local right-wing
Bavarian government did not take action against the Nazi Party.
However, the national government in Berlin were concerned and passed a
"Law for the Protection of the Republic". Hitler's response was to
organize a rally attended by 40,000 people. At the meeting Hitler called
for the overthrow of the German government and even suggested that its
leaders should be executed.
In 1923 the German Government had to deal with a series of difficult problems. In January the French ArmyRuhr
because they claimed Germany was falling behind with her reparations.
Workers in the Ruhr responded by going on strike which badly hurt the
German economy. One of the consequences of this was rapid inflation. As people found their savings becoming worthless, they turned against their government. occupied the
On 13th August, Gustav Stresemann
became the new Chancellor of Germany. When Stresemann decided to call
off resistance to the French occupation of the Ruhr and to start paying
reparations to the Allies again, Hitler decided it was time for him to
become the new leader of Germany.
On 8th November, 1923, the Bavarian government held a meeting of about 3,000 officials. While Gustav von Kahr,
the leader of the Bavarian government was making a speech, Hitler and
armed stormtroopers entering the building. Hitler jumped onto a table,
fired two shots in the air and told the audience that the Munich Putsch was taking place and the National Revolution had began.
Leaving Hermann Goering and the SA to guard the 3,000 officials, Hitler took Gustav von Kahr,
Otto von Lossow, the commander of the Bavarian Army and Hans von
Seisser, the commandant of the Bavarian State Police into an adjoining
room. Hitler told the men that he was to be the new leader of Germany
and offered them posts in his new government. Aware that this would be
an act of high treason, the three men were initially reluctant to agree
to this offer. Hitler was furious and threatened to shoot them and then
commit suicide: "I have three bullets for you, gentlemen, and one for
me!" After this the three men agreed.
Soon afterwards Eric Ludendorff arrived. Ludendorff had been leader of the German Army at the end of the First World War.
He had therefore found Hitler's claim that the war had not been lost by
the army but by Jews, Socialists, Communists and the German government,
attractive, and was a strong supporter of the Nazi Party. Ludendorff agreed to become head of the the German Army in Hitler's government.
While Hitler had been appointing government ministers, Ernst Roehm, leading a group of stormtroopers, had seized the War Ministry and Rudolf Hess was arranging the arrest of Jews and left-wing political leaders in Bavaria.
Hitler
now planned to march on Berlin and remove the national government.
Surprisingly, Hitler had not arranged for the stormtroopers to take
control of the radio stations and the telegraph offices. This meant that
the national government in Berlin soon heard about Hitler's putsch and
gave orders for it to be crushed.
The next day Hitler, Eric Ludendorff, Hermann Goering and 3,000 armed supporters of the Nazi Party
marched through Munich in an attempt to join up with Roehm's forces at
the War Ministry. At Odensplatz they found the road blocked by the
Munich police. As they refused to stop, the police fired into the ground
in front of the marchers. The stormtroopers returned the fire and
during the next few minutes 21 people were killed and another hundred
were wounded, included Goering.
When the firing started Hitler threw himself to the ground
dislocating his shoulder. Hitler lost his nerve and ran to a nearby car.
Although the police were outnumbered, the Nazis followed their leader's
example and ran away. Only Eric Ludendorff
and his adjutant continued walking towards the police. Later Nazi
historians were to claim that the reason Hitler left the scene so
quickly was because he had to rush an injured young boy to the local
hospital.
After hiding in a friend's house for several days, Hitler was arrested and put on trial for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch.
If found guilty, Hitler faced the death penalty. While in prison Hitler
suffered from depression and talked of committing suicide. However, it
soon became clear that the Nazi sympathizers in the Bavarian government
were going to make sure that Hitler would not be punished severely.
At
his trial Hitler was allowed to turn the proceedings into a political
rally, and although he was found guilty he only received the minimum
sentence of five years. Other members of the Nazi Party also received light sentences and Eric Ludendorff was acquitted.
Hitler
was sent to Landsberg Castle in Munich to serve his prison sentence. He
was treated well and was allowed to walk in the castle grounds, wear
his own clothes and receive gifts. Officially there were restrictions on
visitors but this did not apply to Hitler, and a steady flow of
friends, party members and journalists spent long spells with him. He
was even allowed to have visits from his pet Alsatian dog.
While
in Landsberg he read a lot of books. Most of these dealt with German
history and political philosophy. Later he was to describe his spell in
prison as a "free education at the state's expense." One writer who
influenced Hitler while in prison was Henry Ford, the American car-manufacturer. Hitler read Ford's autobiography, My Life and Work, and a book of his called The International Jew.
In the latter Ford claimed that there was a Jewish conspiracy to take
over the world. Hitler also approved of Ford's hostile views towards
communism and trade unions.
Max Amnan,
his business manager, proposed that Hitler should spend his time in
prison writing his autobiography. Hitler, who had never fully mastered
writing, was at first not keen on the idea. However, he agreed when it
was suggested that he should dictate his thoughts to a ghostwriter. The
prison authorities surprisingly agreed that Hitler's chauffeur, Emil Maurice, could live in the prison to carry out this task.
Maurice, whose main talent was as a street fighter, was a poor writer and the job was eventually taken over by Rudolf Hess,
a student at Munich University. Hess made a valiant attempt at turning
Hitler's spoken ideas into prose. However, the book that Hitler wrote in
prison was repetitive, confused, turgid and therefore, extremely
difficult to read. In his writing, Hitler was unable to use the
passionate voice and dramatic bodily gestures which he had used so
effectively in his speeches, to convey his message.