Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 to Alois Schickelgruber and Klara Hitler in Branau, Austria. Klara showered young Adolf with love and attention while his father beat and abused him. He moved twice by 1895, first to Passau then to Hafeld. In Hafeld, about 1900, Adolf’s artistic talents emerged and he was accepted into the technical/scientific school of Realschule. Adolf quit school at age 16, in part because of reoccuring lung infections ,and in part because of poor grades. In 1903 Alois died, and Adolf took his mothers last name of Hitler.
Adolf’s mother Klara, died in 1907 from a long series of painful and expensive surgeries for terminal breast cancer. Hitler was permitted to visit Vienna where he was turned down for admission into a prestigous art school. He spent six years in Vienna, surviving on his father’s orphanage pension. By 1909 Adolf was penniless and lived life as a transient, sleeping in the backs of bars, flophouses, and homeless shelters. It was during this perios that HItler gained his prejudices, his interest in politics, and his debating skills.
In 1913 Hitler left Vienna for Munich, the capital of Bavaria, to escape military service. After the assasination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, in 1915, Hitler enlisted in the Bavarian army because of his new found nationalistic attitudes. In less than two months of training, Hitler and his squad saw their first action. Hitler narowly escaped death several times in battle, and was twice awarded the iron cross for bravery. In both October 1916 and October 1918, Hitler was injured in battle by a gun shot wound and mustard gas.
Hitler rose to lance corporal before his last injury and the war’s end. Soon after the war, Hitler was recruited to join a military inteligence unit assigned to keep tabs on the German Workers Party. Hitler saw this ill managed right wing party as a means to reach his political goals. He built up the party from the defacto, joke it was to an actual competitive political party. At the forefront of the party’s campaign was the hatred of jews and communists. Hitlers emotionaly packed speches attracted hundreds more Gemans each time he spoke.
After several articles blaming the Jews ran in several Anti -Semetic papers, a great interest arose in Hitler’s party. The party was soon renamed the National Socialist German Workers Party, or the Nazi’s. On November 8, 1923 Hitler led over 2,000 armed “brown shirts” in a march from a beer hall to the capital of Bavaria. He was determined to rid the country of the Jews and Communists. For this “beer hall putsch” Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison.
He only served nine months of his sentence, but in those nine months, Hitler wrote the first volume of his book Mein Kampf, which was later published in 1927. After his release from prison, Hitler decided to gain power legally. Hitler began to speak at mass crouds, and through his briliant oratory, he recieved eighteen percent of the vote in1930 and thirty percent in 1932. This forced Paul von Hindenburg and Hitler into a run off. A political deal was struck which made Hitler the chancelor in exchange for his political support.
Hindenburg died in 1934, leaving Hitler as his succesor. Hitler ordered the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland in 1938. Hitler’s army invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, sparking France and England to declare war on Germany. A Blitzkrieg of German tanks and infantry swept through most of Western Europe as nation after nation fell to the German war machine. At the height of Hitler’s power, the once high school drop-out and full time loser, controlled Germany and most of Eastern Europe, including parts of the Soviet Union.
