Adolf Hitler - Early years, Hitler's religious beliefs, Medical health and sexuality, Hitler's family

German dictator, born in Braunau, Upper Austria, the son of a minor customs official, originally called Schicklgruber. One of history's most brutal leaders, he converted Germany, a defeated nation, into a fully remilitarized society, and launched World War 2. With anti-Semitism and racism the cornerstone of his ideology and policies, he conquered and dominated most of Europe over five years, and ordered the deaths of millions of Jews and others whom he considered inferior (Untermenschen).

He studied at Linz and Steyr, and attended an art school in Munich, but failed to pass into the Vienna Academy. He lived in Vienna (190413), doing a variety of menial jobs. In 1913 he emigrated to Munich, where he found employment as a draughtsman. In 1914 he served in a Bavarian regiment, became a corporal, and was wounded in the last stages of the war, twice winning the Iron Cross for bravery. In 1919 he joined a small political party which in 1920 he renamed as the National Socialist German Workers' (or NAZI) Party. In 1923, with other extreme right-wing factions, he attempted to overthrow the Bavarian government in an abortive uprising, the Munich beer-hall putsch. He was imprisoned for nine months in Landsberg jail, during which time he dictated his political testament, Mein Kampf (1925, My Struggle), to Rudolf Hess. He expanded his party greatly in the late 1920s, and though he was unsuccessful in the presidential elections of 1932 against Hindenburg, he was made chancellor by Hindenburg in 1933. He then suspended the constitution, silenced all opposition, exploited successfully the burning of the Reichstag building, and brought the Nazi Party to power, having several of his opponents within his own party (the SA) murdered by his bodyguard, the SS, in the Night of the Long Knives (1934). In contravention of the Versailles Treaty, he rearmed the country (1935), established the RomeBerlin axis with Mussolini (1936), created Greater Germany by the Anschluss with Austria (1938), and absorbed the German-populated Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia, in which Britain and France acquiesced at Munich (1938). He then demanded from Poland the return of Danzig and free access to East Prussia, which, when Poland refused, precipitated World War 2 (3 Sep 1939).

His domestic policy was one of total Nazification, enforced by the Secret State Police (Gestapo). He established concentration camps for political opponents and Jews, over 6 million of whom were murdered in the course of World War 2. He concluded the Nazi Soviet non-aggression pact (1939), but broke this when he invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. With his early war successes, he increasingly ignored the advice of military experts, and the tide turned in 1942 after the defeats at El Alamein, Stalingrad, and Kursk. He survived the explosion of the bomb placed at his feet by Colonel Stauffenberg (Jul 1944), and purged the army of all suspects. When Germany was invaded, he retired to his Bunker, an air-raid shelter under the Chancellory building in Berlin. With the Russians only a few hundred yards away, he went through a marriage ceremony with his mistress, Eva Braun, in the presence of the Goebbels family, who then poisoned themselves. All available evidence suggests that he and his wife committed suicide and had their bodies cremated (30 Apr 1945).

Hitler used tremendous forcefulness, charisma, oratory, and his ability to appeal to people's baser instincts to manipulate them. He rose at a time of defeat and disillusionment. His Thousand-Year Reich lasted 12 years and three months.

Adolf Hitler

Chancellor of Germany Reichskanzler

In office 30 January 1933 – 30 April 1945
Preceded by	Kurt von Schleicher
Succeeded by	Joseph Goebbels
Head of State Führer und Reichskanzler
In office 2 August 1934 – April 30, 1945
Preceded by	Paul von Hindenburg (as President)
Succeeded by	Karl Dönitz (as President)

Born	April 20, 1889 Braunau am Inn, Austria
Died	April 30, 1945 Berlin, Germany
Political party	National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP)
Spouse	Eva Braun (married on 29 April 1945)

Adolf Hitler (help·info) (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) was Chancellor of Germany from 1933, and "Führer" (leader) of Germany from 1934 until his death.

Hitler gained power in a Germany facing crisis after World War I and doddering Papen regime., using charismatic oratory and propaganda, appealing to economic need of the lower and middle classes, nationalism, anti-Semitism and anti-communism to establish a totalitarian regime. With a restructured economy and rearmed military, Hitler pursued an aggressive foreign policy with the intention of expanding German Lebensraum ("living space"), which triggered World War II when Germany invaded Poland.

By then, Hitler's racial policies had culminated in a genocide of approximately eleven million people, including about six million Jews, in what is now known as the Holocaust. In the final days of the war, Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker in Berlin with his newlywed wife, Eva Braun.

Early years

Childhood and heritage

Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 at Braunau am Inn, Austria, a small town in Upper Austria, on the border with Germany. He was the third son and the fourth of six children of Alois Hitler (born Schicklgruber) (1837–1903), a minor customs official, and Klara Pölzl (1860–1907), his second cousin, and third wife. Alois Hitler also had a son,Alois Jr., and a daughter, Angela, by his second wife. The name was variously spelled Hiedler, Huetler, Huettler and Hitler and probably changed to "Hitler" by a clerk.

Later, Adolf Hitler was accused by his political enemies of not rightfully being a Hitler, but a Schicklgruber. Adolf was legally born a Hitler, however, and was also closely related to Hiedler through his maternal grandmother, Johanna Hiedler.

Hitler's given name, "Adolf", comes from the Old High German for "noble wolf" ("Adel"="nobility" + "wolf"). Hence, not surprisingly, one of Hitler's self-given nicknames was Wolf or Herr Wolf — he began using this nickname in the early 1920s and was addressed by it only by intimates (as "Uncle Wolf" by the Wagners) up until the fall of the Third Reich.

Hitler was not sure who his paternal grandfather was, but it was probably either Johann Georg Hiedler or his brother Johann Nepomuk Hiedler. There have been rumours that Hitler was one-quarter Jewish and that his paternal grandmother, Maria Schicklgruber, had become pregnant after working as a servant in a Jewish household in Graz. Opponents tried to prove that Hitler, the leader of the anti-Semitic Nazi Party, had Jewish or Czech ancestors. Soviet propaganda insisted Hitler was a Jew, though more modern research tends to diminish the probability that he had Jewish ancestors. Waite in The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler, Hitler made it illegal for German women to work in Jewish households, and after the "Anschluss" (annexation) of Austria, Hitler had his father's hometown obliterated by turning it into an artillery practice area. Hitler seemed to fear that he was Jewish, and as Waite points out, this fact is more important than whether he actually was.

Because of Alois Hitler's profession, his family moved frequently, from Braunau to Passau, Lambach, Leonding, and Linz. As a young child, Hitler was reportedly a good student at the various elementary schools he attended;

Hitler later explained this educational slump as a kind of rebellion against his father Alois, who wanted the boy to follow him in a career as a customs official, although Adolf wanted to become a painter. This explanation is further supported by Hitler's later description of himself as a misunderstood artist. However, after Alois died on January 3, 1903, when Adolf was 13, Hitler's schoolwork did not improve.

Early adulthood in Vienna and Munich

From 1905 onward, Hitler was able to live the life of a Bohemian on a fatherless child's pension and support from his mother.

After the second refusal from the Academy of Arts, Hitler gradually ran out of money.

Hitler first became an active anti-Semite in Vienna, which had a large Jewish community, including many Orthodox Jews from Eastern Europe and where traditional religious prejudice mixed with recent racist theories. Hitler was influenced over time by the writings of the race ideologist and anti-Semite Lanz von Liebenfels and polemics from politicians such as Karl Lueger, founder of the Christian Social Party and mayor of Vienna, one of the most outrageous demagogues in history, and Georg Ritter von Schönerer, leader of the pan-Germanic Away from Rome! movement. 2: "Years of study and suffering in Vienna")

Hitler began to claim the Jews were natural enemies of what he called the Aryan race.

Hitler received the final part of his father's estate in May 1913 and moved to Munich. However, when Germany entered World War I in August 1914, he immediately petitioned King Ludwig III of Bavaria for permission to serve in a Bavarian regiment, this request was granted, and Adolf Hitler enlisted in the Bavarian army.

World War I

Hitler saw active service in France and Belgium as a messenger for the regimental headquarters of the 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment (also called Regiment List after its first commander), which exposed him to enemy fire. However, because of the perception of "a lack of leadership skills" on the part of some of the regimental staff, as well as (according to Kershaw) Hitler's unwillingness to leave regimental headquarters (which would have been likely in event of promotion), he was never promoted to Unteroffizier. His duty station at regimental headquarters, while often dangerous, gave Hitler time to pursue his artwork.

On October 15, 1918, shortly before the end of the war, Hitler was admitted to a field hospital, temporarily blinded by a poison gas attack. Hitler later said it was during this experience that he became convinced the purpose of his life was to "save Germany". Some scholars, notably Lucy Dawidowicz, argue that an intention to mass murder Europe's Jews was fully formed in Hitler's mind at this time, though he probably hadn't thought through how it could be done.

Two passages in Mein Kampf mention the use of poison gas:

Hitler's religious beliefs

Adolf Hitler was brought up in his family's religion by his Roman Catholic parents, but as a school boy he began to reject the Church and Catholicism.

In later life, Hitler's religious beliefs present a discrepant picture: In public statements, he frequently spoke positively about the Christian heritage of German culture and belief in Christ. Hitler’s private statements, reported by his intimates, are more mixed, showing Hitler as a religious but also anti-Christian man. However, in contrast to other Nazi leaders, Hitler did not adhere to esoteric ideas, occultism, or neo-paganism, and ridiculed such beliefs in his book Mein Kampf. Rather, Hitler advocated a "Positive Christianity", a belief system purged from what he objected to in traditional Christianity, and reinvented Jesus as a fighter against the Jews.

Hitler believed in a Social Darwinist struggle for survival between the different races, among which the "Aryan race" was supposed to be the torchbearers of civilization and the Jews as enemies of all civilization.

Among Christian denominations, Hitler favoured Protestantism, which was more open to such reinterpretations, but at the same time imitated some elements of Catholic church organization, liturgy and phraseology in his politics.

Medical health and sexuality

Hitler's alleged health problems in his later years have long been the subject of debate, and he has variously been suggested to have suffered from irritable bowel syndrome, skin lesions, irregular heartbeat, tremors on the left side of his body, syphilis, Parkinson's disease and a strongly suggested addiction to methamphetamine.

Most of Hitler's biographers have characterized him as a vegetarian who abstained from eating meat, beginning in the early 1930s until his death (although his actual dietary habits appear inconsistent and are sometimes hotly disputed). A fear of cancer (which his mother died from) is the most widely cited reason, though many authors also assert Hitler had a profound and deep love of animals. Martin Bormann constructed a large greenhouse close to the Berghof (near Berchtesgaden) in order to ensure a steady supply of fresh fruits and vegetables for Hitler throughout the war. For more information on this topic, see Vegetarianism of Adolf Hitler.

Hitler was also a fervent non-smoker and promoted aggressive anti-smoking campaigns throughout Germany.

Contrary to popular accounts, there seems to be some evidence Hitler did not abstain entirely from alcohol. After the war, an interrogation in the USSR of his valet Heinz Linge could indicate that Hitler drank champagne now and then with Eva Braun.

Sexuality

Hitler presented himself to his public as a man without an intimate domestic life, dedicated to his political "mission". All three women attempted suicide during their relationship with him, a fact which has led to speculation that Hitler may have had unusual sexual fetishes, though Reiter, the only one to survive the Nazi regime, denies this.

Hitler's family

Paula Hitler, the last living member of Adolf Hitler's immediate family, died in 1960.

The most prominent, and longest-living direct descendants of Adolf Hitler's father, Alois, was Adolf's nephew William Patrick Hitler. Eva Braun, mistress and then wife Alois Hitler, father Klara Hitler, mother Paula Hitler, sister Alois Hitler, Jr., half-brother Bridget Dowling, sister-in-law William Patrick Hitler, nephew Heinz Hitler, nephew Angela Hitler Raubal, half-sister Maria Schicklgruber, grandmother Johann Georg Hiedler, presumed grandfather Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, maternal great-grandfather, presumed great uncle and possibly Hitler's true paternal grandfather Geli Raubal, niece and rumoured mistress Aloisia Veit, mentally insane cousin.

People associated with Hitler

Martin Bormann, Adolf Hitler's secretary. Hans Frank, Hitler's lawyer and later senior Nazi official in occupied Poland. Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy as party leader, best known for his flight to Scotland to negotiate peace in 1941. Alfred Jodl, military officer, knew Hitler since 1923. August Kubizek, close friend and roommate in Vienna Leopold Poetsch, Hitler's anti-Semitic school teacher Leni Riefenstahl, friend and filmmaker who documented the Nazi party. Erwin Rommel, the famous "Desert Fox", a highly skilled Field Marshal during World War II who was forced to commit suicide after being implicated in a plot against Hitler. Close friend to Hitler. Winifred Wagner, head of the Wagner family and close friend of Hitler's.

Miscellany

A nickname for Hitler used by German soldiers was Gröfaz, a derogatory and/or sarcastic abbreviation for Größter Feldherr aller Zeiten ("Greatest War Lord of all Time"), a title initially publicized by Nazi propaganda after the surprisingly quick fall of France. Hitler did not like women to wear cosmetics, since they contained animal by-products, and frequently teased his mistress Eva Braun about her habit of wearing makeup. According to the 2001 documentary The Tramp and the Dictator, the Charlie Chaplin parody/satire The Great Dictator was not only sent to Hitler, but an eyewitness confirmed he did see it, twice. Hitler's favourite film is variously credited as being King Kong (1933) or The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) and his favourite opera was Richard Wagner's Rienzi, of which he claimed to have seen over 40 performances.

Hitler in various media

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Adolf Hitler See also: Hitler in popular culture

Movie clip

Hitler at Berchtesgaden (file info) Video clips of Hitler at his mountain retreat in Berchtesgaden, Germany. See media help.

Speeches and talk by Hitler

Hitler was a gifted orator who captivated many with his beating of the lectern and growling, emotional speech. Authentic though they may seem, Hitler's speeches were full of propaganda and rhetoric, used to touch a spot with his audience as a way to persuade them. While his early speeches were rather amateurish, over time Hitler perfected his delivery by rehearsing in front of mirrors and carefully choreographing his display of emotions with the message he was trying to convey.

Recording of Hitler in private conversation

Hitler visited Finnish Field Marshal Mannerheim on his 75th birthday on the June 4, 1942. During the visit an engineer of the Finnish broadcasting company YLE, Thor Damen, recorded Hitler and Mannerheim in a private conversation, something which had to be done secretly as Hitler never allowed recordings of him off-guard. Today the recording is the only known recording of Hitler not speaking in an official tone. Hitler speaks in a slightly excited, but still intellectually detached manner during this talk (the speech has been compared to that of the working class). In the recording, Hitler admits to underestimating the Soviet Union's ability to conduct war (some English transcripts exist ).

Recording on the YLE Internet Archieve

Films

During Hitler's reign, he appeared in and was involved to varying degrees with a series of films by the pioneering filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl:

Der Sieg des Glaubens (The Victory of Faith, 1933).

Hitler was the central figure of the first three films, that focused on the party rallies of the respective years and are considered propaganda films, and features prominently in the Olympia film.

IMDb: Adolf Hitler

Documentaries

The World at War (1974) is a famous Thames Television series which contains much information about Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, including an interview with his secretary, Traudl Junge. Adolf Hitler's Last Days, from the BBC series "Secrets of World War II" tells the story about Hitler's last days during World War II. Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary (2002) is an exclusive 90 minute interview with Traudl Junge, Hitler's final trusted secretary.

Dramatizations

Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973) is a movie depicting the days leading up to Adolf Hitler's death, starring Sir Alec Guinness. Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003) is a two-part TV series about the early years of Adolf Hitler and his rise to power (up to 1933). Der Untergang (Downfall) (2004) is a German movie about the last days of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich, starring Bruno Ganz. This film is partly based on the autobiography of Traudl Junge, a favorite secretary of Hitler's. Max is a 2002 Drama movie, that depicts a friendship between art dealer Max Rothman (who is Jewish) and a young Adolf Hitler as a failed painter in Vienna.