A Biography of Adolf Hitler
2
Early Life
Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Austria, a small town near Germany. His parents were Alois Hitler and Klara Hitler.
At the age of three, Adolf and his family moved to Passau, Germany. Two years later, in 1894, the Hitler family returned to Austria in Leonding, and in June 1895, his father retired to Hafeld, where he was a farmer and beekeeper. Hitler attended a state-owned school in Fischlham. In Hitler's autobiography, Mein Kampf, he says that he did not do well in school on purpose, so that he could choose his job instead of his father.
His brother, Edmund, died in 1900 and his father followed in 1903. It was because of this that his mother allowed him to quit school in 1902.
He moved to Vienna in order to work as a casual laborer and watercolor painter. He tried to apply to the Academy of Fine Arts twice, but neither time did they accept him. At this point, he had run out of money, and all he could do was to rely on a homeless shelter. It was here where he became anti-Semitist, which means against Jews.
World War I
When World War I began in 1914, Hitler enlisted as a soldier into the Bavarian Army, which was a small army in the German state of Bavaria. His role was to be a runner, to transport messages to and from France and Belgium across the Western Front.
As a runner, he was rarely at the front lines of battle. He was present at the First Battle of Ypres, the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Arras, and the Battle of Passchendaele, but was only wounded at the Battle of the Somme.
Hitler was very brave during World War I. Because of this, he received the Iron Cross First Class and the Black Wound Badge.
When the Treaty of Versailles ended World War I on November 11, 1918, Hitler was very angry that Germany was responsible. He found it humiliating for Germany to have lost the war and for Germany to be blamed for starting the war. He believed that Germany had been betrayed by civilian leaders and Marxists, which are people who believe that people are separated into workers and capitalists, based on their job.
When World War I ended, Hitler moved back to Munich. Because he had little education, he remained in the army. In July of 1919, he was appointed intelligence agent of a reconnaissance commando of the Reichswehr. This meant that he had to influence other soldiers and infiltrate the DAP, which stands for Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, "German Workers' Party" in English.
Hitler in Politics
While infiltrating the DAP, Hitler admired the antisemitic, nationalist, anti-capitalist, and anti-Marxist ideas of Anton Drexler, the founder of the DAP. Drexler invited Hitler to join the DAP because of his public speaking skills. Hitler accepted on September 12, 1919 as the DAP's 55th member.
To make it sound more appealing, the DAP changed its name to the NSDAP, which stands for Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, "National Socialist German Workers' Party" in English. Hitler deisgned the banner as a black swastika on a white circle, all on a red background.
He and other members of the NSDAP were arrested for high treason after storming a public meeting of about 3,000 people. It was there in jail that he started his autobiography, Mein Kampf, which means "My Struggle" in English. In that book, he wrote about his plans for Nazism in Germany.
(Continued on next page)