Adolf Hitler

Hitler in 1937

Führer of Germany In office 2 August 1934 – 30 April 1945 Preceded by Paul von Hindenburg (as President) Succeeded by Karl Dönitz (as President) Chancellor of Germany In office 30 January 1933 – 30 April 1945 President Paul von Hindenburg Deputy Franz von Papen Vacant Preceded by Kurt von Schleicher Succeeded by Joseph Goebbels Personal details Born 20 April 1889 Braunau am Inn, Austria–Hungary Died 30 April 1945 (aged 56) Berlin, Germany Nationality Austrian citizen until 7 April 1925[1] German citizen after 25 February 1932 Political party National Socialist German Workers' Party (1921–1945) Other political affiliations German Workers' Party (1920–1921) Spouse(s) Eva Braun (29–30 April 1945) Occupation Politician, soldier, artist, writer Religion See Adolf Hitler's religious views Signature Military service Allegiance  German Empire Service/branch Reichsheer Years of service 1914–1918 Rank Gefreiter Unit 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment Battles/wars World War I Awards Iron Cross First Class Iron Cross Second Class Wound Badge

Early years Ancestry Hitler's father, Alois Hitler (1837–1903), was the illegitimate child of Maria Anna Schicklgruber. Alois's birth certificate did not list the name of the father, and the child bore his mother's surname.[2][3] In 1842 Johann Georg Hiedler married Maria, and in 1876 Johann testified before a notary and three witnesses that he was the father of Alois.[4] Nazi official Hans Frank suggested the existence of letters claiming that Alois' mother was employed as a housekeeper for a Jewish family in Graz and that the family's 19-year-old son, Leopold Frankenberger, had fathered Alois.[3] However, no Frankenberger, Jewish or otherwise, is registered in Graz for that period.[5] Historians now doubt the claim that Alois' father was Jewish;[6][7] all Jews had been expelled from Graz under Maximilian I in the 15th century, and were not allowed to settle in Styria until the Basic Laws were passed in 1849.[5][7] At age 39 Alois assumed the surname "Hitler", also spelled as "Hiedler", "Hüttler", or "Huettler"; the name was probably regularised to its final spelling by a clerk. The origin of the name is either "one who lives in a hut" (Standard German Hütte), "shepherd" (Standard German hüten "to guard", English "heed"), or is from the Slavic words Hidlar and Hidlarcek.[8]
Childhood Adolf Hitler as an infant (c. 1889/1890)   Adolf's mother, Klara   Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 at around 6:30 pm at the Gasthof zum Pommer, an inn in Ranshofen,[9] a village annexed in 1938 to the municipality of Braunau am Inn, Upper Austria. He was the fourth of six children to Alois Hitler and Klara Pölzl (1860–1907). Adolf's older siblings – Gustav, Ida, and Otto – died in infancy.[10] When Hitler was three, the family moved to Passau, Germany.[11] There he would acquire the distinctive lower Bavarian dialect, rather than Austrian German, which marked his speech all of his life.[12][13][14] In 1894, the family relocated to Leonding near Linz, and in June 1895, Alois retired to a small landholding at Hafeld near Lambach, where he tried his hand at farming and beekeeping. Adolf attended school in nearby Fischlham, and in his free time, he played Cowboys and Indians. Hitler became fixated on warfare after finding a picture book about the Franco-Prussian War among his father's belongings.[15][16] The move to Hafeld appears to have coincided with the onset of intense father-son conflicts, caused by Adolf's refusal to conform to the strict discipline of his school.[17] Alois Hitler's farming efforts at Hafeld ended in failure, and in 1897 the family moved to Lambach. Hitler attended a Catholic school in an 11th-century Benedictine cloister, the walls of which bore engravings and crests that contained the swastika symbol.[18] In Lambach the eight-year-old Hitler took singing lessons, sang in the church choir, and even entertained thoughts of becoming a priest.[19] In 1898 the family returned permanently to Leonding. The death of his younger brother Edmund from measles on 2 February 1900 deeply affected Hitler. He changed from being confident and outgoing and an excellent student, to a morose, detached, and sullen boy who constantly fought with his father and his teachers.[20] 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 a unforgiving antagonism between father and son who were both equally strong-willed.[21][22][23] Ignoring his son's desire to attend a classical high school and become an artist, in September 1900 Alois sent Adolf to the Realschule in Linz, a technical high school of about 300 students. (This was the same high school that Adolf Eichmann would attend some 17 years later.)[24] Hitler rebelled against this decision, and in Mein Kampf revealed that he did poorly in school, hoping that once his father saw "what little progress I was making at the technical school he would let me devote myself to my dream."[25] Hitler started to become obsessed with German nationalism from a young age as a way of rebelling against his father, who was proudly serving the Austrian government. Although many Austrians considered themselves Germans, they were loyal to Austria. Hitler expressed loyalty only to Germany, despising the declining Habsburg Monarchy and its rule over an ethnically variegated empire.[26][27] Hitler and his friends used the German greeting "Heil", and sang the German anthem "Deutschland Über Alles" instead of the Austrian Imperial anthem.[28] After Alois' sudden death on 3 January 1903, Hitler's behaviour at the technical school became even more disruptive, and he was asked to leave in 1904. He enrolled at the Realschule in Steyr in September 1904, but upon completing his second year, he and his friends went out for a night of celebration and drinking. While drunk, Hitler tore up his school certificate and used the pieces as toilet paper. The stained certificate was brought to the attention of the school's principal, who "... gave him such a dressing-down that the boy was reduced to shivering jelly. It was probably the most painful and humiliating experience of his life."[29] Hitler was expelled, never to return to school again.