Hitler's Austrian Roots: A Historical Perspective

Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, a small town in Austria-Hungary, in 1889. He was raised near Linz and lived in Vienna in the first decade of the 1900s before moving to Germany in 1913. Hitler's father, Alois Hitler, was born in Austria and was the illegitimate child of Maria Schicklgruber. Hitler's mother, Klara Pölzl, was Alois' third wife. Hitler's family moved to Passau, Germany, when he was three, and he acquired the distinctive lower Bavarian dialect, rather than Austrian German, which marked his speech throughout his life.

Hitler's Austrian origins are important to understanding his later nationalism and anti-Semitism. Hitler's time in Vienna exposed him to racist rhetoric and anti-Semitic sentiment, which influenced his own beliefs. Despite this, Hitler's nationalism was rooted in a German ethnic identity, and he expressed loyalty only to Germany. He despised the declining Habsburg monarchy and its rule over an ethnically diverse empire.

Hitler's Austrian origins have also been the subject of historical debate and analysis, with some scholars arguing that his obsession with the Habsburg Imperial family became a catalyst for his rise to power and vendetta against the Austrian royals.

Hitler's Austrian-German identity

Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary (present-day Austria) in 1889. He was raised near Linz and lived in Vienna in the first decade of the 1900s before moving to Germany in 1913. Hitler's father, Alois Hitler, was born in Austria and had a successful career in the Austrian customs bureau. Hitler's mother, Klara, was also Austrian.

Hitler's Austrian identity was evident in his early life. He attended school in Austria and, like many Austrian Germans, began to develop German nationalist ideas from a young age. He expressed loyalty only to Germany, despising the declining Habsburg monarchy and its rule over an ethnically diverse empire. Hitler and his friends used the greeting "Heil", and sang the "Deutschlandlied" instead of the Austrian Imperial anthem.

However, Hitler's Austrian-German identity became more complex when he moved to Germany in 1913. Although he was an Austrian citizen, he volunteered to serve in the German Army at the start of World War I. He was decorated for his service and received the Iron Cross. After the war, he joined the German Workers' Party (DAP), the precursor of the Nazi Party, in 1919. Hitler's involvement in German politics and his rise to power as the leader of the Nazi Party led to his appointment as Chancellor of Germany in 1933.

Hitler's Austrian origins continued to play a role in his life and policies during his time as Chancellor. In 1938, he announced the unification of Austria with Nazi Germany in the Anschluss. He also targeted the children of the assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, making them the first two Austrians deported to the Dachau concentration camp.

In conclusion, while Hitler was born and raised in Austria, his Austrian-German identity evolved throughout his life, reflecting his complex relationship with both countries and his ultimate rise to power in Germany.

Hitler's rise to power

Adolf Hitler was born in a small Austrian town in 1889 and moved to Germany (Bavaria) when he was three years old. After his mother's death when he was 17, he moved to Vienna, Austria, to study art, but he was rejected from art school due to a lack of talent.

In September 1919, Hitler joined the German Workers' Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, or DAP), which he would later transform into the Nazi Party. He quickly rose to prominence within the party, becoming one of its most popular speakers. In 1920, the DAP renamed itself the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), commonly known as the Nazi Party. Hitler chose this name to appeal to left-wing German workers, despite the party's right-wing, anti-communist, antisemitic, and antidemocratic ideology.

Hitler's control over the Nazi Party went unchallenged by 1922, and in 1923, he attempted a coup known as the Beer Hall Putsch in Bavaria. The coup failed, and Hitler was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison. During his time in prison, he wrote his political autobiography, "Mein Kampf" ("My Struggle"), which became the ideological foundation of National Socialism.

After his release from prison, Hitler changed tactics, deciding to pursue power through legal and democratic means. He began campaigning furiously, exploiting the economic and political crises in Germany at the time, such as the hyperinflation caused by war debts and reparation payments, and the failure of the government to address the problems caused by the Great Depression. The Nazi Party platform consisted of anti-communism, antisemitism, and ultranationalism, and Hitler became known for his mesmerizing public speaking skills.

In 1932, Hitler ran for the presidency but was defeated, coming in second place. However, in July 1932, the Nazis became the largest party in the Reichstag. In January 1933, with no other leader able to command sufficient support to govern, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor of Germany.

Hitler then began dismantling Germany's democratic institutions and eliminating his political opponents. After Hindenburg's death in August 1934, Hitler became the Führer, or sole leader, of Germany, merging the roles of chancellor and president. He expanded the army, reintroduced conscription, and began developing a new air force, solidifying his dictatorial power.

Hitler's invasion of Poland and start of World War II

Adolf Hitler was born in a small town in Austria in 1889. He was the son of a local customs official and his much younger third wife. Hitler had a normal education and showed no special talents. He wanted to study art, and moved to Vienna after his mother’s death in the hopes of being accepted to art school, but was turned down for lack of talent.

Hitler's rise to power in Germany was facilitated by his success in creating a political movement that seized control of the country. His virulent hatred of Jews and his ability to spread antisemitic propaganda were key factors in his rise. Hitler's ideology was informed by his time in Vienna, where he observed the success of the city's popular mayor, who was regularly re-elected on a virulent anti-semitic platform. Hitler also consumed widely circulated racist and anti-semitic literature that was easily available in the city.

Hitler's invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, began on September 1, 1939, and marked the start of World War II. The invasion was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak Republic, and the Soviet Union. The German invasion aimed to divide Polish territory and exterminate all Poles, who were deemed "inferior people".

Hitler's strategy for the invasion, known as "blitzkrieg", involved extensive bombing early on to destroy the enemy’s air capacity, railroads, communication lines, and munitions dumps. This was followed by a massive land invasion with overwhelming numbers of troops, tanks, and artillery. Hitler also set up SS “Death’s Head” regiments to terrorize the Polish populace.

The German forces invaded Poland from the north, south, and west, with Slovak military forces advancing alongside them in northern Slovakia. The Polish forces, though about 1 million strong, were severely under-equipped and attempted to take the Germans head-on rather than falling back to more natural defensive positions. The Polish plan for border defence was a failure, and the German advance was not slowed.

The Polish defensive plan, "Plan West", called for a strategy of encirclement, allowing the Germans to advance and then attempting to repulse and trap them. However, Polish military planners failed to foresee the speed of the German advance, and by September 3, von Kluge in the north had reached the Vistula River, only about 10 km from the German border. By September 7, German tanks had encircled Warsaw, and the attack on the city began on September 9.

The invasion of Poland was characterized by widespread atrocities committed against Polish men, women, and children. German forces murdered tens of thousands of civilians, with the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler being particularly notorious for burning villages and committing massacres in numerous Polish towns. Mass executions, rapes, and forced prostitution were also carried out by German soldiers. The invasion of Poland marked the beginning of the Holocaust, with Hitler's troops making extensive use of concentration camps and the extermination of civilians going hand-in-hand with German rule.

Hitler's inner circle

Yes, Adolf Hitler was Austrian. He was born in a small town in Austria in 1889 and lived there until he was 17, when he moved to Vienna.

Martin Bormann

Hitler's personal secretary and party leader, Bormann was extremely ambitious and wanted to create an extensive bureaucracy. He controlled the flow of information and access to Hitler, as well as his finances. He was an ardent follower of Nazi propaganda and advocated for the persecution of Jews, Slavs, and Christians. Bormann was one of the few men who remained with Hitler during his final days and became the party minister of the Nazi Party after Hitler's death. He was indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity and was found guilty in absentia. His skeletal remains were later found in West Berlin and his cause of death was determined to be cyanide poisoning.

Hermann Wilhelm Göring

The second most powerful man in Nazi Germany after Hitler, Göring was a World War I veteran and joined the Nazi Party in 1922. He was made the head of the Sturmabteilung (SA) and was injured during Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch coup. After receiving amnesty in 1927, he rejoined the Nazi Party and became the President of the Reichstag. Göring established the Gestapo and played a key role in ensuring the Nazi Party's full power by assassinating 85 members of the SA, an event known as the 'Night of the Long Knives'. He was appointed as Hitler's successor until an attempted power grab led to his arrest. Göring surrendered to the Allies and committed suicide before his execution.

Albert Speer

Hitler's chief architect and the Reich Minister for armaments and war production, Speer joined the Nazi Party in 1931. He founded a task force that exploited slave labour for the German war effort. Speer was indicted for war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials but narrowly escaped a death sentence. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and, after his release, wrote autobiographies in which he presented himself as an apolitical technocrat with no knowledge of the Holocaust.

Heinrich Himmler

A leading member of the Nazi Party and the orchestrator of the Holocaust, Himmler joined the Nazi Party in 1923 and was appointed as the Reichsführer of the SS in 1929. He was instrumental in expanding the SS and establishing the first concentration camp at Dachau. Himmler formed the Einsatzgruppen, the paramilitary death squad responsible for the mass extermination of Jews, and oversaw the Final Solution, resulting in the death of millions. As the war drew to a close, Himmler attempted to negotiate peace with the Western Allies without Hitler's knowledge, leading to his arrest and an attempted escape in disguise. He was captured and committed suicide while in custody.

Joseph Goebbels

One of Hitler's closest associates, Goebbels was a great orator and strongly advocated Nazi propaganda, often voicing his antisemitic views in public speeches. He joined the Nazi Party in 1924 and became the District Leader of Berlin in 1926, developing an interest in propaganda. Goebbels became the president of the 'Chamber of Culture', which gave him control over all media, including the press, radio, and other arts. He strongly supported Total War and, after the attempted assassination of Hitler, was appointed as the "Reich Plenipotentiary for Total War". After Hitler's suicide, Goebbels became Chancellor for a day before killing himself and his family.

Joachim von Ribbentrop

Von Ribbentrop served as the Foreign Minister of Nazi Germany and was a close confidant of Hitler, offering his home for secret Nazi meetings. He joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and, after their win in 1933, became Hitler's chief advisor on foreign affairs. Von Ribbentrop played a key role in forming the 'Pact of Steel' with Fascist Italy and the 'Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact', a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union. However, his influence declined as the war progressed, and he lost support due to his involvement in the attempted assassination of Hitler in 1944. He was arrested and indicted for his crimes, becoming the first defendant hanged at the Nuremberg Trials.

Hitler's death

Adolf Hitler, dictator of Nazi Germany, died by suicide on 30 April 1945. As Soviet troops closed in on Berlin, Hitler took refuge in the Führerbunker, an underground bunker in Berlin. It was clear that Germany would lose the Battle of Berlin, which would lead to the end of World War II in Europe.

On 29 April, Hitler married Eva Braun, his longtime mistress, in a small civil ceremony in the bunker. The next day, he began his normal work routine, but by lunchtime, he had committed suicide with Braun in his private sitting room. Hitler's death was announced on German radio the following day, 1 May.

Eyewitnesses testified that Hitler died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, while Braun had taken cyanide. Their bodies were burned in the courtyard of the Reich Chancellery, in accordance with Hitler's prior instructions.

Despite this, conspiracy theories about Hitler's death quickly emerged, fuelled by the Soviet Union, which restricted the release of information and spread disinformation. The Soviets initially claimed they could not confirm Hitler's death, then alleged that he had died by cyanide poisoning or that he had fled the country. It was not until June 1945 that they began to claim that Hitler's remains had been recovered.

In the years following the war, the Soviets maintained that Hitler had not died and was being sheltered by the Western Allies or was in Spain or South America. It was not until the mid-1950s that Western intelligence agencies stopped receiving leads claiming that Hitler was still alive.

In 1956, a West German court declared Hitler legally dead, and an extensive report on his suicide was published. The Soviets continued to spread disinformation about Hitler's death, including the release of a purported autopsy in 1968 that was derided by Western historians.

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