Hitler's Austrian Roots: Exploring His Early Years

Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary, and was raised near Linz. He lived in Vienna in the first decade of the 1900s before moving to Germany in 1913. Hitler considered himself ethnically German, and his fascination with German nationalism was influenced by a teacher who was part of the underground Nazi SS. While in Vienna, Hitler consumed countless books about German nationalism, which helped form his later beliefs. Hitler's goal was to unite all ethnic Germans under one German state, and he believed that Austrians were Germans.

Hitler's birthplace

Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary, on 20 April 1889. He was raised near Linz and lived in Vienna in the first decade of the 1900s before moving to Germany in 1913.

Hitler considered himself ethnically German, and his fascination with German nationalism was sparked by a teacher who espoused German nationalism and was part of the underground Nazi SS. During his early adult years in Vienna, Hitler consumed countless books about German nationalism, which helped form his later beliefs.

Hitler's nationalism was not limited to Germany and Austria; he believed that all ethnic Germans should live under one German state. This included Germans in Czechoslovakia and Poland, which were taken out of the German Empire following World War I, as well as those in France.

Hitler's nationality

Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary, and was raised near Linz. He lived in Vienna in the first decade of the 1900s before moving to Germany in 1913. Hitler was Austrian-born but considered himself ethnically German. Both Austria and Germany were dominated by ethnic Germans but included other nationalities, the Austrian Empire more so than the German one. Hitler's nationalism was not German state nationalism, it was German ethnic nationalism. He believed that all ethnic Germans should live under one German state.

Hitler's favourite teacher spouted off German nationalism regularly and was even part of the underground Nazi SS. When he spent his early adult years in Vienna, Hitler would consume countless books, especially about German nationalism, that helped him form his later beliefs.

Hitler's nationalism wasn't just limited to Germany and Austria. Racially, his view of perfection was closer to the average Dane than the average German, but from his perspective, all of that was historically and linguistically Germanic, and therefore "Germany."

Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf:

> German Austria must return to the great German motherland and common blood belongs in a common Reich.

Hitler's nationalism was also reflected in his annexation of Austria in 1938, known as the Anschluss.

Hitler's views on nationalism

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until his suicide in 1945. Hitler's views on nationalism were extreme and underpinned his rise to power and the ideology of Nazism.

Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn in Austria-Hungary and was raised near Linz. He lived in Vienna in the first decade of the 1900s before moving to Germany in 1913. Hitler was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I, receiving the Iron Cross. After the war, Hitler returned to Munich. He continued working for the army as an instruction officer in the information department. His job was to encourage nationalism and anti-communism among soldiers and infiltrate small political parties.

Hitler's nationalism was extreme and was directed towards the German 'Aryan' race. He believed that people could be separated into a hierarchy of different races, where some were superior and others were inferior. Hitler believed the German race to be the superior race, and called the German race 'Aryan'. He believed that the German 'Aryan' race should dominate and sought Lebensraum (living space) for the German people in Eastern Europe.

Hitler's nationalism was also intensely anti-Semitic. He considered Jews to be an inferior race of people, who set out to weaken other races and take over the world. Hitler believed that Jews were particularly destructive to the German 'Aryan' race and did not have any place in Nazi Germany. He wanted to rid Germany of the Jews, along with other minorities that did not fit into his idea of an Aryan race, including the disabled, homosexuals, Roma and Sinti.

Hitler's nationalism was also anti-communist. He frequently denounced communism as being part of an international Jewish conspiracy. Hitler's nationalism was also anti-Slavic. He sought Lebensraum from the Slavic nations in the East and a union of all pure Germans within one Reich.

Hitler's nationalism was a key factor in the rise in popularity of the Nazi Party. His speeches, which attracted large crowds, were one of the main reasons for the party's growing popularity. Hitler's nationalism also informed the Nazis' racist ideology, which underpinned the Holocaust.

Hitler's time in Vienna

In 1907, the 18-year-old Hitler left Linz and moved to Vienna to study art. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna but was rejected twice. Hitler's test drawings were deemed unsatisfactory, showing a lack of talent. Hitler's architectural drawings were deemed to be of good quality but somewhat outdated in style.

Hitler moved into a room in Stumpergasse, which he shared with his childhood friend August Kubizek. The pair would stroll along the Ringstrasse, a three-mile-long boulevard lined with an eclectic mix of classical and modern architecture. They admired the Hofburg Palace and the Neoclassical parliament building, where Hitler attended parliamentary debates. He also began to develop his loathing of democracy and attended the opera, where he indulged his passion for Wagner.

Hitler and Kubizek rented a room at the top of Stumpergasse, where busy shoppers now walk over small brass markers with the names and dates of individuals sent to their deaths by the Nazis. These markers are placed at the last known residences or workplaces of the victims.

Hitler's mother died of breast cancer in 1907, and by 1909, he had run out of money. He was forced to live in homeless shelters and dormitories, earning money as a labourer and by painting and selling watercolours of Vienna's sights. He also pursued a growing passion for architecture and music, attending ten performances of his favourite Wagner opera, Lohengrin.

Hitler was exposed to racist rhetoric in Vienna. Mayor Karl Lueger exploited the city's prevalent anti-Semitic sentiment, and German nationalism was even more widespread in the Mariahilf district, where Hitler lived. Hitler read local newspapers that promoted prejudice and utilised Christian fears of being swamped by an influx of Eastern European Jews. He also read pamphlets by philosophers and theoreticians such as Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gustave Le Bon, and Arthur Schopenhauer. Hitler also developed fervent anti-Slavic sentiments during his time in Vienna.

In 1913, Hitler fled to Munich to escape Austrian military conscription. While in Vienna, he had spent a great deal of time reading right-wing and pan-German writings, and he left the city with anti-democratic ideals and ideas of a Greater German nation.

Hitler's Austrian supporters

Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary, and was raised near Linz. He lived in Vienna in the first decade of the 1900s before moving to Germany in 1913.

In the days, weeks, and months that followed, Austrian and German Nazis carried out the Nazification of all aspects of Austrian life. Many Austrians participated enthusiastically in this endeavour. Austrians persecuted the country's Jewish population, enacted Nazi policies, and fought in World War II.

The majority of the bureaucrats who implemented the Final Solution were Austrian. Austrians also participated in the mass murder of Europe's Jews.

Prior to the Anschluss, the Austrian Nazi party's military wing, the Austrian SS, was an active terrorist organisation. After the Anschluss, Hitler's Austrian and German armies were fully integrated. During the war, 800,000 Austrians volunteered for Nazi Germany in the Wehrmacht and a further 150,000 Austrians joined the Nazi party's military wing, the Waffen-SS.

• Ernst Kaltenbrunner
• Arthur Seyss-Inquart
• Odilo Globocnik
• Franz Josef Huber
• August Eigruber
• Alexander Löhr
• Hermann Neubacher
• Lothar Rendulic
• Wolfgang Abel
• Heinrich Gross
• Alois Brunner
• Karl Silberbauer
• Otto Skorzeny
• Edmund Glaise-Horstenau
• Hugo Jury
• Franz Hofer
• Friedrich Rainer
• Friedrich Franek
• Amon Göth

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