Hitler's Austrian Roots: Exploring His Early Life

Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary, in 1889. He was raised near Linz, living in Vienna in the first decade of the 1900s before moving to Germany in 1913. Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until his suicide in 1945.

Hitler's father, Alois, was illegitimate and for a time bore his mother's surname, Schicklgruber. In 1876, he established his family claim to the surname Hitler. Hitler's mother died of breast cancer when he was 18. Hitler was a devoted son to his mother, but he feared and disliked his father.

Hitler's nationalism was driven by his desire to reunify the German peoples and his pursuit of Lebensraum, or living space, which would enable Germans to become economically self-sufficient and militarily secure. Hitler's rise to power can be traced to 1919, when he joined the German Workers' Party that became the Nazi Party. With his oratorical skills and use of propaganda, he soon became its leader.

Hitler's nationalism was not Austrian but German. Austrians were Germans, in the same way that Prussians or Bavarians were Germans. Hitler considered himself German as in an ethnic German who just happened to be born in the Austrian Empire rather than the German Empire. Both were dominated by ethnic Germans but included other nationalities, the Austrian Empire more so than the German one. Hitler's nationalism was not Austrian but Germanic. He saw Germans, Austrians, Dutch, Scandinavians, and even English people on one side, and the Slavs on the other.

Hitler's ultimate motive was the 'upliftment of the Aryan race'. He wanted to make the 'pure' German nationality walk tall and be strong. He saw the Austrian state as rotting due to mediocrity and the increasing Balkanization of the state made him loathe the Austrian monarchy, which was 'corrupting the purity of German nationality'.

Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn in Austria-Hungary and was raised near Linz

Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary (present-day Austria), close to the border with the German Empire. He was the fourth of six children born to Alois Hitler and his third wife, Klara Pölzl. Three of Hitler's siblings—Gustav, Ida, and Otto—died in infancy. Also living in the household were Alois's children from his second marriage: Alois Jr. (born 1882) and Angela (born 1883).

When Hitler was three, the family moved to Passau, Germany. There he acquired the distinctive lower Bavarian dialect, rather than Austrian German, which marked his speech throughout his life. The family returned to Austria and settled in Leonding in 1894, and in June 1895 Alois retired to Hafeld, near Lambach, where he farmed and kept bees. Hitler attended Volksschule (a state-funded primary school) in nearby Fischlham.

The move to Hafeld coincided with the onset of intense father-son conflicts caused by Hitler's refusal to conform to the strict discipline of his school. Alois tried to browbeat his son into obedience, while Adolf did his best to be the opposite of whatever his father wanted. Alois would also beat his son, although his mother tried to protect him from regular beatings.

Alois Hitler's farming efforts at Hafeld ended in failure, and in 1897 the family moved to Lambach. The eight-year-old Hitler took singing lessons, sang in the church choir, and even considered becoming a priest. In 1898, the family returned permanently to Leonding. Hitler was deeply affected by the death of his younger brother Edmund in 1900 from measles. Hitler changed from a confident, outgoing, conscientious student to a morose, detached boy who constantly fought with his father and teachers. Paula Hitler recalled how Adolf was a teenage bully who would often slap her.

Hitler was raised near Linz and spent most of his childhood in Linz, the capital of Upper Austria. It remained his favourite city throughout his life, and he expressed his wish to be buried there.

Hitler's father, Alois Hitler, was illegitimate and bore his mother's surname, Schicklgruber, until 1876 when he established his family claim to the surname Hitler

Adolf Hitler's father, Alois Hitler, was born illegitimate in 1837. His mother was Maria Schicklgruber, and his biological father remains unknown. Alois bore his mother's surname, Schicklgruber, until 1876, when he established his family claim to the surname Hitler.

Alois's mother, Maria, married Johann Georg Hiedler in 1842, when Alois was five years old. Johann Georg thus became Alois's stepfather. Maria died when Alois was nine, and he was sent to live with Johann Georg's brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, who owned a farm in the nearby village of Spital.

In 1876, Alois convinced the Austrian local authorities to acknowledge his stepfather, Johann Georg Hiedler, as his biological father. This meant that Klara, who would later become Alois's third wife and Adolf's mother, was Alois's first cousin once removed. Alois then changed his surname to that of his stepfather, but the authorities misspelled the name as "Hitler" for unknown reasons.

The identity of Alois's biological father is disputed. Historians have proposed various candidates, including Johann Georg Hiedler, his younger brother Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, and Leopold Frankenberger, a Jewish man whose existence has never been documented. Johann Georg was considered the officially accepted paternal grandfather of Adolf Hitler by the Third Reich, but the question of who his grandfather really was remains unknown.

Hitler's mother, Klara, died of breast cancer when he was 18

Klara Hitler (née Pölzl) was born in 1860 in the Austrian Empire village of Weitra. She married her relative, Alois Hitler, in 1885, and the couple had six children, only two of whom survived to adulthood: Adolf and Paula.

In 1906, Klara discovered a lump in her breast but initially ignored it. By January 1907, the pain in her chest had become so severe that it kept her awake at night, and she consulted the family doctor, Eduard Bloch. Bloch diagnosed Klara with advanced breast cancer and told her and her son that she would need to have her breast removed. The future Führer sobbed upon hearing the news.

Klara underwent the mastectomy at Sisters of St. Mercy in Linz, but the surgeon, Karl Urban, discovered that the cancer had already spread to the pleural tissue in her chest. Adolf, who had been in Vienna, moved back home to tend to his mother, as did his siblings. Bloch recommended an experimental form of chemotherapy, and Klara's mastectomy incisions were reopened so that gauze soaked in iodoform could be applied directly to the tissue to "burn" the cancer cells. The treatments were incredibly painful and left Klara unable to swallow, but they proved futile.

On 21 December 1907, 18-year-old Adolf's mother died at home in Linz from the toxic side effects of iodoform. She was buried in Leonding, near Linz, and Adolf was devastated by her death, carrying the grief for the rest of his life. Bloch later recalled, "In all my career, I have never seen anyone so prostrate with grief as Adolf Hitler."

Klara was a quiet, sweet, and affectionate person, and a devout Roman Catholic. She was very devoted to her children and was described by her daughter Paula as a "very soft and tender person". Adolf's attachment to his mother was outwardly his most striking feature, and he carried a picture of her with him until the last days of his life.

Hitler's favourite teacher, Dr Leopold Poetsch, was a German historian who also gave public speeches. Hitler said of him: ''He used our budding nationalistic fanaticism as a means of educating us, frequently appealing to our sense of national honour.'''

Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn in Austria-Hungary and was raised near Linz. He was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until his suicide in 1945.

Hitler's favourite teacher, Dr Leopold Poetsch, was an Austrian history teacher. He was a high school teacher of Hitler and influenced the future leader's later views. Poetsch was Hitler's teacher from first through third grade (1901–04) in geography, and in second and third grade in history. He also ran the school library. Hitler was allowed to bring his teacher maps, which put him in particularly close contact with him.

Poetsch was a German nationalist and a proponent of the Pan-German movement. He despised the Habsburgs and forcefully argued that all ethnic Germans should be united by a single government. He also held strong racist views and told his pupils that Jews and Slavs were members of "inferior races". Hitler wrote about Poetsch in Mein Kampf, saying:

> In my teacher, Dr. Leopold Poetsch of the high school in Linz, this requirement was fulfilled in a truly ideal manner. An old gentleman, kind but at the same time firm, he was able not only to hold our attention by his dazzling eloquence but to carry us away with him. Even today I think back with genuine emotion on this gray-haired man who, by the fire of his words, sometimes made us forget the present; who as if by magic, transported us into times past and, out of the millennium mists of time, transformed dry historical facts into vivid reality. There we sat, often aflame with enthusiasm sometimes even moved to tears... He used our budding national fanaticism as a means of educating us, frequently appealing to our sense of national honour. This teacher made history my favorite subject. And indeed, though he had no such intention, it was then that I became a young revolutionary.

Hitler's nationalism was not 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's book, Mein Kampf, is not entirely accurate. By the time he wrote it, he wanted to make it appear that he had adopted anti-Semitic ideas quite early in his life

Adolf Hitler was born in the Austrian Empire and considered himself ethnically German. He developed German nationalist ideas from a young age, expressing loyalty only to Germany and despising the rule of the ethnically diverse Austrian Empire under the declining Habsburg monarchy. He and his friends used the greeting "Heil" and sang the "Deutschlandlied" instead of the Austrian Imperial anthem.

Hitler's book, Mein Kampf, was published on July 18, 1925. In it, he wrote about his ideology, his youth, and his time as a soldier in World War I. He also expressed his hatred of Jews and communists, and his desire to expand German territory in Eastern Europe while removing Jews from Germany, as he believed they threatened the survival of the German people.

While Mein Kampf does provide insight into Hitler's racist and antisemitic beliefs, it is important to note that it is not entirely accurate. By the time Hitler wrote the book, he wanted to portray himself as having adopted antisemitic ideas much earlier in his life than he actually had. He also presented himself as the leader of the extreme right and raged against the Treaty of Versailles and the reparations imposed on Germany.

Hitler later claimed that his public statements constituted a partial revision of Mein Kampf, particularly regarding France and German-speaking populations not yet part of the Reich. He acknowledged that the German portion of South Tyrol permanently belonged to Italy and asserted that there were no longer grounds for conflict with France, claiming that Germany held no territorial claims against them.

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