The
Roots of an Evil Dictator: Adolf Hitler’s Human Beginnings
Angie
Cook
Introduction
Starting at the Beginning: Alois
Schickelgruber
Seemingly
Normal Development: Adolf’s Early Life
Emerging
Intellect: Adolf’s Early Education
Post-Realschule: Adolf’s Idle Dreaming
The
Pinnacle of German Femininity: Stefanie
Dream
Occupation: Hitler as an Artist
Adolf’s Great Tragedy: the Death
of Klara
Conclusion: Finding Meaning in
Hitler’s Early Life
Bibliography
Introduction
Take
a poll of any classroom or at any public place in the United States, and even
in many other parts of the globe, and ask those people to name the first words
they think of when describing Adolf Hitler. Undoubtedly those people will
mention evil, Holocaust, World War II, genocide, and sociopath, just to name a
few. While it would be erroneous to argue that these descriptions are
inaccurate or too harsh, they also serve to reveal one aspect about the popular
conception of Adolf Hitler: these descriptions do not completely acknowledge or
demonstrate an awareness of Adolf Hitler’s early history, which is also a
necessary part of the story. Many historians prefer to begin from Hitler’s
time as a soldier in World War I, at which point the fully political and
hardened character of Adolf Hitler ultimately emerged. But this type of study
perhaps fails to acknowledge the source of that personality, and it
consequently becomes rather easy to think of Hitler in terms of the monster he
personifies.
The
purpose of this paper is by no means intended to justify or excuse the behavior
of Adolf Hitler after World War I, for the majority of the world is in
agreement upon the atrocities and great evil which Hitler committed. Rather, it
is also important to understand that through Hitler’s status in world
history, his humanity is often dismissed and thus his connection with all human
beings is detrimentally lost. Instead, the world arguably stands to learn far
more if it remembers Adolf Hitler’s humble beginnings rather than just
the monster he ultimately became. There was once a time when Adolf Hitler was
simply another human being who was insignificant to the greater world, but who
was also capable of normal human feelings. Just like many typical people the
world over, Hitler resented but also respected the rigid structure of his
father’s rules, loved his mother for her kindness and support, grieved
over the deaths of his parents and younger brother, and showed deep compassion,
understanding, and encouragement for his closest friend. Like all human beings,
Hitler was subject to both positive and negative experiences, capable of
experiencing the full range of human emotions, and acted in accordance with his
own dreams and ambitions.
As
Kubizek rightly put it: “But for the question, then unknown and
unexpressed which hung above our friendship, I have not to this day found any
answer: What did God want from this person?”[i] This is
the difficult question that nonetheless highlights the fundamental roots from
which all human beings start. Adolf Hitler did not start out inherently different;
like everyone else, he had a childhood and youth that was pivotal in shaping
the man he would eventually become. Many of his experiences and feelings were
rather typical and even similar to the experiences and feelings of countless
people around the world. Yet despite this starting commonality, Adolf Hitler
eventually diverged from the path of humanity upon which he had the
companionship of his fellow human beings, and he ultimately became a lonely
figure of evil within the tide of history. He will always be remembered for the
great crimes against humanity he committed, but few will ever know or
understand the most haunting circumstance of all: Adolf Hitler was a human
being too, and as such, he inadvertently demonstrated for the world the great lengths
of evil to which humanity is able to go. In remembering the fundamental
humanity once present in Adolf Hitler, one can also come to understand the
truly terrible potential of humanity.
Top
Starting at the Beginning: Alois
Schickelgruber
Adolf’s
father, Alois Hitler, started his life as Alois Schickelgruber, the
illegitimate son of Maria Anna Schickelgruber. Maria Anna was a peasant woman
in a family of eleven children, and was already forty-two years old when she
gave birth to Alois on 17 June 1837 in the small village of Strones.[ii] The
father of Alois remains unknown, but this missing detail in the history of
Adolf Hitler continues to be a topic of popular rumor and debate even today.
The most well-known legend is that the father of Alois was actually a Jewish
man in the Frankenberger family, by whom Maria Anna was allegedly employed at
the time of her pregnancy. This information comes from a 1930 report issued by
Franz Jetzinger, who was sent by the Führer to investigate Hitler’s
genealogy. Many historians have agreed that the evidence for such a claim is
shaky at best, and Hitler himself—not surprisingly—denied the
legitimacy of Jetzinger’s report.[iii] Yet the
sensationalism of the myth continues to hold the attraction of many around the
world for the sense of irony and hypocrisy it lends to Hitler’s Nazi
ideology.
In
any case, what is known about the
family of Adolf Hitler is far more ordinary and less sensational than most
would like to believe. The birth of illegitimate children, for example, was not
even cause for alarm or scandal, but was rather a prevalent occurrence in the
rural, poor regions of the Waldviertel, in lower Austria, into which Alois was
born.[iv] What is
more, Anna Maria seemingly did not suffer any substantial stigma as a single
mother, for in 1842 and at the age of forty-seven, she married Johann Georg
Hiedler, a journeyman mill worker,[v] and who
has been accepted by many—including Adolf—as the father of young
Alois.[vi] Shortly
after the marriage, Alois went to live with the brother of Johann Georg, Johann
Nepomuk Hiedler, in the nearby town of Spital, and spent the rest of his
childhood and youth with that family. Five years after her wedding, on 7
January 1847, Anna Maria died, and Johann Georg fades into the background of
Alois’ life.[vii]
Alois
enjoyed a normal, satisfactory childhood with the family of Johann Nepomuk, who
treated Alois as another member of the family. In fact, the strong connection
between Alois and Johann Nepomuk has led some to speculate that Alois’
father was not some Jewish employer or Johann Georg, but rather Johann Nepomuk
himself.[viii] None of
these claims can ever be proven, however, and serve to add little to the
history of Hitler’s family. What is more commonly known is that Alois
Schickelgruber was an ambitious youth, and he was an extremely hard worker
throughout his life. In 1855 he joined the frontier guards in the Austrian
Finance Ministry, and continued to work his way through promotions until he
achieved the rank of “full inspector of customs” in 1875. In this
way, Alois managed to advance as far as merit without education could get him,
and achieved for himself and his family a rather comfortable lifestyle.[ix]
In 1873 Alois married his first wife,
Anna Glassl, who was a widow fourteen years older than her new husband, and who
was comfortably settled financially, which is a characteristic that has led
many to conclude that the marriage was one for economic rather than emotional
reasons.[x] In any
case, while Alois was a well-disciplined, attentive, and obedient man in the
realm of the customs office, he was anything but in his personal life. Alois,
according to Robert Payne, “had his full share of romances,”[xi] which no
doubt resulted in several illegitimate children, a few of whom are recorded and
number among Alois’ extended household. These affairs included
Alois’ second and third wives, Franziska Matzelberger and Klara
Pölzl, respectively, both of whom served in Alois’ household first
as servant girls, and both of whom were pregnant at the time of their weddings
to Alois in 1883 and 1884.[xii]
Perhaps
one of the most important events in the entirety of Alois’ life, in that
it would have incredible significance for Alois’ posterity if not
necessarily for himself, came in 1876, when Alois applied for an official name
change to acknowledge Johann Georg Hiedler as his father. Though Johann Georg
had died in 1857,[xiii] Alois
worded his request so that the priest assumed that Johann Georg was still
alive, and stated that since his parents’ eventual marriage had made him
a legitimate son of the couple, he wished his name to reflect that.
Alois’ true motivations, according to Smith, had much to do with
preserving the family name of Hiedler—the spelling of which Alois
ultimately changed to Hitler, and which indicated nothing of significance other
than the commonality of alternate spellings for familial names—as well as
supposedly securing an inheritance from Johann Nepomuk. Since Johann Nepomuk
had fathered only daughters, the name of Hiedler/Hitler would have ended with
Johann Nepomuk himself, but with Alois’ name change, to which Johann
Nepomuk added a monetary incentive, the line could continue.[xiv] Had it
not been for the fact that one of history’s most infamous politicians
would bear the name of Hitler as a result, this name change certainly would not
have been an event even worth noting.
Top
Seemingly Normal Development:
Adolf’s Early Life
After
his rather short marriage to Franziska Matzelberger, who died in 1884 roughly
one year after her wedding (Anna Glassl had died 6 April 1883, and Franziska
and Alois were married 22 May 1883[xv]), Alois
Hitler married Klara Pölzl, the granddaughter of Johann Nepomuk Hiedler.[xvi] Since
Alois’ name change had essentially made the new couple second cousins, a
papal dispensation was required, and was duly granted in time for a small
wedding on 7 January 1885.[xvii] Klara
was a robust young woman of twenty-four at the time of the marriage, compared
to Alois’ forty-seven years, and she was in many respects Alois’
opposite. While Alois was the supreme authority in his household, Klara was a
loving, indulgent mother to not only her own children but also to Alois and
Angela, who were the children of Franziska Matzelberger, and all of the
children returned her love and respect indiscriminately. She was conscientious,
hard-working, and extremely focused on her family. Towards her husband she was
obedient and loyal, and always deferred to Alois for all decisions and
judgments about the family.[xviii] There
is no doubt that Klara’s life with Alois, whose “dominance made him
a permanent object of respect, if not awe, to his wife and children,”[xix] was
often difficult and disappointing, but yet their marriage was one of stability.
Concerning the Hitler family and marriage, according to Payne, “we hear
of no feuds, no violent outbursts of temper, no sudden upheavals. The very
ordinariness of the family commands a kind of respect.”[xx] The
Hitler family, therefore, did not particularly have anything negatively
striking about it, but rather was a typical and possibly even agreeable
environment in which to raise a family.
The
atmosphere into which Adolf Hitler was born, then, was one of relatively decent
financial and emotional support. By the time Adolf was born on 20 April 1889,
Klara had already lost three children—Gustav, Ida, and Otto[xxi]—and
so she greatly feared that her fourth child would also succumb to an early death.
As a result, according to Smith, Adolf grew up with a mother who was especially
cautious and overly indulgent, and who the young Adolf was very adept at
manipulating in order to get what he wanted.[xxii]
Ultimately, then, as Adolf progressed through
Baby Adolf Hitler Baby Adolf Hitler
childhood, he “began to assert himself more and
probably displayed the first signs of consuming anger when he did not get his
way.”[xxiii] While
there is a general
agreement that Adolf was capable of sudden fits of anger, it
is perhaps, at this point in Hitler’s life, a little overly dramatic and
relying too much on hindsight to assert that Klara’s indulgent love gave
rise to such extreme behaviors in the young Adolf. Rather, for all intents and
purposes, Adolf’s upbringing was simply typical, complete with a doting
mother and a rule-keeping father, and there is not enough significant or
reliable evidence at this stage in his life to suggest the overwhelmingly evil
dictator Adolf Hitler would one day become.
Top
Emerging Intellect: Adolf’s Early
Education
This
saga of a typical family—and one that was slowly progressing from
peasantry through the lower ranks of society—continued in Alois’
decisions for Adolf’s education. As the son of a man who had relatively
little education, which served as the only barrier to Alois’ hard work
and extensive ambitions,[xxiv] it
should come as no surprise that Alois was determined that Adolf should have a
complete education, for with more extensive education came the opportunity to
enter the higher levels of civil service that had been denied to his father. In
1895, Adolf was enrolled in the small rural school Fischlam bei Lambach, at
which he was a superior student and received high marks in his courses.[xxv] This
exceptional performance in school continued at the elementary school in
Lambach, where Adolf also participated in the local monastery’s singing
lessons. Now at the age of ten, Adolf was so taken by the life and music of the
monastery that, interestingly enough, he entertained the idea of becoming a
monk. The monastery however, was an occupation of which Alois did not
particularly approve, and so the interest did not go beyond childhood fancy.[xxvi]
Despite
decades of settled life in Braunau am Inn, the village of Adolf’s birth,
in 1892 Alois started the family on a long series of relocations, including
Passau in 1892, Hafeld in 1895 (at which time Alois retired from civil
service), and Lambach in 1897. The result was that by November 1898, when the
Hitler family moved once again—this time so that Alois could enjoy a
small patch of land in order to keep his hands busy—Adolf was enrolled in
his third elementary school or Volksschule,
this time in Leonding on the outer reaches of Linz.[xxvii] It was
also at this time (29 February 1900) that Edmund, Klara’s second son born
24 March 1894, died of the measles, leaving of Klara’s six children only
Adolf and Paula, born 21 January 1896, to survive to adulthood. The tragedy of
the event, according to Payne, had a tremendous effect upon the young Adolf:
“From being a rather cocky, good-humored, outward-going boy who found his
lessons ridiculously easy, sailing through life as though all things were
possible to him, he becomes a morose, self-absorbed, nervous boy, who never again
did well in his lessons and continued to wage a sullen war against his teachers
until they gave up in despair.”[xxviii] It
was seemingly for this reason, then, that Adolf’s academic performance at
the Realschule, in which he enrolled
in September 1900, plummeted from excellent marks to entirely new lows. Adolf
was not suddenly brainless, according to Payne, but he was rather
“suffering from some profound psychological malaise” that caused
him to lose interest in the academic studies which he had previously enjoyed.[xxix]
Adolf Hitler, 10
Adolf
Hitler himself, however, contended that another reason was at the heart of his
sudden regression into poor academic performance. After a successful education in
the elementary school, Alois was anxious to see Adolf pursue the next level of
learning in either the Gymnasium,
with its emphasis on classical education, classical languages, and as a gateway
into the professions of law and academia, or the Realschule, which concentrated on more modern occupations in the
technical and scientific studies.[xxx] As a
self-made man, Alois predictably preferred the more practical education of the Realschule, because it could also serve
as the beginning block for civil service, which was the ultimate path upon
which he most wished to set Adolf. It was upon this point, however, that Adolf
and Alois disagreed. After his father took him to visit the customs office when
he was thirteen, Adolf was all the more determined that the path of his father
was not the right occupation for himself.[xxxi] By this
time, Adolf believed that he wanted pursue a career as an artist, a subject
which had always been interesting to him and in which he had shown particular
talent, but which his father wholeheartedly rejected as a respectable career.
In defiance of Alois’ lack of support, Adolf determined that he would win
his father around to his own ideas by performing poorly in the Realschule: “I thought that, once
it became clear to my father that I was making no progress at the Realschule, for weal or for woe, he
would be forced to allow me to follow the happy career that I dreamed
of.”[xxxii]
While
both causes are particularly interesting to Adolf’s development, it is
likely that these reasons were not solely responsible for Adolf’s
suddenly poor conduct. It is possible that Adolf simply lost interest in his
schoolwork, or that he developed a dislike of the educational system, his 
teachers, or the future to which Realschule could potentially 
lead.
In any case, Alois’ constant pressure on Adolf was not the sole
instigator of his son’s unsatisfactory performance, because Adolf’s
apathy continued even after Alois’ death on 3 January 1903.[xxxiii] His
death was sudden and no doubt extremely difficult for the entire family,
despite Adolf’s rather poor relationship with his father, and
Adolf’s education continued to suffer. Klara’s urgings were not
enough to restore in Adolf the motivation to improve his marks. In Mein Kampf, Adolf remarked, “I
respected my father, but I loved my mother,”[xxxiv] but
regardless of this distinction between his two parents, both of whom wished the
best for Adolf through successful completion of his education, neither Alois
not Klara could not be the ultimate cause of Adolf’s failure or success.
Intentionally
or unintentionally, Adolf did manage to thoroughly fail at Realschule, and was even forced to repeat classes and examinations
until he could pass satisfactorily.[xxxv] Though
his marks do not particularly reflect it with any clarity, Adolf asserted in Mein Kampf, that: “I studied just
the subjects that appealed to me, especially those which I thought might be of
advantage to me later on as a painter. What did not appear to have any
importance from this point of view, or what did not otherwise appeal to me
favourably, I completely sabotaged. My school reports of that time were always
in the extremes of good or bad, according to the subject and the interest it
had for me.”[xxxvi] In any
case, his marks in Realschule were
such that he had no real hopes of gaining entrance into the next level of
education in the Oberrealschule, and
so his formal education essentially ended in 1905 at the age of sixteen.[xxxvii]
Top
Post-Realschule: Adolf’s Idle Dreaming
It
was roughly around the time of Adolf’s completion at the Realschule that Adolf met the person who
perhaps was the only true friend that Adolf ever had as a child and into early adulthood.
August Kubizek emerged on the scene in 1904 in the 
last
year of Adolf’s education at the Realschule, and through his reflections
on their friendship between 1904 and 1908, Kubizek offers the greatest,
possibly most enlightening glimpse into the character of the young Adolf at one
of the most important times of his life. As a youth of fifteen, Adolf was
already what some historians have called an “idle gentleman,” a
“dandy,” and a “young dilettante.”[xxxviii] He took to wearing meticulous,
attractive clothing, walking with a cane, and appearing only in the evenings
for the entertainment highlights of operas and late night strolls, both of
which were counted among his most favorite pastimes. His mornings and days, on
the other hand, would be spent in his room on another of his much loved
diversions: doing sketches of all sorts, but especially architectural sketches.[xxxix]
The
dreamy, playful diversions of his childhood came into full bloom in
Adolf’s new occupations. As a child, Adolf Adolf Hitler, about 16
constantly enjoyed playing games with
other boys, particularly cowboys and Indians, and he loved the adventure
American West books written by German author Karl May.[xl] Kubizek
added that, “From his childhood, Adolf had been intoxicated by tales of
the ancient German heroes,” and so much so that Kubizek believed that
Adolf literally lived his life according to these stories: “In a world of
harsh political reality, the tendency will be to reject these youthful musings
as fantasies, but the fact remains, despite everything at this time in his
life, that Adolf Hitler’s personality dwelt only in the truly pious
beliefs to which the German heroic sagas had introduced him.”[xli] The
result, according
to Payne, was that “the world of fantasy was the only
place where he felt completely at home.”[xlii] Many
historians tend to agree; at this stage in his life, Adolf Hitler grew to
depend mostly if not entirely upon the world which he created for himself in
his own musings, and this striking characteristic gave birth to certain
attributes which had substantial significance for Adolf’s development.
Top
The Pinnacle of German Femininity:
Stefanie
Taking
a look at his life upon the whole, countless historians, psychologists, and lay
people have been consistently drawn to Adolf’s relationships with women
throughout his life. It is commonly accepted that Adolf Hitler had some degree
of aversion towards women, and so the inevitable question becomes: why? Payne
claims that the underlying reason was Adolf’s overwhelming affection for
his mother, which meant that “he would find no woman equal to her, for
she alone represented the ideal. All women would be compared with Klara, and
most of them would be found wanting.”[xliii] It is
rather reasonable that some degree of this assertion is true, and it certainly
is a common occurrence between doting mothers and devoted sons, who escape the
authority of the father for the soft comfort of the mother, that other women
inevitably pale in comparison. But in the case of Adolf Hitler, it would seem
that there was more to the story, and certainly another woman who managed to
catch the attention and affection of the young Adolf.
During
one of Adolf and Kubizek’s regular evening strolls, the pair came across
a young woman named Stefanie, who was out walking with her mother, and with
whom Adolf fell deeply and passionately in love. According to Kubizek,
“Stefanie 
was
a distinguished-looking girl, tall and slim. She had thick, fair hair which she
mostly wore taken back in a bun. Her eyes were very beautiful—bright and
expressive. She was exceptionally well-dressed and her bearing indicated that
she came from a good, well-to-do family.”[xliv] Just as
Adolf was often entirely consumed by his fantasies, he was completely
overwhelmed by his love for Stefanie. Every night, Adolf and Kubizek would take
a walk to the spot at which Stefanie and her mother would inevitably pass upon
their own evening stroll, and for the rest of his time in Linz, and even during
his stay in Vienna, Adolf admired her with infallible devotion. There was no
other woman who could possibly distract his attention from Stefanie, 
and Adolf even went so far as to believe
that Stefanie secretly returned his feelings. What is more, Adolf was convinced
that a special connection existed between himself and Stefanie so that she
“not only knew his ideas exactly, but that she shared them
enthusiastically.”[xlv] Her
smile in his direction was enough to make him blissful for the rest of the day,
and her averted gaze was enough to drive Adolf to despair: “It was the
first and, as far as I know, the last time that Adolf contemplated suicide
seriously. …But Stefanie would have to die with him—he insisted on
that.”[xlvi]
Adolf’s devotion, in this way, could just as easily be termed an
unhealthy obsession.
But
perhaps what was even more interesting than this sustained affection was the
fact that Adolf never once approached Stefanie.[xlvii] At the
time, he was a poor, unemployed idler and dreamer who had no real prospects for
the future. Above all else, Adolf was frequently embarrassed by his apparent
social inferiority—which was a self consciousness that carried over to
his time in Vienna and often prevented him from attending any social
gatherings.[xlviii]
Besides this, Kubizek noted:
Any move of hers beyond the rigid
convention would have destroyed the picture of her which Adolf kept in his
heart. Perhaps even this strange timidity was prompted by the fear that any
closer acquaintance might destroy this ideal. For, to him, Stefanie was not
only the incarnation of all womanly virtues, but also the woman who took the
greatest interest in all his wide and varied plans. There was no other person,
apart from himself, whom he credited with so much knowledge and so many
interests. The slightest divergence from this picture would have filled him
with unspeakable disappointment.[xlix]
In this way, Stefanie represented to
Adolf the epitome of what he believed to be the ideal German woman. He wrote
countless poems to Stefanie as his “goddess of love,”[l] and his
fascination with her continued, Kubizek claimed, for over four years and even
during a time of extreme poverty in Vienna, which perhaps demonstrated better
than anything “that Adolf’s feelings were deep, true and real
love.”[li]
Whether
it was a deeply held affection for his mother which other women found difficult
to surmount, or his inability to break through the feminine ideal for the sake
of which he kept women at a distance,[lii] Adolf
Hitler’s relationships were far and few between throughout his entire
life. It was only when the Allies were approaching the bunker in which he hid
and the war was irrevocably lost that Hitler took a wife. What is ultimately of
great interest, however, is the fact that Hitler and Eva Braun committed
suicide together,[liii] a
fantasy which the young Adolf had once entertained for himself and Stefanie.
Top
Dream Occupation: Hitler as an Artist
From
his time at One of Adolf’s Architectural Sketches
Realschule,
Adolf was aware of his talent for painting and drawing, and it was this path
that he most yearned to pursue. As a young idler, Adolf had spent his days engaged
in endless sketches and architectural plans, and became altogether certain of
his inevitable success in the occupation. Continuing to follow the influence of
Alois, however, Klara was hesitant to allow Adolf to become an artist; she too
wanted to see him settled into a career that promised to provide for
Adolf and his future family. But Adolf was determined, and
after much debate, he managed to convince Klara to consent to a trip to Vienna
so that he could sit for the examination at the Vienna Art Academy.[liv] The
examination was held once a year in October, and so at the beginning of October
1907, Adolf made the trip to Vienna, found a room to rent, and started to
prepare for the examination.[lv] All of
Adolf’s hopes and dreams rested upon this one endeavor: “With my
clothes and linen packed in a valise and with an indomitable resolution in my
heart, I left for Vienna. I hoped to forestall fate, as my father had done
fifty years before. I was determined to become ‘something’—but
certainly not a civil servant.”[lvi] Adolf
was entirely confident not only that his success and prestige in the art world
was guaranteed, but that it was the only pursuit with which he could ever be
truly happy. Thus, it is not surprising that when he failed the examination,
the result was devastating: “I was so convinced of my success that when
the news that I had failed to pass was brought to me it struck me like a bolt
from the skies.”[lvii] In many
ways Adolf had set his entire future upon the assumption that his entrance into
the Art Academy was simply a matter of due course. When that cherished dream
failed him, he was a wandering intellect without a proper outlet, and perhaps
just as angry with himself as with the forces outside of his control that had
sealed his fate.
Adolf
Hitler, however, was never a man to give up on his dreams so easily. As Smith
labeled it, “His personality and way of life prevented him from acknowledging
his errors and accepting his rejection as a sign of the need for any change.
…His solution to rejection by the Academy was to go back to the
Stumpergasse [his residence] and settle down as if nothing had happened. In
this sanctuary, he resumed what he grandly called his ‘studies,’
doodling and reading, with excursions around town or to the opera.”[lviii] In
this way, Adolf remained as consumed with his drawings and with his idle
lifestyle as he ever had been, failing to completely acknowledge the failure of
his first attempt to enter the realm of professional art. Whether Adolf was
motivated by a personal tenacity that refused to let him give up so easily, or
that he was still living in a fantasy world in which his art was excellent
while the art professors were blinded by their own prejudices, Adolf spent the
majority of the next year preparing for the examinations again. In October
1908, Adolf once again presented himself at the Art Academy for the annual
examination, but this time the result was even worse; Adolf Hitler was not even
allowed to sit for the examination.[lix] This was
the last time that Adolf pursued any formal education in art.
As a
result of this crushed fantasy he had for so long held, Adolf sank into a state
of bitterness and disappointment: “He railed on for hours denouncing the Realschule, the Academy, and all the
people who had interfered with the realization of his dreams.”[lx] As
Kubizek constantly noted during the time in which they lived together in
Vienna, while Kubizek attended music school, Adolf absorbed himself in his
reading, sketches, and regular visits to the opera. Yet despite this constant
study, Kubizek could not assert that the aim was improvement: “I never
felt…that he was seeking anything concrete in his piles of books, such as
principles and ideas for his own conduct; on the contrary, he was only looking
for confirmation for those principles and ideas he already had.”[lxi] He would
dabble in subject after subject, and project after project with no clear aim
other than to fill his time and reinforce those opinions which he already held,
and he seldom, if ever, managed to complete the task upon which he would
enthusiastically start. While in Vienna, for example, Adolf started upon a
grand scheme of producing an opera about the Germanic legend of Wieland the
Smith, with the musical help of Kubizek, but it was never seen to completion
despite Adolf’s initially overwhelming passion and devotion to the work.[lxii] From
this series of disappointments and consuming diversions, one starts to get a
sense of Hitler as the brilliant wanderer who could not find validation or
settled occupation in society, and so had to rely upon his own, reclusive
ambitions to achieve happiness.
Top
Adolf’s Great Tragedy: the Death
of Klara
Many
have acknowledged the close relationship that existed between Adolf and his
mother Klara. Certainly, it is no secret that Adolf was fonder of his mother
than his father, which was a circumstance even Hitler pointed out in Mein Kampf: “I respected my
father, but I loved my mother.”[lxiii] Thus,
when his mother fell ill, Adolf demonstrated the full extent of his feelings
for his mother, and his ability to experience the deepest levels of human love and
devotion. Beginning in January 1907, Klara had started to experience a steady
decline in health with what appeared to be breast cancer, but this did not stop
Adolf from making the trip to Vienna for the Art Academy entrance exams, the
opportunity of which Klara would never dream of depriving her son.[lxiv] When he
returned in November, however, Klara’s health had taken an irrevocable
turn for the worst. The news that Klara would not recover was devastating to
Adolf: “He looked terrible. His face was so pale as to be almost
transparent, his eyes were dull and his voice hoarse. I felt that a storm of
suffering must be hidden behind his icy demeanour. He gave me the impression
that he was fighting for life against a hostile fate. …’Incurable,
the doctor says’—this was all he could utter.”[lxv] In the
manner which most have come to expect from Hitler the dictator, Adolf the
young, distraught man understandably felt anger at his inability to change or
rectify his mother’s illness. In desperation, Hitler found an outlet for
this frustration at his lack of power through placing the blame upon the doctor
who, according to Adolf, did not have the expected knowledge for helping his
mother.
Kubizek’s
observations of the time perhaps demonstrate Adolf’s emotions the best:
“I was familiar with my friend’s habit of turning everything he
came across into a problem. But never had he spoken with such bitterness, with
such passion as now. Suddenly it seemed to me as though Adolf, pale, excited,
shaken to the core, stood there arguing and bargaining with Death, who
remorselessly claimed its victim.”[lxvi] Until
Klara’s death on 20 December 1907, Adolf remained constantly at her side,
essentially taking over the care of the household and seeing to his
mother’s every need. The efficiency and skill with which Adolf executed
every domestic task—from scrubbing the floor, cooking meals, to looking
after his sister Paula—shocked even Kubizek.[lxvii] Thus,
during this brief time, it seems that Adolf managed to entirely set aside every
fantasy and normal occupation with which he filled his time, and to give
himself completely to the care of his mother, with whom he shared a mutual,
resilient bond of love and affection. Klara’s death was no doubt the most
difficult time of his life up to that point, and the Christmas of 1907 only
served to remind him of how alone he suddenly was in the world.[lxviii]
Top
Conclusion:
Finding Meaning in Hitler’s Early Life
Adolf’s Painting of the Vienna Opera House
Ultimately,
the question becomes, what can be derived from the people, events, and
circumstances of Hitler’s childhood and teenage years? After failing the
Art Academy examination the
second time, Adolf quickly faded into the background, so much so that in
November 1908, Adolf Hitler disappeared from the room which he and Kubizek
shared together in Vienna, and was not heard from again by his closest friend
until the 1930’s.[lxix]
Following that divergence, Adolf entered the most desperate time of his life,
when he was forced to live in a men’s shelter and earn money by selling
his watercolor postcards.[lxx] In the
spring of 1913, Adolf disappeared once again,
only to turn up in Munich at the end of June that same year.[lxxi] Soon
after, of course, came World War I, and the point at which many pick up the
more notorious political life of Adolf Hitler.
But
the occurrences of his childhood and teenage years also contribute a great deal
to the portrait of the world’s greatest and most evil dictator, for in
those early years one cannot help but to notice the seemingly normal upbringing
Hitler enjoyed. As a child, his family was stable financially and emotionally,
with Alois as the strict, ambitious father and Klara as the loving, supportive
mother. Adolf had every opportunity at an education and a successful future.
And yet he turned away from the typical path which his father had chosen for
him, and became a renegade in the classroom, which ultimately led to years of
idleness as Adolf haphazardly and energetically pursued his own interests. He
was a youth completely captivated by the fantasy realm his extremely active
imagination made for him, and perhaps the line between feasible ambition and
impossible dreams became blurred beyond all recognition. Within this inability
to cope with pure reality lies the roots of Hitler’s ideology, and thus
the roots of National Socialist dogma. From Adolf’s love of games and
German folklore eventually came the goal of a united German state and racial
superiority. From his idealization of women eventually sprang Hitler’s
conceptions of the German family and strict morality against prostitution,
homosexuality, and interracial marriages. If one looked hard enough, one could
find in Hitler’s early life the roughly hewn ideas that would ultimately
become the cornerstone Nazi ideology.
But
perhaps just as important as this is the fact that Hitler’s childhood and
youth reveals the development of a seemingly normal child. He was subject to
the same pitfalls and emotions as countless human beings the world over, and
yet he managed to turn out so radically different than essentially every other
human being in history. The more that one delves into the history and character
of Adolf Hitler, the more one cannot help but be disturbed by the similarities
he or she finds there. Smith stated the phenomenon rather well: “The
young Adolf Hitler invites our sympathy. He is a very human little boy and
youth, whose chief faults are his laziness and his passion for romantic games.
…He is someone we all know because we all have felt similar urges and
experienced many of the same frustrations.”[lxxii] Thus,
the ultimate point is that one cannot simply dismiss Adolf Hitler as a depraved
lunatic who somehow managed to turn the world on its head. Rather, one must
acknowledge the fundamental humanity which lies buried underneath
Hitler’s evil, and understand the capability of all human beings to
choose a similarly ignoble path. The more one tries to understand the evil that
produced Adolf Hitler, the more one must accept the perfectly human roots from
which he started.
Top
Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf. Translated by James Murphy. 1939. Reprint, London:
Hurst and Blackett, 1942.
Hitler, Adolf. “My Private Will
and Testament.” 29 April 1945.
www.ibiblio.org/pha/policy/1945/450429a.html (accessed 26 April 2008).
Kubizek, August. The Young Hitler I Knew. Translated by Geoffrey Brooks. 1953.
Reprint, London: Greenhill Books, 2006.
Payne, Robert. The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler. New York: Praeger Publishers,
1973.
Smith, Bradley F. Adolf Hitler: His Family, Childhood & Youth. Stanford, CA: The
Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, 1967.