BIOGRAPHY OF ADOLF HITLER,Adolf Hitler - The Rise of a Fanatical Führer
BIOGRAPHY OF ADOLF HITLER
There is a sociological phenomenon called“Godwin’s Law”, which says that when an online conversation goes on long enough,someone is guaranteed to bring up Adolf Hitler, the time has come for us tofinally talk about the biggest Nazi of them all; Adolf Hitler. Most of us have learned about World War IIand the Holocaust in history class, but very few people know about Adolf Hitler’s personallife. His early years and rise to power show ushow one man used fear and anger of the German people to manipulate other human beings. He transformed a nation into a force of hateand destruction that was responsible for the deaths of millions of people. we bring you the infamouslife of Adolf Hitler.
Early Life
This story begins even before Adolf Hitler’s birth. His father, Alois, was an illegitimate childof a 42-year-old peasant named Maria Anna Schicklgruber. She had never been married, and supportedherself by working as a housekeeper for wealthy Jewish families in Austria. Maria left the name of Alois’ father blankon his baptism certificate, so no one has any way of knowing who Hitler’s biologicalgrandfather actually is. A few years later, Maria married a man namedJohann Georg Hiedler, so she and Alois both took on his last name. But when the priest wrote their marriage certificate,he spelled their last name “Hitler”, instead. This means “the one who lives in a hut”. It’s not exactly the most flattering lastname, but for some reason, they decided to keep it. Maria died at age 51, when Alois was just10 years old. He went to live on his stepfather’s family’sfarm, where he worked hard to earn his keep.
As a teenager, he apprenticed under a cobbler,and learned the art of leather making. He was ambitious, so he got a job with theAustrian Ministry of Finance, and this put him firmly in the middle class. Alois Hitler got married and divorced twicebefore marrying his third wife, Klara Pölzl. They had two children who died in infancybefore finally giving birth to a healthy son on April 20th, 1889. They named him “Adolphus Hitler”. They went on to have another son, Edmund,in 1894. Adolf Hitler was rebellious and lazy froma very young age, and did not get good grades. His father was a very angry man, and he wouldbeat Adolf frequently when he misbehaved. His mother, in contrast, was very protective,and would show him unconditional love, no matter how badly he behaved. At 8 years old, he began singing in his churchchoir and his mother fawned over him, telling him that he was the most talented boy in church.
She believed in him so much, she paid forhim to have private voice lessons. He told his parents that he wanted to be aCatholic priest, and he was already preaching to the other children. Up until this point, there was a small sliverof hope that maybe Hitler could have turned out to be a normal person, but in the year1900, his younger brother Edmund died of the measles. The graveyard where Edmund was buried justso happened to be across the street from their house, so he was never able to properly mournand move on with his life. Adolf Hitler was only 11 years old at thattime, and he became very depressed. The boy spent a lot of time hanging out inthe graveyard, lying next to his brother’s grave late into the night. He would talk out loud to his dead brotherand stare at the stars. According to Hitler, he was afraid of hisfather, and only loved his mother. Alois could probably see that his son desperatelyneeded discipline and structure in his life, but Klara was always there to swoop in andbaby him.
Unfortunately, Alois did not live long enoughto make sure Adolf learned to take responsibility for himself. Alois Hitler died in 1903, when Adolf was14 years old. Klara didn’t protest when Adolf decidedto dropout of High School at age 16. Instead of pushing him to actually do somethingwith his life, his mother allowed him to become a “NEET”- which is someone who is notparticipating in education, employment, or training. As we mentioned earlier, their family wasmiddle-class. They were not wealthy by any means, and nowthat his father passed away, his mother was on a strict budget. But young Adolf liked to walk around townwearing fancy clothes and a cane, pretending to be an independently wealthy man. He never worked a day in his life. His mother built up his ego so much, thathe truly believed that he deserved to get everything handed to him, simply because heexisted. Whenever people in town asked young AdolfHitler what he planned to do with his life, he declared that he would be the greatestartist in the world. Hitler applied to be in the Academy of FineArts in Vienna, Austria, but he was rejected.
He wrote, “I was so convinced that I wouldbe successful that when I received my rejection, it struck me as a bolt from the blue.” The paintings that have been attributed toHitler are nothing special, even after years of practice. It’s clear that he had delusions of grandeur. Klara Hitler died in 1907 from breast cancer,when Adolf was 18 years old. He was crushed, because he loved his mothermore than anyone in the world. Now that both of his parents were dead, youwould think that he would- y’know, get a job, maybe? But, no. He still had a baffling sense of entitlement,and believed that he shouldn’t have to work, because he still believed he could be Europe’sgreatest artist. Hitler moved to Vienna, and lived like a kingoff of the inheritance his parents left behind. Alois Hitler worked his entire life to saveup that money for retirement, and Adolf spent all of it in just one year. He was so broke, that he was forced to livein homeless shelters.
Desperate for income, Hitler wrote to familyand friends, asking them to support his life as an artist. Considering that the majority of his relativeswere in the working class, the replies were not surprising; They told him to get a job. However, he convinced at least one aunt tostart sending him money for his basic needs. After years of practicing on a daily basis,he finally started making a small income by selling watercolor paintings to local businessesand tourists, but he would never be able to support himself fully from his art. Life in Germany After World War IIn 1913, Hitler moved to Munich, Germany and continued to paint and sell his watercolors. When World War I began, there was a new senseof enthusiasm in German pride. His career as a painter clearly wasn’t goinganywhere, so he joined the German army. Once he was in the military, he thrived afterhaving some discipline and structure in his life.
He still had a lot of confidence in himselfno matter what he did, and this helped him rise through the ranks until he became a Corporal. He believed Germany should have won the war,of course, and he blamed “Jewish propaganda” as the reason why they didn’t win. When the war was over in 1918, Kaiser WilhelmII was forced to step down from his throne. Germany created a new government called theWeimar Republic, and they signed the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. In Article 231 of the treaty, it says, "TheAllied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility [...] forcausing all the loss and damage[...] as a consequence of the war imposed upon them bythe aggression of Germany and her allies." They were forced to pay money to all of thecountries for all of the damage that they caused, as well as give up 13% of their land. Following the war, the Weimar Republic struggledto deal with the crippling debt from the Treaty of Versailles. This new government tried to create new jobsthrough public works projects, but the country simply could not afford to pay for them.
So, instead of taking responsibility for theirproblems and trying to come up with a solution that made sense, they tried to take the easyway out and just print more money. Now, if you have even a basic knowledge abouthow economics works, printing excess money means that there is more currency in circulation,and its overall value goes down. The people in charge had absolutely no ideawhat they were doing, and between 1921 and 1923, they went through a period of “hyperinflation”,where the value of one US dollar was equal to several trillion German marks. Money was so worthless, kids were using stacksof money as building blocks and cut it up to make kites. Whenever someone needed to buy something atthe store, they had to carry a wheelbarrow full of cash with them. Adolf Hitler secured a job working for theGerman Army as a “confidential informant”, which was basically someone who spied on averagecitizens to make sure they didn’t get into trouble. In 1919, he attended a meeting of the GermanWorkers Party at a beer hall. Even though he was sent as a spy, he realizedthat he actually agreed with everything the Workers Party was saying. They blamed the Jews for all of the country’sproblems, and they wanted Germany to go back to the glorious land it once was.
This organization was the precursor to theNational Socialist German Workers Party, or- you guessed it- the Nazis. Adolf Hitler decided to join the party. He was good at public speaking, so he wasable to encourage new members to join, too. As the years went on, he began to rise theranks of Nazi leadership. And by November 8th, 1923, Hitler lead over2,000 members of the Nazi party into the center of Munich, and they attempted to overthrowthe German government. This became known as the Beer Hall Putsch. Hitler and many of the other protestors werearrested for treason. While he was in jail, Hitler began to writeabout his life and his ideas. He was supposed to be in prison for five years,but he only served 9 months, and was released in 1925. When he was free, he published his autobiography,Mein Kampf, which means “My Struggle”. The book became a bestseller, and Hitler becamea millionaire from the sales revenue. It sold so well, that he continued to make$1 million a year, which is the equivalent to over $14,000,000 a year in today’s money. The German people felt that the Weimar Republicwas a total failure, because the members of their government were incompetent. Many people could tell that it was only amatter of time before there was another revolution.
Thousands of people joined either the CommunistParty or the Nazis. But the wealthy business owners in Germanydid not want the Communists to take over, because capitalism would be destroyed. So the upper class began to financially supportthe Nazi party. These donations, along with Hitler’s newwindfall of money, helped make the Nazi party bigger, and better. In a world where there was so much poverty,the Nazis seemed to be prospering, and many people began to believe that it was trulythe best option. In the 1920’s and 30’s, investigativejournalists began to dig into Adolf Hitler’s past, once he was becoming more of a publicfigure. Several magazines published a theory thatHitler’s mysterious biological grandfather was actually Jewish. Of course, Hitler claimed that this was allfake news propagated by the Jews, and that he was a pure-blooded Aryan German, even thoughhis dark hair and eyes are far from the blonde-haired-blue-eyed ideal he loved so much. The Nazi’s Governor of Poland, Hans Frank,wrote that he uncovered evidence that Hitler’s grandmother, Maria Schicklgruber receivedchild support payments from a Jewish man named Leopold Frankenberger. The young man was just 19 when he got 42-yearold Maria pregnant, and he did not want to marry her after their affair. In 2010, a DNA test confirmed that Hitlerdid, in fact, have Jewish, and even African ancestry. Hitler’s Rise to PowerIt was clear that the German people were angry, and plenty of people were trying to come upwith peaceful solutions to retaining a democratic government. In 1924, a man named Charles G. Dawes cameup with the plan to borrow money from American banks, and use those loans to pay for thecoal industry. Germany would sell coal to France, and itwould help to pay down their debt.
This was called “Dawes’ Plan”, and fora while, it was actually working. For the first time in years, Germany had hopeof recovery. In 1925, Charles Dawes was given the NobelPeace Prize. But in 1929, the United States stock marketcrashed, and Germany could no longer rely on American loans. This was just the beginning of the Great Depression. The Weimar Republic’s constitution containeda clause called Article 48, which gave the President the power to enforce any law. In 1930, President Paul von Hindenburg beganto use Article 48 to create new laws in a desperate attempt to fix the nation’s economy. There was a tremendous amount of civil unrest,and the Nazi party was growing larger and more powerful every day. President Hindenburg could see that the Nazisposed a threat to the Weimar Republic, so he decided that the only way to maintain democracyin Germany was for the parties to work together. He appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor in1933. Just four weeks later, on February 27th, 1933,the “Reichstag” Parliament building was set on fire. Hitler claimed that the Communists did this,and he convinced President Hindenburg to create laws that banned the freedom of the pressand peaceful protest. Of course, this was just a ploy to get ridof the Communist party from Germany, and many people believe that the Nazis were actuallybehind the arson. In the summer of 1934, Hitler and his devoutfollowers, Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Goring, began The Night of the Long Knives. They staged a major coup by murdering themost powerful members of the Weimar Republic.
Hitler began to ban all of the trade unions,and made all other political parties illegal. The only choice a German citizen had anymorewas to be a Nazi. This was his “Third Reich”, which wasan empire that was apparently going to last a thousand years. Hitler gave speeches that were full of hyperbole. He claimed that everything was the “greatest”,and made outlandish promises about the future of Nazi Germany. A lot of people look back in history, andwonder how the German people could have let this happen. How could they have been so foolish as togive so much power to a mad man? But put yourself in the German’s shoes forjust a second. You’re at rock bottom, with absolutely nohope of feeding your family or finding any meaning in your life and career. When suddenly, a man with confidence comesalong and convinces you that you are special. You’re apart of this magical “master race”,and he knows exactly who to blame for all of your problems, and how to make it all better. The Germans fell for it hook, line, and sinker.
The Holocaust, and World War IIHitler’s plan to improve the German economy was exactly the same way he got money allhis life. Instead of working for it, he was simply goingto take it from the people who worked hard to actually earn it. One of his first decrees was to increasedwages of the German people by 10.9%, which made everyone happy straight away. Then, he declared that they would decreasetrade with foreign nations, and put the money towards military spending, instead, becausethey were going to make German great and glorious once again. At this point, Germany was just as broke asit was before, and the money had to come from somewhere. Hitler believed that by conquering other countries,they could steal the wealth of other nations, and use that money to run the Third Reich. So, if you’re going to steal from someone,why not start with the wealthiest people in Europe? Jewish homes were ransacked, and their pricelessartwork, gold, and properties were taken. Then, he moved on to the ethnic cleansingof the Sinti and Roma people, simply because they were vagabonde “gypsies” that hedidn’t like having around. Hitler decided to completely ignore the restrictionsplaced on Germany in The Treaty of Versailles. As we mentioned earlier, Germany had lost13% of its territory, but he believed that this perfect Aryan race needed space to grow...Like,a lot of space. He called this the “Lebensraum”, whichmeans “living space”, and he wanted to spread German territories throughout the world.
Even though he claimed that he wanted to exterminateall of the Jews, Hitler decided to pick and choose who he felt was worthy of living. He was grateful to a Jewish doctor named EduardBloch, who treated his mother’s breast cancer. Bloch and his wife were escorted safely outof Austria. Hitler’s personal chauffeur, Emil Maurice,was also half-Jewish, and yet he was still allowed to join the SS, because they had beenfriends for years. Hitler continued to find like-minded friends,and signed a treaty in 1936 to join forces with Italy under the rule of Benito Mussolini. Meanwhile, Japan was invading China, and theyhad similar aspirations to conquer territory for their own empire, so they also joinedthe Axis Powers. These three nations began their plan for thenew world order. The concentration camps created a source offree slave labor for the Nazis, which dramatically cut down on costs. The Third Reich continued to become more powerfulas the years went on. Millions of people were dying, all becauseone man decided to selfishly take everything he could possibly want, and he convinced othersto do the same. The Women of Hitler’s LifeAfter becoming wealthy from the sales of Mein Kampf in 1925, Hitler had his older half-sister,Angela Raubal, move into his home with her children, and she became his housekeeper.
He was obsessed with his 17-year-old niece,Geli Raubal. Her friends would say that they always thoughtthey had an oddly close relationship for an uncle and niece, and many historians havegone as far as to say that Geli was the “love his his life”. When Geli was 19, she began having a secretaffair with Hitler’s half-Jewish chauffeur, Emil Maurice. When Hitler found out, he was outraged, andMaurice was fired. Hitler sent his sister Angela and her childrento live in a large house that he purchased, in order to get them away from the city. Geli was attending medical school in Munich,so Hitler suggested that she continue living in the apartment with him alone. Hitler forbid her from having friends. She became a prisoner in the apartment, andhe would not allow her to go anywhere outside of school, unless he was there as a chaperone. Even before becoming Chancellor of Germany,Hitler still employed a driver and Nazi bodyguards, who were also there to make sure Geli neverescaped. In 1931, Geli was now 23 years old, and sheasked if she could go on a trip to Vienna to start taking singing lessons. Not surprisingly, Hitler refused to let herleave. Geli finally snapped, and they got into aheated argument.
During the fight, Geli announced that shehad fallen in love with a young man in her classes at medical school, and they were nowengaged to be married. She demanded that he let her leave the apartmentso that she could be with her fiance. The next morning, Geli’s body was foundin her bedroom with a gunshot wound to the chest. She was holding Hitler’s gun in her hand. It was ruled a “suicide”. But since she had so much to live for, plentyof people theorize that Hitler’s jealousy got the best of him, and that he murderedhis niece. Many historians consider this to be a hugeturning point in Hitler’s life, because it would have been the first time he committedmurder outside of the war. Historians have been able to find romanticconnections to 8 different women in Hitler’s life, but he had just one long-term relationshipwith a woman named Eva Braun. He met her the same year that Geli died- in1929- during a Nazi party meeting. Eva was just 17 years old, and he was 40,but they were very attracted to each other. Since there was such a huge age gap, Hitlerclaimed that she was his “private secretary”, and kept their relationship a secret. He wanted it to be a casual relationship,so that he could remain single and enjoy sleeping with other women whenever he wanted. But Eva Braun was truly in love with Hitler,and it was breaking her heart that he refused to acknowledge that she was his girlfriend. She attempted suicide by shooting herselfin the chest in 1932. Apparently, she purposely copied what happenedto his niece, because she knew it would trigger an emotional response from him.
The bullet missed her heart, and she got medicalattention right away. If this was an elaborate cry for attention,it worked, because Hitler ran to her bed side at the hospital with a bouquet of roses, andtold her that he loved her. Satisfied that her guilt trip worked, EvaBraun continued to act like the crazy lovesick teenager that she truly was. She propped up pictures of Hitler during mealswhenever she ate alone, so that she could pretend he was there, too. Eva even got jealous of the attention Hitlergave to his dog, Blondi. She would reportedly kick the dog wheneverit got close to her. But Hitler could never see Eva as anythingmore than one of his many mistresses. She never got the love and attention thatshe wanted from him. In 1935, she attempted suicide again- thistime by overdosing on sleeping pills. After she recovered, she demanded that ifHitler didn’t want her to reveal his secret affairs, they needed to live together in hisbunker. He allowed her to stay, so long as they sleptin separate bedrooms. Death, Legacy, and ConspiracyAfter years of death and destruction, World War II was finally over, and the Allies wonthe war.
On April 30, 1945, Soviet soldiers were closingin on Adolf Hitler’s bunker. He finally agreed to marry Eva Braun, butonly if she agreed to a suicide pact with him. She happily agreed, and she wore a black dressto their wedding. Joseph Goebbels was the best man, and officiatedtheir intimate ceremony. In his last will and testament, Hitler requestedthat his body should be burned after his death. When the Russians stormed the bunker, theydiscovered that his skull and other bone fragments had survived the flames. For years, and the USSR did not allow anyoneelse to access Hitler’s remains. Since those bodies in the bunker could havebelonged to anyone, many people felt that they did not have any real proof that he actuallydied. This sparked conspiracy theories that he maystill be alive. Some people believed that he escaped in asubmarine to start a new life in Argentina, in a German colony called La Cumbrecita. The History Channel devoted an episode ofthe series Mystery Quest called “Hitler’s Escape” to explaining exactly how this couldhave been possible for him to pull off. Of course, there were far crazier conspiracytheories out there, like the one that claimed that the Nazis started a space colony on thedark side of the moon. The ideas was so ridiculous, it was turnedinto a comedy movie called Iron Sky.
But in 2018, scientists finally confirmedthat the teeth extracted from the skull in Russia is, in fact, Adolf Hitler, becauseit matches his dental records. Once and for all, people can have closureand he truly did die in that bunker in 1945. The Nazi party became illegal in Germany,and it was forbidden to even read his autobiography, Mein Kampf, until very recently. Unfortunately, Nazism has not gone away completely. It was never outlawed in the United States,and this brought on a revival of the Neo Nazi movement. As long as we continue to imagine Hitler asa monster that only comes along once in a lifetime, we will fail to be prepared forwhen another evil dictator comes along. When power falls into the wrong hands, historymay be doomed to repeat itself.
Comments
Post a Comment