The childhood and formative years of Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, in the small Austrian town of Braunau am Inn.

His father, Alois Hitler, was a customs official who had been married twice before. Adolf's mother, Klara Polzl, was Alois's third wife and twenty-four years younger than him.

Klara and Alois had six children in total. Gustav (born in 1885), Ida (1886), and Otto (1887), who were all born before Adolf, all died in infancy due to illness.

His younger brother Edmund was born in 1893 and his sister Paula in 1896.

However, Edmund died at age six, which meant that Adolf and Paula were the only children who survived into adulthood.

Alois was a strict father, and he frequently beat Adolf. As a result of the physical abuse, Adolf became withdrawn and resentful towards his father.

However, Adolf also had two half-siblings, Alois Jr. and Angela, from his father's previous marriages.

While Alois Jr. had a strained relationship with Adolf, Angela maintained a more stable connection and would even work as a housekeeper for Hitler during his rise to power later in life.

Around the age of 3, Adolf's family moved to Passau in Germany where he initially attended a school in Steyr, before the family moved to Linz in Austria when he was 13, where he studied at the Realschule.

Adolf left the school when he was sixteen, but never completed his education.

He did not do well in school and struggled academically. Adolf clashed with his father over his career aspirations, as he wanted him to enter the civil service.

Instead, Adolf wanted to be a painter, and he grew disinterested in many of his school subjects.

Adolf's father died in 1903, and his mother died of cancer four years later.

In 1907, when he was almost 18, Hitler moved to Vienna with the hopes of becoming an artist. 

He also became interested in politics and developed many of the ideas that would later make him one of the most notorious dictators in history. 

Hitler's first attempt at getting into art school failed. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna but was rejected twice, both in 1907 and 1908.

This was particularly devastating for him, as his portfolio was considered 'too weak', with his work being judged as 'lacking in human figures', a criticism that deeply affected his confidence in his abilities.

By 1909, Hitler was homeless but lived intermittently in shelters and hostels.

He supported himself by selling his paintings, postcards, and doing odd jobs.

Importantly, while living in Vienna between 1907 and 1913, Hitler developed his anti-Semitic and nationalist views, which were inspired by the widespread political and racial ideas circulating in Vienna at the time.

The most influential of these were those promoted by Georg von Schönerer and Karl Lueger, the anti-Semitic mayor of Vienna.

When World War I broke out, Hitler saw it as an opportunity to put his artistic dreams on hold and serve his country.

Adolf's experience in World War One had a profound effect on him. He volunteered for the Bavarian army (a regional army within Germany) in 1914 and was sent to the front lines, where he initially served as a dispatch runner. 

Hitler saw firsthand the horrors of war and the futility of trench warfare. He was involved in the First Battle of Ypres in 1914, the Battle of the Somme in 1916, and the battles of Arras and Passchendaele in 1917.

As a result, Hitler had multiple close encounters with death, including being wounded at the Somme in 1916 when a shell fragment injured his leg.

He was awarded both the Iron Cross, Second Class (on December 2, 1914) and Iron Cross, First Class (1918).

The Iron Cross, First Class, was far more significant as it was less commonly given to soldiers of his rank.

Then, on the 15th of October 1918, Hitler was hit by a mustard gas attack and was temporarily blinded.

It is still debated whether the loss of his sight was entirely due to the gas attack or whether it had a psychological element, since, when he was hospitalised in Pasewalk in Prussia, he was diagnosed with 'hysterical blindness'.

While he was in the hospital, Hitler learned that Germany had surrendered and that he would be going home.

He was angry and resentful at what he saw as a betrayal of Germany by its own politicians.

He blamed them for the 'stab-in-the-back' theory, which alleged that internal betrayal led to Germany’s loss in the war.

This anger would later fuel his political career.

After the war, Hitler returned to Munich where he became increasingly radicalized.

By 1919, the city had become a hotbed of political unrest. There were communist uprisings and right-wing reactions, which led Hitler to begin working as an army political agent.

Gradually, he began aligning himself with nationalist and anti-Semitic ideologies.

Hitler eventually became directly involved in German politics when he officially joined the German Workers' Party (DAP) in September of 1919.

This group had been founded by Anton Drexler on January 5, 1919, but it soon transformed into the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party) on February 24, 1920.

Drexler was then replaced as party chairman by Adolf Hitler in 1921 but acted as a mentor to his replacement.

As he took over leadership, Hitler drew on his experiences in the trenches of World War I, to justify his extreme nationalism and belief that Germany needed to be rebuilt as a strong, racially 'pure' state.

He is even believed to have designed the party’s iconic symbol, the swastika, which he saw as a powerful emblem of the Aryan race and a rallying point for German nationalism.

Membership in the Nazi party grew slowly, and it remained a fringe group, but Hitler believed that they could become a powerful force in politics if they could capitalize on key moments of government weakness.

There would be several moments of potential crisis that the party looked to act upon due to the economic devastation following Germany’s defeat in World War I,

This included hyperinflation in 1923 which produced widespread discontent and fear among the German people.

Then, on November 8–9, 1923, he attempted to overthrow the Weimar Republic's government in what is known as the Beer Hall Putsch.

The coup failed, and Hitler was sentenced to five years in Landsberg Prison for attempted treason.

During this time, he wrote his book Mein Kampf (meaning 'My Struggle'). It outlined his views on anti-Semitism, living space (Lebensraum) for the German people, and his disdain for communism, among other topics.

However, he was released from prison after serving nine months of his sentence.

Once free, he re-founded the Nazi party in 1925 and focused on growing its power.

By 1928, the party had secured only 2.6% of the vote in national elections, but by 1930, they captured 18.3%.

To the surprise of many, within three years, they would seize control of Germany.