Adolf HitlerThe Human Being

By: Kara Sautner and Birgit Vandenboomen

Family life• On April 20, 1889, an innocent infant was birthed into our society• Adolf Hitler, the young self proclaimed artist was born into a family as the

fourth of six children.• His mother Klara, whom he loved dearly, was the third wife of Alois; Adolf’s

father.• One day Adolf was snooping through his fathers belongings and stumbled

across a picture book on the Franco-Prussian war. Instantly, he became fixated on war.

• Although it was not unusual for discipline in a household to be very strict and rough, Adolf was still beat by his father quite often.

• Adolf had many far off dreams for his future. His mother fully supported those aspirations. His father on the other hand, was a little more apprehensive upon the subject. Having the lesser support from his father had caused Hitler to resent his father and as the years grew on his repressed emotions became more and more dramatic and heart-wrenching for him.

Hitler Family Tree

Teenage -Youth Life• After his father, Alois Hitler, sent Adolf away to Realschule in Linz, a technical high school, Hitler

rebelled. He had dreamed of going into a classical high school to become an artist but his father wanted Adolf to follow in his footsteps, which then made Adolf even more rebellious, resentful, and bitter. After his father had past, Adolf and his friends went out for a night of drinking, in which case caused him to rip up his high school certificate to pieces, and use them as toilet paper. After someone turned them in to the schools director, he was asked never to return to the school again.

• Hitler became obsessed with German nationalism; it was the perfect way for him to rebel against his father, who had previously served the Austrian government. He expressed loyalty only to Germany, when most people living along the German-Austrian border believed themselves to be German-Austrian. Hitler and his friends liked to use German greetings and sing the German anthem instead of the Austrian Imperial anthem.

• Klara was diagnosed with breast cancer and this was devastating for Hitler. “His mother had been the only creature whom Hitler bestowed all of his love and was loved

in return.” (Spoken by; August Kubizek. Quoted from the book “Adolf Hitler” By Eileen Heyes) Adolf had been showered with love by his mother and losing her, was simply horrific in his eyes, who would he turn to for support? He had no friends, no family, and many problems of which any human would find difficult to cope with independently.

• Hitler applied twice for the Vienna School for the Arts but both times was denied. He spent six years in Vienna, living off of his Orphan’s pension and the minuscule amount of money left for him by his father after he died.

• Hitler had already contained many repressed, disturbing mental issues by this time, let alone adding to them with this series of events. He clearly had been through a rough life so far and needed someone to blame. Who better than the people he thought to be a disgrace?

Roots of Anti-Semitism• When Klara was diagnosed with breast cancer, her doctor was Jewish. A Jewish

man, experimenting with new medical practices on Hitler’s beloved mother. In Hitler’s perspective these experimental, unusual practices were silly, and he believed them to be the reason for his mothers death. Perhaps if the doctor had done the usual treatment she would have survived. He carried repressed emotions for years and came to the false accusation that his mothers death was due to the Jewish doctor.

• Adolf was raised in an anti-Semite community • As far back as the 16th century, people had accused the Jewish population for their

unhappiness and unfortunate events. Even the German monk; Martin Luther, called Jews demons, enemies of Christ, and arch criminals.

Influential WW1 Experiences

• When the Austrian Arch Duke was assassinated, which was the root of WW1, Hitler became enraged and completely enthralled in patriotic movements. He instantly submitted himself for the military.

• While serving with the Bavarian army Hitler went on a journey of self discovery. He realized where his beliefs stood, and he knew exactly how far he was willing to go in order to fulfill his beliefs.

• In the trenches, the enemy attacked his army base with Mustard gas. Adolf lost his sight for multiple months and experienced first hand, the burning, stinging, blistered wounds and came to the conclusion that he would never use this against another person, seeing that it was such a disgustingly cruel weapon.

• A Jewish colonel decided to retreat when the were just miles away from Paris. Hitler was thrown into a whirlpool of frustration and angst. They had been so close to their goal, and then a Jewish man held them back and being the passionate patriotic that Hitler was, he clearly disagreed and felt betrayed.

Rise to Power• Once Hitler was released from prison (for the Munich Putsch) he decided that it would be to his

benefit to take control constitutionally rather than forcefully.

• He had charisma like non other and had a raw talent of obtaining a crowds attention and the skill to keep it! His charisma would enthrall the public and the passion spread like wildfire through the people. Starting with one man, the flames of passion quickly licked at through the rest of the desperate community.

• The people were desperately searching for someone to fix their problems, looking for someone to take care of them. When Hitler promised to create a new Empire that would last for 1000 years the public was relieved. He was right, it will last 1000 years, but not in the sense he had hoped.

• In January of 1933 Hitler was appointed as chancellor for Paul von Hindenburg. When Hindenburg dies (August of 1934) Hitler was the consensus successor. The economy improved ever so slightly when he came into control and he claimed it to be the result of his magnificent politics, having the people believe him to be the one they’d been waiting for.

• At the FAhrer Conference in 1937, he proposed his plan for world domination, as explained in Mein Kampf, written by Adolf Hitler.

• As he tested the waters, the rest o the world was going through tough economic times and turned a blind eye towards him, giving him the confidence and capability to reach for his goal.

AssessmentAdolf Hitler; A man of extreme ideas with an extreme attitude. When an

entire society is in despair and have lost their way, they will find comfort in having excuses and someone to blame for their misfortune. However, in order for the metaphorically voiceless people to do anything they must have a leader, a person thought to be of a stronger persona, someone admired. In the case of Adolf Hitler’s reign, his success was namely because of the circumstances. Germany was in upheaval when he came into the picture, and when a situation is extreme, extremists become the go-to kinds of leaders. Hitler, having had such a rough childhood and containing so many internalized issues, had taken the term extremist to a new level. His mind was simply wired differently from the average human, and this is partially due to his life circumstances. A person can find multiple reasons as to why he was like that, and why those horrible events occurred, and that again, turns into a situation of needing excuses and someone to blame. What happened, happened and instead of continuing to be resentful, the world should deeply examine each and every circumstance that impacted this huge ordeal and bear these in mind in order to keep anything like this from happening ever again. And although similar cases have occurred since then, humanity has intervened before those newer cases became too much to handle.

Bibliography

Websites:• www.secondworldwar.co.uk/ahitler• www.adolfhitler.dk• www.remember.org/guide/facts.root.hitler.html

Book: • Adolf Hitler Written by; Eileen Heyes

Video: • Adolf Hitler- Speech 1933