The Beginning

THE BEGINNING

At half past six on the evening of April 20th, 1889 a child was born in the small town of Branau, Austria. The name of the child was Adolf Hitler. He was the son a Customs official Alois Hitler, and his third wife Klara. As a young boy Adolf attendated church regulary and sang in the local choir. One day he carved a symbol into the bench which resembled the Swastika he later used as the symbol of the Nazi party. He was a pretty good student. He received good grades in most of his classes. However in his last year of school he failed German and Mathematics, and only succeeded in Gym and Drawing. He drooped out of school at the age of 16, spending a total of 10 years in school. From childhood one it was his dream to become an artist or architect. He was not a bad artist, as his surviving paintings and drawings show but he never showed any originality or creative imagination. To fullfil his dream he had moved to Vienna the capital of Austria where the Academy of arts was located. He failed the first time he tried to get admission and in the next year, 1907 he tried again and was very sure of success. To his surprise he failed again. In fact the Dean of the academy was not very impressed with his performance, and gave him a really hard time and said to him "You will never be painter." The rejection really crushed him as he now reached a dead end. He could not apply to the school of architecture as he had no high-school diploma. During the next 35 years of his live the young man never forgot the rejection he received in the dean's office that day. Many Historians like to speculate what would have happened IF.... perhaps the small town boy would have had a bit more talent....or IF the Dean had been a little less critical, the world might have been spared the nightmare into which this boy was eventually to plunge it.

WORLD WAR I

While living in Vienna Hitler he made his living by drawing small pictures of famous landmarks which he sold as post cards. But he was always poor. He was also a regular reader of a small paper which claimed that the Araban race was superior to all and was destined to rule the world. The paper blamed Communists and Jews for all their problems and hitler agreed to those views. Hitler agree with most of the points made in the publication. He continued to live a poor live in Vienna and in 1913 decided to move to Munich. Still living in Vienna and being Austrain by birth, Hitler showed more loyalty to the Geramny. He thought that the Aryan race was destined to rule the world. Many believe that he tried to escape the draft but it was never proven. His live in Munich was not much better then before and he continued to be poor. Then in 1914 World War I broke out and Hitler saw this as a great opportunity to show his loyalty to the "fatherland" by volunteering for the Imperial army. He did not want to fight in the Austrian Army. Hitler was a good soldier. Many of political opponents claimed that he was a coward but records clearly show that he was not. He received to awards of bravery but never achieved a high Rank. In 1918 Germany surrendered and Hitler was very upset about the loss. He believed that it was the Jews and the Communists who betrayed the "fatherland" and it was here that his disliking of the Jews most likely began. Germany after the war was in chaos. With no real Government to control the country, many groups tried to take control. One day a big communist group staged a big riot but another group of ex-soldiers including Hitler managed to hold them back.

THE NAZI PARTY

Since there were not many chances for employment Hitler stayed in the army. Hitler was assigned the job of going go to various meetings of groups which sprang up like mushrooms and to report on them. One day September 12, 1919 - a fateful day in history, Hitler was sent to investigate a small group which called itself the "German Workers Party". Hitler was not to happy about his assignment. He thought it wouldn't be worth it to even go. At the group mainly talked about the Countries problem and how the Jews, communists and others where threatening the master race and offered their own solutions. Hitler was bored by the meeting but when a man stood up and claimed that Bavaria should separate from Germany, Hitler got up and argued that point. He argued that Germany and germans must unite into one to survive. His natural ability to speak imprest the leader of the group and at the end of the meeting he gave Hitler a pamphlet and an initiation the next meeting. He wasn't interested in attending but after reading the hand out he accepted. He later joined the German Workers Party and was in charge of Propaganda. The party was small at first but Hitler's great skill at deliberating speeches attracted more and more listeners