Adolf Hitler Research Paper

While many may suspect that the ruthless and tyrannical leader of Germany had a damaging upbringing, the opposite is the truth. Adolf Hitler was a child that was immersed in love and affection and in reality, spoiled by his mother, Klara Polzl who lost all three of her children prior to Adolf’s birth to childhood diseases. Hitler adored his mother and gave his father the uttermost respect. As a child he had a normal upbringing and was actually considered to be a good and intelligent student. However, as a teenager, between the ages of fifteen to nineteen, one of his friends August Kubizek, described him to be a “shy, insecure young man who hid his insecurities behind a façade of self-confidence that bordered on arrogance” (Crowe, 82). August

also described him to be “exceedingly violent and high strung”. Later on, August also goes on to say that Hitler had a delusional way of thinking and that “there was truth and there was reality, but then there were Hitler’s truth and Hitler’s reality” (Crowe, 82).
Growing up Adolf Hitler had two great interests, one being art and the other being architecture.

According to the text he would spend a grand amount of his time rebuilding Vienna and Linz through his architectural designs. Later on, he would aid in the rebuilding of places such as the capital of Berlin during his dictatorship. However, despite his immense interest in art and architecture, he was denied entrance into the Academy of Fine Arts twice. A significant part of Hitler’s early life was the death of his mother which came subsequently after his rejection from the Academy. At just seventeen years old his mother died from breast cancer, and the loss of his mother was exceptionally difficult for him given their close relationship. In fact, because they were so close it was hard for Hitler to accept his mother’s death and he derived a notion (false “truth”) that his mother was killed by the doctor who just so happened to be a

Jew.
Sometime after his mother’s death Hitler eventually moved to Vienna where the anti-Semitic ideologies of Karl Lueger and Georg Ritter ultimately influenced him.

In fact, it is in Vienna where Hitler claims to have discovered that the Jews and Marxism were the two greatest threats to the Germans (Crowe, 83). However, later on Hitler was struck with great concern or anxiety when he heard rumors flooding in in regards to him having Jewish ancestry, going back to his paternal grandmother. Hitler’s father was conceived out of wedlock and it was possible that an affluent Jewish man was the father. In fact, it is documented that this Jewish man regularly sent Hitler’s grandmother child support payments up until Hitler’s father, Alois was fourteen years old (Crowe, 81). However, Hitler’s dislike for Jews and the “truth” and “reality” that his childhood friend August discusses may be viewed here as he “clouded his past and built new myths to fill the voids surrounding the mysteries of his origins” (Crowe, 82).
Eventually, Hitler fled from Vienna as a means to avoid the Austrian military, but later on ended up joining the German military during World War 1. Ironically, Hitler was extremely delighted for the war. In fact, Hitler states “I fell down on my knees and thanked heaven from an overflowing heart for granting me the good fortune of being permitted to live at this time” (Crowe, 86). Hitler was very patriotic and did not complain about the long-lasting trench warfare even when

conditions deteriorated. In fact, he often criticized those soldiers who complained about the war even if they were wounded.
All in all, one cannot say for sure that Hitler’s notorious perception of race came into existence during his childhood because Hitler himself admits that he never heard his father talk negatively about the Jews. Hence, it is evident that his perception of race probably stemmed some time when he was living in Vienna due to the abundance of anti-Semitic writings.