Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born

politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers

Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei,
abbreviated NSDAP), also called the Nazi Party. He was the ruler of
Germany from 1933 to 1945, serving as Chancellor from 19331945
and Fhrer (head of state) from 19341945.
A decorated veteran of World War I, Hitler joined the Nazi Party in
1920 and became its leader in 1921. Following his imprisonment after a
1923 failed coup, he gained support by promoting nationalism,
antisemitism and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and
propaganda. He was ultimately named chancellor in 1933, and quickly
established a totalitarian and fascist dictatorship. Hitler pursued a
foreign policy with the declared goal of seizing Lebensraum ("living
space"), and directed the resources of the state, including the economy,
toward this goal. His rebuilt Wehrmacht invaded Poland in 1939,
leading to the outbreak of World War II in Europe.[2]

Childhood and heritage

Childhood
Adolf Hitler was born at the Gasthof zum Pommer, an inn in Braunau
am Inn, Austria-Hungary, on 20 April 1889,[4] the fourth child of six.[5]
His father, Alois Hitler (18371903), was a customs official. His
mother, Klara Plzl (18601907), was Alois' third wife. She was also
his half-niece, so a papal dispensation was obtained for the marriage.
Of Alois and Klara's six children, only Adolf and his sister Paula, seven
years his junior, reached adulthood.[6] Hitler's father also had a son,
Alois, Jr., and a daughter, Angela, by his second wife.[6]
Hitler's family moved often, from Braunau am Inn to Passau, Lambach,
Leonding, and Linz. The young Hitler was a good student in
elementary school. But in the sixth grade, his first year of high school
(Realschule) in Linz he failed and had to repeat the grade. His teachers
said that he had "no desire to work". One of Hitler's fellow pupils in the
Realschule was Ludwig Wittgenstein, one of the great philosophers of
the 20th century.[8]

In Mein Kampf, Hitler attributed his conversion to German nationalism

to a time during his early teenage years when he read a book of his
father's about the Franco-Prussian War, which caused him to question
why his father and other German Austrians failed to fight for the
Germans during the war.[9]
Heritage
Hitler's father, Alois Hitler, was an illegitimate child. For the first 39
years of his life he bore his mother's surname, Schicklgruber. In 1876,
he took the surname of his stepfather, Johann Georg Hiedler. The name
was spelled Hiedler, Huetler, Huettler and Hitler, and was probably
regularized to Hitler by a clerk. The origin of the name is either 'one
who lives in a hut' (Standard German Htte), 'shepherd' (Standard
German hten 'to guard,' English heed), or is from the Slavic word
Hidlar and Hidlarcek. (Regarding the first two theories: some German
dialects make little or no distinction between the -sound and the isound.)
The name "Adolf" comes from Old High German for "noble wolf"
(Adel=nobility + wolf). Hence, one of Hitler's self-given nicknames
was Wolf or Herr Wolf; he began using this nickname in the early 1920s
and was addressed by it only by intimates (as "Uncle Wolf" by the
Wagners) up until the fall of the Third Reich.[10] The names of his
various headquarters scattered throughout continental Europe
(Wolfsschanze in East Prussia, Wolfsschlucht in France, Werwolf in
Ukraine, etc.) reflect this. By his closest family and relatives, Hitler
was known as "Adi".
Hitler's paternal grandfather was most likely one of the brothers Johann
Georg Hiedler or Johann Nepomuk Hiedler. There were rumors that
Hitler was one-quarter Jewish and that his grandmother, Maria
Schicklgruber, became pregnant while working as a servant in a Jewish
household. The implications of these rumors were politically explosive
for the proponent of a racist and antisemitic ideology. Opponents tried
to prove that Hitler had Jewish or Czech ancestors. Although these
rumors were never confirmed, for Hitler they were reason enough to
conceal his origins.

Early adulthood in Vienna and Munich

From 1905 on, Hitler lived a bohemian life in Vienna on an orphan's
pension and support from his mother. He was rejected twice by the
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (19071908), citing "unfitness for
painting", and was told his abilities lay instead in the field of
architecture.[11] His memoirs reflect a fascination with the subject:
On 21 December 1907, Hitler's mother died of breast cancer at age 47.
Ordered by a court in Linz, Hitler gave his share of the orphans'
benefits to his sister Paula. When he was 21, he inherited money from
an aunt. He struggled as a painter in Vienna, copying scenes from
postcards and selling his paintings to merchants and tourists. After
being rejected a second time by the Academy of Arts, Hitler ran out of
money. In 1909, he lived in a shelter for the homeless. By 1910, he had
settled into a house for poor working men on Meldemannstrae.
Hitler claimed that Jews were enemies of the Aryan race. He held them
responsible for Austria's crisis. He also identified certain forms of
Socialism and Bolshevism, which had many Jewish leaders, as Jewish
movements, merging his antisemitism with anti-Marxism. Later,
blaming Germany's military defeat in World War I on the 1918
revolutions, he considered Jews the culprits of Imperial Germany's
downfall and subsequent economic problems as well.
Generalising from tumultuous scenes in the parliament of the multinational Austrian monarchy, he decided that the democratic
parliamentary system was unworkable. However, according to August
Kubizek, his one-time roommate, he was more interested in Wagner's
operas than in his politics.