Profile of Adolf Hitler (1889 -1945) Essay -- Papers

Profile of Adolf Hitler (1889 -1945) Family Background Adolf Hitler was born on April 20th 1889 in Braunau-am-Inn, Austria. The town is near to the Austro-German border, and his father, Alois, worked as a customs officer on the border crossing. His mother, Klara, had previously given birth to two other children by Alois, (Gustav and Ida) but they both died in their infancy. Adolf attended school from the age of six and the family lived in various villages around the town of Linz, east of Braunau. By this time Adolf had a younger brother, Edmund, but he only lived until the age of six. In 1896, Klara gave birth to Adolf 's sister, Paula, who survived to outlive him. When his father died in 1903, Hitler saw this as a relief to him. However when his mother Klara died of cancer in 1907, Hitler was devastated, as she was loving and caring of him and his siblings, unlike his father, who was a strict disciplinarian. Childhood/Youth =============== Hitler grew up with a poor record at school and left before completing his education, with an ambition to become an artist. During his school years Hitler only showed and interest in two of his subjects which were Gymnastics and Art. After his father's death in 1903, Klara Hitler brought up the thirteen year old Adolf and Paula on her own. Between the ages of sixteen and nineteen, Hitler neither worked to earn his keep, nor properly studied, but had gained an interest in politics and history. During this time he unsuccessfully applied for admission to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. When his mother died, 19 year old Hitler had no relatives to support him any more. So in ... ...920 Hitler chose the swastika as the Nazi party emblem. By 1921 Hitler had virtually secured total control of the Nazi party, however this was not to the liking of all Nazis. In July of that year, whilst Hitler was away in Berlin, the angry members of the party proposed a merger with a like-minded political party in Nuremberg in the hope that this would stop Hitler's influence. On hearing the news, Hitler rushed back to Munich to confront the party and threatened to resign. The other members were aware that Hitler was bringing funds into the organization, from the collections following his speeches at meetings and from other sources. Thus they knew they couldn't afford his resignation. Hitler then turned tables on the committee members and forced them to accept him as formal leader of the party with dictatorial powers.