The young Adolf Hitler did not like school, did not like his Father but loved his Mother. Could all these have been factors which eventually devastated Europe?

It was an overcast, chilly Easter Sunday on the 20th April 1889 at 6.30pm that Adolf Hitler drew his first breath. An innocent babe who would devastate Europe but what gave him his patronizing contempt for the submissiveness of women and his thirst for dominance?

The Hitler Parents

Alois Hitler, Adolf’s Father, worked as a civil servant and the family lived a comfortable middle class existence. Klara, Hitler’s Mother, was a kind and retiring woman who loved her children but she was unable to defend them against her husband who was pompous, status proud, strict, humorless, frugal and pedantically punctual. His temper would flare up unpredictably both at home and work.

Alois Hitler moved his family several times during Adolph’s childhood but the place Hitler would refer to as home would be Linz where the Hitler family moved to in 1898. During the 1940’s Hitler would speak repeatedly of making Linz the cultural counterweight to Vienna and the most beautiful city on the Danube.

Adolf Hitler Goes to School

On May 1st 1895 the young Adolf Hitler attended his first school. A small Primary School at Fischlham. He spent two years at the Fischlham school attaining good marks for both school work and behavior.

In 1897 the family relocated to Lambech where Adolf continued to receive good reports from his teachers. It was here that he took singing lessons at a nearby Monastery. Later in life Hitler was to say that he was intoxicated by the ecclesiastical splendor and looked up to the Abbot as the highest and most desirable ideal.

The Hitler Family Move to Linz

It was in November 1898 that the family moved to Hitler’s beloved Linz and where he attended his third elementary school. Here he became the ring leader of his small friends leading them in games of cowboys and Indians and war games.

During 1900 the time had come to decide which path Adolf should follow for his secondary schooling. It was decided by his Father that he would attend the Realschule which attached less weight to the traditional classical and humanistic studies but had greater emphasis on more modern subjects such as Science and Technical Studies. Hitler started his schooling here on September 17th 1900.

During his first semester at the Realschule it was recorded that his performance in Mathematics and Natural History was unsatisfactory and he had to repeat the semester. His work improved during the second semester but was not sustained and when he left in the autumn of 1905 his record hovered between poor and mediocre.

He was scathingly negative about his schooling and teachers, with the exception of his History teacher who he singled out for praise in Mein Kampf.

Civil Servant or Artist?

The time was coming for Adolf to make a career choice. He wanted to be an artist and his Father wanted him to be a civil servant. This brought about more conflict and strain between Father and son. As far as becoming a civil servant Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf, ‘ I yawned and grew sick to my stomach at the thought of sitting in an office, deprived of my liberty; ceasing to be master of my own time.’

The pressure of his Father was removed on January 30, 1903 when Alois died whilst indulging in his usual glass of wine at the Gasthaus Wiesinger.

Hitler's School Years Come to a Close

Still struggling at school Adolf was asked to leave and was sent to finish his schooling in Steyr, fifty miles from his home. His school work did not improve until his second semester where his grades improved and he passed the subjects in which he had been failing. He now had the required qualifications to apply for higher education but Hitler had had enough and at age 16, 1905, he put his schooling behind him even though he had no career path planned.

Two years later Hitler traveled to Vienna and sat the entrance examinations for the Academy of Fine Arts but much to his amazement was not selected. He recorded in Mein Kampf, ‘ Convinced that it would be child’s play to pass the examination… I was so convinced that I would be successful that when I received my rejection, it struck me as a bolt from the blue.’

Adolf Hitler’s childhood and youth eventually came to a close at the death of his Mother on 21st December 1907 from breast cancer. He had now lost the one person that he had ever felt any close affection and warmth towards.

Source - Hitler 1889-1936 Hubris by Ian Kershaw