KLARA and ALOIS:
THE PARENTS OH
LEFT: Hitler at age 13
BELOW: Hitler, part of a church choir group
Adolf was an intelligent child, but a poorly performing student, both of Adolf’s parents died when he was a teenager, leaving him with a modest inheritance; Adolf sought to become an artist
GERMAN COMPOSER RICHARD WAGNER
FIRST EXPOSURE TO POLITICS
GEORG VON SCHOENERER
KARL LUEGER
Galician Jews are present in Vienna. As with much of Europe, there are anti-Semitic feelings in Vienna (it was Adolf’s first exposure to antiSemitism). The politics of Georg von Schoenerer (an anti-Semite) and Vienna’s mayor, Karl Lueger (who said the public would do without freedoms for security), would have an influence on young Hitler.
ADOLF HITLER
ESSENTIAL QUESTION
What led to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power and the Nazis ruling Germany?
A DICTATOR IS BORN
♂ Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, near Linz, Austria on April 20, 1889
THE ACADEMY OF ARTS IN VIENNA
SAMPLES OF HITLER’S ART
This 1914 painting is titled: "The Courtyard of the Old Residency in Munich."
A 1914 painting: "Ruins of a Cloister in Messines."
POLITICIZATION OF HITLER
It is while living in Vienna that Adolf first learns of the ideas of mystical German nationalism and the “Aryan ideal”; these ideas would shape the Nazi ideology decades later, as exemplified in this 1930s poster
A FUGITIVE
Adolf was supposed to serve in
the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s army when he turned 20 years old, but he avoided military service. He was a fugitive from the Austrian police. His motivation was not cowardice: Hitler hated the Austrian monarchy and did not want to serve in a heavily multi-ethnic army alongside Jews, Czechs, Poles, Hungarians, Slovaks, and other groups he deemed “inferior.”
THE FRUSTRATED ARTIST
Adolf is rejected a second time by the Vienna Academy of Arts in November 1908. Hitler then earns his living as a street artist, making drawings and sketches for tourists and trying to sell them. His inheritance money dwindled away quickly, and soon Adolf found himself living in various homeless shelters in Vienna.
THE YEARS IN VIENNA
In January 1908, the 19 year old Adolf moved to the city of Vienna, the capital of Austria In Vienna, Adolf is exposed to culture and life in a big city Adolf tries to enter the Academy of Arts, but is rejected; his audition painting was deemed not good enough
THE MUSIC OF RICHARD WAGNER
ONE OF HITLER’S GREAT LOVES:
♫Adolf enjoyed the opera music of Richard Wagner, whose stirring music glorified Germany and often had warlike themes (such as “Ride of the Valkyries”) ♫ Wagner’s music had a profound effect on the young Adolf Hitler