by Ian Kershaw
42. Jetzinger, 56–7; Smith, 40–41.
43. Maser, Hitler, 9.
44. Copy of birth-certificate in HA, Reel 1; IfZ, MA-731; Koppensteiner, 18.
45. MK, 1.
46. MK, 2; Smith, 53.
47. A point acknowledged by Waite, 145. See also Smith, 51 and n.5.
48. Smith, 46–9.
49. Following based upon Smith, 43–8; and Jetzinger, 58–63. Jetzinger’s information on Hitler’s father drew on an interview he conducted with one of Alois’s former colleagues, Emanuel Lugert. This was also reproduced in Orr, Revue, Nr 39, 14, 35. The former cook in the Hitler household, Rosalia Hörl (née Schichtl), later told the NSDAP-Hauptarchiv that he was a ‘good-natured (gemütlicher) but strict gentleman’. A colleague at the Customs Office in the early 1880s was less flattering, describing him as ‘unsympathetic to all of us. He was very strict, exact, even pedantic at work and a very unapproachable person.’ Both accounts in HA, Reel 1 (IfZ, MA-731).)
50. Smith, 51.
51. Smith, 45–8.
52. Smith, 43.
53. Kubizek, 46.
54. Eduard Bloch, ‘My Patient, Hitler’, Collier’s (15 March 1941), 35.
55. For speculation on the psychological effect, see Alice Miller, Am Anfang war Erziehung, Frankfurt am Main, 1983, 213–15.
56. Smith, 41–3; Jetzinger, 62, 71–2; Kubizek, 38–45; Bloch, 36.
57. Bloch, 36.
58. MK, 16; and see Albert Zoller, Hitler privat. Erlebnisbericht seiner Geheimsekretärin, Düsseldorf, 1949, 46.
59. Waite, 141.
60. NA, NND/881077, Interview with Mrs Paula Wolf (i.e. Paula Hitler), Berchtesgaden, 5 June 1946 (transcript only in English). Hitler’s half-sister Angela Hammitzsch (formerly Raubal) also spoke after the war of the regular beatings Adolf used to receive from his father. (Cit. in Christa Schroeder, Er war mein Chef. Aus dem Nachlaß der Sekretärin von Adolf Hitler, Munich/Vienna, 1985, 336 n.139.)
61. Schroeder, 63. Hitler described his father to Goebbels in 1932 as a ‘tyrant in the home (Haustyrann), while his mother was ‘a source of goodness and love’ (TBJG, 1.2, 219 (9 August 1932)). See also TBJG, I.2, 727 (15 November 1936), where Hitler was reported to have spoken of his ‘fanatical father’.
62. MK, 32–3. See also the commentaries on the passage by Helm Stierlin, Adolf Hitler. Familienperspektiven, Frankfurt am Main, 1976, 24–5; and Miller, 190–91. According to Hans Frank, Hitler told him of his shame as a boy at having to fetch his drunken father home from the pub at night (Frank, 331–2). However, Emanuel Lugert, who had worked with Alois Hitler for a time at Passau, told Jetzinger that Hitler’s father had normally drunk at most four halves of beer a day, had never to his knowledge been drunk, and went home at the right time for his evening meal (Jetzinger, 61). The same witness apparently told Orr that Alois sometimes drank up to six halves of strong beer in an evening, but repeated that he had never seen him drunk (Orr, Revue, Nr 39, 35). Conceivably, Hitler’s own aversion to alcohol had its roots in his father’s drinking and behavioural habits.
63. Psychologists and ‘psycho-historians’ have seen Adolf’s relationship to both parents, not just to his father, as disturbed in the extreme. Those who have looked to an underlying love-hate relationship with his mother include Waite, esp. 138–48; Miller, 212–28; Eitner, esp. 21–7; Stierlin, esp. ch.2 (who takes from family-therapy the notion that the child could identify itself in extreme fashion with the sense of being the ‘delegate’ of the unfulfilled dreams of the mother, in this case seeing the salvation of the mother in the quest to save Germany); Walter C. Langer, The Mind of Adolf Hitler, London, 1973, esp. 150–52; Rudolph Binion, Hitler among the Germans, New York, 1976 (who finds the key to Hitler’s quest to kill the Jews in his subliminal reaction to the death of his mother at the hands of a Jewish doctor); Rudolph Binion, ‘Hitler’s Concept of “Lebensraum”: the Psychological Basis’, History of Childhood Quarterly, 1 (1973), 187–215 (with subsequent discussion of his hypotheses, 216–58), where Hitler’s perceived mission to provide ‘feeding-ground’ for the ‘motherland’ is located in his need to save and avenge his mother, in the shape of Germany; Erich Fromm, Anatomie der menschlichen Destruktivät, Stuttgart, 1974, esp. 337–8; and Erik H. Erikson, ‘The Legend of Hitler’s Youth’, in Robert Paul Wolff (ed.), Political Man and Social Man, New York, 1966, 370–96, here esp. 381–3. Surveys of psychological approaches to Hitler are provided by William Carr, Hitler: a Study in Personality and Politics, London, 1978, esp. 149–55; Wolfgang Michalka, ‘Hitler im Spiegel der Psycho-History’, Francia, 8 (1980), 595–611; Schreiber, Hitler, 316–27; and, most extensively, Thomas Kornbichler, Adolf-Hitler-Psychogramme, Frankfurt am Main, 1994. For some of the difficulties in reaching any scientifically sound assessment of Hitler’s later personality, see Desmond Henry and Dick Geary, ‘Adolf Hitler: a re-assessment of his personality status’, Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 10 (1993), 148–51·
64. Quotation from Waite, foreword to the 1992 edition, and see, especially, ch.3. The most critical review of Waite’s book was that of another ‘psycho-historian’, Rudolph Binion, in Journal of Psychohistory, 5 (1977), 295–300. See also Binion’s comment in his review article, ‘Foam on the Hitler Wave’, JMH, 46 (1974), 522–8, here 525: ‘No hate was manifest in young Hitler as far as the direct evidence discloses.’
65. A point made by Smith, 8.
66. Smith, 55.
67. Max Domarus, Hitler. Reden und Proklamationen 1932–1945, Wiesbaden, 1973, 1935 (8 November 1942).
68. Smith, 56.
69. Smith, 58.
70. MK, 3.
71. MK, 3–4; Smith, 61; Jetzinger, 73.
72. Smith, 62.
73. See, e.g., Tb Reuth, iii.1254 (19 August 1938), where Hitler spoke of the happy days of his youth in Leonding and Lambach.
74. See Hermann Giesler, Ein anderer Hitler, Leoni am Starnberger See, 1977, 96, 99, 215 – 16, 479–80; Zoller, 57; Evan Burr Bukey, Hitler’s Hometown, Bloomington/Indianapolis, 1986, esp. 196–201; and Hamann, 11–15. Hitler spoke during the war of turning Linz into a ‘German Budapest’, and was prepared to put 120 million Marks into his grandiose building schemes – ‘money you can do something with’, as Goebbels remarked. See, for example, TBJG, II.5, 367 (20 August 1942), 597 (29 September 1942), II.8, 265 (10 May 1943); Monologe, 284 (19–20 February 1942), 405 (25 June 1943).
75. MΚ,3.
76. Jetzinger, 92.
77. Jetzinger, 92.
78. MK, 4. He still had the two-volume work – a ‘treasure loyally guarded’ – in 1912 in the Men’s Home in Vienna (Hamann, 562).
79. MK, 173; Hugo Rabitsch, Aus Adolf Hitlers Jugendzeit, Munich, 1938, 12–13; Smith, 66.
80. Smith, 66–8; Waite, 11–12, 60. See Hamann, 544–8, for Hitler’s enthusiasm after hearing Karl May speak – even on a pacifist theme – in Vienna in 1912.
81. Walter Görlitz, Adolf Hitler, Göttingen, 1960, 23.
82. MK, 6.
83. Smith, 64; Maser, Hitler, 62. Though it seems hard to believe, elderly inhabitants of Leonding in the 1950s claimed that Edmund’s parents did not attend the boy’s funeral. See Orr, Revue, Nr 40, 36; Waite, 169–70.
84. See Smith, 68–9.
85. MK, 5.
86. Kubizek, 57.
87. Jetzinger, 105–6; Smith, 76, 79.
88. Jetzinger, 105–6. For Huemer’s subsequent relationship with Hitler, see Smith, 79 n.34. See also Rabitsch, 57–65 for Huemer’s later visit to Hitler. For Hitler’s schooling, see also Zoller, 47. Hitler later claimed the marks for his school-work dropped when he started to read Karl May (Monologe, 281 (17 February 1942)).
89. Jetzinger, 107, 109–11; Rabitsch, 72.
90. Kubizek, 61; Monologe, 185–8 (8–9 January 1942); Henry Picker, Tischespräche im Hauptquartier, Stuttgart, 1963, 273 (12 April 1942); Smith, 79; Eitner, 30–31; Maser, Hitler, 68–70; Zoller, 47–9.
91. MK, 12–13; Jetzinger,110, 113 for German nationalism in Linz; see also
Bukey, 7ff. Hamann, 23–7, describes the German nationalist political leanings in the school, as does Jetzinger, 99, 110, 113.
92. MK, 5–8.
93. Picker, 324 (10 May 1942).
94. MK, 6 (trans., MK Watt, 8).
95. MK, 7.
96. See Smith, 70–73, also for dismissal of the objections of Jetzinger, 98–9 to any substance in Hitler’s depiction of a conflict with his father over a civil service career.
97. MK, 10. See Hamann, 23.
98. MK, 8–14; Smith, 81–5; Olden, 21; Hamann, 22–3.
99. MK, 15.
100. Jetzinger, 72–3. See also Olden, 21. The cause of the death was a haemorrhage of the lungs. He had suffered a prior haemorrhage the previous August (Jetzinger, 72)
101. Jetzinger, 122–9; Smith, 91, 97.
102. Kubizek’s comment about Adolf’s sobbing at the funeral (54) was only based on casual hearsay evidence and is not reliable.
103. Kubizek, 46, 61–2.
104. Jetzinger, 102; Smith, 92.
105. TBJG, I.3, 447 (3 June 38). In his recollections of his time in Steyr, he claimed to have disliked it as too Catholic-clerical and not nationalist enough compared with Linz (Monologe, 188 (8–9 January 1942)).
106. Smith, 95–6.
107. MK, 8.
108. This follows Heiden, Der Führer, 46, who lists the grades for both semesters of the school-year 1904–5, as given in the report issued on 16 September 1905 (including the re-sit in geometry), and Smith, who summarizes these results, 96. Maser, Hitler, 70, gives the results only in the report from 11 February, for the first semester, and has Hitler as ‘unsatisfactory’ in French (though this is not mentioned on Heiden’s list). The results listed in Orr, Revue, Nr 42, 3, and repeated in Jetzinger, 103, as those of the report of 16 September 1905, correspond with those given by Heiden for the first semester and those provided by Maser (apart from the entry for French) for the report dated 11 February. See also Waite, 156.
109. According to stories he later told, Adolf mistakenly used one of his reports from Steyr as toilet paper after an evening with friends celebrating the end of term. (Monologe, 189–90 (8–9 January 1942); see Zoller, 49, for a different version in which he was sick over the report). Maser, Hitler, 70, presumes the report is that of February 1905, while Smith, 99, dates it to summer 1905. In the anecdote, Hitler claims that he slept out and was wakened by a milkwoman. This seems to rule out February. And in summer, Hitler only received his certificate following the re-sit examination in September, when there would have been no social gathering. Zoller’s account is in at least one respect inaccurate, since Adolf allegedly had to show the report to his father, who by then was already dead. Whether Hitler’s story had any substance to it at all must be regarded as doubtful.
110. Smith, 95–9; Jetzinger, 99–103.
111. Smith, 98.
112. Jetzinger, 148–51, denies an illness altogether, though his evidence is not strong. Smith, 97–8, provides some evidence for illness in summer 1905, though not for the autumn, accepts Adolf’s pale and sickly appearance at this time, but rightly doubts that it was sufficient reason for ending his schooling.
113. MK, 16; Smith, 97–8. See also the picture of Hitler from this period, showing him as thin, weak and consumptive in appearance, in Smith, pl. 13.
114. MK, 16–17; see Jetzinger, 130.
115. Paula Hitler testimony, NA, NND-881077, 3; IfZ, MA-731 (=HA, Reel 1), ‘Notizen für Kartei’, 8 December 1938.
116. Kubizek, 63; IfZ, MA-731 (=H A, Reel 1), ‘Adolf Hitler in Urfahr’ (recollections in 1938–9 of the postmaster’s widow who had lived in the same house as the Hitler family).
117. MK, 16.
118. Hamann, 80. Kubizek had already been approached by a representative of the NSDAP-Hauptarchiv at the end of 1938 with a view to writing up his memoirs of the youthful Hitler, foreseen as ‘one of the most significant pieces of the central archive’ in bringing out the ‘inconceivable greatness of the Führer in his youth’ (IfZ, MA-731 (= HA, Reel 1), ‘Notizen für Kartei’, 8 December 1938, and report on visit to Kubizek).
119. See Jetzinger, 117–22, 133–81; Smith, 101 n. 30. Jetzinger had a personal animus against Kubizek, and his own – rival, though second-hand – account of Hitler’s youth did most, deliberately, to discredit Kubizek. See Hamann, 83–6.
120. See Hamann, 77–86.
121. Kubizek, 17; Jetzinger, 140–41.
122. MK, 15; Paula Hitler testimony, NA, NND-881077, 3_ 4.
123. Kubizek, 22.
124. Kubizek, 18–25.
125. Kubizek, 22–3.
126. Kubizek, 17, 19, 112.
127. Kubizek, 75–86.
128. Smith, 103. Adolf was so stirred by a performance of Wagner’s early opera, Rienzi (which glamorized the tale of a fourteenth-century Roman populist who in the opera purportedly attempted to unify Italy but was ultimately brought down by the people he had led) that he took Kubizek on a long nocturnal climb up the Freinberg, a mountain outside Linz, and lectured to him in a state of near ecstasy on the significance of what they had seen. Kubizek’s account (111–18), is, however, highly fanciful, reading in mystical fashion back into the episode an early prophetic vision of Hitler’s own future. Plainly, the strange evening had made a lasting impression on Kubizek. He reminded Hitler of it when they met at Bayreuth in 1939. On the spot, Hitler seized on the story to illustrate his early prophetic qualities to his hostess, Winifred Wagner, ending with the words: ‘in that hour, it began’ (Kubizek, 118). Kubizek, more impressed than ever, subsequently produced his post-war, highly imaginary depiction, with the melodramatically absurd claim at the forefront of his mind. This has not prevented the ‘vision’ on the Freinberg being taken seriously by some later writers. See e.g. Joachim Köhler, Wagners Hitler. Der Prophet und sein Vollstrecker, Munich, 1996, ch.2, esp. 34–5.
129. Köhler, Wagners Hitler, takes this on to a new plane, however, with his overdrawn claim that Hitler came to see it as his life’s work to fulfil Wagner’s visions and put his ideas into practice.
130. Kubizek, 83.
131. Kubizek, 18–19.
132. Kubizek, 97–110.
133. Kubizek, 64–74; see Jetzinger, 142–8; and Hamann, 41–2.
134. Kubizek, 106–9; see Jetzinger, 166–8.
135. According to Hitler himself, the trip lasted two weeks (MK, 18). Kubizek, 121–4, reckons it was around four weeks, and is followed by Smith, 104. Jetzinger, 151–5, concluded that Hitler’s recollection was probably correct. The dating can only be determined by the postmarks (some indistinct) and dates (not always given) on the cards which Hitler sent to Kubizek. See Hamann, 42–4. The length of Hitler’s visit is scarcely of prime historical importance.
136. Kubizek, 129; Hamann, 43–4.
137. Kubizek, 129.
138. Kubizek, 127–30. The objections came primarily from Leo Raubal, the husband of Adolf’s half-sister, Angela. He tried to persuade Klara that it was about time that Adolf learnt something sensible. Adolf raged to Kubizek: ‘This pharisee is ruining my home for me’ (Kubizek, 128). Adolf won the battle. According to the later testimony of a neighbour, he insisted so firmly on his intention of becoming an artist that he finally persuaded his mother to send him to the Academy in Vienna (IfZ, MA-731 (= HA, Reel 1), ‘Adolf Hitler in Urfahr’).
139. Gerhart Marckhgott, ‘“Von der Hohlheit des gemächlichen Lebens”. Neues Material über die Familie Hitler in Linz’, Jahrbuch des Oberösterreichischen Musealvereins, 138/I (1993), 275–6. The entry by Aunt Johanna – twice-noted – in the family household-account book is undated, but from internal evidence can be seen to fall at the end of Adolf’s time in Linz. Brigitte Hamann (196) suggests that it dates from August 1908, and that Adolf persuaded his aunt to loan him the money during a summer visit to the family home in the Waldviertel. Why, then, Aunt Johanna would have entered it in the family household-book which was kept in Urfahr is not apparent. It seems more likely, as Marckhgott infers, that the l
oan was made the previous year, in 1907, while Klara Hitler was still alive, and when Adolf needed to secure some funding before he left to take the admission examination for the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. As Marckhgott points out, the loan – amounting to about a fifth of Johanna Pölzl’s entire savings – perhaps sparked the protest by Leo Raubal about Adolf being allowed to entertain studying art instead of earning his living. But once he had obtained funding, it was presumably more difficult for his mother to stand in his way of going to Vienna.
140. Binion, Hitler among the Germans, 138–43; Binion, ‘Hitler’s Concept of Lebensraum’, 196–200; Bloch, 36; Jetzinger, 170–72; Smith, 105; Hamann, 46–8.
141. Hamann, 46–7.
142. Bloch, 36.
143. Bloch, 39.
144. Hamann, 47.
145. MK, 18.
146. Hamann, 51–2. Maser, Hitler, 75–7, 114, inverts the examinations procedures. Hamann, 51 (without source), refers to 112 candidates; Maser (75, 77, 114), with reference to information provided by the Academy itself, speaks of 113 candidates.
147. Maser, Hitler, 77. Among those who failed alongside Hitler was a subsequent rector of the Academy. See also Hamann, 52.
148. MK, 18–19 (trans., MK Watt, 18).
149. MK, 19 (trans., MK Watt, 18–19); and see Smith, 108–10. Orr, Revue, Nr 43, 40–41 (followed by Maser, Hitler, 78, and L.Sydney Jones, Hitlers Weg begann in Wien, Frankfurt am Main/Berlin, 1990, 64) has Hitler applying, after his rejection by the Academy of Fine Arts, for entry to the school of architecture, but the assertion is unsupported by any evidence. Even the most tentative inquiry would have revealed – as Hitler must surely have known – that he did not possess even the minimal qualifications for entry.
150. Kubizek, 133. Allegations that Hitler’s antisemitism had its source in his rejection by Jewish examiners at the Academy are wide of the mark. Both Waite, 190, and Jones, 317, speak of four Jews among his examiners. In fact, none of the Academy’s professors involved in rejecting Hitler was Jewish (Hamann, 53).
151. Hamann, 53; Binion, Hitler among the Germans, 139; IfZ, MA-731 (= HA, 1),’Adolf Hitler in Urfahr.’