Adolf Hitler

Researches and studies have suggested that Hitler suffered from a number of health problems, such as skin lesions, coronary sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, syphilis and irritable bowel syndrome.

He met Eva Braun, his long-term mistress, in 1929, and married her on April 29, 1945. It is also rumored that he had an affair with his half-niece, Geli Raubal, who committed suicide in her apartment in 1931, under mysterious circumstances.

He was addicted to amphetamine after 1937 and became a regular user of the drug in the fall of 1942.

Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria, to Alois Hitler and Klara Polzl. He was the fourth of the six children born to the couple and was only 3-years-old when the family moved from Austria to Germany.

He was a very bright child and was very popular at school, but often clashed with his father over his interest in fine arts. This led to Hitler’s detachment from his family and he became a reclusive, discontented, resentful child, with an unstable temperament towards his father.

He was deeply attached to his lenient, hard-working mother, whose battle against cancer and consequent demise in December 1908 was a shattering blow to his already upset life.

It is believed that young Hitler showed an early interest in German nationalism, condemning the authority of Austro-Hungary. This nationalism would later play a major role in Hitler’s policy formations.

After spending four years in Linz, a Jewish colony, he dropped out of school at the age of 16, and moved to Vienna with dreams of becoming a painter. He applied to the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts twice and his rejection both times shaped his pathological hatred of Marxists and the cosmopolitan Habsburg monarchy.

He was homeless for some years and sold his artworks to earn a little wherewithal for sustenance. The prevalent racial and religious prejudice in Vienna at the time is said to have sown the seeds of anti-Semitism in him.

Later, hawking sketches in low taverns, he lived from hand-to-mouth and compensated for the frustrations of a solitary bachelor’s life in despondent shelters and cheap cafes, listening to others discussing grandiose dreams of a greater Germany.

It was during his years in Vienna that he was able to discern the ‘Eternal Jew’ symbol and started believing that Jews were the root cause of all chaos, corruption and obliteration in ethos, politics and economy.

In May 1913, Hitler left Vienna for Munich and joined the 16th Bavarian Infantry Regiment when war broke out in August 1914, serving as a dispatch runner. He proved to be a courageous, able soldier and was awarded his first Iron Cross for bravery.

Twice injured, he landed up in a hospital in Pomerania, temporarily blinded and was driven to powerless rage owing to the 1918 German Revolution as well as the country’s military defeat during World War I.

After recovery, he was convinced that fate had picked him to rescue a disgraced nation from the manacles of the punitive Treaty of Versailles, which he condemned.

In the summer of 1919, Hitler observed the uprising of a small yet powerful group, known as the German Workers’ Party. On September 16, 1919, he entered the same party and soon changed its name to the Nationalist Socialist German Workers’ Party. By July 1921, he had imposed himself as the party’s Chairman.