Early Years
Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, in a small Austrian village of Braun Am Inn. Hitler was the fourth child out of six born to Alois Hitler and Klara Polzl. Hitler came from a very strict, disciplined and regimented family and more than once bore the brunt of the abusiveness from his overly stern father Alois. In his early years Hitler idolized his local abbot and heavily considered the priesthood as his path through life, he even played priest and practiced sermons. Hitler’s second early passion was art, drawing brought much pleasure to young Adolf, but the structure for practice and patience to develop his craft did not. His high school teachers thought he had substantial talent, though Hitlers dropping out of school in 1905 and his failure to gain entrance to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in 1908 seemed to finally derail his dreams of becoming an artist.
Rising Through The Ranks
Hitler enlisted in the German Army in August of 1914, two days after the German declaration of war against Russia. While Hitler was a good foot solider, earning a Iron Cross 1st Class rarely given to foot soldiers and had a knack for being lucky and having several near misses that would have ended his life. His lackluster military appearance and quirky personality and attitude prevented his superiors from giving him more command authority and a rank higher than corporal. Hitler was temporarily blinded in a British Chlorine Gas attack at Ypres in October of 1918, that sent him away from the front lines to recuperate at the hospital, furthering his already depressed mental state.
Taking Power
While Hitler was recovering from the gas attack at the hospital, an elderly pastor came and visited in November 1918 to break the news that the war was now over. This news was the starting point for Hitler to blame all those who lived cozy and calm lives away from the front lines, while him and his men were taking heavy losses and making sacrifices for those who apparently did not appreciate it. Hitler's first attempt at taking control started with the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, that ultimately lead to his arrest for treason and his sentence of 5 years at the Landsberg Fortress. This was also the period of time in Hitler's life that he wrote Mein Kampf, which was the outline of Hitler's political ideology as well as his vision for the future of Germany.