Adolf Hitler was born April 20th, 1889 in Austria to Klara and Alois Hitler Sr. His father worked for the government as a customs agent and had been previously married. In that marriage he had two children, Alois Jr. and Angela. After he got married to Klara they had three more children; Hitler, Edmund, and Paula. Through out his life Hitler experienced both the good and the bad. His father drank heavily, which left his family at his mercy. He usually beat his wife, kids, and sometimes even his dog. Most of his tempers were taken out on Hitler’s older half-brother, who got the worst of the beatings since he was older. At age fourteen he ran away from home to escape from his father. That led to Hitler getting beat more often. His mother, Klara, on the other hand was completely opposite from Hitler’s father. She was often too caring and overprotective and that bothered Hitler as he got older because he longed to be independent. (Ayer 14-19)
At age six, Hitler was finally able to get a small sense of freedom and self-independence when he entered Volksshule. According to his classmates, Hitler was very smart and excelled in academics. “Schoolwork was ridiculously easy, leaving me so much free time that the sun saw more of me than my room.” (Ayer 16). His teacher also noticed his alertness and his organization. At the age of eleven he had to choose between Realschule and the gymnasium. The gymnasium was a secondary school that focused more on the arts and preparing students for college. This, in Hitler’s mind, was the only option as he had the desire to be a painter. Realschule was a school that prepared you for a career. His father forced him to go to Realschule because he wanted Hitler to follow in his footsteps and be a government agent. In 1900, Hitler entered Realschule. The school was much larger than his old Volksshule. Because of this Hitler felt he didn’t get the special attention that he used to by both teachers and by students. Everyone thought of him as nothing special; just another country boy. His second year at the school he started to come out of his shell so to speak, and became more known in his class. He became fascinated with his appearance, brown hair with blue eyes. Thought this to be the mark of true Germanic people. Even though he was becoming a leader once again at school, his academic future held close to nothing. The following year of school he began having more problems, both at home and school. Finally on January 3rd, 1903 Hitler’s dad suffered internal bleeding and died shortly after. Leaving Hitler,13, the head of his household. “[My father’s greatest] desire had been to help his son forge his career, thus preserving [me] from his own bitter experience [as a boy]. In this, to all appearances, he had sown the seed for a future at the time neither he nor I could have comprehended” (Ayer 20).
His dad’s death impacted Hitler greatly, as it left him in charge of his own future. He started doing poorly in school because he...
