Alois Hitler (born
Alois Schicklgruber; 7 June 1837 – 3 January 1903) was the father of
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
.
Early life
Alois Hitler was born in the small rustic village of
StronesDöllersheim was, since the mid 19th century, an Austrian municipality in the Waldviertel, the northwestern part of Lower Austria near the border with Bohemia. It included the hamlet of Strones, where Alois Hitler, the father of Adolf Hitler, was born to Maria Schicklgruber in 1837. Strones was very...
in the
WaldviertelThe Waldviertel is the northwestern region of the Austrian state Lower Austria. It is bounded to the south by the Danube, to the southwest by Upper Austria, to the northwest and the north by the Czech Republic and to the east by the Manhartsberg , which is the survey point dividing Waldviertel...
, a hilly forested area in northwest
Lower AustriaLower Austria is the northeast state of the nine states or Bundesländer in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten , but formerly, the capital of Lower Austria was Vienna, even though Vienna is not properly part of Lower Austria...
just north of
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
, to a 42-year-old unmarried peasant,
Maria Anna SchicklgruberMaria Anna Schicklgruber/Siedenstricker was Adolf Hitler's paternal grandmother.-Biography:...
, whose family had lived in the area for generations. After he was
baptizedIn Christianity, baptism is the ritual act, with the use of water, by which one is admitted to membership of the Christian Church and, in the view of some, as a member of the particular Church in which the baptism is administered.The usual form of baptism among the earliest Christians was for the...
at the nearby village of
DöllersheimDöllersheim was, since the mid 19th century, an Austrian municipality in the Waldviertel, the northwestern part of Lower Austria near the border with Bohemia. It included the hamlet of Strones, where Alois Hitler, the father of Adolf Hitler, was born to Maria Schicklgruber in 1837. Strones was very...
, the space for his father's name on the baptismal certificate was left blank and the priest wrote "illegitimate". Hitler was cared for by his mother in a house she shared at Strones with her elderly father Johannes Schicklgruber.
Sometime later,
Johann Georg HiedlerJohann Georg Hiedler was born to Martin Hiedler and Anna Maria Goschl . He was considered the officially accepted paternal grandfather of Adolf Hitler by the Third Reich...
moved in with the Schicklgrubers and married Maria when Alois was five. By the age of 10, Alois had been sent to live with Hiedler's brother
Johann Nepomuk HiedlerJohann Nepomuk Hiedler, also known as Johann Nepomuk Hüttler , was a maternal great-grandfather and possibly also the paternal grandfather of Adolf Hitler....
, who owned a farm in the nearby village of Spital. Hitler attended
elementary schoolAn elementary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America...
and took lessons in shoe-making from a local cobbler. When he was 13, he left the farm in Spital and went to Vienna as an apprentice
cobblerCobbler may refer to:* A shoemaker who repairs shoes, rather than manufacturing them .** Cobbler apron, a type of apron that covers both the front and back of the body...
, working there for about five years. In response to a recruitment drive by the Austrian government offering employment in the civil service to people from rural areas, Hitler joined the frontier guards (customs service) of the Ingland Finance Ministry in 1855 at the age of 18.
Early career
Hitler made steady progress in the semi-
militaryA military is an organization authorized by its nation to use force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. As an adjective the term "military" is also used to refer to any property or aspect of a military...
profession of a customs official. The work involved frequent re-assignments and he served in a variety of places across Austria. By 1860, after five years of service, he reached the rank of
Finanzwach Oberaufseher (a
non-commissioned officerNon-commissioned officer , abbreviated to NCO or Non-com , is a term in many armed forces indicating leadership ranks less senior than commissioned officers...
). By 1864, after special training and examinations, he had advanced further and was serving in Linz, Austria. He later became an inspector of customs posted at
BraunauBraunau am Inn is a city in the Innviertel region of Upper Austria , the north-western state of Austria. It lies about 90 km west of Linz and about 60 km north of Salzburg, on the border with the German state of Bavaria. The population in 2001 was 16,372...
in 1875.
While his professional duties involved strict attention to rules, in the late 1860s, he fathered an illegitimate child with a woman only identified as Thekla, whom he did not marry. Hitler was 36 when he married for the first time, and it may have been for money. Anna Glassl was a wealthy, 50-year-old daughter of a customs official. Glassl was sick when Hitler married her and was either an invalid or became one shortly afterwards.
As a rising young junior customs official, Hitler used his birth name, but in the summer of 1876, 39 years old and well established in his career, he asked permission to use his stepfather's family name. He appeared before the parish priest in
DöllersheimDöllersheim was, since the mid 19th century, an Austrian municipality in the Waldviertel, the northwestern part of Lower Austria near the border with Bohemia. It included the hamlet of Strones, where Alois Hitler, the father of Adolf Hitler, was born to Maria Schicklgruber in 1837. Strones was very...
and asserted that his father was
Johann Georg HiedlerJohann Georg Hiedler was born to Martin Hiedler and Anna Maria Goschl . He was considered the officially accepted paternal grandfather of Adolf Hitler by the Third Reich...
, who had married his mother and now wished to legitimize him. Hitler apparently did not disclose to the priest that Johann had been dead for almost 20 years. Three relatives appeared with Hitler as witnesses, one of whom was Johann Nepomuk Hiedler's son-in-law. The priest agreed to amend the records, the civil authorities automatically processed the church's decision, and Alois had a new name. The official change, registered at the government office in
MistelbachFor the town in Germany, see Mistelbach, Bavaria.Mistelbach an der Zaya is a town in the northeast of Austria in so called Lower Austria, one of Austria's nine Federal States. It is located roughly 40 km northeast of Austria's capital Vienna...
on January 6, 1877 transformed "Alois Schicklgruber" into "Alois Hitler." It is not known who decided on the spelling of
Hitler instead of
Hiedler. It may have been the clerk in Mistelbach. Spellings were still being standardized at the time.
Hitler may have been influenced to change his name for money. Maser reports that in 1876, Franz Schicklgruber, the administrator of Hitler's mother's estate, transferred a large sum of money (230
guldenThe Gulden or forint was the currency of the Austro-Hungarian Empire between 1754 and 1892 when it was replaced by the Krone/korona as part of the introduction of the gold standard. In Austria, the Gulden was initially divided into 60 Kreuzer, and in Hungary, the forint was divided into 60 krajczár...
) to Hitler. This related to a family decision involving changing Alois' last name from Schicklgruber to Hitler in accordance with his mother's alleged wishes when she died in 1847. Moreover, six months after Nepomuk died, Hitler made a major real estate purchase inconsistent with the salary of a customs official with a pregnant wife.
Shame seems to have played no part. Smith states that Hitler openly admitted having been born out of wedlock before and after the name change. He had done well by local standards and was not hampered by his name. The limiting factor was education. Hitler eventually rose to full inspector of customs and could go no higher because he lacked the necessary school degrees.
Some Schicklgrubers remain in
WaldviertelThe Waldviertel is the northwestern region of the Austrian state Lower Austria. It is bounded to the south by the Danube, to the southwest by Upper Austria, to the northwest and the north by the Czech Republic and to the east by the Manhartsberg , which is the survey point dividing Waldviertel...
. One of this extended clan, "Aloisia V" aged 49, died in 1940, in an Austrian Nazi gas chamber.
Alois Hitler's biological father
Historians have discussed three candidates:
- Johann Georg Hiedler
Johann Georg Hiedler was born to Martin Hiedler and Anna Maria Goschl . He was considered the officially accepted paternal grandfather of Adolf Hitler by the Third Reich...
, who in his lifetime was the stepfather and later legally declared as the birth father.
- Johann Nepomuk Hiedler
Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, also known as Johann Nepomuk Hüttler , was a maternal great-grandfather and possibly also the paternal grandfather of Adolf Hitler....
Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, Georg's brother and Hitler's step-uncle, who raised Hitler through adolescence and later willed him a considerable portion of his life savings but who (if he was the real father) never found it expedient to admit it publicly.
- Leopold Frankenberger, claimed by Hans Frank
Hans Michael Frank was a German lawyer who worked for the Nazi party during the 1920s and 1930s and later became a high-ranking official in Nazi Germany. He was prosecuted during the Nuremberg trials for his role in perpetrating the Holocaust during his tenure as Governor-General of occupied Poland...
to have fathered Hitler when his mother Maria worked in the Frankenberger house as a cook in Graz, Austria.
Johann Georg Hiedler
Some historians surmise that Hitler's father really was Johann Georg Hiedler. An explanation for Hitler being sent to live on his uncle's farm as a child is that Hiedler and Maria were simply too poor to raise Hitler, or could not raise him as well as his
uncle-Idiom:* Bob's your uncle, a Commonwealth expression roughly equivalent to "and there you have it"* Dutch uncle, a person who delivers stern lectures* Monkey's uncle, an expression of surprise or disbelief...
, or perhaps Maria's health was in decline (she died when he was 10). Unexplained is why Hiedler and Maria did not declare Hitler their legitimate son once they were legally married, or why Hiedler died without legitimizing his son and perpetuating his line of the family.
Johann Nepomuk Hüttler
Historian Werner Maser suggests that Alois's father was Hiedler's brother, Johann Nepomuk, a married farmer who had an affair and then arranged to have his single brother Hiedler marry Hitler's mother Maria to provide a cover for Nepomuk's desire to assist and care for Hitler without upsetting his wife. This assumes Hiedler was willing to marry Maria in this situation, and Adolf Hitler biographer
Joachim FestJoachim Clemens Fest , German historian, journalist, critic and editor, is best known for his writings and public commentary on Nazi Germany, including an important biography of Adolf Hitler and books about Albert Speer and the German Resistance...
thinks this is too contrived and unlikely to be true.
Leopold Frankenberger
Adolf Hitler asked his attorney, Hans Frank, to investigate his family lineage. Frank claimed that he discovered Hitler's grandmother, Maria, had worked as a servant in
GrazGraz , with a population of 291,574 as of 2009 , is the second-largest city in Austria after Vienna and the capital of the federal state of Styria....
for a Jew named Leopold Frankenberger, who had a son around 19 years old. According to Frank, the elder Frankenberger sent Maria regular child support payments; the implication was that the payments were made because the younger Frankenberger had fathered Alois. Frank's testimony was widely believed in the 1950s, but by the 1990s, this claim was generally doubted by historians.
Ian KershawSir Ian Kershaw is a British historian of 20th-century Germany whose work has chiefly focused on the period of the Third Reich...
dismisses the Frankenberger story, noting that all Jews had been expelled from Graz in the 15th century and were not allowed to return until well after Alois was born. No evidence has been found that Maria Schicklgruber ever lived in Graz.
It has been said that Alois Hitler's grandson
William Patrick HitlerWilliam Patrick "Willy" Hitler was the nephew of Adolf Hitler. Born to Adolf's half-brother Alois Hitler, Jr., and his first wife Bridget Dowling, William later moved to Germany and subsequently escaped, eventually going to the United States where he fought against his uncle in World War...
, upon leaving Germany in the 1930s, threatened to
blackmailBlackmail is the crime of threatening to reveal substantially true information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand made upon the victim is met. This information is usually of an embarrassing and/or socially damaging nature...
his uncle Adolf by telling the press that the senior Alois's father was Leopold Frankenberger. However, Kershaw believes this story to be false for many reasons, the most outstanding one being that William Patrick was not murdered during the Third Reich.
According to one report, Y-chromosomal evidence excludes Frankenberger as Hitler's paternal grandfather, since (it is claimed) William Patrick Hitler's male descendants share their Y-chromosome with the Hiedler (or his brother Hüttler) line. If confirmed, then Frankenberger can not be Alois Hitler Senior's biological father.
Marriages
Not long after marrying his first wife Anna, Hitler began an affair with 19-year-old Franziska "Fanni" Matzelsberger, one of the young female servants employed at the Braunau inn (the Pommer Inn, house #219), where he was renting the top floor as a lodging. Smith states that Alois had numerous
affairsAdultery is referred to as extramarital sex, philandery, or infidelity, but does not include fornication. The term "adultery" for many people carries a moral or religious association, while the term "extramarital sex" is morally or judgmentally neutral....
in the 1870s, resulting in his sick wife Anna initiating legal action; on 7 November 1880 Alois and Anna separated by mutual agreement. Matzelsberger became the 43-year-old Hitler's
girlfriendGirlfriend is a term that can refer to either a female partner in a non-marital romantic relationship or a female non-intimate friend that is closer than other friends....
, but the two could not marry since under Roman Catholic canon law,
divorceDivorce or dissolution of marriage is the final termination of a marriage, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between two persons...
was not permitted.
In 1876, three years after Hitler married his first wife Anna, he had hired Klara Pölzl as a household servant. She was the 16-year-old granddaughter of Hitler's step-uncle (and possible father or biological uncle) Nepomuk. If Nepomuk was Hitler's father, Klara was Hitler's niece. If his father was Johann Georg, she was his first cousin once removed. Matzelsberger demanded that the "servant girl" Klara find another job, and Hitler sent Pölzl away.
On 13th January 1882, Matzelsberger gave birth to Hitler's illegitimate son, also named Alois, but since they were not married, the child's last name was Matzelsberger, making him "Alois Matzelsberger." Hitler kept Matzelsberger as his wife while his lawful wife grew sicker and died on 6 April 1883. The next month (on 22nd May, at a ceremony in Braunau with fellow custom officials as witnesses, Hitler, 45, married Matzelsberger, 21. He then legitimized his son as
Alois Hitler, Jr.Alois Hitler, Jr., born Alois Matzelsberger , was the son of Alois Hitler and Franziska Matzelsberger, and was the half-brother of Adolf Hitler.-Early life:...
.
Later career
Hitler was secure in his profession and no longer an ambitious climber. Alan Bullock described Alois as a "hard, unsympathetic, and short-tempered" man. For reasons unknown to historians, Matzelberger went to
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
to give birth to
Angela HitlerAngela Franziska Johanna Hammitzsch , first married to Leo Raubal, Sr., was the elder half-sister of Adolf Hitler....
. Matzelberger, still only 23, acquired a
lungThe lung or pulmonary system is the essential respiration organ in air-breathing animals, including most tetrapods, a few fish and a few snails. In mammals and the more complex life forms, the two lungs are located in the chest on either side of the heart...
disorder and became too ill to function. She was moved to Ranshofen, a small village near Braunau. With no one but him to take care of the house or the children, Hitler brought back Klara Pölzl, Matzelberger's earlier rival. Matzelberger died in Ranshofen on August 10, 1884 at the age of 23.
Pölzl was soon pregnant by Hitler. Smith writes that if Hitler had been free to do as he wished, he would have married Pölzl immediately but because of the affidavit concerning his paternity, Hitler was now legally Pölzl's first cousin once removed, too close to marry. He submitted an appeal to the church for a humanitarian waiver, not mentioning Pölzl was already pregnant. Hitler was immune to what the local people thought of him since his salary came from the finance ministry and he probably intended to keep Pölzl as his "housekeeper" if permission was refused. It came, and on 7 January 1885 a wedding was held early in the morning at Hitler's rented rooms on the top floor of the Pommer Inn. A meal was served for the few guests and witnesses. Hitler then went to work for the rest of the day. Even Klara found the wedding to be a short ceremony. Throughout the marriage, she continued to call him
uncle.
On 17 May 1885, five months after the wedding, the new Frau Klara Hitler gave birth to her first child, Gustav. A year later, on 25 September 1886, she gave birth to a daughter, Ida. Son Otto followed Ida in 1887, but he died shortly after birth. Later that year,
diphtheriaDiphtheria is an upper respiratory tract illness characterized by sore throat, low fever, and an adherent membrane on the tonsils, pharynx, and/or nasal cavity. A milder form of diphtheria can be restricted to the skin...
tragically struck the Hitler household, resulting in the deaths of both Gustav and Ida. Klara had been Hitler's wife for three years, and all her children were dead, but Hitler still had the children from his relationship with Matzelberger, Alois Jr. and Angela.
On April 20, 1889, she gave birth to another son, future Nazi dictator
AdolfAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
. He was a sickly child, and his mother fretted over him. Hitler had little interest in child rearing and left it all to his wife. When not at work he was either in a
tavernA tavern or pot-house is, loosely, a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and, more than likely, also be served food, though not licensed to put up guests. The word derives from the Latin taberna and the Greek ταβέρνα/taverna, whose original meaning was a shed or...
or busy with his hobby, keeping bees. In 1892, Hitler was transferred from Braunau to Passau. He was 55, Klara 32, Alois Jr. 10, Angela 9 and Adolf was three years old. In 1894, Hitler was re-assigned to
LinzLinz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately 30 km south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube...
. Klara had just given birth to Edmund, so it was decided she and the children would stay in Passau for the time being.
Retirement
In February 1895, Hitler purchased a house on a nine acre (36,000 m²) plot in Hafeld near Lambach, approximately southwest of Linz. The farm was called the
Rauscher Gut. Hitler fantasized he would spend his retirement as a "gentleman farmer," indulging in beekeeping and living an easy rural life. He moved his family to the farm and retired on 25 June 1895 at the age of 58 after 40 years in the customs service. A lifetime as a civil servant had made Hitler forget what farm life was like. He found taking care of nine acres (36,000 m²) to be more work than he had thought it would be, and he didn't want it. The land went uncultivated, and the value of the property declined. Far from being his dream retirement home, the
Rauscher Gut was a money-losing nightmare.
Meanwhile, the family was still growing. On 21 January 1896
PaulaPaula Hitler was the younger sister of Adolf Hitler and the last child of Alois Hitler and his third wife, Klara Pölzl...
was born. With no workplace to escape to, Hitler was often home with his family. He had five children ranging in age from infancy to 14, and being involved with their daily life annoyed him. Smith suggests he yelled at the children almost continually and made long visits to the local tavern where he began to drink more than he used to.
It has been said he behaved like a self-important tyrant at home. Robert G. L. Waite noted, "Even one of his closest friends admitted that Alois was 'awfully rough' with his wife [Klara] and 'hardly ever spoke a word to her at home.'" If Hitler was in a bad mood, he picked on the older children or Klara herself, in front of them. After Hitler and his oldest son Alois Jr. had a climactic and violent argument, Alois Jr. left home, and the elder Alois swore he would never give the boy a penny of inheritance beyond what the law required.
Edmund (the youngest of the boys) died of
measlesMeasles is an infection of the respiratory system caused by a virus, specifically a paramyxovirus of the genus Morbillivirus. Morbilliviruses, like other paramyxoviruses, are enveloped, single-stranded, negative-sense RNA viruses...
on 2 February 1900. If there was to be a family legacy, Adolf would have to carry it. Alois wanted his son to follow him and seek a career in the civil service. However, Adolf had become so alienated from his father that he was repulsed by whatever Alois wanted. Where his father glorified the role of the civil servant, Adolf sneered at the thought of a lifetime spent enforcing petty rules. Alois tried to browbeat his son into obedience while Adolf did his best to be the opposite of whatever his father wanted.
Death
On the morning of January 3, 1903, Hitler went to the Gasthaus Stiefler as usual to drink his morning glass of
wineWine is an alcoholic beverage typically made of fermented grape juice. The natural chemical balance of grapes is such that they can ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes or other nutrients. Wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast consumes...
. He was offered the newspaper and promptly collapsed. He was taken to an adjoining room and a doctor was summoned but Alois Hitler died at the inn, probably from a pleural hemorrhage, aged 65.
Additional sources
- Marc Vermeeren, De jeugd van Adolf Hitler 1889–1907 en zijn familie en voorouders. Soesterberg, 2007, 420 blz. Uitgeverij Aspekt. ISBN 978-90-5911-606-1
- Bullock, Alan Hitler: A Study in Tyranny. 1953 ISBN 0-06-092020-3
- Fest, Joachim C. Hitler. Verlag Ullstein, 1973 ISBN 0-15-141650-8
- Kershaw, Ian Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris. W W Norton, 1999 ISBN 0-393-04671-0
- Maser, Werner Hitler: Legend, Myth and Reality. Penguin Books Ltd 1973 ISBN 0-06-012831-3
- Smith, Bradley F. Adolf Hitler: His Family, Childhood and Youth. Hoover Instituted, 1967 ISBN 0-8179-1622-9
- Waite, Robert G. L. The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler. Basic Books 1977 ISBN 0-465-06743-3
- Payne, Robert The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler. Praeger Publishers 1973 LCCN 72-92891
- Langer, Walter C. The Mind of Adolf Hitler. Basic Books Inc., New York, 1972 ISBN 0-465-04620-7 ASIN: B000CRPF1K
External links