Adolf Hitler: Catholicism and Other Influences
Claire E. O'Connor claireoc@softdisk.com
Sat, 22 Nov 1997 19:17:31 -0600 (00880269451, 3477842B.1EAA@softdisk.com)
Adolf Hitler's Catholicism and Other Influences in His Life
The following material about Adolf Hitler is copied and pasted from The
History Place: The Rise of Adolf Hitler. I've "snipped" most of it, but
I have included EVERYTHING about the Catholic Church or Hitler's
Catholicism that I could find. It doesn't "flow" very well, because I
have snipped so much.
You might wonder why I included information about Hitler's childhood
fascination with playing cowboys and Indians, his frustrated artistic
ambitions, his fascination with Nordic mythology, his experiences in
World War I, etc. I consider these to be far more important as a key to
understanding Hitler than his Catholicism.
The full online text can be found at:
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/index.htm
Adolf Hitler is Born
At 6:30 p.m. on the evening of April 20, 1889, he was born in the small
Austrian village of Braunau Am Inn just across the border from German
Bavaria.
Adolf Hitler would one day lead a movement that placed supreme
importance on a person's family tree even making it a matter of life and
death. However, his own family tree was quite mixed up and would be a
lifelong source of embarrassment and concern to him.
His father, Alois, was born in 1837. He was the illegitimate son of
Maria Anna Schicklgruber and her unknown mate, which may have been
someone from the neighborhood or a poor millworker named Johann Georg
Hiedler. It is also remotely possible Adolf Hitler's grandfather was
Jewish.
Maria Schicklgruber was said to have been employed as a cook in the
household of a wealthy Jewish family named Frankenberger. There is some
speculation their 19 year old son got her pregnant and regularly sent
her money after the birth of Alois.
Adolf Hitler would never know for sure just who his grandfather was.
He did know that when his father Alois was about five years old, Maria
Schicklgruber married Johann Georg Hiedler. The marriage lasted five
years until her death of natural causes, at which time Alois went to
live on a small farm with his uncle.
At age thirteen, young Alois had enough of farm life and set out for the
city of Vienna to make something of himself. He worked as a shoemaker's
apprentice then later enlisted in the Austrian civil service, becoming a
junior customs official. He worked hard as a civil servant and
eventually became a supervisor. By 1875 he achieved the rank of Senior
Assistant Inspector, a big accomplishment for the former poor farm boy
with little formal education.
At this time an event occurred that would have big implications for the
future.
Alois had always used the last name of his mother, Schicklgruber, and
thus was always called Alois Schicklgruber. He made no attempt to hide
the fact he was illegitimate since it was common in rural Austria.
But after his success in the civil service, his proud uncle from the
small farm convinced him to change his last name to match his own,
Hiedler, and continue the family name. However, when it came time to
write the name down in the record book it was spelled as Hitler.
And so in 1876 at age 39, Alois Schicklgruber became Alois Hitler. This
is important because it is hard to imagine tens of thousands of Germans
shouting "Heil Schicklgruber!" instead of "Heil Hitler!"
In 1885, after numerous affairs and two other marriages ended, the
widowed Alois Hitler, 48, married the pregnant Klara Pölzl, 24, the
granddaughter of uncle Hiedler. Technically, because of the name change,
she was his own niece and so he had to get special permission from the
Catholic church.
The children from his previous marriage, Alois Hitler, Jr. and Angela,
attended the wedding and lived with them afterwards. Klara Pölzl
eventually gave birth to two boys and a girl, all of whom died. On April
20, 1889, her fourth child, Adolf was born healthy and was baptized a
Roman Catholic. Hitler's father was now 52 years old.
Throughout his early days, young Adolf's mother feared losing him as
well and lavished much care and affection on him. His father was busy
working most of the time and also spent a lot of time on his main hobby,
keeping bees.
Baby Adolf had the nickname, Adi. When he was almost five, in 1893, his
mother gave birth to a brother, Edmund. In 1896 came a sister, Paula.
In May of 1895 at age six, young Adolf Hitler entered first grade in the
public school in the village of Fischlham, near Linz Austria.
Hitler's early life
In 1895, at age six, two important events happened in the life of young
Adolf Hitler. First, the unrestrained, carefree days he had enjoyed up
to now came to an end as he entered primary school. Secondly, his father
retired on a pension from the Austrian civil service.
This meant a double dose of supervision, discipline and regimentation
under the watchful eyes of teachers at school and his strict father at
home. His father, now 58, had spent most of his life working his way up
through the civil service ranks. He was used to giving orders and having
them obeyed and also expected this from his children. The Hitler family
lived on a small farm outside of Linz, Austria. The children had farm
chores to perform along with their school work.
Hitler's mother was now preoccupied with caring for her new son, Edmund.
In 1896 she gave
birth to a girl, Paula. The Hitler household now consisted of Adolf,
little brother Edmund, little sister Paula, older half brother Alois
Jr., older half sister Angela and two parents who were home all the
time. It was a crowded, noisy little farm house that seems to have
gotten on the nerves on Hitler's father who found retirement after 40
years of work to be difficult.
The oldest boy, Alois Jr., 13, bore the brunt of his father's
discontent, including harsh words and occasional beatings. A year later,
at age 14, young Alois had enough of this treatment and ran away from
home, never to see his father again. This put young Adolf, age 7, next
in line for the same treatment.
Also at this time, the family moved off the farm to the town of Lambach,
Austria, halfway between Linz and Salzburg. This was the first of
several moves the family would make in the restless retirement of
Hitler's father.
For young Adolf, the move to Lambach meant an end to farm chores and
more time to play. There was an old Catholic Benedictine monastery in
the town. The ancient monastery was decorated with carved stones and
woodwork that included several swastikas. Adolf attended school there
and saw them every day. They had been put there in the 1800's by the
ruling Abbot as a pun or play on words. His name essentially sounded
like the German word for swastika, Hakenkreuz.
Young Hitler did well in the monastery school and also took part in the
boys' choir. He was said to have had a fine singing voice. Years later
Hitler would say the solemn pageantry of the high mass and other
Catholic ceremonies was quite intoxicating and left a very deep
impression.
As a young boy he idolized the priests and for two years seriously
considered becoming a priest himself. He especially admired the Abbot in
charge, who ruled his black-robbed monks with supreme authority. At home
Hitler sometimes played priest and even included long sermons.
At age nine, he got into schoolboy mischief. He was caught smoking a
cigarette by one of the priests, but was forgiven and not punished.
His favorite game to play outside was cowboys and Indians. Tales of the
American West were very popular among boys in Austria and Germany. Books
by James Fenimore Cooper and especially German writer Karl May were
eagerly read and re-enacted.
May, who had never been to America, invented a hero named Old
Shatterhand, a white man who always won his battles with Native
Americans, defeating his enemies through sheer will power and bravery.
Young Hitler read and reread every one of May's books about Old
Shatterhand, totaling more than 70 novels. He continued to read them
even as Führer. During the German attack on the Soviet Union he
sometimes referred to the Russians as Redskins and ordered his officers
to carry May's books about fighting Indians.
.....
One day, young Hitler went rummaging through his father's book
collection and came across several of a military nature, including a
picture book on the War of 1870 - 1871 between the Germans and the
French. By Hitler's own account, this book became an obsession. He read
it over and over, becoming convinced it had been a glorious event.
"It was not long before the great historic struggle had become my
greatest spiritual experience. From then on, I became more and more
enthusiastic about everything that was in any was connected with war or,
for that matter, with soldiering." - Hitler stated in his book Mein
Kampf.
....
Cowboys and Indians gave way to battle re-enactments, especially after
the Boer War broke out in Africa. Hitler, now eleven years old, took the
side of the Boers against the English and never tired of playing war.
Sometimes, he even wore out the boys he was playing with and then simply
went and found other boys to continue.
In May of 1904, at age 15, Adolf Hitler received the Catholic Sacrament
of Confirmation in the Linz cathedral. As a young boy he once
entertained the idea of becoming a priest. But by the time he was
confirmed he was bored and uninterested in his faith and hardly bothered
to make the appropriate responses during the religious ceremony.
Hitler Fails Art Exam
After dropping out of high school in 1905, at age sixteen, Adolf Hitler
spent the next few years in brooding idleness. His indulgent mother
patiently urged him to learn a trade or get a job. But to young Hitler,
the idea of daily work with its necessary submission to authority was
revolting.
With his father now dead, there was no one who could tell young Adolf
Hitler what to do, so he did exactly as he pleased.
....
His only friend was with another young dreamer named August Kubizek, who
wanted to be a great musician. They met at the opera in Linz. Kubizek
found Hitler fascinating and a friendship quickly developed. Kubizek
turned out to be a patient listener. He was a good audience for Hitler,
who often rambled for hours about his hopes and dreams. Sometimes Hitler
even gave speeches complete with wild hand gestures to his audience of
one.
Kubizek later described Hitler's personality as "violent and high
strung." Hitler would only tolerate approval from his friend and could
not stand to be corrected, a personality trait he had shown in high
school and as a younger boy as well.
Hitler's view of the world, also based in fantasy, began to
significantly take shape. He borrowed large numbers of books from the
library on German history and Nordic mythology. He was also deeply
inspired by the opera works of Richard Wagner and their pagan, mythical
tales of struggle against hated enemies. His friend Kubizek recalled
that after seeing Wagner's opera 'Rienzi,' Hitler behaved as if
possessed. Hitler led his friend atop a steep hill where he spoke in a
strange voice of a great mission in which he would lead the people to
freedom, similar to the plot in the opera he had just seen.
By now Hitler also had strong pride in the German race and all things
German along with a strong dislike of the Hapsburg Monarchy and the
non-Germanic races in the multicultural Austro-Hungarian empire which
had ruled Austria and surrounding countries for centuries.
.....
As a young boy he had shown natural talent for drawing. His gift for
drawing had also been recognized by his high school instructors. But
things had gone poorly for him in high school. He was a lazy and
uncooperative student, who essentially flunked out. To escape the
reality of that failure and avoid the dreaded reality of a workaday
existence, Hitler put all his hope in the dream of achieving greatness
as an artist.
He decided to attend the prestigious Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. In
October, 1907, at age eighteen, he withdrew his inheritance money from
the bank and went to live and study in Vienna. Hitler's mother was by
now suffering from breast cancer and had been unsuccessfully operated on
in January. But Hitler's driving ambition to be a great artist overcame
his reluctance to leave her.
He took the two day entrance exam for the academy's school of painting.
Confident and self assured, he awaited the result, quite sure he would
get in. But failure struck him like a bolt of lightning. His test
drawings were judged unsatisfactory and he was not admitted. Hitler was
badly shaken by this rejection. He went back to the academy to get an
explanation and was told his drawings showed a lack of talent for
artistic painting, notably a lack of appreciation of the human form. He
was told, however, that he had some ability for the field of
architecture.
......
Hitler's friend from his hometown of Linz, August Kubizek, also came to
Vienna and they roomed together. In Vienna, Hitler continued the same
lazy lifestyle he had enjoyed in Linz after dropping out of school.
Kubizek described Hitler as a night owl who slept till noon, would go
out for walks taking in all the sights, then stay up late discussing his
ideas on everything from social reform to city planning. Hitler made no
effort to get a regular job, considering himself far above that. He
dressed like an artist and at night dressed like a young gentleman of
leisure and often attended the opera.
Kubizek also recalled Hitler displayed an increasingly unstable
personality with a terrible temper. At times he was quite reasonable but
he was always prone to sudden outbursts of rage especially when he was
corrected on anything. He had no real interest in women, preferring to
keep away from them and even smugly rebuffed those who showed any
interest in him. He strictly adhered to his Catholic upbringing
regarding sex, believing men and women should remain celibate until
marriage.
Hitler was also prone to sudden bursts of inspiration and had many
interesting ideas but never finished anything he started. Whether
composing his own opera or redesigning the city of Vienna, he would
start with much enthusiasm and work hard, only to eventually lose
interest.
In October, 1908, Hitler tried for the second time to gain admission to
the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. However, his test drawings were judged
as so poor that he was not even allowed to take the formal exam. It was
a bitter disappointment to Hitler and effectively left him on the
outside looking in at the artistic community in Vienna. His friend
Kubizek had successfully gained entrance to the Vienna Conservatory and
was studying music there, doing quite well, in contrast to Hitler.
Hitler soon parted company with his friend in a rather strange manner.
When Kubizek returned to Vienna after two months of military training in
November, 1908, he found Hitler had moved out of their shared apartment
and left no forwarding address.
Hitler now had no use for his friend and made no attempt to find him
again. He lived by himself, moving from place to place as his savings
gradually dwindled and his lifestyle spiraled down hill. Despite the
need for money, Hitler made no attempt to get regular employment. He
eventually pawned all his possessions and actually wound up sleeping on
park benches and begging for money. He quickly became a dirty, smelly,
unshaven young man wearing tattered clothes and did not even own an
overcoat. In December of 1909, freezing and half starved, he moved into
a homeless shelter. He ate at the soup kitchen operated by the nuns at a
nearby convent.
In February, 1910, he moved into a home for poor men where he would stay
for the next few years. Hitler sometimes earned a little money as a day
laborer, shoveling snow and carrying bags at the train station. He then
found he could earn a meager living selling pictures of famous Vienna
landmarks he copied from postcards. Another resident at the home,
Reinhold Hanish, acted as his agent, hawking Hitler's works of art to
various shops where they were mostly used to fill empty picture frames.
Hitler also painted posters for shop windows.
Hanish recalled Hitler as undisciplined and moody, always hanging around
the men's home, eager to discuss politics and often making speeches to
the residents. He usually flew into a rage if anyone contradicted him.
Eventually, Hitler quarreled with Hanish, even accusing him of stealing
his property and falsely testified against him in court in August, 1910,
getting Hanish an eight day jail sentence. (In 1938 Hanish was murdered
on Hitler's orders after talking to the press about him).
....
Hitler had a passion for reading, grabbing all the daily newspapers
available at the men's home, reading numerous political pamphlets and
borrowing many books from the library on German history and mythology.
He had a curious but academically untrained mind and examined the
complex philosophical works of Nietzsche, Hegel, Fichte, Treitschke and
the Englishman, Houston Stewart Chamberlain. Hitler picked up bits and
pieces of philosophy and ideas from them and wound up with a hodgepodge
of racist, nationalistic, anti-Semitic attitudes that over time became a
diehard philosophy, later to be described in his book, Mein Kampf.
The utter misery of his poverty also deeply influenced Hitler. He
adopted a harsh, survivalist mentality, which left little room for
consideration of kindness and compassion - an attitude that would stay
with him until the end.
"I owe it to that period that I grew hard and am still capable of being
hard." - Hitler stated in Mein Kampf.
Even before he came to Vienna, Hitler had a personality notable for its
lack of empathy. Many historians have concluded Hitler suffered
psychological distress partly brought on by an unhappy childhood,
notably his relationship with his father, a domineering, at times cruel
man. At the same time, Hitler had also shown extraordinary attachment to
his over-indulgent mother.
In Vienna, and later, Hitler suffered bouts of depression. Other times
he experienced extreme highs, only to be followed by a drop back into
the depths. One consistent personality trait was the hysteria evident
whenever someone displeased him. Hitler's personality has been described
as basically hysterical in nature.
Now, at age 21, he was becoming keenly interested in politics, watching
events unfold around him in Vienna.
After witnessing a large protest march by workers, he immersed himself
in an intensive study of the politics of the workers' party, the Social
Democrats. He gained appreciation of their ability to organize large
rallies and use propaganda and fear as a political weapons.
>From the sidelines he also watched the two other main parties, the Pan
German Nationalists and the Christian Social Party, which heightened his
interest in German nationalism and anti-Semitism.
Among the middle class in Vienna, anti-Semitism was considered rather
fashionable. The mayor, Karl Lueger, a noted anti-Semite, was a member
of the Christian Social Party which included anti-Semitism in its
political platform.
Hitler admired Lueger, a powerful politician, for his speech making
skills and effective use of propaganda in gaining popular appeal. He
also admired Lueger's skill in manipulating established institutions
such as the Catholic Church. He studied Lueger carefully and modeled
some of his later behavior on what he learned.
.....
In the muddy, lice infested, smelly trenches of World War One, Adolf
Hitler found a new home fighting for the German Fatherland. After years
of poverty, alone and uncertain, he now had a sense of belonging and
purpose.
The "War to end all wars" began after the heir to the Austrian throne,
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was gunned down by a young Serbian terrorist
on June 28, 1914. Events quickly escalated as Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany
urged Austria to declare war on Serbia. Russia then mobilized against
Austria. Germany mobilized against Russia. France and England then
mobilized against Germany.
All over Europe and England young men, including Adolf Hitler, eagerly
volunteered. Like most young soldiers before them, they thought it would
be a short war, but hopefully long enough for them to see some action
and participate in the great adventure.
It would turn out to be a long war in which soldiers died by the
millions. An entire generation of young men would be wiped out. The war
would also bring the downfall of the old European culture of kings and
noblemen and their codes of honor.
New technologies such as planes, tanks, machine guns, long range
artillery, and deadly gas would be used by the armies against each
other. But a stalemate developed along a line of entrenched
fortifications stretching from the North Sea, all the way through France
to the Saar River in Germany. In these miserable trenches, Adolf Hitler
became acquainted with war.
Hitler volunteered at age 25 by enlisting in a Bavarian Regiment. After
its first engagement against the British and Belgians near Ypres, 2500
of the 3000 men in the Hitler's regiment were killed, wounded or
missing. Hitler escaped without a scratch. Throughout most of the war
Hitler had great luck avoiding life threatening injury. More than once,
he moved away from a spot where moments later a shell exploded killing
or wounding everyone.
Hitler, by all accounts, was an unusual soldier with a sloppy manner and
unmilitary bearing. But he was also eager for action and always ready to
volunteer for dangerous assignments even after many narrow escapes from
death.
.....
On October, 7, 1916, Hitler's luck ran out when he was wounded in the
leg by a shell fragment during the battle of the Somme. He was
hospitalized in Germany. It was his first time away from the front after
two years of war. After his recovery, he went sight seeing in Berlin,
then was assigned to light duty in Munich. He was appalled at the apathy
and anti-war sentiment among German civilians. He blamed the Jews for
much of this and saw them as conspiring to spread unrest and undermine
the German war effort.
This idea of an anti-war conspiracy involving Jews would become an
obsession to add to other anti-Semitic notions he acquired in Vienna,
leading to an ever growing hatred of Jews.
To get away from the apathetic civilians, Hitler asked to go back to the
front and was sent back in March of 1917.
In August 1918, he received the iron cross first class, a rarity for
foot soldiers. Interestingly, the lieutenant who recommended him for the
medal was a Jew, a fact Hitler would later obscure. Despite his good
record and a total of five medals, he remained a corporal. Due to his
unmilitary appearance and odd personality, his superiors felt he lacked
leadership qualities and thought he would not command respect as a
sergeant.
As the tide of war turned against the Germans and morale collapsed along
the front, Hitler became depressed. He would sometimes spend hours
sitting in the corner of the tent in deep contemplation then would
suddenly burst onto his feet shouting about the "invisible foes of the
German people," namely Jews and Marxists.
In October of 1918, he was temporarily blinded after a British chlorine
gas attack near Ypres. He was sent home to a starving, war weary country
full of unrest. He laid in a hospital bed consumed with dread amid a
swirl of rumors of impending disaster.
On November 10, 1918, an elderly pastor came into the hospital and
announced the news. The Kaiser and the House of Hollenzollern had
fallen. Their beloved Fatherland was now a republic. The war was over.
Hitler described his reaction in Mein Kampf...
"There followed terrible days and even worse nights - I knew that all
was lost...in these nights hatred grew in me, hatred for those
responsible for this deed."
Not the military, in his mind, but the politicians back at home in
Germany and primarily the Jews.
........
Faced with an effective British blockade, fierce resistance from the
British and French armies, the entrance of the United States army,
political unrest and starvation at home, an economy in ruins, mutiny in
the navy, and mounting defeats on the battlefield, the German generals
requested armistice negotiations with the Allies in November of 1918.
Under the terms of the armistice, the German Army was allowed to remain
intact and was not forced to admit defeat by surrendering. U.S. General
George Pershing had misgivings about this, saying it would be better to
have the German generals admit defeat so there could be no doubt. The
French and British were convinced however that Germany would not be a
threat again.
The failure to force the German General Staff to admit defeat would have
a huge impact on the future of Germany. Although the army was later
reduced in size, its impact would be felt after the war as a political
force dedicated to German nationalism, not democracy.
The German General Staff also would support the false idea that the army
had not been defeated on the battlefield, but could have fought on to
victory, except for being betrayed at home, the infamous 'Stab in the
Back' theory.
This 'Stab in the Back' theory would become hugely popular among many
Germans who found it impossible to swallow defeat. During the war Adolf
Hitler became obsessed with this idea, especially laying blame on Jews
and Marxists in Germany for undermining the war effort. To Hitler, and
so many others, the German politicians who signed the armistice on
November 11, 1918, would become known as the 'November Criminals'.
~Claire