Dear Doctor,
As Herr Eckart has informed me, you have again indicated an interest in my rise to the position of party leader.
I am therefore permitting myself to give you a brief account of my life.
I was born in Braunau am Inn on April 20, 1889, the son of the post office official Alois Hitler. My schooling consisted of 5 classes of Volksschule and 4 of Unterrealschule. It was the ambition of my youth to become an architect, and I believe that if politics had not taken hold of me, I would never have practiced any other profession. As you probably know, I had lost both my father and mother by the time I was 17 years old, and being without resources and possessing only about 80 kronen when I arrived in Vienna, I was forced to earn my bread as a common laborer. I was not yet 18 when I worked as an unskilled laborer on construction sites, and in the course of two years I performed most of the tasks of a day laborer. Meanwhile I studied, as much as my means permitted, the histories of art and civilizations and architecture, and incidentally occupied myself with political problems. Coming from a more or less cosmopolitan family, I became an anti-Semite in less than a year as the result of lessons learned in the school of harsh reality. Nevertheless, during this period, I found that I could not join any of the existing political parties.
After endless labor I succeeded in acquiring the training necessary as a painter, and from the age of 20, I was thus able to earn a modest living. I became an architectural draftsman and an architectural painter, and in my 21st year, I became completely independent. In 1912, following my profession, I went to live permanently in Munich. In the course of 4 years, from the age of 20 to 24, I became more and more preoccupied with politics, not so much in the way of attending meetings as in the way of fundamental studies of political economy and of all the available anti-Semitic literature.
From the age of 22 onward I was an especially ardent student of military-political history, and over the years I have never failed to pursue deep and searching studies of world history.
Even then I took no active part in politics. I avoided any temptation to present myself as a public speaker for the reason that I felt no inner sympathy with any of the existing parties.
At this time my supreme ambition was still to become an architect.
On August 5, 1914, my request to the King having been granted, I reported to the 1st Bavarian Infantry Regiment in order to join the German Army. Several days later, I was transferred to the 2nd Infantry Regiment, and on August 16, I was assigned to the 16th Bavarian Infantry Regiment, then in process of being formed. This regiment, which marched under the name of the List regiment, was the first among the volunteer regiments to reach the battlefields, and received its baptism of fire in "the Battle of the Yser."
This was one of the volunteer regiments which were almost completely destroyed within the course of a few days.
On December 2, 1914, I was awarded the Iron Cross, second class. I remained with my regiment, and during the battle of the Somme on October 7, 1916, I was wounded for the first time (by a shell splinter in the left thigh), and on October 10, 1916, on the anniversary of my first battle, I returned wounded to my homeland.
After being treated for two months at the hospital at Beelitz, near Berlin, I was assigned in December, 1916, to the reserve battalion of the 2nd Infantry Regiment in Munich, and immediately announced that I would volunteer for the front. On March 1, 1917, I was sent to my original regiment, and on [September 17] 1917, I was awarded the Cross of Military Merit, third class, with swords; on May 9, 1918, the regimental diploma; [on August 4] 1918, the Iron Cross, first class; on [May 18] 1918 a black wound stripe; and on [August25] 1918, the Medal of Military Service, third class.
On the night of October 13/14, 1918, I was overcome by poison gas, which for a while left me completely blind. From Werwick in Flanders, I was transported to the military hospital at Pasewalk near Stettin. The blindness left me in a comparatively short while, my sight returning gradually, and since the revolution had broken out on November 9, I asked to be assigned in the shortest possible time to Munich, and on December 18, I found myself once more in the reserve battalion of the 2nd Infantry Regiment in Munich. During the period of Soviet rule I was on the proscribed list; and after the downfall of the Red dictatorship, I was seconded to the investigating commission of the 2nd Infantry Regiment; and later, I was appointed as a training officer to the 41st Regiment of Sharpshooters. In this regiment, as in others, I held conferences on the subject of the insanity of the bloody Soviet dictatorship, and I can joyfully claim that when these soldiers were demobilized as a result of the reduction in numbers of the Reichswehr, they formed the first group of my own followers.
In June, 1919, I joined the German Workers' Party, which consisted at this time of seven members, for now at last I felt I had found a movement in the sphere of politics which answered to my ideal. Today the number of our followers in Munich alone has reached 4 1/2 thousand, and I may claim with pride that this success has been largely achieved through my efforts.
Permit me to stop at this point, and I remain
Yours respectfully,
A. HITLER
Click to join 3rdReichStudies
Disclaimer:The Propagander!™ includes diverse and controversial materials--such as excerpts from the writings of racists and anti-Semites--so that its readers can learn the nature and extent of hate and anti-Semitic discourse. It is our sincere belief that only the informed citizen can prevail over the ignorance of Racialist "thought." Far from approving these writings, The Propagander!™ condemns racism in all of its forms and manifestations.
Fair Use Notice: This site--The Propagander!™--may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of historical, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, environmental, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
