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Was Hitler a Good Student?
[That I had] much romping in the open air, [a] long walk to school, and the companionship of unusually robust boys, caused my mother grievous suffering; but this did not prevent me from becoming the opposite of a stay-at-home. And although at that time I had scarcely any thought about my future career, I had decidedly no sympathy for the course my father's career had taken. I believe that even then my talent for making speeches was being developed, in the more or less violent arguments with my schoolfellows. I had become a little ringleader, and at school learned easily and well, but was otherwise rather difficult to handle.
In April of 1895 the upwardly mobile Hitler family moves to the hamlet of Hafeld, Austria, some thirty miles southwest of Linz, the provincial capital.1 Consisting of a dozen houses set on a high ridge, surrounded and half-hidden by orchards, Hafeld is a small village with a population of around one hundred. With the intention of working the land during his impending retirement, Alois, with nearly forty years in the customs service, purchases a beautiful nine-acre farm within sight of the mountains of the Salzkammergut.2Since, in my free time, I received singing lessons in the cloister at Lambach, I had excellent opportunity to intoxicate myself with the solemn splendor of the brilliant church festivals. It seemed to me perfectly natural to regard the abbot as the highest and most desirable ideal, just as my father regarded the village priest as his ideal.
February 23, 1899: The Hitlers move into the Leonding residence, known as the "garden house" because it is situated on a full acre of land and is surrounded by orchards. Alois sets up his beehives.16But now, to be sure, there was a new conflict to be fought out. As long as my father's intention of making me a civil servant encountered only my theoretical distaste for the profession, the conflict was bearable. Thus far, I had to some extent been able to keep my private opinions to myself; I did not always have to contradict him immediately. My own firm determination never to become a civil servant sufficed to give me complete inner peace. And this decision in me was immutable.
The problem became more difficult when I developed a plan of my own in opposition to my father's. And this occurred at the early age of twelve. How it happened, I myself do not know, but one day it became clear to me that I would become a painter, an artist. There was no doubt as to my talent for drawing; it had been one of my father's reasons for sending me to the Realschule, but never in all the world would it have occurred to him to give me professional training in this direction. On the contrary. When for the first time, after once again rejecting my father's favorite notion, I was asked what I myself wanted to be, and I rather abruptly blurted out the decision I had meanwhile made, my father for the moment was struck speechless. "Painter ... Artist?"
He doubted my sanity, or perhaps he thought he had misheard or misunderstood me. But when he was clear on the subject, and particularly after he felt the seriousness of my intention, he opposed it with all the determination of his nature. His decision was extremely simple, for any consideration of what abilities I might really have was simply out of the question. "Artist, no, never as long as I live!" But since his son, among various other qualities, had apparently inherited his father's stubbornness, the same answer came back at him. Except, of course, that it was in the opposite sense. And thus the situation remained on both sides. My father did not depart from his "Never!" And I intensified my "Oh, yes!" The consequences, indeed, were none too pleasant.
The old man grew embittered, and, much as I loved him, so did I. My father forbade me to nourish the slightest hope of ever being allowed to study art. I went one step further and declared that if that was the case I would stop studying altogether. As a result of such "pronouncements" of course, I drew the short end; the old man began the relentless enforcement of his authority. In the future, therefore, I was silent, but transformed my threat into reality. I thought that once my father saw how little progress I was making at the Realschule, he would let me devote myself to my dream, whether he liked it or not. I do not know whether this calculation was correct. For the moment only one thing was certain: my obvious lack of success at school.
Whether the young Adolf, allegedly at the age of twelve, so plainly stipulated he wanted to be an artist may be doubted. But that there was a conflict with his father arising from his unwillingness to follow a career in the civil service, and that his father found fault with his son's indolent and purposeless existence, in which drawing seemed to be his main interest, seems certain.20
Hitler, from Mein Kampf:Rummaging through my father's library, I had come across various books of a military nature, among them a popular edition of the Franco-German War of 1870-7I. It consisted of two issues of an illustrated periodical from those years, which now became my favorite reading matter. It was not long before the great heroic struggle had become my greatest inner experience. From then on I became more and more enthusiastic about everything that was in any way connected with war or, for that matter, with soldiering.
August 1902: While hauling a load of coal to his cellar, Alois Hitler suffers a lung hemorrhage. It is not considered serious, and he is soon fully recovered and back on his feet.24When I was thirteen my father died suddenly. The old gentleman, who was always so robust and healthy, suffered an apoplectic stroke, and thus painlessly ended his wanderings on earth, plunging us all into the depths of despair. His most ardent desire had been to help his son forge his career, thus preserving him from his own bitter experience. In this, to all appearances, he had not succeeded. But, though unwittingly, he had sown the seed for a future which at that time neither he nor I would have comprehended.
Professor Eduard Huemer,(31) Hitler's French and German Teacher:I well remember the gaunt, pale-faced boy who shuttled backwards and forwards between Linz and Leonding. Hitler was certainly gifted, although only for particular subjects. He lacked self-control and, to say the least, he was considered argumentative, autocratic, self-opinionated and bad-tempered, and unable to submit to school discipline. Nor was he industrious; otherwise he would have achieved much better results, gifted as he was. He reacted with ill-concealed hostility whenever a teacher reproved him or gave him some advice. At the same time, he demanded the unqualified subservience of his fellow-pupils, fancying himself in the role of a leader, and of course playing many small harmless pranks, which is not unusual among immature youngsters. He seemed to be infected with the stories of Karl May and the Redskins.
September 14, 1903: Adolf's half-sister, Angela (age 20) weds Leo Raubal (age 23), an assistant tax inspector from Linz.34 While Adolf initially welcomes the match, he will grow increasingly annoyed at what he considers undue interference by Leo, who proceeds to champion the advantages of a civil service career, thus encouraging Klara in her insistence that Adolf stay the course set by Alois.Of my other brothers and sisters I especially remember my stepsister Angela as a beautiful girl. Also she was watched by my father very harshly. He was examining every wooer with the strict demand that only a civil servant was allowed to marry her. Really in 1903 she married the Revenue officer Leo Raubal in Linz, who died very young in 1910. After his death my sister with her 3 children went on to live in Linz for a short time. Then she removed to Vienna. Later on she married the university professor Hammitzsch in Dresden. They had no children.
May 22, 1904: Fifteen-year-old Adolf Hitler is confirmed at Linz Cathedral on this Whit Sunday.35 Sponsored by Emmanuel Lugert, one of Alois's former customs house colleagues (and pallbearer), Adolf refuses the offer of a watch as a confirmation gift, declaring that he already owns two watches. Lugert instead presents him with a prayer book, as well as a passbook to a savings account with a small balance. Lugert will recall Hitler's ill-tempered behavior during and after the ceremony, declaring that he had never before or since sponsored such an ungrateful boy.36To "learn" history means to seek and find the forces which are the causes leading to those effects which we subsequently perceive as historical events. The art of reading as of learning is this: to retain the essential and to forget the non-essential. Perhaps it affected my whole later life that good fortune sent me a history teacher who was one of the few to observe this principle in teaching and examining. Dr. Leopold Potsch,38 my professor at the Realschule in Linz, embodied this requirement to an ideal degree. This old gentleman's manner was as kind as it was determined, his dazzling eloquence not only held us spellbound but actually carried us away.
Even today I think back with gentle emotion on this gray-haired man who, by the fire of his narratives, sometimes made us forget the present; who, as if by enchantment, carried us into past times and, out of the millennial veils of mist, molded dry historical memories into living reality. On such occasions we sat there, often aflame with enthusiasm, and sometimes even moved to tears. What made our good fortune all the greater was that this teacher knew how to illuminate the past by examples from the present, and how from the past to draw inferences for the present. As a result he had more understanding than anyone else for all the daily problems which then held us breathless.
He used our budding nationalistic fanaticism as a means of educating us, frequently appealing to our sense of national honor. By this alone he was able to discipline us little ruffians more easily than would have been possible by any other means. This teacher made history my favorite subject. And indeed, though he had no such intention, it was then that I became a little revolutionary.
1901-02 1902-03 1903-04
Religion 2 2 2
German 4 4 4
French 5 5 5
Geography 3 2 2
History x x 3
Mathematics 3 3 3
Nat. History 2 2 x
Physics x x 3
Geometrical Drawing 1 2 2
Freehand Drawing 4 4 4
Handwriting 1 1 x
Gymnastics 2 2 2
Detractors later charged that Hitler had lied about his ill-health in Mein Kampf, but Paula testified that her brother did suffer a hemorrhage; a boyhood friend remembered that "he was plagued by coughs and nasty catarrhs, especially on damp, foggy days,' and a neighbor testified that he was "in poor health and had to leave his studies because of a lung problem--as a result of which he was spitting blood."43
September 16, 1905: After passing his geometry re-sit, sixteen-year-old Adolf Hitler leaves Steyr Realschule, ending his formal schooling.47What gave me pleasure I learned, especially everything which, in my opinion, I should later need as a painter. What seemed to me unimportant in this respect or was otherwise unattractive to me, I sabotaged completely. My report cards at this time, depending on the subject and my estimation of it, showed nothing but extremes. Side by side with "laudable" and "excellent," stood "adequate" or even "inadequate." By far my best accomplishments were in geography and even more so in history. These were my favorite subjects, in which I led the class.
Perusal of either Hitler report card presented here reveals that Hitler's recollections are inadequate at best. He does, however, seem to have "led the class" in gymnastics and free-hand drawing at one point (below).My mother, to be sure, felt obliged to continue my education in accordance with my father's wish; in other words, to have me study for the civil servant's career. I, for my part, was more than ever determined absolutely not to undertake this career. In proportion as my schooling departed from my ideal in subject matter and curriculum, I became more indifferent at heart.
Then suddenly an illness came to my help and in a few weeks decided my future and the eternal domestic quarrel. As a result of my serious lung ailment, a physician advised my mother in most urgent terms never to send me into an office. My attendance at the Realschule had furthermore to be interrupted for at least a year. The goal for which I had so long silently yearned, for which I had always fought, had through this event suddenly become reality almost of its own accord. Concerned over my illness, my mother finally consented to take me out of the Realschule and let me attend the Academy [of Fine Arts in Vienna].
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