Adolf Hitler (Fiction)

**Adolf Hitler**appears in many fiction works. He was a German artist, statesman, theoretician, politician, soldier and writer. He became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933, and Fuhrer from 1934 to 1945. He led the Nazi Party and created the Greater German Empire. He is considered to be one of the most evil people that ever existed.

## Real Life History

### Early Life

Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau Am Inn, Austria-Hungary right on the Austro-German border. He was the fourth of Alois and Klara Hitler's six children.

When Hitler was three years old, his family moved to Kapuzinerstrasse 5, where Hitler would acquire his lifelong accent. As a child he timelessly played "Cowboys and Indians" and became fixiated on war after finding a picture book about the Franco-Prussian war in his father's room. When Hitler was eleven years old he started secondary school. It was his father's idea to send him to a Realschule, where they taught mainly science and technical skills. But Hitler was a reluctant student. He much preferred drawing and writing to science and numbers. And he resented the long-time walk to and from school. On Feburary 2 1900, Hitler's younger brother Edmund died. The death deeply affected him and had a change in his personality; he went from a confident, outgoing boy to a detached, sullen boy who constantly battled his father and teachers. Many psychoanaylsts, psychiatrists and psychohistorians diagnosed or described Hitler as suffering from borderline personality disorder.

Hitler's father wanted him to follow in his footsteps and become a high-ranking official, and this became a huge source of conflict between the two. Hitler wanted to go to a classical high school to become an artist but his father sent him to Realschule in Linz, a technical high school.

For young Hitler, German nationalism quickly became an obsession, and it was a good way to rebel against his father, who served the Austrian government. Like many Austrian Germans he showed pride in his German ancestry, he expressed loyalty only to Germany despising the multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire.

After Alois' sudden death on January 3 1903, Hitler's behavior at the technical high school became even more disruptive and he was asked to leave. Hitler enrolled at the Realschule in Steyr, but was expelled during his second year. He never returned to school again. From 1905 on, Hitler lived a bohemian life in Vienna on an orphan's pension and support from his mother. He was rejected twice by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, citing "unfitness for painting", and they told him his abilities should be used for artitecture. He followed this recommendation, and he became convinced that this was his path to pursue, but he lacked the academic preparation for artitecture school.

In 1907, Hitler's mother died of breast cancer, and he was forced to give some of the money his mother had sent him to his sister. He ran out of money after the second time he was rejected by the Art Academy. Hitler always said he first became an anti-Semite in Vienna, which had a large Jewish community.

Hitler claimed that Jews were enemies of the Aryan race and held them responsible for Aryan's crisis. He also identified certain forms of socialism and bolshevism, which had many Jewish leaders, as Jewish movements, merging his anti-Semitsm with anti-Marxism. He later blamed Germany's military defeat in World War I on the 1918 revolutions and he considered Jews the culprits of Germany's downfall and ecomonic problems.

In 1913, Hitler moved to Munich, where he became more interested in artitecture. When Germany entered World War I in August 1914, he asked permission to serve in a Bavarian regiment. This request was granted, and Hitler enlisted in the Bavarian Army.

### World War I

Hitler served in France and Belgium as a runner for the 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment, which exposed him to enemy fire. His duties at regimental headquarters, while often dangerous, gave Hitler time to pursue his artwork. When he had the time he drew cartoons and instructional drawings for the army newspaper. Hitler had long admired Germany, and during the war he had become a passionate German patriot. Hitler was twice decorated for bravery, once in 1914 receiving the Iron Cross Second Class and in 1918, the Iron Cross First Class. Additionally, in 1917 he received the Wound Badge for injuries he suffered on his leg. On October 15 1918, Hitler was admitted to a field hospital, temporarily blinded by a mustard gas attack. During his stay there he received news that Germany lost World War I. To Hitler, as to many other Germans and German speakers, this was a betrayal by the cowardly politicians.

## Appearances in Fiction

### Indiana Jones

Hitler met with archaelogist Rene Belloq in 1939 to hire his services in acquiring the lost Ark of the Covenant. After Indiana Jones thwarted Hitler's plans on numerous occasions, including his desire to acquire the Ark, he personally assigned Hans Degen to assassinate Jones but the attempt ended in failure. In 1938, Hitler was presiding over a book-burning rally with a man in a Nazi's officer uniform who held a book in his hands. Not knowing he was a disguised Jones or that the book was the Grail diary his agents needed to find the Holy Grail, Hitler took the book, motioned one of his aides for a pen, signed the book and returned it to the startled "officer" before continuing on his way.

Seeking to expand Germany, he first used diplomatic means to gain territories in building a greater German state, then invaded Poland in 1939, initiating World War II. In 1945, Hitler appeared in Professor Henry Jones' vision where he claimed ownership for the Spear of Destiny. Later that year, with the defeat of Germany likely, and Berlin near invasion, he committed suicide.