It was getting dark by the time the midwife arrived at 219, Salzburger Vorstadt. The Gasthof zum Pommer, a modest public house located south of the Inn River, was located in the town of Braunau-am-Inn, Austria. At around 6.30pm, on April 20, 1889, the midwife came out of a room, and announced to Alois Hitler that his wife Klara had given birth to a healthy baby boy. Alois, beaming with pride, announced that the boy would be called Adolf. With barely a whisper, the most horrific mass murderer humanity has ever known came into the world.

Adolf, the fourth of six siblings, never got along with his father, a custom inspector, who ran the household with an iron hand, often ending with a beating of the young Adolf. His mother Klara on the other hand, Adolf doted on, as well as his younger sister Paula.

Adolf Hitler 1889-1890

The young Adolf was a sensitive child, with a great love for arts. Paintings, poetry and music enthralled him to no ends. He studied in a small school in Linz, and was by all accounts, an adequate student. Disaster struck in 1903 when his father died. He left school shortly thereafter after being asked to leave by the administrators, owing to his increasingly disruptive behavior.

The next three years was an eye opening experience for the young Adolf. While sleeping in the day, he spent his evenings and nights in the theatres and operas of Linz. With his lifestyle supported by his late father orphans’ pension, he was a dilettante in every sense of the word.

He developed an appreciation of classical music, plays and mythological stories of Germanic glory, and the tiniest spark of nationalism began to grow inside of him. He eventually became tired of life in Linz, and decided to move to the capital, Vienna, to further pursue his interests in the arts.