Adolf Hitler lacked leadership ability. Or he was a cowardly soldier. Or his personality
and his ideology have their origins here. Or he was an excellent soldier. I’m talking
about things people have said about Adolf Hitler’s time served in World War One, and
they are many and conflicting. The fact is that Hitler was stationed at the front from
the beginning of the war until the end of the war and he himself called it the best time of his life.
I'm Indy Neidell. And welcome to another Great War episode of who did what in World War One.
Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 in Braunau am Inn, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
His father Alois Hitler was a customs officer and his mother, Clara Pölzel, was Alois’
third wife. Hitler’s father adopted the name of his stepfather and it’s still a
mystery who Hitlers grandparents and ancestors were, though in his later years Hitler spared
no pains in designing an extensive pedigree for the public.
Adolf grew up with his step siblings Alois jr and Angela and his younger sister Paula.
His father was transferred several times during Adolf’s childhood, so the family moved as
well: from Groß-Schönau to Passau and then to Linz. Adolf struggled in middle school
in Linz and a stubborn and defiant behaviour marked his schooldays. Alois Hitler died when
Adolf was only 14. Hitler tried another boarding school, but his grades were still poor. Actually,
he had to repeat two years of school in total, finally dropping out and returning to Linz in 1905.
We’re not entirely certain what young Adolf did in Linz. We know he posed as an educated
artist while living off his half-orphan pension from his father’s death, but it’s not
very specific. In 1907, he traveled to Vienna to apply for the Academy of Fine Art, but
he failed the entrance exam and returned home, though when his mother died in December that
year he soon left Linz for good and moved to Vienna. Again the following year, he failed
the Academy’s entrance exam.
He lived off of his now full orphan’s pension, though without a permanent residence, and
posed as an art student. A year before the war, in 1913, he settled abroad, in Munich,
Germany. He may have been trying to avoid the Austrian draft, but that failed, for in
January 1914, a policeman took him into custody and brought him to the Austrian consulate.
He was was declared unfit for military service at medical exam in Salzburg and returned to Munich.
Hitler later wrote that when the First World War broke out, he was so stunned by the enthusiasm
of the German crowds reaction to the public proclamation he sank to his knees. He asked
the following day if, even though a foreigner, he could enlist in the German army. The request
was accepted and on August 16th he became a member of a Bavarian Reserve regiment. Ten
weeks of training followed.
His regiment, called regiment “List” named after the commander, first saw action October
29th, 1914 at the ongoing First Battle of Ypres. This battle lasted for weeks and was
a very bloody affair. Afterward, in November, Hitler was promoted to corporal and was given
an Iron Cross, though we don’t know specifically why. It’s quite likely that he won it for
reliability, since he served mostly as a dispatch runner. Hitler strongly disapproved of the
Christmas Truce in 1914. The somewhat shy, ordinarily reserved soldier became a fanatic.
“Something like that cannot be at issue”, he said as German and British troops met in
no man’s land between the trenches and shook hands.
Between March 1915 and September 1916, Hitler’s regiment fought in the static warfare in the
trenches of Formelles. They defended a front line about two kilometres long. After fighting
in the second battle of Formelles, regiment List marched South and fought in the battle
of the Somme. Near Le Barqué, Hitler took shrapnel in his thighl. He would not return
to active duty till March 1917. His regiment was stationed near Vimy and during the summer
in Ypres. In September, Hitler took a two week vacation in Berlin. As he returned, his
regiment moved to Champagne - we now are in October, 1917. Half a year later, in May 1918,
Hitler gained a regimental diploma and a wound badge for his bravery. His regiment then fought in the second battle of Marne.
Actually, by this point a German victory did not seem unlikely. The two front-war was finally
over and Eastern troops were moved west to mount new offensives. Still running dispatches,
often under heavy fire, Hitler won another Iron Cross in August 1918, but the German
offensives ground to a halt. On the 8th of August, the day German General Ludendorff
called “the black day of the German army”, the allied powers counter-attacked.
At the end of August, Hitler was sent to Nürnberg for specialist training to become a telephone
operator. He took a second vacation in the mid of September and spent his time in Berlin
again. After he returned to the front lines, his regiment was defeated the night of October
14th where an allied gas attack left Hitler nearly blind in a field hospital. His sight
began to return in November, but still not even enough to read a newspaper. He was crushed
by the German defeat in the war, and what he considered the infamous treaty of Versailles,
but a big thing was that he now lost the feeling of unity, of belonging, he had during the
war. He later spoke of his service as “unforgettable and the greatest time of his earthly life”.
After the war, Hitler still was kind of a loner with only a few friends and acquaintances.
The people who got to know him described him as a quiet and serious, but also volatile.
His biographies picture him as someone who never fully fit into the civil world and only
found some sort of salvation in war. His life had been directionless but he had gained respect
and found a new home in his regiment, and since no job waited for him back home, remaining
in the army almost suggested itself.
Let’s play it out: As Hitler hears about the German revolution at the end of the war,
he is indignant. He sees it as a betrayal of everything he believed in and fought for,
and he searches for an explanation and people to blame. His racist and anti-semitic mindset
slowly becomes an ideology. Years later he would state that he had blamed the Jews for
the German defeat during World War One.
Hitler stays at the army and leaves for Munich, and this is where we leave you since what
came next is not in our purview, but how do you feel the years at the front may have changed
and shaped Hitler and his beliefs? What would his fate have been had he remained in Austria?
Tell us in the comments.
You can check out Episode about the first battle of Ypres right here.