How Hitler's parents raised a tyrant and what role did his father play in his life

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

If this woman had lived longer, world history could have taken a different path. Adolf Hitler's mother was not just a parent for him, but the only person to whom he felt sincere affection. Relations with his father influenced not only his character, but also made him in the end what he became not just for an entire era, but in world history as a whole.

Hitler's biography has been studied far and wide, but the role of the mother is often underestimated, most often they talk about Klara Pelzl in passing, and the dictator himself did a lot so that the minimum was known about the history of his family. And this is no accident. Klara was born into a large and not too rich family, she had 10 more brothers and sisters. Already at the age of 15, her parents, who were ordinary peasants, got her a job as a housekeeper for her uncle Alois Hitler. The latter was an ambiguous person, he had already managed to marry a wealthy lady, after whose illness there was a need for a housekeeper, the mistress soon died, Alois married a second time, but was widowed again. However, these circumstances did not particularly depress the elder Hitler, by this time he had already laid eyes on the young and agile niece Klara.

Marriage between uncle and niece and paternal complexes

The Catholic Church did not approve of the marriage between his own uncle and niece, then the lovers began to write to the Vatican. Having received refusals, they did not lose heart and wrote again, finding new arguments. In the end, they received a positive response directly from the Vatican. At that time, Klara was already pregnant with her oldest child. Adolf Hitler was the fourth child of his parents, but all of his older brothers did not live to be 6 years old. For a long time, Klara called her husband "uncle", which is not surprising, because they were 23 years apart.

Clara was soft and calm, incredibly compliant and tried to extinguish conflicts that arose between children, because her husband had children from his first marriages, whom she also raised. Three years after the wedding, the spouse was promoted and they moved from Austria to Germany, where they lived in a large peasant house with a land plot, their family was considered prosperous. Adolf went to school, where he received positive responses from teachers, who noticed in him a lively mind and oratorical ability. Eloquence helped him gain authority among his peers.

The elder Hitler had a very vague idea of his origin, they say, he was the illegitimate child of a cook and a Jew, this is confirmed by the correspondence of the parties and the payment of alimony. It was this part of his biography that Alois strove to erase. He was a diligent employee, retired from customs, but at the same time they spoke of him as an arrogant person and very fond of being photographed in uniform. It is not surprising that Alois was full of complexes and fears, because all his childhood was passed under the yoke of dishonor for four reasons: he was poor, illegally born, grew up without a mother, from whom he was separated at the age of 5, and was half Jewish. Form, career of an official, bombast, self-righteousness and cruelty towards his wives and children - what he used to try to protect himself from childhood grievances.

Punishment as a method of education

However, it cannot be said unequivocally that Adolf was regularly beaten by his father, despite the cruelty of the elder Hitler, his son was an open child and did not at all give the impression of being downtrodden or mutilated. He was stubborn and very wayward, if he received a beating, it was well deserved.

In those days, the so-called "black pedagogy" was strongly developed in Germany - the use of various physical punishments, ridicule and, in general, not just condescending treatment, but humiliation of human dignity to children. Despite the fact that this is how all the children of Germany of that era were brought up, in fairness it should be noted that Adolf was disadvantaged more than others.

Several episodes from Adolf's childhood eloquently tell about the psychological discomfort he grew up in. Once, after another conflict with his father, the boy decided to run away from the house, but Alois, upon learning about this, locked him in the attic. All night the boy tried to get out through the window, but it was too narrow, he even took off his clothes to squeeze through. Hearing footsteps on the stairs, he pulled the old tablecloth off the table and covered himself with it, the father who came in laughed at him for a long time, calling the family to look at the "boy in a toga." As Adolf himself admitted, this episode from childhood brought him a lot of suffering. But if someone else's excessive paternal severity would have broken, then this was not the case. Another time, the future dictator read in a book that the ability to endure pain is a sign of courage. The next time, when his father decided to flog him, he did not drop a sound, and then told his mother, distraught with such a picture, that his father hit him 32 times!

Despite the fact that Alois was not on good terms with anyone and always lashed out at his household, tyrannizing them in every possible way, he had a special relationship with Adolf, he did not understand him, and, not receiving complete submission, humiliated him even more. For example, he whistled like a dog. Historians who worked on the image of the father of the fascist leader, in many ways had similar psychological views, and therefore their assessment can hardly be objective. However, a man who refers to his own child as a dog intersects with the image of a concentration camp overseer, forcing one to think about what caused the despotic disposition of the founder of fascism.

The relationship with the father as an example to follow

Violence against children in this case was served under the sauce "for their own good", supposedly it is done on the basis of good intentions and education for the sake of education. The founders of "black pedagogy" are of the opinion that deceit, laziness and selfishness should be beaten out of children with whips and other violent methods. Wasn't this what Adolf Hitler did in relation to entire nations? Did the former child, who became a victim of his own father, have objective ideas about good and evil? Most historians are silent about this.

Many psychologists see in the further behavior of a person who has become not just a leader, but also the most bloodthirsty leader, "acting out" his relationship with his father. There was no question of recognizing the tyrant in his father and hating him, because Adolf hated what was part of his father - the Jewish people and directed his anger and aggression towards them. A very convenient position for someone who needs to pour out his own anger, and Hitler managed to transfer his inner family experiences and traumas to the entire German people. Everyone began to meticulously study their genealogies, and if there was even a drop of Jewish blood in it, then no merits could wash this fact away. Isn't this the injury of the smallest Hitler? At one time, he could not hide from humiliation from his father, no matter what he did, he was doomed to them simply by the fact of his birth and origin. So did the Jews under the Nazi regime he introduced.

Psychologists argue that the only sure way for a child to protect their psyche is to correlate themselves with the aggressor, in this case with the father. He did not perceive himself as a victim, therefore he was not muffled and weak, he personified himself as the one from whom the danger emanated.

Yes, thousands of little Germans grew up in similar conditions, why did none of them strive for a world dictatorship? In this case, it is worth taking into account the personal qualities of little Hitler. By nature, he possessed a hot temperament, vulnerable pride, vanity, leadership. In addition, it was for him that the circumstances that were building his political career were so formed. Despite the fact that a normal person is not able to understand his actions, there are still explanations for them.

… and the tenderness of the mother

If little Hitler had a difficult relationship with his father, he felt unconditional love and affection for his mother. Clara, who lost three children before the birth of Adolf, treated her son with special trepidation. However, psychologists unanimously claim that his mother did not love him, spoiled him and catered to whims, tried to protect him - yes. But love for a child from a mother is something different, the ability to recognize the true needs of the child, but this requires the woman to have the emotional maturity with which Clara had obvious problems, given her marriage and the relationships within it.

Parents, due to their own problems, could not give him that love and a sense of security that he was unable to love others, this is also evidenced by his personal relationships with the opposite sex, craving for perversion and inability to make friends indicate that love in his childhood did not have. Is it worth blaming Klara for this, who, in search of a better life, went to her uncle's house and became his wife, endured beatings and humiliations, buried one child after another? In addition, psychologists often say that in families where older children have died, parents tend to idealize them and exaggerate their dignity. This becomes a test for living children who live in the eternal shadow of lost brothers and sisters, trying to prove to their parents that they are better.

Clara was blindly afraid of her husband even after his death, when she tried to get obedience from the children, she pointed to the smoking pipes of her late husband as something authoritative. It is not surprising that Adolf simply had no one to share his pain of humiliation and fear that his father inflicted on him. The image of a mother who simply surrendered to cruelty “virtue” laid her head at the feet of aggression - this scenario stuck in the head of the future dictator, and nature and circumstances gave him everything to implement a terrible plan.

Despite the fact that the name of Adolf Hitler became a household name and even the shape of the mustache and hairstyle that he preferred never became fashionable again, since even the slightest resemblance to the leader of the Nazis terrifies people, even after decades, it is worth paying tribute to the person who managed to impose their controversial ideology on a huge mass of people. How Hitler managed to turn educated youth into ruthless Nazisby making them forget about their own ideals and aspirations?