1Look at this baby.
2So gentle, so innocent.
3You'd think this child would grow up to become a good man, an honest man.
4Well, think again.
5Hitler was born Adolphus Hitler in 1889 in a small town in Austria-Hungary.
6His father, Alois Schicklgruber, was born out of wedlock,
7but eventually changed his name to that of his stepfather, becoming Alois Hitler.
8Alois was a mid-level Austrian customs officer -
9not really rolling in cash, but certainly rolling in women.
10He married a rich, older lady, but then immediately started having affairs,
11including one with a much younger house servant.
12A few years later, he left his sick wife to be with his mistress,
13but since the Catholic Church didn't allow divorce at the time, he couldn't marry her.
14So he waited for his old wife to die and had a child in the meantime.
15Then his wife died, so he married his mistress and had another child,
16but then his new wife got sick,
17so he employed his much, much younger cousin Clara to take care of her.
18Then when his new wife died, he immediately got Clara - his cousin - pregnant,
19and then married her... in that order. (you rockstar)
20Clara and Alois had three children together who all tragically died while in infancy,
21so when the fourth child, Adolf, came along, Clara spoiled him rotten.
22The Hitler's had two more kids and the family moved around a few times,
23meaning Adolf had to attend five different elementary schools.
24Adolf's father was strict, quick to anger, and took most of it out on the eldest son until he had enough and ran away at the age of 14,
25leaving seven year old Adolf to do most of the chores and get berated by his father.
26The result was a difficult relationship with his dad while he was super attached to his mother
27who worried over him and his health excessively.
28Hitler did well in school at first.
29His grades were good and his teachers praised him.
30He was popular with the other kids and enjoyed gathering them together to play war games.
31He also loved reading and particularly liked stories about Cowboys and Indians.
32As he grew older, though, he started to get into trouble.
33He was caught smoking once, organised a raid on a local orchard,
34tormented his pro-Austria religion teacher with symbolic gestures
35displaying his allegiance the idea of united Germanic people under a greater German state and defines of Habsburg Austria,
36you know, the usual.
37All of this enraged Adolf's father, who punished him severely.
38The area of Austria-Hungary that Hitler lived in was once part of the German Confederation,
39and many of the people who lived there considered themselves to be German.
40Adolf tended to just go against whatever his father said
41and since his father was an Austrian Public Official, Hitler got big into German nationalism.
42This enraged Adolf's father, who punished him severely.
43Around this time a family tragedy struck.
44His six-year-old brother, whom he loved a lot, died of measles when Adolf was 10
45and was buried in the cemetery just across from their home.
46Around this time neighbors reported a change in the young boy.
47Strange behaviors such as talking to trees and staying up late staring at the stars from the cemetery walls.
48He lost interest in religion and his school grades started to decline
49which enraged his father, who punished him severely.
50It also didn't help that he had just entered high school and the cool city boys treated him like a rural peasant.
51He had to repeat a grade and had little interest in most school subjects,
52instead spending his time reading and drawing which he was quite good at.
53One day his father said: "Son, someday, you'll be a big balls public official like me".
54and Adolf replied: "No father, I'm going to become an artist and soar high above the clouds with the eagles".
55This enraged his father.
56But by this time he was an old-ass man so he just sort of let it go
57and then died of a lung hemorrhage.
58Hitler just about passed his final semester and celebrated in the typical way
59by getting blackout drunk and wiping his ass with the certificate.
60However, he didn't take the overall final school exam, instead Just dropping out.
61The now 16 year old boy was unemployed without much purpose in life
62and for the next three years, he stayed that way.
63He spent most of his time at the opera with his only friend August Kubizek.
64Kubizek later wrote his memories of the Young Hitler and said he was passionately interested in many things,
65felt he was in many ways better than others his age,
66was quick to anger just like his father, and an incredible speaker once he was ranting.
67When he was 18, he said a very sad goodbye to his mother
68and went to Vienna to take the entrance exam for art school, he failed.
69Soon after he had to return home his mother was sick and her health was rapidly deteriorating.
70Hitler stayed by her side and when she eventually died the family doctor said he had never seen someone so overwhelmed with grief as Hitler was.
71Then Hitler returned to Vienna still hoping to find a career in the arts.
72But he never did, instead without parental support hitler ended up on the streets.
73Now in his early 20s, he spent a few rough years living in and out of homeless shelters,
74making what little he could from selling postcards he painted.
75It's hard to pinpoint exactly when and how Hitler's extreme ideological beliefs formed,
76but his time in Vienna would have certainly played a role.
77Anti-semitism was widespread in the city.
78The mayor whom hitler supported was an outspoken anti-semite.
79There were many right-wing anti-semitic newsletters which hitler took a keen interest in.
80He bought into the conspiracy theories
81and became a firm believer in the idea that there are many races and constant struggle with one another.
82The purest of which were the German Aryan people
83and the worst of which he believed were Jews.
84Since Austria-Hungary was a multi-ethnic Empire full of lesser races, Hitler wasn't a fan.
85So when he was 24, he moved to Munich in Germany to avoid doing military service.
86And for one more year, he was a drifter on the streets until something huge happened.
87In 1914 long-standing tensions in Europe erupted into the first world war.
88Crowds across Europe celebrated the news.
89Within days, Hitler volunteered for the German Army.
90The war gave him a purpose in life, his fellow Soldiers gave him friendship and Brotherhood.
91Despite the horrors of War Hitler considered it to be the best time of his life.
92He was reportedly a brave soldier and was awarded the iron cross first class.
93He was also very lucky and had many close encounters with death.
94His luck ran out in 1916, however, when an artillery shell injured his leg.
95he went back to Germany to recover
96and was outraged to find a general apathetic anti-war attitude among the exhausted and hungry German populace.
97With the war turning against Germany he returned to the front lines.
98But was temporarily blinded by a British gas attack in 1918.
99A month later still recovering in hospital,
100Hitler learned of Germany's defeat and Surrender.
101The terms of the peace treaty were tough on Germany.
102it had to pay a lot of money and lose a lot of soldiers.
103These conditions weakened Germany and humiliated the German people.
104Europe's borders changed after the war too.
105New countries were formed out of Russia's lost territory.
106Austria-Hungary was dissolved and there was one big new country splitting Germany into two.
107Hitler, seeing the country he loved humiliated like this said that hatred grew in him for those responsible,
108by which he meant communists and jews
109who he believed had stabbed Germany in the back by spreading dissent and Anti War Propaganda back home.