BAD BOY

Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in the small Austrian village of Braunau Am Inn. Adolf´s older siblings died in infancy. When Hitler was three, the family moved to Passau, Germany. There he would acquire the distinctive lower Bavarian dialect, rather than Austrian German, which marked his speech all of his life.

Hitler became obsessed with German nationalism from a young age as a way of rebelling against his father, who was proudly serving the Austrian governement. Although many Austrians considered themselves Germans, they were loyal to Austria. Hitler expressed loyalty only to Germany, despising the declining Habsburg Monarchy and its rule over an ethnically variegated empire.

Hitler´s behaviour at the technical school became even more disruptive, and he was asked to leave in 1904. He enrolled at the Realschule in Steyr in September 1904, but upon completing his second year, he and his friends went out for a night of celebration and drinking. While drunk, Hitler tore up his school certificate and used the pieces as toilet paper. The stained certificate was brought to the attention of the school´s principal who "...gave him such a dressing-down that the boy wasa reduced to shivering jelly. It was probably the most painful and humiliating experience of his life.