Winds of Change: Adolf Hitler’s Life From 1907 to 1920

Adolf Hitler’s life from 1907 to 1920 shaped his future political career and the rise of the Nazi Party. 

Hitler, born into a lower-middle-class Austrian family in 1889, had lost both parents by the time he was 18. He moved to Vienna in 1907. He often slept in homeless shelters and made a meager living by

selling hand-drawn postcards to tourists. Hitler applied twice to the Academy of Fine Arts to study painting, but the Academy rejected him. His friends in Vienna’s slums saw him as grandiose, puritanical, and a figure of fun. He used these humiliations to fuel his future revenge. 

While there, he became enthralled with Wagner’s operas. They motivated and strengthened his dream of becoming a leader who would bring back Germany’s greatness. By 1910, he began embracing German nationalism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Marxism. By his example, Mayor Karl Lueger showed Hitler how to use fiery oratory and anti-Semitism to gain political support. 

In 1913, Hitler moved to Munich to dodge mandatory military service in Austria. He despised the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s multiethnic makeup. After being called up by the Austrian military and being found unfit in 1914, Hitler volunteered for the Bavarian Army and served as a messenger. 

He took part in the First Battle of Ypres (1914) and the Battles of the Somme, Arras, and Passchendaele. A shell fragment in his thigh landed him in a hospital near Berlin for treatment from October 1916 until early 1917. After being temporarily blinded by mustard gas in 1918, he remained hospitalized for several weeks. While there, he learned of Germany’s surrender and the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II. His views became solidified while in the hospital. He blamed Germany’s defeat on internal betrayal by the Jews and Marxists, rather than military failure.

Following the war, Hitler remained in the army in Munich as an intelligence agent, monitoring political groups until 1920. He attended meetings of the German Workers’ Party (DAP) and later joined. It was to become the Nazi Party under his control.