Hitler's Early Days Part II

Between December 1918 and March 1919 Hitler worked at a prisoner-of-war camp at Traunstein before returning again to Munich.
After he gave evidence at an investigation on which he had witnessed a takeover bid by local Communists,
he was asked to become part of a local army organization which was responsible for persuading returning soldiers not to turn to communism or pacifism.

During his training for this tasks and subsequent duties he was able to sharpen his oratory skills. Part of his duties was to spy on certain local political groups, and during a meeting of the German Workers' Party he became so furious by one of the speeches that he delivered an angry tirade to the speaker. The founder of the party, Anion Drexler, was so impressed by Hitler's tirade that he asked him to join their organization. He finally agreed to join the committee and became their seventh official in September 1919.

Hitler was given responsibility for publicity and propaganda, and first succeeded in attracting over a hundred people to a meeting in held October where he delivered his first speech to a large audience. The meeting and his elocution were a great success, and afterwards in February 1920 he organized a much larger event for a crowd of nearly two thousand in the Munich Hofbrauhaus. Hitler himself was not the main speaker, but when his turn came he calmed a rowdy audience and presented a twenty-five point programme of ideas which were to be the basis of the party. The name of the party was itself changed to the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi for short) on April 1st 1920.

Not long after the February speech he was discharged from the army. Hitler continued to expand his influence in the party and began to form a private group of thugs which he used to quell disorder at party meetings and later to break up rival party's meetings. This group later became the Sturmabteilung or S.A. - Hitler's brown shirted storm troopers. He also became the regular speaker at party events from then on, attracting large crowds for each meeting. During the summer of 1920 Hitler chose the swastika as the Nazi party emblem.

Hitler's Early Days Part I

Adolf Hitler was born on April 20th 1889 in Braunau-am-Inn, Austria. Adolf had four other sibling, two of which died in infancy, one died at the age of six and one Sister who outlived him. His Father had died when he was thirteen . Adolf did very poor in school finally leaving without completing his tuition. His real ambition was to be an artist. Between the ages of sixteen and nineteen he neither worked or went to school, instead developed and interest in politics and history. In October of 1907 he applied to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and was rejected. In October of 1908 he applied for a second time and did not even make it to the test.
His Mother Klara died when he was nineteen and since he had no relatives able or willing to support him,
So, in 1909, he moved to Vienna in the hope of somehow earning a living. Within a year he was living in homeless shelters and eating at charity soup-kitchens. He had declined to take regular employment and took occasional menial jobs and sold some of his paintings or advertising posters whenever he could to provide sustenance.
In 1913 still penniless he moved to Munich. At the start of World War one in 1914, he volunteered for the German army and was accepted into the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment . He fought bravely and was promoted to corporal and decorated with both the Iron Cross Second Class and First Class. He wore this medal until his dying day. Ironically the Captain who recommended him for the award was a Jew.
The day the Armistice was announced Adolf was in Hospital recovering from temporary blindness caused by a British gas attack in the Ypres Salient. In December 1918 he was back with his regiment.

Picture is a portrait by Hitler himself