Adolf hitler childhood
10 facts about hitler's rise to power...
Age of extremes
Few names from history inspire such immediate and emphatic revulsion as that of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. His hands are stained with the blood of millions killed in the devastation of the Second World War and the horror of the Holocaust.
But Hitler was not born a brutal tyrant, he became one.
10 facts about hitler's childhood
Explore Hitler's life and discover the road that led to destruction.
Apr 1889
Birth and childhood
Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April in the small Austrian town of Braunau am Inn, in Upper Austria on the Austrian-German border.
His father, Alois, was a customs official while his mother, Klara, came from a poor peasant family.
Life was financially comfortable for the Hitler family but Alois was a domineering character and young Adolf frequently found himself on the wrong side of his father's short temper. At primary school Hitler was a clever, popular child.
At secondary school he withdrew psychologically, preferring to re-enact battles from the Boer War