He fathered 8 children from 3 marriages and died when Adolf was 14

31 rare letters from Hitler's father ... revealing family secrets

  • Hitler Sr., who was born in 1837 and died in 1903 wrote letters to his friend Joseph Radleigh.

    AFP

picture

Austrian historian Roman Sandgruber cautiously dealt with what was reported by a woman who called him claiming that she had discovered in her attic a century-old letters written by Adolf Hitler's father.

At first glance, the historian expected that he would again make an incorrect discovery. “At first, I was somewhat skeptical. We know very little about the young Führer, and we know less about his father,” he says.

But it soon became apparent to him that the letters that were yellow in color were original and authentic, which was proven by the method of writing and stamps dating back to the time in which they were written, the famous signature, and even the intact wax seals, and thus Alois Hitler was indeed the author of the 31 letters.

These letters formed the material that enabled the 74-year-old Austrian academic to write the first biography of Hitler the Father, who was born in 1837 and died in 1903, when Adolf was still 14 years old.

The publication of the book in German (untranslated) on February 22 was an important event, as the 31 texts are one of the very rare letters discovered by Alois Hitler, who was the father of eight children from three marriages, including the Nazi dictator.

These letters were written by Hitler, the father, during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and they were addressed to a man named Joseph Radeliger.

Hitler wanted to buy from this employee of the Bridges and Roads Department a farm in a village in Upper Austria (north) in 1895, six years after the birth of little Adolf.

Gossip

Inside the Linz city university library, where he was browsing the letters very carefully, Sandgruber explains that the letters reflect "an atmosphere of intimacy between the two men in which they exchange a lot of gossip."

The traces left by the customs officer also attest to his social development and his thirst for gaining respect in his region, through his pursuit of real estate ownership.

Despite the researcher's keenness not to make hasty comparisons between Alois and his son, he notes that they have one common ground, which is that they view themselves as "self-made."

"Both looked down on those who had received a traditional education - academics, notaries, judges, and later military officers," he explains, adding that they were considered "geniuses."

Roman Sandgruber prefers to be more careful about the roots of Adolf Hitler's anti-Semitism.

The father had previously found comments about his hatred for Jews later in his life, but the historian has a broader view on this matter, seeing that the future Nazi dictator was more influenced by the racism prevalent in Austrian society at that time.

Thanks to the thermal insulation

All of this would not have gone out into the light without the thermal insulation!

A few years ago, an Austrian woman, unaware of what was under her roof, decided to isolate the attic floor, thus emptying it before the workshop started.

She knew that her great-great-grandfather, Joseph Radeliger, had sold property to Alois Hitler, but Annelise Smiegelsky did not expect to find papers written in his handwriting in the pile of letters that had been sitting in the attic for a long time.

It soon seemed to her that Hitler, the father, "was angry with everything," she told "AFP", adding that she "found it difficult to decipher the writing of the writer of the letters."

Knowing that she was familiar with Roman Sandgruber's previous research, she found in 2017 that it would be best to entrust him with these archives.

Both were surprised by the international attention this book now receives, as the press from Peru to China has written about it.

Ms. Smiegelsky even complains that she is a bit overwhelmed by the demands of journalists, but is confident that things will "calm down".

However, her prediction may not be correct immediately, as the interest in the book is so great that preparation for a second edition of it began only one week after its publication.

Or "emancipated"

It was no secret that Alois, who was born out of wedlock, was a "tyrannical father of a family," but what was new in the letters was that "his family life was not always bad."

These correspondence also paint a different picture of the mother Clara, who Adolf Hitler portrayed in his book "My Struggle" as "a quiet little housewife."

"My wife likes to be active and has a kind of enthusiasm, in addition to a good understanding of the economy," wrote Alois Hitler to his business partner.

Through these letters in which Clara was among a few people who were not criticized by Alois, Clara appears to be "a deeply emancipated woman, as it is said today," according to Roman Sandgruber.

• The mother Clara, portrayed by Hitler in his book “My Struggle,” is a quiet little housewife. She was liberal, active, and had a good understanding of economics.

Alois and his son disdained academics, judges, and officers, and viewed themselves as "self-made" and "genius."

Follow our latest local and sports news, and the latest political and economic developments via Google news