LIFE - Hitler's Humble Beginnings

Chronicling Adolf Hitler's Earliest Days

Mon, 01 Jan 1945 03:00:00 EWT

The small building in the village of Fischlham, Austria, where Hitler began school in 1895. Hugo Jaeger, one of Hitler's personal photographers, spent time documenting significant places from Hitler's youth. Here and in other galleries on LIFE.com, we present rare and never-before-published color photographs from Jaeger's collection.

Inside Hitler's First School

Mon, 01 Jan 1945 03:00:00 EWT

Hitler's first schoolhouse was a tiny, one-room affair. "Our teachers were absolute tyrants," he later wrote, evidently blind to the terrible irony of his words. "They had no sympathy with youth; their one objective was to stuff our brains and turn us into erudite apes like themselves."

Adolf's Schoolmates, 1945

Mon, 01 Jan 1945 03:00:00 EWT

Two of Adolf Hitler's shoolmates from his early days pose for Hugo Jaeger in Fischlham, Austria. Jaeger, who intimately and enthusiastically documented the Nazi's rise to power, was keen to capture the Fuhrer's "Germanic" heritage. For his part, Hitler was a mediocre student, and keenly embarrassed by that fact. In his adult years, he often viciously mocked intellectuals and academics.

Adolf Hitler's Hometown

Mon, 01 Jan 1945 03:00:00 EWT

A path leads into Leonding, Austria, where Adolf HItler grew up from 1898 to 1905. His parents and brother are buried there. His parents scraped together enough money to send Hitler to high school, expecting him to become a civil servant. Hitler, however, wanted to be an artist, and vowed to fail at his academic studies until his father relented. This conflict with his father seemed to ignite an unforgiving fire in Hitler that would prove to be a fundamental aspect of his personality.

His Sister's Grave

Mon, 01 Jan 1962 03:00:00 EST

A wooden marker stands over the grave of Paula Hitler, sister of Adolf Hitler, in a cemetery in Berchtesgaden, Upper Bavaria. Paula was the only full sibling of Hitler's to survive to adulthood. She said they bickered as children, but were very fond of each other. "Although he had captured the public, who believed him their protector and friend, I knew what he wanted, and I was worried not only for his physical safety but also about his sanity," she once said.

Adolf Hitler's Ancestral Home

Sun, 01 Jan 1950 03:00:00 EST

The village of Strones, Austria, birthplace of Adolf Hitler's grandmother, Maria Anna. As a youth growing up in Austria, Hitler was obsessed with the idea of removing the border between the German-speaking nations of Austria and Germany -- a dream he would fulfill with the forced 1938 unification of the two countries. See more of Hitler, in public and in private, in the gallery Hitler: Up Close.

Adolf Hitler's Grandmother's House

Sun, 01 Jan 1950 03:00:00 EST

Strones, Austria, birthplace of Hitler's grandmother, Maria Anna Schicklgruber. In 1837, unmarried, she gave birth to a son, Alois Schicklgruber, who at the age of 39 took his father's last name, Hitler. Alois in turn had a son of his own, Adolf, born April 20, 1889.

A Village From Hitler's Youth

Sun, 01 Jan 1950 03:00:00 EST

Hugo Jaeger took this photograph of an Austrian village -- probably Doellersheim, where Hitler's paternal grandmother's grave resided -- sometime in the 1930s. After Germany forcibly annexed Austria in 1938, Hitler ordered that the village be razed by German troops during military exercises. The reason for the razing of this particular village, with its obvous connection to the Fuhrer, remains a mystery.

The Grave of Alois Hitler

Mon, 01 Jan 1945 03:00:00 EWT

The grave of Alois Hitler, Adolf's father, in Leonding, Austria. Alois died suddenly after a morning walk in 1903. Adolf Hitler, then 13, thereafter took advantage of his mother's indulgent nature and effectively loafed through life until twice, in both 1907 and 1908, he was rejected from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. He lived a desultory life as a failed artist until World War I erupted, which provided the 25-year-old with a career (soldier) and a cause (the glorification of Germany).