Hitler family

Hitler
Ethnicity	Austrian
Information
Earlier spellings	Hiedler
Place of origin	Austria
Notable members	Adolf Hitler, Alois Hitler, Paula Hitler, Angela Hitler, William Patrick Hitler, Heinz Hitler

The Hitler family comprises the relatives of Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated NSDAP), commonly known as the Nazi Party. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and served as head of state as Führer und Reichskanzler from 1934 to 1945. Hitler is most remembered for his central leadership role in the rise of fascism in Europe, World War II and the Holocaust.

Family history

Earliest family members

The Hitler family descends from Stefan Hiedler (born 1672) and his wife, Agnes Capeller. Their grandson was Martin Hiedler (17 November 1762 – 10 January 1829), who married Anna Maria Göschl (August 23, 1760 – 7 December 1854). Martin and Anna were the parents of at least three children, Lorenz, in which there is no further information, Johan Georg (baptised 28 February 1792 – 9 February 1857), who is the stepfather of Alois Hitler (father of Adolf), and Johann Nepomuk (28 February 1792 – September 17, 1888), a maternal great grandfather of Adolf Hitler.^[1] They were from Spital, Austria.

Johann Georg and Johann Nepomuk

Brothers Johann Georg and Johann Nepomuk Hiedler are connected to Adolf Hitler several ways, although the biological relationship is disputed.

Johann Georg was considered the officially accepted paternal grandfather of Adolf Hitler by the Third Reich. Whether Johann Georg was in fact Hitler's biological paternal grandfather is considered unknown by modern historians, but his case is the most plausible and widely accepted.^[2] He married his first wife in 1824 but she died in childbirth five months later. In 1842, he married Maria Anna Schicklgruber and became the legal stepfather to her illegitimate five year old son, Alois.

Johann Nepomuk Hiedler (also known as Johann Nepomuk Hüttler) was named after a Bohemian Saint Johann von Nepomuk. Some view this name as evidence that Johann Nepomuk and subsequently his great-grandson Adolf Hitler had some Czech blood. However, Johann von Pomuk/Johann Nepomuk, was an important saint for Bohemians of both German and Czech ethnicity. Using Nepomuk just indicates ties to Bohemia, without indication of ethnicity. Johann Nepomuk became a relatively prosperous farmer and was married to Eva Maria Decker (1792–1888) who was fifteen years his senior.

Father of Alois Hitler

The actual father of Alois Hitler is disputed. Legally, Johann Nepomuk was the step-uncle of Alois Schicklgruber (later Alois Hitler), the stepson of his brother Johann Georg Hiedler, a wanering miller.^[3] For reasons unknown, he took in Alois when he was a boy and raised him. It is possible that he was, in fact, Alois' natural father but could not acknowledge this publicly due to his marriage. Another, and perhaps simpler, explanation for this kindness is that Johann Nepomuk took pity on the ten year old Alois and took him in. Alois was, after all, the stepson of Johann Georg, and Johann Nepomuk may have known that in fact Alois was Johann Georg's natural child. After the death of Alois' mother Maria, it could hardly have been a suitable life for a ten-year old child to be raised by an itinerant miller. Johann Nepomuk died on September 17, 1888.

In any case, Johann Nepomuk left Alois a considerable portion of his life savings. Johann Nepomuk's granddaughter, Klara had a longstanding affair with Alois before marrying him in 1885 after the death of his second wife. In 1889 she gave birth to Adolf Hitler.

It was later claimed Johann Georg had fathered Alois prior to his marriage to Maria, although Alois had been declared illegitimate on his birth certificate and baptism papers; the claim that Johann Georg was the true father of Alois was not made after the marriage of Maria and Johann Georg, or, indeed, even during the lifetime of either of them. In 1877, twenty years after the death of Johann Georg and almost thirty years after the death of Maria, Alois was legally declared to have been Johann Georg's son.^[4]

Accordingly, Johann Georg Hiedler is one of three people most cited by modern historians as having possibly been the actual paternal grandfather of Adolf Hitler. The other two are Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, the younger brother of Johann Georg, and a Graz Jew by the name of Leopold Frankenberger. In the 1950s, this third possibility was popular among historians, but modern historians now think it highly unlikely as the Jews were expelled from Graz in the fifteenth century and were not permitted to return until the 1860s, several decades after Alois' birth.^[5]

Pölzl family

Johanna Hideler, the daughter of Johann Nepomuk and Eva Decker Hiedler, was born on 19 January 1830 in Spital (part of Weitra) in the Waldviertel of Lower Austria. She lived her entire life there and was married to Johann Baptist Pölzl (1825-1901), a farmer and son of Johann Pölzl and Juliana (Walli) Pölzl. Johanna and Johann had 5 sons and 6 daughter, of which 2 sons and 3 daughters survived into adulthood. The three daughters who survived into adulthood were Klara, Johanna, and Theresia.

List of family members

• Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), German dictator
• Eva Braun (1912–1945), wife.
• Alois Hitler, Sr. (1837–1903), father
• Klara Hitler (1860–1907), mother
• Alois Hitler, Jr. (nee Matzelsberger) (1882–1956), elder half-brother
• Angela Hitler (1883–1949), elder half-sister
• Four of Adolf's siblings died in infancy or early childhood of illnesses:

• Gustav Hitler (May 15, 1885 - December 8, 1887 in Braunau am Inn), elder brother. According to old OSS files, it seems that Gustav was also the reason for the marriage of his parents, because Klara was already five months pregnant at that time. He died during an outbreak of diphtheria in 1886, along with his younger sister Ida.
• Ida Hitler (September 25, 1886 - January 2, 1888 in Braunau am Inn), elder sister, died of diphtheria.
• Otto Hitler (1887 in Vienna), elder brother, lived only 3 days.^[6]
• Edmund Hitler (March 24, 1894, Passau - February 2, 1900, Leonding), younger brother, one of only three surviving children by 1900, died of measles.

• Paula Hitler (1896–1960), younger sister and only full sibling to survive into adulthood

Other relatives

• Geli Raubal (1908–1931), niece, daughter of Angela.
• William Patrick Hitler (1911–1987), nephew, son of Alois Jr.
• Heinz Hitler (1920–1942), nephew, son of Alois Jr. Captured and killed by the Red Army.

Hitler family tree

Stefan Hiedler (1672-?)

Agnes Capeller

Johann Hiedler (1725-?)

Maria Anna Neugeschwandter

Martin Hiedler (1762-1829)

Anna Maria Goschl (1760-1854)

Lorenz Hiedler

Johannes Schicklgruber (1764-1847)

Theresia Pfeisinger (1769-1821)

Johann Nepomuk Hiedler (1807-1888)

Eva Maria Decker (1792-1888)

Laurenz Pölzl (1788-1841)

Juliana Walli (1797-1831)

Disputed; See here

Maria Schicklgruber (1795-1847)

Johann Georg Hiedler (1792-1857)

Walburga Hiedler (1832-1900)

Johanna Hiedler (1830-1906)

Johann Baptist Pölzl (1828-1902)

Franziska Matzelberger (1861-1884)

Alois Hitler (1837-1903)

Klara Pölzl (1860-1907)

Johanna Pölzl

Theresia Pölzl (1868-1935)

Bridget Dowling (1891-1969)

Alois Hitler, Jr. (1882-1956)

Hedwig Heidemann

Leo Raubal, Sr. (1879-1910)

Angela Hitler (1883-1949)

Martin Hammitzsch (1878-1945)

Gustav Hitler (1885-1887)

Ida Hitler (1886-1888)

Otto Hitler (1887-1887)

Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)

Eva Braun (1912-1945)

Edmund Hitler (1894-1900)

Paula Hitler (1896-1960)

William Patrick Hitler (1911-1987)

Heinz Hitler (1920-1942)

Leo Rudolf Raubal Jr (1906-1977)

Geli Raubal (1908-1931)

Elfriede Raubal (1910-1993)

Braun family tree

Friedrich Braun (1879-1964)

Franziska Kronberger (1885-1976)

Mr. Hofstätter

Ilse Braun (1909-1979)

Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)

Eva Braun (1912-1945)

Gretl Braun (1915-1987)

Hermann Fegelein (1906-1945)

Eva Barbara Fegelein (1945-1972)

Footnotes

• (Dutch) Vermeeren, Marc (2007). De jeugd van Adolf Hitler 1889-1907 en zijn familie en voorouders. Soesterberg: Uitgeverij Aspekt. pp. 420 blz. ISBN 90-5911-606-2. 
• Bullock, Alan (1953). Hitler: A Study in Tyranny. ISBN 0-06-092020-3. 
• Fest, Joachim C. (1973). Hitler. Verlag Ullstein. ISBN 0-15-141650-8. 
• Kershaw, Ian (1999). Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris. W W Norton. ISBN 0-393-04671-0. 
• Maser, Werner (1973). Hitler: Legend, Myth and Reality. Penguin Books Ltd. ISBN 0-06-012831-3. 
• Smith, Bradley F. (1967). Adolf Hitler: His Family, Childhood and Youth. Hoover Instituted. ISBN 0817916229. 

References

1. ^ See, e.g., Adolf Hitler's online family tree at about.com, Online Family Tree. Family trees can also be found in various Hitler biographies; see, e.g., Toland, John (1976). Adolf Hitler. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company. pp. 10-11. ISBN 0-385-03724 ("Toland"); Kershaw, p. 5.
2. ^ See, e.g., Kershaw, p. 4.
3. ^ Toland, p. 4.
4. ^ Toland, pp. 4-5. Johann Georg's younger brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, engineered the plan to change Alois' surname to "Hitler" and to have Johann Georg declared the biological father of Alois in 1876. Johann Nepomuk collected three "witnesses" (his son-in-law and two others), who testified before a notary in Weitra that Johann Georg had several times stated in their presence that he was the actual father of Alois and wanted to make Alois his legitimate son and heir. The parish priest in Doellersheim, where the original birth certificate of Alois resided, altered the birth register. Alois was thirty-nine years old at the time and was well-known in the community as "Alois Shicklgruber."
5. ^ See Toland, pp. 246-7; Kershaw, pp. 8-9. Toland's conclusion is based on the research of Nikolaus Preradovic, University of Graz, who examined the books of the Jewish congregation at Graz and who concluded that, prior to 1856, there had not been "one single Jew" in Graz since the fifteenth century. Kershaw concludes that, whoever Alois' father may have been, he was not a Jew from Graz.
6. ^ Binion, Rudolph (1976). Hitler among the Germans. New York: Elsevier. pp. 144. ISBN 0-444-99033-X.