st penniless, and was forced to live in a shelter with homeless men. On the odd occasion he made money from drawing sketches or painting scenes of Vienna, but he refused to look for a settled job. But by 1910 he began to show an interest in politics and often spent hours in Vienna’s public libraries learning more on the subject and engaging in political conversations in the local coffee houses that he visited. Hitler’s views of the world were shaped by his experiences on the streets of Vienna, and this is where his violent anti-Semitism derived from. In 1913 Hitler left Vienna and moved across the border to Munich, the capital of the German State of Bavaria. He was in Munich at the break out of the First World War and although not a German citizen, he served in the German Army throughout the war. For most of the war he served as a runner, and served at the front line in Flanders (Belgium) and in France. He displayed courage under fire and was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class. He was sent home in 1916 when he was wounded but returned to fighting in 1917. He was promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal and took part in the Lundendorff offensive of March 1918. In the last months of the war Hitler was awarded the Iron Cross First Class “For bravery and general merit”, an honour for a corporal. Hitler’s campaign ended when he was partly blinded in a gas attack. He was taken to recuperate in a hospital in Germany and it was here that he heard the news that Germany had surrendered. He describes the shock in his book, Mein Kampf- “Everything went black before my eyes as I staggered back to my ward and buried my aching head between the blankets and pillow…. during these nights my hatred increased, hatred for the originators of this dastardly crime”.Hitler’s rise to powerAfter the end of World War One Hitler was made a political officer for the army. One of his jobs was to repor...
