Adolf Hitler - What Made Him Tick? Quiz

Answer: Catholic

Hitler was born to Roman Catholic parents, was baptized a Catholic, served as an altar boy, and was confirmed in 1904. He remained a Roman Catholic (although nonpractising) throughout his life. Hitler's rumored Jewish ancestry is based on speculation (or propaganda) that Hitler's paternal grandfather was Jewish. Hitler's father, Alois, was an illegitimate child not registered with the name of a father.

Some claim that Alois's mother (Maria Anna Schicklgruber, Hitler's paternal grandmother) worked in the home of a Jewish family in Graz, Austria, and that a son (Leopold Frankenberger) there got Maria pregnant. Given that Jews were banned from Graz throughout Maria's alleged employment there and the fact that no Frankenberger family is listed in any Graz directory in the relevant period, this story is highly implausible and is dismissed by historians today.

Answer: False

Adolf Hitler hated his father who often beat him. Paula Hitler (Adolf's sister) said that it was Adolf "who challenged my father to extreme harshness and who got his sound thrashing every day." Alois wanted Adolf to join the civil service and refused to support his dream of becoming a great artist.

Hitler, however, adored his mother Klara who loved and supported him after Alois died when Hitler was 13 years old. Paula Hitler recognized the contrast between her parents' treatment of Adolf: "How often on the other hand did my mother caress him and try to obtain with her kindness, where the father could not succeed with harshness." Hitler grieved heavily after Klara died in 1907 and always carried her picture in his vest pocket. Hitler was reportedly found with her framed photograph when he committed suicide.

Not surprisingly, many psychohistorians have had an absolute field-day with those childhood beatings.

Answer: handwriting

Perhaps a reflexion of his artistic ability, Hitler was noted for impeccable handwriting. Carl Jung made the quoted remark after seeing a sample of Hitler's handwriting in 1937.

Regardless of any "feminine instinct," and the still-debated issue of his sexuality, Hitler did have a documented long-term relationship with Eva Braun. They did not marry until April 29, 1945 (the day before they committed suicide in a Berlin bunker). In his April 29 will, Hitler regretted that, due to his duties and the war, they did not marry earlier. "As I did not consider that I could take responsibility, during the years of struggle, of contracting a marriage, I have now decided, before the closing of my earthly career, to take as my wife that girl who, after many years of faithful friendship, entered, of her own free will, the practically besieged town in order to share her destiny with me. At her own desire she goes as my wife with me into death. It will compensate us for what we both lost through my work in the service of my people." There seems no evidence that Hitler's sexuality (whatever it was) drove his political or military decisions, with the possible exception (in a roundabout way) of the Nazis' persecution of homosexuals.

Answer: "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" (Wagner)

"Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" by Richard Wagner debuted June 21, 1868, at the Königliches Hof-und National-Theater in Munich. The title means "The Master Singers of Nuremberg." The plot surrounds an association of esteemed amateur poets and musicians and includes problematic themes of racial purity. Irony abounds given that Nuremberg became the venue for the post-WWII trial of Nazi war criminals. Apparently Hitler missed Wagner's operatic themes regarding the foolishness of human greed and desire for power. Hitler also revered the music of Ludwig van Beethoven (another German composer) as the embodiment of German heroic spirit.

Answer: speeches

Hitler is known for practicing his speeches and corresponding gestures for hours on end, often in front of a mirror. His oratorical skills and ability to read his audience helped him rise, and hold on, to power in Nazi Germany. For an interesting take, see the 2007 film "My Fuhrer," a dry (and fictional) comedy about a depressed Hitler being coached for a speech by a former acting teacher (a Jew plucked from a concentration camp for the job).

Answer: painting

Hitler dreamed of becoming a great painter and artist but was rejected by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (due to an "unfitness for painting") and by the Vienna School of Architecture. He spent the rest of his life trying to prove that those who rejected him were wrong.

In the early 1900s, Hitler worked creating small paintings in Vienna with modest success. During World War II, Hitler delighted in Nazi plundering untold fortunes of artwork to fill his planned museum (the Fuhrermuseum). In March 1945, as Allied troops penetrated Berlin, Hitler's Scorched Earth Decree ordered the destruction of German infrastructure. Yet Hitler's will provided for the rescue of art treasures.

Some have said that his love of art (fueled by his self-image as an art genius) contributed to his persuasive powers and control, led him to evil.

Answer: Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease causes low dopamine levels with symptoms of hand tremors and decreased physical coordination. Some claim to see decreased movement of Hitler's left arm in "Triumph of the Will", Leni Riefenstahl's film of the 1934 Nuremburg Rally.

There are other, later images apparently showing Hitler's hand trembling behind his back and a shuffled gait. Those images have led some historians to believe that Hitler suffered from an idiopathic form of Parkinson's (unknown cause).

Answer: circus

Henry Field's 1943 biographical sketch of Hitler for the Office of Strategic Services notes that Hitler "very rarely went to the theatre" but that "[h]e loves the circus." There are numerous accounts of Hitler attending several 1933 circus performances in Berlin. Hitler reportedly enjoyed "the thrill of under-paid performers risking their lives." He did not, however, "care much for wild animal acts, unless there is a woman in danger."

Answer: double

A doppelgaenger is a double (originally uncanny and ghostly) of a living person. The term is used for a famous person's double or lookalike employed for evasion or security purposes. That Hitler used several doubles as political decoys (including Gustav Weler) is understandable given his real fear of assassination attempts.

As Berlin was falling, Weler was executed in the hope that, after Berlin fell, Allied troops would discover his body and believe that Hitler was dead. Weler's body was discovered by Russian troops after capturing Berlin and assumed it to be Hitler. Hitler, however, committed suicide in a Berlin bunker. To avoid the ghastly treatment inflicted on Benito Mussolini's corpse, Hitler's will ordered that his body be set on fire after his death. On April 27, 2000, the Russian State Archives exhibited for the first time what it claimed are verified (by DNA and dental records) fragments of Hitler's skull recovered by Russian soliders from the burn pit.

Answer: the devil

Norman Mailer developed a "devil made him do it" theory for Hitler's evil in his last novel "The Castle in the Forest" (1997). It shows Adolf Hitler's childhood through the eyes of a demon (Dieter). Dieter eventually enters the story as a young SS officer. He later reveals himself as an employee of Satan working to develop Hitler into a force for future evil.