Living in urban Vienna as a 17 year old, exposed Adolf to a thousand new things, and with his orphan pension securely in tow, he led his life to the fullest. He attempted to enter the prestigious Vienna Academy of Fine Arts twice; however, he was rejected on both occasions. Next, he begun to dabble half-heartedly in architecture, but again, his lack of talent and training prevented him from making any notable progress.

The death of his mother when he was 20 years of age, temporarily caused him some distress, as the steady pension he had come to rely on ceased immediately. He became a street artist to support himself, although judging by comments from his roommates’ years later, he wasn’t particularly successful in that venture. However, not long after, he inherited a substantial sum of money from a deceased aunt, which allowed him to resume his aimless lifestyle.

His first brush with anti-Semitics occurred not long after, in the form of Karl Lueger, the mayor of Vienna. The young Adolf was taken in by the politician rhetoric, and started to spend his time reading up on anti-Semitic ideologies, most notably, Martin Luther’s incendiary piece, “On the Jews And Their Lies”.

The bright young man continued his immersion on the subject and began to develop a paranoid view of the Jewish influence in the world. He associated almost all negative and disagreeable political, economic and social policies and ideologies with the Jews.

Another windfall arrived a few years later in the form of his late father’s estate and with financial security in place, he moved to Germany in 1913 to immerse himself more fully on this new line of thinking he has followed. Not long after his arrival, he enlisted with the Bavarian infantry regiment and fought in World War I.

Adolf Hitler 1920-1924

He excelled in the war, and despite being wounded twice, he returned to receive his two Iron Crosses. Germany’s defeat in the war did nothing to quell his ever growing resentment against the Jews, and he soon convinced himself that the socio-economic engineering of the Jews led to Germany’s defeat in the war.

The battle hardened Adolf then joined the German Workers Party, attracted by likeminded members there. He was promoted rapidly within the party, not least because of his burgeoning oratorical ability and his newly develop charisma. By 1921, at the age of 32, he became the party leader and promptly changed the party’s name to National Socialist Germans Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, or better known as Nazi ).

The post war Germany was chaotic and appeared rudderless, and with his growing sense of self worth, Adolf’s megalomaniac tendencies began to manifest itself. In 1923, Adolf organized a very amateurish attempt of an armed coup with his party members, which was easily subdued by the government. After a swift trial, he and his followers were sentence to jail in Landsberg.

His confinement in Landsberg provided the perfect environment for his natural tendencies, flawed personality and hatred of the Jews to develop and in a moment of inspiration, he began work on Mein Kampf (My Struggle), a hodgepodge assortment of extreme racial, political and economic reflections, set against a backdrop of Socialism, a piece of literature that captured the imagination and the horror of a generation. The beast has finally arrived.