Adolf Hitler changed the course of history. His childhood strongly shaped hispersonality. There were many deciding factors that determined the kind of person Hitlerfinally became. Adolf's father was Alois, an illegitimate child, his mother was MarieSchickulgruber. Alois took his fathers name Hitler before Adolf was born. Alois wasalready a successful border guard when he was 18, and later became an Austrian customsofficial. He retired in 1849 after 40 years of service. He was 58 and retired early becauseof bad health. After he retired he bought a nine acre farm near the small town of Hafeld. Hisdream was to live a country life, but the farm took much more work than he expected. Since his health was poor, he had a very hard time making a living on the farm. He hadalways found that spending time with his children was irritating, but on the farm they wereforced to work side by side. This was difficult for Alois, who was very hard on thechildren. He often beat them when they didn't mind. Adolf's father's main hobby was beekeeping, often the mother had to remove 30 or more bee stingers at the end of a day. Alois married his former house keeper, Klara Poelzl, in 1885 she was alreadypregnant. Klara had three children who died when they were very young, before she hadAdolf. Five years late she had a daughter, Paula. Even though Klara was kind to her stepchildren she showed favoritism to her own children. Adolf was fond of his sisters but never got along with Alois Jr., A step child from a previous marriage. Alois Jr. especially disliked Adolf because their mother always loved Adolf more. Alois Jr. resented his father, who often beat him with a whip for disobedience, and ranaway at the age of fifteen and never came home. He was jailed twice for theft and led anunhappy adult life. He lived in Paris for a while and then moved all the way to Ireland,but when Ado...
