Writing Hitler

Writing The Austrian Painter been a little a weird in that these days when we think of Hitler, we think of the character we've invented. That is, we think of the nice old man down in the hall in The Austrian Painter's 1964.

As noted in a previous post, we have not read Mein Kampf. That Hitler does not exist in this universe.

There's little that we (meaning I) do not know about the man prior to 1918.

Hitler was a mama's boy. Hitler could be a difficult student. Hitler was an art and architecture enthusiast. Hitler liked neo-classical design. By 1914 Hitler was actually supporting himself as an artist and cranked out four or five paintings a week. He was a Vienna bohemian and a loner, happy to go to museums and read by himself. He liked the philosophical works of Schopenhauer and the Westerns of Karl May. Hitler was an excellent soldier.

The bizarre thing about the man is he left nothing to indicate that he had strong feelings about Jews or anyone else before the war. In fact the family doctor was Jewish. he served with Jewish soldiers in the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment.

The war transformed Hitler [obviously-Ed] and fifteen years after being a discharged soldier with no place to go he was Chancellor of Germany.

The tyrant of World War Two simply did not exist before World War One.