version: February 16, 2018 - NIOD-begin | beginpagina Droog




Hitler, Vienna and Munich

Introduction

1906 | 1907 | 1908 | 1909

1910-1913 (Vienna)| 1913-1914 (Munich)

1912 (Vienna), locations Hitler and custumors

Hitler customer's, Hitler's watercolors

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Introduction - the facts

Much has been written about the time Hitler spent as a young man in Vienna. The most reliable source on this time is the Hitler biography of Volker Ullrich: Adolf Hitler. Biographie. Band 1. Die Jahre des Aufstiegs 1889-1939 (2013). He waded trough all available material, and sorted out the facts from the ocean of documents, stories and concoctions.

See also: Jaap van den Born & Bart FM Droog. Hitler biographies. Bloemen van het kwaad. Droog Magazine, 2017.
http://www.bartfmdroog.com/droog/dd/hitler_bronnen.html#boek

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1906

The seventeen year old Adolf Hitler, then living in Linz, spends two weeks as a tourist in Vienna. He visits musea, the opera. He's impressed by the city sights. He writes four postcards to his friend August Kubizek - these are the earliest surviving handwritings of Hitler.¹ Left: portait of the sixteen year old Adolf Hitler, by an unknown fellow student, fourth grade, Realschule Steyer, 1905.²

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1907

Early September 1907 Hitler travels to Vienna, to do entrance examinations for the 'Akademie für Bildende Künste' (Academy of Fine Arts). He is one of 112 candidates. He passes the first examination, but fails for the second. Only 28 candidates succeed for this second examination.³ The judgement of the exam commission: "Few heads, test drawing insufficient."

In German: "Wenig Köpfe. Probez. ungenügend."4

Hitler is very upset. In Mein Kampf he remarks on this event: "At the first time in my young life I didn't know what to do."⁵

He stays in Vienna in a rented room at Stumpergasse 29, with a landlady called Maria Zakreys.⁶ In October 1907 he returns to Linz, to take care of his dying mother, Klara Hitler-Pölzl. She dies of cancer on December 21 1907.⁷

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1908

Ullrich: "Together with his sister Paula, he applied for the orphan's pension from the finance directorate of Linz - they were entitled to a monthly sum of 50 kroner, 25 for each. The patrimonial inheritance of 652 kroner each was fixed to a blocked account until the age of 24, but they could both use directly of the maternal inheritance of about 2,000 kroner. Hitler was by no means wealthy, as has been said, but he was able to live for a year in Vienna without having to do regular work."⁸

On 12 February 1908 Hitler leaves for Vienna. He again rents a room at Stumpergasse 29. In the end of Februqry Kubizek and Hitler rent a bigger room from Maria Zakreys, at Stumpergasse 27.⁹

Hitler spends his days reading, making architectural sketches, going to the Opera, holding long monologues to Kubizek - basically living the live of a bohemien, but without heavy drinking and without chasing women (or men).

In the autumn of 1908 Hitler leaves the Stumpergasse, when Kubizek is still on holiday in Linz. In september 1908 Hitler tries for a second time to pass the entry exams of the Academy of Fine Arts. But this time he not even allowed to participate.^9a On November 18 he rents a room at the Felberstrasse 22. It is not known where he lived after he left the Stumpergasse and before he moved into the Felberstrasse.¹⁰

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1909

Until the 20th of August 1909 Hitler lives in the Felberstrasse. Nothing is known about Hitlers activities in this period.

On August 22 he moved to a cheaper room at Sechshauser Strasse 58. This time he gives as his profession 'Schriftsteller, 'writer'. Within a month, on September 16th, he moves out of this room.¹¹

From this point until his registration in the Männerheim at the Meldemannstrasse, February 1910, there's no documentary evidence of where Hitler stayed. Most biographers, including Volker Ullrich, tell that Hitler was for a while homeless and found shelter in the Meidlinger Obdachlosenasyl. Their source: Reinhold Hanisch.

The Viennese historian Anna Maria Sigmund has another story: according to her Hitler probably lived from 16 September until November 1909 as a subtenant in a house at Simon Denk Gasse 11 (IX District, Vienna), and then, again as a subtenant, at Humboldtgasse 36 (X District, Vienna).

Her source are pictures (in the Austrian National Library images archive)n dating from after the Anschluss, 1938, with subscriptions. One is a the picture of the Humboldtgasse on which is also stated that the house was now (in 1938) marked with a garland, to commemorate the former resident.

She remarked: "In the selection of Hitler memorials the NSDAP was very meticulous. Neither from Munich, where people did not shy away from placing memorial plaques at the poor homes where Hitler lived, nor did they make mistakes at other places of worship. No one ever described wrong places. It can therefore be assumed that Hitler - even if documents of the registration authority are missing - actually lived in the respective houses."^11a

Konrad Heiden, the first Hitler biographer and William L. Shirer, who was an American journalist in Nazi Germany, name the Simon Denk Gasse too, as residency of Hitler until November 1909.^11b

The Reinhold Hanisch version

In fact, there are three Hanisch versions; one from 1933, one from 1935 and one from 1939. The version used here is the 1939-version - see the Hanisch-page for all versions

Asyl für Obdachlose, Unter Meidlinger Strasse, Vienna. Built 1908. Buchhändler, CC BY-SA 3.0, 2007.

Reinhold Hanisch, when he first met Hitler in the Obdachlosenasyl: "For several days he [Hitler] had been living on benches in the parks where his sleep was often disturbed by policemen. (...) His landlady had dispossessed him and he had found himself on the streetwithout a shelter After he was forced out of his room he had spent some evenings in a cheap coffeehouse in the Kaiserstrasse, but now he was entirely without money. For days he hadn't eaten anything."12

If it's true what Hanisch - not a very reliable witness - describes, then Hitler had been living rough for only a couple of days - not months, as sometimes is suggested.

But was it true what Hanisch told about this? Anna Maria Sigmund:

"The stereotyped description of the notorious liar Reinhold Hanisch is absurd and contradictory, leaves many questions unanswered and does not stand up to critical analysis. Was Hitler, in spite of an orphan's pension and loans, so starved that he was grateful for a piece of bread? Although bread in the asylum was distributed free and in sufficient quantity! Above all, Hitler's monthly 25 Kroner of his orphan's pension covered at least the cost of food. As a result of the overcrowding of the Viennese hospitals, many patients sought refuge in the homeless shelters. At that time tuberculosis was rife in the royal capital. It was regarded as public health hazard number one and was - before the discovery of penicillin - a fatal danger. Hitler, however, had a panicked, hypochondriacal fear of infectious diseases."12a

What ever was the case - the Obdachlosenasyl (shelter for homeless people) where Hanisch stayed when he first met Hitler, offered free beds, soup and bread for 1000 persons.¹³

Of course, we don't know where the two met, nor even when exactly. But it must have been somehere in Vienna, end 1909/begin 1910.

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1910-1913

On 9th of February 1910 Hitler and Hanisch, by then business partners, moved to the Männerheim at Meldemannstrasse 27.

Männerheim, Meldemannstrasse. Edward Hopper. CC BY-SA 3.0, 2008

This institution with 500 beds offered cheap but clean and relatively comfortable living accomodation for workers, servants and failed academics. It had small sleeping cabins, showers, a library, a read room with newspapers, electrical lighting. Hitler lived here until he left for Munich, May 24 1913.14

In August 1910 the friendship between Hitler and Hanisch ends in a lawsuit. Hitler accuses Hanisch of selling two of his watercolors without handing his share of the profits. A few things attract the attention:

1. Hitler said one of his watercolors had a worth of 50 Kroner (according to Hitler biographer Kershaw Hanisch sold the Hitler watercolours normally for 5 Kroner). ^14a
2. Hitler said he knew Hanisch from the homeless shelter in the Meidlinger Strasse - where he saw him once. Hitler didn't say he had lived there himself.

Statement of Hitler against Hanisch.14b

In the end Hanisch is convicted to seven days imprisonment - for using a false name.^14c

From then on Hitler acts as his own agent; he sells his watercolors to a number of Viennese framemakers.

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Map of Vienna, 1912
Location of Hitler's residence and location of shops/offices of his main customers

Source:: https://www.wien.gv.at/kulturportal/public/grafik.aspx?
bookmark=GK1mRgSDKEaC7tNEJ5kpRBwpYtD3mgE-b

Hitler's customers, Hitler's watercolors - Vienna

Hitler spent much of his time reading, drawing architectural sketches, discussing and painting - albeit not that many watercolors as postwar art swindlers claimed. How much watercolors he painted in his Viennese time remains a bit of a mystery, however.

One of his customers, the framemaker Jacob Altenberg, reported in 1936, as he was approached as an expert on Hitler painting during the persecution of Reinhold Hanisch as forger of Hitler watercolors, that he had bought some 25 works of Hitler in 1910-1913.¹⁵

As Altenberg (Wiedner Hauptstrasse/Favoritenstrasse) was the most important off all known four framemakers who had bought watercolors from Hitler, one could deduce that he painted less than 100 in his Viennese days - apart from small watercolors on postcards, which he might have painted in 1909 and early 1910.

The other framemakers were: the jewish Josef Landsberger (Favoritenstrasse 70) and Samuel Morgenstern (Liechtensteinstrasse 4) who had bought at least six watercolors)¹⁶ and the christian Johann Schiefer (at Schönbrunnerstrasse 14).

"One of Morgenstern's main customers was the lawyer Dr. Josef Feingold. (...) He bought a series of old views of Vienna by Hitler, which he had framed by Morgenstern in the style of Biedermeier". The exact number is unknown; it must have been at least four. (Birgitte Hamann, p. 356.)



Hanisch named at his trial in 1933 also a man called Schwertfeger, who ordered him to sell the watercolor which Hitler recognized as a forgery. This man could not be traced, and might never have existed at all.¹⁷

Postwar art swindlers sometimes name Schwertfeger as a framemaker who bought Hitler watercolors in 1910-1913; but in the Lehmann's 1911 no such person can be found, neither in the business addresses, nor in the private addresses. In the Lehmann's 1913 an Anton Schwertfeger, Märzstrasse 44, XIV (XV) is named - but he's a hairdresser, not a framemaker.18 In 1933 he still was a hairdresser, an unlikely person to act as an art dealer. Three other Schwertfegers are listed in the Lehmann's 1933: Aloisia Schwertfeger, a widow; Kreszenzie Schwertfeger, a nanny; and Rosa Schwertfeger, a pensioner. None of them would have been the Schwertfeger Hanisch spoke about in court.19

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Munich, 1913-1914

On reaching the age of 24 Hitler received 819 kroner from the inheritance of his father. He moves on May 25 1913 to Munich. He's not alone - 20 year old drugstore apprentice Rudolf Häusler, who came to live in the Männerheim in February 1913, accompanies him. They rent a room at Schleissheimer Strasse 34 in Munich.

In the Bavarian capital Hitler spends his time by visiting musea, hanging around in coffee bars and painting - according to Ullrich one painting every two or three days, mostly copies from postcards of well known Munich buildings. But Ullrich also states that Hitler continued his rather lazy Viennese lifestyle in Munich²⁰ - which would indicate that Hitler was in Munich not more productive as a painter than in Vienna.

If this number of paintings provided by Ullrich is correct that would mean that Hitler painted some 100 to 150 watercolors in one year in Munich, as opposed to some 100 in three years in Vienna. We think Ullrich's estimate is too high - a better estimate would be: less than 50 in his Munich period.

Customers in Munich

Hitler sold in Munich his watercolors to stores and at beer gardens. In 1938-1939 the NSDAP Hauparchive tried to register these works - it is unknown what percentage this organization did trace.

In February 1914 he has to report in Salzburg in Austria, for the physical examination for his compulsed military service. He's dismissed, as not suited, too weak. He returns to Munich, where he now has the room at the Schleissheimer Strasse for himself, as his room mate Häusler had moved out. Hitler visits cafés in the Schwabinger quarter and 'studies' in his room, without having much perspectives.²¹

Then, the First World War breaks out. Hitler is one of the many who volunteer. 1914 - Adolf Hitler photographed in the crowd celebrating the German proclamation of war. Odeonplatz, Munich, August 2, 1914. Photo by his later friend Heinrich Hoffmann

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Appendix - the number of Hitlers

Estimations

Wolfram Pytha. Hitler. Der Künstler als Politiker und Feldherr (2015)

Page 107. Die genaue Zahl der von ihm [Hitler] in Wien angefertigten Aquarelle wird sich nicht mehr ermitteln lassen; gut begründete Schätzungen gehen davon aus, dass zwischen 1910 und 1913 mindestens 700 Aquarelle entstanden, wobei er die gängigen Motive oft dutzendfach kopierte. [42]

Page 687, note 42. Ein zuverlässiger Bericht eines Mitbewohners aus dem Männerwohnheim, wo Hitler zwischen Februar 1910 und Mai 1913 logierte, schreibt Hitler eine Tagesproduktion von etwa einem Aquarell zu, Bericht von Karl Honisch an den Leiter des NS-Parteiarchivs, 12. Mai 1939, BA Berlin, NS 26/17a, wörtlich abgedruckt bei Joachimsthaler. Hitlers Weg, S. 52-59, hier S. 55. Marc Lambert, Un peintre nommé Hitler, Paris 1986, S. 84f., geht davon aus, dass Hitler nicht täglich zeichnete und auch nicht alle angefertigte Aquarelle am selben Tag absetzen konnte, daher kommt er zur Einschätzung von etwa 700 Aquarellen aus der Wiener Zeit.

Well, about this Karl Honisch. See Brigitte Hamann, p. 190: http://www.bartfmdroog.com/droog/niod/hamann.html#190

It's our feeling that the statement of Honisch, who lived in the Männerheim in 1913 (and we don't know from which date exactly) is of little value: Hitler left the Männerheim in the end of May, 1913.So Honisch, if he had known Hitler at all, only witnessed him for five months at the most.
As this French author's estimation is based on the statement of Honisch, then that estimation is of little value too.

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notes

¹ Volker Ullrich, Adolf Hitler. Biographie. Band 1. Die Jahre des Aufstiegs 1889-1939. Fischer, 2013. p. 38-39.
² Picture from: August Kubizek. Adolf Hitler, mein Jugendfreund. Stocker, Graz/Göttingen, 1953. 352 p. 6th edition.
³ Ullrich, p. 39.
⁴ Konrad Heiden. Adolf Hitler. Das Zeitalter der verantwortungslosigkeit. Ein Mann gegen Europa. Europaverlag, [Berlin/München/Zürich/Wien], [2016]. Page 66. New edition; originally printed in 1936-1937. Written in 1935.
⁵ Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, page 19. "Geschlagen verliess ich den hansenschen Prachtbau am Schillerplatz, zum Ersten Male in meinem jungen Leben uneins mit mir selber."
⁶ Ullrich, p. 42.
⁷ Ullrich, p. 40.
Dr. Eduard Bloch. My Patient, Hitler. A Memoir of Hitler's Jewish Physician. Collier's magazine, March 15 and March 22, 1941. Reprinted in: Journal of Historical Review. Vol. 14 (1994), no. 3.
https://codoh.com/library/document/2521/?lang=en
⁸ Ullrich, page 41. "Gemeinsam mit seiner Schwester Paula beantragte er bei der linzer Finanzlandesdirektion die waisenrente - ihnen stand ein monatlicher Betrag von 50 Kronen, 25 für jeden, zu. Das väterliche Erbe von jeweils 652 kronen war auf ein Sperrkonto bis zum 24. Lebensjahr festgelegt, aber über den mütterlichen Erbanteil von rund 2000 Kronen konnten die beiden bereits verfügen. Hitler war damit keineswegs, wie behauptet worden ist, vermögend geworden, aber er konnte mit dem Geld doch ganz gut für ein Jahr in Wien über die runden kommen, ohne einer geregelten Arbeit nachgehen zu müssen."
See also: Anna Maria Sigmund. Lebte Hitler je im Obdachlosenasyl? Wiener Zeitung,
26-02-2010.
http://www.wienerzeitung.at/nachrichten/archiv/61022_Lebte-Hitler-je-im-Obdachlosenasyl.html
http://www.wienerzeitung.at/nachrichten/archiv/61022_Lebte-Hitler-je-im-Obdachlosenasyl.html?em_cnt_page=2
http://www.wienerzeitung.at/nachrichten/archiv/61022_Lebte-Hitler-je-im-Obdachlosenasyl.html?em_cnt_page=3
⁹ Ullrich, p. 45, 51.
^9a Heiden, p. 66-67.
¹⁰ Ullrich, p. 51.
¹¹ Ullrich, p. 51.
^11a Anna Maria Sigmund. Wiener Zeitung, 26-02-2010.
^11b Heiden, p. 72.
William L. Shirer. The rise and fall of the Third Reich. A history of Nazi Germany. Secker and Warburg, London, 1960. Page 37.
¹² Reinhold Hanisch. 'I was Hitler's buddy'. The New Republic, 1939. Page 239.
http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/projects/hitler/sources/
30s/394newrep/394NewRepHanischHitlersBuddy.htm
^12a Anna Maria Sigmund. Wiener Zeitung, 26-02-2010.
¹³ Ullrich p. 51.
¹⁴ Ullrich p. 53-54, 60.
^14a Ian Kershaw. Hitler. 1889-1936: hubris. W.W. Norton & Company, New York/London, 1998. Edition used: Norton paperback 200. Page 55.
^14b Heiden, p. 89.
^14c Ullrich, p. 55-56.
¹⁵ Frederic Spotts. Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics, 2002. Page 142
http://www.bartfmdroog.com/droog/niod/spotts.html#142
¹⁶ J. Sydney Jones, Hitler in Vienna, 1983. P. 320, note 39.
¹⁷ Hitler als Aquarellmaler. Österreichisches Abendblatt, 05-07-1933.
http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=oab&datum=19330705&seite=5&
zoom=33&query= %22hanisch%22%2B%22hitler%22&ref=anno-search
¹⁸ Adolph Lehmann's Allgemeiner Wohnungs-Anzeiger 1859-1922 [-1942]. Editions 1911 and 1913.
https://www.digital.wienbibliothek.at/wbr/nav/classification/2609
¹⁹Lehmanns, 1933.
https://www.digital.wienbibliothek.at/wbrobv/periodical/zoom/208509
²⁰ Ullrich p. 60-63.
²¹ Ullrich p. 60-63.

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