1.
Weitra
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Weitra is a small town in the district of Gmünd in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. It is located within the rural Waldviertel region on the upper Lainsitz river, the municipality consists of the Katastralgemeinden Brühl, Großwolfgers, Oberwindhag, Reinprechts, Spital, St. Wolfgang, Sulz, Walterschlag, Weitra and Wetzles. A first castle at Weitra was established in 1201 by the Austrian noble Hadmar II of Kuenring, holder of Dürnstein castle, where King Richard the Lionheart had been imprisoned in winter 1192/93. Ottokar II was defeated by the Habsburg king Rudolph I of Germany at the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld, the fortress on the Bohemian border was seized by the Hussites as well as by Hungarian troops under Matthias Corvinus in 1486. In 1581, Emperor Rudolf II enfeoffed Weitra to his chamberlain Wolf Rumpf, in 1607, Count Frederick IV of Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg, who had married Rumpfs widow, inherited the fief. During the Thirty Years War, the castle was attacked by Swedish forces under General Lennart Torstenson in 1645. The comital House of House of Fürstenberg held Weitra until the Revolutions of 1848, the members of the Fürstenberg-Weitra cadet branch left a Renaissance castle erected on mediæval foundations, which was later rebuilt in a Baroque design. The castle was restored by the House of Fürstenberg in 1994, beside its historic textile industry, Weitra is known as the oldest beer-producing site in Austria with several breweries documented since the 14th century. In 1903, the town received access to a gauge railway line to Gmünd. After World War II, the economy suffered from the towns location near the Iron Curtain. Since 1959, Weitra houses a garrison of the Austrian Armed Forces, alois Hitler also lived in Spital, raised by Johann Nepomuk Hiedler after he was abandoned by his mother as a five-year-old. Ludwig and Maria Knapp, owners of a sawmill and a farm in Weitra
2.
Waldviertel
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The Waldviertel is the northwestern region of the Austrian state of Lower Austria. Birgit Zotz, Das Waldviertel - Zwischen Mystik und Klarheit, Das Image einer Region als Reiseziel. Berlin, Köster 2010, ISBN 978-3-89574-734-2 Media related to Waldviertel at Wikimedia Commons Official website Waldviertel Wiki
3.
Austrian Empire
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The Austrian Empire was an empire in Central Europe created out of the realms of the Habsburgs by proclamation in 1804. It was an empire and one of Europes great powers. Geographically it was the second largest country in Europe after the Russian Empire and it was also the third most populous after Russia and France, as well as the largest and strongest country in the German Confederation. Proclaimed in response to the First French Empire, it overlapped with the Holy Roman Empire until the dissolution in 1806. The Ausgleich of 1867 elevated Hungarys status and it became a separate entity from the Empire entirely, joining with it in the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Changes shaping the nature of the Holy Roman Empire took place during conferences in Rastatt, on 24 March 1803, the Imperial Recess was declared, which reduced the number of ecclesiastical states from 81 to only 3 and the free imperial cities from 51 to 6. This measure was aimed at replacing the old constitution of the Holy Roman Empire, taking this significant change into consideration, the German Emperor Francis II created the title Emperor of Austria, for himself and his successors. In 1804 the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, who was ruler of the lands of the Habsburg Monarchy, founded the Empire of Austria. In doing so he created a formal overarching structure for the Habsburg Monarchy, to safeguard his dynastys imperial status he adopted the additional hereditary title of Emperor of Austria. Hungarys affairs remained administered by its own institutions as they had been beforehand, thus under the new arrangements no Imperial institutions were involved in its internal government. The fall and dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire was accelerated by French intervention in the Empire in September 1805, on 20 October 1805, an Austrian army led by general Karl Mack von Leiberich was defeated by French armies near the town of Ulm. The French victory resulted in the capture of 20,000 Austrian soldiers, Napoleons army won another victory at Austerlitz on 2 December 1805. Francis was forced into negotiations with the French from 4 to 6 December 1805, the French victories encouraged rulers of certain imperial territories to assert their formal independence from the Empire. On 10 December 1805, the prince-elector Duke of Bavaria proclaimed himself King, finally, on 12 December, the Margrave of Baden was given the title of Grand Duke. In addition, each of these new countries signed a treaty with France, the Treaty of Pressburg between France and Austria, signed in Pressburg on 26 December, enlarged the territory of Napoleons German allies at the expense of defeated Austria. Certain Austrian holdings in Germany were passed to French allies—the King of Bavaria, the King of Württemberg, Austrian claims on those German states were renounced without exception. On 12 July 1806, the Confederation of the Rhine was established, comprising 16 sovereigns and this confederation, under French influence, put an end to the Holy Roman Empire. On 6 August 1806, even Francis recognized the new state of things and proclaimed the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, as he did not want Napoleon to succeed him
4.
Linz
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Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria. It is located in the centre of Austria, approximately 30 kilometres south of the Czech border. The population of the city is 200,839, and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about 271,000, in 2009 Linz, together with the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, was chosen as the European Capital of Culture. Since 1 December 2014 Linz is a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities network as a City of Media Arts, Cities receive this title for enriching the urban lifestyle through the sponsorship and successful integration of media art and involving society in these electronic art forms. Linz is well known for the Linzer torte, which is said to be the oldest cake in the world, Linz is located in the centre of Europe, lying on the Paris–Budapest west–east axis and the Malmö–Trieste north–south axis. The Danube is the tourism and transport connection that runs through the city. Approximately 29. 27% of the city’s 96 km2 wide area are grassland, further 17. 95% are covered with forest. All the rest areas fall on water, traffic areas and land, since January 2014 the city is divided into 16 statistical districts, Before 2014 Linz was divided into 9 districts and 36 statistical quarters. Magdalena, St. Magdalena, Katzbach, Elmberg St, the name Linz was first recorded in AD799. Being the city where the Habsburg Emperor Friedrich III spent his last years, it was, for a period of time. It lost its status to Vienna and Prague after the death of the Emperor in 1493, one important inhabitant of the city was Johannes Kepler, who spent several years of his life in the city teaching mathematics. He discovered, on 15 May 1618, the distance-cubed-over-time-squared — or third — law of planetary motion, the local public university, Johannes Kepler University, is named after him. Another famous citizen was Anton Bruckner, who spent the years between 1855 and 1868 working as a composer and organist in the Old Cathedral, Linz. The Brucknerhaus is named after him, Adolf Hitler was born in the border town of Braunau am Inn but moved to Linz in his childhood. Hitler spent most of his youth in the Linz area, from 1898 until 1907, the family lived first in the village of Leonding on the outskirts of town, and then on the Humboldtstrasse in Linz. After elementary education in Leonding, Hitler was enrolled in the Realschule in Linz, notorious Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann also spent his youth in Linz. To the end of his life, Hitler considered Linz to be his home town, in order to make the city economically vibrant, Hitler initiated a major industrialisation of Linz shortly before, and during, the Second World War. In addition to a depot, Linz has a benzol plant which was bombed during the Oil Campaign on 16 October 1944
5.
Austria-Hungary
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The union was a result of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 and came into existence on 30 March 1867. Austria-Hungary consisted of two monarchies, and one region, the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia under the Hungarian crown. It was ruled by the House of Habsburg, and constituted the last phase in the evolution of the Habsburg Monarchy. Following the 1867 reforms, the Austrian and the Hungarian states were co-equal, Foreign affairs and the military came under joint oversight, but all other governmental faculties were divided between respective states. Austria-Hungary was a state and one of the worlds great powers at the time. Austria-Hungary was geographically the second-largest country in Europe after the Russian Empire, at 621,538 km2, the Empire built up the fourth-largest machine building industry of the world, after the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. After 1878, Bosnia and Herzegovina was under Austro-Hungarian military and civilian rule until it was annexed in 1908. The annexation of Bosnia also led to Islam being recognized as a state religion due to Bosnias Muslim population. Austria-Hungary was one of the Central Powers in World War I and it was already effectively dissolved by the time the military authorities signed the armistice of Villa Giusti on 3 November 1918. The realms full, official name was The Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council, each enjoyed considerable sovereignty with only a few joint affairs. Certain regions, such as Polish Galicia within Cisleithania and Croatia within Transleithania, enjoyed autonomous status, the division between Austria and Hungary was so marked that there was no common citizenship, one was either an Austrian citizen or a Hungarian citizen, never both. This also meant that there were always separate Austrian and Hungarian passports, however, neither Austrian nor Hungarian passports were used in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia-Dalmatia. Instead, the Kingdom issued its own passports which were written in Croatian and French and it is not known what kind of passports were used in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was under the control of both Austria and Hungary. The Kingdom of Hungary had always maintained a separate parliament, the Diet of Hungary, the administration and government of the Kingdom of Hungary remained largely untouched by the government structure of the overarching Austrian Empire. Hungarys central government structures remained well separated from the Austrian imperial government, the country was governed by the Council of Lieutenancy of Hungary – located in Pressburg and later in Pest – and by the Hungarian Royal Court Chancellery in Vienna. The Hungarian government and Hungarian parliament were suspended after the Hungarian revolution of 1848, despite Austria and Hungary sharing a common currency, they were fiscally sovereign and independent entities. Since the beginnings of the union, the government of the Kingdom of Hungary could preserve its separated. After the revolution of 1848–1849, the Hungarian budget was amalgamated with the Austrian, from 1527 to 1851, the Kingdom of Hungary maintained its own customs controls, which separated her from the other parts of the Habsburg-ruled territories
6.
Leonding
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Leonding is a city southwest of Linz in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. It borders Puchenau and the river Danube in the north, Wilhering and Pasching in the west, Traun in the south and Linz in the east. With a population of more than 27 thousand people, Leonding is the most populous city of the Linz-Land district and it is very close to Linz and offers a beautiful view of the Alps and therefore attracts the upper social classes for living without providing much infrastructure on its own. Due to the proximity of Linz and the transport connection it attracts companies like Rosenbauer, Ebner Industrieofenbau. Another major employer is the UNO Shopping Center, from 1898 to 1905 Adolf Hitler lived in Leonding where he attended the local primary school and later a grammar school in nearby Linz. The graves of his parents Alois and Klara are in Leonding and his brother Edmund, who died of measles, was buried there, too. A delegation of Passau National Socialists visited the familys grave illegally, Hitler visited the grave in 1938. In 2012, when a relative of Alois Hitlers first wife, Anna, did not renew the lease, in 1903, Hitlers father died when drinking a glass of wine in a guesthouse in Leonding. The elections in 2015 showed the results, Total,37 seats Oberösterreich Official Homepage
7.
Adolf Hitler
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Adolf Hitler was a German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party, Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and Führer of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. As dictator of the German Reich, he initiated World War II in Europe with the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and was central to the Holocaust, Hitler was born in Austria, then part of Austria-Hungary, and raised near Linz. He moved to Germany in 1913 and was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I and he joined the German Workers Party, the precursor of the NSDAP, in 1919 and became leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923 he attempted a coup in Munich to seize power, the failed coup resulted in Hitlers imprisonment, during which he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf. Hitler frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as being part of a Jewish conspiracy, by 1933, the Nazi Party was the largest elected party in the German Reichstag, which led to Hitlers appointment as Chancellor on 30 January 1933. Hitler aimed to eliminate Jews from Germany and establish a New Order to counter what he saw as the injustice of the post-World War I international order dominated by Britain, Hitler sought Lebensraum for the German people in Eastern Europe. His aggressive foreign policy is considered to be the cause of the outbreak of World War II in Europe. He directed large-scale rearmament and on 1 September 1939 invaded Poland, resulting in British, in June 1941, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. By the end of 1941 German forces and the European Axis powers occupied most of Europe, failure to defeat the Soviets and the entry of the United States into the war forced Germany onto the defensive and it suffered a series of escalating defeats. In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, Hitler married his long-time lover, on 30 April 1945, less than two days later, the two killed themselves to avoid capture by the Red Army, and their corpses were burned. Hitler and the Nazi regime were also responsible for the killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians, in addition,29 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European Theatre of World War II. The number of civilians killed during the Second World War was unprecedented in warfare, Hitlers father Alois Hitler Sr. was the illegitimate child of Maria Anna Schicklgruber. The baptismal register did not show the name of his father, in 1842, Johann Georg Hiedler married Aloiss mother Maria Anna. Alois was brought up in the family of Hiedlers brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, in 1876, Alois was legitimated and the baptismal register changed by a priest to register Johann Georg Hiedler as Aloiss father. Alois then assumed the surname Hitler, also spelled Hiedler, Hüttler, the Hitler surname is probably based on one who lives in a hut. Nazi official Hans Frank suggested that Aloiss mother had been employed as a housekeeper by a Jewish family in Graz, and that the familys 19-year-old son Leopold Frankenberger had fathered Alois. No Frankenberger was registered in Graz during that period, and no record has been produced of Leopold Frankenbergers existence, Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary, close to the border with the German Empire. He was one of six born to Alois Hitler and Klara Pölzl
8.
Alois Hitler
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Alois Hitler, Sr. was an Austrian civil servant and the father of German politician and leader of the Nazi Party, Adolf Hitler. At his baptism in Döllersheim, the space for his fathers name on the certificate was left blank. His mother cared for Alois in a house she shared with her elderly father, sometime later, Johann Georg Hiedler moved in with the Schicklgrubers, he married Maria when Alois was five. By the age of 10, Alois had been sent to live with Hiedlers brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, Alois attended elementary school, and took lessons in shoemaking from a local cobbler. At the age of 13 he left the farm in Spital and went to Vienna as an apprentice cobbler, historians have discussed three candidates as Alois biological father, Johann Georg Hiedler, his brother Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, and Leopold Frankenberger. Johann Georg Hiedler was during his lifetime the stepfather and posthumously legally declared birth father of Alois, according to historian Frank McDonough, the most plausible theory is that Johann Georg Hiedler was the real father of Alois. This assumes Hiedler was willing to marry Maria in this situation and he did not know who his grandfather was. Intensive research into his origins, accounts of which have been distorted by propagandist legends, after the war Hitlers former lawyer, Hans Frank, claimed that Hitler told him in 1930 that one of his relatives was trying to blackmail him by threatening to reveal his alleged Jewish ancestry. Hitler asked Frank to find out the facts, however, all Jews had been expelled from the province of Styria in the 15th century, they were not allowed to return until the 1860s, when Alois was around 30. Also, there is no evidence of a Frankenberger family living in Graz at that time, scholars such as Ian Kershaw and Brigitte Hamann dismiss the Frankenberger hypothesis as baseless. Kershaw discusses and also lists Hitlers family tree in his biography of Adolf Hitler, Alois Schicklgruber made steady progress in the semi-military profession of customs official. The work involved frequent reassignments and he served in a variety of places across Austria, by 1860, after five years of service, he reached the rank of Finanzwach-Oberaufseher. By 1864, after training and examinations, he had advanced further and was serving in Linz. He later became an inspector of customs posted at Braunau am Inn in 1875 and he eventually rose to full inspector of customs and could go no higher because he lacked the necessary school degrees. He appeared before the parish priest in Döllersheim and asserted that his father was Johann Georg Hiedler, three relatives appeared with him as witnesses, one of whom was Johann Nepomuk, Hiedlers brother. The priest agreed to amend the certificate, the civil authorities automatically processed the churchs decision. The official change, registered at the government office in Mistelbach in 1877 and it is not known who decided on the spelling of Hitler instead of Hiedler. Johann Georgs brother was known by the surname Hüttler
9.
Paula Hitler
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Paula Hitler was the younger sister of Adolf Hitler and the last child of Alois Hitler, Sr. and his third wife, Klara Pölzl. However, the amount was relatively meager and Adolf, who was by then old enough to support himself, in the early 1920s she was hired as a housekeeper at a dormitory for Jewish university students. In 1921, while she worked at the dormitory, she was visited by her brother Adolf who she appeared as if he had fallen from heaven. Later she worked as a secretary and she was delighted to meet him again in Vienna during the early 1930s. Hitler appears to have had a low opinion of her intelligence and she later claimed to have seen her brother about once a year during the 1930s and early 1940s. She worked as a secretary in a hospital for much of World War II. There is some evidence Paula shared her brothers strong German nationalist beliefs, during the closing days of the war, at the age of 49, she was driven to Berchtesgaden, Germany, apparently on the orders of Martin Bormann. She was arrested by US intelligence officers in May 1945 and debriefed later that year, a transcript shows one of the agents remarking she bore a physical resemblance to her brother. She told them that the Soviets had confiscated her house in Austria, that the Americans had expropriated her Vienna apartment, and she characterized her childhood relationship with her brother as one of both constant bickering and strong affection. Paula said that she could not bring herself to believe that her brother had been responsible for the Holocaust and she had also told them that she had met Eva Braun only once. Paula was released from American custody and returned to Vienna, where she lived on her savings for a time, in 1952, she moved to Berchtesgaden in Germany, reportedly living in seclusion in a two-room flat as Paula Wolff. During this time, she was looked after by members of the SS. In February 1959, she agreed to be interviewed by Peter Morley, the resulting conversation was the only filmed interview she ever gave and was broadcast as part of a programme called Tyranny, The Years of Adolf Hitler. She talked mostly about Hitlers childhood and refused to be drawn on political questions, footage from this and a contemporary interview with Peter Morley was included in the 2005 television documentary The Hitler Family, directed by Oliver Halmburger and Thomas Staehler. Paula died on 1 June 1960, at the age of 64 and she was buried in the Bergfriedhof in Berchtesgaden/Schönau under the name Paula Hitler. In June 2005, the grave marker and remains were reportedly removed and replaced with another burial. In May 2006, however, it was reported the grave marker had been returned to Paulas grave, Hitler family Marc Vermeeren, De jeugd van Adolf Hitler 1889–1907 en zijn familie en voorouders
