Hitler�s father died in 1903 and two years later, Hitler left school without graduating. In the fall of 1907, Hitler (then 18) persuaded his mother to give him part of his inheritance and he moved to Vienna to pursue a career as an artist. In October, he failed the entrance exam for the Academy of Art but vowed to improve and retake the exam. He then led a busy life; reading, drawing and even tried writing a play. His inheritance? Squandered on operas, sightseeing, books and in coffeehouses. Writes his one good friend Kubizek:
�[Hitler] had become unbalanced. He would fly into temper at the slightest thing�. He was at odds with the world. Wherever he looked, he saw injustice, hate and enmity. Nothing was free from his criticism.� August Kubizek, The Young Hitler I Knew. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1976, p.153
Again, Hitler tried to enter the Academy of Art but the drawings he submitted were so dreadful he was barred from the exam. Faced with harsh reality and no hope of realizing his dream, he gradually became a vagrant in 1909 -1913. As an orphan he received a meager pension and swallowing his pride, he worked by shoveling snow, beating carpets and carrying suitcases for travelers disembarking at Vienna�s train station. With some of the money he earned, he bought pens, inks and paper on which he painted postcards depicting the various sights of the city. Still, there was never enough food.
�Hunger was then my faithful bodyguard. He never left me for a moment and partook of all I had... My life was a continual struggle with this pitiless friend.� Hitler, Mein Kampf |
