His father was a well-respected man in the community, who worked as a customs inspector on the Austrian border. However, he was an alcoholic and often beat his wife and children#, introducing young Hitler to violence at a very early age. While Hitler was not close to his father, he adored his mother, who spoiled him quite a bit. When Hitler was eight years old, his younger brother, to whom he had been quite close, died of measles. This tragedy drastically transformed Hitler from a model student to a belligerent, nearly anarchistic terror of a child who only wanted to learn about weapons and warfare. His mother let him stay home from school whenever he so desired. A short while later, he also discovered a passion for art, and decided his dream was to move to Germany and become a great artist. His father despised this idea, wanting Hitler to follow in his footsteps and also become a well-respected customs inspector. .
When Hitler was around fifteen years old, his father died suddenly on his way home of a lung disease. Hitler was relieved by his death, and with his mother's permission he dropped out of school and spent his time studying art. After applying to and being rejected from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna twice, Hitler was extremely depressed. To make matters worse, when he arrived home after his second rejection, his mother, whom he loved dearly, had died of breast cancer. Prior to this, while he was in Vienna, was the beginning of Hitler's journey towards anti-Semitism. He "learned" that the Jews were "unclean" and at the heart of everything that was diseased. He found out that they were behind the Social Democratic movement. He came up to the belief that "The Jew was no German."# After selling the estate his mother left behind, he took the money and moved to Munich, Germany in hopes of setting up an art studio.
Unfortunately for Hitler, no one bought his work and he became homeless.
