One stray bullet, one artillery round
fired just a second later- that is all it would have taken to end the
life of history's most infamous mass murderer. How in the world
did Hitler survive World War I? Prior to the war to end all wars, Hitler
was living in Vienna as a starving artist. The city was the cultural mecca of the world
at the time, and Hitler had come with hopes of joining the prestigious Vienna Academy of Fine
Arts. However, his drawings were so poor that he was denied even a chance at taking the official
exam. This deeply affected the already moody, disenfranchised teenager, spinning him even
further into a world of his own making. By all accounts Hitler was a moody, largely
insufferable young man who loved to launch into spirited political speeches or debates- but would
immediately be enraged if anyone corrected him on any matter. Today, he would be the reason video
games have banlists. He also showed no interest in the few women who were attracted to him,
preferring to remain solitary and rebuffing any woman who wished to get near him. Making
no effort to find a job as he believed he was above doing 'common' work, Hitler lived on
ever-shrinking savings, spending what little money he did have attending the opera in the
evenings and dressing like a young gentleman. When his friend was accepted to the
Vienna Conservatory to study music, Hitler was naturally enraged and one day left
the apartment the two shared without warning. On his own in Vienna, Hitler was
forced to move from place to place, but his lack of family or friends in the city
made it difficult to find permanent housing. Despite his money running out, Hitler still
refused to find work and instead pawned all his possessions and started sleeping outside on
park benches. He was soon starving on the street, a miserable, smelly wretch of a man- until he
was accepted into a local homeless shelter. Finally Hitler deigned to stoop so low as to work
shoveling snow or doing some other physical labor in order to earn some cash. He maintained this
lifestyle for a few years, becoming exposed to the political chaos of Vienna in the final days of the
weakening Austrian-Hungarian empire. It was here that he began to form his hard-edged anti-semitist
views, despite the fact that he had befriended a Jewish man who helped Hitler sell artwork to local
shops so he could earn a meager living. Many of those same shops were run by Jews, and without
them Hitler would have been starving again. Hitler continued his habit of long speeches,
immediately flying into a rage if anyone opposed or corrected him. With war looming in the horizon,
Hitler was summoned for military service but seethed with hatred at the idea of serving in the
mixed-race Austrian-Hungarian military. Instead, Hitler opted to ignore his draft letter and, with
the help of the inheritance he received upon his father's death, moved to Munich. If war was going
to break out, he wanted to serve in a pure-race German military, not the mongrel military of
the cosmopolitan Austrian-Hungarian empire. The Austrian authorities however tracked Hitler
down in Munich and arrested him. Hitler was now in serious trouble, as he was facing
prison time for dodging the draft. However, he wrote an impassioned letter to the Austrian
Consulate, apologizing for skipping out on his military service and speaking about his difficult
and troubled youth. The consulate was so impressed that Hitler was not punished for dodging the
draft, but he was however forced to return and serve anyways. Hitler easily failed the
required medical exam and was soon free to return to Munich- despite the fact that he should have
been deported by German authorities. To this day, no one knows why this didn't happen,
or how it could have changed history. In Munich Hitler spent the short time before
the war once more painting to make a living, selling cheap paintings of local
landmarks to tourists and shops. One day Hitler was asked how he
planned to make a permanent living, to which Hitler ominously replied that it
did not matter, as soon there would be war. Hitler would prove to be terrifyingly right. On August 1st, 1914, Hitler gathered along with
a horde of other people at a big public plaza in Munich. A city official hastily addressed the
crowd. War had been brewing for over a year, and now it was official- Germany was at war with
the Russian empire. The assembled people began to celebrate the glorious conquest that was to come,
with a jubilant Hitler standing in their midst. Two days later Hitler volunteered to enlist in
the German Army, and would enlist in a Bavarian regiment. In the words of history's worst
mass murderer, “For me, as for every German, there now began the greatest and most
unforgettable time of my earthly existence. Compared to the events of this gigantic struggle,
everything past receded to shallow nothingness.” Hitler was assigned to the Bavarian
Reserve Infantry Regiment 16, and soon saw battle at the First Battle of
Ypres- a battle that would come to be known to the Germans as the 'massacre of the innocents' for
the incredible casualties inflicted on the young, inexperienced recruits of the German army. As one of the first battles of World War I, it
was expected to be a quick and decisive action with a clear victor and loser. However,
military commanders on both sides were beginning to realize that modern weapons
were making mass battles all but impossible, and that the invention of modern artillery and
the machine gun so heavily favored the defender, that battles would grind to a stalemate,
with both sides dug into miles of trenches. Hitler would find himself in one of these soaked,
miserable trenches, battling the elements, Allied artillery bombardments, and the
general misery of a gridlocked war. Despite this though, Hitler was actually in
high spirits. After so many years of being a disenfranchised youth Hitler had
finally found people he fit in with, and a place where his ultra-nationalistic,
far-right views were welcomed. Nonetheless, the First Battle of Ypress
proved to be a relentless meat-grinder, with the only way to secure victory being through
massed assault against allied trenches defended by machine guns and artillery. These human wave
attacks proved to be devastatingly costly for both sides, but the failure of the German army
to break the Allied lines would set the Germans on a defensive posture for the rest of the war as
their grand strategy was rethought. Rather than try and defeat the allies as a whole militarily,
they would hold a defensive posture in the west while assaulting in the east, until the
Russian Empire was forced to peace terms and the entire German military could be
brought to bear on the western allies. Germany suffered upwards of 130,000
casualties in a month of fighting, and yet miraculously Hitler managed to survive
every action relatively unharmed. He even began to grow a reputation for being incredibly lucky,
always managing to avoid an exploding artillery shell that moments later killed or seriously
injured the men Hitler had just been chatting with. In Hitler's mind it was only further
proof that he was destined for some great work. The horrible casualties Hitler saw
inflicted on both sides though took their toll on the young dictator-to-be, and
he became even more sullen and reserved, Hitler's unit had entered the battle with 3,600
men, but at its end only 611 were fit for duty. Hitler began to withdraw from others, the stress
of the slaughter taking its toll on his mind. Hitler was soon promoted to lance corporal, and
assigned to become a regimental message-runner. While many have claimed that this
was a safe job in the rear areas, It's unclear if Hitler truly did operate in the
rear areas or if he had the more dangerous job of running messages along the actual front.
Hitler was thought of as a peculiar loner by his comrades, and he was teased for his
aversion to graphic stories of sexual conquests, earning the nickname of “Adi”.
He was also a staunch non-smoker, and would trade his tobacco rations for the jam
rations of other soldiers. Well liked, Hitler was still thought of as a strange individual,
who would only grow more sullen and distant as the war progressed and gradually turned against
Germany. At times he was known to leap up off his cot and launch into a rant about Germany's
“invisible enemies”- namely Jews and Marxists. Even with his peculiarities, Hitler
was thought of as eager to please his superiors and commended for his bravery.
Despite his willingness to serve though, Hitler was passed up for promotion repeatedly,
as his superiors believed that he was simply not a commanding enough figure to earn
the respect of men placed under him. The peculiarities of his personality and the
obvious fact that he did not belong in a military organization also influenced the
decision to not promote him to sergeant. If Hitler was frustrated by this, he never showed
it, and instead continued to serve dutifully. During lulls in the fighting Hitler would paint
landscapes of the war, and at one point adopted a stray dog which he nicknamed Fuchsl. The dog
quickly became a beloved pet to Hitler, and would follow him everywhere that his unit was deployed
to. He taught Fuchsl many tricks and the dog quickly became a favorite amongst the soldiers.
Then one day in August of 1917, Hitler's regiment was sent to a quiet sector of the front
in Alsace for a bit of rest. Tragically, someone stole Fuchsl during the regiment's
transition, and even went so far as to pilfer Hitler's artwork. The loss of Fuchsl broke
Hitler's heart, and he finally took his first leave of the war, taking an 18 day leave to Berlin
to stay with the family of a fellow soldier. In Berlin Hitler was shocked at the anti-war
sentiment of the civilian population. The promised rapid defeat of the Allies had turned
into a three year-long meat grinder that was taking the lives of thousands of young men every
day. The civilian population was sick of it, and the war's popularity was rapidly
declining. Hitler however blamed this collapse in community morale on hidden
agents working to undermine glorious Germany- Jews and Marxist who hoped to
see the German empire collapse. Disgusted by what he saw taking place back home,
Hitler quickly returned to duty, showing once more incredible luck at avoiding death or serious
injury. Just a year earlier during the Battle of the Somme, Hitler had been wounded in his left
thigh by an exploding shell. That shell wiped out several of Hitler's fellow message runners when
it exploded right at the entrance of the dispatch runner's dugout. Hitler, as usual, had just left
the location, but was near enough to be struck. As a result of his injury, Hitler spent two months
at a Red Cross hospital, and was scheduled to be transferred back to Munich to work at a depot.
However, Hitler wrote an impassioned letter to his commanding officer, asking that he be allowed to
return to the regiment because he couldn't' stand the thought of being in the safety of home while
his fellow soldiers fought and died on the front. Impressed by his sense of duty and bravery,
Hitler was allowed to return to the front. Hitler's next injuries would come as a result
of gas attacks. During a chlorine gas attack Hitler and his comrades were temporarily
blinded. A follow-on mustard gas attack took Hitler's voice- which would also return in
time. Due to his injuries however Hitler was sent to a hospital in Pasewalk behind the lines. It
was there while lying in his hospital bed that Hitler's thoughts became increasingly darker as he
contemplated the defeat of glorious Germany. Then, on November 10th a pastor tending to the sick and
wounded broke the worst news of Hitler's life: Germany had surrendered to the
allies. Upon hearing the news, Hitler would later recount that he immediately
suffered a second bout of blindness. By all accounts, Hitler's military career was
an honorable and distinguished one- receiving the Iron Cross Second Class in 1914 and the Iron
Cross First Class- a rare honor for such a low ranking soldier- in 1918. He showed bravery
throughout the war, and while he was never quite the military man that he would claim in his
own, later fictionalized account of his service, he was a dutiful and obedient soldier. Sadly,
the great war would further taint the mind of the troubled young man, and in his own mind the blame
for the defeat of Germany would not be due to superior Allied economies and numbers, but because
of Jewish and Communist enemy agents, working to undo the great German people from within.
Hitler would vow that he would be the one to make Germany great once more, and he’d have his revenge
on those that had tried to end its existence. Now go check out Ways They Tried To Assassinate
Hitler, or click this other video instead!
