Postcards numbers 5 to 10 deal with the early life of Adolf Hitler, his family, where he was born and how these things were later used to deliver the idea of Hitler, the man of humble origin who knew hardship and pain, but who, having ultimately triumphed, remained a man of the people.
Klara Hitler, undoubtedly the most important female figure in the life of Adolf Hitler. He was her favourite, and she, the mother he adored. This postcard shows the distinct physical resemblance between mother and son; Hitler certainly inherited his mother’s piercing gaze. Klara Pölzl was born in Spital, about seventeen kilometres (eleven miles) south of Gmünd, on 20 August 1860. The families of both Hitler’s parents had their origins in the Waldviertal region of Lower Austria; this rural wooded landscape inhabited mainly by peasant farmers at that time is located approximately 140 kilometres (88 miles) north-west of Vienna. The Führer’s mother has been described as quiet, polite and hard working; when aged twenty she entered domestic service in Vienna.
On 7 January 1885 Klara Pölzl married Alois Hitler (1837-1903), her second cousin. This was not an uncommon practice in the area at that time; however, an episcopal dispensation had to be obtained before the marriage could take place. Alois Hitler was a difficult man, and the marriage was not a particularly happy one, but Klara did all she could to make a home for herself and her husband who worked as a customs officer along the Austrian-German border. They had six children together, four of whom died in childhood; Gustav 1885-87; Ida 1886-88; Otto, born and died Autumn 1887; Adolf 1889-1945; Edmund 1894-1900; and Paula 1896-1960. Adolf was his mother’s favourite. While the boy feared his father, who often put young Adolf in his place via word or belt, or both; Klara was gentle, possessive, protective and indulgent. Such extremes could hardly fail to have an impact on Adolf Hitler during his formative years.