chancellor Otto von Bismarck, in a power move that blatantly excluded Austria, employed his “blood and iron” philosophy of politics and market unification to bring the formerly separate kingdoms, duchies, principalities, and free cities (
freie städte
) together, establishing the German Empire under Emperor Wilhelm II. It was a time when many nations, or countries, as we now know them, were just struggling to form. In
response to Bismarck’s unification of so many German-speaking areas, for example, the dualism of “Austria-Hungary” was formed, a troubled vestige of the original Habsburg monarchy and an empire mixed with diverse peoples and languages that would themselves eventually form separate nation-states. Bismarck’s unification of Germany ushered in the creation of new national models, and that meant new models of trade and commerce.Soon after
unification, the German industrial revolution began in full.
All of this was coming to pass around the time Ferdinand Porsche and Adolf Hitler were born, and in the years of their childhood, years moving up to the turn of the century, the German Empire became a place that garnered envy and respect. It was, in fact, second only to the United States in its economy and industry, even though the Empire’s entire area could have fit easily into just a few American states. It was during these crucial years that Germans began to
emerge as exceptionally innovative engineers with a deep concern for quality and precision. In fact, “German Quality Work,”
Deutsche Qualitätsarbeit,
2 is a term and a principle rooted deep in the German idea of labor, stemming from the times of the farmer and the artisan, the days of the tinsmiths, blacksmiths, tanners, weavers, and others who
worked directly with their hands. 3
Even though Bismarck had excluded them from the German Empire, it was not uncommon for German-speaking people born in Austria-Hungary to think of themselves as German. Thus Hitler, from a young age, rebelling against his father who was an Austrian civil servant, felt it was only the German side of his heritage he wished to adopt; it was a spirit easily accelerated by the Pan-German influences in his childhood town of Linz. And though it was the myths of Wagner’s
operas and romanticized ideas of Germanic heroes like Frederick the Great that quickened Hitler’s pulse, tied up in that was the widespread desire to be part of a continuous story, a
nation.
It was something many in Austria-Hungary were searching for at the time, and it was an easy intoxication for some German-speaking young men.
Whatever the reasons for Adolf Hitler’s identification with Germany, however, in the years leading up to the First World War, he was still alone, destitute, and wandering Vienna’s streets, with no easy way of getting to Germany. For money he offered to carry people’s bags for them at the train station, or drew and painted postcards and sold them wherever he could. Once his funds for rent ran out, he found himself sleeping in thestreets. Eventually, with lice in his hair and his clothes tattered, he got himself into a homeless shelter and off the streets. He would eventually step up to staying in a Men’s Home, something along the lines of a modern European youth hostel, a place where he had his own bed and locker and was in the company of men down on their luck or passing through town instead of the drug addicts and tramps of previous shelters. The Men’s Home had a library and a room where
“the intellectuals” often met. It was here Hitler spent most of the day, reading books, drawing his postcards, and giving impromptu speeches about his hatred for Vienna and the city’s liberal tendencies.
Vienna was a city rife with anti-Semitism in those years. Hitler had a friend who was Jewish at the time, and in selling his postcards he often did business with Jewish men, but somewhere inside his animosity was beginning to grow, even if his rants at the time were
freie städte
) together, establishing the German Empire under Emperor Wilhelm II. It was a time when many nations, or countries, as we now know them, were just struggling to form. In
response to Bismarck’s unification of so many German-speaking areas, for example, the dualism of “Austria-Hungary” was formed, a troubled vestige of the original Habsburg monarchy and an empire mixed with diverse peoples and languages that would themselves eventually form separate nation-states. Bismarck’s unification of Germany ushered in the creation of new national models, and that meant new models of trade and commerce.Soon after
unification, the German industrial revolution began in full.
All of this was coming to pass around the time Ferdinand Porsche and Adolf Hitler were born, and in the years of their childhood, years moving up to the turn of the century, the German Empire became a place that garnered envy and respect. It was, in fact, second only to the United States in its economy and industry, even though the Empire’s entire area could have fit easily into just a few American states. It was during these crucial years that Germans began to
emerge as exceptionally innovative engineers with a deep concern for quality and precision. In fact, “German Quality Work,”
Deutsche Qualitätsarbeit,
2 is a term and a principle rooted deep in the German idea of labor, stemming from the times of the farmer and the artisan, the days of the tinsmiths, blacksmiths, tanners, weavers, and others who
worked directly with their hands. 3
Even though Bismarck had excluded them from the German Empire, it was not uncommon for German-speaking people born in Austria-Hungary to think of themselves as German. Thus Hitler, from a young age, rebelling against his father who was an Austrian civil servant, felt it was only the German side of his heritage he wished to adopt; it was a spirit easily accelerated by the Pan-German influences in his childhood town of Linz. And though it was the myths of Wagner’s
operas and romanticized ideas of Germanic heroes like Frederick the Great that quickened Hitler’s pulse, tied up in that was the widespread desire to be part of a continuous story, a
nation.
It was something many in Austria-Hungary were searching for at the time, and it was an easy intoxication for some German-speaking young men.
Whatever the reasons for Adolf Hitler’s identification with Germany, however, in the years leading up to the First World War, he was still alone, destitute, and wandering Vienna’s streets, with no easy way of getting to Germany. For money he offered to carry people’s bags for them at the train station, or drew and painted postcards and sold them wherever he could. Once his funds for rent ran out, he found himself sleeping in thestreets. Eventually, with lice in his hair and his clothes tattered, he got himself into a homeless shelter and off the streets. He would eventually step up to staying in a Men’s Home, something along the lines of a modern European youth hostel, a place where he had his own bed and locker and was in the company of men down on their luck or passing through town instead of the drug addicts and tramps of previous shelters. The Men’s Home had a library and a room where
“the intellectuals” often met. It was here Hitler spent most of the day, reading books, drawing his postcards, and giving impromptu speeches about his hatred for Vienna and the city’s liberal tendencies.
Vienna was a city rife with anti-Semitism in those years. Hitler had a friend who was Jewish at the time, and in selling his postcards he often did business with Jewish men, but somewhere inside his animosity was beginning to grow, even if his rants at the time were
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