Adolf Hitler in Vienna 1906-1913
Adolf Hitler in Vienna 1906-1913

In September 2017, I visited Vienna, and one of my desired routes, which took two days, covered visiting places where Hitler lived in Vienna or visited more than a hundred years ago. While preparing this material, I have been actively using many books I’ve read, including Hitler’s biography, written by Yan Kershaw, a monumental study of 1100 pages, and the books of John Toland, Alan Bulock, Joachim Fest, Peter Longerich, and Volker Ulrich. In addition, the most comprehensive study of Hitler’s ”Viennese period” is ‘Hitler in Vienna. A Portrait of a Dictator in His Youth’, written by Brigitte Hamann. I will provide a brief history linking Hitler with a specific place in Vienna and also brief personal impressions of the current state of the buildings and places.

Wien 1900 Hitler
Such idealistic paintings of Vienna attracted hundreds of thousands of newcomers to the city
Ringstrasse Vienna
The legenadry Ringstrasse and the Burgtheater

VIENNA AT THE TURN OF THE XX CENTURY

Hitler was born in 1889, two decades after the outcomes of the Austro-Prussian War had transformed the country into the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. The German-speaking population of the former Austria was now a minority in a diverse multinational state and the state was, in fact, in a state of decay with the elderly Emperor Franz Joseph on the throne, the same ruler who had been in reign six decades ago at the adulthood period of Alois Hitler. Most of the nationalities in Austro-Hungary were now in a state of rebellion and in anticipation of gaining rights or independence. Toward the end of the first decades of the XX century, the population of Franz Joseph’s Empire amounted to fifty million souls, outpacing England (45 mln), France (40 mln), Italy (35 million), and Spain (20 million) and was the second most populated state in Europe after German’s Empire with its 65 million people. 

The population of Vienna skyrocketed from 551 300 in 1850 to 1 769 137 in 1900 and came close to two million when Hitler finally moved to Vienna in 1907. Such a leap in the number of citizens was much higher than in London (total population 4.5 million, or more than 8 if considering the metropolitan area) and Paris (2.7 million in 1900) in the same period and was outgrossed only by a gain in Berlin (from 438 000 to 1 888 000). Vienna had always been the heart of the Habsburg Empire and the most desired destination for migrants, particularly after unification with Hungary. It was known not only for Imperial architecture but for sophisticated infrastructure, including transport, financial institutions, and education. In 1907, the year of Hitler’s move to Vienna, every second of around 3000 automobiles in the Habsburg empire was on the streets of its capital, causing more than 350 car accidents in twelve months, even though the speed limit was only 25 km per hour and around 4000 horse-drawn vehicles were still the main means of private transport. All street lights in Vienna were electric and 650 000 incandescent lamps served in the homes of its citizens, which was a vivid contrast to Linz at that time. 

Vienna in 1900
At the turn of the XX century, Vienna looked homogeneous as never before

According to the 1900 census, less than half of the city’s population was born here (46%), leaving the larger part for those who came to Vienna in the last three decades of the XIX century and as the result of intensive incorporation of the former suburb into city limits.  

  • The largest ethnic group (around 400,000 people) among those newcomers were Czechs, or strictly speaking people from Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, mainly from Czech-speaking regions. At the same time, the pressure of assimilation generally compelled them to abandon using their native language, and in 1910 only every fourth of them still spoke Czech in Public. Anyway at the time of Hitler’s years, every fifth Vienna citizen was of Czech origin. 
  • The second largest share of migrants to Vienna (around 250,000) came from the former Austrian lands, including people whose native language was not German. 
  • Further 140,000 came from the Hungarian part of the new state. 
  • Around 100,000 newcomers settled in Vienna after moving from Galicia and Bukovina, territories of Western regions of modern Ukraine. 

It is important to note that slightly above 20,000 people in Vienna at the turn of the XX century were registered as ‘Reich Germans’, with whom Adolf Hitler wanted to associate himself. The urban development lagged behind the influx of citizens and due to the restricted means of most migrants, they mainly settled in the overpopulated working districts. When it comes to the Jewish population of Vienna, in 1910 it amounted to 8.7% (175 000) compared to less than 2% half a century before and were mainly newcomers from Hungary, Galicia, and the Russian Empire. Their urban distribution was mainly limited to several districts, particularly the Leopoldstadt, a site of the XVII century Jewish ghetto. In his notorious ‘Mein Kampf’ Hitler claimed he had adopted hatred toward Jews in Vienna and August Kubizek’s book backed this idea, though the studies of the recent decades, including remarkable works by Brigitte Hamann and Thomas Weber debunked this established part of Hitler’s myth. At the time of Hitler’s living in Vienna, the Jews in the city were heterogeneous like the capital in general. The Austrian Jews were more assimilated and influential, generally respected, while migrants from Eastern Europe were still alien even to their local brothers and sisters in faith. 

Opernring 1880s
The city center of Vienna in the 1880s
Ringstraße 1905
A magnificent Ringstraße in 1905
Universitätsstraße 1900
Universitätsstraße at the turn of the XX century. Votivkirche church is on the right

MAY 1906: HITLER’S FIRST VISIT TO VIENNA

Josef Mayrhofer, Hitler’s legal caretaker, who was assigned to certain responsibilities after the death of Alois Hitler, a father of the Hitler family, and because of the health of the mother, appealed to young Adolf to find work to help the family in its strained circumstances. A young man refused, explaining the refusal with his desire to become an artist and become a student of the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna after achieving the required age. Adolf Hitler is supported by his mother, Clara Hitler, who even finds the money for her son to travel to Vienna. With one bag of belongings, Adolf Hitler, who just turned 17 years old on April 20, arrived in Vienna within the first days of May 1906. A one-way railway ticket between Linz and Vienna cost 5.30 Kronen at that time. The place where Hitler lived in Vienna at that time remained unknown, and it is quite possible that the young man was visiting relatives, for example, his godfather Johann Prince, but this is only speculation. Although in Mein Kampf Hitler mentions that the trip lasted two weeks, the exact time of Hitler’s stay in Vienna in May 1906 also remains uncertain today.

A picture of the Vienna Ring from 1900
A picture of the Vienna Ring from 1900, six years before Hitler’s first visit to the city

Speaking of the sites that Adolf Hitler visited in Vienna in May 1906, the list is quite impressive and, one might say, includes almost every street and building within the heart of the city. Being not burdened with work or study, Adolf Hitler spent time within the capital, walking through the streets, looking at buildings, and visiting museums and theaters. Twenty years later, in his ”Mein Kampf” biography, Hitler writes that he was captivated by Ringstrasse Street. So the further list of places is only a small part of what Hitler visited in Vienna in May 1906, as he wrote to August Kubizek in four postcards or later mentioned in the biography or speeches.

The famous Vienna Town Hall
The famous Vienna Town Hall at the turn of the XX century
One of the busy crossroads in Vienna 1900
One of the busy crossroads in Vienna in the early 20th century

 

WESTBAHNHOF TRAIN STATION

Westbahnhof was the starting point for Hitler in Vienna because it was on its platform that he came to Vienna from Linz for the first time in May 1906 after a journey lasting five hours. The Linz-Vienna train still goes exactly here. In the following years, when Hitler visited his mother in Linz and returned to Vienna, he used the Westbahnhof station. In February 1908 he welcomed his friend August Kubizek at the Western Station before showing him their lodging at Stumpergasse. In July 1908, when Kubizek left Vienna for the army service, taking a ticket home to Linz, friends said goodbye to each other on the platform of this very station. It should be stated that Reinhold Hanisch, one of the few people who knew Hitler during his early years in Vienna, would recall a quarter century later that Hitler tried to work as a luggage carrier at Westbahnhof in late 1909, but this claim was not supported by other pieces of evidence or accounts. On May 25, 1913, Adolf Hitler and Rudolf Hausler departed for Munich from this station.

The construction of the Western Train Station was approved in March 1857 by the at that time young Emperor Franz Joseph in the fourth year of his reign. The new transport hub made in romantic architectural style, was finished and opened in 1858 and named after the Empress: Kaiserin-Elisabeth-Bahnhof (The Empress Elizabeth Railway Station). It was designed by the German-Austrian architect Moritz von Loehr (1810-1874), one of the founding fathers of the Austrian railway system and contributor to the architecture of the Viennese Ringstrasse. The train station terminal building had a magnificently decorated exterior and the main hall was 104 meters in length and 27 meters wide. The front entrance to the building from the city’s side was empowered with the statue of Empress Elizabeth (1837-1898), the wife of Franz Joseph. When it was opened, the station was located beyond Vienna city borders, and the area was incorporated as late as 1892. At the time of Hitler’s first to Vienna, the Westbahnhof station was already electrified. In 1907 a tram line between Westbahnhof to Nordbahnhof was opened. In 1910-1912 the station witnessed renovation works, particularly adding the fifth track to the four already existing.

Westbahnhof station Wien 1904
The vast territory of Westbahnhof on Vienna’s map from 1904
Westbahnhof railway station Wien
A rare photo of the original Westbahnhof railway station around 1910
Westbahnhof 1900
The front side of the Terminal building in the early XX century
Westbahnhof train station
The front side of the modern Westbahnhof station, built on the site of the original building
Westbahnhof Vienna
A photo from the early XX century showing the platform of the station and the terminal building in the background

In the spring of 1945 (April 9), several bombs fell into the building of the Westbahnhof Station, and the roof of the building, which was opened back in 1858, collapsed. After that, separate platforms were opened for transportation, but the city authorities decided to reconstruct the pre-war building completely and the remnants of the station were demolished in 1949. A new building was opened in 1952 and was completed with a new infrastructure during the next half-century. Today’s gallery of steel and concrete, where the shops are located, was completed in 1993.

Westbahnhof railway yard
Westbahnhof railway yard around 1900
Westbahnhof railway station
I took this photo staying on the platform of Westbahnhof with the station behind my back
Westerb railway station in Vienna in 1945
The Western Railways Station after WWII in 1946. Take notice of the damages made by the air raids
Vienna Westebahnhof in 1946
Another post WW2 photo. The sign says: ‘Vienna Tourist Office. TEMPORARY SHELTER. For travelers’
Westbahnhof Hitler in VIenna
This is how the exit to the platforms looks nowadays

 

KARLSPLATZ SQUARE

On May 7, 1906, Adolf Hitler sent a letter to August Kubizek, a friend of his youth, and attached a postcard depicting the Karlsplatz square, with not only the Karlskirche church but also several buildings that attracted the attention of the young Hitler. For example, the Musikverein concert hall.  Hitler drew a red cross on the postcard, luring the attention of a friend to this building, which at that time had a prestigious conservatory music school, where August Kubizek dreamed of studying, which he succeeded in afterward, after moving to Vienna. When it comes to Hitler, during his Viennese years, he used to copy the postcards of Karlskirche and the square and sell them: one such painting survived and was identified as Hitler’s work. According to the account of Reinhold Hanisch, Hitler mainly copied the existing postcards rather than created them on locations, which does not diminish Hitler’s admiration of Vienna landmarks, including Karlsplatz. After the War, Henriette von Schirach, the wife of the notorious Baldur von Schirach (1907-1974), Reich Youth Leader, recalled how she accompanied Hitler during his last visit to Vienna in 1941. On that trip, they visited numerous locations in the city center and Hitler particularly claimed that he had made so many paintings of Karlskirche.

Karlsplatz 1907
A photo of Karlsplatz from 1907

In the interwar years, the Karlsplatz square, in addition to the main architectural appearance, was added with various temporary buildings, such as shops and galleries. The square and the church did not suffer during the bombing, and after 1945 the emphasis was placed on the development of the road junction, in particular, in 1969 the metro with the same station got here.

 Karlsplatz square and Adolf Hitler's painting
Karlskirche in the early 1900s to the left and Hitler’s painting on the right
 Karlsplatz square VIenna
Similar to all my photos from Vienna in 2017, the church is dominated by clouds and moisture
Karshirche church Vienna
Getting back to the site in 2021 allowed more sunny photos

 

RONACHER ‘STADTTHEATER’ THEATER

In the very postcard that Adolf Hitler sent to August Kubizek on May 7, 1906, he mentioned that he was going to visit this theater on the same day. That evening at the Stadttheater showed “Remorse of Conscience” (Der Gwissenswurm), a comedy play by Ludwig Anzengruber (1839-1889, a famous Austrian folk play dramatist. The play in three acts was Anzengruber’s most frequently performed comedy in Germany, premiered in 1874 in Vienna in a music theater called ‘Theater an der Wien’ in the 6th district of Mariahilf. The first cinematic adaptation of ‘Der Gwissenswurm’, silent due to the era, would appear in 1917 during Hitler’s service on the fronts of the First World War. The second screen adaptation with sound emerged in 1936 thanks to German director Franz Seitz Senior (1888-1952) who was an NSDAP member since 1931 and the creator of several Nazi propaganda movies such as S.A. Mann Brand (Storm Trooper Brand, 1933). 

The ‘Vienna City Theater’ (Wien Stadttheater) was built in 1871-1872 (officially opened on September 15, 1872) and competed with the existing city theaters of the time aiming for the middle-class audience. The initial building burned down in a devastating fire in 1884 and stood abandoned for two years until was bought by an entrepreneur Anton Ronacher (1841-1892). The new owner attracted the architects of the original Stadttheater and the newly built building was much more fire-safe and modern, including the electrification in the times when most of Habsburg palaces were still lighted with candles. The rebuilt theater was now connected with the nearby hotel. The performances resumed in 1888 and the theater now bore the name ‘ETABLISSENMENT RONACHER’. The building witnessed numerous rebuildings in the years to come, particularly in 1901 and 1906, the year of Hitler’s first visit. It is also interesting to note, that Anton’s brother Jacob founded a famous cafe ‘Sperl’ in 1880, which was initially called the ‘Ronacher Cafe’.

Ronacher Theater Vienna Hitler
Ronacher theater on Vienna’s map from the early XX century. Take note of the day of construction: 1871
Stadttheater theater Ronacher Hitler visited in Vienna
An old photo of Stadttheater from the early XX century
Stadttheater Ronacher Vienna
The side entrance with its remarkable architecture
Ronacher Theater
Another old photograph of the front side with architectural changes

After the Anschluss of Austria in March 1938, the Ronacher Theater was taken from the Jewish owner Samuel Schöngut in the process of forced ‘Aryanization’ of property. Schöngut did not survive the Nazi regime: he was first incarcerated in the Lodz Ghetto and died in 1944 in Auschwitz. In 1939 it became a variety theater. After the war, the Stadttheater received a second life — between 1945 (first premiere on April 30, 1945, the day of Hitler’s suicide) and 1955 performances were held here to smooth over the absence of the Burgtheater, which had been seriously damaged during the bombings of Vienna. In 1960 the building was accommodated by a television company as a studio stage and served as such until 1976. The reopening took place in 1986, and later on the theater building was renovated in the early 1990s. Today, the Ronacher Theater still attracts visitors with musical performers.

Ronacher in 1955
The reopened Ronacher in 1955
Stadttheater Ronacher Wien Hitler
The building has slightly changed when compared to the archival photos
The theater space in Ronacher Vienna
The theater space in all its magnitude

‘BURGTHEATER’ THEATER

Adolf Hitler loved to visit the Burgtheater for all the years that he lived in the capital until he left for Munich in May 1913. On April 25, 1908, he took his friend August Kubizek (they then lived in the same apartment at Stumpergasse 31) to Goethe’s ”Faustus’‘ play after hours of waiting in line for tickets. The beginning of this close contact with the theater was laid back in May 1906, during Hitler’s first visit to Vienna. Hitler admired Gottfried Semper (1803-1879), the architect of the Burgtheater, and in later years used the latter’s sketches for his never-fulfilled plans for the theater in Linz and ambitious dreams about the new appearance of Berlin.

Gottfried Semper was widely known for his architectural works in Dresden in the 1840-1870s but the citizens of Vienna remember him for three remarkable buildings: the twin museums: Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Art History) and Naturhistorisches Museum (Natural History Museum) and of the Municipal Theater (Burgtheater). The new splendid theater was opened on October 14, 1888, after fourteen years of construction and a decade after the death of Stemper. At that time it was known as K.K. Hof-Burgtheater and gained its more laconic naming only in 1918 after being taken by the newly-created Austrian state.

Burgtheater Wien map 1904
The Burgtheater is opposite the Vienna Town Hall
Burgtheater 1907
A bird’s view panorama over the Burgtheater from 1907, the year of Hitler’s final move to Vienna
Burgtheater theater Wien
This photo was taken at a time when the long exposure made the moving objects such as people blurred

After the Anschluss of Austria in the spring of 1938, Adolf Hitler was the central figure of the military parade on the streets of Vienna on April 9, 1938. One of the planned actions was to follow the motor column from the Burgtheater building to the Vienna City Hall. The Nazi rule in Austria resulted in insulting actions against the theater’s staff, expelling Jewish performers and the introduction of a strictly censored repertoire. Both war-time directors of the Burgtheater: Ulrich Bettac (1897-1959) and Lother Muthel (1896-1964) were convinced National Socialists and members of the NSDAP since May 1938 and May 1933 respectively.

On March 12, 1945, the building of the theater was seriously damaged during one of the bombings of Vienna, and a month later there was also a fire that ended the destruction caused by the soviet artillery fire during the battle for the city. For some time, the building stood burnt down, but in 1953-1955 a large-scale reconstruction was conducted. Today, the building of the Burgtheater looks almost the same as in May 1906, when Hitler visited Vienna for the first time.

Burgtheater Wien 1942
Burgtheater during the Nazi occupation of Austria in the early 1940s
Burgtheater theater in Vienna and young Adolf Hitler
Burgtheater theater with the City Hall behind my back
Burgtheater Vienna
Another angle over the theater and more sunny weather during my revisit to Vienna in 2021
Burgtheater 1900 Hitler's Vienna
The same side part of the Burgtheater (the right one) in 1900
One of the entranced to the Burgtheater
One of the entrances to the Burgtheater in the early XX century
Burgtheater in 1945
Burgtheater from the inside

STAATSOPER (STATE OPERA) 

During Hitler’s first visit to Vienna, seventeen-year-old Adolf Hitler visited the main opera house of the city. In a postcard that he sent to Kubizek on May 7, 1906, he wrote that he was going to attend two performances: ‘Tristan’ and the ”Flying Dutchman” (Fliegende Holländer) on May 8 and the day after tomorrow, respectively. The performances took place in the Staatsoper building on Tuesday, 8, and Wednesday, May 9, 1906. We know this fact from the original posters, which survived the war. The second and third postcards to August Kubizek were also devoted to visiting this theater. On May 8, 1906, Adolf Hitler wrote that the interior caused his admiration, but, unlike the facade, does not cause a sense of elevation. The third postcard was decorated with the facade of Staatsoper. In subsequent years in Vienna, Adolf Hitler repeatedly visited the opera house and admired performances, myths, and legends of German culture. The drawing of the Staatsoper facade, which is considered to be the early work of Adolf Hitler in Vienna, has been preserved. For the rest of his life, Hitler put a high esteem on the acoustics and exteriors of the Vienna State Opera and used to tell exaggerated stories about the hardships of its architects: Eduard van der Nüll and August Sicard von Sicardsburg.

Vienna State Opera (Staatsoper) was the first among magnificent buildings that were approved and financed for the Ringstrasse, a boulevard that had not existed even on paper until the decision to eliminate the old city walls in 1857. The new opera house was to become one of the dominant buildings of Vienna and aimed to underline the Imperial power. The construction took eight years and Staatsoper was inaugurated on May 25, 1869, a year after the death of both its architects. The opening ceremony was attended by the royal spouses: Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth. At the time of the opening it was called ‘Neues Haus’ (New House), ‘Hof-Operntheater – Neues Haus’ between 1869 and 1871, simply ‘Hof-Operntheater’ between 1871 and 1918 (including Hitler’s years in Vienna), ‘Operntheater’ until 1938, ‘Staatsoper’ until 1945, several other names changed in the post-war decade until finally in 1955 it gained its modern name ‘Wiener Staatsoper’.

Opera House in Vienna
The Opera House and surrounding historical area at the time of Hitler’s visit
Staatsoper state opera in Vienna 1910s
A rare photo of the theater with horse carriages instead of cars in the later periods
Viennese people in front of the Theater
Viennese people in front of the Theater in 1900
Hitler's painting of the Staatsoper state opera
Hitler’s painting of the Opera House with both the horse carriage and the tram

After the German annexation of Austria in 1938, similar to other theaters, the Jewish performers and staff were expelled from their positions in the State Opera House, while the repertoire was censored. The last wartime performance (before the closure of all theaters in the Third Reich) took place on June 30, 1944. On March 12, 1945, the Staatsoper building, like the Burgtheater, was severely damaged during the Allied bombing of Vienna. The facade of the building collapsed, along with the lobby, and the main staircase, and during the ensuing fire, the main hall and some other premises were damaged, including warehouses where 150,000 costumes burned in a fire. The restoration of the appearance of the legendary opera house ended only in 1956 and today the appearance resembles the one that was in the early twentieth century.

Staatsoper Wien
The sketch of the architectural plan of the Staatsoper Wien
Staatsoper Third Reich
Staatsoper during the Third Reich era with swastika banners
State Opera in VIenna today
My 2017 photo from pretty much the same perspective as from both the old photo and Hitler’s painting
Vienna Opera House
One of the wings of the Opera House on a sunny September day in 2021

 

PARLIAMENT BUILDING (PARLAMENTSGEBAUDE)

The fourth postcard, which Hitler wrote to August Kubizek, a friend of his youth, depicts the building of the Parliament of the Empire (Parlamentsgebäude). It is not known whether he attended government meetings during that first trip in May 1906, but Hitler did it between February 1908 and the summer of 1909 by visiting one of the two guest galleries. At that time it was possible, by appointment, to visit the Parliament of the empire and observe the work of the elected representatives of the people. Hitler knew about the political debates and battles in the Parliament from the days of his school years in Linz. Later on, he praised those politicians who in his worldview fought for the ‘German’ rights in the Empire against the other nationalities. Hitler admired the neo-Greek architecture by Theophil von Hansen (1813-1891), but what interested him most was the political activity in the largest parliament in Europe with 517 seats. Women could not vote at that time but only men who were twenty-four years old or senior. Hitler himself left Austria for Germany a month after his 24th birthday in 1913. Five different governments changed between 1907 and 1913 when Hitler lived in Vienna. At the same time, there were no accounts of him visiting Parliament after 1909, partially due to his restricted finances and appearance and due to disappointment, which he later noted in his book. For the rest of his life, Hitler regarded parliament as anachronism and used it in Germany to rise to power to diminish its influence in the years of the Third Reich.

Hitler's postcard to August Kubizek
One of Hitler’s May 1906 postcards to August Kubizek with the building of Parliament
Parliament building in Vienna
The Parliament Building is surrounded by several parks in the heart of Vienna
Parlamentsgebäude Parliament building
An old sketch of the Parlamentsgebäude from the front
The building of Vienna parliament back in 1895
The building of the Vienna Parliament back in 1895
Rally in front of the parliamnt building, October 2, 1910
A mass rally in front of the Parliament building, October 2, 1910

The Parliament building was seriously damaged during the bombing of the city of Vienna and the liberation of the Allied forces. Nearly half of the structures, in particular, the House of Lords and the House of Columns, were destroyed. The building was restored in 1956 and today reflects the look of the original idea that Adolf Hitler observed in Vienna.

Austrian Parliament in Vienna
A photograph from 1900
Parliament in VIenna Hitler
During my visit in 2017, the building was cordoned off yet open to photos

 

WHEN DID HITLER MOVE TO VIENNA 

Hitler’s visit to Vienna in May 1906 was rather an acquaintance with the city and the first step that a young man from Linz dreamed of. Even then, he wanted to continue his studies, but he did not intend to wait for the autumn entrance exams that year. In September 1907, Adolf Hitler left Linz for Vienna, driven by the dream of becoming an artist and passing exams at the Academy of Fine Arts of Vienna (Akademie der Bildenden Künste). Before Adolf Hitler left for Vienna, he wrote a letter to a girl from Urfar, Stefanie Rabatsh (a young Hitler who had warm feelings for her), in which he talked about his plans to become an artist, and after return and marry her.

Adolf Hitler staying in Vienna
Left: Hitler’s certificate of origin from 1906: a document he needed for travel. Right: Hitler’s registration slip when leaving Vienna in May 1913

 

FIRST HITLER’S ACCOMMODATION: STUMPERGASSE 31

When Hitler moved to Vienna in early September 1907, he was looking for affordable housing, which he could pay out of the small amount of money that he received from his mother and his caretaker. Finding a room in Vienna at the time was not a difficult goal for Adolf Hitler as a young man.  There were signs of renting houses within different parts of the city, especially far from the center of Vienna. Thus, the owners returned a part of the money (from the amount that they paid for an apartment) for unused premises –  For 10 crowns per month, Adolf Hitler in Vienna rented a room of just 10 square meters at Stumpergasse 31. This is the area of the city of Mariahilf, where most of the buildings belong to the turn of the XIX (more precisely, the second leaf of the XVIII century) and XX centuries with four to five floors, inhabited by people of different nationalities. Stumpergasse 31 residential building, which was built as far back as 1884, is located on several streets from Westbahnhof and 2 km from the historic center.

Adolf Hitler house in Vienna. Stumpergasse 31. where did hitler live in vienna
The grey four-story building is Stumpergasse 31 and the yellow one next to it is Stumpergasse 29, the address which Kubizek mistakenly used

The building of Stumpergasse 31 consisted of two parts. The first one is the main building with a facade at Stumpergasse, which we can observe today. At that time, it housed the Library of the ”Saint Vincent de Paul Reading Society” (Gemeinschaft von St. Vinzenz von Paul) with an impressive 11,000 volumes, where the total number of copies issued annually, with payment of 2 crowns per year, was about 18,000. The second part of the building is a dark outbuilding, an extension of the main building in the courtyard. Inside it, along with the corridor with shared toilets and sinks, were small two-room flats with a kitchen, with a total area of only 30 square meters, for which the owners paid about 30 crowns per month. For a third of this amount, Hitler in Vienna rented his first room at Stumpergasse 31 in one of those apartments in the dark back wing building.

The building in 1938 after the Anschluss. Hitler stumpergasse
This 1938 is generally regarded as Stumpergasse 31 because of the sign about Hitler’s alleged residence here in 1907. The sign was wrongly put on Stumpergasse 15 further down the street.
Stumpergasse corner of Mittelgasse 1955
Stumpergasse corner of Mittelgasse after the War in 1955. A few blocks from Hitler’s Viennese residence

The 10-square room, which Adolf Hitler in Vienna took off in September 1907, was a part of apartment No. 17 on the semi-basement floor. The hostess, who rented out a room to eighteen-year-old Hitler, was Maria Zakreys, a 49-year-old lonely dressmaker, who was later described by August Kubizek as a withered old woman and whom he had wrongly identified Polish roots, although she was Czech, who came to here from Moravia. The hostess did not speak German well, as the young Adolf Hitler himself noted in his letter to Kubizek on August 17, 1908. August Kubizek had managed another mistake within his memoirs that was later frequently used by Hitler’s biographers. He made a mistake with the address, calling Stumpergasse 29 instead of Stumpergasse 31.

Stumpergasse 31 ADolf Hitler in Vienna
Similar to many residential buildings in Vienna that were not destroyed in WWII, Stumpergasse 31 has changed a little since Hitler’s accommodation here
Hitler's first home in Vienna Stumpergasse 31
A distinctive (for Vienna) dark-blue street sign

 

ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS OF VIENNA AND HITLER 

Admission to this respected and well-known educational institution in Austria was one of the key motives that led Hitler to Vienna, first in May 1906, and later in September 1907 to admit and become an artist. Not far from Stumpergasse 31, where Adolf Hitler rented a small room from Maria Zakreys, there was a tram line leading to the city center. But the daily fare was too high for Hitler as a young man, and he used to walk to the Academy of Fine Arts on foot. The road along the streets of Stumpergasse and Gumperdorfer Strasse, past apartment buildings and coffee houses, took 10-15 minutes from a young Hitler.

Schillerplatz 1905
A bird’s view over Schillerplatz in 1905
Academy of Fine Arts of Vienna and Hitler. when did hitler move to vienna
Photo of the Academy dated as far back as 1902
Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien
I took this photo of the Akademie der Bildenden Künste and the statue of Schiller in 2017

The national predominance of German-speaking students spoke for itself – out of 274 students, 245 stated German as their mother tongue. Young Hitler gave preference to this institution, which was distinguished by its conservatism and its bias towards historicism. For admission to the exam, it was necessary to pass the first preliminary stage, which included a demonstration of paintings. Adolf Hitler was among 78 out of 113 pupils who were admitted to the main entrance exams. Over the next weeks, Hitler took lessons in a private school to get himself ready. On October 1 and 2 1907, he participated in the drawing exam, in which the young Adolf Hitler received ”unsatisfactory”. For Adolf Hitler, a failure at the Academy was the second serious challenge, after the death of his father, and in less than three months his beloved mother Klara would die.

Hitler’s failed exams in October 1907 were not his last attempt to pass and be admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts. He came back in September 1908 and this time was not even allowed for the entry examinations, which was apparently great damage to his confidence and previous self-deception, that he could always they the second time. The notes of the examinators stated that German, Catholic Adolf Hitler from Braunau am Inn with four classes in Realschule failed his test drawings and was not admitted to the test (Nich zu Prufung zugelassen). Young Hitler was advised to opt for the School of Architecture, though he had no appropriate markings in his Realschule diploma to do this, and thus was not desirable either as an artist or as an architect.

Academy of Fine Arts of Vienna and Adolf Hitler
The building of the Academy of Fine Arts from the side

The well-known building on Schillerplatz (former Kalkmarkt) of the Akademie der Bildenden Künste was built in 1872-1877 according to the design of a native-born Danish and later an Austrian architect Theophil Hansen (1813-1891). He is also known as the author of the Austrian Parliament building and Musikverein, the latter was August Kubizek’s Alma mater in Vienna before his army service. The Academy building in the style of the Italian Renaissance was ceremonially opened On April 3, 1877, in the presence of Emperor Franz Joseph I. Kalkmarkt square was renamed Schillerplatz, and in 1876 a monument to Friedrich Schiller was opened in the center of the square in front of the Academy. It is important to note that at the time of Hitler’s attempts to study here, women were not allowed to get an education here and the first female students were admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts only in 1920.

Academy of FIne Arts Vienna
A closer look at the front side during my revisit in 2021. Take notice of the tape barrier due to COVID
The lobby of Akademie der bildenden Künste Vienna
Unfortunately for me on both occasions, the Academy was closed and all I had was to take this photo of the lobby through the glass of the closed doors
Academie der Bildended Kunste Wien
The old inscription next to the main entrance

 

BACK TO LINZ AND VIENNA AGAIN. AUGUST KUBIZEK

In October 1907, Hitler received news from Linz that his mother had become worse and he returned there to take care of her. Clara Hitler passed away on December 21, 1907, and Adolf remained in Linz for some time, being in a broken state, resolving matters with his caretaker and inheritance of his sister. In mid-February 1908, young Adolf Hitler returned to Vienna to run from problems, criticism, and responsibilities. On February 18, 1908, Hitler sent a postcard from Vienna to August Kubizek, in which he urged a friend of his youth to join Hitler in Vienna. He promises to meet a friend at the station (Westbahnhof) and to share his accommodation with Kubizek (room on Stumpergasse 31 at Frau Zakreys) and also wrote that the one who was passionate about music (Kubizek) could get the tools cheaply from the local pawn shop. Thus, after returning to Vienna, the young Adolf Hitler continued to rent a room at the old address Stumpergasse 31.

Adolf Hitler and August Kubizek.
Left: Adolf Hitler, aged sixteen, a sketch by a fellow pupil (Sturmlechner) in the secondary school. Right: Young August Kubizek

In February of the same year 1908, August Kubizek gave away the persistence of his friend Adolf and came to join Hitler in Vienna on a foggy Sunday, February 23, 1908. Years later, in his memoirs, Kubizek remembers the room in the back wing premise on Stumpergasse 31, as a depressing cramped room with the smell of kerosene, where the only small window looked out on the dark wall of soot (it was the back wall of the facade of the building, which is visible from Stumpergasse). In the house, there were bugs that Adolf Hitler caught and put on a needle, like trophies. Friends persuaded the hostess, Maria Zakreys, to hand over to them the larger of the two rooms for 20 Kronen a month and she agreed. Friends lived peacefully together in a new room. August Kubizek passed exams at the Musikverein Conservatory easily and was used to spending time in the morning in the classroom, and then he trained at home on the piano and alto. August Kubizek and Adolf Hitler as young men lived together from February to July 1908 in Vienna, during which they visited a variety of theatrical productions, in particular, all performances in Wagner.

Hitler and Kubizek in Vienna
Left: one of Hitler’s sketches of the house for himself and Kubizek. Right: the last page of Hitler’s letter to Kubizek dated July 21, 1908

 

PRATER PARK

In his memoirs, August Kubizek, referring to the theme of his living with Hitler in Vienna in 1908, writes that they visited Prater Park only once, which was popular among the residents and visitors of Vienna at that time. Walking along the long walkway, almost 5 km long, Hitler was indignant. He was repulsed by Prater Park since here he observed the crowd of people, immigrants from all over Europe who flooded Vienna. In addition, he responded poorly to people who burst into laughter for no reason – Hitler considered this behavior a waste of time and life. Another recollection of Hitler’s visits to Prater emerged to historians in the testimonies of Reinhold Hanisch, who recalled them visiting stage performances in the park. When Hitler’s financial situation deteriorated in 1909, free-of-charge theatrical performances in Prater became a kind of accessible substitute for the visits to the Vienna Opera House and theaters. After leaving Vienna in May 1913, Hitler came back to the city next time only in October 1920 to meet with his sisters. At that time, his sister Paula had a job as a stenographer at the federal state insurance company on Praterstrasse.

It is not a secret that in later years, Hitler admired Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (1122-1190) and in 1162 the land in which the modern Prater Park stands, was given by this Emperor to a man called Conrad de Prato. Despite the words’ similarity (Prater and Prato), initially, the area was known as Pratum, a Latin word that means a meadow rather than the owner’s name. As early as 1560 the whole area was turned into a royal hunting grounds, with a newly created ally with chestnuts. It was not accessible to all citizens of Vienna until April 7, 1766, when apart from becoming a recreational area, it witnessed the coming of numerous merchant stores and entertaining activities. The well-known Praterstern Square emerged in the late XVIII century. Since then, many important festive events have been held in the park, including the celebration of marriage between Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elizabeth in 1854. Two decades later, in 1873 Prater witnessed a massive renovation with the installation of gas lightning. The well-known Vienna Ferris Wheel was opened here in 1897 at the 50th anniversary of Franz Joseph’s coronation. The coming of the new century saw the opening of five cinema theaters in the park.

The thematic entertainment park suffered damage in April 1945 during both Allied air raids and the later Soviet shelling of Vienna. The new Ferris Wheel, less in size, was opened in 1947 but it took years to reestablish Prater as one of the most visited entertainment areas in Europe.

Prater Park in Vienna
The Prater Park in the early XX century was already as giant as it is today
Prater park 1873
Prater Park back in 1873
Prater park and Adolf Hitler's years in Vienna 1906-1913
I managed to take this photo from the cabin of the famous Vienna Ferris Wheel
A rare photograph of the Prater park in 1900
A rare photograph of the Prater park in 1900 with the famous Ferris Wheel in the background
Vienna Ferris Wheel 1900
The heart of the amusement area in Prater
Prater park today Vienna. When did Hitler move to Vienna
A lower perspective over the Prater Park

 

VOLKSTHEATER (PUBLIC THEATER)

On May 13, 18, 20, 22, or 28, 1908, on one of these evenings, judging by the programs that survived the time, Adolf Hitler and August Kubizek visited the Volkstheater to see the “Spring Awakening” (Frühlings Erwachen) semi-pornographic performance by Frank Wedekind (1864-1918). The play was performed for the first time in Berlin in 1906 and later came to Vienna and was known for its scandalized topics. It was after this performance that the two friends Hitler and Kubizek went to a neighborhood called Spittelberg, a five-minute walk from Volkstheater, to witness the narrow alleys with prostitutes.

Kubizek also recalled years later, that Hitler was not an admirer of Henrik Johan Ibsen (1828-1906), an influential playwriter of the late XIX century, whose works were often staged in Vienna, particularly in Volkstheater, which even hosted a commemoration of Ibsen in March 1908 (80 years since the author’s day of birth). According to Kubizek, Hitler disliked both the exterior and the interior of the Volkstheater. He regarded the building as boring and prosaic, though tickets here cost only 1.5 Kronnen, which allowed Hitler to watch performances much cheaper than in Staatsoper and even in sitting places.

Volkstheater (Public theater) Vienna Hitler
An old photo of the city district around Volkstheater with horse carriages and tram wagons
Volkstheater (Public theater) Vienna and young ADolf Hitler as a visitor
The front side of the Public Theater decades before WWII
Deutsches Volkstheater (Zuschauerraum) 1940-1942
The main theater hall in the early 1940s

Volkstheater was opened on September 14, 1889, as one of the largest theaters in both the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires. It was created according to the designs of Ferdinand Fellner (1847-1916) and Hermann Helmer (1849-1919). These two architects own one of the most successful studios of their time with more than two hundred objects created, mainly in Austria and particularly in Vienna. Since its opening, Volkstheater was meant to be a more accessible alternative to Burtheater, which later allowed Hitler to visit it with a low budget. A shift of focus to a wider public made Volktheater very popular among the bourgeoisie.

The theater still holds regular performances. Moreover, it was not damaged during the bombing in the spring of 1945 and appears almost in the form in which August Kubizek and Hitler visited it in Vienna in 1908. The latest renovation took place in 2021.

Volkstheater (Public theater) Vienna
The picturesque sunset in 2021 allowed me to take such a photo
Public theater in VIenna
This photo was taken from the perspective of Arthur-Schnitzler-Platz Square to the right of the main entrance
Neustiftgasse 1 Deutsches Volkstheater (Ansicht von Norden) 1940-1942
Pretty much the same angle during the Nazi era

 

SPITTELBERG DISTRICT

After the May performance in the Volkstheater, which Kubizek and Adolf Hitler had attended in Vienna, friends went home to walk the streets. According to August Kubizek, Adolf Hitler invited a friend to visit the public “underground” of Vienna, and they turned into a narrow street called Spittelberggasse, a few minutes walk from the theater. This grassy place was known at that time by an abundance of prostitutes who worked here. They sat on the premises, whose windows overlooked a narrow alley, and showed themselves to passing men, telling them to go inside and buy the comfort. Adolf Hitler insisted that they walked along that lane twice. And then, after returning to the apartment, he expressed his indignation to Kubizek, both about the presentation of the ”Frühlings Erwachen” and about the practice of selling love in the Spittelberg area.

Spittelberg area in Vienna and Adolf Hitler
The Spittelberg area on the 1904 map
Spittelberg area 1873
One of the side streets in the Spittelberg area in 1873
Spittelberg district in Vienna old photo
A rare photo of the Spittelberg neighborhood from the early XX century
Spittelberg district and Hitler in Vienna
A cozy Guttenberggasse street in the direction of Burggasse

Today it is difficult to determine exactly what windows August Kubizek wrote about, but the area remained and is a crossroads of two small streets, more precisely, even lanes. Today a billboard of a small amateur theater ”Spittelberg” hangs on a glass window.

Spittelberg Vienna
A passage between Spittelberggasse and Guttenberggasse is better known as the ‘Spittelberg passage’
Spittelberg Wien
The passage has preserved the spirit of the old district
Narrow streets of Spittelberg district
One of the narrow alleys in the district which even does not have a naming
The area of Spittelberg VIenna
A famous historical Viennese fire hydrant

 

HOFBURGKAPELLE CHAPPEL

As August Kubizek recalls in his book about himself and Adolf Hitler in Vienna (The Young Hitler I Knew), on Sundays they attended musical performances in an old Viennese chapel in the Swiss courtyard behind the Hofburg imperial residence. Friends used to come here for free to hear spiritual performances with artists from the Vienna Opera House and the Vienna Boys Choir, which Hitler admired.

The chapel is a part of the royal complex called Hofburg and it was created in the first half of the XV century with the blessing of Albert II of Germany (1397-1439), the Habsburg ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. While the key architectural elements have been preserved through centuries, the chapel witnessed numerous renovations with much of the current interior coming in the XVIII century. After the First World War and the fall of the Habsburg Empire in 1918, the famous choir was put under the Austrian Ministry of Education. The courtyard, as the interiors of the Burgkapelle chapel itself, has hardly changed since the days when August Kubizek and young Adolf Hitler visited it in 1908.

Burgkapelle 1914
A panorama over the inner courtyard in 1914
Burgkapelle chappel in VIenna in 1900s
This old photo gives us an understanding that the location has changed little since the early XX century
Burgkapelle chappel today
The famous courtyard during my second visit to Vienna in 2021
Burgkapelle Wien
The recognized plates made of the color of Austria for historical landmarks in Vienna
Burgkapelle Wien Vienna
In neither of my two visits to the site, I was fortunate to get in the building. A good idea for the third journey
Burgkapelle in 1910
The Burgkapelle in 1910

 

A BREAK WITH KUBIZEN AND WHY WAS HITLER REJECTED FROM THE ART SCHOOL 

In June 1908, at the end of the semester at the Musikverein Conservatory, August Kubizek left his share of the rent in advance, and he left Vienna for his native Linz for the holidays. On June 4, 1908, Hitler’s sister Angela gave birth to her daughter Angela Maria Raubal in Linz. In the summer months, friends (Hitler and Kubizek) exchanged letters, and Hitler wrote two lengthy letters in which he complained about his half-sister Angela, teased the poor pronunciation of Mrs. Maria Zakreys, the room’s mistress, and complained about the news from Linz that Hitler’s favorite theater was not to be rebuilt. In August, young Hitler went to visit his aunt Johann Pelzl, who gave the young Adolf 924 crowns not as a gift, but in debt a decent. In September 1908, Adolf Hitler tried to enter the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (Akademie der Bildenden Künste) one more time, but this time he did not even pass the composition exam, although he brought many sketches of Vienna with him to impress the examiners. On September 16 Kubizek went into the army – friends say goodbye on the platform of the Westbahnhof Station and the next time they will see each other only three decades later. After two months of living alone, on November 18, 1908, Adolf Hitler changed his Vienna address, moving out of the spacious room on Stumpergasse 31, without even warning Kubizek and not informing him of the new address.

August Kubizek
A rare photograph of the aged August Kubizek, decades after his time with Hitler in Vienna
An old August Kubizek, Hitler's friend
One of the last photos of Kubizek in the 1950s

ADOLF HITLER’S HOUSE AT FELBERSTRASSE 22 

On November 18, 1908, after fourteen months of residence at Maria Zakreys, in a room in the outbuilding of Stumpergasse 31, Adolf Hitler left this dwelling permanently and was marked on the new address on the same day. This is apartment № 16 at Felberstrasse 22, and there is no precise data on whether he rented one of the rooms or just a bed here. The house is two minutes walk from Westbahnhof Station. The hostess was Helena Riedl, a madam who died on March 3, 1909, but Hitler continued to rent housing here until August 20 of the same year.

Felberstrasse 22 and Adolf Hitler in Vienna
Take a closer look at the Ferberstrasse 22 next to the Westbahnhof Train Station
Adolf Hitler house at Felberstrasse 22
My first visit to FELBERSTRASSE was in September 2017. The corner with Beinggasse
FELBERSTRASSE 22 
My return to the site in September 2021 and the frontside from Felberstrasse
FELBERSTRASSE 22 Hitler in VIenna
Windows facing Ferlberstrasse 22. In 2017 I stayed for five days in the hostel next door
Adolf Hitler house at Felberstrasse Vienna
The corridor leading to the inner courtyard

 

HITLER’S THIRD HOME: SECHSHAUSER 58

By the end of the summer of 1909, Hitler’s condition became difficult, since he had no income, he was running out of money borrowed a year earlier from Aunt Johanna Pelzl. He left the room at Felberstrasse 22 on August 20 and on 22 August 1909, Hitler registered himself as a ‘writer’ at a new address, Sechshauserstrasse 58, in the remote 15th district of Vienna. Young Adolf Hitler rented a room or a bed in apartment number 21 on the second floor of the hostess named Antonia Oberlehner. The note about his eviction from there is dated September 16, 1909, and it was noted with someone else’s hand that the new place of residence of the evicted student Adolf Hitler was unknown. Being constrained in the means, he did not pay for housing and was evicted without warning.

Hitler's third home at Sechshauser Strasse 58
Sechshauser Strasse 58 where Hitler lived for less than a month in 1909, is in the middle
Hitler's third home at Sechshauser Strasse 58 Adolf Hitler
The house fits the neighborhood of the old XIX-century Viennese residential buildings
Sechshauser Strasse 58
A passage to the inner courtyard

 

THE DEBATED ‘HITLER’S HOME’ AT SIMON-DENK-GASSE 11

The next three months of Hitler’s life between September and November 1909 are the historical gap. Several biographers still make a mistake by pointing out Hitler’s next residence as Simon-Denk-Gasse 11. After the Anschluss of Austria in the spring of 1938, the National Socialists created the legend of this dwelling of their Fuhrer as the only one in Vienna to avoid the question of whether was Hitler homeless. Other rooms and addresses that included the first three: Stumpergasse 31, Felberstrasse 22, and Sechshauserstrasse 58 were not mentioned at all. After 1938, in the Viennese newspapers, there were several articles about the poor home of the Fuhrer in Vienna at Simon-Denk-Gasse 11, and the official photo album dated 1940 contained a picture of the interior. In the spring of the same 1938, the legend took root so quickly that the boys from the Hitler Youth, now spread to Austria, carried a guard at the entrance to the house at Simon-Denk-Gasse 11, and a picture of Adolf Hitler above the door.

Hitler's supposed home at Simon-Denk Gasse in Vienna
The 9th district of Vienna and Simon-Denk-Gasse 11 (built in 1892) in the center of the picture
Simon-Denk-Gasse 11 Adolf Hitler Wien
The building dominates the corner of Fechtergasse and Simon-Denk-Gasse
Simon-Denk-Gasse 11 VIenna
In the days of the Third Reich, the Hitler youth boys used to carry a guard near the entrance of the house where Hitler had never lived in

Indeed, the house on Simon-Denk-Gasse 11 contrasts sharply with the first three, in which Adolf Hitler lived in Vienna from 1907 to 1909. The building is located in a more prosperous, almost central 9th district of Vienna, and even its hall and staircase suggest that housing here was more expensive than near the Westbahnhof area and to the south, and this was during the period when Hitler was practically a beggar.

Simon-Denk-Gasse 11 VIenna
Even the corridor of the building is more spacious than the actual Hitler homes in Vienna

 

A MYTH OF HITLER AS A SUBSIDIARY WORKER 

In his autobiography, ”Mein Kampf”, Adolf Hitler mentioned, exaggerated that he experienced physical labor before 18 years old. Already becoming a political figure, and after, the German Chancellor and even the Fuhrer of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler repeatedly said that he had earned himself a lot of hard labor for many years at a construction site in Vienna and he knew what it was like. He wrote in Mein Kampf just a few paragraphs about what seemed to be such an important period of his life, detailing only his lunch of milk and bread and the fact that he was allegedly fired from the construction for not wanting to join the union. In his speech to road builders in Frankfurt in September 1933, Hitler addressed the crowd with a self-identification claiming to be attacked often for his working background.

There is no documented evidence that Adolf Hitler worked physically in Vienna, moreover, he worked in construction, and none of the witnesses among those who were found by the NSDAP archive investigators supported Hitler’s claim. In addition, it is very unlikely that a homebody and a self-contained Hitler who was not used to physical labor and was alien to sports could withstand the norms of workers of that period who transferred up to 100 tons of weight per shift from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.

 

FREE FOOD AT THE MERCIFUL SISTERS HOSPITAL

In the autumn of 1909, the financial conditions of Hitler, who was virtually left without a livelihood, became disastrous. Although there is no exact documentary evidence of Hitler’s homelessness, and, as you can understand, it cannot exist, Adolf Hitler was probably forced to resort to the help of charitable organizations, which at that time worked on donations from private individuals and political formations. A relative of Maria Zakreys, his first Vienna renter, later mentioned that she had once seen the young Adolf Hitler at the ”Merciful Sisters Hospital” (Krankenhaus Barmherzigen Schwestern). As the woman recalled, a young man, whom she had previously seen as neat and well-trained, stood in a line for a portion of free soup on the water with a piece of bread.

Stumpergasse 13 Wien
Stumpergasse 13 and 15 were built in 1812 and 1818 respectively. Today the Hospital accommodates both buildings
Merciful Sisters Hospital at Stumpergasse 13
Sisters of Mercy Hospital Vienna is still in the same building as more than a century ago
Krankenhaus Barmherzigen Schwestern Wien
The building witnessed several restorations, yet it is easy to find the exact location due to the naming and two giant red crosses on the front side

The hospital still stands in the same place, has retained its name, and has not even changed its appearance and interior for much over a century, since young Adolf Hitler in Vienna supposedly ate here. The statement seems to be true also for the reason that Hitler lived quite close: at Stumpergasse 31 a year earlier – there are several minutes between the addresses. Surely he knew about the charitable activities in the hospital, but then for him, it was still something far away, a subject for study, as an outsider.

Free food at the Merciful Sisters Hospital at Stumpergasse 13

Stumpergasse 13 Vienna today
You may find information about particular doctors who work in the Hospital

 

MEIDLING HOMELESS SHELTER

This homeless shelter, located on the outskirts of Vienna, however, was a desirable place for those who dragged on a meager existence. The building was built near the local cemetery (opened in 1905) and opened in 1908. Here temporary guests could take a shower, get free food, and medical care, and even overnight stay free. Sometimes there were up to a thousand people a day in the spacious new building, and not everyone had enough space. People lined up on the street to get temporary comfort, and security guards limited the number of people who entered, leaving the rest outside the door, which was a necessity. There were no rare events of death on the pavement, especially on cold winter nights, and the Viennese press even covered such cases several times.

Meidlung shelter Vienna 1908
Vienna 1912 reveals the already built shelter next to the cemetery laid in 1905
Meidlung Asylum in 1908
A unique photograph from 1908 of the front side facing the modern Kastanienallee
Meidlung home shelter VIenna
The complex of buildings occupies an entire city district squeezed between four streets. I took this photo from Unter-Meidlinger’Strasse opposite the cemetery
Meidling homeless shelter 
This is the lower part of the complex facing Kastanienallee
Meidling homeless shelter Adolf Hitler
One of the windows facing Kastanienallee
Inauguration of the “Asylum for the Homeless”; Festive guests with Archduke Friedrich and Auxiliary Bishop Gottfried Marschall. 21.11.1908
The Inauguration ceremony of the “Asylum for the Homeless”,  November 21, 1908. Among the guests are Archduke Friedrich and Auxiliary Bishop Gottfried Marschall
Meidlung shelter for men Hitler 1908
A closer look at the inscription on the wall reveals a reference to the infamous mayor Karl Lueger and Vienne Saving Bank
Meidlunbg shelter for homeless wien
One of the dormitories in the Meidlung shelter
A crowded dining room in the shelter for men at Meidlung
A crowded dining room in the shelter for men at Meidlung during the first years of operation

Despite a large number of guests, everything was subject to strict discipline. Those who were let inside were escorted to the showers and provided with medical care, and in the meantime, they were washing and patching their clothes. After they were carried out to the dining room and fed with soup with bread. At the signal, the doors to the bedrooms opened, where the beds were firmly placed for the night. The rule was to leave Meidling no later than 9 a.m. the next day. Since the time of free housing here was limited to a week, people excelled with passes and there was a black market for their resale.

Meidling and Hitler in VIenna

Meidlung today
The ‘back-door’ of the Meidlung shelter facing Ruttenstockgasse
Hostel for homeless Hitler in Vienna
Even a brief look inside leaves no doubts about the century-old history of the building

 

WINTER OF 1909-1910: HITLER AND REINHOLD HANISH 

We know a little about Hitler’s life at the Meidling homeless shelter and that winter until February 9, 1910. And more precisely, almost all of the information has come from a doubtful source of information – a man named Reinhold Hanisch. A man who dodged in different shelters, giving different names, dates, and places of birth. By 1909, Hanisch had already served two times in prison for theft and forgery of documents. He helped Adolf Hitler to write a letter to relatives. Aunt Johanna sent the money again. Hitler bought paper and paint, as Hanisch was persuading him to make money on the artist’s talent and to draw postcards and paintings and sell them in hotels and coffee shops. For the sale, Hanisch took a share on his own, and things were gradually getting better within this partnership. That winter, according to Hanisch’s memoirs years later, a couple of companions used to spend nights not only in Meidling but also in several so-called ”warm rooms” in Vienna.

 

MANNERHEIM HOSTEL FOR MEN

This place of Adolf Hitler in Vienna deserves its attention, as he lived there for more than three years until his departure to Munich in 1913. The Mannerheim hostel for men was located at Meldemannstraße 27 on the outskirts of Vienna in an industrial area, much farther from the center than all previous places of residence of Hitler in Vienna. The building, which was built in 1904 and opened back in 1905, consisted of six floors and was a desirable residence of the time. At the dawn of the electrification of the city and the surrounding area, a light and curiosity of the time – steam heating was already held at the Mannerheim hostel. The bed cost just 10 kroons per month, and another 15 supplied good meals in the local dining room with a varied menu. Also, the building contained a library with two reading rooms and a press for guests, shoe and clothing workshops, rooms for cleaning and drying clothes, and desks. Also, a doctor was there free of charge and bathrooms were available for a small fee. It was possible to move in after 8 p.m. and to leave the next morning until 9. It is worth noting that the population of the Brigittenau district amounted to 101,326 people in 1910, the year of Hitler’s admission to the hostel, and 17% of them were Jewish, though Hitler still lacked his later antisemitism and racial hatred during that period.

The Mannerheim building 27
The Mannerheim 27 building with a date of construction (1904) is in the center of the 1912 map
the men's home at Meldemannstrasse 27. Drawing based on a photograph by Erwin Pendl, postcard 1906
An early postcard of the men’s home at Meldemannstrasse 27, dating 1906
Mannerheim hostel for men
A photo of the horse carriage stops at the main entrance facing Meldemannstrasse
Mannerheim Vienna
I took this photo of the former entrance from almost the same perspective in 2021
Meldemannstraße 27 WIen Hitler
The photo of the building taken in 1938
A chapel inside the Mannerheim Hostel
A chapel inside the Mannerheim Hostel
Mannerheim hostel for men Vienna
The giant building from the early XX century still makes an impression particularly being located among the modern residential and business area

The constructors of the Mannerheim abandoned typical dormitories in favor of small rooms. On the four upper floors, along with the long corridors on each, there were doors with small single rooms. Each one contained a bed, a table, a hanger, and a mirror, and the size of the room was 2.2 by 1.4 meters. In such a room, one of 560, Adolf Hitler had lived for three years. As a permanent tenant, he could expect a change of linen once a week. In addition, the door had a lock, which made it possible not to be afraid of the belongings and to experience a personal comfort zone. All the rooms had an electric lamp, which young Adolf Hitler did not have in previous places of residence.

The main building of the Mannerheim home shelter
Another perspective over the front side of the Mannerheim shelter facing Meldemannstrasse
Hitler's home shelter in Vienna
A closer look at the building reveals its history and poor condition

 

HITLER AS A PAINTER 

Having moved to the Mannerheim hostel for men on February 9, 1910, and continued to work with Reinhold Hanisch, Hitler could ensure constant income for the first time in his life by painting pictures. The painting had finally become what did Hitler do for a living. Gradually, the number of customers grew, and even permanent ones appeared. Hitler used to draw popular places in Vienna, particularly churches, cathedrals, and government offices. Clients paid from 2 to 5 crowns and this amount was to be shared with Reinhold Hanisch. In the summer of 1910, a breach of these relations happened. On the one hand, Hitler was lazy to work more and create more pictures, on the other hand, he felt it inconvenient to share his income with Reinhold Hanisch. In addition, Adolf Hitler got a new friend, a copper cleaner named Josef Neumann (first admitted to Mannerheim on January 28, 1910). From 21 to 26 June 1910, he even left the hostel for a week. On July 12, 1910, Neumann left Vienna to go to Germany and he would never see Adolf Hitler again.

Hitler's sketch of Ausberg palace 1911-1912
Hitler’s sketch of Ausberg Palace in Vienna from 1911-1912
Watercolor, attributed to Adolf Hitler, around 1910.
A watercolor, generally attributed to Adolf Hitler, around 1910. this is the reproduction of one of the postcards, that Hitler sent to Kubizek in 1906

On August 4, 1910, Hitler’s new partner Leffner, a postcard salesman, reported Reinhold Hanisch to the police, accusing him of misappropriating the paintings of the young Adolf Hitler. Nevertheless, Hitler multiplied his self-confidence and began to sell his paintings on his own. The only reliable document about Hitler in 1911 is the protocol of the refusal of the orphan’s pension in favor of his sister. The decision was not voluntary – it was found that the young man had previously borrowed money from his aunt, had an income, and could support himself. It is worth noting that Benito Mussolini, who for some time lived in Austria in the city of Trento in 1909-1910, had a salary of only 120 Kronen for two positions at once: being a secretary of a local branch of the labor party and an editor of a newspaper called  L’Avvenire del Lavoratore (The Future of the Worker).  Three decades later, when the NSDAP archive investigators searched for Hitler’s early paintings after the Anschluss of Austria, their pieces skyrocketed up to 8,000 Reichsmarks.

Below is a comparison of the drawings of Adolf Hitler and the modern look of places in Vienna. The first one depicts a small area of Petersplatz and the Peterskirche church located on it, which has not changed in the last century. In 1912, Adolf Hitler painted another small square called Franziskanerplatz in the center of Vienna.

Petersplatz and the Peterskirche
Hitler’s painting of Petersplatz and the Peterskirche
Peterskirche Wien 1900
A photograph of the Peterskirche from 1900
Petersplatz and the Peterskirche in VIenna
Peterskirche looks even more squeezed among the buildings than in Hitler’s painting
Franziskanerplatz WIen
Franziskanerkirche church at the cozy Franziskanerplatz square in Hitler’s painting and nowadays
Franziskanerplatz square
A photograph of Franziskanerplatz square from 1909

MORGERSTERN PAINTING STORE

In 1911-1912, Adolf Hitler established an acquaintance with the Morgenstern couple, who used to sell frames for paintings and goods made of glass. Their store was located at Liechtensteinstraße 4 (built 1871). The couple was named Samuel and Emma. Morgenstern, being a Jew, recommended Hitler as the author of the paintings to other Jews, who then made private orders directly. In 1938, members of the Nazi Party Archives found several original paintings by Adolf Hitler in the Vienna period in the Morgenstern store. From the very beginning, Samuel Morgenstern’s business relationship with Hitler was honest and open in the matter of finance. The shop at Liechtensteinstraße 4 was opened back in 1903. According to the surviving card files of the seller, after years it has become possible to identify most of the buyers of Hitler’s works, who were mostly wealthy Jews. Morgenstern himself testified in 1938.

In the same year, on November 10, 1938, after the Anschluss of Austria, a couple of 63 and 59 years, respectively, were deprived of a shop, which was taken away by the local national socialist. On August 10, 1939, unable to fight the plight, Morgenstern wrote a letter to Adolf Hitler personally, appealing to him as ”Your Excellency” and calling for help. Although it made its way to the stake in Berchtesgaden and to the Chancellery in Berlin, where the word “Jew” appeared twice in the fields, the letter never reached Hitler. It was discovered only half a century later in the archives. On October 28, 1941, the Morgenstern couple, who once patronized Adolf Hitler, was deported from Vienna to the ghetto of the city of Lodz. Samuel Morgenstern died of starvation in August 1943 and was buried in a cemetery inside the ghetto. A year later, Emma was deported to Auschwitz death camp and was killed there as not capable of work at the age of 65.

Unfortunately, although other buildings on the street have survived, it was at the site of the Morgenstern store that the modern building of Deutsche Bank was built.

Morgenstern painting store
The store of the Morgenstern family was once located on the site of the modern bank on the left side of this photo

 

WIMBERGER RESTAURANT AND HOTEL 

In the early 1910s a building at Neubaugürtel 34-36, a five-minute walk from the Westbahnhof Station in Vienna, witnessed several speeches by Karl Hermann Wolf, a well-known speaker and an idol of a young Adolf Hitler. He was the leader of the German Radical Party. Hotel Wimberger was a traditional meeting place for the nationalists in Vienna at that time.

The Hotel Wimberger was opened in 1873 (on the occasion of the World Exhibition) and was a popular meeting place for decades. The name came from its owner, hotelier Karl Wimberger (1834-1926). Apart from being attractive because of its proximity to the Westbahnhof Train Station, Hotel Wimberger provided provision parcels to the Austro-Hungarian army in the 1870s. The original building was demolished in the early 1990s and the renewed hotel was opened in 1994.

The Wimberger Hotel Vienna map
The Wimberger Hotel is in the center of the amp with street numbers 34-36
Wimberger restaurant and hotel in VIenna
A preserved photo of Hotel Wimberger shows how it looked in the early XX century
Wien. Hotel Wimberger am Neubaugürtel 1910
A different angle to the Hotel Wimberger from the left side around 1910
Wimberger restaurant and hotel
I visited the site early in the morning soon after sunrise. This is how it looks from Neubaugürtel Street
Wimberger restaurant and hotel today
Evidently, the early visitors were not expecting me to take a photo through the window glass

I am very grateful to war archives, museums, libraries, private collections, and writers for the historical photos in this article. To the extent that some author or a copyright owner may not want some of the above black-and-white photos to be used for educational purposes here, please contact me for adding credits or deleting the pictures from the article. 

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8 коментарів Join the DiscussionAdolf Hitler in Vienna 1906-1913
  1. @Jack

    Thank you very much for your research and photos! Not only did I enjoy intently reading your article, but I learned so many thus far unknown things about Hitler! I’m looking forward to your future articles.

  2. @Frank Mackensen

    Very well written, I liked that you posted photos of the buildings and places where he was. By the way, I had never seen the last photo of Kubizek (in 1950) that you posted, where did you get it?

  3. @Anthony Mostrom

    Very interesting. There is a photo in existence of Hitler in Vienna. I have seen it.

  4. @Naif alateeq

    I want to thank you for this very interesting post, in fact, it looks like a documentary

    I will visit Vienna next month for two days and in fact I have decided to cancel my previous tour schedule and visit all the addresses attached here and make a video blog and talk about all the places and information here , and I will mention your name as a thank you for your great work

    Naif – Saudi Arabia

  5. @Jimmor

    Really interesting post!

  6. @John TURNER

    Very interesting, the Jews bought his art work, so why did he denigrate their existence? Perhaps it was too little income. Without a government grant system, being a successful student must have been impossible. Architecture would have been a better career as clearly he like buildings. He did well in WW1 and in attending DAP meetings must have become radicalized. But his demonic disregard for human life later, changed politics for ever. Socialism became an integral part of normative political thinking, at least in Europe.

  7. @Patscherl

    “[Kubizek] made a mistake with the address, calling Stumpergasse 29 instead of Stumpergasse 31.”  There is a dispute as to what the address was.  Are there written period documents that show that Hitler and Kubizek lived at #31, not #29?

  8. @Simon Denk

    I have to comment about the remarks about Simon Denk Gasse, as an actual resident at this address. The house was a tenement house for workers at the near “Franz Josephs Bahnhof” train station. 9. district might sound fancy (as Freud and so on lived here) however this part was more a working class quarter. The house had around 50 little apartments (around 9 per floor) with no water or toilet. It didn’t contrast at all with the other addresses. The fancy entrance hall and staircase was installed just 10 years ago when gentrification swallowed this part of the city. Most of the little one room apartments were merged (now to around 4 medium sized per floor) however there are still little ones with rent incredible low as 50 Euros (2020 in Vienna!) per month in this house!

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