August Kubizek

August (Gustl) Kubizek ( 3 of August of 1888 , Linz , Austria - 23 of October of 1956 , Eferding , Austria) was a close friend of Adolf Hitler , author of a memoir about her friendship when both were teenagers. He is known mainly for his book “Adolf Hitler, mein Jugendfreund” (1956), memories of great contribution for the historians.

Biography

August Kubizek was the eldest and only surviving son of Michael and Maria Kubizek. Her sisters Maria Teresa and Carolina died in their childhood. Kubizek later wrote that this was a parallel between his own life and that of Adolf Hitler, whose mother, Klara Hitler, had lost four children before Adolf’s birth. As surviving children of mothers affected by pain, August and Adolf could not help feeling that they had been saved by fate. They also shared their passion for music and Richard Wagner. They met while attending one of their operas and even came to share housing.

From August 1914 until November 1918 he served as a reservist in the Regiment 2 of the Austro-Hungarian infantry. In the winter campaign in the Carpathians of 1915, he was injured in Eperjes in Hungary, now Prešov, Slovakia and then evacuated to Budapest on a medical train. After months of convalescence, he returned to the front and was added to a mechanized body in Vienna. After the war Kubizek accepted a position as an officer in the municipal council of Eferding, Upper Austria and music became his hobby.

When the tide began to turn against Hitler, Kubizek, who had shunned politics throughout his life, became a member of the NSDAP in 1942 as a gesture of loyalty to his friend. ¹

In 1951, Kubizek, who had rejected other post-war offerings for his memoirs, agreed to publish “Adolf Hitler, mein Jugendfreund” ( “Adolf Hitler, my youth friend” ) through the Leopold Stocker Verlag. The original manuscript was 293 pages and included several photos, many of which showed postcards and sketches Hitler had given the author between 1906 and 1908. The book is divided into three parts and consists of a prologue, 24 chapters and An epilogue.

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