Maria Schicklgruber

Maria Anna Schicklgruber ( 15 of April of 1795 - 7 of January of 1847 ) was the paternal grandmother of Adolf Hitler .

Family

Maria was born in the village of Strones in the Waldviertel region of the Austrian Archdiocese . She was the daughter of Theresia Pfeisinger (September 7, 1769 - November 11, 1821), and the farmer Johannes Schicklgruber (May 29, 1764 - November 12, 1847). Mary was a Catholic, what is known about her is based on the church and other public records.

Maria was one of 11 children, only six of whom survived childhood. Her early life was that of a poor peasant girl in a forested rural area in the northwestern part of Lower Austria , northwest of Vienna .

Maria’s mother died in 1821 when Maria was 26 years old. She received an inheritance of 74.25 guilders, which she invested in the Fund of Orphans until 1838. By that time there were more than doubled to 165 guilders. At that time, a breeding pig cost 4 florins, a cow 10-12 gulden and an entire inn of 500 florins. Werner Maser wrote that he was a “thrifty, reserved peasant, and exceptionally intelligent.”

Apart from saving her inheritance, indicating that she was not in misery during that period of her life, little is known about the life of Mary until she was over 40 years old.

The birth of Alois

In 1837, when she was 42 years old, and still single, her first and only son was born. He called the boy Alois. Maser notes that she refused to reveal who the child’s father was, so the priest baptized Alois Schicklgruber and wrote “illegitimate” instead of the father’s name in the baptismal record. Historians have discussed three candidates for Alois’ father:

• Johann Georg Hiedler , was placed on the birth certificate of Alois later, when he had already died and was officially accepted as the father of Alois (paternal grandfather of Adolf Hitler).
• Johann Nepomuk Hiedler , brother of Georg and Alois’s uncle, who kept Alois economically until adolescence and later left him a considerable part of his savings, but which, if he was the true father of Alois, has never been forced to Admit it publicly.
• A Jew named Leopold Frankenberger , whose theory was rumored by ex-Nazi Hans Frank during the Nuremberg Trials . Historians dismiss the Frankenberger hypothesis (which had only Frank speculation to support it) as a basis.

At the time of her birth, she was living with a family from Stron village with the name of Trummelschlager. Mr. and Mrs. Trummelschlager were the sponsors of Alois. Maria soon settled with her father in house number 22 in Strones. After an indeterminate period, the three Schicklgrubers were accompanied by Johann Georg Hiedler, an itinerant miller day laborer. On 10 May 1842, five years after the birth of Alois, Maria Anna Schicklgruber married Johann Georg Hiedler in the nearby village of Döllersheim. Maria was 47, her new husband 50.

Whether or not Johann Georg Hiedler actually Hitler’s biological paternal grandfather will remain unknown, since he was not put as the father in the birth certificate of Alois. Illegitimacy was common in Lower Austria, in some areas up to forty percent, ¹ and as late as 1903 the figure was twenty-four percent, children were normally legitimized at a later date. Hitler’s ancestry came into question when his opponents began to spread rumors that his paternal grandfather was Jewish since one of the great principles of Nazism was that to be considered a pure ” Aryan ” one had to have a certificate of ancestry documented ( Ahnenpass ).

In 1931 Hitler ordered the Schutzstaffel (SS) to investigate alleged rumors about his ancestry. They found no evidence of any Jewish ancestor. Hitler ordered a genealogist by the name of Rudolf Koppensteiner to publish a large illustrated genealogical tree showing his ancestry. This was published in the book “Die Ahnentafel des Führers” (The Genealogical Tree of the Leader). In 1937, it was concluded that Hitler’s family were German Austrians without Jewish ancestry and that Hitler had an impeccable “Aryan” image. ^{2 3} As Alois same legitimated Johann Georg Hiedler as his biological father (with three witnesses supporting and watching this), and the priest of changing the blank father on the birth certificate in 1876 this was considered proof certified copy of the Ancestry of Hitler, reason why Hitler considered an Aryan.

Death and burial

Maria died during the sixth year of her marriage, at the age of 52 in Klein-Motten where she lived with her husband at the home of her relatives, the Sillip family. She died of ” tuberculosis resulting from hydrocephalus pectoral (thoracic)” in 1847. She was buried in the parish church in Döllersheim.

After the Anschluss of Austria in 1938, a search failed to find his grave so he was given a “burial by way of honor” by the side of the church wall. This tomb was taken care of by local groups of the Hitler Youths while in Döllersheim and its environs they became tried lots of earth. In 1942, this area became part of an artillery training area and villagers were removed. Military training continued under the Soviets after 1945, and also under the Austrian army, until about 1985, at which time most of the towns and villages were in ruins. The church in Döllersheim is preserved and in the process of reconstruction. The cemetery is being taken care of, but there is no stone now for Maria Schicklgruber.

Family

Some Schicklgrubers remain at Waldviertel. In 1940, Hitler’s second cousin, Aloisia Veit, was gassed at the Hartheim Euthanasia Center. Veit, a 49-year-old schizophrenic , was killed as part of Action T4 , the Nazi extermination program for people with disabilities.

References