Military career of Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler during the First World War.
Allegiance	German Empire  Weimar Republic
Service/branch	Imperial German Army Reichsheer
Years of service	1914–1920
Rank	Gefreiter
Unit	16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment
Battles/wars	World War I First Battle of Ypres Battle of the Somme (WIA) Battle of Arras Battle of Passchendaele
Awards	Iron Cross First Class Iron Cross Second Class Wound Badge Honor Cross 1914-1918 Bavarian Cross of Military Merit, Third Class with Swords Bavarian Medal of Military Service, Third Class Regimental Diploma (Regiment "List")

World War I

The military career of Adolf Hitler can be divided into two distinct portions of Adolf Hitler's life. Mainly, the period during World War I when Hitler served as a Gefreiter (lance corporal) in the Bavarian Army, and the era of World War II when Hitler served as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces) through his position as Führer of Nazi Germany.

Hitler received the final part of his father's estate in May 1913 and moved to Munich, where he earned money painting architectural scenes. He may have left Vienna to evade conscription into the Austrian Army.Hitler later claimed that he did not wish to serve the Habsburg Empire because of the mixture of "races" in its army. The Bavarian police sent him back to Salzburg for induction into the Austrian Army, but he failed his physical exam on 5 February 1914 and returned to Munich.

He was 25 years old in August 1914, when Austria-Hungary and the German Empire entered into the First World War. Because of his Austrian citizenship, he had to request permission to serve in the Bavarian Army. Permission was granted. Hitler almost certainly was enlisted by an error on behalf of the government. This is based on a report by the Bavarian authorities in 1924, which questioned how Hitler was allowed to serve in the Bavarian Army. They could not explain why he was not deported back to Austria in 1914 after he failed his physical exam for the Austrian Army and concluded that Hitler's citizenship was simply not raised, thus he was allowed to enter the Bavarian Army. In the army, Hitler continued to put forth his German nationalist ideas which he developed from a young age.