Hitler was Austrian

Given his affiliation with German nationalism, the fact that Hitler was Austrian, born in Braunau am Inn in April 1889, may appear strange. This predilection, however, was not uncommon among Austrians. Hitler learned to loathe the Austro-Hungarian Empire and show devotion solely to Germany under the tutelage of his high school teacher, Leopold Poetsch, who had strong German nationalist instincts (and later taught Adolf Eichmann). Hitler enlisted in the Bavarian Army in 1914 while residing in Munich before renunciation his Austrian citizenship in 1925 and becoming a German citizen in the early 1930s. Despite the fact that the family moved from Braunau am Inn to Linz when Adolf was three years old, the border town and the home where he was born (but only remained for a few weeks) have a long-standing issue with their association with Hitler.

On February 25, 1932, Adolf Hitler became a German citizen. After years of being stateless, a fellow Nazi Party member promoted Hitler to a low-level government position that provided automatic citizenship. Hitler's new stature enabled him to fulfill his political objectives. He could run for office as a citizen, and by the middle of 1934, he had complete control of Germany as Führer und Reichskanzler (leader and chancellor). Hitler, as Führer, redefined citizenship to fulfill his views. He utilized race and pan-German ancestry to give and take citizenship away from vast groups of people. By the time World War II began, Hitler's ideals of German dominance had fueled a military campaign that had demolished boundaries and entire communities all throughout Europe.