June 7, 1837: The unmarried, 42-year-old Maria Anna Schicklgruber of the village of Strones, a "hotel servant" in the Wooded Quarter, gives birth to Adolf Hitler's father, Alois. The space for "Father" on the birth form is left blank. Her son will be known as Alois Schicklgruber for the next 40 years.
June 6, 1876: A legal notary in Weitra takes the testimony of three illiterate witnesses: The undersigned witnesses hereby confirm that Johann Georg Hiedler, who was well known to them, acknowledged paternity of the child Alois, son of Anna Schicklgruber, and they request that his name be entered in the baptismal record.
Why, after being apparently contented with the Schicklgruber handle for 40 years, did Alois decide to change his name? August Kubizek, a mostly reliable primary source for Hitler's Vienna years, speculated that since old Johann Nepomuk had no male heirs, he therefore made a will, leaving part of his estate to Alois, on condition that he took the name. Kubizek should have stuck with what he knew: a will to this effect has never been found; and Alois, with a 50-year-old wife at the time, was not likely to sire any immediate heirs. It has often been suggested that Alois, who was of course literate, chose the spelling Hitler, not Huettler, as Johann Nepomuk preferred. The fact is that Johann Nepomuk may well have preferred neither spelling, or, being illiterate, he was perhaps ignorant of the distinction. It has also been noted that Nepomuk himself was baptized as 'Heidler' and married as 'Huettler.'
June 7, 1876: The parish priest of the Doellersheim hamlet strikes out the name Schicklgruber from the birth registry, inserts the phrase "within wedlock" to replace "out of wedlock" and fills in the space for Father--until then empty--with Johann Georg Hitler. Alois and Klara are now legally second cousins.
The end result of all this chicanery is that Alois Schicklgruber now legally assumes the name Alois Hitler. Even if Johann Georg really was Alois's father, the within wedlock insertion is obviously Bavarian bologna, and in addition, it was still illegal to change paternity without the consent of the mother, who was dead and could give no consent.
What's in a name? Adolf Hitler would describe this name change as the best thing his old man ever did. He once opined to Kubizek that Schicklgruber was "...so uncouth, so boorish, apart from being so clumsy and unpractical... (Adolf) found Hiedler...too soft; but Hitler sounded nice and was easy to remember." It has been said so often that it has become a cliche, but it is obvious that the faintly comical Heil Schicklgruber would certainly not have had much appeal to the masses.
Was Johann Georg Hiedler really Adolf Hitler's grandfather, as Hitler himself believed? That Johann Georg never acknowledged the fact is problematic. The strongest second choice would be Johann Georg's brother, Johann Nepomuk, the man who so readily took in the young Alois. Proof of paternity is lacking in each case, however. We will probably never know. Nevertheless, one thing is clear: that with the ambiguity in Hitler's family tree concerning the identity of his paternal grandfather, Adolf would not have been eligible to marry an "Aryan" maiden under his own eugenics laws.
January 6, 1877: Alois Schicklgruber's name officially and legally becomes Alois Hitler.
April 20, 1889: Adolf Hitler arrives into the world that he is destined to affect so drastically on a cold, overcast "Holy Saturday," the day before Easter.
April 22, 1889: Father Ignaz Probst baptizes little Adolf, writing his name as Adolfus on the certificate. Little Adolf will be known as 'Adi' for his first three years.
Conclusion: There is no proof that Hitler had Jewish blood. There is no proof that he did not, but since Jews were prohibited from living in--or even visiting--the region where Hitler's grandmother resided, the likelihood is small indeed. However, those who insist that Hitler DID have Jewish blood, despite the lack of evidence for it, have been accused of persisting in the unfounded belief in an attempt to blame the Jews themselves for Hitler's most known act: The Holocaust. By claiming that Hitler was himself Jewish, they extrapolate that the Holocaust is thus the Jews' own fault. Facts matter. The 6 million plus dead deserve no less.
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