What+was+his+military+experience+and+how+did+it+affect+him?

fuk off (Adolf Hitler left) (Adolf Hitler--WWI Uniform)

At the start of the Great War in 1914 Adolf Hitler joined the Bavarian army. After training, he went to the front lines to fight. He fought very bravely and was very “at home” in the trenches. Hitler was awarded many medals including the Iron Cross in 1914 and the Iron Cross First Class 1918 for “personal bravery and general merit” (Ayer 32). In a letter to the woman who owned the house he lived in he said, "For 4 days we were engaged in the fiercest battle, and I can proudly say that our regiment fought like heroes. On the very first day, we lost nearly all our officers....I have, so to speak, been risking my life everyday, looking death straight in the eye.... On 2 December I finally received the Iron Cross. It was the happiest day of my life." (Ayer, 31) Hitler was so passionate about fighting for his country that when he was hit by a shell fragment from a bomb in the leg he begged his Lieutenant to allow him to continue fighting. He spent five months in a hospital in Berlin and then returned to the front lines. In 1917 Hitler came into contact with poisonous gas that temporarily blinded him while fighting in Belgium. Hitler was taken to a hospital where he remained until the end of the war. Naturally when he finally realized Germany had surrendered and signed the Treaty of Versailles, he was devastated. The Treaty put many restrictions on the German people, former land was given to other countries, they had to pay for damages done to civilians, they were not allowed to rebuild their military and they had to assume all guilt for the start of the war. These restrictions frustrated Hitler because he believed them to not be fair. He decided to go into politics to try and make Germany the great nation it had once been. Isabel Steven