Adolf Hitler's wealth and income

Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945, earned millions of Reichsmarks (ℛℳ) throughout his political career, mainly through sales of his book Mein Kampf ("My Struggle") and his combined Chancellor's and President's salaries. After coming to power, Hitler made himself tax-exempt.

Early life
Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 and grew up in a poor family in Braunau am Inn, a small Austrian village on the border with the Germany. 3 of his siblings —Gustav, Ida, and Otto— died in infancy due to common childhood diseases. Hitler's mother, Klara, was a homemaker; his father, Alois, unsuccessfully tried to establish a farm. After going through high school in Linz, he moved to Vienna where he was initially supported by his mother and orphan's benefits.

Artistic ambitions
Once in Vienna, Hitler lived a Bohemian life alongside his childhood friend August Kubizek. The two shared a room rented from a local tailor. Hitler painted pictures, watercolours, and copied postcards and sold them to tourists for a small profit. In 1907, he applied to join Vienna's Academy of Fine Arts, but was rejected due to a "lack of talent". In 1908, Hitler tried again, but was once again rejected. Shortly afterwards, Hitler ran out of money and was forced to live in homeless shelters and men's hostels. Although receiving a monthly orphan's pension of 25 kronen, this was not enough to subsist on and he found some income by clearing snow and carrying luggage for rail passengers. In 1909, Hitler made the acquaintance of Reinhold Hanisch, who suggested that Hitler should ask for help from his relatives and a gift of 50 kronen arrived from his Aunt Johanna, enabling him to buy a new coat. At Hanisch's suggestion, he began to paint scenes of Vienna which Hanisch sold for him. The income from this enterprise allowed Hitler to move into a more respectable men's home in the north of Vienna.

In 1913, Hitler turned 24 and was eligible to receive a legacy from his deceased father amounting to 820 kronen. Hitler had long been planning to move to Munich in Bavaria, a cultural centre and home to the Academy of Fine Arts which Hitler hoped to enter. Another reason for leaving Austria was probably to avoid conscription into the Austro-Hungarian Army. He left Vienna on 24 May 1913.

In Munich, Hitler rented a small room over a shop and, as in Vienna, began painting watercolours of local tourist sights which he then sold in cafés and beerhalls. He was able to make a modest living in this way, and later reported to the authorities that he was earning around 1,200 marks per month during this period.

First World War
Although Hitler later claimed that at the outbreak of the First World War, he petitioned the King of Bavaria for permission to serve in the Bavarian Army because he was still an Austrian citizen, a post-war inquiry established that his status as a foreigner went unnoticed in the first frenzied days of enlistment. After brief training, Hitler saw action with his infantry regiment at the First Battle of Ypres. Shortly afterwards, he was promoted to corporal and assigned to the regimental headquarters as a runner to carry messages to forward units, a role he continued in until the end of the war.

Hitler remained in the army after the Armistice of 11 November 1918, staying on the payroll until March 1920. After some time idle in camps and barracks, he guarded an internment camp. Hitler's wages at that time were 40 marks per month plus a bonus of 4 marks for testing old gas marks. In June 1919, he was sent on a course of anti-Bolshevik instruction at Munich University, following which he became a military agent for the Reichswehr.

Party membership
In Hitler's role as an agent, he was sent to infiltrate the German Workers' Party (DAP) which Hitler joined in late September 1919. After being demobilised from the army in March 1920, Hitler worked full-time for the party, now renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NASPD). Although it was claimed that Hitler received no income from the party and lived on the fees he received from public speaking at external events, he was actually supported financially by several wealthy patrons and party sympathisers.

Mein Kampf sales
Hitler wrote his political manifesto and autobiography Mein Kampf ("My Struggle") in Landsberg prison while serving a sentence for high treason committed during the failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. Mein Kampf was printed by the Franz Eher Nachfolger publishing house and largely ignored at first, but sales began to boom in the late 1920s and early 1930s as economic depression and social unrest troubled Germany, factors which significantly boosted Hitler's popularity. After Hitler came to power in 1933, couples who married during the Nazi state were given a copy as a wedding gift. The book eventually became a bestseller within Germany, selling almost twelve million copies by the war's end.

Nazi Party funds
While hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic had crippled the German economy and plunged millions of German workers into unemployment, Hitler and his party received lavish donations from wealthy benefactors at home and abroad. Iconic American car maker and antisemite Henry Ford was reported to be one of the foreign supporters. Edwin and Helene Bechstein, part of a wealthy aristocratic family who sold pianos, supported Hitler financially. Ruhr steel barons Fritz Thyssen and Gustav Krupp donated almost five million Reichsmarks to the Nazi Party over the course of the war.

Much of the party's income from donations was used to pay for Hitler's private projects, such as the Berghof and Eagle's Nest. He caused a minor controversy within leading elements of the party when he, in 1925, purchased a luxury Mercedes-Benz and a chauffeur to drive it for a total expenditure of. After examining Hitler's tax records from the Bavarian State Archives in Munich, economics journalist Wolfgang Zdral said, "He's driving a Mercedes, which cost incredible amounts of money at the time, can afford to go on travels and has enough money to finance his propaganda appearances. All of this is financed through a system of slush-funds, essentially the donation of larger and smaller benefactors".

Tax evasion
Throughout his rise to power, Hitler neglected to pay taxes on his income and allowances. In 1934, one year after becoming Chancellor, the tax office of Munich sent Hitler a fine of for failing to declare his income or file tax returns. He was given only eight days to pay off this debt. Hitler responded by ordering a state secretary of the ministry of finance to intervene, and became tax-exempt. The head of the Munich tax office declared: "All tax reports delivering substance for a tax obligation by the Führer are annulled from the start. The Führer is therefore tax-exempt." After the death of President Paul von Hindenburg, Hitler took over his office and claimed his salary as well.

In his last will and testament, Hitler left his entire estate to the German government: "What I own, as far as it is worth anything, belongs to the party. Should this no longer exist, the German state. Should the state also be destroyed, there is no need for a further decision on my part".