Napoleon Bonaparte

THE EMPEROR OF FRANCE 1769 TO 1821 FRENCH:One of the greatest military commanders and a guts to take risk or gambler; an impatient short term planner and a workaholic genius ; with forgiveness attitude to his closest betrayers; a misogynist who could enthrall men; Napoleon Bonaparte was all of these and more, the twice-emperor of France whose military endeavors and sheer personality dominated Europe in person for a decade, and in thought for a century.



NAPOLEON BONAPARTE




Napoleon was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, on August 15th 1769 to Carlo Buonaparte, a lawyer and political opportunist, and his wife, Marie-Letizia. The Buonaparte's were a wealthy family from the Corsican nobility, although when compared to the great aristocracies of France Napoleon's kin were poor and pretentious. A combination of Carlo's social climbing, Letizia's adultery with the Comte de Marbeuf - Corsica's French military governor - and Napoleon's own ability enabled him to enter the military academy at Brienne in 1779. He moved to the Parisian École Royale Militaire in 1784 and graduated a year later as a second lieutenant in the artillery. Spurred on by his father's death in February 1785, the future emperor had completed in one year a course that often took three.

Adolf Hitler

Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungry to Alois Hitler and Klara Polzl. Of their six children, only Hitler and his younger sister, Paula could survive into adulthood. His father Alois, a custom official by profession, was tremendously violent to his wife and son, and used to beat them often. According to Hitler’s book, “he had a terrible childhood”. The regular whipping and violence committed by his father made him extremely sympathetic to his mother, while having an unfathomable bitterness towards his father. In spite of his father’s constant pressure to pursue a career like his, Hitler dropped out of high school without a diploma, as a revolt against his father. Even after his father’s death on 3 January 1903, he did not show any liking for studies and rather tried to be a painter.

During 1900’s, Hitler lived in Vienna with financial support from an orphan’s house; his mother died of breast cancer on 21 December 1907, at the age of 47. While living in Vienna, Hitler struggled as a painter after having been rejected twice by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna during 1907-1908. According to Hitler, his anti-Semitism came from having seen an orthodox Jew community in Vienna, a breeding ground of racial and religious prejudice at that time. Hitler held the Jew community responsible for Germany’s collapse and economic problems thereafter. In May 1913, Hitler came into possession of the final part of his father’s estate and moved to Munich. With Germany entering World War I in August 1914, Hitler enlisted in the Bavarian army.