>In his youth, Hitler served as an altar boy and sung in the choir at a Benedictine monastery. Each day, attending mass, he passed beneath the first swastika he had ever seen, graven into the stone escutcheon of the abbey portal.
>Hitler’s father, a customs officer, hoped the boy would follow in his footsteps and become a civil servant. The clergy encouraged him to become a monk. Instead the young Hitler went to Vienna.
>In Vienna, Hitler lived in shabby, cramped lodgings. He rented a piano that took up half his room, and concentrated on composing his opera. During his early days in Munich, he spent no more than a mark per day for food. He lived on bread, milk, and vegetable soup. He did not even own an over-coat. He shoveled streets on snowy days and carried luggage at the railway station. He spent many weeks in shelters for the homeless. But he never stopped painting or reading.
>Despite his dire poverty, Hitler somehow managed to maintain a clean appearance. Landlords and landladies in Vienna and Munich all remembered him for his civility and pleasant disposition. His behavior was impeccable. His room was always spotless, his meager belongings meticulously arranged, and his clothes neatly hung or folded. He washed and ironed his own clothes, something which in those days few men did. He needed almost nothing to survive, and money from the sale of a few paintings was sufficient to provide for all his needs.
>During his exile in Vienna, he often thought of his modest home, and particularly of his mother. When she fell ill, he returned home from Vienna to look after her. For weeks he nursed her, did all the household chores, and supported her as the most loving of sons. When she finally died, on Christmas eve, his pain was immense. Wracked with grief, he buried his mother in the little country cemetery. In his room, Hitler always displayed an old photograph of his mother, and cherished her memory throughout his life.
Was he on the autism spectrum?