Johanna Hiedler

Johanna Pölzl née Hiedler^[1] (19 January 1830 – 8 February 1906), was the maternal grandmother of Adolf Hitler.

Johanna was born and lived her entire life in the village of Spital (part of Weitra), in the Waldviertel of Lower Austria. On 5 September 1848, Johanna married Johann Baptist Pölzl (1825–1901), a farmer and the son of Johann Pölzl and Juliana (Walli) Pölzl. The couple would eventually have five sons and six daughters. Of their eleven children, only two sons and three daughters survived into adulthood. Their seventh child, and third daughter, Klara, was born on their farm in Spital on 12 August 1860.

On 17 September 1888, Johanna's elderly parents, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler (or Hüttler) and Eva Maria (née Decker), died. Her daughter Klara would eventually become the third wife of Alois Hiedler (né Schicklgruber – Alois decided, at the age of 40, to take his stepfather's surname, Hiedler, the spelling of which was later changed by a clerk to Hitler). Alois was the illegitimate son of Maria Schicklgruber, who had married Johanna's paternal uncle, Johann Georg Hiedler on 10 May 1842. Alois would claim in later life that Johann Georg Hiedler was not his stepfather, but in fact his biological father, and he was officially declared Johann's legitimate son in 1876, although this claim as to Alois's real paternity has remained the subject of much debate among historians.

Klara and Alois had six children. The fourth of these was Adolf Hitler (born 20 April 1889). Only one other of Klara's children – the youngest, named Paula – survived into adulthood. Klara's husband, Alois, also had two other children, Alois junior and Angela, from his second marriage (to Franziska Matzelsberger).

See also

• Hitler family

Notes

References

• Marc Vermeeren. "De jeugd van Adolf Hitler 1889-1907 en zijn familie en voorouders". Soesterberg, 2007, 420 blz. Uitgeverij Aspekt. ISBN 90-5911-606-2.