Maria Anna Schicklgruber (April 15, 1795 – January 7, 1847) was Adolf Hitler's paternal grandmother.

Born in the tiny village of Strones , Austria, she was the daughter of Theresia Pfeisinger (? - November 11, 1821) and farmer Johannes Schicklgruber (May 29, 1764 - November 12, 1847) Like her family and all or almost all of her neighbors, Maria was Catholic, and what little historians know about her is based on church and other public records.

She was one of eleven children, only six of her brothers and sisters surviving infancy. Her life growing up was that of a poor peasant child living in a rural German backwater of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The area she lived in is known as the Waldviertel , a hilly, forested area, picturesque but poor, in the northwest part of Lower Austria, northeast of Vienna.

Maria's mother died in 1821, when Maria was 26, leaving her an inheritance of 74.25 gulden. She left this money invested in the Orphans' Fund until 1838, by which time it had more than doubled, increasing to 165 gulden. For comparison, at that time, a breeding pig cost four gulden, a cow could be purchased for ten to twelve gulden, and an entire inn could be purchased for around 500 gulden. Werner Maser (1973)¹ therefore concludes that she was a "thrifty, reserved, and exceptionally shrewd peasantwoman."

Other than saving her inheritance, which proves she was not destitute at that period of her life but financially able to save money, nothing is known about her life until she was over forty. Historian Bradley F. Smith of the Hoover Institute speculates that it was possible Maria went off to a city and took a job as a maid. He also states that on the other hand, it was possible she stayed in her home village of Strones and found casual employment. In short, history simply has no record of her life until she did something that got documented: she had a child.

In 1837 she was 42 years old, still single, when her first and only child was born, a boy, whom she named Aloys. Maser writes that she refused to reveal who the child's father was, so the priest had no choice but to baptize him "Aloys Schicklgruber" and enter "illegitimate" in place of the father's name on the baptismal register. At the time of the birth of her son, she was living with a Strones village family by the name of Trummelschlager. Herr and Frau Trummelschlager were listed as godparents to Maria's child.

Soon after, Maria took up residence with her father, moving to house #22 in Strones. After an unknown period, the Schicklgrubers were joined by Johann Georg Hiedler, an itinerant journeyman miller, who took up residence with Maria, her father, and her child.

Five years after the birth of Aloys, on May 10, 1842 at a ceremony in the nearby village of Döllersheim , Maria Anna Schicklgruber married Johann Georg Hiedler. Maria was now 47, her new husband 50.

Maser contends that if Hiedler had been the biological father of Maria's son Aloys, the couple would have acknowledged it now that they were married. There was a church procedure for such things, but Maria and Johann did not have the Church legitimize Aloys, and he remained officially illegimate during their lifetimes. It cannot even be asserted that Maria herself knew who her son's father was, as there is no evidence that she did or did not know. Because of all this, Maser concludes Johann Georg Hiedler was not Aloys' biological father, and hence not Adolf Hitler's grandfather, as later was claimed. The question became important after Hitler began to seek power, as one of Nazism's principles was that no one could be considered a German who could not document their ancestry. (For a full discussion of this issue, see the article on Alois Hitler.)

After Maria's marriage, at some unknown time, but no more than five years later, Aloys was sent to live with Johann Georg's brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler who had a modest but prosperous farm in the village of Spital. Maria and Johann Georg also moved, to Klein-Motten. The reason that Aloys was sent away is not known. There is some speculation that Johann Nepomuk may have been Aloys' biological father.

Maria had only five years of marriage, then she passed away at the age of 52 in Klein-Motten , Austria, where she was living with her husband in the home of their relations, the Sillip family.

The Döllersheim parish record states that Maria died of "consumption resulting from pectoral (thoracic) dropsy." The year was 1847.

Footnotes

¹See list of references.

References

• Bullock, Alan Hitler: A Study in Tyranny 1953 ISBN 0060920203
• Fest, Joachim C. Hitler Verlag Ullstein, 1973 ISBN 0-15-141650-8
• Kershaw, Ian Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris W W Norton, 1999 ISBN 0-393-04671-0
• Maser, Werner Hitler: Legend, Myth and Reality Penguin Books Ltd 1973 ISBN 0-06-012831-3
• Smith, Bradley F. Adolf Hitler: His Family, Childhood and Youth Hoover Institute, 1967 ISBN 66-25727