Johanna Hiedler

Johanna Pölzl born Hiedler (January 19, 1830 − February 8, 1906), was the maternal grandmother of Adolf Hitler.

Johanna was born and lived her entire life in the village of Spittal. On September 5, 1848, Johanna married Johann Baptist Pölzl, a farmer and son of Johann Pölzl and Juliana (Walli) Pölzl. The couple would eventually have 5 sons and 6 daughters. Of their 11 children, only 2 sons and 3 daughters survived into adulthood. Their seventh child and third daughter, Klara, was born on their farm in Spital on August 12, 1860.

On September 17, 1888, Johanna was orphaned when both her parents, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler and Eva Maria (Decker) Hiedler, died. Her daughter Klara would eventually become the 3rd wife of Alois Hiedler [changed c.1876 from Schicklgruber] (later known as Alois Hitler, after at the age of forty, deciding on his stepfathers name, Hiedler, and the spelling 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 May 10, 1842. Alois would claim in later life that Johann Georg Hiedler was not his stepfather, but in fact his biological father and was officially declared his legitimate son in 1876, but this claim was met with great debate among historians as to Alois Hitler's actual paternity.

Together, Klara and Alois had 6 children. The fourth of those six children, was Adolf Hitler (born April 20, 1889, at 6.30pm). Only one other of Klara's children, the youngest one named Paula, survived into adulthood. Klara's husband, Alois, also had two other children, Alois Junior and Angela, from his second marriage.

Literature:

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.