Hitler ordered 6,800 people displaced to erase his ancestral village of Döllersheim

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In March 1938, Austria was annexed to Germany. This created a large new catchment area to recruit soldiers for the Wehrmacht. A practice area was urgently needed for this. The choice was an area of around 20,000 hectares in the Austrian Waldviertel, which is still the largest military training area in Austria today. In order to implement the military training area project, more than 40 towns, among them the village Döllersheim, first mentioned in 1143, and surrounding farms were expropriated. More than 6,800 people were displaced between 1938 and 1941. The choice of the area did not happen by chance but was ordered by Adolf Hitler personally. Many suspect that he wanted to erase the home of his ancestors and thus the secret of his ancestry forever.

The fact is that Hitler's father Alois was born in 1837 as the son of the unmarried Maria Anna Sicklgruber in Strones, just a few kilometers east of Döllersheim, and was registered as an illegitimate child. Thus he received the surname Schicklgruber. Five years after the birth, Maria Anna married Johann Georg Hiedler, who came from Spital. The child Alois was not legitimized and continued to use the name Sicklgruber. Alois did not live with Maria Anna and Johann Georg Hiedler, who remained in Strones, but grew up with Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, Johann Georg's brother, in Spital. Maria Anna Sicklgruber died in 1847; her husband Johann Georg Hiedler died in 1857. Alois carried the name Sicklgruber until 1876. Then he had his name changed to Alois Hitler, and Johann Georg Hiedler was entered in the documents as his father at the same time.

There were many rumors about Alois Sicklgruber's real father, Adolf Hitler's grandfather. They ranged from the father of Maria Anna Sicklgruber to Johann Georg Hiedler and Johann Nepomuk Hiedler. The rumor has persisted since the 1930s that Maria Anna Sicklgruber was the domestic servant of a Jewish family at the time Alois was conceived and that the son of this family is the father of their child Alois, which would make Adolf Hitler a quarter Jewish. If the thesis is correct that Johann Georg Hiedler is the father of Alois, then Alois's wife Klara Pölzl from Spital, mother of Adolf Hitler, would be her husband's cousin. If the thesis is correct that Johann Nepomuk Hiedler is the father of Alois, then Klara Pölzl would not only be the mother of Adolf Hitler, but also his cousin. Apart from his not ascertainable Aryan descent and the incestuous connections of his ancestors, Adolf Hitler did not even have the correct name. Heil Sicklgruber would not have sounded the same. So Adolf Hitler had reason enough to bury his past.

The "Allentsteig" military training area has been used by the Wehrmacht since 1938 and served as a location for 35,000 soldiers and as a firing range. Later it was also used as a prisoner-of-war camp and as a collection point for booty from the occupied eastern territories. When Austria was occupied by the Allied forces from 1945 to 1955, this area belonged to the Russian sector and the military training area was used by the Red Army, also as a transit camp for prisoners of war before they were transported to Russia. Since 1955, the area has been used by the Austrian Armed Forces as a practice area.

The small area around Döllersheim has not been part of the restricted military area since 1981. Since then, several memorials have been set up there. Among other things, these include a memorial to the lost homeland of the almost 7,000 displaced citizens, a memorial to the victims of the war and a memorial to the citizens of the Waldviertel who died in prisons and concentration camps. The former church has been rededicated and restored as the „Friedenskirche“ (Peace Church). The ruins of the former school, the rectory, the hospital, some other buildings and a well are open to visitors. The former cemetery is almost completely preserved.

Adolf Hitler's grandmother, Marie Anna Sicklgruber / Hiedler, was buried in this cemetery in 1847. When Hitler became the Führer, the grave of Maria Anna Sicklgruber could no longer be located. The village then erected a memorial for her directly on the church wall, which is no longer preserved today.