Adolf Hitler was born on April 20 1889 at Braunau am Inn Austria a small town in Upper Austria on the border with Germany He was the third son and the fourth of six children of Alois Hitler born Schicklgruber 1837–1903 a minor customs official and Klara Pölzl 1860–1907 his second cousin and third wife Because of the close kinship of the two a papal dispensation had to be