Young Hitler was inconsolable and cried for four days straight. Two years later in 1905 Hitler himself suffered from a less severe case of lung disease from which he fully recovered. He used the medical mishap as an excuse to convince his mother to let him drop out of school (Heyes 20-21). He made a full recovery and went on to study art in Germany for the next two months. People saw a pale sickly looking teen that came off as quiet and reserved. He returned to Austria where for the next two years he would be a hermit, surrounding himself with books and rarely going to the opera with his only friend, August Kubizek. Anti-Semitism was a part of everyday life in Austria as it was in much of Europe. In his late teens Hitler became a vocal anti-Semite and outspoken supporter of German nationalism. Even though he was Austrian by birth he believed that all German-speaking peoples should be united to for one magnificent and powerful German nation (Heyes 21).
Hitler continued to peruse his quest for knowledge and love of art. He moved to Linz, Austria in 1907 to go to the Academy of Fine Arts. He would soon be disappointed to find that the paintings he submitted for the academy's painting exam were labeled unsatisfactory and that he would not be admitted (Stalcup 33-34). Not even three months after being rejected from the fine arts academy fate yet again dealt him a bad hand when his mother died on December 21, 1907 of breast cancer. He later wrote, "it was a dreadful blow, I had honored my father, but my mother I had loved-. Kubizek commented that, "He had lost the only creature on earth on whom he had concentrated his love, and who had loved him in return- (Heyes 22-23). Hitler tried once more to get into the academy while Kubizek was out of town. The instructors judged his portfolio as poor, and said that there was no point in letting Hitler try to take the entry examination because he would just fail it.
