# Shicklgruber another name for Adolf Hitler, Nazi dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945. Hitler's father, Alois (born 1837), was illegitimate and for a time bore his mother's name, Schicklgruber, but by 1876 he had established his claim to the surname Hitler. Adolf (born 1889) never used any other name, and the name Schicklgruber was revived only by his political opponents in Germany and Austria in the 1930s. During his late teens and early twenties, Hitler avoided common labor (as he believed himself to be an artist) but earned small sums selling tinted postcards, making watercolor pictures and working as a house painter.