"A friend of his youth, the son of a Linz painter and decorator, recalls Hitler telling him that the world ought to be "thoroughly changed, in every respect". On Hitler himself, this friend relates that "It made no difference whether he was talking about something finished, or something planned". He once bought a lottery ticket and was transported for a while into an unreal world in which he already occupied the 2nd floor of a sumptuous house in the Urfahr district of Linz (Kirchengasse 2), with a panoramic view across to the other bank of the Danube. Weeks before the lottery draw, he chose the furnishings, looked at furniture and fabrics, designed the interior decoration scheme and elaborated - to this friend of his - his plans for a life of lofty independence and generous patronage of the arts, under the tutelage of an "elderly, slightly greying but exquisitely elegant lady" whom in his mind's eye he already saw "on the festively lit stairs" welcoming the guests who belonged to his "select, elated circle of friends". Until, that is, the day of the draw shattered this dream of which he had been so certain, unleashing a raving tantrum in which he cursed and damned not only his own misfortune but also - in a telling escalation of his anger - the gullibility of people in general, the state lottery system and finally the fraudulent State itself."

Fest, Joachim C.: Hitler, A Biography, Propylaen, Germany, 1973, p.42

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