Arnold Schwarzenegger opens up about his Nazi father: “He was a tyrant”

As “Terminator”, Arnold Schwarzenegger coined the legendary phrase “I’ll be back” – “I’ll be back”. The action star is keeping that promise on Netflix for the second time in just a few months. Since the end of May, Schwarzenegger can be seen in his first series of leading roles at the streaming giant. In the action comedy «Fubar», Arnie lets loose as a CIA agent in a proven way.

The three-part documentary “Arnold”, on the other hand, is more thoughtful. The 75-year-old talks about his difficult childhood in Austria, his career as a bodybuilder and Hollywood star, his political career as governor of California and of course about scandals and his love and family life, which made headlines.

His childhood was mainly marked by violence and abuse by his father. “Our upbringing was very tough. There was a lot of violence at home. We got hits,” recalls the Styrian Hollywood star. His father, Gustav, was a Nazi Party official during World War II who was wounded in Leningrad, Russia. He returned to Austria a broken man. “He may have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression,” the actor speculates afterwards.

His father regularly came home drunk. “At 3am he was screaming and we woke up with our hearts pounding because we knew what that meant,” said the ‘Terminator’ star. Gustav Schwarzenegger was not only a real “tyrant” as the head of the district police. Discipline was very important to his sons and he often hit them with his belt. Meanwhile, Mother Aurelia had developed an urge to clean and was obsessed with the fact that “everything was always perfect”.

But the tough environment eventually spurred on Arnold Schwarzenegger. Each blow reinforced his decision to turn his back on home. In his early twenties, he emigrated to the US, became a bodybuilding champion and Hollywood star. He even served as governor of California from 2003 to 2011. However, his father Gustav did not notice much of this world career. He died of a stroke in 1972. (t-online, dpa, spot on news)