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<b>2:47am</b> (UK)<br>
Schwarzenegger Says He Suffered Childhood Beatings <br>
<a href="http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3291900" eudora="autourl">http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3291900<br><br>
</a><i>By Mark Sage, PA News, in New York</i> <br><br>
Action hero turned politician Arnold Schwarzenegger has told how he
suffered what “would now be called child abuse” at the hands of his
father.<br><br>
In a candid interview the Terminator star said he was beaten by his
father Gustav – a wartime Nazi party official – to make him
“conform”.<br><br>
But he rebelled against the beatings and dreamed of escaping his home to
become rich and famous.<br><br>
He made a name for himself as a body builder after he arrived in America
at the age of 21. After a career in acting he is now the Governor of
California.<br><br>
Describing his upbringing to Fortune magazine, Schwarzenegger said: “My
hair was pulled. I was hit with belts. So was the kid next door, and so
was the kid next door.<br><br>
“It was just the way it was. Many of the children I’ve seen were broken
by their parents, which was the German-Austrian mentality.<br><br>
“Break the will. They didn’t want to create an individual. It was all
about conforming.” But he went on: “I was one who did not conform and
whose will could not be broken.<br><br>
“Therefore I became a rebel. Every time I got hit, and every time someone
said, ’you can’t do this,’ I said, ’this is not going to be for much
longer, because I’m going to move out of here. I want to be rich. I want
to be somebody’.” <br><br>
Republican Schwarzenegger was elected as Governor of California – the
world’s fifth largest economy – at the end of the last year when
Californians, sick of economic mismanagement, ousted Gray
Davis.<br><br>
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