One of the most powerful and infamous dictators of the 20th century was Adolf Hitler, head of Germany's Nazi Party. Beginning in 1933, Hitler used the country's economic problems, public unrest, and parliamentary squabbling as his excuse to seize total control. World War II began in 1939 as a result of Germany's invasion of Poland, and by 1941, Nazi troops had taken control of much of Europe. Hitler's violent anti-Semitism and obsessive quest for Aryan supremacy were the primary causes of the Holocaust, which resulted in the murder of about 6 million Jews. Hitler committed suicide in a Berlin bunker in April 1945 after the war's momentum began to turn against him.
Who was Adolf Hitler | Biography
Early Years:
On April 20, 1889, in Braunau am Inn, a small Austrian village close to the Austro-German border, Adolf Hitler was born. Adolf was raised primarily in Linz, the state capital of Upper Austria when his father Alois retired from his position as a state customs agent.
He struggled in secondary school and eventually dropped out since he didn't want to become a public servant like his father. Adolf continued to pursue his desire to be an artist after Alois passed away in 1903, despite being turned down by Vienna's Academy of Fine Arts.
Hitler relocated to Vienna when his mother Klara passed away in 1908, where he pulled together a life by painting landscapes and monuments and then selling the paintings. Hitler spent his years in Vienna alone, secluded, and a voracious reader. During this time, he developed a passion for politics and many of the concepts that would come to define Nazi philosophy.
Who was Adolf Hitler | Biography
Adolf Hitler's Military Career:
Hitler relocated to Munich in the German state of Bavaria in 1913. He successfully petitioned the Bavarian king to be let to enlist in a reserve infantry regiment when World War I began the following summer.
Hitler served in the Great War and was deployed to Belgium in October 1914. He received two gallantry awards, including the rare Iron Cross First Class, which he wore till the end of his life.
In the course of the war, Hitler suffered two wounds: in 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, he was struck in the leg, and in 1918, a British gas attack near Ypres briefly blinded him. He was recovering at a hospital in Pasewalk, northeast of Berlin, when word of the ceasefire and Germany's loss in World War I reached him a month later.
Who was Adolf Hitler | Biography
Hitler Party:
Hitler joined the tiny German Workers' Party, which sought to combine the concerns of the working class with strong German nationalism, after arriving back in Munich in late 1918. His captivating energy and adept oratory helped him advance in the party's ranks, and in 1920 he quit the army and assumed control of its publicity initiatives.
The newly renamed National Socialist German Workers Party, or Nazi Party, selected a variation of the mediaeval emblem of the Hakenkreuz, or hooked cross, as its logo in one of Hitler's brilliant acts of propaganda. Hitler's swastika, which was printed in a white circle on a red background, would eventually acquire a terrifying symbolic significance.
By the end of 1921, Hitler was in charge of the expanding Nazi Party, capitalising on the broad dissatisfaction with the Weimar Republic and the harsh Versailles Treaty provisions. In particular, Ernst Röhm recruited the "strong arm" squads, known as the Sturmabteilung (SA), which Hitler deployed to defend party meetings and assassinate opponents. A large number of disgruntled former army officers in Munich would later join the Nazis.
Who was Adolf Hitler | Biography
Mein Kampf:
Hitler was found guilty of treason and given a five-year prison term; however, he would only serve nine months of that time in the comfort of Landsberg Castle. He started dictating the manuscript for "Mein Kampf" ("My Struggle"), the first volume of which was released in 1925.
Hitler outlined his ideas for the Germany—and the world—he hoped to establish when he came to power, expanding on the nationalistic, anti-Semitic sentiments he had started to form in Vienna in his early twenties.
After his release, Hitler would unwind in the mountain resort of Berchtesgaden while finishing the second volume of "Mein Kampf." It started off with modest sales, but as Hitler rose to power, it quickly overtook the Bible as the best-selling book in Germany. It had sold about 6 million copies there by 1940.
The Zweites Buch, Hitler's second book, was published in 1928 and included his views on international affairs. Due to "Mein Kampf's" dismal initial sales, it was not released during his lifetime. It wasn't until 1962 that "The Zweites Buch" was first published in English under the title "Hitler's Secret Book."
Who was Adolf Hitler | Biography
Eva Braun:
During these years, Hitler spent a lot of time at Berchtesgaden, where his half-sister Angela Raubal frequently visited with her two daughters. Hitler reportedly possessed jealousy that caused his niece Geli Raubal, who was a stunning blonde, to commit suicide in 1931.
Hitler would mourn the loss of Geli, whom he would regard as his one and only genuine love. Eva Braun, a Munich store employee, and he quickly started dating, but he declined to wed her.
The Weimar Republic was once more in danger of falling apart due to the global Great Depression, which started in 1929. Hitler developed Nazi support among German conservatives, including the army, economic, and industrial leaders, in order to gain political power and influence his revolution.
Nazi Germany:
Hitler earned 36.8% of the vote when he campaigned for president in 1932 against the military hero Paul von Hindenburg. Three successive chancellors failed to retain control of the government's instability, and in late January 1933, Hindenburg appointed the 43-year-old Hitler as chancellor, capping the unexpected leader's ascent.
The Third Reich, sometimes known as the "Thousand-Year Reich" (after Hitler's assertion that it would last for a millennium), officially began operations on January 30, 1933.
Hitler's Foreign Policy:
Germany was unfriendly neighbours, had a weak military, and was diplomatically isolated in 1933. (France and Poland). Hitler made a famous speech in May 1933 in which he claimed that Germany favoured disarmament and peace.
Hitler's primary objective, however, remained the dominance and growth of the Volk, which remained hidden under this appeasement tactic.
He withdrew Germany from the League of Nations by the beginning of the following year and started militarizing his country in preparation for his intentions to conquer new territory.
Who was Adolf Hitler | Biography
Victimization of Jews:
The Nuremberg Laws, which were passed on September 15, 1935, stripped Jews of their German citizenship and forbade them from getting married to or having relationships with people who were "of German or related blood."
Even though the Nazis made an effort to downplay their treatment of Jews during the 1936 Berlin Olympics (in which German Jews were not allowed to participate), new laws disenfranchised Jews and revoked their civil and political rights during the following few years.
Along with its widespread anti-Semitism, Hitler's regime also worked to establish the supremacy of the Nazi culture by burning books, driving newspapers out of business, using radio and film for propaganda, and coercing educators across Germany's educational system to join the party.
The Geheime Staatspolizei (GESTAPO), an SS division that grew during this time, was mostly responsible for the Nazi persecution of Jews and other targets.
Beginning of World War II:
Hitler issued the order for German forces to reoccupy the demilitarised left bank of the Rhine in March 1936, defying the advice of his generals.
Germany formed alliances with Italy and Japan during the course of the following two years, seized Austria, and advanced against Czechoslovakia—all basically without any opposition from France, Great Britain, or the rest of the world.
Hitler signed a non-aggression deal with the Soviet Union after reaffirming his alliance with Italy in the so-called "Pact of Steel" in May 1939. After the Nazi invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, Britain and France eventually decided to declare war on Germany.
Who was Adolf Hitler | Biography
Camps for Concentration:
The SS had been running a network of concentration camps since 1933, notably the infamous Dachau camp close to Munich, which was used to detain Jews and other targets of the Nazi administration.
After the war began, the Nazis switched from ejecting Jews from areas under German control to executing them. During the Soviet invasion, Einsatzgruppen, or mobile killing squads, massacred entire Jewish communities as the network of concentration camps grew to include death camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau in occupied Poland.
Some Jews at Auschwitz were specifically targeted for horrifying medical experiments conducted by eugenicist Josef Mengele, known as the "Angel of Death," in addition to forced labour and mass execution. Under the pretence of medical study, Mengele subjected 3,000 juvenile captives to sickness, deformity, and torment in his twin-focused experiments.
Although the Nazis also persecuted and murdered Catholics, homosexuals, political dissidents, Roma (Gypsies), and the crippled, they mostly targeted Jews, who, by the end of the war, had been responsible for around 6 million deaths in German-occupied Europe.
World War II's conclusion
The tide of the war shifted against Germany with the defeats at El-Alamein and Stalingrad, as well as the arrival of American soldiers in North Africa by the end of 1942.
Hitler grew more lonely, ill, and dependent on medication given to him by his personal doctor as the war dragged on.
Numerous attempts were made to kill him, including one that nearly succeeded in July 1944 when Col. Claus von Stauffenberg detonated a bomb at a meeting at Hitler's East Prussian headquarters.
Following the successful Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944, the Allies started freeing towns all throughout Europe a short while later. Hitler intended to divide the British and American forces during December by launching a second onslaught through the Ardennes.
But after January 1945, he took refuge in a bunker in Berlin's Chancellery. Hitler prepared for a last-ditch resistance as Soviet forces closed in before ultimately abandoning that plan.
How Did Adolf Hitler Die?
Hitler wed Eva Braun in the Berlin bunker at 12 o'clock in the morning on the night of April 28–29. Hitler shot himself in his suite on April 30 after dictating his political testament; Braun ingested poison. According to Hitler's orders, their bodies were burned.
On May 7, 1945, Germany unconditionally submitted on all fronts, ending the European War and placing Soviet soldiers in control of Berlin.
Hitler's imagined "Thousand-Year Reich" only actually lasted a little over 12 years, but in that time, it wrought unimaginable havoc and devastation, altering German, European, and global history for all time.
Who was Adolf Hitler | Biography
