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
