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Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (German: [ˈadɔlf ˈhɪtlɐ] ( listen); 20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the Nazi Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP); National Socialist German Workers Party). He was chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and dictator of Nazi Germany (as Führer und Reichskanzler) from 1934 to 1945. Hitler was at the centre of Nazi Germany, World War II in Europe, and the Holocaust.
Hitler was a decorated veteran of World War I. He joined the German Workers' Party (precursor of the NSDAP) in 1919, and became leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923, he attempted a coup in Munich to seize power. The failed coup resulted in Hitler's imprisonment, during which time he wrote his memoir, Mein Kampf (My Struggle). After his release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting Pan-Germanism, antisemitism, and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda. Hitler frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as being part of a Jewish conspiracy.
Hitler's Nazi Party became the largest elected party in the German Reichstag, leading to his appointment as chancellor in 1933. Following fresh elections won by his coalition, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, which began the process of transforming the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich, a single-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of National Socialism. Hitler aimed to eliminate Jews from Germany and establish a New Order to counter what he saw as the injustice of the post-World War I international order dominated by Britain and France. His first six years in power resulted in rapid economic recovery from the Great Depression, the denunciation of restrictions imposed on Germany after World War I, and the annexation of territories that were home to millions of ethnic Germans, actions which gave him significant popular support.
Hitler actively sought Lebensraum ("living space") for the German people. His aggressive foreign policy is considered to be the primary cause of the outbreak of World War II in Europe. He directed large-scale rearmament and on 1 September 1939 invaded Poland, resulting in British and French declarations of war on Germany. In June 1941, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. By the end of 1941 German forces and their European allies occupied most of Europe and North Africa. Failure to defeat the Soviets and the entry of the United States into the war forced Germany onto the defensive and it suffered a series of escalating defeats. In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, Hitler married his long-time lover, Eva Braun. On 30 April 1945, less than two days later, the two committed suicide to avoid capture by the Red Army, and their corpses were burned. Under Hitler's leadership and racially motivated ideology, the regime was responsible for the genocide of at least 5.5 million Jews, and millions of other victims whom he and his followers deemed racially inferior.
Contents  [hide]
1 Early years
1.1 Ancestry
1.2 Childhood and education
1.3 Early adulthood in Vienna and Munich
1.4 World War I
2 Entry into politics
2.1 Beer Hall Putsch
2.2 Rebuilding the NSDAP
3 Rise to power
3.1 Brüning administration
3.2 Appointment as chancellor
3.3 Reichstag fire and March elections
3.4 Day of Potsdam and the Enabling Act
3.5 Removal of remaining limits
4 Third Reich
4.1 Economy and culture
4.2 Rearmament and new alliances
5 World War II
5.1 Early diplomatic successes
5.1.1 Alliance with Japan
5.1.2 Austria and Czechoslovakia
5.2 Start of World War II
5.3 Path to defeat
5.4 Defeat and death
5.5 The Holocaust
6 Leadership style
7 Legacy
8 Religious views
9 Health
10 Family
11 Hitler in media
12 See also
13 Footnotes
14 References
14.1 Sources
15 External links
Early years
Ancestry
Hitler's father, Alois Hitler, Sr. (1837–1903), was the illegitimate child of Maria Anna Schicklgruber.[2] Because the baptismal register did not show the name of his father, Alois initially bore his mother's surname, Schicklgruber. In 1842, Johann Georg Hiedler married Alois's mother, Maria Anna. After she died in 1847 and Johann Georg Hiedler in 1856, Alois was brought up in the family of Hiedler's brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler.[3] In 1876, Alois was legitimated and the baptismal register changed by a priest to register Johann Georg Hiedler as Alois's father (recorded as Georg Hitler).[4][5] Alois then assumed the surname Hitler,[5] also spelled as Hiedler, Hüttler, or Huettler. The Hitler surname is probably based on "one who lives in a hut" (Standard German Hütte for hut) or on "shepherd" (Standard German hüten for to guard); alternatively, it might be derived from the Slavic words Hidlar or Hidlarcek (small cottager or small holder).[6]
Nazi official Hans Frank suggested that Alois's mother had been employed as a housekeeper for a Jewish family in Graz and that the family's 19-year-old son, Leopold Frankenberger, had fathered Alois.[7] Because no Frankenberger was registered in Graz during that period, and no record of Leopold Frankenberger's existence has been produced,[8] historians dismiss the claim that Alois's father was Jewish.[9][10]
Childhood and education

Adolf Hitler as an infant (c. 1889–1890).
Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary (in present day Austria), close to the border with the German Empire.[11] He was the fourth of six children to Alois Hitler and Klara Pölzl (1860–1907). Hitler's older siblings—Gustav, Ida, and Otto—died in infancy.[12] When Hitler was three, the family moved to Passau, Germany.[13] There he acquired the distinctive lower Bavarian dialect, rather than Austrian German, which marked his speech throughout his life.[14][15][16] In 1894 the family relocated to Leonding (near Linz), and in June 1895, Alois retired to a small landholding at Hafeld, near Lambach, where he farmed and kept bees. Hitler attended Volksschule (a state-owned school) in nearby Fischlham.[17][18]
The move to Hafeld coincided with the onset of intense father-son conflicts caused by Hitler's refusal to conform to the strict discipline of his school.[19] Alois Hitler's farming efforts at Hafeld ended in failure, and in 1897 the family moved to Lambach. The eight-year-old Hitler took singing lessons, sang in the church choir, and even considered becoming a priest.[20] In 1898 the family returned permanently to Leonding. The death of his younger brother Edmund, who died from measles in 1900, deeply affected Hitler. He changed from a confident, outgoing, conscientious student to a morose, detached, sullen boy who constantly fought with his father and teachers.[21]

Hitler's mother, Klara
Alois had made a successful career in the customs bureau and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps.[22] Hitler later dramatised an episode from this period when his father took him to visit a customs office, depicting it as an event that gave rise to an unforgiving antagonism between father and son, who were both strong-willed.[23][24][25] Ignoring his son's desire to attend a classical high school and become an artist, Alois sent Hitler to the Realschule in Linz in September 1900.[26] Hitler rebelled against this decision, and in Mein Kampf revealed that he intentionally did poorly in school, hoping that once his father saw "what little progress I was making at the technical school he would let me devote myself to my dream".[27]
Like many Austrian Germans, Hitler began to develop German nationalist ideas from a young age.[28] He expressed loyalty only to Germany, despising the declining Habsburg Monarchy and its rule over an ethnically variegated empire.[29][30] Hitler and his friends used the German greeting "Heil", and sang the "Deutschlandlied" instead of the Austrian Imperial anthem.[31]
After Alois's sudden death on 3 January 1903, Hitler's performance at school deteriorated and his mother allowed him to leave.[32] He enrolled at the Realschule in Steyr in September 1904, where his behaviour and performance showed some improvement.[33] In 1905, after passing a repeat of the final exam, Hitler left the school without any ambitions for further education or clear plans for a career.[34]
Early adulthood in Vienna and Munich

The house in Leonding where Hitler spent his early adolescence (photo taken c. 1984)
From 1905, Hitler lived a bohemian life in Vienna, financed by orphan's benefits and support from his mother. He worked as a casual labourer and eventually as a painter, selling watercolours of Vienna's sights. Vienna's Academy of Fine Arts rejected him in 1907 and again 1908, citing "unfitness for painting".[35][36] The director recommended that Hitler study architecture, which was also an interest, but he lacked academic credentials.[37] On 21 December 1907, his mother died of breast cancer at the age of 47. After the academy's second rejection, Hitler ran out of money and was forced to live in homeless shelters and men's hostels.[38] At the time Hitler lived there, Vienna was a hotbed of religious prejudice and racism.[39] Fears of being overrun by immigrants from the East were widespread, and the populist mayor, Karl Lueger, exploited the rhetoric of virulent antisemitism for political effect. Georg Schönerer's pan-Germanic antisemitism had a strong following in the Mariahilf district, where Hitler lived.[40] Hitler read local newspapers, such as the Deutsches Volksblatt, that fanned prejudice and played on Christian fears of being swamped by an influx of eastern Jews.[41] Hostile to what he saw as "Catholic Germanophobia", he developed an admiration for Martin Luther.[42]

The Alter Hof in Munich. Watercolour by Adolf Hitler, 1914
The origin and first expression of Hitler's antisemitism have been difficult to locate.[43] Hitler states in Mein Kampf that he first became an antisemite in Vienna.[44] His close friend, August Kubizek, claimed that Hitler was a "confirmed antisemite" before he left Linz.[45] Several sources provide strong evidence that Hitler had Jewish friends in his hostel and in other places in Vienna.[46][47] Historian Richard J. Evans states that "historians now generally agree that his notorious, murderous anti-Semitism emerged well after Germany's defeat [in World War I], as a product of the paranoid 'stab-in-the-back' explanation for the catastrophe".[48]
Hitler received the final part of his father's estate in May 1913 and moved to Munich.[49] Historians believe he left Vienna to evade conscription into the Austrian army.[50] Hitler later claimed that he did not wish to serve the Austro-Hungarian Empire because of the mixture of races in its army.[49] After he was deemed unfit for service—he failed his physical exam in Salzburg on 5 February 1914—he returned to Munich.[51]
World War I
Main article: Military career of Adolf Hitler

Hitler (far right, seated) with his army comrades of the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16 (c. 1914–1918)
At the outbreak of World War I, Hitler was living in Munich and volunteered to serve in the Bavarian Army as an Austrian citizen.[52] Posted to the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16 (1st Company of the List Regiment),[53][52] he served as a dispatch runner on the Western Front in France and Belgium,[54] spending nearly half his time well behind the front lines.[55][56] He was present at the First Battle of Ypres, the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Arras, and the Battle of Passchendaele, and was wounded at the Somme.[57] He was decorated for bravery, receiving the Iron Cross, Second Class, in 1914.[57] On a recommendation by Lieutenant Hugo Gutmann, Hitler's Jewish superior, he received the Iron Cross First Class on 4 August 1918, a decoration rarely awarded to one of Hitler's Gefreiter rank. [58][59] He received the Black Wound Badge on 18 May 1918.[60]

Adolf Hitler as a soldier during the First World War (1914–1918)
During his service at headquarters, Hitler pursued his artwork, drawing cartoons and instructions for an army newspaper. During the Battle of the Somme in October 1916, he was wounded in the left thigh when a shell exploded in the dispatch runners' dugout.[61] Hitler spent almost two months in hospital at Beelitz, returning to his regiment on 5 March 1917.[62] On 15 October 1918, he was temporarily blinded in a mustard gas attack and was hospitalised in Pasewalk.[63] While there, Hitler learnt of Germany's defeat, and—by his own account—on receiving this news, he suffered a second bout of blindness.[64]
Hitler described the war as "the greatest of all experiences", and was praised by his commanding officers for his bravery.[65] His wartime experience reinforced his German patriotism and he was shocked by Germany's capitulation in November 1918.[66] His bitterness over the collapse of the war effort began to shape his ideology.[67] Like other German nationalists, he believed the Dolchstoßlegende (stab-in-the-back myth), which claimed that the German army, "undefeated in the field", had been "stabbed in the back" on the home front by civilian leaders and Marxists, later dubbed the "November criminals".[68]
The Treaty of Versailles stipulated that Germany must relinquish several of its territories and demilitarise the Rhineland. The treaty imposed economic sanctions and levied heavy reparations on the country. Many Germans perceived the treaty—especially Article 231, which declared Germany responsible for the war—as a humiliation.[69] The Versailles Treaty and the economic, social, and political conditions in Germany after the war were later exploited by Hitler for political gain.[70]
Entry into politics
Main article: Adolf Hitler's political views
After World War I, Hitler returned to Munich.[71] With no formal education or career prospects, he remained in the army.[72] In July 1919 he was appointed Verbindungsmann (intelligence agent) of an Aufklärungskommando (reconnaissance commando) of the Reichswehr, assigned to influence other soldiers and to infiltrate the German Workers' Party (DAP). While monitoring the activities of the DAP, Hitler was attracted to the founder Anton Drexler's antisemitic, nationalist, anti-capitalist, and anti-Marxist ideas.[73] Drexler favoured a strong active government, a non-Jewish version of socialism, and solidarity among all members of society. Impressed with Hitler's oratory skills, Drexler invited him to join the DAP. Hitler accepted on 12 September 1919,[74] becoming the party's 55th member.[75]

A copy of Adolf Hitler's German Workers' Party (DAP) membership card
At the DAP, Hitler met Dietrich Eckart, one of the party's founders and a member of the occult Thule Society.[76] Eckart became Hitler's mentor, exchanging ideas with him and introducing him to a wide range of Munich society.[77] To increase its appeal, the DAP changed its name to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party – NSDAP).[78] Hitler designed the party's banner of a swastika in a white circle on a red background.[79]
Hitler was discharged from the army on 31 March 1920 and began working full-time for the NSDAP.[80] The party headquarters was in Munich, a major hotbed of anti-government German nationalists determined to crush Marxism and undermine the Weimar Republic.[81] In February 1921—already highly effective at speaking to large audiences—he spoke to a crowd of over 6,000.[82] To publicise the meeting, two truckloads of party supporters drove around Munich waving swastika flags and throwing leaflets. Hitler soon gained notoriety for his rowdy polemic speeches against the Treaty of Versailles, rival politicians, and especially against Marxists and Jews.[83]
In June 1921, while Hitler and Eckart were on a fundraising trip to Berlin, a mutiny broke out within the NSDAP in Munich. Members of its executive committee wanted to merge with the rival German Socialist Party (DSP).[84] Hitler returned to Munich on 11 July and angrily tendered his resignation. The committee members realised that the resignation of their leading public figure and speaker would mean the end of the party.[85] Hitler announced he would rejoin on the condition that he would replace Drexler as party chairman, and that the party headquarters would remain in Munich.[86] The committee agreed, and he rejoined the party on 26 July as member 3,680. Even then, Hitler still faced some opposition within the NSDAP: Opponents of Hitler in the leadership had Hermann Esser expelled from the party and printed 3,000 copies of a pamphlet attacking Hitler as a traitor to the party.[86][a] In the following days, Hitler spoke to several packed houses and defended himself and Esser, to thunderous applause. His strategy proved successful, and at a general membership meeting, he was granted absolute powers as party chairman, with only one vote against.[87]
Hitler's vitriolic beer hall speeches began attracting regular audiences. He became adept at using populist themes, including the use of scapegoats, who were blamed for his listeners' economic hardships.[88][89][90] Psychiatrist Carl Jung commented in 1938 that Hitler is the "first man to tell every German what he has been thinking and feeling all along in his unconscious about German fate, especially since the defeat in the World War".[91] Hitler used personal magnetism and an understanding of crowd psychology to advantage while engaged in public speaking.[92][93] Historians have noted the hypnotic effect of his rhetoric on large audiences, and of his eyes in small groups.[94] The historian Alfons Heck, a former member of the Hitler Youth describes the reaction to a speech by Hitler:
We erupted into a frenzy of nationalistic pride that bordered on hysteria. For minutes on end, we shouted at the top of our lungs, with tears streaming down our faces: Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil! From that moment on, I belonged to Adolf Hitler body and soul."[95]
— Alfons Heck
Although Hitler's oratory skills and personal traits were generally received well by large crowds and at official events, some who met Hitler privately noted that his appearance and demeanour failed to make a lasting impression.[96][97]
Early followers included Rudolf Hess, former air force ace Hermann Göring, and army captain Ernst Röhm. Röhm became head of the Nazis' paramilitary organisation, the Sturmabteilung (SA, "Stormtroopers"), which protected meetings and attacked political opponents. A critical influence on his thinking during this period was the Aufbau Vereinigung,[98] a conspiratorial group of White Russian exiles and early National Socialists. The group, financed with funds channelled from wealthy industrialists, introduced Hitler to the idea of a Jewish conspiracy, linking international finance with Bolshevism.[99]
Beer Hall Putsch
Main article: Beer Hall Putsch
In 1923 Hitler enlisted the help of World War I General Erich Ludendorff for an attempted coup known as the "Beer Hall Putsch". The Nazi Party used Italian Fascism as a model for their appearance and policies. Hitler wanted to emulate Benito Mussolini's "March on Rome" (1922) by staging his own coup in Bavaria, to be followed by a challenge to the government in Berlin. Hitler and Ludendorff sought the support of Staatskommissar (state commissioner) Gustav Ritter von Kahr, Bavaria's de facto ruler. However, Kahr, along with Police Chief Hans Ritter von Seisser and Reichswehr General Otto von Lossow, wanted to install a nationalist dictatorship without Hitler.[100]
On 8 November 1923 Hitler and the SA stormed a public meeting of 3,000 people that had been organised by Kahr in the Bürgerbräukeller, a large beer hall in Munich. He interrupted Kahr's speech and announced that the national revolution had begun, declaring the formation of a new government with Ludendorff.[101] Retiring to a backroom, Hitler, with handgun drawn, demanded and got the support of Kahr, Seisser, and Lossow.[101] Hitler's forces initially succeeded in occupying the local Reichswehr and police headquarters, but Kahr and his consorts quickly withdrew their support and neither the army nor the state police joined forces with Hitler.[102] The next day, Hitler and his followers marched from the beer hall to the Bavarian War Ministry to overthrow the Bavarian government, but police dispersed them.[103] Sixteen NSDAP members and four police officers were killed in the failed coup.[104]

Dust jacket of Mein Kampf (1926–1927)
Hitler fled to the home of Ernst Hanfstaengl and by some accounts contemplated suicide.[105] He was depressed but calm when arrested on 11 November 1923 for high treason.[106] His trial before the special People's Court in Munich began in February 1924,[107] and Alfred Rosenberg became temporary leader of the NSDAP. On 1 April, Hitler was sentenced to five years' imprisonment at Landsberg Prison.[108] There, he received friendly treatment from the guards, and he was allowed mail from supporters and regular visits by party comrades. The Bavarian Supreme Court issued a pardon, and he was released from jail on 20 December 1924, against the state prosecutor's objections.[109] Including time on remand, Hitler had served just over one year in prison.[110]
While at Landsberg, Hitler dictated most of the first volume of Mein Kampf (My Struggle; originally entitled Four and a Half Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice) to his deputy, Rudolf Hess.[110] The book, dedicated to Thule Society member Dietrich Eckart, was an autobiography and exposition of his ideology. Mein Kampf was influenced by The Passing of the Great Race by Madison Grant, which Hitler called "my Bible".[111] The book laid out Hitler's plans for transforming German society into one based on race. Some passages implied genocide.[112] Published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926, it sold 228,000 copies between 1925 and 1932. One million copies were sold in 1933, Hitler's first year in office.[113]
Rebuilding the NSDAP
At the time of Hitler's release from prison, politics in Germany had become less combative and the economy had improved, limiting Hitler's opportunities for political agitation. As a result of the failed Beer Hall Putsch, the NSDAP and its affiliated organisations were banned in Bavaria. In a meeting with Prime Minister of Bavaria Heinrich Held on 4 January 1925, Hitler agreed to respect the authority of the state and promised that he would seek political power only through the democratic process. The meeting paved the way for the ban on the NSDAP to be lifted on 16 February.[114] Hitler was barred from public speaking by the Bavarian authorities, a ban that remained in place until 1927.[115][116] To advance his political ambitions in spite of the ban, Hitler appointed Gregor Strasser, Otto Strasser, and Joseph Goebbels to organise and grow the NSDAP in northern Germany. A superb organiser, Gregor Strasser steered a more independent political course, emphasising the socialist elements of the party's programme.[117]
The stock market in the United States crashed on 24 October 1929. The impact in Germany was dire: millions were thrown out of work and several major banks collapsed. Hitler and the NSDAP prepared to take advantage of the emergency to gain support for their party. They promised to repudiate the Versailles Treaty, strengthen the economy, and provide jobs.[118]