Adolf Hitler was leader of Germany during the Third Reich (1933 – 1945) and the primary instigator of both the Second World War
in Europe and the mass execution of millions of people deemed to be
"enemies" or inferior to the Aryan ideal. Born: April 20, 1889, died:
April 30, 1945.
Adolf
Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria, on April 20th 1889 to Alois
Hitler (who, as an illegitimate child, had previously used his mother’s
name of Schickelgruber) and Klara Poelzl. A moody child, he grew
hostile towards his father, especially once the latter had retired and
the family had moved to Linz. Alois died in 1903 but left money to take
care of the family. Hitler was close to his mother, who was highly
indulgent of Hitler, and he was deeply affected when she died in 1908.
He left school at 16 in 1905, intending to become a painter.
Hitler
moved to Vienna in 1907 where he applied to the Viennese Academy of
Fine arts, but was twice turned down. This experience further embittered
the increasingly angry Hitler, and he remained in Vienna living off his
small family inheritance and what he could make from selling his art,
moving from hostel to hostel, a lonely, vagabond figure. During this
period Hitler appears to have developed the world view that would
characterise his whole life: a hatred for Jews and Marxists. Hitler was
well placed to be influenced by the demagogy of Karl Lueger, Vienna’s
deeply anti-Semitic mayor.
In
November 1923 Hitler organised Bavarian nationalists under a figurehead
of General Ludendorff into a coup (or 'putsch'). They declared their
new government in a beer hall in Munich and then 3000 marched through
the streets, but they were met by police, who opened fire, killing 16.
Hitler was arrested and tried in 1924, but was sentenced to only five
years in prison, a sentence often taken as a sign of tacit agreement
with his views. Hitler served only nine months in prison, during which
he wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle), a book outlining his theories on race, Germany and Jews. It sold five million copies by 1939.
After
the Beer-Hall Putsch Hitler resolved to seek power through subverting
the Weimar government system, and he carefully rebuilt the NSDAP, or
Nazi, party, allying with future key figures like Goering and propaganda
mastermind Goebbels. Over time he expanded the party’s support, partly
by exploiting fears of socialists and partly by appealing to everyone
who felt their economic livelihood threatened by the depression of the
1930s, until he had the ears of big business, the press and the middle
classes. Nazi votes jumped to 107 seats in the Reichstag in 1930.
In
1932 Hitler acquired German citizenship and ran for president, coming
second to von Hindenburg. Later that year the Nazi party acquired 230
seats in the Reichstag, making them the largest party in Germany. Helped
by support from conservative politicians believing they could control
Hitler, he was appointed Chancellor of Germany on January 30th 1933.
Hitler moved with great speed to isolate and expel opponents from power,
shutting trade unions, removing communists, conservatives and Jews.
Later
that year Hitler perfectly exploited an act of arson on the Reichstag
(which some believe the Nazis helped cause) to begin the creation of a
totalitarian state, dominating the March 5th elections thanks to support
from nationalist groups. Hitler soon took over the role of president
when Hindenburg died and merged the role with that of Chancellor to
become Führer (‘Leader’) of Germany.
Hitler
continued to move with speed in radically changing Germany,
consolidating power, locking up “enemies” in camps, bending culture to
his will, rebuilding the army and breaking the constraints of the Treaty
of Versailles. He tried to change the social fabric of Germany by
encouraging women to breed more and bringing in laws to secure racial
purity; Jews were particularly targeted. Employment, high elsewhere in a
time of depression, fell to zero in Germany. Hitler also made himself
head of the army.
Hitler engineered territorial expansion, uniting with Austria in an
anschluss, and dismembering Czechoslovakia. It was in September 1939,
when German forces invaded Poland, that other nations took a stand,
declaring war. This was not unappealing to Hitler who believed Germany
should make itself great through war, and invasions in 1940 went well.
However, arguably his fatal mistake occurred in 1941 with the invasion
of Russia, through which he wished to create lebensraum, or ‘living
room’. After initial success, German forces were pushed back by Russia,
and defeats in Africa and West Europe followed as Germany was slowly
beaten. During this time Hitler became gradually more paranoid and
divorced from the world, retreating to a bunker. As armies approached
Berlin from two directions, Hitler married his mistress, Eva Braun, and
on April 30th 1945 killed himself.
Hitler will forever be remembered for starting the Second World War, the
most costly conflict in world history, thanks to his desire to expand
Germany’s borders through force. He will equally be remembered for his
dreams of racial purity, which prompted him to order the execution of
millions of people, perhaps as high as eleven million. Although every
arm of German bureaucracy was turned to pursuing the executions, Hitler
was the chief driving force.
In the decades since Hitler’s death many commentators have concluded
that he must have been mentally ill, and that if he wasn’t when he
started his rule the pressures of his failed wars must have driven him
mad. Given that he ordered genocide and ranted and raved it is easy to
see why people have come to this conclusion, but it’s important to state
that there is no consensus among historians that he was insane, or what
psychological problems he may have had.
