Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was born on the 20th of April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary. He lived with his father Alois and mother Klara Pölzl. Three of his siblings died in infancy. The family moved to Passau in 1892 when he was three years old. They settled in Leonding on the 9th of May 1894. In June 1895, Alois retired to Hafeld near Lambach. There the eight-year-old Hitler took singing lessons and sang in the church choir. He even considered becoming a priest.
In 1907, Hitler left Linz to study fine art in Vienna. He applied for admission to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna but was rejected twice. On the 21st of December 1907, his mother died of breast cancer at age 47. By 1909, Hitler ran out of money. He lived in homeless shelters and the Meldemannstraße dormitory. He earned money as a casual labourer and by selling watercolours of Vienna's sights.
During this time, Hitler attended ten performances of Wagner's opera Die Walküre. He developed fervent anti-Slavic sentiments. Populist mayor Karl Lueger exploited antisemitic sentiment in the city. Georg Ritter von Schönerer became a major influence on him. Hitler read local newspapers that promoted prejudice against Eastern European Jews. Historians debate when his notorious antisemitism emerged. Some claim it began before leaving Linz while others argue it formed after World War I.
Hitler voluntarily enlisted in the Bavarian Army in August 1914. He served as a dispatch runner on the Western Front in France and Belgium. In 1914 he received the Iron Cross Second Class for bravery. During the Battle of the Somme in October 1916, a shell exploded in the dispatch runners' dugout. He was wounded in the left thigh and spent almost two months recovering in hospital at Beelitz.
On the 5th of March 1917 he returned to his regiment. Three months later in August 1918, Lieutenant Hugo Gutmann recommended him for the Iron Cross First Class. This decoration was rarely awarded at his rank. On the 15th of October 1918 he was temporarily blinded by mustard gas during an attack. While hospitalized in Pasewalk he learned of Germany's defeat. By his own account he suffered a second bout of blindness upon hearing this news.
After the war Hitler remained in Munich without formal education or career prospects. In July 1919 he was appointed intelligence agent of an army reconnaissance unit. At a meeting on the 12th of September 1919 Party chairman Anton Drexler was impressed by his oratorical skills. Within a week he became party member number 555. His earliest known written statement about Jews appeared in a letter dated the 16th of September 1919 addressed to Adolf Gemlich.
In 1923 Hitler enlisted General Erich Ludendorff for an attempted coup known as the Beer Hall Putsch. On the 8th of November 1923 he stormed a public meeting of 3,000 people organized by Gustav Ritter von Kahr in the Bürgerbräukeller beer hall in Munich. He announced that the national revolution had begun and declared a new government with Ludendorff. The next day police dispersed his march from the beer hall to the Bavarian War Ministry.
Sixteen Nazi Party members and four police officers were killed during the failed coup. Hitler fled to the home of Ernst Hanfstaengl before being arrested on the 11th of November 1923 for high treason. His trial began in February 1924. On the 1st of April he was sentenced to five years at Landsberg Prison. Pardoned by the Bavarian Supreme Court he was released on the 20th of December 1924. Including time on remand he served just over one year.
While at Landsberg Hitler dictated most of the first volume of Mein Kampf to his chauffeur Emil Maurice and later to deputy Rudolf Hess. Published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926 it sold 228,000 copies between 1925 and 1932. One million copies were sold in 1933 alone. The book laid out plans for territorial expansion and transforming German society into a dictatorship based on race.
Hitler became chancellor of Germany on the 30th of January 1933 after President Paul von Hindenburg appointed him. The Nazi Party gained three posts including Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick and Hermann Göring as Minister of the Interior for Prussia. On the 27th of February 1933 the Reichstag building was set on fire. Marinus van der Lubbe was found inside the burning building under incriminating circumstances.
Hindenburg signed the Reichstag Fire Decree of the 28th of February which suspended basic rights and allowed detention without trial. Activities of the German Communist Party were suppressed and 4,000 members arrested. On election day the 6th of March 1933 the Nazi share of the vote increased to 44 percent. They acquired the largest number of seats but failed to secure an absolute majority.
On the 23rd of March 1933 the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act by a vote of 444, 94. This law gave Hitler's cabinet power to enact laws without consent from the Reichstag for four years. It transformed his government into a de facto legal dictatorship. By the 14th of July 1933 the Nazi Party was declared the only legal political party in Germany.
In August 1934 Hitler appointed President Hjalmar Schacht as Minister of Economics. The number of unemployed fell from six million in 1932 to fewer than one million in 1936. Reconstruction and rearmament were financed through Mefo bills printing money and seizing assets of people arrested as enemies of the state including Jews.
Hitler oversaw one of the largest infrastructure improvement campaigns in German history leading to construction of dams autobahns railroads and other civil works. Wages were slightly lower in the mid- to late 1930s compared with wages during the Weimar Republic while the cost of living increased by 25 percent. The average workweek increased during the shift to a war economy. By 1939 the average German worked between 47 and 50 hours a week.
In January 1935 over 90 percent of the people of the Saarland voted to unite with Germany. That March Hitler announced an expansion of the Wehrmacht to 600,000 members. This was six times the number permitted by the Treaty of Versailles. Britain France Italy and the League of Nations condemned these violations but did nothing to stop them.
On the 12th of March 1938 Hitler announced the unification of Austria with Germany in the Anschluss. He then turned his attention to the ethnic German population of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. On the 29th of September 1938 he attended a conference in Munich that led to the Munich Agreement handing over Sudetenland districts to Germany.
On the 1st of September 1939 Germany invaded western Poland under the pretext of having been denied claims to the Free City of Danzig. In response Britain and France declared war on Germany on the 3rd of September surprising Hitler. He angrily asked Ribbentrop Now what?
On the 22nd of June 1941 over three million Axis troops attacked the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. The invasion conquered huge areas including Baltic republics Belarus and West Ukraine. By early August Axis troops had advanced and won the Battle of Smolensk. Hitler ordered Army Group Centre to temporarily halt its advance to Moscow and divert Panzer groups to aid encirclement of Leningrad and Kiev.
Overconfident following earlier victories in 1940 Hitler became distrustful of his Army High Command. He began interfering in military and tactical planning with damaging consequences. In December 1942 and January 1943 repeated refusal to allow withdrawal at the Battle of Stalingrad led to almost total destruction of the 6th Army. Over 200,000 Axis soldiers were killed and 235,000 taken prisoner.
Hitler's military judgement became increasingly erratic as Germany's position deteriorated. On the 6th of June 1944 Western Allied armies landed in northern France in one of the largest amphibious operations in history known as Operation Overlord. Between 1939 and 1945 numerous plans existed to assassinate him. The most well-known was the 20th of July plot of 1944 involving Claus von Stauffenberg planting a bomb in the Wolf's Lair headquarters.
On the 16th of December 1944 he launched the Ardennes Offensive to incite disunity among Western Allies. After some temporary successes the offensive failed. With much of Germany in ruins in January 1945 Hitler spoke on the radio that the crisis would be mastered by their unalterable will.
Under Hitler's leadership the Nazi regime was responsible for genocide of an estimated six million Jews and millions of other victims deemed racially or socially undesirable. In late 1942 German forces were defeated in the Second Battle of El Alamein thwarting plans to seize Suez Canal and Middle East. On the 7th of December 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor four days later Hitler declared war against United States.
In early 1941 German forces deployed to North Africa Balkans and Middle East. In April Hitler launched invasion of Yugoslavia quickly followed by invasion of Greece. On the 28th of November 1941 Himmler asked Hitler What to do with the Jews of Russia? Hitler replied exterminate them as partisans. The Israeli historian Yehuda Bauer has commented this remark is probably as close as historians will ever get to definitive order from Hitler for genocide carried out during Holocaust.
On the 29th of April 1945 Hitler married Eva Braun in Berlin. They committed suicide the next day to avoid capture by Soviet Red Army. Historian Ian Kershaw described him as embodiment of modern political evil. Total casualties included 28.7 million soldiers and civilians dying as result of military action in European theatre.
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Common questions
When and where was Adolf Hitler born?
Adolf Hitler was born on the 20th of April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary. He lived with his father Alois and mother Klara Pölzl.
What happened to Adolf Hitler during World War I?
Hitler voluntarily enlisted in the Bavarian Army in August 1914 and served as a dispatch runner on the Western Front. He received the Iron Cross Second Class for bravery and was wounded in the left thigh during the Battle of the Somme in October 1916.
How did Adolf Hitler rise to power in Germany?
Hitler became chancellor of Germany on the 30th of January 1933 after President Paul von Hindenburg appointed him. The Nazi Party gained three posts including Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick and Hermann Göring as Minister of the Interior for Prussia.
Why is Adolf Hitler associated with the Holocaust?
Under Hitler's leadership the Nazi regime was responsible for genocide of an estimated six million Jews and millions of other victims deemed racially or socially undesirable. Historian Yehuda Bauer notes that Hitler replied exterminate them when asked what to do with the Jews of Russia on the 28th of November 1941.
When did Adolf Hitler die and how did he die?
Adolf Hitler married Eva Braun in Berlin on the 29th of April 1945 and committed suicide the next day to avoid capture by Soviet Red Army. Total casualties included 28.7 million soldiers and civilians dying as result of military action in European theatre.