Introduction

Hitler was born in Austria—then part of Austria-Hungary—and was raised near Linz. He
moved to Germany in 1913 and was decorated during his service in the German Army in World
War I. In 1919, he joined the German Workers' Party (DAP), the precursor of the NSDAP, and
was appointed leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923, he attempted to seize power in a failed
coup in Munich and was imprisoned. While in jail he dictated the first volume of his
autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"). After his release from
prison in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and
promoting Pan-Germanism, anti-semitism and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and
Nazi propaganda. He frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as being
part of a Jewish conspiracy.

By 1933, the Nazi Party was the largest elected party in the German Reichstag, but did not
have a majority, and no party was able to form a majority parliamentary coalition in support of
a candidate for chancellor. This led to former chancellor Franz von Papen and other
conservative leaders persuading President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as hancellor
on 30 January 1933. Shortly after, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act of 1933, which began
the process of transforming the Weimar Republic into Nazi Germany, a one-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 abrogation of
restrictions imposed on Germany after World War I and the annexation of territories that were
home to millions of ethnic Germans which gave him significant popular support.

Early Years
In 1907 Hitler left Linz to live and study fine art in Vienna, financed by orphan's benefits and support
from his mother. He applied for admission to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna but was rejected
twice.The director explained his drawings showed "unfitness for painting" and suggested Hitler was
better suited to studying architecture. Though this was an interest of his, he lacked the academic
credentials as he had not finished secondary school. On 21 December 1907, his mother died of breast
cancer at the age of 47. In 1909 Hitler ran out of money and was forced to live a bohemian life in
homeless shelters and a men's hostel. He earned money as a casual labourer and by painting and
selling watercolours of Vienna's sights.It was here that Hitler first became exposed to racist
rhetoric. Populists such as mayor Karl Lueger exploited the climate of virulent anti-Semitism
and occasionally espoused German nationalist notions for political effect. German nationalism
had a particularly widespread following in the Mariahilf district, where Hitler lived.Georg
Ritter von Schönerer became a major influence on Hitler.He also developed an admiration for
Martin Luther. Hitler read local newspapers such as Deutsches Volksblatt that fanned prejudice
and played on Christian fears of being swamped by an influx of Eastern European JewsHe read
newspapers and pamphlets that published the thoughts of philosophers and theoreticians such
as Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gustave Le Bon and
Arthur Schopenhauer.

The origin and development of Hitler's anti-Semitism remains a matter of debate His friend,
August Kubizek, claimed that Hitler was a "confirmed anti-Semite" before he left Linz.
However, historian Brigitte Hamann describes Kubizek's claim as "problematical".While
Hitler states in Mein Kampf that he first became an anti-Semite in Vienna,Reinhold Hanisch,
who helped him sell his paintings, disagrees. Hitler had dealings with Jews while living in
Vienna. 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".

World War 1
In August 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, Hitler was living in Munich and voluntarily enlisted in
the Bavarian Army. According to a 1924 report by the Bavarian authorities, allowing Hitler to serve
was almost certainly an administrative error, since as an Austrian citizen, he should have been
returned to Austria. Posted to the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16 (1st Company of the List
Regiment),he served as a dispatch runner on the Western Front in France and Belgium,spending nearly
half his time at the regimental headquarters in Fournes-en-Weppes, well behind the front lines. 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. He was decorated for bravery, receiving the Iron
Cross, Second Class, in 1914.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. He received the Black Wound Badge on 18 May 1918.

Entry into Politics

After World War I, Hitler returned to MunichWithout formal education or career prospects, he
remained in the army. In July 1919 he was appointed Verbindungsmann (intelligence agent) of
an Aufklärungskommando (reconnaissance unit) of the Reichswehr, assigned to influence other
soldiers and to infiltrate the German Workers' Party (DAP). At a DAP meeting on 12
September 1919, Party Chairman Anton Drexler was impressed with Hitler's oratorical skills.
He gave him a copy of his pamphlet My Political Awakening, which contained anti-Semitic,
nationalist, anti-capitalist, and anti-Marxist ideas. On the orders of his army superiors, Hitler
applied to join the party and within a week was accepted as party member 555 (the party began
counting membership at 500 to give the impression they were a much larger party).

Around this time, Hitler made his earliest known recorded statement about the Jews in a letter
(now known as the Gemlich letter) dated 16 September 1919 to Adolf Gemlich about the
Jewish question. In the letter, Hitler argues that the aim of the government "must unshakably
be the removal of the Jews altogether".

At the DAP, Hitler met Dietrich Eckart, one of the party's founders and a member of the occult
Thule Society.Eckart became Hitler's mentor, exchanging ideas with him and introducing him
to a wide range of Munich society. To increase its appeal, the DAP changed its name to the
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party;
NSDAP). Hitler designed the party's banner of a swastika in a white circle on a red background.

Beer Hall Putsch and Landsberg Prison

In 1923 Hitler enlisted the help of World War I General Erich Ludendorff for an attempted
coup known as the "Beer Hall Putsch". The NSDAP used Italian Fascism as a model for their
appearance and policies. Hitler wanted to emulate Benito Mussolini's "March on Rome" of
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.

On 8 November 1923 Hitler and the SA stormed a public meeting of 3,000 people organised
by Kahr in the Bürgerbräukeller, a beer hall in Munich. Interrupting Kahr's speech, he
announced that the national revolution had begun and declared the formation of a new
government with Ludendorff. Retiring to a back room, Hitler, with handgun drawn, demanded
and got the support of Kahr, Seisser, and Lossow. Hitler's forces initially succeeded in
occupying the local Reichswehr and police headquarters, but Kahr and his cohorts quickly
withdrew their support. Neither the army, nor the state police, joined forces with Hitler.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. Sixteen NSDAP members and
four police officers were killed in the failed coup.

Rebuildind 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 the Prime Minister of Bavaria Heinrich Held on 4 January 1925, Hitler agreed
to respect the state's authority 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. However, after an inflammatory speech he gave on 27 February, Hitler was barred
from public speaking by the Bavarian authorities, a ban that remained in place until 1927. 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. Gregor
Strasser steered a more independent political course, emphasising the socialist elements of the
party's programme.

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.

Brunning Administration

The Great Depression provided a political opportunity for Hitler. Germans were ambivalent
about the parliamentary republic, which faced challenges from right- and left-wing extremists.
The moderate political parties were increasingly unable to stem the tide of extremism, and the
German referendum of 1929 helped to elevate Nazi ideology.[130] The elections of September
1930 resulted in the break-up of a grand coalition and its replacement with a minority cabinet.
Its leader, chancellor Heinrich Brüning of the Centre Party, governed through emergency
decrees from President Paul von Hindenburg. Governance by decree became the new norm and
paved the way for authoritarian forms of government. The NSDAP rose from obscurity to win
18.3 per cent of the vote and 107 parliamentary seats in the 1930 election, becoming the
second-largest party in parliament.
Appointent as Chancellor
The absence of an effective government prompted two influential politicians, Franz von Papen
and Alfred Hugenberg, along with several other industrialists and businessmen, to write a letter
to Hindenburg. The signers urged Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as leader of a government
"independent from parliamentary parties", which could turn into a movement that would
"enrapture millions of people".

Hindenburg reluctantly agreed to appoint Hitler as chancellor after two further parliamentary
elections—in July and November 1932—had not resulted in the formation of a majority
government. Hitler headed a short-lived coalition government formed by the NSDAP and
Hugenberg's party, the German National People's Party (DNVP). On 30 January 1933, the new
cabinet was sworn in during a brief ceremony in Hindenburg's office. The NSDAP gained three
posts: Hitler was named chancellor, Wilhelm Frick Minister of the Interior, and Hermann
Göring Minister of the Interior for Prussia. Hitler had insisted on the ministerial positions as a
way to gain control over the police in much of Germany.

Reichstag Fire and March Elections

As chancellor, Hitler worked against attempts by the NSDAP's opponents to build a majority
government. Because of the political stalemate, he asked Hindenburg to again dissolve the
Reichstag, and elections were scheduled for early March. On 27 February 1933, the Reichstag
building was set on fire. Göring blamed a communist plot, because Dutch communist Marinus
van der Lubbe was found in incriminating circumstances inside the burning building.[151]
According to Kershaw, the consensus of nearly all historians is that van der Lubbe actually set
the fire. Others, including William L. Shirer and Alan Bullock, are of the opinion that the
NSDAP itself was responsible.At Hitler's urging, Hindenburg responded with the Reichstag
Fire Decree of 28 February, which suspended basic rights and allowed detention without trial.
The decree was permitted under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which gave the
president the power to take emergency measures to protect public safety and order. Activities
of the German Communist Party (KPD) were suppressed, and some 4,000 KPD members were
arrested.In addition to political campaigning, the NSDAP engaged in paramilitary violence and
the spread of anti-communist propaganda in the days preceding the election. On election day,
6 March 1933, the NSDAP's share of the vote increased to 43.9 per cent, and the party acquired
the largest number of seats in parliament. Hitler's party failed to secure an absolute majority,
necessitating another coalition with the DNVP.

Alliance with Japan

In February 1938, on the advice of his newly appointed foreign minister, the strongly pro-
Japanese Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hitler ended the Sino-German alliance with the Republic
of China to instead enter into an alliance with the more modern and powerful Empire of Japan.
Hitler announced German recognition of Manchukuo, the Japanese-occupied state in
Manchuria, and renounced German claims to their former colonies in the Pacific held by
Japan.Hitler ordered an end to arms shipments to China and recalled all German officers
working with the Chinese Army.In retaliation, Chinese General Chiang Kai-shek cancelled all
Sino-German economic agreements, depriving the Germans of many Chinese raw materials.
Start of World War II

In private discussions in 1939, Hitler declared Britain the main enemy to be defeated and that
Poland's obliteration was a necessary prelude for that goal. The eastern flank would be secured
and land would be added to Germany's Lebensraum.Offended by the British "guarantee" on 31
March 1939 of Polish independence, he said, "I shall brew them a devil's drink". In a speech in
Wilhelmshaven for the launch of the battleship Tirpitz on 1 April, he threatened to denounce
the Anglo-German Naval Agreement if the British continued to guarantee Polish independence,
which he perceived as an "encirclement" policy.Poland was to either become a German satellite
state or it would be neutralised in order to secure the Reich's eastern flank and prevent a
possible British blockade. Hitler initially favoured the idea of a satellite state, but upon its
rejection by the Polish government, he decided to invade and made this the main foreign policy
goal of 1939.On 3 April, Hitler ordered the military to prepare for Fall Weiss ("Case White"),
the plan for invading Poland on 25 August.In a Reichstag speech on 28 April, he renounced
both the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact.
Historians such as William Carr, Gerhard Weinberg, and Ian Kershaw have argued that one
reason for Hitler's rush to war was his fear of an early death. He had repeatedly claimed that
he must lead Germany into war before he got too old, as his successors might lack his strength
of will.

Hitler was concerned that a military attack against Poland could result in a premature war with
Britain. Hitler's foreign minister and former Ambassador to London, Joachim von Ribbentrop,
assured him that neither Britain nor France would honour their commitments to
Poland.Accordingly, on 22 August 1939 Hitler ordered a military mobilisation against Poland.

This plan required tacit Soviet support, and the non-aggression pact (the Molotov–Ribbentrop
Pact) between Germany and the Soviet Union, led by Joseph Stalin, included a secret
agreement to partition Poland between the two countries. Contrary to Ribbentrop's prediction
that Britain would sever Anglo-Polish ties, Britain and Poland signed the Anglo-Polish alliance
on 25 August 1939. This, along with news from Italy that Mussolini would not honour the Pact
of Steel, prompted Hitler to postpone the attack on Poland from 25 August to 1 September.
Hitler unsuccessfully tried to manoeuvre the British into neutrality by offering them a non-
aggression guarantee on 25 August; he then instructed Ribbentrop to present a last-minute
peace plan with an impossibly short time limit in an effort to blame the imminent war on British
and Polish inaction.

On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded western Poland under the pretext of having been
denied claims to the Free City of Danzig and the right to extraterritorial roads across the Polish
Corridor, which Germany had ceded under the Versailles Treaty. In response, Britain and
France declared war on Germany on 3 September, surprising Hitler and prompting him to
angrily ask Ribbentrop, "Now what?"France and Britain did not act on their declarations
immediately, and on 17 September, Soviet forces invaded eastern Poland.

Path to Defeat

On 22 June 1941, contravening the Hitler–Stalin Non-Aggression Pact of 1939, 4–5 million
Axis troops attacked the Soviet Union.This offensive (codenamed Operation Barbarossa) was
intended to destroy the Soviet Union and seize its natural resources for subsequent aggression
against the Western powers. The invasion conquered a huge area, including the Baltic
republics, Belarus, and West Ukraine. By early August, Axis troops had advanced 500 km
(310 mi) and won the Battle of Smolensk. Hitler ordered Army Group Centre to temporarily
halt its advance to Moscow and divert its Panzer groups to aid in the encirclement of
Leningrad and Kiev.His generals disagreed with this change, having advanced within 400 km
(250 mi) of Moscow, and his decision caused a crisis among the military leadership.The
pause provided the Red Army with an opportunity to mobilise fresh reserves; historian Russel
Stolfi considers it to be one of the major factors that caused the failure of the Moscow
offensive, which was resumed in October 1941 and ended disastrously in December.[272]
During this crisis, Hitler appointed himself as head of the Oberkommando des Heeres, at the
same time limiting its authority to the eastern front.

Conclusion

Berlin surrendered on 2 May. Records in the Soviet archives obtained after the fall of the
Soviet Union state that the remains of Hitler, Braun, Joseph and Magda Goebbels, the six
Goebbels children, General Hans Krebs, and Hitler's dogs were repeatedly buried and
exhumed. On 4 April 1970, a Soviet KGB team used detailed burial charts to exhume five
wooden boxes at the SMERSH facility in Magdeburg. The remains from the boxes were
burned, crushed, and scattered into the Biederitz river, a tributary of the Elbe. According to
Kershaw, the corpses of Braun and Hitler were fully burned when the Red Army found them,
and only a lower jaw with dental work could be identified as Hitler's remains. Hitler
dominated his country's war effort during World War II to a greater extent than any other national
leader. He strengthened his control of the armed forces in 1938, and subsequently made all major
decisions regarding Germany's military strategy. His decision to mount a risky series of offensives
against Norway, France, and the Low Countries in 1940 against the advice of the military proved
successful, though the diplomatic and military strategies he employed in attempts to force the
United Kingdom out of the war ended in failure.