Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was a german politician, a government leader and one of the 20th centuries most powerful dictators. Making anti-semitism a keystone of his propaganda and policies, he built up the Nazi party into a mass movement. Once in power, he converted Germany into a fully militarized society and launched World War II. For a time he dominated most of Europe and North Africa . He caused the slaughter of millions of Jews and others whom he considered inferior human beings.

Hitler was born in Braunauam Inn, Austria, on April 20, 1889, the son of a minor customs official and a peasant girl. A poor student, he never completed high school. He applied for admission to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna but was rejected for lack of talent. Staying in Vienna until 1913, he lived first on an orphan's pension, later on small earnings from pictures he drew. He read voraciously, developing anti-Jewish and antidemocratic convictions, an admiration for the outstanding individual, and a contempt for the masses.

In World War I, Hitler, by then in Munich, volunteered for service in the Bavarian army. He proved a dedicated, courageous soldier, but was never promoted beyond private first class because his superiors thought him lacking in leadership qualities. After Germany's defeat in 1918 he returned to Munich, remaining in the army until 1920. His commander made him an education officer, with the mandate to immunize his charges against pacifist and democratic ideas. In September 1919 he joined the nationalist German workers party, and in April 1920 he went to work full time for the party, now renamed the National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) party. In 1921 he was elected party chairman with dichorial powers.

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... extermination camps, seriously interfering with the war effort. An officers plot to assassinate Hitler and the end of the war failed in 1944. Finally on April 30, 1945, with all of Germany overrun by Allied invaders, Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker, as did his long time companion Eva Braun, whom he had married the day before.

Hitler had a charismatic personality of overpowering forcefulness. An amoral man, rootless and incapable of personal friendships, he looked to his fellow humans as mere bricks in the world structure he wished to erect. He knew how to appeal to peoples basic instincts and made use of their fears and insecurities. He could do that, however, only because they were willing to be led, even though his program was one of hatred and violence. His impact was wholly destructive, and nothing of what he instituted and built survived.