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Line 1: − + − |name = Adolf Hitler+ − + − + − + − + − + − + − + − + − + − + − + − + − + − + − |successor2 = [[Joseph Goebbels]]+ − + − + + + + + − + − He gained power during Germany's period of crisis after [[World War I]]. Supported by [[Fritz Thyssen|industrialists]] and [[conservative]] segments of German society, Hitler combined his in-depth political and philosophical insights with his charismatic oratory skills to emphasize the dangers the nation faced from [[International Jewry]] and [[Communism]]. After restructuring the economy and rearming the military, he was given [[Enabling Act of 1933|emergency powers]] to lead the nation. He pursued a [[foreign policy]] to protect Germans, who lived outside Germany, especially in [[Poland]], and as the negotiations with [[Poland]] remained fruitless in the case of [[Danzig]], and Polish military continued the border incidents and atrocities against [[German]]s in [[Poland]], moved his forces into [[Poland]] to protect [[ethnic Germans]]. The invasion was used as a pretext by countries allied with Poland–principally [[France]] and [[Great Britain]]–to declare war on [[Germany]], thus starting World War II. These countries stated, they wanted to guarantee Poland's territory, but strangely, when after several weeks the Soviet Union invaded Poland, they immediately "forgot" their promise (namely to protect [[Poland]]'s territory) and did not declare war to the [[Soviet Union]].+ − For a brief period Europe was united under Hitler and the Soviet Union was held in check. However in the end, Hitler’s Germany was defeated by forces outside of Europe: namely the military might of the United States and Asiatic nationalities within the Soviet Union. In the final days of the war (when the city was overrun by the Red Army of the [[Soviet Union]]), Hitler and his new wife, [[Eva Braun]], committed suicide in his [[Führerbunker|underground bunker]] in Berlin, as+ − the war was lost and Hitler had before the start of the second world war connected his personal fate with the outcome this war<ref>The fact that Hitler had before the start of the second world war connected his personal fate with the outcome this war is for example clear from [[Adolf Hitler's speech to the German Reichstag - September 1, 1939|his speech on September 1, 1939]] in which war was declared on Poland. Hitler said in that speech: "Therefore I have put on that tunic which has always been the most holy and dear to me. I shall not take it off again until after victory is ours, or-I shall not live to see the day!"</ref>. − Adolf Hitler remains one of the preeminent individuals of history. + − + − + − [[Image:Baby-hitler.jpg|thumb|160px|Hitler as a little child]]+ − Adolf Hitler was born in [[Braunau am Inn]], [[Austria]], the fourth child of six. His father, [[Alois Hitler]], (1837–1903), was a customs official. His mother, [[Klara Pölzl]], (1860–1907), was Alois' third wife. Of Alois and Klara's six children, only Adolf and his sister [[Paula Hitler|Paula]] reached adulthood. Hitler's father also had a son, Alois Jr, and a daughter, Angela, by his second wife.+ − The name "Adolf" comes from Old High German for "noble wolf", hence, one of Hitler's self-given nicknames was Wolf or Herr Wolf — he began using this nickname in the early 1920s and was addressed by it only by intimates (as "Uncle Wolf" by the Wagners) up until the fall of the [[Third Reich]]. The names of his various headquarters scattered throughout continental Europe (Wolfsschanze in East Prussia, Wolfsschlucht in France, Werwolf in Ukraine, etc.) reflect this. By his closest family and relatives, Hitler was known as "Adi".+ − + + + + − == Early Adulthood ==+ − [[File:Paisaje alpino.jpg|thumb|right|Alpin landscape, painted by Adolf Hitler]]+ − From 1905 on, Hitler lived a bohemian life in [[Vienna]] on an orphan's pension and support from his mother. He was rejected twice by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (1907 – 1908), citing "unfitness for painting," and was told his abilities lay instead in the field of architecture. His memoirs reflect a fascination with the subject:+ − + − Following the school rector's recommendation, he too became convinced this was the path to pursue, yet he lacked the proper academic preparation for architecture school:+ − + − On [[December 21]], [[1907]], Hitler's mother died of breast cancer at age 47. Ordered by a court in [[Linz]], Hitler gave his share of the orphans' benefits to his sister Paula. When he was 21, he inherited money from an aunt. He struggled as a painter in [[Vienna]], copying scenes from postcards and selling his paintings to merchants and tourists.+ − After the second refusal from the Academy of Arts, Hitler ran out of money. In 1909, he sought refuge in a homeless shelter. By 1910, he had settled into a house for poor working men.+ − [[File:KlaraHitler1.jpg|thumb|right|Hitler's mother, Klara Hitler]]+ − + − + − Generalising from tumultuous scenes in the parliament of the multi-national Austria monarchy, he decided that the democratic parliamentary system was unworkable. However, according to August Kubizek, his one-time roommate, he was more interested in Wagner's operas than in his politics.+ − + + + − When [[Germany]] entered [[World War I]] in August 1914, he petitioned [[King Ludwig III]] of [[Bavaria]] for permission to serve in a Bavarian regiment. This request was granted, and Adolf Hitler enlisted in the Bavarian army.+ − == Action in World War I ==+ − [[Image:Image-File 800px-Hitler with other German soldiers.jpg|thumb|300px|Hitler(left) During WWI]] − Hitler served in [[France]] and [[Belgium]] as a runner for the 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment, which exposed him to enemy fire. Hitler was twice decorated for bravery, once in 1914 receiving the [[Iron Cross Second Class]] and in 1918, the [[Iron Cross First Class]]. Additionally, in 1917 he received the Wound Badge for injuries he suffered on his leg. − On [[October 15]], [[1918]], Hitler was admitted to a field hospital, temporarily blinded by a mustard gas attack. − His duties at regimental headquarters, while often dangerous, gave Hitler time to pursue his artwork. When he had the time he drew cartoons and instructional drawings for the army newspaper.+ − + + − ==Politics==+ − After [[World War I]], Hitler remained in the army and returned to [[Munich]]. In July 1919, Hitler was appointed a Verbindungsmann (police spy) of an Aufklärungskommando (Intelligence Commando) of the Reichswehr, both to influence other soldiers and to infiltrate political parties. + + − On September 12, 1919 he visited a meeting of the [[German Workers Party]] (DAP). At the meeting a member of the audience stood up and suggested that [[Bavaria]] should break away from [[Prussia]] and form a separate nation with [[Austria]]. Hitler sprang up from the audience to rebut the argument. [[Anton Drexler]], one of the founders of the fledgling party, was impressed with Hitler’s oratorical skills and approached him thrusting a booklet into his hand. It was entitled ''My Political Awakening'' and, according to Hitler's writing in ''[[Mein Kampf]]'', it reflected much of what he had himself decided upon. Later the same day he received a postcard telling him that he had been accepted for membership. After some internal debate, he says, he decided to join. + + − Here Hitler also met [[Dietrich Eckart]], one of the early founders of the party and member of the esoteric [[Thule Society]]. Eckart was a major influence on Hitler, who he later payed tribute to him in the second volume of ''Mein Kampf''.+ + − + + + + − By early 1921, Hitler was becoming highly effective at speaking in front of large crowds and was rapidly becoming the undisputed leader of the Party. In February, Hitler spoke before a crowd of nearly six thousand in Munich. To publicize the meeting, he sent out two truckloads of party supporters to drive around the city throwing out leaflets. + − In the summer of that year Hitler travelled to Berlin to address a meeting of German Nationalists from northern Germany. While he was away the other members of the party committee, led by Drexler, circulated as a pamphlet an indictment of Hitler, which accused him of seeking personal power without regard to other considerations. Hitler rushed back to Munich and countered them by tendering his resignation from the party on [[July 11]], [[1921]]. + + − When they realized the loss of Hitler would effectively mean the end of the party, he seized the moment and announced he would return on the condition that he would be given total control of the party. Infuriated committee members (including Drexler) held out at first, but eventually the committee backed down and Hitler's demands were put to a vote. Hitler received 543 votes for and only one against. At the next gathering on [[July 29]], [[1921]], Adolf Hitler was introduced as Führer (leader) of the National Socialist Party, marking the first time this title was publicly used. + − Hitler's speeches began attracting adherents. Early followers included [[Rudolf Hess]], the former air force pilot [[Hermann Göring]], and the army captain [[Ernst Röhm]], who became head of the party's paramilitary organization, the SA ([[Sturmabteilung]], or "Storm Division"), which protected meetings and attacked political opponents. Hitler also assimilated independent groups, such as the Nuremberg-based Deutsche Werkgemeinschaft, led by [[Julius Streicher]], who became Gauleiter of Franconia. Hitler also attracted the attention of local business interests, was accepted into influential circles of Munich society, and became associated with wartime General Erich Ludendorff during this time.+ − '''Munich Putsch'''+ − Encouraged by this early support, Hitler decided to use Ludendorff as a front in an attempted coup later known as the [[Munich Putsch]]. The National Socialist Party had copied Italy's fascists in appearance and also had adopted some programmatical points, and in 1923, Hitler wanted to emulate Mussolini's "March on Rome" by staging his own "Campaign in Berlin". Hitler and Ludendorff obtained the clandestine support of Gustav von Kahr, Bavaria's de facto ruler, along with leading figures in the Reichswehr and the police. As political posters show, Ludendorff, Hitler and the heads of the Bavarian police and military planned on forming a new government.+ − On November 8, 1923, Hitler and the SA stormed a public meeting headed by Kahr in the Bürgerbräukeller, a large beer hall outside of Munich, declaring he had set up a new government with Ludendorff and demanding, at gunpoint, the support of Kahr and the local military establishment for the destruction of the Berlin government. Kahr withdrew his support and fled to join the opposition to Hitler at the first opportunity. The next day, when Hitler and his followers marched from the beer hall to the Bavarian War Ministry to overthrow the Bavarian government as a start to their "March on Berlin", the police dispersed them. Sixteen NSDAP members were killed.+ − Hitler fled to the home of [[Ernst Hanfstaengl]] and was soon arrested for high treason. [[Alfred Rosenberg]] became temporary leader of the party. During Hitler's trial, he was given almost unlimited time to speak, and his popularity soared as he voiced nationalistic sentiments. A Munich personality became a nationally known figure. On April 1, 1924, Hitler was sentenced to five years' imprisonment at Landsberg Prison. Hitler received favoured treatment from the guards and had much fan mail from admirers. He was pardoned and released from jail in December 1924, as part of a general amnesty for political prisoners. He served nine months of his sentence, or just over a year if time on remand is included.+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + − + − + − While at Landsberg he dictated [[Mein Kampf]] (My Struggle, originally entitled "Four Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice") to his deputy [[Rudolf Hess]]. The book, dedicated to [[Thule Society]] member [[Dietrich Eckart]], was an autobiography and an exposition of his ideology. It was published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926, selling about 240,000 copies between 1925 and 1934. By the end of the war, about 10 million copies had been sold or distributed (newly-weds and soldiers received free copies).+ − + + − At the time of Hitler's release, the political situation in [[Germany]] had calmed and the economy had improved, which hampered Hitler's opportunities for agitation. Though the Hitler Putsch had given Hitler some national prominence, his party's mainstay was still Munich.+ − Since Hitler was still banned from public speeches, he appointed [[Gregor Strasser]], who in 1924 had been elected to the Reichstag, as Reichsorganisationsleiter, authorizing him to organize the party in northern Germany. Strasser, joined by his younger brother Otto and [[Joseph Goebbels]], steered an increasingly independent course, emphasizing the socialist element in the party's programme. The Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Gauleiter Nord-West became an internal opposition, threatening Hitler's authority, but this faction was defeated at the Bamberg Conference in 1926, during which Goebbels joined Hitler.+ − After this encounter, Hitler centralized the party even more and asserted the Führerprinzip ("Leader principle") as the basic principle of party organization. Leaders were not elected by their group but were rather appointed by their superior and were answerable to them while demanding unquestioning obedience from their inferiors. Consistent with Hitler's disdain for democracy, all power and authority devolved from the top down.+ − A key element of Hitler's appeal was his ability to evoke a sense of offended national pride caused by the Treaty of Versailles imposed on the defeated German Empire by the Western Allies. Germany had lost economically important territory in Europe along with its colonies and in admitting to sole responsibility for the war had agreed to pay a huge reparations bill totaling 132 billion marks. Most Germans bitterly resented these terms.+ + − Having failed in overthrowing the Republic by a coup, Hitler pursued the "strategy of legality": this meant formally adhering to the rules of the Weimar Republic until he had legally gained power.+ − + + + − '''Brüning Administration'''+ − + + − The Reichstag's initial opposition to Brüning's measures led to premature elections in September 1930. The republican parties lost their majority and their ability to resume the Grand Coalition, while the National Socialists suddenly rose from relative obscurity to win 18.3% of the vote along with 107 seats in the Reichstag, becoming the second largest party in Germany.+ + − Brüning's measure of budget consolidation and financial austerity brought little economic improvement and was extremely unpopular. Under these circumstances, Hitler appealed to the bulk of German farmers, war veterans and the middle class, who had been hard-hit by both the inflation of the 1920s and the unemployment of the Depression. + − In 1932, Hitler intended to run against the aging President [[Paul von Hindenburg]] in the scheduled presidential elections. His campaign was called "Hitler über Deutschland" (Hitler over Germany). The name had a double meaning; besides an obvious reference to Hitler's dictatorial intentions, it also referred to the fact that Hitler was campaigning by aircraft. This was a brand new political tactic that allowed Hitler to speak in two cities in one day, which was practically unheard of at the time. Hitler came in second on both rounds, attaining more than 35% of the vote during the second one in April. Although he lost to Hindenburg, the election established Hitler as a realistic alternative in German politics.+ + − '''Cabinets of Papen and Schleicher'''+ − Hindenburg, influenced by the Camarilla, became increasingly estranged from Brüning and pushed his Chancellor to move the government in a decidedly authoritarian and right-wing direction. This culminated, in May 1932, with the resignation of the Brüning cabinet.+ − Hindenburg appointed the nobleman [[Franz von Papen]] as chancellor, heading a "Cabinet of Barons". Papen was bent on authoritarian rule and, since in the [[Reichstag]] only the conservative DNVP supported his administration, he immediately called for new elections in July. In these elections, the National Socialists achieved their biggest success yet and won 230 seats.+ + − The NSDAP had become the largest party in the [[Reichstag]] without which no stable government could be formed. Papen tried to convince Hitler to become Vice-Chancellor and enter a new government with a parliamentary basis. Hitler, however, rejected this offer and put further pressure on Papen by entertaining parallel negotiations with the Centre Party, Papen's former party, which was bent on bringing down the renegade Papen. In both negotiations, Hitler demanded that he, as leader of the strongest party, must be Chancellor, but Hindenburg refused.+ + + + + + + − After a vote of no-confidence in the Papen government, supported by 84% of the deputies, the new Reichstag was dissolved, and new elections were called in November. This time, the NSDAP lost some seats but still remained the largest party in the Reichstag.+ + + + − After Papen failed to secure a majority, he proposed to dissolve the parliament again along with an indefinite postponement of elections. Hindenburg at first accepted this, but after General Kurt von Schleicher and the military withdrew their support, Hindenburg instead dismissed Papen and appointed Schleicher, who promised he could secure a majority government by negotiations with both the Social Democrats, the trade unions, and dissidents from the National Socialist Party under [[Gregor Strasser]]. In January 1933, however, Schleicher had to admit failure in these efforts and asked Hindenburg for emergency powers along with the same postponement of elections that he had opposed earlier, to which the president reacted by dismissing Schleicher.+ − == Appointment as Chancellor ==+ − [[File:Adolf Hitler.png|thumb|right|Adolf Hitler as chancellor at his desk]] − Meanwhile, Papen tried to get his revenge on Schleicher by working toward the General's downfall, through forming an intrigue with the camarilla and [[Alfred Hugenberg]], media mogul and chairman of the DNVP. Also involved were [[Hjalmar Schacht]], [[Fritz Thyssen]] and other leading German businessmen. They financially supported the NSDAP, which had been brought to the brink of bankruptcy by the cost of heavy campaigning. The businessmen also wrote letters to Hindenburg, urging him to appoint Hitler as leader of a government "independent from parliamentary parties" which could turn into a movement that would "enrapture millions of people." − Finally, the president reluctantly agreed to appoint Hitler Chancellor of a coalition government formed by the NSDAP and DNVP. Hitler and two other Party ministers (Frick, Göring) were to be contained by a framework of conservative cabinet ministers, most notably by Papen as Vice-Chancellor and by Hugenberg as Minister of the Economy. Papen wanted to use Hitler as a figure-head, but the Party had gained key positions, most notably the Ministry of the Interior. On the morning of 30 January 1933, in Hindenburg's office, Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor during what some observers later described as a brief and simple ceremony. + − '''Reichstag Fire and the March Elections'''+ − Having become Chancellor, Hitler foiled all attempts to gain a majority in parliament and on that basis persuaded President Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag again. Elections were scheduled for early March, but on 27 February 1933, the Reichstag building burned. The fire was blamed on a Communist plot to which the government reacted with the Reichstag Fire Decree of 28 February which gave the new government emergency powers. Under the provisions of this decree, the [[German Communist Party]] and other groups were suppressed, and communist functionaries and deputies were arrested.+ − On election day, 6 March, the NSDAP increased its result to 43.9% of the vote, remaining the largest party, but its victory was marred by its failure to secure an absolute majority, necessitating maintaining a coalition with the DNVP.+ + − == Day of Potsdam and the Enabling Act ==+ − [[File:Painting of Adolf Hitler.png|thumb|right|Painting of Adolf Hitler]] − On 21 March the new Reichstag was constituted with an opening ceremony held at Potsdam's garrison church. This "''Day of Potsdam''" was staged to demonstrate reconciliation and union between the revolutionary Nationalist movement and "''Old Prussia''" with its elites and virtues. Hitler appeared in a tail coat and greeted the aged President Hindenburg. − Because of the National Socialists' failure to obtain a majority on their own, Hitler's government confronted the newly elected Reichstag with the Enabling Act that would have vested the cabinet with legislative powers for a period of four years. Though such a bill was not unprecedented, this act was different since it allowed for deviations from the constitution. Since the bill required a two-thirds majority in order to pass, the government needed the support of other parties. The position of the Catholic Centre Party, the third largest party in the Reichstag, turned out to be decisive: under the leadership of Ludwig Kaas, the party decided to vote for the Enabling Act. It did so in return for the government's oral guarantees regarding the Church's liberty, the concordats signed by German states and the continued existence of the Centre Party.+ − On 23 March the Reichstag assembled in a replacement building under extremely turbulent circumstances. Some SA men served as guards within while large groups outside the building shouted slogans and threats toward the arriving deputies. Kaas announced that the Centre would support the bill amid "concerns put aside.", while Social Democrat [[Otto Wels]] denounced the act in his speech. At the end of the day, all parties except the Social Democrats voted in favour of the bill. The Enabling Act was dutifully renewed by the Reichstag every four years, even through [[World War II]].+ − == Third Reich ==+ − Having the support of the nation, Hitler began one of the greatest expansions of industrial production and civil improvement [[Germany]] had ever seen. With the construction of dozens of dams, autobahns, railroads, and other civil works the unemployment rate was cut substantially. Labourers and farmers, the traditional voters of the NSDAP, saw an increase in their standard of living.+ + − Hitler's policies emphasized the importance of family life which allowed women to stay at home to raise children. In a September 1934 speech to the [[National Socialist Women's Organization]], Adolf Hitler argued that for the German woman her “world is her husband, her family, her children, and her home.” This policy was reinforced by bestowing the Cross of Honor of the German Mother on women bearing four or more babies. + − '''Rearming and Alliances'''+ − + − In March 1935, Hitler introduced conscription and began building a massive military force which included a new Navy ([[Kriegsmarine]]) and an Air Force ([[Luftwaffe]]). For the first time in 20 years, Germany's armed forces were as strong as France's.+ − In March 1936, Hitler reoccupied the demilitarized zone in the Rhineland. In July 1936, the [[Spanish Civil War]] began when the military, led by General [[Francisco Franco]], rebelled against the elected Popular Front government. After receiving an appeal for help from General Franco in July 1936, Hitler sent troops to support Franco.+ − An alliance was formed between [[Germany]] and [[Italy]] by Count Galeazzo Ciano, foreign minister of Fascist dictator [[Benito Mussolini]] on 25 October 1936. [[The Tripartite Treaty]] was then signed by [[Saburo Kurusu]] of Imperial Japan, Hitler, and Ciano on 27 September 1940. It was later expanded to include [[Hungary]], [[Romania]] and [[Bulgaria]]. They were collectively known as the [[Axis Powers]].+ + + − == World War II ==+ − [[Image:Time_hitler.jpg|thumb|Adolf Hitler - ''Man of the Year [[1938]]'' in [[Time (magazine)|TIME magazine]]]] − See: [http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19390102,00.html Time cover] − '''Opening Moves''' − + − After that, Hitler claimed German grievances relating to the Free City of Danzig and the Polish Corridor, that Germany had ceded under the [[Versailles Treaty]]. Britain had not been able to reach an agreement with the [[Soviet Union]] for an alliance against Germany, and, on 23 August 1939, Hitler concluded a secret non-aggression pact (the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact]]) with [[Joseph Stalin]] on which it was agreed that the Soviet Union and National Socialist Germany would partition Poland. On 1 September, Germany invaded the western portion of Poland. Having guaranteed assistance to Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September, but did not immediately act. Not long after this, on 17 September, Soviet forces invaded eastern Poland.+ + − During this period, later called the phony War, Hitler built up his forces. In April 1940, he ordered German forces into [[Denmark]] and [[Norway]] preempting a British invasion of those countries. In May 1940, Hitler ordered his forces to attack France, conquering the [[Netherlands]], [[Luxembourg]] and [[Belgium]] in the process. France surrendered on 22 June 1940. This series of victories convinced his main ally, [[Benito Mussolini]] of [[Italy]], to join the war on Hitler's side in May 1940.+ − Britain, whose defeated forces had evacuated France from the coastal town of Dunkirk, continued to fight alongside [[Canadian]] forces in the [[Battle of the Atlantic]]. Hitler tried to make peace with Great Britain but the new British Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]] rejected the offer. Hitler ordered bombing raids on the British Isles in retaliation to British attacks on German cities. The attacks began by pounding the [[Royal Air Force]] airbases and the radar stations protecting South-East England. However, the [[Luftwaffe]] failed to defeat the Royal Air Force by the end of October 1940.+ − On 22 June 1941, after remarkable Soviet military concentration on the Soviet-German Border and after numerous Soviet initiated provocations and borderincidents German troops of 3 million soldiers attacked the Soviet Union with the intent of finally destroying the "Jewish Bolshevik" regime. This invasion, [[Operation Barbarossa]], seized huge amounts of territory, liberating the [[Baltic]] states, [[Belarus]], and [[Ukraine]]. It also encircled and destroyed many Soviet forces. However in December 1941 the Germans failed to capture Moscow.+ − On 11 December 1941, four days after the Empire of Japan's attack on [[Pearl Harbor]], [[Hawaii]], Hitler declared war on the United States. The declaration of war was a formality since the US over the past few months had been waging war with Germany via her proxies: providing military aid to Great Britain and the Soviet Union. + − + − In late 1942, German forces were defeated in the second battle of El Alamein, thwarting Hitler's plans to seize the [[Suez Canal]] and the [[Middle East]]. In February 1943, the [[Battle of Stalingrad]] ended with the encirclement and destruction of the [[German 6th Army]]. From [[Stalingrad]] on Germany's military and economic position deteriorated. Throughout [[1943]] and [[1944]], the Soviet Union steadily forced Hitler's armies into retreat along the [[Eastern Front]]. − − On 6 June 1944, the Western Allied armies landed in northern France in what was the largest amphibious operation ever conducted, [[Operation Overlord]]. After the Allied invasion, some officers in the German Army plotted to remove Hitler from power and negotiate an end to the war. In July 1944, one of them, [[Claus von Stauffenberg]], planted a bomb at Hitler's military headquarters in Rastenburg, but Hitler narrowly escaped death. The failed coup resulted in a purging of the military of disloyal individuals. − − == Fall of the Third Reich == − − By late 1944, the [[Red Army]] had driven the Germans from Soviet territory and entered Central Europe. The Western Allies were also advancing into [[Germany]]. In April 1945, Soviet forces were attacking the outskirts of Berlin. Hitler's followers urged him to flee to the mountains of Bavaria to make a last stand, but Hitler was determined to either live or die in the capital. By [[April 21]], [[Georgi Zhukov]]'s [[1st Belorussian Front]] had broken through German defenses. By the end of the day on 27 April, Berlin was completely cut off from the rest of Germany. − − On 29 April, [[Hans Krebs]], [[Wilhelm Burgdorf]], [[Joseph Goebbels]], and [[Martin Bormann]] witnessed and signed the last will and testament of Adolf Hitler. Hitler dictated the document to his private secretary, [[Traudl Junge]]. Hitler was also informed of the murder of his allies [[Benito Mussolini]]. − − == Death == − On [[April 30]], [[1945]] Soviet troops were within a block or two of the Reich Chancellery. Hitler committed suicide at this moment, as it was the last possible moment to fulfill his 1939 promise to die in case of losing the war. If he had not committed suicide at that moment he would have fallen into the hands of the Soviet terrorists who then could have kept him alive, thus causing Hitler to break his promise. − His new wife [[Eva Braun]] heroically decided to follow him in his fate and so it became a double suicide. − − On May 2, General Weidling surrendered Berlin unconditionally to the Russians. When Russian forces reached the Chancellery, they found Hitler's body and an autopsy was performed using dental records to confirm the identification. The remains of Hitler and Braun were secretly buried by SMERSH at their headquarters in Magdeburg. In 1970, when the facility was about to be turned over to the East German government, the remains were reportedly exhumed and thoroughly cremated. According to the Russian Federal Security Service, a fragment of human skull was stored in its archives. However, the authenticity of the skull has been challenged by many historians and researchers. Recently the skull has been DNA tested proving that it is a skull of an around 40 year old women (too old to be Eva Braun's and she supposedly didn't shot herself, and the found skull has a bullet hole in the back of the skull). − − == Legacy == − [[Image:Image-File_-File_Stars.jpg|thumb|right|Death news]] − Hitler continues to be a controversial figure, adored and hated. In the later literature, despite the massive Jewish orchestrated hate campaign, some have referred to Hitler's legacy in neutral or favourable terms. [[John F. Kennedy]] wrote of Hitler in ''Prelude to Leadership: The European Diary of John F. Kennedy'' that "he had in him the stuff of which legends are made." Former Egyptian President [[Anwar Sadat]] wrote favourably of Hitler in [[1953]]. [[Louis Farrakhan]] has referred to him as a "very great man". [[Bal Thackeray]], leader of the national [[Hindu Shiv Sena]] party in the Indian state of the Maharashtra, declared in [[1995]] that he was an admirer of Hitler. − − In the [[United States]], [[George Lincoln Rockwell]] revived Hitler’s movement by forming the [[American Nazi Party (1959-1966)|American Nazi Party]]. Later other National Socialist parties began to form around the world. − − == Genealogy == − − − [[Image:Image-File 800px-Hitlerfamilytree.png|thumb|250px|Hitlers Family Tree]] − Paula Hitler, the last living member of Adolf Hitler's immediate family, died in 1960. − − The most prominent and longest-living direct descendants of Adolf Hitler's father, Alois, was Adolf's nephew [[William Patrick Hitler]]. With his wife Phyllis, he eventually moved to Long Island, New York, and had four sons. None of William Hitler's children have yet had any children of their own. − − Over the years various investigative reporters have attempted to track down other distant relatives of the Führer; many are now alleged to be living inconspicuous lives and have long since changed their last name. − − * [[Eva Braun]], mistress and then wife − * [[Alois Hitler]], father − * [[Klara Hitler]], mother − * [[Paula Hitler]], sister − * [[Alois Hitler, Jr]]., half-brother − * [[Bridget Dowling]], sister-in-law − * [[William Patrick Hitler]], nephew − * [[Heinz Hitler]], nephew − * [[Angela Hitler Raubal]], half-sister − * [[Maria Schicklgruber]], grandmother − * [[Johann Georg Hiedler]], presumed grandfather − * [[Johann Nepomuk Hiedler]], maternal great-grandfather, presumed great uncle and possibly Hitler's true paternal grandfather − * [[Geli Raubal]], niece − − ==Confession== − {| − |'''Ein Bekenntnis''' − |'''Our confession''' − |- − | − |- − |Wir glauben an Adolf Hitler, − |We believe in Adolf Hitler − |- − |den unsterblichen Führer unseres Volkes, − |The immortal leader of our people − |- − |einzigartiges Geschenk der Vorhersehung, − |a special present of destiny − |- − |größte Persönlichkeit aller Zeiten, − |the greatest person of all times − |- − |Heute und für immer in unseren Herzen lebend. − |Today and for ever living in our hearts − |- − | − |- − |Wir glauben an seine heilige Sache, − |We believe in his holy thing − |- − |Neue Ordnung genannt, − |called New Order − |- − |die Erfüllung arischen Schicksals − |Fulfillment of aryan fate − |- − |den ewigen Lebensgesetzen zufolge, − |Following the eternal laws of life − |- − |die Hoffnung und Zukunft unserer Art auf Erden. − |The hope and future of our kind on Earth − |- − | − |- − |Wir glauben an seine Bewegung, − |We believe in his movement − |- − |seine treue, ungeteilte Gefolgschaft, − |his faithful, undivided followers − |- − |die seiner Sache Namen trägt − |that holds the name of his matter − |- − |als Werkzeug seines Willens, − |as a tool of his will − |- − |von Helden und Märtyrern blutgeweiht − |antlered by the blood of heroes and martyrs − |- − | – den ewigen Weg zum Weltheil. − | - the everlasting way to the health of the world − |- − | − |- − |HEIL HITLER! − |Long live Hitler! − |} − ==Media== − − − ==Bibliography== − − * Bouhler, Phillip. ''Adolf Hitler: A short sketch of his life''. Terramare Publications, Berlin, 1938. ([http://archive.org/download/AdolfHitlerAShortSketchOfHisLife/AHBIO.pdf PDF-File]) − * Degrelle, Leon. ''Hitler: Born at Versailles''. Costa Mesa, CA, USA: Institute for Historical Review, 1987. ([http://zundelsite.org/old_zundelsite/english/reviews/bookrev.001.html Book review]) − * Degrelle, Leon. "Epic: The Story of the Waffen SS." ''The Journal of Historical Review'', Winter 1982-83 (Vol. 3, No. 4). ([http://archive.org/download/EpicTheStoryOfTheWaffenSs/Epic.pdf PDF-File]) − * Eckart, Dietrich. ''Bolshevism From Moses to Lenin: A Dialogue Between Adolf Hitler and Me''. National Vanguard Books, Hillsboro, USA, 1999. ([http://archive.org/download/BolshevismFromMosesToLenin_95/BolshevismFromMosesToLenin.pdf PDF-File]) − * Germany. Auswärtiges Amt. ''German White Book on the Last Phase of the German-Polish Crisis''. German Library of Information, New York, 1939. ([http://www.sweetliberty.org/issues/wars/whitebook/1.shtml HTML-version]) − * Göring, Hermann. ''Germany Reborn''. E. Mathews & Marrot, London, 1934. ([http://archive.org/download/GermanyReborn/Goering.pdf PDF-File]) − * Heinz, Heinz A. ''Germany's Hitler''. Hurst and Blackett LTD., London, 1938. ([http://archive.org/download/GermanysHitler/Germanys_Hitler-Heinz_A_Heinz-1938-259pgs-POL.sml.pdf PDF-File]) − * Hitler, Adolf. ''Mein Kampf'' ("My Struggle"). Hurst & Blackett LTD., London, 1939. (PDF-Files: [http://archive.org/download/AdolfHitlersmeinKampfpart1/MeinKampf001.pdf Part 1], [http://archive.org/download/AdolfHitlersmeinKampfpart2/MeinKampf002.pdf Part 2]) − * Irving, David. ''Hitler's War''. Focal Point Publications, London, 1991. − * Kubizek, August. ''The Young Hitler I Knew''. Greenhill Books, London, 2006. ([http://archive.org/download/TheYoungHitlerIKnew_637/AugustKubizek-TheYoungHitlerIKnew-1955.pdf PDF-File]) − * Rosenberg, Alfred. ''Memoirs of Alfred Rosenberg''. Ziff-Davis Pub. Co., Chicago & NY, 1949. ([http://archive.org/download/MemoirsOfAlfredRosenberg/RosenbergMemoirs.pdf PDF-File]) − * Spotts, Frederick. ''Hitler and the Power of Aesthetics''. The Overlook Press, Woodstock, NY, 2002. − * Walsh, Michael. ''Triumph of Reason: The Thinking Man's Guide to Adolf Hitler''. Historical Review Press, Uckfield, UK, 2002. − − == See also == − * [[Adolf Hitler Timeline]] − * [[Adolf Hitler the artist]] − * [[NSDAP]] − * [[Rudolf Hess]] − * [[National socialism, liberalism, marxism]] − * [[Lineage of Adolf Hitler]] − * [[Hitler Escaped To Argentina Theory]] + + + + + − + − *[http://gothicripples.wordpress.com/adolf-hitler-the-man-against-time/ Adolf Hitler: The Man Against Time]+ − *[http://www.fpp.co.uk/Hitler/index.html Documents of the Life and Time of Adolf Hitler] on [[David Irving]]'s website. − *[http://www.adolfhitlerresearchsociety.org Adolf Hitler Research Society - dedicated to Hitler's concept of Christianity] − *[http://www.adolfthegreat.com Life and times of Adolf the Great] − *[http://www.stormfront.org/posterity/ns/enigma.html The Enigma of Hitler] − *[http://der-fuehrer.org A very nice Hitler-page] − * [http://der-fuehrer.org/bucher/deutsch/Adolf_Hitler-Geliebter_Fuehrer.htm Beloved leader] − *[http://www.hitler.org/ Hitler Historical Museum] − *[http://www.wargs.com/other/hitler.html Ancestry of Adolf Hitler] − *[http://der-fuehrer.org/redenen.htm Adolf Hitler's speeches] − *[http://www.stormfront.org/forum/t378972/ An Overview of Hitler's Peace Proposals] − + + + + − {{National Socialism}}+ − − + − + − + − + − + − + − + − + − + − + − + − + − [[Category:German Chancellors]] − [[Category:National Socialist writers]] − [[Category:Vegetarians]]
Reverted edits by Idontunderstandwhy (talk) to last revision by Brenden
{{pp-template}}{{Infobox person|
{{Dictator bio
| image =[[Image:Hitler7.JPG|200px]]
|image = [[Image:Adolf Hitler (main).png|200px|]]
| name =Adolf Hitler
|caption =
| birth =April 20, 1889<br/>Braunau am Inn, Austria–Hungary
|born =20 April 1889<br>[[Braunau am Inn]], [[Austria–Hungary]]
| parents =Alois Hitler (Schicklgruber)<br/>Klara Pölzl
|died = 30 April 1945 (aged 56)<br>[[Berlin]], [[Germany]]
| religion =Roman Catholic (rejected)
|nationality = [[German]]
| spouse =Eva Braun
|occupation =politician, soldier, artist, writer
| children =none
|knownfor =Father of [[National Socialism]]
| death =April 30, 1945<br/>Berlin, Germany
|title =[[Führer]]
| deathmanner =Suicide by gunshot
|term =2 August 1934 – 30 April 1945
| education =Realschule<br/>Linz, Austria
|predecessor = [[Paul von Hindenburg]] <small>(as President)</small>
| country =[[Third Reich|Germany]]
|successor = [[Karl Dönitz]] <small>(as President)</small>
| military =16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment<br/>Imperial German Army (1914-1918)
|title2 =[[Chancellor of Germany]]
| rank =''Obergefreiter'' (Lance Corporal/Private First Class)
|term2 =30 January 1933 – 30 April 1945
|burial = none, burned.
|predecessor2 = [[Kurt von Schleicher]]
| polbeliefs =[[Socialism]]<br/>[[National socialism]] (Nazism)
| party =German Workers' Party<br/>(Deutsche Arbeiterpartei 1920–1921)<br/>National Socialist German Workers' Party<br/>(Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei 1921–1945)
|party = [[German Workers' Party]] (1920–1921)<br>[[National Socialist German Workers' Party|NSDAP]] (1921–1945)
| dictatordate =March 23, 1933
|spouse =[[Eva Braun]]
| war =[[World War II]]
| deathnumber =12,000,000+ exclusive of battle casualties
20,000,000 to 25,000,000 altogether
Rummel: 21,000,000
}}
}}
'''Adolf Hitler''' (20 April 1889, [[Braunau am Inn]], [[Austria-Hungary]] – 30 April 1945, [[Berlin, Germany]]) was a German [[artist]], [[statesman]], theoretician, [[politician]], [[soldier]] and [[writer]]. He became [[Chancellor of Germany]] in 1933, and [[Führer]] from 1934 to 1945. He led the [[National Socialist German Workers Party]] and created the [[Greater German Empire]]. About his lineage see [[Lineage of Adolf Hitler]].
'''Adolf Hitler''', a [[Christian]], was the Austrian-born Chancellor and President of [[Germany]] from January 30, 1933 until his death on April 30, 1945. He was also the leader (German: ''Der Führer'') of the [[National Socialist German Workers Party]] (''National-sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'', or [[Nazi]] Party) which gained political power through threat, intimidation, and outright violence throughout Germany in the aftermath of the [[First World War]]. He was born a Catholic, but he never took religion seriously beyond initially rebelling against his Catholic father by showing preferences for Lutheran Protestantism in predominantly Catholic Austria, as well as using quasi-religious rhetoric in Mein Kampf and in speeches in order to not lose potential religious supporters. He was far more interested in [[Social Darwinism]]. After having minor wounds from an assassination bombing attempt, Hitler abused drugs originally intended to help with his injuries long after he had recovered from his injuries.
Hitler in his youth was an financially-irresponsible Bohemian (a German word of the time roughly the same as [[Hippy]]) who became broke after spending his father's inheritance wandering around Austria as a watercolour artist, practicing [[vegetarianism]], and rarely attempting to seek serious employment. Hitler worked with a Jewish art dealer and after being rejected entry into Vienna's leading art school due to his unoriginal art, Hitler was a complete failure and completely broke. Rather than accept responsibility for his Bohemian lifestyle, Hitler in denial and increasing signs of the mental illness of [[psychosis]], followed the political current in Europe at the time of blaming Jews for exploiting him. [[Anti-Semitism]] had become a significant phenomenon in Germany ever since [[Martin Luther]] during his severe mental illness at the end of his life had become anti-Semitic. But anti-Semites in Germany refused to acknowledge that Luther prior to the onset of mental illness was highly sympathetic towards Jews. It was adopted by a number of misguided conservative Protestants who were not aware of Luther's mental state when he became anti-Semitic. Hitler being rebellious to his Catholic father took up a brief interest in Lutheranism and may have been influenced by Luther's anti-Semitic remarks. Hitler without any prospects sought to be conscripted into the German Army (but refused to serve the Austrian army due to many Jews being in it), there Hitler mixed his anti-Semitic views with some of the anti-Semitic factional-Lutheran conservative nationalist aspects (that left-wing historians exaggerate by calling Hitler "far right") in order to be accepted amongst conservative German army officers but also began to adopt radical socialist ideas as revolutionary socialist movements in Germany and elsewhere grew in strength.
After World War I, Hitler behaved as a political opportunist - he played up conservative German themes to his army officers and was sent to investigate a bizarre radical party called the German Workers' Party that used the anti-Semitic factional-Lutheran nationalist theme in combination with a revolutionary socialist agenda that denounced Jews as being responsible for capitalism, exploitation of Germany, and for Germany losing World War I. It was anti-Marxist - though only because [[Karl Marx]] was a Jew and due to their anti-Semitic hatred, and saw Marx as no different than capitalist Jews. The Party was disorganized and Hitler with his strong anti-Semitism took advantage of the situation and used demagoguery to raise himself in the party, and make himself leader of the party that was then named the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party in short form). He used the party and its members to exact revenge for his psychotic perception of Jews and capitalists as having ruined him in his youth, along with his megalomaniac and psychotic view of himself as being the "Leader" (German: ''Fuhrer'') of Germany. Many Nazis were highly mentally-ill people with delusions of grandeur of both themselves and Germany, such as [[Heinrich Himmler]], and especially [[Hermann Goring]] who was a morphine addict and an animal rights activist who preferred to have Jews used for scientific experiments.
Due to the thematic influence of the historic anti-Semitic faction of conservative Lutheran extremists on the Nazi movement, left-wing Marxist historians have exaggerated the role of conservative Lutherans in the Nazi movement and because of it claim that the Nazis are "far right". They completely ignore and deny the far left socialist parts of the Nazis, out of political dogmatism just as the Nazis themselves completely denied the socialist elements of Marxism because Marx was Jewish. And left-wing historians almost always neglect to note the very clear similarity of Hitler's loose Bohemian lifestyle as a youth to that of Hippies.
== Childhood and Early Years ==
Adolf Hitler was an [[Evolution|evolutionary]] [[racist]] and [[socialism|socialist]] (see also: [[evolutionary racism]]).<ref>http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=268</ref><ref>http://mises.org/daily/1937</ref><ref>http://www.hourofthetime.com/socialist.htm</ref> Hitler’s policies and beliefs resulted in the [[Genocide|mass extermination]] of the [[Jews]], [[Gypsies]], and other peoples he considered “[[Racial Supremacy|inferior]]” throughout central and eastern [[Europe]] and were directly responsible for the outbreak of [[World War II]], which caused the deaths of untold millions on and off the battlefield and ended only after Hitler's [[suicide]] in his Berlin bunker.
[[Image:Hitler as a boy.png|thumb|left|140px|Hitler at the age of about 8-9 years ]]
==Early life==
[[File:Hitler Roses.jpg|thumb|Roses by Adolf Hitler.]]
Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, in Braunau am Inn, [[Austria]]. Hitler's father, Alois (born 1837), was a customs official who was himself born out of wedlock, carrying for a time his mother's name, Schicklgruber. By 1876 he had his baptismal entry corrected in his church records, establishing his father as Johan Heidler, which was altered slightly to Hitler.
When his father retired the family moved to Linz, Austria, where it remained a favorite for young Adolf for the rest of his life, and where he gave his wish to be buried. When Alois died in 1903 he left enough of a pension to support his wife and children; Adolf would take his and live off of it in Vienna after leaving school, dreaming of becoming an artist. Although somewhat competent as a painter of landscapes and architecture, his renderings of humans were considered “lifeless” and “crude” by the standards of the Academy of Fine Arts, and his application was rejected twice. Remaining in [[Vienna]], he moved from one cheap flop house to another, painting postcards and advertisements to earn a meager living after his allowance had dried up. By then he had developed traits which characterized his life as a whole: secretiveness, loneliness, a Spartan mode of everyday life, and a hatred of the cosmopolitan, multinational character that was the makeup of Vienna. ''He never sought a proper job or regular employment. Instead he immersed himself in the works of [[Hegel]], [[Nietzsche]], and the anti-Semitic writings of the Englishman Houston Stewart Chamberlain. He loved the operas of Wagner, and the stories of the Nordic Gods... In early 1910, he entered a shelter for the homeless, populated in the main by poor Jews, on Meldemenstrasse, and was eating at soup kitchens. By this time he had pawned all his belongings. '' <ref> [http://socyberty.com/history/young-adolf-the-adolescent-hitler-and-beyond/ Young Adolf: The Adolescent Hitler and Beyond.] </ref>
Hitler's family moved often, from [[Braunau am Inn]] to [[Passau]], [[Lambach]], [[Leonding]], and [[Linz]]. The young Hitler was a good student in elementary school. But in the sixth grade, his first year of high school in Linz, he failed and had to repeat the grade. Hitler claimed his educational slump was a rebellion against his father, who wanted the boy to follow him in a career as a customs official; Hitler wanted to become a painter instead. This explanation is further supported by Hitler's later description of himself as a misunderstood artist. However, after Alois died on [[January 3]], [[1903]], Hitler's schoolwork did not improve. At age 16, Hitler dropped out of high school without a diploma.
==Who And What He Was==
[[Image:Cupid Complaining to Venus by Lucas Cranach.jpg|150px|left|thumb|This painting, one of the best-loved paintings in the National Gallery, had once belonged to Hitler. New evidence has come to light that Lucas Cranach's ''Cupid Complaining to Venus'', currently on loan to an exhibition in Bristol, hung on the sitting-room wall of his flat in Munich. <ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/mar/28/art.secondworldwar Hitler owned painting now in National Gallery]</ref>]]
[[Elie Wiesel]] wrote famously, and most eloquently about Hitler in 1998:
<blockquote>''"At the same time that he terrorized his adversaries, he knew how to please, impress and charm the very interlocutors from whom he wanted support. Diplomats and journalists insist as much on his charm as they do on his temper tantrums. The savior admired by his own as he dragged them into his madness, the Satan and exterminating angel feared and hated by all others, Hitler led his people to a shameful defeat without precedent. That his political and strategic ambitions have created a dividing line in the history of this turbulent and tormented century is undeniable: there is a before and an after. By the breadth of his crimes, which have attained a quasi-ontological dimension, he surpasses all his predecessors: as a result of Hitler, man is defined by what makes him inhuman. With Hitler at the head of a gigantic laboratory, life itself seems to have changed."''</blockquote>
<blockquote>''"How did this Austrian without title or position manage to get himself elected head of a German nation renowned for its civilizing mission? How to explain the success of his cheap demagogy in the heart of a people so proud of having inherited the genius of a Wolfgang von Goethe and an Immanuel Kant?"''</blockquote>
<blockquote>''"Was there no resistance to his disastrous projects? There was. But it was too feeble, too weak and too late to succeed. German society had rallied behind him: the judicial, the educational, the industrial and the economic establishments gave him their support. Few politicians of this century have aroused, in their lifetime, such love and so much hate; few have inspired so much historical and psychological research after their death. Even today, works on his enigmatic personality and his cursed career are best sellers everywhere. Some are good, others are less good, but all seem to respond to an authentic curiosity on the part of a public haunted by memory and the desire to understand."''</blockquote>
''"The purpose of my trip was to study the picture gallery in the Court Museum, but I had eyes for scarcely anything but the Museum itself. From morning until late at night, I ran from one object of interest to another, but it was always the buildings which held my primary interest."''
<blockquote>''"We think we know everything about the nefarious forces that shaped his destiny: his unhappy childhood, his frustrated adolescence; his artistic disappointments; his wound received on the front during World War I; his taste for spectacle, his constant disdain for social and military aristocracies; his relationship with [[Eva Braun]], who adored him; the cult of the very death he feared; his lack of scruples with regard to his former comrades of the SA, whom he had assassinated in 1934; his endless hatred of [[Jews]], whose survival enraged him — each and every phase of his official and private life has found its chroniclers, its biographers."''</blockquote>
<blockquote>''"And yet. There are, in all these givens, elements that escape us. How did this unstable paranoid find it within himself to impose gigantic hope as an immutable ideal that motivated his nation almost until the end? Would he have come to power if Germany were not going through endless economic crises, or if the winners in 1918 had not imposed on it conditions that represented a national humiliation against which the German patriotic fiber could only revolt? We would be wrong to forget: Hitler came to power in January 1933 by the most legitimate means. His [[Nationalist Socialist Party]] won a majority in the parliamentary elections. The aging [[Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg]] had no choice but to allow him, at age 43, to form the new government, marking the end of the Weimar Republic. And the beginning of the [[Third Reich]], which, according to Hitler, would last 1,000 years."''</blockquote>
''"In a few days I myself knew that I should some day become an architect. To be sure, it was an incredibly hard road; for the studies I had neglected out of spite at the Realschule were sorely needed. One could not attend the Academy's architectural school without having attended the building school at the Technic, and the latter required a high-school degree. I had none of all this. The fulfillment of my artistic dream seemed physically impossible.''"(Mein Kampf, Chapter II, paragraph 5 & 6).''
<blockquote>''"From that moment on, events cascaded. The burning of the [[Reichstag]] came only a little before the openings of the first concentration camps, established for members of the opposition. Fear descended on the country and squeezed it in a vise. Great writers, musicians and painters went into exile to France and the U.S. Jews with foresight emigrated toward Palestine. The air of Hitler's Germany was becoming more and more suffocating. Those who preferred to wait, thinking that the Nazi regime would not last, could not last, would regret it later, when it was too late."''</blockquote>
<blockquote>''"The fact is that Hitler was beloved by his people — not the military, at least not in the beginning, but by the average Germans who pledged to him an affection, a tenderness and a fidelity that bordered on the irrational. It was idolatry on a national scale. One had to see the crowds who acclaimed him. And the women who were attracted to him. And the young who in his presence went into ecstasy. Did they not see the hateful mask that covered his face? Did they not divine the catastrophe he bore within himself?<ref name="time">http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/hitler.html"''</ref></blockquote>
{{Clear}}
==Beliefs==
Hitler says he first became an anti-Semite in [[Vienna]], which had a large Jewish community, including [[Orthodox Jews]] who had fled from [[pogroms]] in [[Russia]]. However, according to a childhood friend, [[August Kubizek]], Hitler was a "confirmed anti-Semite" before he left Linz, Austria. Vienna at that time was a hotbed of traditional religious prejudice and 19th century racism. Hitler may have been influenced by the writings of the ideologist and anti-Semite [[Lanz von Liebenfels]] and polemics from politicians such as [[Karl Lueger]], founder of the [[Christian Social Party]] and mayor of Vienna, the composer [[Richard Wagner]], and [[Georg Ritter von Schönerer]], leader of the pan-Germanic ''Away from Rome!'' movement. Hitler claims in [[Mein Kampf]] that his transition from opposing anti-Semitism on religious grounds to supporting it on racial grounds came from coming in contact with Orthodox Jews.
Despite the common myth that Hitler was an atheist, Hitler was actually a confirmed [[Roman Catholic]] Christian. In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote, “by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord”. However, he was not very strong in his religious beliefs, and it is likely he only mentioned [[Christianity]] in his speeches to gain the votes and favor of both Catholics and Protestants.
Hitler saw the Jews as enemies of the [[Aryan]] race. He held them responsible for Austria's crisis. He also identified certain forms of [[Socialism]] and [[Bolshevism]], which had many Jewish leaders, as Jewish movements, merging his anti-Semitism with anti-Marxism. Blaming Germany's military defeat on the 1918 Revolutions, he considered Jews the culprit of Imperial Germany's downfall and subsequent economic problems as well.
=== Hitler, Nazism and socialism ===
''For more information please see:'' [[Nazism and socialism]]
Hitler received the final part of his father's estate in May 1913 and moved to [[Munich]]. He wrote in [[Mein Kampf]] that he had always longed to live in a "real" German city. In Munich, he became more interested in architecture and, he says, the writings of [[Houston Stewart Chamberlain]].
[[Image:Hitler.jpg|thumb|250px|right|One of the most well known political parties of the 20th century which was [[socialism|socialistic]] was the [[National Socialist German Workers Party]] (NAZI) which was headed by the [[Evolutionary racism|evolutionary racist]] Adolf Hitler.<ref>http://mises.org/daily/1937</ref><ref>http://creation.com/darwinism-and-the-nazi-race-holocaust</ref><ref>http://www.hourofthetime.com/socialist.htm</ref> ]]
The [[Ludwig von Mises Institute]] declares:
{{cquote|The identification of [[Nazi]] [[Germany]] as a [[socialism|socialist]] state was one of the many great contributions of [[Ludwig von Mises]]...
The basis of the claim that Nazi Germany was capitalist was the fact that most industries in Nazi Germany appeared to be left in private hands.
What Mises identified was that private ownership of the means of production existed in name only under the Nazis and that the actual substance of ownership of the means of production resided in the German government. For it was the German government and not the nominal private owners that exercised all of the substantive powers of ownership: it, not the nominal private owners, decided what was to be produced, in what quantity, by what methods, and to whom it was to be distributed, as well as what prices would be charged and what wages would be paid, and what dividends or other income the nominal private owners would be permitted to receive. The position of the alleged private owners, Mises showed, was reduced essentially to that of government pensioners.
De facto government ownership of the means of production, as Mises termed it, was logically implied by such fundamental collectivist principles embraced by the Nazis as that the common good comes before the private good and the individual exists as a means to the ends of the State. If the individual is a means to the ends of the State, so too, of course, is his property. Just as he is owned by the State, his property is also owned by the State.<ref>http://mises.org/daily/1937</ref>}}
Hitler had long admired [[Germany]], and during the war he had become a passionate German patriot. He was shocked by Germany's capitulation in November 1918 even while the German army still held enemy territory. Like many other nationalists, Hitler believed Germany was "stabbed in the back" by civilian leaders and [[Marxists]] back on the home front. These politicians were later dubbed the November Criminals.
=== Hitler and the Theory of Evolution ===
''For more information please see:'' [[Evolutionary racism]] and [[Social effects of the theory of evolution]]
[[Image:Hitlerrisetopower.jpg|right|225px|thumb]]
The staunch [[evolution|evolutionist]] Stephen Gould admitted the following:
{{cquote|[[Ernst Haeckel|[Ernst] Haeckel]] was the chief apostle of evolution in [[Germany]].... His evolutionary racism; his call to the German people for racial purity and unflinching devotion to a "just" state; his belief that harsh, inexorable laws of evolution ruled human civilization and nature alike, conferring upon favored races the right to dominate others; the irrational mysticism that had always stood in strange communion with his brave words about objective science - all contributed to the rise of Nazism. - Stephen J. Gould, "Ontogeny and Phylogeny," Belknap Press: Cambridge MA, 1977, pp.77-78).<ref>http://members.iinet.net.au/~sejones/social.html</ref>}}
Robert E.D. Clark in his work ''Darwin: Before and After'' wrote concerning Hitler's evolutionary racism:
{{cquote|The Germans were the higher race, destined for a glorious evolutionary future. For this reason it was essential that the Jews should be segregated, otherwise mixed marriages would take place. Were this to happen, all nature’s efforts 'to establish an evolutionary higher stage of being may thus be rendered futile' (''Mein Kampf''). <ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1675</ref>}}
Hitler wrote in ''Mein Kampf'':
{{cquote|The stronger must dominate and not blend with the weaker, thus sacrificing his own greatness. Only the born weakling can view this as cruel, but he, after all, is only a weak and limited man; for if this law did not prevail, any conceivable higher development (Hoherentwicklung) of organic living beings would be unthinkable.<ref>http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=268</ref>}}
Hitler was discharged from the army in March 1920 and began participating full time in the party's activities. About this time Hitler asked Drexler to change the name of the Party to the [[National Socialist German Workers Party]]. (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP)
Dr. Robert E.D. Clark wrote in his work ''Darwin, Before and After'' the following regarding Hitler and the theory of evolution: “Adolf Hitler’s mind was captivated by evolutionary teaching — probably since the time he was a boy. Evolutionary ideas — quite undisguised — lie at the basis of all that is worst in Mein Kampf — and in his public speeches”.<ref name="courier">http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/read/the_holocaust_why_did_it_happen</ref>
[[Image:5712dawkins.jpg|alt=Richard Dawkins|right|thumbnail|200px|[[Richard Dawkins]] is a prominent [[atheism|atheist]] and [[evolution|evolutionist]]. [[Richard Dawkins]] stated in an interview: “What’s to prevent us from saying Hitler wasn’t right? I mean, that is a genuinely difficult question."<ref>http://byfaithonline.com/page/in-the-world/richard-dawkins-the-atheist-evangelist</ref> ]]
Richard Hickman in his work ''Biocreation'' concurs and wrote the following:
{{cquote|It is perhaps no coincidence that Adolf Hitler was a firm believer in and preacher of evolutionism. Whatever the deeper, profound, complexities of his [[psychosis]], it is certain that [the concept of struggle was important for]. . . his book, Mein Kampf clearly set forth a number of evolutionary ideas, particularly those emphasizing struggle, survival of the fittest and extermination of the weak to produce a better society. <ref>http://www.creationism.org/csshs/v08n3p24.htm</ref>}}
Noted evolutionary [[anthropology|anthropologist]] Sir Arthur Keith conceded the following in regards to Hitler: “The German Fuhrer, as I have consistently maintained, is an evolutionist; he has consciously sought to make the practices of Germany conform to the theory of evolution”.<ref name="courier" />
[[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning author Marilynne Robinson wrote the following regarding Hitler's racism in the November 2006 issue of ''Harper’s'' magazine:
{{cquote|While it is true that persecution of the Jews has a very long history in [[Europe]], it is also true that science in the twentieth century revived and absolutized persecution by giving it a fresh rationale — Jewishness was not religious or cultural, but genetic. Therefore no appeal could be made against the brute fact of a Jewish grandparent.
[[Richard Dawkins|[Richard] Dawkins]] deals with all this in one sentence. Hitler did his evil "in the name of ... an insane and unscientific [[eugenics]] theory." But eugenics is science as surely as totemism is religion. That either is in error is beside the point. Science quite appropriately acknowledges that error should be assumed, and at best it proceeds by a continuous process of criticism meant to isolate and identify error. So bad science is still science in more or less the same sense that bad religion is still religion. That both of them can do damage on a huge scale is clear. The prestige of both is a great part of the problem, and in the modern period the credibility of anything called science is enormous. As the history of eugenics proves, science at the highest levels is no reliable corrective to the influence of cultural prejudice but is in fact profoundly vulnerable to it.
There is indeed historical precedent in the [[Spanish Inquisition]] for the notion of hereditary Judaism. But the fact that the worst religious thought of the sixteenth century can be likened to the worst scientific thought of the twentieth century hardly redounds to the credit of science.<ref>http://solutions.synearth.net/2006/10/20</ref><ref>http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/someone-finally-said-it-dawkinss-hysterical-scientism/</ref>}}
[[Evolution|Evolutionist]] and [[atheism|atheist]] [[Richard Dawkins]] stated in an interview: “What’s to prevent us from saying Hitler wasn’t right? I mean, that is a genuinely difficult question."<ref>http://byfaithonline.com/page/in-the-world/richard-dawkins-the-atheist-evangelist</ref> The interviewer wrote, regarding the Hitler comment, "I was stupefied. He had readily conceded that his own [[philosophy|philosophical]] position did not offer a rational basis for moral judgments. His intellectual honesty was refreshing, if somewhat disturbing on this point."<ref>http://byfaithonline.com/page/in-the-world/richard-dawkins-the-atheist-evangelist</ref>
== Similarities between Communism, Nazism and liberalism ==
''See also:'' [[Similarities between Communism, Nazism and liberalism]]
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!
![[Communism|Communist]] Manifesto
![[Nazi]] Party Platform
!Analysis
|-
|1
|"Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes."
|"We demand an agrarian reform in accordance with our national requirements, and the enactment of a law to expropriate the owners without compensation of any land needed for the common purpose. The abolition of ground rents, and the prohibition of all speculation in land."
|The stripping away of land from private owners. [[Liberalism]] today demands "eminent domain" on property.
|-
|2
|"A heavy progressive or graduated income tax."
|"We demand the nationalization of all trusts...profit-sharing in large industries...a generous increase in old-age pensions...by providing maternity welfare centers, by prohibiting juvenile labor...and the creation of a national (folk) army."
|The points raised in the [[Nazi]] platform demand an increase in taxes to support them. Liberalism today demands heavy progressive and graduated income taxes.
|-
|3
|"Abolition of all rights of inheritance."
|"That all unearned income, and all income that does not arise from work, be abolished."
|Liberalism today demands a "death tax" on anyone inheriting an estate.
|-
|4
|"Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels."
|"We demand that all non-Germans who have entered Germany since August 2, 1914, shall be compelled to leave the Reich immediately."
|The Nuremburg Laws of 1934 allowed Germany to take Jewish property.
|-
|5
|"Centralisation of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly."
|"We demand the nationalization of all trusts."
|Central control of the financial system.
|-
|6
|"Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State."
|"We demand that there be a legal campaign against those who propagate deliberate political lies and disseminate them through the press...editors and their assistants on newspapers published in the German language shall be German citizens...Non-German newspapers shall only be published with the express permission of the State...the punishment for transgressing this law be the immediate suppression of the newspaper..."
|Central control of the press. Liberals today demand control or suppression of talk radio and Fox News.
|-
|7
|"Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, &c, &c."
|"In order to make it possible for every capable and industrious German to obtain higher education, and thus the opportunity to reach into positions of leadership, the State must assume the responsibility of organizing thoroughly the entire cultural system of the people. The curricula of all educational establishments shall be adapted to practical life. The conception of the State Idea (science of citizenship) must be taught in the schools from the very beginning. We demand that specially talented children of poor parents, whatever their station or occupation, be educated at the expense of the State. "
|Central control of education, with an emphasis on doing things their way. Liberals today are doing things ''their way'' in our schools.
|-
|}
== Mein Kampf ==
==War==
[[File:A002_FishingHut.jpg|thumb|right|Adolf Hitler's signature]]
[[Image:Hitler munich1914.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Hitler in the crowd in Munich, 1914, reacting to the news of Germany's entry in the First World War.]]
By 1913 Hitler was in Munich, Germany, with war clouds on the horizon. Classified as unfit for service in the Austrian army (possibly by faking, as he did not like the thought of serving Austria) in 1914, he volunteered for the German army, joining the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment, greeting the war with enthusiasm, and finding the military discipline and comradeship satisfying. He served during the entire [[First World War]] as a messenger carrying dispatches between units, and often at the front lines under fire; he was wounded in 1916, and gassed in 1918. His bravery during this time earned him the [[Iron Cross]], 2nd Class, in December, 1914, and in August 1918 he was awarded the Iron Cross, 1st Class – a rare decoration for a corporal. But the gassing would take him out of the war and into a hospital, where he would be told the heart-wrenching news of Germany’s defeat the following November.
== Rebuilding the NSDAP ==
==Path to power==
After the war ended, Hitler's future seemed uncertain. There was much discontent among demobilized veterans because of the lack of employment. The German military had felt it had not been defeated; indeed, the German Army stood on foreign soil when the Armistice was signed November 11, 1918 and not a square inch of German soil had been occupied. This was despite the fact that the German Army's strongest position, the Hindenburg line, had been broken by the Allies, and the German Army itself was in full retreat. However, the Army felt they had done their job, and the nation had been "stabbed in the back" by a gang of traitors who sought to lay hands on the Fatherland. The "myth" that Germany had been defeated was the "big lie" Hitler spoke of, as if repeating it often enough would cause people to believe it.
After his discharge from the hospital, Hitler acted as an army political agent, assigned in Munich to gather information on the various political parties which had spring up amid the social chaos following Germany’s defeat. In September, 1919, he was given orders to investigate the relatively-minor German Workers’ Party (''Deutsche Arbeiterpartei''); intrigued by the party’s apparatus and its racial, pan-German nationalism, he joined, becoming its 55th member; he left the army soon after and devoted himself to improving the party’s propaganda, as well as his own position within.
Conditions in Germany fostered the development of the party. Economic woes brought widespread discontent, added to the furor surrounding the loss of the war and the harsh terms heaped upon Germany by the Allied Powers in the Versailles Peace Treaty. Bavaria’s traditional separatism from the central government in Berlin made current conditions especially sharp, and Hitler was savvy enough to take full advantage of them. When he joined, he found the party ineffective in leadership and uncertain as to its aims; he accepted the party program, but regarded it as a means to an end. He caused friction with other members of the party, and their attempts to control him caused a threat of resignation; realizing that the future of the party now depended on Hitler, who clearly had a talent of organization, fund collecting, and above all, speaking, they declined to accept it; from July, 1921 Hitler was regarded as the party leader with nearly unlimited power. From his party newspaper, ''Völkischer Beobachter'' (“Popular Observer”), he spewed out endless propaganda. His meetings where he spoke grew from handfuls to hundreds, and then on to thousands. A man of charismatic personality, he quickly attracted a circle of loyal and devoted followers: Julius Streicher, Alfred Rosenberg, Hermann Göring, and Rudolf Hess.
Munich was also a gathering place for former servicemen dissatisfied with conditions in the country; members of the Freikorps, which had been organized after the war from army units that refused to return to civilian life; and those civilians who plotted against the republic. Many of these men joined the Nazi Party. Among them was a staff member of the district command who had joined the German Workers’ Party before Hitler, Ernst Röhm, a pudgy man with a scared face who saw his own ambition in helping further Hitler’s rise within the party. Röhm recruited what came to be known as the “Brown Shirts”, the violent squads used to attack socialists and communists, and to protect party meetings whenever Hitler was speaking. By 1921 they were organized into a private army called the ''Sturmabteilung'', abbreviated to S.A.
==The Beer Hall Putsch==
Germany in 1923 was marked by social and political unrest caused by hyperinflation. In this time Hitler was able convince [[Erich Ludendorff]], an accomplished general and leader of the German forces in the first World War, to join him in a coup d'etat (''Putsch'' in German). When Hitler learned that the nationalist prime minister of Bavaria was giving a speech to 3000 officials in one of Munich's biggest beer halls (the Haufbrau Haus), he ordered his paramilitaries to surround the building. Hitler went inside and took the prime minister hostage, announced a revolution, and attempted to convince him to join the coup against Berlin and become member in his new administration. The Bavarian prime minister agreed under pressure, but informed the nation via radio later that night that he did not support Hitler. The prime minister also informed the federal government in Berlin; the putsch had begun to fail.
The next morning, 9 November 1923, Hitler and Ludendorff were marching with approximately 2000 partly armed supporters through Munich in a show of strength to regain the momentum. In the ensuing fight between Hitler's marchers and a cordon of police and army units at least 14 Nazi supporters and three policemen were killed and hundreds wounded. Ludendorff handed himself over to the authorities, while Hitler fled soon after the fighting began. Hitler was arrested a few days later at a friend's house, were had been in hiding since the failed coup. Ludendorff was acquitted of all charges, while Hitler was sentenced to 5 years in prison (he would do eight months). <ref>http://history1900s.about.com/cs/thirdreich/a/beerhallputsch_2.htm</ref><ref>http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/putsch2.htm</ref> The Bavarian prime minister, who foiled the plan, was killed in 1934 in the "Night of the Long Knives".
== Rise to Power ==
===''Mein Kampf''===
{{main|Mein Kampf}}
Hitler had his inner circle as frequent visitors in his prison cell, which was made more comfortable due to his celebrity. While there, he dictated to Rudolf Hess the first volume of ''[[Mein Kampf]]'' (“My Struggle”), his political autobiography and a compendium of his many ideas, including his [[atheist]] and [[evolutionist]] ideas.
Hitler believed in the inequality of the races, nations, and individuals as part of the natural order of mankind, and chief among them was the exalted “Aryan race”, and the greatest of the Aryans were the Germans. It was the German, according to Hitler, that gave the world civilization and the arts; to safeguard the German people as a race (the “Volk”), they would need to be united under a single leader (the Führer), where they would be protected from their three principle enemies: Marxism, which included social democracy as well as communism; democracy and its mob-rule, as shown by the failings of the Weimar Republic; and above all what Hitler called the poisoners of humanity, the Jews. “Rational anti-Semitism must lead to systematic legal opposition,” he wrote in 1919. “Its final objective must be the removal of the Jews altogether.” In Mein Kampf, he told the world that the Jew was the “destroyer of culture,” “a parasite within the nation,” and “a menace.”
The political turning point for Hitler came when the [[Great Depression]] hit Germany in 1930. The Weimar Republic had never been firmly rooted and was openly opposed by right-wing conservatives (including monarchists), Communists and National Socialists. As the parties loyal to the democratic, parliamentary republic found themselves unable to agree on counter-measures, their Grand Coalition broke up and was replaced by a minority cabinet. The new Chancellor, Heinrich Brüning of the Roman Catholic Centre Party, lacking a majority in parliament, had to implement his measures through the president's emergency decrees. Tolerated by the majority of parties, the exception soon became the rule and paved the way for authoritarian forms of government.
From "Mein Kampf":
{{cquote|The Jew "... he blares out his merits to the rest of the world until people really begin to believe in them. Anyone who does not believe in them is doing him a bitter injustice. In a short time he begins to twist things around to make it look as if all the injustice in the world had always been done to him and not the other way around." <ref> [http://www.hitler.org/writings/Mein_Kampf/mkv1ch11.html Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler.]</ref> }}
{{cquote| Hitler portrays Jews as leaders in politics and banking, both groups seeking to strengthen their cause, [[Zionism]], to ensure Jewish domination. From his Social Darwinist perspective, Hitler perceived a racial war as inevitable and he sought to halt the "[[Jewish]] drive towards world conquest"... As Berlin collapsed around him, Adolf asserted: "Out of the ruins of our towns and monuments hatred will grow against those finally responsible for everything, International Jewry." <ref> [http://www.historytoday.com/MainArticle.aspx?m=32043&amid=30237234 Mein Kampf – The Text, its Themes and Hitler’s Vision] Robert Carr dissects a book frequently referred to but seldom read. </ref>
}}
==Rebuilding the Nazi Party==
[[Image:Hitler-3.jpg |right|200px|thumb|Hitler in car, saluting passing S.A. at one of many parades.]]
Internal dissension within the party caused it to languish while Hitler was in prison. When he was released he saw difficulties in the country that had not existed before the Putsch, namely currency reform that brought economic stability, and the scaling back of the war reparations as a result of the Dawes Plan. Hitler was also forbidden to speak in public, and remained so until 1928; nonetheless he worked to rebuild the party and re-establish his own position within it as leader, despite Gregor Strasser’s opposition in northern Germany. By 1927 the number of Nazis was in the hundreds of thousands.
A new period of political and economic instability began with the onset of the Great Depression which threw millions out of work in Europe and North America. To campaign against the [[Young Plan]] (a second renegotiation of war reparations payments) Hitler made an alliance with one of Germany’s leading nationalists, Alfred Hugenberg, whose newspapers enabled Hitler to reach a national audience for the first time. The alliance also had another advantage: it enabled him to seek support from many in business and industry who controlled funds going into politics, and who themselves were desirous of seeing Germany under the control of a strong anti-Soviet and anti-Communist regime. The subsidies Hitler received placed the Nazi Party on a strong financial footing, enabling him to make his emotional appeal to the lower middle class and the unemployed in his faith that Germany would recover from its suffering and be a great nation once more. The alliance with the industrialists also demonstrated another aspect of Hitler, a skill of effectively using those that would use him, which many would discover when it was too late.
The electoral strength of the Nazis grew during the Depression, as unceasing propaganda accused the government of failing to improve conditions for the working man. By the fall of 1930 the Nazis captured more than 18 percent of the vote, compared to just 2.6 percent in 1928. Hitler captured 36.8 percent of the vote when he opposed Paul von Hindenburg in the 1932 presidential election; his mass following put him in such a strong position that he entered a series of closed-door intrigues with Franz von Papen, Oskar Hindenburg, and Otto Meissner, all sharing a fear and loathing of a communist government. Despite the party losing votes in the November, 1932 election, Hitler insisted on nothing less than the office of chancellor for himself. For him, it was all or nothing. Hindenburg offered it to him on January 30, 1933.
==In power==
Almost immediately, Hitler established himself as dictator. Less than a month after taking office, on February 27 the Reichstag building was set on fire under mysterious circumstances (but officially blamed on a feeble-minded Dutch communist, Marinus van der Lubbe); Hitler soon after succeeded in getting several decrees passed removing much of the freedom guaranteed the constitution in the name of state security, and which also allowed an intensified campaign of violence against dissidents. Incredibly, in a special election set in those conditions on March 5, the Nazis won 43.9 percent of the vote. On March 21, the new Reichstag assembled at the Potsdam Church, as much a show of unity between the old guard under Hindenburg and the Nazis as it was a show of peace. Two days later the Enabling Act was passed, giving Hitler full powers; with the exception of the Nazis, all other political parties, including those which had helped pass the Enabling Act, ceased to exist within three months. Many of their leaders were imprisoned in concentration camps.
===Night of the Long Knives===
[[Image:HitlerRohm1933.JPG|right|200px|thumb|Hitler with Ernst Röhm in 1933]]
[[File:Diego Rivera, Hitler, Panel of Mural for the New Workers School, New York City, 1933..jpg|thumb|left|Hitler by [[Diego Rivera]], 1933.]]
Hitler, however, did not wish to start an immediate revolution. In order to implement his ideas he still needed the support of the army. But he did have one growing problem that was a thorn in the army’s side, the million-plus men of the S.A. and their leader, Ernst Röhm, who wanted nothing less than the merger of the S.A. into the army, with himself in overall command. At first, Hitler tried getting Röhm’s support by persuasion, but Hitler’s inner circle was for removing him by any means possible. On June 29, 1934, Hitler ordered a purge, flew towards a resort near Munich where a number of S.A. leaders were vacationing, and had them all arrested; many would be shot without trial. Refusing to shoot himself when offered, Röhm was killed in his cell at Dachau, his last words, ironically, “Mein Führer, mein Führer!” <ref>http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/roehm.htm</ref><ref>http://www.adolfhitler.ws/lib/nsdap/Rohm.html</ref><ref>http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/nazi/innenpolitik/roehm/index.html</ref>
On July 13, Hitler gave speech in the Reichstag, announcing that some seventy-four individuals had been shot for threatening the stability of the Reich.
:''"If anyone reproaches me and asks why I did not resort to the regular courts of justice, then all I can say is this: In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and thereby I became the supreme judge of the German people…It was no secret that this time the revolution would have to be bloody; when we spoke of it we called it 'The Night of the Long Knives.' Everyone must know for all future time that if he raises his hand to strike the State, then certain death is his lot." ''
Hitler also used this event to settle his account with other opponents, such as Georg Strasser, who stood for a more socialist and less racist national socialism, and the former Bavarian prime minister who foiled the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. Satisfied that the S.A. leadership was thoroughly broken up (thousands of S.A. members were either arrested or killed that night), the army approved of Hitler’s actions. Hindenburg died a few days later on August 2, and Hitler merged the office of president with the chancellorship, and with it the supreme command of the German armed forces. During this time the world was slowly recovering economically from the Depression, but it quickened in Germany, coincidently with Hitler’s rise to power. Taking credit for the recovery made him very popular, bringing him a 90 percent approval rating in a voter plebiscite that year.
===Beginnings of expansion===
In matters of state, the running of domestic affairs was left to subordinates, which was something Hitler had little attention for. Foreign policy always peaked his interest, in so much as to the advantages of a “Greater Germany”, which was his chief ambition. The first part of realizing this, according to ''Mein Kampf'', was to be a reunion of the German peoples within Europe; the second would be an expansion of Germany to the east (lebensraum). Expanding would mean a renewed conflict with the Slavic peoples, whom Hitler intended to serve as slaves to the “New German Order.” To follow through on his ambitions, he would have to remove Poland and the Soviet Union as countries; France also would have to be stabilized in the west, as she was Germany’s enemy for more than a century. He counted as possible allies Italy, with its fascist government under [[Benito Mussolini]], and Britain, whom he regarded as having a similar, Teutonic heritage.
[[Image:Hitler6-thumb.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Hitler with his dog, Blondie.]]
Before any of his ambitions could take place, there was one thing he detested which needed immediate removal: the restrictions placed upon Germany by the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I. Posing as a man of peace to allay suspicions, he insisted that he was a champion of Europe wishing only for the removal of the inequalities leveled by the treaty, and posturing as a shield against Bolshevism. In October, 1933, he had Germany withdraw from the [[League of Nations]]. The following January he signed a non-aggression treaty with Poland. His individual repudiations of parts of the treaty were followed by offers of negotiations for new agreements, while maintaining Germany’s limited ambitious nature.
While this was going on, Germany was steadily building up the armed forces. Rigorous training using wooden guns and trucks marked as “tanks” got needed battlefield training for officers. Potential fighter pilots began their training in gliders at public demonstrations – Germany, under terms of the treaty, was not allowed an air force – and later they would fly in new civilian stunt planes and transports, which on the drawing board were designed to be rapidly turned into fighters and bombers. Conscription was introduced in January, 1935, and in June of that year Hitler successfully signed a naval treaty with Britain, giving him rights to a respectable navy; but even while the ink was drying, Germany was secretly building a large U-boat fleet.
The matter of reuniting the German peoples came into being in July, 1934, and here Hitler overreached. German organizations were covertly aiding Austrian Nazis in the overthrow of their government, culminating in an attempted revolt as well as murdering Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss. When the attempt clearly failed, Hitler denied involvement. In January, 1935, a plebecite was introduced in the Saarland; more than 90 percent voted to return the territory to Germany. Then in March, 1936, came his greatest slap to the Versailles Treaty: against the advice of his generals, and in open defiance of France and Britain, he ordered troops into the demilitarized Rhineland. Germany was once again becoming the leading power in continental Europe. By October, 1936, Germany had signed an alliance with Italy, proclaiming a “Rome-Berlin axis,” followed by the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan. All three countries would sign a single, mutual alliance pact, the following year.
==Anschluss==
Removed from their offices in January 1938 were Hjalmar Schacht (economic ministry); Werner von Fritsch (soldiers’ representative); and Konstantin von Neurath (foreign office); the reason being was they were not fully accepting of Nazism. Beginning his plans of German conquest, he started with Austria. Kurt von Schuschnigg, the Austrian chancellor, was invited to Berchtesgaden in February, where he was browbeaten and forced to sign an agreement placing Austrian Nazis in the government. When Schuschnigg resisted and announced a plebiscite for Austrian voters concerning independence, Hitler ordered German troops into Austria, completely taking over the country within days. His return to Vienna was in triumph; enthusiastic crowds greeted him by the tens of thousands, in sharp contrast to the scenes of privation he had gone through there in his youth. Austria was annexed (Anschluss) to the Reich a short time later.
While the Anschluss was going on, Hitler was speaking in friendly terms with Czechoslovakia; nearly as soon as Austria ceased to exist, Hitler proceeded with his plans against the Czechs. The northwestern region of Czechoslovakia was the Sudetenland, inhabited by a German minority, and the leader of them, Konrad Henlein, was instructed to make impossible demands for those Germans on the Czech government. In the interest of preventing a general war (which Hitler wanted), Mussolini and British prime minister Neville Chamberlain concluded a peaceful agreement in Munich on September 30, giving Hitler the Sudetenland without firing a shot. Chamberlain would return to Britain, waving the agreement signed between himself and Hitler, declaring it to be “peace for our time”, but his act of appeasement would ensure the peace would last only a few more months. Despite assurances that the Sudetenland was his last territorial demands, “Czechia”, as the remainder of Czechoslovakia was called, became a German protectorate on March 15, 1939, when Hitler ordered it occupied. Just over a week later, Lithuania was forced to cede to Germany the territory of Memel (Klaipeda), on the border of East Prussia.
==Poland==
Poland’s turn was next, and listening to the rumblings was France and Britain, which signed guarantees of mutual assistance to the Polish nation should it be attacked by Germany. Hitler also signed pacts: a “Pact of Steel” with Italy, strengthening the alliance between Rome and Berlin, and then a treaty that caught many off-guard: a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union on August 23. A secret clause in the pact allowed for the simultaneous invasion of Poland, and the division of the country in the center from north to south. Poland was invaded on September 1; two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany.
Hitler assumed his own war strategy. Poland was conquered within weeks, and when a desired peace accord with Britain failed to materialize, he ordered the army to prepare for a western offensive. Norway was invaded and occupied, forestalling a British move on that country; Denmark was occupied by April, 1940. Hitler than adopted General Erich von Manstien’s plan for an offensive against France itself, which would move through neutral Belgium’s Ardenne Forest on May 10, taking that country as a matter of convenience, as well as avoiding the static fortifications of France’s Maginot Line. The German forces, extremely successful in their operations, reached the coastal ports on the English Channel in 10 days; Holland and Belgium both surrendered within days. But south of Dunkirk was where the army was ordered to halt. Hitler had hoped even at this stage in the battle that Britain would commit to peace; instead, the halting of the German army allowed the British to remove 170,000 fighting men.
On June 10, Italy entered the war as German tanks were sweeping across northern France. Hitler signed an armistice with France on June 22, the signing taking place in the same rail car at the same site where the Germans surrendered in 1918.
Having failed in getting the British to sign an armistice, Hitler prepared his forces for “Operation Sea Lion,” the invasion of Britain. However, the Luftwaffe was defeated in its attempt to gain air superiority over British airspace, also known as the Battle Of Britain, which forced the permanent postponement of Sealion.
Facing the failure of the British to give in, Hitler started to prepare to double-cross his erstwhile partner in the Poland conquest, Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union. Then Mussolini invaded Greece, got bogged down in the Balkans, and the threat loomed that he would lose his whole army there. Hitler found it necessary to come to his aid, while at the same time taking direct control of Yugoslavia in the wake of the overthrow of the pro-Nazi government.
==Barbarossa==
The attack on Soviet Russia began June 22, 1941. Rapid in its advancement, the German army captured a large swath of territory between the Baltic and Black seas, and captured close to 3,000,000 prisoners. But Hitler, already micro-managing military operations, became overbearing to his generals; he preferred to go after many targets, while his generals argued for a single objective. A few miles in front of Moscow, the German army was halted by a Russian offensive in December, as well as something he had absolutely no control over: the severe Russian winter.
In the lands already occupied by German forces, S.S. chief Heinrich Himmler was preparing the ground for Hitler’s new German order. Expelling the Jews from Germany was the first step, and this was carried out by laws and decrees beginning in 1933; the Germans would switch to outright force in 1939, as Jews were first deported en-masse to Poland, then walled into ghettos after the occupation began. By 1941, a policy crafted under S.S. general Reinhard Heydrich had changed expulsion for extermination in what was called "a final solution to the Jewish question" (''die Endlösung der Judenfrage''). The system of concentration camps was supplemented by the creation of specialized killing centers in the occupied countries, especially in Poland, where camps such as Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor, and Belzac “processed” thousands of victims daily. Some six million Jews died during what was called the [[Holocaust]], as well as an additional five million Slavs, Gypsies, the handicapped, the aged, and many others that the Nazis considered “subhuman” in accordance with German racial policies.<ref>http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/burns.htm</ref>
==Beginning of the end==
[[Image:Image-File Nazi.jpg|thumb|150px|Hitler Addressing Troops 1938]]
[[Image:Adolf_hitler6.jpg |right|200px|thumb|Hitler in 1944, by now looking tired and strained.]]
Hitler grew increasingly strained by the end of 1942, depending on large amounts of drugs supplied by his physician, Theodor Morell, as a result of the twin defeats of El Alamein (which he lost the bulk of his Afrika corps to British general Montgomery), and Stalingrad (where he lost an entire army of 250,000 men to the Russians). He spent more time in his headquarters in East Prussia, and his time in the public eye ceased to exist. He refused to visit bombed German cities, and, as with Stalingrad, refused to allow German armies to withdraw from the battlefield when the situation was lost. Still, he could make stunning, decisive decisions when called for, such as the commando raid that resulted in the rescue of Benito Mussolini from Italian partisans in July, 1943.
But the defeat of Germany in the war was looming closer. Hitler’s relations with his leading commanders grew strained, the more so as he allowed units of the S.S. to take positions traditionally held by the army. The line at the eastern front was slowly being pushed back by the Soviets, while in the Atlantic his U-boats campaign had faltered. German cities were constantly being bombed, and a successful invasion on the Normandy coast of France in June, 1944 marked the beginning of the end.
===Assassination attempt===
[[Image:NWT Hitler dead.jpg|left|200px|thumb|Hitler's death as covered by the ''New York Times'', May 2, 1945.]]
Seeing Germany’s chances of surviving the war were desperate, a group of officers plotted to assassinate Hitler, planning several attempts in 1943-44, but nearly successful on July 20, 1944, when a bomb hidden in a briefcase by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg went off under a table that Hitler and others were leaning over; four were killed outright, several suffered injuries, but Hitler escaped relatively unharmed (the bomb itself was set down away from Hitler behind a solid oak table leg, saving him). The conspirators were quickly rounded up; Stauffenberg was shot. The remainder were put on show trials and condemned to hang on meat hooks with piano wire. It was said that Hitler enjoyed watching film of their executions. As a result of the bomb, Nazi members were employed at key positions within the army, removing any trace of the army’s independence.
Within months nearly all of the territory occupied by Germany was now in Allied hands. A last offensive in December, 1944 to take the port of Antwerp, Belgium, failed. Hitler had by them grown ill; his hopes for a German victory bordered on the fantastical and the imagination. By January, 1945 he had moved into his command bunker in Berlin, where he gave orders deploying fictional divisions to counter the ever-closer Soviets. When all seemed lost, he gave out his final orders: first, appointing Admiral Karl Dönitz as head of the state and his successor, and Josef Goebbels as chancellor; and second, dictating his last political will which was an attempt to justify his life’s work.
On [[March 12]], [[1938]], [[Austria]] was united with [[Germany]]. Two days later Hitler made a triumphal return to Vienna. Next, the question over the German-speaking [[Sudetenland]] districts of [[Czechoslovakia]] was resolved by the [[Munich Agreement]] of September 1938. The agreement allowed military control of the ethnic Germans. As a result of the summit, Hitler was TIME magazine's Man of the Year for 1938. British prime minister [[Neville Chamberlain]] hailed this agreement as "Peace in our time." Hitler ordered Germany's army to enter Prague on 15 March 1939, and from [[Prague Castle]] proclaimed the new republics of Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate.
On April 29, he committed the one truly-chivalrous act of his life: he married Eva Braun, his long-time mistress. After retiring to his room in the bunker the next day, Eva took poison, and Hitler put a bullet in his head. In accordance with his wishes, both bodies were burned. His Third Reich would outlive him for another week.
[[Elie Wiesel]] wrote the following in [[Time Magazine]] regarding Hitler:
{{cquote|Adolf Hitler or the incarnation of absolute evil; this is how future generations will remember the all-powerful Fuehrer of the criminal Third Reich. Compared with him, his peers [[Mussolini]] and [[Franco]] were novices. Under his hypnotic gaze, humanity crossed a threshold from which one could see the abyss. "Before Hitler, we thought we had sounded the depths of human nature," argues Ron Rosenbaum, author of "Explaining Hitler." "He showed how much lower we could go, and that's what was so horrifying. It gets us wondering not just at the depths he showed us but whether there is worse to come. The power of Hitler was to confound the modernist notion that judgments about good and [[evil]] were little more than matters of taste, reflections of social class and power and status. Although some modern scholars drive past the notion of evil and instead explain Hitler's conduct as a reflection of his childhood and self-esteem issues, for most survivors of the 20th century he is confirmation of our instinctive sense that evil does exist. It moves among us; it leads us astray and deploys powerful, subtle weapons against even the sturdiest souls." <ref name="time" />}}
All in all, Hitler survived over forty assassination attempts. The Stauffenburg attempt was the closest anyone ever came to killing Hitler. George Elser, a communist, came very close in 1938, having planted a bomb in a beam that Hitler stood in front of while giving a speech. Luck saved Hitler, as he left the hall early and twelve minutes later the bomb exploded.
== Adolf Hitler and Abortion ==
''For more information see:'' [[Abortion and Adolf Hitler]]
In 1942 Adolf Hitler declared:
{{cquote|In view of the large families of the Slav native population, it could only suit us if girls and women there had as many abortions as possible. We are not interested in seeing the non-[[German]] population multiply…We must use every means to instill in the population the idea that it is harmful to have several children, the expenses that they cause and the dangerous effect on woman's health… It will be necessary to open special institutions for abortions and doctors must be able to help out there in case there is any question of this being a breach of their professional ethics. <ref>http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/sep/07090708.html</ref>}}
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== External links ==
== External links ==
[[File:Hitler Siegestor Munich Victory Gate.jpg|thumb|Watercolor of the Arch of Triumph in Munich by Hitler.]]
*[http://www.eucontest.org/go.php?pdf=www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%201994.pdf Extracts From Mein Kampf by Hitler]
*[http://www.hitler.org/writings/Mein_Kampf/ Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler.] Full text.
*[http://www.snyderstreasures.com/pages/hartworks.htm Adolf Hitler ORIGINAL Watercolor Artworks.]
*[http://constitutionalistnc.tripod.com/hitler-leftist/ Hitler Was a Leftist]
*[http://www.nazi.org.uk/pierce-hitler.htm Adolf Hitler – The Measure of Greatness]
==Further reading==
*[http://www.ushmm.org/research/doctors/medical.htm STATE MEDICAL SERVICES OF THE THIRD REICH], FROM THE OPENING STATEMENT BY TELFORD TAYLOR, Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10. Nuremberg, October 1946–April 1949. Washington, D.C.: U.S. G.P.O, 1949–1953.] Retrieved from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
==References==
==References==
<references/>
{{reflist|2}}
==Sources==
<small>*[http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/h/hitler-adolf/oss-papers/text/profile-index.htmlA Psychological Analysis of Adolf Hitler, His Life and Legend], Walter C. Langer, Office of Strategic Services, Washington, D.C.</small>
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