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Adolf Hitler

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Political People

   Adolf Hitler
   Adolf Hitler
     __________________________________________________________________

   Chancellor of Germany
   Reichskanzler
   In office
   30 January 1933 –  30 April 1945
   Preceded by Kurt von Schleicher
   Succeeded by Joseph Goebbels
     __________________________________________________________________

   Head of State
   Führer und Reichskanzler
   In office
   2 August 1934 –  April 30, 1945
   Preceded by Paul von Hindenburg
   (as President)
   Succeeded by Karl Dönitz
   (as President)
     __________________________________________________________________

   Born April 20, 1889
   Braunau am Inn, Austria
   Died April 30, 1945
   Berlin, Germany
   Political party National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP)
   Spouse Eva Braun
   (married on 29 April 1945)

   Adolf Hitler  ( April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) was Chancellor of
   Germany from 1933, and " Führer" (leader) of Germany from 1934 until
   his death. He was leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party
   (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), better known
   as the Nazi Party.

   Hitler gained power in a Germany facing crisis after World War I. Using
   propaganda and charismatic oratory, he was able to appeal to the
   economic need of the lower and middle classes, while sounding resonant
   chords of nationalism, anti-Semitism and anti-communism. With the
   establishment of a restructured economy, a rearmed military, and a
   totalitarian fascist dictatorship, Hitler pursued an aggressive foreign
   policy with the intention of expanding German Lebensraum ("living
   space"), which triggered World War II when Germany invaded Poland. At
   the height of its power, Nazi Germany occupied most of Europe, but it
   and the Axis Powers were eventually defeated by the Allies. By then,
   Hitler's racial policies had culminated in a genocide of approximately
   eleven million people, including about six million Jews, in what is now
   known as the Holocaust.

   In the final days of the war, Hitler committed suicide in his
   underground bunker in Berlin with his newlywed wife, Eva Braun.

Early years

Childhood and heritage

   Adolf Hitler as an infant.
   Enlarge
   Adolf Hitler as an infant.

   Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 at Braunau am Inn, Austria, a
   small town in Upper Austria, on the border with Germany. He was the
   third son and the fourth of six children of Alois Hitler (born
   Schicklgruber) (1837–1903), a minor customs official, and Klara Pölzl
   (1860–1907), his second cousin, and third wife. Because of the close
   kinship of the two, a papal dispensation had to be obtained before the
   marriage could take place. Of Alois and Klara's six children, only
   Adolf and his younger sister Paula reached adulthood. Alois Hitler also
   had a son, Alois Jr., and a daughter, Angela, by his second wife.

   Alois was born illegitimate and for the first thirty-nine years of his
   life bore his mother's name, Schicklgruber. In 1876, Alois began using
   the name of his stepfather, Johann Georg Hiedler, after visiting a
   priest responsible for birth registries and declaring that Georg was
   his father (Alois gave the impression that Georg was still alive but he
   was long dead). The name was variously spelled Hiedler, Huetler,
   Huettler and Hitler and probably changed to "Hitler" by a clerk. About
   the origin of the name there are two theories:
    1. From German Hittler and similar, "one who lives in a hut",
       "shepherd".
    2. From Slavic Hidlar and Hidlarcek.

   Later, Adolf Hitler was accused by his political enemies of not
   rightfully being a Hitler, but a Schicklgruber. This was also exploited
   in Allied propaganda during World War II when pamphlets bearing the
   phrase "Heil Schicklgruber" were airdropped over German cities. Adolf
   was legally born a Hitler, however, and was also closely related to
   Hiedler through his maternal grandmother, Johanna Hiedler.

   Hitler's given name, "Adolf", comes from the Old High German for "noble
   wolf" ("Adel"="nobility" + "wolf"). Hence, not surprisingly, 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. By his closest family and relatives, Hitler was known
   simply as "Adi". The names of his various headquarters scattered
   throughout continental Europe ( Wolfsschanze in East Prussia,
   Wolfsschlucht in France, Werwolf in Ukraine, etc.) seem to reflect
   this.

   As a boy, Hitler was whipped almost daily by his father. Years later he
   told his secretary, "I then resolved never again to cry when my father
   whipped me. A few days later I had the opportunity of putting my will
   to the test. My mother, frightened, took refuge in the front of the
   door. As for me, I counted silently the blows of the stick which lashed
   my rear end."

   Hitler was not sure who his paternal grandfather was, but it was
   probably either Johann Georg Hiedler or his brother Johann Nepomuk
   Hiedler. There have been rumours that Hitler was one-quarter Jewish and
   that his paternal grandmother, Maria Schicklgruber, had become pregnant
   after working as a servant in a Jewish household in Graz. During the
   1920s, the implications of these rumours along with his known family
   history were politically explosive, especially for the proponent of a
   racist ideology. Opponents tried to prove that Hitler, the leader of
   the anti-Semitic Nazi Party, had Jewish or Czech ancestors. Although
   these rumours were never confirmed, for Hitler they were reason enough
   to conceal his origins. Soviet propaganda insisted Hitler was a Jew,
   though more modern research tends to diminish the probability that he
   had Jewish ancestors. According to Robert G. L. Waite in The
   Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler, Hitler made it illegal for German women
   to work in Jewish households, and after the "Anschluss" (annexation) of
   Austria, Hitler had his father's hometown obliterated by turning it
   into an artillery practice area. Hitler seemed to fear that he was
   Jewish, and as Waite points out, this fact is more important than
   whether he actually was.

   Because of Alois Hitler's profession, his family moved frequently, from
   Braunau to Passau, Lambach, Leonding, and Linz. As a young child,
   Hitler was reportedly a good student at the various elementary schools
   he attended; however, in sixth grade (1900–1), his first year of high
   school (Realschule) in Linz, he failed completely and had to repeat the
   grade. His teachers reported that he had "no desire to work."

   Hitler later explained this educational slump as a kind of rebellion
   against his father Alois, who wanted the boy to follow him in a career
   as a customs official, although Adolf wanted to become a painter. This
   explanation is further supported by Hitler's later description of
   himself as a misunderstood artist. However, after Alois died on January
   3, 1903, when Adolf was 13, Hitler's schoolwork did not improve. At the
   age of 16, Hitler left school with no qualifications.

Early adulthood in Vienna and Munich

   From 1905 onward, Hitler was able to live the life of a Bohemian on a
   fatherless child's pension and support from his mother. He was rejected
   twice by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (1907 – 1908) due to
   "unfitness for painting", and was told his abilities lay rather in the
   field of architecture. His own memoirs reflect a fascination with the
   subject:

     "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." (Mein Kampf, Chapter II, paragraph 3).

   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:

     "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).

   On December 21, 1907, his mother Klara died a painful death from breast
   cancer at the age of 47. Hitler gave his share of the orphans' benefits
   to his younger sister Paula, but when he was 21 he inherited some money
   from an aunt. He worked as a struggling painter in Vienna, copying
   scenes from postcards and selling his paintings to merchants and
   tourists (there is evidence he produced over 2000 paintings and
   drawings before World War I). Several biographers have noted that a
   Jewish resident of the house named Hanisch helped him sell his
   postcards.
   A watercolour by Adolf Hitler depicting Laon, France.
   Enlarge
   A watercolour by Adolf Hitler depicting Laon, France.

   After the second refusal from the Academy of Arts, Hitler gradually ran
   out of money. By 1909, he sought refuge in a homeless shelter, and by
   the beginning of 1910 had settled permanently into a house for poor
   working men.

   Hitler first became an active anti-Semite in Vienna, which had a large
   Jewish community, including many Orthodox Jews from Eastern Europe and
   where traditional religious prejudice mixed with recent racist
   theories. Hitler was influenced over time by the writings of the race
   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, one of the most outrageous demagogues in history,
   and Georg Ritter von Schönerer, leader of the pan-Germanic Away from
   Rome! movement. He later wrote in his book Mein Kampf that his
   transition from opposing anti-Semitism on religious grounds to
   supporting it on racial grounds came from having seen an Orthodox Jew:

     "There were very few Jews in Linz. In the course of centuries the
     Jews who lived there had become Europeanized in external appearance
     and were so much like other human beings that I even looked upon
     them as Germans. The reason why I did not then perceive the
     absurdity of such an illusion was that the only external mark which
     I recognized as distinguishing them from us was the practice of
     their strange religion. As I thought that they were persecuted on
     account of their faith my aversion to hearing remarks against them
     grew almost into a feeling of abhorrence. I did not in the least
     suspect that there could be such a thing as a systematic
     anti-Semitism.

     Once, when passing through the inner City, I suddenly encountered a
     phenomenon in a long caftan and wearing black side-locks. My first
     thought was: Is this a Jew? They certainly did not have this
     appearance in Linz. I carefully watched the man stealthily and
     cautiously but the longer I gazed at the strange countenance and
     examined it feature by feature, the more the question shaped itself
     in my brain: Is this a German?"
     (Mein Kampf, vol. 1, chap. 2: "Years of study and suffering in
     Vienna")

   Hitler began to claim the Jews were natural enemies of what he called
   the Aryan race. He held them responsible for Austria's crisis. He also
   identified certain forms of Socialism and especially Bolshevism, which
   had many Jews among its leaders, as Jewish movements, merging his
   anti-Semitism with anti-Marxism. Blaming Germany's military defeat on
   the 1917 Revolutions, he considered Jews the culprit of Imperial
   Germany's military defeat and subsequent economic problems as well.

   Generalising from tumultuous scenes in the parliament of the
   multi-national Austria Monarchy, he developed a firm belief in the
   inferiority of the democratic parliamentary system, which formed the
   basis of his political views. However, according to August Kubizek, his
   close friend and roommate at the time, he was more interested in the
   operas of Richard Wagner than in politics.
   A landscape painted by Adolf Hitler.
   Enlarge
   A landscape painted by Adolf Hitler.

   Hitler received the final part of his father's estate in May 1913 and
   moved to Munich. He later 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 the writings of Houston Stewart Chamberlain. Moving
   to Munich also helped him escape military service in Austria for a
   time, but the Austrian army later arrested him. After a physical exam
   (during which his height was measured at 173 cm, or 5 ft 8 in) and a
   contrite plea, he was deemed unfit for service and allowed to return to
   Munich. However, when Germany entered World War I in August 1914, he
   immediately 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.

World War I

   Hitler saw active service in France and Belgium as a messenger for the
   regimental headquarters of the 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment (also
   called Regiment List after its first commander), which exposed him to
   enemy fire. Unlike his fellow soldiers, Hitler reportedly never
   complained about the food or hard conditions, preferring to talk about
   art or history. He also drew some cartoons and instructional drawings
   for the army newspaper. His behaviour as a soldier was considered
   somewhat sloppy, but his regular duties required taking dispatches to
   and from fighting areas and he was twice decorated for his performance
   of these duties. He received the Iron Cross, Second Class in December
   1914 and the Iron Cross, First Class in August 1918, an honour rarely
   given to a Gefreiter. However, because of the perception of "a lack of
   leadership skills" on the part of some of the regimental staff, as well
   as (according to Kershaw) Hitler's unwillingness to leave regimental
   headquarters (which would have been likely in event of promotion), he
   was never promoted to Unteroffizier. Other historians, however, say
   that the reason he was not promoted is that he did not have German
   citizenship. His duty station at regimental headquarters, while often
   dangerous, gave Hitler time to pursue his artwork. During October 1916
   in northern France, Hitler was wounded in the leg, but returned to the
   front in March 1917. He received the Wound Badge later that year, as
   his injury was the direct result of hostile fire. Sebastian Haffner,
   referring to Hitler's experience at the front, suggests he did have at
   least some understanding of the military.

   On October 15, 1918, shortly before the end of the war, Hitler was
   admitted to a field hospital, temporarily blinded by a poison gas
   attack. The English psychologist David Lewis and Bernhard Horstmann
   indicate the blindness may have been the result of a conversion
   disorder (then known as hysteria). Hitler later said it was during this
   experience that he became convinced the purpose of his life was to
   "save Germany". Some scholars, notably Lucy Dawidowicz, argue that an
   intention to mass murder Europe's Jews was fully formed in Hitler's
   mind at this time, though he probably hadn't thought through how it
   could be done.

   Two passages in Mein Kampf mention the use of poison gas:

          At the beginning of the Great War, or even during the War, if
          twelve or fifteen thousand of these Jews who were corrupting the
          nation had been forced to submit to poison-gas . . . then the
          millions of sacrifices made at the front would not have been in
          vain. (Volume 2, Chapter 15 "The Right to Self-Defence").

          These tactics are based on an accurate estimation of human
          weakness and must lead to success, with almost mathematical
          certainty, unless the other side also learns how to fight poison
          gas with poison gas. The weaker natures must be told that here
          it is a case of to be or not to be. (Volume 1, Chapter 2 "Years
          of Study and Suffering in Vienna")

   Hitler had long admired Germany, and during the war he had become a
   passionate German patriot, although he did not become a German citizen
   until 1932. He was shocked by Germany's capitulation in November 1918
   even while the German army still held enemy territory. Like many other
   German nationalists, Hitler believed in the Dolchstoßlegende
   ("dagger-stab legend") which claimed that the army, "undefeated in the
   field", had been "stabbed in the back" by civilian leaders and Marxists
   back on the home front. These politicians were later dubbed the
   November Criminals.

   The Treaty of Versailles deprived Germany of various territories,
   demilitarized the Rhineland and imposed other economically damaging
   sanctions. The treaty also declared Germany the culprit for all the
   horrors of the Great War, as a basis for later imposing not yet
   specified reparations on Germany (the amount was repeatedly revised
   under the Dawes Plan, Young Plan and the Hoover Moratorium). Germans,
   however, perceived the treaty and especially the paragraph on the
   German guilt as a humiliation, not least as it was damaging in the
   extreme to their pride. For example, there was nearly a full
   demilitarisation of the armed forces, allowing Germany only 6
   battleships, no submarines, no air force, an army of 100,000 without
   conscription and no armoured vehicles. The treaty was an important
   factor in both the social and political conditions encountered by
   Hitler and his National Socialist Party as they sought power. Hitler
   and his party used the signing of the treaty by the "November
   Criminals" as a reason to build up Germany so that it could never
   happen again. He also used the 'November Criminals' as scapegoats,
   although at the Paris peace conference, these politicians had very
   little choice in the matter.

The early years of the Nazi Party

   A copy of Adolf Hitler's forged DAP membership card. His actual
   membership number was 555 (the 55th member of the party - the 500 was
   added to make the group appear larger) but later the number was reduced
   to create the impression that Hitler was one of the founding members
   (Ian Kershaw Hubris). Hitler had wanted to create his own party, but
   was ordered by his superiors in the Reichswehr to infiltrate an
   existing one instead.
   Enlarge
   A copy of Adolf Hitler's forged DAP membership card. His actual
   membership number was 555 (the 55th member of the party - the 500 was
   added to make the group appear larger) but later the number was reduced
   to create the impression that Hitler was one of the founding members
   (Ian Kershaw Hubris). Hitler had wanted to create his own party, but
   was ordered by his superiors in the Reichswehr to infiltrate an
   existing one instead.

Hitler's entry into politics

   After World War I, Hitler remained in the army and returned to Munich,
   where he - in contrast to his later declarations - participated in the
   funeral march for the murdered Bavarian prime minister Kurt Eisner.
   After the suppression of the Munich Soviet Republic, took part in
   "national thinking" courses organized by the Education and Propaganda
   Department (Dept Ib/P) of the Bavarian Reichswehr Group, Headquarters 4
   under Captain Karl Mayr. A key purpose of this group was to create a
   scapegoat for the outbreak of the war and Germany's defeat. The
   scapegoats were found in "international Jewry", communists, and
   politicians across the party spectrum, especially the parties of the
   Weimar Coalition, who were deemed " November Criminals".

   In July 1919, Hitler was appointed a Verbindungsmann (police spy) of an
   Aufklärungskommando (Intelligence Commando) of the Reichswehr, for the
   purpose of influencing other soldiers toward similar ideas and was
   assigned to infiltrate a small party, the German Workers' Party (DAP),
   which was thought of to be a possibly socialist party (See: Adolf
   Hitler's inspection of the German Workers' Party). During his
   inspection of the party, Hitler was impressed with Drexler's
   anti-Semitic, nationalist, anti-capitalist and anti-Marxist ideas,
   which favoured a strong active government, a "non-Jewish" version of
   socialism and mutual solidarity of all members of society.

   Here Hitler also met Dietrich Eckart, one of the early founders of the
   party and member of the occult Thule Society. Eckart became Hitler's
   mentor, exchanging ideas with him, teaching him how to dress and speak,
   and introducing him to a wide range of people. Hitler in return thanked
   Eckart by paying tribute to him in the second volume of Mein Kampf.

   Hitler was discharged from the army in March 1920 and with his former
   superiors' continued encouragement began participating full time in the
   party's activities. By early 1921, Adolf Hitler was becoming highly
   effective at speaking in front of even larger crowds. 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 with swastikas, cause a commotion and throw out
   leaflets, their first use of this tactic. Hitler gained notoriety
   outside of the Party for his rowdy, polemic speeches against the Treaty
   of Versailles, rival politicians (including monarchists, nationalists
   and other non-internationalist socialists) and especially against
   Marxists and Jews.

   The DAP was centered in Munich which had become a hotbed of German
   nationalists who included Army officers determined to crush Marxism and
   undermine or even overthrow the young German republic. Gradually they
   noticed Adolf Hitler and his growing movement as a vehicle to hitch
   themselves to. Hitler traveled to Berlin to visit nationalist groups
   during the summer of 1921 and in his absence there was an unexpected
   revolt among the DAP leadership in Munich.

   The Party was run by an executive committee whose original members
   considered Hitler to be overbearing and even dictatorial. To weaken
   Hitler's position they formed an alliance with a group of socialists
   from Augsburg. 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 was made chairman and given dictatorial powers.
   Infuriated committee members (including founder Anton Drexler) held out
   at first. Meanwhile an anonymous pamphlet appeared entitled Adolf
   Hitler: Is he a traitor?, attacking Hitler's lust for power and
   criticizing the violence-prone men around him. Hitler responded to its
   publication in a Munich newspaper by suing for libel and later won a
   small settlement.

   The executive committee of the DAP eventually backed down and Hitler's
   demands were put to a vote of party members. Hitler received 543 votes
   for and only one against. At the next gathering on July 29, 1921, Adolf
   Hitler was introduced as Führer of the National Socialist Party,
   marking the first time this title was publicly used. Hitler changed the
   name of the party to the National Socialist German Workers Party
   (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP).

   Hitler's beer hall oratory, attacking Jews, social democrats, liberals,
   reactionary monarchists, capitalists and communists, 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 Nazis' paramilitary organization, the SA, which protected
   meetings and attacked political opponents. Hitler also assimilated
   independent groups, such as the Nuremberg-based Deutsche
   Werkgemeinschaft, led by Julius Streicher, who now 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.

The Beer Hall Putsch

   Encouraged by this early support, Hitler decided to use Ludendorff as a
   front in an attempt to seize power later known as the Beer Hall Putsch
   (and sometimes as the Hitler Putsch or Munich Putsch). The Nazi Party
   had copied the Italian Fascists in appearance and also had adopted some
   programmatical points and now, in the turbulent year 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.

   However on November 8, 1923 Kahr and the military withdrew their
   support during a meeting in the Bürgerbräukeller, a large beer hall
   outside of Munich. A surprised Hitler had them arrested and proceeded
   with the coup. Unknown to him, Kahr and the other detainees had been
   released on Ludendorff's orders after he obtained their word not to
   interfere. That night they prepared resistance measures against the
   coup and in the morning, 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 army quickly
   dispersed them (Ludendorff was wounded and a few other Nazis were
   killed).

   Hitler fled to the home of friends and contemplated suicide. He was
   soon arrested for high treason and appointed Alfred Rosenberg as
   temporary leader of the party but found himself in an environment
   somewhat receptive to his beliefs. During Hitler's trial, sympathetic
   magistrates allowed Hitler to turn his debacle into a propaganda stunt.
   He was given almost unlimited amounts of time to present his arguments
   to the court, and his popularity soared when he voiced basic
   nationalistic sentiments shared by some of the public. On April 1, 1924
   Hitler was sentenced to five years' imprisonment at Landsberg prison
   for the crime of conspiracy to commit treason. Hitler received favoured
   treatment from the guards and had much fan mail from admirers. Hitler
   was released on December 20, 1924 after the authorities decided that he
   was not a danger to the public. Including remand, he had served just
   over one year of his five-year sentence.

Mein Kampf

   While at Landsberg he dictated his political book Mein Kampf (My
   Struggle) to his deputy Rudolf Hess. The book, dedicated to Thule
   Society member Dietrich Eckart, was both an autobiography and an
   exposition of his political ideology. It was published in two volumes
   in 1925 and 1926 respectively, selling about 240,000 copies between
   1925 and 1934 alone. By the end of the war, about 10 million copies had
   been sold or distributed (every newly-wed couple, as well as front
   soldiers, received free copies).

   Hitler spent years dodging taxes on the royalties of his book, and had
   accumulated a tax debt of about 405,500 Reichsmarks (6m euros in
   today's money) by the time he became chancellor (at which time his debt
   was waived).

The rebuilding of the party

   At the time of Hitler's release, the political situation in Germany had
   calmed down, 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.

   As 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 organise the party in
   northern Germany. Gregor, 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
   (1926), during which Goebbels joined Hitler.

   After this encounter, Hitler centralized the party even more and
   asserted the Führerprinzip 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 convey 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 but early Nazi attempts to gain support by blaming
   these humiliations on "international Jewry" were not particularly
   successful with the electorate. The party learned quickly and soon a
   more subtle propaganda emerged, combining anti-Semitism with an attack
   on the failures of the " Weimar system" and the parties supporting it.

   Having failed in overthrowing the Republic by a coup, Hitler now
   pursued the "strategy of legality": this meant formally adhering to the
   rules of the Weimar Republic until he had legally gained power and then
   transforming liberal democracy into a Nazi dictatorship. Some party
   members, especially in the paramilitary SA, opposed this strategy and
   Ernst Röhm ridiculed Hitler as "Adolphe Legalité".

The road to power

The Brüning administration

   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 the Nazis. 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.

   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 Nazis 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. Hitler
   received little response from the urban working classes and
   traditionally Catholic regions.

   Meanwhile, on September 18, 1931, Hitler's niece Geli Raubal was found
   dead in her bedroom in his Munich apartment (his half-sister Angela and
   her daughter Geli had been with him in Munich since 1929), an apparent
   suicide. Geli was 19 years younger than he was and had used his gun,
   drawing rumours of a relationship between the two. The event is viewed
   as having caused lasting turmoil for him.

   In 1932, Hitler intended to run against the aging President Paul von
   Hindenburg in the scheduled presidential elections. Though Hitler had
   left Austria in 1913, he still had not acquired German citizenship and
   hence could not run for public office. In February, however, the state
   government of Brunswick, in which the Nazi Party participated,
   appointed Hitler to some minor administrative post and also gave him
   citizenship. The new German citizen ran against Hindenburg, who was
   supported by a broad range of reactionary nationalist, monarchist,
   Catholic, Republican and even social democratic parties, and against
   the Communist presidential candidate. 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 and fresh alternative in
   German politics.

The cabinets of Papen and Schleicher

   President 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 Nazis achieved their biggest success yet and won
   230 seats.

   The Nazis 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 President Hindenburg
   consistently refused to appoint the "Bohemian private" to the
   Chancellorship.

   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 Nazis lost some votes 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 Nazi 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.

Hitler's appointment as Chancellor

   Meanwhile Papen, resentful because of his dismissal, 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 Nazi Party, 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 Nazi 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 Economics. Papen wanted
   to use Hitler as a figure-head, but the Nazis had gained key positions,
   most notably the Ministry of the Interior. On the morning of January
   30, 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 convinced President Hindenburg to
   dissolve the Reichstag again. Elections were scheduled for early March,
   but on February 27, 1933, the Reichstag building was set on fire. Since
   a Dutch independent communist was found in the building, the fire was
   blamed on a Communist plot to which the government reacted with the
   Reichstag Fire Decree of February 28, which suspended basic rights,
   including habeas corpus. Under the provisions of this decree, the
   German Communist Party and other groups were suppressed, and Communist
   functionaries and deputies were arrested, put to flight, or murdered.
   In the same month Hitler banned pornography, homosexual bars and
   bath-houses and groups which promoted "gay rights". Campaigning
   continued, with the Nazis making use of paramilitary violence,
   anti-Communist hysteria, and the government's resources for propaganda.
   On election day, March 6, 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. Hitler had to maintain his
   coalition with the DNVP, as the coalition had a slim majority.

The "Day of Potsdam" and the Enabling Act

   On 21 March, the new Reichstag was constituted itself with an
   impressive opening ceremony held at Potsdam's garrison church. This
   "Day of Potsdam" was staged to demonstrate reconciliation and union
   between the revolutionary Nazi movement and "Old Prussia" with its
   elites and virtues. Hitler himself appeared, not in Nazi uniform, but
   in a tail coat, and humbly greeted the aged President Hindenburg.

   Because of the Nazis' 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. As 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, at this point 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 itself.

   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.

Removal of remaining limits

   With this combination of legislative and executive power, Hitler's
   government further suppressed the remaining political opposition. The
   KPD and the SPD were banned, while all other political parties
   dissolved themselves. Labour unions were merged with employers'
   federations into an organisation under Nazi control and the autonomy of
   German state governments was abolished.

   Hitler also used the SA paramilitary to push Hugenberg into resigning
   and proceeded to politically isolate Vice Chancellor Papen. As the SA's
   demands for political and military power caused much anxiety among the
   populace in general and especially among the military, Hitler used
   allegations of a plot by the SA leader Ernst Röhm to purge the
   paramilitary force's leadership during the Night of the Long Knives.
   Opponents unconnected with the SA were also murdered, notably Gregor
   Strasser and former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher.

   Soon after, president Paul von Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934. Rather
   than holding new presidential elections, Hitler's cabinet passed a law
   proclaiming the presidency dormant and transferred the role and powers
   of the head of state to Hitler as Führer und Reichskanzler (leader and
   chancellor). Thereby Hitler also became supreme commander of the
   military, which then swore their military oath not to the state or the
   constitution but to Hitler personally. In a mid-August plebiscite,
   these acts found the approval of 90% of the electorate. Combining the
   highest offices in state, military and party in his hand, Hitler had
   attained supreme rule that could no longer be legally challenged.

The Third Reich

   Having secured supreme political power, Hitler went on to gain their
   support by persuading most Germans he was their saviour from the
   Depression, the Communists, the Versailles Treaty, and the Jews along
   with other "undesirable" minorities.

Economics and culture

   Hitler oversaw one of the greatest expansions of industrial production
   and civil improvement Germany had ever seen, mostly based on debt
   flotation and expansion of the military. Nazi policies toward women
   strongly encouraged them to stay at home to bear children and keep
   house. 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,” a policy which
   was reinforced by the bestowing of the Cross of Honour of the German
   Mother on women bearing four or more babies. The unemployment rate was
   cut substantially, mostly through arms production and sending women
   home so that men could take their jobs. Given this, claims that the
   German economy achieved near full employment are at least partly
   artifacts of propaganda from the era. Much of the financing for
   Hitler's reconstruction and rearmament came from currency manipulation
   by Hjalmar Schacht, including the clouded credits through the Mefo
   bills. The negative effects of this inflation were offset in later
   years by the acquisition of foreign gold from the treasuries of
   conquered nations.

   Hitler also oversaw one of the largest infrastructure improvement
   campaigns in German history, with the construction of dozens of dams,
   autobahns, railroads and other civil works. Hitler's policies
   emphasised the importance of family life: men were the "breadwinners",
   while women's priorities were to lie in bringing up children and in
   household work. This revitalising of industry and infrastructure came
   at the expense of the overall standard of living, at least for those
   not affected by the chronic unemployment of the later Weimar Republic,
   since wages were slightly reduced in pre-World War II years, despite a
   25% increase in the cost of living (Shirer 1959).

   Hitler's government sponsored architecture on an immense scale, with
   Albert Speer becoming famous as the first architect of the Reich. While
   important as an Architect in implementing Hitler's classicist
   reinterpretation of German culture, Speer would prove much more
   effective as armaments minister during the last years of World War II.
   In 1936, Berlin hosted the summer Olympic games, which were opened by
   Hitler and choreographed to demonstrate Aryan superiority over all
   other races, achieved mixed results. Olympia, the movie about the games
   and documentary propaganda films for the German Nazi Party were
   directed by Hitler's personal filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl.

   Although Hitler made plans for a Breitspurbahn ( broad gauge railroad
   network), they were pre-empted by World War II. Had the railroad been
   built, its gauge would have been three metres, even wider than the old
   Great Western Railway of Britain.

   Hitler contributed to the design of the car that later became the
   Volkswagen Beetle, and charged Ferdinand Porsche with its construction.
   Production was also deferred due the war.

Rearmament and new alliances

   In March 1935, Hitler violated the Treaty of Versailles by
   reintroducing conscription in Germany, building a massive military
   machine, including a new Navy ( Kriegsmarine) and an Air Force
   (Luftwaffe). The enlistment of vast numbers of men and women in the new
   military seemed to solve unemployment problems, but seriously distorted
   the economy. For the first time in 20 years, Germany's armed forces
   were as strong as France's.

   In March 1936, Hitler again violated the Treaty by reoccupying the
   demilitarized zone in the Rhineland. When Britain and France did
   nothing, he grew bolder. In July 1936, the Spanish Civil War began when
   the military, led by General Francisco Franco, rebelled against the
   elected Popular Front government. Hitler sent troops to support Franco
   and Spain served as a testing ground for Germany's new forces and their
   methods, including the bombing of undefended towns such as Gernika in
   April 1937, prompting Pablo Picasso's famous eponymous Guernica
   painting.

   An Axis was declared between Germany and Italy by Galeazzo Ciano,
   foreign minister of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini on October 25,
   1936. Tripartite Treaty was then signed by Saburo Kurusu of Imperial
   Japan, Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany and Galeazzo Ciano of Fascist Italy
   in September 27, 1940 and was later expanded to include Hungary,
   Romania and Bulgaria. They were collectively known as the Axis Powers.
   Then on November 5, 1937, at the Reich Chancellory, Adolf Hitler held a
   secret meeting and stated his plans for acquiring "living space" (
   Lebensraum) for the German people.

The Holocaust

   One of the foundations of Hitler's and the NSDAP's social policies was
   the concept of racial hygiene. This was applied with varying degrees of
   rigourousness to different groups of society, but constituted in
   essence the same application of the brutal and crude concept of social
   Darwinism to all the different kinds of victims. Between 1939 and 1945,
   the SS, assisted by collaborationist governments and recruits from
   occupied countries, systematically killed about 11 million people,
   including about 6 million Jews, in concentration camps, ghettos and
   mass executions, or through less systematic methods elsewhere. Besides
   being gassed to death, many also died of starvation and disease while
   working as slave labourers (sometimes benefiting private German
   companies in the process, because of the low cost of such labour).
   Along with Jews, non-Jewish Poles (over 3 million of whom died),
   alleged communists or political opposition, members of resistance
   groups, resisting Roman Catholics and Protestants, homosexuals, Roma,
   the physically handicapped and mentally retarded, Soviet prisoners of
   war, Jehovah's Witnesses, anti-Nazi clergy, trade unionists, and
   psychiatric patients were killed. This industrial-scale genocide in
   Europe is referred to as the Holocaust (the term is also used by some
   authors in a narrower sense, to refer specifically to the unprecedented
   destruction of European Jewry). One of the biggest and most important
   concentration camps is Auschwitz.

   The massacres that led to the coining of the word " genocide" (the
   Endlösung der jüdischen Frage or "Final Solution of the Jewish
   Question") were planned and ordered by leading Nazis, with Himmler
   playing a key role. While no specific order from Hitler authorizing the
   mass killing of the Jews has surfaced, there is documentation showing
   that he approved the Einsatzgruppen and the evidence also suggests that
   in the fall of 1941 Himmler and Hitler agreed in principle on mass
   extermination by gassing. During interrogations by Soviet intelligence
   officers declassified over fifty years later, Hitler's valet Heinz
   Linge and his military aide Otto Gunsche said Hitler had "pored over
   the first blueprints of gas chambers."

   To make for smoother cooperation in the implementation of this "Final
   Solution", the Wannsee conference was held near Berlin on January 20,
   1942, with fifteen senior officials participating, led by Reinhard
   Heydrich and Adolf Eichmann. The records of this meeting provide the
   clearest evidence of planning for the Holocaust. On February 22, Hitler
   was recorded saying to his associates, "we shall regain our health only
   by eliminating the Jews".

World War II

Opening moves

   On March 12, 1938, Hitler pressured his native Austria into unification
   with Germany (the Anschluss) and made a triumphal entry into Vienna.
   Next, he intensified a crisis over the German-speaking Sudetenland
   districts of Czechoslovakia. This led to the Munich Agreement of
   September 1938, which authorized the annexation and immediate military
   occupation of these districts by Germany. 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", but by giving way to Hitler's military demands Britain and
   France also left Czechoslovakia to Hitler's mercy.

   Hitler ordered Germany's army to enter Prague on March 10, 1939 and
   from Prague Castle proclaimed Bohemia and Moravia a German
   protectorate. After that, Hitler was claiming territories ceded to
   Poland under the Versailles Treaty. Britain had not been able to reach
   an agreement with the Soviet Union for an alliance against Germany,
   and, on August 23, 1939, Hitler concluded a secret non-aggression pact
   (the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) with Stalin on which it was likely agreed
   that the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany would partition Poland. On
   September 1, Germany invaded the western portion of Poland. Britain and
   France, who had guaranteed assistance to Poland, declared war on
   Germany. Not long after this, on September 17, Soviet forces invaded
   eastern Poland.

   After capturing western Poland by the end of September, Hitler built up
   his forces much further during the so-called Phony War. In April 1940,
   he ordered German forces to march into Denmark and Norway. In May 1940,
   Hitler ordered his forces to attack France, conquering the Netherlands,
   Luxembourg and Belgium in the process. France surrendered on June 22,
   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. After having his overtures for peace
   systematically rejected by the defiant British Government, now led by
   Winston Churchill, Hitler ordered bombing raids on the British Isles,
   leading to the Battle of Britain, a prelude of the planned German
   invasion. The attacks began by pounding the RAF airbases and the radar
   stations protecting South-East England. However, the Luftwaffe failed
   to defeat the RAF by the end of October 1940. Air superiority for the
   invasion, code-named Operation Sealion, could not be assured and Hitler
   ordered bombing raids to be carried out on British cities, including
   London and Coventry, mostly at night.

Path to defeat

   On June 22, 1941, Hitler gave the signal for three million German
   troops to attack the Soviet Union, breaking the non-aggression pact he
   had concluded with Stalin less than two years earlier. This invasion,
   code-named Operation Barbarossa, seized huge amounts of territory,
   including the Baltic states, Belarus, and Ukraine, along with the
   encirclement and destruction of many Soviet forces. German forces,
   however, were stopped short of Moscow in December 1941 by the Russian
   winter and fierce Soviet resistance (see Battle of Moscow), and the
   invasion failed to achieve the quick triumph over the Soviet Union
   which Hitler had anticipated.

   Hitler's declaration of war against the United States on December 11,
   1941 four days after the Empire of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbour,
   Hawaii, USA set him against a coalition that included the world's
   largest empire (the British Empire), the world's greatest industrial
   and financial power (the USA), and the world's largest army (the Soviet
   Union).

   In May 1942, Reinhard Heydrich, one of the highest SS officers and one
   of Hitler's favorite subordinates, was assassinated by British-trained
   Czech operatives in Prague. Hitler reacted by ordering brutal
   reprisals, including the massacre of Lidice.

   In late 1942, German forces under Feldmarschall Erwin Rommel 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
   lengthy Battle of Stalingrad ended with the complete encirclement and
   destruction of the German 6th Army. Both defeats were turning points in
   the war, although the latter is more commonly considered primary. From
   this point on, the quality of Hitler's military judgment became
   increasingly erratic and Germany's military and economic position
   deteriorated. Hitler's health was deteriorating too. His left hand
   started shaking uncontrollably. The biographer Ian Kershaw believes he
   suffered from Parkinson's disease. Other conditions that are suspected
   by some to have caused some (at least) of his symptoms are
   methamphetamine addiction and syphilis.

   Italians overthrew Hitler's ally, Benito Mussolini, in 1943 after
   Operation Husky, an American and British invasion of Sicily. Throughout
   1943 and 1944, the Soviet Union steadily forced Hitler's armies into
   retreat along the eastern front. On June 6, 1944, the Western allied
   armies landed in northern France in what was the largest amphibious
   operation ever conducted, Operation Overlord. Realists in the German
   army knew defeat was inevitable and some officers plotted to remove
   Hitler from power. In July 1944 one of them, Claus von Stauffenberg,
   planted a bomb at Hitler's military headquarters in Rastenburg (the
   so-called July 20 Plot), but Hitler narrowly escaped death. He ordered
   savage reprisals, resulting in the executions of more than 4,900 people
   (sometimes by starvation in solitary confinement followed by slow
   strangulation). The main resistance movement was destroyed although
   smaller isolated groups such as Die Rote Kapelle continued to operate.

Defeat and death

   Cover of US newspaper The Stars and Stripes, May 1945.
   Enlarge
   Cover of US newspaper The Stars and Stripes, May 1945.

   By the end of 1944, the Red Army had driven the last German troops from
   Soviet territory and began charging into Central Europe. The western
   allies were also rapidly advancing into Germany. The Germans had lost
   the war from a military perspective, but Hitler allowed no negotiation
   with the Allied forces, and as a consequence the German military forces
   continued to fight. Hitler's stubbornness and defiance of military
   realities also allowed the continued mass killing of Jews and others to
   continue. He even issued the Nero Decree on March 19, 1945, ordering
   the destruction of what remained of German industry, communications and
   transport. However, Albert Speer, who was in charge of that plan, did
   not carry it out. (The Morgenthau Plan for postwar Germany, promulgated
   by the Allies, aimed at a similar deindustrialization.)

   In April 1945, Soviet forces were at the gates of Berlin. Hitler's
   closest lieutenants urged him to flee to Bavaria or Austria to make a
   last stand in the mountains, but he seemed determined to either live or
   die in the capital. SS leader Heinrich Himmler tried on his own to
   inform the Allies (through the Swedish diplomat Count Folke Bernadotte)
   that Germany was prepared to discuss surrender terms. Meanwhile Hermann
   Göring sent a telegram from Bavaria in which he argued that since
   Hitler was cut off in Berlin, as Hitler's designated successor he
   should assume leadership of Germany. Hitler angrily reacted by
   dismissing both Himmler and Göring from all their offices and the party
   and declared them traitors.

   After intense street-to-street combat, when Soviet troops were spotted
   within a block or two of the Reich Chancellory in the city centre,
   Hitler committed suicide in the Führerbunker on April 30, 1945 by means
   of a self-delivered shot to the head (it is likely he simultaneously
   bit into a cyanide ampoule). Hitler's body and that of Eva Braun (his
   long-term mistress whom he had married the day before) were put in a
   bomb crater, partially burned with gasoline by Führerbunker aides and
   hastily buried in the Chancellory garden as Russian shells poured down
   and Red Army infantry continued to advance only two or three hundred
   metres away. He also had his dog Blondi poisoned around the same time.

   When Russian forces reached the Chancellory, they found his body and an
   autopsy was performed using dental records (and German dental
   assistants who were familiar with them) to confirm the identification.
   To avoid any possibility of creating a potential shrine, the remains of
   Hitler and Braun were repeatedly moved, then secretly buried by SMERSH
   at their new headquarters in Magdeburg. In April 1970, when the
   facility was about to be turned over to the East German government, the
   remains were reportedly exhumed, thoroughly cremated, and the ashes
   finally dumped unceremoniously into the Elbe. According to the Russian
   Federal Security Service, a fragment of human skull stored in its
   archives and displayed to the public in a 2000 exhibition came from the
   remains of Hitler's body uncovered by the Red Army in Berlin, and is
   all that remains of Hitler; however, the authenticity of the skull has
   been challenged by many historians and researchers.

   At the time of Hitler's death, most of Germany's infrastructure and
   major cities were in ruins and he had left explicit orders to complete
   the destruction. Millions of Germans were dead with millions more
   wounded or homeless. In his will, he dismissed other Nazi leaders and
   appointed Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as Reichspräsident (President of
   Germany) and Goebbels as Reichskanzler (Chancellor of Germany).
   However, Goebbels and his wife Magda committed suicide on 1 May 1945.
   On 7 May 1945, in Rheims, France, the German armed forces surrendered
   unconditionally to the Western Allies and on 8 May 1945, in Berlin to
   the Soviet Union thus ending the war in Europe and with the creation of
   the Allied Control Council on 5 June 1945, the Four Powers assumed
   "supreme authority with respect to Germany." Adolf Hitler's proclaimed
   Thousand Year Reich had lasted 12 years.

Legacy

   Outside the building in Braunau am Inn where Adolf Hitler was born is a
   memorial stone warning of the horrors of World War II.
   Enlarge
   Outside the building in Braunau am Inn where Adolf Hitler was born is a
   memorial stone warning of the horrors of World War II.

   Since the defeat of Germany in World War II, Hitler, the Nazi Party and
   the results of Nazism have been regarded in most of the world as
   synonymous with evil. Historical and cultural portrayals of Hitler in
   the west are, by virtually universal consensus, condemnatory.

   The copyright of Hitler's book Mein Kampf in Europe is claimed by the
   Free State of Bavaria and will expire in 2015. Reproductions in Germany
   are generally authorized only for scholarly purposes and in heavily
   commented form. The situation is however unclear; Werner Maser (whom
   Theodor Heuss proposed to publish "Mein Kampf" as a weapon against Nazi
   Ideology) comments that intellectual property cannot be confiscated and
   so, it still would lie in the hands of Hitler's nephew, who, however,
   does not want to have anything to do with Hitler's legacy. This
   situation leads to contested trials, eg., in Poland and Sweden. "Mein
   Kampf" is still published in the USA, as well as in other countries
   such as Turkey or Israel, by publishers with various political
   positions.

   The display of swastikas or other Nazi symbols is prohibited in Germany
   and political extremists are generally under surveillance by the
   Verfassungsschutz, one of the federal or state-based offices for the
   protection of the constitution.

   There have been instances of public figures referring to Hitler's
   legacy in neutral or favourable terms, particularly in South America,
   the Islamic World and parts of Asia. Future Egyptian President Anwar
   Sadat wrote favourably of Hitler in 1953. Bal Thackeray, leader of the
   right-wing Shiv Sena party in the Indian state of the Maharashtra,
   declared in 1995 that he was an admirer of Hitler. Much of the positive
   or neutral attitude towards Hitler may partly be because many of these
   countries were colonies of Allied Powers who were fighting Hitler-led
   Germany.

Hitler's religious beliefs

   Adolf Hitler was brought up in his family's religion by his Roman
   Catholic parents, but as a school boy he began to reject the Church and
   Catholicism. After he had left home, he never attended Mass or received
   the Sacraments.

   In later life, Hitler's religious beliefs present a discrepant picture:
   In public statements, he frequently spoke positively about the
   Christian heritage of German culture and belief in Christ. Hitler’s
   private statements, reported by his intimates, are more mixed, showing
   Hitler as a religious but also anti-Christian man. However, in contrast
   to other Nazi leaders, Hitler did not adhere to esoteric ideas,
   occultism, or neo-paganism, and ridiculed such beliefs in his book Mein
   Kampf. Rather, Hitler advocated a " Positive Christianity", a belief
   system purged from what he objected to in traditional Christianity, and
   reinvented Jesus as a fighter against the Jews.

   Hitler believed in a Social Darwinist struggle for survival between the
   different races, among which the "Aryan race" was supposed to be the
   torchbearers of civilization and the Jews as enemies of all
   civilization. Whether his anti-semitism was influenced by older
   Christian ideas remains disputed. Hitler also strongly believed that
   "Providence" was guiding him in this fight.

   Among Christian denominations, Hitler favoured Protestantism, which was
   more open to such reinterpretations, but at the same time imitated some
   elements of Catholic church organization, liturgy and phraseology in
   his politics.

Health and sexuality

   Hitler's alleged health problems in his later years have long been the
   subject of debate, and he has variously been suggested to have suffered
   from irritable bowel syndrome, skin lesions, irregular heartbeat,
   tremors on the left side of his body, syphilis, Parkinson's disease and
   a strongly suggested addiction to methamphetamine.

   Most of Hitler's biographers have characterized him as a vegetarian who
   abstained from eating meat, beginning in the early 1930s until his
   death (although his actual dietary habits appear inconsistent and are
   sometimes hotly disputed). There are reports of him disgusting his
   guests by giving them graphic accounts of the slaughter of animals in
   an effort to make them shun meat. A fear of cancer (which his mother
   died from) is the most widely cited reason, though many authors also
   assert Hitler had a profound and deep love of animals. He did consume
   dairy products and eggs, however. Martin Bormann constructed a large
   greenhouse close to the Berghof (near Berchtesgaden) in order to ensure
   a steady supply of fresh fruits and vegetables for Hitler throughout
   the war. Personal photographs of Bormann's children tending the
   greenhouse survive and, by 2005, its foundations were among the only
   ruins visible in the area which were directly associated with Nazi
   leaders. For more information on this topic, see Vegetarianism of Adolf
   Hitler.

   Hitler was also a fervent non-smoker and promoted aggressive
   anti-smoking campaigns throughout Germany. He reportedly promised a
   gold watch to any of his close associates who quit (and actually gave a
   few away). Several witness accounts relate that, immediately after his
   suicide was confirmed, many officers, aides, and secretaries in the
   Führerbunker lit cigarettes.

   Contrary to popular accounts, there seems to be some evidence Hitler
   did not abstain entirely from alcohol. After the war, an interrogation
   in the USSR of his valet Heinz Linge could indicate that Hitler drank
   champagne now and then with Eva Braun.

Sexuality

   Hitler presented himself to his public as a man without an intimate
   domestic life, dedicated to his political "mission". He is known to
   have had a fiancée, Mimi Reiter in the 1920s, and to have later had a
   mistress, Eva Braun. He had a close bond with his niece Geli Raubal,
   which many commentators have claimed was sexual. All three women
   attempted suicide during their relationship with him, a fact which has
   led to speculation that Hitler may have had unusual sexual fetishes,
   though Reiter, the only one to survive the Nazi regime, denies this.
   During the war and afterwards psychoanalysts offered numerous
   inconsistent psycho-sexual explanations of his pathology. More recently
   Lothar Machtan has argued in his book The Hidden Hitler that Hitler was
   homosexual.

Hitler's family

   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.
   Adolf Hitler's genealogy.
   Enlarge
   Adolf Hitler's genealogy.
   Sketch of Eva Braun by Hitler.
   Enlarge
   Sketch of Eva Braun by Hitler.
     * 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 and rumoured mistress
     * Aloisia Veit, mentally insane cousin.

People associated with Hitler

     * Martin Bormann, Adolf Hitler's secretary.
     * Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, sister of philosopher Friedrich
       Nietzsche and Hitler supporter.
     * Hans Frank, Hitler's lawyer and later senior Nazi official in
       occupied Poland.
     * Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda.
     * Hermann Göring, Reichsmarschall, Commander of the Luftwaffe,
       founder of the Gestapo.
     * Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy as party leader, best known for his
       flight to Scotland to negotiate peace in 1941.
     * Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Reich Main Security Office
       (including the Gestapo)
     * Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS, key figure in the Holocaust and
       the "Final Solution".
     * Heinrich Hoffmann, official photographer from 1920 to 1945.
     * Alfred Jodl, military officer, knew Hitler since 1923.
     * Wilhelm Keitel, military Field Marshal during World War II.
     * August Kubizek, close friend and roommate in Vienna
     * Leopold Poetsch, Hitler's anti-Semitic school teacher
     * Leni Riefenstahl, friend and filmmaker who documented the Nazi
       party.
     * Erwin Rommel, the famous "Desert Fox", a highly skilled Field
       Marshal during World War II who was forced to commit suicide after
       being implicated in a plot against Hitler.
     * Ernst Röhm, leader of the SA and internal critic, killed in the
       Night of the Long Knives (1934).
     * Albert Speer, Hitler's personal architect, Minister of armaments.
       Close friend to Hitler.
     * Paul Troost, famous architect who served before Speer.
     * Winifred Wagner, head of the Wagner family and close friend of
       Hitler's.

Miscellany

     * A nickname for Hitler used by German soldiers was Gröfaz, a
       derogatory and/or sarcastic abbreviation for Größter Feldherr aller
       Zeiten ("Greatest War Lord of all Time"), a title initially
       publicized by Nazi propaganda after the surprisingly quick fall of
       France. Nicknames by others were more disparaging. General George
       S. Patton referred to Hitler as "that paper-hanging son of a
       bitch!", after Hitler's habit of going over wall maps with his
       staff. Some within his staff called him "carpet eater", after
       seeing him fly into a rage so intense that it left him on the floor
       gripping the carpet with his teeth and fists.

     * Hitler did not like women to wear cosmetics, since they contained
       animal by-products, and frequently teased his mistress Eva Braun
       about her habit of wearing makeup.

     * He almost never wore a uniform to social engagements, which he
       attended frequently whenever in Berlin during the 1930s. When he
       did wear uniforms, they were tailored and understated compared to
       those of other prominent Nazis who often wore elaborate uniforms
       with extensive decorations and medals.

     * According to the 2001 documentary The Tramp and the Dictator, the
       Charlie Chaplin parody/satire The Great Dictator was not only sent
       to Hitler, but an eyewitness confirmed he did see it, twice.
       Chaplin has been quoted as saying, "I'd have given anything to know
       what he thought of it."

     * Hitler's favourite film is variously credited as being King Kong
       (1933) or The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) and his favourite
       opera was Richard Wagner's Rienzi, of which he claimed to have seen
       over 40 performances.

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