Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria, on April 20, 1889. His father was fifty two years old. He was an Austrian Customs official. His mother, a young peasant girl, Klara Poelzl, was indulgent and hard working. Hitler was a hard to
please child and resented his strict, authoritarian father, while at the same time attached to his loving mother. In 1908 a shattering blow was dealt to the young Hitler when his mother died of cancer.
He left school at the age of sixteen in hopes of becoming a painter. However he was rejected by Viennese Academy of fine arts. He began to form a pathological hatred for the Jews and Marxists. He survived by the occasional odd job and selling his sketches in taverns. He acquired an education in politics and left for Munich.
Building the Nazi party: 1924-1933. Hitler started the Nazi party in July of 1924. The party’s symbol was the swastika, and its greeting was “ Heil ” . Hitler focused his attention against the Marxists and the No. 1 enemy the Jewish people. The myth of the Aryan race drew Hitler many supporters towards his cause. This party’s ultimate goal was the total removal of the Jews.
Assumption of power- Jan. 30th, 1933. With all the support Hitler was gaining from the Democratic vote in the last elections, along with his skills of persuasion, propaganda, terror and intimidation, he was able to secure his power. Hitler’s seductive notions of “ National Awakening” , and “Legal Revolution” also drew many supporters to his cause. All of this led to Hitler gaining a total consolidation of power. He could now be considered by the people of Germany a dictator.
Prelude to war. Hitler was able to outwit or outmaneuver all of his political combatants. Hitler soon saw the need to gain a strong Military force. He soon abandoned the Versailles treaty and began to build his military forces to 5 times the size that was allowed in that treaty. He was able to persuade Great Britain to allow him to do that along with strongly increasing his naval forces.
This German rearmament led to many of the people in Germany who had been in sore straights because of unemployment to gain a foothold on life again. The building of military tools of warfare, as well as the huge enlistment of able bodied men that would be needed gave many the ability to make a living again. This brought a feeling of economic stabilization to the masses, bringing Hitler’s popularity as a leader to an all time high.
World War 2. It was September 1, 1939, German military forces invaded the country of Poland, and henceforth Hitler’s plan to dominate Europe and then the world were set into motion. The first part of the Second World War was dominated by German Blitzkrieg tactics. They would bomb using their aircrafts and then follow it up with fast attacks with their mobile armor and infantry.
The battle of Britain, an air battle over the English Channel, was Hitler’s first setback. One of the most consequential decisions of his career was to invade Soviet Russia, a decision which with success would have prevented Great Britain from continuing the war with any hope of gaining victory. The war widened and the United States entered the war in the end of 1941. That was the final straw that led Hitler to implement the “ Final Solution” .
Repeated ally victories soon made it clear that German defeat was imminent. The bombings done by the Allied forces soon began to have a dramatic effect on the industrial production of weapons of war as well as the general morale of the German Population and the German army. As utter defeat became more and more a reality for Hitler, he began to have delusions of grantor. He hung to his hope that his secret weapons the v-1 and v-2 rockets would still bring him success. He would plan attacks on large maps with armies that didn’t even exist. As the allied forces neared victory Hitler ordered what was left of the German industry to be destroyed. If he was to fall so would Germany with him.
On April 29, 1945 Hitler married his mistress Eva Braun. The following day after getting married he took his own life by shooting himself through the mouth with a pistol. To the very end he clung to his ideals of the Aryan race and the total annihilation of the Jewish people. Hitler’s senseless sacrifice for the sake of his own power was over. Nothing was left of the Greater German Reich. He had spent twelve years in power.