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Adolf Hitler

By: History.com Editors

Updated: April 30, 2024 | Original: October 29, 2009

Adolf Hitler, the leader of Germany’s  Nazi Party , was one of the most powerful and notorious dictators of the 20th century. After serving with the German military in World War I , Hitler capitalized on economic woes, popular discontent and political infighting during the Weimar Republic to rise through the ranks of the Nazi Party.

In a series of ruthless and violent actions—including the Reichstag Fire and the Night of Long Knives—Hitler took absolute power in Germany by 1933. Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939 led to the outbreak of  World War II , and by 1941, Nazi forces had used “blitzkrieg” military tactics to occupy much of Europe. Hitler’s virulent  anti-Semitism  and obsessive pursuit of Aryan supremacy fueled the murder of some 6 million Jews, along with other victims of the  Holocaust . After the tide of war turned against him, Hitler committed suicide in a Berlin bunker in April 1945.

Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, in Braunau am Inn, a small Austrian town near the Austro-German frontier. After his father, Alois, retired as a state customs official, young Adolf spent most of his childhood in Linz, the capital of Upper Austria.

Not wanting to follow in his father’s footsteps as a civil servant, he began struggling in secondary school and eventually dropped out. Alois died in 1903, and Adolf pursued his dream of being an artist, though he was rejected from Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts.

After his mother, Klara, died in 1908, Hitler moved to Vienna, where he pieced together a living painting scenery and monuments and selling the images. Lonely, isolated and a voracious reader, Hitler became interested in politics during his years in Vienna, and developed many of the ideas that would shape Nazi ideology.

Military Career of Adolf Hitler

In 1913, Hitler moved to Munich, in the German state of Bavaria. When World War I broke out the following summer, he successfully petitioned the Bavarian king to be allowed to volunteer in a reserve infantry regiment.

Deployed in October 1914 to Belgium, Hitler served throughout the Great War and won two decorations for bravery, including the rare Iron Cross First Class, which he wore to the end of his life.

Hitler was wounded twice during the conflict: He was hit in the leg during the Battle of the Somme in 1916, and temporarily blinded by a British gas attack near Ypres in 1918. A month later, he was recuperating in a hospital at Pasewalk, northeast of Berlin, when news arrived of the armistice and Germany’s defeat in World War I .

Like many Germans, Hitler came to believe the country’s devastating defeat could be attributed not to the Allies, but to insufficiently patriotic “traitors” at home—a myth that would undermine the post-war Weimar Republic and set the stage for Hitler’s rise.

After Hitler returned to Munich in late 1918, he joined the small German Workers’ Party, which aimed to unite the interests of the working class with a strong German nationalism. His skilled oratory and charismatic energy helped propel him in the party’s ranks, and in 1920 he left the army and took charge of its propaganda efforts.

In one of Hitler’s strokes of propaganda genius, the newly renamed National Socialist German Workers Party, or  Nazi Party , adopted a version of the swastika—an ancient sacred symbol of  Hinduism , Jainism and Buddhism —as its emblem. Printed in a white circle on a red background, Hitler’s swastika would take on terrifying symbolic power in the years to come.

By the end of 1921, Hitler led the growing Nazi Party, capitalizing on widespread discontent with the Weimar Republic and the punishing terms of the Versailles Treaty . Many dissatisfied former army officers in Munich would join the Nazis, notably Ernst Röhm, who recruited the “strong arm” squads—known as the Sturmabteilung (SA)—which Hitler used to protect party meetings and attack opponents.

Beer Hall Putsch 

On the evening of November 8, 1923, members of the SA and others forced their way into a large beer hall where another right-wing leader was addressing the crowd. Wielding a revolver, Hitler proclaimed the beginning of a national revolution and led marchers to the center of Munich, where they got into a gun battle with police.

Hitler fled quickly, but he and other rebel leaders were later arrested. Even though it failed spectacularly, the Beer Hall Putsch established Hitler as a national figure , and (in the eyes of many) a hero of right-wing nationalism.

'Mein Kampf' 

Tried for treason, Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison, but would serve only nine months in the relative comfort of Landsberg Castle. During this period, he began to dictate the book that would become " Mein Kampf " (“My Struggle”), the first volume of which was published in 1925.

In it, Hitler expanded on the nationalistic, anti-Semitic views he had begun to develop in Vienna in his early twenties, and laid out plans for the Germany—and the world—he sought to create when he came to power.

Hitler would finish the second volume of "Mein Kampf" after his release, while relaxing in the mountain village of Berchtesgaden. It sold modestly at first, but with Hitler’s rise it became Germany’s best-selling book after the Bible. By 1940, it had sold some 6 million copies there.

Hitler’s second book, “The Zweites Buch,” was written in 1928 and contained his thoughts on foreign policy. It was not published in his lifetime due to the poor initial sales of “Mein Kampf.” The first English translations of “The Zweites Buch” did not appear until 1962 and was published under the title “Hitler's Secret Book.” 

Obsessed with race and the idea of ethnic “purity,” Hitler saw a natural order that placed the so-called “Aryan race” at the top.

For him, the unity of the Volk (the German people) would find its truest incarnation not in democratic or parliamentary government, but in one supreme leader, or Führer.

" Mein Kampf " also addressed the need for Lebensraum (or living space): In order to fulfill its destiny, Germany should take over lands to the east that were now occupied by “inferior” Slavic peoples—including Austria, the Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia), Poland and Russia.

The Schutzstaffel (SS) 

By the time Hitler left prison, economic recovery had restored some popular support for the Weimar Republic, and support for right-wing causes like Nazism appeared to be waning.

Over the next few years, Hitler laid low and worked on reorganizing and reshaping the Nazi Party. He established the Hitler Youth  to organize youngsters, and created the Schutzstaffel (SS) as a more reliable alternative to the SA.

Members of the SS wore black uniforms and swore a personal oath of loyalty to Hitler. (After 1929, under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler , the SS would develop from a group of some 200 men into a force that would dominate Germany and terrorize the rest of occupied Europe during World War II .)

Hitler spent much of his time at Berchtesgaden during these years, and his half-sister, Angela Raubal, and her two daughters often joined him. After Hitler became infatuated with his beautiful blonde niece, Geli Raubal, his possessive jealousy apparently led her to commit suicide in 1931.

Devastated by the loss, Hitler would consider Geli the only true love affair of his life. He soon began a long relationship with Eva Braun , a shop assistant from Munich, but refused to marry her.

The worldwide Great Depression that began in 1929 again threatened the stability of the Weimar Republic. Determined to achieve political power in order to affect his revolution, Hitler built up Nazi support among German conservatives, including army, business and industrial leaders.

The Third Reich

In 1932, Hitler ran against the war hero Paul von Hindenburg for president, and received 36.8 percent of the vote. With the government in chaos, three successive chancellors failed to maintain control, and in late January 1933 Hindenburg named the 43-year-old Hitler as chancellor, capping the stunning rise of an unlikely leader.

January 30, 1933 marked the birth of the Third Reich, or as the Nazis called it, the “Thousand-Year Reich” (after Hitler’s boast that it would endure for a millennium).

HISTORY Vault: Third Reich: The Rise

Rare and never-before-seen amateur films offer a unique perspective on the rise of Nazi Germany from Germans who experienced it. How were millions of people so vulnerable to fascism?

Reichstag Fire 

Though the Nazis never attained more than 37 percent of the vote at the height of their popularity in 1932, Hitler was able to grab absolute power in Germany largely due to divisions and inaction among the majority who opposed Nazism.

After a devastating fire at Germany’s parliament building, the Reichstag, in February 1933—possibly the work of a Dutch communist, though later evidence suggested Nazis set the  Reichstag fire  themselves—Hitler had an excuse to step up the political oppression and violence against his opponents.

On March 23, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, giving full powers to Hitler and celebrating the union of National Socialism with the old German establishment (i.e., Hindenburg ).

That July, the government passed a law stating that the Nazi Party “constitutes the only political party in Germany,” and within months all non-Nazi parties, trade unions and other organizations had ceased to exist.

His autocratic power now secure within Germany, Hitler turned his eyes toward the rest of Europe.

In 1933, Germany was diplomatically isolated, with a weak military and hostile neighbors (France and Poland). In a famous speech in May 1933, Hitler struck a surprisingly conciliatory tone, claiming Germany supported disarmament and peace.

But behind this appeasement strategy, the domination and expansion of the Volk remained Hitler’s overriding aim.

By early the following year, he had withdrawn Germany from the League of Nations and begun to militarize the nation in anticipation of his plans for territorial conquest.

Night of the Long Knives

On June 29, 1934, the infamous Night of the Long Knives , Hitler had Röhm, former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and hundreds of other problematic members of his own party murdered, in particular troublesome members of the SA.

When the 86-year-old Hindenburg died on August 2, military leaders agreed to combine the presidency and chancellorship into one position, meaning Hitler would command all the armed forces of the Reich.

Persecution of Jews

On September 15, 1935, passage of the Nuremberg Laws deprived Jews of German citizenship, and barred them from marrying or having relations with persons of “German or related blood.”

Though the Nazis attempted to downplay its persecution of Jews in order to placate the international community during the 1936 Berlin Olympics (in which German-Jewish athletes were not allowed to compete), additional decrees over the next few years disenfranchised Jews and took away their political and civil rights.

In addition to its pervasive anti-Semitism, Hitler’s government also sought to establish the cultural dominance of Nazism by burning books, forcing newspapers out of business, using radio and movies for propaganda purposes and forcing teachers throughout Germany’s educational system to join the party.

Much of the Nazi persecution of Jews and other targets occurred at the hands of the Geheime Staatspolizei (GESTAPO), or Secret State Police, an arm of the SS that expanded during this period.

Outbreak of World War II

In March 1936, against the advice of his generals, Hitler ordered German troops to reoccupy the demilitarized left bank of the Rhine.

Over the next two years, Germany concluded alliances with Italy and Japan, annexed Austria and moved against Czechoslovakia—all essentially without resistance from Great Britain, France or the rest of the international community.

Once he confirmed the alliance with Italy in the so-called “Pact of Steel” in May 1939, Hitler then signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union . On September 1, 1939, Nazi troops invaded Poland, finally prompting Britain and France to declare war on Germany.

Blitzkrieg 

After ordering the occupation of Norway and Denmark in April 1940, Hitler adopted a plan proposed by one of his generals to attack France through the Ardennes Forest. The blitzkrieg (“lightning war”) attack began on May 10; Holland quickly surrendered, followed by Belgium.

German troops made it all the way to the English Channel, forcing British and French forces to evacuate en masse from Dunkirk in late May. On June 22, France was forced to sign an armistice with Germany.

Hitler had hoped to force Britain to seek peace as well, but when that failed he went ahead with his attacks on that country, followed by an invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor that December, the United States declared war on Japan, and Germany’s alliance with Japan demanded that Hitler declare war on the United States as well.

At that point in the conflict, Hitler shifted his central strategy to focus on breaking the alliance of his main opponents (Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union) by forcing one of them to make peace with him.

Concentration Camps

Beginning in 1933, the SS had operated a network of concentration camps, including a notorious camp at Dachau , near Munich, to hold Jews and other targets of the Nazi regime.

After war broke out, the Nazis shifted from expelling Jews from German-controlled territories to exterminating them. Einsatzgruppen, or mobile death squads, executed entire Jewish communities during the Soviet invasion, while the existing concentration-camp network expanded to include death camps like Auschwitz -Birkenau in occupied Poland.

In addition to forced labor and mass execution, certain Jews at Auschwitz were targeted as the subjects of horrific medical experiments carried out by eugenicist Josef Mengele, known as the “Angel of Death.” Mengele’s experiments focused on twins and exposed 3,000 child prisoners to disease, disfigurement and torture under the guise of medical research.

Though the Nazis also imprisoned and killed Catholics, homosexuals, political dissidents, Roma (gypsies) and the disabled, above all they targeted Jews—some 6 million of whom were killed in German-occupied Europe by war’s end.

End of World War II

With defeats at El-Alamein and Stalingrad , as well as the landing of U.S. troops in North Africa by the end of 1942, the tide of the war turned against Germany.

As the conflict continued, Hitler became increasingly unwell, isolated and dependent on medications administered by his personal physician.

Several attempts were made on his life, including one that came close to succeeding in July 1944, when Col. Claus von Stauffenberg planted a bomb that exploded during a conference at Hitler’s headquarters in East Prussia.

Within a few months of the successful Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944, the Allies had begun liberating cities across Europe. That December, Hitler attempted to direct another offensive through the Ardennes, trying to split British and American forces.

But after January 1945, he holed up in a bunker beneath the Chancellery in Berlin. With Soviet forces closing in, Hitler made plans for a last-ditch resistance before finally abandoning that plan.

How Did Adolf Hitler Die?

At midnight on the night of April 28-29, Hitler married Eva Braun in the Berlin bunker. After dictating his political testament,  Hitler shot himself  in his suite on April 30; Braun took poison. Their bodies were burned according to Hitler’s instructions.

With Soviet troops occupying Berlin, Germany surrendered unconditionally on all fronts on May 7, 1945, bringing the war in Europe to a close.

In the end, Hitler’s planned “Thousand-Year Reich” lasted just over 12 years, but wreaked unfathomable destruction and devastation during that time, forever transforming the history of Germany, Europe and the world.

William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich iWonder – Adolf Hitler: Man and Monster, BBC . The Holocaust : A Learning Site for Students, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum .

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Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany. His fascist agenda led to World War II and the deaths of at least 11 million people, including some six million Jews.

(1889-1945)

Who Was Adolf Hitler?

Hitler’s fascist policies precipitated World War II and led to the genocide known as the Holocaust , which resulted in the deaths of some six million Jews and another five million noncombatants.

The fourth of six children, Hitler was born to Alois Hitler and Klara Polzl . As a child, Hitler clashed frequently with his emotionally harsh father, who also didn't approve of his son's later interest in fine art as a career.

Following the death of his younger brother, Edmund, in 1900, Hitler became detached and introverted.

Young Hitler

Hitler showed an early interest in German nationalism, rejecting the authority of Austria-Hungary. This nationalism would become the motivating force of Hitler's life.

In 1903, Hitler’s father died suddenly. Two years later, Hitler's mother allowed her son to drop out of school. After her death in December 1907, Hitler moved to Vienna and worked as a casual laborer and watercolor painter. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts twice and was rejected both times.

Lacking money outside of an orphan's pension and funds from selling postcards, he stayed in homeless shelters. Hitler later pointed to these years as the time when he first cultivated his anti-Semitism, though there is some debate about this account.

In 1913, Hitler relocated to Munich. At the outbreak of World War I , he applied to serve in the German army. He was accepted in August 1914, though he was still an Austrian citizen.

Although Hitler spent much of his time away from the front lines (with some reports that his recollections of his time on the field were generally exaggerated), he was present at a number of significant battles and was wounded at the Battle of the Somme . He was decorated for bravery, receiving the Iron Cross First Class and the Black Wound Badge.

Hitler became embittered over the collapse of the war effort. The experience reinforced his passionate German patriotism, and he was shocked by Germany's surrender in 1918. Like other German nationalists, he purportedly believed that the German army had been betrayed by civilian leaders and Marxists.

He found the Treaty of Versailles degrading, particularly the demilitarization of the Rhineland and the stipulation that Germany accepts responsibility for starting the war.

DOWNLOAD BIOGRAPHY'S ADOLF HITLER FACT CARD

Nazi Germany and Speeches

After World War I, Hitler returned to Munich and continued to work for the German military. As an intelligence officer, he monitored the activities of the German Workers’ Party (DAP) and adopted many of the anti-Semitic, nationalist and anti-Marxist ideas of party founder Anton Drexler.

In September 1919, Hitler joined the DAP, which changed its name to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) — often abbreviated to Nazi.

Hitler personally designed the Nazi party banner, appropriating the swastika symbol and placing it in a white circle on a red background. He soon gained notoriety for his vitriolic speeches against the Treaty of Versailles, rival politicians, Marxists and Jews. In 1921, Hitler replaced Drexler as the Nazi party chairman.

Hitler's fervid beer-hall speeches began attracting regular audiences. Early followers included army captain Ernst Rohm, the head of the Nazi paramilitary organization the Sturmabteilung (SA), which protected meetings and frequently attacked political opponents.

Beer Hall Putsch

On November 8, 1923, Hitler and the SA stormed a public meeting featuring Bavarian prime minister Gustav Kahr at a large beer hall in Munich. Hitler announced that the national revolution had begun and declared the formation of a new government.

After a short struggle that led to several deaths, the coup known as the Beer Hall Putsch failed. Hitler was arrested and tried for high treason and sentenced to nine months in prison.

'Mein Kampf'

During Hitler’s nine months in prison in 1924, he dictated most of the first volume of his autobiographical book and political manifesto, Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"), to his deputy, Rudolf Hess.

The first volume was published in 1925, and a second volume came out in 1927. It was abridged and translated into 11 languages, selling more than five million copies by 1939. A work of propaganda and falsehoods, the book laid out Hitler's plans for transforming German society into one based on race.

In the first volume, Hitler shared his Anti-Semitic, pro-Aryan worldview along with his sense of “betrayal” at the outcome of World War I, calling for revenge against France and expansion eastward into Russia.

The second volume outlined his plan to gain and maintain power. While often illogical and full of grammatical errors, Mein Kampf was provocative and subversive, making it appealing to the many Germans who felt displaced at the end of World War I.

Rise to Power

With millions unemployed, the Great Depression in Germany provided a political opportunity for Hitler. Germans were ambivalent to the parliamentary republic and increasingly open to extremist options. In 1932, Hitler ran against 84-year-old Paul von Hindenburg for the presidency.

Hitler came in second in both rounds of the election, garnering more than 36 percent of the vote in the final count. The results established Hitler as a strong force in German politics. Hindenburg reluctantly agreed to appoint Hitler as chancellor in order to promote political balance.

Hitler as Führer

Hitler used his position as chancellor to form a de facto legal dictatorship. The Reichstag Fire Decree, announced after a suspicious fire at Germany's parliament building, suspended basic rights and allowed detention without trial.

Hitler also engineered the passage of the Enabling Act, which gave his cabinet full legislative powers for a period of four years and allowed for deviations from the constitution.

Anointing himself as Führer ("leader") and having achieved full control over the legislative and executive branches of government, Hitler and his political allies embarked on a systematic suppression of the remaining political opposition.

By the end of June, the other parties had been intimidated into disbanding. On July 14, 1933, Hitler's Nazi Party was declared the only legal political party in Germany. In October of that year, Hitler ordered Germany's withdrawal from the League of Nations .

Night of the Long Knives

Military opposition was also punished. The demands of the SA for more political and military power led to the infamous Night of the Long Knives , a series of assassinations that took place from June 30 to July 2, 1934.

Rohm, a perceived rival, and other SA leaders, along with a number of Hitler's political enemies, were hunted down and murdered at locations across Germany.

The day before Hindenburg's death in August 1934, the cabinet had enacted a law abolishing the office of president, combining its powers with those of the chancellor. Hitler thus became head of state as well as head of government and was formally named leader and chancellor. As the undisputed head of state, Hitler became supreme commander of the armed forces.

Hitler the Vegetarian

Hitler’s self-imposed dietary restrictions towards the end of his life included abstinence from alcohol and meat.

Fueled by fanaticism over what he believed was a superior Aryan race, he encouraged Germans to keep their bodies pure of any intoxicating or unclean substances and promoted anti-smoking campaigns across the country.

Hitler’s Laws and Regulations Against Jews

From 1933 until the start of the war in 1939, Hitler and his Nazi regime instituted hundreds of laws and regulations to restrict and exclude Jews in society. These anti-Semitic laws were issued throughout all levels of government, making good on the Nazis’ pledge to persecute Jews.

On April 1, 1933, Hitler implemented a national boycott of Jewish businesses. This was followed by the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service" of April 7, 1933, which excluded Jews from state service.

The law was a Nazi implementation of the Aryan Paragraph, which called for the exclusion of Jews and non-Aryans from organizations, employment and eventually all aspects of public life.

Additional legislation restricted the number of Jewish students at schools and universities, limited Jews working in medical and legal professions, and revoked the licenses of Jewish tax consultants.

The Main Office for Press and Propaganda of the German Student Union also called for "Action Against the Un-German Spirit,” prompting students to burn more than 25,000 “Un-German” books, ushering in an era of censorship and Nazi propaganda. By 1934, Jewish actors were forbidden from performing in film or in the theater.

On September 15, 1935, the Reichstag introduced the Nuremberg Laws, which defined a "Jew" as anyone with three or four grandparents who were Jewish, regardless of whether the person considered themselves Jewish or observed the religion.

The Nuremberg Laws also set forth the "Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour," which banned marriage between non-Jewish and Jewish Germans; and the Reich Citizenship Law, which deprived "non-Aryans" of the benefits of German citizenship.

In 1936, Hitler and his regime muted their Anti-Semitic rhetoric and actions when Germany hosted the Winter and Summer Olympic Games , in an effort to avoid criticism on the world stage and a negative impact on tourism.

After the Olympics, the Nazi persecution of Jews intensified with the continued "Aryanization" of Jewish businesses, which involved the firing of Jewish workers and takeover by non-Jewish owners. The Nazis continued to segregate Jews from German society, banning them from public school, universities, theaters, sports events and "Aryan" zones.

Jewish doctors were also barred from treating "Aryan" patients. Jews were required to carry identity cards and, in the fall of 1938, Jewish people had to have their passports stamped with a "J."

Kristallnacht

On November 9 and 10, 1938, a wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms swept Germany, Austria and parts of the Sudetenland. Nazis destroyed synagogues and vandalized Jewish homes, schools and businesses. Close to 100 Jews were murdered.

Called Kristallnacht , the "Night of Crystal" or the "Night of Broken Glass," referring to the broken window glass left in the wake of the destruction, it escalated the Nazi persecution of Jews to another level of brutality and violence. Almost 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps, signaling more horrors to come.

Persecution of Homosexuals and People with Disabilities

Hitler's eugenic policies also targeted children with physical and developmental disabilities, later authorizing a euthanasia program for disabled adults.

His regime also persecuted homosexuals, arresting an estimated 100,000 men from 1933 to 1945, some of whom were imprisoned or sent to concentration camps. At the camps, gay prisoners were forced to wear pink triangles to identify their homosexuality, which Nazis considered a crime and a disease.

The Holocaust and Concentration Camps

Between the start of World War II, in 1939, and its end, in 1945, Nazis and their collaborators were responsible for the deaths of at least 11 million noncombatants, including about six million Jews, representing two-thirds of the Jewish population in Europe.

As part of Hitler's "Final Solution," the genocide enacted by the regime would come to be known as the Holocaust.

Deaths and mass executions took place in concentration and extermination camps including Auschwitz -Birkenau, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau and Treblinka, among many others. Other persecuted groups included Poles, communists, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses and trade unionists.

Prisoners were used as forced laborers for SS construction projects, and in some instances they were forced to build and expand concentration camps. They were subject to starvation, torture and horrific brutalities, including gruesome and painful medical experiments.

Hitler probably never visited the concentration camps and did not speak publicly about the mass killings. However, Germans documented the atrocities committed at the camps on paper and in films.

• World War II

In 1938, Hitler, along with several other European leaders, signed the Munich Pact. The treaty ceded the Sudetenland districts to Germany, reversing part of the Versailles Treaty. As a result of the summit, Hitler was named Time magazine's Man of the Year for 1938.

This diplomatic win only whetted his appetite for a renewed German dominance. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, sparking the beginning of World War II. In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later.

In 1940 Hitler escalated his military activities, invading Norway, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium. By July, Hitler ordered bombing raids on the United Kingdom, with the goal of invasion.

Germany’s formal alliance with Japan and Italy, known collectively as the Axis powers, was agreed upon toward the end of September to deter the United States from supporting and protecting the British.

On June 22, 1941, Hitler violated the 1939 non-aggression pact with Joseph Stalin , sending a massive army of German troops into the Soviet Union . The invading force seized a huge area of Russia before Hitler temporarily halted the invasion and diverted forces to encircle Leningrad and Kiev.

The pause allowed the Red Army to regroup and conduct a counter-offensive attack, and the German advance was stopped outside Moscow in December 1941.

On December 7, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Honoring the alliance with Japan, Hitler was now at war against the Allied powers, a coalition that included Britain, the world's largest empire, led by Prime Minister Winston Churchill ; the United States, the world's greatest financial power, led by President Franklin D. Roosevelt ; and the Soviet Union, which had the world's largest army, commanded by Stalin.

Stumbling Toward Defeat

Initially hoping that he could play the Allies off of one another, Hitler's military judgment became increasingly erratic, and the Axis powers could not sustain his aggressive and expansive war.

In late 1942, German forces failed to seize the Suez Canal , leading to the loss of German control over North Africa. The German army also suffered defeats at the Battle of Stalingrad (1942-43), seen as a turning point in the war, and the Battle of Kursk (1943).

On June 6, 1944, on what would come to be known as D-Day , the Western Allied armies landed in northern France. As a result of these significant setbacks, many German officers concluded that defeat was inevitable and that Hitler's continued rule would result in the destruction of the country.

Organized efforts to assassinate the dictator gained traction, and opponents came close in 1944 with the notorious July Plot , though it ultimately proved unsuccessful.

Hitler's Bunker

By early 1945, Hitler realized that Germany was going to lose the war. The Soviets had driven the German army back into Western Europe, their Red Army had surrounded Berlin and the Allies were advancing into Germany from the west.

On January 16, 1945, Hitler moved his center of command to an underground air-raid shelter near the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. Known as the Führerbunker, the reinforced concrete shelter had about 30 rooms spread out over some 2,700 square feet.

Hitler's bunker was furnished with framed oil paintings and upholstered furniture, fresh drinking water from a well, pumps to remove groundwater, a diesel electricity generator and other amenities.

At midnight, going into April 29, 1945, Hitler married his girlfriend, Eva Braun , in a small civil ceremony in his underground bunker. Around this time, Hitler was informed of the execution of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini . He reportedly feared the same fate could befall him.

Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, fearful of being captured by enemy troops. Hitler took a dose of cyanide and then shot himself in the head. Eva Braun is believed to have poisoned herself with cyanide at around the same time.

Their bodies were carried to a bomb crater near the Reich Chancellery, where their remains were doused with gasoline and burned. Hitler was 56 years old at the time of his death.

Berlin fell to Soviet troops on May 2, 1945. Five days later, on May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies.

A 2018 analysis of the exhumed remains of Hitler's teeth and skull , secretly preserved for decades by Russian intelligence agencies, have confirmed that the Führer was killed by means of cyanide and a gunshot wound.

Hitler's political programs brought about a horribly destructive world war, leaving behind a devastated and impoverished Eastern and Central Europe, including Germany.

His policies inflicted human suffering on an unprecedented scale and resulted in the death of tens of millions of people, including more than 20 million in the Soviet Union and six million Jews in Europe.

Hitler's defeat marked the end of Germany's dominance in European history and the defeat of fascism. A new ideological global conflict, the Cold War , emerged in the aftermath of the devastating violence of World War II.

Winston Churchill

Benito Mussolini

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Joseph Stalin

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Adolf Hitler
• Birth Year: 1889
• Birth date: April 20, 1889
• Birth City: Braunau am Inn
• Birth Country: Austria
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Adolf Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany. His fascist agenda led to World War II and the deaths of at least 11 million people, including some six million Jews.
• World Politics
• Astrological Sign: Taurus
• Nacionalities
• Interesting Facts
• Adolf Hitler wanted to be a painter in his youth, but his applications to obtain proper schooling were rejected.
• Hitler personally designed the Nazi party banner, appropriating the swastika symbol and placing it in a white circle on a red background.
• Hitler avoided multiple assassination attempts by chance.
• Death Year: 1945
• Death date: April 30, 1945
• Death City: Berlin
• Death Country: Germany

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Adolf Hitler Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/political-figures/adolf-hitler
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E Television Networks
• Last Updated: March 26, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 3, 2014
• Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of eternal struggle do not deserve to live.
• We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was 'legal.'” (Martin Luther King Jr.)
• It is not truth that matters, but victory.
• History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing.
• Any alliance whose purpose is not the intention to wage war is senseless and useless.
• All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.
• We will meet propaganda with propaganda, terror with terror, and violence with violence.
• By shrewd and constant application of propaganda, heaven can be presented to the people as hell and, vice versa, the wretchedest existence as a paradise.
• And what nonsense it is to aspire to a Heaven to which, according to the Church's own teaching, only those have entry who have made a complete failure of life on earth!
• But there's one thing I can predict to eaters of meat, that the world of the future will be vegetarian!
• Strength lies not in defense but in attack.
• I don't see much future for the Americans. In my view, it's a decayed country.
• Germany will either be a world power or will not be at all.
• I go the way that Providence dictates with the assurance of a sleepwalker.
• If you want to shine like sun first you have to burn like it.

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Your guide to Adolf Hitler: key facts about the Nazi dictator

He's one of the most well known – but reviled – figures in history. But how much do you know about German dictator Adolf Hitler? Here's everything you need to know about the Nazi leader, from his rise to power to the truth about his death in Berlin in 1945...

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Adolf Hitler is one of the most well-known – and despised – figures in history. He was the chief architect of the Second World War , following his rise to power as the leader of the Nazi Party in the 1920s. His anti-Semitic policies lead to the deaths of more than six million Jews during the Holocaust, cementing his reputation as one of the most infamous men in history.

Here's your guide to the German dictator – from his early life growing up in Austria to his rise to power and eventual death during the Second World War...

Hitler: key facts

Born: Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Austria.

Died: Hitler died by suicide in a Berlin bunker, age 56, on 30 April 1945

Known for: Being the leader of the the Nazi Party and initiating the Second World War. Adolf Hitler replaced Anton Drexler as party chairman of the Nazi Party in July 1921, and soon after he acquired the title führer (“leader”). He was chancellor of Germany from 30 January, 1933, and Führer and chancellor combined from 2 August 1934. His rise to power led to the Second World War and the deaths of more than six million Jews in the Holocaust.

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Family: Adolf Hitler was the fourth of six children born to Alois Hitler (1837–1903) and his third wife, Klara (1860–1907). His full siblings are: Gustav, Ida, Otto, Edmund and Paula, but he also had two half-siblings – Alois Jr and Angela – from his father’s previous marriages. Alois, who was illegitimate, bore his mother’s name Schicklgruber for some time, but by 1876 had established his family claim to the surname 'Hitler'. Adolf Hitler himself never used any other surname.

Early childhood: Most of Hitler’s childhood was spent in Linz, Austria. He had a difficult relationship with his father, with many of their arguments focusing on Hitler’s refusal to behave at school. However he was very fond of his mother, who died in 1907.

Education: Hitler had a mixed education and has generally been considered a mediocre student by many historians. Although his father wished for his son to follow a career in his own footsteps, at a customs office, Hitler had other ideas. Tensions rose when Alois sent Hitler to the Realschule (a type of secondary school) in Linz in September 1900 and Hitler performed poorly. Hitler later suggested that this was an intentional act on his behalf: he deliberately performed badly to show his father that he should be allowed to pursue his dream of becoming an artist.

The narrative doesn't entirely hold up if you consider that, following Alois’s death in January 1903, Hitler’s educational performance deteriorated even more. He went on to study at another school in Steyr, where he had to retake his final exams before leaving without any intentions to take his education any further.

Are we more fascinated with Hitler than any other dictator?

Hitler has been memorialised in countless books, tv shows and films. so why are we fascinated with the nazi dictator, was hitler a good painter.

While leaders including Winston Churchill and George W Bush took up painting as a post-politics hobby, a young Adolf Hitler paid the bills as a jobbing artist from 1910–14. He focused mainly on postcards and advertisements – and earned enough to sustain a living, moving around hostels in Vienna.

He was, however, technically mediocre. He failed the examination for the General School of Painting at the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts, partly down to his struggle to capture the human form. The second time he applied, his sample drawings were considered of such poor quality that he was not even admitted to the entrance examination.

Some might argue that Hitler's art was also oddly pedestrian in a radical era of Picasso and Van Gogh. As a voracious reader of history and mythology, and with a mind bubbling over with political thoughts, it’s somewhat surprising that this angry outsider painted bland postcard scenes of buildings and landscapes.

• When Hitler took cocaine

If painting was not his forte, Hitler's real strength could be found in his oratory skills. "He was, of course, a masterly demagogue – the basis of his early dominance within the Nazi Party," explains Professor Kershaw. "More than any other contemporary German politician, he spoke in a language that gave voice to the anger and prejudice of his audience."

He was also, Kershaw notes, very widely read: "His excellent memory enabled him to recall information on many subjects. This impressed not only those around him and others who were already susceptible to his message."

What did Hitler do during World War One?

Although Adolf Hitler was in his mid-20s at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, he initially tried to avoid conscription. Then, when made to enlist, he failed the medical. He still ended up in uniform, joining the Bavarian (part of the German) army instead.

Hitler served in this army at the First Battle of Ypres . According to Hitler, his regiment of 3,600 was reduced to 611 during the battle and he was one of only 42 survivors from his 250-strong company. One of his roles was that of a trench runner . He was also wounded at the Somme and was twice awarded the Iron Cross for bravery, once on the recommendation of a Jewish comrade.

Then, on the night of 13–14 October 1918, Corporal Hitler got caught in a mustard gas attack by the British. He spent the rest of the war recovering from temporary blindness, learning of Germany’s surrender in a military hospital, although there is some suggestion that this story was made up by Hitler and that he was in fact being treated for 'hysterical amblyopia', a psychiatric disorder known as 'hysterical blindness'. It was during this time, Hitler later claimed in his political manifesto Mein Kampf (first published in 1925), that “the idea came to me that I would liberate Germany, that I would make it great”.

When did Hitler first become involved with politics?

Hitler first emerged on the political scene in the German city of Munich in late 1919 as a speaker for the right-wing German Workers’ Party (DAP). The DAP changed its name to NSDAP ( Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei ) in February 1920, before Hitler officially took over as party chairman in July 1921. The party, which Hitler felt lacked direction, was also referred to as ‘Hitler’s Nazi Party’ at this time, however Hitler himself was not really known outside of Bavaria until much later.

• The dark charisma of Adolf Hitler

During the early 1920s, Hitler purposefully maintained a degree of mystery around himself. He refused to let unofficial photographers take his picture, instead opting to employ his own personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, who produced a series of bestselling books of pictures that portrayed the Nazi leader as an aloof intellectual. "They aimed to show Hitler as a man of the people and, at the same time, the political philosopher of genius in lofty isolation, among the mountains that surrounded his Alpine retreat near the town of Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, as he pondered Germany’s future and bore the entire burden of responsibility on his shoulders," explains Professor Kershaw. The creation of the 'Hitler mystery' was a masterful move of PR, utilised at a time when other politicians did not pay too much attention to such tactics.

How did Hitler rise to power?

Hitler’s first official grasp for power took place in November 1923. He and his supporters attempted to seize political power in Munich, as a prelude to a takeover in Berlin. Around 2,000 Nazis took part in the violent daytime coup, which became known as the Munich Beer Hall Putsch .

What happened during the Beer Hall Putsch?

When the coup collapsed, Hitler was arrested and charged with treason. The subsequent trial was a complex affair – as historian Roger Moorhouse explains: "Hitler probably should have been sent for trial to the constitutional court at Leipzig, but Munich’s political establishment was keen to keep the matter ‘in house’, for fear of giving oxygen to the rumours of official complicity with the Nazis. So, with a tame, sympathetic judge – Georg Neithardt – presiding, the trial opened in the Munich infantry school on 26 February.

"Those hoping for Hitler’s political demise were to be disappointed. He expertly played the court, assisted by Neithardt, and so reached a much wider audience than he had ever reached before. By the end of the trial, he had a national following for the first time, and had emerged as the undisputed leader of the German radical right."

• Hitler’s millionaire backers: how Germany’s elite facilitated the rise of the Nazis

Hitler served just nine months of his five-year prison sentence at Landsberg Prison. Following his release, he was forbidden from making public speeches but continued speaking to private audiences and gained a reputation as a formidable orator. By the 1930s he had cultivated an elaborate public profile, selling a “novel vision” to his followers and the wider German public. “Hitler was offering national redemption, a ‘new Germany’, a ‘new man’, a ‘new Jerusalem’,” says Moorhouse.

The Nazi party gradually grew in numbers throughout the late 1920s – and by July 1932, they had transformed from a small, revolutionary party to the largest elected party in the Reichstag (German parliament). They did this primarily through the use of effective propaganda, with support from the from the Sturmabteilung (SA), otherwise known as the Brownshirts, a paramilitary wing of the NSDAP.

Rise to dictator

Once Hitler had established himself as a key player in the German political scene of the 1930s, consolidation of his power as a dictator happened rather quickly. He achieved this with a “twin-track approach”, according to historian Richard J Evans.

The first track involved convincing the right-wing government that Hitler should rule Germany by decree. This was agreed by conservatives who were largely motivated by a desire to crush the Communist Party. “In November 1932, the Social Democrats and Communists together had more votes and seats than the Nazis, but they were also deadly enemies of each other and couldn’t get their act together to stop the Nazis. Hitler used legal or quasi-legal powers of the government, particularly the president’s power to rule by decree in a state of emergency,” explains Evans.

• Listen | Historian Frank McDonough discusses the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany, covering the period from the start of the Third Reich to the early months of World War Two

On 23 March 1933, the Reichstag was persuaded by Hitler – through a mixture of threats and inducements – to vote for an Enabling Law that meant that the cabinet (Hitler and the ministers) had the power to issue legislation without reference to the president or to the Reichstag, thereby giving them dictatorial powers.

The second track involved “mass, brutal violence” on the streets. During this time, between 100,000–200,000 people were put into concentration camps or ‘roughed up’ and released on condition of not engaging in politics.

Read more about how Hitler rose to power

Where did Hitler get his ideas?

According to historian Richard J Evans, Hitler drew his political ideas from a variety of sources: “from a version of Social Darwinism that saw society and international relations as a sort of struggle of races for the survival of the fittest; from Arthur de Gobineau, a French theorist who invented the pseudoscientific idea of race theory; from Russian émigrés from the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, who brought with them the idea that Bolshevism and communism were creations of the Jewish race; from a certain amount of what's called ‘geopolitics’, which was invented by an American.”

Why did Hitler hate the Jews?

Anti-Semitism was at the heart of Nazi ideology, but what inspired Hitler’s hatred of the Jews and prompted the creation of a system that ultimately led to the systematic rounding up and killing of some six million people?

Hitler obviously did not invent modern anti-Semitism, which has roots in the Middle Ages . By the 13th century, for example, rules enacted across Europe obliged Jews to wear an identifying badge to distinguish them from non-Jews’. And in medieval Europe specifically, anti-Jewish hostility was exemplified by the concept of ‘the blood libel’, the accusation that Jews were murdering Christian children as part of their Passover rituals.

Although we don’t know how early Hitler formed his opinions of Jewish people, he himself states that he felt anti-Jewish while working as a painter in Vienna – a city with a large Jewish population – before the First World War. “For me this was a time of the greatest spiritual upheaval I have ever had to go through,” he writes in Mein Kampf . “I had ceased to be a weak-kneed cosmopolitan and became an anti-Semite.” Some historians have since suggested that Hitler created this narrative of himself as an early anti-Semite retrospectively – and Mein Kampf should certainly be understood in the context of its purpose as propaganda. Perhaps rather curiously, one of Hitler most loyal patrons while he lived in Vienna as a young artist was a Jew called Samuel Morgenstern.

• Your guide to the Holocaust

What is clearer is that Hitler’s anti-Semitism intensified following Germany’s defeat during the First World War, in which he served as an ordinary soldier on the western front and was decorated for bravery. The defeat had come as a shock to many Germans, who believed that they had been on course to win following the Spring Offensive and victory over Russia in 1918. Following the Allied victory, harsh penalties were imposed on Germany including the loss of certain territories and reparations were demanded, through the Treaty of Versailles .

Like many of his contemporaries, Hitler decided that the reason Germany lost the war was the weak will of the Kaiser, who was deposed in 1918. According to Richard J Evans, speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast , “Hitler believed that the Weimar Republic, which succeeded the Kaiser’s Germany, was a Jewish creation, and democracy was something Jewish. These were all complete fantasies. But the effect of the First World War was decisive, including on Hitler's anti-Semitism and his belief the Jews were to blame for everything bad that had happened.”

Was Hitler Christian?

What was hitler’s relationship with eva braun.

Eva Braun (1912–1945) was the long-term companion of Adolf Hitler. The pair married on 29 April 1945 – just one day before they both died by suicide.

German historian Heike B Görtemaker notes that Braun was much more than a passive figure in the Nazi regime. “All members of the Berghof circle, including Eva Braun, were not just witnesses, but convinced of the Nazi ideology,” she writes. “Although it cannot be verified that Braun knew about the Holocaust – and all surviving members of Hitler’s inner circle later denied knowledge – Braun, like all others, was at least informed about the persecution of the Jews, depriving them of any civil rights.”

Was Braun in love with Hitler? It is almost impossible to identify her true feelings, says Görtemaker. However Braun’s closest friend, Herta Schneider, “declared in 1949 that Braun had been in love with Hitler”.

• Why did Hitler choose the swastika, and how did a Sanskrit symbol become a Nazi emblem?

Where did Hitler live?

How did hitler die.

During the last months of the Second World War – and as the prospect of losing the war became ever more apparent – Hitler withdrew into his bunker in Berlin. It was “the last station in his flight from reality”, wrote the Führer’s favoured architect, Albert Speer. Hitler continued to deliver orders from the bunker, including one that dictated his body should be incinerated upon the event of his death (he had heard about the treatment of fellow dictator Benito Mussolini’s body, who had been strung up in a public square in Milan).

• Georg Elser: the man who nearly assassinated Hitler

On 20 April 1945, Hitler’s 56th birthday, the first enemy shell hit Berlin. Soviet troops soon entered the city – and by 30 April 1945, Hitler was dead.

It is generally accepted that Hitler shot himself, although accounts differ as to whether he also bit down on a cyanide capsule. Following his death by suicide, Hitler’s body and that of his long-term mistress Eva Braun, whom he had married a day earlier and who had herself injected cyanide, were removed from the bunker, doused in petrol and set alight.

Rachel Dinning is the Premium Content Editor at HistoryExtra, website of BBC History Magazine and BBC History Revealed.

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Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was the undisputed leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party—known as Nazis—since 1921. In 1923, he was arrested and imprisoned for trying to overthrow the German government. His trial brought him fame and followers. He used the subsequent jail time to dictate his political ideas in a book, Mein Kampf —My Struggle. Hitler’s ideological goals included territorial expansion, consolidation of a racially pure state, and elimination of the European Jews and other perceived enemies of Germany.

After his release from prison in 1924, Hitler began seeking political power through legal means, such as elections, rather than through violent attempts to overthrow the government.

Modern propaganda techniques—including strong images and simple messages—helped propel Austrian-born Hitler from a little known extremist to a leading candidate in Germany’s 1932 presidential elections.

A common misconception about Hitler’s rise to power is that he was voted into office. In January 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor, the head of the German government.

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• Nazi rise to power
• World War I
• Weimar Germany

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Early years and world war i.

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) was born on April 20, 1889, in the Upper Austrian border town Braunau am Inn. In 1898, the Hitler family moved to Linz, the capital of Upper Austria. Seeking a career in the visual arts, Hitler fought bitterly with his father, who wanted him to enter the Habsburg civil service.

In October 1918, after he was partially blinded in a mustard gas attack near Ypres in Belgium, Hitler was sent to a military hospital in Pasewalk. News of the November 11, 1918, armistice reached him there as he was recuperating. Released from the hospital in November 1918, Hitler returned to Munich.

In 1919, he joined the Information Office of the Bavarian Military Administration. This office gathered intelligence on civilian political parties and provided anti-Communist “political education” for the troops. In August 1919, as a course instructor, Hitler made his first virulent antisemitic speeches. A month later, he first expressed an antisemitic, racist ideology on paper, advocating removal of Jews from Germany.  

Leader of the Nazi Party

Hitler joined what would become the Nazi Party in October 1919. He helped devise the party political program in 1920. The program was based on racist antisemitism, expansionist nationalism, and anti-immigrant hostility. By 1921, he was the absolute Führer (Leader) of the Nazi Party. Membership in the Nazi Party swelled in two years to 55,000, supported by more than 4,000 men in the paramilitary SA ( Sturmabteilung ; Storm Troopers).  

Imprisonment

Rejecting political participation in Weimar elections, Hitler and the Nazi Party leadership sought to overthrow the government of Bavaria, a state in the Weimar Republic. The Beer Hall Putsch took place on November 9, 1923. After the putsch collapsed, a Munich court tried Hitler and other ringleaders on charges of high treason. Hitler used the trial as a stage to attack the system of parliamentary democracy and promote xenophobic nationalism. Hitler was found guilty, but received a light sentence and was released after serving just one year in detention. He used his time in prison to begin writing Mein Kampf (My Struggle), his autobiography, published in 1926. In the book, he unveiled an explicitly, race-based Nationalist, social Darwinist, and antisemitic vision of human history. He advocated dictatorship at home, military expansion, and seizure of “living space” ( Lebensraum ) in the East. This living space was where the Germans intended to cleanse the east of indigenous and “inferior” populations.   

Political Strategy

After his release from prison, Hitler reorganized and reunified the Nazi Party. He changed its political strategy to incorporate engagement in electoral politics, programs targeting new and alienated voters, and bridge building to overcome traditional conflicts in German society.  

Using language fashioned to reflect the fears and hopes of potential voters, the Nazis campaigned for

• Renewing national defense capacity
• Restoring national sovereignty
• Annihilating Communism
• Overturning the Versailles Treaty
• Eliminating foreign and Jewish political and cultural influence in Germany and reversing the moral depravity that it allegedly created
• Generating economic prosperity and creating jobs

Testing this strategy in the national parliamentary elections of 1928, the Nazis received a disappointing 2.6% percent of the vote.  

With the onset of the Great Depression in 1930, Nazi agitation began to have increasing impact in the German population. When the majority coalition government collapsed in March, the three middle-class parties invoked emergency constitutional provisions to hold extraordinary parliamentary elections, hoping to manufacture a governing majority that would permanently exclude the Social Democrats and the political Left from governing. When this maneuver failed, German governments in 1930-1932 resorted to ruling by presidential decree rather than parliamentary consent.     

Electoral Breakthroughs

The Nazis made their electoral breakthrough in 1930 by combining modern technology, modern political market research, and intimidation through violence for which the leadership could deny responsibility. The party’s youthful energy untainted by past association with democratic governments also helped them break through electoral barriers. They captured nearly a fifth of the popular vote, attracting new, unemployed, and alienated voters.   

Hitler was a powerful and spellbinding speaker who attracted a wide following of Germans desperate for change. The Nazi appeal grew steadily in 1931 and 1932, creating a sense of inevitability that Hitler would come to power and save the country from political paralysis, economic impoverishment, cultural atrophy, and Communism. After running for President of the Republic in spring 1932, Hitler and the Nazis captured 37.3% of the vote in the July 1932 elections. They became the largest political party in Germany. Constant electioneering after 1930, accompanied by politically-motivated street violence, swelled the membership of the Nazi Party to 450,000, the SA to more than 400,000, and the SS to more than 50,000 in 1932.  

Chancellor of Germany

Following his appointment as chancellor, Adolf Hitler began laying the foundations of the Nazi state . He seized every opportunity to turn Germany into a one-party dictatorship.

German president Paul von Hindenburg died in August 1934. Hitler had secured the support of the army with the Röhm purge of June 30, 1934. He abolished the presidency and proclaimed himself Führer of the German people ( Volk ). All military personnel and all civil servants swore a new oath of personal loyalty to Hitler as Führer. Hitler also continued to hold the position of Reich Chancellor (head of government).

Series: Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler: Key Dates

Making a Leader

Adolf Hitler: Early Years, 1889–1913

Adolf Hitler and World War I: 1913–1919

Adolf Hitler: 1919-1924

Adolf hitler: 1924-1930.

Adolf Hitler: 1930-1933

The July 20, 1944, Plot to Assassinate Adolf Hitler

Series: the weimar republic.

The Weimar Republic

World War I: Aftermath

World War I and its Aftermath: Key Dates

Treaty of versailles.

Paul von Hindenburg

Beer Hall Putsch (Munich Putsch)

Nazi party platform.

The Police in the Weimar Republic

Science as Salvation: Weimar Eugenics, 1919–1933

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Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) was the leader of Germany during the Third Reich (1933–1945). He was the primary instigator of both the Second World War in Europe and the mass execution of millions of people deemed to be "enemies," or inferior to the Aryan ideal. He rose from being a talentless painter to the dictator of Germany and, for a few months, emperor of much of Europe. His empire was crushed by an array of the world's strongest nations; he killed himself before he could be tried and brought to justice.

Fast Facts: Adolf Hitler

• Known For : Leading the German Nazi party and instigating World War II
• Born : April 20, 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Austria
• Parents : Alois Hitler and Klara Poelzl
• Died : April 30, 1945 in Berlin, Germany
• Education : Realschule in Steyr
• Published Works : Mein Kampf
• Spouse : Eva Braun
• Notable Quote : "In starting and waging a war it is not right that matters but victory."

Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria, on April 20, 1889 to Alois Hitler (who, as an illegitimate child, had previously used his mother’s name of Schickelgruber) and Klara Poelzl. A moody child, he grew hostile towards his father, especially once the latter had retired and the family had moved to the outskirts of Linz. Alois died in 1903 but left money to take care of the family. Adolf was close to his mother, who was highly indulgent of him, and he was deeply affected when she died in 1907. He left school at age 16 in 1905, intending to become a painter. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't a very good one.

Hitler went to Vienna in 1907 where he applied to the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts but was twice turned down. This experience further embittered the increasingly angry Hitler. He returned to Vienna again when his mother died, living first with a more successful friend (Kubizek) and then moving from hostel to hostel as a lonely, vagabond figure. He recovered to make a living selling his art cheaply as a resident in a community "Men's Home."

During this period, Hitler appears to have developed the worldview that would characterize his whole life, and which centered on hatred for Jews and Marxists. Hitler was well-placed to be influenced by the demagogy of Karl Lueger, Vienna’s deeply anti-Semitic mayor and a man who used hate to help create a party of mass support. Hitler had previously been influenced by Schonerer, an Austrian politician against liberals, socialists, Catholics, and Jews. Vienna was also highly anti-Semitic; Hitler's hate was not unusual, it was simply part of the popular mindset. What Hitler went on to do was present these ideas more successfully than ever before.

Hitler moved to Munich in 1913 and avoided Austrian military service in early 1914 by virtue of being unfit for service. However, when the First World War broke out in 1914, he joined the 16th Bavarian Infantry Regiment, serving throughout the war, mostly as a corporal after refusing promotion. He proved to be an able and brave soldier as a dispatch runner, winning the Iron Cross on two occasions (First and Second Class). He was also wounded twice, and four weeks before the war ended he suffered a gas attack that temporarily blinded and hospitalized him. It was there he learned of Germany’s surrender, which he took as a betrayal. He especially hated the Treaty of Versailles , which Germany had to sign after the war as part of the settlement.

After WWI, Hitler became convinced he was destined to help Germany, but his first move was to stay in the army for as long as possible because it paid wages, and to do so, he went along with the socialists now in charge of Germany. He was soon able to turn the tables and drew the attention of army anti-socialists, who were setting up anti-revolutionary units. In 1919, working for an army unit, he was assigned to spy on a political party of roughly 40 idealists called the German Workers Party. Instead, he joined it, swiftly rose to a position of dominance (he was chairman by 1921), and renamed it the Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). He gave the party the Swastika as a symbol and organized a personal army of "storm troopers" (the SA or Brownshirts) and bodyguards of black-shirted men, the Schutzstaffel (SS), to attack opponents. He also discovered, and used, his powerful ability for public speaking.

In November 1923, Hitler organized Bavarian nationalists under a figurehead of General Ludendorff into a coup (or "putsch"). They declared their new government in a beer hall in Munich; a group of 3,000 marched through the streets, but they were met by police who opened fire, killing 16.

Hitler was arrested in1924 and used his trial to spread his name and his ideas widely. He was sentenced to just five years in prison, a sentence often described as a sign of tacit agreement with his views.

Hitler served only nine months in prison, during which he wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle), a book outlining his theories on race, Germany, and Jews. It sold five million copies by 1939. Only then, in prison, did Hitler come to believe he was destined to be a leader. The man who thought he was paving the way for a German leader of genius now thought he was the genius who could take and use power.

After the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler resolved to seek power through subverting the Weimar government system, and he carefully rebuilt the NSDAP, or Nazi, party, allying with future key figures like Goering and propaganda mastermind Goebbels. Over time, he expanded the party’s support, partly by exploiting the fears of socialists and partly by appealing to everyone who felt their economic livelihood threatened by the depression of the 1930s.

Over time, he gained the interest of big business, the press, and the middle classes. Nazi votes jumped to 107 seats in the Reichstag in 1930. It's important to stress that Hitler wasn't a socialist . The Nazi party that he was molding was based on race, not the idea of socialism, but it took a good few years for Hitler to grow powerful enough to expel the socialists from the party. Hitler didn't take power in Germany overnight and took years for him to take full power of his party overnight.

In 1932, Hitler acquired German citizenship and ran for president, coming in second to von Hindenburg . Later that year, the Nazi party acquired 230 seats in the Reichstag, making them the largest party in Germany. At first, Hitler was refused the office of Chancellor by a president who distrusted him, and a continued snub might have seen Hitler cast out as his support failed. However, factional divisions at the top of government meant that, thanks to conservative politicians believing they could control Hitler, he was appointed chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. Hitler moved with great speed to isolate and expel opponents from power, shutting trade unions and removing communists, conservatives, and Jews.

Later that year, Hitler perfectly exploited an act of arson on the Reichstag (which some believe the Nazis helped cause) to begin the creation of a totalitarian state, dominating the March 5 elections thanks to support from nationalist groups. Hitler soon took over the role of president when Hindenburg died and merged the role with that of chancellor to become führer ("leader") of Germany.

Hitler continued to move with speed in radically changing Germany, consolidating power, locking up “enemies” in camps, bending culture to his will, rebuilding the army, and breaking the constraints of the Treaty of Versailles. He tried to change the social fabric of Germany by encouraging women to breed more and bringing in laws to secure racial purity; Jews were particularly targeted. Employment, high elsewhere in a time of depression, fell to zero in Germany. Hitler also made himself head of the army, smashed the power of his former brownshirt street warriors, and expunged the socialists fully from his party and his state. Nazism was the dominant ideology. Socialists were the first in the death camps.

Hitler believed he must make Germany great again through creating an empire and engineered territorial expansion, uniting with Austria in an Anschluss and dismembering Czechoslovakia. The rest of Europe was worried, but France and Britain were prepared to concede limited expansion with Germany, taking within it the German fringe. Hitler, however, wanted more.

It was in September 1939, when German forces invaded Poland, that other nations took a stand and declared war. This was not unappealing to Hitler, who believed Germany should make itself great through war, and invasions in 1940 went well. Over the course of that year, France fell and the Third Reich expanded. However, his fatal mistake occurred in 1941 with the invasion of Russia, through which he wished to create lebensraum, or "living room." After initial success, German forces were pushed back by Russia, and defeats in Africa and West Europe followed as Germany was slowly beaten.

During the last years of the war, Hitler became gradually more paranoid and divorced from the world, retreating to a bunker. As armies approached Berlin from two directions, Hitler married his mistress Eva Braun and on April 30, 1945, he killed himself. The Soviets found his body soon after and spirited it away so it would never become a memorial. A piece remains in a Russian archive.

Hitler will forever be remembered for starting the Second World War, the most costly conflict in world history, thanks to his desire to expand Germany’s borders through force. He will equally be remembered for his dreams of racial purity, which prompted him to order the execution of millions of people , perhaps as high as 11 million. Although every arm of German bureaucracy was turned to pursuing the executions, Hitler was the chief driving force.

In the decades since Hitler’s death, many commentators have concluded that he must have been mentally ill and that, if he wasn’t when he started his rule, the pressures of his failed wars must have driven him mad. Given that he ordered genocide and ranted and raved, it is easy to see why people have come to this conclusion, but it’s important to state that there is no consensus among historians that he was insane, or what psychological problems he may have had.

“ Adolf Hitler .” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 14 Feb. 2019.

Alan Bullock, Baron Bullock, et al. “ Adolf Hitler .” Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 19 Dec. 2018.

• 10 Facts About Adolf Hitler
• Hitler's Rise to Power: A Timeline
• A Short History of the Nazi Party
• Mein Kampf My Struggle
• The Early Development of the Nazi Party
• Adolf Hitler Appointed Chancellor of Germany
• Pictures of Adolph Hitler
• Interwar Germany: The Rise and Fall of Weimar and the Rise of Hitler
• Was Adolf Hitler a Socialist?
• Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch
• Causes of World War II
• Rudolf Hess, Nazi Who Claimed to Bring Peace Offer From Hitler
• What Did Hitler Believe?
• Biography of Benito Mussolini, Fascist Dictator of Italy
• World War II: Colonel General Ludwig Beck
• Who Were Hitler's Supporters? Who Backed the Führer and Why

Adolf Hitler: Biography

Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in the small Austrian town of Braunau to Alois Hitler who later became a senior customs official and his wife Klara, who was from a poor peasant family.

Hitler did not do particularly well in school , leaving formal education in 1905. Unable to settle into a regular job, he drifted. He wished to become an artist but was rejected from the Academy in Vienna.

At primary school, Hitler showed great intellectual potential and was extremely popular with fellow pupils as well as being admired for his leadership qualities. However, competition at secondary school was tougher and Hitler stopped trying as a result.

He also lost his popularity among his fellow students and instead preferred to re-enact battles from the Boer war with younger children. At the age of 15, he failed his exams and was told to repeat the year but he left without a formal education instead.

At the age of 18, he moved to Vienna with money inherited after his father's death in 1903, in order to pursue a career in art, as this was his best subject at school. However his applications for both the Vienna Academy of Art and the School of Architecture were rejected.

It was supposedly at this time that Hitler first became interested in politics and how the masses could be made to respond to certain themes. He was particularly impressed with the anti-Semitic, nationalist Christian-Socialist party.

During the First World War he volunteered to fight for the German Army and gained the rank of corporal, earning accolades as a dispatch-runner. He won several awards for bravery, including the Iron Cross First Class.

In October 1918, he was blinded in a mustard gas attack. Germany surrendered while Hitler was in hospital and he went into a state of great depression, spending lots of time in tears. After the war ended, Hitler's future seemed uncertain.

In 1919, Hitler attended his first meeting of the German Workers' party, an anti-Semitic, nationalist group as a spy for the German Army. However, he found he agreed with Anton Drexler's German nationalism and anti-Semitism. He disagreed with how they were organised leading him to make a passionate speech. Hitler quickly cemented his reputation as an engaging orator through his passion about the injustices faced by Germany as a result of the Treaty of Versailles .

It soon became clear that people were joining the party just to see Hitler make his speeches, which would leave the audience in a state of near hysteria and willing to do whatever he suggested.

Read more about WW2

10 things you didn't know about Hitler

He quickly rose through the ranks and, by 1921, was the leader of the re-named National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi) .

With terrible economic conditions and rapid inflation, support for Hitler's party grew. By 1923, the Nazi's had 56,000 members and many more supporters.

On 8 and 9 November 1923, Hitler staged the Nazi Beer Hall Putsch. He hoped to force the Bavarian government to work with the Nazis and march together on Berlin. The attempt failed but, although Hitler was tried for treason, the judge gave him a very light sentence.

While in prison, Hitler wrote 'Mein Kampf', which formulated his political ideas. He reorganised his party on his release from jail, but it was not until the world depression hit Germany that the Nazis were able to attract significant followers.

By 1930, the Nazis were polling around 6.5 million votes. In the presidential elections of 1932, Hitler came second. On 30 January 1933, President Hindenburg was forced to appoint Hitler as Chancellor , given his popular support.

In office, Hitler set about consolidating his power, appointing Nazis to government and gaining control of emergency powers. He eliminated all opposition, in the name of emergency control and, with the death of Hindenburg in 1934, Hitler's power was secured.

Hitler put Germany's unemployed to work on a massive rearmament programme, using propaganda and manufacturing enemies, such as the Jews , to prepare the country for war. Initially, Hitler's actions were ignored by his powerful neighbours, as they believed appeasement was the only way to avoid a war.

In 1936, Hitler invaded the Rhineland, which had been demilitarised at Versailles . He then proceeded to annex Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia. Under the Munich Agreement of 1938, the West accepted this.

In 1939, Hitler made an alliance with Russia (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) and with Italy (Pact of Steel). On 1 September 1939, Hitler invaded Poland and the Second World War began as a result. In April 1940, Denmark and Norway were also taken. France quickly followed .

Hitler had conquered much of Western Europe, now he turned his sights East . In 1941, despite the alliance, Germany invaded Russia under Operation Barbarossa . It was one of his greatest mistakes. With the German advance slowed by the Russians 'scorched earth' policy, the German army found themselves in the Russian winter without an adequate supply line. In 1943, they started their long retreat.

At the same time, the Western Allies were pushing hard, and began to advance on Germany. In response, Hitler withdrew almost entirely. It was reported he was increasingly erratic and out-of-touch.

In 1944, there was an unsuccessful assassination attempt and, in response, Hitler stepped up the atmosphere of suspicion and terror.

Hitler committed suicide on 30 April 1945, with his long term girlfriend Eva Braun , who he is thought to have perhaps married at the last minute. Germany's surrender followed soon after.

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Adolf Hitler The Definitive Biography

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Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler   Biography

Adolf Hitler was a military leader, politician, and German writer. Hitler was born in Austria on April 20, 1889. Adolf Hitler rose to power in German politics as a leader of the German National Socialist Workers Party, also known as the Nazi Party. Hitler was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945. His policies will trigger World War II and led to the genocide known as the Holocaust, resulting in the death of approximately 6 million Jews and another 5 million combatants.

On April 30, 1945, Hitler seeing himslef defeated committed suicide with his wife Eva Braun, in his bunker in Berlin.

THE BEGINNING

The military dictator Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria on April 20, 1889, and was the fourth of the six children of Alois Hitler and Klara Polzl. Alois Hitler was a very strict father and did not agree with the interest of his son Adolf in the fine arts.

Alois died in 1903 and two years later, Adolf’s mother allowed him to leave school. After Hitler’s mom died, in December 1907, he decided to move to Vienna and worked as a casual laborer and watercolorist. Hitler applied to the Academy of Fine Arts and was rejected twice. The lack of money made him live in shelters. Also, he showed an early interest in German nationalism and the rejection of the authority of Austria-Hungary. This nationalism would become the motivating force of Hitler’s life.

In 1913, Hitler moved to Munich and with the outbreak of World War I, he enlisted to serve in the German army. He was accepted in August 1914, although he was still an Austrian citizen. Hitler spent much of his time outside the front line that was present in a series of important battles and was wounded in the Somme battle. He was decorated for his bravery and receives the Wounded Medal (in German Verwundetenabzeichen) which was a German military decoration for soldiers affected by injuries of various magnitudes or by freezing effects while battling.

The experience reinforced his passionate German patriotism and he was surprised by the surrender of Germany in 1918 and he believed, like other German nationalists, that the German army had been betrayed by civilian and Marxist leaders.

POLITICS AND INCARCERATION

After the First World War, Hitler returned to Munich and continued working for the army as an intelligence officer. During the supervision of the activities of the German Workers’ Party (DAP), Hitler adopted many of the anti-Semitic, nationalist and anti-Marxist ideas of the party’s founder, Anton Drexler. Hitler joined the DAP in September 1919.

The DAP changed its name to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) often abbreviated as Nazi. Hitler personally designed the party’s flag, appropriating the symbol of the swastika and placing it in a white circle on a red background. He soon became famous for his speeches against the Treaty of Versailles, rival politicians, Marxists, and Jews. In 1921, Hitler replaced Drexler as president of the NSDAP.

On November 8, 1923, Hitler and the SA, the Nazi paramilitary organization Sturmabteilung, broke into a public meeting of the Prime Minister of Bavaria, Gustav Ritter von Kahr. Hitler announced that the national revolution had begun and declared the formation of a new government. After a brief fight that resulted in several deaths, the coup d’etat, known as the “Putsch” had failed.

Hitler was arrested and judged for high treason. He was nine months in prison, during which time most of the first volume of Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”) was dictated to his second, Rudolf Hess. A work of propaganda and lies, the book presented Hitler’s plans for the transformation of German society into one based on a race.

RISING TO POWER

With millions of unemployed, the Great Depression in Germany provided a political opportunity for Hitler. In 1932, Hindenburg was re-elected in the presidential elections, easily defeating Adolf Hitler, his main contender. Hitler came in second in the two rounds of the election, getting more than 36 percent of the votes in the final count. The results established Hitler as a major force in German politics. Hindenburg appoints Hitler as chancellor in order to promote political balance.

Hitler used his position as chancellor to form a legal dictatorship. The Decree of the Reichstag fire, whose official name was the Decree of the President of the Reich for the Protection of the People and the State (in German: Verordnung des Reichspräsidenten zum Schutz von Volk und Staat) announced after a suspicious fire on 27 February 1933 in Parliament, which suspended basic rights and allowed detention without trial. Hitler also designed and approved the Law of Habilitation, which gave his cabinet full legislative powers for a period of four years and allowed deviations from the constitution.

Having full control in the legislative and executive branches of government, Hitler and his political allies embarked on a systematic suppression of the remaining political opposition. By the end of June, the other parties had been intimidated in the dissolution. On July 14, 1933, Hitler’s Nazi Party was declared the only legal political party in Germany. In October, Hitler ordered the withdrawal of Germany from the League of Nations. The day before Hindenburg’s death in August 1934, the cabinet had promulgated a law abolishing the president’s office, combining his powers with those of the chancellor. Therefore, Hitler became head of state, as well as head of government and was formally appointed leader and chancellor. As head of state, Hitler became supreme commander of the armed forces.

ANTI-SEMITISM

From 1933 until the start of the war in 1939, Hitler and his Nazi regime instituted hundreds of laws and regulations to restrict and exclude Jews in society. Anti-Semitic laws were issued through all levels of government, enforcing the promise of the Nazis to persecute Jews if the party came to power. On April 1, 1933, Hitler implemented a national boycott to Jewish businesses, followed by the introduction of the “Law for the Restoration of Professional Public Function” of April 7, 1933, which was one of the first laws to persecute the Jews through exclusion from the state service.

The “Law for the Restoration of Professional Public Function” was a Nazi application of the Aryan paragraph, a clause that established the exclusion of Jews and non-Aryans from organizations, employment and all aspects of public life.

THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND HOLOCAUST

In 1938, Hitler, alongside with several other European leaders, signed the Munich Agreement. The treaty ceded the Sudeten districts (Sudetenland in German) to Germany, reversing part of the Treaty of Versailles. As a result of the summit, Hitler was appointed by Time magazine, Man of the Year in 1938. This diplomatic victory had only sharpened his appetite for a renewed German dominance.

The Nazis continued to segregate Jews from German society, banning them from public schools, universities, theaters, sporting events and “Aryan” zones. Jewish doctors were also forbidden to treat “Aryan” patients.

Jews were forced to carry identity cards and, in the autumn of 1938, the Jews had to have their passports stamped with a “J”.

On November 9th and 10th, 1938, a wave of violent anti-Jewish pogroms swept Germany, Austria, and parts of the Sudetenland. Nazis destroyed synagogues, acts of vandalism to Jewish houses, schools, businesses and about 100 Jews were killed these days. Called Kristallnacht, the “Crystal Night” or the “Night of broken glass” making reference to the broken glass as a result of the destruction, the pogroms intensified the persecution of the Jews to another level of brutality and violence and nearly 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. Between 1939 and 1945, Nazis and their collaborators were responsible for the deaths of at least 1 million combatants, including nearly six million Jews, who represented two-thirds of the Jewish population in Europe. As part of Hitler’s “final solution,” the genocide promulgated by the regime would come to be known as the Holocaust. Mass killings and executions took place in the concentration and extermination camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, and Treblinka, among many others. Other persecuted groups including Poles, Communists, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and trade unionists. The prisoners were used as forced laborers for construction projects of the SS, and in some cases, they were forced to build and expand the concentration camps.

The prisoners were exposed to hunger, torture and horrible brutalities including having to endure horrible and painful medical experiments. Hitler probably never visited the concentration camps and did not speak publicly about the mass murders, but the Germans documented the atrocities committed in the camps on paper and in films. Hitler intensified his military activities in 1940 when invading Norway, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, Netherland, and Belgium.

In July, Hitler would order bombings in the United Kingdom, with the aim of invasion. Germany’s formal alliance with Japan and Italy, collectively known as the Axis powers, was agreed at the end of September to dissuade the United States from appearing and protect the British. On June 22, 1941, Hitler violated the 1939 pact of non-aggression with Joseph Stalin , sending a massive army of German troops to the Soviet Union (Operation Redbeard). The invading force seized a huge area of ​​Russia before Hitler temporarily halted the invasion and diverted forces to encircle Leningrad and Kiev. The pause allowed the Red Army to regroup and carry out a counter-offensive attack, and the German advance was stopped outside of Moscow in December 1941.

On December 7, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. In honor of the alliance with Japan, Hitler was at war with the allied powers, a coalition that included Britain, the world’s largest empire, led by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the United States, the world’s largest economic power, led by President Franklin D. Roosevelt; and the Soviet Union which had the largest army in the world, commanded by Stalin .

Militarily Hitler became increasingly erratic, and the Axis powers could not sustain their aggressive and expansive war. At the end of 1942, German forces failed in the Operation Felix in the Suez Canal, leading to the loss of German control over North Africa. The German army also suffered defeats at the Battle of Stalingrad (1942-1943) considered a turning point in the war and the Battle of Kursk (1943).

On June 6th, 1944, on what would come to be known as D-Day, the Western-allied armies landed in northern France. As a result of these major setbacks, many German officers came to the conclusion that defeat was inevitable and if Hitler continued it would result in the destruction of the country. Organized efforts to assassinate the dictator were gained strength, and the opponents approached with an attack on July 20, 1944. However, it was a failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler, carried out by a group of Wehrmacht officers organized by the Colonel Count. Claus von Stauffenberg as part of a coup d’etat based on the so-called Operation Valkyrie.

Early in 1945, Hitler realized that Germany was going to lose the war. The Soviets had led the German army back to Western Europe and the allies were advancing towards Germany from the west. At midnight, on April 29, 1945, Hitler married his girlfriend, Eva Braun, at a small civil ceremony in his Berlin bunker. Hitler was informed of the execution of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and fearing to fall into the hands of enemy troops, Hitler and Braun committed suicide the day after their wedding, on April 30, 1945. Their bodies were taken to a bombed area outside the Reich Chancellery, where they were burned.

Berlin fell on May 2, 1945. Five days later, on May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered unconditionally to the allies. The defeat of Hitler marked the end of Germany’s domination in European history and the defeat of fascism. A new global ideological conflict, the Cold War, arose as a result of the devastating violence of World War II.

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Robert Oppenheimer

Robert Oppenheimer Biography

Julius Robert Oppenheimer (April 22, 1904 – February 18, 1967) was a physicist widely acknowledged as the father of atomic bomb . He was born in New York City, United States. Oppenheimer is renowned for his pivotal role in the development of the Manhattan Project during World War II, which culminated in the creation of the first atomic bombs.

Early years

Robert Oppenheimer was an American theoretical physicist, scientist, and university professor. He was the son of German-born Julius S. Oppenheimer and artist Ella Friedman. Coming from a wealthy and educated family in New York, his father was a Jewish owner of a significant fortune amassed through his textile factory. This allowed Oppenheimer to enjoy certain comforts and attend the best schools in the city.

In this regard, he was educated at the Ethical Culture School in New York, where he excelled as the top student, with some teachers even asserting that he was better than many of them. Upon graduating from school, he enrolled at Harvard University , where he stood out in all areas, from chemistry to Eastern philosophy, Greek, and Latin, completing his studies at the age of 21.

After some time, Robert Oppenheimer decided to delve into the world of physics, capitalizing on both his aptitude for the subject and its burgeoning prominence across Europe. He moved to England, where he worked with Ernest Rutherford and J. J. Thomson. Alongside these two great scientists, he felt somewhat inadequate, as he believed his performance did not meet the required standards. However, Oppenheimer did not give up.

With the passage of time, he learned from his mentors, and by 1925, feeling more adapted, he began researching atomic energy and secondary-atomic particle energy processes at the Cavendish Laboratory.

A year later, he was at the University of Göttingen , collaborating with Max Born to develop his classical contribution to molecular quantum theory, known in physics as the “Born-Oppenheimer method”. He returned to his home country to teach theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology and the University of Berkeley between 1929 and 1942. Oppenheimer was a highly political person. Therefore, in the 1930s, he decided to align himself with communist students to support the Republic during the Spanish Civil War, but certain actions led to the demise of his sympathy for the Communist Party.

Contribution to the Manhattan Project

General Leslie Groves alongside Oppenheimer in the development of the Manhattan Project (Circa 1944)

The civil and political situation in Europe was becoming increasingly dangerous. By 1939, Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard warned the U.S. government about the dangers of nuclear energy falling into the hands of the Nazis. In response, President Franklin Roosevelt initiated the project for creating the atomic bomb, which was initially under military control, led by General Leslie Groves, an engineer known for overseeing construction projects, including the Pentagon. Later, Oppenheimer was brought on board to manage the administration of the project, which culminated in the construction of the atomic bomb by 1945.

Oppenheimer’s most significant contribution to the Manhattan Project was his leadership and effective coordination among diverse teams of scientists. His vision and problem-solving skills were crucial in overcoming the scientific and technological challenges involved in building an atomic bomb. He supervised the design and testing of the first atomic bombs, including the successful detonation of the plutonium bomb at the Trinity test site in New Mexico on July 16, 1945.

This American physicist had the support of many prominent figures in science, such as the great scientist Werner Heisenberg , Erwin Schrödinger, Max Born, Wolfgang Pauli, Paul Dirac, and Enrico Fermi , with whom he also developed close friendships. The work carried out by these scientists on quantum physics provided significant support for his own research. He gained valuable insights into quantum and relativistic physics, which kept him abreast of new scientific developments. He made contributions to the application of quantum theory to the concept of electron spin.

In his role as the director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, he fostered discussion and research in quantum and relativistic physics. In 1953, his past ties with the Communist Party led to certain defamation issues. As a result, he was called to a security hearing where the accusation was dismissed, but his access to military secrets was still prohibited. One of the institutions that attacked the scientist the most was the Federation of American Scientists. Oppenheimer was humiliated, and his communications were monitored. Nine years later, President John F. Kennedy , in an effort to rectify this mistake, awarded him the Enrico Fermi Award , granted by the Atomic Energy Commission , which he received from President Johnson himself.

“Now I Am Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds”.

Oppenheimer, confessed to President Harry Truman, that he was not entirely comfortable with the fate of the atomic bomb. After some time, the Cold War erupted, and the Soviet Union announced its possession of an atomic weapon. In response, the United States decided to develop an even more powerful weapon. They approached Oppenheimer to lead the Atomic Energy Commission, but he declined the offer, resulting in his removal from the position. However, he remained the director at the Institute for Advanced Study, thanks to the support given by Einstein , Von Neumann , and Bohr.

After this event, his life took a different turn as he decided to distance himself from the laboratories and leaned towards writing about the studies conducted throughout his scientific career. Notable works include “Science and the Common Understanding” (1954) and a book related to electrodynamics (published posthumously in 1970). In the aftermath of the events in Japan and the grave consequences the atomic bomb had on humanity, he made several proposals aimed at internationally regulating the use of atomic energy to ensure peace.

He staunchly opposed the creation of the hydrogen bomb. However, despite his efforts and those of the General Advisory Committee of the Atomic Energy Commission , its development continued. Disheartened, Oppenheimer made the decision to retire from Princeton in 1966 . A year later, on February 18, 1967, he passed away from throat cancer.

Filmography

Visual works inspired by Robert Oppenheimer:

• “Fat Man and Little Boy” (1989): Oppenheimer was portrayed by Dwight Schultz in this film.
• “One Day” (1989): The scientist was portrayed by David Strathairn.
• “Oppenheimer” (2023): The biography of Julius Robert Oppenheimer was brought to the screen in this movie, based on the biographical work “American Prometheus” by author Kai Bird. The character of Julius Robert Oppenheimer was played by Cillian Murphy and directed by Christopher Nolan.

History of Threads

Threads (July 5, 2023) is an application and social media developed by the Meta group, designed to compete with Twitter. While it shares some features with Twitter, it has its own distinctive approach. This application has been specifically designed to share text-based updates and engage in interactive public conversations.

What is Threads?

Threads is a new application and social network created by the Instagram team, which is part of the Meta group, led by billionaire entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg . The launch of Threads has had a positive impact on the market, as Meta’s stocks experienced an increase of nearly 3% during an unfavorable session on Wall Street. Furthermore, in after-hours trading, the stocks continued to rise, increasing by almost 1%. This indicates a favorable reception from investors and the market.

The application has been specifically designed to share moments through text-based updates. It provides a unique and standalone space for real-time posting and engaging in public conversations. With the new application, you have the opportunity to follow and connect with friends and creators who share your same or similar interests, including the people you follow on Instagram.

Threads has been developed with the aim of competing with Twitter and presents features and similarities that go beyond simple text sharing. Just like on Twitter, in this new app, users can create threads, share photos, videos, and links. The application is currently available for launch on iOS and Android devices. It is worth noting that currently, an Instagram account is required to access the app.

Mark Zuckerberg and his Meta team have taken advantage of the recent changes in Twitter following the acquisition by Elon Musk . Twitter has reduced some of its security options, reserving them exclusively for users who purchase Twitter Blue. Meta has identified this gap and has seized the opportunity to attract users to join Threads. The new application stands out for maintaining a wide variety of security controls and providing a safe experience for users.

“The idea is to build an open and friendly space for communities”- Adam Mosseri.

Differences between Threads and Twitter

• Threads currently follows the same security policies as Instagram.
• In Threads , it is not possible to save posts as drafts. You must share posts immediately or delete them.
• Threads does not have a set limit on the number of posts that can be viewed. There is no maximum limit on viewed posts in Threads, unlike the recent limitation imposed by Twitter of 600 posts.
• The new social media does not yet have direct messaging, unlike Twitter.

How to create an account on Threads?

To get started, you need to go to the mobile device’s app store and search for “Instagram Threads”. Once found, click on download and install the application. Once installed, open the app and access Threads using your Instagram username.

Next, complete your personal information and adjust the security options according to your preferences. Once this process is done, you will be ready to explore the application, change your profile picture, and start following people and topics that interest you.

It should be noted that automatically, anyone under the age of 16, or under the age of 18 in certain countries, their profile will be set to private when joining Threads.

When Instagram users sign up for this new social network, they receive a Threads badge on their Instagram profile. This badge displays a number indicating the sequence in which they created their account on this new app.

How is Threads used?

Threads offers a user interface similar to that of Twitter, allowing users to interact with other users’ posts from the “Home” section. Additionally, through the search icon, it is possible to find other users on this red social.

In the “Home” section, you will find posts from the people you follow, as well as recommended content from new creators that you have yet to discover. Posts have a limit of 500 characters and can include links, photos, and videos up to five minutes in length. Additionally, you have the option to easily share a Threads post to your Instagram Story or share it as a link on the platform of your choice.

To create a thread in this app, simply click on the notebook icon. Once you have written your message, publish it and continue with the text at the bottom. Just like on Instagram, the heart icon shows recent activity on your account, allowing you to see feedback and interaction with your posts.

Similarly, it is important to note that if you block an account on Threads, the same account will also be blocked on Instagram. This means that blocking actions are applied collectively on both platforms.

How to delete an account on Threads?

It is important for users to note that if they wish to delete their account on Threads, it is likely that their Instagram account will also be deleted. Currently, the only available option is to temporarily deactivate the account on this application, but it can only be permanently deleted if you delete your Instagram account.

Metallica history

Metallica is an American thrash metal band from Los Angeles and based in San Francisco. It is considered one of the leading groups in the subgenre and throughout its 35-year career it has won numerous awards, including 9 Grammys, 2 American Music Awards, 2 MTV awards, 2 Billboard awards, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1980 – Beginnings

The history of the band begins in 1980 when Lars Ulrich, the son of tennis player Torben Ulrich, placed an ad in the magazine Recycler looking for a guitarist for a metal band influenced by the British New Wave of Heavy Metal. James Hetfield responded to the ad and joined Ulrich as the first members of the band. Ron McGovney joined as bassist and Lloyd Grant as lead guitarist. With this first formation, the band recorded its first demo, Hit the Lights, considered one of the first thrash metal songs. However, they soon realized that the lineup was not working and Lloyd was replaced by Dave Mustaine.

Despite the early disastrous performances due to the lack of experience of the members, the band continued and released No Life ’till Leather, showing a more aggressive sound. Additionally, Ron McGovney was replaced by Cliff Burton as bassist and Dave Mustaine was replaced by Kirk Hammett due to his alcohol addiction. Since then, James Hetfield has taken on both the role of rhythm guitarist and singer.

1983 – Release of ‘Kill ‘Em All’

With this new lineup and having Johnny Zazula as their manager, t he band released in 1983 Kill ‘Em All, which gained notoriety in the metal scene and sold more than 300,000 copies. After a tour of the United States and a concert in Holland where they reached their largest audience to date, with 5,000 people, the band released the album Ride the Lightening with Megaforce Records in 1984, which received critical acclaim for its melodic sound.

“1991 – Release of the ‘The Black Album'”

After this work, the band released Master of Puppets in 1986 and embarked on a promotional tour that was cut short by an accident in which the bassist Cliff Burton died. After reflecting on their future, the band incorporated Jason Newsted and recorded …And Justice for All, an album with a denser sound that, despite its commercial success and a Grammy nomination, received criticism for being unoriginal and moving away from heavy metal. However, it wouldn’t be until the release of their album Metallica in 1991, known as The Black Album, that they reached great success, selling half a million copies in the first week of sales in the United States and reaching the top of the Billboard chart. This work led to two similar albums, Load in 1996 and ReLoad in 1997, which received negative reviews for their proximity to alternative rock and their distance from traditional heavy metal, disappointing their older fanbase.

“2001 – Documentary, Tours, Awards”

In 2001, Jason Newsted left the band and Metallica struggled to find a suitable replacement for some time. Therefore, they had to record their next album, St. Anger, with their producer Bob Rock playing bass. However, Robert Trujillo soon joined the band’s lineup. Three years later, the documentary Some Kind of Monster was released, which portrays the recording process of the last album and the internal conflicts that the band had with Dave Mustaine. After a tour in 2006 in which they played Master of Puppets again to celebrate its 20th anniversary, and the release of a compilation of their videos titled The Videos, Metallica was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Later, they released Death Magnetic in 2008 and the conceptual album Lulu in 2011, which was poorly received by their fans. In 2012, the band founded their own record label, Blackened, and performed a concert in Antarctica to raise awareness about polar melting and environmental crisis . In 2016, they released Hardwired… to Self-Destruct. Currently, the band is still active.

Biography of Cleopatra

Cleopatra (69 BC – August 12, 30 BC) was the last Queen of Egypt, belonging to the Ptolemaic dynasty. She was born in Alexandria, Egypt. Her father was Ptolemy XII and her mother was Cleopatra V Tryphena. Cleopatra married her brother Ptolemy XIII, as a strategy to maintain the reign, then they both inherited the throne in 51 BC. Cleopatra is said to have possessed exceptional beauty. Her father was not well-liked by his people as he showed little interest in the problems of the Egyptian people, He was a corrupt ruler who squandered the kingdom’s money on lavish parties.

She was able to maintain her throne thanks to the Roman help she received in exchange for her continuous bribes and promises of various tributes. The Romans supported the king because he promised them easy access to the gold and wealth of Egypt. In each conflict, Rome played the role of arbitrator in the popular uprising, Ptolemy, went to Rome in search of military aid to suppress it. His wife Cleopatra and one of her daughters were left as regents of the country, then his wife died. The Alexandrians placed Queen Berenice IV on the throne and sent a delegation to Rome to arbitrate the conflict between father and daughter.

Soon after, Ptolemy XII was able to defeat the army of Archelaus, second husband of Berenice IV, and was returned to the throne. To ensure power, he had his daughter Berenice executed, it was the year 55 BC. The king died four years later, leaving the throne to his daughter Cleopatra VII Philopator and his son Ptolemy XIII Dionysus II. Cleopatra was the first of this dynasty to learn to speak the Egyptian language; she also learned Greek, Hebrew, Syrian and Aramaic and possibly Latin. She was also educated in literature, music, political science, mathematics, astronomy and medicine.

The situation in Egypt was becoming worse, farmers suffered severe famines, the Egyptian currency was weakening and the slow bureaucracy was hindering recovery: the country was becoming increasingly dependent on Rome. In response, farmers staged uprisings and created bands of outlaws that caused great harm; Additionally, the royal family also did not have good relations. Her younger sister Arsinoe, disagreed with her policy of helping the Romans and wanted to reach the throne. Ptolemy XIII, very young and manipulable, was practically handled by three advisors who forced him to expel his sister from the throne by overthrowing her with a command led by his advisors Potino and Aquilas.

Cleopatra attempted to regain power, gathering a good army for this purpose, although she did not succeed. Soon conflicts broke out between the two brothers and spouses, which led to the overthrow of Cleopatra. However, when the Roman civil wars began: Julius Caesar went to Egypt and helped Cleopatra in the conflict with her brother. During the Alexandrian War, both Pompey and Ptolemy XIII died, and the legendary Alexandria Library was burned.

Cleopatra was first and foremost a solution for Julius Caesar, and also his lover, she tried to use her influence over Caesar to restore Egypt’s hegemony in the Eastern Mediterranean as an ally of Rome; the situation intensified when she had a son with Julius Caesar: Caesarion. When Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, Cleopatra attempted to seduce his immediate successor: consul Mark Antony. Being allies, they imposed their force in the East, creating a new Hellenistic kingdom that managed to conquer Armenia in 34.

Cleopatra, in addition to being a skilled ruler, was also known for her beauty and intelligence. She was fluent in several languages, including Egyptian, Greek, Hebrew, Syrian, and Aramaic, and was well-educated in literature, music, politics, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine. She used her charm and wit to strategically seduce powerful men in order to maintain control of her kingdom. She had a son, Cesarian, with Julius Caesar and later became the lover of Mark Antony. However, after the defeat of their alliance and the death of Antony, she was captured by Augustus and brought to Rome as a war trophy.

In the face of this situation, Cleopatra had herself bitten by an asp to end her life. Augustus took advantage of the situation to also murder her son Cesarión, thus extinguishing the Ptolemaic dynasty and later annexing Egypt to the Roman Empire. Cleopatra’s life inspired many writers, painters, sculptors and filmmakers. For example, between 1540 and 1905, over 200 plays, five operas and five ballets emerged. Let’s mention some important literary works: Cleopatra and Mark Antony (1606) by William Shakespeare, All for Love (1678) by the Englishman John Dryden and Caesar and Cleopatra (1901) by George Bernard Shaw. Even one of the comics of the popular Asterix the Gaul was dedicated to her.

Cleopatra has been the subject of many paintings and sculptures. Additionally, her life has been depicted in films, such as Cléopâtre (1899) and the famous and controversial 1963 production directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz: Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor. Another production, Marco Antonio y Cleopatra was released in 1972. A more recent, less ambitious film was Cleopatra (1999). Later, the British Museum dedicated an exhibition to Cleopatra, sparking an interesting debate about her beauty.

Grupo Firme

History of Grupo Firme

Grupo Firme is a musical group of Mexican regional music from Tijuana . It was created in 2014 and its members are: Eduin Cazares (leader and vocalist); Joaquín Ruiz (bass guitar); Jhonny Caz (vocalist), Abraham Hernández (second voice); Christian Téllez (bass); Dylan Camacho (accordion); and Fito Rubio (drums). Initially they made themselves known on social networks with some covers and in 2017 they made their debut with their first album Past, Present, Future. In 2018, their first hits, Pídeme, El Roto and Juro Por Dios came out and a year later they became famous with the hit El Amor No Fue Pa’ Mi, among other hits. Currently they are seen as the new fashionable group.

The beginnings

United by their love of music and coming from different parts of Mexico, the seven members of the group met in Tijuana. They grew up and began their careers in this city as members of different groups, although they knew each other from their work in the artistic industry. The founders of the group were Eduin and Joaquín , who coincidentally joined various groups before founding the group in early 2013 or 2014.

Joaquín and Eduin started in the group Reto Sierreño, then moved on to the groups Aventado2 de Tijuana and Los 4 de la frontera, and finally coincidentally joined the group Fuerza Oculta. This last group became, after some changes, the Grupo Firme , although it was initially called Grupo Fuerza. Because many groups had the same name, the members decided to opt for a synonym and chose “Firme”.

This is how Grupo Firme was born, with Eduin as the vocalist and leader, Joaquín on the bass guitar, Abraham and Jhonny as second voice, Christian on the bass, Dylan on the accordion, and Fito on the drums.

With the help of their manager and representative Isael Gutiérrez, who is also the head of the Music VIP Entertainment label, the group took its first steps in bars and events. At the same time, they made themselves known on social networks and other platforms by uploading covers of recognized artists, such as Los Tigres del Norte , José Alfredo Jiménez, Los Tucanes de Tijuana, and others. Often, the group uploaded songs at the request of the public, so they didn’t take long to have their own fanbase.

Grupo Firme: debut and career

In April 2017, after three years of performances and covers on social media, the group released its debut album, “Past, Present, Future” . This album consisted of twelve songs, highlighting “De Sol a Sol”, “Metas Cumplidas”, “Perdóname”, and “El de los Huaraches”. Although the album was not very successful, it managed to make the group known. A few months later, the group returned with “El Barco” (2017) , a fifteen-song album with the tracks “El Bueno de Tijuana”, “Dile”, “Gente de Verdad”, and “La Interezada”.

In addition, that year, the group collaborated with Los Buitres de Culiacán Sinaloa on the album “En Vivo Desde Tijuana los Buitrones y los Firmes” (2017). Success finally arrived in 2018 with the singles “Pídeme”, “El Roto”, and “Juro Por Dios”. That year, the group was quite active, releasing singles, collaborations, and making several appearances. They even went to Colombia, where they were well received and recorded their “En Vivo desde Medellín Colombia” (2018). The album, which included the tracks “El Teclas”, “El Peña”, and “El Flaquito”, was quite popular within and outside of Mexico.

The group finally achieved fame in 2019 thanks to the releases of “Me Cansé de Amarte” and the hit “El Amor No Fue Pa’ Mí” (ft. Banda Coloso). Later came the successful “El Muelas”, “En Realidad” with Banda Coloso, “Lujos y Secretos” with Quinto V Imperio, and “Porque Te Quiero” with Luis Alfonso Partida “El Yaki”. They also released that year the singles “Qué Me Vas A Dar Si Vuelvo”, “El Panal”, and “A Ti Te Conviene” with Calibre 50 .

The successes continued in 2020. The group began the year by releasing the single “La Estoy Pasando Mal” , and later collaborating with Enigma Norteño on the song “Mi Pretexto de Borracho”. Later they appeared on the single “Yo Diría” by Uziel Payan and collaborated with Marca MP on “El Güero”. In March, “Acábame de Matar” was released and in April they premiered “Quiero Pistear” with Luis Ángel “El Flaco”.

Their second live album, “En Vivo Desde Anaheim, CA”, was released in July of this year , including their biggest hits: “Pídeme”, “Que Me Vas a Dar Si Vuelvo”, “El Roto”, “Descuide”, “Porque Te Quiero”, “El Amor No Fue Pa’ Mí”, among others.

In 2022, the news is released that the band, Grupo Firme, breaks the attendance record with more than 280,000 people in Mexico City’s Zócalo. In this way, this renowned band surpasses the record that belonged to Vicente Fernández, who had 217,000 people. Prior to these last two, Justin Bieber and Shakira had the record, with the attendance of 210,000 people present in the Zócalo.

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