Hitler, Adolf (1889–1945)

German dictator Adolf Hitler (born Adolf Schicklgruber) was the leader of the Nazi party and Fhrer of the Third Reich of Germany from 1934 to 1945. He and his National Socialist movement were one of several nationalistic and racist mass movements that arose from the political and economic problems that followed World War I. Hitler and his followers were responsible [Page 673]for many of the events that led to World War II, most of which shaped the latter 20th century. His promotion of racial supremacist doctrines and anti-Semitism culminated in the Holocaust, the systematic murder of more than 6 million Jewish civilians. Consequently, Hitler left a tragic and indelible mark on recent human history.

with the outbreak of war in 1914, Hitler volunteered for action in the German army. He fought on Germany's Western front for 4 years. Injured and gassed, Hitler won the highly respected Iron Cross. After the German defeat, he became convinced that his country was not defeated on the battlefield but was stabbed in the back by traitors, Jews, and Marxists who sabotaged Germany with the Treaty of Versailles, by which the victorious Allied powers inflicted humiliation and ruinous reparation payments on a defeated nation.

After the war, Hitler attended a German Workers' Party meeting, joined, and became one of the party's best speakers. The party was one of many political groups formed after Germany's defeat that called for national unity and promoted anti-Semitism. These militant and nationalistic parties were similar to those fascist parties in Italy and Spain that were radical, anti-liberal, anti-Marxist, and authoritarian. When Hitler became leader of the party in 1921, it was renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party (the official name of the Nazi party).

Runaway inflation and the French occupation of the Ruhr Valley contributed to the growth of the Nazi party in Germany. Hitler hoped to end the Ruhr occupation by staging the “Beer Hall” Putsch of November 8–9, 1923, to march against the government in Berlin. The attempt failed and Hitler was tried for treason and sentenced to prison. During his imprisonment, he dictated Mein Kampf (1925), an autobiographical account of his life and political philosophy in which he described Germany's need to re-arm, become self-sufficient, suppress Marxism, and rid itself of the Jewish minority.

The conditions of the Great Depression were especially severe in Germany during the postwar period of the Weimar Republic; widespread poverty and public demoralization aided the growth of the Nazi party to the point that, in January 1933, President Hindenburg called Hitler to be chancellor of a coalition government. Hitler consolidated his power by persuading the government to suspend the constitution and to grant him emergency powers. At the death of President Hindenburg in August 1934, Hitler merged the offices of Chancellor and President to become the single leader of both the Nazi party and the Third Reich. Consequently, Germany became a one-party state as other political parties were banned and the unions were destroyed.

Hitler began massive rearmament and a building program to ready Germany for war. This stimulated the German economy, making him a popular leader. He included a propaganda campaign promoting German nationalism, stressing themes from the 19th century that focused on military losses to the French and called for a return to the glories of the Prussian state.

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