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"Hitler" redirects here. For other uses, see Hitler (disambiguation).
Adolf Hitler
Hitler portrait crop.jpg
Hitler in 1938
Führer of Germany
In office
2 August 1934 – 30 April 1945
Preceded by Paul von Hindenburg
(as President of the German Reich)
Succeeded by Karl Dönitz
(as President)
Chancellor of Germany
In office
30 January 1933 – 30 April 1945
President
Paul von Hindenburg
(1933–1934; as President)
Himself
(1934–1945; as Führer)
Deputy
Franz von Papen
(1933–1934)
Hermann Göring
(1941–1945)
Preceded by Kurt von Schleicher
Succeeded by Joseph Goebbels
Führer of the Nazi Party
In office
29 June 1921 – 30 April 1945
Deputy Rudolf Hess
(1933–1941)
Preceded by Anton Drexler
(as Chairman)
Succeeded by Martin Bormann
(as Party Minister)
Personal details
Born 20 April 1889
Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary
Died 30 April 1945 (aged 56)
Berlin, Nazi Germany
Cause of death Suicide by gunshot
Citizenship
Austria (1889–1925)
Germany (1932–1945)
Political party National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party) (1921–1945)
Other political
affiliations German Workers' Party (1920–1921)
Spouse(s) Eva Braun
(m. 1945; d. 1945)
Parents
Alois Hitler (father)
Klara Pölzl (mother)
Relatives Hitler family
Profession politician
Signature
Military service
Allegiance German Empire
Service/branch
Kaiserstandarte.svg Imperial German Army
Bavaria RGT Flag.jpg Bavarian Army
Years of service 1914–1920
Rank
Gefreiter
Verbindungsmann
Unit
16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment
Reichswehr intelligence
Battles/wars World War I
Awards
Iron Cross First Class
Iron Cross Second Class
Wound Badge
Adolf Hitler (German: [ˈadɔlf ˈhɪtlɐ] (About this sound listen); 20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was a German politician, demagogue,[1] and Pan-German revolutionary.[2][3] As leader of the Nazi Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei; NSDAP), he rose to power in Germany as Chancellor in 1933 and Führer ("Leader") in 1934.[a] As dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, he initiated World War II in Europe by invading Poland in September 1939, and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust.
Hitler was born in Austria—then part of Austria-Hungary—and was raised near Linz. He moved to Germany in 1913 and was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I. In 1919, he joined the German Workers' Party (DAP), the precursor of the NSDAP, and was appointed leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923, he attempted to seize power in a failed coup in Munich and was imprisoned. In jail, he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"). After his release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting Pan-Germanism, anti-semitism and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda. He frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as part of a Jewish conspiracy.
By 1933, the Nazi Party was the largest elected party in the German Reichstag, but did not have a majority, and no party was able to form a majority parliamentary coalition in support of a candidate for chancellor. Former chancellor Franz von Papen and other conservative leaders persuaded President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as Chancellor on 30 January 1933. Shortly after, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act of 1933, which began the process of transforming the Weimar Republic into Nazi Germany, a one-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of National Socialism. Hitler aimed to eliminate Jews from Germany and establish a New Order to counter what he saw as the injustice of the post-World War I international order dominated by Britain and France. His first six years in power resulted in rapid economic recovery from the Great Depression, the abrogation of restrictions imposed on Germany after World War I and the annexation of territories inhabited by millions of ethnic Germans, which gave him significant popular support.
Hitler sought Lebensraum ("living space") for the German people in Eastern Europe and his aggressive foreign policy is considered the primary cause of World War II in Europe. He directed large-scale rearmament and on 1 September 1939 invaded Poland, resulting in Britain and France declaring war on Germany. In June 1941, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. By the end of 1941, German forces and the European Axis powers occupied most of Europe and North Africa. In December 1941, he declared war on the United States, bringing them directly into the conflict. Failure to defeat the Soviets and the entry of the United States into the war forced Germany onto the defensive and it suffered a series of escalating defeats. In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, he married his longtime lover Eva Braun. Less than two days later on 30 April 1945, the two committed suicide to avoid capture by the Soviet Red Army and their corpses were burned.
Under Hitler's leadership and racially motivated ideology, the Nazi regime was responsible for the genocide of at least 5.5 million Jews and millions of other victims whom he and his followers deemed Untermenschen (subhumans) or socially undesirable. Hitler and the Nazi regime were also responsible for the killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war. In addition, 28.7 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European theatre. The number of civilians killed during World War II was unprecedented in warfare and the casualties constitute the deadliest conflict in history.
Contents
1 Ancestry
2 Early years
2.1 Childhood and education
2.2 Early adulthood in Vienna and Munich
2.3 World War I
3 Entry into politics
3.1 Beer Hall Putsch and Landsberg Prison
3.2 Rebuilding the Nazi Party
4 Rise to power
4.1 Brüning administration
4.2 Appointment as chancellor
4.3 Reichstag fire and March elections
4.4 Day of Potsdam and the Enabling Act
4.5 Dictatorship
5 Nazi Germany
5.1 Economy and culture
5.2 Rearmament and new alliances
6 World War II
6.1 Early diplomatic successes
6.1.1 Alliance with Japan
6.1.2 Austria and Czechoslovakia
6.2 Start of World War II
6.3 Path to defeat
6.4 Defeat and death
7 The Holocaust
8 Leadership style
9 Legacy
10 Views on religion
11 Health
12 Family
13 In propaganda
13.1 Films
13.1.1 List of propaganda and film appearances
14 See also
15 References
16 External links
Ancestry
Main article: Hitler family
Hitler's father Alois Hitler Sr. (1837–1903) was the illegitimate child of Maria Anna Schicklgruber.[6] The baptismal register did not show the name of his father, and Alois initially bore his mother's surname Schicklgruber. In 1842, Johann Georg Hiedler married Alois's mother Maria Anna. Alois was brought up in the family of Hiedler's brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler.[7] In 1876, Alois was legitimated and the baptismal register changed by a priest to register Johann Georg Hiedler as Alois's father (recorded as "Georg Hitler").[8][9] Alois then assumed the surname "Hitler",[9] also spelled Hiedler, Hüttler, or Huettler. The name is probably based on "one who lives in a hut" (German Hütte for "hut").[10]
Nazi official Hans Frank suggested that Alois's mother had been employed as a housekeeper by a Jewish family in Graz, and that the family's 19-year-old son Leopold Frankenberger had fathered Alois.[11] No Frankenberger was registered in Graz during that period, and no record has been produced of Leopold Frankenberger's existence,[12] so historians dismiss the claim that Alois's father was Jewish.[13][14]