Adolf Hitler (German: [ˈaːdɔlf ˈhɪtlɐ] (listen); 20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was
an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Germany from 1933 until
his suicide in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party,[a] becoming
the chancellor in 1933 and then taking the title of Führer und Reichskanzler in
1934.[b] During his dictatorship, he initiated World War II in Europe by invading
Poland on 1 September 1939. He was closely involved in military operations
throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust and
Generalplan Ost: resulting in the genocide of about six million Jews and millions
of other victims.
Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn in Austria-Hungary and was raised near Linz. He
lived in Vienna later in the first decade of the 1900s and moved to Germany in
1913. He 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 Nazi Party,
and was appointed leader of the Nazi Party in 1921. In 1923, he attempted to seize
governmental power in a failed coup in Munich and was imprisoned with a sentence of
five years. In jail, he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and
political manifesto Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"). After his early 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 November 1932, the Nazi Party held the most seats in the German Reichstag but
did not have a majority. As a result, no party was able to form a majority
parliamentary coalition in support of a candidate for chancellor. The 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 Nazism. On 2 August 1934, Hindenburg
died and Hitler replaced him as the head of state and government. 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
initially gave him significant popular support.
Hitler sought Lebensraum (lit. '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. In December 1941, he declared
war on the United States. By the end of 1941, German forces and the European Axis
powers occupied most of Europe and North Africa. These gains were gradually
reversed after 1941, and in 1945 the Allied armies defeated the German army. On 29
April 1945, he married his longtime partner, Eva Braun, in the Führerbunker in
Berlin. Less than two days later, the couple committed suicide to avoid capture by
the Soviet Red Army. Their corpses were burned as Hitler had commanded.
The historian and biographer Ian Kershaw describes Hitler as "the embodiment of
modern political evil".[3] Under Hitler's leadership and racist ideology, the Nazi
regime was responsible for the genocide of about six 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.
