Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was born on 20th April 1889, at Salzburger Vorstadt, a town in Austria. He was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the Nazi Party – National Socialist German Workers Party. From 1933 to 1945, Hitler was chancellor of Germany and dictator of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. Hitler was at the center of Nazi Germany, World War II in Europe, and the Holocaust.

Childhood

Adolf Hitler was born to father Alois Hitler and mother Klara Pölzl. When Hitler was 3, the family moved to Germany and since then stayed there.

Education

Hitler attended, a state-supported school, Volksschule in Fischlham. He became fixated on warfare after finding a picture book about the Franco-Prussian War among his father's belongings. He started taking interest in German Nationalist activities rather than Austrian ideologies. Later, his father forced him to join Realschule in Linz to study customs; but he kept performing poor in school. After his father’s death, he left the school and enrolled in Realschule in Steyr to become an artist.

Career

At the outbreak of World War I, Hitler was living in Munich and volunteered to serve in the Bavarian Army as an Austrian citizen. He served as a dispatch runner and was present at the First Battle of Ypres, the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Arras, and the Battle of Passchendaele. He was wounded at the battle of Somme, for which he received the Iron Cross, Second Class, in 1914, for his bravery. Though Germany lost the war and ‘Treaty of Versailles’ was imposed.

In 1923, he attempted a failed coup in Munich to seize power and was arrested. During his imprisonment he wrote ‘Mein Kempf’ (My Struggle). After his release, he started attacking Treaty of Versailles, and anti-Jews ideologies to gain political benefits. Hitler's Nazi Party became the largest democratically elected party in the German Reichstag, leading to his appointment as chancellor in 1933. During the first 6 years of his power, Germany saw a rapid economic recovery from the Great Depression. He cancelled the restrictions imposed on Germany post World War I. Hitler launched “Holocaust”, aiming to eliminate Jews from Germany that resulted in genocide of millions of Jews.

His aggressive foreign policies made him responsible for the outbreak of World War II in Europe. On 1st September 1939, he ordered invasion of Poland, resulting in British and French declarations of war on Germany. By the end of 1941 German forces and their European allies occupied most of Europe and North Africa. In 1941, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. Failure to defeat the Soviets and entry of the United States into the war put Germany into a series of escalating defeats.

At the End

During the final days of Battle of Berlin, Adolf Hitler married is long-time mistress Eva Braun. But within 2 days of their marriage, on 30th April 1945, both of them committed suicide to avoid capture by the US and British Army.