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 Adolf
Hitler, a charismatic, Austrian-born demagogue, rose to power in
Germany during the 1920s and early 1930s at a time of social,
political, and economic upheaval. Failing to take power by force in
1923, he eventually won power by democratic means. Once in power, he
eliminated all opposition and launched an ambitious program of world
domination and elimination of the Jews.
Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, the fourth child of Alois
Schickelgruber and Klara Hitler in the Austrian town of Braunau.
Adolf lived for six months across
from a large Benedictine monastery. The monastery's coat of arms'
most salient feature was a swastika. As a youngster, Adolf's dream
was to enter the priesthood. While there is anecdotal evidence
that Adolf's father regularly beat him during his childhood, it
was not unusual for discipline to be enforced in that way during
that period.
By 1900, Hitler's talents as an artist surfaced. He did well enough
in school to be eligible for either the university preparatory
"gymnasium" or the technical/scientific Realschule. he quit school at the age
of 16, partially the result of ill health and partially the result
of poor school work.
Hitler spent six
years in Vienna, living on a small legacy from his father and an
orphan's pension. In May 1913, Hitler, seeking to avoid military
service, left Vienna for Munich, the capital of Bavaria In January,
the police came to his door bearing a draft notice from the Austrian
government. Hitler was arrested on the spot and taken to the Austrian
Consulate. Upon reporting to Salzburg for duty, he was found
"unfit...too weak...and unable to bear arms."
When World War I was
touched off, Hitler submitted a petition to enlist in the Bavarian
army. After less than two months of training, Hitler's regiment saw
its first combat near Ypres, against the British and Belgians. Hitler
narrowly escaped death in battle several times, and was awarded
two Iron Crosses for bravery & he rose to the rank of lance
corporal.
The Free Corps was a
paramilitary organization who banded together to fight the
growing Communist insurgency which was taking over Germany. Its
members formed the nucleus of the Nazi "brown-shirts" (S.A.)
which served as the Nazi party's army.
Soon after the war,
Hitler was recruited to join a military intelligence unit, and was
assigned to keep tabs on the German Worker's Party. He saw this
party as a vehicle to reach his political ends. His blossoming hatred
of the Jews became part of the organization's political platform.
Advertising for the party's meetings appeared in anti-Semitic
newspapers. The turning point of Hitler's mesmerizing oratorical
career occurred at one such meeting held on October 16, 1919.
With the assistance
of party staff, Hitler drafted a party program consisting of
twenty-five points. This platform was presented at a public
meeting on February 24, 1920, with over 2,000 eager participants.
Among the 25 points were revoking the Versailles Treaty, confiscating
war profits, expropriating land without compensation for use by the
state, revoking civil rights for Jews, and expelling those Jews who
had emigrated into Germany after the war began.
The name of the party
was changed to the National Socialist German Worker's party, and the
red flag with the swastika was adopted as the party symbol.
On November 8, 1923,
Hitler held a rally at a Munich beer hall and proclaimed a revolution.
The following day, he led 2,000 armed "brown-shirts" in an attempt to
take over the Bavarian government. but Hitler was arrested, and was
imprisoned at Landsberg. He received a five-year sentence.
Hitler served only nine months of his five-year term. While in prison,
he wrote the first volume of Mein Kampf. A second volume of
Mein Kampf was published in 1927. he book sold over five million
copies by the start of World War II.
Once released from
prison, Hitler decided to seize power constitutionally rather than by
force of arms. Hitler's Nazi party captured 18% of the popular vote in
the 1930 elections. In 1932, Hitler ran for President and won 30% of
the vote.
By 1937, he was
comfortable enough to put his master plan, as outlined in Mein Kampf,
into effect. Calling his top military aides together at the "FÅhrer
Conference" in November 1937, he outlined his plans for world
domination. Those who objected to the plan were dismissed.
Several attempts were
made on Hitler's life during the war, but none was successful. As the
war appeared to be inevitably lost and his hand-picked lieutenants,
seeing the futility, defied his orders, he killed himself on April
30, 1945. His long-term mistress and new bride, Eva Braun, joined
him in suicide.
"If freedom is short of weapons, we must compensate with willpower."
-- Adolf Hitler, Landsberg, 5 November 1925.
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