Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler | ||
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Deputy Rudolf Hess (1933–1941) | | |
Preceded by | Anton Drexler (Party Chairman) | |
Succeeded by | Martin Bormann (Party Minister) | |
Personal details | ||
Born | Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary | 20 April 1889|
Died | 30 April 1945 Berlin, Nazi Germany | (aged 56)|
Cause of death | Suicide by gunshot | |
Citizenship |
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Political party | Nazi Party (from 1920) | |
Other political affiliations | German Workers' Party (1919–1920) | |
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Parents |
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Relatives | Hitler family | |
Cabinet | Hitler cabinet | |
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Military service | ||
Allegiance | ||
Branch | ||
Years of service | 1914–1920 | |
Rank | Gefreiter | |
Unit | 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment | |
Wars | ||
Awards |
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Crimes against humanity
Electoral campaigns
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Adolf Hitler
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 before moving 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 in 1921 was appointed leader of the Nazi Party. In 1923, he attempted to seize governmental power in a failed coup in Munich and was sentenced to five years in prison, serving just over a year of his sentence. While there, 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, antisemitism and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda. He frequently denounced communism as being part of an international Jewish conspiracy.
By November 1932, the Nazi Party held the most seats in the
One of Hitler's key goals was Lebensraum (lit. 'living space') for the German people in Eastern Europe, and his aggressive, expansionist 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 long-term partner, Eva Braun, in the Führerbunker in Berlin. On the following day, the couple committed suicide to avoid capture by the Soviet Red Army. In accordance with Hitler's wishes, their corpses were burned.
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 an estimated 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 deliberate 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.
Ancestry
Hitler's father, Alois Hitler (1837–1903), was the illegitimate child of Maria Schicklgruber.[4] 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. Alois was brought up in the family of Hiedler's brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler.[5] In 1876, Alois was made legitimate and his baptismal record annotated by a priest to register Johann Georg Hiedler as Alois's father (recorded as "Georg Hitler").[6][7] Alois then assumed the surname "Hitler",[7] also spelled "Hiedler", "Hüttler", or "Huettler". The name is probably based on the German word Hütte (lit. 'hut'), and probably has the meaning "one who lives in a hut".[8]
Nazi official
Early years
Childhood and education
Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in
The move to Hafeld coincided with the onset of intense father-son conflicts caused by Hitler's refusal to conform to the strict discipline of his school.[24] His father beat him, although his mother tried to protect him.[25]
Alois Hitler's farming efforts at Hafeld ended in failure, and in 1897 the family moved to Lambach. The eight-year-old Hitler took singing lessons, sang in the church choir, and even considered becoming a priest.[26] In 1898, the family returned permanently to Leonding. Hitler was deeply affected by the death of his younger brother Edmund in 1900 from measles. Hitler changed from a confident, outgoing, conscientious student to a morose, detached boy who constantly fought with his father and teachers.[27] Paula Hitler recalled how Adolf was a teenage bully who would often slap her.[25]
Alois had made a successful career in the customs bureau and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps.
Like many Austrian Germans, Hitler began to develop
Early adulthood in Vienna and Munich
In 1907, Hitler left Linz to live and study fine art in Vienna, financed by orphan's benefits and support from his mother. He applied for admission to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna but was rejected twice.[41][42] The director suggested Hitler should apply to the School of Architecture, but he lacked the necessary academic credentials because he had not finished secondary school.[43]
On 21 December 1907, his mother died of
In Vienna, Hitler was first exposed to racist rhetoric.
The origin and development of Hitler's anti-Semitism remains a matter of debate.[55] His friend August Kubizek claimed that Hitler was a "confirmed anti-Semite" before he left Linz.[56] However, historian Brigitte Hamann describes Kubizek's claim as "problematical".[57] While Hitler states in Mein Kampf that he first became an anti-Semite in Vienna,[58] Reinhold Hanisch, who helped him sell his paintings, disagrees. Hitler had dealings with Jews while living in Vienna.[59][60][61] Historian Richard J. Evans states that "historians now generally agree that his notorious, murderous anti-Semitism emerged well after Germany's defeat [in World War I], as a product of the paranoid "stab-in-the-back" explanation for the catastrophe".[62]
Hitler received the final part of his father's estate in May 1913 and moved to Munich, Germany.[63] When he was conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian Army,[64] he journeyed to Salzburg on 5 February 1914 for medical assessment. After he was deemed unfit for service, he returned to Munich.[65] Hitler later claimed that he did not wish to serve the Habsburg Empire because of the mixture of races in its army and his belief that the collapse of Austria-Hungary was imminent.[66]
World War I
In August 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, Hitler was living in Munich and voluntarily enlisted in the Bavarian Army.[67] According to a 1924 report by the Bavarian authorities, allowing Hitler to serve was most likely an administrative error, because as an Austrian citizen, he should have been returned to Austria.[67] Posted to the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16 (1st Company of the List Regiment),[67][68] he served as a dispatch runner on the Western Front in France and Belgium,[69] spending nearly half his time at the regimental headquarters in Fournes-en-Weppes, well behind the front lines.[70][71] In 1914, he was present at the First Battle of Ypres[72] and in that year was decorated for bravery, receiving the Iron Cross, Second Class.[72]
During his service at headquarters, Hitler pursued his artwork, drawing cartoons and instructions for an army newspaper. During the Battle of the Somme in October 1916, he was wounded in the left thigh when a shell exploded in the dispatch runners' dugout.[72][73] Hitler spent almost two months recovering in hospital at Beelitz, returning to his regiment on 5 March 1917.[74] He was present at the Battle of Arras of 1917 and the Battle of Passchendaele.[72] He received the Black Wound Badge on 18 May 1918.[75] Three months later, in August 1918, on a recommendation by Lieutenant Hugo Gutmann, his Jewish superior, Hitler received the Iron Cross, First Class, a decoration rarely awarded at Hitler's Gefreiter rank.[76][77] On 15 October 1918, he was temporarily blinded in a mustard gas attack and was hospitalised in Pasewalk.[78] While there, Hitler learned of Germany's defeat, and, by his own account, suffered a second bout of blindness after receiving this news.[79]
Hitler described his role in World War I as "the greatest of all experiences", and was praised by his commanding officers for his bravery.
The
Entry into politics
After World War I, Hitler returned to Munich.
Hitler made his earliest known written statement about the
Hitler was discharged from the Army on 31 March 1920 and began working full-time for the party.[97] The party headquarters was in Munich, a centre for anti-government German nationalists determined to eliminate Marxism and undermine the Weimar Republic.[98] In February 1921—already highly effective at crowd manipulation—he spoke to a crowd of over 6,000.[99] To publicise the meeting, two truckloads of party supporters drove around Munich waving swastika flags and distributing leaflets. Hitler soon gained notoriety for his rowdy polemic speeches against the Treaty of Versailles, rival politicians, and especially against Marxists and Jews.[100]
In June 1921, while Hitler and Eckart were on a fundraising trip to Berlin, a mutiny broke out within the Nazi Party in Munich. Members of its executive committee wanted to merge with the Nuremberg-based German Socialist Party (DSP).[101] Hitler returned to Munich on 11 July and angrily tendered his resignation. The committee members realised that the resignation of their leading public figure and speaker would mean the end of the party.[102] Hitler announced he would rejoin on the condition that he would replace Drexler as party chairman, and that the party headquarters would remain in Munich.[103] The committee agreed, and he rejoined the party on 26 July as member 3,680. Hitler continued to face some opposition within the Nazi Party. Opponents of Hitler in the leadership had Hermann Esser expelled from the party, and they printed 3,000 copies of a pamphlet attacking Hitler as a traitor to the party.[103][f] In the following days, Hitler spoke to several large audiences and defended himself and Esser, to thunderous applause. His strategy proved successful, and at a special party congress on 29 July, he was granted absolute power as party chairman, succeeding Drexler, by a vote of 533 to 1.[104]
Hitler's vitriolic beer hall speeches began attracting regular audiences. A demagogue,[105] he became adept at using populist themes, including the use of scapegoats, who were blamed for his listeners' economic hardships.[106][107][108] Hitler used personal magnetism and an understanding of crowd psychology to his advantage while engaged in public speaking.[109][110] Historians have noted the hypnotic effect of his rhetoric on large audiences, and of his eyes in small groups.[111] Alfons Heck, a former member of the Hitler Youth, recalled:
We erupted into a frenzy of nationalistic pride that bordered on hysteria. For minutes on end, we shouted at the top of our lungs, with tears streaming down our faces: Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil! From that moment on, I belonged to Adolf Hitler body and soul.[112]
Early followers included Rudolf Hess, former air force ace Hermann Göring, and army captain Ernst Röhm. Röhm became head of the Nazis' paramilitary organisation, the Sturmabteilung (SA, "Stormtroopers"), which protected meetings and attacked political opponents. A critical influence on Hitler's thinking during this period was the Aufbau Vereinigung,[113] a conspiratorial group of White Russian exiles and early Nazis. The group, financed with funds channelled from wealthy industrialists, introduced Hitler to the idea of a Jewish conspiracy, linking international finance with Bolshevism.[114]
The programme of the Nazi Party was laid out in their
Beer Hall Putsch and Landsberg Prison
In 1923, Hitler enlisted the help of World War I General
On 8 November 1923, Hitler and the SA stormed a public meeting of 3,000 people organised by Kahr in the
Hitler fled to the home of
While at Landsberg, Hitler dictated most of the first volume of Mein Kampf (lit. 'My Struggle'); originally titled Four and a Half Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice) at first to his chauffeur, Emil Maurice, and then to his deputy, Rudolf Hess.[126][127] The book, dedicated to Thule Society member Dietrich Eckart, was an autobiography and exposition of his ideology. The book laid out Hitler's plans for transforming German society into one based on race. Throughout the book, Jews are equated with "germs" and presented as the "international poisoners" of society. According to Hitler's ideology, the only solution was their extermination. While Hitler did not describe exactly how this was to be accomplished, his "inherent genocidal thrust is undeniable", according to Ian Kershaw.[128]
Published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926, Mein Kampf sold 228,000 copies between 1925 and 1932. One million copies were sold in 1933, Hitler's first year in office.[129] Shortly before Hitler was eligible for parole, the Bavarian government attempted to have him deported to Austria.[130] The Austrian federal chancellor rejected the request on the specious grounds that his service in the German Army made his Austrian citizenship void.[131] In response, Hitler formally renounced his Austrian citizenship on 7 April 1925.[131]
Rebuilding the Nazi Party
At the time of Hitler's release from prison, politics in Germany had become less combative and the economy had improved, limiting Hitler's opportunities for political agitation. As a result of the failed Beer Hall Putsch, the Nazi Party and its affiliated organisations were banned in Bavaria. In a meeting with the Prime Minister of Bavaria, Heinrich Held, on 4 January 1925, Hitler agreed to respect the state's authority and promised that he would seek political power only through the democratic process. The meeting paved the way for the ban on the Nazi Party to be lifted on 16 February.[132]
However, after an inflammatory speech he gave on 27 February, Hitler was barred from public speaking by the Bavarian authorities, a ban that remained in place until 1927.[133][134] To advance his political ambitions in spite of the ban, Hitler appointed Gregor Strasser, Otto Strasser, and Joseph Goebbels to organise and enlarge the Nazi Party in northern Germany. Gregor Strasser steered a more independent political course, emphasising the socialist elements of the party's programme.[135]
The stock market in the United States crashed on 24 October 1929. The impact in Germany was dire: millions became unemployed and several major banks collapsed. Hitler and the Nazi Party prepared to take advantage of the emergency to gain support for their party. They promised to repudiate the Versailles Treaty, strengthen the economy, and provide jobs.[136]
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Antisemitism |
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Rise to power
Election | Total votes | % votes | Reichstag seats | Notes |
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May 1924 | 1,918,300 | 6.5 | 32 | Hitler in prison |
December 1924 | 907,300 | 3.0 | 14 | Hitler released from prison |
May 1928 | 810,100 | 2.6 | 12 | |
September 1930 | 6,409,600 | 18.3 | 107 | After the financial crisis |
July 1932 | 13,745,000 | 37.3 | 230 | After Hitler was candidate for presidency |
November 1932 | 11,737,000 | 33.1 | 196 | |
March 1933 | 17,277,180 | 43.9 | 288 | Only partially free during Hitler's term as chancellor of Germany |
Brüning administration
The
Hitler made a prominent appearance at the trial of two Reichswehr officers, Lieutenants Richard Scheringer and Hanns Ludin, in late 1930. Both were charged with membership in the Nazi Party, at that time illegal for Reichswehr personnel.[141] The prosecution argued that the Nazi Party was an extremist party, prompting defence lawyer Hans Frank to call on Hitler to testify.[142] On 25 September 1930, Hitler testified that his party would pursue political power solely through democratic elections,[143] which won him many supporters in the officer corps.[144]
Brüning's austerity measures brought little economic improvement and were extremely unpopular.[145] Hitler exploited this by targeting his political messages specifically at people who had been affected by the inflation of the 1920s and the Depression, such as farmers, war veterans, and the middle class.[146]
Although Hitler had terminated his Austrian citizenship in 1925, he did not acquire German citizenship for almost seven years. This meant that he was stateless, legally unable to run for public office, and still faced the risk of deportation.[147] On 25 February 1932, the interior minister of Brunswick, Dietrich Klagges, who was a member of the Nazi Party, appointed Hitler as administrator for the state's delegation to the Reichsrat in Berlin, making Hitler a citizen of Brunswick,[148] and thus of Germany.[149]
Hitler ran against Hindenburg in the 1932 presidential elections. A speech to the Industry Club in Düsseldorf on 27 January 1932 won him support from many of Germany's most powerful industrialists.[150] Hindenburg had support from various nationalist, monarchist, Catholic, and republican parties, and some Social Democrats. Hitler used the campaign slogan "Hitler über Deutschland" ("Hitler over Germany"), a reference to his political ambitions and his campaigning by aircraft.[151] He was one of the first politicians to use aircraft travel for campaigning and used it effectively.[152][153] Hitler came in second in both rounds of the election, garnering more than 35 per cent of the vote in the final election. Although he lost to Hindenburg, this election established Hitler as a strong force in German politics.[154]
Appointment as chancellor
The absence of an effective government prompted two influential politicians, Franz von Papen and Alfred Hugenberg, along with several other industrialists and businessmen, to write a letter to Hindenburg. The signers urged Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as leader of a government "independent from parliamentary parties", which could turn into a movement that would "enrapture millions of people".[155][156]
Hindenburg reluctantly agreed to appoint Hitler as chancellor after two further parliamentary elections—in July and November 1932—had not resulted in the formation of a majority government. Hitler headed a short-lived coalition government formed by the Nazi Party (which had the most seats in the Reichstag) and Hugenberg's party, the German National People's Party (DNVP). On 30 January 1933, the new cabinet was sworn in during a brief ceremony in Hindenburg's office. The Nazi Party gained three posts: Hitler was named chancellor, Wilhelm Frick Minister of the Interior, and Hermann Göring Minister of the Interior for Prussia.[157] Hitler had insisted on the ministerial positions as a way to gain control over the police in much of Germany.[158]
Reichstag fire and March elections
As chancellor, Hitler worked against attempts by the Nazi Party's opponents to build a majority government. Because of the political stalemate, he asked Hindenburg to again dissolve the Reichstag, and elections were scheduled for early March. On 27 February 1933, the Reichstag building was set on fire. Göring blamed a communist plot, as Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe was found in incriminating circumstances inside the burning building.[159] Until the 1960s, some historians, including William L. Shirer and Alan Bullock, thought the Nazi Party itself was responsible;[160][161] the current consensus of nearly all historians is that van der Lubbe set the fire alone.[162]
At Hitler's urging, Hindenburg responded by signing the
In addition to political campaigning, the Nazi Party engaged in paramilitary violence and the spread of anti-communist propaganda in the days preceding the election. On election day, 6 March 1933, the Nazi Party's share of the vote increased to 43.9 per cent, and the party acquired the largest number of seats in parliament. Hitler's party failed to secure an absolute majority, necessitating another coalition with the DNVP.[165]
Day of Potsdam and the Enabling Act
On 21 March 1933, the new Reichstag was constituted with an opening ceremony at the
To achieve full political control despite not having an absolute majority in parliament, Hitler's government brought the Ermächtigungsgesetz (Enabling Act) to a vote in the newly elected Reichstag. The Act – officially titled the Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich ("Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich") – gave Hitler's cabinet the power to enact laws without the consent of the Reichstag for four years. These laws could (with certain exceptions) deviate from the constitution.[168]
Since it would affect the constitution, the Enabling Act required a two-thirds majority to pass. Leaving nothing to chance, the Nazis used the provisions of the Reichstag Fire Decree to arrest all 81 Communist deputies (in spite of their virulent campaign against the party, the Nazis had allowed the KPD to contest the election)[169] and prevent several Social Democrats from attending.[170]
On 23 March 1933, the Reichstag assembled at the Kroll Opera House under turbulent circumstances. Ranks of SA men served as guards inside the building, while large groups outside opposing the proposed legislation shouted slogans and threats towards the arriving members of parliament.[171] After Hitler verbally promised Centre party leader Ludwig Kaas that Hindenburg would retain his power of veto, Kaas announced the Centre Party would support the Enabling Act. The Act passed by a vote of 444–94, with all parties except the Social Democrats voting in favour. The Enabling Act, along with the Reichstag Fire Decree, transformed Hitler's government into a de facto legal dictatorship.[172]
Dictatorship
At the risk of appearing to talk nonsense I tell you that the National Socialist movement will go on for 1,000 years! ... Don't forget how people laughed at me 15 years ago when I declared that one day I would govern Germany. They laugh now, just as foolishly, when I declare that I shall remain in power![173]
— Adolf Hitler to a British correspondent in Berlin, June 1934
Having achieved full control over the legislative and executive branches of government, Hitler and his allies began to suppress the remaining opposition. The Social Democratic Party was made illegal, and its assets were seized.[174] While many trade union delegates were in Berlin for May Day activities, SA stormtroopers occupied union offices around the country. On 2 May 1933, all trade unions were forced to dissolve, and their leaders were arrested. Some were sent to concentration camps.[175] The German Labour Front was formed as an umbrella organisation to represent all workers, administrators, and company owners, thus reflecting the concept of Nazism in the spirit of Hitler's Volksgemeinschaft ("people's community").[176]
By the end of June, the other parties had been intimidated into disbanding. This included the Nazis' nominal coalition partner, the DNVP; with the SA's help, Hitler forced its leader, Hugenberg, to resign on 29 June. On 14 July 1933, the Nazi Party was declared the only legal political party in Germany.[176][174] The demands of the SA for more political and military power caused anxiety among military, industrial, and political leaders. In response, Hitler purged the entire SA leadership in the Night of the Long Knives, which took place from 30 June to 2 July 1934.[177] Hitler targeted Ernst Röhm and other SA leaders who, along with a number of Hitler's political adversaries (such as Gregor Strasser and former chancellor Kurt von Schleicher), were rounded up, arrested, and shot.[178] While the international community and some Germans were shocked by the killings, many in Germany believed Hitler was restoring order.[179]
Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934. On the previous day, the cabinet had enacted the Law Concerning the Head of State of the German Reich.[2] This law stated that upon Hindenburg's death, the office of president would be abolished, and its powers merged with those of the chancellor. Hitler thus became head of state as well as head of government and was formally named as Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Chancellor of the Reich),[1] although Reichskanzler was eventually dropped.[180] With this action, Hitler eliminated the last legal remedy by which he could be removed from office.[181]
As head of state, Hitler became commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Immediately after Hindenburg's death, at the instigation of the leadership of the Reichswehr, the traditional loyalty oath of soldiers was altered to
In early 1938, Hitler used blackmail to consolidate his hold over the military by instigating the Blomberg–Fritsch affair. Hitler forced his War Minister, Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg, to resign by using a police dossier that showed that Blomberg's new wife had a record for prostitution.[184][185] Army commander Colonel-General Werner von Fritsch was removed after the Schutzstaffel (SS) produced allegations that he had engaged in a homosexual relationship.[186] Both men had fallen into disfavour because they objected to Hitler's demand to make the Wehrmacht ready for war as early as 1938.[187] Hitler assumed Blomberg's title of Commander-in-Chief, thus taking personal command of the armed forces. He replaced the Ministry of War with the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), headed by General Wilhelm Keitel. On the same day, sixteen generals were stripped of their commands and 44 more were transferred; all were suspected of not being sufficiently pro-Nazi.[188] By early February 1938, twelve more generals had been removed.[189]
Hitler took care to give his dictatorship the appearance of legality. Many of his decrees were explicitly based on the Reichstag Fire Decree and hence on Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. The Reichstag renewed the Enabling Act twice, each time for a four-year period.[190] While elections to the Reichstag were still held (in 1933, 1936, and 1938), voters were presented with a single list of Nazis and pro-Nazi "guests" which received well over 90 per cent of the vote.[191] These sham elections were held in far-from-secret conditions; the Nazis threatened severe reprisals against anyone who did not vote or who voted against.[192]
Nazi Germany
Economy and culture
In August 1934, Hitler appointed Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht as Minister of Economics, and in the following year, as Plenipotentiary for War Economy in charge of preparing the economy for war.[193] Reconstruction and rearmament were financed through Mefo bills, printing money, and seizing the assets of people arrested as enemies of the State, including Jews.[194] The number of unemployed fell from six million in 1932 to fewer than one million in 1936.[195] Hitler oversaw one of the largest infrastructure improvement campaigns in German history, leading to the construction of dams, autobahns, railroads, and other civil works. Wages were slightly lower in the mid to late 1930s compared with wages during the Weimar Republic, while the cost of living increased by 25 per cent.[196] The average work week increased during the shift to a war economy; by 1939, the average German was working between 47 and 50 hours a week.[197]
Hitler's government sponsored
Rearmament and new alliances
In a meeting with German military leaders on 3 February 1933, Hitler spoke of "conquest for Lebensraum in the East and its ruthless Germanisation" as his ultimate foreign policy objectives.[200] In March, Prince Bernhard Wilhelm von Bülow, secretary at the Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt), issued a statement of major foreign policy aims: Anschluss with Austria, the restoration of Germany's national borders of 1914, rejection of military restrictions under the Treaty of Versailles, the return of the former German colonies in Africa, and a German zone of influence in Eastern Europe. Hitler found Bülow's goals to be too modest.[201] In speeches during this period, he stressed the peaceful goals of his policies and a willingness to work within international agreements.[202] At the first meeting of his cabinet in 1933, Hitler prioritised military spending over unemployment relief.[203]
Germany withdrew from the
Germany
In October 1936, Count Galeazzo Ciano, foreign minister of Mussolini's government, visited Germany, where he signed a Nine-Point Protocol as an expression of rapprochement and had a personal meeting with Hitler. On 1 November, Mussolini declared an "axis" between Germany and Italy.[213] On 25 November, Germany signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan. Britain, China, Italy, and Poland were also invited to join the Anti-Comintern Pact, but only Italy signed in 1937. Hitler abandoned his plan of an Anglo-German alliance, blaming "inadequate" British leadership.[214] At a meeting in the Reich Chancellery with his foreign ministers and military chiefs that November, Hitler restated his intention of acquiring Lebensraum for the German people. He ordered preparations for war in the East, to begin as early as 1938 and no later than 1943. In the event of his death, the conference minutes, recorded as the Hossbach Memorandum, were to be regarded as his "political testament".[215] He felt that a severe decline in living standards in Germany as a result of the economic crisis could only be stopped by military aggression aimed at seizing Austria and Czechoslovakia.[216][217] Hitler urged quick action before Britain and France gained a permanent lead in the arms race.[216] In early 1938, in the wake of the Blomberg–Fritsch affair, Hitler asserted control of the military-foreign policy apparatus, dismissing Neurath as foreign minister and appointing himself as War Minister.[211] From early 1938 onwards, Hitler was carrying out a foreign policy ultimately aimed at war.[218]
World War II
Early diplomatic successes
Alliance with Japan
In February 1938, on the advice of his newly appointed foreign minister, the strongly pro-Japanese
Austria and Czechoslovakia
On 12 March 1938, Hitler announced the unification of Austria with
In April, Hitler ordered the OKW to prepare for Fall Grün (Case Green), the code name for an invasion of Czechoslovakia.[226] As a result of intense French and British diplomatic pressure, on 5 September Czechoslovakian President Edvard Beneš unveiled the "Fourth Plan" for constitutional reorganisation of his country, which agreed to most of Henlein's demands for Sudeten autonomy.[227] Henlein's party responded to Beneš' offer by instigating a series of violent clashes with the Czechoslovakian police that led to the declaration of martial law in certain Sudeten districts.[228][229]
Germany was dependent on imported oil; a confrontation with Britain over the Czechoslovakian dispute could curtail Germany's oil supplies. This forced Hitler to call off Fall Grün, originally planned for 1 October 1938.[230] On 29 September Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, Édouard Daladier, and Mussolini attended a one-day conference in Munich that led to the Munich Agreement, which handed over the Sudetenland districts to Germany.[231][232]
Chamberlain was satisfied with the Munich conference, calling the outcome "peace for our time", while Hitler was angered about the missed opportunity for war in 1938;[233][234] he expressed his disappointment in a speech on 9 October in Saarbrücken.[235] In Hitler's view, the British-brokered peace, although favourable to the ostensible German demands, was a diplomatic defeat which spurred his intent of limiting British power to pave the way for the eastern expansion of Germany.[236][237] As a result of the summit, Hitler was selected Time magazine's Man of the Year for 1938.[238] In late 1938 and early 1939, the continuing economic crisis caused by rearmament forced Hitler to make major defence cuts.[239] In his "Export or die" speech of 30 January 1939, he called for an economic offensive to increase German foreign exchange holdings to pay for raw materials such as high-grade iron needed for military weapons.[239]
On 14 March 1939, under threat from Hungary, Slovakia declared independence and received protection from Germany.[240] The next day, in violation of the Munich Agreement and possibly as a result of the deepening economic crisis requiring additional assets,[241] Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht to invade the Czech rump state, and from Prague Castle he proclaimed the territory a German protectorate.[242]
Start of World War II
In private discussions in 1939, Hitler declared Britain the main enemy to be defeated and that Poland's obliteration was a necessary prelude for that goal.[243] The eastern flank would be secured and land would be added to Germany's Lebensraum.[244] Offended by the British "guarantee" on 31 March 1939 of Polish independence, he said, "I shall brew them a devil's drink".[245] In a speech in Wilhelmshaven for the launch of the battleship Tirpitz on 1 April, he threatened to denounce the Anglo-German Naval Agreement if the British continued to guarantee Polish independence, which he perceived as an "encirclement" policy.[245] Poland was to either become a German satellite state or it would be neutralised in order to secure the Reich's eastern flank and prevent a possible British blockade.[246]
Hitler initially favoured the idea of a satellite state, but upon its rejection by the Polish government, he decided to invade and made this the main foreign policy goal of 1939.
This plan required tacit Soviet support,[256] and the non-aggression pact (the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact) between Germany and the Soviet Union, led by Joseph Stalin, included a secret agreement to partition Poland between the two countries.[257] Contrary to Ribbentrop's prediction that Britain would sever Anglo-Polish ties, Britain and Poland signed the Anglo-Polish alliance on 25 August 1939. This, along with news from Italy that Mussolini would not honour the Pact of Steel, prompted Hitler to postpone the attack on Poland from 25 August to 1 September.[258] Hitler unsuccessfully tried to manoeuvre the British into neutrality by offering them a non-aggression guarantee on 25 August; he then instructed Ribbentrop to present a last-minute peace plan with an impossibly short time limit in an effort to blame the imminent war on British and Polish inaction.[259][260]
On 1 September 1939, Germany
The fall of Poland was followed by what contemporary journalists dubbed the "
Another dispute pitched one side represented by Heinrich Himmler and Greiser, who championed ethnic cleansing in Poland, against another represented by Göring and Hans Frank (governor-general of occupied Poland), who called for turning Poland into the "granary" of the Reich. On 12 February 1940, the dispute was initially settled in favour of the Göring–Frank view, which ended the economically disruptive mass expulsions. On 15 May 1940, Himmler issued a memo entitled "Some Thoughts on the Treatment of Alien Population in the East", calling for the expulsion of the entire Jewish population of Europe into Africa and the reduction of the Polish population to a "leaderless class of labourers". Hitler called Himmler's memo "good and correct", and, ignoring Göring and Frank, implemented the Himmler–Greiser policy in Poland.[267]
On 9 April, German forces
Britain, whose troops were forced to evacuate France by sea from Dunkirk,[273] continued to fight alongside other British dominions in the Battle of the Atlantic. Hitler made peace overtures to the new British leader, Winston Churchill, and upon their rejection he ordered a series of aerial attacks on Royal Air Force airbases and radar stations in southeast England. On 7 September the systematic nightly bombing of London began. The German Luftwaffe failed to defeat the Royal Air Force in what became known as the Battle of Britain.[274] By the end of September, Hitler realised that air superiority for the invasion of Britain (in Operation Sea Lion) could not be achieved, and ordered the operation postponed. The nightly air raids on British cities intensified and continued for months, including London, Plymouth, and Coventry.[275]
On 27 September 1940, the
In early 1941, German forces were deployed to North Africa, the
Path to defeat
On 22 June 1941, contravening the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, over three million Axis troops attacked the Soviet Union.[280] This offensive (codenamed Operation Barbarossa) was intended to destroy the Soviet Union and seize its natural resources for subsequent aggression against the Western powers.[281][282] The action was also part of the overall plan to obtain more living space for German people; and Hitler thought a successful invasion would force Britain to negotiate a surrender.[283] The invasion conquered a huge area, including the Baltic republics, Belarus, and West Ukraine. By early August, Axis troops had advanced 500 km (310 mi) and won the Battle of Smolensk. Hitler ordered Army Group Centre to temporarily halt its advance to Moscow and divert its Panzer groups to aid in the encirclement of Leningrad and Kiev.[284] His generals disagreed with this change, having advanced within 400 km (250 mi) of Moscow, and his decision caused a crisis among the military leadership.[285][286] The pause provided the Red Army with an opportunity to mobilise fresh reserves; historian Russel Stolfi considers it to be one of the major factors that caused the failure of the Moscow offensive, which was resumed in October 1941 and ended disastrously in December.[284] During this crisis, Hitler appointed himself as head of the Oberkommando des Heeres.[287]
On 7 December 1941, Japan attacked the American fleet based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Four days later, Hitler declared war against the United States.[288] On 18 December 1941, Himmler asked Hitler, "What to do with the Jews of Russia?", to which Hitler replied, "als Partisanen auszurotten" ("exterminate them as partisans").[289] Israeli historian Yehuda Bauer has commented that the remark is probably as close as historians will ever get to a definitive order from Hitler for the genocide carried out during the Holocaust.[289]
In late 1942, German forces were defeated in the
Following the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, Mussolini was removed from power by King Victor Emmanuel III after a vote of no confidence of the Grand Council of Fascism. Marshal Pietro Badoglio, placed in charge of the government, soon surrendered to the Allies.[295] Throughout 1943 and 1944, the Soviet Union steadily forced Hitler's armies into retreat along the Eastern Front. On 6 June 1944, the Western Allied armies landed in northern France in one of the largest amphibious operations in history, Operation Overlord.[296] Many German officers concluded that defeat was inevitable and that continuing under Hitler's leadership would result in the complete destruction of the country.[297]
Between 1939 and 1945, there were numerous plans to
Defeat and death
By late 1944, both the
On 20 April, his 56th and final birthday, Hitler made his last trip from the
During a military conference on 22 April, Hitler inquired about Steiner's offensive. He was informed that the attack had not been launched and that the Soviets had entered Berlin. Hitler ordered everyone but Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, Hans Krebs, and Wilhelm Burgdorf to leave the room,[312] then launched into a tirade against the perceived treachery and incompetence of his generals, culminating in his declaration—for the first time—that "everything is lost".[313] He announced that he would stay in Berlin until the end and then shoot himself.[314]
By 23 April, the Red Army had surrounded Berlin,[315] and Goebbels made a proclamation urging its citizens to defend the city.[312] That same day, Göring sent a telegram from Berchtesgaden, arguing that as Hitler was isolated in Berlin, Göring should assume leadership of Germany. Göring set a deadline, after which he would consider Hitler incapacitated.[316] Hitler responded by having Göring arrested, and in his last will and testament of 29 April, he removed Göring from all government positions.[317][318] On 28 April, Hitler discovered that Himmler, who had left Berlin on 20 April, was attempting to negotiate a surrender to the Western Allies.[319][320] He considered this treason and ordered Himmler's arrest. He also ordered the execution of Hermann Fegelein, Himmler's SS representative at Hitler's headquarters in Berlin, for desertion.[321]
After midnight on the night of 28–29 April, Hitler married Eva Braun in a small civil ceremony in the Führerbunker.[322][g] Later that afternoon, Hitler was informed that Mussolini had been executed by the Italian resistance movement on the previous day; this is believed to have increased his determination to avoid capture.[323] On 30 April, Soviet troops were within five hundred metres of the Reich Chancellery when Hitler shot himself in the head and Braun bit into a cyanide capsule.[324][325] In accordance with Hitler's wishes, their corpses were carried outside to the garden behind the Reich Chancellery, where they were placed in a bomb crater, doused with petrol, and set on fire as the Red Army shelling continued.[326][327][328] Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz and Goebbels assumed Hitler's roles as head of state and chancellor respectively.[329] On the evening of 1 May, Goebbels and his wife, Magda, committed suicide in the Reich Chancellery garden, after having poisoned their six children with cyanide.[330]
Berlin surrendered on 2 May. The remains of the Goebbels family, General Hans Krebs (who had committed suicide that day), and Hitler's dog Blondi were repeatedly buried and exhumed by the Soviets.[331] Hitler's and Braun's remains were alleged to have been moved as well, but this is most likely Soviet disinformation. There is no evidence that any identifiable remains of Hitler or Braun—with the exception of dental bridges—were ever found by them.[332][333][334] While news of Hitler's death spread quickly, a death certificate was not issued until 1956, after a lengthy investigation to collect testimony from 42 witnesses. Hitler's death was entered as an assumption of death based on this testimony.[335]
The Holocaust
If the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevisation of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe![336]
— Adolf Hitler, 30 January 1939 Reichstag speech
The Holocaust and Germany's war in the East were based on Hitler's long-standing view that the Jews were the enemy of the German people, and that Lebensraum was needed for Germany's expansion. He focused on Eastern Europe for this expansion, aiming to defeat Poland and the Soviet Union and then removing or killing the Jews and Slavs.[337] The Generalplan Ost (General Plan East) called for deporting the population of occupied Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to West Siberia, for use as slave labour or to be murdered;[338] the conquered territories were to be colonised by German or "Germanised" settlers.[339] The goal was to implement this plan after the conquest of the Soviet Union, but when this failed, Hitler moved the plans forward.[338][340] By January 1942, he had decided that the Jews, Slavs, and other deportees considered undesirable should be killed.[341][h]
The genocide was organised and executed by Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich. The records of the Wannsee Conference, held on 20 January 1942 and led by Heydrich, with fifteen senior Nazi officials participating, provide the clearest evidence of systematic planning for the Holocaust. On 22 February, Hitler was recorded saying, "we shall regain our health only by eliminating the Jews".[342] Similarly, at a meeting in July 1941 with leading functionaries of the Eastern territories, Hitler said that the easiest way to quickly pacify the areas would be best achieved by "shooting everyone who even looks odd".[343] Although no direct order from Hitler authorising the mass killings has surfaced,[344] his public speeches, orders to his generals, and the diaries of Nazi officials demonstrate that he conceived and authorised the extermination of European Jewry.[345][346] During the war, Hitler repeatedly stated his prophecy of 1939 was being fulfilled, namely, that a world war would bring about the annihilation of the Jewish race.[347] Hitler approved the Einsatzgruppen—killing squads that followed the German army through Poland, the Baltic, and the Soviet Union[348]—and was well informed about their activities.[345][349] By summer 1942, Auschwitz concentration camp was expanded to accommodate large numbers of deportees for murder or enslavement.[350] Scores of other concentration camps and satellite camps were set up throughout Europe, with several camps devoted exclusively to extermination.[351]
Between 1939 and 1945, the
Hitler's policies resulted in the killing of nearly two million non-Jewish
Leadership style
Hitler ruled the Nazi Party
Hitler dominated his country's war effort during World War II to a greater extent than any other national leader. He strengthened his control of the armed forces in 1938, and subsequently made all major decisions regarding Germany's military strategy. His decision to mount a risky series of offensives against Norway, France, and the Low Countries in 1940 against the advice of the military proved successful, though the diplomatic and military strategies he employed in attempts to force the United Kingdom out of the war ended in failure.[375] Hitler deepened his involvement in the war effort by appointing himself commander-in-chief of the Army in December 1941; from this point forward, he personally directed the war against the Soviet Union, while his military commanders facing the Western Allies retained a degree of autonomy.[376] Hitler's leadership became increasingly disconnected from reality as the war turned against Germany, with the military's defensive strategies often hindered by his slow decision-making and frequent directives to hold untenable positions. Nevertheless, he continued to believe that only his leadership could deliver victory.[375] In the final months of the war, Hitler refused to consider peace negotiations, regarding the destruction of Germany as preferable to surrender.[377] The military did not challenge Hitler's dominance of the war effort, and senior officers generally supported and enacted his decisions.[378]
Personal life
Family
Hitler created a public image as a celibate man without a domestic life, dedicated entirely to his political mission and the nation.[147][379] He met his lover, Eva Braun, in 1929,[380] and married her on 29 April 1945, one day before they both committed suicide.[381]
In September 1931, his half-niece, Geli Raubal, took her own life with Hitler's gun in his Munich apartment. It was rumoured among contemporaries that Geli was in a romantic relationship with him, and her death was a source of deep, lasting pain.[382] Paula Hitler, the younger sister of Hitler and the last living member of his immediate family, died in June 1960.[16]
Views on religion
Hitler was born to a practising
Hitler viewed the church as an important politically conservative influence on society,[393] and he adopted a strategic relationship with it that "suited his immediate political purposes".[388] In public, Hitler often praised Christian heritage and German Christian culture, though professing a belief in an "Aryan Jesus" who fought against the Jews.[394] Any pro-Christian public rhetoric contradicted his private statements, which described Christianity as "absurdity"[395] and nonsense founded on lies.[396]
According to a US Office of Strategic Services (OSS) report, "The Nazi Master Plan", Hitler planned to destroy the influence of Christian churches within the Reich.[397][398] His eventual goal was the total elimination of Christianity.[399] This goal informed Hitler's movement early on, but he saw it as inexpedient to publicly express this extreme position.[400] According to Bullock, Hitler wanted to wait until after the war before executing this plan.[401] Speer wrote that Hitler had a negative view of Himmler's and Alfred Rosenberg's mystical notions and Himmler's attempt to mythologise the SS. Hitler was more pragmatic, and his ambitions centred on more practical concerns.[402][403]
Health
Researchers have variously suggested that Hitler suffered from
Sometime in the 1930s, Hitler adopted a mainly vegetarian diet,[412][413] avoiding all meat and fish from 1942 onwards. At social events, he sometimes gave graphic accounts of the slaughter of animals in an effort to make his guests shun meat.[414] Bormann had a greenhouse constructed near the Berghof (near Berchtesgaden) to ensure a steady supply of fresh fruit and vegetables for Hitler.[415] Hitler stopped drinking alcohol around the time he became vegetarian and thereafter only very occasionally drank beer or wine on social occasions.[416][417] He was a non-smoker for most of his adult life, but smoked heavily in his youth (25 to 40 cigarettes a day); he eventually quit, calling the habit "a waste of money".[418] He encouraged his close associates to quit by offering a gold watch to anyone able to break the habit.[419] Hitler began using amphetamine occasionally after 1937 and became addicted to it in late 1942.[420] Speer linked this use of amphetamine to Hitler's increasingly erratic behaviour and inflexible decision-making (for example, rarely allowing military retreats).[421]
Prescribed 90 medications during the war years by his personal physician,
Legacy
Hitler's suicide was likened by contemporaries to a "spell" being broken.
Kershaw describes Hitler as "the embodiment of modern political evil".
Historian
In propaganda
Hitler exploited documentary films and newsreels to inspire a cult of personality. He was involved and appeared in a series of propaganda films throughout his political career, many made by Leni Riefenstahl, regarded as a pioneer of modern filmmaking.[445] Hitler's propaganda film appearances include:
- Der Sieg des Glaubens(Victory of Faith, 1933)
- Triumph des Willens(Triumph of the Will, 1935)
- Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht (Day of Freedom: Our Armed Forces, 1935)
- Olympia (1938)
See also
- Bibliography of Adolf Hitler
- Führermuseum
- Hitler and Mannerheim recording
- Julius Schaub – chief aide
- Karl Mayr – Hitler's superior in army intelligence 1919–1920
- Karl Wilhelm Krause – personal valet
- List of Adolf Hitler's personal staff
- List of streets named after Adolf Hitler
- Paintings by Adolf Hitler
- Toothbrush moustache – also known as a "Hitler moustache", a style of facial hair
Notes
- ^ Pronunciation: German: [ˈaːdɔlf ˈhɪtlɐ] ⓘ
- ^ Pronounced [natsi̯oˈnaːlzotsi̯aˌlɪstɪʃə ˈdɔʏtʃə ˈʔaʁbaɪtɐpaʁˌtaɪ] ⓘ
- ^ Officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei[b] or NSDAP).
- ^ The position of Führer und Reichskanzler ("Leader and Chancellor") replaced the position of President, which was the head of state for the Weimar Republic. Hitler took this title after the death of Paul von Hindenburg, who had been serving as President. He was afterwards both head of state and head of government, with the full official title of Führer und Reichskanzler des Deutschen Reiches und Volkes ("Führer and Reich Chancellor of the German Reich and People").[1][2]
- ^ The successor institution to the Realschule in Linz is Bundesrealgymnasium Linz Fadingerstraße.
- libel suit against the socialist paper the Münchener Post, which had questioned his lifestyle and income. Kershaw 2008, p. 99.
- ^ MI5, Hitler's Last Days: "Hitler's will and marriage" on the website of MI5, using the sources available to Trevor-Roper (a World War II MI5 agent and historian/author of The Last Days of Hitler), records the marriage as taking place after Hitler had dictated his last will and testament.
- ^ For a summary of recent scholarship on Hitler's central role in the Holocaust, see McMillan 2012.
- ^ Sir Richard Evans states, "it has become clear that the probable total is around 6 million."[354]
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- ^ House of Responsibility.
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- ^ Munich Court, 1924.
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- ^ Halperin 1965, p. 403 et. seq.
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- ^ Wheeler-Bennett 1967, p. 216.
- ^ Wheeler-Bennett 1967, pp. 218–219.
- ^ Wheeler-Bennett 1967, p. 222.
- ^ Halperin 1965, p. 449 et. seq.
- ^ Halperin 1965, pp. 434–436, 471.
- ^ a b Shirer 1960, p. 130.
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- ^ Letter to Hindenburg, 1932.
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- ^ Waite 1993, p. 356.
- ^ Gunkel 2010.
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- ^ Wilson 1998.
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- ^ Linge 2009, p. 38.
- ^ Hitler & Trevor-Roper 1988, p. 176, 22 January 1942.
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- ^ Lichtheim 1974, p. 366.
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- ^ Haffner 1979, p. 100.
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