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.
