Adolf HItler

 

Adolf Hitler (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, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then taking the title of Fuhrer und Reichskanzler in 1934. 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 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 1990s 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 seized governmental power in a failed coup in Munich and was sentenced to five years in prison, 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, in anti-Semitism and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda. He frequently denounced capitalism and communism as part of an international Jewish conspiracy.

By November 1932, the Nazi Party held the most seats in the Reichstag but did not have a majority. No political parties were able to form a majority coalition in support of candidate for chancellor. Former chancellor Franz von Papen and other conservative leaders convinced President Paul von Hidenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor on 30 January 1933. Shortly thereafter, 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 totalitarian and autocratic ideology of Nazism.

Nazi

Nazi Germany (officially known as the German Reich 1933–43, later the Greater German Reich 1943–45) was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a dictatorship.

The Flag

The Emblem

Under Hitler's rule, Germany quickly became a totalitarian state where many aspects of life were controlled by the government. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", referred to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945, after only 12 years, when the Allies defeated Germany and entered the capital, Berlin, ending World War II in Europe.

The Nazi Party became the largest in parliament following the July 1932 German federal election, but it did not hold a majority. Hitler refused to participate in a coalition government unless he was its leader. By the constitution of the Weimar Republic, in those circumstances the chancellor of Germany (the head of government) could be appointed by the president, Paul von Hindenburg, who appointed Hitler on 30 January 1933, at the behest of right-wing politicians and industrialists. The Reichstag fire was used to pass the Reichstag Fire Decree, leading to the suppression of civil liberties and mass arrests of political opponents. The Enabling Act of 1933 gave Hitler's government the power to make and enforce laws without the Reichstag (parliament) or president. The Nazis began to eliminate political opposition and consolidate power. Hindenburg died in August 1934, and Hitler became dictator by merging the powers of the chancellery and presidency. A 1934 German referendum confirmed Hitler as sole Führer (leader). Power was centralised in Hitler's person, his word became the highest law. The government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitler's favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment, using heavy military spending. Financed by deficit spending, the regime undertook extensive public works projects, including the Autobahnen (motorways) and a massive secret rearmament program, forming the Wehrmacht (armed forces). The return to economic stability boosted the regime's popularity.