Adolf Hitler: A Short Biography of the Nazi Dictator. A Summary of the Life of the Founder of National Socialism, His Rise to Power, His Death and Historical Context.
Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a small town in northern Austria. The son of an Austrian customs clerk, as a young man he dreamed of becoming an architect but failed to enter the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and for this reason he moved to Munich where he worked as a decorator and laborer.
It was during these years that he began to develop his anti-Semitic , anti-Marxist and racist thought . With the outbreak of the First World War, Hitler enlisted as a volunteer in the German regiment, was wounded and received recognition.
After the First World War , Hitler was convinced that Germany ‘s defeat had been caused by the betrayal of the socialists and the Jews.
Adolf Hitler: My War
In 1919 Hitler joined the German Workers’ Party, which soon changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party ( National-sozialistische deutsche Arbeiterpartei ), and became its leader.
In 1923 he organized a coup d’état to end the Weimar Republic but his attempt failed and he was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
During his imprisonment, Hitler wrote the political essay Mein Kampf (My Struggle), which would become the reference text of Nazism . In the book, he theorized the superiority of the Aryan race, declared his hatred for communists and Jews, and planned the expansion of Germany .
Adolf Hitler: Rise to Power
Released in 1924 thanks to an amnesty, Hitler reorganized the National Socialist Party and, taking advantage of the economic crisis and widespread discontent, gained consensus in a few years. In 1932 he won the elections for the Reichstag and on 30 January 1933 he became Chancellor of the Reich . In 1934 he eliminated all forms of opposition and unified the roles of Chancellor and President of the Reich under his own figure, becoming Führer of the Reich , thus establishing the dictatorship.
In a few years, Hitler laid the foundations for the outbreak of the Second World War (annexation of Austria by Germany, occupation of the Rhineland, Pact of Steel with Italy) and began the persecution of the Jews which would culminate in the tragedy of the Holocaust and the concentration camps , where approximately 6 million Jews and thousands of Roma, Sinti, political opponents, homosexuals and the handicapped lost their lives.
Adolf Hitler and World War II
With the invasion of Poland by Germany on September 1, 1939, the Second World War began . After some German victories, the situation reversed, Germany accumulated several defeats and Hitler suffered two attempts on his life (in 1942 and 1944). When the war was about to end, Hitler retreated to Berlin where he committed suicide on April 30, 1945 , locked in the bunker of the Chancellery Palace, together with his lover Eva Braun .
Nazi Ideology: Explanation and Summary
Hitler and the Nazis, in developing their theory, believed they had found the key to understanding the complexity of the world. They thought that an individual’s characteristics, aptitudes and abilities were determined by race and therefore that certain ethnic groups corresponded to definite and immutable traits. The inspiration came from the ideas of German social Darwinists who believed that human beings, since prehistoric times, could be classified into “races”, each with specific characteristics.
Among these ideas was also the evolutionary theory of the survival of the fittest, linked to the ability to conquer the territory necessary for one’s development, as well as the ability to reproduce and grow. The war of conquest, as seen during the Second World War, was considered a fundamental component of this vision.
