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A
Biography of Adolf Hitler
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| Early Days - 1889-1908
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Adolf Hitler was born on April 20th
1889 in Braunau-am-Inn, Austria. The town is near to
the Austro-German border, and his father, Alois, worked
as a customs officer on the border crossing. His mother,
Klara, had previously given birth to two other children
by Alois, (Gustav and Ida) but they both died in their
infancy. 
Adolf attended school from the age of six and the family
lived in various villages around the town of Linz, east
of Braunau. By this time Adolf had a younger brother,
Edmund, but he only lived until the age of six. In 1896,
Klara gave birth to Adolf 's sister, Paula, who survived
to outlive him.
Adolf Hitler grew up with a poor record
at school and left, before completing his tuition, with
an ambition to become an artist. Alois Hitler had died
when Adolf was thirteen and Klara brought up Adolf and
Paula on her own. Between the ages of sixteen and nineteen,
young Adolf neither worked to earn his keep, nor formally
studied, but had gained an interest in politics and
history. During this time he unsuccessfully applied
for admission to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts.
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| The Vagabond - 1909-1913
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| Klara Hitler died from cancer when
Adolf was nineteen and from then onwards he had no relatives
willing or able to support him. So, in 1909, he moved
to Vienna in the hope of somehow earning a living. Within
a year he was living in homeless shelters and eating
at charity soup-kitchens. He had declined to take regular
employment and took occasional menial jobs and sold
some of his paintings or advertising posters whenever
he could to provide sustenance. |
| Munich and The
Great War - 1913-1918 |
In 1913 Adolf Hitler, still a penniless
vagrant, moved to Munich in southern Germany.  At
the outbreak of the First World War, in 1914, he volunteered
for service in the German army and was accepted into
the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment . Hitler
fought bravely in the war and was promoted to corporal
and decorated with both the Iron Cross Second Class
and First Class, the latter of which he wore until his
dying day [ironically the regimental captain who recommended
him for the award was Jewish]. The day of the announcement
of the armistice in 1918, Hitler was in hospital recovering
from temporary blindness caused by a British gas attack
in the Ypres Salient. In December 1918 he returned to
his regiment back in Munich. |
| Early Politics - 1918-1919
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| Between December 1918 and March 1919
Hitler worked at a prisoner-of-war camp at Traunstein
before returning again to Munich. Shortly after his
return he witnessed a takeover bid by local Communists
who seized power before being ousted by the army. After
he gave evidence at an investigation into the takeover
he was asked to become part of a local army organization
which was responsible for persuading returning soldiers
not to turn to communism or pacifism. During his training
for this tasks and during his subsequent duties he was
able to hone his oratory skills. As part of his duties
he was also asked to spy on certain local political
groups, and during a meeting of the German Workers'
Party he became so incensed by one of the speeches that
he delivered a fierce harangue to the speaker. The founder
of the party, Anion Drexler, was so impressed by Hitler's
tirade that he asked him to join their organization.
Hitler, after some thought, finally agreed to join the
committee and became their seventh official in September
1919. |
| The First Hofbrauhaus Speech - 1919-1920
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Given responsibility for publicity
and propaganda, Hitler first succeeded in attracting
over a hundred people to a meeting in held October at
which he delivered his first speech to a large audience.
The meeting and his oratory were a great success, and
subsequently in February 1920 he organized a much larger
event for a crowd of nearly two thousand in the Munich
Hofbrauhaus. Hitler himself was not the main speaker,
but when his turn came he succeeded in calming a rowdy
audience and presented a twenty-five point programme
of ideas which were to be the basis of the party. The
name of the party was itself changed to the National
Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi for short) on
April 1st 1920.
Not long after the February speech he
was discharged from the army. Hitler continued to expand
his influence in the party and began to form a private
group of thugs which he used to quash disorder at party
meetings and later to break up rival party's meetings.
This group subsequently became the Sturmabteilung or
S.A. - Hitler's brown shirted storm troopers. He also
became the regular main speaker at party events from
then onwards, attracting large crowds for each meeting.
During the summer of 1920 Hitler chose the swastika
as the Nazi party emblem. |
| Leader of the
Nazi Party - 1921 |
| By 1921 Adolf Hitler had virtually
secured total control of the Nazi party, however this
was not to the liking of all Nazis. In July of that
year, whilst Hitler was away in Berlin, the discontent
members of the party proposed a merger with a like-minded
political party in Nuremburg in the hope that this would
dilute Hitler's influence. On hearing the news of the
proposed merger, Hitler rushed back to Munich to confront
the party and threatened to resign. The other members
were aware that Hitler was bringing in the lion's share
of funds into the organization, from the collections
following his speeches at meetings and from other sympathetic
sources. Thus they knew they couldn't afford his resignation.
Hitler then proceeded to turn the tables on the committee
members and forced them to accept him as formal leader
of the party with dictatorial powers. |
| The Beer Hall Putsch - 1923 |
| Up to November 1923 Hitler continued
to build up the strength of the Nazi Party. During this
time he also plotted to overthrow the German Weimar
Republic by force. On November 8th 1923 Hitler led an
attempt to take over the local Bavarian Government in
Munich in an action that became known as the "Beer Hall
Putsch." Despite initially kidnapping the Bavarian officials
in the Buergerbraukeller beer hall in Munich and proclaiming
a new regime using their names, the coup was not successful.
The officials were allowed to escape and re-gain control
of the police and the armed forces. The coup was ended
on the morning of November 9th, when a column of three
thousand SA men headed by Hitler and General Ludendorff
(one of the most senior generals of the First World
War) were halted on their way to the centre of Munich
by armed police. After a brief gunfight, only General
Ludendorff and his aide had made it through to the central
Plaza, where they were arrested. Hitler had fled the
scene and was later arrested and charged with treason.
After his trial for treason he was sentenced to five
years in Landsberg prison, however he had successfully
used the trial itself to gain publicity for himself
and his ideas. During his term in prison Hitler began
dictating his thoughts and philosophies to Rudolf Hess
which became the book "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle).
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| Re-Building the Nazi Party - 1924-1932 |
Hitler was released from Landsberg
prison in December 1924 after serving only six months
of his sentence. At that time, the Nazi Party and its
associated newspapers were banned by the government
and Hitler himself was forbidden from making public
speeches. The support for National Socialism was waning
throughout Germany, their voting figures in elections
fell from almost two million in 1924 to 810,000 by 1928
(this gave them only 12 out of a total of 491 representatives
in Parliament). However at the same time, Hitler succeeded
in increasing the party membership and developed the
organization of the party throughout Germany with the
help of Gregor Strasser who was responsible for the
organization of the Nazi Party in northern Germany.
During this period Hitler also created the infamous
SS (Schutzstaffel) which was initially intended to be
Hitler's bodyguard under the leadership of Heinrich
Himmler. 
The collapse of the Wall St. stock exchange
in 1929 led to a world wide recession which hit Germany
especially hard. All loans to Germany from foreign countries
dried up, German industrial production slumped and millions
were made unemployed. These conditions were beneficial
to Hitler and his Nazi campaigning. By July of the following
year Chancellor Bruening, without a parliamentary majority
in the Reichstag, was unable to pass a new finance bill
and was forced to ask President Hindenburg to dissolve
the Reichstag and call for new elections for the coming
September. Hitler campaigned hard for the Nazi candidates,
promising the public a way out of their current hardship.
When the results of the election were announced, the
Nazi Party had won 6.4 million votes which made them
the second largest party in the Reichstag. At this time
Hitler also began to win over the support of both the
army and the big industrialists, the latter contributing
substantially to the finances of the Nazi Party.
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| Hitler Versus Hindenburg - 1932 |
In February 1932 Hitler decided to
stand against Hindenburg in the forthcoming Presidential
election. In order to do this he became a German citizen
on 25th February 1932. The result of the election on
13th March 1932 gave Hindenburg 49.6 percent of the
vote and Hitler 30.1 percent (two other candidates stood).
As Hindenburg failed to win a majority a second election
was called. The result of the second election gave Hindenburg
53 percent and Hitler 36.8 percent (one other candidate
stood). Thus Hindenburg was re-elected to office and
Hitler was forced to wait for another opportunity to
win power.
Chancellor Bruening lasted in office
until June 1932, unable to maintain popular support
his government resigned due to pressure from the President,
who had been advised by an influential General called
Schleicher. General Schleicher had plotted the overthrow
of the cabinet in conspiracy with the Nazis. Power then
passed to a Presidential cabinet headed by a new Chancellor,
Franz von Papen. New Reichstag elections were also set
for the end of July. |
| Nazis Become the Largest Party -
1932 |
| In the July elections, the Nazi Party
won 13,745,000 votes which gave them 230 out of the
608 seats in the Reichstag. Although the Nazis were
the largest party, they were still short of a majority.
Hitler, however, demanded that he be made Chancellor
but was offered only the position of Vice-Chancellor
in a coalition government, which he refused. |
| Hitler
Becomes Chancellor - 1932-1933 |
| In September 1932, the Nazi members
of the Reichstag, together with support form the Center
Party elected the prominent Nazi Herman Goering as President
of the Reichstag (equivalent to House Speaker). Using
his new position, Goering managed to prevent the Chancellor
from presenting an order to dissolve the Reichstag,
whilst a vote of no confidence in the Chancellor and
his government was passed. Thus having forced the resignation
of the new government, the Reichstag allowed its own
dissolution. Although losing 34 of their seats in the
following election, the Nazis retained enough influence
to assure that Papen would be unable to form a new Government
and the Chancellor resigned on 17th of November 1932.
After Papen's resignation, Hindenburg still refused
to appoint Hitler as chancellor fearing that a Hitler
Government would become a dictatorship. The President
then tried to re-install Papen as Chancellor, but Papen
was unable to gain the support of his own cabinet, including
Schleicher who was Minister of Defence. President Hindenburg
then appointed Schleicher as Chancellor, the latter
having assured the President that he could get the support
of the Nazis in the Reichstag. However, Hitler and his
Nazi party had other ideas, and Schleicher found that
he was unable to win the support of any of the parties
in the Reichstag and was forced to resign as Chancellor
on January 28th 1933. Finally on January 30th, 1933
President Hindenburg decided to appoint Hitler Chancellor
in a coalition government with Papen as Vice-Chancellor. |
| The Burning of the Reichstag - February
1933 |
| The penultimate step towards Adolf
Hitler gaining complete control over the destiny of
Germany were taken on the night of 27th February 1933
when the Reichstag was destroyed by fire. The fire was
almost certainly planned by the Nazis, Goebbels and
Goering in particular. A Dutch communist, Marinus van
der Lubbe, was made scapegoat for the fire, but the
main outcome was that Hitler was given an excuse to
have all the Communist deputies of the Reichstag arrested,
and managed to obtain a decree from President Hindenburg
giving the Nazi goverment powers to inter anyone they
thought was a threat to the nation. Furthermore the
Presidential decree allowed the Nazi government to suppress
the free speech of its political opponents. Despite
all these advantages, in the elections of March 5th
1933, the Nazis only managed to acheive 44 percent of
the votes. Even with the suppression of the Communist
deputies, Hitler was still short of an overall majority
and nowhere near the two-thirds majority needed for
any change in the German constitution. |
| The Enabling Act - March 1933 |
| The Enabling Act, placed before the
Reichstag on 23rd of March 1933 was to allow the powers
of legislation to be taken away from the Reichstag and
transferred to Hitler's cabinet for a period of four
years. The act required a two-thirds majority, but passed
easily with the support of the Center and Nationalist
parties and the suppression of all Communist deputies
and several Social Democrats. Thus dictatorial powers
were finally conferred, legally, on Adolf Hitler. By
July 14th Hitler had proclaimed a law stating that the
Nazi Party was to be the only political party allowed
in Germany. The Nazification of Germany was underway.
All non-Nazi organizations were disbanded, including
political parties and trade unions. The individual German
states were stripped of any autonomous powers they might
have had and Nazi officials were installed as state
governors. |
| The Night
of the Long Knives - 1934 |
| After the initial rise to power of
the Nazis, many of them, including the head of the SA
Ernst Roehm, wanted to see a further change in the power
structure of Germany by taking over control of big businesses
and installing the SA as the main army of Germany with
the existing army subordinate to it. Hitler however
thought differently and wanted to keep the German economy
in good shape, reduce unemployment and enable him to
quickly re-arm the Wehrmacht. To Hitler, the SA was
purely a political force not a military one. Also the
ageing President Hindenburg would not survive much longer
and Hitler needed the support of the Army if he was
to be named as Hindenburg's successor. In May of 1934
Hitler proposed to the chiefs of the Army and the Navy
that he would suppress the SA and at the same time expand
the Army and Navy if they would support him as the successor
to Hindenburg. The chiefs of the forces readily agreed
to Hitler's endorsement. In June Hitler ordered the
SA to go on leave for the entire month. However, by
that time the rowdiness and lawlessness perpetrated
by Nazi thugs had grown to a point where President Hindenburg
and his senior generals were considering declaring a
state of marshal law and Hitler was threatened with
this recourse if he didn't do something to curb these
excesses. These threats, coupled with rumours generated
by Himmler and Goering concerning Roehm's loyalty to
the Fuehrer and an impending coup against Hitler, finally
prompted Hitler to order Himmler and Goering to take
action against the leaders of the SA. On June 30th 1934
Himmler's SS and Goering's special police arrested and
executed the leaders of the SA, including Ernst Roehm,
and many others not connected with the SA, but against
whom the Nazi leaders had a score to settle. These others
included General von Schleicher, the former Chancellor. |
| The Death of Hindenburg August 1934 |
| President Hindenburg died on August
2nd 1934. Hitler had already agreed with the Cabinet
that upon Hindenburg's death the offices of President
and Chancellor would be combined. The last wishes of
Hindenburg were that upon his death the monarchy should
be restored. Hitler managed to suppress these wishes
and did not publish the President's will. Having already
ensured the support of the Army, Hitler went a step
further by making the whole of the armed forces swear
an oath of loyalty to him personally. A plebiscite was
then held for the public to decide on whether they approved
of the changes already made - 90% of voters gave their
approval. Thus Hitler had become "Fuehrer and Reich
Chancellor" and the title of President was then abolished. |
| "Nazification" - 1934-1937 |
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During the years following Hitler's
consolidation of power he set about the "Nazification"
of Germany and its release from the armament restrictions
of the Versailles Treaty. Censorship was extreme and
covered all aspects of life including the press, films,
radio, books and even art. Trade unions were suppressed
and replaced with the centralised "Labour Front",
which didn't actually function as a trade union. The
churches were persecuted and ministers who preached
non-Nazi doctrine were frequently arrested by the
Gestapo and carted off to concentration camps. All
youth associations were abolished and re-formed as
a single entity as the Hitler Youth organisation.
The Jewish population was increasingly persecuted
and ostracised from society and under the Nuremburg
Laws of September 1935 Jews were no longer considered
to be German citizens and therefore no longer had
any legal rights. Jews were no longer allowed to hold
public office, not allowed to work in the civil-service,
the media, farming, teaching, the stock exchange and
eventually barred from practising law or medicine.
Hostility towards Jews from other Germans was encouraged
and even shops began to deny entry to Jews. From a
very early stage, Hitler geared the German economy
towards war. He appointed Dr. Hjalmar Schacht minister
of economics with instructions to secretly increase
armaments production. This was financed in various
ways, including using confiscated funds, printing
bank notes and mostly by producing government bonds
and credit notes.
In September 1936, Goering took over
most of Schacht's duties in preparing the war economy
and instituted the Four-Year Plan, which was intended
to make Germany self-sufficient in four years. This
put Germany on a total war economy and entailed strict
control of imports, materials prices and wages as
well as the creation of factories and industrial plants
to produce essential war materials (e.g. synthetic
rubber, fuels and steel). Workers were low paid and
their freedom to move between jobs was increasingly
restricted. Even the workers' recreation time was
strictly controlled through the "Strength Through
Joy" organisation. Hitler was the law when it came
to the judicial system and had the ultimate say over
legal actions of any kind. Any judge who was not favourable
to the Nazi regime was dismissed, and a "Special Court"
for political crimes and a "Peoples Court" for accusations
of treason were introduced. Both of these courts were
controlled by the Nazi Party and an unfortunate defendant
was extremely unlikely to get a fair trial.
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| Breaking the Versailles Treaty -
1934-1937 |
| Hitler ordered the army to be trebled
in size, from the 100,000 man Versailles Treaty limit,
to 300,000 men by October of 1934. This was initially
ordered to be carried out under the utmost secrecy.
Admiral Raeder, the chief of the navy, was given orders
to begin the construction of large warships, way above
the maximum size decreed by the Versailles Treaty. The
construction of submarines, also forbidden by the Treaty,
had already begun secretly by building parts in foreign
dockyards ready for assembly. In addition, Goering had
also been tasked by Hitler with the training of air
force pilots and the design of military aircraft. In
March 1935 Hitler decided to take a gamble and test
the resolve of Britain and France by authorising Goering
to reveal to a British official the existence of the
Luftwaffe (German Air Force). Even though this was a
direct challenge to the Versailles Treaty, there was
little reaction (its existence was already known anyway).
Thus Hitler was given encouragement to take further
steps. A few days later, Hitler took a further gamble
and declared openly the introduction of military service
and the creation of an army with 36 divisions (approx.
1/2 million men). Again, a weak reaction from Britain
and France allowed Hitler the comfort of knowing that
his gamble had paid off. At the same time that Hitler
was increasing the strength of the armed forces, he
was also following a policy of making speeches proclaiming
a desire for peace and the folly of war. He also announced
that he had no intention of annexing Austria or re-militarising
the Rhineland and would respect all the territorial
clauses of the Versailles Treaty. Hitler also announced
that he was prepared to mutually disarm the heaviest
of weapons and limit the strength of the German Navy.
A quote from Hitler at that time: "Whoever lights
the torch of war in Europe can wish for nothing but
chaos." |
| The Re-militarisation
of the Rhineland - 1936 |
| On March 7th 1936 a small force of
German troops marched across the Rhine bridges into
the demilitarised areas of Germany towards Aachen, Trier
and Saarbruecken. Once again neither the French nor
British made any move to counter the flagrant breach
of the Locarno Pact of 1925, which had been signed willingly
by Germany and was supposed to keep these areas west
of the Rhine free from German military units. The lack
of French reaction was in spite of the fact that the
small German force was vastly outnumbered by the French
army near the border. Immediately following the re-militarisation
of the Rhineland areas, Hitler once again preached in
public his desire for peace throughout Europe and offered
to negotiate new non-aggression pacts with several countries
including France and Belgium. At the same time rapid
construction of German defensive fortifications began
along the French and Belgian frontiers. Meanwhile Hitler's
popularity within Germany was boosted, his position
as leader was strengthened and his control over the
army generals was secured. |
| Weakening of Austrian Security and
the Birth of the Axis - 1936 |
| The security that Hitler had gained
for Germany from the military stronghold in the Rhineland
meant less security for those countries in Central Europe
(e.g. Austria and Czechoslovakia) who were reliant on
a swift response from France in the event of German
aggression. This led the Austrian Government, headed
by Dr. Schuschnigg, during the summer of 1936, to begin
a course of appeasement of Hitler by, for example, giving
Austrian Nazis influential positions within the government
in return for a pledge from Hitler to confirm his recognition
of Austrian sovereignty. The position of Austria was
further undermined in October 1936 when the Italian
dictator, Mussolini, who had previously pledged to maintain
Austrian independence, formed an alliance with Hitler.
This alliance, which became known as the Rome-Berlin
Axis had been formed following the German and Italian
support of fellow fascist, General Franco, in the Spanish
Civil War. The Axis partnership included an agreement
on a common foreign policy between the two countries. |
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| [To be continued...] |
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