Adolf Hitler
The life of Adolf Hitler, and his impact on the western world, is extraordinary at best. He’s been described by many as a madman, a manipulator, and a terrorist. Some historians believe that he was solely responsible for the Second World War. There was nothing special about Hitler; nothing out of the ordinary. He was an uneducated Austrian man with no political connections and no military background worth noting. Yet somehow, using excessive propaganda, thorough war tactics, and coercion, Hitler would control most of Europe, building an empire lasting twelve years.
It all began in the Austrian town of Braunau am Inn. Adolf Hitler was born at 6:30 p.m. on April 20, 1889 to Alois Hitler, a customs official, and Klara Pölzl. In his early years Hitler was an average student. He did well in elementary school, but by middle school his grades declined. At the age of sixteen he left school with no qualifications. Dreaming of life as a painter, he moved to Vienna. The following years would be spent selling his paintings, performing odd jobs here and there, and wasting his inheritance. After a short time the need for money was dire, yet he never sought employment. He eventually pawned all of his possessions and wound up a homeless man begging for money and living on the street. Hitler would later write in Mein Kampf about his experience in Vienna: “In [Vienna] I obtained the foundations for a philosophy in general and a political view in particular which later I only needed to supplement in detail, but which never left me.” Hitler left Vienna in May 1913 and moved to Munich. A year later, on August 1914 he joined the Sixteenth Bavarian Infantry Regiment, serving as a despatch runner during the war. Hitler was awarded a number of decorations for his efforts, including the Iron Cross, First Class.
It was during the summer of 1919 that Hitler developed anti-Semitic world views. Many Germans during this period were quick to blame the Jews for their domestic struggles, and Hitler was one of these. According to Hitler, the Jews became “the evil spirits leading our people astray” and the sole reason for Germany’s troubles. Germany needed a savior, and Hitler was more than willing to fill that role. He took advantage of Germany’s newfound disdain for the Jews and began to radicalize German anti-Semitism for his own political purposes.
On September 16, 1919 he joined the German Workers’ Party, later to be called the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), or Nazi for short. By July 1921, he had imposed himself as its Chairman, determined to make the party a success. Thus, Hitler began his political career. His mission was simple: undo the mark of shame from defeat by destroying Germany’s enemies – internal and external – and form a Greater Germany. He would go on to write about his aspirations for Germany in Mein Kampf: “Germany will either be a world power, or there will be no Germany.” Hitler would be regarded as the most successful orator Germany has ever seen. His ability was such that he could fan the flame of hatred and stir impossible hopes. He was an effective speaker, able to put on performances aimed to manipulate his audience. His first time as a featured speaker was at a meeting held on October 16, 1919. For Hitler, this was a defining moment in his political career. He describe his feelings in Mein Kampf: “I spoke for thirty minutes, and what before I had simply felt within me, without in any way knowing it, was now proved by reality: I could speak!” Hitler began to view his skill of speaking as a gift. He would open his speeches with a historical background on the subject. Near the end of the speech Hitler would raise his hands towards heaven and exclaim the triumph and redemption of Germany. The German people drank his words of hope, believing that Hitler would solve their domestic issues and restore Germany as the nation it once was.
By November 1921 Hitler was recognized as Fuhrer of a movement which had 3,000 members. Having shaped the leadership structure of the party, and his role of authority in it, Hitler decided to challenge the Weinmar Republic by attempting to overthrow the Bavarian government and then marching in Munich. On the ninth of November Hitler and General Erich Ludendorff, along with support of local nationalist groups, marched through Munich. They were met with police fire, leaving sixteen dead and some others wounded. Hitler was arrested, charged for treason, and sentenced to five years of imprisonment. Due to good behavior and favoritism he would only serve one year of his sentence. During his imprisonment, Hitler was urged by one of his fellow prisoners to write down his ideas in a book. Near the end of 1924, the book was well under way. It was eventually published as Mein Kampf, but this was not the original title. Hitler had planned to call his book Four and a Half Years of Struggle Against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice, but he was dissuaded by his publisher. Mein Kampf was eventually published in two volumes and would sell about 240,000 copies between 1925 and 1934 alone. By the end of the war, ten million copies would be sold or distributed. (FN #16) There was little interest in Main Kampf outside of Germany until Hitler came to power. However, he only allowed the edited editions to be published abroad, and much was omitted, including his plans to destroy certain democracies. In Mein Kampf Hitler expressed that the German people were a superior race, called to rule the world: “What we must fight for is to safeguard the existence and reproduction of our race and our people, the sustenance of our children and the purity of our blood, the freedom and independence of the fatherland, so that our people may mature for the fulfillment of the mission allotted it by the creator of the universe.”
His early days as chairman of propaganda and the encouragement from his audience through his speeches built Hitler’s confidence. He believed he was commanded by God to save Germany. Hitler ran for presidency in 1930, receiving 13,418,011 votes. The Germans thought him a man of the people, strong and ruthless. He possessed the true Germanic attributes: courage, integrity, loyalty, and devotion to the cause. By July 1933, he began using his political influence to eliminate communists, strip Social Democrats and Jews from any political role, and ship enemies to concentration camps. For the final elections on March 1933 Hitler used all means necessary to secure his power: propaganda, manipulation, and intimidation. By June 1934, Hitler became ruler of Germany. In 1935 he began to build up his army, recruiting five times its permitted number. Blinded by Hitler’s territorial gains and victories the German people ignored the laws created against the Jews, the concentration camps, and the persecution that was becoming more and more frequent. Hitler was saving Germany, and that was cause for celebration. Hitler began concentrating on building his empire. His first target was Poland. He signed a pact with Soviet Russia invaded Poland on September 1939. In less than a month, Germany seized Poland. In just two months, Denmark and Norway gave way, and Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg and France fell in just six weeks. By June 1940, only Great Britain remained. On December 11, 1941 Hitler declared war on the United States, a move that set him up against the British and the Soviet Union. By this time, Hitler had already set in motion the Final Solution, a plan that had been under consideration since 1939. During the Holocaust, as this event was to be called, an estimated six million Jews were murdered in death camps.
In order to conquer to rest of Europe Hitler would need to take over Moscow. However, he greatly underestimated the Russians, and the army paid dearly for it. Unable to withstand the brutal winter, they were forced to retreat. Outraged that his generals had failed to perform their duty, Hitler dismissed his chief commanders. Hitler took over all military operations, refusing advice and desperately trying to regain control. Nazi Germany would never recover. On April 29, 1945 he married his mistress Eva Braun. The following day he committed suicide.
Hitler’s mission to create a Greater Germany resulted in the emergence of the United States and the Soviet Union as a superpower and the loss of one-third of German territory, the rest to be divided in half. The impact Hitler had on the Western world, and his incessant belief that the Jews were to be destroyed is something I have always pondered. It is daunting that a person with no education, no intellectual ability, and no military experience would grow to become the leader of an empire such as Nazi Germany. It is my hope that we can grow to become a nation accepting of every race, religion, and nationality. The power of acceptance is not something that can be bought or conquered, and I’m thankful that our generation is slowly working towards that belief.