Essay, Research Paper: Hitler

Adolf Hitler was a German political and government leader and one of the 20th century most powerful dictators. Making anti-Semitism a keystone of his propaganda and policies, he built up the Nazi party into a mass movement. Once in power, he converted Germany into a fully militarized society and launched WWII. For a time he dominated Europe and North Africa. He caused the slaughter of millions of Jews, and others considered inferior human being.
Hitler was born in braunauam Inn, Austria, on April 20, 1889, the son of a minor custom official and a peasant girl. A poor student, he never completed high school. He applied for to the academy of fine arts in Vienna but was reject because of a lack of talent. Staying in Vienna till 1913, he lived first on an orphanage pension, later on small pictures he drew. He read voraciously, developing anti-Jewish and antidemocratic convictions, an admiration for the outstanding individuals, and contempt for the masses.
In WWI, Hitler, by then in Munich, volunteered for service in bavarian army. He proved a dedicated, courageous solider, but was never promoted beyond private first class because his superiors him lacking leadership qualities. After Germanys defeat in 1918 he returned to Munich remaining in the army till 1920. His commander made him the education director, with the mandate to immunize his charges against pacifist and democratic ideas. In September 1919 he joined the national German worker's party, and in April 1920 he went to work full time for the party, now renamed the national Socialistic German workers (Nazi) party. In 1921 he was elected party chairman with dictatorial party.
Organizing meeting after meeting terrorizing political foes with groups of party thugs, Hitler spread his gospel of racial hatred and contempt for democracy. He soon became a key figure in bavarian politics, aided by high officials and executives. In November 1923, a time of political and economic chaos, he leads the up rising in Munich against the postwar Weimar republic, proclaiming him Chancellor of a new authoritarian regime. Without military support, however, the Putsch collapsed.
As a leader of the plot, Hitler was sentenced to five years imprisonment and spent the eight months he actually served dictating his autobiography Mein Kampf . Released as a result of a general amnesty in December 1924, he rebuilt his part without interference from that whose government had tried to overthrow. When the great depression struck in 1929, Hitler's explanation of it as a Jewish- Communist plot was accepted by many Germans. Promising a strong Germany, jobs, and national glory, he attracted millions of voters. Nazis representation in the Reichstag rose from 12 seats in 1928 to 107 in 1930.
During the following two years the party kept expanding, benefiting from growing unemployment, fear of communist, Hitler's self-certainty, and the diffidence of his political rivals. Nevertheless, when Hitler was appointed chancellor in January 1933, he was expected to be an easily controlled tool of big business.
Once in power however, Hitler quickly established himself as a dictator. Thousand of anti-nazis were hauled off to concentration camps and all signs of dissent suppressed. An Enabling Act passed by a subservient legislature allowed him to Nazify the bureaucracy and the judiciary, replace all labor unions with one nazi-controlled German labor front, and ban all political parties except his own. The economy, the media, and all cultural activities were brought under Nazi authority by making an individual's livelihood dependent on his or her political loyalty.
Hitler relied on his secret police, the Gestapo, and on jails and camps to intimidate his opponents, but most Germans supported him enthusiastically. His armament drive wiped out unemployment, an ambitious recreational program attracted workers and employees, and his foreign policy successes impressed the nation. He molded German people into tools to over take Europe. He derided the concept of human equality and believed Germans were superior race. As the superior race, they were told they had Dominance over every other race. The persecution of Jews was to insure this. Hitler started to remilitarize Germany, and sent troops to the Rhineland.
Hitler realized that any further movement would create European conflict. After Neutralizing Soviet Union, he attacked Poland and conquered it. In spring of 1940 Hitler's forces had taken over Denmark and Norway, and was on route to the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.
Driven by hatred by communism he then turned on the Soviet Union. He invaded the USSR in 1941 and quickly carried the German armies to the gate of Moscow, but then in December they were pushed back by the Russians. Hitler knew then the war was lost militarily, but hoped that new weapons and strategies would help.
As time went on the defeat became more certain, but Hitler refused to give up, but believed that Germany did not deserve to live because it did not finish its mission. But the persecution of Jews still went on. On April 30, 1945, the allied had overrun Germany, and Hitler Committed suicide in his Berlin Bunker, and long time companion Eva Braun, who, he had Married the day before.
Hitler had a Charismatic personality of overpowering forcefulness. An amoral man rootless and incapable of a personal friendship, he look at his fellow humans as mere bricks in the world structure he wish to erect. He knew how to appeal to people's baser instincts and made use of there fears and insecurities. He could not do that, however, only because they were willing to be lead, even know his program was one hatred and violence. His impact was wholly destructive, and nothing of what he instituted and built survived.