HITLER, ADOLF
Hitler, Adolf
(April 20, 1889–April 30, 1945)
German Dictator
H
itler was a charis-
matic, forceful
leader who led
Germany down the path
to bloody ruin. In a failed
bid for world conquest,
his Third Reich overran
most of Europe and
North Africa, but at a ter-
rible price to humanity.
For many survivors of
World War II, Hitler re-
mains the personification
of evil.
Adolf Hitler was born
in Brannau, Austria, on
April 20, 1889, the son of
a customs clerk. Indiffer-
ent and sullen as a stu-
dent, he dropped out of
high school to work as an
aspiring artist, but he
failed to enter the prestigious Vienna Acad-
emy of Fine Arts. The onset of World War I fi-
nally gave him an outlet for venting his anger,
and he enlisted in the 16th Bavarian Infantry.
For four years Hitler performed the danger-
ous work of messenger, and he received four
decorations for bravery, including the presti-
gious Iron Cross. At one point he was seri-
ously injured in a gas attack and spent several
months recuperating. Hitler finally mustered
out of the German army in 1919 with the rank
of corporal.
As a consequence of losing the war, Ger-
many accepted the 1919 Treaty of Versailles,
which imposed harsh economic penalties.
This resulted in economic dislocation and so-
cial distress for the German people, along
with lingering resentment toward the demo-
cratic Weimar Republic. Like many disen-
chanted army veterans, Hitler found solace in
the ranks of the German Workers Party,
which he later expanded
into the National Social-
ist German Workers
Party—the Nazis. Hitler
finally found his calling
as a fiery, right-wing dem-
agogue, intent upon
usurping the German na-
tion for his own evil ends.
On the evening of No-
vember 8, 1923, his thugs
attempted to overthrow
the Bavarian government
during the famous beer-
hall putsch, which was
crushed by the police.
Hitler was arrested and
sentenced to five years’
imprisonment at Lands-
berg Prison. He served
only nine months before
being paroled, using this
interval to outline his political beliefs in a
work entitled Mein Kampf (My Struggle).
This book outlined his virulent anti-Semitism,
along with Germany’s dire need forlebens-
raum,or “living space.” The book was often
ridiculed by observers, who found its logic
confused and disjointed—but its warning was
overlooked. Racial hatred had found a power-
ful, eloquent spokesman in the guise of Adolf
Hitler.
After prison, Hitler acquired a degree of
political respectability, and he henceforth re-
solved to subvert the government by working
within the system. His soaring rhetoric and
appeals to national fervor, combined with
economic unrest, led to increasing Nazi repre-
sentation in the Reichstag (the German parlia-
ment). Hitler’s quest for political dominance
was abetted following the onset of the Great
Depression in 1929, and Germans began turn-
ing to him for leadership during this nationalAdolf Hitler
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