crisis. By 1932, the Nazis crossed a major po-
litical threshold when they became the major-
ity party in government. Hitler’s promise of
jobs, security, and—above all—a resurgent na-
tion resonated strongly with the electorate,
and in 1933 aging President Paul von Hin-
denburgfelt obliged to appoint him chancel-
lor. When Hindenburg died the following year,
Hitler succeeded him to power. More omi-
nously, by deftly combining the offices of pres-
ident and chancellor, he became the undis-
puted führer (leader) of the German nation.
Once empowered, Hitler suspended civil
rights (then constitutionally legal) and took
steps to invigorate the moribund German econ-
omy. On the evening of June 30, 1934, he further
consolidated power by ordering SS commander
Josef Dietrichto liquidate Hitler’s opponents
within the Nazi Party. He also scuttled the 1919
Treaty of Versailles and embarked upon a vigor-
ous national rearmament. As a supreme com-
mander, Hitler was versed in the basic nuances
of military history and exhibited a keen grasp
of emerging military technology such as tanks
and aircraft. Both those weapons, once com-
bined to work in tandem, formed the basis of
the famous blitzkrieg tactics of World War II.
Their procurement became a priority issue
within the industrial sector, as well as major
factors in Germany’s military might. Fortu-
nately for the Allies, Hitler neglected the acqui-
sition of submarines and heavy bombers, both
of which would play major roles in the coming
world war.
As Germany grew stronger, Hitler acted
more boldly on the international stage. He
also began routinely ignoring his military ad-
visers, whose perceived timidity he dismissed
with open contempt. Hitler seized control of
military authority in 1938; thus new senior
staff appointments like Wilhelm Keiteland
Alfred Jodlreflected the need for obedience,
not advice. In 1936, Hitler ordered his troops
to occupy the Rhineland, previously occupied
by France, and restored it to Germany. The
lack of a concerted response from the West
emboldened him further, and in 1938 he or-
dered the annexation of Austria. France and
Britain continued vacillating over how to re-
spond. At the Munich Conference of Septem-
ber that same year, the Führer bullied the
Western powers into allowing him to annex
the Sudetenland (an area of western Czecho-
slovakia inhabited by ethnic-speaking Ger-
mans). Afterward, he decided to seize the en-
tire country, with all its highly advanced
technology and munitions factories. By now
France and England realized Hitler had terri-
torial ambitions on most of Europe, and they
finally cemented an alliance. But in 1939
Hitler stunned them—and the world—by an-
nouncing a nonaggression pact with the So-
viet Union’s Josef Stalin, which ensured the
security of his eastern border. The lack of po-
litical resolve by Western powers thus far
only stoked Hitler’s thirst for bloodless ex-
pansion. By 1939, he felt ready to make addi-
tional conquests by force.
In September 1939, German forces un-
leashed their blitzkrieg war against Poland,
overrunning it within weeks. Stalin also bit off
the eastern part of that hapless country for
his own empire. France and England finally
declared war on Germany, but for nearly a
year they took no offensive action. Hitler cap-
italized on this lethargy to move his armies,
flush with victory, against them. By June 1940,
France had been overrun in a blitzkrieg cam-
paign, and British forces were run off the con-
tinent at Dunkirk. Fortunately, owing to the
ineptitude of Reichsmarschall Hermann
Göring, the once-mighty Luftwaffe was de-
feated in the skies over England. Losing the
Battle of Britain led to the cancellation of
Hitler’s invasion plans, and he focused his at-
tention on other parts of Europe. The strate-
gic British Isles subsequently functioned as
the “unsinkable aircraft carrier” for attacks
against Germany, as well as a springboard for
the planned Allied invasion of Europe. It was
the first of Hitler’s many strategic blunders,
but given Hitler’s aura of military infallibility,
the German general staff dared not question
his judgment.
Throughout the spring of 1941, Hitler’s le-
gions conquered Greece and Yugoslavia withHITLER, ADOLF