Historical Figure
Adolf Hitler
1889–1945
Dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945
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Biography
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Germany during the Nazi era, which lasted from 1933 until his suicide in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor of Germany in 1933 and then taking the title of Führer und Reichskanzler in 1934. Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 under his leadership marked the outbreak of the Second World War. Throughout the ensuing conflict, Hitler was closely involved in the direction of German military operations as well as the perpetration of the Holocaust, the genocide of about six million Jews and millions of other victims.
Timeline
The story of Adolf Hitler, told in moments.
Rejected twice by the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. The admissions committee tells him his figure drawing is weak. He stays in Vienna for five years, selling postcards of buildings and sleeping in homeless shelters. He never applies to art school again.
Leads the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich. He fires a pistol into the ceiling of the Burgerbraukeller to get attention. The coup collapses the next day when police open fire on the marchers. Sixteen Nazis and four police officers die. Hitler dislocates his shoulder fleeing the scene.
Sentenced to five years in Landsberg Prison for high treason. Serves nine months. His cell is comfortable, with a view of the river. Visitors bring wine and food. He dictates the first volume of Mein Kampf to Rudolf Hess.
Sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Not by revolution. Not by coup. By appointment. President Hindenburg and conservative politicians believe they can control him. Franz von Papen, the man who brokered the deal, tells a colleague: "We've hired him."
Orders the Night of the Long Knives. In 48 hours, the SS murders at least 85 people, including Ernst Rohm, the leader of the SA and one of his oldest allies. Rohm helped build the movement. Now he is a threat. The German cabinet retroactively legalizes the killings as "emergency defense of the state."
Orders the invasion of Poland. Britain and France declare war two days later. The Blitzkrieg takes five weeks. Warsaw surrenders on September 27. Over the next six years, the war he starts will kill between 70 and 85 million people.
Launches Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Three million German soldiers cross the border in the largest military operation in history. By December, German forces can see the spires of Moscow. They never take the city. The Eastern Front will consume 80% of German military casualties.
Shoots himself in his underground bunker beneath the Reich Chancellery. Eva Braun, his wife of less than 40 hours, takes cyanide beside him. Their bodies are carried up to the Chancellery garden and burned. Soviet troops are less than 500 meters away. He is 56.
The Nuremberg trials begin. Twenty-four of his closest associates sit in the dock. Twelve will be sentenced to death. Hitler himself is absent, referred to in proceedings only as "the Fuhrer." The tribunal establishes, for the first time in international law, that "following orders" is not a defense.
In Their Own Words (20)
When National Socialism has ruled long enough, it will no longer be possible to conceive of a form of life different from ours. In the long run, National Socialism and religion will no longer be able to exist together.
11-12 July 1941, quoted in Hitler's Table Talk, 1941–1944, 1941
What the world did not deem possible the German people have achieved.... It is already war history how the German Armies defeated the legions of capitalism and plutocracy. After forty-five days this campaign in the West was equally and emphatically terminated.
"Adolf Hitler's Order of the Day Calling for Invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece," Berlin, (April 6, 1941), The New York Times, April 7, 1941, 1941
I, on the other hand, have tried for two decades to build a new socialist order in Germany, with a minimum of interference and without harming our productive capacity.
Hitler's "Barbarossa" Proclamation, (June 22, 1941), 1941
For over five years this man has been chasing around Europe like a madman in search of something he could set on fire. Unfortunately he again and again finds hirelings who open the gates of their country to this international incendiary.
speaking about Winston Churchill at the Reichstag, 4 May 1941 ., 1941
If I had known that the figures for Russian tank strength which you gave in your book were in fact the true ones, I would not—I believe—ever have started this war.
Said to General Heinz Guderian, 4 August 1941, as quoted Panzer Leader (1952) by Heinz Guderian, 1941
Artifacts (15)
Adolf Hitler - Portrait - Close Up - DPLA - (3x4 cropped)
General Services Administration. National Archives and Records Service. Office of the National Archives. (9/19/1966 - 4/1/1985)
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