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Adolf Hitler
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H1216-0500-002, Adolf Hitler.jpg
Hitler in 1938
Führer of Germany

In office
2 August 1934 – 30 April 1945
Preceded by Paul von Hindenburg
(as President)
Succeeded by Karl Dönitz
(as President)
Reich Chancellor of Germany

In office
30 January 1933 – 30 April 1945
President Paul von Hindenburg (until 1934)
Preceded by Kurt von Schleicher
Succeeded by Joseph Goebbels
Leader of the Nazi Party

In office
29 June 1921 – 30 April 1945
Deputy Rudolf Hess
Preceded by Anton Drexler
Succeeded by Martin Bormann
Personal details
Born (1889-04-20)20 April 1889
Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary
Berlin, Germany
  • Austrian citizen until 7 April 1925[1]
  • German citizen after 25 February 1932
Other political
German Workers' Party (1920–21)
Spouse(s) Eva Braun
(29–30 April 1945)
Occupation Politician
Religion See: Religious views of Adolf Hitler
Signature Hitler Signature2.svg
Military service
Allegiance Flag of the German Empire.svg German Empire
Service/branch War Ensign of Germany (1903-1918).svg Bavarian Army
Years of service 1914–20
  • 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment
  • Reichswehr intelligence
Battles/wars World War I






Early yearsEdit


Hitler's father Alois Hitler, Sr. (1837 – 1903) was the illegitimate child of Maria Anna Schicklgruber.[2] The baptismal register did not show the name of his father, and Alois initially bore his mother's surname Schicklgruber. In 1842, Johann Georg Hiedler married Alois's mother Maria Anna. Alois was brought up in the family of Hiedler's brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler.[3] In 1876, Alois was legitimated and the baptismal register changed by a priest to register Johann Georg Hiedler as Alois's father (recorded as "Georg Hitler").[4][5] Alois then assumed the surname "Hitler",[5] also spelled as Hiedler, Hüttler, or Huettler. The Hitler surname is probably based on "one who lives in a hut" (German Hütte for "hut") or on "shepherd" (German hüten for "to guard"); alternatively, it might be derived from the Slavic words Hidlar or Hidlarcek ("small cottager" or "small holder").[6]


Childhood and educationEdit

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1989-0322-506, Adolf Hitler, Kinderbild retouched

Adolf Hitler as an infant (c. 1889–90)



Klara Hitler.jpg
Hitler's mother, Klara
Alois Hitler in his last years.jpg
Hitler's father, Alois




Early adulthood in Vienna and MunichEdit

Hitler house in Leonding




Adolf Hitler Der Alte Hof

The Alter Hof in Munich. Watercolour by Adolf Hitler, 1914


Hitler received the final part of his father's estate in May 1913 and moved to Munich.[50] Historians believe he left Vienna to evade conscription into the Austro-Hungarian Army.[51] Hitler later claimed that he did not wish to serve Austria-Hungary because of the mixture of races in its armed forces.[50] After he was deemed unfit for service—he failed his physical exam in Salzburg on 5 February 1914—he returned to Munich.[52]

World War IEdit

Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1974-082-44, Adolf Hitler im Ersten Weltkrieg


At the outbreak of World War I, Hitler was living in Munich and as an Austrian citizen volunteered to serve in the Bavarian Army.[53] According to a subsequent report by the Bavarian authorities in 1924, Hitler almost certainly served in the Bavarian Army by error.[53] Posted to the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16 (1st Company of the List Regiment),[54][53] he served as a dispatch runner on the Western Front in France and Belgium,[55] spending nearly half his time at the regimental headquarters in Fournes-en-Weppes, well behind the front lines.[56][57] He was present at the First Battle of Ypres, the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Arras, and the Battle of Passchendaele, and was wounded at the Somme.[58] He was decorated for bravery, receiving the Iron Cross, Second Class, in 1914.[58] On a recommendation by Lieutenant Hugo Gutmann, Hitler's Jewish superior, he received the Iron Cross, First Class on 4 August 1918, a decoration rarely awarded to one of Hitler's Gefreiter rank.[59][60] He received the Black Wound Badge on 18 May 1918.[61]

Hitler 1914 1918





Entry into politicsEdit

Hitler&#039;s DAP membership card





Bundesarchiv Bild 102-10460, Adolf Hitler, Rednerposen

Hitler poses for the camera, 1930


Hitler's vitriolic beer hall speeches began attracting regular audiences. He became adept at using populist themes, including the use of scapegoats, who were blamed for his listeners' economic hardships.[89][90][91] Hitler used personal magnetism and an understanding of crowd psychology to his advantage while engaged in public speaking.[92][93] Historians have noted the hypnotic effect of his rhetoric on large audiences, and of his eyes in small groups.[94] Alfons Heck, a former member of the Hitler Youth, later recalled:


Some visitors who met Hitler privately noted that his appearance and demeanour failed to make a lasting impression.[96][97]


Beer Hall PutschEdit

Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00344A, München, nach Hitler-Ludendorff Prozess



On 8 November 1923 Hitler and the SA stormed a public meeting of 3,000 people organised by Kahr in the Bürgerbräukeller, a beer hall in Munich. Interrupting Kahr's speech, he announced that the national revolution had begun and declared the formation of a new government with Ludendorff.[101] Retiring to a back room, Hitler, with handgun drawn, demanded and got the support of Kahr, Seisser, and Lossow.[101] Hitler's forces initially succeeded in occupying the local Reichswehr and police headquarters, but Kahr and his cohorts quickly withdrew their support. Neither the army nor the state police joined forces with Hitler.[102] The next day, Hitler and his followers marched from the beer hall to the Bavarian War Ministry to overthrow the Bavarian government, but police dispersed them.[103] Sixteen NSDAP members and four police officers were killed in the failed coup.[104]

Mein Kampf dust jacket

Dust jacket of Mein Kampf (1926–27)

Hitler fled to the home of Ernst Hanfstaengl and by some accounts contemplated suicide.[105] He was depressed but calm when arrested on 11 November 1923 for high treason.[106] His trial before the special People's Court in Munich began in February 1924,[107] and Alfred Rosenberg became temporary leader of the NSDAP. On 1 April, Hitler was sentenced to five years' imprisonment at Landsberg Prison.[108] There, he received friendly treatment from the guards, and he was allowed mail from supporters and regular visits by party comrades. Pardoned by the Bavarian Supreme Court, he was released from jail on 20 December 1924, against the state prosecutor's objections.[109] Including time on remand, Hitler served just over one year in prison.[110]

While at Landsberg, Hitler dictated most of the first volume of Mein Kampf (My Struggle; originally entitled Four and a Half Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice) to his deputy, Rudolf Hess.[110] The book, dedicated to Thule Society member Dietrich Eckart, was an autobiography and exposition of his ideology. The book laid out Hitler's plans for transforming German society into one based on race. Some passages implied genocide.[111] Published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926, it sold 228,000 copies between 1925 and 1932. One million copies were sold in 1933, Hitler's first year in office.[112]

Shortly before Hitler was eligible for parole, the Bavarian government attempted to have him deported back to Austria.[113] The Austrian federal chancellor rejected the request on the specious grounds that his service in the German Army made his Austrian citizenship void.[114] In response, Hitler formally renounced his Austrian citizenship on 7 April 1925.[114]

Rebuilding the NSDAPEdit



Rise to powerEdit

NSDAP election results[120]
Election Total votes  % votes Reichstag seats Notes
Error in Template:Dts: '1 May 1924' is an invalid dateMay 1924 70061918300000000001,918,300 70006500000000000006.5 700132000000000000032 Hitler in prison
Error in Template:Dts: '1 Dec 1924' is an invalid dateDecember 1924 7005907300000000000907,300 70003000000000000003.0 700114000000000000014 Hitler released from prison
Error in Template:Dts: '1 May 1928' is an invalid dateMay 1928 7005810100000000000810,100 70002600000000000002.6 700112000000000000012  
Error in Template:Dts: '1 Sep 1930' is an invalid dateSeptember 1930 70066409600000000006,409,600 700118300000000000018.3 7002107000000000000107 After the financial crisis
Error in Template:Dts: '1 Jul 1932' is an invalid dateJuly 1932 700713745000000000013,745,000 700137300999990000037.3 7002230000000000000230 After Hitler was candidate for presidency
Error in Template:Dts: '1 Nov 1932' is an invalid dateNovember 1932 700711737000000000011,737,000 700133100000000000033.1 7002196000000000000196  
Error in Template:Dts: '1 Mar 1933' is an invalid dateMarch 1933 700717277180000000017,277,180 700143900000000000043.9 7002288000000000000288 Only partially free; During Hitler's term as chancellor of Germany

Brüning administrationEdit


Bundesarchiv Bild 119-0289, München, Hitler bei Einweihung &quot;Braunes Haus&quot;


Hitler made a prominent appearance at the trial of two Reichswehr officers, Lieutenants Richard Scheringer and Hans Ludin, in late 1930. Both were charged with membership in the NSDAP, at that time illegal for Reichswehr personnel.[124] The prosecution argued that the NSDAP was an extremist party, prompting defence lawyer Hans Frank to call on Hitler to testify.[125] On 25 September 1930, Hitler testified that his party would pursue political power solely through democratic elections,[126] which won him many supporters in the officer corps.[127]

Brüning's austerity measures brought little economic improvement and were extremely unpopular.[128] Hitler exploited this by targeting his political messages specifically at people who had been affected by the inflation of the 1920s and the Depression, such as farmers, war veterans, and the middle class.[129]

Although Hitler had terminated his Austrian citizenship in 1925, he did not acquire German citizenship for almost seven years. This meant he was stateless, unable to run for public office, and still faced the risk of deportation.[130] On 25 February 1932, the interior minister of Brunswick, Dietrich Klagges, who was a member of the NSDAP, appointed Hitler as administrator for the state's delegation to the Reichsrat in Berlin, making Hitler a citizen of Brunswick,[131] and thus of Germany.[132]

In 1932, Hitler ran against Hindenburg in the presidential elections. A 27 January 1932 speech to the Industry Club in Düsseldorf won him support from many of Germany's most powerful industrialists.[133] Hindenburg had support from various nationalist, monarchist, Catholic, and republican parties, and some Social Democrats. Hitler used the campaign slogan "Hitler über Deutschland" ("Hitler over Germany"), a reference to his political ambitions and his campaigning by aircraft.[134] He was one of the first politicians to use aircraft travel for political purposes, and utilised it effectively.[135][136] Hitler came in second in both rounds of the election, garnering more than 35 per cent of the vote in the final election. Although he lost to Hindenburg, this election established Hitler as a strong force in German politics.[137]

Appointment as chancellorEdit


Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1972-026-11, Machtübernahme Hitlers



Reichstag fire and March electionsEdit

As chancellor, Hitler worked against attempts by the NSDAP's opponents to build a majority government. Because of the political stalemate, he asked Hindenburg to again dissolve the Reichstag, and elections were scheduled for early March. On 27 February 1933, the Reichstag building was set on fire. Göring blamed a communist plot, because Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe was found in incriminating circumstances inside the burning building.[142] According to the British historian Sir Ian Kershaw, the consensus of nearly all historians is that van der Lubbe actually set the fire.[143] Others, including William L. Shirer and Alan Bullock, are of the opinion that the NSDAP itself was responsible.[144][145] At Hitler's urging, Hindenburg responded with the Reichstag Fire Decree of 28 February, which suspended basic rights and allowed detention without trial. The decree was permitted under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which gave the president the power to take emergency measures to protect public safety and order.[146] Activities of the German Communist Party (KPD) were suppressed, and some 4,000 communist party members were arrested.[147]


Day of Potsdam and the Enabling ActEdit

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-S38324, Tag von Potsdam, Adolf Hitler, Paul v. Hindenburg





Removal of remaining limitsEdit


— Adolf Hitler to a British correspondent in Berlin, June 1934

Having achieved full control over the legislative and executive branches of government, Hitler and his allies began to suppress the remaining opposition. The Social Democratic Party was banned and its assets seized.[157] While many trade union delegates were in Berlin for May Day activities, SA stormtroopers demolished union offices around the country. On 2 May 1933 all trade unions were forced to dissolve and their leaders were arrested. Some were sent to concentration camps.[158] The German Labour Front was formed as an umbrella organisation to represent all workers, administrators, and company owners, thus reflecting the concept of national socialism in the spirit of Hitler's Volksgemeinschaft ("people's community").[159]

Adolf Hitler-1933


By the end of June, the other parties had been intimidated into disbanding. This included the Nazis' nominal coalition partner, the DNVP; with the SA's help, Hitler forced its leader, Hugenberg, to resign on 29 June. On 14 July 1933, the NSDAP was declared the only legal political party in Germany.[159][157] The demands of the SA for more political and military power caused anxiety among military, industrial, and political leaders. In response, Hitler purged the entire SA leadership in the Night of the Long Knives, which took place from 30 June to 2 July 1934.[160] Hitler targeted Ernst Röhm and other SA leaders who, along with a number of Hitler's political adversaries (such as Gregor Strasser and former chancellor Kurt von Schleicher), were rounded up, arrested, and shot.[161] While the international community and some Germans were shocked by the murders, many in Germany believed Hitler was restoring order.[162]

On 2 August 1934, Hindenburg died. The previous day, the cabinet had enacted the "Law Concerning the Highest State Office of the Reich".[163] This law stated that upon Hindenburg's death, the office of president would be abolished and its powers merged with those of the chancellor. Hitler thus became head of state as well as head of government, and was formally named as Führer und Reichskanzler (leader and chancellor).[164] With this action, Hitler eliminated the last legal remedy by which he could be removed from office.[165]

As head of state, Hitler became supreme commander of the armed forces. The traditional loyalty oath of servicemen was altered to affirm loyalty to Hitler personally, by name, rather than to the office of supreme commander or the state.[166] On 19 August, the merger of the presidency with the chancellorship was approved by 90 per cent of the electorate voting in a plebiscite.[167]

Standarte Adolf Hitlers

Hitler's personal standard

In early 1938, Hitler used blackmail to consolidate his hold over the military by instigating the Blomberg–Fritsch Affair. Hitler forced his War Minister, Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg, to resign by using a police dossier that showed that Blomberg's new wife had a record for prostitution.[168][169] Army commander Colonel-General Werner von Fritsch was removed after the Schutzstaffel (SS) produced allegations that he had engaged in a homosexual relationship.[170] Both men had fallen into disfavour because they objected to Hitler's demand to make the Wehrmacht ready for war as early as 1938.[171] Hitler assumed Blomberg's title of Commander-in-Chief, thus taking personal command of the armed forces. He replaced the Ministry of War with the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Armed Forces High Command: OKW), headed by General Wilhelm Keitel. On the same day, sixteen generals were stripped of their commands and 44 more were transferred; all were suspected of not being sufficiently pro-Nazi.[172] By early February 1938, twelve more generals had been removed.[173]

Hitler took care to give his dictatorship the appearance of legality. Many of his decrees were explicitly based on the Reichstag Fire Decree and hence on Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. The Reichstag renewed the Enabling Act twice, each time for a four-year period.[174] While elections to the Reichstag were still held (in 1933, 1936, and 1938), voters were presented with a single list of Nazis and pro-Nazi "guests" which carried with well over 90 percent of the vote.[175] These elections were held in far-from-secret conditions; the Nazis threatened severe reprisals against anyone who didn't vote or dared to vote no.[176]

Nazi GermanyEdit

Economy and cultureEdit

Bundesarchiv Bild 102-04062A, Nürnberg, Reichsparteitag, SA- und SS-Appell


In August 1934, Hitler appointed Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht as Minister of Economics, and in the following year, as Plenipotentiary for War Economy in charge of preparing the economy for war.[177] Reconstruction and rearmament were financed through Mefo bills, printing money, and seizing the assets of people arrested as enemies of the State, including Jews.[178] Unemployment fell from six million in 1932 to one million in 1936.[179] Hitler oversaw one of the largest infrastructure improvement campaigns in German history, leading to the construction of dams, autobahns, railroads, and other civil works. Wages were slightly lower in the mid to late 1930s compared with wages during the Weimar Republic, while the cost of living increased by 25 per cent.[180] The average work week increased during the shift to a war economy; by 1939, the average German was working between 47 and 50 hours a week.[181]

Hitler's government sponsored architecture on an immense scale. Albert Speer, instrumental in implementing Hitler's classicist reinterpretation of German culture, was placed in charge of the proposed architectural renovations of Berlin.[182] In 1936, Hitler opened the summer Olympic games in Berlin.

Rearmament and new alliancesEdit

In a meeting with German military leaders on 3 February 1933, Hitler spoke of "conquest for Lebensraum in the East and its ruthless Germanisation" as his ultimate foreign policy objectives.[183] In March, Prince Bernhard Wilhelm von Bülow, secretary at the Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Office), issued a statement of major foreign policy aims: Anschluss with Austria, the restoration of Germany's national borders of 1914, rejection of military restrictions under the Treaty of Versailles, the return of the former German colonies in Africa, and a German zone of influence in Eastern Europe. Hitler found Bülow's goals to be too modest.[184] In speeches during this period, he stressed the peaceful goals of his policies and a willingness to work within international agreements.[185] At the first meeting of his cabinet in 1933, Hitler prioritised military spending over unemployment relief.[186]

File:Hitlermusso2 edit.jpg

Germany withdrew from the League of Nations and the World Disarmament Conference in October 1933.[187] In January 1935, over 90 per cent of the people of the Saarland, then under League of Nations administration, voted to unite with Germany.[188] That March, Hitler announced an expansion of the Wehrmacht to 600,000 members—six times the number permitted by the Versailles Treaty—including development of an air force (Luftwaffe) and an increase in the size of the navy (Kriegsmarine). Britain, France, Italy, and the League of Nations condemned these violations of the Treaty, but did nothing to stop it.[189][190] The Anglo-German Naval Agreement (AGNA) of 18 June allowed German tonnage to increase to 35 per cent of that of the British navy. Hitler called the signing of the AGNA "the happiest day of his life", believing that the agreement marked the beginning of the Anglo-German alliance he had predicted in Mein Kampf.[191] France and Italy were not consulted before the signing, directly undermining the League of Nations and setting the Treaty of Versailles on the path towards irrelevance.[192]

Germany reoccupied the demilitarised zone in the Rhineland in March 1936, in violation of the Versailles Treaty. Hitler also sent troops to Spain to support General Franco after receiving an appeal for help in July 1936. At the same time, Hitler continued his efforts to create an Anglo-German alliance.[193] In August 1936, in response to a growing economic crisis caused by his rearmament efforts, Hitler ordered Göring to implement a Four Year Plan to prepare Germany for war within the next four years.[194] The plan envisaged an all-out struggle between "Judeo-Bolshevism" and German national socialism, which in Hitler's view required a committed effort of rearmament regardless of the economic costs.[195]

Count Galeazzo Ciano, foreign minister of Mussolini's government, declared an axis between Germany and Italy, and on 25 November, Germany signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan. Britain, China, Italy, and Poland were also invited to join the Anti-Comintern Pact, but only Italy signed in 1937. Hitler abandoned his plan of an Anglo-German alliance, blaming "inadequate" British leadership.[196] At a meeting in the Reich Chancellery with his foreign ministers and military chiefs that November, Hitler restated his intention of acquiring Lebensraum for the German people. He ordered preparations for war in the East, to begin as early as 1938 and no later than 1943. In the event of his death, the conference minutes, recorded as the Hossbach Memorandum, were to be regarded as his "political testament".[197] He felt that a severe decline in living standards in Germany as a result of the economic crisis could only be stopped by military aggression aimed at seizing Austria and Czechoslovakia.[198][199] Hitler urged quick action before Britain and France gained a permanent lead in the arms race.[198] In early 1938, in the wake of the Blomberg–Fritsch Affair, Hitler asserted control of the military-foreign policy apparatus, dismissing Neurath as foreign minister and appointing himself Oberster Befehlshaber der Wehrmacht (supreme commander of the armed forces).[194] From early 1938 onwards, Hitler was carrying out a foreign policy ultimately aimed at war.[200]

World War IIEdit

Early diplomatic successesEdit

Alliance with JapanEdit

Matsuoka visits Hitler


In February 1938, on the advice of his newly appointed foreign minister, the strongly pro-Japanese Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hitler ended the Sino-German alliance with the Republic of China to instead enter into an alliance with the more modern and powerful Japan. Hitler announced German recognition of Manchukuo, the Japanese-occupied state in Manchuria, and renounced German claims to their former colonies in the Pacific held by Japan.[201] Hitler ordered an end to arms shipments to China and recalled all German officers working with the Chinese Army.[201] In retaliation, Chinese General Chiang Kai-shek cancelled all Sino-German economic agreements, depriving the Germans of many Chinese raw materials.[202]

Austria and CzechoslovakiaEdit

On 12 March 1938, Hitler declared unification of Austria with Nazi Germany in the Anschluss.[203][204] Hitler then turned his attention to the ethnic German population of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.[205]


Bundesarchiv Bild 137-004055, Eger, Besuch Adolf Hitlers


In April Hitler ordered the OKW to prepare for Fall Grün (Case Green), the code name for an invasion of Czechoslovakia.[208] As a result of intense French and British diplomatic pressure, on 5 September Czechoslovakian President Edvard Beneš unveiled the "Fourth Plan" for constitutional reorganisation of his country, which agreed to most of Henlein's demands for Sudeten autonomy.[209] Henlein's Heimfront responded to Beneš' offer by instigating a series of violent clashes with the Czechoslovakian police that led to the declaration of martial law in certain Sudeten districts.[210][211]

Germany was dependent on imported oil; a confrontation with Britain over the Czechoslovakian dispute could curtail Germany's oil supplies. This forced Hitler to call off Fall Grün, originally planned for 1 October 1938.[212] On 29 September Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, Édouard Daladier, and Mussolini attended a one-day conference in Munich that led to the Munich Agreement, which handed over the Sudetenland districts to Germany.[213][214]

Chamberlain was satisfied with the Munich conference, calling the outcome "peace for our time", while Hitler was angered about the missed opportunity for war in 1938;[215][216] he expressed his disappointment in a speech on 9 October in Saarbrücken.[217] In Hitler's view, the British-brokered peace, although favourable to the ostensible German demands, was a diplomatic defeat which spurred his intent of limiting British power to pave the way for the eastern expansion of Germany.[218][219] As a result of the summit, Hitler was selected Time magazine magazine's Man of the Year for 1938.[220]

In late 1938 and early 1939, the continuing economic crisis caused by rearmament forced Hitler to make major defence cuts.[221] In his "Export or die" speech of 30 January 1939, he called for an economic offensive to increase German foreign exchange holdings to pay for raw materials such as high-grade iron needed for military weapons.[221]

On 15 March 1939, in violation of the Munich accord and possibly as a result of the deepening economic crisis requiring additional assets,[222] Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht to invade Prague, and from Prague Castle he proclaimed Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate.[223]

Start of World War IIEdit

In private discussions in 1939, Hitler declared Britain the main enemy to be defeated and that Poland's obliteration was a necessary prelude for that goal.[224] The eastern flank would be secured and land would be added to Germany's Lebensraum.[225] Offended by the British "guarantee" on 31 March 1939 of Polish independence, he said, "I shall brew them a devil's drink".[226] In a speech in Wilhelmshaven for the launch of the battleship Tirpitz on 1 April, he threatened to denounce the Anglo-German Naval Agreement if the British continued to guarantee Polish independence, which he perceived as an "encirclement" policy.[226] Poland was to either become a German satellite state or be neutralised to secure the Reich's eastern flank and to prevent a possible British blockade.[227] Hitler initially favoured the idea of a satellite state, but upon its rejection by the Polish government, he decided to invade and made this the main foreign policy goal of 1939.[228] On 3 April, Hitler ordered the military to prepare for Fall Weiss ("Case White"), the plan for invading Poland on 25 August.[228] In a Reichstag speech on 28 April, he renounced both the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact.[229] Historians such as William Carr, Gerhard Weinberg, and Kershaw have argued that one reason for Hitler's rush to war was his fear of an early death.[230][231][232]

Adolf Hitler 42 Pfennig stamp


Hitler was concerned that a military attack against Poland could result in a premature war with Britain.[227][233] Hitler's foreign minister and former Ambassador to London, Joachim von Ribbentrop, assured him that neither Britain nor France would honour their commitments to Poland.[234][235] Accordingly, on 22 August 1939 Hitler ordered a military mobilisation against Poland.[236]

This plan required tacit Soviet support,[237] and the non-aggression pact (the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact) between Germany and the Soviet Union, led by Joseph Stalin, included a secret agreement to partition Poland between the two countries.[238] Contrary to Ribbentrop's prediction that Britain would sever Anglo-Polish ties, Britain and Poland signed the Anglo-Polish alliance on 25 August 1939. This, along with news from Italy that Mussolini would not honour the Pact of Steel, prompted Hitler to postpone the attack on Poland from 25 August to 1 September.[239] Hitler unsuccessfully tried to manoeuvre the British into neutrality by offering them a non-aggression guarantee on 25 August; he then instructed Ribbentrop to present a last-minute peace plan with an impossibly short time limit in an effort to blame the imminent war on British and Polish inaction.[240][241]

On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded western Poland under the pretext of having been denied claims to the Free City of Danzig and the right to extraterritorial roads across the Polish Corridor, which Germany had ceded under the Versailles Treaty.[242] In response, Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September, surprising Hitler and prompting him to angrily ask Ribbentrop, "Now what?"[243] France and Britain did not act on their declarations immediately, and on 17 September, Soviet forces invaded eastern Poland.[244]

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-S55480, Polen, Parade vor Adolf Hitler


The fall of Poland was followed by what contemporary journalists dubbed the "Phoney War" or Sitzkrieg ("sitting war"). Hitler instructed the two newly appointed Gauleiters of north-western Poland, Albert Forster of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia and Arthur Greiser of Reichsgau Wartheland, to Germanise their areas, with "no questions asked" about how this was accomplished.[245] Whereas Polish citizens in Forster's area merely had to sign forms stating that they had German blood,[246] Greiser carried out a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign on the Polish population in his purview.[245] Greiser complained that Forster was allowing thousands of Poles to be accepted as "racial" Germans and thus endangered German "racial purity". Hitler refrained from getting involved.[245] This inaction has been advanced as an example of the theory of "working towards the Führer": Hitler issued vague instructions and expected his subordinates to work out policies on their own.

Another dispute pitched one side represented by Himmler and Greiser, who championed ethnic cleansing in Poland, against another represented by Göring and Hans Frank, governor-general of the General Government territory of occupied Poland, who called for turning Poland into the "granary" of the Reich.[247] On 12 February 1940, the dispute was initially settled in favour of the Göring–Frank view, which ended the economically disruptive mass expulsions.[247] On 15 May 1940, Himmler issued a memo entitled "Some Thoughts on the Treatment of Alien Population in the East", calling for the expulsion of the entire Jewish population of Europe into Africa and reducing the Polish population to a "leaderless class of labourers".[247] Hitler called Himmler's memo "good and correct",[247] and, ignoring Göring and Frank, implemented the Himmler–Greiser policy in Poland.

File:Adolf Hitler in Paris 1940.jpg

Hitler began a military build-up on Germany's western border, and in April 1940, German forces invaded Denmark and Norway. On 9 April, Hitler proclaimed the birth of the Greater Germanic Reich, his vision of a united empire of the Germanic nations of Europe, where the Dutch, Flemish, and Scandinavians were joined into a "racially pure" polity under German leadership.[248] In May 1940, Germany attacked France, and conquered Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium. These victories prompted Mussolini to have Italy join forces with Hitler on 10 June. France and Germany signed an armistice on 22 June.[249] Kershaw notes that Hitler's popularity within Germany – and German support for the war – reached its peak when he returned to Berlin on 6 July from his tour of Paris.[250] Following the unexpected swift victory, Hitler promoted twelve generals to the rank of field marshal during the 1940 Field Marshal Ceremony.[251][252]

Britain, whose troops were forced to evacuate France by sea from Dunkirk,[253] continued to fight alongside other British dominions in the Battle of the Atlantic. Hitler made peace overtures to the new British leader, Winston Churchill, and upon their rejection he ordered a series of aerial attacks on Royal Air Force airbases and radar stations in south-east England. The German Luftwaffe failed to defeat the Royal Air Force in what became known as the Battle of Britain.[254] By the end of October, Hitler realised that air superiority for the invasion of Britain (in Operation Sea Lion) could not be achieved, and he ordered nightly air raids on British cities, including London, Plymouth, and Coventry.[255]


In the Spring of 1941, German forces were deployed to North Africa, the Balkans, and the Middle East. In February, German forces arrived in Libya to bolster the Italian presence. In April, Hitler launched the invasion of Yugoslavia, quickly followed by the invasion of Greece.[258] In May, German forces were sent to support Iraqi rebel forces fighting against the British and to invade Crete.[259]

Path to defeatEdit

On 22 June 1941, contravening the Hitler–Stalin Non-Aggression Pact of 1939, 4–5 million Axis troops attacked the Soviet Union.[260] This large-scale offensive (codenamed Operation Barbarossa) was intended to destroy the Soviet Union and seize its natural resources for subsequent aggression against the Western powers.[261][262] The invasion conquered a huge area, including the Baltic republics, Belarus, and West Ukraine. By early August, Axis troops had advanced 500 km (310 mi) and won the Battle of Smolensk. Hitler ordered Army Group Centre to temporarily halt its advance to Moscow and divert its Panzer groups to aid in the encirclement of Leningrad and Kiev.[263] His generals disagreed with this change of targets, having advanced within 400 km (250 mi) of Moscow, and his decision caused a major crisis among the military leadership.[264][265] The pause provided the Red Army with an opportunity to mobilise fresh reserves; historian Russel Stolfi considers it to be one of the major factors that caused the failure of the Moscow offensive, which was resumed only in October 1941 and ended disastrously in December.[263]

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1987-0703-507, Berlin, Reichstagssitzung, Rede Adolf Hitler



On 18 December 1941, Himmler asked Hitler, "What to do with the Jews of Russia?", to which Hitler replied, "als Partisanen auszurotten" ("exterminate them as partisans").[267] Israeli historian Yehuda Bauer has commented that the remark is probably as close as historians will ever get to a definitive order from Hitler for the genocide carried out during the Holocaust.[267]

In late 1942, German forces were defeated in the second battle of El Alamein,[268] thwarting Hitler's plans to seize the Suez Canal and the Middle East. Overconfident in his own military expertise following the earlier victories in 1940, Hitler became distrustful of his Army High Command and began to interfere in military and tactical planning, with damaging consequences.[269] In December 1942 and January 1943, Hitler's repeated refusal to allow their withdrawal at the Battle of Stalingrad led to the almost total destruction of the 6th Army. Over 200,000 Axis soldiers were killed and 235,000 were taken prisoner. Of the estimated 91,000 German soldiers captured, only around 6,000 survived and returned to Germany after the war.[270] Thereafter came a decisive strategic defeat at the Battle of Kursk.[271] Hitler's military judgement became increasingly erratic, and Germany's military and economic position deteriorated, as did Hitler's health.[272]



Following the allied invasion of Sicily in 1943, Mussolini was removed from power by Victor Emmanuel III after a vote of no confidence of the Grand Council. Marshal Pietro Badoglio, placed in charge of the government, soon surrendered to the Allies.[273] Throughout 1943 and 1944, the Soviet Union steadily forced Hitler's armies into retreat along the Eastern Front. On 6 June 1944, the Western Allied armies landed in northern France in one of the largest amphibious operations in history, Operation Overlord.[274] Many German officers concluded that defeat was inevitable and that Hitler's misjudgement or denial would drag out the war and result in the complete destruction of the country.[275]

Between 1939 and 1945, there were many plans to assassinate Hitler, some of which proceeded to significant degrees.[276] The most well known came from within Germany and was at least partly driven by the increasing prospect of a German defeat in the war.[277] In July 1944, in the 20 July plot, part of Operation Valkyrie, Claus von Stauffenberg planted a bomb in one of Hitler's headquarters, the Wolf's Lair at Rastenburg. Hitler narrowly survived because staff officer Heinz Brandt moved the briefcase containing the bomb behind a leg of the heavy conference table. When the bomb exploded, the table deflected much of the blast. Later, Hitler ordered savage reprisals resulting in the execution of more than 4,900 people.[278]

Defeat and deathEdit

By late 1944, both the Red Army and the Western Allies were advancing into Germany. Recognising the strength and determination of the Red Army, Hitler decided to use his remaining mobile reserves against the American and British troops, which he perceived as far weaker.[279] On 16 December, he launched an offensive in the Ardennes to incite disunity among the Western Allies and perhaps convince them to join his fight against the Soviets.[280] The offensive failed after some temporary successes.[281] With much of Germany in ruins in January 1945, Hitler spoke on the radio: "However grave as the crisis may be at this moment, it will, despite everything, be mastered by our unalterable will."[282] Hitler's hope to negotiate peace with the United States and Britain was encouraged by the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt on 12 April 1945, but contrary to his expectations, this caused no rift among the Allies.[280][283] Acting on his view that Germany's military failures had forfeited its right to survive as a nation, Hitler ordered the destruction of all German industrial infrastructure before it could fall into Allied hands.[284] Minister for Armaments Albert Speer was entrusted with executing this scorched earth policy, but he secretly disobeyed the order.[284][285]


Stars &amp; Stripes &amp; Hitler Dead2.jpg

During a military conference on 22 April, Hitler asked about Steiner's offensive. He was told that the attack had not been launched and that the Soviets had entered Berlin. Hitler asked everyone except Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, Hans Krebs, and Wilhelm Burgdorf to leave the room,[289] then launched into a tirade against the treachery and incompetence of his commanders, culminating in his declaration—for the first time—that "everything was lost".[260] He announced that he would stay in Berlin until the end and then shoot himself.[290]

By 23 April the Red Army had surrounded Berlin,[291] and Goebbels made a proclamation urging its citizens to defend the city.[289] That same day, Göring sent a telegram from Berchtesgaden, arguing that since Hitler was isolated in Berlin, Göring should assume leadership of Germany. Göring set a deadline, after which he would consider Hitler incapacitated.[292] Hitler responded by having Göring arrested, and in his last will and testament, written on 29 April, he removed Göring from all government positions.[293][294] On 28 April Hitler discovered that Himmler, who had left Berlin on 20 April, was trying to discuss surrender terms with the Western Allies.[295][296] He ordered Himmler's arrest and had Hermann Fegelein (Himmler's SS representative at Hitler's HQ in Berlin) shot.[297]

After midnight on 29 April, Hitler married Eva Braun in a small civil ceremony in the Führerbunker. After a modest wedding breakfast with his new wife, Hitler dictated his will to his secretary Traudl Junge.[298][lower-alpha 3] The event was witnessed and documents signed by Krebs, Burgdorf, Goebbels, and Bormann.[299] Later that afternoon, Hitler was informed of the execution of Mussolini, which presumably increased his determination to avoid capture.[300]

On 30 April 1945, when Soviet troops were within a block or two of the Reich Chancellery, Hitler shot himself and Braun bit into a cyanide capsule.[301][302] Their bodies were carried outside to the bombed-out garden behind the Reich Chancellery, where they were placed in a bomb crater and doused with petrol.[303] The corpses were set on fire as the Red Army shelling continued.[304][305] Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz and Joseph Goebbels assumed Hitler's roles as head of state and chancellor respectively.[306]

Berlin surrendered on 2 May. Records in the Soviet archives, obtained after the fall of the Soviet Union, state that the remains of Hitler, Braun, Joseph and Magda Goebbels, the six Goebbels children, General Hans Krebs, and Hitler's dogs were repeatedly buried and exhumed.[307] On 4 April 1970, a Soviet KGB team used detailed burial charts to exhume five wooden boxes at the SMERSH facility in Magdeburg. The remains from the boxes were burned, crushed, and scattered into the Biederitz river, a tributary of the Elbe.[308] According to Kershaw, the corpses of Braun and Hitler were fully burned when the Red Army found them, and only a lower jaw with dental work could be identified as Hitler's remains.[309]

The HolocaustEdit


— Adolf Hitler addressing the German Reichstag, 30 January 1939

Buchenwald Corpses 60623


The Holocaust and Germany's war in the East was based on Hitler's long-standing view that the Jews were the enemy of the German people and that Lebensraum was needed for Germany's expansion. He focused on Eastern Europe for this expansion, aiming to defeat Poland and the Soviet Union and on removing or killing the Jews and Slavs.[311] The Generalplan Ost (General Plan East) called for deporting the population of occupied Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to West Siberia, for use as slave labour or to be murdered;[312] the conquered territories were to be colonised by German or "Germanised" settlers.[313] The goal was to implement this plan after the conquest of the Soviet Union, but when this failed, Hitler moved the plans forward.[312][314] By January 1942, he had decided that the Jews, Slavs, and other deportees considered undesirable should be killed.[315][lower-alpha 4]

Aktion brand

Hitler's order for Action T4, dated 1 September 1939

The Holocaust (also known as the Final Solution to the Jewish Question) was ordered by Hitler and organised and executed by Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich. The records of the Wannsee Conference, held on 20 January 1942 and led by Heydrich, with fifteen senior Nazi officials participating, provide the clearest evidence of systematic planning for the Holocaust. On 22 February, Hitler was recorded saying, "we shall regain our health only by eliminating the Jews".[316] Although no direct order from Hitler authorising the mass killings has surfaced,[317] his public speeches, orders to his generals, and the diaries of Nazi officials demonstrate that he conceived and authorised the extermination of European Jewry.[318][319] He approved the Einsatzgruppen—killing squads that followed the German army through Poland, the Baltic, and the Soviet Union[320]—and he was well informed about their activities.[318][321] By summer 1942, Auschwitz concentration camp was rapidly expanded to accommodate large numbers of deportees for killing or enslavement.[322] Scores of other concentration camps and satellite camps were set up throughout Europe, with several camps devoted exclusively to extermination.[323]

Between 1939 and 1945, the Schutzstaffel (SS), assisted by collaborationist governments and recruits from occupied countries, was responsible for the deaths of at least eleven million people,[324][312] including 5.5 to 6 million Jews (representing two-thirds of the Jewish population of Europe),[325][326] and between 200,000 and 1,500,000 Romani people.[327][326] Deaths took place in concentration and extermination camps, ghettos, and through mass executions. Many victims of the Holocaust were gassed to death, whereas others died of starvation or disease or while working as slave labourers.[328] In addition to eliminating Jews, the Nazis also planned to reduce the population of the conquered territories by 30 million people through starvation in an action called the Hunger Plan. Food supplies would be diverted to the German army and German civilians. Cities would be razed and the land allowed to return to forest or resettled by German colonists.[329] Together, the Hunger Plan and Generalplan Ost would have led to the starvation of 80 million people in the Soviet Union.[330] These partially fulfilled plans resulted in the democidal deaths of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war.[331]

Hitler's policies also resulted in the killing of nearly two million Poles,[332] over three million Soviet prisoners of war,[333] communists and other political opponents, homosexuals, the physically and mentally disabled,[334][335] Jehovah's Witnesses, Adventists, and trade unionists. Hitler did not speak publicly about the killings, and seems never to have visited the concentration camps.[336]

The Nazis also embraced the concept of racial hygiene. On 15 September 1935, Hitler presented two laws—known as the Nuremberg Laws—to the Reichstag. The laws banned sexual relations and marriages between Aryans and Jews and were later extended to include "Gypsies, Negroes or their bastard offspring".[337] The laws also stripped all non-Aryans of their German citizenship and forbade the employment of non-Jewish women under the age of 45 in Jewish households.[338] Hitler's early eugenic policies targeted children with physical and developmental disabilities in a programme dubbed Action Brandt, and he later authorised a euthanasia programme for adults with serious mental and physical disabilities, now referred to as Action T4.[339]

Leadership styleEdit

Hitler ruled the NSDAP by asserting the Führerprinzip (leader principle). The principle relied on absolute obedience of all subordinates to their superiors; thus he viewed the government structure as a pyramid, with himself—the infallible leader—at the apex. Rank in the party was not determined by elections—positions were filled through appointment by those of higher rank, who demanded unquestioning obedience to the will of the leader.[340] Hitler's leadership style was to give contradictory orders to his subordinates and to place them into positions where their duties and responsibilities overlapped with those of others, to have "the stronger one [do] the job".[341] In this way, Hitler fostered distrust, competition, and infighting among his subordinates to consolidate and maximise his own power. His cabinet never met after 1938, and he discouraged his ministers from meeting independently.[342][343] Hitler typically did not give written orders; instead he communicated them verbally, or had them conveyed through his close associate, Martin Bormann.[344] He entrusted Bormann with his paperwork, appointments, and personal finances; Bormann used his position to control the flow of information and access to Hitler.[345]

Hitler dominated his country's war effort during World War II to a greater extent than any other national leader. He assumed the role of supreme commander of the armed forces during 1938, and subsequently made all major decisions regarding Germany's military strategy. His decision to mount a risky series of offensives against Norway, France, and the Low Countries in 1940 against the advice of the military proved successful, though the diplomatic and military strategies he employed in attempts to force the United Kingdom out of the war ended in failure.[346] Hitler deepened his involvement in the war effort by appointing himself commander-in-chief of the Army in December 1941; from this point forward he personally directed the war against the Soviet Union, while his military commanders facing the Western Allies retained a degree of autonomy.[347] Hitler's leadership became increasingly disconnected from reality as the war turned against Germany, with the military's defensive strategies often hindered by his slow decision making and frequent directives to hold untenable positions. Nevertheless, he continued to believe that only his leadership could deliver victory.[346] In the final months of the war Hitler refused to consider peace negotiations, regarding the complete destruction of Germany as preferable to surrender.[348] The military did not challenge Hitler's dominance of the war effort, and senior officers generally supported and enacted his decisions.[349]




For peace, freedom
and democracy
never again fascism
millions of dead remind [us]

Hitler's suicide was likened by contemporaries to a "spell" being broken.[350][351] Public support for Hitler had collapsed by the time of his death and few Germans mourned his passing; Kershaw argues that most civilians and military personnel were too busy adjusting to the collapse of the country or fleeing from the fighting to take any interest.[352] According to historian John Toland, National Socialism "burst like a bubble" without its leader.[353]

Hitler's actions and Nazi ideology are almost universally regarded as gravely immoral;[354] according to Kershaw, "Never in history has such ruination—physical and moral—been associated with the name of one man".[355] Hitler's political programme brought about a world war, leaving behind a devastated and impoverished Eastern and Central Europe. Germany itself suffered wholesale destruction, characterised as "Zero Hour".[356] Hitler's policies inflicted human suffering on an unprecedented scale;[357] according to R.J. Rummel, the Nazi regime was responsible for the democidal killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war.[324] In addition, 29 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European Theatre of World War II.[324] The total number of civilians killed during the Second World War was an unprecedented development in the history of warfare.[358] Historians, philosophers, and politicians often use the word "evil" to describe the Nazi regime.[359] Many European countries have criminalised both the promotion of Nazism and Holocaust denial.[360]

Historian Friedrich Meinecke described Hitler as "one of the great examples of the singular and incalculable power of personality in historical life".[361] English historian Hugh Trevor-Roper saw him as "among the 'terrible simplifiers' of history, the most systematic, the most historical, the most philosophical, and yet the coarsest, cruelest, least magnanimous conqueror the world has ever known".[362] For the historian John M. Roberts, Hitler's defeat marked the end of a phase of European history dominated by Germany.[363] In its place emerged the Cold War, a global confrontation between the Western Bloc, dominated by the United States and other NATO nations, and the Eastern Bloc, dominated by the Soviet Union.[364] Historian Sebastian Haffner avers that without Hitler and the displacement of the Jews, the modern nation state of Israel would not exist. He contends that without Hitler, the de-colonisation of former European spheres of influence would have been postponed.[365] Further, Haffner claims that other than Alexander the Great, Hitler had a more significant impact than any other comparable historical figure, in that he too caused a wide range of worldwide changes in a relatively short time span.[366]

Views on religionEdit

Hitler was born to a practising Catholic mother and an anticlerical father; after leaving home Hitler never again attended Mass or received the sacraments.[367][368][369] Speer states that Hitler made harsh pronouncements against the church to his political associates and though he never officially left it, he had no attachment to it.[370] He adds that Hitler felt that in the absence of the church the faithful would turn to mysticism, which he considered a step backwards.[370] According to Speer, Hitler believed that either Japanese religious beliefs or Islam would have been a more suitable religion for the Germans than Christianity, with its "meekness and flabbiness".[371]

Historian John S. Conway states that Hitler was fundamentally opposed to the Christian churches.[372] According to Bullock, Hitler did not believe in God, was anticlerical, and held Christian ethics in contempt because they contravened his preferred view of "survival of the fittest".[373] He favoured aspects of Protestantism that suited his own views, and adopted some elements of the Catholic Church's hierarchical organisation, liturgy, and phraseology in his politics.[374]

Hitler viewed the church as an important politically conservative influence on society,[375] and he adopted a strategic relationship with it that "suited his immediate political purposes".[372] In public, Hitler often praised Christian heritage and German Christian culture, though professing a belief in an "Aryan Jesus", one who fought against the Jews.[376] Any pro-Christian public rhetoric was at variance with his private statements, which described Christianity as "absurdity"[377] and nonsense founded on lies.[378]

According to a U.S. Office of Strategic Services report, "The Nazi Master Plan", Hitler planned to destroy the influence of Christian churches within the Reich.[379][380] His eventual goal was the total elimination of Christianity.[381] This goal informed Hitler's movement early on, but he saw it as inexpedient to express this extreme position publicly.[382] According to Bullock, Hitler wanted to wait until after the war before executing this plan.[383]



Researchers have variously suggested that Hitler suffered from irritable bowel syndrome, skin lesions, irregular heartbeat, coronary sclerosis,[386] Parkinson's disease,[272][387] syphilis,[387] giant cell arteritis with temporal arteritis,[388] and tinnitus.[389] In a report prepared for the Office of Strategic Services in 1943, Walter C. Langer of Harvard University described Hitler as a "neurotic psychopath".[390] In his 1977 book The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler, historian Robert G. L. Waite proposes that Hitler suffered from borderline personality disorder.[391] Historians Henrik Eberle and Hans-Joachim Neumann consider that while Hitler suffered from a number of illnesses including Parkinson's disease, he did not experience pathological delusions and was always fully aware of, and therefore responsible for, the decisions he was making.[392][260] Theories about Hitler's medical condition are difficult to prove, and placing too much weight on them may have the effect of attributing many of the events and consequences of Nazi Germany to the possibly impaired physical health of one individual.[393] Kershaw feels that it is better to take a broader view of German history by examining what social forces led to the Nazi dictatorship and its policies rather than to pursue narrow explanations for the Holocaust and World War II based on only one person.[394]

Hitler followed a vegetarian diet.[395] At social events he sometimes gave graphic accounts of the slaughter of animals in an effort to make his dinner guests shun meat.[396] Bormann had a greenhouse constructed near the Berghof (near Berchtesgaden) to ensure a steady supply of fresh fruit and vegetables for Hitler throughout the war.[397] Hitler publicly avoided alcohol. He occasionally drank beer and wine in private, but gave up drinking because of weight gain in 1943.[398] He was a non-smoker for most of his life, but smoked heavily in his youth (25 to 40 cigarettes a day). He eventually quit, calling the habit "a waste of money".[399] He encouraged his close associates to quit by offering a gold watch to any who were able to break the habit.[400] Hitler began using amphetamine occasionally after 1937 and became addicted to it in late 1942.[401] Speer linked this use of amphetamine to Hitler's increasingly inflexible decision making (for example, rarely allowing military retreats).[402]

Prescribed 90 medications during the war years, Hitler took many pills each day for chronic stomach problems and other ailments.[403] He regularly consumed methamphetamine, barbiturates, opiates, and cocaine.[404][405] He suffered ruptured eardrums as a result of the 20 July plot bomb blast in 1944, and 200 wood splinters had to be removed from his legs.[406] Newsreel footage of Hitler shows tremors of his hand and a shuffling walk, which began before the war and worsened towards the end of his life.[403] Ernst-Günther Schenck and several other doctors who met Hitler in the last weeks of his life also formed a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.[407]


Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F051673-0059, Adolf Hitler und Eva Braun auf dem Berghof


Hitler created a public image as a celibate man without a domestic life, dedicated entirely to his political mission and the nation.[130][408] He met his lover, Eva Braun, in 1929,[409] and married her in April 1945.[410] In September 1931, his half-niece, Geli Raubal, committed suicide with Hitler's gun in his Munich apartment. It was rumoured among contemporaries that Geli was in a romantic relationship with him, and her death was a source of deep, lasting pain.[411] Paula Hitler, the last living member of his immediate family, died in 1960.[412]

In propaganda filmsEdit

File:Adolf Hitler at Berchtesgaden.ogg


List of propaganda and film appearancesEdit

See alsoEdit


  1. The successor institution to the Realschule in Linz is Bundesrealgymnasium Linz Fadingerstraße (de).
  4. For a summary of recent scholarship on Hitler's central role in the Holocaust, see McMillan 2012.



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External linksEdit

Political offices
Preceded by
Kurt von Schleicher
Chancellor of Germany(1)
Succeeded by
Joseph Goebbels
Preceded by
Paul von Hindenburg
As President
Führer of Germany(1)
Succeeded by
Karl Dönitz
As President
Party political offices
Preceded by
Anton Drexler
Leader of the NSDAP
Succeeded by
Martin Bormann
Military offices
Preceded by
Franz Pfeffer von Salomon
Oberste SA-Führer
Succeeded by
Preceded by
Office created
Oberste Führer der Schutzstaffel
Succeeded by
Preceded by
Walther von Brauchitsch
Oberbefehlshaber des Heeres (Army Commander)
Succeeded by
Ferdinand Schörner
Honorary titles
Preceded by
Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Mei-ling
Time Person of the Year
Succeeded by
Joseph Stalin
Notes and references


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