@Imperator @Sneedson Steve won. Steve is moderator. Now and forever. Get over it.
Adolf Hitler[a] (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the
dictator of
Nazi Germany from 1933 until
his suicide in 1945.
He rose to power as the leader of the
Nazi Party,
[c] becoming
the chancellor in 1933 and then taking the title of
Führer und Reichskanzler in 1934.
[d] His
invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 marked the start of the
Second World War. He was closely involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of
the Holocaust: the
genocide of
about six million Jews and millions of other victims.
Hitler was born in
Braunau am Inn in
Austria-Hungary and was raised near
Linz. He lived in
Vienna in the first decade of the 1900s before moving to
Germany in 1913. He was decorated during
his service in the German Army in
World War I, receiving the
Iron Cross. In 1919, he joined the
German Workers' Party (DAP), the precursor of the Nazi Party, and in 1921 was appointed leader of the Nazi Party. In 1923, he attempted to seize governmental power in
a failed coup in Munich and was sentenced to five years in prison, serving just over a year of his sentence. While there, he dictated the first volume of his
autobiography and
political manifesto Mein Kampf (
My Struggle). After his early release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the
Treaty of Versailles and promoting
pan-Germanism,
antisemitism, and
anti-communism with
charismatic oratory and
Nazi propaganda. He frequently denounced
communism as being part of an
international Jewish conspiracy.
By November 1932, the Nazi Party held the most seats in the
Reichstag, but not a majority. No political parties were able to form a majority coalition in support of a candidate for chancellor. Former chancellor
Franz von Papen and other conservative leaders convinced President
Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor on 30 January 1933. Shortly thereafter, the Reichstag passed the
Enabling Act of 1933, which began the process of transforming the
Weimar Republic into Nazi Germany, a
one-party dictatorship based on the
totalitarian and
autocratic ideology of
Nazism. Upon Hindenburg's death on 2 August 1934, Hitler succeeded him, becoming simultaneously the head of state and government, with absolute power. Domestically, Hitler implemented numerous
racist policies and sought to deport or kill
German Jews. His first six years in power resulted in rapid economic recovery from the
Great Depression, the abrogation of restrictions imposed on Germany after World War I, and the annexation of territories inhabited by millions of ethnic Germans, which initially gave him significant popular support.
One of Hitler's key goals was
Lebensraum (lit. 'living space') for the German people in Eastern Europe, and his aggressive,
expansionist foreign policy is considered the primary
cause of World War II in Europe. He directed large-scale rearmament and, on 1 September 1939, invaded Poland, causing Britain and France to
declare war on Germany. In June 1941, Hitler ordered
an invasion of the Soviet Union. In December 1941, he
declared war on the United States. By the end of 1941, German forces and the European
Axis powers occupied most of Europe and
North Africa. These gains were gradually reversed after 1941, and in 1945 the
Allied armies defeated the German army. On 29 April 1945, he married his longtime partner,
Eva Braun, in the
Führerbunker in Berlin. The couple committed suicide the next day to avoid capture by the Soviet
Red Army. In accordance with Hitler's wishes, their corpses were burned.
The historian and biographer
Ian Kershaw described Hitler as "the embodiment of modern political evil".
[3] Under Hitler's leadership and
racist ideology, the Nazi regime was responsible for the genocide of an estimated six million Jews and millions of other victims, whom he and his followers deemed
Untermenschen (subhumans) or socially undesirable. Hitler and the Nazi regime were also responsible for the deliberate killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war. In addition, 28.7 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European
theatre. The number of
civilians killed during World War II was unprecedented in warfare, and the casualties constitute the
deadliest conflict in history.