Download Nazi Germany - Adolf Hitler

Nazi Germany - Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was born in the Austrian town of Braunau-am-Inn
on 20th April 1889. The town was close to the Austro-German
border and his father, Alois, worked as a border control clerk.
His mother, Klara, was a housekeeper.
As a child he got on very well with his mother but he didn’t get
on well with his father, a strict authoritative disciplinarian. He
attended school from the age of six years but did not do well
in academic subjects. His school record showed reasonable
grades for PE and some artistic talent.
Adolf Hitler left school at the age of sixteen and went to
Vienna where he hoped to enter the Academy and become a
painter. His application to enter the academy was rejected
when he was 17 years old and a year later his mother died from cancer. His father had died four
years earlier and with no relatives willing to support him Adolf Hitler found himself living rough on
the streets of Vienna. He became interested in politics and was heavily influenced by the climate
of anti-Semitism that existed in Austria at that time.
In 1914, Hitler crossed the border to Germany and joined the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry
Regiment. He fought on the Western Front and was awarded the Iron Cross for his bravery in
battle. In 1918 he was temporarily blinded from a gas attack and was invalided out of the war.
Hitler was dismayed when Germany lost the war and hated the Versailles Treaty and the Weimar
government for signing the treaty. He dreamed of a return to the days of the Kaiser.
After the war he stayed in the army, but in intelligence. His
activities led him to the German Worker’s Party led by Anton
Drexler. He liked the ideas of the party and joined in 1919.
Drexler realised that Hitler was something special and put him in
charge of the political ideas and propaganda of the party.
In 1920, the party announced its 25-point programme and was
renamed the National Socialist German Worker’s Party – NAZIs.
In 1921, Hitler became leader of the party and soon began
attracting attention, especially for his powerful speeches. Hitler
stirred up Nationalist passion giving the people something to
blame for Germany’s problems. Hitler’s opponents tried to
disrupt the meetings so for protection Hitler set up the SA –
Stormtroopers. Although the actual membership of the NAZI
party remained quite low in this period, Hitler, through his meetings and speeches had given them
a very high profile.
In March 1924 Hitler was imprisoned for his part in the Munich Putsch, which failed to overthrow
the Bavarian government. While in prison he wrote his book Mein Kampf which set out his
thoughts and philosophies. The book was published a year after Hitler's release from prison.
The Great Depression, which saw a downturn in people's lives, helped to gain support for the Nazi
party and by 1932 the Nazi party was the largest party in the Reichstag but did not have a
majority. On January 30th 1933 Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. A month later
on February 27th, the Reichstag building was set alight. The fire was blamed on the Communists
and the Communist party was banned in Germany. This gave the Nazis a clear majority in the
government.
On 23rd March 1933 the Enabling Act gave Hitler power to make laws without consulting the
Reichstag for a period of four years. Over the next four months Hitler took steps towards
dictatorship - trade unions and all other political parties were banned, the Nazis took control of all
local government and Germany withdrew from the League of Nations. When President Hindenburg
died in August 1934 Hitler combined the position of Chancellor and President and made himself
Fuhrer of Germany.
As Fuhrer, Hitler began building his Third Reich. Ignoring the terms of the Treaty of Versailles he
began building up the army and weapons. The Nuremburg Laws passed in 1935 defined Hitler's
ideal pure Aryan German citizen and barred Jews from holding any form of Public office. In March
1936 Hitler began reclaiming land taken from Germany by the Treaty of Versailles by re-occupying
the Rhineland. The move was unopposed by Britain and France. Anschluss with Austria in Spring
1938 was followed in the Autumn by the reclaiming of the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia.
Although he had agreed by
the terms of the Munich
Agreement not to make
further territorial claims, in
March 1939 Hitler invaded
and
occupied
Czechoslovakia.
His
subsequent invasion and
occupation of Poland on 1st
September 1939 led to the
outbreak of World War Two.
Despite the outbreak of war,
Hitler continued his policy of
aggression and by May 1940
Britain was the only western
European country that had not
been invaded and occupied
by the Nazis. The loss of the
Battle of Britain led Hitler to
abandon plans to invade
Britain in favour of an invasion of Russia.
Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, communists and other 'undesirables' from Germany and Nazicontrolled countries were forced to wear identification badges. Jews were sent to concentration
camps where the fit and healthy were put to forced labour while the young, old and sick were
exterminated in gas chambers. In January 1942 plans to exterminate the entire Jewish population
known as 'The Final Solution' were approved.
Defeat at the second battle of El Alamein in November 1942 was followed by defeat at Stalingrad.
Hitler's refusal to allow soldiers to retreat and blind perusal of his goals led some Nazi members to
question his leadership. In July 1944 an attempt was made to assassinate Hitler. The attempt
failed and the perpetrators were executed.
Throughout late 1944 and early 1945 the Germans were pushed back towards Berlin by the Allies
in the west and the Russians in the East. On April 29th 1945 Adolf Hitler married his long-term
mistress Eva Braun and a day later the pair committed suicide.
 How did Hitler’s childhood and events in his life influence him as a leader?