On April 20, 1889, the world was changed forever when Adolf Hitler was born to Alois and Klara Hitler in a little town named Braunau-am-Inn, Austria. Alois worked as a customs officer on the border crossing near their hometown. Adolf was the third born in his family, but first to survive. Later would come Edmund, who would live to the age of six, and Paula who would live to out survive Adolf himself. With a poor record in school, Adolf Hitler dropped out with ambitions of becoming an artist. Alois passed away
when Adolf was thirteen, so Klara raised Adolf and Paula on her own.
Between the ages of sixteen and nineteen is when Adolf Hitler began to become interested in politics. Then, in 1909, Klara Hitler died of cancer and Adolf moved to Vienna in hope of earning a living. Within a year he was living in homeless shelters and eating at charity soup kitchens though.
In 1913, Adolf moved to Munich, Germany and volunteered for service in the Germany Army at the outbreak of the First World War. He was accepted into the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment. Hitler was promoted to corporal and decorated with the Iron Cross Second Class and First Class, he wore the Second Class Iron Cross until his dying day. Ironically, the captain who recommended him for the award was a Jewish
man. After this, he began to join a few local army organizations with the mindset of persuading returning soldiers not to turn to communism or pacifism. Hitler was gave his first speech to a large audience. This
meeting was a great success, so afterward he organized a much larger event for a crowd of nearly two thousand in Munich Germany. The party was the National Socialist German Workers Party, otherwise known as the Nazi party for short. Shortly after this speech in February, Adolf Hitler was discharged from the army. He continued to expand his influential power inside the party; he began to form groups of friends, thugs, which helped to break up opposing party meetings later. Hitler became the main speaker at all party events, and in 1920 chose the now hated swastika as the Nazi party emblem.
By 1921, Adolf Hitler had gained the majority of the support of the Nazi party, and became the leader of the Nazi party with dictatorial powers. But in 1923, Hitler tried to overthrow the German Weimar Republic by force known as the Beer Hall Putsch. Despite capturing the leaders of the opposing party, the attempt failed and the men were arrested. Adolf was
sentenced to five years in a Landsberg prison. He used his trial itself to gain publicity for his theories and himself. It was during this time when Adolf began dictating his thoughts and philosophies that developed into the book Mein Kampf, which translates to My Struggle. Released after serving only six months of his five-year sentence, Adolf Hitler was forbidden from
making public speeches by the government. The numbers of support fell from approximately 2 million to 840,000 thousand people. During this time was when Hitler formed his infamous SS (Schutzstaffel); this group was formed to be Hitlers bodyguards.
After the stock market crash in 1929, German industry slumped which caused millions to go into unemployment. This unfortunate swing for the country of Germany, was very beneficial for Hitler and his Nazi party when
President Hindenburg was forced to call for new elections the coming September. Hitler promised a way out of the countries current hardship. So after gaining the support of millions, Adolf Hitler decided to stand against Hindenburg in the upcoming elections. Hindenburg won the election despite Hitlers hard campaign pushes. By July of the same year, the Nazi party gained dominance and became the largest party in all of Germany. After becoming Chancellor and President Hindenburgs death in 1934, Adolf Hitler took over the role of President and keeping the role of Chancellor, to become Fuehrer.
During the years to follow, the Nazi party began to
censor everything from the press to art. Trade unions were suppressed, churches were persecuted and ministers who preached non-Nazi doctrine were arrested by Gestapo and carted off to concentration camps. All
youth associations were done away with and formed into the Hitler Youth Organization. The Jewish population was progressively more persecuted and hated. They were not allowed to hold public office, they were not allowed to work in civil service, farming, the media, teaching, and bared from practicing law, he Jews rights were stripped from them and Hitler encouraged Germans to avoid Jewish shops. Adolf Hitler began showing the early signs of gearing the German nation towards war. Hitler began instructing more arms to be produced secretly, and he discouraged moving between jobs. Workers received low pay. This man known as Fuehrer became the law, when it came to the judicial system, he had the ultimate and final say over legal action of any kind. Hitler and the Nazi party ran verything.
Hitler began breaking treaties; he tripled the size of his army from the limited 100,000 men to 300,000 men. He started to order the production of
submarines, also forbidden under the Versailles Treaty. Hitler then revealed his breaking of the treaties to France and England. When he received little to no reaction, Adolf was encouraged to take further steps. Days later, Hitler announced the creation of an army consisting of over half a million men, and still got no reaction from France and England. So Hitler continued to strengthen his military muscle. He gave speech after speech saying that he desired peace and the folly of war. He also said, Whoever lights the torch of war in Europe can wish for nothing but chaos.
Hitler than began moving his troops around, positioning them and stabilizing his position and at the same time Hitlers popularity within Germany was boosted. This man then began attacking his opposing countries, he formed alliances with Mussolini and other nations, he had world conquest in sight and he was trying to conquer his neighbors in one blow. Hitlers main problem was he started to fight to many wars; he had to many fronts to defend so he couldnt keep his defense fortification strong enough. So his empire began to fall, and his country with it. He was slowly driven back, and his troops moral was declining fast. His dream was over.
On May 1, at 9:30 in the evening, Hamburg radio told Germans that a grave announcement was to be made, that the Fuehrer had fallen a war hero. But he didnt actually die in combat, one theory is that Adolf Hitler was told about his death, and read about it in the London paper obituaries. He actually committed suicide on the previous day in the bunker under the Reich chancellery, where he had been since January 16, 1945. Adolf Hitlers dream of a one-world government was a good idea and dream; it just came to a corrupt and insane man in a time period that was impossible for such a dream. The world would have been a radically different place if this one man would have had a few small things go different for him during his
time of power.