Adolf Hitler (German: [ˈadɔlf ˈhɪtlɐ]; 20 April 1889 – 30
April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was
the leader of theNazi Party (German: Nationalsozialistische
Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP); National Socialist German Workers
Party). He wasChancellor
of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and Führer ("leader") of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. As
effective dictator of Nazi Germany, Hitler was
at the centre of World
War II in Europe and the Holocaust.
Hitler
was a decorated veteran of World War I. He joined the precursor of
the NSDAP, the German
Workers' Party, in 1919 and became leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In
1923 he attempted a coup in Munich to seize power. The failed
coup resulted in Hitler's imprisonment, during which time he wrote his
autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf ("My Struggle").
After his release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of
Versailles and promoting Pan-Germanism, anti-Semitism, and anti-communism with charismatic oratory
and Nazi propaganda.
Hitler frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as being
part of a Jewish conspiracy.
Hitler's Nazi Party became the largest
elected party in the German Reichstag,
leading to his appointment as chancellor in 1933. Following fresh elections won by his coalition, the Reichstag passed
the Enabling Act,
which began the process of transforming theWeimar Republic into the Third Reich, a single-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of National Socialism. Hitler aimed to
eliminate Jews from Germany and establish a New Order to counter what he saw as
the injustice of the post-World War I international order dominated by Britain
and France. His first six years in power resulted in rapid economic recovery
from the Great Depression, the denunciation of
restrictions imposed on Germany after World War I, and the annexation of
territories that were home to millions of ethnic Germans—actions which gave him
significant popular support.
Hitler actively sought Lebensraum ("living space")
for the German people. His aggressive foreign
policy is considered to be the primary cause of the outbreak of World War II in
Europe. He directed large-scale rearmament and on 1 September 1939 invaded Poland,
resulting in British and French declarations of war on Germany. In June 1941,
Hitler ordered an invasion of the
Soviet Union. By the end of 1941 German forces and the European Axis powers occupied most of Europe and North
Africa. Failure to defeat the Soviets and the entry of the United
States into the war forced Germany onto the defensive and it suffered a series
of escalating defeats. In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, Hitler married his
long-time lover, Eva Braun. On 30 April 1945, less than two
days later, the two committed
suicide to avoid capture by the Red Army, and their corpses were burned.
Under Hitler's leadership and racially motivated ideology, the Nazi
regime was responsible for the genocide of at least 5.5 million Jews and millions of other
victims whom he and his followers deemed Untermenschen ("sub-humans")
and socially undesirable. Hitler and the Nazi regime were also responsible for
the killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war. In
addition, 29 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action
in the European Theatre of World War II. The number of civilians killed during
the Second World War was unprecedented in the history of warfare.
Contents
·
7 Legacy
·
9 Health
·
13 Notes
Early years
Ancestry
Hitler's father, Alois Hitler, Sr. (1837–1903), was the illegitimate child of Maria Anna
Schicklgruber.[2] Because the baptismal
register did not show the name of his father, Alois initially bore his mother's
surname, Schicklgruber. In 1842, Johann Georg
Hiedler married Alois's mother, Maria Anna. After she
died in 1847 and Johann Georg Hiedler in 1856, 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" (Standard German Hütte for hut) or on
"shepherd" (Standard German hüten for to guard); alternatively, it might
be derived from the Slavic words Hidlar or Hidlarcek (small cottager or small holder).[6]
Nazi official Hans Frank suggested that Alois's
mother had been employed as a housekeeper for a Jewish family in Graz and that the family's 19-year-old son, Leopold
Frankenberger, had fathered Alois.[7] Because no Frankenberger
was registered in Graz during that period, and no record of Leopold
Frankenberger's existence has been produced,[8] historians dismiss the
claim that Alois's father was Jewish.[9][10]
Childhood and education
Adolf Hitler as an infant
(c. 1889–90).
Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary (in present day Austria),
close to the border with the German Empire.[11] He was the fourth of six
children to Alois Hitler and Klara Pölzl (1860–1907). Hitler's older
siblings—Gustav, Ida, and Otto—died in infancy.[12] When Hitler was three, the
family moved to Passau, Germany.[13] There he acquired the
distinctive lower Bavarian dialect, rather thanAustrian German, which marked his speech
throughout his life.[14][15][16] In 1894 the family
relocated to Leonding (near Linz), and in June 1895, Alois retired to a small landholding
at Hafeld, near Lambach, where he farmed and kept bees.
Hitler attended Volksschule (a state-owned school) in
nearby Fischlham.[17][18]
The move to Hafeld coincided with the onset
of intense father-son conflicts caused by Hitler's refusal to conform to the
strict discipline of his school.[19] Alois Hitler's farming
efforts at Hafeld ended in failure, and in 1897 the family moved to Lambach.
The eight-year-old Hitler took singing lessons, sang in the church choir, and
even considered becoming a priest.[20] In 1898 the family returned
permanently to Leonding. The death of his younger brother Edmund, who died from measles in 1900,
deeply affected Hitler. He changed from a confident, outgoing, conscientious
student to a morose, detached, sullen boy who constantly fought with his father
and teachers.[21]
Alois had made a successful career in the
customs bureau and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps.[22] Hitler later dramatised an
episode from this period when his father took him to visit a customs office,
depicting it as an event that gave rise to an unforgiving antagonism between
father and son, who were both strong-willed.[23][24][25] Ignoring his son's desire
to attend a classical high school and become an artist, Alois sent Hitler to
the Realschule in Linz in September 1900.[26] Hitler rebelled against
this decision, and in Mein Kampf revealed that he
intentionally did poorly in school, hoping that once his father saw "what
little progress I was making at the technical school he would let me devote
myself to my dream".[27]
Like many Austrian Germans, Hitler began to
develop German
nationalist ideas from a young age.[28] He expressed loyalty only
to Germany,
despising the declining Habsburg Monarchy and its rule over an
ethnically variegated empire.[29][30] Hitler and his friends used
the greeting "Heil", and sang the "Deutschlandlied" instead of the Austrian
Imperial anthem.[31]
After Alois's sudden death on 3 January 1903,
Hitler's performance at school deteriorated and his mother allowed him to
leave.[32] He enrolled at the Realschule in Steyr in September 1904, where his behaviour and
performance showed some improvement.[33] In 1905, after passing a
repeat of the final exam, Hitler left the school without any ambitions for
further education or clear plans for a career.[34]
Early adulthood in Vienna and Munich
From 1905, Hitler lived a bohemian life in Vienna, financed by orphan's benefits and
support from his mother. He worked as a casual labourer and eventually as a painter,
selling watercolours of Vienna's sights. Vienna's
Academy of Fine Arts rejected him in 1907 and again in 1908,
citing "unfitness for painting".[35][36] The director, sympathetic
to his situation, recommended that Hitler study architecture, which was also an
interest, but he lacked academic credentials as he had not finished secondary
school.[37] On 21 December 1907, his
mother died of breast cancer at the age of 47. After the academy's second rejection,
Hitler ran out of money and was forced to live in homeless shelters and men's
hostels.[38] At the time Hitler lived
there, Vienna was a hotbed of religious prejudice and racism.[39] Fears of being overrun by
immigrants from the East were widespread, and the populist mayor, Karl Lueger, exploited the rhetoric of
virulent anti-Semitism for political effect.
German nationalism had a widespread following in the Mariahilf district, where Hitler lived.[40] German nationalist Georg
Ritter von Schönerer, who advocated Pan-Germanism, anti-Semitism,
anti-Slavism, and anti-Catholicism, was one influence on Hitler.[41] Hitler read local
newspapers, such as the Deutsches Volksblatt, that fanned prejudice and
played on Christian fears of being swamped by an influx of eastern Jews.[42] Hostile to what he saw as
"Catholic Germanophobia", he developed an admiration forMartin Luther.[43]
The Alter Hof in Munich. Watercolour by Adolf Hitler, 1914
The origin and first expression of Hitler's
anti-Semitism remain a matter of debate.[44] Hitler states in Mein Kampf that he first became an
anti-Semite in Vienna.[45] His close friend, August Kubizek, claimed that Hitler was a
"confirmed anti-Semite" before he left Linz.[46] Several sources provide
strong evidence that Hitler had Jewish friends in his hostel and in other
places in Vienna.[47][48] Historian Richard J. Evansstates that
"historians now generally agree that his notorious, murderous
anti-Semitism emerged well after Germany's defeat [in World War I], as a
product of the paranoid "stab-in-the-back"
explanation for the catastrophe".[49]
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 Austrian army.[51] Hitler later claimed that
he did not wish to serve the Austro-Hungarian
Empire because of the mixture of races in its army.[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 I
Hitler (far right,
seated) with his army comrades of the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16
(c. 1914–18)
At the outbreak of World War I, Hitler was living in Munich
and volunteered to serve in the Bavarian Army as an Austrian citizen.[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 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]
Adolf Hitler as a soldier
during the First World War (1914–1918)
During his service at headquarters, Hitler
pursued his artwork, drawing cartoons and instructions for an army newspaper.
During the Battle of the Somme in October 1916, he was wounded in the left
thigh when a shell exploded in the dispatch runners' dugout.[62] Hitler spent almost two
months in hospital at Beelitz, returning to his regiment on 5
March 1917.[63] On 15 October 1918, he was
temporarily blinded in amustard gas attack and was hospitalised
in Pasewalk.[64] While there, Hitler learnt
of Germany's defeat, and—by his own account—upon receiving this news, he
suffered a second bout of blindness.[65]
Hitler described the war as "the
greatest of all experiences", and was praised by his commanding officers
for his bravery.[66] His wartime experience
reinforced his German patriotism and he was shocked by Germany's capitulation
in November 1918.[67] His bitterness over the
collapse of the war effort began to shape his ideology.[68] Like other German
nationalists, he believed the Dolchstoßlegende (stab-in-the-back
myth), which claimed that the German army, "undefeated in the
field", had been "stabbed in the back" on the home front by civilian leaders andMarxists, later dubbed the "November
criminals".[69]
The Treaty of
Versailles stipulated that Germany must relinquish
several of its territories and demilitarise the Rhineland. The treaty imposed economic
sanctions and levied heavy reparations on the country. Many Germans perceived
the treaty—especially Article 231, which declared Germany responsible for the war—as
a humiliation.[70] The Versailles Treaty and
the economic, social, and political conditions in Germany after the war were
later exploited by Hitler for political gain.[71]
Entry into politics
After World War I, Hitler returned to Munich.[72] With no formal education or
career prospects, he remained in the army.[73] In July 1919 he was
appointed Verbindungsmann (intelligence agent) of an Aufklärungskommando (reconnaissance commando)
of the Reichswehr, assigned to influence
other soldiers and to infiltrate the German
Workers' Party (DAP). While monitoring the activities of the
DAP, Hitler was attracted to the founder Anton Drexler's anti-Semitic, nationalist, anti-capitalist, and anti-Marxist ideas.[74] Drexler favoured a strong
active government, a non-Jewish version of socialism, and solidarity among all
members of society. Impressed with Hitler's oratorical skills, Drexler invited
him to join the DAP. Hitler accepted on 12 September 1919,[75] becoming party member 555
(the party began counting membership at 500).[76]
At the DAP, Hitler met Dietrich Eckart, one of the party's
founders and a member of the occult Thule Society.[77] Eckart became Hitler's
mentor, exchanging ideas with him and introducing him to a wide range of Munich
society.[78] To increase its appeal, the
DAP changed its name to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche
Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party – NSDAP).[79] Hitler designed the party's
banner of a swastika in a white circle on a red
background.[80]
Hitler was discharged from the army on 31
March 1920 and began working full-time for the NSDAP.[81] The party headquarters was
in Munich, a major hotbed of anti-government German nationalists determined to
crush Marxism and undermine the Weimar Republic.[82] In February 1921—already
highly effective at speaking to large audiences—he spoke to a crowd of over
6,000.[83] To publicise the meeting,
two truckloads of party supporters drove around Munich waving swastika flags
and throwing leaflets. Hitler soon gained notoriety for his rowdy polemic speeches against the Treaty
of Versailles, rival politicians, and especially against Marxists and Jews.[84]
Hitler poses for the
camera, 1930
In June 1921, while Hitler and Eckart were on
a fundraising trip to Berlin, a mutiny
broke out within the NSDAP in Munich. Members of its executive committee wanted
to merge with the rival German
Socialist Party (DSP).[85] Hitler returned to Munich
on 11 July and angrily tendered his resignation. The committee members realised
that the resignation of their leading public figure and speaker would mean the
end of the party.[86] Hitler announced he would
rejoin on the condition that he would replace Drexler as party chairman, and
that the party headquarters would remain in Munich.[87] The committee agreed, and
he rejoined the party on 26 July as member 3,680. Even then, Hitler still faced
some opposition within the NSDAP: Opponents of Hitler in the leadership had Hermann Esser expelled from the party and
printed 3,000 copies of a pamphlet attacking Hitler as a traitor to the party.[87][a] In the following days,
Hitler spoke to several packed houses and defended himself and Esser, to
thunderous applause. His strategy proved successful, and at a general
membership meeting, he was granted absolute powers as party chairman, with only
one vote against.[88]
Hitler's vitriolic beer hall speeches began
attracting regular audiences. He became adept at using populist themes, including the use
ofscapegoats, who were blamed for his
listeners' economic hardships.[89][90][91] Psychiatrist Carl Jung commented in 1938 that
Hitler is the "first man to tell every German what he has been thinking
and feeling all along in his unconscious about German fate, especially since
the defeat in the World War".[92] Hitler used personal
magnetism and an understanding of crowd psychology to advantage while engaged
in public speaking.[93][94] Historians have noted the
hypnotic effect of his rhetoric on large audiences, and of his eyes in small
groups.[95] The author Alfons Heck, a former member of the Hitler
Youth describes the reaction to a speech by Hitler:
We erupted into a frenzy of nationalistic
pride that bordered on hysteria. For minutes on end, we shouted at the top of
our lungs, with tears streaming down our faces: Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil, Sieg
Heil! From that moment on, I belonged to Adolf
Hitler body and soul."[96]
—
Alfons Heck
Although Hitler's oratory skills and personal
traits were generally received well by large crowds and at official events,
some who met Hitler privately noted that his appearance and demeanour failed to
make a lasting impression.[97][98]
Early followers included Rudolf Hess, former air force ace Hermann Göring, and army captain Ernst Röhm. Röhm became head of the Nazis'
paramilitary organisation, theSturmabteilung (SA,
"Stormtroopers"), which protected meetings and attacked political
opponents. A critical influence on his thinking during this period was the Aufbau
Vereinigung,[99] a conspiratorial group of White Russian exiles and early National
Socialists. The group, financed with funds channelled from wealthy
industrialists, introduced Hitler to the idea of a Jewish conspiracy, linking
international finance with Bolshevism.[100]
Beer Hall Putsch
In 1923 Hitler enlisted the help of World War
I General Erich Ludendorff for an attempted coup known
as the "Beer Hall Putsch".
The NSDAP used Italian Fascism as a model for their
appearance and policies. Hitler wanted to emulate Benito Mussolini's "March on Rome" (1922) by staging his
own coup in Bavaria, to be followed by a challenge to the government in Berlin.
Hitler and Ludendorff sought the support of Staatskommissar (state commissioner) Gustav
Ritter von Kahr, Bavaria's de facto ruler. However, Kahr, along with
Police Chief Hans
Ritter von Seisser and Reichswehr General Otto von Lossow, wanted to install a
nationalist dictatorship without Hitler.[101]
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.[102] Retiring to a back room,
Hitler, with handgun drawn, demanded and got the support of Kahr, Seisser, and
Lossow.[102] 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.[103] The next day, Hitler and
his followers marched from the beer hall to theBavarian War Ministry to overthrow the Bavarian
government, but police dispersed them.[104] Sixteen NSDAP members and four police officers
were killed in the failed coup.[105]
Hitler fled to the home of Ernst Hanfstaengl and by some accounts
contemplated suicide.[106] He was depressed but calm
when arrested on 11 November 1923 for high treason.[107] His trial before the
special People's
Court in Munich began in February 1924,[108] and Alfred Rosenberg became temporary leader of
the NSDAP. On 1 April, Hitler was sentenced to five years' imprisonment at Landsberg Prison.[109]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.[110]Including time on remand, Hitler served just
over one year in prison.[111]
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.[111] 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.[112] 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.[113]
Rebuilding the NSDAP
At the time of Hitler's release from prison,
politics in Germany had become less combative and the economy had improved,
limiting Hitler's opportunities for political agitation. As a result of the
failed Beer Hall Putsch, the NSDAP and its affiliated organisations were banned
in Bavaria. In a meeting with Prime Minister of Bavaria Heinrich Held on 4 January 1925, Hitler
agreed to respect the authority of the state and promised that he would seek
political power only through the democratic process. The meeting paved the way
for the ban on the NSDAP to be lifted on 16 February.[114] Hitler was barred from
public speaking by the Bavarian authorities, a ban that remained in place until
1927.[115][116] To advance his political
ambitions in spite of the ban, Hitler appointed Gregor Strasser, Otto Strasser, and Joseph Goebbels to organise and grow the
NSDAP in northern Germany. A superb organiser, Gregor Strasser steered a more
independent political course, emphasising the socialist elements of the party's
programme.[117]
The stock market in the United States crashed
on 24 October 1929. The impact in Germany was dire: millions were
thrown out of work and several major banks collapsed. Hitler and the NSDAP
prepared to take advantage of the emergency to gain support for their party.
They promised to repudiate the Versailles Treaty, strengthen the economy, and
provide jobs.[118]
Rise to power
|
Election
|
Total votes
|
% votes
|
Reichstag seats
|
Notes
|
|
1,918,300
|
6.5
|
32
|
Hitler in prison
|
|
|
907,300
|
3.0
|
14
|
Hitler released from prison
|
|
|
810,100
|
2.6
|
12
|
|
|
|
6,409,600
|
18.3
|
107
|
After the financial crisis
|
|
|
13,745,000
|
37.3
|
230
|
After Hitler was candidate for presidency
|
|
|
11,737,000
|
33.1
|
196
|
|
|
|
17,277,180
|
43.9
|
288
|
Only partially free; During Hitler's term
as chancellor of Germany
|
|
Brüning administration
The Great Depression provided a political
opportunity for Hitler. Germans were ambivalent to the parliamentary
republic, which faced strong challenges from right- and left-wing
extremists. The moderate political parties were increasingly unable to stem the
tide of extremism, and the German
referendum of 1929 helped to elevate Nazi ideology.[120] The elections of September
1930 resulted in the break-up of a grand coalition and its replacement with a
minority cabinet. Its leader, chancellor Heinrich Brüning of the Centre
Party, governed through emergency decrees from President Paul von
Hindenburg. Governance by decree would become the new norm and paved
the way for authoritarian forms of government.[121] The NSDAP rose from
obscurity to win 18.3 per cent of the vote and 107 parliamentary seats in the
1930 election, becoming the second-largest party in parliament.[122]
Hitler and NSDAP treasurer Franz Xaver
Schwarz at the dedication of the renovation of the
Palais Barlow onBrienner
Straße in Munich into theBrown House headquarters, December 1930
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.[123] The prosecution argued that
the NSDAP was an extremist party, prompting defence lawyer Hans Frank to call on Hitler to
testify.[124] On 25 September 1930,
Hitler testified that his party would pursue political power solely through
democratic elections,[125] which won him many
supporters in the officer corps.[126]
Brüning's austerity measures brought little
economic improvement and were extremely unpopular.[127] 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.[128]
Hitler had formally renounced his Austrian
citizenship on 7 April 1925, but at the time did not acquire German
citizenship. For almost seven years he was stateless, unable to run for public
office, and faced the risk of deportation.[129] On 25 February 1932, the
interior minister of Brunswick,
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,[130] and thus of Germany.[131]
In 1932, Hitler ran against Hindenburg in the presidential elections. The viability of his candidacy was
underscored by a 27 January 1932 speech to the Industry Club in Düsseldorf, which won him support from
many of Germany's most powerful industrialists.[132] 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.[133] He was one of the first
politicians to use aircraft travel for political purposes, and utilised it
effectively.[134][135] 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.[136]
Appointment as chancellor
The absence of an effective government
prompted two influential politicians, Franz von Papen and Alfred Hugenberg, along with several other
industrialists and businessmen, to write a letter to Hindenburg. The signers
urged Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as leader of a government "independent
from parliamentary parties", which could turn into a movement that would
"enrapture millions of people".[137][138]
Hitler, at the window of
the Reich
Chancellery, receives an ovation on the evening of his inauguration
aschancellor,
30 January 1933
Hindenburg reluctantly agreed to appoint
Hitler as chancellor after two further parliamentary elections—in July and
November 1932—had not resulted in the formation of a majority government.
Hitler headed a short-lived coalition government formed by the NSDAP and
Hugenberg's party, the German
National People's Party (DNVP). On 30 January 1933,
the new cabinet was sworn in during a brief ceremony in Hindenburg's office.
The NSDAP gained three posts: Hitler was named chancellor, Wilhelm Frick Minister of the Interior,
andHermann Göring Minister of the Interior
for Prussia.[139] Hitler had insisted on the
ministerial positions as a way to gain control over the police in much of
Germany.[140]
Reichstag fire and March elections
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.[141] According to the British
historian Sir Ian Kershaw, the consensus of nearly all
historians is that van der Lubbe actually set the fire.[142] Others, including William L. Shirer and Alan Bullock, are of the opinion that the
NSDAP itself was responsible.[143][144] 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.[145] Activities of theGerman
Communist Party were suppressed, and some 4,000 communist party
members were arrested.[146]
In addition to political campaigning, the
NSDAP engaged in paramilitary violence and the spread of anti-communist
propaganda in the days preceding the election. On election day, 6 March 1933,
the NSDAP's share of the vote increased to 43.9 per cent, and the party
acquired the largest number of seats in parliament. Hitler's party failed to
secure an absolute majority, necessitating another coalition with the DNVP.[147]
Day of Potsdam and the Enabling Act
On 21 March 1933, the new Reichstag was
constituted with an opening ceremony at the Garrison
Church in Potsdam. This "Day of Potsdam"
was held to demonstrate unity between the Nazi movement and the old Prussian elite and military. Hitler
appeared in a morning coat and humbly greeted
Hindenburg.[148][149]
Paul von Hindenburg and
Adolf Hitler on the Day of Potsdam, 21 March 1933
To achieve full political control despite not
having an absolute majority in parliament, Hitler's government brought theErmächtigungsgesetz (Enabling Act)
to a vote in the newly elected Reichstag. The Act gave Hitler's cabinet full
legislative powers for four years and (with certain exceptions) allowed
deviations from the constitution.[150] The bill required a
two-thirds majority to pass. Leaving nothing to chance, the Nazis used the
provisions of the Reichstag Fire Decree to keep several Social Democratic
deputies from attending; the Communists had already been banned.[151]
On 23 March 1933, the Reichstag assembled at
the Kroll Opera
House under turbulent circumstances. Ranks of SA
men served as guards inside the building, while large groups outside opposing
the proposed legislation shouted slogans and threats towards the arriving
members of parliament.[152] The position of the Centre
Party, the third largest party in the Reichstag, was decisive. After
Hitler verbally promised party leader Ludwig Kaas that Hindenburg would
retain his power of veto, Kaas announced the Centre Party would support the
Enabling Act. The Act passed by a vote of 441–84, with all parties except the
Social Democrats voting in favour. The Enabling Act, along with the Reichstag
Fire Decree, transformed Hitler's government into a de facto legal
dictatorship.[153]
Removal of remaining limits
At the risk of appearing to talk nonsense I
tell you that the National Socialist movement will go on for 1,000
years! ... Don't forget how people laughed at me 15 years ago when I
declared that one day I would govern Germany. They laugh now, just as foolishly,
when I declare that I shall remain in power![154]
—
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.[155] 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.[156] 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'sVolksgemeinschaft ("people's
community").[157]
In 1934, Hitler became
Germany's head of state with the title of Führer und Reichskanzler (leader and chancellor of
the Reich).
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, although the country had effectively been a
one-party state since the passage of the Enabling Act four months earlier.[157][155] 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.[158] 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.[159] While the international
community and some Germans were shocked by the murders, many in Germany
believed Hitler was restoring order.[160]
On 2 August 1934, Hindenburg died. The
previous day, the cabinet had enacted the "Law Concerning the Highest
State Office of the Reich".[161]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).[162] This law violated the
Enabling Act; although it allowed Hitler to deviate from the constitution, the
Act explicitly barred him from passing any law tampering with the presidency.
In 1932, the constitution had been amended to make the president of the High
Court of Justice, not the chancellor, acting president pending new elections.
Nonetheless, no one objected.[163] With this action, Hitler
eliminated the last legal remedy by which he could be removed from office.
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,
rather than to the office of supreme commander or the state.[164] On 19 August, the merger of
the presidency with the chancellorship was approved by 90 per cent of the
electorate voting in a plebiscite.[165]
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.[166][167] Army commander
Colonel-General Werner von
Fritsch was removed after the Schutzstaffel (SS) produced allegations
that he had engaged in a homosexual relationship.[168] Both men had fallen into
disfavour because they objected to Hitler's demand to make theWehrmacht ready for war as early as
1938.[169] 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, or 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.[170] By early February 1938,
twelve more generals had been removed.[171]
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.[172] While elections to the
Reichstag were still held, voters were presented with a single list of Nazis
and pro-Nazi "guests" which carried with well over 90 percent of the
vote.[173]
Third Reich
Economy and culture
Ceremony honouring the dead
(Totenehrung) on the terrace in front of the Hall of Honour (Ehrenhalle) at theNazi
party rally grounds,Nuremberg, September
1934
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.[174] Reconstruction and
rearmament were financed through Mefo bills, printing money, and seizing
the assets of people arrested as enemies of the State, including Jews.[175] Unemployment fell from six
million in 1932 to one million in 1936.[176] 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.[177] The average working week
increased during the shift to a war economy; by 1939, the average German was
working between 47 and 50 hours a week.[178]
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.[179] In 1936, Hitler opened the summer Olympic
gamesin Berlin.
Rearmament and new alliances
In a meeting with German military leaders on
3 February 1933, Hitler spoke of "conquest for Lebensraum in the East and its
ruthlessGermanisation" as his ultimate foreign policy objectives.[180] 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.[181] In speeches during this
period, he stressed the peaceful goals of his policies and a willingness to
work within international agreements.[182] At the first meeting of his
cabinet in 1933, Hitler prioritised military spending over unemployment relief.[183]
On 25 October 1936, an axis
was declared between Italy and Germany.
Germany withdrew from the League of Nations and the World
Disarmament Conference in October 1933.[184] In January 1935, over 90
per cent of the people of the Saarland, then under League of Nations administration, voted
to unite with Germany.[185] 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 virtually nothing to stop it.[186][187] 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.[188] 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.[189]
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.[190] In August 1936, in response
to a growing economic crisis caused by his rearmament efforts, Hitler ordered
Göring to implement aFour Year Plan to prepare Germany for war
within the next four years.[191] 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.[192]
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.[193] 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".[194] 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.[195][196] Hitler urged quick action
before Britain and France gained a permanent lead in the arms race.[195] 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).[191] From early 1938 onwards,
Hitler was carrying out a foreign policy ultimately aimed at war.[197]
World War II
Early diplomatic successes
Alliance with Japan
Hitler and the Japanese
foreign minister, Yōsuke Matsuoka,
at a meeting in Berlin in March 1941. In the background is Joachim
von Ribbentrop.
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.[198] Hitler ordered an end to
arms shipments to China and recalled all German officers working with the
Chinese Army.[198] In retaliation, Chinese
General Chiang Kai-shek cancelled all Sino-German
economic agreements, depriving the Germans of many Chinese raw materials.[199]
Austria and Czechoslovakia
On 12 March 1938, Hitler declared unification
of Austria with Nazi Germany in the Anschluss.[200][201] Hitler then turned his
attention to theethnic German population of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.[202]
On 28–29 March 1938, Hitler held a series of
secret meetings in Berlin with Konrad Henlein of the Sudeten Heimfront (Home Front), the largest
of the ethnic German parties of the Sudetenland. The men agreed that Henlein
would demand increased autonomy for Sudeten Germans from the Czechoslovakian
government, thus providing a pretext for German military action against
Czechoslovakia. In April 1938 Henlein told the foreign minister of Hungary that "whatever the
Czech government might offer, he would always raise still higher demands ...
he wanted to sabotage an understanding by any means because this was the only
method to blow up Czechoslovakia quickly".[203] In private, Hitler
considered the Sudeten issue unimportant; his real intention was a war of
conquest against Czechoslovakia.[204]
October 1938: Hitler
(standing in the Mercedes) drives through the crowd inCheb (German: Eger), part of the
German-populatedSudetenland region ofCzechoslovakia, which was annexed to Nazi
Germany due to the Munich Agreement
In April Hitler ordered the OKW to prepare
for Fall
Grün ("Case Green"), the code name for
an invasion of Czechoslovakia.[205] 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.[206] Henlein's Heimfrontresponded 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.[207][208]
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.[209] 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.[210][211]
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;[212][213] he expressed his
disappointment in a speech on 9 October in Saarbrücken.[214] 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.[215][216] As a result of the summit,
Hitler was selected Time magazine's Man
of the Year for 1938.[217]
In late 1938 and early 1939, the continuing
economic crisis caused by rearmament forced Hitler to make major defence cuts.[218] 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.[218]
On 15 March 1939, in violation of the Munich
accord and possibly as a result of the deepening economic crisis requiring
additional assets,[219]Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht to invade Prague, and from Prague Castle he proclaimed Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate.[220]
Start of World War II
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. The eastern flank would be secured and
land would be added to Germany's Lebensraum.[221] Offended by the British
"guarantee" on 31 March 1939 of Polish independence, he said, "I
shall brew them a devil's drink".[222] 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.[222] 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.[223] 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.[224] On 3 April, Hitler ordered
the military to prepare for Fall Weiss ("Case White"),
the plan for invading Poland on 25 August.[224] In a Reichstag speech on 28
April, he renounced both the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish
Non-Aggression Pact. In August, Hitler told his generals that his
original plan for 1939 was to "establish an acceptable relationship with
Poland in order to fight against the West".[225] 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.[226][227][228]
Hitler portrayed on a
42 pfennig stamp from 1944. The term Grossdeutsches Reich (Greater German Reich) was
first used in 1943 for the expanded Germany under his rule.
Hitler was concerned that a military attack
against Poland could result in a premature war with Britain.[223][229] 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.[230][231]Accordingly, on 22 August 1939 Hitler
ordered a military mobilisation against Poland.[232]
This plan required tacit Soviet support,[233] 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.[234] 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.[235] 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.[236][237]
Despite his concerns over a British
intervention, Hitler continued to pursue the planned invasion of Poland.[238] On 1 September 1939,
Germanyinvaded western
Poland under the pretext of having been denied
claims to the Free City of
Danzig and the right to extraterritorial roads
across thePolish Corridor,
which Germany had ceded under the Versailles Treaty.[239] In response, Britain and
France declared war on Germany on 3 September, surprising Hitler and prompting
him to angrily ask Ribbentrop, "Now what?"[240] France and Britain did not
act on their declarations immediately, and on 17 September, Soviet forces
invaded eastern Poland.[241]
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.[242] Whereas Polish citizens in
Forster's area merely had to sign forms stating that they had German blood,[243] Greiser carried out a
brutal ethnic cleansing campaign on the Polish
population in his purview.[242] 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.[242] 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.[244] On 12 February 1940, the
dispute was initially settled in favour of the Göring–Frank view, which ended
the economically disruptive mass expulsions.[244] 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".[244] Hitler called Himmler's
memo "good and correct",[244] and, ignoring Göring and
Frank, implemented the Himmler–Greiser policy in Poland.
Hitler visits Paris with
architect Albert Speer (left) and sculptor Arno Breker(right), 23 June 1940
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.[245] In May 1940, Germany attacked France, and conqueredLuxembourg, 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.[246] 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.[247] Following the unexpected
swift victory, Hitler promoted twelve generals to the rank of field marshal during the 1940
Field Marshal Ceremony.[248][249]
Britain, whose troops were forced to evacuate
France by sea from Dunkirk,[250] 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.[251] 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.[252]
On 27 September 1940, the Tripartite Pact was signed in Berlin by Saburō Kurusu of Imperial Japan, Hitler, and Italian
foreign minister Ciano,[253]and later expanded to include Hungary,
Romania, and Bulgaria, thus yielding the Axis powers. Hitler's attempt to integrate
the Soviet Union into the anti-British bloc failed after inconclusive talks
between Hitler and Molotov in Berlin in November, and
he ordered preparations for a full-scale invasion of the Soviet Union.[254]
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.[255] In May, German forces were
sent to support Iraqi rebel forces fighting against the British and to invade Crete.[256]
Path to defeat
On 22 June 1941, contravening the
Hitler–Stalin Non-Aggression Pact of 1939, 4–5 million Axis troops attacked the
Soviet Union.[257] This large-scale offensive
(codenamedOperation
Barbarossa) was intended to destroy the Soviet Union and seize its
natural resources for subsequent aggression against the Western powers.[258][259] The invasion conquered a
huge area, including the Baltic republics, Belarus, and West Ukraine. After the successful Battle
of Smolensk, Hitler ordered Army Group Centre to halt its advance to
Moscow and temporarily diverted its Panzer groups north and south to aid in the
encirclement of Leningrad and Kiev.[260] His generals disagreed with
this change of targets, and his decision caused a major crisis among the
military leadership.[261][262] 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.[260]
Hitler during his speech to
the Reichstag attacking American President Franklin
D. Roosevelt, 11 December 1941
On 7 December 1941, Japan attacked
the American fleet based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Four days later,
Hitler formally declared war against the United States.[263]
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").[264] 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.[264]
In late 1942, German forces were defeated in
the second
battle of El Alamein,[265] 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.[266] 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 in the city itself, only around 6,000
survived captivity and returned to Germany after the war.[267] Thereafter came a decisive
strategic defeat at the Battle of Kursk.[268] Hitler's military judgement
became increasingly erratic, and Germany's military and economic position
deteriorated along with Hitler's health.[269]
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.[270] 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 what was one of the largest amphibious operations in history, Operation
Overlord.[271] As a result of these
significant setbacks for the German army, many of its 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.[272]
Between 1939 and 1945, there were many plans
to assassinate Hitler, some of which proceeded to significant
degrees.[273] 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.[274] 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 Lairat 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 away. It was also lessened by
the open windows. Later, Hitler ordered savage reprisals resulting in the
execution of more than 4,900 people.[275]
Defeat and death
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.[276] 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.[277] The offensive failed after
some initial but temporary successes. Hitler's hope to negotiate peace with the
United States and Britain was buoyed by the death of Franklin
D. Roosevelt on 12 April 1945, but contrary to his
expectations, this caused no rift among the Allies.[277][278] 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.[279] Minister for Armaments
Albert Speer was entrusted with executing this scorched earth policy, but he secretly
disobeyed the order.[279][280]
Front page of the US Armed
Forces newspaper,Stars
and Stripes, 2 May 1945, announcing Hitler's death
On 20 April, his 56th birthday, Hitler made
his last trip from the Führerbunker ("Führer's
shelter") to the surface. In the ruined garden of the Reich Chancellery,
he awarded Iron Crosses to boy soldiers of the Hitler Youth, who were now fighting the
Red Army at the front near Berlin.[281] By 21 April, Georgy Zhukov's 1st
Belorussian Front had broken through the defences of General Gotthard Heinrici's Army Group
Vistula during theBattle
of the Seelow Heights and advanced to the outskirts of Berlin.[282] In denial about the dire
situation, Hitler placed his hopes on the undermanned and under-equipped Armeeabteilung Steiner (Army
Detachment Steiner), commanded by Waffen SS General Felix Steiner. Hitler ordered Steiner to
attack the northern flank of the salient,
while the German Ninth Army was ordered to attack
northward in a pincer attack.[283]
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,[284]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".[257] He announced that he would
stay in Berlin until the end and then shoot himself.[285]
By 23 April the Red Army had completely
surrounded Berlin,[286] and Goebbels made a
proclamation urging its citizens to defend the city.[284] 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.[287] Hitler responded by having
Göring arrested, and in his last will and testament, written on 29 April, he removed
Göring from all government positions.[288][289] On 28 April Hitler
discovered that Himmler, who had left Berlin on 20 April, was trying to discuss
surrender terms with the Western Allies.[290][291] He ordered Himmler's arrest
and had Hermann Fegelein (Himmler's SS
representative at Hitler's HQ in Berlin) shot.[292]
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 took secretary Traudl Junge to another room and
dictated his will.[293][b] The event was witnessed and
documents signed by Krebs, Burgdorf, Goebbels, and Bormann.[294] Later that afternoon,
Hitler was informed of the execution of
Mussolini, which presumably increased his determination to avoid
capture.[295]
On 30 April 1945, after intense street-to-street combat, when Soviet
troops were within a block or two of the Reich Chancellery, Hitler shot himself
and Braun bit into a cyanidecapsule.[296][297] Their bodies were carried
up the stairs and through the bunker's emergency exit to the bombed-out garden
behind the Reich Chancellery, where they were placed in a bomb crater and
doused with petrol.[298] The corpses were set on
fire as the Red Army shelling continued.[299][300] Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz and Joseph Goebbelsassumed Hitler's roles as
head of state and chancellor respectively.[301]
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.[302] 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
nearby Elbe.[303] 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.[304]
The Holocaust
If the international Jewish financiers
outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world
war, then the result will not be the Bolshevisation of the earth, and thus the
victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe![305]
A wagon piled high with
corpses outside the crematorium in the liberatedBuchenwald
concentration camp (April 1945)
The Holocaust and Germany's war in the East
was based on Hitler's long-standing view that the Jews were the great enemy of
the German people and that Lebensraum was needed for the
expansion of Germany. 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.[306] 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;[307] the conquered territories
were to be colonised by German or "Germanised" settlers.[308] The goal was to implement
this plan after the conquest of the Soviet Union, but when this failed, Hitler
moved the plans forward.[307][309] By January 1942, it had
been decided to kill the Jews, Slavs, and other deportees considered
undesirable.[310][c]
Hitler's order for Action
T4, dated 1 September 1939
The Holocaust (also known as the "Endlösung der Judenfrage" or
"Final Solution of 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".[311]Although no direct order from Hitler
authorising the mass killings has surfaced,[312] his public speeches, orders
to his generals, and the diaries of Nazi officials demonstrate that he
conceived and authorised the extermination of European Jewry.[313][314] He approved the Einsatzgruppen—killing squads that
followed the German army through Poland, the Baltic, and the Soviet Union[315]—and he was well informed about their
activities.[313][316] By summer 1942, Auschwitz
concentration camp was rapidly expanded to accommodate large
numbers of deportees for killing or enslavement.[317] Scores of other
concentration camps and satellite camps were set up throughout Europe, with
several camps devoted exclusively to extermination.[318]
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,[319][307] including 5.5 to 6 million
Jews (representing two-thirds of the Jewish population of Europe),[320][321] and between 200,000 and
1,500,000 Romani people.[322][321] 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.[323] 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.[324] Together, the Hunger Plan
and Generalplan Ost would have led to the
starvation of 80 million people in the Soviet Union.[325] These partially fulfilled
plans resulted in the democidal deaths of an estimated 19.3
million civilians and prisoners of war.[326]
Hitler's policies also resulted in the
killing of nearly two million Poles,[327] over three million Soviet
prisoners of war,[328] communists and other
political opponents, homosexuals, the physically and mentally disabled,[329][330] Jehovah's Witnesses, Adventists, and trade unionists. Hitler
did not speak publicly about the killings, and seems never to have visited the
concentration camps.[331]
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".[332] 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.[333] Hitler's early eugenic policies targeted children
with physical and developmental disabilities in a programme dubbed Action
Brandt, and later authorised a euthanasia programme for adults with
serious mental and physical disabilities, now referred to as Action T4.[334]
Leadership style
Hitler ruled the NSDAP autocratically 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.[335] 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".[336] 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.[337][338] Hitler typically did not
give written orders; instead he communicated them verbally, or had them
conveyed through his close associate, Martin Bormann.[339] He entrusted Bormann with
his paperwork, appointments, and personal finances; Bormann used his position
to control the flow of information and access to Hitler.[340]
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.[341] 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.[342] 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.[341] In the final months of the
war Hitler refused to consider peace negotiations, regarding the complete
destruction of Germany as preferable to surrender.[343] The military did not
challenge Hitler's dominance of the war effort, and senior officers generally
supported and enacted his decisions.[344]
Legacy
Outside
the building in Braunau am Inn, Austria, where Hitler was
born, is amemorial
stone placed as a reminder of the horrors of World
War II. The inscription translates as:
For peace, freedom
and democracy
never again fascism
millions of dead remind [us]
and democracy
never again fascism
millions of dead remind [us]
Hitler's suicide was likened by
contemporaries to a "spell" being broken.[345][346] 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.[347] According to historian John Toland,
National Socialism "burst like a bubble" without its leader.[348]
Hitler's actions and Nazi ideology are almost
universally regarded as gravely immoral;[349] according to Kershaw,
"Never in history has such ruination—physical and moral—been associated
with the name of one man".[350] 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".[351] Hitler's policies inflicted
human suffering on an unprecedented scale;[352] 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.[319] In addition, 29 million
soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European
Theatre of World War II,[319] and Hitler's role has been
described as "... the main author of a war leaving over 50 million
dead and millions more grieving their lost ones ...".[350] The total number of
civilians killed during the Second World War was an unprecedented development
in the history of warfare.[353] Historians, philosophers,
and politicians often use the word "evil" to describe the Nazi regime.[354] Many European countries
have criminalised both the promotion of
Nazism and Holocaust denial.[355]
Historian Friedrich
Meinecke described Hitler as "one of the great
examples of the singular and incalculable power of personality in historical
life".[356] 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".[357] For the historian John
M. Roberts, Hitler's defeat marked the end of a phase of European
history dominated by Germany.[358] 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.[359] 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 not have occurred as quickly and would have been
postponed.[360] 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.[361]
Views on religion
Hitler was born to a practising Catholic
mother and an anticlerical father, but after leaving
home Hitler never again attended Mass or received the sacraments.[362][363][364] Speerstates 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.[365] He adds that Hitler felt
that in the absence of the church the faithful would turn to mysticism, which
he considered a step backwards.[365] 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".[366]
Historian John
S. Conway states that Hitler was fundamentally opposed
to the Christian churches.[367] 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".[368] 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.[369]
Hitler viewed the church as an important
politically conservative influence on society,[370] and he adopted a strategic
relationship with it that "suited his immediate political purposes".[367] 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.[371] Any pro-Christian public
rhetoric was at variance with his personal beliefs, which described
Christianity as "absurdity"[372] and nonsense founded on
lies.[373]
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.[374][375] His eventual goal was the
total elimination of Christianity.[376] This goal informed Hitler's
movement very early on, but he saw it as inexpedient to express this extreme
position publicly.[377]According to Bullock, Hitler wanted to wait
until after the war before executing this plan.[378]
Speer wrote that Hitler had a negative view
of Himmler's and Alfred Rosenberg's mystical notions and
Himmler's attempt to mythologise the SS. Hitler was more pragmatic, and his
ambitions centred on more practical concerns.[379][380]
Health
Researchers have variously suggested that
Hitler suffered from irritable
bowel syndrome, skin lesions, irregular
heartbeat, coronary
sclerosis,[381] Parkinson's
disease,[269][382]syphilis,[382] and tinnitus.[383] In a report prepared for
the Office of Strategic Services in 1943, Walter
C. Langer of Harvard
University described Hitler as a "neuroticpsychopath".[384] In his 1977 book The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler, historian Robert G. L.
Waite proposes that Hitler suffered from borderline
personality disorder.[385]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 responsible for, the decisions he was making.[386][257] 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 the
Third Reich to the possibly impaired physical health of one individual.[387] Kershaw feels that it is
better to take a broader view of German history by examining what social forces
led to the Third Reich and its policies rather than to pursue narrow
explanations for the Holocaust and World War II based on only one person.[388]
Hitler
followed a vegetarian diet.[389] At social events he
sometimes gave graphic accounts of the slaughter of animals in an effort to
make his dinner guests shun meat.[390]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.[391] Hitler publicly avoided
alcohol. He occasionally drank beer and wine in private, but gave up drinking
due to weight gain in 1943.[392] 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".[393] He encouraged his close
associates to quit by offering a gold watch to any who were able to break the
habit.[394] Hitler began using amphetamine occasionally after 1937 and
became addicted to it in late 1942.[395] Speer linked this use ofamphetamines to Hitler's increasingly
inflexible decision making (for example, rarely allowing military retreats).[396]
Prescribed 90 medications during the war
years, Hitler took many pills each day for chronic stomach problems and other
ailments.[397] 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.[398] 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. Hitler's personal physician, Theodor Morell, treated Hitler with a drug
that was commonly prescribed in 1945 for Parkinson's disease. 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.[397][399][257]
Family
Hitler created a public image as a celibate
man without a domestic life, dedicated entirely to his political mission and
the nation.[129][400] He met his lover, Eva Braun, in 1929,[401] and married her in April
1945.[402] 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.[403] Paula Hitler, the last living member of
his immediate family, died in 1960.[404]
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