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Austrian-born, Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) was the Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and Führer (leader) of Germany from 1934 to 1945. After being rejected twice by Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts, he became the head of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) and campaigned against Jews, Marxists, and foreign powers, claiming them all to be enemies of Germany. He was backed by the Stormtroopers (SA), a paramilitary organization founded by Ernst Röhm, and admired Mussolini from afar, seeking to emulate his fascist takeover of Italy.
After Hitler’s arrest following the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, a failed coup, he wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle) in prison and bided his time until the NSDAP became the second-largest party during the 1932 elections, when the worldwide Great Depression was in full swing. As a result, his popularity grew, and Paul von Hindenburg, Germany’s President, named him Chancellor and allowed him to rule by decree in January 1933. A month later, the Reichstag Fire allowed Hitler to consolidate power through the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act, which limited civil freedoms and gave Hitler sole control over the government.
During his reign, Hitler continued to use his voice and domineering personality to rally the German public in support of his policies. Joseph Goebbels, his Minister of Propaganda, had radios installed in more than 6,000 public spaces, including factories and marketplaces, so that the public could be forced to listen to Hitler’s speeches at any time. Hitler also held electrifying rallies in order to further radicalize the population. His most well-known focus was on racial and cultural purity and promoting the superiority of the white Aryan race, to which end he imprisoned and killed millions of Jews, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other minorities. He also forcibly sterilized many of these communities as well as biracial Afro-Germans in the Rhineland.
Unlike many other dictators, he distanced himself from corruption, of both the financial and sexual variety, not wanting Germany’s Führer to appear as anything but entirely dedicated to the good of his people. However, despite this apparent devotion, when his downfall came at the end of World War II, Hitler blamed the people of Germany for being weak and unworthy of his saving hand, expressing hopes that they would be obliterated should they be defeated. He killed himself in 1945, along with his lover, Eva Braun, and was followed in kind by thousands of military officials and NSDAP members.
