Rise of Adolf Hitler

1. Rise of Adolf Hitler Group member:-Helmi , Ashwin, Prisica, Mi Hee

2. Hitler's Early Life • Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, the fourth child of AloisSchickelgruber and Klara Hitler in the Austrian town of Braunau. Two of his siblings died from diphtheria when they were children, and one died shortly after birth. • Alois was a customs official, illegitimate by birth, who was described by his housemaid as a "very strict but comfortable" man. Young Adolf was showered with love and affection by his mother. When Adolf was three years old, the family moved to Passau, along the Inn River on the German side of the border. A brother, Edmond, was born two years later. The family moved once more in 1895 to the farm community of Hafeld, 30 miles southwest of Linz. Another sister, Paula, was born in 1896, the sixth of the union, supplemented by a half brother and half sister from one of his father's two previous marriages. • Following another family move, Adolf lived for six months across from a large Benedictine monastery. The monastery's coat of arms' most salient feature was a swastika. As a youngster, Adolf's dream was to enter the priesthood. While there is anecdotal evidence that Adolf's father regularly beat him during his childhood, it was not unusual for discipline to be enforced in that way during that period. • By 1900, Hitler'stalents as an artist surfaced. He did well enough in school to be eligible for either the university preparatory "gymnasium" or the technical/scientific Realschule. Because the latter had a course in drawing, Adolf accepted his father's decision to enroll him in the Realschule. But He did not do well there.

3. Adolf's father died in 1903 after suffering a pleural hemorrhage. Adolf himself suffered from lung infections, and he quit school at the age of 16, partially the result of ill health and partially the result of poor school work. • In 1906, Adolf was permitted to visit Vienna, but he was unable to gain admission to a prestigious art school. His mother developed terminal breast cancer and was treated by Dr. Edward Bloch, a Jewish doctor who served the poor. After an operation and excruciatingly painful and expensive treatments with a dangerous drug, she died on December 21, 1907. • Hitler spent six years in Vienna, living on a small legacy from his father and an orphan's pension. Virtually penniless by 1909, he wandered Vienna as a transient, sleeping in bars, flophouses, and shelters for the homeless, including, ironically, those financed by Jewish philanthropists. It was during this period that he developed his prejudices about Jews, his interest in politics, and debating skills. According to John Toland's biography, Adolf Hitler, two of his closest friends at this time were Jewish, and he admired Jewish art dealers and Jewish operatic performers and producers. However, Vienna was a center of anti-Semitism, and the media's portrayal of Jews as scapegoats with stereotyped attributes did not escape Hitler's fascination. • In May 1913, Hitler, seeking to avoid military service, left Vienna for Munich, the capital of Bavaria, following a windfall received from an aunt who was dying. In January, the police came to his door bearing a draft notice from the Austrian government. The document threatened a year in prison and a fine if he was found guilty of leaving his native land with the intent of evading conscription. Hitler was arrested on the spot and taken to the Austrian Consulate. Upon reporting to Salzburg for duty, he was found "unfit...too weak...and unable to bear arms."

4. Hitler's World War I Service • When World War One was touched off by the assassination by a Serb of the heir to the Austrian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Hitler's passions against foreigners, particularly Slavs, were inflamed. He was caught up in the patriotism of the time, and submitted a petition to enlist in the Bavarian army. • After less than two months of training, Hitler's regiment saw its first combat near Ypres, against the British and Belgians. Hitler narrowly escaped death in battle several times, and was eventually awarded two Iron Crosses for bravery. He rose to the rank of lance corporal but no further. In October 1916, he was wounded by an enemy shell and evacuated to a Berlin area hospital. After recovering, and serving a total of four years in the trenches, he was temporarily blinded by a mustard gas attack in Belgium in October 1918. • Communist-inspired insurrections shook Germany while Hitler was recovering from his injuries. Some Jews were leaders of these abortive revolutions, and this inspired hatred of Jews as well as Communists. On November 9th, the Kaiser abdicated and the Socialists gained control of the government. Anarchy was more the rule in the cities.

5. With the loss of the war, the German monarchy came to an end and a republic was proclaimed. A constitution was written providing for a President with broad political and military parliamentary democracy. A national election the National Assembly. The centrist parties swept to victory. The result was what is known as the Weimar Republic. • On June 28, 1919, the German government ratified the Treaty of Versailles. Under the terms of the treaty which ended hostilities in the War, Germany had to pay reparations damages caused by the war. Germany also lost her colonies and large portions of German territory. A 30-mile strip on the right bank of the Rhine was demilitarized. Limits were placed on German armaments and military strength. The terms of the treaty were humiliating to most Germans, and condemnation of its terms undermined the government and served as a rallying cry for those who like Hitler believed Germany was ultimately destined for greatness.  Therefore, when Hitler heard the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, he was outraged and, in common with other nationalists, blamed Germany’s defeat on the communists and the Jews. • After the war he returned to Munich where he was given …………………………………………………………………..........the task to lecture to groups of soldiers. He won a …………………………………………………………………………..reputation as an effective speaker. He was also told to ………………………………………………………………………… attend the meetings of extreme nationalist groups and to ……………………………………………………………………… . .spy on their activities. When he was ordered to attend ………………………………………………………………………….the meeting of one tiny nationalist group, the German ………………………………………………………………………… Worker’s Party, it was to prove a turning point in his life.

6. So How did Hitler achieve such success?? When Adolf Hitler became a member of the German Worker’s Party it was tiny, had no money and not much of a political programme. The party had been founded in January 1919 by Anton Drexler to win working class support for nationalist ideas. The party had only 55 members, yet within fourteen years, under Hitler’s leadership, it had been transformed into the most powerful political party in Germany.

7. National conditions were certainly in favour of such radical nationalist politics. Germany had been defeated and made to sign a humiliating peace treaty. There were continuing threats from left-wing revolutionaries and the economic situation was very unstable. • At first, the Party was little known outside of Bavaria. There were many extreme nationalist groups in existence at the time all vowing to overthrow the Weimar government and restore Germany to greatness again. In early 1919 far left revolutionaries had declared Bavaria a communist republic. In May 1919, the Freikorps and army units had crushed the communist government, killing hundreds of opponents. By 1920 Bavaria was under the control of right wing nationalists led by Gustav Kahr. Hitler’s brand of nationalistic and racist political views found fertile ground. Resigning from the army, he entered politics and began to earn a reputation around the Munich beer halls where political rallies were held, as a brilliant speaker. • The German Workers Party adopted a new name – the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) and in 1921 Hitler became party leader. Helped by the Bavarian army with money and recruits it had become the best organised of the right wing groups in that part of Germany. In order to defend the Party from attacks as well as to break up opponents’ meetings and impress crowds with its discipline, Hitler created the SA (Sturm-Abteilung or storm troopers). By 1923, Hitler had become well known in Bavaria but not in the rest of Germany. • Hitler played a vital role in ensuring that the Nazis were more successful than the other right wing groups through  his charismatic personality and powerful speeches. His message was simple. Germany had been defeated and brought to its knees by communists and Jews.Remove these enemies, he argued, and Germany would be great again. Hilter had strong principles which he held until his death. He was also a superb opportunist taking full advantage of any situation that presented itself.

8. The Munich Hall Putsch 1923 • By 1919 Germany was in a financial mess as the economy lay in ruins.  Those on fixed pensions found it difficult to make ends meet. Worker’s wages could not keep up with the rise in prices. The fledgling Weimar government was wracked by assassinations and uprisings. • By 1923 Germany could no longer keep up its reparation payments to France. French forces marched into the Ruhr, the main coal and steel producing area of Germany, in compensation for failed payments. Many Germans were outraged and the government called a general strike to make it impossible for the French to remain. However, the new German Chancellor, Gustav Stresemann, called off the strike and attempted to make the payments that were owed. To right wing nationalists the Weimar government had proved once again that it could not uphold German honour. • Hitler decided that this moment of crisis was the ideal opportunity to seize power, even though his party was only 3,000 strong and virtually unknown outside of Bavaria. Many of his followers were at a fever pitch of excitement and Hitler felt he needed to prove he was a man of action. Earlier in 1923, he had organised a Battle League of right wing groups to which General Ludendorff, the hero of World War One, had given his support. The plan was to win control over the right wing Bavarian government led by Gustav Kahr and then to march on Berlin and overthrow the Weimar government. • On 8 November Kahr, attended by leading members of his government, was due to give a speech at the Burgerbraukellar in Munich. Hitler surrounded the beer hall with his SA men and then brandishing a revolver, marched in and declared the national revolution. Kahr was taken aback and after indicating that he approved of Hitler’s action, slipped away with the members of his government. As news reached Berlin, the Weimar government ordered Kahr to crush the armed take-over. • The following day, Hitler risked all on an armed march through Munich, the capital of Bavaria, believing the people would rise in his support. Instead they were met with a hail of bullets and 16 Nazis were killed. Hitler was pushed or fell and then helped to escape. Arrested shortly afterwards, he was put on trial with General Ludendorff. He used the courtroom as a platform to make passionate patriotic speeches. The judges were sympathetic to his cause and although Hitler was sentenced to five years imprisonment, he was released after serving only nine months.

9. How he control the Citizens of Germany • Hitler was able to stay in power for a long time as he uses fear to control the Germans. No other political parties were unable to be set up as there will be political competition. People live in fear throughout Hitlers Rising in power. They have no freedom or whatsoever as curfew was set up. The citizens lost their prides as they can do nothing to stop Hitler. Lots of lives were sacrificed even though no war is going on.

10. Hitler’s deathGod bless him =.= • During the night of 28 April, General Wenck reported that his Twelfth Army had been forced back along the entire front. Wenck noted that no further attacks towards Berlin were possible. General Alfred Jodl (Supreme Army Command) did not provide this information to Hans Krebs in Berlin until early in the morning of 30 April. • On 29 April, Hans Krebs, Wilhelm Burgdorf, Joseph Goebbels, and Martin Bormann witnessed and signed the last will and testament of Adolf Hitler. Hitler dictated the document to his private secretary, Traudl Junge. On the same day, Hitler was informed of the violent death of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on 28 April, which is presumed to have increased his determination to avoid capture. • On 30 April 1945, after intense fighting, when Soviet troops were within a block or two of the Reich Chancellery, Hitler committed suicide, shooting himself in the mouth while simultaneously biting into a capsule. Hitler's body and that of Eva Braun (his mistress whom he had married the day before) were put in a bomb crater,[doused in gasoline by Otto Günsche and other Führerbunker aides, and set alight as the Red Army advanced and shelling continued.