AP), commonly known as the Nazi Party.

He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and served as head of

state as Führer und Reichskanzler from 1934 to 1945. Hitler is most remembered for his central leadership role in the rise

offascism in Europe, World War II and The Holocaust.

A decorated veteran of World War I, Hitler joined the precursor of the Nazi Party (DAP) in 1919, and became leader of NSDAP

in 1921. He attempted a failed coup d'état known as the Beer Hall Putsch, which occurred at the Bürgerbräukeller beer

hallin Munich on November 8–9, 1923. Hitler was imprisoned for one year due to the failed coup, and wrote his memoir, "My

Struggle" (in German Mein Kampf), while imprisoned. After his release on December 20, 1924, he gained support by

promotingPan-Germanism, antisemitism and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and propaganda. He was appointed

chancellor on January 30, 1933, and transformed the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich, a single-party dictatorship based

on thetotalitarian and autocratic ideology of Nazism.

Hitler ultimately wanted to establish a New Order of absolute Nazi German hegemony in continental Europe. To achieve this,

he pursued a foreign policy with the declared goal of seizing Lebensraum ("living space") for the Aryan people; directing the

resources of the state towards this goal. This included the rearmament of Germany, which culminated in 1939 when

the Wehrmacht invaded Poland. In response, the United Kingdom and France declared war against Germany, leading to the

outbreak of World War II in Europe.[2]

Within three years, German forces and their European allies had occupied most of Europe, and most of North Africa, and

the Japanese forces had occupied parts of East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean. However, with the reversal of the

Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, the Allies gained the upper hand from 1942 onwards. By 1944, Allied armies had invaded

German-held Europe from all sides. Nazi forces engaged in numerous violent acts during the war, including the systematic

murder of as many as 17 million civilians,[3] including an estimated six million Jews targeted in the Holocaust and between

500,000 and 1,500,000 Roma,[4] added to the Poles, Soviet civilians, Soviet prisoners of war, people with disabilities,

homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other political and religious opponents.

In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, Hitler married his long-time mistress Eva Braun and, to avoid

capture by Soviet forces, the two committed suicide less than two days later on 30 April 1945, and their corpses were burned. [5]

Contents

1 Early years

o 1.1 Ancestry

o 1.2 Childhood

o 1.3 Early adulthood in Vienna and

Munich

o 1.4 World War I

2 Entry into politics

o 2.1 Beer Hall Putsch

o 2.2 Mein Kampf

o 2.3 Rebuilding of the party

 3 Rise to power

o 3.1 Brüning Administration

o 3.2 Appointment as Chancellor

o 3.3 Reichstag fire and the March

elections

o 3.4 "Day of Potsdam" and the

Enabling Act

o 3.5 Removal of remaining limits

4 Third Reich

o 4.1 Economy and culture

o 4.2 Rearmament and new alliances

o 4.3 The Holocaust

5 World War II

o 5.1 Early diplomatic triumphs

 5.1.1 Alliance with

Japan

 5.1.2 Austria and

Czechoslovakia

o 5.2 Start of World War II

o 5.3 Path to defeat

o 5.4 Attempted assassination

o 5.5 Defeat and death

6 Legacy

7 Religious views

8 Attitude to occultism

9 Health

o 9.1 Syphilis

o 9.2 Monorchism

o 9.3 Parkinson's disease

o 9.4 Other complaints

o 9.5 Addiction to amphetamine

o 9.6 Historians' views

10 Sexuality

11 Family

12 Hitler in media

o 12.1 Oratory and rallies

 o 12.2 Recorded in private

conversation

o 12.3 Patria picture disc

o 12.4 Documentaries during the Third

Reich

o 12.5 Television

o 12.6 Documentaries post Third

Reich

o 12.7 Films and series

o 12.8 Plays

13 See also

14 Footnotes

15 References

16 Further reading

o 16.1 Medical books

17 External links

Early years
Ancestry

Hitler's father, Alois Hitler, was an illegitimate child of Maria Anna Schicklgruber, so his paternity was not listed on his birth

certificate; he bore his mother's surname. [6][7] In 1842, Johann Georg Hiedler married Maria and in 1876 Alois testified before a

notary and three witnesses that Johann was his father.[8] Despite this testimony, Alois' paternity has been the subject of

controversy. After receiving a "blackmail letter" from Hitler's nephew William Patrick Hitler threatening to reveal embarrassing

information about Hitler's family tree, Nazi Party lawyer Hans Frank investigated, and, in his memoirs, claimed to have

uncovered letters revealing that Alois' mother was employed as a housekeeper for a Jewish family in Graz and that the family's

19-year-old son, Leopold Frankenberger, fathered Alois.[7] No evidence had, at that time, ever been produced to support

Frank's claim, and Frank himself said Hitler's full Aryan blood was obvious. [9] Frank's claims were widely believed in the 1950s,

but by the 1990s, were generally doubted by historians.[10][11] Ian Kershaw dismissed the Frankenberger story as a "smear" by

Hitler's enemies, noting that all Jews had been expelled from Graz in the 15th century and were not allowed to return until years

after Alois' birth.[11]

At age 39, Alois took the surname Hitler. This surname was variously spelled Hiedler, Hüttler, Huettler and Hitler, and was

probably regularized to Hitler by a clerk. The origin of the name is either "one who lives in a hut" (Standard German Hütte),

"shepherd" (Standard German hüten "to guard", English heed), or is from the Slavic word Hidlar and Hidlarcek.[12]

Childhood

Adolf Hitler was born at around 6:30 p.m. on 20 April 1889 at the Gasthof zum Pommer, an inn in Braunau am Inn, Austria–

Hungary, the fourth of six children to Alois Hitler and Klara Pölzl.

Adolf Hitler as an infant

When he was three years old, his family relocated to Kapuzinerstrasse 5[13] in Passau, Germany, where Hitler would

acquire Lower Bavarian rather than Austrian as his lifelong native dialect.[14] In 1894, the family relocated to Leonding near Linz,

then in June 1895, Alois retired to a small landholding at Hafeld near Lambach, where he tried his hand at farming and

beekeeping. During this time, the young Hitler attended school in nearby Fischlham. As a child, he played "Cowboys and

Indians" and, by his own account, became fixated on war after finding a picture book about the Franco-Prussian War among his

father's belongings.[15]

His father's efforts at Hafeld ended in failure, and the family relocated to Lambach in 1897. Hitler attended a Catholic school

located in an 11th-century Benedictine cloister, where the walls were engraved in a number of places with crests containing the

symbol of the swastika.[16] It was in Lambach that the eight-year-old Hitler sang in the church choir, took singing lessons, and

even entertained the fantasy of one day becoming a priest.[17] In 1898, the family returned permanently to Leonding.

His younger brother Edmund died of measles on 2 February 1900, causing permanent changes in Hitler. He went from a

confident, outgoing boy who excelled in school, to a morose, detached, sullen boy who constantly battled his father and his

teachers.[18]

Hitler was attached to his mother, though he had a troubled relationship with his father, who frequently beat him, especially in

the years after Alois' retirement and disappointing farming efforts. [19] Alois wanted his son to follow in his footsteps as an

Austrian customs official, and this became a huge source of conflict between them. [15] Despite his son's pleas to go to classical

high school and become an artist, his father sent him to the Realschule in Linz, a technical high school of about 300 students,

in September 1900. Hitler rebelled, and in Mein Kampf confessed to failing his first year in hopes that once his father saw "what

little progress I was making at the technical school he would let me devote myself to the happiness I dreamed of." Alois never

relented, however, and Hitler became even more bitter and rebellious.

German Nationalism quickly became an obsession for Hitler, and a way to rebel against his father, who proudly served

the Austrian government. Most people who lived along the German-Austrian border considered themselves German-Austrians,

but Hitler expressed loyalty only to Germany. In defiance of the Austrian monarchy, and his father who continually expressed
loyalty to it, Hitler and his young friends liked to use the German greeting "Heil", and sing the German anthem "Deutschland

Über Alles" instead of the Austrian Imperial anthem.[15]

After Alois' sudden death on 3 January 1903, Hitler's behaviour at the technical school became even more disruptive, and he

was asked to leave. He enrolled at the Realschule in Steyr in 1904, but upon completing his second year, he and his friends

went out for a night of celebration and drinking, and an intoxicated Hitler tore his school certificate into four pieces and used it

as toilet paper. When someone turned the stained certificate in to the school's director, he "... gave him such a dressing-down

that the boy was reduced to shivering jelly. It was probably the most painful and humiliating experience of his life." [20] Hitler was

expelled, never to return to school again.

At age 15, Hitler took part in his First Communion on Whitsunday, 22 May 1904, at the Linz Cathedral. [21] His sponsor was

Emanuel Lugert, a friend of his late father. [22]

Early adulthood in Vienna and Munich

From 1905 on, Hitler lived a bohemian life in Vienna on an orphan's pension and support from his mother. He was rejected

twice by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (1907–1908), citing "unfitness for painting", and was told his abilities lay instead in

the field of architecture.[23] Following the school rector's recommendation, he too became convinced this was his path to pursue,

yet he lacked the proper academic preparation for architecture school:

In a few days I myself knew that I should some day become an architect. To be sure, it was an incredibly hard road; for the

studies I had neglected out of spite at the Realschule were sorely needed. One could not attend the Academy's architectural

school without having attended the building school at the Technic, and the latter required a high-school degree. I had none of

all this. The fulfillment of my artistic dream seemed physically impossible. [24]

The Courtyard of the Old Residency in Munich, by Adolf Hitler, 1914

On 21 December 1907, Hitler's mother died of breast cancer at age 47. Ordered by a court in Linz, Hitler gave his share of

the orphans' benefits to his sister Paula. When he was 21, he inherited money from an aunt. He struggled as a painter in

Vienna, copying scenes from postcards and selling his paintings to merchants and tourists. After being rejected a second time

by the Academy of Arts, Hitler ran out of money. In 1909, he lived in a shelter for the homeless. By 1910, he had settled into

a house for poor working men on Meldemannstraße. Another resident of the house, Reinhold Hanisch, sold Hitler's paintings

until the two men had a bitter falling-out.[25]

Hitler said he first became an antisemite in Vienna,[24] which had a large Jewish community, including Orthodox Jews who had

fled the pogroms in Russia. According to childhood friend August Kubizek, however, Hitler was a "confirmed antisemite" before
he left Linz.[24] Vienna at that time was a hotbed of traditional religious prejudice and 19th century racism. Hitler may have been

influenced by the occult writings of the antisemite Lanz von Liebenfels in his magazine Ostara; it is usually taken for granted

that he read the publication (he recounts in Mein Kampf his conversion to antisemitism being after reading some pamphlets)

and he most likely did read it, although it is uncertain to what degree he was influenced by the antisemitic occult work. [26]

There were very few Jews in Linz. In the course of centuries the Jews who lived there had become Europeanised in external

appearance and were so much like other human beings that I even looked upon them as Germans. The reason why I did not

then perceive the absurdity of such an illusion was that the only external mark which I recognized as distinguishing them from

us was the practice of their strange religion. As I thought that they were persecuted on account of their faith my aversion to

hearing remarks against them grew almost into a feeling of abhorrence. I did not in the least suspect that there could be such a

thing as a systematic antisemitism. Once, when passing through the inner City, I suddenly encountered a phenomenon in a

long caftan and wearing black side-locks. My first thought was: Is this a Jew? They certainly did not have this appearance in

Linz. I carefully watched the man stealthily and cautiously but the longer I gazed at the strange countenance and examined it

feature by feature, the more the question shaped itself in my brain: Is this a German?[24]

If this account is true, Hitler apparently did not act on his new belief. He often was a guest for dinner in a noble Jewish house,

and he interacted well with Jewish merchants who tried to sell his paintings. [27]

Hitler may also have been influenced by Martin Luther's On the Jews and Their Lies. In Mein Kampf, Hitler refers to Martin

Luther as a great warrior, a true statesman, and a great reformer, alongside Richard Wagner and Frederick the Great.
[28]
 Wilhelm Röpke, writing after the Holocaust, concluded that "without any question, Lutheranism influenced the political,

spiritual and social history of Germany in a way that, after careful consideration of everything, can be described only as

fateful."[29][30]

Hitler claimed that Jews were enemies of the Aryan race. He held them responsible for Austria's crisis. He also identified

certain forms of socialism and Bolshevism, which had many Jewish leaders, as Jewish movements, merging his antisemitism

with anti-Marxism. Later, blaming Germany's military defeat in World War I on the 1918 revolutions, he considered Jews the

culprits of Imperial Germany's downfall and subsequent economic problems as well.

Hitler received the final part of his father's estate in May 1913 and moved to Munich. He wrote in Mein Kampf that he had

always longed to live in a "real" German city. In Munich, he became more interested in architecture and, he says, the writings

of Houston Stewart Chamberlain. Moving to Munich also helped him escape military service in Austria for a time, but the

Munich police (acting in cooperation with the Austrian authorities) eventually arrested him. After a physical exam and a contrite

plea, he was deemed unfit for service and allowed to return to Munich. However, when Germany entered World War I in August

1914, he petitioned King Ludwig III of Bavaria for permission to serve in a Bavarian regiment. This request was granted, and

Adolf Hitler enlisted in the Bavarian army.[31]

World War I
Main article: Military career of Adolf Hitler
A young Hitler (left) posing with other German soldiers

Hitler served in France and Belgium in the 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment, on the Western Front as a regimental runner. He

was present at a number of major battles on the Western Front, including the First Battle of Ypres, the Battle of the Somme,

the Battle of Arras and the Battle of Passchendaele.[32]

Hitler in the German Army, 1914, sitting at right

Hitler was twice decorated for bravery. He received the relatively common Iron Cross, Second Class, in 1914 and Iron Cross,

First Class, in 1918, an honour rarely given to a Gefreiter.[33] Yet because the regimental staff thought Hitler lacked leadership

skills, he was never promoted to Unteroffizier (equivalent to a British corporal). According to Weber, Hitler's First Class Iron

Cross was recommended by Hugo Gutmann, a Jewish List adjutant, and this rarer award was commonly awarded to those

posted to regimental headquarters, such as Hitler, who had more contact with more senior officers than combat soldiers.[34]

Hitler's duties at regimental headquarters gave him time to pursue his artwork. He drew cartoons and instructional drawings for

an army newspaper. In 1916, he was wounded in either the groin area [35] or the left thigh[36] during the Battle of the Somme, but

returned to the front in March 1917. He received the Wound Badge later that year. German historian and author, Sebastian

Haffner, referring to Hitler's experience at the front, suggests that he had at least some understanding of the military.

On 15 October 1918, Hitler was admitted to a field hospital, temporarily blinded by a mustard gas attack.

The English psychologist David Lewis and Bernhard Horstmann suggest the blindness may have been the result of

a conversion disorder (then known as "hysteria").[37] In fact, Hitler said it was during this experience that he became convinced

the purpose of his life was to "save Germany." Some scholars, notablyLucy Dawidowicz,[38] argue that an intention to

exterminate Europe's Jews was fully formed in Hitler's mind at this time, though he probably had not thought through how it

could be done. Most historians think the decision was made in 1941, and some think it came as late as 1942.
Hitler had long admired Germany, and during the war he had become a passionate German patriot, although he did not

become a German citizen until 1932. Hitler found the war to be "the greatest of all experiences" and afterwards he was praised

by a number of his commanding officers for his bravery.[39] He was shocked by Germany's capitulation in November 1918 even

while the German army still held enemy territory.[40] Like many other German nationalists, Hitler believed in the Stab-in-the-back

legend (Dolchstoßlegende) which claimed that the army, "undefeated in the field," had been "stabbed in the back" by civilian

leaders and Marxists back on the home front. These politicians were later dubbed the November Criminals.

Portrait of Adolf Hitler taken during the war

The Treaty of Versailles deprived Germany of various territories, demilitarised the Rhineland and imposed other economically

damaging sanctions. The treaty re-created Poland, which even moderate Germans regarded as an outrage. The treaty also

blamed Germany for all the horrors of the war, something which major historians such as John Keegan now consider at least in

part to be victor's justice; most European nations in the run-up to World War I had become increasingly militarised and were

eager to fight. The culpability of Germany was used as a basis to impose reparations on Germany (the amount was repeatedly

revised under the Dawes Plan, the Young Plan, and the Hoover Moratorium). Germany in turn perceived the treaty, especially

Article 231 on the German responsibility for the war, as a humiliation. For example, there was a nearly total demilitarisation of

the armed forces, allowing Germany only six battleships, no submarines, no air force, an army of 100,000 without conscription

and no armoured vehicles. The treaty was an important factor in both the social and political conditions encountered by Hitler

and his Nazis as they sought power. Hitler and his party used the signing of the treaty by the "November Criminals" as a reason

to build up Germany so that it could never happen again. He also used the "November Criminals" as scapegoats, although at

the Paris peace conference, these politicians had had very little choice in the matter.

Entry into politics

Main article: Adolf Hitler's political views

After World War I, Hitler remained in the army and returned to Munich, where he – in contrast to his later declarations –

attended the funeral march for the murdered Bavarian prime minister Kurt Eisner.[41] After the suppression of the Bavarian

Soviet Republic, he took part in "national thinking" courses organized by the Education and Propaganda Department (Dept

Ib/P) of the Bavarian Reichswehr Group, Headquarters 4 under Captain Karl Mayr. Scapegoats were found in "international

Jewry", communists, and politicians across the party spectrum, especially the parties of the Weimar Coalition.
In July 1919, Hitler was appointed a Verbindungsmann (police spy) of an Aufklärungskommando (Intelligence Commando) of

the Reichswehr, both to influence other soldiers and to infiltrate a small party, the German Workers' Party (DAP). During his

inspection of the party, Hitler was impressed with founder Anton Drexler's antisemitic, nationalist, anti-capitalist and anti-

Marxist ideas, which favoured a strong active government, a "non-Jewish" version of socialism and mutual solidarity of all

members of society. Drexler was impressed with Hitler's oratory skills and invited him to join the party. Hitler joined DAP on 12

September 1919[42] and became the party's 55th member.[43] His actual membership number was 555 (the 500 was added to

make the group appear larger) but later the number was reduced to create the impression that Hitler was one of the founding

members.[44] He was also made the seventh member of the executive committee. [45] Years later, he claimed to be the party's

seventh overall member, but it has been established that this claim is false. [46]

A copy of Adolf Hitler's German Workers' Party (DAP) membership card.

Here Hitler met Dietrich Eckart, one of the early founders of the party and member of the occult Thule Society.[47] Eckart

became Hitler's mentor, exchanging ideas with him, teaching him how to dress and speak, and introducing him to a wide range

of people. Hitler thanked Eckart by paying tribute to him in the second volume of Mein Kampf. To increase the party's appeal,

the party changed its name to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or National Socialist German Workers

Party(abbreviated NSDAP).

Hitler was discharged from the army in March 1920 and with his former superiors' continued encouragement began

participating full time in the party's activities. By early 1921, Hitler was becoming highly effective at speaking in front of large

crowds. In February, Hitler spoke before a crowd of nearly six thousand in Munich. To publicize the meeting, he sent out two

truckloads of party supporters to drive around with swastikas, cause a commotion and throw out leaflets, their first use of this

tactic. Hitler gained notoriety outside of the party for his rowdy, polemic speeches against the Treaty of Versailles, rival

politicians (including monarchists, nationalists and other non-internationalist socialists) and especially against Marxists and

Jews.

The NSDAP[48] was centred in Munich, a hotbed of German nationalists who included Army officers determined to crush

Marxism and undermine the Weimar Republic. Gradually they noticed Hitler and his growing movement as a suitable vehicle for

their goals. Hitler traveled to Berlin to visit nationalist groups during the summer of 1921, and in his absence there was a revolt

among the DAP leadership in Munich.

The party was run by an executive committee whose original members considered Hitler to be overbearing. They formed an

alliance with a group of socialists from Augsburg. Hitler rushed back to Munich and countered them by tendering his resignation

from the party on 11 July 1921. When they realized the loss of Hitler would effectively mean the end of the party, he seized the

moment and announced he would return on the condition that he replace Drexler as party chairman, with unlimited powers.
Infuriated committee members (including Drexler) held out at first. Meanwhile an anonymous pamphlet appeared entitled Adolf

Hitler: Is he a traitor?, attacking Hitler's lust for power and criticizing the violent men around him. Hitler responded to its

publication in a Munich newspaper by suing for libel and later won a small settlement.

The executive committee of the NSDAP eventually backed down and Hitler's demands were put to a vote of party members.

Hitler received 543 votes for and only one against. At the next gathering on 29 July 1921, Adolf Hitler was introduced

as Führer of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, marking the first time this title was publicly used.

Hitler's beer hall oratory, attacking Jews, social democrats, liberals, reactionary monarchists, capitalists and communists,

began attracting adherents. Early followers included Rudolf Hess, the former air force pilot Hermann Göring, and the army

captain Ernst Röhm, who eventually became head of the Nazis' paramilitary organization the SA (Sturmabteilung, or "Storm

Division"), which protected meetings and attacked political opponents. As well, Hitler assimilated independent groups, such as

the Nuremberg-based Deutsche Werkgemeinschaft, led by Julius Streicher, who becameGauleiter of Franconia. Hitler attracted

the attention of local business interests, was accepted into influential circles of Munich society, and became associated with

wartime General Erich Ludendorff during this time.

Drawing of Hitler, 1923

Beer Hall Putsch
Main article: Beer Hall Putsch

Encouraged by this early support, Hitler decided to use Ludendorff as a front in an attempted coup later known as the "Beer

Hall  Putsch" (sometimes as the "Hitler Putsch" or "Munich Putsch"). The Nazi Party had copied Italy's fascists in appearance

and had adopted some of their policies, and in 1923, Hitler wanted to emulate Benito Mussolini's "March on Rome" by staging

his own "Campaign in Berlin". Hitler and Ludendorff obtained the clandestine support of Gustav von Kahr, Bavaria's de

facto ruler, along with leading figures in the Reichswehr and the police. As political posters show, Ludendorff, Hitler and the

heads of the Bavarian police and military planned on forming a new government.

On 8 November 1923, Hitler and the SA stormed a public meeting headed by Kahr in the Bürgerbräukeller, a large beer hall in

Munich. He declared that he had set up a new government with Ludendorff and demanded, at gunpoint, the support of Kahr
and the local military establishment for the destruction of the Berlin government. [49] Kahr withdrew his support and fled to join

the opposition to Hitler at the first opportunity. [50] The next day, when Hitler and his followers marched from the beer hall to

the Bavarian War Ministryto overthrow the Bavarian government as a start to their "March on Berlin", the police dispersed

them. Sixteen NSDAP members were killed.[51]

Hitler fled to the home of Ernst Hanfstaengl and contemplated suicide; Hanfstaengl's wife Helene talked him out of it. He was

soon arrested for high treason. Alfred Rosenberg became temporary leader of the party. During Hitler's trial, he was given

almost unlimited time to speak, and his popularity soared as he voiced nationalistic sentiments in his defence speech. A Munich

personality thus became a nationally known figure. On 1 April 1924, Hitler was sentenced to five years' imprisonment

at Landsberg Prison. Hitler received favoured treatment from the guards and had much fan mail from admirers. He was

pardoned and released from jail on 20 December 1924, by order of the Bavarian Supreme Court on 19 December, which

issued its final rejection of the state prosecutor's objections to Hitler's early release. [52] Including time on remand, he had served

little more than one year of his sentence. [53]

On 28 June 1925, Hitler wrote a letter from Uffing to the editor of The Nation in New York City complaining of the length of his

sentence at "Sandberg a. S." [sic], where he claimed his privileges had been extensively revoked. [54]

Mein Kampf

Dust jacket of Mein Kampf

Main article: Mein Kampf

While at Landsberg, he 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.[53] The book, dedicated to Thule Society

member Dietrich Eckart, was an autobiography and an exposition of his ideology. Mein Kampf was influenced by The Passing

of the Great Race by Madison Grant, which Hitler called "my Bible." [55] It was published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926,

selling about 240,000 copies between 1925 and 1934. By the end of the war, about 10 million copies had been sold or

distributed (newlyweds and soldiers received free copies). The copyright of Mein Kampf in Europe is claimed by the Free State

of Bavaria and scheduled to end on 31 December 2015. Reproductions in Germany are authorized only for scholarly purposes

and in heavily commented form.

Rebuilding of the party

Adolf Hitler (left), standing up behind Hermann Göring at a Nazi rally in Nuremberg, 1928

At the time of Hitler's release, the political situation in Germany had calmed and the economy had improved, which hampered

Hitler's opportunities for agitation. Though the "Hitler Putsch" had given Hitler some national prominence, Munich remained his

party's mainstay.

The NSDAP and its organs were banned in Bavaria after the collapse of the putsch. Hitler convinced Heinrich Held, Prime

Minister of Bavaria, to lift the ban, based on representations that the party would now only seek political power through legal

means. Even though the ban on the NSDAP was removed effective 16 February 1925, [56] Hitler incurred a new ban on public

speaking as a result of an inflammatory speech. Since Hitler was banned from public speeches, he appointed Gregor Strasser,

who in 1924 had been elected to the Reichstag, as Reichsorganisationsleiter, authorizing him to organize the party in northern

Germany. Strasser, joined by his younger brother Otto and Joseph Goebbels, steered an increasingly independent course,

emphasizing the socialist element in the party's programme. The Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Gauleiter Nord-West became an

internal opposition, threatening Hitler's authority, but this faction was defeated at the Bamberg Conference in 1926, during

which Goebbels joined Hitler.

After this encounter, Hitler centralized the party even more and asserted the Führerprinzip ("Leader principle") as the basic

principle of party organization. Leaders were not elected by their group, but were rather appointed by their superior, answering

to them while demanding unquestioning obedience from their inferiors. Consistent with Hitler's disdain for democracy, all power

and authority devolved from the top down.

A key element of Hitler's appeal was his ability to evoke a sense of offended national pride caused by the Treaty of Versailles

imposed on the defeated German Empire by the Western Allies. Germany had lost economically important territory in Europe

along with its colonies, and in admitting to sole responsibility for the war had agreed to pay a huge reparations bill totaling

132 billion marks. Most Germans bitterly resented these terms, but early Nazi attempts to gain support by blaming these

humiliations on "international Jewry" were not particularly successful with the electorate. The party learned quickly, and soon a

more subtle propaganda emerged, combining antisemitism with an attack on the failures of the "Weimar system" and the

parties supporting it.

Having failed in overthrowing the Republic by a coup, Hitler pursued a "strategy of legality": this meant formally adhering to the

rules of the Weimar Republic until he had legally gained power. He would then use the institutions of the Weimar Republic to

destroy it and establish himself as dictator. Some party members, especially in the paramilitary SA, opposed this strategy;

Röhm and others ridiculed Hitler as "Adolphe Legalité".

Rise to power
Main article: Adolf Hitler's rise to power

Nazi Party Election Results

Seats in
Percentage
Date Votes Reichsta Background
of Votes
g

May 1924 1,918,300 6.5 32 Hitler in prison

December 1924 907,300 3.0 14 Hitler is released from prison

May 1928 810,100 2.6 12  

September
6,409,600 18.3 107 After the financial crisis
1930

July 1932 13,745,800 37.4 230 After Hitler was candidate for presidency

November 1932 11,737,000 33.1 196  

March 1933 17,277,000 43.9 288 During Hitler's term as Chancellor of Germany

Brüning Administration

An NSDAP meeting in December 1930, with Hitler in the centre

The political turning point for Hitler came when the Great Depression hit Germany in 1930. The Weimar Republic had never

been firmly rooted and was openly opposed by right-wing conservatives (including monarchists), communists and the Nazis. As

the parties loyal to the democratic, parliamentary republic found themselves unable to agree on counter-measures, their grand

coalition broke up and was replaced by a minority cabinet. The new Chancellor, Heinrich Brüning of the Roman Catholic Centre

Party, lacking a majority in parliament, had to implement his measures through the president's emergency decrees. Tolerated

by the majority of parties, this rule by decree would become the norm over a series of unworkable parliaments and paved the

way for authoritarian forms of government.[57]

The Reichstag's initial opposition to Brüning's measures led to premature elections in September 1930. The republican parties

lost their majority and their ability to resume the grand coalition, while the Nazis suddenly rose from relative obscurity to win

18.3% of the vote along with 107 seats. In the process, they jumped from the ninth-smallest party in the chamber to the second

largest.[58]

In September–October 1930, Hitler appeared as a major defence witness at the trial in Leipzig of two junior Reichswehr officers

charged with membership of the Nazi Party, which at that time was forbidden to Reichswehr personnel.[59] The two

officers,Leutnants Richard Scheringer and Hans Ludin, admitted quite openly to Nazi Party membership, and used as their

defence that the Nazi Party membership should not be forbidden to those serving in the Reichswehr.[60] When the Prosecution

argued that the Nazi Party was a dangerous revolutionary force, one of the defence lawyers, Hans Frank had Hitler brought to

the stand to prove that the Nazi Party was a law-abiding party.[60] During his testimony, Hitler insisted that his party was

determined to come to power legally, that the phrase "National Revolution" was only to be interpreted "politically", and that his

Party was a friend, not an enemy of the Reichswehr.[61] Hitler's testimony of 25 September 1930 won him many admirers within

the ranks of the officer corps.[62]

Brüning's measures of budget consolidation and financial austerity brought little economic improvement and were extremely

unpopular.[63] Under these circumstances, Hitler appealed to the bulk of German farmers, war veterans and the middle class,

who had been hard-hit by both the inflation of the 1920s and the unemployment of the Depression. [64]

In September 1931, Hitler's niece Geli Raubal was found dead in her bedroom in his Munich apartment (his half-

sister Angela and her daughter Geli had been with him in Munich since 1929), an apparent suicide. Geli, who was believed to

be in some sort of romantic relationship with Hitler, was 19 years younger than he was, and had used his gun. His niece's death

is viewed as a source of deep, lasting pain for him.[65]

In 1932, Hitler intended to run against the aging President Paul von Hindenburg in the scheduled presidential elections. His 27

January 1932 speech to the Industry Club in Düsseldorf won him, for the first time, support from a broad swath of Germany's

most powerful industrialists.[66] Though Hitler had left Austria in 1913 and had formally renounced his Austrian citizenship on 7

April 1925, he still had not acquired German citizenship and hence could not run for public office. For almost seven years Hitler

was stateless and faced the risk of deportation from Germany.[67] On 25 February 1932, however, the Nazi interior minister

of Brunswick (the Nazis were part of a right-wing coalition governing the state) appointed Hitler as administrator for the state's

delegation to the Reichsrat in Berlin. This appointment made Hitler a citizen of Brunswick. [68] In those days, the states conferred

citizenship, so this automatically made Hitler a citizen of Germany as well and thus eligible to run for president. [69]
The new German citizen ran against Hindenburg, who was supported by a broad range of nationalist, monarchist,

Catholic, republican and even social democratic parties. Another candidate was a Communist and member of a fringe right-

wing party. Hitler's campaign was called "Hitler über Deutschland" (Hitler over Germany).[70] The name had a double meaning;

besides a reference to his dictatorial ambitions, it referred to the fact that he campaigned by aircraft. [70] Hitler came in second on

both rounds, attaining more than 35% of the vote during the second one in April. Although he lost to Hindenburg, the election

established Hitler as a realistic alternative in German politics. [71]

Appointment as Chancellor

Meanwhile, Papen tried to get his revenge on Schleicher by working toward the General's downfall, through forming an intrigue

with the camarilla and Alfred Hugenberg, media mogul and chairman of the DNVP. Also involved were Hjalmar Schacht, Fritz

Thyssen and other leading German businessmen and international bankers. [72] They financially supported the Nazi Party, which

had been brought to the brink of bankrup