Brazil

Brazil

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Federative Republic of Brazil
República Federativa do Brasil (Portuguese)

Flag Coat of arms
Motto: "Ordem e Progresso"
(Portuguese)
"Order and Progress"
Anthem: Hino Nacional Brasileiro
(Portuguese)
"Brazilian National Anthem"
National seal
Selo Nacional do Brasil National Seal of Brazil (color).svg
(Portuguese)
"National Seal of Brazil"
Capital Brasília
15°45′S 47°57′W / 15.75°S 47.95°W / -15.75; -47.95
Largest city São Paulo
Official languages Portuguese
(see Languages of Brazil)
Ethnic groups 49.4% White
42.3% Pardo (Brown)
7.4% Black
0.5% Asian
0.4% Amerindian
Demonym Brazilian
Government Presidential Federal republic
- President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT)
- Vice-President José Alencar (PRB)
- President of the Chamber of Deputies Michel Temer (PMDB)
- President of the Senate José Sarney (PMDB)
- Chief Justice Gilmar Mendes
Independence from Portugal
- Declared September 7, 1822
- Recognized August 29, 1825
- Republic November 15, 1889
- Current constitution October 5, 1988
Area
- Total 8,514,877 km2 (5th)
3,287,597 sq mi
- Water (%) 0.65
Population
- 2009 estimate 191,241,714[1] (5th)
- 2007 census 189,987,291
- Density 22/km2 (182nd)
57/sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2008 estimate
- Total $1.984 trillion[2] (9th)
- Per capita $10,465[2] (77th)
GDP (nominal) 2008 estimate
- Total $1.665 trillion [3] (8th)
- Per capita $8,295[2] (63rd)
Gini (2009) 49.3[4]
HDI (2007) 0.813[5] (high) (75th)
Currency Real (R$) (BRL)
Time zone BRT [6] (UTC-2 to -4[7])
- Summer (DST) BRST [8] (UTC-2 to -4)
Date formats dd/mm/yyyy (CE)
Drives on the right
Internet TLD .br
Calling code +55

Brazil (Portuguese: Brasil), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil) Pt-br-República Federativa do Brasil.ogg listen (help·info), is the largest country in South America and the only Portuguese-speaking country on that continent.[9] It is the fifth largest country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America[10] and the fifth most populous country in the world.[9][11]

Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of over 7,491 kilometers (4,655 mi).[9] It is bordered on the north by Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and the French overseas department of French Guiana; on the northwest by Colombia; on the west by Bolivia and Peru; on the southwest by Argentina and Paraguay and on the south by Uruguay. Numerous archipelagos are part of the Brazilian territory, such as Fernando de Noronha, Rocas Atoll, Saint Peter and Paul Rocks, and Trindade and Martim Vaz.[9]

Brazil was a colony of Portugal from the landing of Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500 until its independence in 1822.[12] Initially independent as the Brazilian Empire, the country has been a republic since 1889, although the bicameral legislature, now called Congress, dates back to 1824, when the first constitution was ratified.[12] Its current Constitution defines Brazil as a Federal Republic.[13] The Federation is formed by the union of the Federal District, the 26 States, and the 5,564 Municipalities.[13][14]

Brazil is the world's eighth largest economy at market exchange rates[3] and the ninth largest by purchasing power parity.[15] Economic reforms have given the country new international recognition.[16] It is a founding member of the United Nations and the Union of South American Nations. A predominantly Roman Catholic, Portuguese-speaking, and multiethnic society,[11] Brazil is also home to a diversity of wildlife, natural environments, and extensive natural resources in a variety of protected habitats.[9]
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Etymology
* 2 History
o 2.1 Native Brazilians and early Portuguese settlers
o 2.2 Territorial expansion
o 2.3 Independence and Empire
o 2.4 Emperor Pedro II reign
o 2.5 Old Republic and Vargas Era
o 2.6 Military regime and Contemporary era
* 3 Government and politics
o 3.1 Law
o 3.2 Foreign relations
o 3.3 Military
* 4 Subdivisions
o 4.1 States
o 4.2 Municipalities
o 4.3 The Federal District
o 4.4 Former territories
o 4.5 Regions
* 5 Geography
o 5.1 Climate
o 5.2 Wildlife
* 6 Economy
o 6.1 Components and energy
o 6.2 Science and technology
* 7 Demographics
o 7.1 Language
o 7.2 Religion
o 7.3 Education and health
* 8 Society
o 8.1 People and festivals
o 8.2 Leisure in Brazil
o 8.3 Brazilian women
* 9 Culture
o 9.1 Cuisine
o 9.2 Arts
o 9.3 Literature and poetry
o 9.4 Popular media
o 9.5 Sports
* 10 See also
* 11 Bibliography
o 11.1 References
o 11.2 Further reading
o 11.3 Footnotes
* 12 External links

Etymology

The etymology of the name Brazil is not well established. The most accepted is that it was named after the tree brazilwood[17] which in Portuguese is pau-brasil, with the Portuguese word brasil being commonly given the etymology 'red like an ember,' formed from Latin brasa ('ember') plus the suffix -il* (from -iculum or -ilium).[18][19][20] Another possibility is the Irish legendary island of Hy-Brazil, known to Western European sailors in the 1500s[21] and popularized in its current spelling by Italian cartographer Angelinus Alorto's 1325 map "L'Isola Brazil."[22] Its origin comes from the celtic word bress, which means 'to bless,' thereby giving the island Hy Brazil the name 'Blessed land.' The "scholars from the 16th century did not doubt that the name Brazil came from the legendary island", but wrongly held the belief that it had been named after the wood came from the sailors who trafficked it.[23]
History
Main article: History of Brazil
Native Brazilians and early Portuguese settlers
Main articles: Indigenous peoples in Brazil and Colonial Brazil
The first Christian mass celebrated in what would later be called Brazil and also the beginning of the Portuguese colonization.

When arriving in April 1500 in the coast of what would later be known as Brazil, the Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral found the primitive people who inhabited it.[24][25] They were divided in several distinct tribes, that fought among themselves[26] and that shared the same Tupi-Guarani linguistic family.[24] The “men were hunters, fishers and food collectors and the women were encharged of the reduced agricultural activity that was practiced.”[24] Some of the tribes were nomads and other sedentary; they knew the fire but not metal casting and a few were cannibals.[24] The settling was effectively initiated in 1534, when King Dom João III divided the Brazilian territory in twelve hereditary captaincies that would be governed by members of the lesser nobility or proceeding from educated families.[27][28] The experience revealed itself to be an utter disaster, and in 1549 the king assigned a governor-general to administrate the entire colony.[28][29]

Around 1530, the Tupiniquim (the same tribe that Cabral met)[30] and their bitter enemies the Tupinambá, the largest and most important tribes in Brazil, allied themselves with the Portuguese and the French, respectively.[26] Between the Portuguese and the Tupiniquim “occurred a certain intermittently pacific inter-racial assimilation.”[31] While the Tupinambás, however, were mostly exterminated in long wars and mainly by European diseases to which they had no immunities.[32][33] The ones that survived were enslaved by other tribes or by the Portuguese or fled toward the countryside.[32][34] By the middle of the 16th century, sugar had become the most important item of the Brazilian exportations.[26][35] Thus, the Portuguese turned to other forms of man power to handle with the increasing international demand.[32][36] Enslaved Africans were imported and became the “basic pillar of the economy” in the most populous areas of the colony.[37][38]
Territorial expansion
The Portuguese and their Amerindian and African allies expanded the Brazilian territory through endless wars of conquest.
See also: Bandeirantes

Through wars against the French, the Portuguese slowly expanded their territory to the Southeast, taking Rio de Janeiro in 1567, and to the northwest, São Luís in 1615.[39] They suffered a setback with the Dutch invasions that began in 1630 and that managed to conquer large portions of the Brazilian northeastern coastline. The Dutch domain did not last long and they were expelled definitively in 1649.[40] The Portuguese sent military expeditions to the Amazon rainforest that defeated and conquered British and Dutch strongholds. The Portuguese settlement in the region initiated in 1669, with the foundation of villages and forts.[41] In 1680 they reached the far south and founded Sacramento at the side of the Rio de la Plata, in the Eastern Strip region (current Uruguay).[42] At the end of the 17th century sugar exports entered in decline due to competition with the British and Dutch colonies in the Caribbean and also due to high taxes.[43] The discovery of gold by explorers in the region that would later be called Minas Gerais (General Mines) between 1693 and 1695 saved the colony from its imminent collapse.[44] From all over Brazil, as well from Portugal, thousands of immigrants, from all ethnicities, departed toward the mines.[45] In the following decades other gold mines were found in current Mato Grosso and Goiás, in the Brazilian Central-West.[46]

The Spanish tried to prevent the Portuguese expansion on the territory belonged to them according to the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494 and succeeded on conquering the Eastern Strip in 1777. All in vain as the Treaty of San Ildefonso signed in the same year confirmed Portuguese domain over all lands proceeding from its territorial expansion, thus creating most of current Brazilian borders.[47] In 1808, the Portuguese Royal family, fleeing from the troops of the French Emperor Napoleon I that were invading Portugal and most of Central Europe, established themselves in the city of Rio de Janeiro, which thus became the seat of the entire Portuguese Empire[48] In 1815 King Dom João VI, then regent on behalf of his incapacitated mother, elevated Brazil from colony to sovereign Kingdom united with Portugal.[48] The Portuguese invaded French Guiana in 1809 (that was returned to France in 1817)[49] and the Eastern Strip in 1816 that was subsequently renamed Cisplatina.[50]
Independence and Empire
Main articles: Brazilian War of Independence and Empire of Brazil
Declaration of the Brazilian independence by Emperor Dom Pedro I in September 7, 1822.

King Dom João VI returned to Europe in 26 April, 1821, leaving his elder son Dom Pedro as regent to rule Brazil.[51] The Portuguese government attempted to turn Brazil into a colony once again, thus depriving it of its achievements since 1808.[52] The Brazilians refused to yield and Prince Pedro stood by their side declaring the country's independence from Portugal in September 7, 1822.[53] On October 12, 1822, Pedro was acclaimed first Emperor of Brazil as Dom Pedro I and crowned on 1 December 1822.[54] In 1822 almost all Brazilians were in favor of a monarchical form of government. Republicanism was an ideal supported by few individuals at that moment of the Brazilian history.[55][56] The subsequent Brazilian War of Independence expanded through almost its entire territory, with battles that were fought in the northern[57], northeastern[58] and southern[59] regions of Brazil. The last Portuguese army surrendered in March 8, 1824[60] and Brazilian independence was recognized by Portugal in November 25, 1825.[61]

The first Brazilian constitution was promulgated in March 25 1824, after its acceptance by the municipal councils across the country.[62][63][64][65] However, the Brazilian defeat in the Argentina-Brazil War resulting in the loss of Cisplatine (nowadays Uruguay),[66] Pedro I incapacity in dealing with a representative system where he would have to take in account the opinion of the parliamentary opposition[67] and the provincial desire for a higher decentralization[68] all contributed for lowering his prestige among the Brazilians. But the main reason for his abdication was due to his continuous interest in the succession crisis in Portugal.[69] The emperor refused the Portuguese crown in favor of his eldest daughter in 1826,[70] but his brother Dom Miguel usurped the throne.[71] For the surprise, and against the will, of the Brazilians,[72][73][74] Pedro I abdicated in 7 April 1831 and departed to Europe to reclaim his daughter’s crown leaving behind his son and heir who became Dom Pedro II.[75]
Emperor Pedro II reign
Main article: Pedro II of Brazil
See also: Slavery in Brazil
Emperor Dom Pedro II at age 27, 1853. For "the longevity of his government and the transformations that occurred in its course, no other Head of State has marked more deeply the history of the country."[76]

As the new emperor, who ascended the crown as a child, could not exert his constitutional prerogatives as emperor until he reached maturity, a regency was created.[77] Disputes between political factions that led to rebellions resulted in an unstable, almost anarchical, regency.[78][79] The rebellious factions, however, were not in revolt against the monarchy,[80][81] even though some declared the secession of the provinces as independent republics (but only so long as Pedro II was a minor).[82] Thus, he was prematurely declared of age and “Brazil was to enjoy nearly half a century of internal peace and rapid material progress.”[83] Brazil also won three international wars during his long reign of 58 years (Platine War,[84] Uruguayan War[85] and War of the Triple Alliance.[86])

The emperor, who never owned slaves,[87] also led the abolitionist campaign[88] that eventually extinguished slavery after a slow but steady process that went from the end of international traffic in 1850[89] up to the complete abolition in 1888.[90] However, he took longer than expected "to trespass the political obstacles”[91] making Brazil the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery.[92] Slavery had been in decline since the country's independence: in 1823, 29% of the Brazilian population were slaves; it fell to 24% in 1854; then to 15,2% in 1872;[93] and finally to less than 5% in 1887.[94] When the monarchy was overthrown in November 15, 1889.[95] there was no desire in Brazil (at least among the majority of its population) to change the form of government[96] and Pedro II was on the height of his popularity among his subjects.[97][98] Pedro II, however, “bore prime, perhaps sole, responsibility for his own overthrown.”[99] After the death of his two male sons, he believed that “the imperial regime was destined to end with him.”[100] The emperor did not care about its fate[101][102] and did nothing (nor allowed anyone) to prevent the military coup[103] that was backed by former slave owners that resented the abolition of slavery.[104] The monarchist reaction after the fall of the empire “was not small and even less was its repression”.[105]
Old Republic and Vargas Era
Main articles: República Velha, Estado Novo (Brazil), and Brazilian Second Republic
The Brazilian coup d'état of 1930 raised Getúlio Vargas (on center with military uniform but no hat) to power. He would rule the country for fifteen years.

The early republican government “was little more than a military dictatorship. The army dominated affairs both at Rio de Janeiro and in the states. Freedom of the press disappeared and elections were controlled by those in power”.[95] In 1894 the republican civilians rose to power, opening a “prolonged cycle of civil war, financial disaster, and government incompetence.”[106] By 1902, the government "began a return to the policies pursued during the Empire, policies that promised peace and order at home and a restoration of Brazil’s prestige abroad.”[106] and was successful in negotiating several treaties that expanded (with the purchase of Acre) and secured the Brazilian boundaries.[107] In the 1920s the country was plagued by several rebellions caused by young military officers.[108][109] By 1930, the regime was weakened and demoralized, which allowed the defeated presidential candidate Getúlio Vargas to lead a coup d’état and assume the presidency.[110] Vargas was supposed to assume the presidency temporarily, but instead closed the National Congress, extinguished the Constitution, ruled with emergency powers and deposed the states governors and nominated substitutes loyal to him in their places.[111][112]

In 1935 the Communists rebelled all over the country and tried to take power, but were defeated.[113] The communist threat served as an excuse for him to launch another coup d’Etat in 1937, making Brazil a full dictatorship.[114][115] The repression against the opposition was brutal, with more than 20,000 people imprisoned, interment camps for political prisoners were created in distant regions of the country, censorship of the press was established and torture by the government's agents of repression became common.[116][117] Brazil remained neutral at the early years of World War II until the government declared war against the Axis powers in 1942.[118] After that Vargas forced Germans, Japanese and Italians immigrants into concentration camps,[119] and sent troops to the battlefields in Italy in 1944.[120][121] With the end of the Nazi-fascist regimes in Europe after the allied victory in 1945, Vargas position became unsustainable and he was overthrown by a military coup in the same year.[122] Democracy was reinstated and General Eurico Gaspar Dutra was elected president and took office in 1946.[123] Vargas returned to power in 1951, this time democratically elected, but he was incapable of both governing under a democracy and of dealing with an active opposition and ended up committing suicide in 1953.[124][125]
Military regime and Contemporary era
Main articles: Military dictatorship (Brazil) and History of Brazil since 1985
The Brazilian military regime that lasted from 1964 until 1985 was marked by alternated moments of freedom and implacable repression.

Some brief interim governments succeeded after Vargas‘s suicide.[126] Juscelino Kubitscheck became president in 1956 and assumed a conciliating posture that allowed him to govern without major crises.[127] His economical and industrial policy was highly successful.[128] But his greatest achievement was the construction of Brasília, the new Brazilian capital inaugurated in 1960.[129] His successor was Jânio Quadros who resigned in 1961, less than a year after taking office.[130] His vice-president, João Goulart, assumed the presidency, but suffered large opposition[131] and was deposed in April 1964 by a coup that resulted in a military regime[132] intended to be transitory,[133] but that gradually closed itself until it became a full dictatorship with the promulgation of the Fifth Institutional Act in 1968.[134] The repression against the dictatorship's opponents and also against the communist terrorists (who did not struggle over the return of democracy, but instead over the implantation of a communist dictatorship)[135] was the most severe, but not nearly as brutal as in other Latin American countries.[136] Due to the extraordinary economic growth, that was known as “economic miracle”, the regime reached its highest level of popularity in those years of repression.[137]

General Ernesto Geisel became president in 1974 and began his project of re-democratization through a process that would have to be “slow, gradual and safe”.[138][139] Geisel ended with the military indiscipline that plagued the country since 1889,[140] as well as with the torture of political prisoners and censorship of the press,[141] and finally, with the dictatorship itself after he extinguished the Fifth Institutional Act.[142] However, the military regime continued under his chosen successor to accomplish the transition to full democracy, General João Figueiredo.[143] The civilians fully returned to power in 1985 when José Sarney assumed the presidency[144] but he ended his term extremely unpopular due to the uncontrollable economic crisis and unusually high inflation.[145] That allowed the election in 1989 of the almost unknown nationwide Fernando Collor,[146] who was impeached by the National Congress in 1992.[147] He was succeeded by his Vice-President Itamar Franco, who called Fernando Henrique Cardoso to assume the Ministry of Finance portfolio. Cardoso was highly successful with his Plano Real (Royal Plan)[148] that granted stability to the Brazilian economy[149] and his efforts were recognized by the Brazilians who elected him president in 1994 and again in 1998.[150] The peaceful and warmly transition from power to Luís Inácio Lula da Silva, who was elected in 2002 (and re-elected in 2006), revealed that Brazil had finally succeeded in achieving its long sought political stability.[151]
Government and politics
Main article: Politics of Brazil
The National Congress in Brasília, the capital of Brazil.

The Brazilian Federation is based on the union of three autonomous political entities: the States, the Municipalities and the Federal District.[13] A fourth entity originated in the aforementioned association: the Union.[13] There is no hierarchy among the political entities. The Federation is set on six fundamental principles:[13] sovereignty, citizenship, dignity of the people, social value of labor, freedom of enterprise, and political pluralism. The classic tripartite branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial under the checks and balances system), is formally established by the Constitution.[13] The executive and legislative are organized independently in all four political entities, while the judiciary is organized only in the federal and state levels.

All members of the executive and legislative branches are directly elected.[152][153][154] Judges and other judicial officials are appointed after passing entry exams.[152] Voting is compulsory for those between 18 and 65 years old.[13] Four political parties stand out among several small ones: Workers' Party (PT), Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), and Democrats (formerly Liberal Front Party – PFL). Almost all governmental and administrative functions are exercised by authorities and agencies affiliated to the Executive.

The form of government is that of a democratic republic, with a presidential system.[13] The president is both head of state and head of government of the Union and is elected for a four-year term,[13] with the possibility of re-election for a second successive term. The current president is Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He was elected on October 27, 2002,[155] and re-elected on October 29, 2006.[156] The President appoints the Ministers of State, who assist in governing.[13] Legislative houses in each political entity are the main source of laws in Brazil. The National Congress is the Federation's bicameral legislature, consisting of the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate. Judiciary authorities exercise jurisdictional duties almost exclusively.
Law
Main articles: Law of Brazil and Crime in Brazil
The eleven members of the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil and the attorney general.
Interior of the Brazilian Supreme Court.

Brazilian law is based on Roman-Germanic traditions.[157] Thus, civil law concepts prevail over common law practices. Most of Brazilian law is codified, although non-codified statutes also represent a substantial part of the system, playing a complementary role. Court decisions set out interpretive guidelines; however, they are not binding on other specific cases except in a few situations. Doctrinal works and the works of academic jurists have strong influence in law creation and in law cases. The legal system is based on the Federal Constitution, which was promulgated on 5 October 1988, and is the fundamental law of Brazil. All other legislation and court decisions must conform to its rules.[158] As of April 2007, there have been 53 amendments. States have their own constitutions, which must not contradict the Federal Constitution.[159] Municipalities and the Federal District do not have their own constitutions; instead, they have "organic laws" (leis orgânicas).[13][160] Legislative entities are the main source of statutes, although in certain matters judiciary and executive bodies may enact legal norms.[13]

Jurisdiction is administered by the judiciary entities, although in rare situations the Federal Constitution allows the Federal Senate to pass on legal judgments.[13] There are also specialized military, labor, and electoral courts.[13] The highest court is the Supreme Federal Tribunal. This system has been criticised over the last decades due to the slow pace at which final decisions are issued. Lawsuits on appeal may take several years to resolve, and in some cases more than a decade elapses before definitive rulings are made.[161] Nevertheless, Supreme Federal Tribunal is the first court in the world to transmit its sessions on television, and more recently also in Youtube.[162][163]
Foreign relations
Main article: Foreign relations of Brazil
States hosting a diplomatic mission of Brazil.

Brazil is a political and economic leader in Latin America.[164][165] However, social and economic problems prevent it from becoming an effective global power.[166] Between World War II and 1990, both democratic and military governments sought to expand Brazil's influence in the world by pursuing a state-led industrial policy and an independent foreign policy. More recently, the country has aimed to strengthen ties with other South American countries, engage in multilateral diplomacy through the United Nations and the Organization of American States.[167] Brazil's current foreign policy is based on the country's position as a regional power in Latin America, a leader among developing countries, and an emerging world power.[168] In general current Brazilian foreign policy reflects multilateralism, peaceful dispute settlement, and nonintervention in the affairs of other countries.[169] The Brazilian Constitution also determines the country shall seek the economic, political, social and cultural integration of the nations of Latin America.[13][170][171][172]
Military
Main article: Brazilian Armed Forces
AMX ground attack aircraft of the Brazilian Air Force.
Special Forces of the Brazilian Army.
Aircraft carrier NAE São Paulo
of the Brazilian Navy.

The Armed forces of Brazil consist of the Brazilian Army, the Brazilian Navy, and the Brazilian Air Force. The Brazilian military numbers about 300,000 men and women and has a budget of 2.6 percent of the national economy in 2009 or about $52 billion US dollars.[13] The Military Police (States' Military Police) is described as an ancillary force of the Army by the constitution, but is under the control of each state's governor.[13] The Brazilian armed forces are the largest in Latin America. The Brazilian Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the Brazilian armed forces, the largest air force in Latin America, with about 700 manned aircraft in service.[173] The Brazilian Navy is responsible for naval operations and for guarding Brazilian territorial waters. It is the oldest of the Brazilian Armed forces and the only navy in Latin America to operate an aircraft carrier, the NAe São Paulo (formerly FS Foch of the French Navy).[174] The Brazilian Army is responsible for land-based military operations, with a strength of approximately 190,000 soldiers. In 2008 the Brazilian minister of defense has formulated the “Estratégia Nacional de Defesa” (National defense Strategy), that claims to build a strong national industry and make strategic partnerships with allied nations to develop technology together.[175]

Recently, Brazil has began to emerge as a major world power and a potential superpower; thus Brazil has begun to develop as a major military power. In 2008, Brazil has signed a strategic partnership with France and Russia to trade military technology. Brazil has also begun negotiations with France to have Brazil build 120 Rafale aircraft locally by Embraer.[176] Also in 2008 the Brazilian company Embraer showcased the Brazilian transport aircraft, Embraer KC-390, and some countries already have shown interest in the aircraft, with France even placing orders.[177][178] In 2009 Brazil purchased 4 Scorpène submarines for US $9.9 billion with a massive technology transfer agreement. In a second agreement, France will provide technical assistance to Brazil so that Brazil can design and produce indigenous nuclear powered submarines, to be completely built in Brazil.[179] The Brazilian government has announced that a Helibras factory in Itajubá, Minas Gerais, will initially produce 50 units of the EC 725 and up to 1,300 new helicopters for the Brazilian military. Helibras will now also produce Eurocopter's full line of products, with the first units to be operational in 2010.[180]

The Department of Defense of Brazil, in 2009 also asked the Brazilian Navy to develop a plan for the next 30 years. To carry out the plans of power projection that Brazil wants to run, the expenditure will cost more than $138 billion US dollars, within the Navy alone. The program is called PEAMB.[181] The strategy is to buy or build 2 aircraft carriers (40 000 tonnes), 4 Amphibious assault ships (20 000 tonnes), 30 escort ships, 15 submarines, 5 nuclear submarines and 62 (patrol ships).[182] In July 2009, the minister of defense, Nelson Jobim, said that Brazil will expend about 0.7% ($13 billion USD) of the GDP per year to modernize the forces in addition to the 2.6% yearly defense budget. He stated, "We are raising a study to make the financial schedule of the entire project. It will be a 20 year plan, including modernization and expansion of the elements for defense of the Brazilian territory.[183]
Subdivisions

According to the Brazilian Constitution of 1988, Brazil is a federation of 26 states, one federal district and also the municipalities. None of these units has the right to secede from the Federation.[13]
States
Atlantic
Ocean
Pacific
Ocean
North Region
Northeast Region
Central-West Region
Southeast Region
South Region
Acre
Amazonas
Pará
Roraima
Amapá
Rondônia
Tocantins
Maranhão
Bahia
Piauí
Ceará
Rio Grande
do Norte
Paraíba
Pernambuco
Alagoas
Sergipe
Mato Grosso
Mato Grosso
do Sul
Federal
District
Goiás
Minas Gerais
São Paulo
Rio de Janeiro
Espírito Santo
Paraná
Santa Catarina
Rio Grande
do Sul
Argentina
Bolivia
Chile
Colombia
French Guiana
Guyana
Paraguay
Peru
Suriname
Uruguay
Venezuela
Main article: States of Brazil

States (estados) are based on historical, conventional borders and have developed throughout the centuries, though some boundaries are arbitrary. The states can be split or joined together in new states if their people express a desire to do so in a plebiscite. States have autonomous administrations, collect their own taxes and receive a share of taxes collected by the Federal government. They have a governor and a unicameral legislative body (Assembleia Legislativa) elected directly by their voters. They also have independent Courts of Law for common justice. Despite that, in Brazil states have much less autonomy to create their own laws than in the United States. For example, criminal and civil laws can only be voted by the federal bicameral Congress and are uniform throughout the country.[13]

In 1977, Mato Grosso state was split into two. The northern new state retained the name Mato Grosso and the old capital, Cuiabá, while the southern area became the new state of Mato Grosso do Sul, with Campo Grande as its capital. In 1988, the northern portion of Goiás state became the new state of Tocantins. Initially, the capital of Tocantins was the small city of Miracema do Norte (now called Miracema do Tocantins), but it was later moved to the new city of Palmas.

The equator cuts through the states of Amapá, Pará, Roraima and Amazonas in the North, and the Tropic of Capricorn cuts through the states of São Paulo, northern Paraná and southern Mato Grosso do Sul.[184] Acre is in the far west side of the country, covered by the Amazonian forest. Paraíba is the easternmost state of Brazil; Ponta do Seixas, in the city of João Pessoa, is the easternmost point of continental Brazil and of the Americas. In contrast to the tropical climate of most of Brazil, the southern states of Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, and Santa Catarina all have a temperate subtropical climate.

The state of Amazonas is the largest in area, comparable in size to Alaska. The state of São Paulo has the largest population and is the economic center of Brazil. Its agriculture, industry, commerce, and services are the most diversified in the nation. Although a large part of its production is exported to other states and other countries, the consumer market of the state is also the biggest in Brazil. In contrast to most of the Brazilian states, the economy of São Paulo is strong even in noncoastal cities.

Today the city of Rio de Janeiro is the capital of the homonymous state, but it has not always been so. Until 1960, the city was the national capital, and its territory was Brazil's Federal District. This led to the strange and confusing situation that the city of Rio de Janeiro was not located in the surrounding state with the same name (whose capital was then Niterói). In 1960, Brasília became the new national capital, and a new Federal District was carved out of Goiás state to contain it. Then the city of Rio de Janeiro became a new state, named Guanabara (after the large bay on which the city sits), as one can still find in old books. Comprising only one city, Guanabara was the only Brazilian state that had no municipalities: the city was directly administered by the state government. All these anomalies disappeared in 1975, when the states of Guanabara and Rio de Janeiro merged, retaining the name of Rio de Janeiro. The city of Rio de Janeiro then became a new municipality and the capital of the new combined state.
Municipalities
Main article: Municipalities of Brazil

Municipalities (municípios) can be split or joined together in new municipalities if their people express a desire to do so in a plebiscite, following some rules of the Federal Constitution and keeping their borders within the former state; forming exclaves is also expressly forbidden. Municipalities have autonomous administrations, collect their own taxes and receive a share of taxes collected by the Union and state government.[13] They have a mayor and a legislative body elected directly by their people, but they have no separate Courts of Law. Indeed, a Court of Law organized by the state can encompass many municipalities in a single justice administrative division called comarca.
The Federal District
Brasília, capital of Brazil.

The Federal District (Distrito Federal) contains the national capital city, Brasília. The Federal District is not a state in its own right, but shares some characteristics of a state and some of a municipality, while also having some special provisions of its own, intended for the local administration not to conflict with the federal government seat that it hosts. It cannot be divided into municipalities, and its Courts of Law are part of the Federal Judiciary System.[13]
Former territories

The Brazilian Constitution allows for the existence of incorporated territories (territórios), ruled directly by the federal government and with less autonomy than states, but no territory currently exists. The first territory to be created was Acre, in 1904, when that former Bolivian region became Brazilian. In 1943, when Brazil went to the Second World War, for strategic reasons the Getúlio Vargas regime detached six further territories from border and outlying areas of the country, in order to administer them directly: Amapá, Rio Branco, Guaporé, Ponta Porã, Iguaçu, and the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha.

In 1946, two of the seven territories became extinct, reverting to the original states they had been split from: Mato Grosso state incorporated the territory of Ponta Porã and the northern part of Iguaçu, while central Iguaçu went to the state of Paraná, and southern Iguaçu went to the state of Santa Catarina.

As for the other territories (Acre, Amapá, Guaporé, Rio Branco, and Fernando de Noronha), they remained as such for many years more. In 1956, the name of Guaporé territory was changed to Rondônia, and in 1962 Rio Branco territory was renamed Roraima. Also in 1962, Acre became a state.

In 1988, with the new Constitution, Amapá, Rondônia and Roraima became states as well, while Fernando de Noronha became part of the state of Pernambuco, thus leaving no more territories remaining in Brazil.
Regions
Main article: Regions of Brazil
Brazilian regions.

The Brazilian regions are merely geographical, not political or administrative divisions, and do not have any specific form of government. Although defined by law, Brazilian regions are useful mainly for statistical purposes, and sometimes to define the application of federal funds in development projects.

The national territory was divided in 1969 by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), for demographic and statistical purposes, into five main regions: North, Northeast, Central-West, Southeast and South.

The North region covers 45.27% of the land area of Brazil, but has the lowest number of inhabitants. With the exception of Manaus, which hosts a tax-free industrial zone, and Belém, the biggest metropolitan area of the region, it is fairly unindustrialized and undeveloped. It accommodates most of the Amazon rainforest and many indigenous tribes.

The Northeast region is inhabited by about 30% of Brazil's population.[185] It is culturally diverse, with roots set in the Portuguese colonial period and in Amerindian and Afro-Brazilian elements. It is also the poorest region of Brazil,[186] and suffers from long periods of drought.[187] The largest cities are Salvador, Recife, and Fortaleza.

The Central-West region has low demographic density when compared to the other regions, being only more densely populated than the North region.[188] Part of its territory is covered by the world's largest wetland area, the Pantanal[189] as well as a small part of the Amazon Rainforest in the northwest. However, most of the region is covered by the Cerrado, the world's largest savanna. The Central-West region contributes significantly towards the nation's agricultural output.[190]

The Southeast region is by far the richest in terms of total economic output, and also the most densely populated region.[188] It has a larger population than any South American country except Brazil itself, and hosts one of the largest megalopolises of the world, extending between the country's two largest cities: São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The region is very diverse, including the major business center of São Paulo, the historical cities of Minas Gerais and its capital Belo Horizonte, the third-largest metropolitan area in Brazil, the beaches of Rio de Janeiro, and the coast of Espírito Santo.

The South region is the wealthiest by GDP per capita[186] and has the highest standard of living among the country's regions. It is also the coldest region of Brazil,[191] with occasional frost and snow in some of the higher-altitude areas.[192] It has been settled mainly by European immigrants, mostly of Italian, German and Portuguese ancestry, being clearly influenced by these cultures.

"Hitler"

"Hitler" redirects here. For other uses, see Hitler (disambiguation).
This article is semi-protected indefinitely in response to an ongoing high risk of vandalism.
Adolf Hitler

20 April 1937 (48th Birthday)
Führer of Germany
In office
2 August 1934 – 30 April 1945
Preceded by Paul von Hindenburg
(as President)
Succeeded by Karl Dönitz
(as President)
Reichskanzler (Chancellor) of Germany
In office
30 January 1933 – 30 April 1945
Preceded by Kurt von Schleicher
Succeeded by Joseph Goebbels
Born 20 April 1889
Braunau am Inn, Austria–Hungary
Died 30 April 1945 (aged 56)
Berlin, Germany
Citizenship Austrian (1889–1932)
German (1932–1945)
Nationality Austrian citizen until 1925[1] German citizen after 1932
Political party National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP)
Spouse(s) Eva Braun
(married on 29 April 1945)
Occupation politician, soldier, artist, writer
Signature
Military service
Allegiance German Empire German Empire
Service/branch War Ensign of Germany 1903-1918.svg Reichsheer
Years of service 1914–1918
Rank Gefreiter
Unit 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment
Battles/wars World War I
Awards Iron Cross First and Second Class
Wound Badge
The Holocaust
Early elements
Racial policy · Nazi eugenics · Nuremberg Laws · Euthanasia program · Concentration camps (list)
Jews
Jews in Nazi Germany (1933–1939)

Pogroms: Kristallnacht · Bucharest · Dorohoi · Iaşi · Kaunas · Jedwabne · Lviv

Ghettos: Budapest · Lublin · Lviv · Łódź · Kraków · Kovno · Minsk · Warsaw · Vilna (list)

Einsatzgruppen: Babi Yar · Rumbula · Ponary · Odessa · Erntefest · Ninth Fort

Final Solution: Wannsee · Operation Reinhard · Holocaust trains · Extermination camps

Concentration and Extermination camps:
Auschwitz-Birkenau · Bełżec · Bergen-Belsen · Bogdanovka · Buchenwald · Chełmno · Dachau · Gross-Rosen · Herzogenbusch · Janowska · Jasenovac · Kaiserwald · Majdanek · Maly Trostenets · Mauthausen-Gusen · Neuengamme · Ravensbrück · Sachsenhausen · Sajmište · Salaspils · Sobibór · Stutthof · Theresienstadt · Treblinka · Uckermark

Resistance: Jewish partisans · Ghetto uprisings (Warsaw · Białystok · Łachwa)

End of World War II: Death marches · Berihah · Surviving Remnant
Other victims

Romani people · Homosexuals · People with disabilities · Slavs in Eastern Europe · Poles · Soviet POWs · Jehovah's Witnesses
Responsible parties

Nazi Germany: Adolf Hitler · Heinrich Himmler · Ernst Kaltenbrunner · Theodor Eicke · Reinhard Heydrich · Adolf Eichmann · Rudolf Höß · Nazi Party · Schutzstaffel · Gestapo · Sturmabteilung

Collaborators

Aftermath: Nuremberg Trials · Denazification · Reparations Agreement
between Israel and West Germany
Lists
Survivors · Victims · Rescuers
Resources
The Destruction of the European Jews Functionalism versus intentionalism
v • d • e

Adolf Hitler (German pronunciation: [ˈadɔlf ˈhɪtlɐ], 20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated NSDAP), popularly known as the Nazi Party. He was the authoritarian leader of Germany from 1933 to 1945, serving as chancellor from 1933 to 1945 and as head of state (Führer und Reichskanzler) from 1934 to 1945.

A decorated veteran of World War I, Hitler joined the Nazi Party (DAP) in 1919 and became leader of NSDAP in 1921. Following his imprisonment after a failed coup in Bavaria in 1923, he gained support by promoting German nationalism, anti-semitism, and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and propaganda. He was appointed chancellor in 1933, and quickly transformed the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich, a single-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideals of national socialism.

Hitler ultimately wanted to establish a New Order of absolute Nazi German hegemony in 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 the Second World War in Europe.[2]

Within three years, Germany and the Axis powers had occupied most of Europe, and most of Northern Africa, 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 1945 Allied armies had invaded German-held Europe from all sides. Nazi forces committed numerous atrocities during the war, including the systematic killing of as many as 17 million civilians[3], an estimated six million of whom were Jews targeted in a genocide known as the Holocaust.

In the final days of the war, at the fall of Berlin in 1945, Hitler married his long-time mistress Eva Braun and, to avoid capture by Soviet forces less than two days later, the two committed suicide.[4]
Contents
[hide]

* 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 Cabinets of Papen and Schleicher
o 3.3 Appointment as Chancellor
o 3.4 Reichstag fire and the March elections
o 3.5 "Day of Potsdam" and the Enabling Act
o 3.6 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 the Second World War
o 5.3 Path to defeat
o 5.4 Defeat and death
* 6 Legacy
* 7 Religious beliefs
* 8 Health
* 9 Sexuality
* 10 Family
* 11 Hitler in media
o 11.1 Oratory and rallies
o 11.2 Recorded in private conversation
o 11.3 Patria picture disc
o 11.4 Documentaries during the Third Reich
o 11.5 Television
o 11.6 Documentaries post Third Reich
o 11.7 Films
* 12 See also
* 13 Footnotes
* 14 References
* 15 External links

Early years
Ancestry

Hitler's father, Alois Hitler, was an illegitimate child and, for the first 39 years of his life, bore his mother's surname, Schicklgruber.[5] Alois’ paternity was not listed on his birth certificate, and has been the subject of much 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 that revealed Ms. Schicklgruber was employed as a housekeeper for a Jewish family in Graz and that the family’s nineteen-year-old son, Leopold Frankenberger, fathered Alois.[5] No evidence has ever been produced to support Frank's claim, and Frank himself said Hitler's full Aryan blood was obvious.[6] Frank's claims were widely believed in the 1950s, but by the 1990s, were generally doubted by historians.[7][8] Ian Kershaw dismisses 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 well after Alois was born.[8] (For more, see Leopold Frankenberger.)

In 1876, Alois took the surname of his stepfather, Johann Georg Hiedler. The name was 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. (Regarding the first two theories: some German dialects make little or no distinction between the ü-sound and the i-sound.)[5]
Childhood

Adolf Hitler was born at the Gasthof zum Pommer, an inn in Braunau am Inn, Austria–Hungary, the fourth of Alois and Klara Hitler's six children.
Adolf Hitler as an infant.

At the age of three, his family moved to Kapuzinerstrasse 5[9] in Passau, Germany where the young Hitler would acquire Lower Bavarian rather than Austrian as his lifelong native dialect.[10] In 1894 the family moved 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. He was a happy, carefree child who tirelessly played "Cowboys and Indians" and, by his own account, became fixated on war after finding a picture book about the Franco-Prussian War in his father's things.[11] He wrote in Mein Kampf: "It was not long before the great historic struggle had become my greatest spiritual experience. From then on, I became more and more enthusiastic about everything that was in any way connected with war or, for that matter, with soldiering."

His father's efforts at Hafeld ended in failure and the family moved to Lambach in 1897. There, Hitler attended a Catholic school located in an 11th-century Benedictine cloister whose walls were engraved in a number of places with crests containing the symbol of the swastika.[12] In 1898, the family returned permanently to Leonding.

His younger brother Edmund died of measles on February 2, 1900, causing permanent changes in Hitler. He went from a confident, outgoing boy who found school easy, to a morose, detached, sullen boy who constantly battled his father and his teachers.[13]

Hitler was close to his mother, but had a troubled relationship with his tradition-minded authoritarian father, who frequently beat him, especially in the years after Alois's retirement and disappointed farming efforts. Alois wanted his son to follow in his footsteps as an Austrian customs official, and this became a huge source of conflict between them.[11] Despite his son's pleas to go to classical high school and become an artist, his father would not budge, and sent him to the technical high school in the city of Linz 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." But Alois never relented and Hitler became even more bitter and rebellious.

For young Hitler, German Nationalism quickly became an obsession, and a way to rebel against his father, who proudly served the Austrian government. Most people that 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.[11]

After Alois' sudden death on January 3, 1903, Hitler's behavior 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.”[14] Hitler was expelled, and never to return to school again.

Hitler became a Christian at age 15. He was confirmed on Whitsunday, 22 May 1904 at the Linz Cathedral.[15] His sponsor was Emanuel Lugert, a friend of his late father.[16]
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.[17] His memoirs reflect a fascination with the subject:

The purpose of my trip was to study the picture gallery in the Court Museum, but I had eyes for scarcely anything but the Museum itself. From morning until late at night, I ran from one object of interest to another, but it was always the buildings which held my primary interest.[18]

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 fulfilment of my artistic dream seemed physically impossible.[18]

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.

Hitler said he first became an anti-Semite in Vienna,[18] 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 anti-Semite" before he left Linz.[18] Vienna at that time was a hotbed of traditional religious prejudice and 19th century racism. Hitler may have been influenced by the writings of the ideologist and anti-Semite Lanz von Liebenfels and polemics from politicians such as Karl Lueger, founder of the Christian Social Party and Mayor of Vienna, the composer Richard Wagner, and Georg Ritter von Schönerer, leader of the pan-Germanic Away from Rome! movement. Hitler claims in Mein Kampf that his transition from opposing antisemitism on religious grounds to supporting it on racial grounds came from having seen an Orthodox Jew.

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?[18]

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.[19]

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 Wagner and Frederick the Great.[20] 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."[21][22]

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.

Generalising from tumultuous scenes in the parliament of the multi-national Austrian monarchy, he decided that the democratic parliamentary system was unworkable. However, according to August Kubizek, his one-time roommate, he was more interested in Wagner's operas than in his politics.

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.[23]
A young Hitler (left) posing with other German soldiers.
World War I

Hitler served in France and Belgium in the 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment (called Regiment List after its first commander), ending the war as a Gefreiter (equivalent at the time to a lance corporal in the British and private first class in the American armies). He was a runner, one of the most dangerous jobs on the Western Front, and was often exposed to enemy fire.[24] He participated in 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.[25] The Battle of Ypres (October 1914), which became known in Germany as the Kindermord bei Ypern (Massacre of the Innocents) saw approximately 40,000 men (between a third and a half) of the nine infantry divisions present killed in 20 days, and Hitler's own company of 250 reduced to 42 by December. Biographer John Keegan has said that this experience drove Hitler to become aloof and withdrawn for the remaining years of war.[26]

Hitler was twice decorated for bravery. He received the Iron Cross, Second Class, in 1914 and Iron Cross, First Class, in 1918, an honour rarely given to a Gefreiter.[27] However, because the regimental staff thought Hitler lacked leadership skills, he was never promoted to Unteroffizier (equivalent to a British corporal). Other historians say that the reason he was not promoted is that he was not a German citizen. His duties at regimental headquarters, while often dangerous, gave Hitler 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[28] or the left thigh[29] during the Battle of the Somme, but returned to the front in March 1917. He received the Wound Badge later that year. A noted German historian and author, Sebastian Haffner, referring to Hitler's experience at the front, suggests he did have 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).[30] Hitler said it was during this experience that he became convinced the purpose of his life was to "save Germany." Some scholars, notably Lucy Dawidowicz,[31] 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.

Two passages in Mein Kampf mention the use of poison gas:

At the beginning of the Great War, or even during the War, if twelve or fifteen thousand of these Jews who were corrupting the nation had been forced to submit to poison-gas . . . then the millions of sacrifices made at the front would not have been in vain.[32]

These tactics are based on an accurate estimation of human weakness and must lead to success, with almost mathematical certainty, unless the other side also learns how to fight poison gas with poison gas. The weaker natures must be told that here it is a case of to be or not to be.[18]

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.[33] He was shocked by Germany's capitulation in November 1918 even while the German army still held enemy territory.[34] Like many other German nationalists, Hitler believed in the Dolchstoßlegende ("dagger-stab legend") 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.

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 and especially, Article 231 the paragraph 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: Hitler's political beliefs
A copy of Adolf Hitler's forged German Workers' Party (DAP) membership card. His actual membership number was 555 (the 55th member of the party—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.[35] Hitler had wanted to create his own party, but was ordered by his superiors in the Reichswehr to infiltrate an existing one instead.

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.[36] 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 anti-semitic, 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[37] and became party's 55th member.[38] He was also made the seventh member of the executive committee.[39] Years later, he claimed to be the party's seventh overall member, but it has been established that this claim is false.[40]

Here Hitler met Dietrich Eckart, one of the early founders of the party and member of the occult Thule Society.[41] 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[42] was centered 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 became Gauleiter 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.[43] Kahr withdrew his support and fled to join the opposition to Hitler at the first opportunity.[44] The next day, when Hitler and his followers marched from the beer hall to the Bavarian War Ministry to overthrow the Bavarian government as a start to their "March on Berlin", the police dispersed them. Sixteen NSDAP members were killed.[45]

Hitler fled to the home of Ernst Hanfstaengl and contemplated suicide. 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 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.[46] Including time on remand, he had served little more than one year of his sentence.[47]

On 28 June 1925, Hitler wrote a letter from Uffing to the editor of The Nation in New York City stating how long he had been in prison at "Sandberg a. S." [sic] and how much his privileges had been revoked.[48]
Mein Kampf
Main article: Mein Kampf
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.[47] The book, dedicated to Thule Society member Dietrich Eckart, was an autobiography and an exposition of his ideology. 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).

Hitler spent years dodging taxes on the royalties of his book and had accumulated a tax debt of about 405,500 Reichsmarks (€6 million in today's money) by the time he became chancellor (at which time his debt was waived).[49][50]

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. The situation is, however, unclear. Historian Werner Maser, in an interview with Bild am Sonntag has stated that Peter Raubal, son of Hitler's nephew, Leo Raubal, would have a strong legal case for winning the copyright from Bavaria if he pursued it. Raubal has stated he wants no part of the rights to the book, which could be worth millions of euros.[51] The uncertain status has led to contested trials in Poland and Sweden. Mein Kampf, however, is published in the U.S., as well as in other countries such as Turkey and Israel, by publishers with various political positions.
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, his party's mainstay was still Munich.

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,[52] 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 and were answerable 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: Hitler's rise to power
Nazi Party Election Results
Date Votes Percentage Seats in Reichstag Background
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 1930 6,409,600 18.3 107 After the financial crisis
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.[53]

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.[54]

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.[55] 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.[56] 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.[56] 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.[57] Hitler's testimony of 25 September 1930 won him many admirers within the ranks of the officer corps.[58]

Brüning's measures of budget consolidation and financial austerity brought little economic improvement and were extremely unpopular.[59] 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.[60] 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.[61]

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.[62] Though Hitler had left Austria in 1913, he still had not acquired German citizenship and hence could not run for public office. In February, however, the state government of Brunswick, in which the Nazi Party participated, appointed Hitler to a minor administrative post and therby made him a citizen of Brunswick on 25 February 1932.[63] In those days, the states conferred citizenship, so this automatically made Hitler a citizen of Germany and thus eligible to run for president.[64]

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).[65] The name had a double meaning; besides a reference to his dictatorial ambitions, it referred to the fact that he campaigned by aircraft.[65] 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.[66]
Cabinets of Papen and Schleicher
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Hindenburg, influenced by the Camarilla, became increasingly estranged from Brüning and pushed his Chancellor to move the government in a decidedly authoritarian and right-wing direction. This culminated, in May 1932, with the resignation of the Brüning cabinet.

Hindenburg appointed the nobleman Franz von Papen as Chancellor, heading a "Cabinet of Barons". Papen was bent on authoritarian rule and, since in the Reichstag only the conservative German National People's Party (DNVP) supported his administration, he immediately called for new elections in July. In these elections, the Nazis achieved their biggest success yet and won 230 seats, becoming the largest party in the Reichstag.

Knowing that it was not possible to form a stable government without Nazi support, Papen tried to persuade Hitler to become Vice-Chancellor and enter a new government with a parliamentary basis. Hitler, however, would settle for nothing less than the chancellorship. He put further pressure on Papen by entertaining parallel negotiations with the Centre Party, Papen's former party, which was bent on bringing down the renegade Papen. In both negotiations, Hitler demanded that he, as leader of the strongest party, must be Chancellor, but Hindenburg consistently refused to appoint the "Bohemian lance corporal" to the chancellorship.

After a vote of no-confidence in the Papen government, supported by 84% of the deputies, the new Reichstag was dissolved, and new elections were called in November. This time, the Nazis lost some seats but still remained the largest party in the Reichstag, with 33.1% of the vote.

After Papen failed to secure a majority, he proposed to dissolve the parliament again along with an indefinite postponement of elections. Hindenburg at first accepted this, but after General Kurt von Schleicher and the military withdrew their support, Hindenburg instead dismissed Papen and appointed Schleicher, who promised he could secure a majority government by negotiations with the Social Democrats, the trade unions, and dissidents from the Nazi Party under Gregor Strasser. In January 1933, however, Schleicher had to admit failure in these efforts and asked Hindenburg for emergency powers along with the same postponement of elections that he had opposed earlier, to which the president reacted by dismissing Schleicher.
Appointment as Chancellor
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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. They financially supported the Nazi Party, which had been brought to the brink of bankruptcy by the cost of heavy campaigning. The businessmen wrote letters to Hindenburg, urging him to appoint Hitler as leader of a government "independent from parliamentary parties" which could turn into a movement that would "enrapture millions of people."[67]
Adolf Hitler, at a window of the Reich's Chancellory, receives an ovation from supporters in his first day in office as Chancellor. (30 January 1933)

Finally, the president reluctantly agreed to appoint Hitler Chancellor of a coalition government formed by the NSDAP and DNVP. However, the Nazis were to be contained by a framework of conservative cabinet ministers, most notably by Papen as Vice-Chancellor and by Hugenberg as Minister of the Economy. The only other Nazi besides Hitler to get a portfolio was Wilhelm Frick, who was given the relatively powerless interior ministry (in Germany at the time, most powers wielded by the interior minister in other countries were held by the interior ministers of the states). As a concession to the Nazis, Göring was named minister without portfolio. While Papen intended to use Hitler as a figurehead, the Nazis gained key positions.

On the morning of 30 January 1933, in Hindenburg's office, Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor during what some observers later described as a brief and simple ceremony. His first speech as Chancellor took place on 10 February. The Nazis' seizure of power subsequently became known as the Machtergreifung.
Reichstag fire and the March elections

Having become Chancellor, Hitler foiled all attempts by his opponents to gain a majority in parliament. Because no single party could gain a majority, Hitler persuaded President Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag again. Elections were scheduled for early March, but on 27 February 1933, the Reichstag building was set on fire.[68] Since a Dutch independent communist was found in the building, the fire was blamed on a communist plot. The government reacted with the Reichstag Fire Decree of 28 February which suspended basic rights, including habeas corpus. Under the provisions of this decree, the German Communist Party (KPD) and other groups were suppressed, and Communist functionaries and deputies were arrested, put to flight, or murdered.

Campaigning continued, with the Nazis making use of paramilitary violence, anti-communist hysteria, and the government's resources for propaganda. On election day, 6 March, the NSDAP increased its result to 43.9% of the vote, remaining the largest party, but its victory was marred by its failure to secure an absolute majority, necessitating maintaining a coalition with the DNVP.[69]
Parade of SA troops past Hitler – Nuremberg, November 1935
"Day of Potsdam" and the Enabling Act
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On 21 March, the new Reichstag was constituted with an opening ceremony held at Potsdam's garrison church. This "Day of Potsdam" was staged to demonstrate reconciliation and unity between the revolutionary Nazi movement and "Old Prussia" with its elites and virtues. Hitler appeared in a tail coat and humbly greeted the aged President Hindenburg.

Because of the Nazis' failure to obtain a majority on their own, Hitler's government confronted the newly elected Reichstag with the Enabling Act that would have vested the cabinet with legislative powers for a period of four years. Though such a bill was not unprecedented, this act was different since it allowed for deviations from the constitution. Since the bill required a ⅔ majority in order to pass, the government needed the support of other parties. The position of the Centre Party, the third largest party in the Reichstag, turned out to be decisive: under the leadership of Ludwig Kaas, the party decided to vote for the Enabling Act. It did so in return for the government's oral guarantees regarding the Church's liberty, the concordats signed by German states and the continued existence of the Centre Party.

On 23 March, the Reichstag assembled in a replacement building under extremely turbulent circumstances. Some SA men served as guards within while large groups outside the building shouted slogans and threats toward the arriving deputies. Kaas announced that the Centre Party would support the bill with "concerns put aside," while Social Democrat Otto Wels denounced the act in his speech. At the end of the day, all parties except the Social Democrats voted in favour of the bill. The Communists, as well as some Social Democrats, were barred from attending. The Enabling Act, combined with the Reichstag Fire Decree, transformed Hitler's government into a legal dictatorship.
Removal of remaining limits
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“ At the risk of appearing to talk nonsense I tell you that the Nazi 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! ”

—Adolf Hitler to a British correspondent in Berlin, June 1934[70]

With this combination of legislative and executive power, Hitler's government further suppressed the remaining political opposition. The Communist Party of Germany and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) were banned, while all other political parties were forced to dissolve themselves. Finally, on 14 July, the Nazi Party was declared the only legal party in Germany.

Hitler used the SA paramilitary to push Hugenberg into resigning, and proceeded to politically isolate Vice-Chancellor Papen. Because the SA's demands for political and military power caused much anxiety among military and political leaders, Hitler used allegations of a plot by the SA leader Ernst Röhm to purge the SA's leadership during the Night of the Long Knives. As well, opponents unconnected with the SA were murdered, notably Gregor Strasser and former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher.[71]
In 1934, Hitler became Germany's president under the title Führer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Chancellor of the Reich).

President Paul von Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934. Rather than holding new presidential elections, Hitler's cabinet passed a law proclaiming the presidency dormant and transferred the role and powers of the head of state to Hitler as Führer und Reichskanzler (leader and chancellor). As head of state, Hitler now became supreme commander of the armed forces. When it came time for the soldiers and sailors to swear the traditional loyalty oath, it had been altered into an oath of personal loyalty to Hitler.[72] In a mid-August plebiscite, these acts found the approval of 84.6% of the electorate.[73] This action technically violated both the constitution and the Enabling Act. The constitution had been amended in 1932 to make the president of the High Court of Justice, not the chancellor, acting president until new elections could be held. The Enabling Act specifically barred Hitler from taking any action that tampered with the presidency. However, no one dared object.

In 1938, Hitler forced the resignation of his War Minister (formerly Defense Minister), Werner von Blomberg, after evidence surfaced that Blomberg's new wife had a criminal past. Prior to removing Blomberg, Hitler and his clique removed Fritsch whom they denounced as a homosexual.[74] Hitler replaced the Ministry of War with the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (High Command of the Armed Forces, or OKW), headed by General Wilhelm Keitel. More importantly, Hitler announced he was assuming personal command of the armed forces. He took over Blomberg's other old post, that of Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, for himself. He was already Supreme Commander by virtue of holding the powers of the president. The next day, the newspapers announced, "Strongest concentration of powers in Führer's hands!"
Third Reich
Main article: Nazi Germany

Having secured supreme political power, Hitler went on to gain public support by convincing most Germans he was their savior from the economic Depression, the Versailles treaty, communism, the "Judeo-Bolsheviks", and other "undesirable" minorities. The Nazis eliminated opposition through a process known as Gleichschaltung ("bringing into line").
Economy and culture

Hitler oversaw one of the greatest expansions of industrial production and civil improvement Germany had ever seen, mostly based on debt flotation and expansion of the military. Nazi policies toward women strongly encouraged them to stay at home to bear children and keep house. In a September 1934 speech to the National Socialist Women's Organization, Adolf Hitler argued that for the German woman her "world is her husband, her family, her children, and her home." This policy was reinforced by bestowing the Cross of Honor of the German Mother on women bearing four or more babies. The unemployment rate was cut substantially, mostly through arms production and sending women home so that men could take their jobs. Given this, claims that the German economy achieved near full employment are at least partly artifacts of propaganda from the era. Much of the financing for Hitler's reconstruction and rearmament came from currency manipulation by Hjalmar Schacht, including the clouded credits through the Mefo bills.
1934 Nuremberg rally

Hitler oversaw one of the largest infrastructure-improvement campaigns in German history, with the construction of dozens of dams, autobahns, railroads, and other civil works. Hitler's policies emphasised the importance of family life: men were the "breadwinners", while women's priorities were to lie in bringing up children and in household work. This revitalising of industry and infrastructure came at the expense of the overall standard of living, at least for those not affected by the chronic unemployment of the later Weimar Republic, since wages were slightly reduced in pre-World War II years, despite a 25% increase in the cost of living.[75] Laborers and farmers, the traditional voters of the NSDAP, however, saw an increase in their standard of living.

Hitler's government sponsored architecture on an immense scale, with Albert Speer becoming famous as the first architect of the Reich. While important as an architect in implementing Hitler's classicist reinterpretation of German culture, Speer proved much more effective as armaments minister during the last years of World War II. In 1936, Berlin hosted the summer Olympic games, which were opened by Hitler and choreographed to demonstrate Aryan superiority over all other races, achieving mixed results.

Although Hitler made plans for a Breitspurbahn (broad gauge railroad network), they were preempted by World War II. Had the railroad been built, its gauge would have been three metres, even wider than the old Great Western Railway of Britain.

Hitler contributed slightly to the design of the car that later became the Volkswagen Beetle and charged Ferdinand Porsche with its design and construction.[76] Production was deferred because of the war.

Hitler considered Sparta to be the first National Socialist state, and praised its early eugenics treatment of deformed children.[77]

An important historical debate about Hitler’s economic policies concerns the “modernization” debate. Historians such as David Schoenbaum and Henry Ashby Turner have argued that social and economic polices under Hitler were modernization carried out in pursuit of anti-modern goals.[78] Other group of historians centered around Rainer Zitelmann have contended that Hitler had a deliberate strategy of pursuing a revolutionary modernization of German society.[79]
Rearmament and new alliances
Main articles: Axis Powers, Tripartite Treaty, and German re-armament
Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini during Hitler's visit to Venice from 14–16 June 1934.

In a meeting with his leading generals and admirals on 3 February 1933 Hitler spoke of "conquest of Lebensraum in the East and its ruthless Germanisation" as his ultimate foreign policy objectives.[80] In March 1933, the first major statement of German foreign policy aims appeared with the memo submitted to the German Cabinet by the State Secretary at the Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Office), Prince Bernhard von Bülow (not to be confused with his more famous uncle, the former Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow), which advocated Anschluss with Austria, the restoration of the frontiers of 1914, the rejection of the Part V of Versailles, the return of the former German colonies in Africa, and a German zone of influence in Eastern Europe as goals for the future. Hitler found the goals in Bülow's memo to be too modest.[81] In March 1933, to resolve the deadlock between the French demand for sécurité (“security”) and the German demand for gleichberechtigung (“equality of armaments”) at the World Disarmament Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, the British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald presented the compromise “MacDonald Plan”. Hitler endorsed the “MacDonald Plan”, correctly guessing that nothing would come of it, and that in the interval he could win some goodwill in London by making his government appear moderate, and the French obstinate.[82]

In May 1933, Hitler met with Herbert von Dirksen, the German Ambassador in Moscow. Dirksen advised the Führer that he was allowing relations with the Soviet Union to deteriorate to a unacceptable extent, and advised to take immediate steps to repair relations with the Soviets.[83] Much to Dirksen's intense disappointment, Hitler informed that he wished for an anti-Soviet understanding with Poland, which Dirksen protested implied recognition of the German-Polish border, leading Hitler to state he was after much greater things than merely overturning the Treaty of Versailles.[84]

In June 1933, Hitler was forced to disavow Alfred Hugenberg of the German National People's Party, who while attending the London World Economic Conference put forth a programme of colonial expansion in both Africa and Eastern Europe, which created a major storm abroad.[85] Speaking to the Burgermeister of Hamburg in 1933, Hitler commented that Germany required several years of peace before it could be sufficiently rearmed enough to risk a war, and until then a policy of caution was called for.[86] In his "peace speeches" of 17 May 1933; 21 May 1935 and 7 March 1936 Hitler stressed his supposed pacific goals and a willingness to work within the international system.[87] In private, Hitler's plans were something less than pacific. At the first meeting of his Cabinet in 1933, Hitler placed military spending ahead of unemployment relief, and indeed was only prepared to spend money on the latter if the former was satisfied first.[88] When the president of the Reichsbank, the former Chancellor Dr. Hans Luther, offered the new government the legal limit of 100 million Reichmarks to finance rearmament, Hitler found the sum too low, and sacked Luther in March 1933 to replace him with Hjalmar Schacht, who during the next five years was to advance 12 billion Reichmarks worth of "Mefo-bills" to pay for rearmament.[89]

A major initiative in Hitler's foreign policy in his early years was to create an alliance with Britain. In the 1920s, Hitler wrote that a future National Socialist foreign policy goal was "the destruction of Russia with the help of England."[90] In May 1933, Alfred Rosenberg in his capacity as head of the Nazi Party's Aussenpolitisches Amt (Foreign Political Office) visited London as part of a disastrous effort to win an alliance with Britain.[91] In October 1933, Hitler pulled Germany out of both the League of Nations and World Disarmament Conference after his Foreign Minister Baron Konstantin von Neurath made it appear to world public opinion that the French demand for sécurité was the principal stumbling block.[92]

In line with the views he advocated in Mein Kampf and Zweites Buch about the necessity of building an Anglo-German alliance, Hitler, in a meeting in November 1933 with the British Ambassador, Sir Eric Phipps, offered a scheme in which Britain would support a 300,000-strong German Army in exchange for a German “guarantee” of the British Empire.[93] In response, the British stated a ten-year waiting period would be necessary before Britain would support an increase in the size of the German Army.[93] A more successful initiative in foreign policy occurred with relations with Poland. In spite of intense opposition from the military and the Auswärtiges Amt who preferred closer ties with the Soviet Union, Hitler, in the fall of 1933 opened secret talks with Poland that were to lead to the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact of January 1934.[92]

In February 1934, Hitler met with the British Lord Privy Seal, Sir Anthony Eden, and hinted strongly that Germany already possessed an Air Force, which had been forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles.[94] In the fall of 1934, Hitler was seriously concerned over the dangers of inflation damaging his popularity.[95] In a secret speech given before his Cabinet on 5 November 1934, Hitler stated he had "given the working class his word that he would allow no price increases. Wage-earners would accuse him of breaking his word if he did not act against the rising prices. Revolutionary conditions among the people would be the further consequence."[95]

Although a secret German armaments programme had been on-going since 1919, in March 1935, Hitler rejected Part V of the Versailles treaty by publicly announcing that the German army would be expanded to 600,000 men (six times the number stipulated in the Treaty of Versailles), introducing an Air Force (Luftwaffe) and increasing the size of the Navy (Kriegsmarine). Britain, France, Italy and the League of Nations quickly condemned these actions. However, after re-assurances from Hitler that Germany was only interested in peace, no country took any action to stop this development and German re-armament continued. Later in March 1935, Hitler held a series of meetings in Berlin with the British Foreign Secretary Sir John Simon and Eden, during which he successfully evaded British offers for German participation in a regional security pact meant to serve as an Eastern European equivalent of the Locarno pact while the two British ministers avoided taking up Hitler's offers of alliance.[96] During his talks with Simon and Eden, Hitler first used what he regarded as the brilliant colonial negotiating tactic, when Hitler parlayed an offer from Simon to return to the League of Nations by demanding the return of the former German colonies in Africa.[97]

Starting in April 1935, disenchantment with how the Third Reich had developed in practice as opposed to what been promised led many in the Nazi Party, especially the Alte Kämpfer (Old Fighters; i.e., those who joined the Party before 1930, and who tended to be the most ardent anti-Semitics in the Party), and the SA into lashing out against Germany's Jewish minority as a way of expressing their frustrations against a group that the authorities would not generally protect.[98] The rank and file of the Party were most unhappy that two years into the Third Reich, and despite countless promises by Hitler prior to 1933, no law had been passed banning marriage or sex between those Germans belonging to the “Aryan” and Jewish “races”. A Gestapo report from the spring of 1935 stated that the rank and file of the Nazi Party would "set in motion by us from below," a solution to the "Jewish problem," "that the government would then have to follow."[99] As a result, Nazi Party activists and the SA started a major wave of assaults, vandalism and boycotts against German Jews.[100]

On 18 June 1935, the Anglo-German Naval Agreement (A.G.N.A.) was signed in London which allowed for increasing the allowed German tonnage up to 35% of that of the British navy. Hitler called the signing of the A.G.N.A. "the happiest day of his life" as he believed the agreement marked the beginning of the Anglo-German alliance he had predicted in Mein Kampf.[101] This agreement was made without consulting either France or Italy, directly undermined the League of Nations and put the Treaty of Versailles on the path towards irrelevance.[102] After the signing of the A.G.N.A., in June 1935 Hitler ordered the next step in the creation of an Anglo-German alliance: taking all the societies demanding the restoration of the former German African colonies and coordinating (Gleichschaltung) them into a new Reich Colonial League (Reichskolonialbund) which over the next few years waged an extremely aggressive propaganda campaign for colonial restoration.[103] Hitler had no real interest in the former German African colonies. In Mein Kampf, Hitler had excoriated the Imperial German government for pursuing colonial expansion in Africa prior to 1914 on the grounds that the natural area for Lebensraum was Eastern Europe, not Africa.[104] It was Hitler’s intention to use colonial demands as a negotiating tactic that would see a German “renunciation” of colonial claims in exchange for Britain making an alliance with the Reich on German terms.[105]

In the summer of 1935, Hitler was informed that, between inflation and the need to use foreign exchange to buy raw materials Germany lacked for rearmament, there were only 5 million Reichmarks available for military expenditure, and a pressing need for some 300,000 Reichmarks/day to prevent food shortages.[106] In August 1935, Dr. Hjalmar Schacht advised Hitler that the wave of anti-Semitic violence was interfering with the workings of the economy, and hence rearmament.[107] Following Dr. Schacht’s complaints, plus reports that the German public did not approve of the wave of anti-Semitic violence, and that continuing police toleration of the violence was hurting the regime's popularity with the wider public, Hitler ordered a stop to "individual actions" against German Jews on 8 August 1935.[107] From Hitler's perspective, it was imperative to bring in harsh new anti-Semitic laws as a consolation prize for those Party members who were disappointed with Hitler's halt order of 8 August, especially because Hitler had only reluctantly given the halt order for pragmatic reasons, and his symapthies were with the Party radicals.[107] The annual Nazi Party Rally held at Nuremberg in September 1935 was to feature the first session of the Reichstag held at that city since 1543. Hitler had planned to have the Reichstag pass a law making the Nazi Swastika flag the flag of the German Reich, and a major speech in support of the impending Italian aggression against Ethiopia.[108] Hitler felt that the Italian aggression opened great opportunities for Germany. In August 1935, Hitler told Goebbels his foreign policy vision as: "With England eternal alliance. Good relationship with Poland . . . Expansion to the East. The Baltic belongs to us . . . Conflicts Italy-Abyssinia-England, then Japan-Russia imminent."[109]

At the last minute before the Nuremberg Party Rally was due to begin, the German Foreign Minister Baron Konstantin von Neurath persuaded Hitler to cancel his speech praising Italy for her willingness to commit aggression. Neurath convinced Hitler that his speech was too provocative to public opinion abroad as it contradicted the message of Hitler’s “peace speeches”, thus leaving Hitler with the sudden need to have something else to address the first meeting of the Reichstag in Nuremberg since 1543, other than the Reich Flag Law.[110] On 13 September 1935, Hitler hurriedly ordered two civil servants, Dr. Bernhard Lösener and Franz Albrecht Medicus of the Interior Ministry to fly to Nuremberg to start drafting anti-Semitic laws for Hitler to present to the Reichstag for 15 September.[108] On the evening of 15 September, Hitler presented two laws before the Reichstag banning sex and marriage between “Aryan” and Jewish Germans, the employment of “Aryan” woman under the age of 45 in Jewish households, and deprived “non-Aryans” of the benefits of German citizenship.[111] The laws of September 1935 are generally known as the Nuremberg Laws.

In October 1935, in order to prevent further food shortages and the introduction of rationing, Hitler reluctantly ordered cuts in military spending[112] In the spring of 1936 in response to requests from Richard Walther Darré, Hitler ordered 60 million Reichmarks of foreign exchange to be used to buy seed oil for German farmers, a decision that led to bitter complaints from Dr. Schacht and the War Minister Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg that it would be impossible to achieve rearmament as long as foreign exchange was diverted to preventing food shortages[109] Given the economic problems which was affecting his popularity by early 1936, Hitler felt the pressing need for a foreign policy triumph as a way of distracting public attention from the economy.[109]

In an interview with the French journalist Bertrand de Jouvenel in February 1936, Hitler appeared to disavow Mein Kampf by saying that parts of his book were now out of date and he was not guided by them, though precisely which parts were out of date was left unclear.[113] In March 1936, Hitler again violated the Versailles treaty by reoccupying the demilitarized zone in the Rhineland. When Britain and France did nothing, he grew bolder. In July 1936, the Spanish Civil War began when the military, led by General Francisco Franco, rebelled against the elected Popular Front government. After receiving an appeal for help from General Franco in July 1936, Hitler sent troops to support Franco, and Spain served as a testing ground for Germany's new forces and their methods. At the same time, Hitler continued with his efforts to create an Anglo-German alliance. In July 1936, he offered to Phipps a promise that if Britain were to sign an alliance with the Reich, then Germany would commit to sending twelve divisions to the Far East to protect British colonial possessions there from a Japanese attack.[114] Hitler's offer was refused.

In August 1936, in response to a growing crisis in the German economy caused by the strains of rearmament, Hitler issued the "Four-Year Plan Memorandum" ordering Hermann Göring to carry out the Four Year Plan to have the German economy ready for war within the next four years.[115] During the 1936 economic crisis, the German government was divided into two factions, with one (the so-called "free market" faction) centering around the Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht and the former Price Commissioner Dr. Carl Friedrich Goerdeler calling for decreased military spending and a turn away from autarkic policies, and another faction around Göring calling for the opposite. Supporting the "free-market" faction were some of Germany's leading business executives, most notably Hermann Duecher of AEG, Robert Bosch of Robert Bosch GmbH, and Albert Voegeler of Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG.[116] Hitler hesitated for the first half of 1936 before siding with the more radical faction in his "Four Year Plan" memo of August.[117] Historians such as Richard Overy have argued that the importance of the memo, which was written personally by Hitler, can be gauged by the fact that Hitler, who had something of a phobia about writing, hardly ever wrote anything down, which indicates that Hitler had something especially important to say.[118] The "Four-Year Plan Memorandum" predicated an imminent all-out, apocalyptic struggle between "Judo-Bolshevism" and German National Socialism, which necessitated a total effort at rearmament regardless of the economic costs.[119] In the memo, Hitler wrote:

Since the outbreak of the French Revolution, the world has been moving with ever increasing speed toward a new conflict, the most extreme solution of which is called Bolshevism, whose essence and aim, however, are solely the elimination of those strata of mankind which have hitherto provided the leadership and their replacement by worldwide Jewry. No state will be able to withdraw or even remain at a distance from this historical conflict . . . It is not the aim of this memorandum to prophesy the time when the untenable situation in Europe will become an open crisis. I only want, in these lines, to set down my conviction that this crisis cannot and will not fail to arrive and that it is Germany's duty to secure her own existence by every means in face of this catastrophe, and to protect herself against it, and that from this compulsion there arises a series of conclusions relating to the most important tasks that our people have ever been set. For a victory of Bolshevism over Germany would not lead to a Versailles treaty, but to the final destruction, indeed the annihilation of the German people . . . I consider it necessary for the Reichstag to pass the following two laws: 1) A law providing the death penalty for economic sabotage and 2) A law making the whole of Jewry liable for all damage inflicted by individual specimens of this community of criminals upon the German economy, and thus upon the German people.[120]

Hitler called for Germany to have the world's "first army" in terms of fighting power within the next four years and that "the extent of the military development of our resources cannot be too large, nor its pace too swift" (italics in the original) and the role of the economy was simply to support "Germany's self-assertion and the extension of her Lebensraum."[121][122] Hitler went on to write that given the magnitude of the coming struggle that the concerns expressed by members of the "free market" faction like Schacht and Goerdeler that the current level of military spending was bankrupting Germany were irrelevant. Hitler wrote that: "However well balanced the general pattern of a nation's life ought to be, there must at particular times be certain disturbances of the balance at the expense of other less vital tasks. If we do not succeed in bringing the German army as rapidly as possible to the rank of premier army in the world . . . then Germany will be lost!"[123] and "The nation does not live for the economy, for economic leaders, or for economic or financial theories; on the contrary, it is finance and the economy, economic leaders and theories, which all owe unqualified service in this struggle for the self-assertion of our nation."[116][clarification needed] Documents such as the Four Year Plan Memo have often used by right historians such as Henry Ashby Turner and Karl Dietrich Bracher who argue for a “primacy of politics” approach (that Hitler was not subordinate to German business, but rather the contrary was the case) against the “primacy of economics” approach championed by Marxist historians (that Hitler was a “agent” of and subordinate to German business).[124]

In August 1936, the freelance Nazi diplomat Joachim von Ribbentrop was appointed German Ambassador to the Court of St. James. Before Ribbentrop left to take up his post in October 1936, Hitler told him: “Ribbentrop . . . get Britain to join the Anti-Comintern Pact, that is what I want most of all. I have sent you as the best man I’ve got. Do what you can . . . But if in future all our efforts are still in vain, fair enough, then I’m ready for war as well. I would regret it very much, but if it has to be, there it is. But I think it would be a short war and the moment it is over, I will then be ready at any time to offer the British an honourable peace acceptable to both sides. However, I would then demand that Britain join the Anti-Comintern Pact or perhaps some other pact. But get on with it, Ribbentrop, you have the trumps in your hand, play them well. I’m ready at any time for an air pact as well. Do your best. I will follow your efforts with interest”.[125]
On 25 October 1936, an Axis was declared between Italy and Germany.

An Axis was declared between Germany and Italy by Count Galeazzo Ciano, foreign minister of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini on 25 October 1936. On 25 November of the same year, Germany concluded the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan. At the time of the signing of the Anti-Comintern Pact invitations were sent out for Britain, China, Italy and Poland to adhere; of the invited powers only the Italians were to sign the pact, in November 1937. To strengthen relationship with Japan, Hitler met in 1937 in Nuremberg Prince Chichibu, a brother of emperor Hirohito. However, the meeting with Prince Chichibu had little consequence, as Hitler refused the Japanese request to halt German arms shipments to China or withdraw the German officers serving with the Chinese in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Both the military and the Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Office) were strongly opposed to ending the informal German alliance with China that existed since the 1910s, and pressured Hitler to avoid offending the Chinese. The Auswärtiges Amt and the military both argued to Hitler that given the foreign exchange problems which afflicted German rearmament, and the fact that various Sino-German economic agreements provided Germany with raw materials that would otherwise use up precious foreign exchange, it was folly to seek an alliance with Japan that would have the inevitable result of ending the Sino-German alignment.

By the latter half of 1937, Hitler had abandoned his dream of an Anglo-German alliance, blaming "inadequate" British leadership for turning down his offers of an alliance.[126] In a talk with the League of Nations High Commissioner for the Free City of Danzig, the Swiss diplomat Carl Jacob Burckhardt in September 1937, Hitler protested what he regarded as British interference in the "German sphere" in Europe, though in the same talk, Hitler made clear his view of Britain as an ideal ally, which for pure selfishness was blocking German plans.[126]

Hitler had suffered severely from stomach pains and eczema in 1936–37, leading to his remark to the Nazi Party's propaganda leadership in October 1937 that because both parents died early in their lives, he would probably follow suit, leaving him with only a few years to obtain the necessary Lebensraum.[127][128] About the same time, Dr. Goebbels noted in his diary Hitler now wished to see the "Great Germanic Reich" he envisioned in his own lifetime rather than leaving the work of building the "Great Germanic Reich" to his successors.[129]

On 5 November 1937, at the Reich Chancellory, Adolf Hitler held a secret meeting with the War and Foreign Ministers and the three service chiefs, recorded in the Hossbach Memorandum, and stated his intentions for acquiring "living space" Lebensraum for the German people. He ordered the attendees to make plans for war in the east no later than 1943 in order to acquire Lebensraum. Hitler stated the conference minutes were to be regarded as his "political testament" in the event of his death.[130] In the memo, Hitler was recorded as saying that such a state of crisis had been reached in the German economy that the only way of stopping a severe decline in living standards in Germany was to embark sometime in the near-future on a policy of aggression by seizing Austria and Czechoslovakia.[131][132] Moreover, Hitler stated that the arms race meant that time for action had to occur before Britain and France obtained a permanent lead in the arms race.[131] A striking change in the Hossbach Memo was Hitler’s changed view of Britain from the prospective ally of 1928 in the Zweites Buch to the "hate-inspired antagonist" of 1937 in the Hossbach memo.[133] The historian Klaus Hildebrand described the memo as the start of an "ambivalent course" towards Britain while the late historian Andreas Hillgruber argued that Hitler was embarking on expansion "without Britain," preferably "with Britain," but if necessary "against Britain."[105][134]

Hitler's intentions outlined in the Hossbach memorandum led to strong protests from the Foreign Minister, Baron Konstantin von Neurath, the War Minister Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg and the Army Commander General Werner von Fritsch that any German aggression in Eastern Europe was bound to trigger a war with France because of the French alliance system in Eastern Europe, the so-called cordon sanitaire and if a Franco-German war broke out, then Britain was almost certain to intervene rather than risk the chance of a French defeat.[135] The aggression against Austria and Czechoslovakia were intended to be the first of a series of localized wars in Eastern Europe that would secure Germany’s position in Europe before the final showdown with Britain and France. Fritsch, Blomberg and Neurath all argue that Hitler was pursuing an extremely high risk strategy of localized wars in Eastern Europe that was most likely to cause a general war before Germany was ready for such a conflict, and advised Hitler to wait until Germany had more time to rearm. Neurath, Blomberg and Fritsch had no moral objections to German aggression, but rather based their opposition on the question of timing—determining the best time for aggression.[135]

Late in November 1937, Hitler received as his guest the British Lord Privy Seal, Lord Halifax who was visiting Germany ostensibly as part of a hunting trip. Speaking of changes to Germany's frontiers, Halifax told Hitler that: "All other questions fall into the category of possible alterations in the European order which might be destined to come about with the passage of time. Amongst these questions were Danzig, Austria and Czechoslovakia. England was interested to see that any alterations should come through the course of peaceful evolution and that the methods should be avoided which might cause far-reaching disturbances."[136] Significantly, Halifax made clear in his statements to Hitler, though whether Hitler appreciated the significance of this or not is unclear, that any possible territorial changes had to be accomplished peacefully, and that though Britain had no security commitments in Eastern Europe beyond the Covenant of the League of Nations, that Britain would not tolerate territorial changes via war.[137] Hitler seems to have misunderstood Halifax's remarks as confirming his conviction that Britain would just stand aside while he pursued his strategy of limited wars in Eastern Europe.

Hitler was most unhappy with the criticism of his intentions expressed by Neurath, Blomberg, and Fritsch in the Hossbach Memo, and in early 1938 asserted his control of the military-foreign policy apparatus through the Blomberg-Fritsch Affair, the abolition of the War Ministry and its replacement by the OKW, and by sacking Neurath as Foreign Minister on 4 February 1938, assuming the rank, role and tile of the Oberster Befehlshaber der Wehrmacht.[138] The British economic historian Richard Overy commented that the establishment of the OKW in February 1938 was a clear sign of what Hitler's intentions were since supreme headquarters organizations such as the OKW are normally set up during wartime, not peacetime.[139] The Official German history of World War II has argued that from early 1938 onwards, Hitler was not carrying out a foreign policy that had carried a high risk of war, but was carrying out a foreign policy aiming at war.[140]
The Holocaust
Main article: The Holocaust
An American soldier stands near a wagon piled high with corpses outside the crematorium in the newly liberated Buchenwald concentration camp

One of the foundations of Hitler's social policies was the concept of racial hygiene. It was based on the ideas of Arthur de Gobineau, a French count; eugenics, a pseudo-science that advocated racial purity; and social Darwinism. Applied to human beings, "survival of the fittest" was interpreted as requiring racial purity and killing off "life unworthy of life." The first victims were children with physical and developmental disabilities; those killings occurred in a programme dubbed Action T4.[141] After a public outcry, Hitler made a show of ending this program, but the killings in fact continued (see Nazi eugenics).

Between 1939 and 1945, the SS, assisted by collaborationist governments and recruits from occupied countries, systematically killed somewhere between 11 and 14 million people, including about six million Jews,[142][143] in concentration camps, ghettos and mass executions, or through less systematic methods elsewhere. In addition to those gassed to death, many died as a result of starvation and disease while working as slave labourers (sometimes benefiting private German companies). Along with Jews, non-Jewish Poles, Communists and political opponents, members of resistance groups, homosexuals, Roma, the physically handicapped and mentally retarded, Soviet prisoners of war (possibly as many as three million), Jehovah's Witnesses, Adventists, trade unionists, and psychiatric patients were killed. One of the biggest centres of mass-killing was the extermination camp complex of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Hitler never visited the concentration camps[citation needed] and did not speak publicly about the killing in precise terms.

The Holocaust (the Endlösung der jüdischen Frage or "Final Solution of the Jewish Question") was planned and ordered by leading Nazis, with Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich playing key roles. While no specific order from Hitler authorizing the mass killing has surfaced, there is documentation showing that he approved the Einsatzgruppen killing squads that followed the German army through Poland and Russia, and that he was kept well informed about their activities. The evidence also suggests that in the fall of 1941 Himmler and Hitler decided upon mass extermination by gassing. During interrogations by Soviet intelligence officers declassified over fifty years later, Hitler's valet Heinz Linge and his military aide Otto Gunsche said Hitler had "pored over the first blueprints of gas chambers." His private secretary, Traudl Junge, testified that Hitler knew all about the death camps.

To make for smoother cooperation in the implementation of this "Final Solution", the Wannsee conference was held near Berlin on 20 January 1942, with fifteen senior officials participating, led by Reinhard Heydrich and Adolf Eichmann. The records of this meeting provide the clearest evidence of planning for the Holocaust. On 22 February, Hitler was recorded saying to his associates, "we shall regain our health only by eliminating the Jews".
World War II
Main article: World War II
Early diplomatic triumphs
Alliance with Japan
Japanese Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka with Hitler in Berlin.

In February 1938, Hitler finally ended the dilemma that had plagued German Far Eastern policy, namely whether to continue the informal Sino-German alliance that existed with Republic of China since the 1910s or to create a new alliance with Japan. The military at the time strongly favored continuing Germany's alliance with China. China had the support of Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath and War Minister Werner von Blomberg, the so called "China Lobby" who tried to steer German foreign policy away from war in Europe.[144] Both men, however, were sacked by Hitler in early 1938. Upon the advice of Hitler's newly appointed Foreign Minister, the strongly pro-Japanese Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hitler chose to end the alliance with China as the price of gaining an alignment with the more modern and powerful Japan. In an address to the Reichstag, Hitler announced German recognition of Manchukuo, the Japanese-occupied puppet state in Manchuria, and renounced the German claims to the former colonies in the Pacific held by Japan.[145] Hitler ordered an end to arm shipments to China, and ordered the recall of all the German officers attached to the Chinese Army.[145] In retaliation for ending German support to China in the war against Japan, Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek canceled all of the Sino-German economic agreements, which deprived the Germans of raw materials such as tungsten that the Chinese had previously provided. The ending of the Sino-German alignment increased the problems of German rearmament as the Germans were now forced to use their limited supply of foreign exchange to buy raw materials on the open market.
Austria and Czechoslovakia

In March 1938, Hitler pressured Austria into unification with Germany (the Anschluss) and made a triumphant entry into Vienna on 14 March.[146][147] Next, he intensified a crisis over the German-speaking Sudetenland districts of Czechoslovakia.[148]

On 3 March 1938, the British Ambassador Sir Neville Henderson met with Hitler and presented on behalf of his government a proposal for an international consortium to rule much of Africa (in which Germany would be assigned a leading role) in exchange for a German promise never to resort to war to change the frontiers.[149] Hitler, who was more interested in Lebensraum in Eastern Europe then in participating in international consortiums, rejected the British offer, using as his excuse that he wanted the former German African colonies returned to the Reich, not an international consortium running Central Africa. Moreover, Hitler argued that it was totally outrageous on Britain’s part to impose conditions on German conduct in Europe as the price for territory in Africa.[150] Hitler ended the conversation by telling Henderson he would rather wait twenty years for the return of the former colonies than accept British conditions for avoiding war.[150][151]

On 28 to 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. During the Hitler-Henlein meetings, it was agreed that Henlein would provide the pretext for German aggression against Czechoslovakia by making demands on Prague for increased autonomy for Sudeten Germans that Prague could never be reasonably expected to fulfill. 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 all means because this was the only method to blow up Czechoslovakia quickly”.[152] In private, Hitler considered the Sudeten issue unimportant; his real intentions being to use the Sudeten question as the justification both at home and abroad for a war of aggression to destroy Czechoslovakia, under the grounds of self-determination, and Prague’s refusal to meet Henlein’s demands.[153] Hitler’s plans called for a massive military build-up along the Czechoslovak border, relentless propaganda attacks about the supposed ill treatment of the Sudetenlanders, and finally, “incidents” between Heimfront activists and the Czechoslovak authorities to justify an invasion that would swiftly destroy Czechoslovakia in a few days campaign before other powers could act.[154] Since Hitler wished to have the fall harvest brought in as much as possible, and to complete the so-called “West Wall” to guard the Rhineland, the date for the invasion was chosen for late September or early October 1938.[155]

In April 1938, Hitler ordered the OKW to start preparing plans for Fall Grün (Case Green), the codename for an invasion of Czechoslovakia.[156] Further increasing the tension in Europe was the May Crisis of 19–22 May 1938. The May Crisis of 1938 was a false alarm caused by rumors that Czechoslovakia would be invaded the weekend of the municipal elections in that country, erroneous reports of major German troop movements along the Czechoslovak border just prior to the elections, the killing of two ethnic Germans by the Czechoslovak police, and Ribbentrop's highly bellicose remarks to Henderson when the latter asked the former if an invasion was indeed scheduled for the weekend, which led to a partial Czechoslovak mobilization and firm warnings from London against a German move against Czechoslovakia before it was realized that no invasion was intended for that weekend.[157] Though no invasion had been planned for May 1938, it was believed in London that such a course of action was indeed being considered in Berlin, leading to two warnings on 21 May and 22 May that the United Kingdom would go to war with Germany if France became involved in a war with Germany.[158] Hitler, for his part, was to use the words of an aide, highly “furious” with the perception that he had been forced to back down by the Czechoslovak mobilization, and warnings from London and Paris, when he had in fact been planning nothing for that weekend.[159] Though plans had already been drafted in April 1938 for an invasion of Czechoslovakia in the near future, the May Crisis and the perception of a diplomatic defeat further reinforced Hitler in his chosen course. The May Crisis seemed to have had the effect of convincing Hitler that expansion "without Britain" was not possible, and expansion "against Britain" was the only viable course.[160] In the immediate aftermath of the May crisis, Hitler ordered an acceleration of German naval building beyond the limits of the A.G.N.A., and in the "Heye memorandum", drawn at Hitler's orders, envisaged the Royal Navy for the first time as the principle opponent of the Kriegsmarine.[161]

At the conference of 28 May 1938, Hitler declared that it was his "unalterable" decision to "smash Czechoslovakia" by 1 October of the same year, which was explained as securing the eastern flank "for advancing against the West, England and France.[162] At the same conference, Hitler expressed his belief that Britain would not risk a war until British rearmament was complete, which Hitler felt would be around 1941–42, and Germany should in a series of wars eliminate France and her allies in Europe in the interval in the years 1938–41 while German rearmament was still ahead.[162] Hitler's determination to go through with Fall Grün in 1938 provoked a major crisis in the German command structure.[163] The Chief of the General Staff, General Ludwig Beck protested in a lengthy series of memos that Fall Grün would start a world war that Germany would lose, and urged Hitler to put off the projected war.[163] Hitler called Beck's arguments against war "kindische Kräfteberechnugen" ("childish calculations").[164]

On 4 August 1938, a secret Army meeting was held at which Beck read his report. They agreed something had to be done to prevent certain disaster. Beck hoped they would all resign together but no one resigned except Beck. However his replacement, General Franz Halder, sympathised with Beck and together they conspired with several top generals, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris (Chief of German Intelligence), and Graf von Helldorf (Berlin's Police Chief) to arrest Hitler the moment he gave the invasion order. However the plan would only work if both Britain and France made it known to the world that they would fight to preserve Czechoslovakia. This would help to convince the German people that certain defeat awaited Germany. Agents were therefore sent to England to tell Chamberlain that an attack on Czechoslovakia was planned and their intentions to overthrow Hitler if this occurred. However the messengers were not taken seriously by the British. In September, Chamberlain and Daladier decided not to threaten a war over Czechoslovakia and so the planned removal of Hitler could not be justified.[165] The Munich Agreement therefore preserved Hitler in power.

Starting in August 1938, information reached London that Germany was beginning to mobilize reservists, together with information leaked by anti-war elements in the German military that the war was scheduled for sometime in September.[166] Finally, as a result of intense French, and especially British diplomatic pressure, President Edvard Beneš unveiled on 5 September 1938, the “Fourth Plan” for constitutional reorganization of his country, which granted most of the demands for Sudeten autonomy made by Henlein in his Karlsbad speech of April 1938, and threatened to deprive the Germans of their pretext for aggression.[167] Henlein’s Heimfront promptly responded to the offer of “Fourth Plan” by having a series of violent crashes with the Czechoslovak police, culminating in major clashes in mid-September that led to the declaration of martial law in certain Sudeten districts.[168][169] In a response to the threatening situation, in late August 1938, the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had conceived of Plan Z, namely to fly to Germany, meet Hitler, and then work out an agreement that could end the crisis.[170][171] On 13 September 1938, Chamberlain offered to fly to Germany to discuss a solution to the crisis. Chamberlain had decided to execute Plan Z in response to erroneous information supplied by the German opposition that the invasion was due to start any time after 18 September.[172] Though Hitler was not happy with Chamberlain’s offer, he agreed to see the British Prime Minister because to refuse Chamberlain’s offer would confirm the lie to his repeated claims that he was a man of peace driven reluctantly to war because of Beneš’s intractability.[173] In a summit at Berchtesgaden, Chamberlain promised to pressure Beneš into agreeing to Hitler's publicly stated demands about allowing the Sudetenland to join Germany, in return for a reluctant promise by Hitler to postpone any military action until Chamberlain had given a chance to fulfill his promise.[174] Hitler had agreed to the postponement out of the expectation that Chamberlain would fail to secure Prague’s consent to transferring the Sudetenland, and was, by all accounts, most disappointed when Franco-British pressure secured just that.[175] The talks between Chamberlain and Hitler in September 1938 were made difficult by their innately differing concepts of what Europe should look like, with Hitler aiming to use the Sudeten issue as a pretext for war and Chamberlain genuinely striving for a peaceful solution.[176]

When Chamberlain returned to Germany on 22 September to present his peace plan for the transfer of the Sudetenland at a summit with Hitler at Bad Godesberg, the British delegation was most unpleasantly surprised to have Hitler reject his own terms he had presented at Berchtesgaden as now unacceptable.[177] To put an end to Chamberlain’s peace-making efforts once and for all, Hitler demanded the Sudetenland be ceded to Germany no later then 28 September 1938 with no negotiations between Prague and Berlin and no international commission to oversee the transfer; no plebiscites to be held in the transferred districts until after the transfer; and for good measure, that Germany would not forsake war as an option until all the claims against Czechoslovakia by Poland and Hungary had been satisfied.[178] The differing views between the two leaders were best symbolized when Chamberlain was presented with Hitler’s new demands and protested at being presented with an ultimatum, leading Hitler in turn to retort that because his document stating his new demands was entitled “Memorandum”, it could not possibly be an ultimatum.[179] On 25 September 1938 Britain rejected the Bad Godesberg ultimatum, and began preparations for war.[180][181] To further underline the point, Sir Horace Wilson, the British government’s Chief Industrial Advisor, and a close associate of Chamberlain was dispatched to Berlin to inform Hitler that if the Germans attacked Czechoslovakia, then France would honor her commitments as demanded by the Franco-Czechoslovak alliance of 1924, and “then England would feel honor bound, to offer France assistance”.[182] Initially, determined to continue with attack planned for 1 October 1938, sometime between 27 and 28 September, Hitler changed his mind, and asked to take up a suggestion, of and through the intercession of Mussolini, for a conference to be held in Munich with Chamberlain, Mussolini, and the French Premier Édouard Daladier to discuss the Czechoslovak situation.[183] Just what had caused Hitler to change his attitude is not entirely clear, but it is likely that the combination of Franco-British warnings, and especially the mobilization of the British fleet, had finally convinced him of what the most likely result of Fall Grün would be; the minor nature of the alleged casus belli being the timetables for the transfer made Hitler appear too much like the aggressor; the view from his advisors that Germany was not prepared either militarily or economically for a world war; warnings from the states that Hitler saw as his would-be allies in the form of Italy, Japan, Poland and Hungary that they would not fight on behalf of Germany; and very visible signs that the majority of Germans were not enthusiastic about the prospect of war.[184][185][186] Moreover, Germany lacked sufficient supplies of oil and other crucial raw materials (the plants that would produce the synthetic oil for the German war effort were not in operation yet), and was highly dependent upon imports from abroad.[187] The Kriegsmarine reported that should war come with Britain, it could not break a British blockade, and since Germany had hardly any oil stocks, Germany would be defeated for no other reason than a shortage of oil.[188] The Economics Ministry told Hitler that Germany had only 2.6 million tons of oil at hand, and should war with Britain and France, would require 7.6 million tons of oil.[189] Starting on 18 September 1938, the British refused to supply metals to Germany, and on 24 September the Admiralty forbade British ships to sail to Germany. The British detained the tanker Invershannon carrying 8,600 tons of oil to Hamburg, which caused immediate economic pain in Germany.[190] Given Germany's dependence on imported oil (80% of German oil in the 1930s came from the New World), and the likelihood that a war with Britain would see a blockade cutting Germany off from oil supplies, historians have argued that Hitler's decision to see a peaceful end to call off Fall Grün was due to concerns about the oil problem.[187]
Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler and Mussolini at the Munich Conference

On 30 September 1938, a one-day conference was held in Munich attended by Hitler, Chamberlain, Daladier and Mussolini that led to the Munich Agreement, which gave to Hitler's ostensible demands by handing over the Sudetenland districts to Germany.[191] Since London and Paris had already agreed to the idea of a transfer of the disputed territory in mid-September, the Munich Conference mostly comprised discussions in one day of talks on technical questions about how the transfer of the Sudetenland would take place, and featured the relatively minor concessions from Hitler that the transfer would take place over a ten day period in October, overseen by an international commission, and Germany would wait until Hungarian and Polish claims were settled.[192] At the end of the conference, Chamberlain had Hitler sign a declaration of Anglo-German friendship, to which Chamberlain attached great importance and Hitler none at all.[193] Though Chamberlain was well-satisfied with the Munich conference, leading to his infamous claim to have secured “peace in our time”, Hitler was privately furious about being “cheated” out of the war he was desperate to have in 1938.[194][195] As a result of the summit, Hitler was TIME magazine's Man of the Year for 1938.[196]
Hitler enters the German populated Sudetenland region of Czechoslavakia in October 1938 which was annexed to Germany proper due to the Munich agreement

By appeasing Hitler, Britain and France left Czechoslovakia to Hitler's mercy.[191] Though Hitler professed happiness in public over the achievement of his ostensible demands, in private he was determined to have a war the next time around by ensuring that Germany's future demands would not be met.[197] In Hitler’s view, a British-brokered peace, though extremely favorable to the ostensible German demands, was a diplomatic defeat which proved that Britain needed to be ended as a power to allow him to pursue his dreams of eastern expansion.[198][199] In the aftermath of Munich, Hitler felt since Britain would not ally herself nor stand aside to facilitate Germany’s continental ambitions, it had become a major threat, and accordingly, Britain replaced the Soviet Union in Hitler’s mind as the main enemy of the Reich, with German policies being accordingly reoriented.[200][201][202][203] Hitler expressed his disappointment over the Munich Agreement in a speech on 9 October 1938 in Saarbrücken when he lashed out against the Conservative anti-appeasers Winston Churchill, Alfred Duff Cooper and Anthony Eden, whom Hitler described as a warmongering anti-German fraction, who would attack Germany at the first opportunity, and were likely to come to power at any moment.[204] In the same speech, Hitler claimed “We Germans will no longer endure such governessy interference. Britain should mind her own business and worry about her own troubles”.[205] In November 1938, Hitler ordered a major anti-British propaganda campaign to be launched with the British being loudly abused for their "hypocrisy" in maintaining world-wide empire while seeking to block the Germans from acquiring an empire of their own.[206] A particular highlight in the anti-British propaganda was alleged British humans rights abuses in dealing with the Arab uprising in the Palestine Mandate and in India, and the "hyprocrisy" of British criticism of the November 1938 Kristallnacht event.[207] This marked a huge change from the earlier years of the Third Reich, when the German media had portrayed the British Empire in very favorable terms.[208] In November 1938, the Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop was ordered to convert the Anti-Comintern Pact into an open anti-British military alliance, as a prelude for a war against Britain and France.[209] On 27 January 1939, Hitler approved the Z Plan, a five-year naval expansion program which called for a Kriegsmarine of 10 battleships, four aircraft carriers, three battlecruisers, eight heavy cruisers, 44 light cruisers, 68 destroyers and 249 U-boats by 1944 that was intended to crush the Royal Navy.[210] The importance of the Z Plan can be seen in Hitler's orders that henceforward the Kriegsmarine was to go from third to one in allotment of raw materials, money and skilled workers.[211] In the spring of 1939, the Luftwaffe was ordered to start building a strategic bombing force that was meant to level British cities.[212] Hitler’s war plans against Britain called for a joint Kriegsmarine-Luftwaffe offensive that was to stage "rapid annihilating blows" against British cities and shipping with the expectation that "The moment England is cut off from her supplies she is forced to capitulate" as Hitler expected that the experience of living in a blockaded, famine-stricken, bombed out island to be too much for the British public.[213]
Destroyed Jewish businesses in Magdeburg following Kristallnacht

In November 1938, in a secret speech to a group of German journalists, Hitler noted that he had been forced to speak of peace as the goal in order to attain the degree of rearmament "which were an essential prerequisite ... for the next step".[86] In the same speech, Hitler complained that his peace propaganda of the last five years had been too successful, and it was time for the German people to be subjected to war propaganda.[214] Hitler stated: "It is self-evident that such peace propaganda conducted for a decade has its risky aspect; because it can too easily induce people to come to the conclusion that the present government is identical with the decision and with the intention to keep peace under all circumstances", and instead called for new journalism that "had to present certain foreign policy events in such a fashion that the inner voice of the people itself slowly begins to shout out for the use of force."[214] In later November 1938, Hitler expressed his frustration with his more cautious advice he was receiving from some quarters[215] Hitler called the economic expert Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, General Ludwig Beck, Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, the diplomat Ulrich von Hassell, and the economist Rudolf Brinkmann as “the overbred intellectual circles" whom were trying to block him from fulifilling his mission by their appeals to caution, and but for the fact that he needed their skills "otherwise, perhaps we could someday exterminate them or do something of this kind to them"[216]

In December 1938, the Chancellery of the Führer headed by Philipp Bouhler received a letter concerning a severely physically and mentally disabled baby girl named Sofia Knauer living in Leipzig.[217] At that time, there was a furious rivalry existing between Bouhler’s office, the office of the Reich Chancellery led by Hans-Heinrich Lammers, the Presidential Chancellery of Otto Meissner, the office of Hitler’s adjutant Wilhelm Brückner and the Deputy Führer's office which was effectively headed by Martin Borman over control over access to Hitler.[218] As part of a power play against his rivals, Bouhler presented the letter concerning the disabled girl to Hitler, who thanked Bouhler for bringing the matter to his attention and responded by ordering his personal physician Dr. Karl Brandt to kill Knauer.[219] In January 1939, Hitler ordered Bouhler and Dr. Brandt to henceforward have all disabled infants born in Germany killed.[219] This was the origin of the Action T4 program. Subsequently Dr. Brandt and Bouhler acting on their own initiative, in the expectation of winning Hitler’s favor, expanded the T4 program to killing, first, all physically or mentally disabled children in Germany, and, second, all disabled adults.[220]

In late 1938 and early 1939, the continuing economic crisis caused by problems of rearmament, especially the shortage of foreign hard currencies needed to pay for raw materials Germany lacked together with reports from Göring that the Four Year Plan was hopelessly behind schedule forced Hitler in January 1939 to reluctantly order major defense cuts with the Wehrmacht having its steel allocations cut by 30%, aluminum 47%, cement 25%, rubber 14% and copper 20%.[221] On 30 January 1939, Hitler made his "Export or die" speech calling for a German economic offensive ("export battle", to use Hitler's term), to increase German foreign exchange holdings to pay for raw materials such high-grade iron needed for military materials.[221] The "Export or die" speech of 30 January 1939 is also known as Hitler’s "Prophecy Speech". The name which that speech is known comes from Hitler’s "prophecy" issued towards the end of the speech:

"One thing I should like to say on this day which may be memorable for others as well for us Germans: In the course of my life I have very often been a prophet, and I usually been ridiculed for it. During the time of my struggle for power it was in the first instance the Jewish race which only received my prophecies with laughter when I said I would one day take over the leadership of the State, and it that of the whole nation, and I that I would then among many other things settle the Jewish problem. Their laughter was uproarious, but I think that for some time now they have been laughing on the other side of the face. Today I will be once more the prophet. 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 bolsheviszation of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!"[222]

A significant historical debate has swung around the “Prophecy Speech”. Historians who take an intentionist line such as Eberhard Jäckel have argued that at minimum from the time of the “Prophecy Speech” onwards, Hitler was committed to genocide of the Jews as his central goal.[223] Lucy Dawidowicz and Gerald Fleming have argued that the "Prophecy Speech" was simply Hitler's way of saying that once he started a world war, he would use that war as a cover for his already pre-existing plans for genocide.[222] Functionalist historians as Christopher Browning have dismissed this interpretation under the grounds that if Hitler were serious with the intentions expressed in the “Prophecy Speech”, then why the 30-month “stay of execution” between the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, and the opening of the first Vernichtungslager in late 1941.[224] In addition, Browning has pointed to the existence of the Madagascar Plan of 1940–41 and various other schemes as proof that there was no genocidal master plan.[224] In Browning’s opinion, the "Prophecy Speech" was merely an manifestation of bravado on Hitler’s part, and had little connection with actual unfolding of anti-Semitic policies.[224]

At least part of the reason why Hitler violated the Munich Agreement by seizing the Czech half of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 was to obtain Czechoslovak assets to help with the economic crisis.[225] Hitler ordered Germany's army to enter Prague on 15 March 1939, and from Prague Castle proclaimed Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate.
Start of the Second World War

As part of the anti-British course, it was deemed necessary by Hitler to have either Poland a satellite state or otherwise neutralized. Hitler believed this necessary on both strategic grounds as way of securing the Reich's eastern flank and on economic grounds as a way of evading the effects of a British blockade.[226] Initially, the German hope was to transform Poland into a satellite state, but by March 1939 when the German demands had been rejected by the Poles three times, which led Hitler to decide upon the destruction of Poland as the main German foreign policy goal of 1939.[227] On 3 April 1939 Hitler ordered the military to start preparing for Fall Weiss (Case White), the plan for a German invasion to be executed on 25 August 1939[227] In August 1939, Hitler spoke to his generals that his original plan for 1939 had to “... establish a acceptable relationship with Poland in order to fight against the West” but since the Poles would not co-operate in setting up an “acceptable relationship” (i.e. becoming a German satellite), he believed he had no other choice other than wiping Poland off the map.[228] The historian Gerhard Weinberg has argued since Hitler’s audience comprised men who were all for the destruction of Poland (anti-Polish feelings were traditionally very strong in the German Army), but rather less happy about the prospect of war with Britain and France, if that was the price Germany had to pay for the destruction of Poland, it is quite likely that Hitler was speaking the truth on this occasion.[228] In his private discussions with his officials in 1939, Hitler always described Britain as the main enemy that had to be defeated, and in his view, Poland’s obliteration was the necessary prelude to that goal by securing the eastern flank and helpfully adding to Germany’s Lebensraum.[229] Hitler was much offended by the British “guarantee” of Polish independence issued on 31 March 1939, and told his associates that "I shall brew them a devil's drink"[230] In a speech in Wilhelmshaven for the launch of the Admiral Tirpitz battleship on 1 April 1939, Hitler threatened to denounce the A.G.N.A if the British persisted with their "encirclement" policy as represented by the "guarantee" of Polish independence.[230] As part of the new course, in a speech before the Reichstag on 28 April 1939, Adolf Hitler complaining of British “encirclement" of Germany, renounced both the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact.

As a pretext for aggression against Poland, Hitler claimed the Free City of Danzig and the right for “extra-territorial” roads across the Polish Corridor which Germany had unwillingly ceded under the Versailles treaty. For Hitler, Danzig was just a pretext for aggression as the Sudetenland had been intended to be in 1938, and throughout 1939, while highlighting the Danzig issue as a grievance, the Germans always refused to engage in talks about the matter.[231] A notable contradiction existed in Hitler's plans between the long-term anti-British course, whose major instruments such as a vastly expanded Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe that would take several years to complete, and Hitler's immediate foreign policy in 1939, which was likely to provoke a general war by engaging in such actions as attacking Poland.[232][233] Hitler's dilemma between his short-term and long-term goals was resolved by Foreign Minister Ribbentrop who told Hitler that neither Britain nor France would honor their commitments to Poland, and any German-Polish war would accordingly be a limited regional war.[234][235] Ribbentrop based his appraisal partly on an alleged statement made to him by the French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet in December 1938 that France now recognized Eastern Europe as Germany’s exclusive sphere of influence.[236] In addition, Ribbentrop's status as the former Ambassador to London made him in Hitler's eyes the leading Nazi British expert, and as a result, Ribbentrop's advice that Britain would not honor her commitments to Poland carried much weight with Hitler.[236] Ribbentrop only showed Hitler diplomatic cables that supported his analysis.[237] In addition, the German Ambassador in London, Herbert von Dirksen tended to send reports that supported Ribbentrop's analysis such as a dispatch in August 1939 that reported Neville Chamberlain knew “the social structure of Britain, even the conception of the British Empire, would not survive the chaos of even a victorious war”, and so would back down.[235] The extent that Hitler was influenced by Ribbentrop’s advice can be seen in Hitler's orders to the German military on 21 August 1939 for a limited mobilization against Poland alone.[238] Hitler chose late August as his date for Fall Weiss in order to limit disruption to German agricultural production caused by mobilization.[239] The problems caused by the need to begin a campaign in Poland in late August or early September in order to have the campaign finished before the October rains arrived, and the need to have sufficient time to concentrate German troops on the Polish border left Hitler in a self-imposed situation in August 1939 where Soviet co-operation was absolutely crucial if he were to have a war that year.[239]

The Munich agreement appeared to be sufficient to dispel most of the remaining hold which the "collective security" idea may have had in Soviet circles,[240] and, on 23 August 1939, Joseph Stalin accepted Hitler's proposal to conclude a non-aggression pact (the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), whose secret protocols contained an agreement to partition Poland. A major historical debate about the reasons for Hitler’s foreign policy choices in 1939 concerns whether a structural economic crisis drove Hitler into a “flight into war” as claimed by the Marxist historian Timothy Mason or whether Hitler’s actions were more influenced by non-economic factors as claimed by the economic historian Richard Overy.[241] Historians such as William Carr, Gerhard Weinberg and Ian Kershaw have argued that a non-economic reason for Hitler’s rush to war was due to Hitler’s morbid and obsessive fear of an early death, and hence his feeling that he did not have long to accomplish his work.[128][242][243] In the last days of peace, Hitler oscillated between the determination to fight the Western powers if he had to, and various schemes intended to keep Britain out of the war, but in any case, Hitler was not to be deterred from his aim of invading Poland.[244] Only very briefly, when news of the Anglo-Polish alliance being signed on 25 August 1939 in response to the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact (instead of the severing of ties between London and Warsaw predicted by Ribbentrop) together with news from Italy that Mussolini would not honor the Pact of Steel, caused Hitler to postpone the attack on Poland from 25 August to 1 September.[245] Hitler chose to spend the last days of peace either trying to maneuver the British into neutrality through his offer of 25 August 1939 to “guarantee” the British Empire, or having Ribbentrop present a last-minute peace plan to Henderson with an impossibly short time limit for its acceptance as part of an effort to blame the war on the British and Poles.[246][247] On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded western Poland. Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September but did not immediately act. Hitler was most unpleasantly surprised at receiving the British declaration of war on 3 September 1939, and turning to Ribbentrop angrily asked “Now what?”[248] Ribbentrop had nothing to say other then that Robert Coulondre, the French Ambassador would probably be by later that day to present the French declaration of war.[248] Not long after this, on 17 September, Soviet forces invaded eastern Poland.[249]
Members of the Reichstag greet Hitler in October 1939 after the conclusion of the Polish campaign
Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Munich, 1940.
Adolf Hitler in Paris, 1940, with Albert Speer (left) and Arno Breker (right)
“ Poland never will rise again in the form of the Versailles treaty. That is guaranteed not only by Germany, but also ... Russia.[250] ”

—Adolf Hitler in a public speech in Danzig at the end of September 1939.

After the fall of Poland came a period journalists called the "Phoney War". In part of north-western Poland annexed to Germany, Hitler instructed the two Gauleiters in charge of the area, namely Albert Forster and Arthur Greiser to “Germanize” the area, and promised them "There would be no questions asked" about how this "Germanization" was to be accomplished.[251] Hitler’s orders were interpreted in very different ways by Forster and Greiser. Forster followed a policy of simply having the local Poles sign forms stating they had German blood with no documentation required, whereas Greiser carried out a brutual ethnic cleansing campaign of expelling the entire Polish population into the Government-General of Poland.[252] When Greiser, seconded by Himmler complained to Hitler that Forster was allowing thousands of Poles to be accepted as “racial” Germans and thus "contaminating" German “racial purity”, and asked Hitler to order Forster to stop. Hitler merely told Himmler and Greiser to take up their difficulties with Forster, and not to involve him.[253] Hitler’s handling of the Forster-Greiser dispute has often been advanced as an example of Ian Kershaw's theory of “Working Towards the Führer”, namely that Hitler issued vague instructions, and allowed his subordinates to work out policy on their own.

After the conquest of Poland, another major dispute broke out between different factions with one centering around Reichsfüherer SS Heinrich Himmler and Arthur Greiser championing and carrying out ethnic cleansing schemes for Poland, and another centering around Hermann Göring and Hans Frank calling for turning Poland into the "granary" of the Reich.[254] At a conference held at Göring's Karinhall estate on 12 February, 1940, the dispute was settled in favor of the Göring-Frank view of economic exploitation, and ending mass expulsions as economically disruptive.[254] On 15 May, 1940 Himmler showed Hitler a memo entitled "Some Thoughts on the Treatment of Alien Population in the East", which called for expelling the entire Jewish population of Europe into Africa and reducing the remainer of the Polish population to a “"leaderless laboring class"[254] Hitler called Himmler's memo "good and correct".[254] Hitler’s remark had the effect of scuttling the so-called Karinhall argreement, and led to the Himmler-Greiser viewpoint triumphing as German policy for Poland.

During this period, Hitler built up his forces on Germany's western frontier. In April 1940, German forces invaded Denmark and Norway. In May 1940, Hitler's forces attacked France, conquering the Luxembourg, Netherlands and Belgium in the process. These victories persuaded Benito Mussolini of Italy to join the war on Hitler's side on 10 June 1940. France surrendered on 22 June 1940.

Britain, whose forces evacuated France by sea from Dunkirk, continued to fight alongside other British dominions in the Battle of the Atlantic. After having his overtures for peace rejected by the British, now led by Winston Churchill, Hitler ordered bombing raids on the United Kingdom. The Battle of Britain was Hitler's prelude to a planned invasion. The attacks began by pounding Royal Air Force airbases and radar stations protecting South-East England. However, the Luftwaffe failed to defeat the Royal Air Force. On 27 September 1940, the Tripartite Treaty was signed in Berlin by Saburo Kurusu of Imperial Japan, Hitler, and Ciano. The purpose of the Tripartite treaty, which was directed against an unnamed power that was clearly meant to be the United States was to deter the Americans from supporting the British. It was later expanded to include Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. They were collectively known as the Axis Powers. By the end of October 1940, air superiority for the invasion Operation Sealion could not be assured, and Hitler ordered the bombing of British cities, including London, Plymouth, and Coventry, mostly at night.

In the Spring of 1941, Hitler was distracted from his plans for the East by various activites in North Africa, the Balkans, and the Middle East. In February, German forces arrived in Libya to bolster the Italian forces there. In April, he launched the invasion of Yugoslavia which was followed quickly by the invasion of Greece. In May, German forces were sent to support Iraqi rebel forces fighting against the British and to invade Crete. On 23 May, Hitler released Fuhrer Directive No. 30.[255]
Path to defeat

On 22 June 1941, three million German troops attacked the Soviet Union, breaking the non-aggression pact Hitler had concluded with Stalin two years earlier. A major historical dispute concerns Hitler's reasons for Operation Barbarossa. Some historians such as Andreas Hillgruber have argued that Barbarossa was merely one "stage" of Hitler's Stufenplan (stage by stage plan) for world conquest, which Hillgruber believed that Hitler had formulated in the 1920s.[256] Other historians such as John Lukacs have contended that Hitler never had a stufenplan, and that the invasion of the Soviet Union was an ad hoc move on the part of Hitler due to Britain's refusal to surrender.[257] Lukacs has argued that the reason Hitler gave in private for Barbarossa, namely that Winston Churchill held out the hope that the Soviet Union might enter the war on the Allied side, and that the only way of forcing a British surrender was to eliminate that hope, was indeed Hitler's real reason for Barbarossa.[258] In Lukacs's perspective, Barbarossa was thus primarily an anti-British move on the part of Hitler intended to force Britain to sue for peace by destroying her only hope of victory rather than an anti-Soviet move. Klaus Hildebrand has maintained that Stalin and Hitler were independently planning to attack each other in 1941.[259] Hildebrand has claimed that the news in the spring of 1941 of Soviet troop concentrations on the border led to Hitler engaging in a flucht nach vorn ("flight forward"—i.e. responding to a danger by charging on rather than retreating.)[259] A third fraction comprising a diverse group such as Viktor Suvorov, Ernst Topitsch, Joachim Hoffmann, Ernst Nolte, and David Irving have argued that the official reason given by the Germans for Barbarossa in 1941 was the real reason, namely that Barbarossa was a "preventive war" forced on Hitler to avert an impeding Soviet attack scheduled for July 1941. This theory has been widely attacked as erroneous; the American historian Gerhard Weinberg once compared the advocates of the preventive war theory to believers in "fairy tales"[260]

This invasion seized huge amounts of territory, including the Baltic states, Belarus, and Ukraine. It also encircled and destroyed many Soviet forces, which Stalin had ordered not to retreat. However, the Germans were stopped barely short of Moscow in December 1941 by the Russian winter and fierce Soviet resistance. The invasion failed to achieve the quick triumph Hitler wanted. On 18 December 1941, the appointment book of the Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler shows he met with Hitler, where to in answer to Himmler's question "What to do with the Jews of Russia?", Hitler's response is recorded as "als Partisanen auszurotten" ("exterminate them as partisans").[261] The Israeli historian Yehuda Bauer has commented that the remark recorded in Himmler’s book is probably as close historians will ever get to a definitive order from Hitler for the Holocaust.[261]
Adolf Hitler in Reichstag during his speech against Franklin D. Roosevelt. 11 December 1941.
The destroyed 'Wolf's Lair' barracks after the 20 July 1944 plot

Hitler's declaration of war against the United States on 11 December 1941, four days after the Empire of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and six days after Nazi Germany's closest approach to Moscow, set him against a coalition that included the world's largest empire (the British Empire), the world's greatest industrial and financial power (the United States), and the world's largest army (the Soviet Union).

In late 1942, German forces were defeated in the second battle of El Alamein, thwarting Hitler's plans to seize the Suez Canal and the Middle East. In February 1943, the Battle of Stalingrad ended with the destruction of the German 6th Army. Thereafter came the Battle of Kursk. Hitler's military judgment became increasingly erratic, and Germany's military and economic position deteriorated along with Hitler's health, as indicated by his left hand's severe trembling. Hitler's biographer Ian Kershaw and others believe that he may have suffered from Parkinson's disease.[262] Syphilis has also been suspected as a cause of at least some of his symptoms, although the evidence is slight.[263]

Following the allied invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky) in 1943, Mussolini was deposed by Pietro Badoglio, who surrendered to the Allies. 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. Realists in the German army knew defeat was inevitable, and some plotted to remove Hitler from power. In July 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg planted a bomb in Hitler's Führer Headquarters, the Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) at Rastenburg, but Hitler narrowly escaped death. He ordered savage reprisals, resulting in the executions of more than 4,900 people,[264] sometimes by starvation in solitary confinement followed by slow strangulation. The main resistance movement was destroyed, although smaller isolated groups continued to operate.
Defeat and death
Main article: Death of Adolf Hitler

By late 1944, the Red Army had driven the Germans back into Central Europe and the Western Allies were advancing into Germany. Hitler realized that Germany had lost the war, but allowed no retreats. He hoped to negotiate a separate peace with America and Britain, a hope buoyed by the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt on 12 April 1945.[265][266][267][268] Hitler's stubbornness and defiance of military realities allowed the Holocaust to continue. He ordered the complete destruction of all German industrial infrastructure before it could fall into Allied hands, saying that Germany's failure to win the war forfeited its right to survive.[269] Rather, Hitler decided that the entire nation should go down with him. Execution of this scorched earth plan was entrusted to arms minister Albert Speer, who disobeyed the order.[269]

In April 1945, Soviet forces attacked the outskirts of Berlin. Hitler's followers urged him to flee to the mountains of Bavaria to make a last stand in the National Redoubt. But Hitler was determined to either live or die in the capital.

On 20 April, Hitler celebrated his 56th birthday in the Führerbunker ("Führer's shelter") below the Reichskanzlei (Reich Chancellery). The garrison commander of the besieged Festung Breslau ("fortress Breslau"), General Hermann Niehoff, had chocolates distributed to his troops in honor of Hitler's birthday.[270]

By 21 April, Georgi Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front had broken through the defenses of German General Gotthard Heinrici's Army Group Vistula during the Battle of the Seelow Heights. The Soviets were now advancing towards Hitler's bunker with little to stop them. Ignoring the facts, Hitler saw salvation in the ragtag units commanded by Waffen SS General Felix Steiner. Steiner's command became known as Armeeabteilung Steiner ("Army Detachment Steiner"). But "Army Detachment Steiner" existed primarily on paper. It was something more than a corps but less than an army. Hitler ordered Steiner to attack the northern flank of the huge salient created by the breakthrough of Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front. Meanwhile, the German Ninth Army, which had been pushed south of the salient, was ordered to attack north in a pincer attack.

Late on 21 April, Heinrici called Hans Krebs chief of the Oberkommando des Heeres (Supreme Army Command or OKH) and told him that Hitler's plan could not be implemented. Heinrici asked to speak to Hitler but was told by Krebs that Hitler was too busy to take his call.

On 22 April, during one of his last military conferences, Hitler interrupted the report to ask what had happened to General Steiner's offensive. There was a long silence. Then Hitler was told that the attack had never been launched, and that the withdrawal from Berlin of several units for Steiner's army, on Hitler's orders, had so weakened the front that the Russians had broken through into Berlin. Hitler asked everyone except Wilhelm Keitel, Hans Krebs, Alfred Jodl, Wilhelm Burgdorf, and Martin Bormann to leave the room,[271] and launched a tirade against the perceived treachery and incompetence of his commanders. This culminated in an oath to stay in Berlin, head up the defense of the city, and shoot himself at the end.[272]

Before the day ended, Hitler again found salvation in a new plan that included General Walther Wenck's Twelfth Army.[273] This new plan had Wenck turn his army—currently facing the Americans to the west—and attack towards the east to relieve Berlin.[273] Twelfth Army was to link up with Ninth Army and break through to the city. Wenck did attack and, in the confusion, managed to make temporary contact with the Potsdam garrison. But the link with the Ninth Army, like the plan in general, was ultimately unsuccessful.[274]

On 23 April, Joseph Goebbels made the following proclamation to the people of Berlin:

I call on you to fight for your city. Fight with everything you have got, for the sake of your wives and your children, your mothers and your parents. Your arms are defending everything we have ever held dear, and all the generations that will come after us. Be proud and courageous! Be inventive and cunning! Your Gauleiter is amongst you. He and his colleagues will remain in your midst. His wife and children are here as well. He, who once captured the city with 200 men, will now use every means to galvanize the defense of the capital. The Battle for Berlin must become the signal for the whole nation to rise up in battle ...[271]

The same day, second in command of the Third Reich and commander of the Luftwaffe Hermann Göring sent a telegram from Berchtesgaden in Bavaria. Göring argued that, since Hitler was cut off in Berlin, he should assume leadership of Germany as Hitler's designated successor. Göring mentioned a time limit after which he would consider Hitler incapacitated.[275] Hitler responded, in anger, by having Göring arrested. Later when Hitler wrote his will on 29 April, Göring was removed from all his positions in the government.[275][276][277] Further on the 23 April, Hitler appointed General der Artillerie Helmuth Weidling as the commander of the Berlin Defense Area. Weidling replaced Lieutenant General (Generalleutnant) Helmuth Reymann and Colonel (Oberst) Ernst Kaether. Hitler also appointed Waffen SS General (SS Brigadeführer) Wilhelm Mohnke the (Kommandant) Battle Commander for the defense of the government sector (Zitadelle sector) that included the Reich Chancellery and Führerbunker.

By the end of the day on 27 April, Berlin was completely cut off from the rest of Germany.

On 28 April, Hitler discovered that SS leader Heinrich Himmler was trying to discuss surrender terms with the Western Allies (through the Swedish diplomat Count Folke Bernadotte).[278] Hitler ordered Himmler's arrest and had Himmler's representative in Berlin Hermann Fegelein shot.[276][279]
Cover of US military newspaper The Stars and Stripes, May 1945

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, Hitler dictated his will and political statement to his private secretary, Traudl Junge.[280] Hans Krebs, Wilhelm Burgdorf, Joseph Goebbels, and Martin Bormann witnessed and signed this last will and testament of Adolf Hitler.[276] 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.[281]

On 30 April 1945, after intense street-to-street combat, when Soviet troops were within a block or two of the Reich Chancellery, Hitler committed suicide, shooting himself in the temple while simultaneously biting into a cyanide capsule.[282][283][284] Hitler's body and that of Eva Braun were put in a bomb crater,[285][286] doused in gasoline by SS Sturmbannführer Otto Günsche and other Führerbunker aides, and set alight as the Red Army advanced and shelling continued.[282]

On 2 May, Berlin surrendered. In the postwar years there were conflicting reports about what happened to Hitler's remains. After the fall of the Soviet Union it was revealed from records in the Soviet archives that the bodies of Hitler, Eva Braun, Joseph and Magda Goebbels, the six Goebbels children, General Hans Krebs and Hitler's dogs, were secretly buried in graves near Rathenow in Brandenburg.[287] In 1970, the remains were disinterred, cremated and scattered in the Elbe River by the Soviets.[288] According to the Russian Federal Security Service, a fragment of human skull stored in its archives and displayed to the public in a 2000 exhibition came from the remains of Hitler's body and is all that remains of Hitler. The authenticity of the skull has been challenged by historians and researchers.[289] DNA analysis conducted in 2009 showed the skull fragment to be that of a woman under the age of 40.[290]
Legacy
Further information: Consequences of German Nazism and Neo-Nazism
Outside the building in Braunau am Inn, Austria where Adolf Hitler was born is a memorial stone warning of the horrors of World War II
“ "What manner of man is this grim figure who has performed these superb toils and loosed these frightful evils?"—Winston Churchill in Great Contemporaries (1935) ”

Hitler, the Nazi Party and the results of Nazism are typically regarded as gravely immoral. Historians, philosophers, and politicians have often applied the word evil in both a secular sense of the word and in a religious sense. Historical and cultural portrayals of Hitler in the west are overwhelmingly condemnatory. The display of swastikas or other Nazi symbols is prohibited in Germany and Austria. Holocaust denial is prohibited in both countries.

Outside of Hitler's birthplace in Braunau am Inn, Austria is a stone marker engraved with the following message:

FÜR FRIEDEN FREIHEIT
UND DEMOKRATIE
NIE WIEDER FASCHISMUS
MILLIONEN TOTE MAHNEN

Loosely translated it reads: "For peace, freedom // and democracy // never again fascism // millions of dead remind [us]"

However, some people have referred to Hitler's legacy in neutral or favourable terms. Former Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat spoke of his 'admiration' of Hitler in 1953, when he was a young man, though it is possible he was speaking in the context of a rebellion against the British Empire.[291] Louis Farrakhan has referred to him as a "very great man".[292] Bal Thackeray, leader of the right-wing Hindu Shiv Sena party in the Indian state of the Maharashtra, declared in 1995 that he was an admirer of Hitler.[293] Friedrich Meinecke, the German historian, said of Hitler's life that "it is one of the great examples of the singular and incalculable power of personality in historical life".[294]
Religious beliefs
Main article: Adolf Hitler's religious beliefs

Hitler was raised by Roman Catholic parents, but after he left home, it is not known whether he ever attended Mass or received the sacraments.[295] However, after he had moved to Germany, where the Catholic and the Protestant church are largely financed through a church tax collected by the state, Hitler (like Goebbels) never "actually left his church or refused to pay church taxes. In a nominal sense therefore," the historian Steigmann-Gall states, Hitler "can be classified as Catholic."[296] But, as Steigmann-Gall has also pointed out in the debate about religion in Nazi Germany: "Nominal church membership is a very unreliable gauge of actual piety in this context."[297]

In public, Hitler often praised Christian heritage, German Christian culture, and professed a belief in an Aryan Jesus Christ, a Jesus who fought against the Jews.[298] In his speeches and publications Hitler spoke of his interpretation of Christianity as a central motivation for his antisemitism, stating that "As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice."[299][300] His private statements, as reported by his intimates, are more mixed, showing Hitler as a religious man but critical of traditional Christianity.[301] Here Hitler made at least one attack against Catholicism that "resonated Streicher's contention that the Catholic establishment was allying itself with the Jews."[302] In light of these private statements, for John S. Conway and many other historians it is beyond doubt that Hitler held a "fundamental antagonism" towards the Christian churches.[303] The various accounts of Hitler's private statements vary strongly in their reliability; Most importantly, Hermann Rauschning's Hitler speaks is considered by most historians to be an invention.[304][305] An overview about Hitler's religious beliefs, based on his apparent private statements, can be found in the acclaimed book by Michael Rißmann or in Richard Steigmann-Gall's controversial book on Nazism and Christianity, pp. 252–259.

In the political relations with the churches in Germany however, Hitler readily adopted a strategy "that suited his immediate political purposes".[303] Hitler had a general plan, even before the rise of the Nazis to power, to destroy Christianity within the Reich.[306][307][308] The leader of the Hitler Youth stated "the destruction of Christianity was explicitly recognized as a purpose of the National Socialist movement" from the start, but "considerations of expedience made it impossible" publicly to express this extreme position.[306]

Most historians[citation needed] believe that, in contrast to some Nazi ideologues, Hitler did not adhere to esoteric ideas, occultism, or Ariosophy,[301] and he ridiculed such beliefs in Mein Kampf.[309][310] Others believe the young Hitler was strongly influenced, particularly in his racial views, by an abundance of occult works on the mystical superiority of the Germans, like the occult and anti-semitic magazine Ostara, and give credence to the claim of its publisher Lanz von Liebenfels that Hitler visited Liebenfels in 1909 and praised his work.[311] The historians are still divided on the question of the reliability of Lanz' claim of a contact with Hitler.[312] Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke considers his account reliable, Brigitte Hamann leaves the question open and Ian Kershaw is extremely sceptical.[313]

Hitler for a time advocated for Germans a form of the Christian faith he called "Positive Christianity",[309][314] a belief system purged of what he objected to in orthodox Christianity, and featuring added racist elements. By 1940 however, it was public knowledge that Hitler had abandoned advocating for Germans even the syncretist idea of a positive Christianty.[315] Hitler maintained that the "terrorism in religion is, to put it briefly, of a Jewish dogma, which Christianity has universalized and whose effect is to sow trouble and confusion in men's minds."[316]

In addition to not attending Mass or receiving the sacraments, Hitler favored aspects of Protestantism if they were more amenable to his own objectives. At the same time, he adopted some elements of the Catholic Church's hierarchical organization, liturgy and phraseology in his politics.[317][318]

Hitler expressed admiration for the Muslim military tradition and directed Himmler to initiate Muslim SS Divisions as a matter of policy.[319] According to one confidant, Hitler stated in private, "The Mohammedan religion too would have been much more compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness ..."[320]

Hitler once stated, "We do not want any other god than Germany itself. It is essential to have fanatical faith and hope and love in and for Germany."[321]
Health
Main articles: Adolf Hitler's medical health and Adolf Hitler's vegetarianism

Hitler's health has long been the subject of debate. He has variously been said to have had irritable bowel syndrome, skin lesions, irregular heartbeat, Parkinson's disease,[263] syphilis,[263] Asperger syndrome[322][323] and a strongly suggested addiction to methamphetamine. He had problems with his teeth and his personal dentist Hugo Blaschke stated that he fitted a large dental bridge to his upper jaw in 1933 and that on 10 November 1944 he carried out surgery to cut off part of the bridge due to a gum infection that was causing him severe toothache. He reported that he was also suffering from a sinus infection[324]

After the early 1930s, Hitler generally followed a vegetarian diet, although he ate meat on occasion. There are reports of him disgusting his guests by giving them graphic accounts of the slaughter of animals in an effort to make them shun meat.[325] A fear of cancer (from which his mother died) is the most widely cited reason, though many authors[who?] also assert Hitler had a profound and deep love of animals[citation needed]. Martin Bormann had a greenhouse constructed for him near the Berghof (near Berchtesgaden) to ensure a steady supply of fresh fruit and vegetables for Hitler throughout the war. Photographs of Bormann's children tending the greenhouse survive and, by 2005, its foundations were among the only ruins visible in the area that was associated with Nazi leaders.

Hitler was a non-smoker and promoted aggressive anti-smoking campaigns throughout Germany. He reportedly promised a gold watch to any of his close associates who quit (and gave a few away). Several witness accounts relate that, immediately after his suicide was confirmed, many officers, aides, and secretaries in the Führerbunker lit cigarettes.[326]
Sexuality
Main article: Sexuality of Adolf Hitler

Hitler presented himself publicly as a man without a domestic life, dedicated entirely to his political mission.

He had a fiancée in the 1920s, Mimi Reiter, and later had a mistress, Eva Braun. He had a close bond with his half-niece Geli Raubal, which some commentators have claimed was sexual, though there is no evidence that proves this.[327] According to John Toland (in his book A.H.: a Definitive Biography), Hitler would often visit Geli in the manner of a suitor, and restricted his niece's movement unless she was chaperoned by him. All three women attempted suicide (two succeeded), a fact that has led to speculation that Hitler may have had sexual fetishes, such as urolagnia, as was claimed by Otto Strasser, a political opponent of Hitler. Reiter, the only one to survive the Nazi regime, denied this.[328] During the war and afterwards psychoanalysts offered numerous inconsistent psycho-sexual explanations of his pathology.[329] Some theorists have claimed that Hitler had a relationship with British fascist Unity Mitford.[330] More recently, Lothar Machtan has argued in his book, The Hidden Hitler, that Hitler was homosexual.
Family
Main article: Hitler (disambiguation)

Paula Hitler, the last living member of Adolf Hitler's immediate family, died in 1960.

The most prominent and longest-living direct descendants of Adolf Hitler's father, Alois, was Adolf's nephew William Patrick Hitler. With his wife Phyllis, he eventually moved to Long Island, New York, changed his last name, and had four sons. None of William Hitler's children have had any children of their own.

Over the years various investigative reporters have attempted to track down other distant relatives of the Führer. Many are now alleged to be living inconspicuous lives and have long since changed their last name.
Adolf Hitler's genealogy

* Klara Hitler, mother
* Alois Hitler, father
* Alois Hitler, Jr., half-brother
* Angela Hitler Raubal, half-sister
* Bridget Dowling, sister-in-law
* Eva Braun, mistress and then wife
* Geli Raubal, niece
* Gretl Braun, sister-in-law through Hitler's marriage to Eva Braun
* Heinz Hitler, nephew
* Hermann Fegelein, brother-in-law through Hitler's marriage to Eva Braun
* Ilse Braun, sister-in-law through Hitler's marriage to Eva Braun
* Johann Georg Hiedler, presumed grandfather
* Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, maternal great-grandfather, presumed great uncle and possibly Hitler's true paternal grandfather
* Leo Raubal Jr, nephew
* Maria Schicklgruber, grandmother
* Paula Hitler, sister
* William Patrick Hitler, nephew

Hitler in media
Adolf Hitler at Berchtesgaden.ogg
Play video
Video of Adolf Hitler at Berchtesgaden
See also: Hitler in popular culture
Oratory and rallies
Main article: List of Adolf Hitler speeches

Hitler was a gifted orator who captivated many with his beating of the lectern and growling, emotional speech. He honed his skills by giving speeches to soldiers during 1919 and 1920. He became adept at telling people what they wanted to hear (the stab-in-the-back, the Jewish-Marxist plot to conquer the world, and the betrayal of Germany in the Versailles treaty) and identifying a scapegoat for their plight. Over time, Hitler perfected his delivery by rehearsing in front of mirrors and carefully choreographing his display of emotions. He was coached by a self-styled clairvoyant who focused on hand and arm gestures. Munitions minister and architect Albert Speer, who may have known Hitler as well as anyone, said that Hitler was above all else an actor.[331][332]

Massive Nazi rallies staged by Speer were designed to spark a process of self-persuasion for the participants. By participating in the rallies, by marching, by shouting heil, and by making the stiff armed salute, the participants strengthened their commitment to the Nazi movement. This process can be appreciated by watching Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will, which presents the 1934 Nuremberg Rally. The camera shoots Hitler from on high and from below, but only twice head-on. These camera angles give Hitler a Christ-like aura. Some of the people in the film are paid actors, but most of the participants are not. Whether the film itself recruited new Nazis out of theater audiences is unknown. The process of self-persuasion may have affected Hitler. He gave the same speech (though it got smoother and smoother with repetition) hundreds of times first to soldiers and then to audiences in beer halls. These performances may have made his hatreds more intense, especially his all-consuming hatred of the Jews.
Hitler and Baron Mannerheim (June 1942)
Recorded in private conversation

Hitler visited Finnish Field Marshal Mannerheim on 4 June 1942. During the visit an engineer of the Finnish broadcasting company YLE, Thor Damen, recorded Hitler and Mannerheim in conversation, something which had to be done secretly since Hitler never allowed recordings of him off-guard.[333] Today the recording is the only known recording of Hitler not speaking in an official tone. The recording captures 11½ minutes of the two leaders in private conversation.[334] Hitler speaks in a slightly excited, but still intellectually detached manner during this talk (the speech has been compared to that of the working class). The majority of the recording is a monologue by Hitler. In the recording, Hitler admits to underestimating the Soviet Union's ability to conduct war.
Patria picture disc

Adolf Hitler even released a 7" picture disc with one of his speeches. Known as the Patria (Fatherland) picture disc, the obverse bears an image of Hitler giving a speech and has a recording of both a speech by Hitler and also Party Member Hans Hinkel. The reverse bears a hand holding a swastika flag and the Carl Woitschach recording (1933—Telefunken A 1431) "In Dem Kampf um die Heimat—Faschistenmarsch".
Documentaries during the Third Reich

Hitler appeared in and was involved to varying degrees with a series of films by the pioneering filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl via Universum Film AG (UFA):

* Der Sieg des Glaubens (Victory of Faith, 1933).
* Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will, 1934), co-produced by Hitler.
* Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht (Day of Freedom: Our Armed Forces, 1935).
* Olympia (1938).

Hitler was the central figure of the first three films; they focused on the party rallies of the respective years and are considered propaganda films. Hitler also featured prominently in the Olympia film. Whether the latter is a propaganda film or a true documentary is still a subject of controversy, but it nonetheless perpetuated and spread the propagandistic message of the 1936 Olympic Games depicting Nazi Germany as a prosperous and peaceful country.[335] As a prominent politician, Hitler was featured in many newsreels.
Television

Hitler's attendance at various public functions, including the 1936 Olympic Games and Nuremberg Rallies, appeared on television broadcasts made between 1935 and 1939. These events, along with other programming highlighting activity by public officials, were often repeated in public viewing rooms. Samples from a number of surviving television films from Nazi Germany were included in the 1999 documentary Das Fernsehen unter dem Hakenkreuz (Television Under the Swastika).
Documentaries post Third Reich

* The World at War (1974): a Thames Television series which contains much information about Hitler and Nazi Germany, including an interview with his secretary, Traudl Junge.
* Adolf Hitler's Last Days: from the BBC series "Secrets of World War II" tells the story about Hitler's last days during World War II.
* The Nazis: A Warning From History (1997): six-part BBC TV series on how the cultured and educated Germans accepted Hitler and the Nazis up to its downfall. Historical consultant is Ian Kershaw.
* Cold War (1998): a CNN series about the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. The series begins with World War II footage, including Hitler, and how the Cold War began in earnest after Germany surrendered.
* Im toten Winkel—Hitlers Sekretärin (Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary) (2002): an exclusive 90 minute interview with Traudl Junge, Hitler's secretary. Made by Austrian Jewish director André Heller shortly before Junge's death from lung cancer, Junge recalls the last days in the Berlin bunker. Clips of the interview were used in Downfall.
* Undergångens arkitektur (The Architecture of Doom) (1989): documentary about the National Socialist aesthetic as envisioned by Hitler.
* Das Fernsehen unter dem Hakenkreuz (Television Under the Swastika) (1999): documentary by Michael Kloft about the domestic use of television in Nazi Germany for propaganda purposes from 1935 to 1944.
* Ruins of the Reich (2007): four-part series of the Rise and Fall of Hitler's Reich and its effects, created by Third Reich historian R.J. Adams

Films

* The Death of Adolf Hitler, a British (7 January 1973) made-for-television production, starring Frank Finlay. The movie depicts the last days of Hitler.
* Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973): movie depicting the days leading up to Adolf Hitler's death, starring Sir Alec Guinness.
* Hans-Jürgen Syberberg's Hitler—Ein Film aus Deutschland (Hitler: A Film from Germany) (1977): a seven-hour work in four parts. The director uses documentary clips, photographic backgrounds, puppets, theatrical stages, and other elements.[336]
* The Bunker (1981): a U.S. made-for-television movie describing the last days in the Führerbunker from 17 January 1945 to 2 March 1945. The film stars Sir Anthony Hopkins.
* Europa, Europa (1990): based on the true story of a German Jew who joined the Hitler Youth in order to avoid capture. Hitler is portrayed by Ryszard Pietruski.
* Fatherland (1994): a hypothetical view of Germany in 1964, had Hitler won World War 2, adapted from the novel by former journalist Robert Harris.
* The Empty Mirror (1996): a psychodrama which speculates on the events following Hitler (portrayed by Norman Rodway) surviving the fall of Nazi Germany.
* Moloch (1999): Hitler portrayed by Leonid Mozgovoy in a fictional drama set at his Berghof Retreat in the Bavarian Alps.
* Max (2002): fictional drama depicting a friendship between Jewish art dealer Max Rothman (John Cusack) and a young Adolf Hitler (Noah Taylor) as a failed painter in Vienna.
* Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003): two-part TV series about the early years of Adolf Hitler and his rise to power (up to 1933), starring Robert Carlyle.
* Der Untergang (Downfall) (2004): German movie about the last days of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich, starring Bruno Ganz. This film is partly based on the autobiography of Traudl Junge, a favorite secretary of Hitler's. In 2002, Junge said she felt great guilt for "... liking the greatest criminal ever to have lived."
* Valkyrie (2008): Hitler, played by David Bamber, is portrayed as a target of the infamous assassination plot by Stauffenberg.
* Dr Freud Will See You Now Mr Hitler (2008): radio drama by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran presenting an imagined scenario in which Sigmund Freud treats the young Hitler. Toby Jones played Hitler.

See also
Wikimedia Incubator
Adolf Hitler test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

* Adolf Hitler's directives
* Ex-Nazi Party members
* Führermuseum
* List of books by or about Adolf Hitler
* List of Nazi Party leaders and officials
* Poison Kitchen

Footnotes

1. ^ "Hitler ersucht um Entlassung aus der österreichischen Staatsangehörigkeit", 7 April 1925 (German). Translation: "Hitler's official application to end his Austrian citizenship". NS-Archiv. Retrieved on 2008-08-19
2. ^ Keegan 1989
3. ^ Niewyk, Donald L.; Francis R. Nicosia (2000), The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust, Columbia University Press, p. 45, ISBN 0231112009, http://books.google.ca/books?id=lpDTIUklB2MC&pg=PA45
4. ^ Wistrich, Robert S. (1995), Who's Who In Nazi Germany?, London: Routledge, ISBN 978-0415118880, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/braun.html, retrieved 2008-09-07
5. ^ a b c Rosenbaum, R. (1999). Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil. Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-06-095339-X
6. ^ Dieter Schenk, Frank: Hitlers Kronjurist und General-Gouverneur, 2006, p.65. ISBN 978-3100735621: "Dass Adolf Hitler bestimmt kein Judenblut in den Adern hatte, scheint mir aus seiner ganzen Art dermaßen eklatant bewiesen, dass es keines weiteren Wortes bedarf," (p.330 of Frank's memoirs published in 1953 as Im Angesicht des Galgens. Deutung Hitlers und seiner Zeit aufgrund eigener Erlebnisse und Erkenntnisse).
7. ^ Toland 1991, pp. 246–47
8. ^ a b Kershaw, Ian (1998), Hitler: 1889-1936: Hubris, City of Westminster, London, England: Penguin Books, pp. 8–9
9. ^ Anna Elisabeth Rosmus, Out of Passau: Leaving a City Hitler Called Home, p. 41
10. ^ John Toland, Adolf Hitler, 1976 ISBN 0-385-42053-6
11. ^ a b c Payne 1990
12. ^ Rosmus, op cit, p. 35
13. ^ Payne 1990, p. 22
14. ^ Payne 1990, p. 41
15. ^ Toland 1991, pp. 18
16. ^ Jetzinger, Franz (1976), Hitler's youth, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, pp. 74, ISBN 083718617X, .
17. ^ Bullock 1962, pp. 30–31
18. ^ a b c d e f Hitler 1998, §2
19. ^ Hamann 1999
20. ^ Hitler 1998, §7
21. ^ Röpke1946, p. 117
22. ^ Waite 1993, p. 251
23. ^ Shirer 1961
24. ^ Bullock 1962, pp. 50–51
25. ^ Shirer 1990, p. 53
26. ^ Keegan 1987, p. 239
27. ^ Bullock 1962, p. 52
28. ^ Alastair Jamieson, Nazi leader Hitler really did have only one ball.html, The Daily Telegraph, retrieved on 20 November 2008
29. ^ Rosenbaum, Ron, "Everything You Need To Know About Hitler's "Missing" Testicle", Slate, Nov. 28, 2008
30. ^ Lewis 2003
31. ^ Dawidowicz 1986
32. ^ Hitler 1998, §15
33. ^ Keegan 1987, p. 238–240
34. ^ Bullock 1962, p. 60
35. ^ Kerhsaw 1999
36. ^ 1919 Picture of Hitler, Historisches Lexikon Bayerns, http://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/document/artikel_44676_bilder_value_6_beisetzung-eisners3.jpg, retrieved 2008-05-22
37. ^ Stackelberg, Roderick (2007), The Routledge companion to Nazi Germany, New York, NY: Routledge, pp. 9, ISBN 0-415-30860-7
38. ^ Samuel W. Mitcham, Why Hitler?: the genesis of the Nazi Reich. Praeger, 1996, p.67
39. ^ Alison Kitson, Germany, 1858-1990: Hope, Terror, and Revival, Oxford University Press, 2001, P.1921
40. ^ Ian Kershaw, Hitler, Pearson Education, 2000, p.60
41. ^ Fest 1970
42. ^ The party's name was officially changed in 1920 to include the prefix "National Socialist."
43. ^ Shirer 1961, pp. 104–106
44. ^ Shirer 1961, p. 109
45. ^ Shirer 1961, pp. 111–113
46. ^ Kershaw p. 239.
47. ^ a b Bullock 1962, p. 121
48. ^ Katrina Vanden Heuvel The Nation 1865–1990, p. 66, Thunder's Mouth Press, 1990 ISBN 1-56025-001-1
49. ^ Hitler dodged taxes, expert finds, BBC, 2004-12-17, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4105683.stm, retrieved 2008-05-22
50. ^ Hinrichs, Per (2006-08-25), "Mythos Ladenhüter" (in German), Der Spiegel, http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/0,1518,433526,00.html, retrieved 2008-05-22
51. ^ Hitler Relative Eschews Royalties, Reuters, 2004-05-25, http://www.fpp.co.uk/Hitler/MeinKampf/Raubal.html, retrieved 2008-05-22
52. ^ See Verbotzeit for details.
53. ^ Halperin 1965, p. 403 et. seq.
54. ^ Halperin 1965, pp. 434–446 et. seq.
55. ^ Wheeler-Bennett 1967, p. 218
56. ^ a b Wheeler-Bennett 1967, p. 216
57. ^ Wheeler-Bennett 1967, p. 218–219
58. ^ Wheeler-Bennett 1967, p. 222
59. ^ Halperin 1965, p. 449 et. seq.
60. ^ Halperin 1965, pp. 434–436, 471
61. ^ Bullock 1962, pp. 393–394
62. ^ Halperin 1965, pp. 468–471
63. ^ "Des Führers Pass, Hitlers Einbürgerung", Der Spiegel, http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/zeitgeschichte/0,1518,470844,00.html, retrieved 2008-05-22
64. ^ Halperin 1965, p. 476
65. ^ a b Bullock 1962, p. 201
66. ^ Halperin 1965, pp. 477–479
67. ^ Eingabe der Industriellen an Hindenburg vom November 1932, Glasnost, http://www.glasnost.de/hist/ns/eingabe.html, retrieved 2008-05-22
68. ^ Bullock 1962, p. 262
69. ^ Bullock 1962, p. 265
70. ^ GERMANY: Second Revolution?, TIME Magazine, 2 July 1934
71. ^ Bullock 1962, p. 305
72. ^ Bullock 1962, p. 309
73. ^ Fest 1974, p. 476
74. ^ Toland, John (1992). Adolf Hitler. Garden City: Anchor Books. ISBN 0385420536.
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* Roberts, Andrew (1991), The Holy Fox, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson
* Robertson, E.M. (1963), Hitler's Pre-War Policy and Military Plans, London: Longmans
* Röpke, Wilhelm (1946), The Solution to the German Problem, G. P. Putnam's Sons
* Rosenbaum, R. (1998), Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of his Evil, Macmillan Publishers, ISBN 006095339X
* Shirer, William L. (1990 reprint), The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-671-72868-7
* Speer, Albert (2003), Inside the Third Reich, Weidenfeld & Nicolson History, ISBN 1-842-127357
* Steigmann-Gall, Richard (2003), The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919–1945, Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, doi:10.2277/0521823714, ISBN 0521823714
* Strobl, Gerwin (2000), The Germanic Isle, Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press
* Toland, John (1991 reprint), Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography, Doubleday, ISBN 0385420536
* Tooze, Adam (2006), The Wages of Destruction, New York: Viking Press
* Waite, Robert G. L. (1993), The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler, Da Capo Press, ISBN 0-306-80514-6
* Weinberg, Gerhard (1970), The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany Diplomatic Revolution in Europe 1933–1936, Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0226885097
* Weinberg, Gerhard (1980), The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany Starting World War II, University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0226885119
* Wheeler-Bennett, John (1967), The Nemesis of Power, London: Macmillan

External links

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Images and videos

* Adolf Hitler at the Internet Movie Database (The Character portrayed in film and television)
* Color Footage of Hitler during WWII
* Photos of Adolf Hitler
* Download "The Young Hitler I Knew" on archive.org

Speeches and publications

* A speech from 1932 (text and audiofile), German Museum of History Berlin
* Hitler Speech (10 February 1933) with English Translation
* Hitler's book Mein Kampf (full English translation)
* Adolf Hitler's Private Will, Marriage Certificate and Political Testament, April 1945 (34 pages)
* "The Discovery of Hitler's Wills" Office of Strategic Services report on how the testament was found
* The Testament of Adolf Hitler the Bormann-Hitler documents (transcripts of conversations in February–2 April 1945)

Political offices
Preceded by
Anton Drexler Leader of the NSDAP
1921–1945 Succeeded by
None
Preceded by
Franz Pfeffer von Salomon Leader of the SA
1930–1945
Preceded by
Kurt von Schleicher Chancellor of Germany(1)
1933–1945 Succeeded by
Joseph Goebbels
Preceded by
Paul von Hindenburg (as President) Führer of Germany(1)
1934–1945 Succeeded by
Karl Dönitz (as President)
Military offices
Preceded by
Walther von Brauchitsch Oberbefehlshaber des Heeres (Army Commander)
1941–1945 Succeeded by
Ferdinand Schörner
Notes and references
1. The positions of Head of State and Government were combined 1934–1945 in the office of Führer and Chancellor of Germany
[show]
v • d • e
Adolf Hitler
Politics
Political beliefs · Speeches · Mein Kampf · Zweites Buch · Last will and testament
Adolf Hitler
Events
Rise to power · Third Reich · Holocaust · World War II · Death
Personal life
Home · Medical health · Religious beliefs · Sexuality · Diet
Perceptions
Books · In popular culture · Der Sieg des Glaubens · Triumph of the Will · The Empty Mirror · Hitler: The Last Ten Days · The Meaning of Hitler · Max · Moloch · Hitler: The Rise of Evil · Der Untergang (Downfall)
Family

Eva Braun (wife) · Alois (father) · Klara (mother) · Alois (half-brother) · Angela (half-sister) · Gustav (brother) · Ida (sister) · Otto (brother) · Edmund (brother) · Paula (sister) · William Patrick (nephew) · Heinz (nephew) · Geli (niece)
· Blondi (dog)
[show]
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Chancellors of Germany
German Empire
(1871–1918)
Otto von Bismarck · Leo von Caprivi · Prince Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst · Bernhard von Bülow · Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg · Georg Michaelis · Georg von Hertling · Prince Maximilian of Baden
Flag of Germany
Weimar Republic
(1919–1933)
Philipp Scheidemann · Gustav Bauer · Hermann Müller · Konstantin Fehrenbach · Joseph Wirth · Wilhelm Cuno · Gustav Stresemann · Wilhelm Marx · Hans Luther · Wilhelm Marx · Hermann Müller · Heinrich Brüning · Franz von Papen · Kurt von Schleicher
Third Reich
(1933–1945)
Adolf Hitler · Joseph Goebbels
Federal Republic
(1949–)
Konrad Adenauer · Ludwig Erhard · Kurt Georg Kiesinger · Willy Brandt · Helmut Schmidt · Helmut Kohl · Gerhard Schröder · Angela Merkel
[show]
v • d • e
Members of Hitler's cabinet
(30 January 1933 – 30 April 1945)
Adolf Hitler (Chancellor and Führer) · Heinrich Himmler (Reichsführer)
Franz von Papen (ind) · Hermann Göring · Konstantin von Neurath · Joachim von Ribbentrop · Martin Bormann · Joseph Goebbels · Wilhelm Frick · Rudolf Hess · Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk (ind) · Alfred Hugenberg (DNVP) · Kurt Schmitt · Hjalmar Schacht (ind) · Walther Funk · Franz Seldte · Franz Gürtner (DNVP) · Franz Schlegelberger · Otto Georg Thierack · Werner von Blomberg (ind) · Wilhelm Keitel (ind) · Freiherr von Eltz-Rübenach (ind) · Julius Dorpmüller · Wilhelm Ohnesorge · Richard Walther Darré · Herbert Backe · Bernhard Rust · Fritz Todt · Albert Speer · Alfred Rosenberg · Hanns Kerrl · Hermann Muhs · Otto Meißner (ind) · Hans Lammers · Karl Hermann Frank · Ernst Röhm
All personnel were or became NSDAP members except where indicated ("ind" = nominally independent)
[show]
v • d • e
Final occupants of the Führerbunker by date of departure
21 April
Robert Ley
22 April
Karl Gebhardt · Julius Schaub · Christa Schroeder · Johanna Wolf
23 April
Theodor Morell · Albert Speer · Joachim von Ribbentrop
24 April
Walter Frentz
28 April
Robert Ritter von Greim · Hanna Reitsch · Walter Wagner
29 April
Heinrich Müller · Bernd von Freytag-Loringhoven · Gerhardt Boldt · Rudolf Weiss
30 April
Nicolaus von Below
1 May
Erich Kempka · Traudl Junge · Gerda Christian · Constanze Manziarly · Else Krüger · Otto Günsche · Johann Rattenhuber · Werner Naumann · Wilhelm Mohnke · Hans-Erich Voss · Ludwig Stumpfegger · Martin Bormann · Hans Baur · Artur Axmann · Walther Hewel · Günther Schwägermann · Armin D. Lehmann · Peter Högl
2 May
Rochus Misch · Helmuth Weidling · Hans Refior · Theodor von Dufving · Siegfried Knappe
Date uncertain
Wilhelm Zander · Heinz Lorenz · Heinz Linge · Helmut Kunz
Still present on 2 May
Erna Flegel · Werner Haase · Johannes Hentschel
Committed suicide
Ernst-Robert Grawitz · Adolf Hitler / Eva Hitler (Eva Braun) · Joseph Goebbels / Magda Goebbels · Wilhelm Burgdorf · Hans Krebs
Killed
Hermann Fegelein · Goebbels children · Grawitz family
[show]
v • d • e
Time Persons of the Year
[hide]

1927–1950

Charles Lindbergh (1927) · Walter Chrysler (1928) · Owen D. Young (1929) · Mahatma Gandhi (1930) · Pierre Laval (1931) · Franklin D. Roosevelt (1932) · Hugh Samuel Johnson (1933) · Franklin D. Roosevelt (1934) · Haile Selassie I (1935) · Wallis Simpson (1936) · Chiang Kai-shek / Soong May-ling (1937) · Adolf Hitler (1938) · Joseph Stalin (1939) · Winston Churchill (1940) · Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941) · Joseph Stalin (1942) · George Marshall (1943) · Dwight D. Eisenhower (1944) · Harry S. Truman (1945) · James F. Byrnes (1946) · George Marshall (1947) · Harry S. Truman (1948) · Winston Churchill (1949) · The American Fighting-Man (1950)
[show]

1951–1975

Mohammed Mosaddeq (1951) · Elizabeth II (1952) · Konrad Adenauer (1953) · John Foster Dulles (1954) · Harlow Curtice (1955) · Hungarian Freedom Fighters (1956) · Nikita Khrushchev (1957) · Charles de Gaulle (1958) · Dwight D. Eisenhower (1959) · U.S. Scientists: George Beadle / Charles Draper / John Enders / Donald A. Glaser / Joshua Lederberg / Willard Libby / Linus Pauling / Edward Purcell / Isidor Rabi / Emilio Segrè / William Shockley / Edward Teller / Charles Townes / James Van Allen / Robert Woodward (1960) · John F. Kennedy (1961) · Pope John XXIII (1962) · Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963) · Lyndon B. Johnson (1964) · William Westmoreland (1965) · The Generation Twenty-Five and Under (1966) · Lyndon B. Johnson (1967) · The Apollo 8 Astronauts: William Anders / Frank Borman / Jim Lovell (1968) · The Middle Americans (1969) · Willy Brandt (1970) · Richard Nixon (1971) · Henry Kissinger / Richard Nixon (1972) · John Sirica (1973) · King Faisal (1974) · American Women: Susan Brownmiller / Kathleen Byerly / Alison Cheek / Jill Conway / Betty Ford / Ella Grasso / Carla Hills / Barbara Jordan / Billie Jean King / Carol Sutton / Susie Sharp / Addie Wyatt (1975)
[show]

1976–2000

Jimmy Carter (1976) · Anwar Sadat (1977) · Deng Xiaoping (1978) · Ayatollah Khomeini (1979) · Ronald Reagan (1980) · Lech Wałęsa (1981) · The Computer (1982) · Ronald Reagan / Yuri Andropov (1983) · Peter Ueberroth (1984) · Deng Xiaoping (1985) · Corazon Aquino (1986) · Mikhail Gorbachev (1987) · The Endangered Earth (1988) · Mikhail Gorbachev (1989) · George H. W. Bush (1990) · Ted Turner (1991) · Bill Clinton (1992) · The Peacemakers: Yasser Arafat / F.W. de Klerk / Nelson Mandela / Yitzhak Rabin (1993) · Pope John Paul II (1994) · Newt Gingrich (1995) · David Ho (1996) · Andrew Grove (1997) · Bill Clinton / Kenneth Starr (1998) · Jeffrey P. Bezos (1999) · George W. Bush (2000)
[show]

2001–present

Rudolph Giuliani (2001) · The Whistleblowers: Cynthia Cooper / Coleen Rowley / Sherron Watkins (2002) · The American Soldier (2003) · George W. Bush (2004) · The Good Samaritans: Bono / Bill Gates / Melinda Gates (2005) · You (2006) · Vladimir Putin (2007) · Barack Obama (2008)
[show]
v • d • e
Fascism
[show]

Theory
Core tenets

Nationalism · Imperialism · Authoritarianism · Single party state · Dictatorship · Social Darwinism · Social interventionism · Indoctrination · Propaganda · Anti-intellectualism · Eugenics · Heroism · Militarism · Economic interventionism · Anti-communism
Topics

Definitions · Economics · Fascism and ideology · Fascism worldwide · Symbolism
Ideas

Actual Idealism · Class collaboration · Corporatism · Heroic capitalism · National Socialism · National syndicalism · State capitalism · State socialism · Supercapitalism · Third Position · Totalitarianism
[show]

Movements
Africa

Greyshirts · Ossewabrandwag
Asia

Brit HaBirionim · Ganap Party · Maharashtra Navnirman Sena · Statism in Shōwa Japan · Syrian Social Nationalist Party · Taisei Yokusankai · Tōhōkai
Western Europe

Action Française · Black Front (Netherlands) · Breton Social-National Workers' Movement · British Fascists · British People's Party (1939) · British Union of Fascists · La Cagoule · Clerical People's Party · Estado Novo · Faisceau · Falange · Flemish National Union · General Dutch Fascist League · Imperial Fascist League · National Fascisti · National Front (Switzerland) · Nationalist Party (Iceland) · National Socialist Dutch Workers Party · National Socialist League · National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands · National Socialist Movement of Norway · National Syndicalists (Portugal) · National Union (Portugal) · New Party (UK) · Parti Populaire Français · Rexism
Central Europe

4th of August Regime · Arrow Cross Party · Austrian National Socialism · Fatherland's Front · Greater German People's Party · Greek National Socialist Party · Hungarian National Socialist Party · Italian Fascism · Italian Social Republic · Nasjonal Samling · National Fascist Community · National Fascist Party · National Socialist Bloc · National Socialist Workers' Party (Sweden) · Nazism · Nazi Party · Pērkonkrusts · Sammarinese Fascist Party · Sudeten German Party · Ustaše · ZBOR
Eastern Europe

Albanian Fascist Party · Crusade of Romanianism · Iron Guard · Lapua Movement · National Fascist Movement · National Italo-Romanian Cultural and Economic Movement · National Social Movement (Bulgaria) · National Radical Camp · National Radical Camp Falanga · National Romanian Fascia · National Renaissance Front · Patriotic People's Movement (Finland) · Romanian Front · Russian Fascist Party · Russian Women's Fascist Movement · Slovak People's Party · Union of Bulgarian National Legions
North America

Fascism in Canada · Canadian Union of Fascists · Parti national social chrétien · Red Shirts (Mexico) · Gold shirts · German American Bund · Silver Legion of America
South America

Falangism in Latin America · Brazilian Integralism · Bolivian Socialist Falange · National Socialist Movement of Chile
[show]

Persons
Abba Ahimeir · Ion Antonescu · Sadao Araki · Zoltán Böszörmény · Corneliu Zelea Codreanu · Marcelo Caetano · Gustavs Celmiņš · Enrico Corradini · Marcel Déat · Léon Degrelle · Bachir Gemayel · Pierre Gemayel · Giovanni Gentile · Tojo Hideki · Heinrich Himmler · Adolf Hitler · Ikki Kita · Dimitrije Ljotić · Arnold Leese · Ioannis Metaxas · Oswald Mosley · Benito Mussolini · Eoin O'Duffy · Ante Pavelić · William Dudley Pelley · Vidkun Quisling · José Antonio Primo de Rivera · Konstantin Rodzaevsky · António de Oliveira Salazar · Plínio Salgado · Ferenc Szálasi · Anastasy Vonsyatsky
[show]

Works
Sculpture

Allach (porcelain)
Film

Der Sieg des Glaubens · Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht · Triumph of the Will
Literature

The Doctrine of Fascism · Fascist manifesto · Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals · Mein Kampf · My Life · The Myth of the Twentieth Century · Revolt Against the Modern World · Zweites Buch · Zaveshchanie russkogo fashista
Periodicals

La Conquista del Estado · Das Reich (newspaper) · Der Angriff · Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung · Deutsche Zeitung in Norwegen · Deutsche Zeitung in den Niederlanden · Figli d'Italia · Fronten · Gândirea · Gioventù Fascista · Je suis partout · La france au travail · Münchener Beobachter · Novopress · NS Månedshefte · Norsk-Tysk Tidsskrift · Das Schwarze Korps · Der Stürmer · Il Popolo d'Italia · Sfarmă-Piatră · Signal (magazine) · Vlajka · Völkischer Beobachter
Related topics

Art of the Third Reich · Fascist architecture · Heroic realism · Nazi architecture · Nazism and cinema · Nazi plunder
[show]

Organizations
Institutional

Ahnenerbe · Chamber of Fasci and Corporations · Grand Council of Fascism · Imperial Way Faction · Italian Nationalist Association · Nationalsozialistischer Reichsbund für Leibesübungen · Quadrumvirs
Activist

German American Bund · Russian Fascist Organization · Union of Young Fascists – Vanguard (boys) · Union of Young Fascists – Vanguard (girls) · Union of Fascist Little Ones
Paramilitary

Albanian Militia · Black Brigades · Blackshirts · Blueshirts · Einsatzgruppen · Gold shirts · Greenshirts · Greyshirts · Hitler Youth · Heimwehr · Iron Wolf (Lithuania) · Red Shirts (Mexico) · Silver Legion of America · Schutzstaffel · Sturmabteilung · Lăncieri · National Union (Portugal) · Makapili · Mocidade Portuguesa · Waffen-SS · Werwolf
International

Axis powers · NSDAP/AO · ODESSA
[show]

History
1910s

Arditi · Fascio
1920s

Aventine Secession · Acerbo Law · March on Rome · Beer Hall Putsch · Italian economic battles
1930s

March of the Iron Will · 6 February 1934 crisis · 1934 Montreux Fascist conference
1940s

World War II · The Holocaust · Congress of Verona · Denazification · Nuremberg Trials
[show]

Lists
Anti-fascists · Books about Hitler · British fascist parties · Fascist movements by country (A-F · G-M · N-T · U-Z) · Nazi ideologues · Nazi leaders · Speeches by Hitler · SS personnel
[show]

Related topics
Anti-fascism · Anti-Nazi League · Christofascism · Clerical fascism · Cryptofascism · Ecofascism · Esoteric Nazism · Fascist (epithet) · Glossary of Nazi Germany · Hitler salute · Italianization · Italianization of South Tyrol · Ku Klux Klan · Left-wing fascism · Neo-fascism · Neo-Nazism · Roman salute · Social fascism · Synarchism · Unite Against Fascism · Völkisch movement
Category · Portal
Persondata
NAME Hitler, Adolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Führer of the National Socialist German Workers Party; Reichskanzler of Germany
DATE OF BIRTH 20 April 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Braunau am Inn, Austria
DATE OF DEATH 30 April 1945
PLACE OF DEATH Berlin, Germany

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler"
Categories: Adolf Hitler | Antisemitism | Austrian anti-communists | Austrian expatriates in Germany | Austrian emigrants | Austrian Nazis | Austrian painters | Beer Hall Putsch | Burials in Germany | Chancellors of Germany | Conspiracy theorists | Discrimination | Fascist era scholars and writers | German anti-communists | German founders of automobile manufacturers | German military leaders | German military personnel of World War I | Germans of Austrian descent | German painters | German people of World War II | German political writers | German politicians who committed suicide | German vegetarians | Hitler family | Holocaust perpetrators | Homophobia | Nazi leaders | Nazis who committed suicide | People convicted of treason | People from Braunau am Inn | Presidents of Germany | Recipients of German pardons | Recipients of the Iron Cross | Suicides by firearm in Germany | Suicides by poison | Time magazine Persons of the Year | Writers on antisemitism | World War II political leaders | 1889 births | 1945 deaths
Hidden categories: All articles with dead external links | Articles with dead external links from September 2009 | Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages | Wikipedia indefinitely move-protected pages | Articles containing German language text | Articles needing additional references from April 2009 | All articles needing additional references | All pages needing cleanup | Wikipedia articles needing clarification from April 2009 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from September 2009 | Articles with unsourced statements from March 2009 | All articles with specifically-marked weasel-worded phrases | Articles with specifically-marked weasel-worded phrases from October 2009 | Articles with unsourced statements from October 2009
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