Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler, born April 20, 1889 in Braunau am Inn in Austria (then Austria-Hungary) and died by suicide April 30, 1945 in Berlin, was a German politician Austrian-born founder and central figure of Nazism, establish of totalitarian dictatorship known as the Third Reich.
Taken at the head of Germany by the Party National Socialist German Workers' (Nazi Party) said that in 1921 he was Chancellor of Germany January 30, 1933, then made a plebiscite in 1934 as president, a title he forsook it for the Fuhrer ( "Guide"). Its expansionist policy was originally part of the European Second World War, during which he was committing widespread crimes against humanity, including genocide of Jews in occupied Europe remains the most significant. For posterity, the unprecedented scale of destruction, looting and mass crimes of which he was responsible, just as racism radical singling his doctrine and inhumanity exceptional treatment inflicted on his victims, earned him d ' be considered a particularly negative historiography, by the collective memory and popular culture in general. His name and person are generally contained symbols repellents.
Early years
One of the few men who can say without doubt that without them, world history would have been a course radically different (in the words of Ian Kershaw, one of his biographers), Adolf Hitler remains largely an enigma , particularly regarding his youth and especially the formation of his personality and his mentality nationalist, Marxist, racist and antisemitic. Very lonely, the future German dictator has never kept a diary of his life he corresponded and wrote a little bit, and he has delivered in Mein Kampf (1925) an autobiography largely rebuilt.
Bohemia in Vienna: the crucial formative years (1908-1913)
Orphaned, living in a small company, it fails twice in the entrance examination for the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 1907 and October 8, 1908. A recurrent rumor claims that Hitler was just a house painter and a ferocious caricature of Sennep may have helped anchor the legend. He actually left watercolors, estimated the number of 2 000, certainly no genius, but reflect, at least, because he was able to paint and he had in any case very good foundation in this technique. However, during his years in the galleys, after failing the entrance exam at the Beaux-Arts, Hitler held a job for maneuver, as he stated in Mein Kampf.
Self-taught, a great player (especially Nietzsche) and unconditional admirer of the music of Richard Wagner, as his friend Kubizek August, he developed a deep interest in architecture. He saw his paintings, mostly watercolors, odd jobs, living a bohemian life of constant misery for five years. Later, in Mein Kampf, he wrote:
"Five years during which I had, first as a laborer, then as a small painter earn my livelihood, meager livelihoods, who could not even ease my chronic hunger. Because hunger was then the faithful guardian which never left me, the companion who shared everything with me. Each book had bought its stake, a performance at the opera company's worth to me the next day was a constant battle with my friend ruthless. But then I heard like never before. Out of my architecture, apart from rare visits to the opera, the fruit of my fasting, I had no joy as books always more numerous. "
Adolf Hitler attends meetings of the Austrian Parliament, he later wrote his contempt for democracy and parliamentarism. He studied the theories Pangermanists and observes the influence of politics on the masses. In this bastion of Austrian social democracy, he also forged his distaste for the Marxist doctrines.
It was also during the years of Vienna that is forged his anti-Semitism, even if the conclusions of Ian Kershaw, it remains impossible to determine the exact timing and the precise reasons why Hitler became antisemitic. It is in effect acquired by his own admission, he was not anti-Semitic arriving in Vienna. But in this hotbed of modern political anti-Semitism, directed since 1897 by the populist mayor Karl Lueger was elected on his program fundamentally anti-Semitic, Hitler surely was largely influenced by the extensive anti-Jewish propaganda of low rank who then circulated through a crowd of pamphlets, caricatures, cheap newspapers and public speeches.
In spring 1913, to avoid enlistment in the army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, multi-ethnic state that he hates, he fled to Munich and lived by selling his paintings of landscapes. His attempt to escape conscription is noticed, but after having been refused at a medical examination upon his return to Austria (up to "too low"), he returned to Munich.
Volunteer in the First World War
In 1914, excited by the coming of war in Germany, Hitler committed volunteer. He fought on the western front in the 16th Bavarian Infantry Regiment. Enthusiastic soldier, he is liked by his peers and superiors, who refused a promotion, however, saying he lacks the qualities of a leader. He filled for almost the entire duration of the war mission messenger between the officers. End September 1916, his division moved to the Battle of the Somme. Hitler was wounded once in the thigh, October 7. He returned to seek treatment in Germany to the hospital Beelitz near Berlin. After an assignment in Munich, he returned to the Flanders front. On the night of 13 to 14 October 1918, on a hill south of Wervicq near Ypres (Belgium), his unit suffered a bombing British mustard gas. Hit the eyes, he was evacuated to hospital Pasewalk in Pomerania. Hitler awarded the Iron Cross 1st class (distinction rarely given to a soldier engaged but easily granted to a messenger, because of his contacts with the officers) for doing the dangerous transport of a telegram. Ironically, this decoration is remitted on the recommendation of a Jewish officer.
While Germany is about to capitulate, the revolution wins Berlin and Kaiserliche Navy mutinied. The Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated and left for the Netherlands with his family. The Socialist Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed the Republic. Two days later, the new government signed the armistice of 1918.
From his hospital bed, Hitler destroyed by this announcement. He says in Mein Kampf have been a patriotic vision, and instantly have "decided to do politics."
All his life, Hitler joined the myth of the "stab in the back", released by the military caste, that Germany was not defeated militarily, but betrayed from within by the Jews, the forces left the Republicans. Until his last days, the future master of the Third Reich remained obsessed with the destruction of the enemy within. He wanted both to punish the "November criminals," erasing November 1918, and never see happen again this traumatic event, the source of his political commitment.
The charismatic speaker of the Nazi Party (1919-1922)
Beginning in September 1919, Hitler was responsible for overseeing a small group policy ultra-nationalist German Workers Party, founded a year earlier by Anton Drexler. At the end of a meeting in a brewery in Munich, he suddenly takes the floor to strongly condemn a proposal by a speaker. Noticed by Drexler, he was persuaded to join soon after and quickly transformed the party into Party National Socialist German Workers (NSDAP).
His magnetism and oratorical skills make it a popular character soon public meetings extremists brewing. His favorite themes - anti-Semitism, anti-Bolshevism, nationalism - already found a receptive audience. Mobilizing more and more supporters, he quickly enough to the movement necessary to require the president, the group originally led him abandoned in April 1921 after an ultimatum from her. Because of his talents political agitator, the party is rapidly gaining popularity, while remaining a minority.
Hitler endows his motion for a newspaper, the Beobachter Volkischer, he chose the swastika emblem, pushed through a 25-point program (in 1920) and gives it an aggressive militia, the Sturmabteilung (SA).
Initially, Hitler is presented as a single "drum" responsible for opening the door to a future savior of Germany still unknown. But the cult emerged spontaneously around his charismatic personality in the ranks of the SA and the militants quickly convince themselves that it is itself the savior angel. From 1921-1922, the conviction that it is appointed by fate to regenerate and purify defeated Germany never left.
His narcissism and megalomania are therefore not only increase, as its absolute dominance in the Nazi movement. This is what differentiates a Mussolini, originally mere primus inter pares of a collective leadership fascist, or Stalin, who does not believe himself to his own cult, made late to better secure his victory on Trotsky and the Bolshevik old guard.
Inspired by reading psychologist Gustave Le Bon, develops Hitler propaganda surly but efficient.
"The central idea of Hitler is simple: when addressing the masses, there is no need to argue, just win and knock. The impassioned speeches, the refusal of any discussion, the repetition of some themes rained on satiety are the core of its propaganda arsenal, as the use of theatrical effects, posters blatant, outrageous to expressionism, symbolic gestures, the first being the use of force. Thus, when SA brutalize their political opponents, not as a result of unbridled passions, but in accordance with standing instructions given to them."
Read also Eva Braun
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