Adolf Hitler
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| “ | Demoralize the enemy from within by surprise, terror, sabotage, assassination. This is the war of the future. | „ |
| ~ Adolf Hitler |
Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) was an Austro-Hungarian born German artist, statesman, theoretician, politician, soldier, and writer. He became Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and Führer in 1934, positions both of which he held until his suicide in 1945. He led the National Socialist German Workers Party (more commonly known as the Nazi Party) and created the Third Reich.
Hitler was most well-known for starting, causing and waging World War II, and being responsible for causing the Holocaust, which is widely considered to be the deadliest and most horrific genocide in world history. Estimates say that Hitler was responsible for the deaths of 40 million people overall (85 million if counting WWII casualties).
He is often considered by many historians to be the most evil person to have ever lived.
Biography edit
Early life edit
Adolf Hitler was born on April 20th, 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary (now in modern Austria), right on the Austro-German border. He was the fourth of Alois and Klara Hitler's six children.
When Adolf was three, his family moved to Kapuzinerstrasse 5, where Adolf would acquire his lifelong accent. As a child, he tirelessly played "Cowboys and Indians" and became disturbingly fixated on war after finding a picture book about the Franco-Prussian War in his father's room.
When Adolf was 11 years old, he started secondary school. It was his father's idea to send him to a Realschule, where they taught mainly science and technical skills. But Adolf was a reluctant student. He much preferred drawing and writing to science and numbers. And he resented the hour-long walk to and from the school.
On February 2nd, 1900, Adolf's younger brother Edmund died from measles. The death deeply affected Adolf that it caused a change in his personality; he went from a confident, outgoing boy to a detached, sullen boy who constantly battled his father and his teachers. Many psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, and psychohistorians have post-humously diagnosed or described Hitler as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia or possible psychopathy/sociopathy.
Adolf's father wanted him to follow in his footsteps and become a high-ranked official, and this became a huge source of conflict between them. Adolf wanted to go to classical high school and become an artist but his father sent him to the Realschule in Linz, a technical high school.
For young Adolf Hitler, German nationalism quickly became an obsession, and it was a good way to rebel against his father, who served the Austrian government. Like many Austrian Germans he showed pride in his German ancestry, he expressed loyalty only to Germany despising the multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire.
After Alois' sudden death on January 3, 1903, Hitler's behaviour at the technical school became even more disruptive, and he was asked to leave. Adolf enrolled at the Realschule in Steyr but was expelled during his second year. He never returned to school again. When he was 14, he fell into a frozen lake, but a priest was able to pull him out before he drowned. The priest later regretted his decision.
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, citing "unfitness for painting", and they told him his abilities should be used for architecture. He followed this recommendation, and he became convinced that this was his path to pursue, but he lacked the academic preparation for architecture school.
In 1907, Adolf's mother died of breast cancer, and he was forced to give some of the money his mother had sent him to his sister. He ran out of money after the second time he was rejected by the Art Academy. Adolf Hitler always said he first became started following antisemitism in Vienna, which had a large Jewish community.
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. He later blamed Germany's military defeat in World War I on the 1918 revolutions and he considered Jews the culprits of Germany's downfall and economic problems.
In 1913, Hitler moved to Munich, where he became more interested in architecture. When Germany entered World War I in August 1914, he asked permission to serve in a Bavarian regiment. This request was granted, and he enlisted in the Bavarian Army.
Role in Wars edit
World War I edit
Hitler served in France and Belgium as a runner for the 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment during World War I, which exposed him to enemy fire. His duties at regimental headquarters, while often dangerous, gave Hitler time to pursue his artwork. When he had the time he drew cartoons and instructional drawings for the army newspaper. Hitler had long admired Germany, and during the war, he had become a passionate German patriot. Hitler was twice decorated for bravery, once in 1914 receiving the Iron Cross Second Class and in 1918, the Iron Cross First Class. Additionally, in 1917 he received the Wound Badge for injuries he suffered on his leg. On October 15th, 1918; Hitler was admitted to a field hospital, temporarily blinded by a mustard gas attack. During his stay there he received news that Germany lost World War I. To Hitler, as too many other Germans and German-speakers, this was a betrayal by the cowardly politicians. He was shocked by Germany's capitulation even while the German army still held enemy territory. Like many other nationalists, Hitler believed Germany was stabbed in the back by civilian leaders and Marxists back on the home front. These politicians were later dubbed the November Criminals.
According to the most recent book about Hitler's life as a soldier in WWI, it was revealed that he was considered to be a wimp by several of his comrades and that his supposed brutality in WWI was actually heavily exaggerated by Nazi propaganda.
Rise to power edit
After World War I, Hitler returned to Munich and joined the German Workers' Party (the predecessor of the Nazi Party). He met Dietrich Eckart, who became his political mentor. Hitler quickly rose through the party's ranks and became leader in July 1921. Shortly afterwards, the German Workers' Party became known as the National Socialist German Workers' Party, better known as the Nazi Party. Early members of Hitler's inner circle would include Rudolf Hess, Hermann Göring, Ernst Röhm, and Erich Ludendorff.
Hitler tried a failed coup, the infamous Beer Hall Putsch, in 1923. This was a one-way trip to prison for six months. During his stay, he wrote a book/rant/political treatise called Mein Kampf (“My Struggle” in English). This bought him publicity and revealed his true intentions and means to create a better Germany then the former Weimar Republic which was a very scary place to be living in. After being released from prison, Hitler helped turn the Nazi Party into a major political force in Germany. He made his first attempt at running for public office in 1932, running for President against Paul von Hindenburg. Though Hitler would come up short in this election, he won over support from many of Germany's most powerful industrialists.
In 1926, The German government has a lot of influence from Hitler who became trade partners of Nationalist China (led by Chiang Kai-shek) to industrialize China to help China defend itself against strong opponents, as Germany no longer had imperial goals on China.
On recommendation from several other politicians, Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. Eventually, Hitler and the Nazis took full control of the German government by July 1933. Hitler declared himself Führer in 1934 and consolidated his power over Germany with the Night of the Long Knives shortly thereafter, giving way for the 11-year Nazi regime. He outlawed his competition, re-militarized Germany, and started World War II in Europe in a bid to control much of the world by military means.
In 1938, Hitler's government initiated plans for the Holocaust: a planned mass genocide of all Jews in Europe. In November 1938, a pogrom was carried out by the Sturmabteilung paramilitary and German civilians after German diplomat Ernst Vom Rath was assassinated by Polish Jewish teenager Herschel Grynszpan. Over 7,000 Jewish-owned businesses were destroyed, with over 30,000 Jewish men being arrested and taken to concentration camps. The name Kristallnacht comes from the broken glass. Over 200 synagogues were ransacked in the riots.
One year later, the Nazis invaded Poland, officially kickstarting World War II. The invasion of Poland would be followed by a number of Nazi invasions and occupations all across Europe. He would also gain strong allies in Imperial Japan (lead by Emperor Hirohito) and Fascist Italy (lead by Benito Mussolini); the alliance between the three would become known as the Axis Powers.
World War 2 edit
Over his eleven years in power, Hitler had built up a huge army and air force, with massive numbers of planes, tanks, and trucks. Now he used them to great effect, conquering Denmark and Norway, and launching attacks on France. By this time, French troops were stationed all along Germany's western border. But Hitler distracted them by invading the Netherlands and Belgium. As the French and British responded by moving north, German tanks broke through to the south and advanced into France. A month later, a triumphant Hitler was in Paris.
Only a narrow stretch of the sea now let between Hitler and the British Isles. He hoped that the British would willingly surrender. But the new British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was determined to fight to the end.
Hitler watched, frustrated, as the British air force won the battle for control of the skies. Eventually, he gave up and turned his attention east. Recklessly breaking the non-aggression he'd signed with Joseph Stalin he now sent his troops into Russia, which would ultimately be his undoing.
The Russian troops were slow to respond but mighty in number. By November, German forces were engaged in bitter warfare, as the temperature plummeted below freezing.
Death edit
By mid-1945, Hitler was utterly defeated, and, finding no way out of the situation, refusing to surrender or be captured, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bunker on April 30th, 1945 by shooting himself in the head. His wife of one day, Eva Braun, committed suicide by taking a cyanide pill. He killed his dog before killing himself. Their remains were later cremated. It is believed the Soviets found his body around 1970 and later cremated him and his wife Eva.
The Third Reich would not long survive after the death of the Führer; in his last will and testament, Hitler appointed Joseph Goebbels as Chancellor of Germany and Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as President of Germany. Goebbels and his wife Magda would murder their children and commit suicide themselves one day after Hitler's death, and only one month later, Dönitz and Chief of Staff Alfred Jodl agreed to sign the instruments of unconditional surrender on May 23, formally putting an end to Hitler's reign of terror and vision of a "thousand-year Reich".
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Last picture of Hitler taken before his death ten days later.
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Stars & Stripes paper announcing Hitler's death.
Legacy edit
| “ | I am about to embark on a great endeavor. If I am successful I will be remembered as history’s greatest hero, if unsuccessful I will be remembered as history’s greatest villain. | „ |
| ~ Adolf Hitler |
Hitler has been widely regarded as one of the most evil (if not the most evil) people ever to have existed. Nevertheless, given the fear and disgust that surrounds them, Hitler and the Nazis still have many admirers and followers of him and their ideologies.
Many Neo-Nazi groups exist to present day; the movement has seen a vocal resurgence during the latter half of the 2010's with the rise of the Alt-Right movement with almost every member of the Alt-Right celebrating him.
Nazis have been rather popular as villains in fiction, and Hitler has been a character in alternative history novels, such as those who call for his assassination, WWII novels, such as Holocaust survivor novels, movies, comics and at least one rather popular Internet meme, originating from the 2004 movie, Downfall.
Most evil acts edit
- The Holocaust - Rising to power as Germany's chancellor as of 1933 until 1945 serving as the dictator and leader of the Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers' Party), he enacted a genocide aimed at undesirables and European Jews that killed 6,000,000 Jews as well as black people, Romani (targeting them with a separate event known as the Porajmos), Slavs, disabled, homosexuals, Communists, and Catholics, resulting in deaths of a total 11,000,000 people. It is considered by many to be the one of the worst, if not the worst crimes ever committed and was intended to exterminate all undesirables, especially Jews, which resulted in the murder of 6,000,000 Jews in total. This is also the deadliest genocide in history and it was known as the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question", or simply the "Final Solution", which stated that Jews were a "problem" that needed to be "solved".
- Waging World War II - A Global War that began with Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland through his fascist direction and orders, which resulted in the deaths of between 40,000,000–85,000,000 people. It is widely considered to be the deadliest conflict in human history, and one of the largest, if not the largest clashes of major ideologies that would evolve throughout the decades.
- The Hitler Youth - A youth group for boys that Hitler used to indoctrinate German youths into believing that he was their savior, often resulting in the boys becoming child soldiers.
- Action T4 - A mass murder program similar to the Holocaust that involved the systematic extermination of elderly people, physically and mentally disabled people, emotionally distraught people, and mentally ill people to "cleanse" Germany of the "unfit". It was based on the principles of eugenics established in America by Harry Laughlin.
- The Commando Order - An order issued directly by Hitler that all Allied commandos captured should be executed without trial, even if they tried to surrender. A similar order, the Commissar Order, mandated the execution of any Russian prisoners known to be active in Communist politics.
- Operation Barbarossa - After allying with Russia to invade Poland, Hitler then double-crossed Russia and invaded them. The Barbarossa decree, issued by Hitler during the invasion, ordered that collective punishment be carried out against the Russian population if the perpetrators of anti-German acts could not be found and gave every German officer the authority to perform executions without trial.
- Generalplan Ost - A plan to colonize Eastern Europe, using a systematic campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing to remove or forcibly assimilate all Slavic citizens in order to create living space ("Lebensraum") for German citizens. It is estimated that around 13,700,000 people were killed in the course of this plan, more people than were killed by the Holocaust.
- The Nacht und Nebel - An order issued by Hitler that all prisoners involved in the anti-Nazi resistance were to be shot without trial. Any not executed within eight days were to be "disappeared" by the Gestapo.
- The Nero Decree - An order in the last days of the war that ordered the destruction of German infrastructure rather than allow the Allies to use it. Armaments Minister Albert Speer refused to implement it.
Gallery edit
Images edit
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A rare colorized photo of Hitler.
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Hitler doing the Nazi salute.
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Portrait of Hitler.
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Cover of one of Hitler's books. -
Colourized version of Hitler in his office. -
Adolf Hitler with Benito Mussolini.
Videos edit
Trivia edit
- Hitler is widely regarded as one of the most evil and notorious villains (if not the most evil and notorious villain) in the history of humankind. Before Hitler, the person who had received this title was Attila the Hun.
- Hitler only got drunk once in his life. It was when he was 15–16 years old after getting his (obligatory education) school certificate. He was happy and went out partying with his classmates. He got drunk and by mistake used his school certificate in lieu of toilet paper. It was later found dirty and in 4 pieces.
- Hitler once mentioned that he used to smoke between 25-40 cigarettes a day when he was young, broke and pretty much lived in the streets of Vienna. He said he only ate bread and milk, never had a warm meal, yet spent 30 kreuzers a day on cigarettes. When he realized that for 5 kreuzers he could have bought some butter to put on his bread, he quit smoking.
- Allegedly, Hitler was a serial prankster, often playing jokes on his ministers and generals. This would backfire on him tremendously, when a stunt on Ernst Hanfstaengl (who believed he was being set up for a suicide mission, whilst headed to Spain on a plane full of Gestapo men), let him to escape to Switzerland. He would then seek refuge with the Allies, revealing vital information on his former friend and leader.
- He was rumored to have had a micropenis with one testicle.
- Hitler allegedly suffered from flatulence and took lead based medication to remedy it, which possibly contributed to his poor mental state.
- There are conspiracy theorists who claim Hitler and Eva didn't die in Berlin, but he and Eva had escaped to South America and later died there in the mid 1960's. However, little to no evidence supports that.
- Hitler's name means "Noble wolf", which is ironic because Adolf Hitler is a tyrannical villain.
- Hitler, alongside Joseph Goebbels, is credited with creating the original concept of the "big lie", as well as popularizing its use as a propaganda technique.
- He enjoyed Disney movies and his favorite movie was supposedly Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
- One of his ancestors had a Czech name, meaning he likely had Slavic ancestry (which is ironic since he disliked Slavs).
- He had blue eyes and brown hair.
- Perhaps the over-riding good deed that Hitler provided to the German people, before 1939, was a psychological growth in national confidence & a sense of community, which had been destroyed by the Versailles Treaty, Germany’s pariah status viz a viz the West, & the devastating inflation of the Twenties, where so much of the German middle classes saw their hard work of past years reduced to billions of marks being pushed to market in a wheelbarrow.
- He was mentioned as being a painter in the Only Fools and Horses episode. Uncle Albert says that he used to be a painter but Raquel asks how long he has been French to which Rodney asks "And who in their right minds would call a hotel 'The Hotel Hitler?'".
- As one of the most, if not the most evil villains in the history of human mankind, he has influenced numerous fictional villains, such as Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars, Melisha Tweedy from Aardman's Chicken Run, Scar from Disney's The Lion King, Judge Claude Frollo from Disney's The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Darkseid from DC Comics, Madame Margaret from Cartoon Network's Codename: Kids Next Door, General Mandible from Dreamworks' Antz, Lord Farquaad from Dreamworks' Shrek, Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter, Zanu from Joe Camp's Benji, Zax & the Alien Prince, Assef from The Kite Runner, Dr. Boycott from Richard Adams' The Plague Dogs, Bowser from the Super Mario series, King K. Rool from the Donkey Kong series, Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda series, King Dedede (in his early appearances) from the Kirby series, Giovanni from the Pokémon series and Dr. Eggman from Sega's Sonic the Hegehog series.
- Assef even owned a biography of Hitler.
- In addition to fictional villains, Hitler has also inspired numerous real life villains, such as Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who idolized Hitler and committed the Columbine High School massacre on his birthday, also David Duke, Francisco Franco, Pol Pot, Xi Jinping, Richard Spencer, Osama bin Laden, Augusto Pinochet,and Emperor Hirohito.
- In the Downfall Parodies, Hitler is referred to as the "real Hitler" by the Downfall Hitler (played by Bruno Ganz).
- Hitler referred to Eastern Europe as the "Wild East" and explicitly called Slavic people "redskins", based on the idea of Lebensraum, a nod to the US colonial ideology of Manifest Destiny. In fact, there are many books that detail how Hitler's ideologies were inspired by the Native American genocide, the Jim Crow policies directed towards African-Americans in the southern United States, the Armenian genocide, Imperial German colonial policies during the Scramble for Africa, and the South African concentration camp system during the Boer Wars. In addition, Hitler praised the colonialism of the British Empire and tried to convince the UK to join the Axis Powers in the 1930s, to which they declined.
- In 1928, Hitler approvingly remarked how white settlers in the United States "gunned down the millions of redskins to a few hundred thousand". In his Mein Kampf autobiography, Hitler admired the United States for excluding certain races from naturalization.
- In 1939 and 1940, Hitler received two letters from Mahatma Gandhi trying to convince him to prevent World War II and condemning him for his invasions of Poland, Denmark, and Czechoslovakia.
- The surname Hitler is probably a spelling variation of the name Hiedler, meaning one who resides by a Heidi - in Bavarian dialects a term for a subterranean fountain or river.
- Some people believe that he murdered his half-niece Geli Raubal during an argument between the two on September 18, 1931, when he refused to allow her to go to Vienna. He departed for a meeting in Nuremberg, but was recalled to Munich the next day with the news that Raubal was dead from a gunshot wound to the lung; she had apparently shot herself with Hitler's personal Walther pistol. She had also suffered a broken nose. The pistol as well as a half-finished letter were taken away from the scene by Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller before the scene could be properly examined, suggesting a possible cover-up. This, however, has never been definitively proven and is merely speculation.
- Hitler had a toxic relationship with his half-niece in general as he raped her and forced her to have an incestuous relationship with him against her will.
- Francisco Franco believed that Hitler was gay.
- There is an urban legend that Hitler was, in fact, Jewish himself and his anti-semitism was born out of self-loathing. However, this has been proven to be false.
- He had an associated act who was also in the Nazi Party, which is Adolf Eichmann.
- Many psychologists had tried to find out what was wrong with Hitler's mental state and the likely conclusions they came up with was that he had likely suffered from either bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, psychosis, paranoia, or psychopathy/sociopathy.