Adolf Hitler example essay topic

Hitler: The Early Years Ado lf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, in Braunau-am-Inn, Austria, of German descent. His father, Alois Hitler, was a poor peasant farmer that became a customs officer so he could send his children to school. As Adolf was growing up, he became very intelligent and talented and received good grades in the elementary school in his village. Although Adolf was very intelligent, his grades started slipping when he entered high school because he felt uncomfortable. Adolf started reading pointlessly, daydreaming about becoming a famous artist and developed a talent of evading responsibilities. (Encyclopedia Americana H p. 246) Adolf's low grades angered his father because he wanted Adolf to become a government official, specifically a civil servant, and Hitler wanted to become an artist.

Adolf's low marks came back to haunt him as they prevented him from acquiring the customary graduation certificate. (Encyclopedia Americana H p. 246) Adolf left school at the age of 16. Unlike most people, Adolf didn t have to work since his mother was collecting a widow's pension since his father past away. So Adolf spent his days daydreaming, drawing pictures, and reading books. In 1907, Adolf went to Vienna to accomplish his aim of studying art and especially architecture. (Encyclopedia Americana h p. 246) When he took the entrance examination to get admitted into the Academy of Fine Arts, he failed on both of his attempts.

His non-admission to the Academy destroyed what he had and what he could have become as an artist. Adolf did not go back to his village, but instead wandered the streets of Vienna aimlessly. Adolf cut off all ties to his family and friends and stumbled through life with no more goals. Hitler stayed alive by using money given to him by his mother, money left to him in a will, and although he lacked business training, he eked out a living as a laborer in the building trades and by painting pictures on cheap postcards. Adolf sep in parks or wherever he found space and often ate in soup kitchens for the poor and homeless. (Internet) Even though he was lucky enough to find a job it didn t seem like he really wanted it.

Adolf did the bare minimum; he never learned to work regularly, and remained essentially a loner. But he did learn an important lesson: how to evaluate and exploit the mentality of the people he worked with. (Encyclopedia Americana H p. 246) Military Experience and Political Rise In about 1913, Hitler got sick of Austria and decided to leave. Before Hitler left Austria, he developed a hatred for Jews, Slavs and the patchwork nation of Austria.

Hitler became a fierce nationalist who believed that no form of government could last if it treated people of different nationalities the same. (World Book h p. 265) Hitler's own words about Austria are: I was sure that the state of Austria was sure to obstruct every really great German and to support... everything un-German... I hated the motley collection in Austria of Czechs, Ruthenian's, Poles, Hungarians, Serbs, Croats, and above all that ever-present fungoid growth-Jews... I became a fanatical anti-Semite. (Internet) In the same year of 1913, Hitler decided to give up his Austrian citizenship and enlist in the 16th Bavarian infantry regimen. He said he wouldn t fight for Austria, but Was ready to die at any time for my people (the Germans).

(Internet) In his first taste of action during the Ypres offensive, Hitler sang out songs of war to motivate the German armies. During his second taste of action, Hitler was a fighter against British tanks. After the war, Hitler rose to lance corporal and received the Iron Cross for his actions as dispatch runner at the cost of getting shot in the leg. While in the hospital, the armistice was signed. When news of Germany's defeat and the armistice reached Hitler, he made Hitler agonize. He believed that Germany's defeat was caused by internal enemies, meaning the Jews and the Communists.

Germany may have lost the war, but they gained the birth of a genius strategist and politician in Hitler. Hitler's involvement in the war gave his life meaning and purpose that filled the space left by the rejection of the Academy. In war, Hitler found an interesting subject to know and learn more about. Hitler was fascinated by violence and its uses on people and countries.

From the moment Hitler stepped onto the battlefield, Hitler the artist was dead and Hitler the politician and lunatic was forthcoming. The end of the war once again left Hitler with an empty feeling. However, Hitler once again found something to temporarily fill that space in his life: public speaking. Public speaking soon brought him to the attention of the German Workers party. The German Workers changed their name to the Nazis and Hitler joined their cause when he thought that the party offered him a better chance for his new goal: political power. Hitler kept moving up while in the Nazis.

He went from chief propagandist to party chairman with dictorial powers in just one year. In 1923 Germany was in deep trouble as strikes broke out and the German economy suffered more each day. To make matters worse two political parties fought setting up a perfect opportunity to try to take over the ruling government. He brought 2,000 men to march against the government but that was not enough because the government brought the state police. The police opened fire putting a stop to the march.

Since Hitler was the leader they arrested him and sentenced him in jail for 5 years. While in jail Hitler started writing his book about world conquest and his plans for him to conquer the world. He wrote about how he believed the Jews were the evil in the world and how there was a superior race in Germany that had to be pure, meaning they should only mate with each other and not Jews and Slavs. Hitler was freed from jail nine months after he was sentenced. (Fest, p. 65) Asso on as he came out he tried to rebuild the Nazis. By the time he had gotten out, however, people had jobs, homes, food and, hope for the future.

He went to the government and assured them that the Nazi party would conduct itself legally. The Bavarian government agreed to lift the ban on the Nazis and Hitler continued to rebuild. Most of the original members of the Nazi party had left to join other parties, so Hitler had to start all over. Hitler went to villages and towns all over and gathered friends and created the new Nazi party. He started his speeches immediately against the Young Plan, which was a repayment for all the damages for WWI. The campaign against the plan made Hitler a major political force throughout the country...

When elections were held, the Nazis won the election for parliament, but Hitler wanted to be Chancellor. In 1933, Hitler's wish came true and he was named Chancellor by Hindenburg. Hindenburg gave the government almost unlimited power to do anything they wanted. The Nazi parliament prohibited assemblies and the press and arrested anyone suspected committing treason.

When the Reichstag elections came the Nazis got the dominant part of the vote and the most seats. The Nazis passed all sorts of laws and were almost all powerful in Germany. All they needed was Hitler to become dictator. In August 1934 Hindenburg died, and his death gave Hitler complete rule over Germany. As soon as Hitler took over everything changed. You had to ask the government or Hitler for permission to accept jobs, children had to go to camps to learn military discipline and to be brainwashed with the Nazi way of government.

The worst part of it, though, was that the Jews were forced out of their jobs, sent to concentration camps, sent away to other countries, and were given lesser rights than others. Hitler's power even went past the law, because he could reverse any decision he disagreed with, and the constitution, because he destroyed it legally. From 1933 and on, Hitler prepared Germany for war. He rearmed his soldiers and sent them into the Rhineland.

Both of his actions were direct violations of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1938, Hitler ordered the invasion of Austria and within months they had it. At the Munich Conference, Hitler asked for the German speaking portion of Czechoslovakia and said that was all he wanted. However, after Germany got what it wanted, it took the rest of Czechoslovakia. After all of that, no nation in Europe did a thing to stop him. As Germany was planning the invasion of Poland, Britain and France issued a warning that if Germany invaded Poland they would declare war on them.

In reaction to the warning, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Hitler-Stalin Pact. Inthe pact Germany got 1/2 of Poland if it didn t attack the Soviet Union, and the Soviet got 1/2 of Poland and a non-attack assurance if they didn t interfere with the war. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. On September 3, 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany.

Hitler's armies took over Poland in a couple of weeks and moved on to other countries. In the spring of 1940, Germany easily conquered Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. On June 22, 1940, France signed an armistice with Germany. Britain now stood alone. However, Hitler decided to send his troops to the Soviet Union instead.

Hitler's reasoning was that Britain wouldn t surrender if they still had a potential ally left. Germany's troops were making rapid progress and looked like they would take the Soviet Union without much of a fight. (New Standard Encyclopedia, p. H-239) One problem with the plan was the weather! That year there was a bitter winter and that slowed the Germans down almost completely. The Soviet Union's army, along with supplies sent by the United States, held back every attempt by the Germans.

At the end of the stand off between the two nations over 300,000 Germans died at the hands of the Soviets at Stalingrad. While Hitler still had an army left, he decided to make them commit mass slaughters. That decision cost the lives of over 6,000,000 Jews, 3,000,000 Soviet prisoners, and different numbers of Gypsies, Poles, Slavs, Jehovah Witnesses, priests and ministers, mental patients, Communists, and other political opponents. (Toland, p. 320) Hitler almost succeeded in his goal of exterminating the Jews in Europe, but not only did he kill 2/3 of the Jews in Europe he also helped to lead to the separate state for Jews. Death of a Political Genius When Adolf Hitler found out that his troops were defeated, he decided to kill himself. His generals and cabinet officials begged him not to and said to, instead, take a plane to Spain or South America to get to safety.

However, in the end Hitler decided no tto, instead he chose to die just like his troops. Like the saying goes, The captain must godown with his ship. Hitler was a true man that decided to die with his men or was he Some people say he couldn t face his persecution like a man, but anyway you put it Hitler was a genius and lunatic rolled up into one. Adolf Hitler died on April 30, 1945 with his wife beside him. His wife committed suicide by consuming poison.

Adolf Hitler committed suicide by shooting himself in the temple. The couple's bodies were drenched with gasoline and burnt to ashes. Their remains were wrapped in fabric and put into a hole in the ground. (Toland, p. 418) Is He a Genius or Is He Just a Lunatic There is no one in history quite like Adolf Hitler.

Should he be remembered as genius strategist as well as an insane lunatic No one ever evoked so muck rejoicing, hysteria and expectation of salvation as he; no one so much hate. (Fest p. 3) Hitler waste first person in centuries to plan world conquest and almost succeed. It was Hitler who caused grief and misery to his enemies. It took nearly all the world's forces and nearly six years to stop him. In many speeches, he recalled, with a distinctively rapturous note, the period of his beginnings, when he had nothing at all to back him, nothing, no name, no fortune, no press, nothing at all, nothing whatsoever, and how, entirely by his own efforts, he had risen from poor devil to rule over Germany and soon over part of the world as well. That was almost miraculous!

In fact, to a virtually unprecedented degree, he created everything out of himself and was himself everything at once: his own teacher, organizer of a party and author of its ideology, tactician and demagogic savior, leader, statesman, and for a decade the axis of the world. (Fest p. 3-4) Even as a young man Hitler had his plans of world conquest. I guess leaders and psychopaths start at an early age. Hitler didn t care how crazy he looked, he was set on world domination and he wouldn t stop until he conquered the world himself.

They always said I was crazy. But only a few years later everything he had wanted was reality, or was a reachable goal, and those institutions that had recently seemed to be permanent and unchallenged were on their way out: democracy and political party government, unions, international workers solidarity, the European system of alliances and the League of Nations. Who was right Hitler triumphantly demanded. The visionary or the others-I was right. (Fest p. 4) After all that Hitler has accomplished we still hesitate to call him a genius and great.

He went from ridiculed artist to the dictator of a major country. When he had plans to rule the world they made fun of him and mocked him, only to sit back and watch him get too close to actually achieving it. Should we as a people forget about the horrific killings and mass destruction that he has caused, and call him a genius or great On one hand you can say yes, because he did it for his country, his people, and of what he has accomplished. On the other hand, we must say no because of the destruction and the near successful extermination of a race or religion. 314.