Germany's Dictator When Hitler example essay topic

EARLY YEARS Adolf Hitler was born in Austria, on the 20th of April 1889. His father was a customs officer and his mother a peasant girl, he was a poor student who never completed high school. He lived in Vienna until 1913 and lived off his orphans pension and money from pictures he drew. He read a lot of books and began to develop anti-Jewish and antidemocratic beliefs, a like to outstanding individuals and a dislike for ordinary working people. In World War I Hitler, who was in Munich, volunteered in the Bavarian army.

He proved to be a dedicated and courageous soldier but he was never promoted beyond private first class. After Germany's defeat in 1918 he returned to Munich staying in the army till 1920. His commander then made him an educational officer with the permission to justify his charges against pacifist and democratic ideas. In September 1919 he joined the nationalist German Workers party and in April 1920 he went on to work full time for the party that had changed its name to the National German Workers (nazi) party. In 1921 he was elected party chairman with very dominating powers. RISE TO POWER Hitler after organizing many meetings, terrorizing political rivals spread his racial hatred and soon became an important part in Bavarian Politics, and was assisted by his high officials and businessmen.

In November 1923 he led an uprising against the Weimar Republic but without military support his rebellion failed and as the organizer he was sentenced to five years in prison, of which he served 8 months and was then released as the result of a general amnesty. He then rebuilt his party without interference from the government in December 1924. When the Great Depression struck in 1929 his theory of it as a Jewish plot to make Germany a communist country was accepted by many Germans, he then promised a stronger country with many jobs and national glory, he attracted millions of voters and Nazi representation in Germanys parliament rose from 12 seats to 107 in just 2 years. During the next two years the nazi party kept expanding and benefiting from the growing unemployment, fear of everyone becoming an equal (communism) and the shyness of his political rivals.

GERMANY'S DICTATOR When Hitler established himself as a dictator thousands of anti-Nazis were hauled off to concentration camps and all public knowledge was kept quiet. An Enabling Act passed by a passive legislature allowed him to modify the government system and judiciary, replace all labour unions with one Nazi controlled German Labour Front, and ban all political parties except his own. The economy, the media, and all cultural activities were brought under Nazi authority making a persons employment rely on their political choice and loyalty. Hitler relied a lot on his secret police, the Gestapo, and on jails and concentration camps to frighten his opponents, which may have not been needed as most Germans supported him enthusiastically. With this powerful drive he wiped out unemployment and his foreign policy success impressed the nation and because of these accomplishments he managed to form the German people into the flexible tool he needed to start a German rule over Europe and other parts of the world. He then damaged the reputation of the churches with charges of lies and sin and ridiculed the concept of humans as equals and claimed Germans the superior race.

As the superior race the Germans were told they had the right to rule all countries they wanted to. To begin his empire-building mission Hitler sent troops to Rhineland, an area where all weapons and soldiers had been removed, he then took control of Austria and Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland in 1938 and in March 1939 he brought the remainder of Czechoslovakia under German control. Outplayed and fearful of war, no national leader offered resistance to his actions. WORLD WAR II After all these attacks Hitler realized that any more might lead to a European conflict so he quickly prepared for the struggle which he thought would strengthen Germanys moral fibre. He attacked Poland in 1939 with plans to divide it with the Soviet Union, the Poles were quickly overpowered and their allies, the French and British, who had declared war on Germany, did not help. In the spring of 1940 Hitler's army took over Denmark and Norway and later the Netherlands, Belgium and France that gave up and retreated.

Britain's defeat was prevented by the Royal Air Force, which fended off the German Luftwaffe. Hitler then turned to the Soviet Union and to protect his flank he first subdued the Balkan Peninsula. The invasion of the USSR in 1941 quickly carried the German armies to Moscow but in December the Russians pushed them back, just as the United States entered the war. Hitler then realised that the war was almost a lost cause, but he refused to give up and kept fighting hoping for some new miracle weapon that might save the situation. As time passed and defeat was almost certain he still refused to give up, believing that Germany did not deserve to survive because it had not lived up to its promises. Throughout this time the campaign to destroy the Jews continued and endless trains took millions of Jews to extermination camps, greatly interfering with the war.

Finally on April 30 1945 with all of Germany taken over by allied invaders, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker along with his wife Eva Braun who he married the day before. CONCLUSION Hitler had a strong personality of intense forcefulness, he is described as a dishonest and devious man, unable to have personal friendships and looked upon his fellow man as a simple brick in the world structure he wished to create. He knew how to appeal to people needs and instincts and made use of their fear. However he could do that only because they were willing to be led, even though his programmes were of hate and violence. His impact was entirely negative and nothing of what he established survived.