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Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, to Alois and Klara(née Pölzl) in the town of Braunau am Inn in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (today Austria). Hitler was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church. His father Alois(1837–1903)was a mid-level customs official. Klara(1860–1907)was Alois’s third wife. The couple had six children, four of whom died in infancy or childhood. Adolf Hitler’s younger sister Paula was born in 1896. Hitler also had two older half-siblings from his father’s second marriage.
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In the autumn of 1907, Hitler took the entrance exam to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. His application was rejected.
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Hitler moves to Vienna. His impoverishment and residence in homeless shelters began the following year after he had squandered a generous inheritance. Hitler lives in Vienna until May 1913.
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Despite being a foreign citizen, Hitler joined the Bavarian army in August 1914. During World War I, the Bavarian army was part of the German army. Hitler served in the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment. After limited, accelerated military training, the unit deployed to Belgium in fall 1914. Hitler and his unit fought at the First Battle of Ypres (October–November 1914). This was Hitler’s only frontline battle experience.
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In November 1914, Hitler was promoted to Gefreiter, the second promotion rank for an enlisted soldier. This was roughly the equivalent of Private First Class in the US Army. He was never promoted again. Hitler’s rank is often mistakenly translated into English as Lance Corporal. During the war, he received several medals, including the Iron Cross 2nd Class in December 1914 and the Iron Cross 1st Class in August 1918.
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In November 1914, Hitler became a dispatch runner. His job was to take messages to and from regimental headquarters. He was no longer a frontline soldier. For the next four years, Hitler’s regiment fought in a number of battles in Belgium and France on the western front. During these battles, Hitler was often several kilometers behind the front lines. Nevertheless, he was lightly wounded by a shell splinter in his upper thigh in October 1916 during the Battle of the Somme.
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After he was wounded in October 1916, he stayed in an army hospital near Berlin for about two months. In both Munich and Berlin, Hitler witnessed the widespread hunger among German civilians in the winter of 1916–1917 caused by a poor harvest and wartime food blockades. A year and a half later, while on leave in September 1918, Hitler observed the complete collapse of morale on the German home front.
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Hitler is partially blinded in a mustard gas attack near Ypres in Belgium. News of the November 11, 1918, armistice reaches him as he is convalescing in a military hospital. World War I has a profound impact on Hitler and many other Germans. The impact of the conflict and its divisive peace has repercussions for decades to come, giving rise to a second world war and genocide committed under its cover.
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In October 1918, Hitler was wounded in a mustard gas attack. He was sent to the Pasewalk military hospital. News of the November 11, 1918 armistice, the overthrow of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and the German revolution reached him while he was recovering. Hitler’s disgust and dismay at the armistice and the fall of the German empire would later become an important part of his mythos and ideology.
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When Hitler returned to Munich in late November 1918, Munich was in the midst of political changes. On November 7–8, revolutionaries in Bavaria had overthrown Bavarian King Ludwig III and established a democratic republican government. From November 1918 to February 1919, the leader of the new Bavarian government was socialist Kurt Eisner, who was Jewish.
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Eisner was assassinated in February 1919. His successor Johannes Hoffman was eventually driven out of the city in an attempted Communist takeover. In April–May 1919, the Bavarian Soviet Republic (Bayerische Räterepublik, literally “Bavarian councils republic”), a Communist government, took over the city. With the help of neighboring states and militias, Hoffman’s government suppressed the Bavarian Soviet Republic. An anti-Communist reaction followed, in which hundreds of people were killed.
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Related to his intelligence gathering function, Hitler and two colleagues attended a September 12, 1919, meeting of the German Labor Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei--DAP), a völkisch (race-based)-nationalist organization. During the meeting, Hitler denounced a speech favoring Bavarian separatism. Within a month, Hitler had joined the DAP with the number 555. His discharge from the army came through on March 31, 1920.
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Due to his speaking abilities, charisma, and tireless energy, Hitler quickly rose into the DAP leadership ranks. He contributed significantly to the development and announcement of a DAP Program on February 20, 1920, at the Munich Hofbräuhaus. Among other aims, the program advocated:
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The Party Promotes
-National unity based on so-called racial criteria
-Expansion of the nation’s territory
-Revocation of the Treaty of Versailles
-Exclusion of Jews from citizenship and all occupations and professions requiring citizenship
-Halting non-German immigration
A few weeks later, in early March, the DAP changed its name to National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei—NSDAP). -
Hitler is convicted of high treason and sentenced to five years imprisonment, although he serves only one year. While in prison, he writes Mein Kampf (My Struggle). This infamous memoir proves significant in promoting key components of Nazism and its racial ideology. Published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926, it would sell one million copies in 1933, Hitler's first year in office.
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Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party lead a coalition group in an attempt to overthrow the government of Bavaria and initiate a “national revolution.” This so-called Beer Hall Putsch fails. Hitler and others are arrested for treason. 8-9 of November
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Hitler establishes the SS (Schutzstaffel; Protection Squadrons). During the Nazi regime, the SS will become responsible not only for the German police force and the concentration camp system, but also for security, identification of ethnicity, settlement and population policy, and intelligence.
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Mein Kampf – Hitler writes about the threat of Jewish Bolshevism in Russia
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Hitler loses a run-off election for the German presidency to the elderly incumbent, General Paul von Hindenburg.
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Following the burning of the German parliament building, the Reichstag, by unknown arsonists, the German parliament passes the Law for Rectification of the Distress of Nation and Reich, commonly known as the Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz). This law allows Hitler, as Chancellor, to initiate and sign legislation into law without obtaining parliamentary consent. The act effectively establishes a dictatorship, under Hitler, in Germany.
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Consolidates power and becomes Führer after the death of President Hindenburg.
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On Hitler’s order, Nazi leaders eliminate the leadership of the SA and kill other political enemies. The murderous purge cements an agreement between the Nazi regime and the German army that consolidates Nazi power and enables Hitler to proclaim himself Führer (leader) of Germany and to claim absolute power.
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Hitler opens the Berlin Olympics. 1936 represents a rare instance in which one nation, Germany, hosted both the winter and summer Olympic Games. Nazi Germany uses the 1936 Olympics for propaganda purposes. The Nazis promote an image of a new, strong, and united Germany while masking the regime’s targeting of Jews and Roma (Gypsies) as well as Germany’s growing militarism.
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The area containedabout three millionpeople of Germanorigin and in May 1938 itbecame known that Hitler and hisgeneralsplanned to occupy the country.
The Czechoslovak government hoped thatBritain and Francewould come to itsassistance in the event of an invasion,butBritish Prime Minister Chamberlain wasintent onaverting war. -
German troops march into Austria. Native son Adolf Hitler crosses the Austro-German border at midday at his hometown, Braunau on the Inn. On the following day, the annexation of Austria to the German Reich is announced. On March 15, Hitler enters the Austrian capital Vienna before a cheering crowd of 200,000.
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Hitler meets with the leaders of Britain, France, and Italy at a conference in Munich, Germany, on September 29–30, 1938, in which they agree to the German annexation of the Sudetenland in exchange for a pledge of peace from Germany. Six months later, Hitler moves against the Czechoslovak state.
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On30 September 1938, Germany, Britain,France and Italyreached a settlement thatpermitted Germanannexation(incorporaton of one territory into another) oftheSudetenland in western Czechoslovakia.
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Adolf Hitler signs a secret authorization for a “euthanasia’” program, the systematic killing of patients with mental and physical disabilities who are living in institutional settings in Germany and German-annexed territories. It is the only instance in which Hitler signs an authorization for a program of systematic mass murder.
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In a speech to the German parliament in January 1939, Hitler states that another world war will result in the elimination of Jews from Europe.
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German and Soviet foreign ministers Ribbentrop and Molotov, respectively, sign a German-Soviet Pact. The main tenet of this agreement is a ten-year non-aggression pact in which each signatory promises not to attack the other.
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23rd August 1939 – Non-Aggression Pact between Germany-Soviet Union signed – both nations agreed to take parts of Poland
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At 4.45 am on1 September 1939Germany, launched a surprise attack on the Polishgarrison of the Westerplatte Fort,Danzig (modern-day Gdansk)
Hitler was confident that Britainand France would continue theirpolicy ofappeasement. But inrealitythis was the last straw forworld leaders. -
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Prime Minister Churchill (who succeeded from Chamberlain in May of the same year)made it clear that Britain would not negotiate with Hitler.
This launched devastating air attacks on Britain, followed by the landings of German troops.
15,000 British civilians and over 500 airmen died in the Battle of Britain.
Regardless of the lives lost, Britain wassuccessful in preventing Nazi control of the airand British soil. -
Germany overruns Europe. Takes: Poland, Demark, Norway, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands and France. All in one year!
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At this point in time: US and USSR remain neutral and many allied were now Nazi occupied.
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In 1941, Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich and other leading German authorities reach the decision to physically annihilate the Jews of Europe.
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The German army invades the Soviet Union in "Operation Barbarossa." As opposed to their conquests in western Europe, Hitler and other Nazi leaders see war against the Soviet Union in racial and ideological terms.
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In the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Nazi Germany and its ally Italy declare war on the United States, despite the fact that the US had declared war only against the Empire of Japan. In less than a year, American ground troops will fight German forces in North Africa.
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Hitler orders retaliatory measures against the Czech population following the death of Reinhard Heydrich, second-in-command of the SS. The towns of Lidice and Lezaky are destroyed and the inhabitants massacred or deported.
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17th July 1942 – 2nd February 1943 – Battle of Stalingrad – Germany defeated
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January 31–February 2, 1943
After months of fierce fighting and heavy casualties, German forces (numbering now only about 91,000 surviving soldiers) surrender at Stalingrad in a major turning point of World War II and a disaster for Hitler’s long-held goal of defeating the Soviet Union. -
Allied troops successfully land on the Normandy beaches of France, opening a “Second Front” against the Germans and Hitler's regime.
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Hitler survives an assassination attempt coordinated by military and civilian officials. The failure of the attempt and the intended coup which was to follow led to the arrest of some 7,000 and the execution of nearly 5,000 individuals.
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The International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Nuremberg decides not to try Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Joseph Goebbels in absentia. All three had committed suicide before the end of the war. In doing so, the IMT wished to avoid creating the impression that they might still be alive.
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During the night of April 28-29, Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun marry, only hours before they both died by suicide. Braun met Hitler while employed as an assistant to Hitler’s official photographer.
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2nd May 1945 – Soviet forces take Berlin and surrender
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