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Adolf Hitler Hitler once shouted from the podium during his rise to power, Struggle is the father of all things It is not by the principles of humanity that man lives or is able to preserve himself above the animal world, but solely by means of the most brutal struggle (Columbia n. p. ). For Hitler, this view of life was a vicious contest for dominance, a hard lesson beaten into him by his overbearing father. The brutal struggle that Hitler endured during his early life brought about the demand for power in his quest for notorious domination. Hitler was ashamed of his father s brutality but never-the-less proud of his own ability as a youth to endure the punishment.
This quality was demonstrated again and again throughout his life as a soldier, later as a Nazi firebrand, and finally as the overpowering leader of the German people. Adolf Hitler s strenuous fight all started in his early years. As a child Hitler lived a depressing and fearful life. On April 20, 1889, at Braunau-am-Inn, Austria, Adolf Hitler was born the fourth child of Alois Schickelgruber and Klara Hitler (Grolier 246). Alois, a Austrian custom official, was described by many as a stern and abusive man.
Although it was not uncommon to be beaten, Adolf was consistently the victim of his father s rage. Klara Hitler often feared for their safety. Two of Hitler s siblings died young, one from diphtheria, and the other died shortly after birth, leaving him with only a brother and sister (Alexandria 11 - 12). Living in Braunau, the family moved to Passau along the German side of the border, and then moved again to the farm community of Held (Hitler n.
p. ). Although a high school scholar, his life was headed no where. Upon another move, the family lived across from a Large Benedictine monastery where he dreamed of entering the priesthood (Hitler n. p. ). After suffering a pleural hemorrhage, Adolf s father died in 1903, when young Adolf was fourteen (Grolier 246).
Later on, at the age of sixteen, Adolf himself suffered lung infections, which forced him to quit school (Craig 15). In Hitler s late teens, he began to travel and his views towards anti-Semitism begin to grow. In 1906, Adolf was not able to gain admission to a predominant art school in Vienna, where he stayed until 1913 (Grolier 246). His mother developed terminal breast cancer and was treated by a Jewish doctor, named Dr. Edward Bloch, who served the poor. After an expensive and painful treatment, she died on December 21, 1907 (Craig 17).
As a poor wanderer, Adolf developed his prejudices against Jews, his interests in politics, and his debating skills. In May 1913, escaping military service, Hitler left Vienna for Munich, the capital of Bavaria. In January, police arrested him and he was found guilty of leaving his native land with the intent of evading conscription. Hitler s early life prepared him for the battles which he was going to face in the years to come (Hitler n.
p. ). Hitler s obsession in patriotism at the time of WWI, influenced his decision to enter the war. Adolf entered his first war by enlisting in the Bavarian army. After just two months of training, Hitler saw his first combat near Ypres, against the British and Belgians.
Hitler, narrowly escaping death in battle, was awarded two Iron Crosses for bravery, and he rose to the rank of lance corporal. Soon after, in October 1916, he was wounded by an enemy shell and evacuated to a Berlin hospital. After recovering, and serving a total of four years in the trenches, his squad was attacked with mustard gas, in October 1918, which temporarily blinded him (Grolier 246). Jewish leaders led revolts against Germany, which inspired Hitler s hatred of Jews as well as Communists. On November 9 th, the Kaiser renounced his throne and the Socialists gained control of the government.
While Hitler was recovering from his injuries, the Nazi Party began to form. Vigilante war veterans banded together and conquered the Communist attack which was trying to take over Germany. These members formed the Nazi Sturmabteilung, which served as the Nazi Party s army (Alexandria 8). After their defeat in the war, the German monarchy came to an end and a republic was formed. A constitution was written for a president to have access to broad political powers. The German government ratified the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919.
Under the terms of the treaty, Germany had to pay restitution for all civil damages caused by the war, forfeit colonies and large portions of its territories, and limit its military strength (Craig 120). Germany s humiliating reparations provoked Hitler to start a revolt within. Hitler used Nazism as a key to bring people to understand his beliefs, and to join him in his political ideas. The German Worker s Party shared the same convictions as Hitler, and he saw this opportunity as a way to rise to power.
Hitler was recruited to join a military intelligence unit, and was assigned to observe the German Worker s Party. At that time, comprised of only a handful of members, it was disorganized and had no program. His blossoming hatred of Jews was the central agenda of the party s platform. Hitler built up the party, converting it from a gang to an actual political party (Grolier 246 - 247).
On October 16, 1919, Hitler delivered a mesmerizing speech which captivated his audience. With the assistance of fellow party members, Hitler adopted a program consisting of twenty-five points (Hitler 168 - 169). Hitler electrified the 2000 member audience with his masterful right-wing extremist views. Hitler blamed Jews, in his orations, for inflation, political instability, unemployment, and the humiliation in the war.
The name of the party was changed to the National Socialist German Worker s Party, and the red flag with the swastika was elected as it symbol (Alexandria 133). Due to the on goings in the Weimar Republic, the town of Munich repelled. Hitler endorsed the fall of the Weimar Republic and declared a public rally on October 30, 1923. In doing so, the National Socialist German Worker s Party marched in Berlin to rid the government of Communists and Jews. On November 8, 1923, Hitler led a revolt at a Munich beer hall, vehemently proclaiming a revolution. Adolf Hitler received a five-year sentence for resisting arrest and leading the revolt.
While in prison, he was first able to express his struggles, continuing throughout his life, by writing his first volume of Mein Kampf. Mein Kampf (My Struggle) expressed all of Hitler s views, ideas, and battles to come. It was part autobiography, and part pro-prejudice beliefs. He believed that Jews were the main reason for the loss of the war, that they had no culture, and they were not a race but an anti-race. Hitler believed that the Jews wanted to take over the world, and the only way to stop them is by eliminating them. In Mein Kampf he wrote, [The Jews ] ultimate goal is the de naturalization, the promiscuous bastardization of other people, the lowering of the racial level of the highest peoples as the domination of his racial mishmash through the extirpation of the folks intelligentsia and its replacement by the members of his own people.
The failure of the uprising taught Hitler that the Nazi party must use legal means to become a powerful force. Hitler spoke to huge masses of audiences asking for the German people to resist the temptations of the Jews and Communists, and to create a new nation. Hitler made a political deal to make him chancellor in exchange for political support. In January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed to office. Upon the death of Hindenburg in August 1934, Hitler became the consensus successor (Hitler n. p. ).
With gaining and increasing power, Hitler became Germany s next oppressor. Hitler quickly passed laws such as, the Enabling Act which permitted his government to make laws without the legislature (Alexandria 161 - 164). Then he banned all political parties except for his own Nazi party. All of their activities were under the authority of Hitler, and he made their lives dependent on him. Anyone against him was thrown into concentration camps, where six million Jews were later murdered. The Gestapo, his secret police, intimidated his opponents and enforced Hitler s anti-Semitic laws (157, 173).
Hitler told his followers that they were the master and dominant race, and they could have control of any country they wanted. Hitler still felt he needed more power and proceeded to obtain it by preparing to take over the world. In 1935, without any argument from any other European nations, Hitler rearmed Germany with ammunition for war. Successfully he sent his troops into the Rhineland without reaction.
Hitler supplied airplanes and weapons to his confidant Francisco Franco. In 1936, Hitler signed a pact with Italy s leader, Benito Mussolini, and signed the Anti-Comintern Treaty with Japan. In 1940, Germany signed a tripartite alliance with Italy and Japan, pledging collective support. By 1937, he had enough confidence to put his master plan into effect (Hitler n. p. ). With the start of World War II, Hitler consumed full control of his followers and had his master plan in full effect.
With Hitler as their leader, the Germans had early successes as the war erupted. Hitler ordered the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland in 1938. In August, 1939, Germany signed a non-aggression pact with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). On September 1, 1939, Hitler s army invaded Poland, sparking France and England to declare war on Germany. In the following spring, Hitler s troops took over Denmark and Norway, and weeks later conquered the Netherlands, Belgium, and France (Alexandria 73 - 74, 96 - 97). As the war continued on, Hitler s army encountered problems.
In 1941, Hitler ignored the non-aggression pact that he signed with the Soviet Union in August 1939. In the winter of 1941, he suffered his first crushing defeat at Moscow and later in Stalingrad (Grolier 249). In 1942, Hitler met with his staff and Reich officials to put an end to the Jewish problem. At the end of the war Hitler s greediness finally caught up with him.
Hitler refused to surrender even though defeat became more likely. The United States entered the war in December 1941, and by 1944, the Allies invaded Europe and began bombing German and Italian cities. Although many attempts were made on Hitler s life, none were ever successful. For a man with unrealistic dreams of dominance, the outcome of the war was a devastating step into reality. On an April day in 1945, shortly after three o clock in the afternoon Adolf Hitler died by his own hand after swallowing a cyanide capsule and a bullet. The death of Hitler did not destroy the memories of those who had survived his monstrous and destructive deeds, nor did it end their struggle within.
His struggle to survive the abuse and domination of his father led to his abuse and domination of his country, its people, and the world. And so the world is left with the uncomfortable fact that there was a time when many Germans were willing to claim him as the greatest German, when painters portrayed him as a knight in shining armor, when historians saw him as a hero, professors declared him to be infinitely wise, and the majority of the German people never questioned his leadership. As Heinz Kruger once stated This Hitler, I think he will remain with us until the end of our lives. Work Cited Alexandria, Virginia.
Storming to Power New Jersey: Time-Life Books, 1989. Alexandria, Virginia. The Center of the Web New Jersey: Time-Life Books, 1990. Craig, Gordon A. The Germans New York: New American Library, 1983. Hitler, Adolf.
Columbia Dictionary of Quotations Columbia: Columbia University Press, 1993. Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1971. Hitler, Adolf.
Microsoft-Encarta Funk &# 038; Wagnalls Corporation, 1996. Grolier. Adolf Hitler Encyclopedia Americana vol. 14. Danbury Connecticut, 1996.
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