Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler (pronounced [ˈadɔlf ˈhɪtlɐ] ( listen); 20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (German:Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated NSDAP, commonly known as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state (as Führer und Reichskanzler) from1934 to 1945. Hitler is most well known for his central leadership role in the rise of fascism in Europe, World War II and the Holocaust.

A decorated veteran of World War I, Hitler joined theprecursor of the Nazi Party (DAP) in 1919, and became leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923, Hitler attempted a coup d'état, known as the Beer Hall Putsch, at the Bürgerbräukeller beer hall in Munich. Thefailed coup resulted in Hitler's imprisonment, during which time he wrote his memoir, Mein Kampf (My Struggle). After his release in 1924, Hitler gained support by promoting Pan-Germanism, antisemitismand anti-communism with charismatic oratory and propaganda. He was appointed chancellor in 1933, and transformed the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich, a single-party dictatorship based on thetotalitarian and autocratic ideology of Nazism.

Hitler's avowed aim was to establish a New Order of absolute Nazi German hegemony in continental Europe. His foreign and domestic policies had the goal ofseizing Lebensraum (living space) for the Aryan people. This included the rearmament of Germany, resulting in the invasion of Poland by the Wehrmacht in September 1939, leading to the outbreak ofWorld War II in Europe.[2]

Under Hitler's leadership, German forces and their European allies at one point occupied most of Europe and North Africa, reversed in 1944 when the Allied armies freedGerman-occupied Europe. Hitler's reign resulted in the systematic murder of as many as 17 million civilians,[3] including an estimated six million Jews targeted in the Holocaust and between 500,000 and...