146 Facts About Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Germany from 1933 until his suicide in 1945.

Adolf Hitler rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then taking the title of in 1934.

Adolf Hitler was closely involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust: the genocide of about six million Jews and millions of other victims.

Adolf Hitler lived in Vienna later in the first decade of the 1900s and moved to Germany in 1913.

Adolf Hitler was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I In 1919, he joined the German Workers' Party, the precursor of the Nazi Party, and was appointed leader of the Nazi Party in 1921.

Adolf Hitler frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as part of a Jewish conspiracy.

On 2 August 1934, Hindenburg died and Adolf Hitler replaced him as the head of state and government.

Adolf Hitler aimed to eliminate Jews from Germany and establish a New Order to counter what he saw as the injustice of the post-World War I international order dominated by Britain and France.

Adolf Hitler directed large-scale rearmament and, on 1 September 1939, invaded Poland, resulting in Britain and France declaring war on Germany.

In June 1941, Adolf Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union.

Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary, close to the border with the German Empire.

Adolf Hitler was the fourth of six children born to Alois Hitler and his third wife, Klara Polzl.

Adolf Hitler's father beat him, although his mother tried to protect him.

The eight-year-old Adolf Hitler took singing lessons, sang in the church choir, and even considered becoming a priest.

Adolf Hitler was deeply affected by the death of his younger brother Edmund, who died in 1900 from measles.

Adolf Hitler changed from a confident, outgoing, conscientious student to a morose, detached boy who constantly fought with his father and teachers.

Adolf Hitler later dramatised an episode from this period when his father took him to visit a customs office, depicting it as an event that gave rise to an unforgiving antagonism between father and son, who were both strong-willed.

Adolf Hitler rebelled against this decision, and in states that he intentionally did poorly in school, hoping that once his father saw "what little progress I was making at the technical school he would let me devote myself to my dream".

Adolf Hitler expressed loyalty only to Germany, despising the declining Habsburg monarchy and its rule over an ethnically variegated empire.

Adolf Hitler enrolled at the Realschule in Steyr in September 1904, where his behaviour and performance improved.

In 1905, after passing a repeat of the final exam, Adolf Hitler left the school without any ambitions for further education or clear plans for a career.

In 1907, Adolf Hitler left Linz to live and study fine art in Vienna, financed by orphan's benefits and support from his mother.

Adolf Hitler applied for admission to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna but was rejected twice.

The director suggested Adolf Hitler should apply to the School of Architecture, but he lacked the necessary academic credentials because he had not finished secondary school.

In 1909, Adolf Hitler ran out of money and was forced to live a bohemian life in homeless shelters and a men's dormitory.

Adolf Hitler earned money as a casual labourer and by painting and selling watercolours of Vienna's sights.

Adolf Hitler read local newspapers such as Deutsches Volksblatt that fanned prejudice and played on Christian fears of being swamped by an influx of Eastern European Jews.

Adolf Hitler read newspapers and pamphlets that published the thoughts of philosophers and theoreticians such as Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gustave Le Bon and Arthur Schopenhauer.

The origin and development of Adolf Hitler's anti-Semitism remains a matter of debate.

Adolf Hitler received the final part of his father's estate in May 1913 and moved to Munich, Germany.

Adolf Hitler later claimed that he did not wish to serve the Habsburg Empire because of the mixture of races in its army and his belief that the collapse of Austria-Hungary was imminent.

Adolf Hitler spent almost two months recovering in hospital at Beelitz, returning to his regiment on 5 March 1917.

Adolf Hitler was present at the Battle of Arras of 1917 and the Battle of Passchendaele.

Adolf Hitler received the Black Wound Badge on 18 May 1918 and in August 1918, on a recommendation by Lieutenant Hugo Gutmann, his Jewish superior, Hitler received the Iron Cross, First Class, a decoration rarely awarded to one of Hitler's rank.

Adolf Hitler described the war as "the greatest of all experiences", and was praised by his commanding officers for his bravery.

Adolf Hitler gave him a copy of his pamphlet My Political Awakening, which contained anti-Semitic, nationalist, anti-capitalist, and anti-Marxist ideas.

At the DAP, Adolf Hitler met Dietrich Eckart, one of the party's founders and a member of the occult Thule Society.

Eckart became Adolf Hitler's mentor, exchanging ideas with him and introducing him to a wide range of Munich society.

Adolf Hitler designed the party's banner of a swastika in a white circle on a red background.

Adolf Hitler was discharged from the army on 31 March 1920 and began working full-time for the party.

Adolf Hitler soon gained notoriety for his rowdy polemic speeches against the Treaty of Versailles, rival politicians, and especially against Marxists and Jews.

Adolf Hitler announced he would rejoin on the condition that he would replace Drexler as party chairman, and that the party headquarters would remain in Munich.

Adolf Hitler continued to face some opposition within the Nazi Party.

Adolf Hitler used personal magnetism and an understanding of crowd psychology to his advantage while engaged in public speaking.

Adolf Hitler perceived the programme as primarily a basis for propaganda and for attracting people to the party.

In 1923, Adolf Hitler enlisted the help of World War I General Erich Ludendorff for an attempted coup known as the "Beer Hall Putsch".

Adolf Hitler wanted to emulate Benito Mussolini's "March on Rome" of 1922 by staging his own coup in Bavaria, to be followed by a challenge to the government in Berlin.

Adolf Hitler fled to the home of Ernst Hanfstaengl and by some accounts contemplated suicide.

Adolf Hitler was depressed but calm when arrested on 11 November 1923 for high treason.

Shortly before Adolf Hitler was eligible for parole, the Bavarian government attempted to have him deported to Austria.

However, after an inflammatory speech he gave on 27 February, Adolf Hitler was barred from public speaking by the Bavarian authorities, a ban that remained in place until 1927.

Adolf Hitler made a prominent appearance at the trial of two Reichswehr officers, Lieutenants Richard Scheringer and Hanns Ludin, in late 1930.

On 25 September 1930, Adolf Hitler testified that his party would pursue political power solely through democratic elections, which won him many supporters in the officer corps.

Adolf Hitler exploited this by targeting his political messages specifically at people who had been affected by the inflation of the 1920s and the Depression, such as farmers, war veterans, and the middle class.

Adolf Hitler used the campaign slogan "", a reference to his political ambitions and his campaigning by aircraft.

Adolf Hitler was one of the first politicians to use aircraft travel for political purposes, and used it effectively.

Adolf Hitler came in second in both rounds of the election, garnering more than 35 per cent of the vote in the final election.

Adolf Hitler headed a short-lived coalition government formed by the Nazi Party and Hugenberg's party, the German National People's Party.

The Nazi Party gained three posts: Adolf Hitler was named chancellor, Wilhelm Frick Minister of the Interior, and Hermann Goring Minister of the Interior for Prussia.

Adolf Hitler had insisted on the ministerial positions as a way to gain control over the police in much of Germany.

Adolf Hitler's party failed to secure an absolute majority, necessitating another coalition with the DNVP.

Adolf Hitler appeared in a morning coat and humbly greeted Hindenburg.

Adolf Hitler targeted Ernst Rohm and other SA leaders who, along with a number of Adolf Hitler's political adversaries, were rounded up, arrested, and shot.

Adolf Hitler thus became head of state as well as head of government, and was formally named as, although was eventually quietly dropped.

Adolf Hitler forced his War Minister, Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg, to resign by using a police dossier that showed that Blomberg's new wife had a record for prostitution.

Adolf Hitler assumed Blomberg's title of Commander-in-Chief, thus taking personal command of the armed forces.

Adolf Hitler replaced the Ministry of War with the, headed by General Wilhelm Keitel.

Adolf Hitler took care to give his dictatorship the appearance of legality.

Adolf Hitler oversaw one of the largest infrastructure improvement campaigns in German history, leading to the construction of dams, autobahns, railroads, and other civil works.

Adolf Hitler officiated at the opening ceremonies and attended events at both the Winter Games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the Summer Games in Berlin.

At the first meeting of his cabinet in 1933, Adolf Hitler prioritised military spending over unemployment relief.

Adolf Hitler called the signing of the AGNA "the happiest day of his life", believing that the agreement marked the beginning of the Anglo-German alliance he had predicted in.

Adolf Hitler sent troops to Spain to support General Franco during the Spanish Civil War after receiving an appeal for help in July 1936.

The plan envisaged an all-out struggle between "Judeo-Bolshevism" and German Nazism, which in Adolf Hitler's view required a committed effort of rearmament regardless of the economic costs.

Adolf Hitler abandoned his plan of an Anglo-German alliance, blaming "inadequate" British leadership.

Adolf Hitler ordered preparations for war in the East, to begin as early as 1938 and no later than 1943.

Adolf Hitler urged quick action before Britain and France gained a permanent lead in the arms race.

From early 1938 onwards, Adolf Hitler was carrying out a foreign policy ultimately aimed at war.

In February 1938, on the advice of his newly appointed foreign minister, the strongly pro-Japanese Joachim von Ribbentrop, Adolf Hitler ended the Sino-German alliance with the Republic of China to instead enter into an alliance with the more modern and powerful Empire of Japan.

Adolf Hitler announced German recognition of Manchukuo, the Japanese-occupied state in Manchuria, and renounced German claims to their former colonies in the Pacific held by Japan.

Adolf Hitler ordered an end to arms shipments to China and recalled all German officers working with the Chinese Army.

On 12 March 1938, Adolf Hitler announced the unification of Austria with Nazi Germany in the Anschluss.

Adolf Hitler then turned his attention to the ethnic German population of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.

In private, Adolf Hitler considered the Sudeten issue unimportant; his real intention was a war of conquest against Czechoslovakia.

Chamberlain was satisfied with the Munich conference, calling the outcome "peace for our time", while Adolf Hitler was angered about the missed opportunity for war in 1938; he expressed his disappointment in a speech on 9 October in Saarbrucken.

In late 1938 and early 1939, the continuing economic crisis caused by rearmament forced Adolf Hitler to make major defence cuts.

The next day, in violation of the Munich accord and possibly as a result of the deepening economic crisis requiring additional assets, Adolf Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht to invade the Czech rump state, and from Prague Castle he proclaimed the territory a German protectorate.

In private discussions in 1939, Adolf Hitler declared Britain the main enemy to be defeated and that Poland's obliteration was a necessary prelude for that goal.

Adolf Hitler initially favoured the idea of a satellite state, but upon its rejection by the Polish government, he decided to invade and made this the main foreign policy goal of 1939.

Adolf Hitler had repeatedly claimed that he must lead Germany into war before he got too old, as his successors might lack his strength of will.

Adolf Hitler was concerned that a military attack against Poland could result in a premature war with Britain.

Accordingly, on 22 August 1939 Adolf Hitler ordered a military mobilisation against Poland.

Adolf Hitler instructed the two newly appointed Gauleiters of north-western Poland, Albert Forster of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia and Arthur Greiser of Reichsgau Wartheland, to Germanise their areas, with "no questions asked" about how this was accomplished.

Adolf Hitler made peace overtures to the new British leader, Winston Churchill, and upon their rejection he ordered a series of aerial attacks on Royal Air Force airbases and radar stations in southeast England.

Adolf Hitler ordered Army Group Centre to temporarily halt its advance to Moscow and divert its Panzer groups to aid in the encirclement of Leningrad and Kiev.

Four days later, Adolf Hitler declared war against the United States.

Overconfident in his own military expertise following the earlier victories in 1940, Adolf Hitler became distrustful of his Army High Command and began to interfere in military and tactical planning, with damaging consequences.

In December 1942 and January 1943, Adolf Hitler's repeated refusal to allow their withdrawal at the Battle of Stalingrad led to the almost total destruction of the 6th Army.

Adolf Hitler narrowly survived because staff officer Heinz Brandt moved the briefcase containing the bomb behind a leg of the heavy conference table, which deflected much of the blast.

In denial about the dire situation, Adolf Hitler placed his hopes on the undermanned and under-equipped, commanded by Felix Steiner.

Adolf Hitler ordered Steiner to attack the northern flank of the salient, while the German Ninth Army was ordered to attack northward in a pincer attack.

Adolf Hitler was told that the attack had not been launched and that the Soviets had entered Berlin.

Adolf Hitler announced that he would stay in Berlin until the end and then shoot himself.

That same day, Goring sent a telegram from Berchtesgaden, arguing that since Adolf Hitler was isolated in Berlin, Goring should assume leadership of Germany.

Adolf Hitler ordered Himmler's arrest and had Hermann Fegelein shot.

Later that afternoon, Adolf Hitler was informed that Mussolini had been executed by the Italian resistance movement on the previous day; this presumably increased his determination to avoid capture.

On 30 April 1945, Soviet troops were within a block or two of the Reich Chancellery when Adolf Hitler shot himself in the head and Braun bit into a cyanide capsule.

Adolf Hitler's demise was entered as an assumption of death based on this testimony.

Adolf Hitler focused on Eastern Europe for this expansion, aiming to defeat Poland and the Soviet Union and then removing or killing the Jews and Slavs The called for deporting the population of occupied Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to West Siberia, for use as slave labour or to be murdered; the conquered territories were to be colonised by German or "Germanised" settlers.

The goal was to implement this plan after the conquest of the Soviet Union, but when this failed, Adolf Hitler moved the plans forward.

Similarly, at a meeting in July 1941 with leading functionaries of the Eastern territories, Adolf Hitler said that the easiest way to quickly pacify the areas would be best achieved by "shooting everyone who even looks odd".

Adolf Hitler's policies resulted in the killing of nearly two million non-Jewish Polish civilians, over three million Soviet prisoners of war, communists and other political opponents, homosexuals, the physically and mentally disabled, Jehovah's Witnesses, Adventists, and trade unionists.

Adolf Hitler did not speak publicly about the killings, and seems to never have visited the concentration camps.

Adolf Hitler ruled the Nazi Party autocratically by asserting the.

Adolf Hitler typically did not give written orders; instead, he communicated verbally, or had them conveyed through his close associate Martin Bormann.

Adolf Hitler entrusted Bormann with his paperwork, appointments, and personal finances; Bormann used his position to control the flow of information and access to Hitler.

Adolf Hitler dominated his country's war effort during World War II to a greater extent than any other national leader.

Adolf Hitler strengthened his control of the armed forces in 1938, and subsequently made all major decisions regarding Germany's military strategy.

Adolf Hitler deepened his involvement in the war effort by appointing himself commander-in-chief of the Army in December 1941; from this point forward, he personally directed the war against the Soviet Union, while his military commanders facing the Western Allies retained a degree of autonomy.

Adolf Hitler's leadership became increasingly disconnected from reality as the war turned against Germany, with the military's defensive strategies often hindered by his slow decision-making and frequent directives to hold untenable positions.

Adolf Hitler created a public image as a celibate man without a domestic life, dedicated entirely to his political mission and the nation.

Adolf Hitler met his lover, Eva Braun, in 1929, and married her on 29 April 1945, one day before they both committed suicide.

Adolf Hitler was born to a practising Catholic mother and an anti-clerical father; after leaving home, Adolf Hitler never again attended Mass or received the sacraments.

Speer states that Adolf Hitler railed against the church to his political associates, and though he never officially left the church, he had no attachment to it.

Adolf Hitler adds that Hitler felt that in the absence of organised religion, people would turn to mysticism, which he considered regressive.

Historian John S Conway states that Hitler was fundamentally opposed to the Christian churches.

Adolf Hitler favoured aspects of Protestantism that suited his own views, and adopted some elements of the Catholic Church's hierarchical organisation, liturgy, and phraseology.

Adolf Hitler viewed the church as an important politically conservative influence on society, and he adopted a strategic relationship with it that "suited his immediate political purposes".

In public, Adolf Hitler often praised Christian heritage and German Christian culture, though professing a belief in an "Aryan Jesus" who fought against the Jews.

Speer wrote that Adolf Hitler had a negative view of Himmler's and Alfred Rosenberg's mystical notions and Himmler's attempt to mythologise the SS.

Adolf Hitler was more pragmatic, and his ambitions centred on more practical concerns.

Researchers have variously suggested that Adolf Hitler suffered from irritable bowel syndrome, skin lesions, irregular heartbeat, coronary sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, syphilis, giant-cell arteritis, tinnitus, and monorchism.

Historians Henrik Eberle and Hans-Joachim Neumann consider that while he suffered from a number of illnesses including Parkinson's disease, Adolf Hitler did not experience pathological delusions and was always fully aware of, and therefore responsible for, his decisions.

Sometime in the 1930s, Adolf Hitler adopted a mainly vegetarian diet, avoiding all meat and fish from 1942 onwards.

Adolf Hitler stopped drinking alcohol around the time he became vegetarian and thereafter only very occasionally drank beer or wine on social occasions.

Adolf Hitler was a non-smoker for most of his adult life, but smoked heavily in his youth ; he eventually quit, calling the habit "a waste of money".

Adolf Hitler encouraged his close associates to quit by offering a gold watch to anyone able to break the habit.

Adolf Hitler began using amphetamine occasionally after 1937 and became addicted to it in late 1942.

Adolf Hitler regularly consumed amphetamine, barbiturates, opiates, and cocaine, as well as potassium bromide and atropa belladonna.

Adolf Hitler suffered ruptured eardrums as a result of the 20 July plot bomb blast in 1944, and 200 wood splinters had to be removed from his legs.

Adolf Hitler's suicide was likened by contemporaries to a "spell" being broken.

Public support for Adolf Hitler had collapsed by the time of his death and few Germans mourned his passing; Kershaw argues that most civilians and military personnel were too busy adjusting to the collapse of the country or fleeing from the fighting to take any interest.

Adolf Hitler contends that without Hitler, the de-colonisation of former European spheres of influence would have been postponed.

Further, Haffner claims that other than Alexander the Great, Adolf Hitler had a more significant impact than any other comparable historical figure, in that he too caused a wide range of worldwide changes in a relatively short time span.

Adolf Hitler exploited documentary films and newsreels to inspire a cult of personality.

Adolf Hitler was involved and appeared in a series of propaganda films throughout his political career, many made by Leni Riefenstahl, regarded as a pioneer of modern filmmaking.