144 Facts About Hitler

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

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.

Hitler was born in Austria-Hungary and was raised near Linz.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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".

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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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.

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

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.

Hitler was present at the First Battle of Ypres, the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Arras, and the Battle of Passchendaele, and was wounded at the Somme.

Hitler was decorated for bravery, receiving the Iron Cross, Second Class, in 1914.

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

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

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

Hitler made his earliest known written statement about the Jewish question in a 16 September 1919 letter to Adolf Gemlich .

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Hitler continued to face some opposition within the Nazi Party.

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

Hitler'storians have noted the hypnotic effect of his rhetoric on large audiences, and of his eyes in small groups.

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

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

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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.

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

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

Shortly before 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, Hitler was barred from public speaking by the Bavarian authorities, a ban that remained in place until 1927.

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

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.

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

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

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

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: Hitler was named chancellor, Wilhelm Frick Minister of the Interior, and Hermann Goring Minister of the Interior for Prussia.

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

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

Hitler appeared in a morning coat and humbly greeted Hindenburg.

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

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

In early 1938, Hitler used blackmail to consolidate his hold over the military by instigating the Blomberg–Fritsch affair.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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 Hitler's view required a committed effort of rearmament regardless of the economic costs.

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

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

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

In early 1938, in the wake of the Blomberg–Fritsch Affair, Hitler asserted control of the military-foreign policy apparatus, dismissing Neurath as foreign minister and appointing himself as War Minister.

From early 1938 onwards, 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, 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.

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.

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

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

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

In private, 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 Hitler was angered about the missed opportunity for war in 1938; he expressed his disappointment in a speech on 9 October in Saarbrucken.

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In Hitler's view, the British-brokered peace, although favourable to the ostensible German demands, was a diplomatic defeat which spurred his intent of limiting British power to pave the way for the eastern expansion of Germany.

The next day, in violation of the Munich accord and possibly as a result of the deepening economic crisis requiring additional assets, 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, Hitler declared Britain the main enemy to be defeated and that Poland's obliteration was a necessary prelude for that goal.

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.

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.

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

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.

Hitler called Himmler's memo "good and correct", and, ignoring Goring and Frank, implemented the Himmler–Greiser policy in Poland.

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.

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.

Overconfident in his own military expertise following the earlier victories in 1940, 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, Hitler's repeated refusal to allow their withdrawal at the Battle of Stalingrad led to the almost total destruction of the 6th Army.

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, Hitler placed his hopes on the undermanned and under-equipped, commanded by Felix Steiner.

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.

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

Hitler asked everyone except Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, Hans Krebs, and Wilhelm Burgdorf to leave the room, then launched into a tirade against the treachery and incompetence of his commanders, culminating in his declaration—for the first time—that "everything was lost".

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 Hitler was isolated in Berlin, Goring should assume leadership of Germany.

Later that afternoon, 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.

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

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

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.

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

Hitler approved the —killing squads that followed the German army through Poland, the Baltic, and the Soviet Union—and was well informed about their activities.

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.

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

On 15 September 1935, Hitler presented two laws—known as the Nuremberg Laws—to the Reichstag.

Hitler ruled the Nazi Party autocratically by asserting the .

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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".

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

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

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

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.

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

Public support for 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.

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, 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.

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

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.