Adolf Hitler: The Life, Influence and Controversy of Nazi Germany's Führer

As the head of Nazi Germany and the initiator of World War II, Adolf Hitler's life, extreme ideologies (such as fascism, anti-Semitism), and profound influence on world politics, military, and technology are key issues in understanding modern history. By fully understanding these political leanings, you can also take an in-depth 8values political values leaning test to compare the characteristics of different ideologies.

Adolf Hitler (German: Adolf Hitler, April 20, 1889 - April 30, 1945) was the head of state, chancellor and leader of the Nazi Party (Die nazi-Partei) of Nazi Germany . He was also the initiator of World War II . He actively promoted fascism , ultra-nationalism , anti-communism , anti-capitalism and anti-Semitism (Antisemitismus), and reorganized and established the National Socialist Workers Party (the Nazi Party). He tried to establish a new order on the European continent headed by Nazi Germany, and advocated expanding the "Lebensraum" (Lebensraum) of the German nation and rearming Germany. During World War II, Hitler brought unprecedented disasters to people in many countries around the world.

Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary. Finally, he shot himself in the basement of the German Chancellery at 3:30 pm on April 30, 1945, ending his controversial life.

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Adolf Hitler's early troubles and the budding ideology

Hitler was born in an inn in Braunau, Austria, the third child from the third marriage of a customs clerk in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He joined Catholicism with his father as a child and became a believer. Although his grades in elementary school were always good, in middle school he had a dispute with his father, who wanted him to become a civil servant, because he aspired to be a painter . This conflict resulted in him abandoning his studies and leaving Hittel State High School without the proper certificates.

In 1905, at the age of 16, Hitler became passionate about politics and developed a passionate hatred of all non-Germanic peoples in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and an equally strong love for all things Germanic. He became a fervent German nationalist. In 1907 and 1908, he applied twice to the Vienna Academy of Art (Vienna Academy of Art) and was rejected. After the death of his parents, Hitler's life became increasingly difficult, making a living by selling paintings and sometimes doing odd jobs. Hatred of the multiethnic nation of Austria-Hungary, he fled to Munich to evade the draft.

Hitler had no fixed career until 1913, when he moved to Munich, Germany, during which time he had become a fervent believer in nationalism and anti-Semitism .

Entry into politics and the rise of the Nazi Party

In August 1914, World War I (Der Erste weltkrieg) broke out, and Hitler volunteered to join the German Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment. He fought bravely on the Western Front and won the "Iron Cross First Class" and the "Iron Cross Second Class" successively, and was promoted from a messenger to a private. In 1918, he was briefly blinded by a mustard gas attack, and while he was recovering from his injuries, Germany surrendered to the Allies.

In September 1919, Hitler was ordered to investigate a small political group called the "German Workers' Party" (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei). While sitting in on a party meeting, he attracted the attention of attendees by lambasting a separatist rhetoric. Two days later, Hitler was invited to join the German Workers' Party, becoming the party's 96th member and serving as the 7th member of the party's presidium. The program of this party is socialism , nationalism , and anti-Semitism .

After joining, Hitler used his oratory skills to incite the masses to hate the Treaty of Versailles, November Sinners and the Jews . His speeches were accessible and provocative, and he quickly attracted a large following. He was appointed "Minister of Propaganda." In order to attract a wider audience, he took advantage of the nationalist and socialist trends prevailing in Germany at the time and officially changed the name of the "German Workers' Party" to the "National Socialist German Workers' Party" (Die Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei), or the Nazi Party for short. The keynote of the Nazi Party's 25-point program was anti-Semitism, nationalism and social demands.

In July 1921, Hitler threatened to withdraw, forcing the party to agree that he would become head of state and enjoy the power to command everything. He also revised the party constitution, established the principle of leadership , and developed authoritarian rule. On the evening of November 8, 1923, Hitler followed Mussolini's example of "March on Rome" and launched the Bier- aufstand , which ultimately ended in failure.

The fanatical Führer and the establishment of totalitarian rule

In January 1925, after being released from prison, Hitler admitted that the coup was a mistake and promised that he would abide by the law in the future. The Nazi Party was officially re-established after the ban was lifted, and Hitler once again assumed the status of dictatorial head of state. Thereafter, he reorganized the Sturmtruppen into an armed group with hundreds of thousands of members and established the SS (Der Waffen-SS), requiring them to take a special oath of allegiance.

The world economic crisis of October 1929 provided Hitler with an excellent opportunity. He blamed the economic crisis on government incompetence, acceptance of the Treaty of Versailles, and pursuit of "socialist" policies. In January 1933, Hitler became Prime Minister as he wished. After coming to power, he pursued the complete abolition of parliamentary democracy and the establishment of a fascist dictatorship .

Hitler finally established his dictatorship through the "legal" process of dissolving the Reichstag and passing the Enabling Act (which allowed him to exercise power without restrictions). He abolished the state parliaments, making Germany a centralized country for the first time in history. The Nazi Party became the only political party "inseparably connected with the country." He also devoted himself to building Germany into a police state to strictly control and oppress the people, and used SA and SS members to form "auxiliary police forces" to legitimize Nazi violent organizations.

When analyzing Hitler's extreme totalitarian and nationalist ideology, it helps us understand the polarization of the political spectrum. You can measure your inclination on such issues by taking the 8values political values orientation test , and view detailed interpretations of all 8values ideological results .

Armament expansion and war preparations and the pursuit of “Lebensraum” (Lebensraum)

After Hitler became head of the Third Reich, he promised to "put milk and bread on the table of every household in Germany." This promise was realized in the early days of Nazi Germany (1938) and won the support of the people. He oversaw the largest construction project in German history, including the construction of dams, highways, railways and other infrastructure.

While purging the country politically, Hitler brought the entire economy under state control and implemented forced production to facilitate military expansion and war preparations . He promoted a "command economy" and solved the problem of six million unemployed people by expanding fiscal expenditures, restricting the employment of married women, engaging in infrastructure construction (including building highways and military camps), expanding the military , and implementing a compulsory labor system. By 1938, the unemployment rate fell to just 0.95%. However, Nazi Germany's economic recovery (average annual growth of 2.6%) was below the historical average.

Hitler successfully rearmed and expanded Germany in the first six years of his rule.

In the spring of 1935, he publicly announced that he would expand the Wehrmacht from 100,000 to 300,000, openly violating the Treaty of Versailles. On March 7, 1936, he brazenly announced the abolition of the Locarno Convention and sent 30,000 German troops into the Rhine Demilitarized Zone (Die rheinländer entmilitarisierte zone). The weak protests from Western countries emboldened him.

In November 1936, Germany and Japan concluded an anti-Comintern agreement, and Italy joined in September 1937, forming the German, Italian, and Japanese fascist group , the Three-Country Axis (Die Achsenmächte). Hitler subsequently announced that Germany's living space problem would be solved between 1943 and 1945 at the latest, with the first goal being the conquest of Austria and Czechoslovakia (Der Tschechoslowakei).

On March 11, 1938, Hitler occupied Austria with the help of pro-German elements. On September 30 of the same year, the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, and Italy signed the infamous "Das Münchner ABKOMMEN" (Das Münchner ABKOMMEN), under which Hitler occupied the Sudetenland for Germany without bloodshed. In March 1939, Hitler tore up the agreement and occupied all of Czechoslovakia.

The outbreak of World War II and the defeat of the Soviet Union

In order to implement the "White Plan" of "Blitzing Poland" and avoid a two-front war, Hitler signed the "Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact" (Deutsch-sowjetischer Nichtangriffspakt) with the Soviet Union on August 23, 1939.

On September 1, 1939 , Hitler announced that Germany had been invaded by Poland and was forced to fight back. Subsequently, Britain and France were forced to declare war on Germany, and World War II broke out .

In the 1940 offensive, German forces quickly captured Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. On June 22 of the same year, France was forced to sign a document of surrender to Germany. Relying on the excellent command, sophisticated equipment and effective tactics of the "Blitzkrieg", the German army quickly occupied most of Europe. After the evacuation of Dunkirk, Hitler tried to lure Britain to peace but failed, and ordered the implementation of the "Sea Lion Plan" (Unternehmen Seelöwe) to land in Britain, but it was not successfully implemented.

In the summer of 1940, Hitler formulated the "Barbarossa Plan" (Unternehmen Barbarossa) to invade the Soviet Union. He believed that once the Soviet Union was defeated, Britain's hopes would be dashed. At this time, he had occupied 14 European countries and turned Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia into client states.

On June 22, 1941, the German army broke into the Soviet Union in three groups. Hitler raved about the destruction of the Soviet Union in three months. Although the German army was invincible at the beginning, in the Battle of Moscow launched on September 30, 1941, the Soviet army won and the German army suffered heavy losses. On December 11, 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hitler was forced to declare war on the United States.

Subsequently, the German army changed the focus of its offensive, aiming to capture the agricultural and industrial bases in the Caucasus. In the subsequent Battle of Stalingrad (Schlacht von Stalingrad), the Soviet army's tenacious resistance finally surrounded and annihilated 330,000 German troops and achieved a decisive victory.

In February 1943, Germany began to retreat steadily after the disastrous defeat at Stalingrad. By 1944, Hitler had disappeared from public life.

Suicide and death controversy

In April 1945, Berlin was three-quarters surrounded by the Soviet Red Army. On April 28, Hitler learned that his ally Mussolini had been shot and that his deputy Heinrich Himmler was trying to negotiate with Western powers. He felt that the end was coming. He dictated a political will and still required that his successors "must do their best to abide by racial laws and ruthlessly resist the international Jewish group, the poisoner of all nationalities in the world."

Shortly before midnight on April 28, 1945, Hitler officially married his mistress, Eva Braun . At 3:30 pm on April 30, when the Soviet army captured the Reichstag and the Chancellery was within range of artillery fire, Hitler shot himself in the bullet shelter in the basement. Eva Braun also swallowed poison. Their bodies were then carried to the garden of the Prime Minister's Office, doused with gasoline and cremated, and their ashes were buried in a shell crater.

There is controversy in history regarding Hitler's death. Historical data shows that Soviet officers found Hitler's skull in 1945 and it was confirmed by a dentist. However, there are also Argentinian writers and Brazilian researchers who challenge the traditional view and believe that Hitler faked his own death in 1945 and fled to South America where he died many years later.

National Policy and the Holocaust

The most disastrous of Hitler's policies were his extreme anti-Semitism and ethnic cleansing campaigns. During his early years in Vienna, he had been deeply affected by anti-Semitism.

Since the Nazi Party came to power in 1933, large-scale anti-Semitic actions have gradually developed. The Nazi German government deprived all Jewish civil servants of their positions and purged Jewish members from the army, police, and judiciary. The Nuremberg Laws passed in 1935 defined “Jew”. By 1938, Jews were banned from most professions.

On November 9, 1938, the Nazi Party planned the anti-Semitic event "Kristallnacht" (Novemberpogrome), in which a large number of Jewish shops and synagogues were destroyed. As the war expanded, the Nazis became even more frantic in killing Jews. Beginning in 1942, Germany used hydrogen cyanide and other methods to effectively kill Jews. Up to 3 million people died in the notorious concentration camp KZ Auschwitz. In this campaign of ethnic cleansing, nearly 6 million Jews and tens of millions of other people were persecuted and massacred.

Hitler's extreme ideology made his impact on human history extremely negative and bad.

Economic, cultural and military measures of Nazi Germany

economic and social initiatives

Hitler's government reorganized the national economy, eliminated small and medium-sized enterprises and handicraft industries, enforced cartelization , and adopted harsh criminal laws to manage the economy. The Nazi German government adopted two four-year plans and the economy basically recovered.

In terms of social welfare, in order to win the support of workers, the Nazi government launched the "Joy to Power Movement" and the "Labor Beautification" movement, and held various public welfare activities, such as "Big Pot Meal Day".

In terms of population policy , in order to increase the German population, the Nazi government encouraged childbirth and put forward the slogan "each family must have at least three to four children." Through measures such as issuing marriage loans, providing support for multiple children, and issuing the "German Certificate of Honor for Mothers with Multiple Children," Germany's population increased from 66 million in 1933 to 69 million in 1939.

Culture and Thought Control

Hitler exercised unprecedented control over the field of culture and thought and pursued ignorant and reactionary policies that destroyed scientific and cultural undertakings. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels was in charge of education, culture and the press.

The Nazi Party implemented a "total system of cultural life" and emphasized the "leadership principle" and the German national spirit. They launched a large-scale cleansing campaign of "non-German culture", including the famous burning of non-German writings (May 10, 1933), in which a large number of Marxist and famous writers and scientists (such as Einstein) were burned. Works by Jewish artists, Expressionist styles, and modern art schools were banned and referred to as "degenerate works."

The Nazis attacked and persecuted scientific and cultural workers. By 1938, 45% of official academic institutions had been reorganized. Einstein's residence in Berlin was raided, his property confiscated, and he was deprived of his German citizenship. News, radio, and movies were strictly controlled and became tools for Hitler's political propaganda.

Military and technological development

Hitler knew both force and peaceful expansion in actual combat. Through a series of setbacks, he recovered the Saar region, occupied the Rhineland, and annexed Austria and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.

Militarily, German soldiers achieved outstanding results in the "Blitzkrieg".

Hitler had an indirect impact on later generations of technology:

• Transportation construction: Hitler ordered the construction of the world's first highway (Autobahn), which improved German transportation and affected global transportation patterns.
• Jet aircraft: In order to reverse the situation of the war, Germany developed the world's first jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me262, which promoted the advancement of aviation technology.
• Missile technology: The V series produced under Hitler's order is the world's earliest missile . After the war, these technologies flowed to the United States and the Soviet Union, contributing to the Cold War space race.
• Nuclear industry: Hitler ordered German scientists to actively develop nuclear weapons.

Adolf Hitler’s Anecdotes, Controversies and Historical Impact

Anecdotes and personal life

Hitler's mistress Eva Braun met Hitler in 1929 and in 1935 consolidated her status as his only mistress. Although Eva attended important events, her existence was unknown to the public for a long time until they both committed suicide on April 30, 1945.

Hitler was a man who paid attention to health and self-discipline. In the early 1930s, he generally followed a vegetarian diet . He did not smoke and rarely drank alcohol (he occasionally drank beer). He even advocated Nazi Germany's anti-smoking campaign based on the national health stance.

In 1936, Hitler personally served as president of the Berlin Olympic Committee and held the Berlin Olympics with the most solemn ceremony, announcing Germany's re-emergence to the world. During the opening ceremony, Nazi flags flew at the venue and German athletes performed Nazi salutes. Germany won first place in the gold medal at this Olympics, and Hitler also used this move to create an image of himself as a peaceful and heroic politician.

In 1939, a member of the Swedish Parliament nominated Adolf Hitler for the Nobel Peace Prize , but the nomination was subsequently withdrawn.

bloodline controversy

There have been reports that DNA testing found that Hitler was likely to be of Jewish or African descent . Belgian journalists and historians conducted DNA tests on relatives of the Hitler family, and the results showed that the samples contained a chromosome (Haplopgroup E1b1b) that is relatively common among Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. Prior to this, there were rumors that Hitler's grandmother gave birth to Hitler's father, Alois, out of wedlock with a Jewish man.

Later influence and historical evaluation

Hitler's impact on human history was extremely negative and bad. His influence was almost entirely malignant, and its chief effect was the loss of some thirty-five million lives.

• Historical Sinner: Hitler is considered one of the most sinful people in all of history. By building huge concentration camps and gas chambers, he implemented a policy of genocide unparalleled in history, persecuting and killing nearly 6 million Jews.
• Warmaker: He will remain in people's memory as the main architect of the greatest war the world has ever experienced - World War II .
• National destruction: From Germany's own perspective, Hitler's leadership ultimately resulted in a devastating blow, leaving the industrialized country in ruins at the end of World War II.
• Political legacy: The Great Germanism advocated by Hitler, that is, radical nationalism, indirectly contributed to the establishment of independent countries in the post-war colonies, forming the nation-state trend of thought.
• Indirectly contributed to the establishment of the state of Israel: Thousands of Jews fled their homes to escape the massacre, which attracted the attention of countries around the world, which in turn contributed to the establishment of the Jewish state .

As historians have commented, without Adolf Hitler, there would almost certainly never have been a Third Reich. His life is very strange and interesting - a foreigner with no political experience, no money, and no political background climbed to the throne of the head of state of a major world power in less than fourteen years. He had outstanding oratory skills and was considered one of the most consummate orators in history.

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