Hitlers Rise to Power :: World War II History

Hitler's Rise to Power Adolf hitler was born in brannau, austria on the 20th of april 1889. His parents belonged to the settled middle class and his father led a thrifty but successful life. At aged 18, hitler moved to vienna where he settled for five years. He described that period of time as the worst years of his life. As a struggling artist, he tried to gain entry into the vienna academy of fine arts but was refused admission. It was in vienna that hitler was influenced by lanz von libenfels and developed very strong nationalist and anti-semitic views. In may 1913, he left for munich. During ww1 in august 1914, he enlisted in the army. he fought on the western front for 4yrs and was awarded the iron cross for bravery. he remained in the army and was given the job of spying on newly developing political parties. One such party was the german workers party founded by anton drexler in 1919. hitler was so impressed at the first meeting by what he saw and heard that he decided to join the organisation. by 1920, he was leader of this party and changed the name to the national socialist workers party, commonly known as the nazi party. The nazis forme their own small army called the SA(sturm abteilung). they were easily recognised by the brown coloured shirts they wore. the SA were used to protect the nazis at any meetings or conferences that were held. hitler made the swastika the emblem of this party. early recruits included ernst rohm, rudolf hess, heinrich himmler and josef goebbels. With the weimar government facing economic and ploitical crisis in 1923, hitler decided to make a bid for power. this came in the form a the munich putsch. On 8th november 1923, nazi's took over a beer hall in munich. many people were killed. hitler was arrested two days later and was sentenced to 5yrs in landsberg castle. he only served 9months of this sentence. while in prison, hitler wrote his famous book 'mein kampf'- my struggle. this book was a long boring insight into the mind of hitler and his anti-semitic views. During his time in prison the nazi party had disintegrated , and its members had become divided. hitler had to spend the next 4yrs rebuilding the party and giving it a solid organisational base. Hitler believed in a true german race devoid of impurity which could be achieved by the elimination of all inferior races.