Transcript Slide 1

Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889. He
was an Austrian-born German politician
and the leader of the National Socialist
German Workers Party
Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 at the
Gasthof zum Pommer, an inn in Ranshofen, a
village annexed in 1938 to the municipality of
Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary. He was the
fourth of six children to Alois Hitler and Klara Pölzl
. Adolf's older siblings – Gustav, Ida, and Otto –
died in infancy. When Hitler was three, the family
moved to Passau, Germany. There he acquired the
distinctive lower Bavarian dialect, rather than
Austrian German, which marked his speech all of
his life. In 1894 the family relocated to Leonding ,
and in June 1895, Alois retired to a small
landholding at Hafeld, near Lambach, where he
tried his hand at farming and beekeeping. Adolf
attended school in nearby Fischlham. Hitler
became fixated on warfare after finding a picture
book about the Franco-Prussian War among his
father's belongings.
Hitler became obsessed with German
nationalism from a young age. He expressed
loyalty only to Germany, despising the
declining Habsburg Monarchy and its rule over
an ethnically-variegated empire. Hitler and his
friends used the German greeting "Heil", and
sang the German anthem "Deutschland Über
Alles" instead of the Austrian Imperial anthem.
After Alois' sudden death on 3 January 1903,
Hitler's performance at school deteriorated. His
mother allowed him to quit in autumn 1905. He
enrolled at the Realschule in Steyr in
September 1904; his behaviour and
performance showed some slight and gradual
improvement. In the autumn of 1905, after
passing a repeat and the final exam, Hitler left
the school without showing any ambitions for
further schooling or clear plans for a career.
At the outbreak of World War I, Hitler was a resident of
Munich and volunteered to serve in the Bavarian army as
an Austrian citizen. Posted to the Bavarian Reserve
Infantry Regiment 16 (1st Company of the List Regiment),
he served as a dispatch runner on the Western Front in
France and Belgium, spending nearly half his time well
behind the front lines. He 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.
He was decorated for bravery, receiving the Iron Cross,
Second Class, in 1914. He also received the Black Wound
Badge on 18 May 1918. During his service at the
headquarters, Hitler pursued his artwork, drawing cartoons
and instructions for an army newspaper. Hitler became
embittered over the collapse of the war effort, and his
ideological development began to firmly take shape. He
described the war as "the greatest of all experiences", and
was praised by his commanding officers for his bravery.
After World War I Hitler returned to Munich. Having no
formal education and career plans or prospects, he tried
to remain in the army for as long as possible. In July
1919 he was appointed Verbindungsmann (intelligence
agent) of an Aufklärungskommando (reconnaissance
commando) of the Reichswehr, to influence other
soldiers and to infiltrate the German Workers' Party
(DAP). While monitoring the activities of the DAP, Hitler
became attracted to the founder Anton Drexler's
antisemitic, nationalist, anti-capitalist, and anti-Marxist
ideas. Drexler favoured a strong active government, a
"non-Jewish" version of socialism, and solidarity
among all members of society. Impressed with Hitler's
oratory skills, Drexler invited him to join the DAP. Hitler
accepted on 12 September 1919, becoming the party's
55th member. Hitler designed the party's banner of a
swastika in a white circle on a red background. Hitler's
vitriolic beer hall speeches began attracting regular
audiences.
Hitler's suicide was likened by
contemporaries to a "spell" being broken.
According to Toland, without its leader,
National Socialism "burst like a bubble".
Hitler's actions and Nazi ideology are
almost universally regarded as gravely
immoral. His political programme had
brought about a world war, leaving behind
a devastated and impoverished Eastern
and Central Europe. Germany itself
suffered wholesale destruction,
characterised as "Zero Hour". Hitler's
policies inflicted human suffering on an
unprecedented scale. The German Liberal
historian Friedrich Meinecke described
Hitler as "one of the great examples of the
singular and incalculable power of
personality in historical life".
The inscription translates as:
For peace, freedom
and democracy
never again fascism
millions of dead remind [us]