1Adolf Hitler

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A Paper

Presented to

Mr. Daniel Wesche

Landmark Christian School

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In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for

A.P. European History

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By

Alex Robinson

March 31 2007
 Throughout all of human history, never before has the world experienced a human

being more powerful then Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler was at first, a simple corporal in the

German army who had done nothing out of the ordinary; however, he was able to launch

himself into the world of politics and to become head chancellor of Germany. Hitler used

his powers of chancellor to levy war on many nations and start world war two. At the

same time, he would start the “extermination” of the Jews because of his belief that the

Aryan race was superior to the Semitic race. From his birth to his death, Hitler had

achieved a rise to power that only very few individuals in the history of mankind had

been able to accomplish. Hitler would have the same rise to power as prominent

individuals such as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Napoleon Bonaparte had.

Nevertheless, he would share the same fate as them by being unable to having to face

failure and death early. Even with failure in the end, Adolf Hitler was able to accomplish

something great that had not been done for over a century, conquer continental Europe.

The name of Adolf Hitler will remain in infamy as he was a man who rose to power,

committed great atrocities to the Jewish people, and started and prolonged a war that

would cost over 45 million people their lives.

Adolf Hitler would begin his start as extraordinary individual by having a birth

and childhood of an ordinary boy. Born on April 20, 1889 in Austria at the Braunau am

Inn, Adolf Hitler was born to his father, Alois, and his mother, Klara. His father worked

as a customs officer on the German border. His mother, Klara, was Alois’ second cousin

and his third wife. Hitler lived the life of any regular boy, however, there would be some

problems about his ancestry and heritage that would plague him and cause turmoil for

him in his days of politics. One main thing that is left in confusion about Hitler is his
ancestry. Because his father was born an illegitimate child, he was forced to take the

name of his mother, Schicklgruber. While later in Hitler’s life there were propaganda

attempts against Hitler calling him a Schicklgruber, it turned out that he was a legal Hitler

because his Grandmother on his mother’s side had the name Hitler. As a boy, Hitler faced

a childhood in which he was beat daily by his father for discipline. Through trials such as

these, Hitler was able to master his emotion and was able to use the beatings of his father

to turn him into a stronger child. On one occasion of beating, he promised himself that he

would never cry while his father whipped him, and he successfully did so.

Hitler moved to Linz, Austria where his father would retire and settle down.

Hitler did very well in his schooling for elementary school, however, after he had entered

middle school, his academic performance began to slump. The fall of his grades and him

having to repeat the 6th grade angered his father. Alois held education in high regard and

believe that education would provide the oppotuinity for Adolf to be a civil servant, a

dream that Alois always had for his son. However, Adolf had other plans as he aspired to

be a painter and artist. After his father died in 1903, Adolf decided that he would leave

school, and live a life of an artist. When he applied for admission to the Academy of Fine

Arts Vienna, he was rejected. In his autobiography, Mein Kampf, Hitler recalls his

experience of being rejected and acknowledges that he was unable to be accepted into

such a fine university due to his lack of education (Hitler, Mein Kampf, Chapter 2).

Hitler decided that he would be an independent artist, and he produced works on

his own and lived an artist’s life. He was a struglling artist however, and eventually, after

he was at a complete loss for money, he was forced to live a life of a poor working man.

He moved into a homeless shelter and became very educated in philosophy. He received
a well-rounded, informal education as he was not in a school, but learned on his own and

from others. Through his informal education, he would begin to become an anti-Semite.

His circumstances were a catalyst to his change from neutrality to anti-Semitic. While he

was not anti-Semitic the first day he was forced to live with the Jews, after seeing his first

orthodox Jew, his anti-Semitism took hold in his life, and it grew to become the main

beliefs that he held throughout the rest of his life.

After this part of his life, Hitler was assigned to the Barvarian Reserve Regiment

in which he served as a soldier. He enjoyed serving in the Barvarian army unlike some of

his fellow comrades, and was exposed to military fire at this time, which allowed him to

gain military knowledge that would later help him throughout his career. One time, when

Hitler was wounded and temporary blinded by mustard gas, he had an epiphany which

would change his life forever. He came to the conclusion that the one sole meaning of his

life was to save the country of Germany. In order to save Germany, he would have to

exterminate the Jews because he believed that they were the single cause of all problems

that ever occurred in Germany. The armistice of World War one was made at this time

which put Hitler into a state of shock and hysteria. This would have contributed to his

feelings of importance on the basis that he felt he had to save Germany.

After World War I had ended, Germany was in a state of discord and discontent.

The defeat had crushed the German people as a whole and they were forced to be put into

a state of despair and bankruptcy. The main cause of this German discontent was due to

the Treaty of Versailles. In the treaty, it basically blamed the Germans as the sole cause

of the war. Great Britain, France, and the United states were the key players at Versailles.

All the countries sought to punish Germany, without regard to possible consequences,
and they sought to gain revenge for anything that their respective country had lost in the

war. In the specific treaty, article 231 stated, “The Allied and Associated Governments

affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all

the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals

have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of

Germany and her allies.” (Treaty of Versailles) Because of this, it would do two things.

Firstly, Germany would be held responsible for all problems created by the war and the

war itself. Secondly, it would be forced to pay severe reparations that would eventually

cripple the German economy. All of these factors combined together would cause the

people of Germany to be in great discontent.

As a response to all the problems and consequences of the treaty of Versailles,

Hitler would begin his entry into politics and government. Because he was a loyal patriot

to the German state, he felt that for the treaty of Versailles to be signed, Germany was

stabbed in the back by someone. He would discover that locally made reform groups and

Marxists would be the ones to blame for all the problems that would happen to Germany

during the Post-WWI era. As Hitler returned to Munich after his mustard gas injury, he

joined a political nationalist group called the German Workers’ Party. He began his

political career, and his rise to power would start. Shortly after joining the German

Workers’ Party, he would change its name to the National Socialist German Workers’

Party. After a short amount of time, this group was widely known as the Nazi party.

During this time in his life, he met with many people that influenced him and he became

very educated in the art of public speaking, influencing others, and proper etiquette of a

leader.
 Throughout all of this time, he still kept his beliefs and views of anti-Semitism

and he incorporated them in his speeches. In the beginning of his rise to power, he was an

active public speaker who often rallied large crowds together to talk about various

subjects. Hitler used many propaganda techniques in a more primitive form to get more

people to attend his speeches. Subjects Hitler would often talk about were the problems

of the Treaty of Versailles and why the Jews, Marxists, and Communists must be

exterminated. After Hitler would take his frist step to seizing power in the government,

however, it would be unsuccessful.

In the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler tried to overthrow both the Barvarian state

government and the German government. Because of all the discontent that was

occurring due to war reparations and a failing economy, workers were going on strike,

and were voicing out to the government. Around the whole country, there were many

rebellions and problems between citizens and the government, and at this time, Hitler

hoped to overthrow the governments and become in control of Germany. While he had a

flawless plan, it eventually turned out to be a failure and led to his arrest. There was

betreayal on the parts of his conspirators and also dishonesty which led to the ultimate

arrest of Hitler for treason against the government.

When he was put on trial, he only gained more and more prestige as a public

speaker and a political figure. His prominence and popularity soared and people

throughout Germany began to become more and more familiar with the name of Adolf

Hitler. He was able to use propaganda techniques that he would later use on in life for

more and more power.

 While at Landsberg prison, he wrote his autobiography, Mein Kampf, became the

main basis for Hitler’s belief system. In this autobiography, he wrote down his ideology

in the book and his beliefs were encompassed in these two volumes. The title Mein

Kampf is German for My struggle. When reading this, one is able to see why Hitler did

things as he did while he was in power, and the book is a basic blueprint of the Nazi party

and Hitler’s life.