Feeling that all was lost, Hitler shot himself on April 30, 1945. By orders
formally given by him before his death, SS officers immersed Hitler’s body in
gasoline and burned it in the garden of the Chancellery. Soon after the suicide
of Hitler, the Germ On Easter Sunday April 20, 1889, at an inn called the Gasth
of Zum Pommer, the wife of an Austrian Customs official gave birth to a son,
Adolf Hitler. He was the fourth child to the parents of Alois and Klara Hitler
of Austria. Hitler was a good student. One of the teachers in his high school
classified young Hitler as "notorious, cantankerous, willful, arrogant, and
irascible. He has an obvious difficulty in fitting in at school." He did
well enough to get by in some of his courses but had no time for Adolf saw no
real reason to stay in high school. He left school at age sixteen without a
leaving certificate. In September 1907, Hitler left home taking with him all the
money left to him by his father, who had died a few years earlier. The money
would preliminary examination, the applicant was asked to submit drawings.
Biblical drawings were most preferred. Hitler’s drawings were returned saying
they were "too wooden and too lifeless." He was rejected. He tried
three months later and did not get pa Hitler moved into an apartment with his
friend in Vienna. He pretended to be a student living off his relatives money.
He read many books and sat in on the Austrian government sessions . Hitler
speaks of his life in Vienna as "five years in which I had In 1913, Hitler
moved to Munich. Life was not much better there until the First World War
started in 1914. While many people were frightened and sad at the thought of a
world war, Hitler was delighted. He held the rank of corporal, and in
forty-seven b On October 13th 1918, a month before Germany surrendered to the
Allies, his good luck ran out. When Hitler and his fellow dispatch runners were
waiting in line for their food rations, British troops began lobbing high
explosive shells nearby. Some of th Hitler soon regained use of his eyes, but as
he was about to rejoin his regiment, he got the terrible news of Germany’s
surrender. "Once again, everything went black before my eyes, and I
tottered and groped my way back to the place where we slept and bu As part of
Hitler’s job, he investigated a party called "the German Workers’
Party." He was disgusted how the group had no organization, although he was
in favor of many of the party’s ideas. To follow up with his job, he joined
the group to make sure t Hitler finally found his talent as a great orator. He
first became aware of his talent while teaching at the University of Munich.
When he talked, he held his audiences spellbound. He would sometimes lose five
pounds a night by getting so active in his He persuaded the other party members
to rent one of the largest halls in Munich—one that seated at least 2,000
people. There Hitler made of list of demands to the German government. Point
twenty-five said, "For modern society, a colossus with feet of cl Ernst
Rohm, a friend of Hitler’s, organized a group of storm troopers for Hitler.
The German name for storm troopers was Storm Abtcilung, or SA for short. They
first beat and killed hecklers at Nazi speakings. When there were no hecklers,
they found Je By the summer of 1923, the Nazi party had grown to 150,000
members. With the Nazi movement growing so rapidly, Hitler knew it was time to
make a move on Germany. November 11, 1923 seemed like a perfect time for Hitler
to make the grab for power. It was Hitler captured the government leaders and
forced them to join him. His 3,000 men then marched to Berlin in an attempt to
take it over. The German police were waiting. Shots were fired and sixteen nazis
and two policemen lay dead. Hundreds more were w The trial was a "political
circus". Hitler was allowed to speak for hours at a time. During one of his
speeches he said, "It is the External Court of History … That court will
judge us … as Germans who wanted the best for their people and their fatherla
Hitler served only nine months of his five-year sentence. The guards gave him a
suite of several adjoining rooms where guests could come or go as they pleased.
He was sent many gifts and grew visibly fatter. He wrote a book called Mein
Kampf, or My Str The government banned the Nazi party after the revolt. There
were also many reasons for lack of Nazi activity. The Allies had loosened their
grip on the German economy. The French had left the Ruhr leaving Germany’s
industries intact, and the United St The depression in America caused the
economic system in Germany to plummet. Because of the harsh times, Nazis got two
million more votes then the Communist party. The election put them just under
the Democratic party and gave them 107 more seats in the House. Hitler was
planning on running for President of Germany against Paul Von Hinderburg, a
social democrat. Hitler campaigned frequently, going to every major city and
town. He was the f By 1932 the SA troops numbered 400,000. The SA’s goal was
to make people afraid, and they accomplished that with ease. One of the most
popular chants of the SA troops is as follows: "Sharpen the knives on the
sidewalk so that they can cut the enemy’s. In the election of 1932, Hitler
could not beat out the eighty-five year old President Hindenburg. However, 230
Nazi candidates held seats, and Hitler was made Chancellor of Germany. It was
the second highest position in the German government. With only Hitler still was
not elected to the Presidency. Using force, Hitler got Hinderburg to pass a law
that abolished freedom of speech, of the press, and of assembly. Hitler then
brought before the court the Enabling Act. This law gave Hitler the power of a
After the bills were passed, the German military feared that when Hitler took
full leadership of the country, they would lose control, and the SA would take
over. Hitler assured the military that this was not true. To gain their trust,
he gave them a li In August of 1934 President Hindenburg died. Hitler’s last
obstacle in his quest for complete power was removed. Using his unlimited
powers, he combined the offices of president and chancellor. To everyone in
Germany he was now Der Fuhrer, the leader. Avoiding capture by the approaching
forces, Hitler shot himself on April 30, 1945. The world was never the same
again. Hitler’s Reich was over, and millions of Jews were dead.