Main Nazi Leader: Adolf Hitler (Rise to power)

The main leader of the Nazi Party, Adolf Hitler, the ambitious man was born on April 20, 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary and he died at the age of 56 on April 30, 1945 in Berlin, Germany. He was an Austrian citizen until 1925 and a German after February 1932. 

Hitler was the most notorious of all the dictators. He was a politician and leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party). Hitler became dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945. During World War I he served bravely but he was a veteran and he joined the German Workers Party (precursor of the Nazi Party) in 1919.

Hitler became a powerful man because of his ambitious personality; he had a tremendous will-power.  Hitler had a lot of power over big crowds and individuals. However, it took Hitler many years of planning and struggle before he became Führer. In Germany the system set up after WWI was called the Weimar Republic and it faced many problems.

The rise to power of Hitler really starts in 1923, when in November of 1923; he and other Nazi leaders in Munich organized a demonstration in an attempt to take over the government. This event is known as the Munich Putsch, it was a fail and it led the leaders to jail. During his imprisonment Hitler wrote “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle) book in which the doctrinal foundations of Nazism are written. It is about Germany, its history, race and also partly autobiographical.  Since this inconvenient Hitler learned to concentrate in the legal path to power, by strengthening the party in the country and increasing the number of seats in the Reichstag (German Parliament). 

Later in the 1932 elections Hindenburg won, he was isolated, without support. He was forced to ask Hitler to take part of the government with him in 1933. Hitler takes over as Chancellor.  The strong Communist Party was the most serious immediate threat to Hitler. The formations of the elite of the SS (Schutz-Staffen) and the Hitler Youth organized the burning and destruction of books deemed anti-Germans. The SA attacked communist opponents and social democrats. On the night of February 1933 the Reichstag building was gutted by fire.  The SS set fire to the Reichstag and the Communists were accused. 

Hitler made the Reichstag pass an “Enabling Law” which gave him enormous powers; he used them to make all other political parties, apart from the Nazis, illegal. Hitler was not satisfied unless he had control of the army and the S.A. The social control was obtained in the “Night of the Long Knives” in which the SA leaders opposed to the policies of Hitler were murdered. The next month President Hindenburg died. Hitler took over the powers of the president and the title of Führer (Leader).

Hitler was an imposing figure and he was an avid of power, he was captivated of power. The pursuit of power is combined with his personality that influenced the masses, through his thought that the Aryan race was a pure race and that is what determines the conception of Nazism, that only the Aryan race would rule the world. 


References: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/hitler.html

By: Nicole Miñan