Hitler
HitlerADOLF HITLER
Born April 20, 1889, Adolf Hitler was a German political and government leader and one of the 20 century’s most powerful dictators, who converted Germany into a fully militarized society and launched World War 2 in 1939.
Hitler’s rise had indeed been one of history’s great political success stories. The unknown and uneducated soldier of WW1, who had been a failure in all his undertakings, had come to power in 1933 in a country that despaired of solving it’s social and political problems.
Hitler was appalled and shocked by the German defeat in World War 1 and the proclamation of a republic. Hitler determined to take up political work in order to destroy a peace settlement (treaty of Versailles) that he denounced as intolerable. He joined the tiny German Worker’s Party (later renamed Nazi) in 1919, this was the group that Hitler would transform into one of the most effective political movements of modern history. He did largely through the force of his personality and the power of the spoken word. He utilized propaganda as his main weapon, also using Jews as political scapegoats and accusing them of causing the defeat of Germany in World War 1.
He tried unsuccessfully to seize power of Germany in the Beer Hall Putsch of November 1923; this event made him known to the general public. He was imprisoned for 9 months where he wrote his controversial biography Mein Kampf (my struggle), in which he condemned the democratic government and expressed his hate and fear of Jews.
Later, after achieving chancellorship of Germany and establishing his Nazi regime and himself as Der Fuhrer (the leader) in 1933, he launched his campaign to eliminate the Treaty of Versailles and restore Germany as a world power. In this historic move, he started World War 2, causing the death of 6 million Jews and left Europe in ruins.
In the biography, ‘The Psychopathic God, Adolf Hitler’ by Robert G.L. Waite, it studies the psychopathological personality of Hitler. It contains extensive information on Hitler’s life, his tastes, fears, beliefs, behavior and compulsions. When reading the biography, the author defends Hitler when other authors who called him a ‘…a violent megalomaniac…’ or simply a ‘ a crazy neurotic’ because the author thinks the judgements are irrational. The author praises Hitler’s overall accomplishments in the field of politics, saying that he is “a consummately skillful political leader of high intelligence.”
I honestly don’t know if Hitler would’ve acted differently at any other point in time of his life. His rise to power was inevitable, I think all German history was conspiring to aid him; the economic, social and psychological crisis following 1930 was obviously pushing him along; the magic of his personality did the rest. Political power was handed to him in a sordid political deal.
The year is 2097, Hitler would still be a reminder of the costliest war in the 20 century. If there was a war it would be compared to World War 2. As with the Kosovo crisis today, the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo was compared to the persecution of Jews in WW2. Hitler will always be remembered for starting WW2, and for the countless deaths of all who served in the war. He will also be remembered as the most influential, ruthless dictator of the 20 century.
As I come to know more of Hitler, this man was of no means of great wealth or status at a young age. To rise up to become a powerful, strong and ruthless leader of a country not even of his own, Hitler was ingenious, masterfully cunning and influential. He is