"Hitler" and "The Führer" redirect here.

For other uses, see Hitler (disambiguation) and Führer

Adolf Hitler

Hitler in 1938

Führer of Germany

In office
2 August 1934 – 30 April 1945

Preceded by Paul von Hindenburg (as President)

Succeeded by Karl Dönitz (as President)

Chancellor of Germany

In office
30 January 1933 – 30 April 1945

President Paul von Hindenburg (1933–1934)

Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen (1933–1934)

Preceded by Kurt von Schleicher

Succeeded by Joseph Goebbels

In office
29 July 1921 – 30 April 1945

Deputy Rudolf Hess (1933–1941)

Preceded by Anton Drexler (Party Chairman)

Succeeded by Martin Bormann (Party Minister)

Personal details

Born 20 April 1889

Died 30 April 1945 (aged 56)

Cause of death Suicide by gunshot

Citizenship • Austria (until 1925)

• Stateless (1925–1932)

• Germany (from 1932)

Political party Nazi Party (from 1920)

Other political German Workers' Party (1919–1920)

Spouse Eva Braun

(m. 1945; died 1945)

Parents • Alois Hitler

• Klara Pölzl

Relatives Hitler family

Cabinet Hitler cabinet

This article is part of

Adolf Hitler

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Personal

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Führer of Germany

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World War II

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The ruler of Nazi Germany from 1933 until his suicide in 1945 was Adolf Hitler[a], a German
politician of Austrian descent who lived from April 20, 1889, to April 30, 1945. As the head of the
Nazi Party, Hitler gained power, first as chancellor in 1933 and then as Führer und Reichskanzler in
1934. [d] The Second World War began on September 1, 1939, when he invaded Poland.
Throughout the war, he was heavily active in military operations and played a key role in the
Holocaust, which resulted in the murder of millions of people, including almost six million Jews.

Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn in Austria-Hungary and moved to Germany in 1913. He was
decorated during his service in the German Army in the First World War, receiving the Iron Cross. In
1919 he joined the German Workers' Party (DAP), the precursor of the Nazi Party, and in 1921 was
appointed the leader of the Nazi Party. In 1923 he attempted to seize governmental power in a failed
coup in Munich and was sentenced to five years in prison, serving just over a year. While there, he
dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf (lit. 'My Struggle').
After his early release in 1924, he gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and
promoting pan-Germanism, antisemitism, and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi
propaganda. He frequently denounced communism as being part of an international Jewish
conspiracy. By November 1932 the Nazi Party held the most seats in the Reichstag, but not a
majority. Former chancellor Franz von Papen and other conservative leaders convinced
President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor on 30 January 1933. Shortly thereafter,
the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act of 1933, which began the process of transforming the Weimar
Republic into Nazi Germany, a one-party dictatorship based upon the totalitarian, autocratic,
and fascistic ideology of Nazism.
Upon Hindenburg's death on 2 August 1934, Hitler became simultaneously the head of state and
government, with absolute power. Domestically, Hitler implemented numerous racist policies and
sought to deport or kill German Jews. His first six years in power resulted in rapid economic recovery
from the Great Depression, the abrogation of restrictions imposed on Germany after the First World
War, and the annexation of territories inhabited by millions of ethnic Germans, which initially gave
him significant popular support. One of Hitler's key goals was Lebensraum (lit. 'living space') for the
German people in Eastern Europe, and his aggressive, expansionist foreign policy is considered the
primary cause of World War II in Europe. He directed large-scale rearmament and, on 1 September
1939, invaded Poland, causing Britain and France to declare war on Germany. In June 1941 Hitler
ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. In December 1941 he declared war on the United States. By
the end of 1941 German forces and the European Axis powers occupied most of Europe and North
Africa. These gains were gradually reversed after 1941, and in 1945 the Allied armies defeated the
German army. On 29 April 1945 he married his longtime partner, Eva Braun, in the Führerbunker in
Berlin. The couple committed suicide the next day to avoid capture by the Soviet Red Army.

The historian and biographer Ian Kershaw described Hitler as "the embodiment of modern political
evil".[3] Under Hitler's leadership and racist ideology, the Nazi regime was responsible for the
extermination of millions of people, including an estimated six million Jews, whom he and his
supporters considered to be Untermenschen, or "subhumans," or unwanted in society. Additionally,
an estimated 19.3 million people and POWs were killed on purpose by Hitler and the Nazi
government. Furthermore, military action in the European theatre resulted in the deaths of 28.7
million troops and civilians. World War II is the deadliest conflict in history, with an unprecedented
number of people murdered in combat.

Ancestry

See also: Hitler family

Hitler's father, Alois Hitler, was the illegitimate child of Maria Schicklgruber.[4] The baptismal register
did not show the name of his father, and Alois initially bore his mother's surname, "Schicklgruber". In
1842, Johann Georg Hiedler married Alois's mother. Alois was brought up in the family of Hiedler's
brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler.[5] Alois worked as a civil servant from 1855 until his retirement in
1895.[6] In 1876, Alois was made legitimate and his baptismal record annotated by a priest to register
Johann Georg Hiedler as Alois's father (recorded as "Georg Hitler").[7][8] Alois then assumed the
surname "Hitler",[8] also spelled "Hiedler", "Hüttler", or "Huettler". The name is probably based on
the German word Hütte (lit. 'hut'), and has the meaning "one who lives in a hut".[9]

The Nazi official Hans Frank suggested that Alois's mother had been employed as a housekeeper by a
Jewish family in Graz, and that the family's 19-year-old son Leopold Frankenberger had fathered
Alois, a claim that came to be known as the Frankenberger thesis.[10] No Frankenberger was
registered in Graz during that period, and no record has been produced of a Leopold Frankenberger's
existence,[11] so historians dismiss the claim that Alois's father was Jewish.[12][13]