Life and times of Adolf Hitler

1. The Rise of Adolf
Hitler (1889-1945)

2. It all began with Nazism
 Its roots were in extreme nationalism
and racism
 These ideas captured the mind of Hitler
 After moving to Vienna at the age of
16, Hitler was exposed to Austro-
German nationalism of an extreme kind
 The ideas took hold as Adolf Hitler’s
political philosophy

4.  Austro-German nationalism believed that
Germans were a superior people and
Europe’s natural rulers
 anti-semitism, racism and a hatred of Slavs
are ideologies that transpired in Vienna
 He developed an unshakeable belief in
the crudest variety of the Darwinian
“survival of the fittest” (Social Darwinism)
 That some races were made ‘stronger’
than other races
 He believed that racial conflict was
inevitable

5. He developed an unshakeable belief in the crudest variety of the
Darwinian “survival of the fittest” (Social Darwinism)
That some races were made ‘stronger’ than other races
He believed that racial conflict was inevitable

6.  Hitler was a notorious dictator
 1919 Hitler joined an extremist party in Munich called the German
Workers’ Party
 By 1921 he was leader of the party, and showing his power through
mass rallies
 While in jail he wrote ‘Mein Kampf’, which laid out his political
philosophy
 Between 1924 and 1929 he focused on growing the National Socialist
German Workers’ Party, or Nazi Party
 After 1929, and the onset of the Great Depression, workers turned to
support the party in their 100s of thousands

7. German Workers’ Party

8. While in jail he wrote ‘Mein Kampf’, which laid out his political philosophy
You can still
get a revised
copy of the
book at the
library

9.  He aimed his speeches at middle to lower middle class groups, and
workers wanting upward social mobility
 By 1932, the Nazis were the largest party in the German parliament, the
Reichstag
 Most of his supporters were young
 In 1933 he became Chancellor of Germany

10.  During 1933 Hitler gradually assumed more power in Germany, especially
via the Enabling Act (March 1933), which gave him absolute power for
four years
 He outlawed the Communist Party
 The Nazis took over the government bureaucracy
 Hitler abolished independent trade unions and outlawed strikes

11.  From the beginning, Hitler had targeted German
Jews – class enemies
 In 1934, Jewish professionals were banned from
practising their professions
 In 1934, the Nuremberg Laws classified as Jewish
anyone with three Jewish grandparents
 Nazi troops rounded up Jewish people who were
then sent off to concentration camps for
extermination
 Many historians consider this night as the beginning
of Hitler’s “Final Solution”

12.  Nazi troops rounded up Jewish people who were
then sent off to concentration camps for
extermination
 Many historians consider this night as the beginning
of Hitler’s “Final Solution”

13. Hitler’s Popularity (and Resistance)
 Work and bread
 Massive public works programmes
 1935, rearmament began
 Modest economic growth to the eve of the Second World War
 Class barriers eroded (somewhat)
 Gender stereotypes remained in place
 Opposition though from Communists, Socialists, Catholic and Protestant
Churches

14. Aggression and Appeasement
 In 1935 he introduced a general military draft
and withdrew from the Treaty of Versailles
 Leaders in France, Italy and Britain protested
this, but no one did anything to stop him
 In March 1938 the Nazis assumed control of
Austria, followed later that year by the
secession of German Sudetenland (part of
Czechoslovakia) to Germany

16.  In March 1939, the German army occupied the rest
of Czechoslovakia
 Hitler then turned his attention to Poland
 British tolerance for Hitler’s aggression finally
collapsed
 In August 1939, Hitler and Stalin signed a mutual
non-aggression pact
 On 1 September Hitler attacked Poland
 Two days later Britain and France declared war on
Germany – the Second World War had begun….to
be continued.