Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 in Austria and showed an early interest in art but was rejected from art school twice. During World War I he served in the German army and was decorated for bravery. After the war he joined the German Workers' Party and became its leader, renaming it the Nazi Party. As the party leader he rose to power in Germany during the economic depression of the 1930s, becoming Chancellor in 1933 and Führer in 1934, establishing a totalitarian dictatorship. Under his rule Germany began aggressively expanding its territory and persecuting Jewish people and others, which ultimately led to World War II and the Holocaust, resulting in Hitler committing suicide in 1945 as Allied forces closed in on his bunker in Berlin.