Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)

Leader (Führer) of the Nazi Party. Hitler was originally Austrian, but settled in Germany from 1913. He was wounded as a volunteer in the German army during World War I, and in 1919 he joined a very small nationalist party, the DAP (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei – ‘German Workers’ Party’). In 1920 the DAP was renamed as NSDAP (National Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei), and Hitler became the party’s leader. Following an unsuccessful coup d’etat in 1924, the so-called Bierhalle Putsch, Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison. While in prison, he wrote his political autobiography, Mein Kampf (‘My Struggle’). After his release in 1924, the Nazi Party was rebuilt. In spite of his prison sentence Hitler became a German citizen in 1932. On January 30 1933 Hitler became Reich Chancellor, and following Reich President von Hindenburg’s death in 1934, Hitler merged this position with his own. He was then ‘Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor’. Hitler did not take part in the practical implementation of the Final Solution, and it is highly debated what role he had in the decision to exterminate the Jews. On 30 April 1945 Hitler committed suicide together with his mistress, Eva Braun, whom he had married the day before.