Adolf Hitler Research Paper

Adolf Hitler was born April 20, 1889, in Braunau am Inn, Austria. His father, Alois, never knew who his real father was or what his actual last name was because his mother was not married to his father. Hitler never knew his real grandfather, and it is rumored that he was Jewish. Alois went by the last name Schicklgruber until his uncle suggested he start using his stepfather’s name, Hiedler. When the name was changed, it was misspelled as Hitler. In Alois’s career, he went from being a poor farm boy to a successful Senior Assistant Inspector for the Austrian Civil Service. Hitler’s mother, Klara Pölzl, was his father’s step niece who was half his age. They had to get special permission from the Catholic Church to marry because he had changed his name to her family name. Alois had two

children from another marriage before he married Klara. Alois and Klara had three children that died before Adolf was born. Adolf also had a younger brother and a younger sister.
Young Adolf grew up on a farm outside of Linz, Austria until he was about 7. His father retired from work and became so abusive that his older brother ran away from home. The family moved into the town of Lambach, Austria. Adolf attended school at a Catholic monastery that was decorated with swastikas engraved in wood and stone. He loved to sing in school and considered becoming a priest because of the influence of the Catholic Church. The family moved again in 1898 to Leonding and lived in a house next to a cemetery. At his new school, Adolf realized he had a talent for drawing. It was during this time that he found a military book of his father’s and became obsessed with war. When Adolf was 11, his little brother, Edmund, died of the measles. Edmund was buried in the cemetery beside their house.
After grade school, Adolf’s father sent him to technical school in Linz to train to become a civil servant, but he really wanted to become an artist.

This caused many arguments between him and his father. Adolf was not a good student, and he failed his first year. He did a little better his second year but still failed Math. His father died in 1903, and his mother died in 1907. He dropped out of school and tried working as an artist. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts, but he was not accepted. He was homeless and had no money so he stayed in shelters during this time.

When Adolf was growing up, the town where his family lived was close to the German border. As an Austrian citizen, he was under the rule of the Austrian monarch. Since he lived so close to the border, he had a sense of German loyalty. In 1913, Hitler moved to Munich, Germany. Even though he was an Austrian citizen, he joined the German army. He fought for Germany during World War I and earned several medals for bravery. Hitler was disgusted with Germany’s surrender at the end of the war. The treaty of Versailles that was signed at the end of the war made Germany accept the blame for the war. This infuriated

Hitler
When the war was over, Hitler went back to Munich. He was still involved with the military as a spy. He was required to gather information on the German Workers’ Party. He was so influenced by what he witnessed that he started to believe like the people he was watching. He listened to and was influenced by Anton Drexler, who was the founder of the German Worker’s Party. It was here Hitler developed his hatred of Jewish people. Hitler joined the German Workers’ Party in 1919. The party changed its name to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, or Nazi. Hitler designed the Nazi symbol himself, a swastika in a white circle on a red background. Within two years, he had replaced Drexler as the party chairman.
On November 8, 1923, Hitler led a raid on a speech in a beer hall where he claimed a new government was taking over. He was arrested for treason and served a short sentence in prison. During this time he dictated part of his book, Mein Kampf, which laid out his plan for establishing a new Germany, free of Jewish people.
Hitler ran for president in 1932 but was defeated by Hindenburg. Because of Hitler’s popularity, Hindenburg appointed him as Chancellor. During this time, Hitler used his political position to establish a dictatorship. He abolished all political parties except the Nazi party. He even combined the office of president and chancellor. In 1934, Hindenburg died, leaving Hitler in control of the government and the army. He immediately began making laws against Jews, including not allowing them to hold any position in public office or work in many professions. His discrimination also included the mentally disabled and the homosexuals. He ordered mentally challenged adults to be put to death, and placed homosexual males in a concentration camps.
By 1938, Hitler had overturned parts of the Treaty of Versailles and withdrawn Germany from the League of Nations. His treatment of Jewish people got much worse during this time. Many people were murdered or taken to concentration camps. Jewish synagogues, homes, and business were destroyed.
Germany started World War II on September 1, 1939, by invading Poland. Germany had an alliance with Japan and Italy. Hitler invaded several small European countries including Norway, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium. He ordered the bombing of the United Kingdom and had plans of overtaking it. He attempted to attack Russia, but was stopped by their army. When Japan attacked the United States on December 7, 1941, Hitler’s Axis powers were now at war with the Allied powers of the United States, Britain, and The Soviet Union. By D-Day, June 6, 1944, many German officers realized that they were being defeated. They planned to assassinate Hitler, but were unsuccessful. Hitler realized that he was going to be defeated. In April of 1945, he married Eva Braun in Berlin. The couple committed suicide the next day. Berlin was taken by the Allied forces on May 2, and Germany surrendered May 7, 1945. By the end of his reign, Hitler’s holocaust killed almost thirty million people, including over six million Jews.