Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)

German dictator. Conceived out of wedlock by a customs official, he was born on 20 April 1889 at Braunau, Austria. He left middle school with no qualifications and twice failed to get into art school in Vienna. In the early part of the century, he drifted, working as a casual labourer and commercial artist, nursing fierce resentments against Jews and Eastern Europeans.

To evade the draft, he went to Munich in 1913, but joined the German army at the outbreak of World War I. Although awarded the Iron Cross for bravery, he failed to rise beyond corporal and was temporarily blinded by a British gas attack in 1918.

After the war, he joined the Nazi party as its 55th member in 1919, and became its leader in 1921. Discovering his talent as a mesmerising public speaker, he plotted a seizure of power and dreamed of purifying the Aryan race.

After the abortive Munich Putsch (uprising) of 1924, he was sent to jail, where he spent 13 months writing Mein Kampf (My Struggle). In it, he elaborated on his racial ideology and fantasies about a greater German community, 'cleansed' of all minorities.

After release, his determination to gain power by legal means paid off when, in 1930, the Nazis, who exploited people's fears in a period of economic crisis, became the second largest party in Germany. On 30 January 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor and, within four months, had assumed dictatorial powers, exploiting the atmosphere of emergency that followed the suspicious Reichstag fire.

On 29/30 June 1934, during the 'Night of the Long Knives', he murdered his more left-wing former colleagues and other opponents, including Ernst Röhm, leader of the Stormtroopers. Later that year, he became Führer (leader) of Germany, passing laws that gave him vast powers and using the secret police to spread terror among the population.

Hitler's policies aimed at eliminating unemployment by a massive rearmament programme and attacking ethnic minorities. When his popularity began to wane, he launched the German people – galvanised by propaganda and his passionate if irrational demagogy – into aggressively expansionist policies, marching into the demilitarised Rhineland, making an Anschluss (political union) with Austria and then annexing Czechoslovakia.

On 1 September 1939, he invaded Poland, starting World War II. At first, his armies were successful in northern and western Europe, with Paris falling in 1940. Then, after his attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, and defeats at Stalingrad and in north Africa, the tide began to turn. He made it clear that he wanted the Jews of Europe exterminated in special concentration camps.

His leadership became increasingly paranoid – especially after the July (1944) Plot that almost succeeded in assassinating him – and as Germany collapsed in a 'total war' against the Soviet Union, the United States and Britain, he became a reclusive fantasist. On 30 April 1945, he finally committed suicide along with his lover, Eva Braun, just before the invading Soviet army captured Berlin.

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