Biography
Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who led the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), commonly called the Nazi Party. He served as Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and as Führer und Reichskanzler from 1934 to 1945. Hitler is chiefly known for his leading role in the rise of fascism in Europe, World War II, and the Holocaust. A decorated World War I veteran, he joined the German Workers' Party (DAP) in 1919, becoming leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923, he attempted a coup called the Beer Hall Putsch at the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich, which failed, resulting in a one-year imprisonment. During this time, he wrote his memoir, Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"). After his release on December 20, 1924, Hitler gained support through Pan-Germanism, antisemitism, anti-communism, charismatic speeches, and propaganda. Appointed chancellor on January 30, 1933, he transformed the Weimar Republic into the Third Reich, a totalitarian, single-party dictatorship based on Nazi ideology. During the war, Nazi forces committed numerous atrocities, including the systematic killing of up to 17 million civilians—among them approximately six million Jews in the Holocaust, 500,000 to 1.5 million Roma, as well as Poles, Soviet civilians and prisoners of war, people with disabilities, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other political and religious opponents. In the final days of World War II during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, Hitler married his longtime partner Eva Braun. To avoid capture by Soviet troops, they both committed suicide on April 30, 1945, and their bodies were subsequently burned.
