Adolf Hitler was able to seize power in Germany because the economic slump of 1929 gave him the opportunity to gain the support of the magnates of business and industry, and also of the lower middle class and of the unemployed. To the business men he promised a strong right-wing government; to the lower classes he gave faith and hope, proclaiming that Germany would triumph over her suffering and reassert her natural greatness.
Hitler was born at Braunau Austria in 1889, but he resented the Austro-Hungarian government and fought for Germany in the First World War. In 1920 he joined and soon became leader of a new party, the National socialist German Workingmen’s party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) later to be abbreviated to “Nazi”. In 1923 he was sent to prison as a revolutionary and wrote Mein Kampf (my fight). He believed that inequality between races was inevitable and that the Aryan race must dominate. He determined that Germany should rule the world and expressed his fanatical hatred of all Jews.
On leaving prison in 1924 Hitler skillfully built up the Nazi strength. At the 1930 election it became the second largest party in the country with more than 6,000,000 votes. By 1933 so many Nazis had been elected to parliament that the president of the German Republic, field Marshal Hindenburg, was persuaded that the country could no longer be governed without their leader’s help. Hitler was invited to join the government and soon became Chancellor. Once in power he proceeded to establish an absolute dictatorship. In March 1933 a bill giving him full powers was passed in the Reichstag by the combined votes of Nazi, Nationalist and centre Party deputies.
Hitler took control of the police and established special Nazi forces, the SA and the SS. When Hindenburg died on August 2, 1934, the offices of Chancellor and President were merged, and Hitler became an undisputed dictator.
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