Hitler, Adolf

Name etymology

According to the well-known German philologist Max Gottshald (1882-1952) onomastics specialist, the surname “Hitler” ( Hittlaer , Hiedler ) was identical to the surname Hütler (“caretaker”, probably “forester”, Waldhütler ) ^[4] .

Pedigree

Hitler's mother, Clara

Hitler's father Alois

Father - Alois Hitler (1837-1903). Mother - Clara Hitler (1860-1907), nee Pölzl.

Alois, being illegitimate , until 1876 bore the name of his mother Maria Anna Schicklgruber ( German: Schicklgruber ). Five years after the birth of Alois, Maria Schicklgruber married the miller Johann Georg Gidler ( Hiedler ), who had spent her whole life in poverty and had no home of her own. In 1876, three witnesses certified that Gidler, who died in 1857, was the father of Alois, which allowed the latter to change his name ^[6] . The change in the spelling of the surname on “Hitler” was allegedly caused by the mischief of the priest when writing to the Birth Registration Book. Modern researchers believe that Alois’s father was not Gidlera, but his brother Johann Nepomuk Güttler, who took Alois to his house and raised him ^{[5] [6] [7]} .

Adolf Hitler himself, in spite of the prevalence since the 1920s (and even the 3rd edition of the TSB ^[8] ), which came to the third edition of the TSB ^[8] ) wore the name Schicklgruber ^{[9] [10]} .

On January 7, 1885, Alois married his relative (the granddaughter of Johann Nepomuk Güttler) Clara Pölzl . This was his third marriage. By this time he had a son Alois and a daughter Angel , who later became the mother of Geli Raubal , Hitler's supposed mistress. Because of his family ties, Alois had to get permission from the Vatican to marry Clara ^{[5] [11]} .

Hitler knew about the inbreeding in his family and therefore always spoke very briefly and unclearly about his parents, although he demanded from others to document his ancestors. From the end of 1921 he began to constantly overestimate and obscure his origin. He wrote only a few sentences about his father and maternal grandfather. He, on the contrary, very often mentioned his mother in conversations. Because of this, he did not tell anyone that he was related (in a straight line from Johann Nepomuk) to the Austrian historian Rudolf Koppensteiner and the Austrian poet Robert Gamerling ^[5] .

Adolf's direct ancestors, both along the Schicklgruber line and along the Hitler line, were peasants. Only his father made a career and became a government official.

Attachment to places of childhood Hitler was only to Leonding , where his parents were , , where relatives on the maternal line lived, and Linz . He visited them after coming to power ^[5] .

Childhood

Adolf Hitler was born in Austria, in the town of Braunau-in-Inn, near the border with Germany on April 20, 1889 at 18.30 in the hotel “At Pomeranets” ^[5] . Two days later he was baptized in the name of Adolph. Hitler was very much like his mother. The eyes, the shape of the eyebrows, mouth and ears were exactly like hers. His mother, who gave birth to him at the age of 29, loved him very much. Before that, she lost three children.

Until 1892, the family lived in Braunau in the hotel “At Pomeranets”, the most representative house of the suburb. In addition to Adolf, his half-full (half-brothers) brother Alois and sister Angel lived in the family. In August 1892, his father was promoted, and the family moved to Passau ^[5] .

Brother Edmund (1894–1900) was born on March 24, and Adolf ceased to be in the center of family attention for a while. April 1, the father received a new appointment in Linz . But the family still remained in Passau for a year in order not to move with the newborn baby.

In April 1895, the family meets in Linz. On 1 May, at the age of six, Adolf entered a one-year public school in Fischlgam near Lambach. And on June 25, the father unexpectedly retires ahead of schedule due to his health ^[12] . In July 1895, the family moved to Ghafeld near Lambach- on-Traun, where his father bought a house with a plot of land of 38 thousand square meters. m

In elementary school in Fischlgam, Adolf did well and received only excellent grades. In 1939, he visited this school and bought it, and then ordered to build a new school building next to it ^[5] .

On January 21, 1896, the sister of Adolphe Paula was born. He was especially attached to her all his life and always took care of her ^[5] .

In 1896, Hitler entered the second class of the Lambach School of the old Catholic Benedictine monastery, which he attended until the spring of 1898. Here he also received only good grades ^[5] . He sang in the boys' choir and was an assistant priest during the mass ^[12] . Here he first saw the swastika on the coat of arms of Abbot Hagen. Later he ordered the same to be cut out of wood in his office ^[5] .

In the same year, due to the constant quibbles of his father, his half-brother Alois left the house. After this, Adolf became the central figure of his fatherly cares and constant pressure, as his father was afraid that Adolf would grow up to be as a bum as his brother ^[5] .

In November 1897, his father bought a house in the village of Leonding near Linz, where the whole family moved in February 1898 ^[13] . The house was located near the cemetery.

Adolf changed school for the third time and went to fourth grade here. He attended the folk school in Leonding until September 1900 .

After the death of his brother Edmund on February 2, 1900 , Adolf was the only son of Clara Hitler .

It was in Londoning that a critical attitude towards the church was born under the influence of his father’s statements ^[5] .

In September 1900, Adolf entered the first class of the state real school in Linz. Adolf did not like the change of the rural school to a large and foreign real school in the city. He only liked to walk the distance from home to school with a length of 6 km ^[5] .

From this time on, Adolf began to teach only what he liked - history, geography, and especially drawing; I did not notice everything else. As a result of this attitude to study, he remained for the second year in the first grade of a real school ^{[5] [14]} .

Youth

When Adolf, 13, was in the second grade at a real school in Linz, his father died unexpectedly on January 3, 1903 . Despite the continuous disputes and strained relations, Adolf still loved his father and sobbed uncontrollably at the tomb ^[5] .

At the request of his mother, he continued to go to school, but finally decided for himself that he would be an artist, and not an official, as his father wanted ^[5] . In the spring of 1903, he moved to a school dormitory in Linz. School began to attend irregularly.

On September 14, 1903, Angela married, and now only Adolf, his sister Paula and mother's sister Johann Pölzl remained in the house with her mother.

When Adolf was 15 years old, and he was finishing the third grade of a real school, on May 22, 1904, his confirmation was held in Linz. During this period, he composed a play, wrote poems and short stories, and also composed a libretto for Wagner's opera according to Wieland's legend and overture ^[5] .

He still went to school with disgust, and most of all he did not like French. In the fall of 1904, he passed the exam on this subject from the second time, but they took a promise from him that he would go to another school in the fourth grade ^[5] . Gemer, who at the time was teaching French and other subjects to Adolf, said at the trial of Hitler in 1924: “Hitler was undoubtedly gifted, though one-sided. Almost did not know how to control himself, was stubborn, self-willed, wayward and quick-tempered. He was not diligent. ” According to numerous testimonies, it can be concluded that, even in his youth, Hitler showed pronounced psychopathic features ^[5] .

In September 1904, Hitler, fulfilling this promise, entered the fourth-grade state real school in Steyr and studied there until September 1905 . In Steyr, he lived in the house of the merchant Ignaz Kammerhofer at Grunmarket, 19. Subsequently, this place was renamed “Adolf Hitlerplatz” ^[5] .

February 11, 1905 Adolf received a certificate of completion of the fourth grade of a real school. The mark "excellent" there was only in drawing and physical education; in German, French, mathematics, shorthand - unsatisfactory; in other subjects - satisfactory ^[5] .

On June 21, 1905, the mother sold the house in Leonding and moved with her children to Linz on Humbolta Street, 31.

In the autumn of 1905, at the request of the mother, Hitler reluctantly began to go back to school in Steyr and re-take exams to get a certificate for the fourth grade ^[5] .

At this time, he was diagnosed with a serious lung disease - the doctor advised the mother to postpone his schooling for at least a year and recommended that he never work in the office in the future. Mother took Adolf from school and drove to Spital to relatives.

On January 18, 1907, the mothers underwent a complicated operation ( breast cancer ). In September, when his mother's health improved, 18-year-old Hitler went to Vienna to pass the entrance exam to the general art school, but did not pass the second round of exams. After the exams, Hitler managed to get a meeting with the rector, from whom he received advice to take up architecture: Hitler’s drawings testified to his abilities for this art ^[15] .

In November 1907, Hitler returned to Linz and took care of his hopelessly ill mother. December 21, 1907 Clara Hitler died, December 23, Adolf buried her next to his father.

In February 1908, after settling inheritance cases and processing pensions for himself and his sister Paula as orphans, Hitler left for Vienna ^[16] .

A friend of his youth, Kubicek and Hitler's other associates testify that he constantly went to knives with everyone and felt hatred for everything around him. Therefore, his biographer Joachim Festus admits that Hitler’s anti-Semitism was a focused form of hatred that raged before in the dark and had finally found its object in the Jew ^[17] .

In September 1908, Hitler made another attempt to enter the Vienna Academy of Art , but failed in the first round. After the failure of Hitler several times changed his place of residence, without telling anyone new addresses. Dodging service in the Austrian army. He did not want to serve in the same army with the Czechs and Jews, to fight "for the Habsburg state", but at the same time he was ready to die for the German Reich ^[5] . Got a job as an “academic artist”, and since 1909, and as a writer.

In 1909, Hitler met Reinhold Ganish ( him. Reinhold Hanisch ), who began to successfully sell his paintings . Until mid- 1910, Hitler painted many small-sized paintings in Vienna. They were mostly copies of postcards and old engravings depicting all sorts of historic buildings in Vienna. In addition, he painted all sorts of advertisements. In August 1910, Hitler declared to the Vienna Police Commissariat that Ganish had hidden part of the proceeds from him and stole one painting. Ganish was sent to prison for seven days. Since that time, Hitler himself sold his paintings. The work brought him such a large income that in May 1911 he abandoned his monthly pension as an orphan in favor of his sister Paula. In addition, in the same year, he received most of the inheritance of his aunt Johanna Pölzl ^[5] .

During this period, Hitler began to vigorously engage in self-education. Subsequently, he was free to communicate and read literature and newspapers in the original in French and in English. During the war he loved to watch French and English films without translation. Very well versed in the arms of the armies of the world, history, etc. At the same time, he showed interest in politics ^[5] .

In May 1913, at the age of 24 , Hitler moved from Vienna to Munich and settled in the apartment of the tailor and shop owner Josef Popp on Schleißheimer Straße . Here he lived until the beginning of the First World War, working as an artist.

December 29, 1913 the Austrian police asked the Munich to establish the address of the lurking Hitler. On January 19, 1914, the Munich criminal police brought Hitler to the Austrian consulate. February 5, 1914, Hitler went to Salzburg for examination, where he was declared unfit for military service ^[5] .

Participation in the First World War

On August 1, 1914, the First World War began . Hitler was pleased with the news of the war. He immediately applied to the King of Bavaria, Ludwig III , in order to get permission to serve in the Bavarian army. The very next day he was offered to appear in any Bavarian regiment. He chose the 16th Reserve Bavarian Regiment ("Liszt Regiment", by the name of the commander).

On August 16, he was enlisted in the 6th Reserve Battalion of the 2nd Bavarian Infantry Regiment No. 16 ( Königlich Bayerisches 16. Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment ), consisting of volunteers. On September 1, he was transferred to the 1st company of the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 16. On October 8, he swore allegiance to the King of Bavaria, Ludwig III and Emperor Franz Joseph.

In October 1914, he was sent to the Western Front and participated in the battle at Ysera on October 29, and from October 30 to November 24 - near Ypres .

November 1, 1914 awarded the title of corporal . November 9, transferred to the regimental headquarters. From November 25 to December 13, participated in the positional war in Flanders. December 2, 1914 awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class. From December 14 to 24, he participated in the battle in French Flanders, and from December 25, 1914 to March 9, 1915 - in positional battles in French Flanders.

In 1915 he participated in the battles of Nav-Chapelle , under La Bassé and Arras . In 1916, he participated in reconnaissance and demonstration battles of the 6th Army in connection with the Battle of the Somme , as well as in the and directly in the Battle of the Somme. In April 1916, he met Charlotte Lobju . He was wounded in the left thigh with a fragment of a grenade under Le Bargur in the first battle of the Somme ^[5] . He went to the Red Cross infirmary in Belitsa near Potsdam . Upon leaving the hospital (March 1917), he returned to the regiment in the 2nd company of the 1st reserve battalion.

In 1917 - the spring battle of Arras . Participated in battles in Artois , Flanders, in Upper Alsace . On September 17, 1917, he was awarded the 3rd Class “For Military Merit” with swords ^[5] .

In 1918, he participated in the spring offensive in France , in the battles of Evreux and Mondidier . On May 9, 1918, he was awarded a regimental diploma for outstanding bravery under Fontana. May 18 receives the badge "For injury" (black). From May 27 to June 13 - battles at Soissons and Reims . From June 14 to July 14 - positional battles between Oise, Marna and Hell. From July 15 to July 17 - participation in offensive battles on Marne and in Champagne, and from July 18 to July 29 - participation in defensive battles on Suasonne, Reims and Marne. He was awarded the Iron Cross of the 1st class for delivering reports to artillery positions in particularly difficult conditions, which saved the German infantry from shelling by its own artillery ^[5] .

August 21—23, 1918 - participation in the battle of Monsi-Bap.

August 25, 1918, Hitler received an award for service III degree. According to numerous testimonies, he was a cautious, very brave and excellent soldier ^[5] . Hitler's fellow soldier in the 16th Bavarian Infantry Regiment, Adolph Meyer, cites in his memoirs the testimony of another colleague of his, Michael Schleechuber, who characterized Hitler as a "good soldier and flawless comrade." According to Schleehuber, he "never saw" that Hitler "in any way experienced discomfort from the service or evaded danger," nor did he hear about him during his time in the division "nothing negative" ^[18] .

October 15, 1918 - gas poisoning under La Montaigne as a result of the explosion of a chemical projectile next to it. Eye damage is a temporary loss of vision. Treatment in the Bavarian field hospital in Udenard, then in the psychiatric ward of the Prussian rear hospital in Pasewalka . While being treated at the hospital, I learned about the surrender of Germany and the overthrow of the Kaiser , which was a great shock for him.

Creating NSDAP

The defeat in the war of the German Empire and the November Revolution of 1918, Hitler considered the creation of traitors who stabbed in the back with the victorious German army.

In early February 1919, Hitler enlisted as a volunteer at the security services of a prisoner of war camp near Traunstein, near the Austrian border. About a month later, prisoners of war — several hundred French and Russian soldiers — were released, and the camp, along with its guards, was disbanded ^[16] .

On March 7, 1919, Hitler returned to Munich, to the 7th company of the 1st Reserve Battalion, 2nd Bavarian Infantry Regiment.

At that time, he had not yet decided whether he would be an architect or a politician. In Munich, during the turbulent days of the Bavarian Soviet Republic, he was in the ranks of the communist formations (since the entire garrison of Munich was enlisted in the Red Army) and was even a deputy, but then he claimed that he “did not commit himself to any obligations security . " He, contrary to the position of the deputy and documentary photographs (allegedly depicting him at the coffin of Eisner ), claimed that all the time he was in the Max barracks in Munich-Obervizenfeld until the day when Freikor von Epp and Reichswehr Noske dislodged communist Soviets from Munich. He was so sincerely disillusioned with communism after the defeat of the Soviet Republic that he did not undergo repression despite the fact that he was a member of the Soviet from his unit, which had armed resistance to Freikor and the Reichswehr (and according to some information, it was he who led this resistance). ^[19] At the same time, he gave his work to renowned artist Max Tseper for evaluation. He handed over the picture to the conclusion of Ferdinand Steger , who stated: "... quite an extraordinary talent" ^[5] .

On April 27, 1919, as stated in the official biography of Hitler, he ran into a detachment of Red Guards in Munich Street, who set out to arrest him for "anti-Soviet" activities, but "using his carbine" Hitler escaped arrest ^[20] .

From 5 to 12 June 1919, the authorities sent him to the courses of agitators ( Vertrauensmann ). The courses were designed to train agitators, who were supposed to conduct explanatory conversations against the Bolsheviks among the soldiers returning from the front. Ultra-right views prevailed among lecturers, among others lectures were Gottfried Feder , the future economic theorist of the NSDAP ^[21] .

During one of the discussions, Hitler made a very strong impression with his anti-Semitic monologue on the head of the agitation department of the 4th Bavarian Reichswehr command, and he suggested that he take on political functions throughout the army. A few days later he was appointed enlightenment officer (trustee). Hitler turned out to be a bright and temperamental orator and attracted the attention of listeners ^[5] .

The moment of his unshakable recognition by supporters of anti-Semitism became decisive in Hitler's life ^[5] . In the period from 1919 to 1921, Hitler read hard books from the Friedrich Kohn Library. This library was clearly anti-Semitic, which left a deep imprint on Hitler's beliefs ^[5] .

On September 12, 1919, Adolf Hitler, on the instructions of the military, came to the Shternekerbroy pub at the meeting of the German Workers' Party (DAP) , founded in early 1919 by the mechanic Anton Drexler and numbering about 40 people. During the debate, Hitler, speaking from the Pangerman positions, won a convincing victory over the supporter of the independence of Bavaria. The performance made a great impression on Drexler, and he suggested that Hitler join the party. After some reflection, Hitler decided to accept the proposal and at the end of September 1919, after leaving the army, he became a member of the DAP ^{[22] [Approx. 2]} . Hitler immediately made himself responsible for party propaganda and soon began to determine the activities of the entire party ^[23] .

On February 24, 1920, Hitler organized the first of many large party public events in the Hofbräuhaus beer hall. In the course of his speech, he proclaimed twenty-five points made by him, Drexler and Feder, which became the party's program. "Twenty-five points" combined Pan-Germanism, demands for the abolition of the Treaty of Versailles, anti-Semitism , demands for socialist transformations and a strong central authority ^[24] . On the same day, at the suggestion of Hitler, the party was renamed NSDAP ( German Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei - the German National Socialist Workers Party ) ^{[Note. 3]} .

In July 1921, in the leadership of the Nazi Party ^{. 4]} a conflict occurred: Hitler, who wanted dictatorial powers in the party, was outraged by negotiations with other groups that took place while Hitler was in Berlin, without his participation. July 11, he announced withdrawal from the Nazi Party. Since Hitler at that time was the most active public politician and the most successful party speaker, other leaders were forced to ask him to return. Hitler returned to the party and on July 29 was elected its chairman with unlimited power. Drexler was left the post of honorary chairman without real authority, but his role in the NSDAP has fallen sharply since then ^{[16] [25]} .

For the disruption of the speech of the Bavarian separatist politician Otto Ballerstedt ) Hitler was sentenced to three months in prison, but he spent only a month in the Stadelheim prison in Munich from June 26 to July 27, 1922. January 27, 1923, Hitler held the first NSDAP congress ; 5,000 stormtroopers marched through Munich.

"Beer putsch"

By the early 1920s, the NSDAP had become one of the most visible organizations in Bavaria. At the head of the assault detachments (German SA abbreviation) stood Ernst Rehm . Hitler quickly became a political figure, which they began to reckon with, at least within Bavaria.

In January 1923, a crisis broke out in Germany , the reason for which was the French occupation of the Ruhr . The government, led by non-party Reich Chancellor Wilhelm Kuno, called on the Germans to passive resistance, which led to great economic damage. The new government headed by Reich Chancellor Gustav Stresemann on September 26, 1923, was forced to accept all the demands of France, and as a result was attacked by both the right and the communists. Anticipating this, Stresemann achieved the introduction of a state of emergency in the country from September 26, 1923 by President Ebert .

On September 26, the conservative Bavarian Cabinet of Ministers announced the introduction of a state of emergency on the territory of the land and appointed Gustav von Cara, the right-wing monarchist, to be the Bavaria state commissioner, endowing him with dictatorial powers. The power was concentrated in the hands of the triumvirate: Cara, commander of the Reichswehr forces in Bavaria, General Otto von Lossow, and head of the Bavarian police force, Hans von Seißer. Kar refused to admit that the state of emergency imposed in Germany by the president was really against Bavaria and did not execute a number of orders from Berlin, in particular, to arrest three popular leaders of armed formations and to close the NSDAP organ Völkischer Beobachter .

Hitler was inspired by the example of the march on Rome to Mussolini , he hoped to repeat something similar by organizing the march on Berlin and turned to Kar and Lossow with a proposal to undertake a march on Berlin. Kar, Lossow and Seiser were not interested in holding a meaningless action and on 6 November they informed the “German Union of Struggle”, in which Hitler was a leading political figure that they do not intend to get involved in hasty actions and decide on their own actions. Hitler took it as a signal that he should take the initiative. He decided to take von Kara hostage and force him to support the march.

On November 8, 1923, around 9 o'clock in the evening, Hitler and Erich Ludendorff, at the head of armed stormtroopers, came to the Munich brewery Bürgerbroykeller , where a rally was held with the participation of Kara, Lossov and Seiser. Going inside, Hitler announced the "overthrow of the government of traitors in Berlin." However, soon the Bavarian leaders managed to leave the pub, after which Kar issued a proclamation to dissolve the NSDAP and the assault troops. For their part, the attack aircraft under the command of Ryome occupied the building of the headquarters of the ground forces in the War Ministry; there they, in turn, were surrounded by Reichswehr soldiers.

On the morning of November 9, Hitler and Ludendorff, at the head of a 3,000-strong convoy of attack aircraft, moved towards the Ministry of Defense, but on the Residential Strasse street they were blocked by a police unit that opened fire. Carrying away the dead and wounded, the Nazis and their supporters left the streets. In the history of Germany, this episode entered under the name " beer putsch ".

In February - March 1924, a trial of the leaders of the coup took place. Only Hitler and several of his associates were in the dock. The court sentenced Hitler for treason to 5 years in prison and a fine of 200 gold marks. Hitler was serving his sentence in Landsberg prison . However, after 9 months, on December 20, 1924, he was released ^[26] .

On the way to power

During the absence of the leader, the party fell apart. Hitler had to practically start everything from scratch. Great help was given to him by Ryom, who began restoring assault troops. However, Gregor Strasser , the leader of right-wing extremist movements in North and North-West Germany, played a decisive role in the revival of the Nazi Party. By bringing them into the ranks of the Nazi Party, he helped transform the party from a regional (Bavarian) party into a national political force.

In April 1925, Hitler renounced Austrian citizenship and until February 1932 was stateless.

In 1926, the Hitler Youth was founded, the top management of the SA was established, and the conquest of “Red Berlin” by Goebbels began . Meanwhile, Hitler was looking for support at the German level. He managed to win the trust of part of the generals, as well as establish contacts with industrial tycoons. At the same time, Hitler wrote his Mein Kampf .

In 1930-1945 was the Supreme Fuhrer of the SA .

When the parliamentary elections in 1930 and 1932 brought the Nazis a serious increase in deputy mandates, the ruling circles of the country began to seriously consider the Nazi Party as a possible participant in government combinations. An attempt was made to remove Hitler from the leadership of the party and make a bet on Strasser. However, Hitler managed to quickly isolate his associate and deprive him of any influence in the party. In the end, in the Germans, it was decided to give Hitler the main administrative and political post, surrounding him (just in case) with guardians from traditional conservative parties.

In February 1932, Hitler decided to nominate his candidacy for the elections of the German Reich President . On February 25, the Minister of the Interior of Braunschweig appointed him to the position of attache at the office of Braunschweig in Berlin. This did not impose any official duties on Hitler, but automatically gave German citizenship and allowed to participate in the elections ^[27] . Hitler took oratory lessons and acting skills from opera singer Paul DeFrinth ( him. Paul Devrient ), the Nazis organized an ambitious propaganda campaign, in particular, Hitler became the first German politician who made election trips by plane. In the first round on March 13, Paul von Hindenburg scored 49.6% of the vote, and Hitler finished second with 30.1%. On April 10, on the second ballot, Hindenburg gained 53%, and Hitler - 36.8%. The third place both times was occupied by the Communist Telman ^[28] .

June 4, 1932 the Reichstag was dissolved. In the elections held on July 7, the Nazi Party won a landslide victory, gaining 37.8% of the vote and receiving 230 seats in the Reichstag instead of the previous 143. The second place went to the Social Democrats - 21.9% and 133 seats in the Reichstag.

On November 6, 1932, special elections for the Reichstag took place again. This time, the NSDAP lost two million votes, gaining 33.1% and received only 196 seats instead of the previous 230.

On December 3, 1932, Kurt von Schleicher was appointed Reich Chancellor.

However, after 2 months, on January 30, 1933, President Hindenburg relieved von Schleicher of this position and appointed Hitler Reich Chancellor ^[29] .

Reich Chancellor and Head of State

Power grab

With the appointment of reichkanzler Hitler has not yet gained power over the country. Firstly, only the Reichstag could make any laws in Germany, and Hitler’s party did not have the necessary number of votes in it. Secondly, in the party itself there was opposition to Hitler in the person of the attack aircraft and their leader Ernst Ryom . And finally, thirdly, the president was the head of state, and the Reich Chancellor was only the head of the cabinet , which Hitler had yet to form. However, in just a year and a half, Hitler removed all these obstacles and became an unlimited dictator.

On February 27 (less than a month after Hitler was appointed Chancellor) a fire broke out in the parliament building - the Reichstag . The official version of the incident stated that the Dutch Communist Marinus van der Lubbe was responsible for this during the fire fighting. It is now considered proven that the arson was planned by the Nazis and directly carried out by attack planes under the command of Karl Ernst ^{[30] [31]} .

Hitler announced a conspiracy of the Communist Party to seize power and the next day after the fire presented Hindenburg two decrees: "On the protection of the people and the state" and "Against the betrayal of the German people and the machinations of the traitors to the motherland", which he signed. The decree “On the protection of the people and the state” repealed seven articles of the constitution , restricted freedom of speech, press, assembly and rallies; allowed to view correspondence and wiretapping phones. But the main result of this decree was the system of uncontrolled detention in concentration camps under the name of “protective arrest”. Using these decrees, the Nazis immediately arrested 4,000 prominent members of the Communist Party - their main opponent. After that, new elections to the Reichstag were announced.

The main goal of Hitler, formulated in his speeches, was to destroy the influence of the Marxist parties. On March 2, in his speech at the Sports Palace, he said: ^[32]

Did this Marxism eliminate poverty, where it won a one-hundred-percent victory, where it really reigns supreme, in Russia? Reality speaks here in stunning language. Millions of people died of starvation in a country that could become a breadbasket for the whole world ... They say fraternity. We know this fraternity. Hundreds of thousands, and even millions of people were killed in the name of this fraternity and because of great happiness <...> They also say that they have surpassed capitalism in the same way ... The capitalist world should give them loans, supply cars and equip factories, put engineers and foremen at their disposal - all this must do this other world. They are not able to challenge this. And I could recommend the labor system at timber logging in Siberia, at least for a week, to those who are dreaming about the implementation of this system in Germany.

In the March 5 elections , the Nazi party won 43.9% of the vote and 288 seats in the Reichstag. The decapitated Communist Party lost 19 seats. However, such a composition of the Reichstag could not satisfy the Nazis. Then a special decree was banned by the Communist Party of Germany , and the mandates that were to be given to the Communist deputies (81 mandates) following the results of the elections were canceled. In addition, some oppositional Nazi deputies of the SPD were arrested or expelled ^[33] . On March 24, 1933, the new Reichstag passed the Emergency Powers Act . According to this law, the government headed by the Reich Chancellor was given the authority to enact state laws (previously only the Reichstag could do this), and Article 2 stated that laws issued in this way may contain departures from the constitution.

On June 30, 1934, the Gestapo arranged a mass pogrom against the SA attack aircraft , which went down in history as the Night of the Long Knives . More than a thousand people were killed, among them the leader of stormtroopers Ernst Rehm . Many people who had no relation to the SA were killed, in particular, Hitler's predecessor as Reich Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and his wife.

On August 2, 1934, at nine o'clock in the morning at the age of 86, German President Hindenburg died. Three hours later, it was announced that, in accordance with the law passed by the cabinet the day before the president’s death, the functions of the chancellor and the president are combined in one person and that Adolf Hitler assumed the powers of the head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The title of president has been abolished; henceforth, Hitler should have been called the Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor. Hitler demanded from all personnel of the armed forces to pledge allegiance not to Germany, not to the constitution, which he had violated, by refusing to call the election of the successor to Hindenburg, but to him personally ^[34] .

On August 19, a referendum was held, at which these actions were approved by 84.6% of the electorate ^[35] .

Internal policy

Under the leadership of Hitler was sharply reduced, and then eliminated unemployment . Large-scale humanitarian aid campaigns have been launched for the needy population. Mass cultural and sporting festivals were encouraged. The basis of the policy of the Hitler regime was preparation for revenge for the lost World War I. To this end, the industry was reconstructed, large-scale construction was launched, and strategic reserves were created. In the spirit of revanchism was carried out propaganda treatment of the population.

The Communist and then the Social Democratic parties were banned first. A number of parties were forced to declare self-dissolution. The trade unions whose property was transferred to the Nazi workers' front were liquidated. Opponents of the new government without trial went to concentration camps ^[36] .

An important part of Hitler’s internal politics was anti-Semitism . Mass persecution of Jews and Gypsies began . On September 15, 1935, Nuremberg racial laws were passed , depriving Jews of civil rights; in the fall of 1938, an all-German Jewish pogrom was organized ( Crystal Night ). Development of this policy a few years later was the operation of “endling” (the final solution of the Jewish question ), aimed at the physical destruction of the entire Jewish population. This policy, which Hitler first declared back in 1919 ^[37] , was crowned with the genocide of the Jewish population, the decision about which was already taken during the war (see Holocaust ).

Beginning of territorial expansion

Shortly after coming to power, Hitler announced the withdrawal of Germany from the military articles of the Versailles Treaty limiting the military efforts of Germany. The one hundred thousandth Reichswehr was turned into a Wehrmacht of one million, tank forces were created and military aviation was restored. The status of the demilitarized Rhineland was canceled.

In 1936 - 1939, Germany under the leadership of Hitler provided substantial assistance to the Francoists during the Spanish Civil War .

At this time, Hitler believed that he was seriously ill and would soon die , and began to rush to the realization of his plans. On November 5, 1937, he wrote a political testament, and on May 2, 1938, a personal will ^[5] .

In March 1938, Austria was annexed .

In the autumn of 1938, in accordance with the Munich Agreement , a part of Czechoslovakia was annexed - the Sudetenland .

Time magazine in its issue on January 2, 1939 called Hitler "the man of 1938" ^[38] . The article on “Man of the Year” began with Hitler's titulature, which, according to the magazine, reads as follows: “ Commander of the German Army, Navy & Air Force, Chancellor of the Third Reich Herr Hitler . The final sentence of a very lengthy article proclaimed:

Those who watched the final events of the year seemed more than likely that the Man of 1938 could make the year 1939 unforgettable.

Original Text (Eng.)

It made it possible for it to be possible to see it.

In March 1939, the rest of the Czech Republic was occupied, turned into a satellite state by the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (Slovakia remained formally independent), and a part of Lithuania’s territory was annexed, including Klaipeda ( Memel region ). After that, Hitler made territorial claims to Poland (first, on the provision of an extraterritorial road to East Prussia , and then on holding a referendum on the belonging of the Polish Corridor , in which people who lived in this territory as of 1918 should have taken part ). The latter requirement was clearly unacceptable for the allies of Poland — Britain and France — which could have served as the basis for the conflict to mature.

The Second World War

These claims met a sharp rebuff. On April 3, 1939, Hitler approved the plan of an armed attack on Poland (Operation Weiss).

On August 23, 1939, Hitler concluded a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, the secret annex to which contained a plan for dividing the spheres of influence in Europe. On August 31, a provocation was arranged in Glajwice , which served as a pretext for the attack on Poland on September 1. It marked the beginning of the Second World War . After defeating Poland in September, Germany in April — May 1940 occupied Norway, Denmark, Holland, Luxembourg, and Belgium and invaded France . In June, the Wehrmacht forces occupied Paris, and France capitulated. In the spring of 1941, Germany under the leadership of Hitler seized Greece and Yugoslavia, and on June 22 attacked the USSR . The defeats of the Soviet troops at the first stage of the Great Patriotic War led to the occupation by the German and allied forces of the Baltic republics, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and the western part of the RSFSR. In the occupied territories, a brutal occupation regime was established, which destroyed many millions of people.

However, since the end of 1942, the German armies began to suffer major defeats both in the USSR ( Stalingrad ) and in Egypt ( El Alamein ). The following year, the Red Army launched a broad offensive, while the Anglo-American troops landed in Italy and withdrew it from the war. In 1944, Soviet territory was liberated from occupation, the Red Army advanced to Poland and the Balkans; at the same time, the Anglo-American troops, after landing in Normandy , liberated most of France. Since the beginning of 1945, hostilities were transferred to the territory of the Reich.

Attempts on Hitler

The first unsuccessful attempt on the life of Adolf Hitler took place in 1930 at the hotel "Kaiserhof". When Hitler came down from the podium after a speech in front of his supporters, an unknown person ran up to him and tried to splash poison in the face from a homemade shooting pen, but Hitler’s guards noticed the attacker in time and defused him.

• March 1, 1932 , a group of unknowns in the amount of four people in the vicinity of Munich fired on a train in which Hitler rode to speak to his supporters. Hitler was not injured.
• On June 2, 1932, a group of unknown persons fired a car with Hitler from an ambush on the road in the vicinity of the city of Stralsund . Hitler was not hurt again.
• On July 4, 1932, unknown persons shelled a car with Hitler in Nuremberg . Hitler received a tangent wound to his hand.

During 1933-1938 , another 16 attempts were made on Hitler’s life, which ended in failures, including on December 20, 1936, a German Jew and a former member of the Black Front , Helmut Hirsch, was about to lay two homemade bombs at the headquarters of the NSDAP in Nuremberg , where Hitler should have come to visit. However, the plan failed, as Hirsch could not bypass the guards. On December 21, 1936, he was arrested by the Gestapo, and on April 22, 1937 he was sentenced to death. Hirsch was executed on June 4, 1937 .

• On November 9, 1938, the 22-year-old Maurice Bavaux from a distance of 10 meters was about to shoot Hitler from a 6.5 mm caliber Schmeisser semi-automatic pistol during a festive parade dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the Beer Putsch . However, Hitler at the last moment changed the plan and went on the opposite side of the street, as a result, Bavo could not carry out his plan. Later he also tried to get a personal meeting with Hitler with the help of a fake letter of recommendation. However, he spent all the money and in early January 1939 decided to leave for Paris without a ticket. In the train, he was detained by the Gestapo. On December 18, 1939, the court sentenced Bovo to death on the guillotine , and on May 14, 1941, the sentence was carried out.
• On October 5, 1939, 500 kg of explosives were laid by members of SPP on the way of Hitler's motorcade in Warsaw, but for some unknown reason the bomb did not work.
• On November 8, 1939, in the Munich burgher Burgerbroi , where Hitler spoke to the NSDAP veterans every year, Johann Georg Elzer , a former member of the Union of Red Front-line Soldiers ^{[39] of the} KPG militant organization, mounted an improvised clockwork device in front of which set the tribune for the leader. As a result of the explosion, 8 people were killed and 63 injured, but Hitler was not among the victims. Having confined himself to a brief greeting to the crowd, he left the hall seven minutes before the explosion, as he had to return to Berlin. That evening, Elzer was captured at the Swiss border and, after several interrogations, confessed to everything. As a “special prisoner” he was placed in the concentration camp Sachsenhausen , then transferred to Dachau . April 9, 1945, when the Allies were already near the concentration camp, on the orders of Himmler Elzer was shot ^[40] .
• On May 15, 1942, a group of individuals attacked a Hitler train in Poland. Several Fuhrer guards were killed, as were all the attackers. Hitler was not injured.
• On March 13, 1943, during Hitler's visit to Smolensk, Colonel Henning von Treskov and his adjutant, Lieutenant von Schlabrendorf, planted a bomb on Hitler's plane in a brandy gift box in which an explosive device did not work.
• On March 21, 1943, during a visit by Hitler to an exhibition of captured Soviet military equipment in Berlin, Colonel Rudolf von Gersdorf had to blow himself up with Hitler. However, the Fuhrer left the exhibition before the scheduled time, and Gersdorf barely managed to neutralize the fuse.
• On July 14, 1944, the British special services were going to carry out Operation Foxley . According to the plan, the best British snipers were to shoot Hitler during his visit to the Berghof mountain residence in the Bavarian Alps . The plan was not finally approved, and its implementation did not take place.
• On July 20, 1944, a conspiracy was organized against Hitler, the purpose of which was to physically eliminate him and make peace with the advancing Allied forces. The explosion of the bomb killed 4 people, Hitler was still alive. After the assassination attempt, he was unable to stay on his feet all day, as more than 100 fragments were extracted from them. In addition, he had a dislocation of his right hand, the hair on the back of his head was scorched and the eardrums were damaged. He is temporarily deaf in his right ear.

Death

According to the testimony of witnesses questioned both by the Soviet counterintelligence agencies and by the relevant services of the allies, on April 30, 1945 , in Berlin surrounded by Soviet troops, Hitler and his wife, Eva Brown, committed suicide after slaying his beloved Blondie dog. In Soviet historiography, the viewpoint was affirmed that Hitler took poison ( potassium cyanide , like most of the Nazis who committed suicide). However, according to eyewitnesses, he shot himself. There is also a version according to which Hitler, having taken a vial of poison into his mouth and having bitten it, simultaneously fired a pistol at himself (using, thus, both instruments of death).

According to witnesses from among the attendants, even the day before Hitler gave the order to deliver gasoline cans from the garage (for the destruction of bodies). On April 30, after lunch, Hitler said goodbye to people from his inner circle and, shaking hands with them, together with Eva Brown, retired to his apartment, from which a shot was soon heard. Shortly after 3:15 pm (according to other data ^{[ how? ]} 15:30) Hitler's servant Heinz Linge , accompanied by the adjutant of the Führer, Otto Gunsch , Goebbels, Bormann and Aksmann , entered the Führer’s apartment. The dead Hitler was sitting on the couch; there was a bloody stain on his temple. Eva Braun lay beside her, with no visible external damage. Gunshe and Linge wrapped the body of Hitler in a soldier's blanket and carried him into the garden of the Reich Chancellery; followed him and carried the body of Eve. The bodies were laid not far from the entrance to the bunker, they poured gasoline over them and set them on fire.

On May 5, 1945, the corpses were found on a piece of blanket sticking out of the ground with a group of guard senior lieutenant A. Panasov and fell into the hands of SMERSH . General K. F. Telegin headed the government commission to identify the remains. Colonel of the medical service F. I. Shkaravsky led the expert commission on the study of the remains. The body of Hitler was identified with the help of Kete Choyzerman (Ketty Goyzerman), an assistant dentist of Hitler, who confirmed the similarity of dentures presented to her on identification, with Hitler's prostheses. However, after returning from the Soviet camps, she recanted her testimony. In February 1946, the remains identified by the investigation as the bodies of Hitler, Eva Braun, the married couple Goebbels - Joseph, Magda and their six children , as well as two dogs, were buried at one of the NKVD bases in Magdeburg . In 1970, when the territory of this base was to be transferred to the GDR , at the suggestion of Yu.V. Andropov , approved by the Politburo, the remains were dug, cremated to ashes and then thrown into the Elbe ^{[43] [44]} (according to other sources, the remains were burned in a wasteland near the town of Schönebeck , 11 km from Magdeburg and thrown into the river Bideritz ^[45] ). Only dentures and a part of Hitler's skull with an entrance bullet hole (found separately from the corpse) survived. They are stored in the Russian archives, as well as the side arms of the sofa on which Hitler shot himself, with traces of blood. In an interview, the head of the FSB archive said that the authenticity of the jaw was proven by a number of international-level examinations ^[46] . Hitler's biographer Werner Mather expresses doubts that the discovered corpse and part of the skull really belonged to Hitler ^{[47] [48] [49]} . In September 2009, researchers from the University of Connecticut, based on the results of their DNA analysis , stated that the skull belonged to a woman less than 40 years old ^[50] . Representatives of the FSB issued a refutation of this statement ^[51] .

However, there is a popular urban legend that the corpses of Hitler and his wife were found in a bunker, while the Fuhrer and his wife allegedly disappeared in Argentina , where they lived quietly for the rest of their days. Similar versions are being advanced and proved even by some historians, including the British Gerard Williams and Simon Dunstan ^[52] . However, the scientific community rejects such theories.

In July 2017, with the permission of the FSB of Russia, a team of French scientists from the University of Versailles-Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines was able to gain access to the fragments of Adolf Hitler's teeth, conduct a study and find out the cause of the Führer's death. The team leader, Professor Philippe Charlier, said that the teeth are genuine and belong to Hitler. An article published in the ^[53] confirms the generally accepted theory about the death of Hitler on April 30, 1945. Hitler took cyanide and shot himself in the head for safety. When examining the teeth, no traces of gunpowder were found - which means that he did not shoot in the mouth, but in the forehead or neck, the scientists concluded. Blue spots were found on the prostheses - a chemical reaction between cyanide and metal led to this. According to the authors of the article, this once again destroys all the myths that Hitler could have survived the war ^[54] .

In April 2019, the FBI declassified documents that in September 1945 the secret service had some information about the Fuehrer’s flight to Argentina , which was set out in the official dossier, however, the investigation was not carried out because it was considered insufficient and unreliable ^{[55] [56] [57] [58]} .

According to most biographers, Hitler was a vegetarian from 1931 (from the time of the suicide of Geli Raubal ) until his death in 1945. Some authors argue that Hitler only limited himself to eating meat.

He also had a negative attitude towards smoking, in Nazi Germany the struggle with this habit was developed . Once, when Hitler went to rest, the rest began to play cards and smoke. Suddenly, Hitler returned. Eva Brown's sister threw a burning cigarette into an ashtray and sat on it, since Hitler forbade smoking in his presence . Hitler noticed this and decided to joke. I approached her and asked for a detailed explanation of the rules of the game. In the morning, Eva, having learned everything from Hitler, asked her sister, “how are you doing with blistering burns on the priest” ^[5] .

Hitler with painful care took care of cleanliness. Panicky afraid of people with a cold. Do not tolerate familiarity ^[5] .

He was a man of little sociability. He was reckoned with others only when he needed them and did what he thought was right. The letters never interested in the opinions of others. He loved to use foreign words. I read a lot, even during the war. According to the personal physician von Hasselbach, he must have worked at least one book every day. In Linz , for example, he enrolled in three libraries at once. At first leafed through the book from the end. If he decided that the book was worth reading, then he read in parts, only what he needed ^[5] .

• Hitler dictated his performances "in one breath", directly to the typist. According to eyewitnesses, he delayed the dictation to the last minute; before dictation long walked back and forth. Then Hitler began to dictate - in fact, to make a speech - with flashes of anger, gestures, etc. Two secretaries barely had time to write. Later, he worked for several hours, correcting the printed text ^[5] .
• In 1936, during Hitler's chancellorship, Germany hosted the IV Winter Olympics and the XI Summer Olympics , which were held in the cities of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Berlin . At the same time, he opened both the winter and summer games , so Hitler became the first politician in the world to open the Olympic Games twice.
• The last lifetime filming of Hitler was made on March 20, 1945 and published in the German Weekly Review ( German Die deutsche Wochenschau ) on March 22, 1945. On it in the garden of the Reich Chancellery, Hitler bypasses the ranks of distinguished members of the Hitler Youth . The last known lifetime photo was taken, apparently, shortly before his birthday on April 20, 1945 ^[59] . On it, Hitler, accompanied by Chief Adjutant Julius Schaub, examines the ruins of the Reich Chancellery ^[60] .
• Anophthalmus hitleri is a beetle named after Hitler and made rare because of its popularity among neo-Nazis ^[61] .

Artistic

The image of Hitler is reflected in numerous feature films. In some of them he plays a key role, in particular: “ Hitler: The Last Ten Days ”, “ Bunker ”, “ Hitler: The Devil's Ascent ”, “ My Struggle ” and others.

Documentary

• “Timeline. The formation of Adolf Hitler "( Time Watch. The Making of Adolf Hitler ) - a documentary film shot by the BBC in 2002.
• "Adolf Gitler. The Path to Power "- a 3-part documentary by Edward Radzinsky , filmed in 2011.

• “His voice is nothing else than his own unconscious, into which the Germans projected themselves; this is an unconscious of seventy-eight million Germans ”( Carl Gustav Jung ) ^[62] .
• “He was a warrior, a fighter who fought for all mankind, a herald of universal justice. Hitler was a reformer of enormous proportions, but his historical fate was such that he lived in times of unprecedented rudeness and barbarism, and this struck him ”( Knut Hamsun ) ^[63] .
• “The Third Reich of Corporal Hitler was therefore inevitably a state of cruel guys who barely grew out of teenagers. And the teenagers who returned from the meat grinder of the war are monsters. From the suicidal torment of young Werthers and Kleistov lieutenants to the death camps, the path was only a century. The path from the picturesque robbers to the ice killers of the SS. Hitler is the legitimate son of Germany, that's what I want to say. Adolf Hitler is the last German romantic ”( Eduard Limonov ) ^[64] .
• “A born leader, a magnetic, dynamic personality, purposeful, with a resolute will and a fearless heart” ( David Lloyd George ) ^[65] .

Comments

Sources

• Adolf Hitler in the links directory Open Directory Project (dmoz) (Eng.)
• Robert Wilde "What did Hitler Believe?" - a brief overview of the ideology of Hitlerism (eng.)