Adolf Hitler, fourth child of a customs officer, was born on on April 20th, 1889 at Braunau, small town of High-Austria located at the Bavarian border. At the time of its schooling with Linz, it expresses only very average aptitudes and gives up its secondary studies at the sixteen years age. It starts an idle existence then, attending the theaters, discovering the Wagnerian music and devoting many hours to the development of more or less whimsical architectural projects. Attracted by Vienna, it leaves Linz in 1908 definitively (his/her father died in 1903, its mother in 1907) and tries without success to enter to the Academy of the fine arts.

Once the exhausted paternal heritage, it saw, with difficulty, of an orphan pension and drawing of postcards and watercolours. It is during these years Vienneses that the anti-semitism comes from there to occupy a central place in its vision of the world. Listening to the speeches of Christian-social Karl Lueger and the Pan-Germanist nationalist Georg von Schönerer, reading the racist lampoons of Adolf Lanz, Hitler believes to discover in the Judaism the source of all the evils which would threaten the German nation and the “Aryan race”.  

Corporal of the Bavarian army
Eager to escape the military service in the Austro-Hungarian army, Hitler settles in Munich in 1913. When the First World War bursts, it engages in the Bavarian army; having been wounded twice, it finishes the war with the rank of corporal, and is decorated with the iron cross of first class. Traumatized by the defeat, it then joined the deposit of its regiment to the hands of a council of soldiers (November 1918).

In April 1919, it attends Munich with the proclamation of the republic of the councils of Bavaria, then with its pitiless repression from Friday to. It is then indicated to inquire, within an army exemption tribunal, into the revolutionary events. In September 1919, it adheres to the German working small part (DAP) - it is the seventh member -, renamed in February 1920 left working German National Socialist (NSDAP).

“Mein Kampf”
Hitler points out himself by his qualities of speaker - his magnetic voice and guttural fascine assistance -, and asserts himself on the presidency of the party in July 1921. With this date, the NSDAP counts already more than 3 ' 000 militants, of the paramilitary troops, the sections of attack (SA), and has a newspaper, Völkischer Beobachter. Two years later, the NSDAP dominates all the other bunches extremists, gathering 55 ' 000 militants. At the sides of the Ludendorff general, the former corporal became one of the two great figures of the far right of Munich, and its reputation starts to extend out of Bavaria. On November 8th, 1923, whereas Germany knows an economic situation and dramatic policy (the French troops occupy the Ruhr and inflation increases hour in hour), Hitler tries a takeover by force, but the putsch, badly organized, fails lamentably: sixteen Nazis are killed by the police force of Munich, and Hitler himself is stopped. At the time of the lawsuit which follows, the chief of the Nazi party does not succeed in about it less being presented in the form of a patriot revolted by the intrigues of an unworthy republic, which is worth to him the sympathy of all nationalist Germany.

Condemned in February 1924 to five years of imprisonment, Hitler is released as of December. He devoted these a few months spent in the fortress of Landsberg to write Mein Kampf (My combat), confused talk of his ideas and his program, which appears in 1925. He will give a formulation more structured in than one calls the “Second Book”, written in 1928, but ever published of alive sound.  

Hitlerian vision
The Hitlerian vision of the world is basically dominated by the Darwinist report of the fight of the species for the conquest of a “living space” Lebensraum. Only the human “races” strongest, more “pure”, at the head whose Hitler places the Aryan ones, i.e. the white populations of the north of Europe, will manage according to him to assert themselves in this pitiless fight for survival. But they must avoid the retrogression at all costs. The Jews, that Hitler locates at the last level of the racial scale, constitute a particularly dangerous threat, because, people without ground, they parasitize the “healthy” people in order to destroy them or to conquer them by weakening their “racial value”. With this intention, they resort to the poisons which are the democracy, internationalism, the Marxism and pacifism. Only the conquest of a living space, in particular in the east on Poland and the USSR, and the destruction of the Jews will make it possible to save the Germanic “race”. Hitler goes until refusing any coalition with other movements extremists, affirming that “the racist State” can be created only “by the acting will of a single movement”. Lastly, he affirms the need for an uncontested chief.  
 

The rise
At his coming out of prison, Hitler must take again in hand his party, undermined by the internal competitions: in the north of Germany a left wing under the direction of Gregor Strasser was constituted. During the meeting of Bamberg, on on February 14th, 1926, Hitler however succeeds in restoring his authority. Using of its charisma, it is essential like the only figure able to ensure the survival and the cohesion of a movement the multiple tendencies. It is starting from this date that the myth of Führer is worked out, the “guide”, founded on a sophisticated ritual, the use of the Hitlerian hello and the application of the principle of the chief (Führerprinzip), who consists of an absolute respect of the hierarchy.

In spite of this internal consolidation, the NSDAP head on undergoes the by-effect of the economic and social stabilization of the Weimar Republic, sensitive as from 1924. In spite of its 100 000 members and his solid bureaucratic organization, the Nazi party obtains only 2.6 % of the voices and 12 seats of deputies to the legislative elections of 1928. Without the economic crisis of 1929, the rise of Hitler would undoubtedly have been impossible.

Germany is then a country mined by the coup attempts of State which followed the war; the Communist militants were decimated by repression, and the parties progressists are very weakened by their competitions. Under these conditions, the vote protester, translating the despair of a population confronted with a raised unemployment rate, benefits the Nazi party primarily; this one mobilizes the opinion on at the same time vague and exciting topic of the “community of the people” (Volksgemeinschaft).  

At the post of chancellor
To the elections of 1930, the Nazis send 107 as of theirs to the Reichstag; in June 1932, they will be 230. At the presidential election of March 1932, Hitler puts the Hindenburg marshal in ballot. In spite of these successes, the absolute majority is however far from being reached by the Nazi party. But the conservatives who control without parliamentary majority are also in the dead end. They miss the essential popular support for the final establishment of the authoritarian regime which they call their wishes. This is why many conservative leaders, in particular the press baron Alfred Hugenberg, adopt the idea defended by Franz von Papen, one of the close relations of Hindenburg, the participation of Hitler in the government: the objective of von Papen is “to bind” Hitler in a cabinet with dominant preserving, while recovering the motivating factor of its party. On January 30th, 1933, president Hindenburg decides, afterwards many reserves - it treats Hitler of “corporal gipsy” -, to name this last with the chancellery of Reich, in charge of a government which understands only two Nazis, Göring and Frick.  

The Night of the long knives
Hitler, by a mixture of pseudo-legality and political violence, extends his power, fully benefitting from the enthusiasm which its arrival with the chancellery as well as divisions of its opponents caused. On June 30th, 1934, at the time of the bloody Night of the long knives, it eliminates Ernst Röhm and most awkward chiefs SA, while it entrusts to Göring the responsibility to eliminate the Kurt von Schleicher general and the opponent Nazi “from left” Gregor Strasser, thus gaining the regard of the army. On August 2nd, 1934, the death of Hindenburg enables him to cumulate the functions of Head of State and chief of the government. On August 18th, more than 89 % of the German voters the new powers of Reichsführer ratify. In one year and half, Hitler managed to found a power without division, the political opponents having been assassinated or being interned in the camps.  

Parallel institutions
Although totalitarian, the new power Nazi appears chaotic operation quickly, not supporting the discipline of the ministerial cabinet: Hitler more and more seldom chairs a government whose ultimate meeting takes place in 1938. Given up with themselves, the ministries see their prerogatives in addition being restricted considerably. To short-circuit them, Hitler creates special institutions, specific mission leaders, but equipped with very broad powers, which he entrusts to his most faithful lieutenants. The police force and more generally the tools of the security policy completely escape the control of the ministry for the Interior and fall between the hands of Heinrich Himmler, the chief of the S, which builds a true State in the State. Responsible for the implementation of the four years plan which was to make it possible to adapt the economy to the effort of war, Göring encroaches largely on the fields of competence of the Minister for the Economy.  

Ultimately, in the system Nazi, all depends on the will of Führer, which takes only seldom the initiative of a decision, being satisfied with some vague remarks which then “are interpreted” and presented in the form of projects to the dictator, who gives or refuses then his essential agreement. Only the dignitaries of the direct entourage of Hitler thus hold a real power in a system which constitutes one of the most completed forms totalitarian party-State.  

The Second world war
In the six years space, of 1933 to 1939, the mode acquires an unquestionable popularity, in particular thanks to the control of unemployment and with successes in foreign policy. Not ceasing protesting of his peaceful intentions, the dictator skilfully reconciles apparent concessions and takeovers by daring force. On March 16th, 1935, he announces the re-establishment of the obligatory military service; on March 7th, 1936, Germany re-occupies the demilitarized zone of the Rhineland; on March 12th, 1938, it annexes Austria (Anschluss). Lastly, in September 1938, in Munich, France and the United Kingdom incline themselves once again in front of Hitler by accepting the integration of the territory of Sudètes in Reich. Hitler, having thus erased the political provisions and the humiliation of the treaty of Versailles, is encouraged up to that point to continue a policy which causes the concern of the chiefs of the army, enthusiastic, because they consider the preparation insufficient to support a European conflict.

But Hitler, who assumes February 1938 the supreme command of the armed forces, decides to continue the adventure: in March 1939, Czechoslovakia ceases existing, its Czech part becoming a German protectorate. With the crisis of Dantzig, during the summer 1939, it appears however that France and Great Britain are not laid out any more to yield. Mussolini and Göring try, in vain, to moderate Hitler. Extremely non-aggression pact signed between Germany and the USSR on on August 23rd, 1939, the dictator orders the invasion of Poland on on September 1st. It is the beginning of the Second world war.  

Victories with collapse
After the crushing of Poland and the defeat of France, Hitler is the Master of most of Europe. He is then present on all fronts, to the sides of his staff as in the occupied countries (interview with Pétain with Montoire), and leads the double task to conquer Europe all while imposing the order Nazi there. Hitler is convinced of his military engineering and the accuracy of his political theories. He lays down unrealistic military objectives then, like Moscow then Stalingrad, makes error count strategic. On the political plan, in France, its directives in the plenipotentiary general of the service of labor, Fritz Sauckel, reinforce the opposition to the mode of Vichy; in occupied Alsace, it directly inspires the gauleiter Robert Wagner which causes the hostility and hatred.  

For Hitler, the war is not only the conquest of “living space”; it is also necessary to remove the grounds conquered from the enemies of Reich. It is with the S that he entrusts this task; he discharges thus on Himmler from simple works from police force and destruction from the opponents and undesirable.  

The fall
Inventive and daring in the offensive, Hitler does not manage to conceive a defensive strategy, in particular on the Russian face. The defeats (Stalingrad, February 1943; North Africa, May 1943) have deep consequences on its character, and it gives up any appearance as a public, with the great despair of Goebbels, on whom falls down all the weight of the maintenance of the popularity of the mode. Increasingly silent, Führer leaves its silence to only strike to its entourage of the delirious talks on the reorganization of Europe, and it passes the essence of its time leant on Geological Survey maps; its close relations can almost observe at sight of eye its accelerated ageing, which had with the overwork and the abuse drugs.

Despite everything, its power remains uncontested until the last days of the war. However, of the officers like Beck, Rommel and Canaris plot against Hitler, and on on July 20th, 1944, colonel Stauffenberg tries to assassinate it. The plot fails. On April 30th, 1945, whereas the Soviet troops invest Berlin, Hitler, after having married his mistress, Eva Braun, puts an end to his days in his bunker. Previously, it had ordered the destruction of all the industrial infrastructure of Germany, and had written its political legacy.