Hitler was born in Austria – then part of Austria-Hungary –
and was raised near Linz. He moved to Germany in 1913 and was decorated during
his service in the German Army in World War I. In 1919, he joined the German
Workers' Party (DAP), the precursor of the Nazi Party, and was appointed leader
of the Nazi Party in 1921. In 1923, he attempted to seize governmental power in
a failed coup in Munich and was imprisoned with a sentence of five years. In
jail, he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto
("My Struggle"). After his
early release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of
Versailles and promoting pan-Germanism, anti-Semitism and anti-communism with
charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda. He frequently denounced international
capitalism and communism as part of a Jewish conspiracy.
By November 1932, the Nazi Party had the most seats in the
German Reichstag but did not have a majority. As a result, no party was able to
form a majority parliamentary coalition in support of a candidate for
chancellor. Former chancellor Franz von Papen and other conservative leaders
persuaded President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor on 30
January 1933. Shortly after, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act of 1933
which began the process of transforming the Weimar Republic into Nazi Germany,
a one-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of
Nazism. Hitler aimed to eliminate Jews from Germany and establish a New Order
to counter what he saw as the injustice of the post-World War I international
order dominated by Britain and France. His first six years in power resulted in
rapid economic recovery from the Great Depression, the abrogation of
restrictions imposed on Germany after World War I, and the annexation of
territories inhabited by millions of ethnic Germans, which gave him significant
popular support.
