Rise And Fall Of The Hitler Reich
The Rise and Fall of Hitlers Reich Feeling that all was
lost, Hitler shot himself on April 30, 1945. By orders
formally given by him before his death, SS officers
immersed Hitler's body in gasoline and burned it in the
garden of the Chancellery. Soon after the suicide of Hitler,
the Germ On Easter Sunday April 20, 1889, at an inn called
the Gasth of Zum Pommer, the wife of an Austrian Customs
official gave birth to a son, Adolf Hitler. He was the
fourth child to the parents of Alois and Klara Hitler of
Austria. Hitler was a good student. One of the teachers in
his high school classified young Hitler as "notorious,
cantankerous, willful, arrogant, and irascible. He has an
obvious difficulty in fitting in at school." He did well
enough to get by in some of his courses but had no time for
Adolf saw no real reason to stay in high school. He left
school at age sixteen without a leaving certificate.
In September 1907, Hitler left home taking with him all
the money left to him by his father, who had died a few
years earlier. The money would preliminary examination, the
applicant was asked to submit drawings. Biblical drawings
were most preferred. Hitler's drawings were returned saying
they were "too wooden and too lifeless." He was rejected. He
tried three months later and did not get pa Hitler moved
into an apartment with his friend in Vienna. He pretended to
be a student living off his relatives money. He read many
books and sat in on the Austrian government sessions .
Hitler speaks of his life in Vienna as "five years in which
I had In 1913, Hitler moved to Munich. Life was not much
better there until the First World War started in 1914.
While many people were frightened and sad at the thought of
a world war, Hitler was delighted. He held the rank of
corporal, and in forty-seven b On October 13th 1918, a
month before Germany surrendered to the Allies, his good
luck ran out. When Hitler and his fellow dispatch runners
were waiting in line for their food rations, British troops
began lobbing high explosive shells nearby. Some of th
Hitler soon regained use of his eyes, but as he was about to
rejoin his regiment, he got the terrible news of Germany's
surrender. "Once again, everything went black before my
eyes, and I tottered and groped my way back to the place
where we slept and bu As part of Hitler's job, he
investigated a party called "the German Workers' Party." He
was disgusted how the group had no organization, although he
was in favor of many of the party's ideas. To follow up with
his job, he joined the group to make sure t Hitler finally
found his talent as a great orator.
He first became aware of his talent while teaching at the University of Munich. When
he talked, he held his audiences spellbound. He would
sometimes lose five pounds a night by getting so active in
his He persuaded the other party members to rent one of the
largest halls in Munich_one that seated at least 2,000
people. There Hitler made of list of demands to the German
government. Point twenty-five said, "For modern society, a
colossus with feet of cl Ernst Rohm, a friend of Hitler's,
organized a group of storm troopers for Hitler. The German
name for storm troopers was Storm Abtcilung, or SA for
short. They first beat and killed hecklers at Nazi
speakings. When there were no hecklers, they found Je By the
summer of 1923, the Nazi party had grown to 150,000 members.
With the Nazi movement growing so rapidly, Hitler knew it
was time to make a move on Germany.
November 11, 1923 seemed like a perfect time for Hitler
to make the grab for power. It was Hitler captured the
government leaders and forced them to join him. His 3,000
men then marched to Berlin in an attempt to take it over.
The German police were waiting. Shots were fired and sixteen
nazis and two policemen lay dead. Hundreds more were w The
trial was a "political circus". Hitler was allowed to speak
for hours at a time. During one of his speeches he said, "It
is the External Court of History _ That court will judge us
_ as Germans who wanted the best for their people and their
fatherla Hitler served only nine months of his five-year
sentence. The guards gave him a suite of several adjoining
rooms where guests could come or go as they pleased. He was
sent many gifts and grew visibly fatter. He wrote a book
called Mein Kampf, or My Str The government banned
the Nazi party after the revolt. There were also many
reasons for lack of Nazi activity. The Allies had loosened
their grip on the German economy. The French had left the
Ruhr leaving Germany's industries intact, and the United St
The depression in America caused the economic system in
Germany to plummet. Because of the harsh times, Nazis got
two million more votes then the Communist party. The
election put them just under the Democratic party and gave
them 107 more seats in the House. Hitler was planning on
running for President of Germany against Paul Von
Hinderburg, a social democrat. Hitler campaigned frequently,
going to every major city and town. He was the f
By 1932 the SA troops numbered 400,000. The SA's goal was to
make people afraid, and they accomplished that with ease.
One of the most popular chants of the SA troops is as
follows: "Sharpen the knives on the sidewalk so that they
can cut the enemy's bo In the election of 1932, Hitler could
not beat out the eighty-five year old President Hindenburg.
However, 230 Nazi candidates held seats, and Hitler was made
Chancellor of Germany. It was the second highest position in
the German government.
With only Hitler still was not
elected to the Presidency. Using force, Hitler got
Hinderburg to pass a law that abolished freedom of speech,
of the press, and of assembly. Hitler then brought before
the court the Enabling Act. This law gave Hitler the power
of a After the bills were passed, the German military feared
that when Hitler took full leadership of the country, they
would lose control, and the SA would take over. Hitler
assured the military that this was not true. To gain
their trust, he gave them a li In August of 1934
President Hindenburg died. Hitler's last obstacle in his
quest for complete power was removed. Using his unlimited
powers, he combined the offices of president and chancellor.
To everyone in Germany he was now Der Fuhrer, the leader.
Avoiding capture by the approaching forces, Hitler shot
himself on April 30, 1945. The world was never the same
again. Hitler's Reich was over, and millions of jews were
dead. Quite rightly, the world asked questions: How
could this have happened?