Adolf Hitler is a well-known political leader in Germany, whose activities are associated with heinous crimes against humanity, including the Holocaust. The founder of the Nazi Party and the dictatorship of the Third Reich, the immorality of the philosophy and political views of which are still widely discussed in society today.

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After Hitler managed to become the head of the German fascist state in 1934, he launched a large-scale operation to seize Europe, became the initiator of World War II, which made him a “monster and a sadist” for Soviet citizens, and for many Germans a brilliant leader who changed people's lives for the better.

Childhood and youth

Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 in the Austrian city of Braunau am Inn, located near the border with Germany. His parents, Alois and Clara Hitler, were peasants, but his father managed to break into the people and become a state customs official, which allowed the family to live in decent conditions. "Nazi No. 1" was the third child in the family and dearly loved by his mother, who was very similar in appearance. Later, he had a younger brother Edmund and sister Paula, to whom the future German Fuhrer became very attached and took care of all his life.

Embed from Getty Images Adolf Hitler as a child

Adolf's childhood years were spent in constant moving, caused by the peculiarities of his father's work, and changing schools, where he did not show any special talents, but still managed to finish four classes of a real school in Steyr and received a certificate of education, in which good marks were only in drawing and physical education. During this period, his mother Klara Hitler dies of cancer, which dealt a serious blow to the psyche of the young man, but he did not break down, but, having completed the necessary documents for receiving a pension for himself and his sister Paula, he moved to Vienna and set foot on the path of adulthood.

First, he tried to enter the Art Academy, as he had an outstanding talent and craving for fine arts, but failed the entrance exams. The next few years, the biography of Adolf Hitler was filled with poverty, vagrancy, odd jobs, constant moving from place to place, rooming houses under city bridges. All this time, he did not inform his relatives or friends about his location, as he was afraid of being drafted into the army, where he would have to serve along with the Jews, for whom he felt a deep hatred.

Embed from Getty Images Adolf Hitler (right) in World War I

At the age of 24, Hitler moved to Munich, where he met with the First World War, which made him very happy. He immediately volunteered for the Bavarian army, in whose ranks he took part in many battles. He took the defeat of Germany in the First World War very painfully and categorically blamed politicians for it. Against this background, he engaged in large-scale propaganda work, which allowed him to get into the political movement of the people's workers' party, which he skillfully turned into a Nazi one.

Path to power

Having become the head of the NSDAP, Adolf Hitler gradually began to make his way deeper and deeper to political heights and in 1923 organized the "Beer putsch". Enlisting the support of 5,000 stormtroopers, he broke into a beer bar, where a rally of the leaders of the General Staff was held, and announced the overthrow of the traitors in the Berlin government. On November 9, 1923, the Nazi putsch headed towards the ministry to seize power, but was intercepted by police detachments, who used firearms to disperse the Nazis.

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In March 1924, Adolf Hitler, as the organizer of the putsch, was convicted of treason and sentenced to 5 years in prison. But the Nazi dictator spent only 9 months in prison - on December 20, 1924, for unknown reasons, he was released.

Immediately after his release, Hitler revived the Nazi party NSDAP and transformed it, with the help of Gregor Strasser, into a nationwide political force. During that period, he managed to establish close ties with the German generals, as well as establish contact with large industrial magnates.

At the same time, Adolf Hitler wrote his work "My Struggle" ("Mein Kampf"), in which he outlined his autobiography and the idea of ​​National Socialism. In 1930, the political leader of the Nazis became the supreme commander of the assault troops (SA), and in 1932 he tried to get the post of Reich Chancellor. To do this, he had to renounce his Austrian citizenship and become a German citizen, as well as enlist the support of the allies.

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From the first time, Hitler failed to win the elections, in which Kurt von Schleicher was ahead of him. A year later, German President Paul von Hindenburg, under Nazi pressure, dismissed the victorious von Schleicher and appointed Hitler in his place.

This appointment did not cover all the hopes of the Nazi leader, since power over Germany continued to remain in the hands of the Reichstag, and his powers included only the leadership of the Cabinet of Ministers, which had yet to be created.

In just 1.5 years, Adolf Hitler managed to remove all obstacles from his path in the form of the President of Germany and the Reichstag and become an unlimited dictator. From that moment, the oppression of Jews and Gypsies began in the country, trade unions were closed and the "Hitler era" began, which for 10 years of his reign was completely saturated with human blood.

Nazism and war

In 1934, Hitler gained power over Germany, where a total Nazi regime immediately began, the ideology of which was the only true one. Having become the ruler of Germany, the Nazi leader immediately revealed his true face and began major foreign policy actions. He is rapidly creating the Wehrmacht and restoring aviation and tank troops, as well as long-range artillery. Contrary to the Treaty of Versailles, Germany seizes the Rhineland, and after Czechoslovakia and Austria.

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At the same time, he carried out a purge in his ranks - the dictator organized the so-called "Night of Long Knives", when all prominent Nazis who posed a threat to Hitler's absolute power were destroyed. Assigning himself the title of supreme leader of the "Third Reich", the Fuhrer created the "Gestapo" police and a system of concentration camps, where he imprisoned all "undesirable elements", namely Jews, gypsies, political opponents, and later prisoners of war.

The basis of Adolf Hitler's domestic policy was the ideology of racial discrimination and the superiority of indigenous Aryans over other peoples. His goal was to become the only leader of the whole world, in which the Slavs were to become "elite" slaves, and the lower races, to which he ranked Jews and Gypsies, were completely destroyed. Along with massive crimes against humanity, the ruler of Germany was developing a similar foreign policy, deciding to take over the whole world.

Embed from Getty Images Adolf Hitler inspects the army

In April 1939, Hitler approves a plan to attack Poland, which was defeated already in September of the same year. Further, the Germans occupied Norway, Holland, Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg and broke through the front of France. In the spring of 1941, Hitler captured Greece and Yugoslavia, and on June 22 attacked the then-led USSR.

In 1943, the Red Army launched a large-scale offensive against the Germans, thanks to which World War II entered the territory of the Reich in 1945, which completely drove the Fuhrer crazy. He sent pensioners, teenagers and disabled people to battle with the Red Army, ordering the soldiers to stand to death, while he himself hid in the "bunker" and watched what was happening from the side.

Holocaust and death camps

With the coming to power of Adolf Hitler in Germany, Poland and Austria, a whole complex of death camps and concentration camps was created, the first of which was created in 1933 near Munich. It is known that there were more than 42 thousand such camps, in which millions of people died under torture. These specially equipped centers were intended for genocide and terror both over prisoners of war and over the local population, which included the disabled, women and children.

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The largest Nazi "death factories" were "Auschwitz", "Majdanek", "Buchenwald", "Treblinka", in which people who dissented from Hitler were subjected to inhuman torture and "experiments" with poisons, incendiary mixtures, gas, which in 80% of cases led to to the painful death of people. All death camps were created with the aim of "cleansing" the entire world population from anti-fascists, inferior races, which for Hitler were Jews and gypsies, ordinary criminals and "elements" simply undesirable for the German leader.

The symbol of the ruthlessness of Hitler and fascism was the Polish city of Auschwitz, in which the most terrible conveyors of death were built, where more than 20 thousand people were killed daily. This is one of the most terrible places on Earth, which became the center of the extermination of Jews - they died there in "gas" chambers immediately after their arrival, even without registration and identification. The Auschwitz camp has become a tragic symbol of the Holocaust - the mass destruction of the Jewish nation, which is recognized as the largest genocide of the 20th century.

Why did Hitler hate the Jews?

There are several versions why Adolf Hitler hated the Jews so much, whom he tried to "wipe off the face of the earth." Historians who have studied the personality of the "bloody" dictator put forward several theories, each of which could be true.

The first and most plausible version is the "racial policy" of the German dictator, who considered only native Germans to be people. In this regard, he divided all nations into three parts - the Aryans, who were supposed to rule the world, the Slavs, who were assigned the role of slaves in his ideology, and the Jews, whom Hitler planned to completely destroy.

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The economic motives of the Holocaust are also not ruled out, since at that time Germany was in a critical state in terms of the economy, and the Jews had profitable enterprises and banking institutions, which Hitler took away from them after exile in concentration camps.

There is also a version that Hitler destroyed the Jewish nation in order to maintain the morale of his army. He assigned Jews and Gypsies the role of victims, whom he gave to be torn to pieces so that the Nazis could enjoy human blood, which, according to the leader of the Third Reich, should set them up for victory.

Personal life

The personal life of Adolf Hitler in modern history has no confirmed facts and is filled with a lot of speculation. It is known that the German Fuhrer was never officially married and had no recognized children. At the same time, despite his rather unattractive appearance, he was the favorite of the entire female population of the country, which played an important role in his life. Historians claim that "Nazi No. 1" knew how to influence people hypnotically.

Embed from Getty Images Adolf Hitler was a favorite of women

With his speeches and cultural manners, he charmed the opposite sex, whose representatives began to recklessly love the leader, which forced the ladies to do the impossible for him. Hitler's mistresses were mostly married ladies who idolized him and considered him an outstanding person.

In 1929, the dictator met, who conquered Hitler with her appearance and cheerful disposition. During the years of her life with the Fuhrer, the girl twice tried to commit suicide because of the loving nature of her common-law spouse, who openly flirted with the women he liked.

Embed from Getty Images Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun

In 2012, US citizen Werner Schmedt declared that he was the legitimate son of Hitler and his young niece Geli Ruabal, whom, according to historians, the dictator killed in a fit of jealousy. He provided family photos in which the Fuhrer of the Third Reich and Geli Ruabal stand in an embrace. Also, the possible son of Hitler presented his birth certificate, in which only the initials “G” and “R” are in the column of data about the parents, which was done allegedly for the purpose of secrecy.

According to the son of the Fuhrer, after the death of Geli Ruabal, nannies from Austria and Germany were engaged in his upbringing, but his father constantly visited him. In 1940, Schmedt saw Hitler for the last time, who promised him that if he won World War II, he would give him the whole world. But since the events did not unfold according to Hitler's plan, Werner had to hide his origin and place of residence from everyone for a long time.

Death

On April 30, 1945, when Hitler's house in Berlin was surrounded by the Soviet army, "Nazi No. 1" admitted defeat and decided to commit suicide. There are several versions of how Adolf Hitler died: some historians claim that the German dictator drank potassium cyanide, while others do not exclude that he shot himself. Together with the head of Germany, his common-law wife Eva Braun, with whom he lived for more than 15 years, also died.

Embed from Getty Images Jewish elders read the announcement of Adolf Hitler's death

It is reported that the bodies of the spouses were burned before entering the bunker, which was the demand of the dictator before his death. Later, the remains of Hitler's body were found by a group of guards of the Red Army - only dentures and part of the Nazi leader's skull with an entrance bullet hole have survived to this day, which are still stored in Russian archives.

Hitler is rehearsing a speech.

From graphic designers to Fuhrers

Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889, Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary - April 29, 1945, Berlin), leader of the Nazi Party and Germany, 3rd son of K. Schicklgruber.

From 1900 he studied at the Linz high school. Hitler's successes were rather mediocre, without receiving a certificate, he was forced to transfer to a school in Steyer. Here Hitler had a conflict with his father, who wanted his son to become an official, while Hitler had already chosen a profession for himself - an artist. After a dispute with his father, Hitler left the school. A great influence on the formation of the views of young Hitler was exerted by his history teacher at the Linz school, Leopold Pötsch, a fanatical German nationalist. After the death of his father, Hitler continued his studies, but still neglected his studies.

In 1905, due to a lung disease, Hitler again interrupted his studies and went to his maternal aunt Therese Schmidt in the village of Spital. After his recovery, he returned to school.

In 1906, having borrowed money from his mother and relatives, Hitler went to Vienna, dreaming of becoming an artist. A year later, on Oct. 1907, he tried to enter the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts.

In 1908 Hitler made a second unsuccessful attempt.

1909-1913 became a period of complete poverty and the collapse of Hitler's hopes. He worked odd jobs: he shoveled snow, beat carpets, served as a porter, sometimes he was hired for several days at construction work.

Nov. In 1909, he was forced to leave furnished rooms on the Simon-Denk-gasse and spent 4 years in a rooming house. “Hunger in those years was inseparable from me, like a devoted guard,” he later wrote. During this period, the burgomaster of Vienna, a popular politician K. Luger, had a great influence on the formation of Hitler's views (primarily anti-Semitic ones).

In 1910, Hitler began to earn extra money by painting cheap watercolors, advertising posters for shopkeepers, etc.

In May 1913, Hitler moved to Munich, where, as in Vienna, he lived without funds, without a permanent job.

On February 5, 1914, he passed an examination at the draft board and was declared unfit for military service. After the outbreak of World War I, Hitler volunteered for the Bavarian army on August 3, 1914. After three months of preparation, at the end of Oct. 1914 sent to the front as a liaison officer of the 16th Bavarian reserve regiment, fought on the Western Front. He was wounded twice - on 10/7/1916 in the leg during the battle of the Somme, the second - on 10/13/1918 - during a gas attack near Ypres. For military distinction, Hitler was promoted to corporal (1917) and awarded the Iron Cross 2nd (Dec. 1914) and 1st class (08/04/1918). During the surrender of Germany on November 10, 1918, he was in a hospital in Pomerania. At the end of Nov. returned to Munich, but after learning that the communists were in charge of his battalion, he left the city and spent the winter in a prisoner of war camp in Traunstein. After the overthrow of the communist government, he participated in the investigation into their activities in the 2nd Infantry Regiment. At the end of the investigation, he was appointed to the service of the press bureau of the political department of the district command.

In Sept. 1919 received an order from the leadership to take a closer look at the activities of a small political group called the German Workers' Party (DAP). Soon Hitler joined the WDA, becoming the seventh member of the party committee. Almost immediately, Hitler came into conflict with the official leader of the party, K. Harrer. He proved to be a brilliant orator, Hitler's speeches attracted new members to the party. The final break with Harrer occurred after Hitler began organizing a meeting of two thousand people, scheduled for February 24, 1920. In protest, Harrer resigned as chairman, handing them over to A. Drexler.

Party card of Adolf Hitler.

On February 20, 1920, the DAP, at the suggestion of Hitler, was renamed the National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (NSDAP). The rally was a huge success, at which Hitler proclaimed the program of the Nazi Party - "Twenty-Five Points", which were hastily drawn up by Hitler, Drexler and G. Fedor. 1 Apr. "points" became the official program of the party. In the summer of 1921, party leaders tried to limit Hitler's influence; in response, he announced his readiness to withdraw from the NSDAP. Because this would lead to the collapse of the party, its leaders capitulated to Hitler, who was elected 1st chairman of the NSDAP on 29/7/1921 (the meaningless post of honorary chairman was retained for Drexler). In July 1921, the principle of "Fuhrerdom" was proclaimed. At the end of 1921 he carried out a reorganization of the party, p. In the same year, the central Nazi newspaper Völkische Beobachter began to appear (purchased at the expense of the secret department of the army). Feb. 1923 headed the "Workers' Association of Unions of Struggle for the Fatherland", which included 4 more paramilitary formations of Bavaria. On September 2, 1923, he became one of the three leaders (together with General E. Ludendorff) of the German Struggle Union, which proclaimed its goal the overthrow of the republic and the rejection of the provisions of the Versailles Peace. At the beginning of Nov. Hitler, supported by A. Rosenberg and M. von Scheibner-Richter, decided to organize a military coup in Bavaria and take hostage the country's top leadership. 8. 11. 1923 led the "Beer Putsch" in Munich, arresting the dictator of Bavaria von Kahr, the commander of the troops von Lossov and others in the beer hall "Bürgerbräukeller". Hitler and Ludendorff led a 3,000-strong stormtrooper column to the Bürgerbräukeller area and sent it to the center of Munich. On the Odeoplatz Square, the column was stopped by a police detachment and, after the start of the shootout, dispersed, 16 people died among the Nazis, many were injured. Hitler went into hiding and spent two days at the country house of the Hanfstaengels. Nov 11 was arrested. Nov 23 the party and the SA were banned, and preparations began for the trial of the leaders of the coup. The process began on 26/2/1924 in Munich. Hitler turned court hearings into a platform from which he could propagate the ideas of National Socialism with impunity, as a result of which he gained all-German fame. Hitler was found guilty and on April 1, 1924 was sentenced to 5 years in prison in the Landsberg fortress. While in prison. Hitler began work on the book Four and a Half Years of Struggle with Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice, the first volume of which was published in the fall of 1925 under the title My Struggle (MeinKampf) (6 million copies were sold in Germany by 1940). In the elections in the spring of 1924, the Nazi organizations achieved significant success, gaining more than 2 million votes and winning 32 seats in the Reichstag. 12/20/1924 released. On February 24, 1925, the NSDAP ban was lifted (the official revival of the party took place at a meeting on February 27), and two days later the first issue of the recreated Völkische Beobachter came out. After leaving prison, Hitler had to face the growing influence of the "socialist" direction in the party, led by G. Strasser, who actually led the semi-legal Nazi party cells during the ban on the NSDAP. Hitler launched an active recruitment of new members and the number of NSDAP by the end of the year reached 27 thousand people. At the same time, Hitler undertook a reorganization of the party apparatus, dividing the territory of Germany into 34 ray (there were also 7 ray outside the country), a central apparatus was created - the Political Organization headed by Strasser. At the Hannover Conference on November 22, 1925, Strasser's supporters tried to revise the NSDAP program, replacing it with a more "socialist" one. On February 14, 1926, Hitler convened a conference in Bamberg, at which Strasser suffered a crushing defeat and was forced to completely submit to Hitler. On May 22, 1926, Hitler was no longer considered the chairman of the party, but the supreme Fuhrer of the party and the SA and chairman of the National Socialist Workers' Organization. In the elections of 20/5/1928, the NSDAP won only 810 thousand votes and received 12 seats in the Reichstag (out of 491), by this time the party had only 108 thousand members, which many considered the end of the Nazi movement. In 1929, the world economic crisis broke out, which had a severe impact on the situation in Germany. During 1929-33 the volume of production fell by half. After the collapse of a number of major banks, the German government in May 1931 decided to close all banks.

On September 14, 1930, extraordinary elections to the Reichstag were held, in which 6 million 409 thousand people voted for the NSDAP. Having received 107 mandates, the NSDLP immediately took second place among the largest factions of the Reichstag.

10/10/1931 Hitler was first received by President P. von Hindenburg, he did not like Hitler, and the meeting ended in failure. Oct 11 Hitler took part in a mass meeting of the national opposition in Bad Harzburg, where he also had no success, because. in fact, he refused to join a bloc with other right-wing associations, primarily with the Steel Helmet.

7 and 10 Jan. 1932 Hitler met again with Chancellor G. Brüning and Gen. K. von Schleicher, who tried to get G to support Hindenburg. Nevertheless, Hitler, refusing to support the idea of ​​extending Hindenburg's tenure without holding elections, secretly informed the president that he was ready to run in the elections in his support. Hitler hesitated for a long time - whether to put forward his candidacy in the upcoming presidential elections. Feb 2 he finally decided to run, but it was not publicly announced until 22 Feb. at a rally at the Sports Palace. 25 Feb. The Nazi Minister of the Interior of Braunschweig appointed Hitler an attaché to the Braunschweig government in Berlin, which gave Hitler the long-awaited German citizenship (previously he continued to be considered an Austrian citizen). In the first round of presidential elections on March 13, 1932, Hitler won 11,339,446 votes (30.1%), taking second place after Hindenburg, leaving E. Thalmann (13.2%) and T. Duisterberg (6.8%) far behind. During the second vote, 13,418,547 people voted for Hitler. or 36.8% (for Hindenburg - 53%, for Telman - 10.2%). On April 13, 1932, the paramilitary detachments of the NSDAP - SA were disbanded by decree of the government and the president. The leadership of the SA tried to call the party to an armed action, but Hitler, counting on a compromise with the government, insisted on carrying out the decree. The government of F. von Papep, who soon came to power, dissolved the Reichstag on June 4, and on June 15 abolished the forbidden activities of the SA. In the elections of July 31, 1932, the NSDAP, having gained 13,745 thousand votes, received the largest number (230) of mandates, but still did not achieve what Hitler expected, an absolute majority (305). On August 5, speaking to his supporters, Hitler announced that he would demand the post of chancellor from the president, and a number of important posts for the party, but Schleicher on August 13. told Hitler that he was offered to take the post of Vice-Chancellor. Hitler rejected this proposal, and a few days later rejected the idea of ​​forming a coalition government. In this situation, Hindenburg once again dissolved the Reichstag. In the elections of November 6, 1932, the NSDAP lost about 2 million votes and 34 mandates, retaining only 196 seats in the Reichstag, remaining the largest party in the country.

11/13/1932 Hitler received a letter from Papen, who offered to "discuss the situation", but Hitler refused to enter into negotiations with the government. Nov 17 the government fell, 19 Nov. Hindenburg invited Hitler to his place, giving him a choice: either the post of chancellor, if he manages to persuade a real majority in the Reichstag, or the post of vice-chancellor in Papen's presidential cabinet. Nov 21 Hitler once again met with Hindenburg, and then exchanged letters with O. Meissner, but the parties did not come to an agreement. Hitler stated that he could not provide a majority and would rule by presidential decrees, to which Hindenburg replied that he did not want "the cabinet of ministers to become an instrument of party dictatorship." On the flared up in early December. 1932 discussions in the party leadership about the attitude towards the Schleicher government, Hitler, after long hesitation, accepted the point of view of G. Goering and J. Goebbels, who favored confrontation. On December 8, 1932, after a scandal with Hitler, Strasser left the party, while the government confidentially “recommended” large industrialists to stop funding the NSDAP. The party found itself in a difficult financial and political situation. In place of Strasser, a fanatical follower of Hitler, R. Ley, was appointed. On January 4, 1933, through the mediation of K. von Schroeder and W. Kepler, Hitler met with Papen, which was the first step in the intrigue that led him to the chancellor's chair. The immediate result of the meeting was the resumption of funding for the NSDAP by major industrialists. On January 15, 1933, the NSDAP achieved significant success in the local elections in Lippe, and this fact was widely publicized by Nazi propaganda. Jan 22 Hitler was secretly visited by Meissner and O. von Hindenburg, who had a personal conversation with him. After the fall on 29 Jan. Schleicher's cabinet was sent by Hindenburg to negotiate with G. Papen.

On January 30, 1933, he was appointed chancellor of Germany, while he became the head of not the presidential cabinet, but a cabinet based on a parliamentary majority. At the same time, the Nazis and the Nationalists (also represented in the government) had only 247 seats out of 583. Having come to power, Hitler obtained the consent of the cabinet to dissolve the Reichstag, assuring everyone that regardless of the election result, the composition of the government would remain unchanged. Feb 2 he spoke at a meeting with the highest command staff of the army and navy, where one of his main tasks was to declare the speedy rearmament of Germany.

Portrait of A. Hitler.

On February 20, 1933, on the initiative of J. Mine, he met with the leaders of German industry, assuring them of his loyalty, and obtained huge subsidies for the party for elections. At the beginning of Feb. the cabinet forbade communist meetings and shut down communist publications. SA terror was directed against the Social Democrats and other bourgeois and centrist parties. A total of 51 people were killed during the election campaign. (including 18 Nazis). The day after the Reichstag fire (arranged by the Nazis, but which the Communists were accused of), on February 28, 1933, he submitted to Hindenburg a decree “On the Protection of the People and the State”, according to which 7 articles of the constitution were suspended, guaranteeing the freedom of the individual and the rights of citizens. Therefore, by decree, about 4,000 communist functionaries and some of the Social Democratic and liberal leaders were arrested in the near future. The publication of many social democratic and liberal publications was suspended. Democratic Party meetings were either officially banned or dispersed by SA units. Hitler, using government finances, launched an unparalleled propaganda campaign. Despite all these measures, the NSDAP failed to gain an absolute majority in the elections of March 5, 1933 - 17,277,180 people voted for it. (or 44% of voters), almost 5 million voted for the communists. Nevertheless, with 52 Nationalist seats, the cabinet secured the desired majority of 16 seats. After the elections, the Nazi authorities arrested all communist deputies. On March 23, Hitler managed to obtain from the Reichstag the approval of the “Law on the elimination of the plight of the people and the state”, according to which a number of legislative functions of the Reichstag were transferred to the Cabinet of Ministers for 4 years (including control over budget spending, approval of treaties with foreign states, amendments to the constitution, etc.). Only the Social Democrats (84 people) voted against. From that moment on, Hitler could absolutely legally act as a dictator, independent of the decisions of the Reichstag. In March, the independence of the lands was liquidated, their Landtags and governments were dissolved, and they were completely placed under the control of the NSDAP. On May 17, Hitler delivered a speech in the Reichstag in which he called for an immediate ban on all offensive weapons, stating that Germany was ready to destroy its armed forces if neighboring states did the same. At the same time, Hitler warned that Germany demanded equality with other countries in the field of armaments, otherwise she would prefer to withdraw from the Disarmament Conference and withdraw from the League of Nations. In the shortest possible time, the political system of Germany was rebuilt: on June 22 the SPD was dissolved, on July 4 the Catholic Party of Bavaria disbanded itself, then the Center Party, on the same day the People's Party disbanded itself.

By decree of 07/14/1933, the NSDAP was declared the only party in Germany, and anyone who took steps to preserve or create other parties was to be imprisoned. At the same time, in May-June, the German trade unions were unified (under the leadership of the NSDAP).

On April 1, 1933, Hitler announced a nationwide boycott of shops owned by Jews . By the end of 1933, Hitler had sharply complicated relations with the leadership of the SA, primarily with Rem, who publicly spoke with the idea of ​​a "Second Revolution". Rem's speeches aroused suspicion on the part of influential financial and industrial circles, as well as the high command of the army.

Portrait of A. Hitler.
Electronic reproduction from the site
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10/14/1933 Hitler announced the withdrawal of German representatives from the Conference on Disarmament and the League of Nations (which in fact was Germany's refusal to fulfill the conditions Versailles Peace ). At the same time, the Reichstag was dissolved, and Hitler announced that the decision to recall representatives to a national referendum. 12. 11. 1933 held simultaneous elections to the Reichstag and a referendum: 95% of those participating in the vote approved the withdrawal from the League of Nations. 26/1/1934 was announced the signing of the Polish-German non-aggression pact for a period of 10 years. On April 11, 1934, Hitler met with the commanders of the military branches on the cruiser "Germany", they reached a preliminary agreement that in the event of the death of Hindenburg, Hitler would take the presidency. A meeting of senior generals on May 16 in Bad Nauheim unanimously approved this decision of their commanders. However, Hitler had to pay for this by calling the SA to order. On June 30, 1934, Hitler carried out a bloody purge of the senior SA command staff, known as the Nights of the Long Knives. During the operation, the SS units destroyed, according to various sources, about 150 people from: the top leadership of the SA, in addition, the former chancellor Schleicher, the former governor of Bavaria G. von Kahr, G. Strasser, the head of the "Catholic Action" E. Klausner and others were killed After the death of Hindenburg (2.8.1934), a referendum was announced, which raised the issue of combining the posts of chancellor and president in the person of Hitler. Aug 19 about 95% of registered voters turned up at the polling stations, 90% of them approved Hitler's decision. Within three years, Hitler managed to dramatically improve the lives of the majority of the country's population: by the autumn of 1936, the problem of unemployment was largely over. In Aug. In 1936, the Olympic Games were held in Berlin with great fanfare, which Goebbels turned into a grandiose propaganda show. 15/9/1935 in Germany were introduced the so-called. The Nuremberg Laws, according to which Jews were deprived of German citizenship, their rights were significantly limited. In subsequent years, 13 more legislative acts effectively outlawed the Jews. All aspects of the life of the Germans were subject to nazification: in the field of religion, the Imperial Ministry for Church Affairs of G. Kerrl acted, culture was under the jurisdiction of Goebbels, trade unions - Ley, etc. In the field of justice, the extrajudicial powers of the secret police were significantly expanded, concentration camps were created, where opponents of the regime were to be placed without a court verdict. At the same time, Hitler took measures to eliminate the independence of the government: many management functions were transferred to the Deputy Fuhrer for the party (R. Tesse, M. Bormann), Plenipotentiary General for the War Economy (J. Schacht) and Imperial Administration (V. Frak), Commissioner for the 4-Year Plan (Göring), etc. In the shortest possible time, Hitler managed to become the unlimited dictator of Germany: “Today there is only one power in Germany, and this is the power of the Fuhrer,” G. Frank declared in 1936 at a congress of lawyers. On January 13, 1935, at the plebiscite, the inhabitants of the Saar by an overwhelming majority (477 thousand against 48 thousand) spoke in favor of the return of their land to Germany.

Portrait of A. Hitler.
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Immediately after coming to power, Hitler began to pay great attention to strengthening the German army. By October 1, 1933, he tripled the army and at the same time began a large-scale program for the construction of the Navy, and the tonnage of ships under construction was officially significantly underestimated. On March 16, 1935, he issued the Law on universal military service, thereby completely refusing to fulfill the conditions of the shameful Treaty of Versailles of 1919 (officially, Hitler “removed the signature” of Germany from the Peace of Versailles on January 30, 1937). On May 21, Hitler signed the secret law for the defense of the Reich, which reorganized the command structure of the Wehrmacht. On the same day, Hitler delivered a speech to the Reichstag in which he stated that Germany only wanted peace and rejected the very idea of ​​war. "Germany does not even think of conquering other peoples," he declared. - “National Socialist Germany does not want War because of its convictions. And she does not want war because she understands very well that war will not save Europe from suffering. In a lieboy war the flower of the nation perishes... Germany needs peace, it longs for peace!” In this speech, Hitler solemnly recognized the German-French border and declared that Germany had no intention of interfering in the affairs of Austria, much less annexing it. In 1935, Hitler and I. von Ribbentrop achieved the conclusion of an Anglo-German agreement on the fleet, according to which Germany could have a fleet in the amount of 35% of the British one, and up to 100% in submarines. On March 7, 1935, units of the Wehrmacht entered the Rhine demilitarized zone, while the troops had the order of Gen. V. von Blomberg, in case of any resistance from the French troops, immediately leave the territory of the region (however, France did not take any measures). On the same day, Hitler dissolved the Reichstag and announced new elections and a referendum on the annexation of the Rhineland (99% of voters took part in the vote on March 29, and 98.8% of them approved Hitler's policy).

On July 22, 1936, at a meeting in Bayreuth, together with Goering and Blomberg, he decided to provide large-scale assistance to the troops of General. F. Franke in Spain.

On 11/5/1937, Hitler held a meeting called the "Hossbach Meeting" (after the adjutant W. Hossbach, who took the minutes). The meeting was attended by Blomberg, W. von Fritsch, E. Raeder, Goering and K. von Neurath. Here Hitler announced his plans for the Anschluss of Austria and the occupation of the Sudetenland; Fritsch, Blomberg and Neurath opposed his plans. In the coming months, Hitler purged the high command of the army and the diplomatic corps, eliminating the opposition. During the reorganization of the military administration

On February 4, 1938, he assumed the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht. Starting from mid Feb. 1938 undertook diplomatic pressure on the government of Austria and, using the threat of the use of military force, achieved the formation of the pro-Nazi cabinet of A. Seyss-Inquart there. On March 11, Austria was actually annexed to Germany, which was officially confirmed by a plebiscite on April 20, 1938: according to official data, 99.08% of voters voted in favor of the Anschluss in Germany, and 99.75% in Austria. -

In May 1938, he provoked the first political crisis with Czechoslovakia, and on May 20, 1938 he signed the Grun directive on a military operation against this country. However, the leadership of Czechoslovakia carried out a partial mobilization, and on May 23 Hitler transmitted a note through diplomatic channels, stating that reports of a concentration of troops on the Czech-German border were not true. For several months, Hitler escalated the situation, then France and Great Britain, betraying the interests of Czechoslovakia, advocated the "appeasement" of Germany and the transfer of the Sudetenland to it.

On September 21, 1938, the President of Czechoslovakia, E. Benes, declared that he was submitting to Anglo-French pressure. Oct 1 units of the Wehrmacht crossed the border and occupied the Sudetenland. On March 14, 1939, Hitler sent an ultimatum to the Czech government and demanded "to entrust the fate of the Czech people and the peaceful settlement into the hands of the Fuhrer." On March 16, after the occupation of the remnants of the Czech Republic by the Wehrmacht, Hitler signed a decree on the creation of an imperial protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, headed by Neurath.

On April 28, 1939, speaking in the Reichstag, Hitler publicly accused Poland in violation of the non-aggression pact and for the first time publicly put forward demands: the transfer of the free city of Danzig to Germany and the creation of an extraterritorial "Polish corridor" between Germany and East Prussia. Aug 23 was concluded the pact with the USSR, which provided for the joint division of Poland, and on September 1, 1939 (after a provocation in Gleiwitz - which became an official pretext), the Wehrmacht crossed the border of Poland.

On the side of Poland, France and Great Britain declared war on Germany. The 2nd World War began. During the Polish campaign, Hitler repeatedly went to the front: 4 Sept. -in Chełmno, 10 Sept. - near Kielce, etc. Within a few weeks, Poland was defeated. 27 Sept. Hitler called a meeting of the commanders of the armed forces and their chiefs of staff in the Imperial Chancellery and announced his intention to begin large-scale military operations in the West that same year. On April 9, 1940, German troops occupied Denmark and on the same day began an operation to capture Norway. On May 10, the Wehrmacht went on the offensive in the West and, having completely defeated the Anglo-French-Belgian army, forced the French command to sign the shameful surrender on 21/6/1940 in Compiègne. Already on July 2, he ordered the preliminary planning of a landing in the UK, and on July 16 he signed Directive No. 160 for the preparation of Operation Sea Lion (occupation of the English Isles). Aug 15 a large-scale air war against England was launched, which, although it brought heavy losses to the British Air Force, did not achieve success. Operation Sea Lion failed before it began, and on 17 Sept. has been postponed indefinitely. At the same time, the development of the Barbarossa plan, a war against the USSR, was in full swing.

September 27, 1940 Germany, Italy and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact, which established a preliminary division of spheres of influence in the world. The German sphere included Europe and Africa. Dec 10 Hitler gave a speech at one of the major enterprises in Berlin, in which, incl. declared: "Our aspiration is the transformation of the German people's state into a great Reich of peace, labor, prosperity and culture." At this time, the situation in the Balkans became much more complicated, primarily due to the coup in Yugoslavia, the new government of which concluded a treaty of friendship and non-aggression with the USSR.

On April 6, 1941, the Wehrmacht launched a military operation against Yugoslavia, and almost simultaneously, German troops launched an operation against Greece. The operations ended with the occupation of the Balkan countries, and countries such as Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary completely passed under German control.

06/22/1941 German troops crossed the border of the USSR. On the same day, Hitler declared in his speech that the aim of the war was “to ensure the security and salvation of Europe. Therefore, I have decided today to once again place the fate and future of the Reich and our people in the hands of the soldiers.” The total number of troops thrown against the USSR amounted to 5.5 million people (including 4.5 million Germans), about 48 thousand guns and mortars, more than 3 thousand tanks and self-propelled guns, about 5 thousand aircraft. In the early days, the success of the Wehrmacht was enormous. 3/7/1941 gene. F. Halder wrote that "the campaign against Russia was won within 14 days." Despite huge losses, the Soviet army stubbornly defended itself and achieved temporary stabilization of the front line. By this time, units of the Wehrmacht had already reached Moscow.

2.10.1941. Hitler ordered a general attack on the capital of the USSR with simultaneous attacks on Leningrad and Donetsk. Oct 3 he stated that "the enemy is broken and can never rise". However, his plans were not destined to come true, the war took on a protracted character. Under these conditions, on January 25, 1942, Hitler issued a number of directives, according to which the German economy was transferred to a military footing, and state intervention in economic affairs was sharply increased. On April 26, 1942, the Reichstag passed a law granting emergency powers to Hitler. A cruel regime was established in the occupied territories of the USSR and European countries, headed by imperial governors, imperial commissars, etc., the main power gradually passed into the hands of representatives of the SS. To manage the occupied Soviet territories, the Imperial Ministry of the Eastern Occupied Territories was created, headed by A. Rosenberg.

In 1942, German troops launched an offensive in a southeastern direction, by May pushing back Soviet troops from the Kerch Peninsula. On June 28, 1942, a new general offensive began on the Don, and on July 24, the battle for the Caucasus began. However, the resilience of the Russians did not allow the Wehrmacht to capture Stalingrad from a raid, as Hitler had planned. More and more intervening in the leadership of the armed forces, Hitler forbade the 6th army surrounded near Stalingrad, gene. F. Paulus to leave the city; all attempts to release the army were unsuccessful, and on 2/2/1943, Soviet troops completed the operation to defeat the 6th Army, capturing more than 90 thousand people. The catastrophe near Stalingrad led to a radical turning point in the war, the German troops lost the initiative, and it passed to the enemy. In May 1943, the German-Italian Army Group Africa surrendered in Tunisia.

On January 27, 1943, Hitler issued a decree on the introduction of universal labor service for men and women who were not called up for military service, at the same time, forced labor of prisoners of war, prisoners, and residents of the occupied countries driven to work in Germany began to be used on a large scale in the military economy and agriculture. On September 2, 1943, by order “On the Concentration of the War Economy”, Hitler transferred the main functions of managing the economy to the Imperial Ministry of the War Economy, making its head A. Speer actually the economic dictator of Germany. In 1943, Hitler decided to conduct Operation Citadel on the Kursk Bulge; the operation ended in failure, the Soviet troops not only stopped the German offensive, but launched a counterattack on Orel. As a result of the operation, the hardly replenished German tank forces suffered irreparable losses and lost their combat effectiveness for a long time. After fierce fighting on Sept. - Oct. 1943 Wehrmacht left the Donbass and Left-bank Ukraine. The defeat of Germany led to a crisis of the fascist regime in Italy, where on 25/7/1943 Mussolini was removed from power and arrested. On the same day, Hitler ordered the disarmament of the Italian troops and the occupation of Northern and Central Italy. Dec. In 1943, the Wehrmacht launched a massive counteroffensive in the Zhytomyr region, which ended with the capture of the city. But y: same in Jan. 1944 Soviet troops carried out a number of successful operations, incl. finally releasing on 27 Jan. Leningrad. At the same time, the 8th Army was surrounded north of Cherkassy, ​​all attempts by E. von Manstein to unblock the grouping did not bring success, and the remnants of the army capitulated on 17/2/1944. In the following months, the Wehrmacht left Nikopol, Krivoy Rog, and on April 9-10. Soviet troops stormed Odessa. And although the German command managed to release the new Kameni-Podolsk pocket, the Right-Bank Ukraine was lost to Hitler. In the first half of May, German troops lost Sevastopol and left the Crimea. The catastrophe of the Wehrmacht accelerated the withdrawal of the allies: in August. Finland severed diplomatic relations with Germany. Responsibility for the defeat, Hitler placed on the highest command of the army, accusing him of defeatism. At the same time, the role of the SS and SD began to increase sharply, in which Hitler had more and more confidence; in Feb. In 1944, he actually disbanded military intelligence - the Abwehr - and transferred its functions to the hands of the SS. On June 6, 1944, Anglo-American troops began landing in Normandy, and a few hours later Hitler gave an order to the commander-in-chief in the West, Field Marshal G. von Rundstedt to eliminate the Allied foothold. At the same time, the command in the West did not have the right to independently dispose of tank divisions, and Hitler constantly rejected the generals' requests for independent operations and partial withdrawal of troops. On July 25, the Aiglo-Americans broke through the German defenses and began to develop an offensive in France. At the end of June 1944, Soviet troops defeated a powerful Wehrmacht grouping near Vitebsk and Bobruisk, and up to 30 divisions were surrounded in Courland. The situation in Germany itself was complicated by an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944, when a bomb was detonated by Colonel K. von Staufenberg during a meeting in Rastenburg. It was only by chance that Hitler survived. After the failure of the assassination attempt, Hitler's distrust of the army increased even more, he authorized mass arrests in army circles and further expanded the rights of the secret police. Nov. 1944 Hitler was absent from the annual celebrations marking the anniversary of the Munich putsch for the first time. At the end of 1944, Hitler insisted on conducting a series of operations in the West, which, although they had initial success, were due to the beginning of the mid-January. The 1945 Soviet offensive on the Oder ultimately failed.

On January 16, 1945, Hitler finally moved his headquarters to Berlin, to the underground bunker of the Imperial Chancellery. On January 30, 1945, Hitler spoke on the radio, declaring that "the final victory will be ours." In mid-March, Hitler made his last inspection trip to the front in the Küstrin area. In the middle of Apr. it became clear that Germany had lost the war, but Hitler, who had lost a sense of reality, continued to assert that the end of the Third Reich was not yet a foregone conclusion, new armies were coming to the rescue of Berlin (although these formations under the command of W. Wenck, T. Busse and F. Steiner from - due to their weakness, they could not offer any serious resistance), that he has a "secret weapon" that will change the course of the war ... 22 Apr. Hitler finally declared to his close associates: "The war is lost."

On the night of April 29, 1945, the marriage of Hitler and E. Braun took place in the premises of the Imperial Chancellery, witnesses were M. Bormann and I. Goebbels. During this time, Hitler wrote two political testaments: the first was based on notes dictated to Bormann in Feb. - Apr. 1945; the second he composed before his death. In it, he argued that the war "was coveted and provoked by those statesmen of other countries who were either themselves of Jewish origin or worked in the name of the interests of the Jews." In his will, Hitler expelled Goering and Himmler from the NSDAP and removed from all posts, accusing them of high treason, and appointed K. Dönitz and Goebbels as his successors as president and chancellor, respectively.

At 3:30 p.m. on April 29, 1945, Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide. Their bodies were doused with gasoline and burned in the courtyard of the Imperial Chancellery. The next day is April 30th. - at 21 o'clock the radio announced the death.

Used materials of the book: Zalessky K.A. Who was who in the Third Reich. Biographical encyclopedic dictionary. M., 2003

These views, with a few exceptions, were not particularly original and were drawn as they are from the seething whirlpool of Austrian political life at the beginning of the twentieth century. The Danubian monarchy was falling apart under the burden of its own contradictions. The German-Austrian minority ruled for centuries a multilingual empire, which included more than a dozen different nationalities, imposing their language and culture on them. But since 1848, the position of the monarchy has been shaken. Figuratively speaking, Austria has ceased to be a boiler digesting the contradictions of national minorities. In the 60s of the last century, Italy broke away from the empire, and in 1867 the Hungarians achieved equality with the Germans in the so-called dual monarchy.

Now, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Slavic peoples - Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats and others - demanded equality or at least national independence. In the political life of Austria, a sharp national struggle occupied a dominant place.

But that was not all. Social protest was also brewing, often exceeding the scale of racial unrest. The disenfranchised lower classes fought for participation in elections, while workers fought for the right to form unions and strike, demanding not only higher wages and better working conditions, but also political freedoms. Indeed, the general strike eventually led to the enfranchisement of men, essentially ending the political dominance of the German-Austrian people, who made up a third of the population of the Austrian part of the empire.

Hitler, this young German-Austrian nationalist from Linz, was an ardent opponent of such changes. He believed that the empire began to slide into a "stinking swamp." It can be saved only on the condition that the superior race, the Germans, retain absolute power. Non-German races, especially the Slavs, and above all the Czechs, were considered inferior. And so they must be ruled by the Germans with an iron fist. Parliament should have been dissolved and all democratic nonsense should have been done away with.

Although Hitler was not involved in politics, he was keenly interested in the activities of the three main political parties of old Austria: the Social Democratic, the Christian Socialist and the Pan-German nationalists. And so this untidy frequenter of charitable kitchens hatched the first sprouts of political insight, allowing him to see with amazing clarity all the strength and weakness of modern political trends. The further development of this quality contributed to his transformation into a leading political figure in Germany.

Hitler hated the Social Democratic Party at first sight with a fierce hatred. "The greatest dislike in me," he declared, was caused by their hostile attitude towards the struggle for the preservation of Germanism and shameful flirting with the "comrades" Slavs ... In a few months I got something that in other times took decades: an understanding of a contagious whore (In The second and all subsequent editions of "Mein Kampf" this word was replaced by the expression "contagious patients". - Approx. Auth.), Hiding behind public virtue and brotherly love.

Yet he was smart enough to extinguish the hatred he felt for the working-class party to study carefully the reasons for its popularity. He came to the conclusion that there were several such motives, and years later he remembered them and used them when creating the National Socialist Party of Germany.

Once, according to Mein Kampf, he witnessed a mass demonstration of Viennese workers. "For nearly two hours I stood and held my breath, watching as a huge formidable crowd floated past. Then, in a depressed state, I slowly headed home."

At home, he busied himself with reading the social democratic press, studying the speeches of their leaders and the organization itself, analyzing the psychology and political methods, and summing up. Hitler came to the conclusion that the Social Democrats were successful, firstly, because they knew how to make the movement massive, without which the existence of any political party does not make sense; secondly, because they have learned to conduct propaganda work among the masses; thirdly, because they well understood the power of "internal and physical fear."

The third conclusion, although based on the misconceptions and prejudices of Hitler himself, interested him. Ten years later, he used this principle for his own purposes.

“I realized what a shameful inner fear this movement brings, in particular, to the bourgeoisie, which is neither morally nor mentally ready for such attacks; at a given moment, a real avalanche of insults and lies can fall on any opponent who seems the most dangerous, until the nerves of those who are attacked lose their nerve... Such a tactic is based on an accurate account of all human weaknesses, and with its help, almost with mathematical accuracy, success can be achieved...

I also came to understand that physical fear has such a meaning both in relation to the individual and the masses as a whole ... While in the ranks of the supporters of this movement the successes achieved are considered as confirmation of the correctness of the path they have chosen, the enemy, who has suffered defeat , in most cases understands the futility of any further resistance."

No one has ever given a more accurate analysis of the Nazi tactics that Hitler later developed.

The close attention of Hitler, who was beginning to realize himself in Vienna, was attracted by two political parties. He subjected the activities of both to an impartial scrupulous analysis. At first, as Hitler pointed out, his sympathies belonged to the Pan-German nationalist party created by Georg Ritter von Schönerer, a native of Lower Austria, like Hitler's family.

At that time, the pan-German party was waging an uncompromising struggle for German supremacy in a multinational empire. And although Hitler considered Schenerer a "deep thinker" and enthusiastically supported his founding program of militant nationalism, anti-Semitism, anti-socialism, alliance with Germany, opposition to the Habsburgs and the Vatican, he soon understood the reasons for the failure of this party.

"The Pan-German movement did not sufficiently appreciate the importance of social problems, and this cost it that it lost the support of a truly active popular masses. The participation of the parties in parliament deprived the movement of a powerful attractive force and at the same time exposed the flaws inherent in it. The struggle against the Catholic Church ... alienated from the movement many advanced people who are the pride of the nation."

Although Hitler forgot about this when he came to power in Germany, one of the lessons he learned during his Vienna period, which the Führer writes about at some length in Mein Kampf, was the realization of the futility of the efforts of any political party to oppose the church.

“No matter how strong the grounds for criticizing one direction or another,” writes Hitler, explaining why Schenerer’s thesis “separate from Rome” was a tactical error, “a political party must not for a moment lose sight of the fact that that in all previous history a party pursuing purely political aims has never succeeded in reforming the church."

However, Hitler believed that the biggest mistake of the pan-German party was its inability to lead the masses, its unwillingness to try to understand the psychology of the common people. According to Hitler's assessment of the ideas that began to form in him, as soon as he was twenty-one years old, it is obvious that he considered such a position of the pan-Germanists to be fundamentally erroneous. Hitler had no intention of repeating such miscalculations by creating his own political movement.

Nor did he have the right to make another mistake made by the Pan-German party. The Pan-Germans failed to win support from the country's powerful institutions of the church, the military, the cabinet of ministers or the head of government. Until a political movement gains such support, young Hitler thought it would be difficult, if not impossible, for it to come to power. In the decisive days of January 1933, Hitler managed to contrive and get such support in Berlin that allowed him and the National Socialist Party to come to power.

During Hitler's time in Vienna, one political leader was well aware of this, as well as the need to create a party based on the masses. It was Dr. Karl Lueger, mayor of Vienna and leader of the Christian Socialist Party, who more than anyone else was Hitler's political mentor, although they never met. Hitler always considered him "the greatest German mayor of all time ... a statesman more important than all the so-called diplomats of the time ... If Dr. Karl Luger lived in Germany, he could rightly be attributed to the great representatives of our people ".

True, it should be noted that there was little in common between Hitler, as he would later become, and Luger, this good-natured idol of the Viennese petty bourgeoisie. Luger was indeed Austria's most influential political figure, as chairman of a discontented petty bourgeois party, having made political capital, like Hitler himself later, on vehement anti-Semitism.

However, Luger, who was not distinguished by a noble origin, studied at the university and was a highly educated person. Even his opponents, including the Jews, agreed that he was decent, gallant, chivalrously generous, and quite tolerant. Stefan Zweig, a well-known Austrian writer, Jewish by nationality, then living in Vienna, confirmed that official anti-Semitism never prevented Luger from helping Jews and showing friendly feelings towards them. "Under him," recalls Zweig, "the city was governed quite fairly and even in a typically democratic manner... The Jews, who were horrified by the victory of the anti-Semitic party, enjoyed the same rights and respect as before."

This did not please the young Hitler. He believed that Luger was too tolerant and did not understand the full significance of the racial problem of the Jews. Hitler was indignant at the unsuccessful attempts of the burgomaster to accept Pan-Germanism, he was skeptical about his Catholic clericalism and loyalty to the Habsburgs. Didn't the aged Emperor Franz Joseph twice refuse to sanction the election of Luger to the post of burgomaster?

However, in the end, Hitler was forced to recognize the genius of this man, a man who knew how to win the support of the masses, who was well versed in modern social problems and understood the importance of propaganda and oratory in influencing the consciousness of the masses. Hitler could not help admiring the way Luger dealt with the influential church: "he carried out politics with great insight." And finally, the same Luger "knew how to effectively use all available means to win the support of traditional institutions of power in order to obtain maximum advantages for his party from these influential forces."

These are, in brief, the ideas and methods that Hitler later used to form his own political party and to bring that party to power in Germany. Hitler's exceptional ingenuity was that he was the only right-wing politician who applied these ideas and methods in Germany after the end of the First World War. It was during this period that the Nazi movement, alone among other nationalist and conservative parties, managed to win over the masses and, through this, win the support of the army, the president of the republic and representatives of big business - in other words, the three traditional institutions of supreme power that helped Hitler find ways to the post of Chancellor of Germany. The lessons learned in Vienna were indeed not in vain.

Dr. Karl Lueger was a brilliant orator, and the pan-German party lacked men who could speak well. Hitler drew attention to this and later in "Mein Kampf" did not fail to speculate about the importance of oratory in politics.

"The origins of the power that from time immemorial underlay the greatest religious and political transformations are hidden in the magical attraction of the spoken word, and in it alone.

It is not for nothing that the masses can be stirred up only by the power of the word. All major movements are popular movements, a bunch of human passions and emotional outbursts, warmed up either by a cruel goddess of grief and deprivation, or by incendiary appeals uttered to the masses; such movements cannot be nurtured by the sugary speeches of literary aesthetes and salon heroes.

Despite the fact that the young Hitler refrained from direct participation in the political life of Austria, he already then began to improve his oratory in the public auditoriums of Vienna, speaking now in rooming houses, now in charitable kitchens, now on a street corner. Later he developed these data, which I can confirm personally, since I was present at his most important speeches. Few German politicians of the period between the two world wars could match the Führer in oratory talent, it was this skill that greatly contributed to his amazing success.

And finally, Hitler accumulated certain knowledge on the Jewish question in Vienna. In Linz, as he later recalled, few Jews lived.

"I don't remember my father ever talking about them at home. There was one Jewish boy in high school, but we didn't attach any importance to it... I even mistook them (Jews) for Germans."

However, a friend of Hitler's youth later wrote that this was not true. “When I first met Adolf Hitler,” August Kubitschek noted, recalling the days spent with a friend in Linz, “he already had noticeable anti-Semitic sentiments ... Hitler went to Vienna as a convinced anti-Semite. And although the life experience accumulated them in Vienna, could exacerbate these feelings, they were born in a young man long before that.

"Then I moved to Vienna. Bewildered by the abundance of impressions ... my own disorder, at first I did not yet realize the whole variety of social stratification of the inhabitants of this huge city. Despite the fact that in two million Vienna the Jewish population was about two hundred thousand, I did not pay attention to no attention to them ... At that time, the Jew still seemed to me nothing more than a person of another religion, therefore, simply out of human tolerance, in this case, as in all others, I remained an opponent of any religious attacks. , the tone of the anti-Semitic press in Vienna seemed to me unworthy of the cultural traditions of a great power."

Once Hitler went for a walk in the city center. "I suddenly saw a man in a black caftan and with dark sidelocks. "He must be a Jew," I suddenly thought. But in Linz they looked quite different. man, studied his features, the more importunately the thought tormented me: "Is this a German?"

It is not difficult to guess what conclusion Hitler came to. However, he himself claims that he had previously decided, in order to try to dispel his doubts, to look for an answer in books. He plunged headlong into the study of anti-Semitic literature, which at that time was sold quite widely in Vienna. Then he transferred his observations to the streets of the city in order to directly follow this "phenomenon".

“Wherever I went, I now met Jews everywhere, and the more often I saw them, the more clearly I distinguished them from the rest of the population ... Later, I often felt sick to nausea from the mere smell emanating from people dressed in caftans".

Subsequently, Hitler wrote that he understood "all the moral impurity of these" chosen ones of God "... Isn't vice or debauchery, especially in the sphere of cultural life, not found where at least one Jew acts? If you try to approach the consideration of such vicious phenomena, you will find that even here, if you only direct the light on a decaying corpse that is gnawed by worms, there is a Jew!

The Jews were largely, Hitler believed, responsible for the flourishing of prostitution and the white slave trade. “When for the first time,” says Hitler in this connection, “I fully realized the essence of the Jews as cold-blooded, shameless and prudent organizers, these disgusting purveyors of debauchery among the scum of a big city, I literally broke out in a cold sweat.”

In Hitler's lengthy remarks about the Jews, there is a clearly painful sexuality. This was typical of the anti-Semitic press in Vienna at that time, however, as later of the dubious weekly Der Stürmer, published in Nuremberg by one of the Führer's favorites, Julius Streicher, the Nazi leader of Franconia, a notorious perversion, famous in the Third Reich for his bad reputation.

"Mein Kampf" is replete with allusions to unscrupulous Jews who seduce innocent Christian girls, which most adversely affects future generations. Hitler often writes that he "imagined nightmarish scenes of the seduction of hundreds of thousands of girls by disgusting bow-legged Jewish bastards."

As Rudolf Alden points out, Hitler's anti-Semitism may have come from his morbid imagination. Although Adolf was already twenty years old when he lived in Vienna, he was not known to have had any kind of relationship with women.

“So gradually,” Hitler states, “I came to hate them... It was then that the period of the highest spiritual upsurge that I have ever experienced began. I did away with cowardly cosmopolitanism and became an anti-Semite.”

Hitler remained such a blind and ardent fanatic until the end of his days. In his last will, written a few hours before his death, Hitler could not resist again attacking the Jews responsible for the war he himself had unleashed and which was now to end him and the Third Reich he had created. The fierce hatred that struck so many Germans in the Reich ultimately led to the mass destruction of peoples and left a terrible mark on the history of civilization, which will last as long as humanity exists on earth.

In the spring of 1913, Hitler decided to say goodbye to Vienna and move to Germany, to which, as he wrote, his heart had always belonged. The young man was twenty-four years old, and to everyone, except, of course, himself, he seemed to be a complete failure. He did not become either an artist or an architect. For many, he was nothing more than a vagabond, though rather eccentric and well-read. Hitler had no friends, no family, no job, no home. Nevertheless, he was distinguished by an unshakable confidence in himself and his destiny.

It should not be ruled out that Hitler left Austria to avoid military service. it was only in Munich that he was found, and the young man was ordered to appear for examination in Linz.Josef Greiner, in his book The End of the Hitler Myth, cites some episodes of Hitler's correspondence with the Austrian military authorities, from which it is clear that he denied the accusation that he had moved to Germany to avoid military service.Declaring lack of sufficient funds, he asked to be examined in Salzburg, which was not far from Munich.He was examined on February 5, 1914, and he was declared unfit for combat and even auxiliary service due to poor health - apparently, it was not all right with the lungs.The fact that he did not become a conscript until then , until the authorities eventually located him, by which time he was twenty-four years old, apparently worried Hitler when his star rose in Germany. Greiner corroborates a rumor in anti-Nazi circles when I was working in Berlin that, after the occupation of Austria in 1938 by German troops, Hitler ordered the Gestapo to find official documents relating to his conscription. Attempts to find these papers in Linz were unsuccessful, which made Hitler furious. These documents were confiscated by one of the members of the local administration, who showed them to Greiner after the war. - Approx. auth.).

But this did not happen because of Hitler's cowardice. He simply did not allow the thought of serving side by side with the Jews, Slavs and representatives of other national minorities that inhabited the empire. In "Mein Kampf" Hitler indicates that he moved to Munich in the spring of 1912, but this information is not true. The documents of the Vienna police indicate that he lived in Vienna until May 1913.

Hitler's own explanation of the reasons for his departure from Austria sounds rather grandiloquent:

“Gradually, an internal rejection of the Habsburg state grew in me ... a conglomerate of various ethnic races that filled the capital ... This mixture of Czechs, Poles, Hungarians, Rusyns, Serbs, Croats turned inside out, and everywhere was full of these upstarts - Jews. A huge city became for me the personification of racial pollution ... The longer I lived in this city, the stronger my hatred for the alien mixture of people grew stronger in me, because of it the ancient center of German culture began to decay ... All this aroused in me a burning desire to go at last to where, since childhood, secret aspirations and hidden love have attracted me.

The fate of Hitler in a country that was so dear to him, developed in a way that was not imagined even in the wildest dream. Living in the German Reich, Hitler was technically a foreigner, an Austrian, and remained so until his appointment as Chancellor. To fully understand him, it is necessary to approach him as an Austrian who came of age shortly before the collapse of the Habsburg Empire, but was unable to take root in the enlightened capital of this state. He absorbed all the most ridiculous prejudices and hatred common at that time among the German-speaking extremists, but did not understand that the majority of those around him were decent, honest and noble people, regardless of their nationality and social status, that is, whether they were Czechs, Jews or Germans, rich or poor, artists or artisans. I doubt that any German living in the north of the country or in the west, in the Rhineland, in East Prussia or in Bavaria, could combine, based on his life experience, such qualities that pushed Adolf Hitler to those heights that he eventually succeeded. True, here one should add the pronounced unpredictability of genius.

However, in the spring of 1913, his genius had not yet manifested itself. In Munich, as in Vienna, Hitler lived penniless, without friends and permanent work. In the summer of 1914, the war began, which took him, along with millions of other people, into their ruthless vise. On August 3, Hitler petitioned King Ludwig III of Bavaria to allow him to volunteer for a regiment being formed in Bavaria, and his request was granted.

Hitler had an opportunity. Now the young tramp could not only satisfy his desire to serve his newfound fatherland, which, according to Hitler, resulted in a struggle for the future of Germany, when the question arose of "to be or not to be," but also to avoid failures and troubles in his personal life.

“These few hours,” Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf, “as if freed me from the burden that hung over me throughout my youth. I am not at all ashamed to admit that I was seized with delight and, falling to my knees, I I wholeheartedly thanked the Almighty for sending me great happiness to live at such a time ... For me, as for all Germans, the most memorable period of my life began. Against the backdrop of the events of that gigantic struggle, all my past sank into oblivion. "

Thus, Hitler's past, with all its disappointments, wretchedness and loneliness, was destined to remain in the shadows, although it was the past that shaped the consciousness and character of the Fuhrer. The war, which brought death to many millions, for Hitler, who was then twenty-five years old, marked the beginning of a new life.

It is unlikely that any psychiatrist will ever be able to accurately diagnose all of Hitler's mental illnesses and combine them into a sufficiently capacious and comprehensive formulation. There were so many deviations in the psyche of the German dictator that they simply do not fit into the standard diagnosis for ordinary patients.

The future dictator was mercilessly beaten by his father

The roots of mental illness are usually sought in childhood patients. Therefore, of course, psychiatrists did not disregard Hitler's childhood either. His sister Paula told them how his father had severely punished little Adolf, leading to the opinion that Hitler's aggressiveness was the result of an oedipal hatred of his father.

The dictator's father, Alois Schicklgruber (he changed his surname to Hitler at the age of 40), was known as an insatiable voluptuary. His many connections on the side were sometimes not enough to fully satisfy his lust. Once he savagely raped his wife, who refused him intimacy, in front of the young Adolf. Perhaps this incident left its mark on the entire sexual life of the future dictator.

Mother Clara pathologically loved her boy (before him she had lost three sons), and he responded to her in the same way. Of the six children of Alois and Clara, only two survived - Adolf and the feeble-minded Paula. Hitler called himself a sissy all his life. Pathological love for his mother and hatred for his father became the cause of many negative features of his psyche.

Blinded with fear

If you believe Hitler, then in the First World War he was a brave soldier and honestly earned his reward - the Iron Cross. Only a gas attack by the British in 1918, due to which he temporarily lost his sight, interrupted his military career. However, recently, the British historian Thomas Weber, on the basis of archival documents, letters and diaries of Hitler's fellow soldiers, managed to dispel this legend about the heroism of the gallant corporal in the trenches of the First World War.

The historian discovered the correspondence of the famous German neurosurgeon Otfried Förster with American colleagues. In one of the letters, he mentioned that in the 1920s, Hitler's medical record accidentally fell into his hands and he read the diagnosis that the doctors had given him.

It turned out that Hitler temporarily lost his sight not because of the gas attack, but because of hysterical amblyopia. This rare disease occurs with mental stress, for example, due to a strong fear of military action. The brain, as it were, refuses to perceive terrible pictures of reality and ceases to receive signals from the optic nerves, while the vision itself remains in order.

A brave soldier simply could not have such a disease, but Hitler was not one. He served as a signalman at the headquarters and was far from the front line, fellow soldiers even called him "rear pig". However, Hitler knew how to please his superiors, for which, according to Weber, he received the Iron Cross.

Hitler was treated for blindness with the help of hypnosis sessions. Therapeutic hypnosis at the hospital was handled by professor of neurology Edmund Forster from the University of Greifswald. It was to him that the blind corporal Hitler came. For about two months, Forster tried to find the key to the subconscious of this man who lost faith in his future. Finally, the professor found out that his patient had an extremely painful pride, and understood how, thanks to this, he could influence the patient's psyche during a hypnosis session.

In a completely dark room, Forster put Hitler into a hypnotic trance and told him: “You are actually blind, but once every 1,000 years a great person is born on Earth, who is destined for a great destiny. Perhaps it is you who is destined to lead Germany forward. If so, then God will restore your sight right now.”

After these words, Forster struck a match and lit a candle, Hitler saw the flame ... Adolf was simply shocked, because he had long said goodbye to the hope of someday seeing his eyes. It never occurred to the doctor that Hitler would take his words about his great destiny too seriously.

According to the psychiatrist and historian David Lewis, who wrote the book The Man Who Made Hitler, it was thanks to Forster that the idea of ​​​​his great destiny arose in Hitler's head. Subsequently, Forster himself realized this. When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the professor risked his life to have his case file sent to Paris, hoping it would be published.

Unfortunately, the publishers did not dare to publicize this case history: Germany was located too close, and Hitler at that time already had long arms. This is evidenced at least by the fact that this demarche of Forster did not remain a secret for the leader of the Nazis. Two weeks after the attempt to publish Hitler's medical history, the professor died ...

As Weber found out, everyone who knew about Hitler's true illness was destroyed, and his medical cards disappeared without a trace.

Nightmare lover

With his speeches, Hitler brought women literally to ecstasy. He had many admirers, but as soon as some of them reached their cherished goal - intimacy with the Fuhrer, their life turned into a real hell.

Susie Liptauer hanged herself after spending only one night with him. Geli Raubal, Hitler's niece, told a friend: "Hitler is a monster ... you will never believe what he makes me do." Until now, Geli's death is shrouded in mystery. It is known that she died from a bullet. At one time, there were rumors that Hitler shot Geli during a quarrel, while the official version of the Nazis said that she committed suicide.
German movie star Renata Müller achieved intimacy with the Fuhrer, which she immediately regretted.

Hitler began to crawl at her feet and asked to give him a kick ... He shouted: “I am vile and unclean! Hit me! Bey! Renata was in shock, she begged him to get up, but he crawled around her and moaned. The actress had to kick and spank him anyway ... The movie star's kicks led the Fuhrer into extreme excitement ... Shortly after this "intimacy" Renata committed suicide by throwing herself out of the hotel window.

Eva Braun, who lasted the longest next to Hitler, tried to commit suicide twice, ultimately she had to do it for the third time, already as the wife of a dictator ... Many psychologists and sexologists doubt that Hitler was capable of normal intercourse.

Animal sense of danger

According to various estimates, from 42 to five dozen serious attempts were made on Hitler's life. Professional bodyguards and aces of special services cannot explain at all how the German dictator managed not only to save his life, but also not to get a single serious injury. In their opinion, this is no longer just luck, but a real mysticism. Usually, 2-3 well-prepared assassination attempts are enough (and most often one!), To at least, if not kill, then seriously injure a person and take him out of the game for a long time.

The most interesting thing is that Hitler often managed to save his life due to a literally bestial instinct for danger. For example, in 1939, during the assassination attempt of Elser, who organized the explosion in a Munich pub, Hitler unexpectedly left the meeting place for party veterans unexpectedly early, and this saved him from death. Subsequently, he said to one of his close associates: “I was seized by a strange feeling that I must leave immediately ...”

Once Hitler said: "I escaped death several times, but by no means by chance, an inner voice warned me, and I immediately took action." Hitler believed in this inner voice until the end of his life.
The rearmament of the German army, the occupation of the demilitarized Rhineland, the annexation of Austria, the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia, the invasion of Poland - any of these actions between 1933 and 1939 were to lead to war with France and Great Britain, a war in which Germany had no no chance of winning. However, Hitler seemed to know that the Allies would be inactive, and boldly gave orders, from which the generals of the Wehrmacht were covered with sticky sweat. It was then that the mystical faith in the prophetic gift of the Fuhrer was born among Hitler's entourage.

Did Hitler really see pictures of the future? J. Brennan, author of The Occult Reich, believes that the Fuhrer, like shamans, entered into a special ecstatic state that allowed him to see the future. In a fit of rage, Hitler often became almost insane.

In a person in this state, as biochemical analysis shows, the content of adrenaline and carbon dioxide in the blood rises sharply. This can lead to changes in the functioning of the brain and access to new levels of consciousness. “Intoxication of this kind brought Hitler to the point,” writes J. Brennan, “that he could throw himself on the floor and start chewing on the edge of the carpet - this behavior was observed among Haitians who surrendered to the power of spirits while performing magical rituals. This led to the fact that the nickname Carpet Eater stuck behind him.

Germany under hypnosis

For the rest of his life, Hitler's school teacher remembered the strange look of the teenager Adolf, which made the teacher tremble. Many of the Fuhrer's entourage spoke of his outstanding hypnotic abilities. Whether they were congenital or Hitler took hypnosis lessons from someone is unknown. The ability to subjugate people greatly helped Hitler on his way to the heights of power. In the end, almost all of Germany was hypnotized by the former corporal.

Geli Raubal, Hitler's niece, told a friend: "Hitler is a monster ... you will never believe what he makes me do."

Here is what General Blomberg wrote about Hitler's hypnotic gift: “... I was constantly influenced by a certain force that emanated from him. She resolved all doubts and completely excluded the possibility of objecting to the Fuhrer, ensuring my complete loyalty ... "

Professor H. R. Trevor-Roper, a former intelligence officer, wrote, "Hitler had a hypnotist's gaze that overwhelms the mind and feelings of all who fall under his spell." J. Brennan, in The Occult Reich, describes a striking case. One Englishman, a true patriot of Britain, who did not know the German language, while listening to the speeches of the Fuhrer, involuntarily began to raise his hand in a Nazi salute and shout "Heil Hitler!" along with the electrified crowd...

"Infernal Cocktail"

So many mental deviations were mixed in Hitler that any, even an experienced psychiatrist, would have been clearly confused, trying to unravel the composition of the “hellish cocktail” that was seething in the head of this nondescript man, a madman who intended to conquer the whole world in his time. Obvious sexual deviations, the ability to exert a hypnotic effect on people, as well as an animal instinct for danger, which allows us to talk about certain clairvoyant abilities, are far from all that Hitler differed from other people.

Erich Fromm, for example, noted in him a clear tendency to necrophilia. As confirmation, he cited the following quote from Speer's memoirs: “As far as I remember, when meat broth was served on the table, he called it “corpse tea”; he commented on the appearance of boiled crayfish with a story about a dead old woman, whom close relatives threw into a stream as bait to catch these creatures; if they ate eels, he did not forget to mention that these fish love dead cats and are best caught on this particular bait. In addition, Fromm draws attention to a strange mine on the Fuhrer's face, which is visible in many photographs, it seems that the Fuhrer constantly smells some disgusting smell ...

Hitler had an amazing memory, he had the ability to preserve in it a photographically accurate reflection of reality. It is believed that only 4% of children have such a memory at an early age, but as they grow older, they lose it. In Hitler's memory, both minor architectural elements of buildings and large pieces of text were perfectly imprinted. The dictator amazed the highest generals of the Reich, citing from memory numerous figures concerning the armament of both the German army and its opponents.

The Fuhrer was an excellent imitator. As Eugen Hanfstaengl recalls: “He could imitate the hissing of geese and the quacking of ducks, the lowing of cows, the neighing of horses, the bleating of goats ...”

The dictator's acting skills were also at their best, he even knew how to influence his autonomic nervous system with the help of self-hypnosis, for example, he made himself cry without any problems, which is given to few professional actors. Tears from the eyes of the Fuhrer had a magical effect on the audience, enhancing the effect of his speeches. Knowing about this gift of Hitler, Goering at the very beginning of the Nazi movement in critical situations literally demanded: "Hitler must come here and cry a little!"

Admiral Doenitz believed that some kind of "radiation" emanated from Hitler. It had such a strong influence on the admiral that after each visit of the Fuhrer, Doenitz needed several days to recover and return to the real world. Goebbels also noted the clear impact of his patron, he said that after talking with Hitler, he "feels like a recharged battery."

In many ways, Hitler's actions were determined by a very deep factor - an inferiority complex, described by Alfred Adler. The dictator constantly compared himself to the great conquerors of the past and tried to surpass them. According to Alan Bullock, "a huge role in Hitler's entire policy was played by the strongest feeling of envy inherent in him, he wanted to crush his opponents."

There is no doubt that Hitler developed Parkinson's disease, which is caused by an organic brain lesion. True, the dictator managed to pass away before this illness had a serious impact on his health and psyche. In 1942, Hitler's left hand began to tremble, and in 1945 facial expression disorder began. In the last months of his life, Hitler, according to the recollections of others, resembled a ruin and moved with great difficulty. It is known that Parkinson's disease disrupts logical thinking and the patient tends to more emotional perception of reality. From 1941, Hitler's unique memory began to fail more and more often.

So, Hitler was such a strange and abnormal person that the existence of such a "mental anomaly" is even difficult to imagine. Therefore, the dictator practically did not fit into the tight diagnostic schemes of various psychological and psychiatric schools, and it was not possible to make a comprehensive diagnosis of him, although such attempts were nevertheless made.

Among the documents in one of the law libraries, a secret psychological portrait of Hitler, compiled back in 1943 by psychiatrist Henry Murray from Harvard University, was discovered several years ago. It was ordered to Murray by the leadership of the US Office of Strategic Services (the predecessor of the CIA). The American military and intelligence officers wanted to know more about the character of Hitler in order to be able to predict his actions in a given military-political situation.

Staff at Cornell University have published this 250-page analysis of Hitler's psyche, essentially one of the first attempts to investigate the dictator's personality. "Despite the fact that psychology has come a long way, the document provides an opportunity to see some of the features of Hitler's personality," said Thomas Mills, a researcher at the university's library.

This curious document has the following title: "Analysis of the personality of Adolf Hitler with forecasts regarding his future behavior and recommendations on how to deal with him now and after the surrender of Germany."

It is clear that Murray did not have the opportunity to personally examine such a dangerous "patient", so he was forced to conduct psychoanalytic studies of the dictator in absentia. All the information that could be obtained was used - the genealogy of the Fuhrer, information about his school years and military service, the dictator's writings, his public speeches, as well as the testimonies of people who communicated with Hitler.

What kind of portrait did an experienced psychiatrist manage to draw? Hitler, according to Murray, was an evil, vindictive man who did not tolerate any criticism and despised other people. He lacked a sense of humour, but he had plenty of stubbornness and self-confidence.

In the Fuhrer, the psychiatrist believed, the female component was quite pronounced, he never went in for sports, physical labor, had weak muscles. From a sexual point of view, he describes him as a passive masochist, suggesting the presence of repressed homosexuality.

Murray believed that Hitler's crimes were partly due to revenge for the bullying he suffered as a child, as well as a hidden contempt for his weaknesses. The psychiatrist believed that if Germany lost the war, Hitler could commit suicide. However, if the dictator is killed, then he can turn into a martyr.

Murray's diagnosis includes a whole bunch of diseases. In his opinion, Hitler suffered from neurosis, paranoia, hysteria and schizophrenia. Although modern experts find a number of misinterpretations and inaccuracies in this psychological portrait of the dictator, due to the level of development of psychiatry in those years, the discovered document is undoubtedly unique.

Sergey STEPANOV
"Mysteries and mysteries" May 2013

As soon as he was not called ... The Devil in the flesh, the Antichrist, the Black Death - all these nicknames were given to him by ordinary people. Those who were exiled to concentration camps, suffered in the ghetto, went to be shot... Adolf Hitler completely changed the course of history not only in Germany, but throughout the world. After himself, he left complete devastation in Europe and a document that regulated the work of the remaining government of the Reich. Hitler's political testament is interesting from a historical point of view, it reveals to us the character of this dangerous man, his secret plans and hidden beliefs.

Main theses of the document

The testament itself is small. It consists of two parts, in which Adolf Hitler summarizes his life, political and military activities. He also talks candidly about why World War II began. He also names the reasons that prompt him to commit suicide, and thanks his citizens for their love, respect and support. He accuses Himmler and Goering of conspiracy and coup and removes them from all posts. Instead, it completely changes

The dictator also manages his property, namely: he bequeaths the collection of works of art he has collected to the gallery of his native city of Linz on the Danube, he gives his personal belongings, which have a certain value, to his faithful comrades-in-arms and colleagues, everything else - to the National Socialist Workers Party of Germany. Adolf Hitler asks that his marriage to Eva Braun be recognized as legal and that the newly-married spouses be cremated after their death. He appoints the executor of the last will

Causes of World War II

In his will, the Fuhrer describes the period between the world wars as a time of reflection and nurturing ideas. All Hitler's plans during these years were formed, according to him, under the influence of love for his own people and devotion to him. The dictator writes that he did not want to start World War II, but had to make this difficult decision in the name of prosperity

His reasons for attacking neighboring countries mostly boil down to his personal hatred of the Jews. The rulers of states with such roots or their activities for the benefit of this nation are what provoked his aggression. In the document, he completely absolves himself of guilt for starting the bloodshed. And he says that he has repeatedly proposed to control and limit the armament of the world.

Hitler's quotes from the political testament are interesting and reveal his actions in resolving the German-Polish problem. "In just three days, I made an offer to the British ambassador to eliminate this conflict, but it was rejected, since the British government needed this war," he writes. The reason for the refusal, Hitler calls the influence of the propaganda that the Jews spread, and as a result, the strengthening of business activity beneficial to London.

Why did the Fuhrer choose suicide?

Hitler's political testament conveys to us the motives for which he decided to commit suicide. First of all, it is the impossibility to leave the Reich. The Fuhrer writes that the strength of his army has weakened, morale has been undermined from within by traitors and cowards. Therefore, his last will is to share the fate of millions of Germans who decided not to flee, but to remain in the occupied country. But since falling into the hands of the enemy is unacceptable for Hitler, death is the only correct solution.

The Fuhrer writes that he dies with a light heart. He is inspired by the exploits of the rank and file at the front, the exorbitant help of the rear and the ardent hearts of the German youth. Hitler's speech in the document contains gratitude to all these people, through whose enormous efforts the Reich flourished, and the glory of Germany thundered throughout the world. The self-sacrifice of ordinary people and his own death, the ruler of the Reich is sure, will give the seed that in the future will be able to germinate and revive the National Socialist movement. He asks the people not to repeat his suicide, but to save their lives in order to continue the struggle and give birth to future heroes of Germany.

Political appointments

The Führer was very disappointed in his close associates, especially in Goering. In his will, he excludes him from the party and completely deprives him of his rights. Instead of him, Admiral Doenitz should take the chairs of the Reich President and Commander-in-Chief of the military forces. He also removes Himmler, the Reichsführer and Chief Minister from office. At the request of Hitler, he should be replaced by Karl Hanke and Paul Giesler.

Himmler and Goering were intriguing, but their secrets were revealed by the Fuhrer. Hitler was informed of their desire to seize power, to negotiate with the enemy. All this, according to the ruler of the Reich, caused great damage to the country, led to the defeat of his people in this war. Therefore, dying, he wants to atone for his guilt before the Germans by appointing them a worthy and honest cabinet of ministers. The Führer hopes that the new government will be able to continue his work and make Germany the "queen of all nations." Among his followers: Bormann, Greik, Funk, Tirak and other German figures of that time.

The main mission of the followers

Hitler's political testament carries the main message to future generations: they must continue to develop the activities of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Some members of the new cabinet appointed by the Fuhrer, including Bormann, Goebbels and their wives, also wanted to commit suicide along with their leader. But Hitler orders them not to do this, since their activity, intelligence and resourcefulness should serve the benefit of the country, should revive it from the ruins and raise it from its knees.

The Fuhrer wishes them firmness and justice. They should not succumb to fear, because the honor of the nation for his followers should be above all. According to Hitler, the main task of future generations is to continue the development of the party, sacrifice their own interests to it, be faithful to duty and obey the new government to the last drop of blood. The German people are obliged to observe racial laws, at the same time to hate and destroy the poisoner of the whole world - the Jewish community.

Significance of Hitler's political testament

world history

It is huge, as it managed to shed light on many distorted facts and propaganda of the government of the USSR, the oppressed Jews and other peoples who suffered in that war. That Hitler was a ruthless tyrant and murderer of millions of innocents is true. But the fact that he was a weak-minded nervous hysteric, as Soviet films show us, is a myth. It can be seen from the will that it was written by a sensible person. He was wise enough, he just directed his activities in the wrong direction, which caused the death of millions of people. The document also contests the version that the Fuhrer allegedly managed to escape to Latin America and live there safely to a hundred years. But we see: he loved his ideology so much, putting it above all else, that he wished to die with it.

Hitler's political testament shows that not only the Fuhrer was responsible for the war. The same England, wanting bloodshed for its own selfish purposes, became an indirect culprit in the beginning of the collapse of Europe. When Churchill realized what he had done, it was too late to stop the Fuhrer, who had advanced into the very depths of the continent. And the Soviet Union itself was an aggressor similar to Hitler. It was he who unleashed a series of wars from 1938 to 1941: he swallowed the Baltic, captured parts of Poland and Finland.

Historians' opinion

It is diametrically opposed. Some say that his will is extremist in nature, so it was banned from distribution in many districts and regions of the Russian Federation. In principle, the decision is correct. After all, the legacy of the main killer of the 20th century has become the basis of the policy of neo-Nazis, who have recently stepped up their illegal activities throughout the country. The document has no right to life, it must be destroyed in the same way as Hitler himself. But this is only one side of the coin. If you look from a different angle, the will is a historical value, interesting for discovering new facts about this person, his environment and the politics of Nazi Germany.

Other historians evaluate the document and pay attention to the fact that in its lines there is not a single bad word about the Russian people. Despite the fact that Germany fell under Soviet shells and bombs, Hitler's speech was not riddled with curses against the USSR. As before, he blames all the troubles on earth on the Jews. Hitler's quotes burn with aggression and hatred for this people.

What happened after the Fuhrer's death?

Hitler's political testament was written and passed on to his followers. But not all comrades-in-arms were ready to submit to his will. So, the new Chancellor Goebbels appointed by him did not want to stay alive. Out of love and devotion to his Fuhrer or fear of being severely punished by the victors, he also committed suicide. Other generals did the same: Hitler's adjutant Burgdorf and the last chief of staff, Krebs.

Some say it's just plain cowardice. But this can be argued, since not everyone dares to take their own life. And their death by their own hands now looks more dignified now, centuries later, than the death of the same Goering, who breathed his last breath in an American prison, or Himmler, who died on an English bunk. And this is not to mention those dozens of those who were hanged in 1946. No, we do not sing to the bloodsuckers, we just try to look at events objectively, putting aside personal prejudices and opinions.

Many nuances about the Fuhrer's habits are revealed to us by history. Everyone knew Hitler as an ardent vegetarian. He hated people who smoke and fought this bad habit with all sorts of methods at the state level. His eternal mania for reading and processing book material was known to his associates. They often saw him in libraries, at seminars and conferences. The Fuhrer idolized cleanliness and avoided people with a runny nose.

Hitler was always a man of few words. But that was only for personal contact. When it came to politics, he couldn't be stopped. Thinking over his speech for a long time, he silently walked around the office for hours, but when he began to dictate to the typist, she did not have time to write everything down verbatim. The verbal flow was accompanied by quotations, exclamations, active gestures and facial expressions.

Adolf Hitler changed the course of history, we remember him as a tyrant and a murderer. Despite the many positive qualities of his character, he has no excuse for the troubles that this evil genius has brought to innocent people around the world.