History Brief: Adolf Hitler's Rise to Power

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This video gives a brief description of Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany in the 1920s and '30s.

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In this video:

The last of the major dictators to rise to power prior to World War II arose in Germany. Who was Adolf Hitler, and how did he gain control of Germany?

Early in his life, Adolf Hitler hoped to be an artist, but his father refused to allow him to attend a classical school. As a result, Hitler intentionally failed in his studies and dropped out of high school.

By the age of 16, Hitler had become obsessed with politics. While living in Vienna, Hitler also developed a strong hatred for the non-German races in Germany and Austria. Before reaching adulthood, Hitler became what he would remain to his dying day, a fanatical German nationalist.

Hitler went on to serve in the German army during World War I, where he won the Iron Cross for bravery on two separate occasions. Following the war, he remained employed by the military as part of the Political Department. In September of 1919, Hitler was sent to investigate a tiny political group in Munich, which called itself the German Workers’ Party.

Finding himself impressed with their policies, Hitler joined the party. He became one of the most influential voices of the group, and in 1920, the name of the party was officially changed to the National Socialist Party, or simply the Nazi Party.

Hitler’s first attempt at seizing power in Germany came in November of 1923 in an incident known as the Beer Hall Putsch. The Nazis hoped to replicate Mussolini’s March on Rome by seizing control of the government in Munich, the capital of Bavaria.

The police opened fire, and sixteen Nazis were killed. Hitler escaped but was arrested two days later and sentenced to five years of incarceration. Hitler served a little over a year and spent his time in prison dictating what would become the first volume of Mein Kampf, a book that was, in part, an autobiography, but was also a collection of Hitler’s philosophical thoughts. In this book, Hitler stressed the “superiority of the German race,” a desire to rule Europe and the world, and an intense hatred for the Jewish people and religion.

Mein Kampf only sold 9,000 copies in its first year, but, as the Nazi party grew, so did the book’s popularity. In 1933, it sold 1,000,000 copies, and Hitler became the most prosperous author in Germany.

Hitler’s rise to power came amidst of wave of public anger. Hitler and the Nazi Party appealed to the emotions of the people by emphasizing Germany’s humiliating defeat at the conclusion of World War I, and declaring that Jews within the government had caused the nation to capitulate.

When the Great Depression began, support for the Nazi Party swelled. As unemployment rose, the Nazis exploited the resentment Germans held for their government. In the 1928 elections, Nazi candidates received fewer than 1 million votes. Two years later, after the Great Depression began, the Nazi Party received 6 million votes. In 1932, the number rose to more than 14 million votes, and the following year, Adolf Hitler was named Chancellor of Germany.