Hitler He was born in Austria….not Germany in 1889. His family moved to Germany when he was three. He did not get along with his father, they often 3 often argued and fought. Hitler did not like how strict his father was. Hitler went to more than one school and always got in trouble for not obeying school rules. Hitler finally starting behaving in school when he found a more nurturing campus and even thought about becoming a priest. In 1900 his little brother died of the measles. They were very close and his death changed Hitler for the worse. He became depressed and spent much of his time alone. He began behaving badly and fought with his father and teachers again.

Hitler continued…. In high school Hitler wanted to study art, but his father wanted him to go to a tech school. Hitler got bad grades on purpose hoping his Father would decide to let him study art instead. Hitler’s father worked for the Austrian government, so to make him mad Hitler became a German Nationalist. A German Nationalist is someone who believes only one or two types of German speaking people could live in Germany. They were very racist.

More Hitler…. In 1903 Hitler’s father died. Hitler became even more disruptive and poorly behaved in school. One night he went out and drank with his friends. He tore up his school paper and used it as toilet paper. When his principal found out he beat Hitler and expelled him. A couple years later he applied for the The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. They rejected his application because he could not paint or draw well and because he didn’t have a high school degree. He applied the second time a year later and was rejected again for the same reasons. A couple years later Hitler ran out of money and lived in homeless shelters.

Hitler and Anti-Semitism It’s unclear when Hitler began hating Jews. Some childhood friends said he always hated them but rarely spoke about it. Some people say he was friends with a wealthy Jewish family and ate dinner at their home. Some say when he tried to be a painter he sold his work to Jewish people. Many believed that he always hated them but hid his hatred when he wanted or needed something from them. Around this time in German history there was a great deal of immigration by Jewish and other cultures. Germans, who were suffering economically began to blame their problems on them. Remember, many Germans were already prejudiced.

World War I World War I began in 1914 and Hitler served in the German army. Germany lost in World War I, which caused some Germans to feel like they were victimized. To help combat this feeling they began a to believe in a severe type of national pride and blamed other races, in particular the Jews, for all their economic problems and their loss in the war.

Hitler after WW I After World War One, the German army hired Hitler to spy on a political party called German Workers’ Party….this was soon to become the Nazi Party. They hated the Jews. Instead of reporting against them like he was supposed to….Hitler joined them.

Beginning of the Nazi Party Hitler became the leader of the German Workers’ Party and designed the Nazi flag himself. In 1923 Hitler announced there would be a revolution. He was put in jail for treason for a year where he began to map out his plan for getting rid of the Jews and keeping only ethnic Germans. The National Socialist German Workers' Party (NAZI Party)

Hitler’s Rise to Power Hitler hired his army buddies to fill powerful jobs in the German Workers Party: Army Captain Ernst Roehm was an important addition to the party because he was able to transfer money from the German army to the German Workers Party. Hitler and Roehm used this money to advertise their party to the German people and encourage them to join. They would often have rallies where Hitler spoke and the German citizens found him very convincing.

Hitler’s Rise to Political Power in Germany Continued In 1932 and 1933 Hitler ran for offices and came in second forcing the current German leader to offer him a high standing position in the German government. In 1933 Hitler’s Nazi Party was the ruling German party in the government. Hitler’s party intimidated other parties and they closed so only Hitler’s party was in power. The German economy was so bad and people were so poor they believed whatever Hitler told them…mainly that the Jews were blamed for everything going wrong.

1923-1925 Hitler and the Nazi party tried to overthrow the government but failed. He was sent to prison where he wrote his famous book “Mein Kampf (My Struggle).”

The Great Depression of 1929 The Great Depression affected not just our country, but most of the world including Germany. After his failed attempt at taking over the government and now that he was no longer in jail he decided he could use the Great Depression and the economic crisis in Germany to convince citizens to join the Nazi Party and support him.

Hitler’s Rise to Power Much of Germany’s current leaders were old and did notice how much power Hitler had with the people. In 1933 Hitler became Germany’s leader. In 1938 Hitler began trying to invade countries to increase the amount of land for his Aryan German race. In 1939 Hitler invaded Poland and Britain and France, who did not want to go to war, felt they had to defend Poland… so World War II began.