Adolf Hitler's Rise to Dictatorship: From Outcast to Führer | The Hitler Chronicles: 1889-1938 (1/2)

Click here to watch part two of "The Hitler Chronicles":    • Hitler's Defeat: Downfall of the Third Rei...   Hitler is born as third of six children in Upper Austria and has an untroubled childhood. He leaves school at almost twelve years without graduation and is rejected twice by the Art’s academy. He is homeless at times, and hungry. For mere survival, he paints and sells postcards. His share of his father’s inheritance is paid out on his 24th birthday. He escapes from the military and moves to Munich, declaring himself stateless to avoid investigations by the Austrian military administration. The inheritance helps to build an existence on the fringe of society. As World War I starts, Hitler joins the Bavarian Army and becomes an ardent German soldier and patriot. For the first time he feels that he belongs. The end of the war means he loses the only regular life he’s known so far. Click here to watch the longer version of thirteen episodes of "The Hitler Chronicles": https://bit.ly/Hitler_Chronicles Subscribe to this channel: https://bit.ly/Subscribe_to_WorldWarF... Initially installed at the NSDAP as a police informer, Hitler quickly takes over a leadership role. He realizes having a speaker’s talent. His flair for art enables him to modernize the party; he designs the swastika flag. He is impressed by the ‘March to Rome’ by Mussolini and the fascists in Italy. But his own coup attempt of 1923 fails and puts him in jail for more than a year. There he writes “Mein Kampf”. The NSDAP is forbidden and Hitler is banned from speaking publicly. It is an uncertain new beginning. Out of prison, Hitler re-establishes the NSDAP to achieve power by legal means this time. As its undoubted sole leader, he develops the party into a powerful movement. During the recovering economy the NSDAP stagnates, but with the looming crisis in the early 1930s it gains voters in each election. The NSDAP becomes the strongest force in parliament. Still, President von Hindenburg refuses to appoint Hitler as Chancellor. Hitler now has to find another way to get power. The social, economic and political elites convince the President to appoint Hitler as Reich Chancellor, expecting to get rid of the communists this way. They believe also that they can control Hitler in a coalition. Hitler, however, gets rid of political opponents and finally of those who brought him to power with lies and violence. Now he only has to get rid of leaders within the NSDAP. Here, Ernst Roehm is the head of 4 million men of the SA. What will Hitler do? In 1934, Hitler’s power has become unrestricted and unlimited. He is Chancellor and President for lifetime. He makes the law. Cabinet and parliament just have alibi functions. Hitler is admired by the people. Germany feels strong again, and people accept the merciless dictatorship and the persecution of others as necessary evil. The 'Nuremberg Race Laws' pass unanimously by the Reichstag parliament. A referendum in then-French Saarland shows 91 percent of the population voting to return to the German Reich. Now the world looks anxiously whether Hitler will make further territorial claims. His gaze turns to Austria, his homeland. Hitler’s fame reaches its climax during 1936 to 1937. Germany is simultaneously admired and feared by foreign countries. In 1936, the Wehrmacht invades the Rhineland, a demilitarized zone by the Treaty of Versailles. The Nuremberg party rallies are a magnificent spectacle of the ever growing leadership cult. The Summer Olympics in 1936 show Hitler's popularity internationally. Hitler himself never does sports. He has no driver's license, cannot swim. A Spartan lifestyle is propagated by him while he, unnoticed from the public, collects a large fortune for himself. Since 1934 he has been exempted from tax payments. He doesn't drink alcohol, nor smokes or eats meat. In Benito Mussolini, Hitler finds an ally to whom he remains faithful until his downfall. The trips to Italy are the only foreign ones he undertakes. Hitler takes control of the army. The threat alone of an invasion is enough: the Austrian Chancellor allows Hitler to take over. 99,75% of the Austrian people want to be part of the German Reich. Planning to disintegrate Czechoslovakia, Hitler signs the Munich Agreement in September 1938, in which Czechoslovakia has to abdicate the territories of the so-called Sudeten Germans. Hitler declares he no longer has territorial claims in Europe. On November 9th, 1938, Hitler and Goebbels initiate a pogrom night against the Jews. Meanwhile, Hitler has set up a private and secret life mostly at Obersalzberg, now declared a restricted area. He hides his mistress Eva Braun from the public to project an image of living solely for Germany. He fears an early death and has vague plans to end his own life. A series by Hermann Pölking-Eiken 2017 © Licensed by First Hand Films