GERMAN DICTATOR
1889–1945

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) was national socialist dictator of Germany's totalitarian Third Reich from January 1933 until his suicide in the closing days of World War II (1939–1945). He ranks alongside the Soviet Union's Joseph Stalin (1879–1853) and China's Mao Tse-tung (1893–1976) as one of the modern world's most ruthless and maniacal political figures.

Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, in eastern Austria. He enjoyed a pampered childhood and adolescence, was an indifferent student, and failed to graduate from secondary school. In 1907 Hitler moved to Vienna, where he developed basic convictions that formed the subsequent basis of his political ideology. These included a commitment to pan-German nationalism coupled with a radical racial anti-semitism; an appreciation of the power of mass mobilization in politics; and his rejection of liberalism, socialism, Marxism, and democracy. While debating politics on a daily basis, Hitler also developed exceptional skills as an impassioned orator.

In 1913 Hitler left...