Video: 'Adolf Hitler ... Assumes Bismark's Mantle! (1933)'
(Monday, January 30, 1933, 11:00 a.m. Central European Time) — Adolf Hitler, leader of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), known colloquially as the “Nazi Party,” rode into power in Germany today on the rising tide of his militant fascism, marking a crucial turning point for Germany and, ultimately, for the world.
Video: '30th January 1933: Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany'
Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn in Austria-Hungary and was raised near Linz. He lived in Vienna later in the first decade of the 1900s and moved to Germany in 1913. He was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I.
In 1919, he joined the German Workers’ Party (DAP), the precursor of the Nazi Party, and was appointed leader of the Nazi Party in 1921. In 1923, he attempted to seize governmental power in a failed coup in Munich and was imprisoned with a sentence of five years. In jail, he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”).
Video: 'History Brief: Adolf Hitler's Rise to Power'
After his early release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting pan-Germanism, anti-Semitism, and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda. He frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as part of a Jewish conspiracy.
Video: 'The World at War Episode 1 - A New Germany (1933-1939)' (Jan. 30, 1933 at 2:41)
By November 1932, the Nazi Party held the most seats in the German Reichstag but did not have a majority. As a result, no party was able to form a majority parliamentary coalition in support of a candidate for chancellor. The former chancellor Franz von Papen and other conservative leaders persuaded President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor today. He was sworn in at the Reich Chancellery in Berlin.
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Shortly after, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act of 1933 which began the process of transforming the Weimar Republic into Nazi Germany, a one-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of Nazism. On Aug. 2, 1934, Hindenburg died and Hitler replaced him as the head of state and government.
Video: 'A Walk Through The 20th Century With Bill Moyers - Episode 05 - The Democrat And The Dictator' (Hitler takes power at 6:03)
During his dictatorship, Hitler initiated World War II in Europe by invading Poland on September 1, 1939. He was closely involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of The Holocaust: the genocide of about six million Jews and millions of other victims.
