[close] Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born politician who led the National Socialist German Workers Party. He became Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933 and Führer in 1934. He ruled until 1945.

The Nazi Party gained power during Germany's period of crisis after World War I, exploiting effective propaganda and Hitler's charismatic oratory to gain popularity. The Party emphasised nationalism, antisemitism and anti-communism, and killed many of its opponents. After the restructuring of the state economy and the rearmament of the German armed forces (Wehrmacht), a dictatorship (commonly characterized as totalitarian or fascist) was established by Hitler, who then pursued an aggressive foreign policy, with the goal of seizing Lebensraum. The German Invasion of Poland in 1939 drew the British and French Empires into World War II.

The Wehrmacht was initially successful and the Axis Powers occupied most of Mainland Europe and parts of Asia. Eventually the Allies defeated the Wehrmacht. By 1945, Germany was in ruins. Hitler's bid for territorial conquest and racial subjugation had caused the deaths of tens of millions of people, including the systematic genocide of an estimated six million Jews, not including various other "undesirable" populations, in what is known as the Holocaust.

During the final days of the war in 1945, as Berlin was being invaded and destroyed by the Red Army, Hitler married Eva Braun. Less than 24 hours later, the two committed suicide in the Führerbunker.
[close]