West European Studies

Perhaps no other leader in the 20th century had ever been held in much awe, trepidation, and fascination than Germanys World War II Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler.  His rise to power and the mystique that surrounds his persona had long been a source of academic, psychological, and artistic studies that subsequent generations had found too tempting not to discuss.  Perhaps this may be the effect of the very exemplary manner that he had risen from the lower ranks of the military into holding the highest seat of power, exercising a totalitarianism never before seen in the modern age or perhaps it is in the way that he was able to captivate his audience, both the educated and the unlearned, making them absolute subjects to his political desires and ambitions or perhaps it is because the society, particularly the German Nation, of that era was really in need and in search of a leader exhibiting the exceptional qualities that were personified in Adolf Hitler.

Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889-April 03, 1945) was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary, and was the fourth of six children.  In 1892 his family moved to Passau, where he acquired the Lower Bavarian dialect as his native tongue, instead of his Australian birth origin.  In 1895, Alois, his father, moved the entire family to Hafeld to venture in a farming business.  In 1897, Hitler attended a Catholic School, and by 1898, the entire family permanently resided in Leonding.  After his fathers death in 1903 and his mothers in 1907, Hitler decided to sell his inherited estate and move to Munich, in May of 1913.  During this time, he was writing for Houston Stewart Chamberlain just to avoid and delay the required military service training.  Eventually, the Munich police was able to arrest him.  However, after a thorough physical examination, he was found to be unfit to be enlisted in the army.  This was bound to change, however, as Germany was about to be engulfed in World War I in August of 1914, hence, after petitioning King Ludwig III of Bavaria to allow him to serve in the Bavarian regiment, Adolf Hitler had began his colorful military career.

Adolf Hitlers first served in the 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment which was stationed in France and Belgium.  He was assigned to the most dangerous task in the Western Front, that of being a runner, being responsible for manually relaying communications among troops in various locations, thus being exposed to enemy gun fires.  Here he was officially awarded the rank of Gefreiter, or what is now regarded as a Private First Class.  Hitler saw action in almost all of the major battles in the Western Front of World War I, such as the First Battle of Ypres, the Battle of Arras, the Battle of Passchendaele, and the Battle of Somme.  It is worth noting that the Battle of Ypres in 1914 was later known as The Massacre of the Innocents, where around 40,000 men of the 9th Infantry Division were killed in a short span of 20 days.  Also during this phase of the War, Hitlers own company, numbering some 250 men, were reduced to 42 by the end of the year 1914.  In October 15, 1918, he was temporarily blinded as a result of a mustard gas attack, forcing him to be confined to a battlefield hospital.  It is considered that it was during this time that Hitler became convinced that his lifes mission is to save Germany by exterminating the Jewish population of the entire European continent, although in most probability, he still wasnt certain on how to turn this dream into completion.  He has regarded his war experiences as the greatest of all experiences, and was subsequently honored by his superiors for his display of utmost bravery.  Hitler was admittedly shocked by Germanys surrender in 1918 despite of their still holding enemy territories, and just like many Germans of the era, he believed that the German Army had been betrayed by its civilian leaders who were leaning on Marxist ideologies the same leaders who were to be later labeled as the November Criminals.

After the First World War, while still in the army, Hitler enlisted in national thinking courses that were organized by the Education and Propaganda Department, under Captain Karl Mayr.  By 1919, he was delegated as a police spy of the Intelligence Commando, where included in his missions were to influence other soldiers and the infiltration of the German Workers Party.  Despite of the nature of his work, Hitler was impressed with Anton Drexler, the partys founder on his views on anti-Semitism, anti-Capitalism, and anti-Marxism and pushed for a strong government abundant with mutual solidarity and anti-Jewish sentiments of Socialism.  Hitler found it troubling to disengage from these tenets.    

Rise to Power
Adolf Hitlers rise on the political arena began in 1930, on the onset of Germanys economic depression.  As the Weimar administration did not truly enjoy the citizens popular support, it found itself in constant attack not only from the rightist wing, but as well as the communists and the Marxists.  All these pressures led to premature elections in 1930, where the Nazis were able to garner a total of 18.3 of the votes and 107 seats, and had been transformed from a relatively unknown party into the second largest in the German Chamber.  Thus in 1932, Hitler was pitted against an unpopular President Hindenburg for the presidential election.  Although Hitler subsequently lost in the election, it became clear that he has become one of the strongest alternatives for the countrys leadership.  

President Hindenburg, despite of his victory, was still experiencing pressures from the big industrialists through numerous letters requesting for the president to appoint a leader who would be totally independent from the parliamentary parties, and that it is their desire for Hitler to be the appointed  one.  Finally, President Hindenburg approved of this, and on January 30 of 1933, Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor.  With Hitler at the helm, he discouraged all efforts by the other parties to gain majority of the German Chamber, and because it was the rule then that no single party was allowed to gain the majority, Hitler succeeded in influencing President Hindenburg in dissolving the Parliament, through a vote.  However, on February 27, 1933, a fire consumed the Reichstag building, which was blamed on the German Communist Party, primarily because a Dutch communist leader was found in the building.  This resulted in the enactment of Reichstag Fire Decree, which suspended several basic human rights, such as the habeas corpus.  Also, through this decree, the German Communist Party and other similar groups were either suppressed, put in prison, or executed.

Next in the Nazis agenda was to effect a legislation, through the Enabling Act, that would provide the Cabinet with legislative powers for four years.  However, as the Nazi still lacked the majority of the members to secure a passage of the said proposition, they entered into an agreement with the Center Party, led by Ludwig Kaas, which is the third largest in the Reichstag, to assure their aim.  Hence in March 23 of 1933, the combination of the legalized powers of the Enabling Act and the Reichstag Fire Decree secured Hitlers governance of a dictatorial leadership.  With no other political party that can contest his authority, the Nazi then was declared as the only legal party on July 14, 1933.  Hitler had used the SA Paramilitary in achieving his goal.  Some of these tactics included the forcing into resigning Minister of Economy Hugenberg, the political isolation of Vice Chancellor Papen, and the purging among it leaders and members of those non-conforming to Hitlers demands, most significant of which is the murder of former Chancellor Schleicher.

With President Hindenburgs death in 1934, the cabinet decided on transferring to Hitler the titles of Fuhrer and Chancellor, negating the legal constitution which calls for an election during times of presidential vacancy.  Further made to appear as legal, the plebiscite of August 19, 1934, which legalized the unification of presidency with the chancellorship, and in a convincing margin of 84.6, Hitler further solidifies his position.  In 1938, Hitler forced into resigning Werner von Blomberg, his War Minister, and Werner von Fritsch, the army commander, on charges that are baseless and unverified.  He then renamed the Ministry of War to High Command of the Armed Forces, and claimed the seat of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.  With all these powers he had awarded himself, the strongest concentration of powers is his disposal.    

Under German Rule
As necessitated by his desire to invade the West, it was pertinent for Hitler to annex Poland either by diplomatic means or by brute force. This will serve to be both as a strategic ground base for the Reichs troops and for economic reasons as well, as this will lessen the effects of the naval blockade implemented by the British government.  However, Hitlers hope of making Poland into a satellite state without the need for war soon became an impossibility as the German demands were rejected by the Polish government for three consecutive times.  In his speech in front of his generals prior to invading Poland in August 1939, Hitler stressed that his original plan was for the peaceful secession of Poland in his fight against the West, but Polands refusal to accept such an offer present him no other choice but to wipe Poland off the map.  On September 1 of the same year, Germany invaded Western Poland.

In February of 1940, Germany entered into a trade pact with Soviet Union, wherein the Soviets were to receive war and industrial machineries in exchange for supplying Germany with raw materials to negate the negative impact of the British naval blockade.  In April of the same year, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway with the purpose of assuring its shipments of iron from Sweden.  Anticipating the futility of resistance, Denmark surrendered immediately, while Norway, despite of massive support by the Allies, was ultimately invaded two months after.

In May 10, 1940, Germany proceeded to invade France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.  Using the much vaunted blitzkrieg, the Germans were able to conquer the Netherlands in a matter of few days, and Belgium, in a few weeks.  The Maginot Line, which is a thick forested area in the Ardennes Region and was likewise thought of by French war technicians as being impenetrable, soon was overrun by the German blitzkrieg that the British armies in that region had to leave in haste, abandoning their heavy war machines in the process before the end of the said month.  On June 22, France surrendered, dividing the city into German and Italian occupational zones.

During this phase of the war, especially with France being subjugated my German and Italian troops, Germany then proceeded to display its air superiority over Britain.  Air campaigns were carried out as a preparation for an eventual invasion.  However, these air raids did not perform the desired destruction that was expected, thus, using captured French naval stations, the German Navy, using U-boats, inflicted heavy damage on Britains shipping lines in the Atlantic instead.  Likewise, Germany assisted its ally Italy by sending troops to Libya in February of 1941.  By the end of March, Germany started a massive offensive against the Allied forces that was successful in driving the Allies back all the way to Egypt.  Two succeeding efforts were undertaken by the Commonwealth forces to win these territories back, one in May and the second in June, but both of these were futile.  In April of the same year, Germany invaded Greece and Yugoslavia, and the Island of Crete by May.  In all of these battles, Germany was able to invade successfully and swiftly, forcing the Allies to evacuate the areas.

Germany, then, along with its Axis members and Finland, proceeded to invade the Soviet Union in June 22, 1941.  Hitlers purpose for this was four-tiered to eradicate Soviet Union as a military power put an end to Communism extend Arians living space by dispossessing the local populace and the assurance of additional sources to defeat Germanys remaining enemies.  However, two months into the campaign and with their forces already reaching the outer limits of Moscow, Germany was forced to suspend its operations amid too much exhaustion by the troops and a freezing winter, and wait for further reinforcements.    By early December of 1941 when numerous reserves were able to supplement the Soviet forces, the Soviets began a massive counter-offensive against the Germans, pushing them back some 620 miles.  This would prove to be Germanys start of downfall, as the Soviets were able to retain their military strength despite of the onslaught.