The future dictator of Nazi Germany entered the world on April 20, 1889, in Braunau am Inn, a small Austrian town near the German border. This day would prove foundational for a tragic path that shaped global history.

Family conflicts and personal struggles marked Hitler’s early years. As a customs official, his father maintained rigid disciplinary standards. His youthful years were tarnished by financial problems and the passing of his younger siblings. The death of Hitler’s father in 1903 prompted his household to relocate to Linz. A key moment in Hitler’s life came when he failed to gain entrance into the Academy of Fine Arts of Vienna in 1907, which forced him to wander in a city where his ideological prejudices began to form.

Service in the German army during the First World War gave Hitler the discipline and direction he needed as an army soldier. Germany losing the war and the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles strengthened Hitler’s nationalistic passion. Hitler initiated his political career early in the 1920s by exploiting postwar resentment, which became the foundation for Nazi Party growth. The position of Chancellor in 1933 marked the first step toward complete totalitarian control and military dominance, which led to the systematic atrocities of the following years.

Hitler initiated World War II by directing the German military to launch the invasion of Poland in 1939 when he governed Germany. Hitler used military invasions to carry out his goal of expanding Germany into Europe and sanctioned the targeted elimination of six million Jews, along with millions of other victims, through racial beliefs that became known as the Holocaust.

Hitler’s territorial objectives brought Germany early military victories, but his expansionism became the reason behind Nazi Germany’s ultimate failure in the war. The Allied forces entered German territory as Hitler moved to commit suicide within his Berlin bunker shortly before the final defeat on April 30, 1945.

The birth of Adolf Hitler forever altered the world by unleashing a world of war, genocide, and catastrophe. History cannot forget him as the epitome of evil dictatorship and the source of human suffering. The history of Hitler now teaches society about the harmful effects of hate combined with arbitrary power and dictatorship systems.