How did Adolf Hitler rise from an aimless drifter and failed artist to become the most destructive politician of the 20th century? Professor Jeremy Noakes examines a remarkable transformation The drifter
Before embarking on a
political career in September 1919 at the age of thirty, Adolf Hitler had been a nonentity. With no formal qualifications, he had become an aimless drifter and failed artist before joining the army on the outbreak of
war in August 1914. There he was not considered worthy of promotion because of ''a lack of leadership qualities'', although his award of the Iron Cross First Class showed that he did not lack courage.
Yet during the next 26 years he succeeded in gaining and exercising supreme power in Germany and, in the process, arguably had more impact on the history of the
world in the 20th century than any other political figure. The explanation for this remarkable transformation lies partly in Hitler himself, in his particular personal
qualities and gifts, and partly in the situation in which he found himself, with a nation in deep crisis.
Hitler''s political career began in Munich when he joined the German Workers'' Party (DAP), a tiny group of extreme nationalists and anti-Semites who saw their role as trying to win over German
Workers from the internationalist Social Democratic Party and, in the aftermath of defeat and revolution, to persuade people that Jews were primarily responsible for Germany''s plight.
In July 1921, he took over the leadership of the party, by then renamed the National Socialist German Workers'' Party (NSDAP), and, less than 12 years later, it had become the largest party in Germany and Hitler was Reich Chancellor. Why then did Hitler choose to join the NSDAP and effectively adopt politics as a career, and what personal qualities, abilities and political opinions did he bring with him from his previous life, which may help to explain his choice and his subsequent career?
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