Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler is definitely one of the most important historical figures in Austria. Austrian-born Adolf Hitler was a politician who served as dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death on April 30, 1945. He rose to prominence as the head of the Nazi Party, taking on the titles of chancellor in 1933 and Führer und Reichskanzler in 1934. He invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, starting World War II in Europe during his rule. Throughout the war, he was closely involved in military operations and played a key role in the Holocaust, the mass murder of six million Jews and millions of other people.

In 1919, he joined the German Workers' Party (DAP), the precursor to the Nazi Party, and in 1921, it elected him as its leader. By denouncing the Treaty of Versailles and promoting anti-communism, anti-Semitism, and pan-Germanism through charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda, Hitler won the public's favor after his early release in 1924. He frequently asserted that world capitalism and communism were Jewish conspiracies. Hindenburg passed away on August 2, 1934, and Hitler took over as the nation's leader. In order to combat what he perceived as the unfairness of the post-World War I international system headed by Britain and France, Hitler sought to exterminate Jews from Germany and institute a New Order. The quick economic recovery from the Great Depression, the lifting of Germany's post-World War I constraints, and the annexation of regions inhabited by millions of ethnic Germans during his first six years in power helped Hitler win enormous popular support at first.

Hitler was "one of the major illustrations of the distinctive and unfathomable power of personality in historical existence," according to historian Friedrich Meinecke. Hugh Trevor-Roper, an English historian, described him as "among the most systematic, historical, philosophical, and yet the coarsest, cruelest, and least magnanimous conqueror the world has ever known". According to historian John M. Roberts, Germany's dominance over a period of European history came to an end with Hitler's downfall. Sebastian Haffner, a historian, claims that the contemporary state of Israel would not exist without Hitler and the expulsion of the Jews. He claims that the decolonization of previous European domains of influence would have been delayed without Hitler.