Adolf Hitler 1889 - 1945 German Politician

Hitler was the leader of the National Socialist German Worker's Party (Nazi) and the Fuhrer of the Third Reich. Historically he may be called the most destructive man of the 20th century and his reckless war policy contributed greatly to the decline of Europe as the center of world affairs. In 1933, in the midst of the depression, Hitler's Nazi party won the most seats in the Reichstag (parliament). Shortly after the election the Nazis set the Reichstag building afire and blamed it on the communists. The communists were expelled from parliament, and the remaining deputies granted Hitler dictatorial powers. Hitler immediately eliminated his political opponents and began rearmament. Hitler had long argued that the future of the German race could only be assured by colonizing large territories in the East and settling them with Germans. The expansion of German territory began in 1938 when Hitler's army marched first into Austria, and then into Czechoslovakia. The invasion of Poland in 1939 triggered the second World War, a war that lasted for almost five years and cost the lives of nearly fifty million people.