Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 in the Austrian town of Braunau am Inn, on the German border, into a modest but respectable middle-class family. He left school at sixteen with mediocre results, and then unsuccessfully applied to the Vienna Academy of Graphic Arts two years in a row. Frustrated and disappointed, he continued to live as an outsider in Vienna, before fleeing to Munich to avoid being called up for military service in the Austrian army. A year later he would be deemed “too weak” to serve, but regardless, when the First World War broke out, he volunteered for service in the Bavarian army. He would later write in his memoirs about his time as a corporal as one of the happiest of his life. He learned of Germany’s defeat in the war while in a military hospital recovering from a mustard gas attack sustained in combat. Over the following months, he came into contact with the German Workers’ Party in Munich, a extreme right-wing organisation that in 1920 was to become the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), or the Nazi Party. He also attended courses in politics and later instructed several groups of soldiers. He joined the party sometime during 1919.
Hitler wasn’t German and was only granted citizenship in 1932. His physical appearance was underwhelming, but he was a loyal man, he was entertaining, and could debate on far-ranging topics. He was accustomed to speaking in beer halls, rather than on the stage of a rally, and was an effective agitator able to convince and convert the masses. It was also the support he received from powerful groups in Germany, however, that became so crucial to him becoming chancellor and taking control of an entire nation in such a short time.
