Adolf Hitler was born on April 20th, 1889 in Austria. As a boy he got in trouble at school for being a bully. His favourite subject was art. He wanted to be an artist. At the age of 15 he moved to Vienna to further his interest in art, but unfortunately he was rejected from an art school run by Jews, making him very angry at them. A few years later when his mother developed cancer, she was treated by a Jewish doctor and then she passed away, confirming his anti-Semitic views. When World War I broke out, Hitler joined the German army. He nearly got killed and survived several gas attacks. Corporal Hitler was awarded an ‘Iron Cross’ for his bravery. Hitler believed that he had a special chance; that he could liberate Germany and make it great. In 1919, Hitler became a German citizen when he settled in Munich.
30 January 1933, Two Chancellors had come and gone in less than a year, but there was only one option left. Hindenburg had no choice but to give the job to the man he did not trust. He summoned Hitler to his chambers and swore him into office. Hindenburg and Papen thought that they would be able to control what Hitler did by having a few Nazi ministers in the government. But they lost control of him within a few days. Hitler persuaded them that there should be yet another election. The night of 27 February 1933, something happened which made sure the Nazis would win the elections. The Reichstag went up in flames. It was the perfect time for propaganda. Hitler, Goebbels and Hermann Goering, chief of police, all hurried to the scene of the fire. Goering began blaring “This is a communist crime against the new government!” Hitler called the fire a "Sign from God", and claimed it was signal meant to mark the beginning of a Communist Putsch. Hitler asked President Hindenburg to make a special law ‘The Law for the Protection of the People and State’. This new law banned communists and socialists from taking part in the election campaign. This was the start of a ‘Brown Terror’ carried out by the SA. They arrested 4000 communists and flung them into prison. Communist newspapers were shut down and their meetings were broken up.
The March 1933 Reichstag elections came. The Nazi Party won 288 seats coming first place by 168 seats, but still over half Germanys voters gave their votes to other parties. They were saved by a smaller party. The Nationalist Party decided to join forces with the Nazis which increased their seats and had more than half the seats in the Reichstag elections. He wanted total power. He put an ‘Enabling Law’ before the Reichstag to ensure he had the power to make laws for the next four years without having to ask the Reichstag for approval.
Hitler now had the legal right to do what he liked with Germany, which was to destroy the Weimar republic and to create a strong, proud German empire – ‘Third Reich’. 14 July, Hitler made a law against the formation of new parties. This meant that the Nazi party was the one and only party allowed to exist in Germany. Anyone who was to set up or run a party would be punished with three years hard labour. This made Germany a ‘One Party State’.

Ernst Roehm, leader of the SA wanted to make them part of the German army. This alarmed Hitler, for it would make Roehm the most