hitler's rise to power
Hitler was a soldier in WWI and afterwards returned to Munich. He had no formal education or career prospects, so he tried to remain in the army as long as possible. In July 1919 he was assigned to spy on the German Worker's Party (DAP), the group that would later be known as the Nazis. However, the leader of the DAP interested him and he was soon invited to be a member. He accepted, pleased with the group's antisemitic, nationalist, and anti-capitalist views. Hitler quickly rose up the ranks of the DAP as a result of his charismatic charm. Being the DAP's best speaker, Hitler told the other memebers of the party to make him leader of the party or he would never return. During his years as leader of one of Germany's fastest-growing political parties, Hitler planned a coup d'etat; an illegal seizure of the government. An army was built in May 1923, but the order to march never came. The year 1932 had seen Hitler's quick rise to prominence in Germany, spurred largely by the German people's frustration with the gloomy economic conditions and the cruel peace terms of the Versailles Treaty. He used these situations to his advantage in public speeches by promising to raise a better and stronger Fatherland from the depths of the Great Depression.
Sure enough, Hitler kept his word. Despite the communist party's attempts to prevent him, he was appointed Chancellor of Germany on January 30th, 1933. Within only a few years he was able to rid Germany of the Great Depression entirely and bring the economy back thriving. The Nazi Party's popularity only continued to soar in the following years until they controlled all of the German government. A law was created allowing Hitler to legally rule all of Germany as a dictator; the Fuehrer of the Nazi Empire. He would rule his country with an iron fist for twelve years, committing suicide on April 30th, 1945.