There will never be an adequate explanation...the closer one gets to explicability the more one realizes nothing can make Hitler explicable

When Hitler was eighteen he received an inheritance from his fathers will. With the money he moved to Vienna and there he planned on becoming an art student. The Vienna Academy of Art rejected ADolf, and his dreams were completely shattered. He stayed in Vienna, lying to his mother about what had happened. In 1907, Klara, his mother died from cancer. Her death affected him much more than his fathers.

        The outbreak of the First World War provided him with an opportunity for a fresh start. It was a chance for him to become involved in proving that Germany was superior to other European countries. Though rejecting the idea of fighting for Austria, Hitler volunteered for the German Army. Hitler liked the excitement of war. His fellow soldiers described his as “odd” and “peculiar”.  Sometimes he would just jump up and into a speech, exclaiming that Jews and Marxists were undermining the war effort.  Adolf did not mind risking his life and impressed his commanding officers for volunteering for dangerous missions. Hitler won five medals including the prestigious Iron Cross during the First World War.  

Hitler was recruited as a political officer, and his new job was to lecture soldiers on politics. 

Hitler saw socialism as a Jewish conspiracy. Many of the socialist leaders in Germany were Jews. It was so coincidence that Jews had joined the socialist and communist parties in Europe. Jews had been persecuted

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for many centuries and therefore were attracted to a movement that proclaimed all men and women deserved to be treated as equals. In 1919, Hitler joined the German workers party. As a gifted and inspiring public speaker, he is soon placed in charge of the party’s propaganda. In 1920, under Hitler’s direction, the party adopts the swastika as its emblem and changes its name to the National Socialist (Nazi) Party.  The climate has changed; Germany was defeated and disillusioned country. At Versailles, Germany was forced to sign a treaty that gave away 13% of her territory. This meant the loss of 6 million people. Under the terms of Versailles, Germany had to pay for damages caused by way. These reparations amounted to 38% of her national wealth. Hitler was no longer isolated. The German soldiers who attended his lectures shared his sense of failure. He told them that Germany had not been beaten on the battlefield but had been betrayed by Jews and Marxists. The German army also began to use Hitler as a spy.

Hitler became the leader of the Nazi party in 1921. The German government defaults on its reparation payments. In mid 1921, the US $1 is worth about 40 marks. By July 1923 its 160,000 marks to every US $1. By august its ten million marks for $1. By November its 4.2 trillion marks for $1. Almost overnight Germans have lost their entire life savings and social unrest begins to escalate. Hitler exploits the situation, blaming Jews and

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promising him and the Nazi party had the key to bringing Germany back. The Nazi party begins to grow over the next few years, and Hitler is appointed chancellor of Germany.  In 1935, Nazis introduce a new army, called Wehrmacht. Soon after, Hitler signs a peace treaty with Japan and Italy and they agree to fight the spread of communism.  

In 1939, Hitler declared in the Reichstag that a new world war will lead to the destruction of the Jewish race in Europe. World War Two is underway, and in 1941 the United States entered the war when Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The Nazis complete the planning for the Endoslung(final solution), the extermination of jews, gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals, communists, and other “undesirables” in death camps run by the SS and Gestapo.

About six million European Jews die in the holocaust. 4.5 million Of those killed come from Poland and the Soviet Union. About 125,000 are German Jews. The holocaust also claims about 500,000 gypsies, 25,000 homosexuals, 2,000 Jehovah’s witnesses, 3.5 million non Jewish poles, 6 million other Slavic citizens, and up to 1.5 million political descendants.

        The war turned against Germany in the winter of 1942, and Germany surrenders February 1943. Hitler blamed the catastrophe and imminent defeat on almost everyone but himself and remained convinced of the correctness of National Socialist ideas.  At the end of 1943, Hitler’s

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personality comes under scrutiny in a profile written by Dr Henry Murray of the Harvard Psychological Clinic. Titled, “analysis of the personality of Adolf Hitler”, the profile states: “there is little disagreement among professional psychologists that Hitler’s personality is an example of a counteractive type, a type that is marked by intense and stubborn efforts to overcome early disabilities, weaknesses, and humiliations. As soon as the time comes when repeated offensive actions end in failure, Hitler will lose faith in himself and in his destiny, and become the helpless victim of his repressed conscious, with suicide or mental breakdown as the most likely outcome.”

Just as expected by many, Hitler commits suicide by shooting himself I the head on April 30, 1945, two days after marrying his mistress, Eva Braun. She also commits suicide by taking poison. His body is burned according to his written instructions.

        Hitler suffered from neurosis, paranoia, Oedipal tendencies, and schizophrenia, Dr. Murray concluded.  Hitler had no tolerance for criticism, and an excessive demand for attention and a tendency to belittle, bully, or blame other and seek revenge, the analysis also said. However, his personality showed persistence in the face of defeat, along with strong self will and self trust.

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Some psychologists say Hitler was not mentally ill, but paranoid. He definitely had a narcissistic personality which historians and psychologists say functioned on a borderline personality level. Hitler didn’t evolve from a disturbed childhood, so many wonder what triggered most of his actions. Hitler’s childhood is still interesting to many historians, not only because he was a major historical figure, but because it has failed  Without Hitler, National Socialism would have never came to power since the movement did have an almost autonomous existence, dependent both on previous German tradition and on many local leaders other than Hitler. The more one learns about Hitler, the harder this man is to explain.