biography in germany

Deutsche Biographie

Certified information on more than 1.000.000 personalities and families in the German speaking areas from the Middle Ages to the present; namely 50.000 biographies (ADB, NDB and NDB-online) and links to more than 250 online ressources (literature, dictionaries, source editions etc.)

60th anniversary of the death of Gerhard Domagk

Gerhard Domagk (1895–1964) , who died 60 years ago, recognized the antibacterial effect of sulfonamides in the early 1930s, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology in 1939. This year, the pathologist is being honored at his places of work in Münster and Wuppertal and a biography written by medical historian Prof. Dr. Hans-Georg Hofer is now being published by NDB-online.

90th birthday / 40th anniversary of the death of Uwe Johnson

February 23/24, 2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the death of writer Uwe Johnson (1934–1984) ; Johnson would have turned 90 on July 20 of this year. Johnson is regarded as a literary chronicler of 20th century German history. His novels "Mutmassungen über Jakob" and "Jahrestage" are part of the canon of modern literature.

100th birthday of Rainer Barzel

June 20, 2024 is the 100th birthday of Rainer Barzel (1924–2006) , influential CDU federal politician in the 1960s, 1964-1973 Chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group and 1971-1973 Federal Chairman of the CDU. He failed as a candidate for Chancellor in 1972 and was President of the Bundestag in 1983/84.

70th anniversary of the death of Gertrud Bäumer

Gertrud Bäumer (1873–1954) , one of the most important representatives of the German women’s movement during the Wilhelmine Empire and the Weimar Republic, died 70 years ago. After the First World War, Bäumer also left her mark on German liberalism as deputy chairwoman of the German Democratic Party.

150th birthday of Arthur Schönberg

The Jewish engineer Arthur Schönberg (1874–1943) was the most important collaborator of Oskar von Miller (1855–1934), with whom he planned the Walchensee power plant, designed a Germany-wide electricity supply and assisted in the founding and implementation of the Deutsches Museum in Munich. Harassed early on by the National Socialists, he died in the Theresienstadt ghetto.

Discover the new articles from the digital continuation of the Neue Deutsche Biographie

Advanced Search

Detailed search options offered for the complete dataset and especially for the full-text of the two biographical dictionaries NDB-online, NDB and ADB.

• 1775   Illiger, Karl
• 1812   Schwarz, Karl
• 1413   Friedrich II.
• 1828   Schubert, Franz
• 1899   Birch-Hirschfeld, Felix
• 1896   Stolberg-Wernigerode, Otto Fürst zu (seit 1890)

Find persons by place of birth, of activity, of death or of interment.

Geographical Distribution

Explore the distribution of persons by region.

Browse the alphabetical list of NDB-online, NDB- and ADB-articles.

Max Mueller's 200 th Birth Anniversary

Max Mueller Bicentennial

Biographical portal was extended by personalities of bavarian and european history of music.

The European Biographical Portal enables access to more than 200,000 scholarly biographies of persons from all social backgrounds and covers most of the periods from German, Austrian, Swiss, Slovenian, and South-East European history.

The portal now also includes about 29,000 contributions from the " Bayerisches Musiker-Lexikon Online " ( BMLO Bavarian Dictionary on Musicians Online), which is supervised by the Institute of Musicology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München , Prof. Dr. Hartmut Schick , LMU Center for Digital Humanities , Dr. Gerhard Schön , and Musikinstrumentenmuseum at Universität Leipzig , Prof. Dr. Josef Focht . 

Biographical Portal: http://www.biographie-portal.eu

Music in Switzerland in the past and present: The Dictionary of Music in Switzerland for the 21st century

The event has two parts: a scientific conference (23-24 November 2023) and a workshop (25 November 2023). The entire event is an initiative of the Dictionary of Music in Switzerland (DMS) , a board of trustees of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAGW) .

University of Bern

Please send an email to Caiti Hauck : [email protected]

Conference program (PDF, 269KB)

Conference booklet (PDF, 519KB)

La Gazette Musicale 22 avril 2023

GND-Explorer a new tool for presenting and searching the Integrated German authority file | Gemeinsame Normdatei (GND)

Ágoston Zénó Bernád , Christine Gruber and Maximilian Kaiser (Edd.)

Aspekte, Bausteine, Normen und Standards für eine europäische Biographik. 

Unter Mitarbeit von Matthias Schloegl und Katalin Lejtovicz

BD-2017 Biographical Data in a Digital World 2017

Linz, austria, november 6-7, 2017 ., antske fokkens ,  serge ter braake , ronald sluijter, paul arthur, eveline wandl-vogt.

Begrüßung und Einführung von Prof. Dr. Susanne S. Renner ( Lehrstuhl für Systematische Botanik und Mykologie der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Direktorin des Botanischen Gartens München-Nymphenburg und der Botanischen Staatssammlung München )

Grußwort von Generalkonsul José Mauro da Fonseca Costa Couto (Generalkonsulat von Brasilien in München)

Vortrag von  Dr. Markus Wesche (ehem. Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften , Deutsche Geschichtsquellen ):

Alle Bücher im Gepäck? Martius' Vorbereitungen der Brasilienreise

Filmpremiere für München: Dokumentarfilm 

Das Siebengestirn

von Angelika Weber M.A. (Omnis Terra Media GmbH)

Vortrag von Prof. Dr. Jürke Grau (Vorsitzender der Gesellschaft der Freunde des Botanischen Gartens München e.V. )

Vom Amazonas zurück an die Isar - Martius in München  Beginn: 19:00 Uhr Ort: Großer Hörsaal im Erdgeschoss des Botanischen Instituts, Menzinger Straße 67, 80638 München

Deutsche Biographie records over one million visitors for the first time in 2016

In 2010, the Deutsche Biographie has been made available to the German-speaking world as a historical-biographical information system, enabling scholars to conduct scientific research. Offering certified facts, the data system contains at its core approximately 49,000 articles as published in the encyclopaedias " Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie " ( ADB; General German Biography ) and " Neue Deutsche Biographie " ( NDB; New German Biography ; volumes 1 to 25 , A to Tecklenborg ). The current state of expansion, financed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ( DFG; German Research Foundation ) from 2014 till 2016, provides valid information on more than 730,000 individuals.

By using authority data (Normdaten), it is now possible to access numerous more sources such as encyclopaedias, scientific sources, literature, objects/ oeuvres, and portraits directly on the Internet. Already available in the past, the numerous visual representations of sources have been massively extended. The project's organizers thus react to the current rapid increase of network analysis. In addition, the geographical functions necessary when doing map work have also been expanded (subjects such as places of birth or death, geographic data relating to individuals' activities, and burial sites can be selected and combined freely).

The project's high attractiveness is illustrated by continuously rising user numbers, with "unique visitors" having exceeded the mark of 1 million for the first time during a year in September 2016.

The current state of the project allows for further development of the Deutsche Biographie, eventually turning it into a scientific lab. The final goal is to provide future scholars with data samples from the Deutsche Biographie, enabling them to pursue their projects on an individual as well as collaborative basis. The scientific lab is currently subject of a new application for third party funds.

Deutsche Biographie:

https://www.deutsche-biographie.de

Cooperation with

Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (German National Library)

Bundesarchiv (Federal Archives)

Germanisches Nationalmuseum

Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach

Deutsches Museum München

Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv Deutsches Dokumentationszentrum für Kunstgeschichte - Bildarchiv Foto Marburg .

Deutsches Filminstitut     -   ( filmportal.de )   Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz   -   ( Kalliope ) Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities)   -   ( Jahresberichte für deutsche Geschichte ) - ( Alexander von Humboldt auf Reisen ) Sächsische Landesbibliothek - Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden (Saxon State and University Library Dresden)   -   ( Deutsche Fotothek ) - ( Digitale Sammlungen, Digital Collections ) Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg ( Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Baden-Württemberg LEO-BW, Regional Information System for Baden-Wuerttemberg ) - ( Archivportal-D ) Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur Mainz    -  ( Regesta Imperii ) - ( Forschungsstelle für Personalschriften) - ( Controversia et Confessio ) Zentrum für Historische Friedensforschung an der Universität Bonn    -   ( Acta Pacis Westphalicae digital )  Akademie der bildenden Künste München    -   ( Matrikelbücher )

Landesbibliothekszentrum Rheinland-Pfalz / Rheinische Landesbibliothek    -   ( Rheinland-Pfälzische Personendatenbank / Rhineland-Palatinate Persons Database )

Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe / LWL-Institut für westfälische Regionalgeschichte   -   ( Westfälische Geschichte / History of Westphalia )

Institut für Sächsische Geschichte und Volkskunde    -   ( Sächsische Biografie / Saxonian Biography )

Deutsche Biographie

Conference to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publication of volume one of the Australian Dictionary of Biography   True Biographies of Nations? Exploring the Cultural Journeys of Dictionaries of National Biography National Centre of Biography Australian National University College of Arts & Social Sciences Canberra, 30 June - 2 July 2016 Program

Bavarian State Library

The munich digitization center, friedrich  rückert, paul julius baron de reuter.

National Biographies Jinan, CISH, 23.-29. August 2015

Europa baut auf Biographien Wien, ÖAW, 6.-8. Oktober 2015

Wikimedia - Dynamic links to external resources

Europa baut auf Biographien Aspekte, Bausteine, Normen und Standards für eine europäische Biographik Conference at Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften ( Institut für Neuzeit- und Zeitgeschichtsforschung / Forschungsbereich Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon , Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities , Institut für Stadt- und Regionalforschung ) with Österreichische Nationalbibliothek , Bayerische Staatsbibliothek , Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz and Neue Deutsche Biographie . Österreichische Nationalbibliothek ( Hofburg , Oratorium), Wien 1 6. - 8. Oktober 2015

Johanna Rachinger | Generaldirektorin der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek Brigitte Mazohl | Präsidentin der phil.-hist. Klasse der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissen­schaften

Michael Gehler | Direktor des Instituts für Neuzeit- und Zeitgeschichtsforschung: Europa, Europäisierung, Europäistik, europäische Integration und die Folgen für die Biographie­forschung

Paul Arthur | Sydney: Integrating biographical data in large-scale research resources: Current and future directions Piek Vossen | Amsterdam: Modelling provenance and perspectives in biographical data

Block 1: Biographie gestern und heute Chair: Ernst Bruckmüller | Wien

Hans-Christof Kraus | Passau/München: Die Anfänge der lexikalisch-biographischen For­schung bei Herbert Schöffler Nora Mengel | München: ' In meinem Werk ist Oesterreich' - zum Werkverständnis des Biographen Constant von Wurzbach

Marc v. Knorring | Passau: Biographie und Vergangenheitsdeutung. Deutsche Wissenschaft­ler und Künstler nach 1918 und ihr Blick auf die Vorkriegszeit Lars Jendral | Koblenz: Die Rheinland-Pfälzische Personendatenbank: biographische Informa­tionen einer Regionalbibliographie Marcus Weidner | Münster: Regionale Biographien im Zeitalter des Internet

  Block 2: Bausteine zu einer europäischen Biographik Chair: Michael Gehler | Hildesheim

Marcello Verga | Florenz: From National Biographical Dictionaries to a Biographical Dictionary of Europeans: Topics for Discussion Frank Metasch | Dresden: Lokal – regional – national – europäisch: Wie verknüpft die euro­päische Biographik die Lebensebenen der Europäer? Stefan Majewski | Wien: Massendigitalisierung als Basis geistes- und kulturwissenschaftlicher Forschung

Ulrich Lantermann | Wettingen: Wikipedia – eine Ergänzung der Biographien-Landschaft Hubert Bergmann | Wien: Ein sprachübergreifendes biographisches Lexikon als anthropony­mische Herausforderung Thierry Declerck | Saarbrücken: Semantische Repräsentation von biographischen Datensätzen und deren Verlinkung im Rahmen des Linked (Open) Data Frameworks

Block 3: Normen und Standards für eine europäische Biographik Chair: Malte Rehbein | Passau

Thomas Busch | München: Anforderungen an Normdatenbestände im Kontext der Europäisie­rung biographischer Angebote im Internet Marten Düring | Sanem: „Historische Netzwerkanalyse“ als Methodik Christine Gruber – Eveline Wandl-Vogt | Wien: „APIS“  – Digitale biographische Blütenlese

Bernhard Ebneth, Matthias Reinert | München: Potentiale der Deutschen Biographie ( www.deutsche-biographie.de ) als historisch-biographisches Informationssystem André Blessing – Jonas Kuhn | Stuttgart: Die Exploration größerer biographischer Textsammlungen mit computerlinguistischen Methoden Elian Carsenat | Paris: Exploring the onomastics of the Austrian Biographical Dictionary (ÖBL)

Marco Jorio | Bern: Transnationale und transkulturelle Biographien in den deutschsprachigen Nationalbiographien (ÖBL, NDB, HLS, HLFL) Robert Luft | München: Nationale und regionale Biographien in Europa oder europäische Per­sönlichkeiten? Zu Auswahlkriterien und Darstellungen nationaler, transnationaler und regio­naler Lexika

Frank Lothar Kroll | Chemnitz: Europäische Herrscherbiographie – Wege zu einer neuen Dy­nastiegeschichte in komparatistischer Perspektive Franz Adlgasser | Wien: Der österreichische Reichsrat als mitteleuropäisches Kaleidoskop

Block 4: Fortsetzung Chair: Hans-Christof Kraus | Passau/München

Volkhard Huth | Bensheim/Darmstadt – Dario Kampkaspar | Wolfenbüttel Biographische Erkenntnischancen und Netzwerkstrukturen Daniela Angetter | Wien: Wege des sozialen Aufstiegs – Eliten im 19. Jahrhundert Irene Nawrocka | Wien: Österreichische ExilantInnen in Schweden Helmut Pfanner | Lochau: Biographik der Emigration und des Exils im 20. Jahrhundert

c/o Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften

Alfons-Goppel-Str. 11 ( Residenz )

D - 80539 München

Tel.: ++49-89-23031-1152

Fax: ++49-89-23031-1282

Comité International des Sciences Historiques (CISH) International Commitee of Historical Sciences (ICHS) CISH’s XXIInd CONGRESS XXIIème Congrès du CISH JINAN (23-29 August /23-29 août 2015)

Thème spécialisé 7  /  Specialised theme 7 National Biographies Organizer: Marcello VERGA ( Università degli Studi di Firenze ) With the support of the Italian National Committee Discussant: Stefan BERGER ( Ruhr-Universität Bochum ) Jaime Olmedo RAMOS (Director Técnico of the Diccionario Biográfico Español in the Real Academia de la Historia ): ¿Qué cosa no es un diccionario biográfico? Errores y desenfoques en su recepción Mikel URQUIJO GOITIA and Joseba AGIRREAZKUENAGA ZIGORRAGA ( Universidad del País Vasco ): Why and how national biography in the XXI Century? Marco JORIO (Chief director of the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland ): From National Biography to Transnational Biography Portal Fulvio CONTI ( Università degli Studi di Firenze ) : Un popolo di poeti, di artisti, di eroi…”. Men and women in the Italian Dictionary of Biography   Marja JALAVA ( University of Helsinki ):  Reparation of Historical Injustices or Forced Integration? – The Role of Minorities in the National Biography of Finland Vol. II C. W. (Mineke) BOSCH ( University of Groningen ): Writing the national biographical dictionaries: a gender perspective cf. Biographie-Portal / Biographical Portal   -  Neue Deutsche Biographie

Información histórico-biográfica en línea, Creado y administrado por Bernhard Ebneth Diccionarios nacionales e internacionales en medios electrónicos

Historisch-biographische Informationsmittel, Erstellt und bearbeitet von Bernhard Ebneth Nationale und internationale biographische Lexika in elektronischen Medien

Mapping historical networks: Building the new Austrian Prosopographical/Biographical Information System (APIS)

Instituto Cervantes Munich , Alfons-Goppel-Str. 7

Matej Ďurčo ( Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities - OEAW ) Christine Gruber ( Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon - INZ - OEAW )

2015, July 16 th

APIS is a joint project of Vorgestellt wird das Projekt von:

Kurzbeschreibung: Es sollen spezifische Abfragemöglichkeiten und Analysewerkzeuge entwickelt, Suchergebnisse visualisierbar und Personennetzwerke, Bewegungsprofile usw. abbildbar werden. Zentrale Forschungsfragen, die das Institut für Stadt- und Regionalforschung einbringt, betreffen die geographische Rekonstruktion der Wanderungsmuster, die demographische Analyse der Elitenwanderer und die Perspektivenwechsel von einer Mikro- auf eine Makroebene. Das Österreichische Biographische Lexikon wird damit zu einem digitalen Werkzeug der historischen Elitenforschung ausgebaut.

Marcello Verga, The National Biography Dictionaries. The International Success (and the critical issues) of a model of writing national History (XIX-XXI century) , Proposal for XXII nd CISH Congress, in Jinan, China 23 to 29 August 2015 Marcello Verga , The Dictionary Is Dead, Long Live the Dictionary! Biographical Collections in National Contexts, in:   Setting the Standards. Institutions, Networks and Communities of National Historiography , ed. by Ilaria Porciani and Jo Tollebeek , Writing the NationWriting Series. National Histographies and the Making of Nation States in the 19th and 20th Century Europe , Basingstoke 2012 , po. 89-104 ISBN 978-0-230-5000051 Marcello Verga , l Dizionario è morto. Viva i dizionari! Note per uan storia dei dizionari biografici nazionali in Europa, in: Storica, vol. 40, 2008, pp. 7-32 ISSN 1973-2236

Call for papers

" Deutsche Biographie ", the historical and biographical information system for the German-speaking world, is online now with extended features. It includes digital full texts of more than 48,000 historical and biographical articles of the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB, 1875-1912) and the Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB, since 1953). It includes various information from other biographical dictionaries as well as different online resources such as works and portraits. " Deutsche Biographie " is r ealized in cooperation with Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and supported by Deutsche Nationalbibliothek , Bundesarchiv , Germanisches Nationalmuseum , Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach , Deutsches Museum München , Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv , and Deutsches Dokumentationszentrum für Kunstgeschichte - Bildarchiv Foto Marburg .

Joachim Whaley, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, vol. I, Oxford 2012, p. XIV:

"The Internet has made a wealth of biographical information accessible. The standard German ( Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie and Neue Deutsche Biographie ), Austrian ( Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon ), and Swiss ( Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz ) biographical dictionaries are searchable via the ' biography portal ' at http://www.biographie-portal.eu/about (accessed 4 May 2011)."

"The "Biographie-Portal" or “Biographical Portal” is a cooperative project of the Bavarian State Library, the Historical Committee at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and the Foundation Historical Dictionary of Switzerland. As such, it would qualify as a Pan-European project, but the focus is decidedly on German-language biographical resources and it is, therefore, listed here. In sum, the "Biographie-Portal" provides a common search interface to the following well-known resources:

• Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB) [Universal German Biography]
• Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB) [New German Biography]
• Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815-1950 (ÖBL) [Austrian Dictionary of Biography 1815–1950]
• Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (HLS) [Historical Dictionary of Switzerland]

In addition to this unified portal to biographical resources, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek has completed capturing the full text of the Allgemeinen Deutschen Biographie (ADB) / Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Biographic entries on over 46,000 personalities are now searchable in full text through the site.

Comment by International League of Antiquarian Booksellers ( ILAB)

Matthias Reinert : Application of TEI to a biographical dictionary ( www.deutsche-biographie.de ) Matthias Reinert / Thomas Riechert: Mapping metadata of TEI-encoded biographies to CIDOC-CRM

Deutsche Biographie becomes part of the LOD cloud

Workshop: Berlin - Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities 27.–29. September 2010

Flyer   /   Deutsche Biographie: Abstract   /  Poster

From Reference Work to Information System

Vom Nachschlagewerk zum Informationssystem

Wissenschaftliche Qualitätssicherung und Funktionalitätserweiterung

Welcome to the web-site of the Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB / New German Biography)

The full text of all articles in the first 23 volumes , covering names from "Aachen" to "Schwarz" are also freely available on-line.

The NDB is a biographical dictionary published in German language by the Historical Committee at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities and printed by Duncker & Humblot in Berlin. The NDB is the successor to the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). The currently most recent volume is the 24 th , covering names from "Schwarz" to "Stader" was published in february 2010. Since 1953 more than 21,000 biographies of families and deceased persons who have had a significant impact on developments in scholarship, arts, technology, medicine, economics, politics or social life have been published. Only persons and families with a close relation to the German language area are recorded. Each individual article is signed by its author.

All NDB articles usually contain biographical, genealogical and bibliographical information such as date and place of birth, date and place of death, parents, marriages, divorces, number of children, alternate and birth names, academic degrees, a curriculum vitae in whole sentences, a valuation of the subject's political, economic, social, scientific, technical or artistic achievements, sources and a bibliography. An index cataloguing all articles is freely available on-line.  

References:

Sarah WENZEL , Europe in Bits & Bytes , in: Western European Studies Section (WESS) , Newsletter , ed. by Western European Studies Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) , a divison of the American Library Association (ALA) , Spring 2002, Vol. 25, no. 2 , German Resources .

Sebastian HIERL, Europe in Bits & Bytes , in: Western European Studies Section (WESS) , Newsletter , ed. by Western European Studies Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) , a divison of the American Library Association (ALA) , Spring 2003, Vol. 26, no. 2 , German Resources .

Sebastian HIERL, Europe in Bits & Bytes , in: Western European Studies Section (WESS) , Newsletter , ed. by Western European Studies Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) , a divison of the American Library Association (ALA) , Spring 2010, Vol. 33, no. 2 , German Resources .   

Neue Deutsche Biographie - What's new, Version Juny 2021: http://www.ndb.badw.de/index_e.htm

(1) Aims of the NDB

(2) Secondary Literature

(3) Notes of Guidance for Authors

(4) Available Volumes

(5) Subject Areas

(7) Indexes

(8) Authors

(9) Further Biographical Dictionaries

(10) Example of Biographical Articel

(11) Selected List of Biographical Collected Editions 1992 - 1997

(12) Further Links

(13) Further Digital Biographical Information

Return to NDB

Return to Historical Commission

Return to Academy  

Site created:  2002 , December 24 th Site last updated:  2024 , January 25 th

Copyright © 1998-2024  Dr.  Bernhard Ebneth, Neue Deutsche Biographie, Historische Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften

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Adolf Hitler

By: History.com Editors

Updated: April 30, 2024 | Original: October 29, 2009

Adolf Hitler, the leader of Germany’s  Nazi Party , was one of the most powerful and notorious dictators of the 20th century. After serving with the German military in World War I , Hitler capitalized on economic woes, popular discontent and political infighting during the Weimar Republic to rise through the ranks of the Nazi Party.

In a series of ruthless and violent actions—including the Reichstag Fire and the Night of Long Knives—Hitler took absolute power in Germany by 1933. Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939 led to the outbreak of  World War II , and by 1941, Nazi forces had used “blitzkrieg” military tactics to occupy much of Europe. Hitler’s virulent  anti-Semitism  and obsessive pursuit of Aryan supremacy fueled the murder of some 6 million Jews, along with other victims of the  Holocaust . After the tide of war turned against him, Hitler committed suicide in a Berlin bunker in April 1945.

Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, in Braunau am Inn, a small Austrian town near the Austro-German frontier. After his father, Alois, retired as a state customs official, young Adolf spent most of his childhood in Linz, the capital of Upper Austria.

Not wanting to follow in his father’s footsteps as a civil servant, he began struggling in secondary school and eventually dropped out. Alois died in 1903, and Adolf pursued his dream of being an artist, though he was rejected from Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts.

After his mother, Klara, died in 1908, Hitler moved to Vienna, where he pieced together a living painting scenery and monuments and selling the images. Lonely, isolated and a voracious reader, Hitler became interested in politics during his years in Vienna, and developed many of the ideas that would shape Nazi ideology.

Military Career of Adolf Hitler

In 1913, Hitler moved to Munich, in the German state of Bavaria. When World War I broke out the following summer, he successfully petitioned the Bavarian king to be allowed to volunteer in a reserve infantry regiment.

Deployed in October 1914 to Belgium, Hitler served throughout the Great War and won two decorations for bravery, including the rare Iron Cross First Class, which he wore to the end of his life.

Hitler was wounded twice during the conflict: He was hit in the leg during the Battle of the Somme in 1916, and temporarily blinded by a British gas attack near Ypres in 1918. A month later, he was recuperating in a hospital at Pasewalk, northeast of Berlin, when news arrived of the armistice and Germany’s defeat in World War I .

Like many Germans, Hitler came to believe the country’s devastating defeat could be attributed not to the Allies, but to insufficiently patriotic “traitors” at home—a myth that would undermine the post-war Weimar Republic and set the stage for Hitler’s rise.

After Hitler returned to Munich in late 1918, he joined the small German Workers’ Party, which aimed to unite the interests of the working class with a strong German nationalism. His skilled oratory and charismatic energy helped propel him in the party’s ranks, and in 1920 he left the army and took charge of its propaganda efforts.

In one of Hitler’s strokes of propaganda genius, the newly renamed National Socialist German Workers Party, or  Nazi Party , adopted a version of the swastika—an ancient sacred symbol of  Hinduism , Jainism and Buddhism —as its emblem. Printed in a white circle on a red background, Hitler’s swastika would take on terrifying symbolic power in the years to come.

By the end of 1921, Hitler led the growing Nazi Party, capitalizing on widespread discontent with the Weimar Republic and the punishing terms of the Versailles Treaty . Many dissatisfied former army officers in Munich would join the Nazis, notably Ernst Röhm, who recruited the “strong arm” squads—known as the Sturmabteilung (SA)—which Hitler used to protect party meetings and attack opponents.

Beer Hall Putsch 

On the evening of November 8, 1923, members of the SA and others forced their way into a large beer hall where another right-wing leader was addressing the crowd. Wielding a revolver, Hitler proclaimed the beginning of a national revolution and led marchers to the center of Munich, where they got into a gun battle with police.

Hitler fled quickly, but he and other rebel leaders were later arrested. Even though it failed spectacularly, the Beer Hall Putsch established Hitler as a national figure , and (in the eyes of many) a hero of right-wing nationalism.

'Mein Kampf' 

Tried for treason, Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison, but would serve only nine months in the relative comfort of Landsberg Castle. During this period, he began to dictate the book that would become " Mein Kampf " (“My Struggle”), the first volume of which was published in 1925.

In it, Hitler expanded on the nationalistic, anti-Semitic views he had begun to develop in Vienna in his early twenties, and laid out plans for the Germany—and the world—he sought to create when he came to power.

Hitler would finish the second volume of "Mein Kampf" after his release, while relaxing in the mountain village of Berchtesgaden. It sold modestly at first, but with Hitler’s rise it became Germany’s best-selling book after the Bible. By 1940, it had sold some 6 million copies there.

Hitler’s second book, “The Zweites Buch,” was written in 1928 and contained his thoughts on foreign policy. It was not published in his lifetime due to the poor initial sales of “Mein Kampf.” The first English translations of “The Zweites Buch” did not appear until 1962 and was published under the title “Hitler's Secret Book.” 

Obsessed with race and the idea of ethnic “purity,” Hitler saw a natural order that placed the so-called “Aryan race” at the top.

For him, the unity of the Volk (the German people) would find its truest incarnation not in democratic or parliamentary government, but in one supreme leader, or Führer.

" Mein Kampf " also addressed the need for Lebensraum (or living space): In order to fulfill its destiny, Germany should take over lands to the east that were now occupied by “inferior” Slavic peoples—including Austria, the Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia), Poland and Russia.

The Schutzstaffel (SS) 

By the time Hitler left prison, economic recovery had restored some popular support for the Weimar Republic, and support for right-wing causes like Nazism appeared to be waning.

Over the next few years, Hitler laid low and worked on reorganizing and reshaping the Nazi Party. He established the Hitler Youth  to organize youngsters, and created the Schutzstaffel (SS) as a more reliable alternative to the SA.

Members of the SS wore black uniforms and swore a personal oath of loyalty to Hitler. (After 1929, under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler , the SS would develop from a group of some 200 men into a force that would dominate Germany and terrorize the rest of occupied Europe during World War II .)

Hitler spent much of his time at Berchtesgaden during these years, and his half-sister, Angela Raubal, and her two daughters often joined him. After Hitler became infatuated with his beautiful blonde niece, Geli Raubal, his possessive jealousy apparently led her to commit suicide in 1931.

Devastated by the loss, Hitler would consider Geli the only true love affair of his life. He soon began a long relationship with Eva Braun , a shop assistant from Munich, but refused to marry her.

The worldwide Great Depression that began in 1929 again threatened the stability of the Weimar Republic. Determined to achieve political power in order to affect his revolution, Hitler built up Nazi support among German conservatives, including army, business and industrial leaders.

The Third Reich

In 1932, Hitler ran against the war hero Paul von Hindenburg for president, and received 36.8 percent of the vote. With the government in chaos, three successive chancellors failed to maintain control, and in late January 1933 Hindenburg named the 43-year-old Hitler as chancellor, capping the stunning rise of an unlikely leader.

January 30, 1933 marked the birth of the Third Reich, or as the Nazis called it, the “Thousand-Year Reich” (after Hitler’s boast that it would endure for a millennium).

HISTORY Vault: Third Reich: The Rise

Rare and never-before-seen amateur films offer a unique perspective on the rise of Nazi Germany from Germans who experienced it. How were millions of people so vulnerable to fascism?

Reichstag Fire 

Though the Nazis never attained more than 37 percent of the vote at the height of their popularity in 1932, Hitler was able to grab absolute power in Germany largely due to divisions and inaction among the majority who opposed Nazism.

After a devastating fire at Germany’s parliament building, the Reichstag, in February 1933—possibly the work of a Dutch communist, though later evidence suggested Nazis set the  Reichstag fire  themselves—Hitler had an excuse to step up the political oppression and violence against his opponents.

On March 23, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, giving full powers to Hitler and celebrating the union of National Socialism with the old German establishment (i.e., Hindenburg ).

That July, the government passed a law stating that the Nazi Party “constitutes the only political party in Germany,” and within months all non-Nazi parties, trade unions and other organizations had ceased to exist.

His autocratic power now secure within Germany, Hitler turned his eyes toward the rest of Europe.

In 1933, Germany was diplomatically isolated, with a weak military and hostile neighbors (France and Poland). In a famous speech in May 1933, Hitler struck a surprisingly conciliatory tone, claiming Germany supported disarmament and peace.

But behind this appeasement strategy, the domination and expansion of the Volk remained Hitler’s overriding aim.

By early the following year, he had withdrawn Germany from the League of Nations and begun to militarize the nation in anticipation of his plans for territorial conquest.

Night of the Long Knives

On June 29, 1934, the infamous Night of the Long Knives , Hitler had Röhm, former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and hundreds of other problematic members of his own party murdered, in particular troublesome members of the SA.

When the 86-year-old Hindenburg died on August 2, military leaders agreed to combine the presidency and chancellorship into one position, meaning Hitler would command all the armed forces of the Reich.

Persecution of Jews

On September 15, 1935, passage of the Nuremberg Laws deprived Jews of German citizenship, and barred them from marrying or having relations with persons of “German or related blood.”

Though the Nazis attempted to downplay its persecution of Jews in order to placate the international community during the 1936 Berlin Olympics (in which German-Jewish athletes were not allowed to compete), additional decrees over the next few years disenfranchised Jews and took away their political and civil rights.

In addition to its pervasive anti-Semitism, Hitler’s government also sought to establish the cultural dominance of Nazism by burning books, forcing newspapers out of business, using radio and movies for propaganda purposes and forcing teachers throughout Germany’s educational system to join the party.

Much of the Nazi persecution of Jews and other targets occurred at the hands of the Geheime Staatspolizei (GESTAPO), or Secret State Police, an arm of the SS that expanded during this period.

Outbreak of World War II

In March 1936, against the advice of his generals, Hitler ordered German troops to reoccupy the demilitarized left bank of the Rhine.

Over the next two years, Germany concluded alliances with Italy and Japan, annexed Austria and moved against Czechoslovakia—all essentially without resistance from Great Britain, France or the rest of the international community.

Once he confirmed the alliance with Italy in the so-called “Pact of Steel” in May 1939, Hitler then signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union . On September 1, 1939, Nazi troops invaded Poland, finally prompting Britain and France to declare war on Germany.

Blitzkrieg 

After ordering the occupation of Norway and Denmark in April 1940, Hitler adopted a plan proposed by one of his generals to attack France through the Ardennes Forest. The blitzkrieg (“lightning war”) attack began on May 10; Holland quickly surrendered, followed by Belgium.

German troops made it all the way to the English Channel, forcing British and French forces to evacuate en masse from Dunkirk in late May. On June 22, France was forced to sign an armistice with Germany.

Hitler had hoped to force Britain to seek peace as well, but when that failed he went ahead with his attacks on that country, followed by an invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor that December, the United States declared war on Japan, and Germany’s alliance with Japan demanded that Hitler declare war on the United States as well.

At that point in the conflict, Hitler shifted his central strategy to focus on breaking the alliance of his main opponents (Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union) by forcing one of them to make peace with him.

Concentration Camps

Beginning in 1933, the SS had operated a network of concentration camps, including a notorious camp at Dachau , near Munich, to hold Jews and other targets of the Nazi regime.

After war broke out, the Nazis shifted from expelling Jews from German-controlled territories to exterminating them. Einsatzgruppen, or mobile death squads, executed entire Jewish communities during the Soviet invasion, while the existing concentration-camp network expanded to include death camps like Auschwitz -Birkenau in occupied Poland.

In addition to forced labor and mass execution, certain Jews at Auschwitz were targeted as the subjects of horrific medical experiments carried out by eugenicist Josef Mengele, known as the “Angel of Death.” Mengele’s experiments focused on twins and exposed 3,000 child prisoners to disease, disfigurement and torture under the guise of medical research.

Though the Nazis also imprisoned and killed Catholics, homosexuals, political dissidents, Roma (gypsies) and the disabled, above all they targeted Jews—some 6 million of whom were killed in German-occupied Europe by war’s end.

End of World War II

With defeats at El-Alamein and Stalingrad , as well as the landing of U.S. troops in North Africa by the end of 1942, the tide of the war turned against Germany.

As the conflict continued, Hitler became increasingly unwell, isolated and dependent on medications administered by his personal physician.

Several attempts were made on his life, including one that came close to succeeding in July 1944, when Col. Claus von Stauffenberg planted a bomb that exploded during a conference at Hitler’s headquarters in East Prussia.

Within a few months of the successful Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944, the Allies had begun liberating cities across Europe. That December, Hitler attempted to direct another offensive through the Ardennes, trying to split British and American forces.

But after January 1945, he holed up in a bunker beneath the Chancellery in Berlin. With Soviet forces closing in, Hitler made plans for a last-ditch resistance before finally abandoning that plan.

How Did Adolf Hitler Die?

At midnight on the night of April 28-29, Hitler married Eva Braun in the Berlin bunker. After dictating his political testament,  Hitler shot himself  in his suite on April 30; Braun took poison. Their bodies were burned according to Hitler’s instructions.

With Soviet troops occupying Berlin, Germany surrendered unconditionally on all fronts on May 7, 1945, bringing the war in Europe to a close.

In the end, Hitler’s planned “Thousand-Year Reich” lasted just over 12 years, but wreaked unfathomable destruction and devastation during that time, forever transforming the history of Germany, Europe and the world.

William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich iWonder – Adolf Hitler: Man and Monster, BBC . The Holocaust : A Learning Site for Students, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum .

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