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N0KFQ > TODAY 29.07.11 18:08l 65 Lines 3273 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Jul 29
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Sent: 110729/1539Z 10414@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.0.4
Jul 29, 1921:
On this day in 1921, Adolf Hitler (1934-1945) becomes the leader
of the National Socialist German Workers' (Nazi) Party. Under
Hitler, the Nazi Party grew into a mass movement and ruled
Germany as a totalitarian state from 1933 to 1945.
Hitler's early years did not seem to predict his rise as a
political leader. Born on April 20, 1889, in Braunau am Inn,
Austria, he was a poor student and never graduated from high
school. During World War I (1914-1918), he joined a Bavarian
regiment of the German army and was considered a brave soldier;
however, his commanders felt he lacked leadership potential and
never promoted him beyond corporal. Frustrated by Germany's
defeat in World War I, which left the nation economically
depressed and politically unstable, Hitler joined a fledgling
organization called the German Workers' Party in 1919. Founded
earlier that same year by a small group of men including
locksmith Anton Drexler (1884-1942) and journalist Karl Harrer
(1890-1926), the party promoted German pride and anti-Semitism,
and expressed dissatisfaction with the terms of the Treaty of
Versailles, the peace settlement that ended the war and required
Germany to make numerous concessions and reparations. Hitler soon
emerged as the party's most charismatic public speaker and
attracted new members with speeches blaming Jews and Marxists for
Germany's problems and espousing extreme nationalism and the
concept of an Aryan "master race." On July 29, 1921, Hitler
assumed leadership of the organization, which by then had been
renamed the Nationalist Socialist German Workers' Party.
In 1923, Hitler and his followers staged the Beer Hall Putsch in
Munich, a failed takeover of the government in Bavaria, a state
in southern Germany. In the aftermath of this event, Hitler was
convicted of treason and sentenced to five years in prison, but
spent less than a year behind bars (during which time he dictated
the first volume of "Mein Kampf," or "My Struggle," his political
autobiography.) The publicity surrounding the Beer Hall Putsch
and Hitler's subsequent trial turned him into a national figure.
After his release from jail, he set about rebuilding the Nazi
Party and attempting to gain power through the democratic
election process. In 1929, Germany entered a severe economic
depression that left millions of people unemployed. The Nazis
capitalized on this situation by criticizing the ruling
government and began to win elections. In the July 1932
elections, they captured 230 out of 608 seats in the Reichstag,
or German parliament. In January 1933, Hitler was appointed
German chancellor and in March of that year his Nazi government
assumed dictatorial powers. The Nazis soon came to control every
aspect of German life and all other political parties were
banned.
Following Germany's defeat in World War II (1939-1945), during
which some 6 million European Jews were murdered under Hitler's
state-sponsored extermination programs, the Nazi Party was
outlawed and many of its top officials were convicted of war
crimes. Hitler had committed suicide on April 30, 1945, shortly
before Germany`s surrender.
73, K.O. n0kfq
Another old retired guy
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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