On November 8, 1923, Hitler and the SA stormed a public meeting featuring Bavarian prime minister Gustav Kahr at a large beer hall in Munich.
Early followers included army captain Ernst Rohm, the head of the Nazi paramilitary organization the Sturmabteilung (SA), which protected meetings and frequently attacked political opponents. Hitler's fervid beer-hall speeches began attracting regular audiences. In 1921, Hitler replaced Drexler as the Nazi party chairman. He soon gained notoriety for his vitriolic speeches against the Treaty of Versailles, rival politicians, Marxists and Jews. Hitler personally designed the Nazi party banner, appropriating the swastika symbol and placing it in a white circle on a red background. In September 1919, Hitler joined the DAP, which changed its name to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) - often abbreviated to Nazi. As an intelligence officer, he monitored the activities of the German Workers’ Party (DAP) and adopted many of the anti-Semitic, nationalist and anti-Marxist ideas of party founder Anton Drexler.
In my view, it's a decayed country.” “Germany will either be a world power or will not be at all.” “I go the way that Providence dictates with the assurance of a sleepwalker.” “If you want to shine like sun first you have to burn like it.”Īfter World War I, Hitler returned to Munich and continued to work for the German military. journalists.“Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of eternal struggle do not deserve to live.” “We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was 'legal.'” (Martin Luther King Jr.)” “It is not truth that matters, but victory.” “History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing.” “Any alliance whose purpose is not the intention to wage war is senseless and useless.” “All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.” “We will meet propaganda with propaganda, terror with terror, and violence with violence.” “By shrewd and constant application of propaganda, heaven can be presented to the people as hell and, vice versa, the wretchedest existence as a paradise.” “And what nonsense it is to aspire to a Heaven to which, according to the Church's own teaching, only those have entry who have made a complete failure of life on earth!” “But there's one thing I can predict to eaters of meat, that the world of the future will be vegetarian!” “Strength lies not in defense but in attack.” “I don't see much future for the Americans. The Spotlight Stories in this collection aim to provide you with a quick read on a single subject, highlighting our readers’ most popular stories and featuring great reporting from our Time Inc. is one of the world’s most influential media companies – home to 90 iconic brands like People, Sports Illustrated, Time, InStyle, Real Simple, Food & Wine, and Fortune. This is a reproduction of a story that appeared in the Januissue of TIME magazine. This story is part of the TIME Person of the Year Collection from Time Inc.
When without loss of blood he reduced Czechoslovakia to a German puppet state, forced a drastic revision of Europe's defensive alliances, and won a free hand for himself in Eastern Europe by getting a "hands-off" promise from powerful Britain (and later France), Adolf Hitler without doubt became 1938's Man of the Year. He had stolen Austria before the eyes of a horrified and apparently impotent world.Īll these events were shocking to nations which had defeated Germany on the battlefield only 20 years before, but nothing so terrified the world as the ruthless, methodical, Nazi-directed events which during late summer and early autumn threatened a world war over Czechoslovakia.
He had rearmed Germany to the teeth- or as close to the teeth as he was able. He had torn the Treaty of Versailles to shreds. Führer of the German people, Commander-in-Chief of the German Army, Navy & Air Force, Chancellor of the Third Reich, Herr Hitler has reaped the harvest of an audacious, defiant, ruthless foreign policy he has pursued for five and a half years.