Hitler's Rise to Power - Research Paper Example

This loss of focus also made him lose the support of other students, who always elected him in leadership positions and to compensate this, he formed a tendency of creating friendship with younger pupils, whom he could command and influence (Kershaw 18). However, his time in school was limited as he managed to convince his mother at the age of fifteen to quit school instead of repeating, after which he moved to Vienna, at the age of 18, to pursue his career interest, which was in artistic work with the money he had received as his father’s pension, who had died in 1903 when Hitler was 13 years old (Hant 16).

This ended up frustrating him as no institution was ready and willing to receive him owing to the fact that he had no academic certificates to prove that he had completed secondary education. Despite being an Austrian, Hitler disliked his country of birth to the extent of refusing to enroll into the military service, which was compulsory for every youth and according to reports, it took the authorities close to 4 years to track him so he can fulfill his obligations but by then, his poor health could not meet the minimum standards required to join the military.

During his early life, Hitler had shown a lot of admiration for Germany and indeed, he held his history teacher, who was a German, and the then German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, with high regard and as some of his role models (Hant 20). The start of the First World War opened a new opportunity for Hitler to enter Germany, his country of choice, after he made a choice to join and fight for the German army instead of the Austro-Hungarian forces, which he despised. This also gave him the chance to prove his worthiness as a fearless fighter, especially in his position as a dispatch-runner, which was one of the most dangerous positions as it involved acquiring and delivering messages from the command center to the forces on the frontline and which earned him the Iron cross rewards in 1924 and 1918 (Kershaw 45).

According to reports, it is during this time of the war that Hitler began his hatred towards the Jews and Marxists, whom he always described as cowards and a liability to German’s quest for victory. However, in 1918 just before Germany conceded defeat, Hitler suffered injuries in a mustard gas attack orchestrated by the British forces after which he was hospitalized in a German military hospital. With the war gone, Hitler suffered from severe cases of depression whereby it is reported that he spent most of his time crying, mostly because he could not accept the fact that Germany had lost the war.

In addition, he had no academic papers to help him acquire formal employment and this meant that his future in Germany hanged in the balance and this was definitely more than he could bear (Kershaw 56). As stated earlier, Hitler was an outspoken person and he always made it clear that he was a strong proponent of anti-Semitism, anticommunism and Pan-Germanism (Toland 37). In addition to this, he never believed or subscribed to the school of thought that everyone was equal and as such, he was against any group or organization, which was trying to promote socialism.

These qualities attracted the attention of German leaders, who shared the same opinions and they gave