The Nazi Party: the early years
Adolf Hitler was born in Austria and his early dreams of being an artist were quashed when he was refused entry to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. He enlisted in the German army when World War I broke out and claimed, in his autobiographical Mein Kampf (My Struggle), that he was astonished to discover that Germany had lost the war in 1918.
After World War I, unemployed again, he moved to Germany where he joined the newly-formed German Workers Party in 1920. After Hitler failed to seize the government of Bavaria, a state in Southern Germany, in 1923, it seemed as if his political career was over. The story of his rise to power is complex, but may not have been possible had he not climbed the ranks of the NSDAP.
Download the PowerPoint and complete the activities when prompted.
Following this lesson, watch the video on the Munich Putsch (1923). Hitler was tried for committing treason following the failure of the putsch (violent attempt to overthrow the government). Had the judge in question not been opposed to the Weimar Republic (and lenient on political activists) he may have faced a far more severe sentence (possibly death). In the end he served just under nine months of his five-year sentence
For more information on the Munich Putsch: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z3bp82p/revision/3