September 24th, 2024

The context of Mein Kampf can be mainly found in the introduction of the text, considering it is mostly about Hitler’s life during the late 1800’s to early-mid 1900’s. In his early years Adolf Hitler resented his father for not raising him correctly, joining the military, or being proud of him during his days as a school boy. He says in the text that his orgins of anti-semitism started during his time in Vienna attempting to persue art school, (which he did not get into due to lack of talent) after his mother died. He was only there for four years and even though his time there was very short, he frequently talks about how horrible of a city it was. This is where he would go up to people of the Jewish religion on the street handing out pamphlets (as said in chapter 2 of Mein Kampf) and would argue with them in public. In my opinion, his hatred of the religious group started after he served for four years in the German Army during World War 1. Many believed that the German loss of World War I was caused by the involvement of the Jewish people, which is actually insane because how can one group be responsible for an army made up of 13.6 million people when only 100,000 of them are Jewish. Let alone that that type of claim is untrue and insults an entire demographic of people, but I digress. After WWI, the Rusian Revolution took place and communism began to spread across the Axis powers, because Russia was also pissed about losing the war, they decided to hate the Jewish culture along with Germany. In 1919 Hitler moved to a like minded area in Munich where everyone was unhappy with the democratic government Germany had at the time. During 1920 Hitler became the leader of an anti-semitic group called German Workers’ Party, or more popularly known as Nazi’s (official name though is the National Soocialist German Workers’ Party) the party became extremely popular in Munich (unfortunately being the biggest understatement of the day) and anti-semitic behaviors were common in this practice. In 1923 Hitler’s group attempted to overthrow the government and in doing so landed himself into prison where he wrote Mein Kampf during his months stay in 1924 (even though he was sentenced for 5 years… once again, I digress). By the time he was released in 1925, Hitler was even more pissed at the government of Germany than before (if that was even possible) and reorganizes the Nazi party. In 1932 the U.S. stock market crashes causing a domino effect around the globe. In Germany an economic decline icreases and the majority of Germans were laid off from their jobs and this is when Hitler strikes along with the other communist parties in other countries (Russia, Italy, etc.). The communist parties claim that it is democracy’s fault for the economic decline in their countries and the citizens ‘have to’ resort to communism. He, unfortunately, wins Chancellor of Germany (prime minister) in 1933 and immediately takes away the rights of the people (freedom of press, freedom of expression, and peaceful protest) police could also detain people without probable cause. Power hungry, Hitler began to kill off all of his other opponets so he could control more for longer periods of time. In 1939 Germany signs a peace treaty with Russia and begins to invade Poland then take over Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and France during 1940. A year later the U.S. declares war on Japan after the tragedy of Pearl Harbor where 2,469 people died. 1943 marks the beginning of Germany’s downfall in World War II, Stalingrad is a huge turning point for the war. In January of 1945 Soviet troops begin to invade Germany and by April, Hitler commits suicide in 1945 while in a bunker in Berlin. His wife also committed suicide with him, she met him when she was 17 (began a relationship with her at 19) and they were dating for 14 years, married for 2 days.

Sources used for reference and for class discussion…
Hitler Essential Background Information, University of Kentuky College of Arts and Sciences. https://history.as.uky.edu/hitler-essential-background-information. Accessed 24. Sept. 2024.
“Hitler’s Rise and Fall: Timeline.” Open Learning, 20. Apr. 1889, https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/hitlers-rise-and-fall-timeline.