Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) was a German politician and leader of the Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers' Party). Born in Austria, he entered politics in Germany after World War I and became leader of the Nazi Party in 1921. After the failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 and his subsequent imprisonment, he pursued power through elections and political maneuvering, becoming chancellor of Germany in 1933. He established a dictatorship, pursued territorial expansion that led to World War II, and drove the systematic persecution and murder of millions of Jews and other victims of the Nazi regime. In "Mein Kampf," written during and after his imprisonment, Hitler combined an account of his political development with antisemitism, racism, authoritarianism, and demands for German expansion into Eastern Europe, setting out ideas and political objectives that later shaped the policies of the Nazi dictatorship.
