Adolf Hitler
Since propaganda is not and cannot be the necessity in itself, since its function, like the poster, consists in attracting the attention of the crowd, and not in educating those who are already educated or who are striving after education and knowledge, its effect for the most part must be aimed at the emotions and only to a very limited degree at the so-called intellect [...] The NSDAP must not be a follower of public opinion, but must become the master of public opinion.
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) was the Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and, upon the death of President Hindenburg, the Führer, or leader, of the state and military.
Under Hitler's rule, the Weimar Republic was transformed from a democratic republic to a totalitarian fascist dictatorship, based on the ideals of National Socialism, which infused radical economic and cultural authoritarianism with racialist and expansionist political ideology. On September 1, 1939, Hitler began World War II by invading Poland.
Hitler played a central part in the execution of the Holocaust, with his anti-Semitism and racialist political ideology being core to his pan-Germanist view that the Übermenschen, or master race, would come to rule Europe.
In the 1933 general Reichstag elections, Adolf Hitler and his party, the NSDAP, secured nearly 44% of the popular vote. He formed a short-lived coalition government with the German National People's Party, before using the Reichstag Fire as a means to seize power and create a dictatorship.
Hitler's regime expanded into Europe, starting World War II. At the end of the war, as the Red Army approached Berlin, Hitler, inside his underground bunker, swallowed a cyanide pill and shot himself in the head. Soon after, Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies.