Adolf Hitler was a German politician who served as leader of the Nazi Party, Chancellor of the Reich (from 1933 to 1945) and leader of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. As dictator of the German Reich, he was the main instigator of World War II in Europe and central figure in the Holocaust.
Hitler was born in Austria, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and was raised in the city of Linz. He moved to Germany in 1913 and served with distinction in the German army during the First World War. He joined the German Workers' Party, a forerunner of the Nazi Party, in 1919, and became its leader in 1921.