Why we keep talking about him
History is messy. Usually, when we talk about "villains," there's some debate. One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist, right? Not here. When people search for the "worst person in the world," the algorithms and the history books basically point to one name: Adolf Hitler.
It’s almost a cliché at this point.
But honestly, the way we talk about him in 2026 has become a bit... simplified. We see the grainy black-and-white footage of a man screaming at a podium and think he was just some lone monster who fell out of the sky. He wasn't. He was a human being—a deeply broken, hateful, and surprisingly "ordinary" one in his early failures—who was carried to power by a wave of very specific circumstances.
The artist who failed at everything
Before he was the dictator of Nazi Germany, Hitler was basically a drifter. It’s wild to think about. He wanted to be an artist. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna twice.
He failed both times.
They told him he had no talent for painting people. He could do buildings okay, but his figures were stiff and lifeless. After that, he spent years in homeless shelters and men's hostels. He sold postcards. He was penniless. If you had seen him in a Vienna park in 1909, you wouldn't have thought "there goes the future architect of the Holocaust." You would’ve just seen a frustrated guy who couldn't hold down a job.
This is the part most people gloss over. The "evil" didn't start with a master plan. It started with a massive chip on his shoulder. He blamed the world for his failures. Specifically, he started soaking up the antisemitic and ultra-nationalist pamphlets that were all over Vienna at the time. He needed a scapegoat for why his life sucked.
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World War I changed the game
Then came 1914. For a lot of people, the Great War was a nightmare. For Hitler, it was the first time he felt like he belonged. He wasn't a great soldier in terms of rank—he only made it to corporal—but he was brave. Or maybe just obsessed. He was a runner, carrying messages between trenches, which was basically a suicide mission.
He got the Iron Cross. Twice.
When Germany lost in 1918, he was in a hospital, temporarily blinded by a mustard gas attack. He felt betrayed. This is where the "Stab in the Back" myth comes from. He, along with many other right-wing Germans, decided that the army hadn't lost on the battlefield. Instead, they believed they’d been sold out by "traitors" at home—politicians, Marxists, and especially Jewish people.
It was a lie, obviously. But it was a lie that felt good to a humiliated nation.
How he actually took power
There’s a huge misconception that Hitler "seized" power in a violent coup. He tried that once in 1923 (the Beer Hall Putsch) and it was a total disaster. He ended up in prison.
That’s where he wrote Mein Kampf.
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When he got out, he changed tactics. He decided to use the democratic system to destroy democracy. He didn't win a majority, ever. In the 1932 elections, the Nazis were the biggest party, but they didn't have a mandate. He was appointed Chancellor in January 1933 because the conservative elites thought they could "tame" him.
They were wrong.
Within months, he used the Reichstag Fire—a mysterious arson at the parliament building—to suspend civil liberties. He turned a messy democracy into a total dictatorship almost overnight.
The scale of the horror
We use the number six million for the Jews murdered in the Holocaust. It’s a number so big it’s hard to wrap your head around. But it wasn't just them. When you add in the Romani people, the disabled (under the T4 Program), Soviet POWs, and political dissidents, the state-sponsored murder count climbs toward 11 million.
And that’s before you count the war.
He started World War II by invading Poland in 1939. By the time it ended in 1945, somewhere between 70 and 85 million people were dead globally.
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It wasn't just him
Here is the most uncomfortable truth: He didn't do it alone. A lot of modern documentaries make it look like he hypnotized Germany with his speeches. Historians like Ian Kershaw argue it was more about "working towards the Führer." He didn't always give direct orders for every atrocity. Instead, he set the tone, and thousands of bureaucrats, soldiers, and ordinary citizens competed to see who could be the most "loyal" by carrying out his hateful vision.
The Holocaust was a factory of death. It required architects to design the camps, engineers to build the gas chambers, and train conductors to keep the schedules.
What we get wrong today
People often use "Hitler" as a shorthand for "anyone I don't like in politics." This is called Godwin's Law. But it’s kinda dangerous because it cheapens what actually happened.
- He wasn't a "genius": He made massive military blunders, like invading the Soviet Union while still fighting Britain.
- He wasn't "mad": Calling him insane makes it seem like he wasn't responsible. He was calculated. He knew exactly what he was doing.
- The economy wasn't a "miracle": The Nazi economic recovery was built on massive debt and preparing for a war of plunder. It was a Ponzi scheme.
Why it matters in 2026
The reason Adolf Hitler remains the "worst person" in our collective memory isn't just the body count—though that’s plenty. It’s the fact that it happened in a "modern," "civilized" society. Germany was one of the most educated, technologically advanced countries in the world.
If it could happen there, it’s a warning.
He didn't start with gas chambers. He started with rhetoric. He started by dividing people into "us" and "them." He started by attacking the free press and delegitimizing the truth.
Next steps for deeper understanding:
To really grasp how this happened, you should look into the Wannsee Conference, where the "Final Solution" was technically organized. It shows the terrifyingly boring, bureaucratic side of evil. Also, reading about the White Rose movement—the German students who tried to resist him—is a good reminder that not everyone went along with it, even if they paid for their bravery with their lives.