Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, in an Austrian village called Braunau-am-Inn. Adolf was a sickly child but showed excellent achievement in school. He had a caring mother but a tyrannical father. Upon entering high school, Hitler became seriously ill with a lung infection and had to drop out. After he healed he applied to the Vienna Academy of Arts and passed the admissions test but his artwork was rejected. Soon after he discovered that his mother was dying of cancer and she died in December 1907. This brought tremendous sorrow to Hitler. He then joined the German Army and began attending meetings of the Nazi party. This was a turning point in Hitler's life that brought on the insanely power hungry side that he is most famous for today. Hitler took over the Nazi party renaming it NSADAP. He attempted to overthrow the Bavarian government by force which gave him a prison sentence of five years. While in prison, he began writing his book Mein Kamph (My Struggle) and was released after 6 months. Upon his release he discovered that the Nazi party was disassembling so he was determined to reunite the members. The party began to grow slowly and secretly by persuasive public rallies produced by Hitler. His popularity was growing so he decided to take over the whole country. He was voted to the German congress and Nazi became the second largest party in the country. He was appointed Chancellor and the Nazi party began beating out the Communist party. After the death of the President, he held an election to combine the position of Chancellor and President. He won and Hitler had total control. The expansion of Germany began in 1938 and Hitler took Austria, Czechoslovakia and then Poland in 1939 triggering World War II. Hitler's intense racism led to the infamous Holocaust, exterminating millions of mainly innocent Jewish people. On April 29, 1945 he shot himself in the right temple alongside girlfriend, Eva.