Who was the leader of Nazi Germany during World War II?

Adolf Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany during World War II. He ruled Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945, first as chancellor and later as Führer, combining the roles of head of government and head of state.

Hitler became leader of the Nazi Party in 1921 and was appointed chancellor on 30 January 1933. After President Paul von Hindenburg died in 1934, Hitler assumed supreme political authority and built a dictatorship. His government dismantled democratic institutions, persecuted political opponents, and promoted an aggressively racist and antisemitic ideology that led to the Holocaust.

Hitler personally drove Germany’s expansionist foreign policy. The German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, ordered under his leadership, triggered Britain and France to declare war. During the conflict, he increasingly interfered in military strategy and directly influenced major campaigns on both the Eastern and Western Fronts.

The other options were important Nazi officials but not Germany’s leader. Hermann Göring led the Luftwaffe, Joseph Goebbels controlled propaganda, and Heinrich Himmler headed the SS and much of the regime’s terror apparatus. Hitler died by suicide in Berlin on 30 April 1945, shortly before Germany surrendered.