Adolf Hitler

. With the genius and legacy of Leonardo da Vinci having captivated authors and scholars generations after his death, the following examples of "Da Vinci fiction" can be found in culture and literature.
see also. his tank.
. While most of Leonardo's inventions were not realized, many were technologically feasible as it was demonstrated recently, e.g. There are two theories about the origin of the name "Hitler":. In January 2005, researchers discovered the hidden laboratory used by Leonardo da Vinci for studies of flight and other pioneering scientific work in previously sealed rooms at a monastery next to the Basilica of the Santissima Annunziata, in the heart of Florence.[6].

See also: Hitler (disambiguation). They remained obscure until the 19th century, and were not directly of value to the development of science and technology. Hitler's medical health has long been the subject of debate, and he has variously been suggested to have suffered from irritable bowel syndrome, skin lesions, irregular heartbeat, tremors on the left side of his body, syphilis, Parkinson's disease and addiction to methamphetamines. Technological historian Lewis Mumford suggests that Leonardo kept notebooks as a private journal, intentionally censoring his work from those who might irresponsibly use it (the tank, for instance). See also: Consequences of German Nazism and Neo-Nazism. Why Leonardo did not publish or otherwise distribute the contents of his notebooks remains a mystery to those who believe that Leonardo wanted to make his observations public knowledge. While some Revisionist historians note Hitler's attempts to improve the economic and political standing and conditions of his people and claim his tactics were in essence no different from those of many other leaders in history, his methods and legacy, as interpreted by most historians, have caused him to be one of the most despised leaders in history. In his years in the Vatican, he planned an industrial use of solar power, by employing concave mirrors to heat water.

Bal Thackeray, leader of the right-wing Shiv Sena party in the Indian state of Maharashtra, declared in 1995 that he was an admirer of Hitler. Other inventions include a submarine, a cog-wheeled device that has been interpreted as the first mechanical calculator, and a car powered by a spring mechanism. Future Egyptian President Anwar Sadat wrote favourably of Hitler in 1953. even though he later held war to be the worst of human activities. Despite this there have been instances of public figures referring to his legacy in neutral or even favourable terms, particularly in South America, the Islamic World and parts of Asia. Owing to his sometime employment as a military engineer, his notebooks also contain several designs for military machines: machine guns, an armoured tank powered by humans or horses, cluster bombs, etc. The display of swastikas or other Nazi symbols is prohibited in Germany and political extremists are generally under surveillance by the Verfassungsschutz, the federal office for the protection of the constitution. It was never built, but Leonardo's vision was resurrected in 2001 when a smaller bridge based on his design was constructed in Norway.

Reproductions in Germany are generally authorized only for scholarly purposes and in heavily commented form. The bridge was intended to span an inlet at the mouth of the Bosphorus known as the Golden Horn. The copyright of Hitler's book Mein Kampf is held by the Free State of Bavaria and will expire in 2015. In 1502 Leonardo da Vinci produced a drawing of a single span 720-foot (240 m) bridge as part of a civil engineering project for Sultan Beyazid II of Constantinople. Historical and cultural portrayals of Hitler in the west are almost uniformly negative, often neglecting to mention the adulation the German people bestowed on Hitler during his lifetime, though the majority of present-day Germans share a negative view of Hitler. On January 3, 1496 he unsuccessfully tested a flying machine he had constructed. Since the defeat of Germany in World War II, Hitler, the Nazi Party and the results of Nazism have been regarded in most of the world as synonymous with evil. Fascinated by the phenomenon of flight, Leonardo produced detailed studies of the flight of birds, and plans for several flying machines, including a helicopter powered by four men (which would not have worked since the body of the craft would have rotated) and a light hang-glider which could have flown.

On 8 May 1945, in Reims, France the German armed forces surrendered unconditionally ending the war in Europe and with the creation of the Allied Control Council on 5 June 1945, the Four Powers assumed "supreme authority with respect to Germany." Adolf Hitler's proclaimed Thousand Year Reich had lasted 12 years. It is not known if an attempt was made to build the device. However, Goebbels and his wife Magda committed suicide on 1 May 1945. The design, which has come to be called Leonardo's robot, was probably made around the year 1495 but was rediscovered only in the 1950s. In his will he dismissed other Nazi leaders and appointed Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as Reichspräsident (President of Germany) and Goebbels as Reichskanzler (Chancellor of Germany). His study of human anatomy led also to the design of the first known robot in recorded history. Millions of Germans were dead with millions more wounded or homeless. Because he actively searched for bodily deformed people to paint them, he is also considered to be the beginner of caricature.

At the time of Hitler's death most of Germany's infrastructure and major cities were in ruins and he had left explicit orders to complete the destruction. It is important to note that he was not only interested in structure but also in function, so he was anatomist and physiologist at the same time. DNA samples have been compared to those of known surviving Hitler relatives and the matching results indicate the fragment is most likely genuine. He not only studied the anatomy of human, but also of other beings. In Moscow there is a skull and a mandible fragment which is said to be Hitler's (having been saved from the dental identification process). He was a master of topographic anatomy. In April 1970, when the facility was about to be turned over to the East German government, the remains were reportedly exhumed, thoroughly burned and disposed of in the Elbe river. He often drew muscles and tendons of the cervical muscles and of the shoulder.

To avoid any possibility of creating a potential shrine, the remains were then secretly buried by SMERSH at their new headquarters in Magdeburg. He was one of the firsts who drew the fetus in the intrauterine position (he wished to learn about "the miracle of pregnancy"). When Russian forces reached the Chancellory, they exhumed his body and performed an autopsy, using dental records (and German dental assistants who were familiar with them) to confirm the identification. He drew many images of the lungs, mesentery, urinary tract, sex organs, and even coitus. Hitler's body and that of Eva Braun, his long-term mistress whom he had married the day before, were partially burned with petrol and buried shortly thereafter in the Chancellory garden. He was also able to represent exceptionally well the human skull and cross-sections of the brain (transversal, sagittal, and frontal). As Soviet troops battled their way toward his Reich Chancellory in the centre of the city, Hitler is generally believed to have committed suicide in his Führerbunker on 30 April 1945, in Berlin by means of a self-delivered shot to the head (some disputed accounts add that he simultaneously bit into a cyanide ampoule). He also studied the inclination of pelvis and sacrum and stressed that sacrum was not uniform, but composed of five vertebrae.

Hitler got news of this through Swedish radio and fired him. Leonardo drew many images of the human skeleton, and was the first to describe the double S form of the backbone. SS leader Heinrich Himmler tried on his own to inform the Allies through a Swedish diplomat that Germany was prepared to surrender. However, his book was published only in 1580 (long after his death) under the heading Treatise on painting. Hitler's closest lieutenants urged him to flee to Bavaria or Austria to make a last stand in the mountains but he was determined to die in his capital. Together with Marcantonio, he prepared to publish a theoretical work on anatomy and made more than 200 drawings. By April 1945 Soviet forces were at the gates of Berlin. In 30 years, Leonardo dissected 30 male and female corpses of different ages.

The Germans had lost the war from a military perspective but Hitler allowed no peace talks with the Allied forces and as a consequence the German military continued to fight. From 1510 to 1511 he collaborated with the doctor Marcantonio della Torre (1481 to 1511). The western armies were advancing into Germany. Later he dissected also in Milano in the hospital Maggiore and in Rome in the hospital Santo Spirito (the first mainland Italian hospital). By the end of 1944 the Soviets had driven the last German troops from their territory and began charging into Central Europe. As he became successful as an artist, he was given permission to dissect human corpses at the hospital Santa Maria Nuova in Florence. The resistance movement was crushed. Leonardo started to discover the anatomy of the human body at the time he was apprenticed to Andrea del Verrocchio, as his teacher insisted that all his pupils learn anatomy.

He ordered savage reprisals, resulting in the executions of more than 4,000 people (often by starvation in solitary confinement followed by slow strangulation). As did most people at the time, he believed that the Sun revolved around the Earth, and that the Moon reflects the sun's light due to its being covered by water. In July 1944 one of them, Claus von Stauffenberg, planted a bomb at Hitler's military headquarters (the so-called July 20 Plot), but Hitler narrowly escaped death. Since he lacked formal education in Latin and mathematics, contemporary scholars mostly ignored Leonardo the scientist. Realists in the German army knew defeat was inevitable and some officers plotted to remove Hitler from power. Throughout his life, he planned a grand encyclopedia based on detailed drawings of everything. On June 6, 1944 (D-Day) the Western allied armies landed in northern France. His approach to science was an observatory one: he tried to understand a phenomenon by describing and depicting it in utmost detail, and did not emphasize experiments or theoretical explanations.

Throughout 1943 and 1944, the Soviet Union steadily forced Hitler's armies into retreat along the eastern front. This is explainable by the fact that it is easier to pull a quill pen than to push it; by using mirror-writing, the left-handed writer is able to pull the pen from right to left. Hitler's ally Benito Mussolini was overthrown in 1943 after British and American forces invaded Sicily. He was left-handed and used mirror writing throughout his life. Other conditions that are suspected by some to have caused some (at least) of his symptoms are methamphetamine addiction and syphilis. These notes were made and maintained through Leonardo's travels through Europe, during which he made continual observations of the world around him. The biographer Ian Kershaw believes he suffered from Parkinson's disease. Perhaps even more impressive than his artistic work are his studies in science and engineering, recorded in notebooks comprising some 13,000 pages of notes and drawings, which fuse art and science.

His left hand started shaking uncontrollably. Chiaroscuro is the technique of modelling and defining forms through contrasts of light and shadow. His health was deteriorating too. It is characterized by subtle transitions between colour areas, creating an atmospheric haze or smoky effect. After these, the quality of Hitler's military judgement became increasingly erratic and Germany's military and economic position deteriorated. One of them, a colour shading technique called sfumato, used a series of custom-made glazes by Leonardo. Both defeats were turning points in the war. Leonardo pioneered new painting techniques in many of his pieces.

In February of 1943, the months-long Battle of Stalingrad ended with the complete destruction of the German forces there by armies of the Soviet Union. After producing a fantastic variety of studies in preparation for the work, he left the city, with the mural unfinished due to technical difficulties. In late 1942, German forces under Feldmarschall Erwin Rommel were defeated in the battle of El Alamein, thwarting Hitler's plans to seize the Suez Canal and the Middle East. After returning to Florence, he was commissioned for a large public mural, The Battle of Anghiari; his rival Michelangelo was to paint the opposite wall. Hitler's declaration of war against the United States on December 11, 1941, (which arguably was called for by Germany's treaty with Japan) set him against a coalition that included the world's largest empire (the British Empire), the world's greatest industrial and financial power (the USA), and the world's largest army (the Soviet Union). (In 1999 a pair of full-scale statues based on his plans were cast, one erected in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the other in Milan [5].) The Hunt Museum in Limerick, Ireland has a small bronze horse, thought to be the work of an apprentice from Leonardo's original design. German forces were stopped short of Moscow in December 1941 by a harsh winter and fierce Soviet resistance, however (see Battle of Moscow), and the invasion failed to achieve the quick triumph over the Soviet Union which Hitler had anticipated. Because of war with France, the project was never finished.

This invasion, called Operation Barbarossa, seized huge amounts of territory, especially the Baltic states and Ukraine, resulting in the destruction of many Soviet forces. In Milan he spent 17 years making plans and models for a monumental seven metre (24 ft) high horse statue in bronze called "Gran Cavallo". On June 22, 1941, Hitler gave the signal for three million German troops to attack the Soviet Union, breaking the non-aggression pact he had concluded with Stalin less than two years earlier. None of his sculptures have survived. This was the so-called Blitz and it lasted until May 1941. Of his paintings, only seventeen survived. However, the RAF defeated the Luftwaffe by the end of October 1940, and Hitler therefore ordered bombing raids to be carried out on British cities, including London and Coventry, mostly at night. After extensive, ambitious plans and many drawings, the painting was left unfinished and Leonardo left for Milan.

After having his overtures for peace systematically rejected by the British Government, now led by Winston Churchill, Hitler ordered bombing raids on the British Isles, leading to the Battle of Britain, which was meant to be the prelude of a German invasion. For example, in 1481 he was commissioned to paint the altarpiece The Adoration of the Magi. Britain, whose forces had been driven from France at the coastal town of Dunkirk, continued to fight on alone. Leonardo often planned grandiose paintings with many drawings and sketches, only to leave the projects unfinished. This string of victories convinced his main ally, Benito Mussolini of Italy, to join the war on Hitler's side in May 1940. The name Mona Lisa is not the one given to the piece of art at the time, nor was it known by this title until much later. France surrendered on June 22, 1940. It is well known that Leonardo made extensive use of many tricks in this painting, including the so-called Golden Ratio.

In May 1940, Hitler ordered his forces to attack France, conquering the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium in the process. Thousands of people see it each year in the Louvre, perhaps drawing their own interpretation on what is known as the Mona Lisa's most infamous and enigmatic feature - her smile. The Sitzkrieg ended in March 1940 when he ordered German forces to march into Denmark and Norway. He most likely kept it with him at all times, and did not travel without it. After conquering Poland by the end of September, Hitler built up his forces much further during what was colloquially called the Sitzkrieg (sitting war). Though there is significant debate whether Leonardo himself painted the Mona Lisa, or whether it was the work of his students, it is known that it was probably his favourite piece. Britain and France, who had guaranteed assistance to Poland, declared war on Germany. Leonardo is well known for his artistry and paintings, such as Last Supper (Ultima Cena or Cenacolo, in Milan) 1498, and the Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda, now at the Louvre in Paris), 1503-1506.

On September 1 Germany invaded Poland. Melzi was his principal heir and executor, but Salai was not forgotten: he received half of Leonardo's vineyard. Britain had not been able to reach an agreement with the Soviet Union for an alliance against Germany, and, on August 23, 1939, Hitler concluded a secret non-aggression pact (the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) with Stalin. He was buried in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert in the castle of Amboise. Hitler ordered Germany's army to enter Prague on March 10, 1939, claiming territories ceded to Poland under the Versailles Treaty. According to his wish, 60 beggars followed his casket. As a result of the summit Hitler was TIME magazine's Man of the Year in 1938. Leonardo da Vinci died at Clos Lucé, France, on 2nd May, 1519.

At Munich, Britain and France had weakly given way to his demands, averting war but failing to save Czechoslovakia. Francis became a close friend. This led to the Munich Agreement of September 1938, which British prime minister Neville Chamberlain hailed as "Peace in our time". In 1518 Salai left Leonardo and returned to Milan, where he eventually perished in a duel. Next he intensified a crisis over the German-speaking Sudetenland district of Czechoslovakia. The King granted Leonardo and his entourage generous pensions: the surviving document lists 1000 écus for the artist, 400 for Melzi (named "apprentice") and 100 for Salai (named "servant"). On March 12, 1938, Hitler pressured his native Austria into unification with Germany (the Anschluss) and made a triumphal entry into Vienna. In 1516, he entered Francis' service, being given the use of the manor house Clos Lucé (also called "Cloux") next to the king's residence at the royal Chateau Amboise.

Days later, on February 22, Hitler was recorded saying to his closest associates, "we shall regain our health only by eliminating the Jews". In 1515 Francis I of France retook Milan, and Leonardo was commissioned to make a centrepiece (a mechanical lion) for the peace talks between the French king and Pope Leo X in Bologna, where he must have first met the King. The records of this meeting provide the clearest evidence of central planning for the Holocaust. However, he was probably of pivotal importance in the relocation of David (in Florence), one of Michelangelo's masterpieces, against the artist's will. To make for smoother intra-governmental cooperation in the implementation of this "Final Solution" to the "Jewish question", the Wannsee conference was held near Berlin on January 20, 1942, with fifteen senior officials participating, led by Reinhard Heydrich and Adolf Eichmann. From 1513 to 1516, he lived in Rome, where painters like Raphael and Michelangelo were active at the time, though he did not have much contact with these artists. During interrogations by Soviet intelligence officers declassified over fifty years later, Hitler's valet Heinz Linge and his military aide Otto Gunsche said Hitler had "pored over the first blueprints of gas chambers.". In 1506 he returned to Milan, now in the hands of Maximilian Sforza after Swiss mercenaries had driven out the French.

While no specific order from Hitler authorising the mass killing of the Jews has surfaced, there is documentation he approved the Einsatzgruppen and the evidence also suggests that sometime in the fall of 1941 Himmler and Hitler agreed in principle on mass extermination by gassing. In Florence he entered the services of Cesare Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI, acting as a military architect and engineer; with Cesare he travelled throughout Italy. The massacres that led to the coining of the word "genocide" (the Endlösung or "Final Solution") were planned and ordered by leading Nazis, with Himmler playing a key role. He left with Salai and his friend Luca Pacioli (the first man to describe double-entry bookkeeping) for Mantua, moving on after 2 months to Venice (where he was hired as a military engineer), then briefly returning to Florence at the end of April 1500. This industrial-scale genocide in Europe is referred to as the Holocaust. Leonardo stayed in Milan for a time, until one morning when he found French archers using his life-size clay model of the "Gran Cavallo" for target practice. Along with Jews, non-Jewish Poles (over 3 million of whom died), alleged communists or political opposition, homosexuals, dissenting Roman Catholics and Protestants, Roma, the physically handicapped and mentally retarded, Soviet prisoners of war, Jehovah's Witnesses, anti-Nazi clergy, trade unionists, and psychiatric patients were killed. When the French returned under Louis XII in 1498, Milan fell without a fight, overthrowing Sforza [4].

Between 1939 and 1945 the SS, assisted by collaborationist governments and recruits from occupied countries, systematically killed at least 11 million people (other estimates are as high as 26 million; 6 million of whom were Jews^[5]) in concentration camps, ghettos and mass executions, or through less systematic methods elsewhere.^[6] Besides being gassed to death, many also died of starvation and disease while working as slave labourers. It was here that seventy tons of bronze that had been set aside for Leonardo's "Gran Cavallo" horse statue (see below) were cast into weapons for the Duke in an attempt to save Milan from the French under Charles VIII in 1495. Then on November 5, 1937, at the Reich Chancellory, Adolf Hitler held a secret meeting and stated his plans for acquiring "living space" (Lebensraum) for the German people. From around 1482 to 1499, Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan [3], employed Leonardo and permitted him to operate his own workshop complete with apprentices. They were collectively known as the Axis Powers. He was also a respected judge on matters of beauty and elegance, particularly in the creation of pageants. This alliance was later expanded to include Japan, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. Vasari reports a story that as a young man in Florence he often bought caged birds just to release them from captivity.

An Axis was declared between Germany and Italy by Galeazzo Ciano, foreign minister of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini on October 25, 1936. Under the heading, "Of the beasts from whom cheese is made," he answers, "the milk will be taken from the tiny children." [2]). Hitler sent troops to support Franco and Spain served as a testing ground for Germany's new armed forces and their methods, including the bombing of undefended towns such as Guernica, which was destroyed by the Luftwaffe in April 1937, prompting Pablo Picasso's famous eponymous painting (see Guernica). His respect for life led him to being a vegetarian at least part of his life (although the term 'vegan' would fit him well, as he even entertained the notion that taking milk from cows amounts to stealing. In July 1936 the Spanish Civil War began when the military, led by General Francisco Franco, rebelled against the elected Popular Front government of Spain. It is apparent from the works of Leonardo and his early biographers that he was a man of high integrity and very sensitive to moral issues. When Britain and France did nothing, he grew bolder. Leonardo had many other friends who are now figures renowned in their fields, or for their influence on history; these included Niccolò Machiavelli, Cesare Borgia and Franchinus Gaffurius.

In March 1936 Hitler again violated the Treaty of Versailles by reoccupying the demilitarised zone in the Rhineland. Melzi, however, became Leonardo's pupil and life companion. For the first time in a generation, Germany's armed forces were as strong as those of her antagonistic neighbour, France. Though Salai was always introduced as Leonardo's "pupil", he never produced any work of artistic merit. The enlistment of vast numbers of men and women in the new military seemed to solve unemployment problems but seriously distorted the economy. Salai eventually accepted Melzi's continued presence and the three undertook journeys throughout Italy. He set about building a massive military machine, including a new Navy (the Kriegsmarine) and an Air Force (the Luftwaffe). In 1506, Leonardo met Count Francesco Melzi, the 15 year old son of a Lombard aristocrat.

In March 1935 Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles by reintroducing conscription in Germany. Some believe this can be explained by Leonardo's role as a mentor and teacher, which required male assistants to aid him in his work, and that his appreciation of androgynous beauty was due solely to his fascination with the workings of both sexes of the human body. Throughout the 1930s the Propaganda Ministry disseminated anti-Semitic propaganda. Gian entered Leonardo's household around 1488 at the age of 10, becoming his servant and assistant for the next thirty years. From 1941 Jews were required to wear a yellow star in public. One of his lovers is thought to have been Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno (nicknamed Salai (Little Devil)). Between November 1938 and September 1939 more than 180,000 Jews fled Germany and the Nazis seized whatever property they left behind. It has therefore been widely assumed that he was a homosexual.

In 1938 a pogrom orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels and endorsed by Hitler called Kristallnacht destroyed many Jewish businesses and synagogues and resulted in about 100 deaths. Though he kept his private life particularly secret, it is known that he surrounded himself with handsome young men throughout his life, and his art reflects an appreciation of androgynous beauty (and in at least one instance, sexuality). The policy was successful in causing the emigration of many thousands but nevertheless turned increasingly violent in the mid to late 1930s. There is no evidence that Leonardo was ever intimately involved with any woman, nor in a close friendship with one. Under the 1935 Nuremberg Laws Jews lost their German citizenship and were expelled from government employment, the professions and most forms of economic activity. Rocke reports that in a fictional dialogue on l'amore masculino (male love) written by the contemporary art critic and theorist Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Leonardo appears as one of the protagonists and declares, "Know that male love is exclusively the product of virtue which, joining men together with the diverse affections of friendship, makes it so that from a tender age they would enter into the manly one as more stalwart friends." In the dialogue, the interlocutor inquires of Leonardo about his relations with his assistant, Salai, "Did you play the game from behind which the Florentines love so much?". The racial policies of Nazi Germany during the early to mid-1930s included the harassment and persecution of Jews through legislation, restrictions on civil rights and limiting their economic opportunities. Modern critics contend that Leonardo's love of boys was well-known even in the sixteenth century.

This was implemented not only against political enemies such as communists but also against perceived "asocials" such as habitual criminals and the work-shy along with "racial enemies," mainly Jews. For some time afterwards, Leonardo and the others were kept under observation by Florence's Officers of the Night - a kind of Renaissance vice squad, charged with suppressing the practice of sodomy, which a majority of male Florentines engaged in, as shown by surviving legal records of the Podestà and the Officers of the Night. The Gestapo-SS complex (the SS and Gestapo organisations) were primarily responsible for repression in the Nazi state. After two months in jail, he was acquitted because no witnesses stepped forward. In 1932 Hitler was instrumental in initiating the design work on the car that later became the Volkswagen Beetle.^[4]. In 1476, he was accused anonymously, along with three other men, of sodomy with a 17 year-old model, Jacopo Saltarelli, who was a notorious male prostitute. Had the railroad been built, its gauge would have been three meters, even wider than the old Great Western Railway of Britain. Later, he became an independent painter in Florence.

Although Hitler made plans for a Breitspurbahn (broad gauge railroad network), they were pre-empted by World War II. In this role, Leonardo also worked with Lorenzo di Credi and Pietro Perugino. Olympia, the movie about the games and documentary propaganda films for the German Nazi Party were directed by Hitler's personal film-maker Leni Riefenstahl. His early sketches were of such quality that his father soon showed them to the painter Andrea del Verrocchio, who subsequently took on the fourteen-year old Leonardo as an apprentice. In 1936 Berlin hosted the summer Olympic games, which were opened by Hitler and choreographed to demonstrate Aryan superiority over all other races. Leonardo grew up with his father in Florence, where he started drawing and painting. Hitler's government sponsored architecture on an immense scale, with Albert Speer becoming famous as the first architect of the Reich. Leonardo signed his works "Leonardo" or "Io, Leonardo" ("I, Leonardo").

Hitler's policies emphasised the importance of family life: Men were the "breadwinners", while women's priorities were to be "church, kitchen and children", in German Kirche, Küche und Kinder or "Drei K" (three Ks). Leonardo was born before modern naming conventions developed in Europe; his name "Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci", simply means "Leonardo, son of [Mes]ser Piero, from Vinci". Hitler also oversaw one of the largest infrastructure improvement campaigns in German history, with the construction of dozens of dams, autobahns, railroads and other civil works. It has been suggested, albeit on scanty evidence [1], that she was a Middle Eastern slave owned by Piero. Given this, claims that the German economy achieved near full employment are at least partly artifacts of propaganda from the era. Leonardo was born in Anchiano, near Vinci, Italy, the illegitimate child of Ser Piero da Vinci, a young notary, and Caterina, most likely a peasant girl. The unemployment rate was cut substantially, mostly through arms production and sending women home so that men could take their jobs. .

Nazi policies towards women strongly encouraged them to stay at home to bear children and keep house. Renaissance humanism saw no mutually exclusive polarities between sciences and arts. Hitler oversaw one of the greatest expansions of industrial production and civil improvement Germany had ever seen, mostly based on debt flotation and expansion of the military. In addition, he helped advance the study of anatomy, astronomy, and civil engineering. Having secured supreme political power without an electoral mandate from the majority of Germans, Hitler went on to gain their support by persuading most Germans he was their saviour from the Depression, the Communists, the Versailles Treaty and the Jews. He is also known for designing many inventions that anticipated modern technology, although few of these designs were constructed in his lifetime. See also Nazi Germany. Leonardo is famous for his masterly paintings, such as The Last Supper and Mona Lisa.

Then in an unprecedented step, Hitler ordered every member of the military to swear a personal oath of allegiance to him. He has been described as the archetype of the "Renaissance man" and as a universal genius. This consolidation was approved by 90% of the electorate in mid-August 1934. Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian Renaissance architect, musician, anatomist, inventor, engineer, sculptor, geometer, and painter. Rather than hold new presidential elections Hitler's cabinet passed a law combining the offices of president and chancellor with Hitler holding both offices (which included the president's decree powers) as leader and national chancellor. ISBN 8809038916 (hardback). Soon after, president Paul von Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934. Giunti.

Opponents unconnected with the SA were also murdered, notably Gregor Strasser and former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher. Leonardo da Vinci: Artist, Scientist, Inventor. Meanwhile the SA was growing into an independent power of its own and Hitler used allegations of a plot by the SA leader Ernst Röhm to purge the paramilitary force's leadership during the Night of the Long Knives. Simona Cremante (2005). Hitler also used the SA paramilitary to push Hugenberg into resigning and proceeded to politically isolate Vice Chancellor von Papen. ISBN 0-140-29681-6. Labour unions were merged with employers' federations into an organisation under Nazi control and the autonomy of state governments was severely diminished. Penguin.

The SPD was banned and all other political parties dissolved themselves. Leonardo da Vinci, The Flights of the mind. With this combination of legislative and executive power, Hitler's government soon suppressed all opposition. Charles Nicholl (2005). Later that day, still waiting for the promised letter, Kaas gave his speech, voicing the Centre's support for the bill amid "concerns put aside." At last, all parties except the Social Democrats voted in favour of the Enabling Act, which was dutifully renewed every four years, even through World War II. Dépot légal 4° trimestre 1965. Hitler gave a speech which emphasized the importance of both Christian denominations to German culture. Somogy.

Some SA paramilitaries served as guards as others crowded outside the building to intimidate opposing views. Léonard de Vinci, L'homme et son oeuvre. On 23 March the Reichstag assembled under turbulent circumstances. Fred Bérence (1965). These guarantees were orally transmitted and Kaas was promised a letter with them in writing. ISBN 3822817341 (hardback). The Centre Party was split on this issue, but eventually followed its chairman, Monsignor Kaas, who had advocated supporting the bill in parliament in return for government giving sundry guarantees to civil servants belonging to the Centre Party along with freedom and autonomy of the Catholic Church. Taschen.

The bill required a two-thirds majority in order to pass and the Nazis needed support from other parties. Leonardo Da Vinci: The Complete Paintings and Drawings. The government confronted the newly elected Reichstag with the Enabling Act which gave Hitler's cabinet sweeping legislative powers. Frank Zollner & Johannes Nathan (2003). At an impressive constitutional opening ceremony of the Reichstag, held in the replacement parliament building on 21 March, both Hindenburg and the world press were impressed by Hitler's apparent acceptance of constitutional government. A reprint of the original 1883 edition. Hitler further strengthened his parliamentary basis by detaining Communist deputies and (illegally) excluding them from parliament. 2 volumes.

On 5 March 1933, in elections marred by paramilitary violence, the Nazis received 43.9% of the vote, which brought the coalition between them and the DNVP an absolute majority. ISBN 0486225720 and ISBN 0486225739 (paperback). After the Reichstag was set on fire (and the communists were blamed for it), the Reichstag Fire Decree (28 February) suspended basic rights including habeas corpus. Dover. On the morning of January 30, 1933 in Hindenburg's office Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor during what some observers later described as a brief and indifferent ceremony. The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. When Schleicher was forced to admit failure in his efforts to form a coalition and asked for emergency powers along with the same postponement of elections he had opposed earlier, Hindenburg fired him and reluctantly agreed to appoint Hitler Chancellor, Papen Vice-Chancellor and Hugenberg Minister of Economics in a cabinet which included three Nazis in key positions (Hitler, Göring and Wilhelm Frick). Jean Paul Richter (1970).

In November 1932, Fritz Thyssen, Hjalmar Schacht and other leading German businessmen appealed to Hindenburg in a letter to appoint Hitler as leader of a government "independent from parliamentary parties" which could turn into a movement that would "enrapture millions of people." [3] Finally, Papen and Alfred Hugenberg (Chairman of the German National People's Party, the DNVP, which before the Nazis had been Germany's principal right-wing party) conspired to persuade Hindenburg to appoint Hitler Chancellor in a coalition with the DNVP, promising they would be able to control him and stabilize the government. ISBN 0806513500 (paperback). Hindenburg at first accepted this, but after General Kurt von Schleicher and the military withdrew their support, Hindenburg instead dismissed Papen and appointed Schleicher, who promised he could secure a majority government by negotiations with both the Social Democratic labour unions and the dissident Nazi faction led by Gregor Strasser. Carol Publishing Group. After Papen failed to secure a majority he proposed to dissolve parliament again along with an indefinite postponement of elections. The 100. During the November 1932 elections the Nazis lost votes although they remained the largest party in the Reichstag. Hart (1992).

Hence the negotiations failed. Michael H. Hitler however set high terms, demanding the Chancellorship along with the President's agreement that he be able to use the 1919 constitution's sweeping emergency powers. ISBN 0385323816 (paperback). Papen and the Centre Party (Zentrumspartei) separately began negotiations to secure Nazi participation in order to provide a new government with a basis in parliament. Delacorte Press. After a vote of no-confidence in the Papen government, supported by 84% of the delegates, the new Reichstag was dissolved and new elections were called. How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day.

Since the Nazis and the communists now together controlled a majority of the Reichstag, the formation of a stable government of mainstream parties was impossible. Gelb (1998). In July 1932 the Nazis had their best showing yet, winning 230 seats and becoming the largest party in the Reichstag. Michael J. Hindenburg dismissed the government and appointed a new one under the ex-military conservative Franz von Papen, which immediately called for new Reichstag elections. The cartoon The Tick features Leonardo in Leonardo DaVinci and his Fightin' Genius Time Commandos! (Season 2, Episode 17, 1995). Hitler refused and ultimately ran against Hindenburg in the 1932 presidential election, coming in second on both rounds, attaining more than 35% of the vote during the second one in April. Peter Barnes's Leonardo's Last Supper centres on Leonardo being "resurrected" in a filthy charnel house after being prematurely declared dead.

Brüning's austerity measures brought little economic improvement and the government was anxious to avoid a presidential election in 1932, hoping to secure Nazi agreement to an extension of President Paul von Hindenburg's term. The movie Hudson Hawk starring Bruce Willis and Danny Aiello revolves around Leonardo da Vinci's inventions. The event is viewed as having caused lasting turmoil for him. The movie Ever After from 1998 starring Drew Barrymore and Patrick Godfrey as Leonardo da Vinci. Geli was much younger than he was and had used his gun, drawing rumours of a relationship between the two. Leonardo in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was named after Leonardo da Vinci. Meanwhile in December 1931 Hitler's niece Geli Raubal was found dead in her bedroom in his Munich apartment (his half-sister Angela and her daughter Geli had been with him in Munich since 1929), an apparent suicide. Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code revolves around a conspiracy based on elements of Leonardo's Last Supper and other works, claiming that he belonged to the Priory of Sion (a sect generally regarded as fictitious).

The 1930 election was a disaster for Heinrich Brüning's centre-right government, which was now deprived of a majority in the Reichstag. The Dargaud cartoon character Léonard by Turk and De Groot. The urban working classes generally ignored Hitler's appeals (Berlin and the Ruhr towns were particularly hostile). Terry Pratchett's character Leonard of Quirm is a pastiche of Leonardo. Hitler appealed to the bulk of German farmers, war veterans and the middle-class who had been hard-hit by both the inflation of the 1920s and the unemployment of the Depression. In the mainstream DC Universe, according to "Secret Origins" #27, Leonardo is an ancestor of the famed Freemason Cagliostro, as well as Zatara and Zatanna who are both magicians (in the Magic (illusion) and Magic (paranormal) senses) and Superheroes. While the Social Democrats and traditional parties of the centre and right were unable to cope with the shock of the Depression, in the September 1930 elections the Nazis suddenly rose from relative obscurity to win 18.3% of the vote along with 107 seats in the Reichstag, becoming the second largest party in Germany. DC Comics's Vertigo division published a twelve-issue miniseries about Leonardo and his apprentice Salai, entitled "Chiaroscuro: The Private Life of Leonardo da Vinci.".

The democratic Weimar Republic established in 1919 had never been accepted by conservatives and was openly opposed by fascists. The DC Comics Elseworlds story Black Masterpiece, in Batman Annual #18 shows Leonardo's apprentice becoming a Renaissance Batman, using the Master's devices in his war on Florentine crime. The political turning point for Hitler came when the Depression hit Germany in 1930. Dann has his genius protagonist actually create his flying machine. See also the Weimar Timeline.. The novel The Memory Cathedral by Jack Dann is a fictional account of a "lost year" in the life of Leonardo. He owed the German government 405,000 Reichmarks (equivalent to $8 million at 2004 exchange rates) by the time he took power and the tax debt was forgiven. The novel Pasquale's Angel by Paul McAuley, set in an alternate universe Florence, portrays Leonardo as "the Great Engineer", creating a premature industrial revolution (see clockpunk).

In 2004, it was discovered that Hitler had spent years evading taxes on income from sales of Mein Kampf. Theodore Mathieson's short story "Leonardo Da Vinci: Detective" portrays him using his genius to solve a murder during his time in France. In restoring the party organisation, Hitler asserted the Führerprinzip, or unquestioning obedience to superiors, with all power and authority devolving from the top down -- consistent with his well-documented statements of disdain for democracy, which he considered an unstable and dangerous form of government. Leonardo also appears as a character in several Doctor Who novels. The party learned quickly and soon a more subtle propaganda emerged, combining anti-Semitism with an attack on the failures of the "Weimar system" and the parties supporting it. The Doctor goes back in time to visit Leonardo's workshop and claims to be an old acquaintance of the artist. Most Germans bitterly resented these terms but early Nazi attempts to gain support by blaming these humiliations on "international Jewry" were not particularly successful with the electorate. The 1979 Doctor Who story City of Death features a theft of the Mona Lisa.

Germany had lost economically important territory in Europe along with its colonies and in admitting to sole responsibility for the war had agreed to pay a huge reparations bill totaling $6,600,000 (32 billion marks). Da Vinci (NCC-81623), a Saber-class vessel, named for the artist. A key element of Hitler's appeal was his ability to convey a sense of offended national pride caused by the Treaty of Versailles imposed on the defeated German Empire by the Allies. (Starfleet Corps of Engineers) novels, the main starship of the series is called the U.S.S. By this time the Nazi party had dwindled and Hitler began a long effort to rebuild it. Also, in the S.C.E. Meanwhile, as he was considered relatively harmless, Hitler was given an early amnesty and was released in December 1924. Actor James Daly played Flint / Leonardo in Star Trek: The Original Series, while John Rhys-Davies portrayed Leonardo in Star Trek Voyager.

The first volume, called "Abrechnung" (payback), was later published and became the platform of the Nazi party (by the late 1930s nearly every household in Germany had a copy of it). Leonardo appears again in the Star Trek universe, in the series Star Trek Voyager, where his workshop is created as a holographic simulation. While at Landsberg he dictated his political book Mein Kampf (My Struggle) to his deputy Rudolf Hess. Leonardo's abilities and knowledge are thus attributed to centuries of scientific and artistic study. For the crime of conspiracy to commit treason Hitler was sentenced to five years' imprisonment at Landsberg prison where he received favoured treatment from the guards and had much fan mail from admirers. In the Star Trek: Original Series episode "Requiem for Methuselah", Leonardo da Vinci is revealed to be one of many aliases to "Flint", an immortal man born in the year 3834 BC. He was given almost unlimited amounts of time to present his arguments to the court along with a large body of the German people and his popularity soared when he voiced basic nationalistic sentiments shared by the public. Bacchus (1515) – Louvre, Paris, France.

During Hitler's trial in April 1924 sympathetic conservative magistrates allowed Hitler to turn his debacle into a propaganda stunt. 1514) – Louvre, Paris, France. He was soon arrested for high treason and appointed Alfred Rosenberg as temporary leader of the party but found himself in an environment somewhat receptive to his beliefs. John the Baptist (c. Hitler fled to the home of friends and contemplated suicide. St. During the night, they had prepared the resistance against the coup and in the morning, when the Nazis marched from the beer hall to the Bavarian War Ministry, to overthrow Bavaria's government - traitors in their eyes - as the first step on their "March on Berlin", the army quickly dispersed them. 1510) – Louvre, Paris, France.

Unknown to him, Kahr and the other detainees had been released on orders of Ludendorff after having given their word not to interfere. Anne (c. The surprised Hitler then had them arrested and proceeded with the coup. The Virgin and Child with St. However, on November 8, 1923, Kahr and the military withdrew their support during a meeting in the Bürgerbräu beer hall. Leda and the Swan (1508) - (Only copies survive – best-known example in Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy). As posters show, Ludendorff, Hitler and two Bavarian leading militaries were thought to form a new government. The Madonna of the Rocks or The Virgin of the Rocks (1508) – National Gallery, London, UK.

Hitler and Ludendorff also got the clandestine support of Gustav von Kahr, Bavaria's right-wing de-facto ruler, and the Bavarian divisions of the Reichswehr. Mona Lisa or La Gioconda (1503-1505/1506) – Louvre, Paris, France. His aim was to emulate Mussolini's "March on Rome" by a "March on Berlin", but later this abortive coup was known as the "Hitler Putsch". 1499-1500) – National Gallery, London, UK. Encouraged by this early support, Hitler decided to use Ludendorff as a front in an attempt to seize power in the turbulent year 1923. John the Baptist (c. At that time, wartime General Erich Ludendorff associated with him. Anne and St.

He also attracted the attention of local business interests and was accepted into influential circles of Munich society. The Virgin and Child with St. Early followers included Rudolf Hess, the former air force pilot Hermann Göring, and the flamboyant army captain Ernst Röhm, who became head of the Nazis' paramilitary organisation, the SA, which protected meetings and attacked political opponents. Maria delle Grazie, Milan, Italy. Hitler's beer hall oratory, attacking Jews, socialists and liberals, capitalists and communists, began attracting adherents. Last Supper (1498) – Convent of Sta. He soon became its leader and changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP), usually known as the Nazi party. La belle Ferronière (1495-1498) – Louvre, Paris, France.

Petersburg Times, 1999 (accessed June 11, 2005); Karen Silverstrim, "Overlooked Millions: Non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust," University of Central Arkansas (accessed June 11, 2005). ^  "11-million perished," St. ^  "How many Jews were murdered in the Holocaust? How do we know? Do we have their names?," from FAQs About The Holocaust, Yad Vashem (accessed June 11, 2005); "The Holocaust," Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (accessed June 11, 2005). ^  Adolf Hitler and Volkswagen, Hitler Historical Museum, 1999 (accessed June 11, 2005).