It's the first half of the 20th century and Europe is a powder keg about to blow. In 1914, an assassination lights the fuse.
On June 28, 1914, at Sarajevo in Bosnia (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire), a Serb nationalist, a member of group called the Black Hand, assassinated Archduke Francis Ferdinand (heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne). At this point one would be wise to wonder as to the identity of the assassin. Is it only a coincidence that the temple of the Brotherhood of Nod is later found to reside in Sarajevo?
The assassination of the Archduke was the beginning of a war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia and eventually triggered a lurking conflict between the Central Powers, consisting of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria), and the Antanta Alliance (including Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy and later the United States of America).
On October 24, 1917, a revolution starts in Russia. As an outcome, the Russian Empire falls and a new state is created: the Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics, led by Vladimir Lenin. The USSR leaves the Antanta Alliance and requests a cease-fire with Germany and Austria-Hungary. This allowed Germany to reinforce its western front, but all the efforts of the Central Powers are useless. Eventually, the war ended on November 11, 1918, after the signing of an armistice.
The Central Powers emerged out of the war as the great loser. Austria-Hungary was split up and the German Empire was axed. The newly found German Weimar Republic was forced to pay large reparations to the duped Allied countries (in particular to France), and had to accept full sole responsibility for causing the war. This aroused intense nationalist bitterness among the Germans. To prevent a terrible war like this from ever happening again, the Allied Forces found the League of Nations, a predecessor of the United Nations.
In September 1919, Adolph Hitler, an Austrian-born German soldier, joins the German Workers' Party. In April 1920 he goes to work full-time for the party, now renamed National Socialistic German Workers' Party (NSDAP). In 1921 he becomes party chairman.
Hitler spreads a gospel of racial hatred and contempt for democracy, something that is very well received by the aggrieved German people. In November 1923 Hitler leads an uprising (the so-called Hitler-Putsch) against the Weimar Republic but due to the lack of military support the uprising collapses. Hitler was taken prisoner by the German authorities and sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment but is released in December 1924 as a result of general amnesty and heads of to Landsberg to rebuild his party.
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