Germany is marking the 80th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power with a solemn ceremony at a memorial site in what was the heart of Nazi Berlin.
Chancellor Angela Merkel is giving the keynote address Wednesday to open a new exhibit at the Topography of Terror memorial documenting Hitler’s democratic election, then ruthless consolidation of total power.
The memorial is built around the ruins of buildings where the Gestapo secret police, the SS and the Reich Security Main Office ran Hitler’s police state from 1933 to 1945.
After winning about a third of the vote in the 1932 elections, Hitler convinced ailing President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint him chancellor on Jan. 30, 1933 — setting Germany on the path to World War II and the Holocaust.
