It was he who opened the veins of the Bloody Century, an epoch that has seen mayhem on a scale unimagined for centuries before. And while the Reich lasted 12 years rather than 1,000, its spores still survive and multiply.
Freedom is the century's most powerful idea, but the struggle is far from over.
If impact were measured only in number of lives lost, one argument goes, Hitler would fall behind his fellow despots, Stalin and Mao. There are those who insist that Hitler is not the century's dominant figure because he was simply the latest in a long line of murderous figures, stretching back to before Genghis Khan. And then there is the problem of impact. How many divisions does the Pope have, Stalin asked. Making body counts the ultimate measure of influence precludes the possibility of heroic sacrifice, a single death that inspires countless others to live their lives differently, a young man in front of a column of tanks near Tiananmen Square.