This first episode follows Hitler's early years. A mediocre student pampered by his mother, a failed artist and a loner, Hitler shirked military service in 1913. But Germany's defeat in World War I turned him into a rabid nationalist who soon became the mouthpiece of a small far-right group. When galloping inflation overtook Germany in 1924, he attempted a coup with his paramilitary Storm Troopers, but it was a terrible failure. Lucky to survive, Hitler was imprisoned and wrote Mein Kampf in his cell. When he was released he restarted his quest for power, this time by legal means. But the Germans weren't worried; they still thought Hitler was just an irrelevant deluded crank on the margins of German politics...

The German economic crisis of 1929 provides an unexpected opportunity for Hitler. He and Goebbels orchestrate an ultramodern election campaign, while his Storm Troopers create violent disorder and bloody confrontations with Communists. Fear of 'the Red Peril' drives millions of Germans into Hitler's arms. The country's political elite, eager for the demise of the Republic, allow Hitler's rapid rise to power to continue, thinking they can control him. But he obtains a vote giving him full powers. The concentration camps open, and he persecutes his opponents and Jews. He says he wants peace, but he's preparing for war.