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Born to ethnic German parents in Tallinn, Estonia, he studied architecture at the Riga Technical Institute and engineering at Moscow University; completing his PhD studies in 1917. During the Russian Revolution he supported the counter-revolutionaries and following their failure Rosenberg emigrated to Germany in 1918. Rosenberg was one of the earliest members of the German Workers Party (later the National Socialist German Workers Party), joining in January 1919; Hitler did not join until October 1919.

Rosenberg became editor of the Völkischer Beobachter (National Observer), the Nazi party newspaper, in 1921. In 1923, after the failed Beer Hall PutschThe Beer Hall Putsch ( German Hitlerputsch occurred in the evening of Thursday, November 8 to early afternoon of Friday, November 9, 1923 when the nascent Nazi party's Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, the popular World War I General Erich Ludendorff, and other leader, Hitler appointed Rosenberg leader of the Nazi Party; a position the latter occupied until Hitler was released from prison. Though Rosenberg was probably flattered by being chosen, Hitler remarked privately in later years his choice was strategic; based more on Rosenberg's weak personality and lack of self-motivation than anything else. Hitler did not want the temporary leader of the Nazi party to be a very popular or power-hungry man, as a person with either of the two qualities might not want to cede the party leadership after Hitler's release.

In 1929, Rosenberg founded the Militant League for German Culture. He became a ReichstagThe term Reichstag (in English: Imperial Diet) is a composition of German Reich (Empire) and tag (which does not mean "day" here, but is a derivate of the verb tagen which means assembling for debate). The Latin term, a direct translation, was curia imper deputy in 1930 and published his book on racial theoryThe master race ( German: Herrenrasse, Herrenvolk is a concept in Nazi ideology, which holds that the Germanic and Nordic people represent an ideal and "pure race". It derives from nineteenth century racial theory, which posited a hierarchy of "races" pla Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts. He was named leader of the foreign political office of the NSDAP in 1933 but played little actual part. In January 1934 he was deputized by Hitler as responsible for the spiritual and philosophical education of the NSDAP and all related organizations. In 1940 he was made head of the Hohe Schule (literally "high school"), the Centre of National Socialistic Ideological and Educational Research. Following the invasion of the USSRThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR ( Russian: ; tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik (SSSR) also called the Soviet Union ( ; tr. Sovetsky Soyuz , was a state in much of the northern region of Eurasia that existed from 1922 until 1 Rosenberg was appointed head of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories. Alfred MeyerAlfred Meyer ( October 5, 1891 April 11, 1945) was a Nazi official, achieving the rank of Staatssekretar and Deputy Reichsminister in the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories Reichministerium fur die Besetzten Ostgebiete or Ostministerium . was his deputy and represented him at the Wannsee conferenceThe Wannsee conference was the discussion by a group of Nazi officials about the "final solution of the Jewish question" Endlosung der Judenfrage . It took place on January 20, 1942 in the Wannsee Villa overlooking the Wannsee lake in southwestern Berlin. Another official of the Ministry, Georg LeibbrandtGeorg Leibbrandt ( September 5, 1899 June 16, 1982) was a scholar and politician in the Nazi Party. Born to ethnic German parents in Torosovo (also called Hoffnungsfeld), near Odessa, in the Zebrikovo district of the Ukraine. It is probable, during his li, also attended the conference, at Rosenberg's request.

Rosenberg was captured by Allied troops at the end of the war. He was tried at Nuremberg and found guilty of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace; planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression; war-crimes; crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to death and executed with other guilty co-defendants at Nuremberg on the morning of October 16, 1946.

He is considered the main author of key Nazi ideological tenets, including the theory of racism, Lebensraum, abolition of the Versailles Treaty, and persecution of the Jews and Christian churches.

Rosenberg was married twice. He married his first wife, Hilda Leesmann, in 1915; after eight years of marriage, they divorced in 1923. He married his second wife, Hedwig Kramer, in 1925; the marriage lasted until his death. He and Kramer had two children; a son, who died in infancy, and a daughter, Irene; who was born in 1930. His daughter has, in the past, refused contact with anyone seeking information about her father.