Essay About National Socialist German Workers Party And Nazis Muscular Opposition

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Nazism and World War II
The National Socialist German Workers Party almost died one
morning in 1919. It numbered only a few dozen grumblers it had no
organization and no political ideas. But many among the middle class
admired the Nazis muscular opposition to the Social Democrats. And
the Nazis themes of patriotism and militarism drew highly emotional
responses from people who could not forget Germanys prewar imperial
grandeur.
In the national elections of September 1930, the Nazis garnered
nearly 6.5 million votes and became second only to the Social
Democrats as the most popular party in Germany. In Northeim, where in
1928 Nazi candidates had received 123 votes, they now polled 1,742, a
respectable 28 percent of the total. The nationwide success drew even
faster in just three years, party membership would rise from about
100,000 to almost a million, and the number of local branches would
increase tenfold. The new members included working-class people,
farmers, and middle-class professionals. They were both better
educated and younger then the Old Fighters, who had been the backbone
of the party during its first decade. The Nazis now presented
themselves as the party of the young, the strong, and the pure, in
opposition to an establishment populated by the elderly, the weak, and
the dissolute. Hitler was born in a small town in Austria in 1889. As
a young boy, he showed little ambition. After dropping out of high
school, he moved to Vienna to study art, but he was denied the chance
to join Vienna academy of fine arts.
When WWI broke out, Hitler joined Kaiser Wilhelmers army as a
Corporal. He was not a person of great importance. He was a creature
of a Germany created by WWI, and his behavior was shaped by that war
and its consequences. He had emerged from Austria with many
prejudices, including a powerful prejudice against Jews. Again, he was
a product of his times for many Austrians and Germans were
prejudiced against the Jews.
In Hitlers case the prejudice had become maniacal it was a
dominant force in his private and political personalities.
Anti-Semitism was not a policy for Adolf Hitler–it was religion. And
in the Germany of the 1920s, stunned by defeat, and the ravages of the
Versailles treaty, it was not hard for a leader to convince millions
that one element of the nations society was responsible for most of
the evils heaped upon it. The fact is that Hitlers anti-Semitism was
self-inflicted obstacle to his political success. The Jews, like other
Germans, were shocked by the discovery that the war had not been
fought to a standstill, as they were led to believe in November 1918,
but that Germany had , in fact, been defeated and was to be treated as
a vanquished country. Had Hitler not embarked on his policy of disestablishing the Jews as Germans, and later of exterminating them
in Europe, he could have counted on their loyalty. There is no reason
to believe anything else. On the evening of November 8, 1923, Wyuke
Vavaruab State Cinnussuiber Gustav Rutter von Kahr was making a
political speech in Munichs sprawling BļrgerbrĤukeller, some 600
Nazis and right-wing sympathizers surrounded the beer hall. Hitler
burst into the building and leaped onto a table, brandishing a
revolver and firing a shot into the ceiling. “The National
Revolution,” he cried, “has begun!” At that point, informed that
fighting had broken out in another part of the city, Hitler rushed to
that scene. His prisoners were allowed to leave, and they talked about
organizing defenses against the Nazi coup. Hitler was of course
furious. And he was far from finished. At about 11 oclock on the
morning of November 9–the anniversary of the founding of the German
Republic in 1919–3,000 Hitler partisans again gathered outside the
BļrgerbrĤukeller.
To this day, no one knows who fired the first shot. But a shot
rang out, and it was followed by fusillades from both sides. Hermann
GĶring fell wounded in the thigh and both legs. Hitler flattened
himself against the pavement; he was unhurt. General Ludenorff
continued to march stolidly toward the police line, which parted to
let him pass through (he was later arrested, tried and acquitted).
Behind him, 16 Nazis and three policemen lay sprawled dead among the
many wounded. The next year, RĶhm and his band joined forces