Rise Of Hitler
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Rise of Hitler
As we know from our history books the era surrounding WWII was a gruesome time for Germany and all over the world. In Germany however the Nazis have taken over and are implementing their control all over. They forced shops to close, controlled newspapers, and the radio. How was this possible? How could one man, Adolph Hitler lead one of the nastiest movements the world has ever seen? Hitler took advantage while Germany was down; suffering from the losses it gained in WWI and eventually the hard times during the depression. It was the fall of the Weimar Republic that allowed Hitler to slide in.
When World War I ended Germany had suffered defeat. Many thought that this meant liberal democracy in Europe was saved. They were right for a short while. In Germany the monarchy collapsed and the Social Democrats (SPD) came to power. A new constitution was created in the city of Weimar in 1919, hence the Weimar Republic. During this republic Germany had a history of problems. Things were not looking very bright for the citizens.
Some problems the Weimar Republic had were frequently changing cabinets and party coalitions, civil disagreements, and economic and political problems. Reparations also had to be made by Germany to pay for the war debts it caused as said in the Treaty of Versailles. From the years 1925 to 1929 Germany found relatively good stability until 1930 when the Great Depression began.
During the depression Europe as a whole faced many challenges from each side of the political spectrum and democracy was questioned everywhere. Since the Weimar Republic was already weak it was facing many obstacles. With all the reparations being paid and money being scarce because of the depression, inflation became a huge problem for the republic and this had to do with French occupation of German cities to help force reparation payments. Another growing problem was the uncontrollable economic fluctuations. Citizens also became a problem because of job losses and high widespread unemployment. This struggle often cause citizens to clash between their social classes as each were trying to survive in this mixed up world.
The whole time the Weimar Republic was struggling for success the young Army Corporal with military decorations named Adolph Hitler was rising with success. He joined the Germans Workers party as its fifty- fifth member but wasted no time become its leader in February of 1920 and he renamed it the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). With Hitler frustrated over the loss in the war and the continuing thinking that the republic was in place because of the Allied forces, Hitler tried to gain power by walking in on a nationalists rally and declaring himself the leader, but that did not work. He did not have enough man power behind him to make it happen so he decided to cancel his other plans at a meeting held in Munich. During this announcement police ordered the group to disperse and when the didnt comply a shootout began and Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison for the deaths of sixteen Nazis and 3 policemen. After his release Hitler began to again start his quest as becoming Germanys leader.
Adolph Hitler learned from his previous experience and decided this time he would take over Germany legally. When he founded the NSDAP he wanted to create a party that would be able to generate tons of supporters. He wanted to be able to connect with a different variety of social groups. To gain even more support the Nazis program was founded and it contained different stipulations such as restricting the right of Jews, wanting a greater German Reich, demanded censorship of the press, and told members to put the common interest of the group ahead of individual interests. Dismantling Germanys Jewish community was Hitlers next big idea. He managed to start the movement against the Jews by blaming the economic problems on the Jews because many of them owned small businesses and he also said that democracy and socialism were Jewish conspiracies. These false statements helped Hitler gain a tremendous about of support against the government and also against the Jewish citizens. As his number of followers continued to grow did his resentment toward Jews and he began stating to the public that the Jews should be eliminated from the German life.
As well as the Nazis regime was doing, bad times lurked around the corner for them. During the 1932 presidential election in Germany the Nazi party grew from 100,000 in 1928 to over 1 million members in 1932. With this support Hitler attempted to gain presidency and in the first election soon to be president Hindenburg did not receive a majority of the votes, but in the run off he won 53 per cent of the vote while Hitler had earned 37 per cent and communist candidate Ernst Thalmann had 10 per cent. Opportunities struck again once more for the Nazi regime in 1932 as they had another chance to ruin the parliamentary system. In July 1932 Germany held its Reichstag elections, the SPD were hoping the elections would show outrage against the ouster of the SPD government in Prussia. However at the end of the elections the SPD members were not too happy with the final results. After the elections the largest party in the Reichstag now belonged to the Nazis regime with 37.4 per cent of the votes and the SPD declining to 21.6 per cent. Most of the Nazis votes came from Germanys social middle class. This election once again helped Hitler gain even more support as the Democrats and other parties shifted themselves to be more right winged to try to save themselves during the economic crisis. By doing so this also encouraged the parties followers to do the same and many disgruntled voters shifted to the well organized and highly attractive Nazi party? Nazis were now able to gain votes from virtually all social classes except those loyal to Marxism or Catholicism.
With Germany in political and economic distress, and the thought of a civil war on President Hindenburgs mind he appointed Adolph Hitler as chancellor in 1933. President Hindenburg felt that the only way Germany could be restored politically and economically was to bring in a powerful man from a party with many supporters. He also wanted Hitler to stop the rise of the ever increasing communist party in Germany also. Now with Hitler where he wanted to be he can start turning in the country into the country he always wanted it to be. A pure German nation!
As Chancellor, Hitler could now attempt to make Germany what he wanted it to be. He started by asking the President to have a new election in the Reichstag. By doing this the Nazis had the opportunity to gain the majority in the Reichstag which would give them power to change the constitution.