Hitler's Rise To Power Research Paper
Hitler’s Rise to Power
By: --
Instructor’s Name: --
Class: HST ---– The Second World War
Due Date: May XX, 2013
Word Count: 2742
Post World War One, Germany was deemed as the primary target of the Allies and was blamed for the destruction to the countries involving during the war. The sequence of events, from the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 to the Fall of Weimar Republic in 1933, led to the rise of a powerful force to be reckoned with, Adolf Hitler, the future Führer of Germany. This paper will focus on the overall importance of the Treaty of Versailles and the Wall Street crash of October 1929 in Hitler’s rise of power …show more content…
in Germany following the World War One.1 Additionally, the views of historians will be explained regarding the aforementioned factors as well as the situational and ideological factors that may have contributed to the rise of Adolf Hitler.
Following World War One, Germany suffered an overwhelming blow from the extreme measures taken by the Allies. The Treaty of Versailles, presided by the Great Britain, United States, and France, was purported as a peace treaty under the Paris Peace Conference in 1919.2 However, the Treaty of Versailles was far from being impartial. Alma Luckau mentions that the treaty forced Germany to accept the terms, focused on bringing Germany down, unconditionally affecting the Germans politically, socially and economically.3 Under Article 231, Germany was blamed for causing the war and was forced to pay heavy reparations for the damage done during the war, later known as the ‘War Guilt Clause’.4 Germany was restricted from having any air force or submarines and were limited to a navy of only six battleships, and an army comprising just 100,000 men.5 The area next to France, 50 kilometers wide strip of land on the east side of the River Rhine, known as the Rhineland, was deemed as a demilitarized zone banning German troops from entering the region for the next 15 years.6
In addition, Germany was forcefully stripped-off of all its colonies and territories. Under the Treaty of Versailles, much of Germany’s European territories were distributed amongst various countries. West Prussia, Province of Posen, and Upper Silesia were given to Poland; Alsace, Lorraine, and Northern part of West Prussia were given to France; Northern Scheleswig were given to Denmark; Hultschin was given to Czechoslovakia; Eupen and Malmedy were given to Belgium; Saar Basin was given to League of Nations for 15 years; and Austria was denied from assimilating with Germany.7 On analysis of the Treaty of Versailles, it is difficult to disagree that the war guilt clause, levying of reparations, territorial and military restrictive covenants were appropriate. Besides, the Allies aimed at weakening Germany rather than promoting peace. According to Ray Stannard Baker, the denial of the amalgamation of Austria and Germany was unjustified as it was against the Allied policy of self-determination, peace, and cooperation.8
For the German population, the Treaty of Versailles was completely unfair and unreasonable. After the installation of a democratic regime in Germany, John Snell argues that the democratic republicans felt that the new German republic was facing the consequences of the blunders committed by Kaiser Wilhelm II’s government.9 According to Snell’s research, many historians state that the Treaty of Versailles helped to dishonor the newly installed democracy in Germany in the 1920s and provided the Nazis an exceptional propaganda scheme against it.10 Furthermore, the degree of nationalism amongst the German population was at an unprecedented high following the Treaty of Versailles.11 Capitalizing on this opportunity, the Nazis propagated the belief that subsequent to the Versailles Treaty, Germany was bordered by inimical powers and needed a strong and charismatic leader, like Adolf Hitler, to regain its earlier position in the geopolitical scene post World War One.12 However, the success of Nazism and Hitler cannot be entirely attributed to the Versailles Treaty. By 1933, the Treaty of Versailles had been altered and as a result, the military occupation concluded five years in advance and the reparations had been cancelled in 1932.13 Therefore, the Treaty of Versailles was not a crucial factor in the rise to power of Hitler.
However, Hitler possessed few characteristics that no one in the world had: Propaganda. Hitler’s skill as a propagandist has been a significant factor that led to his popularity. Hitler’s personality, his vision, his strategy and his propaganda skills have been acknowledged by various historians as another reason for Hitler’s success.14 Unquestionably, when it came to strategy and propaganda, Hitler’s aptitude in this field was unsurpassed in history. After the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler was smart enough to appeal to the Germans and targeted the political emotion of national persecution and the feeling of nation-wide insecurity.15 Hitler garnered support by overshadowing the German inferiority complex by deeming Germans as the superior race.16 To reinforce the national strength, Hitler insisted that Germany must be turned into a police state that would combat the wrath of communism and must acquire land by expanding into the central and western part of Europe.17 Hitler focused on the theory of Lebensraum, free space for the Germans, and wanted to invade territory in Eastern Europe for colonization that would help Germany solve their ever growing population and economic issues.18
Hitler is well renowned for his oratory skills and knew how to address the masses. According to Snell, “Not only in what Hitler said but in the way he said it, he proved himself to be a master demagogue”.19 Hitler’s every speech had his trademark characteristics of starting in a mellow tone of voice, then rising to a sharp pitch, occasionally screaming on top of his lungs, evoking emotions out of his audience, followed by a patch of rationalism, and eventually resorting to a highly passionate and loud tone of speech.20 Snell rightly says, “He [Hitler] thus played on German emotions like a master violinist evoking a great range of response from a sensitive instrument”.21 The prudently presented large scale histrionics of the gaudy red Nazi flags, the uniformed army and the martial tunes heightened the impact of Hitler’s petitions to the Germans at large.22
Additionally, a major reason to the rise in popularity of Hitler, under the Nazi system, was the policies introduced under which the economy of Germany flourished. The Nazi regime prioritized the issue of unemployment to the top and took measures to rectify it.23 In Hitler’s very first public address through radio, after being appointed as the Chancellor of Germany, he mentioned, “the misery of our people is horrible, to the hungry unemployed millions of industrial workers is added the impoverishment...if this decay also finally finishes off the German farmers we will face a catastrophe of incalculable size”.24 The programs for the German masses helped decrease unemployment manifolds and the public-works programs built motorways, residences, railways and different navigation assignments.25 According to Temin, the unemployment in Germany between 1932 and 1938 plummeted from a whopping thirty percent to a mere two percent.26 As compared to other countries during the mid-1930s, Germany’s feat was quite dramatic as other countries were simply not able to replicate what Germany did, with unemployment in the United States dropping by five percent.27 The success in the economic sector in Germany is an important factor and it is the reason due to which Hitler and the Nazis were able to execute their plans along with the German support. This success led the Germans to believe that Hitler knew what was best for them and their country.
However, in 1928, even after a period of nine years of being the leader of the Nationalist Socialist party, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party were nor a great success neither very popular amongst the majority of the German population. During the 1928 elections of the Weimar Republic, the point where Weimar Republic was at its peak, the Nazi party garnered downwards of only three percent of the German vote.28 The Nazi party earned just twelve seats out of 491 in the German parliament.29 In comparison, the German voters backed the democratic-republican political parties due to their relatively effective foreign policy and the economic advancements.30 Till this time, the Nazi party was not successful and clearly there is something that is missing which would lead to the Nazi party to turn into the most popular movement in Germany. The turning point in the history of Nazis came when they got 107 seats in the German parliament during the 1930 Weimar Republic elections.31 Moreover, this number kept on increasing as the Nazis won 230 seats in the 1932 elections where the party garnered thirty seven percent of the German votes.32 After Hitler being the leader of the most successful and the biggest party in Germany, Marshal Paul Von Hindenburg, the president of the German Reich, appointed Adolf Hitler as the Chancellor of Germany in 1933.33
Something radical had happened after 1928 to make this possible. What had happened was not uniquely German. In 1930, Germany had felt the wrath of the Great Depression of the Western World, leaving one-tenth of its population unemployed by 1932.34 The Great Depression played a fundamental role in the collapse of the economy of Europe. Prior to the Great Depression, the European economy was booming and was looking very stable with peace being foreseeable in the near future. However, the Great Depression was one-of-its-kind as it affected all individuals directly, regardless of nation or social class. No event, including the world wars, had been as pervasive as the Great Depression that affected the entire world simultaneously.35 During the Great Depression, six million Germans were left unemployed which was a rapid turnaround from the positivism experienced in the 1920 's.36 It was this factor that more than anything else brought Hitler and the Nazis the votes of the German people and put them into the German Cabinet in January 1933.37 The depression made the German people desperate and irrational in their economic and political thinking. Millions who had supported the democratic republic in 1928 now found it incapable of coping with the depression.38 Germans who had laughed at Hitler in 1928 now saw in him a prophet and a savior. Now, aristocratic and small farmers, industrialists, bankers, small businessmen, German Catholics, Protestants started to support Hitler.39 Moreover, German Socialists, Communists, and even some Jews believed that Hitler would either be controlled by responsibility or shown up as a total failure in office.40 The Communists thought they would then profit after Hitler had made a worse mess of things.41 Moreover, the democratic trade unions, which probably would have fought the Nazis in a great general strike in better times, were crippled by the depression.42
Policies laid out by European leaders, specifically the Chancellor of Germany from 1930 to 1932 Heinrich Bruning, had failed to inspire public confidence, while despair and crisis consumed the nation.43 The policies of tightening of credit and the rollback of wage and salary increases led to higher unemployment in Germany making Bruning highly unpopular. 44 It did not help matters when Bruning stated “according to our estimation, the crisis will last about four or five years more”.45 The interpretation of the events is important as it paves the way for Hitler and the rise of the Nazis. Though a solid majority of the German people still did not vote for the Nazis, thirty seven percent was their top success in a free election, enough were ready to turn to Hitler in the depression to elevate him to office.46 He and his followers knew how to keep power and convert it into tyranny once they got their hands on it. It appears that complex explanations of Hitler 's rise can be put aside in favor of a simple one: the depression brought Hitler to power.47 Without the Great Depression, a radical change would not have been called for in Germany.
In conclusion, Hitler attacked the Treaty of Versailles as an excuse to promote anti-semitism, anti-communism, anti-capitalism and pan-Germanism.
Churchill framed it perfectly when he said “into the void after a pause there strode a maniac of a ferocious genius, the repository and expression of the most virulent hatreds that have ever corroded the human breasts - Corporal Hitler”.48 The Nazis used any opportunity to promote German racial superiority and promote the extinction of Jews and all races that stood before them and their conquest of the continent. Hitler epitomized the ideologies of the Nazis and he knew how to mesmerize large crowds with his charismatic speeches. Ultimately, The Great Depression led to the rise of Hitler, who in turn did not stop until the World War broke out on the continent and eventually the …show more content…
world.
Bibliography
Baker, R. S. "The Versailles Treaty and After." Current History 88, no. 534 (01, 1989):
20.
Bell, P.M.H.
The Origins of Modern Wars, (Harlow: Pearson Education Inc.).
Darby, Graham. "HITLER 'S RISE AND WEIMAR 'S DEMISE." History Review. no. 67
(September 2010): 42-48. Historical Abstracts, EBSCOhost.
Garraty, John A. "The New Deal, National Socialism, and the Great Depression," The
American Historical Review, 78, no. 4 (1973): 907-944.
Gurian, Waldemar. "The Sources of Hitler 's Power." The Review of Politics. no. 4 (1942):
379-408. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1404164.
Luckau, A. "UNCONDITIONAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES
BY THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT, JUNE 22-28, 1919." The Journal of Modern History, 17, no. 3 (1945): 215-220
Orlow, Dietrich. "The Historiography of the Decline of Bruning and the Rise of the
Nazis: Comment and Review Article." Central European History (Brill Academic Publishers). 17, no. 1 (March 1984): 63. Historical Abstracts, EBSCOhost.
Snell, John L. "HITLER 'S SUCCESS AS A CASE STUDY IN INTERPRETING
HISTORY." History Teacher. 1, no. 2 (February 1968): 22-28. Historical Abstracts, EBSCOhost.
Temin, Peter. "Socialism and Wages in the Recovery from the Great Depression in the
United States and Germany," The Journal of Economic History, 50, no. 2 (1990):
297-307.
"Treaty of Versailles, 1919." Treaty Of Versailles, 1919 (January 18, 2009): 1. Academic
Search Premier, EBSCOhost.
By: --
Instructor’s Name: --
Class: HST ---– The Second World War
Due Date: May XX, 2013
Word Count: 2742
Post World War One, Germany was deemed as the primary target of the Allies and was blamed for the destruction to the countries involving during the war. The sequence of events, from the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 to the Fall of Weimar Republic in 1933, led to the rise of a powerful force to be reckoned with, Adolf Hitler, the future Führer of Germany. This paper will focus on the overall importance of the Treaty of Versailles and the Wall Street crash of October 1929 in Hitler’s rise of power …show more content…
in Germany following the World War One.1 Additionally, the views of historians will be explained regarding the aforementioned factors as well as the situational and ideological factors that may have contributed to the rise of Adolf Hitler.
Following World War One, Germany suffered an overwhelming blow from the extreme measures taken by the Allies. The Treaty of Versailles, presided by the Great Britain, United States, and France, was purported as a peace treaty under the Paris Peace Conference in 1919.2 However, the Treaty of Versailles was far from being impartial. Alma Luckau mentions that the treaty forced Germany to accept the terms, focused on bringing Germany down, unconditionally affecting the Germans politically, socially and economically.3 Under Article 231, Germany was blamed for causing the war and was forced to pay heavy reparations for the damage done during the war, later known as the ‘War Guilt Clause’.4 Germany was restricted from having any air force or submarines and were limited to a navy of only six battleships, and an army comprising just 100,000 men.5 The area next to France, 50 kilometers wide strip of land on the east side of the River Rhine, known as the Rhineland, was deemed as a demilitarized zone banning German troops from entering the region for the next 15 years.6
In addition, Germany was forcefully stripped-off of all its colonies and territories. Under the Treaty of Versailles, much of Germany’s European territories were distributed amongst various countries. West Prussia, Province of Posen, and Upper Silesia were given to Poland; Alsace, Lorraine, and Northern part of West Prussia were given to France; Northern Scheleswig were given to Denmark; Hultschin was given to Czechoslovakia; Eupen and Malmedy were given to Belgium; Saar Basin was given to League of Nations for 15 years; and Austria was denied from assimilating with Germany.7 On analysis of the Treaty of Versailles, it is difficult to disagree that the war guilt clause, levying of reparations, territorial and military restrictive covenants were appropriate. Besides, the Allies aimed at weakening Germany rather than promoting peace. According to Ray Stannard Baker, the denial of the amalgamation of Austria and Germany was unjustified as it was against the Allied policy of self-determination, peace, and cooperation.8
For the German population, the Treaty of Versailles was completely unfair and unreasonable. After the installation of a democratic regime in Germany, John Snell argues that the democratic republicans felt that the new German republic was facing the consequences of the blunders committed by Kaiser Wilhelm II’s government.9 According to Snell’s research, many historians state that the Treaty of Versailles helped to dishonor the newly installed democracy in Germany in the 1920s and provided the Nazis an exceptional propaganda scheme against it.10 Furthermore, the degree of nationalism amongst the German population was at an unprecedented high following the Treaty of Versailles.11 Capitalizing on this opportunity, the Nazis propagated the belief that subsequent to the Versailles Treaty, Germany was bordered by inimical powers and needed a strong and charismatic leader, like Adolf Hitler, to regain its earlier position in the geopolitical scene post World War One.12 However, the success of Nazism and Hitler cannot be entirely attributed to the Versailles Treaty. By 1933, the Treaty of Versailles had been altered and as a result, the military occupation concluded five years in advance and the reparations had been cancelled in 1932.13 Therefore, the Treaty of Versailles was not a crucial factor in the rise to power of Hitler.
However, Hitler possessed few characteristics that no one in the world had: Propaganda. Hitler’s skill as a propagandist has been a significant factor that led to his popularity. Hitler’s personality, his vision, his strategy and his propaganda skills have been acknowledged by various historians as another reason for Hitler’s success.14 Unquestionably, when it came to strategy and propaganda, Hitler’s aptitude in this field was unsurpassed in history. After the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler was smart enough to appeal to the Germans and targeted the political emotion of national persecution and the feeling of nation-wide insecurity.15 Hitler garnered support by overshadowing the German inferiority complex by deeming Germans as the superior race.16 To reinforce the national strength, Hitler insisted that Germany must be turned into a police state that would combat the wrath of communism and must acquire land by expanding into the central and western part of Europe.17 Hitler focused on the theory of Lebensraum, free space for the Germans, and wanted to invade territory in Eastern Europe for colonization that would help Germany solve their ever growing population and economic issues.18
Hitler is well renowned for his oratory skills and knew how to address the masses. According to Snell, “Not only in what Hitler said but in the way he said it, he proved himself to be a master demagogue”.19 Hitler’s every speech had his trademark characteristics of starting in a mellow tone of voice, then rising to a sharp pitch, occasionally screaming on top of his lungs, evoking emotions out of his audience, followed by a patch of rationalism, and eventually resorting to a highly passionate and loud tone of speech.20 Snell rightly says, “He [Hitler] thus played on German emotions like a master violinist evoking a great range of response from a sensitive instrument”.21 The prudently presented large scale histrionics of the gaudy red Nazi flags, the uniformed army and the martial tunes heightened the impact of Hitler’s petitions to the Germans at large.22
Additionally, a major reason to the rise in popularity of Hitler, under the Nazi system, was the policies introduced under which the economy of Germany flourished. The Nazi regime prioritized the issue of unemployment to the top and took measures to rectify it.23 In Hitler’s very first public address through radio, after being appointed as the Chancellor of Germany, he mentioned, “the misery of our people is horrible, to the hungry unemployed millions of industrial workers is added the impoverishment...if this decay also finally finishes off the German farmers we will face a catastrophe of incalculable size”.24 The programs for the German masses helped decrease unemployment manifolds and the public-works programs built motorways, residences, railways and different navigation assignments.25 According to Temin, the unemployment in Germany between 1932 and 1938 plummeted from a whopping thirty percent to a mere two percent.26 As compared to other countries during the mid-1930s, Germany’s feat was quite dramatic as other countries were simply not able to replicate what Germany did, with unemployment in the United States dropping by five percent.27 The success in the economic sector in Germany is an important factor and it is the reason due to which Hitler and the Nazis were able to execute their plans along with the German support. This success led the Germans to believe that Hitler knew what was best for them and their country.
However, in 1928, even after a period of nine years of being the leader of the Nationalist Socialist party, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party were nor a great success neither very popular amongst the majority of the German population. During the 1928 elections of the Weimar Republic, the point where Weimar Republic was at its peak, the Nazi party garnered downwards of only three percent of the German vote.28 The Nazi party earned just twelve seats out of 491 in the German parliament.29 In comparison, the German voters backed the democratic-republican political parties due to their relatively effective foreign policy and the economic advancements.30 Till this time, the Nazi party was not successful and clearly there is something that is missing which would lead to the Nazi party to turn into the most popular movement in Germany. The turning point in the history of Nazis came when they got 107 seats in the German parliament during the 1930 Weimar Republic elections.31 Moreover, this number kept on increasing as the Nazis won 230 seats in the 1932 elections where the party garnered thirty seven percent of the German votes.32 After Hitler being the leader of the most successful and the biggest party in Germany, Marshal Paul Von Hindenburg, the president of the German Reich, appointed Adolf Hitler as the Chancellor of Germany in 1933.33
Something radical had happened after 1928 to make this possible. What had happened was not uniquely German. In 1930, Germany had felt the wrath of the Great Depression of the Western World, leaving one-tenth of its population unemployed by 1932.34 The Great Depression played a fundamental role in the collapse of the economy of Europe. Prior to the Great Depression, the European economy was booming and was looking very stable with peace being foreseeable in the near future. However, the Great Depression was one-of-its-kind as it affected all individuals directly, regardless of nation or social class. No event, including the world wars, had been as pervasive as the Great Depression that affected the entire world simultaneously.35 During the Great Depression, six million Germans were left unemployed which was a rapid turnaround from the positivism experienced in the 1920 's.36 It was this factor that more than anything else brought Hitler and the Nazis the votes of the German people and put them into the German Cabinet in January 1933.37 The depression made the German people desperate and irrational in their economic and political thinking. Millions who had supported the democratic republic in 1928 now found it incapable of coping with the depression.38 Germans who had laughed at Hitler in 1928 now saw in him a prophet and a savior. Now, aristocratic and small farmers, industrialists, bankers, small businessmen, German Catholics, Protestants started to support Hitler.39 Moreover, German Socialists, Communists, and even some Jews believed that Hitler would either be controlled by responsibility or shown up as a total failure in office.40 The Communists thought they would then profit after Hitler had made a worse mess of things.41 Moreover, the democratic trade unions, which probably would have fought the Nazis in a great general strike in better times, were crippled by the depression.42
Policies laid out by European leaders, specifically the Chancellor of Germany from 1930 to 1932 Heinrich Bruning, had failed to inspire public confidence, while despair and crisis consumed the nation.43 The policies of tightening of credit and the rollback of wage and salary increases led to higher unemployment in Germany making Bruning highly unpopular. 44 It did not help matters when Bruning stated “according to our estimation, the crisis will last about four or five years more”.45 The interpretation of the events is important as it paves the way for Hitler and the rise of the Nazis. Though a solid majority of the German people still did not vote for the Nazis, thirty seven percent was their top success in a free election, enough were ready to turn to Hitler in the depression to elevate him to office.46 He and his followers knew how to keep power and convert it into tyranny once they got their hands on it. It appears that complex explanations of Hitler 's rise can be put aside in favor of a simple one: the depression brought Hitler to power.47 Without the Great Depression, a radical change would not have been called for in Germany.
In conclusion, Hitler attacked the Treaty of Versailles as an excuse to promote anti-semitism, anti-communism, anti-capitalism and pan-Germanism.
Churchill framed it perfectly when he said “into the void after a pause there strode a maniac of a ferocious genius, the repository and expression of the most virulent hatreds that have ever corroded the human breasts - Corporal Hitler”.48 The Nazis used any opportunity to promote German racial superiority and promote the extinction of Jews and all races that stood before them and their conquest of the continent. Hitler epitomized the ideologies of the Nazis and he knew how to mesmerize large crowds with his charismatic speeches. Ultimately, The Great Depression led to the rise of Hitler, who in turn did not stop until the World War broke out on the continent and eventually the …show more content…
world.
Bibliography
Baker, R. S. "The Versailles Treaty and After." Current History 88, no. 534 (01, 1989):
20.
Bell, P.M.H.
The Origins of Modern Wars, (Harlow: Pearson Education Inc.).
Darby, Graham. "HITLER 'S RISE AND WEIMAR 'S DEMISE." History Review. no. 67
(September 2010): 42-48. Historical Abstracts, EBSCOhost.
Garraty, John A. "The New Deal, National Socialism, and the Great Depression," The
American Historical Review, 78, no. 4 (1973): 907-944.
Gurian, Waldemar. "The Sources of Hitler 's Power." The Review of Politics. no. 4 (1942):
379-408. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1404164.
Luckau, A. "UNCONDITIONAL ACCEPTANCE OF THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES
BY THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT, JUNE 22-28, 1919." The Journal of Modern History, 17, no. 3 (1945): 215-220
Orlow, Dietrich. "The Historiography of the Decline of Bruning and the Rise of the
Nazis: Comment and Review Article." Central European History (Brill Academic Publishers). 17, no. 1 (March 1984): 63. Historical Abstracts, EBSCOhost.
Snell, John L. "HITLER 'S SUCCESS AS A CASE STUDY IN INTERPRETING
HISTORY." History Teacher. 1, no. 2 (February 1968): 22-28. Historical Abstracts, EBSCOhost.
Temin, Peter. "Socialism and Wages in the Recovery from the Great Depression in the
United States and Germany," The Journal of Economic History, 50, no. 2 (1990):
297-307.
"Treaty of Versailles, 1919." Treaty Of Versailles, 1919 (January 18, 2009): 1. Academic
Search Premier, EBSCOhost.