How Did The Treaty Of Versailles Contribute To The Rise Of Adolf Hitler

From 1920-1933, the world witnessed, and fell victim, to the rise of one of the recognizable, controversial, and sadistic men in human history, Adolf Hitler. A man who had fought in World War 1 for Germany after refusing to serve his home country of Austria-Hungary. It is well documented that Hitler was at the forefront of the Nazi Party that had solidified their position as the newly established Third Reich when Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933, as we discussed in class. What we are going to do is highlight key facets to the rise of Hitler in the thirteen years preceding the day of his appointment. We will start with the treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles became effective in January 1920; a document
that had dishonestly branded Germany as the sole cause of World War 1. While it has been misconstrued to be harsher than it truly was, i.e. the reparations question, it was certainly not a document that was meant to be assuaging towards Germany either. It was President Woodrow Wilson who stated that it was a war treaty and not a peace treaty, and that if the victorious allied powers went through with it, then there would be another war in 20 years (Hylander.) With the loss of its navy, the heavy reduction of its army, and loss of territories, the pride of the German people had been damaged greatly and as a result of this, Germany was a broken nation. Not only was Germany a defeated nation, but they were also treated like one, they were not even allowed to negotiate the terms of the treaty, they either had to take it or leave it. From 1919/1920 the treaty of Versailles was coming to fruition, another post World War 1 creation was the German Workers’ Party. The German Workers Party would be where Hitler received his initial platform for voicing his opinion. Hitler obviously lacked any morality, had drug problems, and was a man who believed in preposterous conspiracies. However, what made Hitler different from other narcissists of his time was that he possessed the ability to orate his ideas, in laymen’s terms; he had a true knack for public speaking. To understand the influence of his ability to voice his ideas, Anton Drexler formed the German Workers Party in 1919, and within a year, Hitler had risen to become its new leader. As the new leader, he would give it a fresh coat of paint by renaming the group the National Socialist German Workers’ Party.
What I am about to mention is the reason why I cited the Treaty of Versailles.
In the 21st century, we can obviously look back and see that the Treaty of Versailles was not this horrible document that vilified the German nation to the point of inexorable war in I939. However, one can make the case that the overall stench of defeat that had plagued the German nation as a result of this treaty did contribute to the rise of the Nazi Party. Not only did Hitler posses an innate ability to speak his ideas in a manner that could persuade others, but he also had an audience that had become heavily disgruntled with the regime in power. It is a recurring theme in history that when a populace either questions the legitimacy of, or no longer feels a connection to their government, they are going to act out in any way possible, even if they are not 100% on board with the alternative(s) to the status quo. What happened in Germany in the years prior to World War 2 with the rise of the Nazi Party was idle proof of this. One could, and many have, write volumes of books on the rise of the Nazi party, unfortunately I do not have that luxury so I am going to point out one more component to the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party, the Great
Depression.
The Great Depression is well documented, from the stock market crash in October of 1929, right up to World War 2.
As a citizen of the United States, most of what I know about the Great Depression is about its effects in the States. Be that as it may, it does not take long to realize that the Depression had effects spanning far beyond the West Coast, the East Coast or the Dixie highway, because Europe was also hit hard by it. In class, we discussed how one could make the case that had it not been for the Great Depression, the Treaty of Versailles might have worked, but that is pure speculation because as we know the Great Depression did strike and one country that was stricken hard by it was Germany. Unemployment had risen at an exponential rate; millions of Germans were not only pissed off, but were now pissed off and out of a job. While someone outside of the Nazi bubble would see this as a deadly combination, those under Hitler’s umbrella saw it as a perfect storm, and that would be the
case:
From 1929 to 1932 the party vastly increased its membership and voting strength; its vote in elections to the Reichstag (the German Parliament) increased from 800,000 votes in 1928 to about 14,000,000 votes in July 1932, and it thus emerged as the largest voting bloc in the Reichstag. (Britannica.)

The increasing unemployment along with the increasing influence that Hitler and the Nazi party had on the Germans would create an unprecedented movement that would form the bedrock for the perpetrators of one of the darkest hours in human history. Just like World War 1, the cause(s) of the rise of the Nazi Party cannot be pinpointed to one, or even a few. Rather, it was the zenith of heavy, radical change occurring in a short period of time in a nation that had reached its lowest point in decades. From the sentiment of humiliation felt amongst the German people after World War 1, to the rise of the German Workers Party that would be the first stepping stone for the ambitious psychopath known as Hitler, to the great depression. The rise of Nazi Germany is one of the cornerstones of not only Europe in the twentieth century, but also in the history of mankind.