A Brief Note On The Treaty Of Versailles

Hitler’s assumption of power on the 30th of January 1933 was seemingly due to the mass popularity of the Nazi party. However it was far off achieving the 50% majority it needed to put Hitler automatically in power. As well as popularity, backstairs intrigue and the short-sightedness of those in power enabled Hitler to become Chancellor. The weaknesses of Germany’s political leadership were fundamental to Hitler’s success. In some senses the popularity of the party only provided an opening, available for exploitation.

It is a reasonable conclusion that to Hitler, the restoration of Germany and the damning of the Treaty of Versailles, specifically returning Germany’s right to be an equal in the world society, are linked. In a speech givin at Dusseldorf Hitler even went as far as promising to withdraw the signature that indicted Germany for starting World War One. Here Hitler also draws the comparison to returning German pride with reinstating the military heritage taken in the Treaty of Versailles. These pairings that Hitler chose to address shows the direct influence that Hitler felt the Treaty of Versailles had on weakening the German people and causing a separation from their heritage after 1919. These ideas of Hitler were not unfounded. He claimed in his speech at Munich 1922 that Germans were burdened at the end of World War I with an 8 million mark debt of their own, and the debt of the other allied countries, with similar sentiment in other speeches . The actual treaty confirms this by showing a 10+ billion mark reparations clause in section 232 right after the War Guilt Clause . A scholar by the name of Graham Darby claims that the treaty of Versailles is not the primary cause of the economic downturn and therefore not a primary influence on Hitler’s economic policy. The data however, points to one crucial fact that Mr. Darby neglects to mention in his article, the Dawes Plan. The Dawes plan was enacted during 1924 and

With Germans of all outlooks desperately seeking solutions for the nation's problems, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party began their climb to power. 'Hitler was gifted with effective political talents. He offered an explanation for Germany's defeat, and a vision of Germany's future destiny, that played upon the fears, prejudices, and hopes of many Germans. He promised to rebuild Germany's power and restore its prosperity' (Isaacman, 16). This won the support of many Germans. Hitler was such an effective speaker that anything he said was believed even if it was not true.

The Nazi’s rise to power could have been diverted by two forces: The Allied Powers and Jewish citizens. The Allied Powers played a key role in setting up Germany’s rise back to power after World War I. After the events of World War One, the Allies imposed on Germany The Treaty of Versailles, which made them responsible for the war, imposed reparation payments, prohibited them from building weapons, and reduced the size of the German army (“Versailles, Treaty of”). The treaty affected Germany politically and economically. Citizens were

Hitler’s rise to power was the result of many factors, but Hitler’s ability to take advantage of Germany’s poor leadership and economical and political conditions was the most significant factor. His ability to manipulate the media and the German public whilst taking advantage of Germany’s poor leadership resulted in both the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Hitler and the nazi party. During the early 1920s, Germany was struggling with economic instability and political uncertainty. Germany, after being defeated in the Great War, was forced to sign the unforgiving treaty of Versailles, which the Weimar Republic was held responsible for. This brought forward feelings of fear, anger and

Many Germans blamed the treaty for their depression and supported Hitler since he blamed the treaty and promised a better future. Over time, people continued to agree with Hitler and his plans for Germany, especially after he became the leader of the Nazis. Since the Germans disliked the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler promised that he would change things to make life more ideal. As a result, more Germans supported him and the Nazi party grew. If it wasn’t for the treaty sparking such unhappiness and anger, less people would turn to Hitler for help. Hitler used the treaty to his advantage to get more Germans to support

In the summer of 1919, World War 1 had officially ended through the Treaty of Versailles, though that was not the only thing that would end at the time. Under the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was forced to pay billions in reparations, make vast reductions in the army and other crippling punishments. The terms of the treaty had completely destroyed Germany through the economy. Jobs were lost, the currency had gone through major inflation, their land had been withdrawn from Germany and on top of it all, they had a minuscule army to defend themselves with. This is why Germany hated the Treaty of Versailles, at this point in Germany many were desperate to evade the grips of the treaty and get out of the Great Depression. Between the 1920s and the 1930s, Adolf Hitler was beginning to gain relevance in Germany and around the world as well. But, would this be good for Germany or the rest of the world? In a way, it would be good for some of Germany just perhaps not for everyone else, but Hitler’s leadership was of great significance to Germany, not to mention, the rest of the world since he would use his leadership to begin an approach towards world domination. He had the ability to be an exceptional leader by making reductions in the hyperinflation, expanding Germany, and attaining a significantly large group of followers.

An event ending in millions of lives takes place with the aid of the Treaty of Versailles. Following after World War 1 was the creation of the Treaty of Versailles (1919), which penalized the Germans. Due to the extreme regulations placed on the Germans, Germany became aggravated and a new leader came to power, Adolf Hitler, who and restored a sense of pride and reawakened a sense of self respect. The Treaty of Versailles, because of the extreme decrees, such as minimizing Germany's military, taking an excessive amount of land away, and the ridiculous amount of money the Germans had to pay, threw the world into chaos causing World War II.

Around the world, national economies were tanking, the U.S., Germany, England, France, and Italy. People were becoming unemployed and were losing their homes to bank foreclosures as the cost of living was on a high rise at the time. Everyone wanted someone to blame for their problems and Hitler gave them just that. Hitler knew about the weaknesses in Germany at the time and he gave the Germans an innocent race to blame to gain power. He convinced industrialist that he alone could increase consumerism and in turn bring more production. With the increase in production Germany’s pride would begin to restore both in world standings and at home. Even

Each difficult time led to him believing that he was standing up for the right thing. While Germany was left in a terrible depression from World War 1, their trade had been severely limited. Germany could not import or export goods. All their resources had been given to the War effort. This left Germany in a terrible way, dropping themselves from the rank of the second greatest economy. Germany began printing money at a large rate, leading to hyperinflation. Money, in turn, was worth little to nothing. Unemployment also reached record high levels. Approximately 6 million people were left unemployed. Hitler began to think like many of the racist organizations at the time, believing that the Jews were the sole reason for World War 1 and Germany’s economic

The Treaty of Versailles ended World War I. During the war, military men were fighting in trenches with gas and heavy machine guns. This prevented the troops from both sides from gaining any territory. Germany was losing many soldiers so they decided to surrender. Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles. In Document 7, it states “Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the losses and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.¨ This treaty forced Germany to pay all the reparations for the war. It also made Germany limit there military. To pay back the reparation of the war Germany started to print money which brought them into an economic depression. Hitler was the push out of the depression. He promised to rebuild the infrastructure of the country and people supported him. He rebuilt the countries army over the limit of the Treaty of Versailles.Then he started conquering territory which started World War 2. Hitler says in document 8 ¨But they had to conquer it by risking their lives.¨ He thinks that people can not tell him what lands he can take and not take , but rather he can have what he can conquer. This Turning point resulted in Hitler gaining lots of territory throughout most of the war till he starts fighting

The treaty of Versailles forced Germany to give up most of its land and population, limit its army

Thousands upon thousands of Berliners cheered and celebrated as Hitler spoke of his new ambitions and plans for Germany. The crowd, which was labelled by a fellow member of the group as ‘deafening’, were excited by the Hitler’s enthusiasm; this had been lacking under the reign of Weimar democracy. (Fritzsche, 1998) The editor of Berlin’s Nazi newspaper, Der Angriff, Joseph Goebbels, remarked: “Uprising! Spontaneous explosion of the people. Indescribable!” (Fritzsche, 1998) Even though later in history we see Hitler’s ultimate motive to be his own rise in political hierarchy, his speech introduced himself to the German public as a populist and a “revolutionary political genius.” (Grunfield, 1974) Hitler endeavoured himself to all economical classes, whether it be the bourgeoisie, peasantry or the aristocracy; to them it appeared Hitler’s priority was to move Germany out of the current economic crisis and strive to develop Germany into a world superpower. The passion illustrated in Hitler’s goals was prevalent in his speeches, which led to the acceptance of a nation and the new title of “our Fuhrer” (Grunfield, 1974)

In December of 1918, The Allies of Europe met in Versailles to Sign possibly one of the most changing documents in history. The document they signed nearly turned Europe upside down, broke down and put up many new social barriers, and definitely made history. The Document that the allied forces all gathered to sign was known as the Treaty of Versailles. Initially, the treaty intended to keep peace between the nations, however, forcing Germany to sign the treaty ended up as one of the worst decisions anybody could have made. The forced signing created tensions between Germany and other countries, let Germany rise back up to Power, Created an optimal situation for Germany to wage war, and ultimately caused World War II, resulting in one of

In order to fully understand the role the Treaty of Versailles played in the initial upcoming of Adolf Hitler, we must first delve into the reasoning behind German involvement in World War One. Since the late 1800s, Germany was intent on expanding its borders, by any means necessary. Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Germany, was obsessed with his desire to “create a German Empire out of the group of smaller German states” mainly under Austria-Hungary’s authority (Schmidt, 2006). In order to expel Austria as the primary influence over these smaller German states, war was inevitable. Subsequently following the war, also known as the Seven Weeks War, Bismarck extorted the small German states of “Schleswig, Holstein, Hanover, Hesse, Nassau, and Frankfurt, which created the North German Federation” (Schmidt, 2006). Even more importantly, Austria was successfully displaced as the major influence over those small German states. Bismarck’s next calculated move was to achieve the same unification in the southern parts of Germany.