The thought of losing a war when German propaganda was at it's highest point (Nardo) seemed almost impossible. When news arrived to the people of Germany that the army was retreating many people were astonished. A mutual feeling of betrayal was developing fast across Germany and someone needed to pay. Germany had not been united in many years, before World War One it had been part of the Holy Roman Empire but with the collapse of the empire it had been broken into many separate states. Under the Nazi leadership, Germany had felt restored; like the so called ¨golden¨ days when it was a strong militaristic state, such as Prussia, many felt the strong leadership was what Germany had needed, yet almost as fast as the Empire had grown it had …show more content…
German propaganda was at its highest point during defeat and many military and political leaders blamed the defeat of Germany on crooked politicians, bankers, Communists, and Jews. To make matters worse many Germans were angered due to three major factors. The first of these factors was that after Germany was forced to give up some of its best land in the North which was rich in natural resources such as coal, iron, and most of its best oil fields as punishment for its role in World War One. Another factor that upset many Germans was that it was separated from Austria, its main ally in World War One, who had joined Germany to form one country. The last rule that the Allied Powers, a group of countries united to defeat Germany made up of Great Britain, United States, France, Russia and Italy,(¨Shirer¨) imposed on Germany was that it set up a Republic style government called the Weimer Republic. The Weimer Republic at first was hated by many Germans because of economic problems the country faced because the German nation was required to pay penalties to any country that it had caused damage to in the war. As a result to a weak government many small political parties were formed hoping to get elected to impose reform in the government. Some of these parties included the German workers party, the Democratic German party and the German Republic party. Of all of these parties the German Republic party, the government set up by the Allies, was the most popular. In 1919 the German Working party, which had originally stated as a group of unemployed soldiers, gained a new member an Austrian man and ex soldier in World War One, Adolf Hitler. Hitler took control of the German Workers party by his emotional and mesmerizing speeches. Hitler encouraged militarism, national pride, and commitment to the Volk, a ¨pure¨ German race. Hitler also strongly expressed antisemitism which had
There is no doubt that the Nazis committed unspeakable acts of horror during the Holocaust. Millions of Jews were murdered by people enthralled by the propaganda of Hitler and the Nazi Party. The main question however is how ordinary people were convinced to take part in horrible acts. Many explanations exist to answer this question. Author William Golding suggested that all humans have the capability to be Nazis. One can certainly believe this statement after acknowledging the horrific acts of the common German during the Holocaust. I agree that every human has the capability to commit unspeakable acts of horror under the right conditions.
Most people were dissatisfied with the current German government for several reasons. One was that they had surrendered to the Allies when their leaders had been telling them that they were winning World War I. The other was that they felt that the terms of the surrender were excessively harsh. Because they did not know that they were losing when they heard the government was suing for peace, they expected the terms to be equal, not to be completely in favor of the Allies. They also felt that even with the war reparations the government should have been doing more to help them out and not to hyperinflate their currency.
The whole program to rebuild Germany was based on the idea that Germany had been betrayed and that the only way for Germany to avenge itself upon its enemies and put an end to the conflict that had begun in 1914 was through military action. (Nelson) Through the bad state of the country, the Nazis were able to use propaganda that influenced the German people to believe that it was right to punish the groups who they believed were to blame for their
With incompetent leadership and an unhappy nation, the German people began to realize that their country was in a vulnerable situation and began to look for stable alternatives to democracy. Hitler’s
Firstly, the Nazi’s used Germany’s defeat during the First World War (which began in the summer of 1914 and ended in November 1918) to their advantage. WWI claimed many lives and of course changed the lives of those in Germany forever. The years after the First World War were to see the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, the most notorious character of the twentieth century. Hitler offered to the Germans that one day he would Germany great again. Hitler also provided a scapegoat to the people of Germany, saying that the reason why Germany was in great debt and had such high unemployment was because of the Jewish people. This appealed to the German’s because it meant that they’d have an easy way out rather than taking the blame upon themselves. After Hitler was appointed as chancellor of Germany the basic democratic structure of the Germany was weakened then abolished. This then created a sense of fear the German population, and they were too scared to fight back. The lives of many millions of people across Europe would be devastated as a result of the beliefs, policies and actions of the Nazis led by Hitler.
During World War I, propaganda was heavily used to raise the amount of troops the British had. Many portrayed that the war would only last for a couple weeks and would be over before Christmas. This was thought as many of the wars since the early 1800’s, had ended in a matter of weeks. Obviously, this was not the case as the war lasted for several years. British propaganda also broke Germany’s morale to an extent as they basically slandered the German’s. They did this to attempt to draw the United States out and have them join the war on the side of Great Britain. (World-Information.org, 2007) This was one of the two main reasons they used propaganda. The other main reason was to urge citizens to join the military to fight. Some propaganda contained people looking generally happy while they were standing in a trench. This created the false idea that people were happy being at war and that the war would be over soon. In fact, many soldiers felt the opposite while they were fighting.
For one thing, in spite of the fact that German society was in many ways broad-minded and forward-thinking, German politics had never been either liberal or democratic like their French and British counterparts. Moreover, German society had become deeply damaged by defeat in the First World War, in addition to the imposition of a disastrous and embarrassing peace settlement in 1919 at Versailles. Compelled to shoulder full accountability for the outbreak of the Great War, Germany lost absolute control of its overseas colonies, and its armed forces were lessened to just a fraction of their former size. With the county now coming up against enormous amounts of humiliation and discontentment, German society as a whole endeavored to digest the painful defeat by searching frantically for
There is no question that the German people showed a high level of discontent with the Allies after World War 1, especially since the unveiling of the terms from the Treaty of Versailles. Possibly the most humiliating clause implemented in the Treaty of Versailles was Article 231, also known as ‘War Guilt.’ This was a term, which forced Germany to accept all responsibility for initiating the First World War along with paying a detrimental bill of £6.6 billion for war reparations , strongly demanded by French Prime Minister, Georges Clemenceau, even though it was apparent that Germany would not be able to keep up with this payment. So clearly from the aftermath of the First World War, Germany became a bitter nation filled with hatred towards the Allies. However, there had to be an outlet for all this anger, which some historians argue was redirected towards the Weimar Republic. In result, this was a source of promulgation for the Nazi Party as the Germans were deviated towards extreme radical parties. The National Socialist Workers Party, also popularly known as The Nazi Party, was founded after the collapse of the First World War. It was first regarded as the Germans Workers’ Party until the infamous Adolf Hitler assumed leadership of the organization. The primary purpose for this party was a cry for German nationalism and anti-Semitism. Throughout the early 1920s, Hitler attempted to lead the Nazi Party to success, trying to persuade the nation into adopting the Nazi
November 11, 1918 brought about the end of World War I and the demise of the German economy. With no hope for the future, the German people became desperate and eventually put a young man with big dreams into power by the name of Adolf Hitler. To succeed in his goal of bringing back honor and respect to Germany Hitler knew he needed loyal people in large quantities. To do this he rewarded women for having large families and put their children through training camps to shape them into the ideal Nazi. After his defeat on September 2, 1945, it was the Allies job to repair the damage of twelve years of Nazi propaganda.
N 1919, Herman Mueller, the Foreign Minister of the Weimar Republic representing Germany, signed the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty made Germany lose important industrial cities, which not only slowed down the Germany economy a lot, but also, and most importantly, deprived Germany integrity. Hitler considered the Treaty a scandal and a disgrace and that the dictate signified an act of highway robbery against the German people. According to the Versailles Treaty, the war guilt was blamed on Germany. This was devastating news to the Germans because it 's not of a German social value that they are losers. German educational system emphasized nationalism and strong connection between one and the country, and in this situation furthered people 's discontent ruined people 's pride of their country, and resonated with people 's feelings. The German social value reinforced people 's discontent and anger towards the losing of war because it 's just like ancient Rome, the Germans couldn 't bear the idea of losing a battle, because it was a sign of weakness and a form of humiliation. The blame went straight to the Weimar Republic because it was the Republic that sealed the fate of Germany at the Paris Peace Conference. Because of that Republic was established government by a revolution during the war. Germany didn 't have any experience with democracy prior to the Weimar Republic.
With how things had stacked up, it was easy for Hitler to become a new, well-liked leader with his party. Many Germans were defeated and were easily swayed with what Hitler promises to give them. He promised those who were acutely disappointed in their nation a new and better life and a “glorious Germany” “Hitler Comes To Power”. On the 30th of January in 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor that brought an end to the German democracy “Nazi Rule” and from there “many Germans [had] believed that they had found a savior for their nation” “Hitler Comes To Power”. Hitler’s party wasn’t as well known before the depression struck, but the party soon appealed to those who were unemployed, young, and those in the lower-middle-class “Hitler Comes To Power”. In Hitler’s first months of being chancellor, he forced “workers, employees, and employers…into Nazi organizations” “Nazi Rule”. By adding more people and growing his party, Hitler was able to rebuild Germany. He was originally denied many things, due to the Treaty of Versailles. He was limited to only 100,000 men in his army, have six warships max, etc. Hitler ignored the treaty and proceeded to rebuild Germany by having and getting what he needed to reshape Germany in-order to having it become an efficient country. He had factories
When Germany lost World War I, they were expected to sign the Versailles Peace Treaty which was filled with harsh demands and punishments. More importantly, it was not the kaiser who signed the treaty, but rather the Weimar Government. Because they accepted such horrible war guilt, it caused several all over Germany to look down upon this group that was running the government. Fortunately enough, the economy was getting better and most Germans were okay with how things were going. One man in particular, however, was trying to come up with someone to blame for the loss of World War I. His name was Adolf Hitler. In his mind, Germany had been betrayed by none other than the Weimar Government. But instead of blaming the whole government, he looked
Their propaganda was fine and the citizens seemed to do what they were told, they had the state of the art battle tactics. They could not close out the deal and so now we are living in the world we know today. The errors of the Germans were few of count but extremely vital and if one of these mistakes mentioned previously would not have been made, it would be a different world. There does seem to be a correlation between a lack of centralized governing segments and communication between these two. Perhaps we can take this information and apply it to our lives and hoping that our world leaders don’t make the same mistakes the past has already
Throughout World War II German Propaganda was incredibly important to Adolf Hitler when he risen into power. By using many propaganda Hitler was able to acquiring and maintain his political power. Almost all of his propaganda was used to stir German citizen’s emotions and making them appeal very patriotic but in reality it was all for war and gaining power. The view they offered was incredibly appealing to the German citizens and it made them felt like the Nazis were their only hope, also a chance to rescue their collapsing government and save their economy. The art of propaganda consists in being able to make the imagination of the public through a strong image which fits their feelings and Hitler’s propagandists were very successful in doing
Hitler’s for all intents and purposes managed to gain support and power from the sort of German people through Nationalism playing into a shared sense of definitely German pride in a pretty big way. After the first world war the German people specifically were hurt, they had for the most part lost a war they were almost certain they for all intents and purposes were able to mostly be successful in and win, which is fairly significant. Following their loss they then generally had to deal with the harsh and humiliating terms of the Treaty of Veries which basically pulled apart the nation and gave them, in their eyes, almost impossible provisions. On basically top of the loss of the war, and the treaty of versailles they were then forced into a democratic government, which contradicted the traditional militaristic lifestyle they were used to which did not benefit the definitely German people at all, contrary to popular belief. After continuous struggle and the inability to trust the then democrat, Hitler gave the people idea’s