Essay about National Socialism: The Loss of Individuality

Hitler impresses the Reichstag with the ethos, credibility, of his leadership. Referring to the success of his government, Hitler entreats, “Allow me now to give you a short excerpt from our economic life which proves in plain figures whether and to what extent National Socialism has solved these problems.” Hitler then presents a simple, yet powerful statistic: a tremendous rise in annual German births. Hitler does not pick this statistic blindly. He chooses a statistic that he knows will be important, impactful, and personal to his audience. Not only is a rise in births a sign of increased prosperity (for people are unlikely to have kids if they are not in love and with the means of supporting their children), but it is also a statistic dear to his audience’s heart. After World War I, so many loved ones died. Accordingly, the babies and new life mentioned in the statistic must have brought great joy to a hurting nation. Further, Hitler reinforces his ethos as a leader when he remembers, “It was as an unknown German soldier at the front that I put together this bold program, fighting for fourteen years…” Mr. Hitler is proving his credibility as a planner and a thinker, describing his process of invention, how he carefully came up with the idea while fighting at the front. The thoughtful and planned politicians of the German Reichstag surely appreciate the care and attention their leader invested in this program. For his audience, Hitler could have no better credibility than that provided by increased birth statistics and his claim of careful

Nazi Germany After World War I, or The Great War as it was known back then, Germany was left devastated both financially and, since German propaganda had not prepared the nation for defeat, emotionally, resulting in a sense of injured German national pride. But because Germany was “stabbed in the back” by its leftwing politicians, Communists, and Jews, or more colourfully known as the ‘November Criminals’, it was still widely believed that Germany had not truly been defeated. When a new government, the Weimar Republic, tried to establish a democratic course, extreme political parties from both the right and the left struggled violently for control. “The new regime could neither handle the depressed economy nor the rampant

The Treaty of Versailles formed after World War I forced Germany to pay great amounts in reparation payments, which was severely damaging to their economy and to their collective national ego. In addition, they were forced to greatly weaken their army by demobilizing, abolishing universal compulsory military service, and by having their army be comprised by no more than seven divisions of infantry and three divisions of cavalry. Furthermore, the country was also forced to return lands which they had viewed as 'Germanic' and had laid claim to, as well as overseas colonies, back to various other countries.

Germany’s loss of territory was a major cause of the war. In document A the map referencing German territorial losses depicts the land lost after World War I. The Germans were forced to return Alsace-Lorraine back to France, the Polish Corridor was given to Poland and Danzig became a free city. Germany lost their territory along with the resources within the area such as coal and iron. Because of their loss in resources, their economy continued to decline as their reparations remained unpaid. In addition, in document A, Adolf

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

Nazis wanted the Germans to be united by promoting self-determination and their own objectives among all people so that the goals of party can be achieved easily.

Hitler represented the Nazi party they wanted to kill off has many Jews as he could, they believed if they did this Germany would recovery from world war 1, also, they believed in a national community formed by so called racially pure people the Nazi party believed there should only be pure Germans. Blonde hair and blue-eyed Germans, they felt if you weren’t a pure German you weren’t a person.

Even though Germany was left in a period of struggle and economic weakness after WW1, Adolf Hitler would take a stand by creating a party that would help refine the structure of the economy. This party, when abbreviated, was called Nazi, would also create harsh laws and unrelentless punishment. Due to the Nazi party’s quick growth, there was an immediate impact on lifestyle and politics for the people of Germany. The long term impact brought forth by the consequences or legacy of the Nazi party included a population decrease and an increase in deaths. To make both of these impacts, Hitler had to overcome many hard challenges.

Peter Fritzche’s book, Germans into Nazis, contends that, “Germans became Nazis because they wanted to become Nazis and because the Nazis spoke so well to their interests and inclinations…however, voters did not back Hitler mainly because they share his hatred of the Jews…but because they departed from established political traditions in that they were identified at once with a distinctly popular form of ethnic nationalism and with the basic social reforms most Germans counted on to ensure national well-being.” (8-9) His argument rests on the notion that the Nazis had a vision for Germany that incorporated Germans into a national community, throwing off the restraints of a tired government, and propelled them towards a future that would

After World War I, totalitarian regimes rose up all across Eastern Europe, including the Nazi’s in Germany. Hitler summaries Nazism best when he said, “It is thus necessary that the individual should finally come to realize that his own ego is of no importance in comparison with the existence of the nation, that the position of the individual is conditioned solely by the interests of the nation as a whole” (Hitler 1). At the core of what Hitler said in this quote is that Nazism is all about the good of the nation. In other words, the Nazi regime relied heavily on nationalism. Much like what happened in World War I, many German citizens were blind to the injustices of the Nazi regime because of their excessive nationalism.

When Wall Street crashed in October 1929, the following depression that occurred in Germany was catastrophic for the Weimar Republic as it showed the people what was wrong with that system of government and made them believe that they needed a different one. In the end, the Depression and the following impacts it had, sealed the fate of democracy in Germany and turned the masses towards the more radical parties; therefore it played a huge part in allowing Hitler to gain power of Germany by 1933, and so it was of great significance in leading to World War 2 – changing Germany and Europe for decades after that. The first major reason for this was that the German industry collapsed, triggering a surge of unemployment, due to the loans that America

During the Weimar Republic, multiple political parties existed within the country under a chaotic and inefficient electoral system. As a result, the country was unable to make fast decisions and was essentially run by a coalition of small parties (Watson 7). Due to their distrust around the Weimar system, many Germans were drawn to extremist parties such as the Nazis, who promised national greatness and a charismatic and ambitious leader in a more traditional and stable absolute government. The Nazi party argued that Germany needed a “new political system in which one great national party, the NSDAP, [would] organize all aspects of German government and society” (Watson 35). Hitler promised that he would serve as a strong and vigorous leader that would lead the country towards greatness in place of the “squabbling, corrupt politicians” who were worsening the state of the country (Watson 35).

Nazism, the ideology devised by the National Socialist German Worker’s Party or Nazi Party formerly known as the German Worker’s Party until Hitler came to power within the party, regards itself as national socialist. Hitler(1922 speech ex.1) described national as, “to be ‘national’ means above everything else to act with a boundless and all-embracing love for the people and, if necessary, even to die for it” , and social as , “to be ‘social’ means so to build up the State and community that every individual acts in the interest of the community of the people and must be to such an extent convinced of the goodness, of the honourable straightforwardness of this community of the people as to be ready to die for it.” This essay will reinforce the point that Nazism is a nationalist and will do so by examining the key factors of the actions National Socialist German Worker’s Party or NSDAP took to improve the economy of Germany.

National pride was a key factor in the German people’s indifference to or participation in state-sponsored genocide and murder. There are five main reasons why. Jews were among those blamed by German military officers looking for excuses as to why Germany was defeated in WWI, and thus were linked to the loss of national pride. Jews were seen as bringing down the economy by taking up space and manipulating other Germans into giving the Jews their money to fuel the Jews’ inherent greed. Hitler had helped to create national and cultural unity in Germany which included strong feelings of anti-Semitism at its base. Jews were generally seen as inferior and impure genetically so improving one’s nation would include removing them. Finally, due to

There were various factors that contributed to the failure of the Weimar Republic of Germany and the ascent of Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers Party into power on January 30, 1933. Various conflicting problems were concurrent with the eventuation of the Republic that, from the outset, its first governing body the socialist party (SPD) was forced to contend with.