Essay about Nazi Germany

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

To assess the popularity of the Nazis one must first establish the meaning of popularity and in what ways it can be assessed. Popularity in this instance is support and conformity to the Nazi regime. This essay will span from Hitler and the party’s early days in the Burgerbraukeller in Munich up to the death of the regime in 1945. The evidence used will span from Hitler’s own words in ‘Mein Kampf’ to the masses of propaganda left behind upon the regimes collapse. The biggest historiographical debate in my opinion on this subject is ‘resistenz’ argued by Martin Broszat and ‘Loyal reluctance’ argued mainly by Robert Gellately and Ian Kershaw. During this essay both sides will be evaluated with the idea of popularity at the forefront and how each argument adds or detracts from my argument that the Nazis were mainly a popular regime.

Back in Nazi Germany, during the years 1934-1945, the Führer and Nazis controlled the German population to his will through various methods and means. This e6ssay will discuss and examine how significant oppression was in comparison to other methods of control such as propaganda, indoctrination in youth and the use of political laws. For us to fully comprehend how significant was oppression in the Nazi Germany, we must understand what oppression is.

Epstein writes that only a small minority of Germans resisted Hitler’s dictatorship, but that is not necessarily to say that they actually supported it. Though most Germans did approve of the core values and goals of the Nazis, racism, anti-Marxism, and German national renewal, there was also an element of coercion that may have stifled any public dissatisfaction anyone had for the regime (pp. 97-98). Displaying resistance did not offer much benefit to those who disapproved, as opposition was typically met with arrest and/or death sentences. Further, the Nazis targeted those that were largely disliked by ordinary Germans to begin with, which would explain why there are not records of large scale resistance (pp. 110-111). Epstein further remarks that the support of the Third Reich, is not truly meaningful if the support comes because there is no other option. The Nazis censored the press, outlawed any other political party besides their own, and banned strikes and absenteeism (p. 112). To the outside observer, it appears that the Nazis had the support of the German people, but it is imperative to look below the surface at what was happening to ordinary people.

This also led to people being discontent, people were beginning to lose faith in the Weimar government, as they had now proven, on two occasions which were the occupation of the Ruhr and now the Wall Street crash that they were unable to keep control on the situations and they were showing signs of instability. Germany was struck with poverty, even those in the middle classes suffered. Due to the masses in unemployment and the poverty which was arising, people were becoming desperate and they began to find the extreme ideology of the Nazi party more appealing. People started to turn their attention to the views of the Nazis, the Nazis seemed to have all the answers, they promised to solve all of Germany's problems so therefore people were starting to support the Nazis. Before all the chaos the Nazi party had been a very minority party, who people had ignored, but the depression showed a turning point and many people believed that they had no choice but to join the Nazi party.

The Nazis, throughout their control of Germany, attempted to rid themselves of what they considered weak in their army. Weakness to them was any sort of free thinking, defiance, mercy, and anything they deemed inferior to their ideals. To drive their army to rid their idea of weak, the Nazis provoked emotions of shame and fear in those associated with weakness. Which can be seen in Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi when Hans is just a child in a Hitler Youth school and answer what he felt about a fox eating a rabbit. When Hans says “thee poor rabbit” he is then promptly yelled at and sent to sit in the corner while wearing a dunce cap. This humiliation along with his peer’s answers of “the world belongs to the strong…the rabbit was a coward and deserved to die” (Geronimi, Education for Death) influenced Hans into hating the rabbit for being weak. These instilled ideas of weakness in the German children led them to attempt and weed out the weak by putting them through humiliation or death. All the Light We Cannot See displays the Nazi ideal of driving out the weak during Werner’s time at the training school. While Werner was attending, there was periodic checks by the schoolmaster asking who was the weakest in their group. During so, schoolmaster’s would says “Just as we ask you to each drive the weakness from your own bodies, so you must also learn to drive the weaknesses from the corps” (Doerr 168). The schoolmaster presents just how important strength is to the

In Germany, on January 1st, 2016, the copyright on one of the most anti-Semitic texts of the 20th century ran out after 70 years of halted publication (Thorpe 2015). The text in question, Mein Kampf (My Struggle), is an autobiography by the National Socialist leader Adolf Hitler, and a bible of Nazism in Germany’s Third Reich. Mein Kampf was the political manifesto the Nazi Party used during World War Two which not only identified the Jews as racially inferior but indirectly justified the mass extermination of the Jewish race, which we now know as the Holocaust (Encyclopedia Britannica Online 2016). Today the book would be considered “neither a literary achievement nor an insightful historical document had it not been linked to Hitler’s rapid rise to power” (Thorpe 2015). Republication has been cautiously welcomed with the intention of showing “how Hitler mixed truths and half-truths with lies… [going] one step further towards demystifying the roots of the evil that unfolded” (Flood 2015) from 1939-45. In my paper I will discuss the creation and content of Mein Kampf as well as the impacts and opinions of its republication.

ding to M Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust, Party) (Rise of the NaziHeafner 2 The Nazi Party began building a mass movement, From 27,000 members in 1925, the Party grew to 8,000 in 1929 Hitler was able to gain 8 thousand people in less than 5 years, A you can see, it wasn't hard for Hitler to receive what he wanted. He was able to work his way through every little problem Hence achieving what he set out for Dominance, Germany's government remained on the brink of collapse. The SA brownshirts, about 400,000 strong, were a part of daily street violence. The economy was still in crisis. In the election of July 1932, the Nazi Party won 37% of the Reichstag seats, thanks to a massive propaganda campaign. For the next six months, the most powerful German leaders were embroiled in a series of desperate political maneuverings. Ultimately, these major players severely underestimated Hitlers political abilities, (Rise of the Nazi Party) Soon after they received 37%, president Paul died. Germany was now in Hitlers palm. Hitler mainly started with Germanys youth, at this time many looked at Hitler as if he were a

There are a lot of things that people should know about the worlds past. One of the most important though, in my opinion, is the Holocaust. The Holocaust, WWII, was really a time of shame for the whole world at some point. Approximetly 78 contries were involved but all contries were effect. For most people, the Holocaust is a more "touchy" subject. Noone really wants to face the fact that it happened but, we have to for the sake of the future of the world. Some people might as "Why do we learn about the Holocaust?" or "Do we really have to bring back the terror and anguish in the memories it brings back?" For me, the answer is clear. As humans, we must learn from our mistakes.

Over the course of the two days on November 9th and 10th in 1938 the Nazi Reign seized the Jewish life and greatly impacted Jewish life for the years to come. Kristallnacht, also known as “the Night of Broken Glass”, primarily stood for the Nazi party destructing Jewish lifestyles. The Nazi Regime burned down the Synagogues, destructed schools and businesses. Also Kristallnacht implemented the Nuremberg laws and the beginning of concentration camps. Kristallnacht was a significant event that led to a domino effect on Jewish path in history. Kristallnacht was the stepping-stone in which Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Regime was firstly implementing violent acts upon the Jews. Kristallnacht greatly changed living conditions in Germany and helped implement the Final Solution in the time span from 1939 to 1945.

This aspect of fear of the consequences of rebellion was not the only tactic the Nazi party used to control the general populous of Germany. The most effective tool they used was propaganda. They put messages into

Then, with the incident at the beer hall, the Nazi party has the proof of strength since it appeared that the communists were the aggressors and the Nazi party was merely defending itself. The fight resulted in the majority of the people that were beaten to be communist with a few Nazi members being hurt. This to the common man shows that the Nazi party has the strength to go up against an aggressor and defeat them in great numbers. Which might also transfer when the Nazis go up against other nations who seem like the aggressors of Germany. And that will lead people to think that the Nazi party might keep the German people safe and stand up for them. Even though deep down if Hitler or the Nazi party isn’t as strong as they claim, they appear to be strong to the majority of the masses which in a sense is more important because as long the German people perceive them as strong and powerful then they will put their faith in the party and they will obey them to the

Acquaintance with the mass of opinion reports surviving from the Nazi state, complex and difficult though these sources are, allows little scope for sweeping generalisations about attitudes and behaviour of the German people during the Third Reich. There is too much evidence of daily dissent and even manifestations of limited, opposition and protest – limited in significance, certainly, but noteworthy just the same - to support notions of a society terrorised by a totalitarian state into meek submission and automaton-like obedience and compliance. The opposite generalisation, of a consensus holding to the end, of a society which never seriously deviated from its backing for Hitler and the regime, seems equally flawed. A survey of the

The Nazi regime dealt with opposition through a combination of persuasion and force. Nazi propaganda was so effective at portraying Hitler and the Nazi ideals in a positive light that many German people believed Hitler was a good leader and genuinely supported him. Others were too intimidated by potential consequences if they spoke against the regime that they did nothing. However, there were some who openly opposed Hitler and had to be dealt with.

In his book Mein Kampf, (My Struggle), Adolf Hitler wrote “the more unified this use of of the fighting will of a people, the greater will be the magnetic attractive force of a movement” (365). In 1933, the National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party took hold of Germany at a vulnerable point in the nation’s history after losing World War I. Hitler, leader of the Nazi party and the Fuhrer of the Third Reich, convinced people of the radical “truths” he proposed, promising to lead Germany to utopia and ultimate international power. Although the Nazi ideals were radical and outrageous, Germans obeyed the Nazi Party because of their power to instill fear, to create a false sense of beneficence, and to persuade masses to their side through crowd theory.