The Rise of Hitler and Nazism in Germany

especially noted when he earned the First Class Iron Cross, the highest military honor a German

Around the time, he was trying to gain support for the Nazi party the mood of Germany was not too particularly great. The depression's effects had hit Germany and its people hard with millions of people losing their jobs. Still fresh in the German people’s minds was the humiliating loss of WWI. Also, people did not like the Weimar Republic government because it agreed to the terms of The Treaty of Versailles. Due to this, the German people lacked confidence in the Weimar Republic. These conditions provided the chance for the rise of a new leader, Adolf Hitler, and his party, the National Socialist German Workers' Party, or the Nazi party. Due to Hitler’s extravagant speeches, he was able to attract many followers to the Nazi party. In the article, it states “Hitler was a powerful and spellbinding speaker who attracted a wide following of Germans desperate for change”, but this quote doesn’t even show how impactful the speeches really were. The article later states that “The party's rise to power was rapid... the Nazis were practically unknown, winning only 3 percent of the vote to the Reichstag (German parliament) in elections in 1924. In the 1932 elections, the Nazis won 33 percent of the votes, more than any other

Due to the failure of the Weimar Republic and general public dissatisfaction arising from poor economic conditions exacerbated by the Treaty of Versailles, coupled with the 1929 Wall Street Crash, German citizens were understandably desperate for change. Until this point in time the Nazi party, and Hitler, had been essentially unpopular. However, the economic situation ensured Hitler’s increasing popularity as the people looked toward more extreme but non-communist ideals. The initial consolidation of Nazi power in 1933 arose from key events such as the support of the Nationalist Party with the Nazis to form a coalition government, implementation of the Enabling

In addition to the damaging consequences of the First World War with the requirements of the Treaty of Versailles, certain features of Germany caused the state to be susceptible to the influence of this dangerous ideology. Along with the damage to the national ego as a result of the First World War, Germany had co-existing and conflicting highly modern strands of development forced to integrate with powerful remnants of archaic values and social structures, and had a deeply fractured parliamentary political system, and the weaknesses of this system reflected the social and political differences within the population. This shame and failure after World War I was superimposed onto a modern country which once had an advanced economy, a sophisticated state

The Treaty of Versailles could be described as a great step for peace by some, but in Germany the people were enraged. The Treaty of Versailles was seen by the German people as a way to take away Germany’s land and make Germany have to pay for the war. Extreme Nationalists like Adolf Hitler had a strong idea on who should be the blame for Germany’s loss of land and the failure at the Treaty of Versailles. Adolf Hitler and the Nazism party blamed the Weimar Republic. “Hitler and the Nazi Party gained power in Germany by exploiting the economic problems and constitutional weaknesses of the Weimar Republic.”

Throughout the history of political parties and factions, none has been so infamous as that of the Nazi party. They were the world’s enemies for a decade in the early twentieth century, and still continue to stir up controversy throughout the world. Understanding what the Nazis believed in, how anti semitism contributed to Nazi beliefs, and if Nazis still exist today helps to conclude why they did certain actions.

Germany was now desperately seeking a strong leader that would rescue their country. The domestic crisis was the source of their anguish and Hitler who called for self determination and the abolition of the Treaty of Versailles appealed to the people. According to the revisionist views “The depression also helped to destroy German democracy and contributed to Hitler’s rise to power, and it was his dictatorship which brought war”. The rise of the Nazis cannot therefore be blamed solely on the reparations, the Weimar Republic and the Wall Street Crash both independent factors from the consequences of WWI highly contributed to the rise of the Nazis.

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

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.

In 1871 the nation of Germany formed under the 2nd Reich. Soon after this German nation would begin rivaling the superpowers in Europe of the time. By the beginning of the 20th century, Germany under the leadership of its kaiser would challenge the British Empire for the top power in Europe. In 1914 Germany would throw its self into a war which would end in chaos for its people. The following years after brought hardships that would strike the new Weimar Republic, creating a breading ground for extremists groups. These extremist groups came from both ends of the political spectrum, and were able to push their ideas based on the fears of the middle and upper class, and the strife of the down and out working class. The party that would

In 1930, because of the Nazi Party’s good fortunes and careful planning, their votes increased from 12 seats to 107 seats. One of the factors that helped them captured more votes was because they mainly targeted on people who were affected worst on the Great Depression like the farmers and small businessmen. He promised to cut taxes, protection on food prices for the farmers, and making policy of making trade unions powerless and stopped communisms to the small businessmen. It appealed them. Many male Germans also supported Hitler because of the military appearance. Female German also supported him because he made them feel very important as he wanted them to bear lots of Aryan children to serve the country. Hitler also made a point to declare through his speech that he detests the Jews, and naturally, those Germans who are mostly Protestants, too, blamed the Jews. In brief, Hitler appealed to a wide range of people in voting for him.

After the loss of World War 1, Germany was crippled and severely punished. During the 1920’s, Adolf Hitler (WW1 veteran) started spouting about these bizarre ideas. Germany was desperate; he seemed like their only hope to get out of this mess. People took to Hitler because Hitler assured them he would get them out of debt, which he successfully did. The Nazi party was then formed and gained a mass amount of popularity amongst the German population. The Nazi party at first received only 3% of the vote at the Reichstag in 1924, and in the 1932 elections; Hitler received 33%, more than anyone else and was the new Chancellor of Germany. The German people were cheerful; they believed Hitler their savior (“Hitler Comes to Power. Ushmm.org”).

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).

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.

The rise of National Socialism in post-WWI Germany is an understandable reaction to the problems of the Versailles Peace Treaty, considering the German attitudes and beliefs at the time. These attitudes and beliefs were the result of generations of Prussian militarism, extreme racist nationalism, and, most importantly, the failure of the Treaty of Versailles signed in June of 1919. The rise of the Nazi party, and their extremist National Socialist doctrine appealed directly to these attitudes and beliefs that permeated Germany society after the first World War.