Toba Ahmadi
Ms. Kempin
World History Honors
19 June 2015
“World War II DBQ” Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party rose to power during the period of time right before and during World War II. Although Hitler caused many injustices and deaths, the Germans still looked up to and admired him. German citizens saw him as a leader who brought nothing but positive changes to their country. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party were appealing to the Germans due to Hitler’s potential of stabilizing Germany’s economy, Hitler’s favorable ideas, and the nationalism Hitler was able to bring about. To begin with, Germany’s economy was suffering after World War I. According to Document 4, from 1924 to 1932 the unemployment rate in Germany was escalating. In 1924, the unemployment rate was 978,000 and by 1932 had become 5,575,000. At the same time the percentage of votes for the Nazi Party increased significantly from 1928 to 1932. In 1928, 2.6% of voters voted for the Nazi Party and by 1932, 37.3% voted for the Nazi Party. This may be in part because, noticing the high unemployment rate, German voters wanted a government that would bring effective change to the country and lower the unemployment rate. To German citizens the Nazi Party may have seemed like the government that could bring about this change by creating more job opportunities and thus a better economy. Since the Germans were desperate and no other form of government seemed able to provide them with a stable economy, Hitler and the Nazi
After Germany’s humiliating defeat in World War I, Germans had little faith in their government, and in the early 1930s following the stock market crash in New York, Germany was economically struggling . Millions of people were out of work due to the world wide catastrophe making it an opportune time for Hitler and the Nazis to rise into power. Hitler, who was a powerful and spellbinding speaker, attracted Germans desperate for change. He promised to make Germany a better country and promised the disenchanted, a better life. Nazis appealed especially to the youth, unemployed, and members of the lower to middle class. Hitler’s rise to power seemed instantaneous. Before the economic depression, Nazis were virtually unknown, winning less than 3 percent of the vote to the Reichstag, which was the German Parliament. However, in the 1924 elections, the Nazis won a whopping 33 percent of the votes which was more than any other party. In January of 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor, the head of German Government . The Germans were convinced that they had found a savior for the Nation. The timing of his rise made it very easy for Hitler to gain power in a democratic government because people were hopeless and wanted a fast solution to the deficit. He promised things like a stronger economy, prosperity, and anything that they desired . He focused on first getting noticed and then grew from there. He didn’t say anything but what the people wanted to hear. Getting the people of Germany to trust him was how he started to gain so much control. Unfortunately, Hitler’s charm and persuasion was not the sole reason why Hitler gained so much power in a democratic
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
During the 1930’s Germany was at an all time low as the worldwide economic depression hit Germany hard. The confidence in Germany from the people was lacking due to the fresh memory of their defeat in World War I. This caused great need of a new leader, someone who could give the people change, and Adolf Hitler knew he could do just that. His rapid rise to power began when he started to promise things that intrigued the German people. He promised the hopeless and needy a better life, and promised opportunities that were exactly what the people needed. This caught the attention of so many young unemployed and middle class people. His party, known as the Nazi Party, won 33 percent of the votes in the 1932 elections. And by January 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor, which was the head of the German government. Germany started to feel like they might've found the leader they'd been so desperate for.
Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party used nationalism to great effect in Germany that spured the Second World World. After WWI, many Germans blamed the new government for accepting the unfair treaty as conditions became miserable. People who could not find jobs began to drift into the Communist and National Socialist parties established by Hitler. They decided that it was the necessary solution. In 1933, Hitler came to power as dictator of Germany and preached a racist brand of fascism. He promised to end the humiliating conditions caused by the German defeat in WWI. He knew how to win people's obedience and trust, through their fears and insecurities. He almost immediately got Germany back into the factories and began secretly building up army and weapons. His real motives were to expand German territory and dominate Europe and the whole world that became the prelude to another war.
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
Before the Great Depression in Germany, the Nazis were not a popular party, nor were they widely known. In the Reichstag (similar to parliament) elections of 1928, the Nazi Party received 2.6% of the vote. In 1930, the worldwide economic depression hit Germany hard. Life in Germany was bleak, many people were jobless, and the overall quality of life was poor. It also didn’t help that many people linked the depression, with Germany’s “embarrassing” defeat during World War I. Germans believed their government to be weak, and unable to help with the depression (“The Nazis Rise To Power”).
Germany was believed to be the cause of World War one, which made other European countries want to severely hurt Germany’s military and economy so that Germany couldn’t achieve future aggressions. The peace treaty called the Treaty of Versailles did just that. On June 28, 1919, the major powers in Europe, other than Germany, negotiated Germany’s punishment for the war. Germany’s military was limited to 100,000 men, they lost many of their colonies, they were forced to disarm their troops from the Rhineland, and worst of all they were forced to pay for all of the destruction caused by the war, which totaled to about 40 billion dollars. The Treaty of Versailles crushed Germany; they were weak and desperate, until Nazi Germany came to power.
Hitler rose to power through the Nazi party. He won over the the support of the middle and lower class in Germany. This caused the Nazi party to become larger and more powerful. Due to the Great Depression, unemployment rates skyrocketed and Hitler preyed on their weakness. He gave the people hope by making economic promises, which he went on to fulfill. Conflict between the Communists and Social Democrats led to weakness in their party which made Hitler gain more power. He was appointed Chancellor of Hindenburg. Once he gained more and more power he couldn’t be stopped. Hitler worked to abolish freedom of speech and assembly after convincing the president these were emergency acts that needed to be carried out. Hitler gained even more power by having the communist party outlawed and all of its members arrested. The Reichstag was enacted which gave Hitler four years of dictatorial power. The only legal political party in Germany became the Nazi party; every aspect of life was under Nazi control. Hitler did pull Germany out of the Depression. Businesses grew and and unemployment dropped. Most of the growth came from run businesses. Hitler believed that Germans were the supreme race. All Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, Jehovah's
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.
During World War 2 the National Socialist German Workers ' Party, or Nazi, leader came into power and spread his ideology: his name was Adolf Hitler. At the time, there were so many people that praised him and what he stood for. On the other hand, the majority of the world saw the cruel things that he did to the Jewish people. Those people refer to his as "insane" because of the fact that he had no remorse for the actions that he was doing. He saw only one type of German people and he would not accept anything else. During and after Hilters reign psychologists, doctors, researchers, and others tried to figure out his mindset. They tried to justify how someone could be so cruel to people of his country when the people had done nothing wrong to him. The psychopathology of Adolf Hitler has sparked the interest of various amounts of people. His mental, physical, and emotional illnesses are contributing factors that drove him to be so inhumane.
The Great Depression played a big role in helping the Nazi Party capture power. Many nations were suffering from the Great Depression in 1930, including Germany who had to pay for the war reparations. During this period of economic and politic crisis, the country had been easily influenced by the politics parties. They wanted someone who is capable and had what it takes to be their leader to lead them through the huge crisis that they were facing. Most Germans who are in desperate state as they wanted Germany to be like once, able to be proud of and not in such a state where they had to struggle to fulfill the almost impossible terms of the Treaty of Versailles. They considered that period as a disgraceful decade in their history. Due to
After being given power over the German’s Worker Party, Hitler aided in bolstering its ranks from a measly seven members, he was the seventh official member, to well over three-thousand likeminded people. (Marrs 20). In April of 1920, Hitler renamed the political group to the Nationalsozialistiche Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, or the National Socialist German Worker’s Party, which was shortened to Nazi. (Marrs 21). Nazi is a term synonymous with evil in our time, and what it stands for casts a long shadow over what is arguably the darkest times in modern history. Now seen as little more than one of the many modern white supremacist movements, the Neo-Nazis, one might find it little more than conspiracy theory to claim that the United States of America is a repackaged National Socialist Government, or a fourth Reich. Author Jim Marrs writes, “Under the banner of freedom and democracy, yet pursuing the agenda of the globalist who supported the Nazis, the United States slowly turned from one of the most admired nations in the world to one of the most despised.” (235-236).
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
Two days after Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany, on the 3rd of September 1939, President Roosevelt issued a proclamation of neutrality and ordered the suspension of munitions sales to all “belligerents” (nations involved in war.) This included its “allies” the British and the French, as they were counted as “belligerent” nations.
The leaders of the Nazi party made it one of the most infamous groups to lead a nation in history. The horrible things done under their rule and with their stamp of approval has made the term Nazi one of the worst possible. The amazing thing about the Nazi party is that many of the main aspects of their ideology existed in Germany even before they formed or came to power. Some of the major aspects of Nazi ideology such as antisemitism, the desire to expand the German empire, and the belief in the strength of the Aryan race existed in Germany years before Adolf Hitler was a name anyone in Germany would recognize.