Eric Hoffer's True Believer outlines a model that mass movements follow or need to follow in order to succeed. The Nazi Political Movement in Germany is explained well through the use of this framework. The Nazi party rose to power because of the setting of Germany at the time and the people involved in the movement. It is especially interesting to look at how the methods and tactics the leaders used changed throughout the course of the Nazi rule. The difference is especially apparent in how the treatment of homosexuals by Nazis changed over time. These behaviors and laws can be sorted into four main phases of the Nazi rule: coming to power, cracking down, mass killings, and fall of the empire.
The first phase of the Nazi movement was the coming to power. The setting in Germany in 1933 was very important to the success of the Nazi movement. This was right after Germany had lost World War 1 and had been punished heavily by the Treaty of Versailles. The country was in shambles. The economy was facing major inflation and extremely high unemployment rates. Suicide rates were high, and because of the financial distress, many people were suffering from malnutrition. The German people needed things to get better. In Hoffman's words, they had a "desire for change" (Hoffman).
Equally important as a desire for change was a desire for substitutes. Not only did the German people have to know that they wanted things to change, they had to know how they wanted things to be. They had to want a specific substitute. The Nazi party suggested a very enticing substitute. This is where Hoffer's "men of words" come into play. Hitler and Goebbels were the two main men of words important to this stage of the movement. Hitler was the voice of the mov...
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The Nazi Political Movement follows Eric Hoffer's framework for mass movements. The Nazis had the right setting in which people were desiring of change and substitute. They had powerful men of words, fanatics, men of action, and plenty of true believers. They made use of many powerful unifying agents to tie their followers together for the same cause. However, in the end, they were trying to do two different things of large magnitude. By themselves, world domination and purification of a race make for huge separate movements. Put together, it proved to be too much to do at once and the movement fell apart.
Works Cited
Grau, Günter, and Claudia Schoppmann. The Hidden Holocaust? New York: Rutledge, 2012. Print.
Hoffer, Eric. The True Believer. New York: Harper Perennial, 2010. Print.
Plant, Richard. The Pink Triangle. New York: H. Holt, 1986. Print.
Gottfried, Ted, and Stephen Alcorn. Nazi Germany: The Face of Tyranny. Brookfield, CT: Twenty-First Century, 2000. Print.
Prior to the Nazi takeover of Germany, the nation had been suffering deeply. An economic depression, large-scale unemployment, and the shame of losing World War I had put Germany in a dark place. The Nazi’s were incredibly aware of this, and their propaganda at the time reflected a need to reunite the German people. Propaganda appealed to national pride, and putting ones country before themselves. Of course, a strong united people needed a leader that was just as strong, and the “myth of Hitler” would create that leader. Slogans like “One People, one Fuhrer, one Reich!” promoted national unity, and a Wochenspruch from February 1938 states, “The greatest of all sacrifices is to give one’s life to preserve the existence of the community.” Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will comes from this time period and helps form the mythological image of Hitler. Propaganda also focused on the good the Nazi party was doing. It discussed how well the Nazi welfare system was working, newsreels showed happy German people enjoying the benefits of the Nazi regime.
I feel the unprecedented rise of the Nazi party was partially due to the circumstances in Germany after the collapse of the Weimar Republic. Many people in Germany were living in crippling poverty and the strain of the and the country was trying to find stability after World War. Moreover, many people were still angry about the way Germany was treated by the allies in the treaty of Versailles. Hitler and his Nazis seized the opportunity and presented a united and organised front that promised to make Germany a great and powerful nation once more. By blaming Jewish people and other sections of society as for all the country’s problems Hitler united the Germans by giving them someone to blame. This lead to the youth of Germany being caught in the middle of following the Nazi cause or opposing it.
Hitler and the Nazi party used fear, terror, and propaganda to keep their power over Germany. But even before that, when he sought to w...
Nazis and the Party had very similar ideologies. Although Nazis eliminated people because of their religion (Sauer 683) and the Party eliminated people because of their anti-Party feelings (Orwell 187), they both tried to eliminate anyone who did not agree with them. This practice was essential for controlling the masses and holding on to power. Retaining power is much easier for a government when the entire population that government rules agrees with its philosophies. No one would attempt to remove the current government from power if he or she agreed with that government.
After World War I, there was a spiritual void left within the people of Germany. The outcome of the war had ripped the German society along the class lines causing great stress and tension among the people. The people of Germany had believed all along that they were winning the war, and therefore the news of surrender came as a great shock to them. To make things worse, the peace treaty established placed the entire fault of the war on Germany and left them responsible for paying for the costs of the war for all who were involved. This sparked a conflict between the middle and working classes in society. Then, the depression followed, creating even more unhappiness among the people. With all of this unhappiness because of the class divisions and the depression, the Nazi...
The National Socialist German Workers' Party, commonly known as the Nazi party, originated during the 1920s. Formerly, the Nazi Party’s main purpose was to abolish communism. However, ...
The party attempted to take control of the government by force. This failed as the Nazi’s did not enjoy widespread support at the time. The government was capable of controlling the armed forces and police. Hitler was imprisoned as a result of the Putsch (Uprising).
'Nazi Germany ' represented the period from 1933s to 1945s, which played an important role in prosperous German history and the modern European history. After Germany participated in First World War in the first half of the 20th century, the whole society was glutted with unemployment, poverty, hunger, inflation and moral corruption. The public couldn’t feel the republican democracy benefits.
The German people felt that with the Nazis in control they could overcome the problems caused by the Treaty of Versailles. Nazi militarism would restore the armed forces to their greatest capability. Nazi mobilization would create employment and new economic opportunities. Nazi expansionism would claim new territories for the German people to inhabit. Nazi racism would rid German society of those elements that weakened it. Nazi ultra-nationalism would restore a sense of identity and pride in a greater German nation. After great suffering as a result of the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles, a majority of Germans felt at the time that Nazi rule would bring them the most cherished thing of all, hope.
After World War I, the social climate in Germany was depressing. The German people were humiliated by their country's defeat and by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The financial depression that resulted left millions of individuals out of work. The German government was weak, and the people sought new leadership. These conditions provided an opportune setting for a new leader, Adolf Hitler, and his party, the National Socialist German Workers Party. Hitler, reckless and powerful, was able to fan the flames of an ancient hatred into a wild and out of control holocaust (Altman 12).
It was during the 1920’s to the 1940’s that totalitarian control over the state escalated into full dictatorships, with the wills of the people being manipulated into a set of beliefs that would promote the fascist state and “doctrines”.
...then and now by the immense controversy involved and the large amount of faith, responsibility, and bravery needed for the people. Pushing aside the major setbacks Germany had undergone, people today know Nazi Germany as the country that had always found a solution and pushed through, even during the least hopeful times. However, people also know the Third Reich as the horrific time of oppression and discrimination by Hitler and his colleagues; according to some, these actions that made Hitler all-powerful and everyone else weak or nonexistent actually led Germany to their success. This time period will always remain a many-sided topic of debate because of the many ways Nazis were victors, victims, and totalitarians.
MODERN HISTORY – RESEARCH ESSAY “To what extent was Nazi Germany a Totalitarian state in the period from 1934 to 1939?” The extent to which Nazi Germany was a totalitarian state can be classed as a substantial amount. With Hitler as Fuhrer and his ministers in control of most aspects of German social, political, legal, economical, and cultural life during the years 1934 to 1939, they mastered complete control and dictation upon Germany. In modern history, there have been some governments, which have successfully, and others unsuccessfully carried out a totalitarian state. A totalitarian state is one in which a single ideology is existent and addresses all aspects of life and outlines means to attain the final goal, government is run by a single mass party through which the people are mobilized to muster energy and support.
Historians are often divided into categories in regard to dealing with Nazi Germany foreign policy and its relation to Hitler: 'intentionalist', and 'structuralist'. The intentionalist interpretation focuses on Hitler's own steerage of Nazi foreign policy in accordance with a clear, concise 'programme' planned long in advance. The 'structuralist' approach puts forth the idea that Hitler seized opportunities as they came, radicalizing the foreign policies of the Nazi regime in response. Structuralists reject the idea of a specific Hitlerian ideological 'programme', and instead argue for an emphasis on expansion no clear aims or objectives, and radicalized with the dynamism of the Nazi movement. With Nazi ideology and circumstances in Germany after World War I influencing Nazi foreign policy, the general goals this foreign policy prescribed to included revision of Versailles, the attainment of Lebensraum, or 'living space', and German racial domination. These foreign policy goals are seen through an examination of the actions the Nazi government took in response to events as they happened while in power, and also through Hitler's own ideology expressed in his writings such as Mein Kempf. This synthesis of ideology and social structure in Germany as the determinants of foreign policy therefore can be most appropriately approached by attributing Nazi foreign policy to a combination as both 'intentionalist' and 'structuralist' aims. Nazi foreign policy radicalized with their successes and was affected by Hitler pragmatically seizing opportunities to increase Nazi power, but also was based on early a consistent ideological programme espoused by Hitler from early on.