Adolf Hitler’s rise to power as Chancellor of Germany and leader of the German people is often portrayed as the result of a sweeping electoral victory. In reality Hitler’s rise was incremental, requiring (a patchwork of political support from) an assimilation of support from various demographics as well as influential political figures. An area of perpetual historiographical debate is, specifically, which demographic was more essential to Hitler’s rise - one school of thought maintains the significance of the lower middle class in the (spread and rise to power of the) popularization of the Nazi party, while the other argues that it was the “German elite” who more effectively aided them. The following essay will focus primarily on the latter school of thought. As a result of the Industrial Revolution the structure of German society was dramatically changed affected; newly emerging social tension between the wealthy capitalists and the urban poor caused more traditional capitalist to seek out allies with similar socio-political views. The product of this alliance was a fusion of German aristocracy (Junkers) and the German industrialists. Junkers dominated the higher civil offices and the officer corps, while the industrialists controlled the means to production. This fusion created a new social elite -the traditional German elite. It is this traditional elite that played a fundamental role in assisting in Hitler as Chancellor of Germany.
The combination of the loss of the first World War and the Treaty of Versailles’ harsh punitive measures crippled Germany economically, militarily and psychologically. The German populace had been left resentful, searching for someone to blame. Reassurance came in the form of the traditi...
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...ould have legitimated the acceptance of minorities.” The traditional elites used to control the direction of the state (including those allowed to participate). Their longstanding values remained constant even though the transition to Republic enforced equality, meanwhile the regime never grew independent enough to dispense with the conservative elites altogether . The coalescence of inherent anti-Semitic thought and a lack of an effective outlet to relieve conservatives of their feelings of encroachment drove the Junkers into an alliance with the Nazis - the Nazis offered a solution. In three specific instances- medical doctors, lawyers and civil servants- feelings of Jewish infiltration into the positions of the traditional elite result in the warping of the once neutral views of professions into a collective mouthpiece for the advancement of the Nazi ideology.
Gottfried, Ted, and Stephen Alcorn. Nazi Germany: The Face of Tyranny. Brookfield, CT: Twenty-First Century, 2000. Print.
This investigation will address the research question, to what extent was Germany’s post-World War I economic depression a causal factor in Hitler’s rise to power from 1919 to 1934? With the Treaty of Versailles, the German government was required to pay 132 billion gold marks of war reparations, drastically worsened with the US Wall Street crash. This effectively crippled the German economy and created a desperate people. For this investigation, Hitler’s private life history and pre-military career will not be analyzed. His political rise will be examined from the perspective of economic and social factors. Several primary sources will be explored, including the Hitler’s Mein Kampf and Hitler’s 25-Point Program. In addition, tertiary sources covering Hitler’s non-personal life and rise to power will be studied.
The historical field concerning the Weimar Republic, Germany's parliamentary government during the interwar years, is not only an extremely sophisticated area of study, but an extremely competitive one as well. In the early eighties, a much heated and unprecedented scholarly dispute arose surrounding The Collapse of the Weimar Republic, written by David Abraham - at the time, a fledgling historian and assistant professor at Princeton University. Nazi seizure of power from the Weimar Republic has long intrigued scores of historians. Various models have been constructed in an attempt to explain how an entity such as the Nazi movement came to power over such an industrially, culturally, and socially advanced society such as Germany's (Notes from Jamie van Hook 2/14).
build up a name for himself, as well as, to get to know people in high
to reach he would have to do it legally, and so he decided to stand
At the end of World War One, Germany was required to pay a large sum of money to the Allies consequently resulting in the German Depression. The sum Germany had to pay was set after the Treaty of Versailles was enacted at approximately six billion, six hundred million – twenty-two billion pounds, (World War Two – Causes, Alan Hall, 2010). The large amount of reparations that Germany had to pay resulted in a depression and angered the Germans because they thought it was an excessive amount of money to pay, (World War Two – Causes) The Germans hatred of the Treaty of Versailles was of significant importance in propelling the Nazis to power. Germany could not pay their reparations and was forced into a depression, (World War II – Causes). The Treaty of Versailles deprived Germany of its economic production and its available employments, (World War II – Causes). The German Depr...
The German economy complicated the Nazis’ financial situation because of events that happened before the Holocaust. Due to the poor condition of the economy, the funds made traced back to the Jews, causing more disagreements to arise. The Treaty of Versailles from World War I said, “…Germany undertakes that she will make compensation for all damage done to the civilian population…and their property…” which caused Germany to be in debt (Duffy). To compensate, the government resorted to getting the money from their citizens, but the Jewish had to pay special taxes. This produced injustice among the citizens and protesting, but the government executed or punished those who protested. Before the Holocaust, the German economy was in ruins from World War I and Hitler blamed the Jews for it (“Holocaust” 296). Hitler onl...
Furthermore, to understand why historians focus on other periods in the Weimar’s history, in particular the consequences of the treaty of Versailles and the consequences of the Wall Street crash in 1928 which led to its collapse. Many historians in the period 1970 – 2000 attempted to write a complete account of the Weimar republic and very few succeeded, however, E.J. Feuchtwanger’s ‘From Weimar to Hitler’ published in 1993 is one of the most successful overviews published.... ... middle of paper ... ...
In addition, having lost the war, the humiliated Germans were forced by the Allies to sign the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 that officially ended World War I. According to the harsh terms of the treaty, Germany had to hand over many of its richest industrial territories to the victors, and was made to pay reparations to the Allied countries it devastated during the war. Germany lost its pride, prestige, wealth, power, and the status of being one of Europe's greatest nations. (Resnick p. 15)
Support for the Nazi party was due to the growing belief that it was a
However, when confronted with a strict policy of appeasement, by both the French and the English, the stage was set for a second World War. Taylor constructs a powerful and effective argument by expelling certain dogmas that painted Hitler as a madman, and by evaluating historical events as a body of actions and reactions, disagreeing with the common idea that the Axis had a specific program from the start. The book begins with the conclusion of the First World War, by exploring the idea that critical mistakes made then made a second war likely, yet not inevitable. Taylor points out that although Germany was defeated on the Western front, “Russia fell out of Europe and ceased to exist, for the time being, as a Great Power. The constellation of Europe was profoundly changed—and to Germany’s advantage.”
To this day it remains incomprehensible to justify a sensible account for the uprising of the Nazi Movement. It goes without saying that the unexpectedness of a mass genocide carried out for that long must have advanced through brilliant tactics implemented by a strategic leader, with a promising policy. Adolf Hitler, a soldier in the First World War himself represents the intolerant dictator of the Nazi movement, and gains his triumph by arousing Germany from its devastated state following the negative ramifications of the war. Germany, “foolishly gambled away” by communists and Jews according to Hitler in his chronicle Mein Kampf, praises the Nazi Party due to its pact to provide order, racial purity, education, economic stability, and further benefits for the state (Hitler, 2.6). Albert Speer, who worked closely under Hitler reveals in his memoir Inside the Third Reich that the Führer “was tempestuously hailed by his numerous followers,” highlighting the appreciation from the German population in response to his project of rejuvenating their state (Speer, 15). The effectiveness of Hitler’s propaganda clearly served its purpose in distracting the public from suspecting the genuine intentions behind his plan, supported by Albert Camus’ insight in The Plague that the “townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; in other words, they were humanists: they disbelieved in pestilences”(Camus, 37). In this sense “humanists” represent those who perceive all people with virtue and pureness, but the anti-humanist expression in the metaphor shows the blind-sidedness of such German citizens in identifying cruel things in the world, or Hitler. When the corruption within Nazism does receive notice, Hitler at that point given h...
Adolf Hitler, as the new dictator of Germany, had an image of the "perfect society." This image, though, did not include a group of what Hitler declared "undesirables." This group included t...
The debate as to whether Hitler was a ‘weak dictator’ or ‘Master of the Third Reich’ is one that has been contested by historians of Nazi Germany for many years and lies at the centre of the Intentionalist – Structuralist debate. On the one hand, historians such as Bullock, Bracher, Jackel and Hildebrand regard Hitler’s personality, ideology and will as the central locomotive in the Third Reich. Others, such as Broszat, Mason and Mommsen argue that the regime evolved out from pressures and circumstances rather than from Hitler’s intentions. They emphasise the institutional anarchy of the regime as being the result of Hitler’s ‘weak’ leadership. The most convincing standpoint is the synthesis of the two schools, which acknowledges both Hitler’s centrality in explaining the essence of Nazi rule but also external forces that influenced Hitler’s decision making. In this sense, Hitler was not a weak dictator as he possessed supreme authority but as Kershaw maintains, neither was he ‘Master of the Third Reich’ because he did not exercise unrestricted power.
“Among these dictators was Adolf Hitler, who called on the German masses to restore the national glory that had been damaged by defeat in 1918. He urged German scorn democratic rights and roo...