Hitler’s Thousand Year Reich.

Hitler’s Thousand Year Reich.

The name Adolph Hitler often brings to mind images of either a madman or an evil military genius. While Hitler was arguably an evil madman, he was no military genius. Hitler attempted to use Germany’s military muscle to overpower the world and make room for the Nazi party to survive and create what he called a thousand-year Reich. Hitler’s political activity was part luck and part skill; he found a way to turn the sentence of treason that was against him and turn it into a political stepping-stone to power. While Hitler and his generals successfully changed the world, they made too many mistakes, both military and otherwise, for the Nazi party ever to lead the world into Hitler’s dream of the thousand-year Reich.

After the Beer Hall Putsch and Hitler’s subsequent imprisonment at Landsberg, he was told that he would receive a public trial. This public trial brought Hitler’s spirits up as he felt that this would give him the mass media coverage he needed and the chance to show how evil, stupid and cowardly his Government truly was. He was right, a Nazi sympathizer in the Bavarian Government chose all of the judges. These judges allowed Hitler to speak as long as he wished in his own defense, interrupt his opposition, cross-examine witnesses, and use the courtroom as a tool to spread pro-Nazi propaganda throughout the press. Hitler’s political luck had allowed him to use his daring to spread thoughts throughout the people of Germany with comments such as, "I alone bear the responsibility. But I am not a criminal because of that. If today I stand here as a revolutionary, it is as a revolutionary against the revolution. There is no such thing as high treason against the traitors of 1918." While Hitler’s luck had allowed him the chance to promote his beliefs, his ability to manipulate people allowed him to receive the outcome that he had desired. While Hitler was still convicted, it was only at the command of the presiding judge, and even then the sentence was weak and allowed him many extravagances that allowed him to further his power.

However, Hitler made many more mistakes than he made intelligent maneuvers. Perhaps one of Hitler’s largest mistakes was to start the war as early as he did. The German Luftwaffe had only enough fuel to last around six months of heavy combat, it lacked well-trained commanders, and Germany only held enough bombs to last around 3 weeks.