HITLER - RISE OF A DICTATOR IN GERMANY

#OHHAILTHEHITLER

WAS IT FAVOURABLE CIRCUMSTANCES OR HITLER'S LEADERSHIP ABILITIES THAT LED TO HIS RISE IN PROMINENCE IN THE LATE 1920s?

We felt that it is due to favourable circumstances that led Hitler to rise to power. Weakness of the Weimar Government, hyperinflation and great depression gave a more convincing point. Imagine if Germany have a strong and powerful government, I'm pretty sure that Hitler won't be able to stand out and be well-known. Because of the weak government Hitler was able to voice out his opinion and gave a better idea/solution than the Weimar government. While for hyperinflation and great depression, the government are being irresponsible as they did not give a solution and were not putting enough effort to think of another alternative and provide a weak solution. They did not think out of the box and think that just by printing more money will make the life easier for Germans. 

Even though the rest of the points were strong, however, without the favourable circumstances, it would be difficult for Hitler to display his ideology, charisma in terms of style and exploit the minds of the German. Therefore, we believe that it is due to favourable circumstances that made Hitler to rise to power. 

The following video is a summary on how Hitler managed to rise to power. 

This only applies for the first half of the video.

Weaknesses Of The Weimar Government(Dewi)

WEIMAR GOVERNMENT

After Germany lost in the First World War, Kaiser(used to rule Germany) went away leaving Germany with a new democratic Government which was declared in February 1919 at the small town of Weimar. The announcement was made in a small town in Weimar as it was too dangerous to make the announcement in Berlin where there was a revolt by a Communist group called the Spartacists (German communists named after the slave who lead a rebellion against the Romans.) The Weimar Republic was set up as a genuine attempt for Germany to create a perfect democratic country.

source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/germany/weimarstrengthweakrev2.shtml

Constitution and proportional representation

Proportional representation

Compared to other countries, like for example Britain, who voted for an MP, a party was what the Weimar Germans voted for. The parties were then allocated seats in the Reichstag (a building in Berlin where German parliaments met from 1894 to 1933 and again since 1999.) with the exact same number of people who voted for them as the selected party. This way of voting may sound fair to some, but in reality, it was a major disaster which resulted in many small parties, without any strong party to get a majority. Because there were too many small parties and there's no permanent government, it results to no law and order were passed around in the Reichstag. Thus this was a major weakness of the Republic.

(Textbook page 66) People of German voted for a party rather than specific candidates. In order to win, parties need to gain seats. This method was democratic and fair but it also resulted in a high degree of an incomplete part in the parliament. To add on, they were too many small parties competing, which resulted in none of the parties gaining the majority.

Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution 

Article 48 is about when there's an occurrence of emergency that the government deemed to be dangerous, the president does not need the agreement of the Reichstag, but could issue an order. The problem with this method was that it did not state what type of emergency, and in the end, it became a back door(opportunity) for Hitler  to use to step up  and take power legally.

(Textbook page 66) By the article it allows the president to disband both houses of parliament and rule by decree for six months in the occurrence of emergency. Civil rights could also be
suspended, and what people called as an emergency was also not defined clearly. This managed to give Hitler a chance to seize power legally and remain in power.

Coalition Government

(Textbook page 66)This way of government made all the small parties come together as one and together formed a coalition government. This was not an easy task as some parties had extreme ideas and were not cooperative amongst one another. Thus, the government were not willing to come to an agreement.

The coalition government was not successful as it kept breaking apart due to the parties not wanting to give in to one another, and resulted in the frequent change in the government. Because of all these misunderstandings and issues, about 20 different coalition governments were formed from 1919-1933. As a result, they were looked down by the Germans and were seen as weak people by the German too as it was difficult for them to enforce laws.

Weak Support

(textbook page 68)The government also did not have a lot of support from the people especially from the politicians and soldiers. This is because most of the people such as the civil service, judiciary, military and big businesses were on Kaiser’s side. Many were influenced and also had worked for Kaiser before. Most of them wanted Kaiser to return and rule the country again.

Royalists, who wanted Kaiser back did not have any respect for the current government. This therefore was hard for them to gain support and loyalty of the people. Without all the support that they needed, Weimar government remained weak and struggled to hold on to power and authority.

source: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~rapte22p/classweb/interwarperiod/politicaldisorder.html

The army leaders who were from Junker or noble families were unwilling to be led by people below their social class. The army did not support the Weimar Republic. Germans were very patriotic and proud. The Weimar Republic did not fulfil many German’s desire for glory. World War one did not make Germans lose faith in their ability to achieve victory.

The Weimar Government being a new and inexperienced government had to deal with the complex problem of economic depression. Hyperinflation occurred as the government made the mistake of too much money to pay reparations. The government was still stuck in the old monarchy system of the Kaiser. The government could not even do basic things such as trash collection.

It appeared as if the government was unable to function to the average citizen. The government had a lot on their plate with stability being such a key concern. Therefore the Weimar government did not take the problem responsibly and are weak enough to think of concrete solution. Thus many Germans did not trust the Weimar government as they did not prove to the people that they were capable enough to lead and serve the nation properly.

Opposition from the left and the right 

Left-wing were led by Spartacist Revolt, Rosa Luxembourg and William Liebknecht. They were financed by Bolsheviks in Russia. Meanwhile, the right-wing were led by Kapp Putsch. He also has many solders as his followers, therefore it was hard to put them down.

Left-wing oppositions (textbook page 68&link)

source: https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~rapte22p/classweb/interwarperiod/politicaldisorder.html

The left wingers were those who wanted more equality in the society. Since they were being financed by the Bolsheviks in the Russia, they were influenced by them. They opposed the governing way of democracy. In January 1919, to rebel in Berlin, the Spartacists communists were led by Rosa Luxembourg and William Liebknecht.

The president, President Elbert and the army as well as Freikorps (organizations formed during Weimar during republic, mostly containing the WWI armies) made an agreement to stop the rebellion. The president succeeded in stopping the rebellion in 1920. The left-wing oppositions were ruthlessly crushed by the Freikorps, the army and the police. Adding on, Luxembourg and Liebknecht were hung.

Right-Wing oppositions

They were the group that believed that Germany should not be solely responsible for the WWI. They disagreed to the terms of Treaty of Versailles. E.g. of the punishments were Germany were not allowed to have air force, submarines and air force. To add on, Strict limitations were being put on their armies. This were the aspects of Germany. This was all that they were proud of. Thus they people disagreed to it.

They also wanted Germany’s army and industry to be strong again, and to add on to that they also wanted territorial expansion. In terms of government, they wanted Germany to be ruled in a dictator type of way. The people in the army were extreme nationalists of Germany and they would call those who ratified the treaty the ‘November Criminals’. Not wanting to put their guards down, they also did not accept the defeat of Germany in the war and placed the blame on politicians for not being courageous enough to continue the war.

Hyperinflation(Haziq)

After the war, Germany struggled with poverty, high unemployment and a deficient economy. This is all due to the treaty of versailles that were implemented on them. A huge burden was placed on the reparation payments as the allies stated that Germany have to carry the sole responsibility of the outbreak of WW1 and this became extremely unpopular among the Germans as they felt that it was unfair.

To solve this problem, the German government decided to print more money to pay off the debts. In December 1922, Germany failed to make payments to other countries for the destruction that they had caused during the war. With this, France and Belgium invaded the Ruhr in January 1923. Since Germany were not able to pay for the reparations, the allies took away the mines, railways and factories there. This was to take back what was once theirs in the past as a payment for the reparations as a sort of revenge.

With this crisis going on, it caused the Germans to inherit a policy of non-cooperation. Workers began to go on strike against the government so as to prevent the French from taking away their property. The government decided to take action on this crisis by printing more money to pay off the Ruhr workers going on strike and to pay off some of its debt..

With more money being printed, the more did the value decreases. Prices of resources began to rise up ridiculously and caused hyperinflation to occur in Germany. An example of the change in price among the years would be; In 1919, 6600 ReichMarks was considered as a small fortune to the people while in 1923, the same amount of money was not even enough for a postage stamp.

A cup of coffee could not even be afforded by the rich even with their monthly income of working. The poor became even poorer while the wealthier and the middle-class Germans felt the most bitter. Their money savings were all wiped out instantly due to hyperinflation and the high cost of living. The Weimar government began to lose support from the people due to this crisis. 

Source: History Textbook( The Making of the Contemporary World Order 1870s-1991 Unit 2 The World in Crisis)

This picture shows the banknotes which lost its value as the government printed too much
that people use it as their wallpaper and even play with the banknotes by stacking them.

Did Hitler rise to power due to this crisis going on?

In my opinion, I think that Hitler did rose to power because of the major crisis going on within Germany. Hitler upon experiencing living in the country with crisis decided to suggest to the ones in-charge to switch over to dictatorship so that it would be easier to solve the situation.

There was a frequent change in the government during that time and this had caused hyperinflation to become even worse. With all these changes not being useful, Hitler stood up and became the 5th Chancellor of Germany.

By having this position, Hitler took advantage of this to become a dictator himself. In a meeting, Hitler promised the people that he would solve all the civil crisis occurring. It was obviously easy for Hitler to destroy his political rivals. However, it was a lot harder to retrieve the paralysed economy of the country with 68,000 bankrupt enterprises and millions were unemployed.

Thus, Hitler became involved in many important events so that he would gain the trust and support of his people. With this, it became one of the methods on how during hyperinflation had helped him to rise to power in Germany.

Source: http://getsilver.blogspot.sg/2009/09/how-did-hyper-inflation-help-hitler.html

This picture shows the great amount of bank notes being printed out during the hyperinflation.

This video shows the condition during the hyperinflation time.

Great Depression(Jinteng)

How did the Great Depression come about and how did it affect the Germans?

INTRODUCTION :)

                                                                                  

How did the Great Depression started?

When World War 1 ended, Germany was forced to compensate through reparations for the damages they had caused during the war. Since Germany had to accept total blame for the war through War Guilt Clause and at the same time, Germany’s economy was weak, Germany had no choice but to borrow money from the American Banks. In 24 October 1929, known as the “Black Thursday”, the New York Stock Exchange crashed.

At that time, Germany was dependent on loans and investments from USA, thus Germany was badly affected and suffered an economic crisis. This caused bank to close down and many lost their cash investments and savings. German industrialists lost access to the US markets and found credit almost impossible to obtain. 

This forced many industries and factories to close down and caused severe unemployment rate. By early 1933, a massive number of six million, or one-third of the working population faced unemployment. Many of the Germans felt very unhappy that the Coalition Government in power at that time could not decide what course of action to take. The President at that time, Paul Von Hindenburg, did not care about democracy. People were angry and they demanded that more decisive actions should be taken instead. 

How did Hitler rise to power then?

When Germany faced an economic downfall, Hitler saw this as a chance to gain support from the Germans and rise to power. At that time, people were so desperate that they did not care who their leader was, so they looked towards the radical new political party called the Nazis (National Socialist German Workers’ Party). 

Since many of the Germans lost confidence in the Coalition Government, many switched to support the Nazi Party. Hitler, being one of the best speakers in the party, demanded that he is to become the leader of the Nazi Party or he would not return to the party. Since he was aided in his willingness to use violence in advancing his political objectives and to recruit party members who were willing to do the same, Hitler became the leader of the Nazi Party. On 5 March 1933, the Federal Elections was held in Germany. The Nazi Party won the elections with 288 seats. 

EXAMPLE OF TWO SOURCES ON GREAT DEPRESSION

P: This source shows a German who is trying to withdraw money from the bank however he is unable to do so as

E: it is seen from the source that the bank is closed down from the pile of bricks shown in the source

E: Thus, I can infer that the Great Depression caused as economic downfall in Germany which led to lost in cash investments and savings.

P: This source shows a German man who is a victim of bank failure.

E: This is evident from the source which shows me a men who looks devastated and a sign “Victim of  bank failure” beside him. It is also seen that a squirrel is saying “... Why didn’t you save money ... When times were good?” and the German man replying “I did”.

E: Thus, I can infer that it is not the man’s fault that he did not save up money, but it is precisely due to the Great Depression that resulted in banks closing down and victims to lose their cash investments and savings.

Nazi Ideology(Lugi)

Hitler was against socialist ideas, however Socialism was popular in Germany after World War 1. Therefore, Hitler renamed his party as the “National Socialist German Workers Party”. He even put ‘National’ before ‘Socialist’ to show that he only favoured equality for those who had ‘German Blood’.

Those who are NOT Germans, people such as the Jews (people who originated from the kingdom of Israel), communists, liberals, pacifists, free masons, gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals would lose their rights to citizenship. This is because Hitler strongly believed that the Jews was the one at fault for outbreak of world war 1. 

Nazi Ideology was also used to build a Charismatic Leader figure, (Adolf Hitler) NSDAP’s party Programme

In 1920, NSDAP’s Party Programme was formulated with the meaning of ‘inalterable’. This programme was largely filled with negative points. It fits well with the fact that Nazism was really an anti-ideology: anti-democratic, anti-communist, anti-semitic, anti-capitalistic, and anti-western. 

It mostly demanded ‘The abolition of Treaty of Versailles’ , ‘The union of Germany and Austria’ , ‘Allowing only ‘true’ Germans to live in Germany’ , ‘Nationalisation of large businesses’ , ‘Increases in old pensions’ and ‘Establishment of a strong central government’ because Hitler felt that the treaty of versailles was unfair and made Germany suffered tremendously.

Hitler and Mein Kampf

The ideological characteristics of Nazism can be found in the book, Mein Kampf which was written between 1923 and 1924 when Hitler was in prison as he participated in the famous Beer Hall Putsch in Munich which ultimately failed. In Hitler’s worldview, he saw the Aryan race as the ‘creating cultures’ while the Jewish as the ‘destroying cultures’ there are a few lists of examples but the Aryan race are the more popular one.

SOURCE:TEXTBOOK

Charisma And Oratorical Skills (Praveen)

Charisma and oratorical skill was a major reason why he got an utterly strong support from Germany as he was a powerful speaker and a good communicator. He uses his strengths to mix with people to the extent that many believed in him. 

Examples of events which he make use of his strength

• BEER HALL SPEECHES 
• He made many beer hall speeches as many people in Germany will not be fully aware and alert about whats happening as they're drunk. When the Germans were getting drunk he always start his speech and approaches it calmly and logically. 

• TRUE ORATOR 
• He is a master at oratorical as he knows the mood of the audience he is speaking to. Before speaking, he would keep practising his speech over and over again so he will be ready and prepared when he face the audience. 
• he made speeches very politely to make it look like he was very concerned and sincere 
• By addressing people concerns, he knew everything what people wanted and needed.
• he also uses criminals as scapegoats for Germany ills

Skilfulness At Making Deals With Politician (Praveen)

• HITLER WAS A GOOD POLITICANSO 
• He always wait for the correct opportunity to increase his power. In 1932 elections, Nazi won more votes as compared to the rest of the political party. However Hitler wanted to become a chancellor but Hinderburg didn't want that to happen. He gave the position to his FRANZ PON PAPEN. Although he did not have any support in Reichstag, Hinderburg were shocked to find out that they have dropped around approximately 2 million votes in total. 

• therefore, in december 1932, Hinderburg elected Kurt Von Schleicher to be chancellor. However he was forced to resign soon after as he had lack of support from the people. Thus, after much discussion in January 1933, Hinderburg reluctantly made Hitler as Chancellor. Hinderburg thought that by making Hitler as chancellor, many people would gain the support they needed. They also mistakenly thought that they could control the cabinet and get policy making on their hands and get Hitler to support it. 
• many underestimated Hitler. He ruled in a coalition government as adeal by those politicians who underestimated him. Hitler took the right time to win enough support and he acted smartly to take control of the government as the government at that period of time was pretty messed up. 

Both of the video shows how persuasive he was when he was talking with the mass.

Exploitation Of The Fears Of Communism(Hidayah)

The Germans were afraid of communism. This is because they are afraid that they will experience the same thing as what Soviet Union went through. The communists believed that the state have the rights to obtain all of the lands and assets that the people owned. The communists forced hard labour and killed innocent people who did not heed or do what the state asked to do. They wouldn't want to suffer again when they had already suffered during hyperinflation and great depression. 

Therefore Hitler made use of this opportunity to his advantage and starts to convince people to side with him. He gave a convincing speech and made promises that their life would change and will lead to a better living if they elected him as the next chancellor. He also promised that he would help to increase the number of jobs and help those who were unemployed. As a result, many people were more prone to believe him, as they trust that Hitler would be responsible with his own words.

Some industrialists that were convinced with Hitler’s speech sponsored the Nazis with money and give them free excess to the film studio. The Nazis made use of the money to portray themselves in a positive light. They use the money for the electoral campaigns and use the free excess to made use of propaganda.

During the 1930s, the current state of Germany was horrible as there were conflicts, high rate of unemployment and economic crisis. Besides that, the communists also got into trouble with the police. Therefore in order to gain the people trust that the Nazis was capable of taking over the country, Hitler sent over his own armies to fight against the communists. As a result, many people believe that in order to make their life a better one, they would need the Nazis to support and help to improve their lives.

This enables Hitler to rise to power, as he has the capability to exploit people on trusting him that he was capable to be the next leader with his eye-catching promises. The following video shows how he exploited and appeal to the minds of the people with his powerful and convincing speech.

source: history textbook

Reorganisation Of The Nazi Party(Hidayah)

During the attempt of removing the Weimar government in Munich in November 1923, Hitler was imprisoned trying to overthrow the Government. After serving the prison for 6 months, he was released. During his trial, he gained popularity and followers.

When he was serving the prison, he wrote a book titled "Mein Kamph - My Struggle" that consists of his political ideas. Many people are interested in his ideas on territorial expansion, consolidation a racially pure state and the removal of the European Jews.

After he was released from prison, President Hinderburg appointed Hitler as the Chancellor of Germany. Hitler then take advantage of his power to reorganise the party members and setting up the stormtroopers(SA) and schutz-staffel/ defence force (SS) through three methods. 

The three methods are by increasing the party membership in which he set up Hitler Youth, establishing the SA and SS whereby they represent a strong army base where people can rely on and by using Nazi Propaganda through which depict a strong party that is true to one leader. 

source: History textbook

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