“There must be no majority decisions, but only responsible persons... Surely every man will have advisers by his side, but the decision will be made by one man.[1]” As shown in this sentence from Mein Kampf, the book Hitler wrote while living in Landsberg Prison, Adolf Hitler had an adamant ambition of being a dictator. Despite his eagerness, the Nazi party did not seem (seem? It’s pretty clear it didn’t through the elections alone) to gain a lot of support in the 1920s. Hitler’s Munich Putsch in 1923[2] to overthrow the democratic government led by Ebert ended up as a failure that led him to the prison and the number of Nazis elected to the Reichstag in May 1924 even dropped from 32 to 19 in the election of November[3]. Then how could Hitler gain authority after this repetition of failures? Not only had his personal qualities and efforts were the factors that enabled him to rise to power but more significantly Hitler could be given his position due to environmental changes that were abysmal recessions of the nation at that time. Nonetheless, the triggering reason, which is the reason that made the President to invite Hitler for the designation of Chancellor on January 30, 1933,[4] was his aim to make Hitler become controllable and use his popularity to give more credibility to his government. Good assertion
Hitler took power due to his personal qualities such as strong and consolidated beliefs and charisma along with his speeches. He made his points very clear from the beginning in the Twenty-Five Point Program proclaimed in Munich in February 1920, the main points of which were: Führerprinzip, German term for “leadership principle” which gave ultimate authority to the leader; nationalism; self-determination of German people; racism involving anti-Semitism; and Lebensraum, meaning “living space.”[5] Although the majority of people did not agree with his idea at the beginning (I think they might have agreed, but either had no faith in him, distrusted his movement and use of terror, or had many many other parties saying the same thing they could follow), he gradually got credit for maintaining his obstinacy regardless of his chagrin (?) he had to suffer through failures such as Munich Putsch. Though he was sent into jail, Hitler still did not concede his beliefs but expressed his ambition in the book called Mein Kampf, “Thus my faith grew that my beautiful dream for the future would become reality after all, even though this might require long years.”[6] Try to question the strength of the sources you’re using. hitler contradicts himself many times in his book, and this was written for publication- is he actually being honest? Despite of his failure he was still having self-belief that he would achieve his aims and become a great dictator in the future. He also reemphasized his Twenty-Five Points, such as the principle of Lebensraum for example, in the book, “The acquisition of new soil for the settlement of the excess population possesses an infinite number of advantages... It must be said that such a territorial policy cannot be fulfilled in the Cameroons, but today almost exclusively in Europe.”[7] This sentence was not simply being an exposition of Hitler’s belief but also warned of invading European countries, which gave people strong impression. Besides his ideology, Hitler could rise to power due to the fact that he had the ability to make his ideas and himself intriguing to the citizens. In the election of 1930 in Munich, he said, “It is not for seats in parliament that we fight, but we win seats in parliament in order that one day we may be able to liberate the German people.”[8] How does this explain your vague claim about needing citizens to be “intrigued” by him specifically? His speech was making people to regard him as their hope which would enable them to gain freedom and get more united as a strong and confident nation, leading them to a conclusion that they should vote for him if they wanted better lives and better country because Hitler’s aim was not the growth of his party but improvement of Germany. He was turning people into adherents of the Nazis by making them to get excited and appealed to his strong and inspiring speeches. So far this essay you offer little authority to support your claims. Where did you hear he succeeded in doing such a thing? Eventually, the Nazi Party which seemed it an arduous task to gain further support with only 2.6 per cent of vote in 1928 became the largest party in 1932 with 27.3 per cent of electoral vote.[9] This huge change in the support for Nazis proved that Hitler was making his rise to power to be possible n reality with his consolidate beliefs and intriguing speeches that made his ideology sound reasonable and agreeable to the audience.
Even though Hitler possessed noteworthy qualities including his speeches and ideology I think his ideas were a mishmash of unclear and unworkable thoughts that embarrassed many Nazis- what provokes you to consider them “noteworthy qualities?”, there was a period of time, from 1924 to 1928[10], when the Nazi Party experienced a setback in electoral votes, which meant there were other reasons for Hitler being able come to power: economic changes and political agitation at that time. The following graph shows the increasing
Source1: the share of the different Weimar parties in the total vote from 1919 to 1932[11]
support for the Nazi Party from 1920 to 1924 and its decline from 1924 to 1928. From 1919 to 1923, Germany was full of chaos and political disturbance. There were 21 different coalition governments with no any dominant party[12] so there was no compromising and thus created difficult condition to make decisions. This led to numerous conflicts between parties and though the president, Fredrich Ebert, tried to sustain democracy at that time, the outbreaks of political revolts were unstoppable in this period. From left-wing, communists were trying to seize power through Spartacist revolt in January 1919[13] while Bavaria already had become a socialist republic in 1918[14], adopting its own political system. still waiting to see how this applies to Hitler… There also were revolts from right-wing, such as Kapp Putsch in March 1920[15] and even political assassinations.[16] In addition, economy was also problematic at that time. Germany had to economically suffer from paying reparations by the Treaty of Versailles[17] and it was made worse when Ebert paid Germans to go on a strike in order to stop Kapp Putsch and started printing money to cope with all the costs.[18] It finally led to an economic phenomenon, the so-called “hyper inflation,” and this is also shown in the Source 2, the number of unemployed was increasing. This is mostly narrative
(I need room because your charts are floating over the text)
You just said in 1928 Hitler only had 2.6% support.
So how is all this relevant? Ebert died in 1925 when Hitler was nothing. this is the type of pre-planned response the IB attacks as it really doesn’t address the issue.
While the Weimar Germany was politically and economically receding, the support for the Nazis was increasing.
Source 2: the unemployment of Weimar Germany[19]
However, from 1925 to 1929, German economy had recovered as a result of the accomplishments done by Gustav Stresemann, the foreign minister who was German chancellor in 1923.[20] The Dawes Plan that postponed the time to pay reparations[21] and the Rentenmark[22], the new currency issued by Stresemann were made great contributions to economic stability of Germany but this economic recovery was an obstacle for the Nazi Party, who had to suffer decline in its votes. The year 1929, was the year of Stresemann’s death but also the year when the Wall Street Crash occurred, bringing Weimar Germany again into an economic chaos. The US loans were no more available and the unemployment rose from 2.2 million in 1929 to 6 million in 1932[23]. Similar to the first era of Weimar Germany (1919-1923), the support of the Nazi party was increasing but much more rapidly. Every time when Germany was in facing crises, the German citizens were looking for extreme solutions that could get rid of their troublesome environment. At the right moment, Hitler was placing all the blame on Jews, saying "The Jews are a people of robbers. He has never founded any civilisation, though he has destroyed civilisations by the hundred...everything he has stolen…it is foreigners who shed their blood for him."[24] when did he say this? Did he really say this around the time of the Depression? Your footnote doesn’t say this, and I was of the opinion that he toned down his rhetoric about the Jews to make him appeal to more people. The citizens thus were persuaded to think Jews were the causes of Germany’s deterioration and supporting to Hitler was their last hope and solution to the crises. How were they persuaded? Read your quote- does this sound logical and rational? Why would any intelligent German be “persuaded”? The rapid increase in the electoral votes for the Nazi Party was also for the same reason as it was at the initial period of the Weimar Germany. On the other hand, less people were supporting the Nazi Party in the elections in the Stresemann years (1924-1929) when Germany had economic recovery, and these changes altogether proved the point that people were only listening to Hitler when they were in trouble to be prominent. Therefore the decline in political and economic situation of Weimar Germany should also be regarded as significant factors that made Hitler to gain authority.
Although there were many party leaders besides Hitler, the reason why he was the chosen one for German chancellor was because of his popularity and power that made Hindenburg feel the need to control him by offering chancellorship. With massive support from all classes of German citizens, Hitler decided to stand against Hindenburg in the election, so he got German citizenship on February 25th, 1932.[25] In the presidential election of March 13th, Hitler (30.1%) lost to Hindenburg (49.6%)[26] who 2 months later appointed Franz von Papen as Chancellor.[27] Although Hitler lost the election, the Nazi party soon (that year) became the largest party[28] and he asked Hindenburg for the position of Chancellor, which led Hindenburg to wrath and astonishment. According to the movie “Hitler: The Rise of Evil,” Franz von Papen suggested Hindenburg to designate Hitler as Vice Chancellor, the job which is below Chancellor but still is a high position that probably might satisfy Hitler and simultaneously allow Hindenburg to “control” Hitler. As mentioned above about Hitler’s eagerness to get awarded with an extreme authority, Hitler refused the position of Vice Chancellor but insisted on Chancellorship. When General Schleicher fortuitously became Chancellor[29], von Papen, with irritation, went to privately talk with Hitler, promising to make him Chancellor and as Schleicher failed in making a coalition government that would make lessen other parties’ support for the Nazi Party[30], Hindenburg had no other choice but to award Hitler the German Chancellorship when von Papen persuaded him to make Hitler Chancellor and Papen to become Vice Chancellor. Even though Hindenburg hated Hitler, he still gave Chancellorship to him because he believed that it would make him to control Hitler and make use of Hitler’s popularity which would help Weimar government to gain more support. It seemed that von Papen was simply helping Hitler because he still wanted any high position in the Cabinet but on the other hand it is argued that he was also using Hitler to benefit himself. In Papen’s point of view, he could have positional parity with Hitler or even be more powerful because Vice-Chancellor had better position of Minister as President of Prussia and was allowed to be present any time when the Chancellor made reports to the President.[31] Also he even was making Hitler experience instability in his position by castigating the SA and some behaviour of the Nazis in his speech at the University of Marburg.[32] Both Hindenburg and Papen thought Hitler could be beneficial to their positions, Hindenburg seeing Hitler as a booster of Weimar government’s prosperity due to rapidly increasing fame and Papen using him to restore his high position, although not as Chancellor, in the Cabinet. Important point
Adolf Hitler, even as a distrustful figure to the President and a foreigner, could become German Chancellor. This came to reality mainly by his ability to attract people, especially with impressive speeches, and the social desperation of the citizens caused by economic and political deterioration which made Hitler’s speeches more appealing and praiseworthy. However, the reason why Hitler was chosen to be German Chancellor was due to Hindenburg’s intrigue to control him by awarding Chancellorship. Unfortunate for the President, this conferment of Chancellorship proved to be a big mistake of Hindenburg and Papen because it became an awarding of total power for Hitler soon when Hitler got dictatorial power by Enabling Act on March 23rd.[33] Good conclusion
18.5/20
Wealth of sources, good argument and wide breadth of knowledge makes this essay again standout. However, all too often I find many of your arguments unable to bear close scrutiny as it doesn’t have much evidence. Your section on 1919-1929 seemed more narrative than addressing the question. You cite facts, but your ideas appear to be your own. Compare with Simon:
As A.J.P Taylor said: “Weimar Germany was doomed from the start.[34]” This was very true and in fact William Shirer shared a very similar approach as he wrote in “The Rise and fall of the Third Reich” suggesting that Germany had no democratic tradition and many parties were against the creation of a Democracy.
[1] http://www.allgreatquotes.com/adolf_hitler_quotes4.shtml
[2] http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/putsch2.htm
[3] http://www.thecorner.org/hist/total/n-german.htm
[4] Alan Bullock, Hitler, A Study in Tyranny, Harper Torchbooks, 1962, Pg.258
[5] http://www.scribd.com/doc/226622/25-Points-of-Hitler?ga_related_doc=1
[6] http://nobeliefs.com/hitler.htm
[7] http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensraum#_ref-4
[8] http://www.hitler.org/speeches/09-16-30.html
[9] Frank McDonough, Conflict,Communism and Fascism,
[10] http://www.colorado.edu/IBS/PEC/johno/pub/nazi_long/Pnazi_long.htm
[11] http://wsarch.ucr.edu/archive/books/tausch/spar3.html
[12] Frank McDonough, Conflict,Communism and Fascism,
[13] http://www.onwar.com/aced/nation/gap/germany/fgermany1919jan.htm
[14] http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERbavarian.htm
[15] http://www.britannica.com/eb/topic-311790/Kapp-Putsch
[16] http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-58204/Germany
[17] Stephane Audoin-Rouzeau & Annette Becker, 1914-1918 Understanding the Great War, pg.229
[18] http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar_Republic
[19] http://www.dhm.de/lemo/objekte/statistik/arbeits11b/index.gif
[20] http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Stresema.html
[21] http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_reparations
[22] http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/gcse/germany/goldeneraofweimargermany.htm
[23] http://www.history-ontheweb.co.uk/sources/62_wallstreetcrash.pdf
[24] http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Jews_Nazi_Germany.htm
[25] http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/ahitler.html
[26] http://www.lewrockwell.com/hornberger/hornberger100.html
[27] http://www.germannotes.com/hist_franz_papen.shtml
[28] http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1B1-373163.html
[29] http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_von_Schleicher
[30] http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch16.htm
[31] Alan Bullock, Hitler, A Study in Tyranny, Harper Torchbooks, 1962, Pg. 256
[32] http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-roehm.htm
[33] http://www1.yadvashem.org/about_holocaust/chronology/1933-1938/1933/chronology_1933_5.html
[34] The origin of the Second World War, A.J.P Taylor, page 149
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