"It is our will that this state shall endure for a thousand years."[1] Indeed all the German citizens wanted their state to maintain as long as they could ? and this of course was not an exception for the speaker of this sentence, Hitler. Not a particularly provocative point. By January 1933, Hitler was made Chancellor by the invitation of President Hindenburg. However, as he had mentioned, the ‘fuhrerprinzip’ in his book Mein Kampf [2], becoming Chancellor was not regarded as a laudable acquirement but to be a leader of German nation who had an extreme authority. Two months before he achieved the chancellorship, the Nazi Party lost 2 million votes in the election[3] and though he became Chancellor, there were only 3 seats –including himself- for the Nazi party in the Cabinet.[4] If he was to continue waning ???? in his support, being Chancellor was not quite able to be beneficial for him anymore and he still wanted his own Nazi regime, so Adolf Hitler felt the need to do something to consolidate his power.
Your English fluency appears to have deserted you for this essay.
Hitler’s first method to strengthen his power was to exterminate his opposition aided by the use of terror. The Reichstag fire in 1933 could be seen as an initial stage for Hitler to put this method into practice. On February 27th, the Reichstag was set fire and although unclear, a crazed Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe was accused for the fire by Hitler[5]. By doing so Hitler could use this as an excuse to blame communists for trying to plan another Communist coup.[6] Finally, not only van der Lubbe was in trouble with his sentence to death but also thousands of other Communists by being imprisoned for planning a coup.[7] The Communists suffered again when Hitler arrested 81 Communist members of Parliament to get majority of the votes in the election of March 1933.[8] The deduction of other forces including Communists made Hitler able to pass the Enabling Act, according to Alan Bullock’s words, a constitutional foundation of law on which Hitler’s dictatorship was based[9], on March 23rd with unanimous agreement[10] that was achieved by arresting his opponents. You needn’t footnote every point; only stats and ideas. With the Enabling Act, now Hitler could pass any law he wanted. When Hitler contemplated suicide for losing 2 million votes in 1932, 63% of German electorate was against the Nazi Party.[11] This made Hitler think that not only the Communist Party but also other parties and people against him had to be eliminated in order to make the government be obedient and loyal to him. Therefore with its creation in April 1933,[12] the Gestapo started arresting all the people against Hitler and others such as Jews, homosexuals and gypsies[13] who he thought were anachronistic to the society that he demanded to be loyal. Any explanation as to why? In July, all the other parties except the Nazi Party were made illegal[14] and by 1933, there were 150,000 political prisoners in concentration camps[15]. However, the eagerness to use terror was not limited to Hitler himself. The SA with its chief organizer Ernst Röhm were willing to do more violent jobs, as he proposed to let the SA become basis for the expansion of the Army and that he should be in charge of the Armed Forces of the State.[16] With unanimous veto from the Army don’t understand, Hitler felt ashamed to make himself, with the pugnacious storm troopers, look like a hot-headed quarreller than a leader who deserved his position and also got scared because Ernst Röhm was planning a coup[17], but this plot is still ambiguous if it is true or not. His tautness finally led him to use the terror even on his own army on June 30th in 1934 which was called the ‘Night of the Long Knives,’[18] similar to Chairman Mao Zedong who purged the Red Guards and the People’s Liberation Army in 1969[19] should the footnote here not be AFTER the sentence? Nice attempt, however, in providing a regional comparison to an historical event. for he feared their uncontrollable action might harm the ‘very foundation’ of his party. While it is said that Hitler killed the storm troopers due to his fear of endless growth of violence, some evidence states that Hitler grudgingly killed them because Hindenburg, with support of army leadership, told him to purge SA.[20] This can prove the possibility that he used this as an excuse to kill the SA members because he had a fear of them just in time. The Night of the Long Knives boosted Hitler’s increase in popularity and even made him to receive gratitude from the army. Any proof or explanation as to why this should have been the case? Why would the use of terror and illegal means endear the people to him? This is a problem I had with many essays- general points without any analysis provided. This overall use of terror to exterminate his opposing forces enabled Hitler to make Germany to become one-party state and as a leader of this dominant party that ruled the nation, he could sustain and consolidate his power.
Hitler’s consolidation of social policy, especially persecution of Jews that was rooted in anti-Semitism, was also one of the main factors that helped him to control Germany. In the year Hitler became Chancellor, Jews were excluded from German community such as public office and civil service and the next year they were not allowed to be engaged in business nor professional jobs[21]. On September 15, 1935, the first official law was decreed against Jews, called the Nuremberg Laws, which seized their German citizenship[22] and it eventually became a basis for the other decrees issued to completely outlaw Jewish population in Germany. They were totally excluded from German communities as they were “forbidden” everywhere. Furthermore, hundreds of Jewish shops and homes had been smashed and burned on the “Crystal Night” in 1938, along with synagogues and holy books, and the Jewish people were beaten or killed[23]. Despite the fact that there were only 0.009% (580,000 out of 65 million) of German population consisted of Jewish people[24], why did Hitler want to annihilate the entire Jewish population? By 1936, the unemployment fell from 6 million in 1932 to less than 1 million and the national income was doubled[25]. A considerable point for this vast economic development was that this was largely due to rearmament[26]. Hitler increased the number of Gestapo officers, especially after the German police became part of the SS in 1934[27]. Even though there was a rapid growth in number of the SS officers, they did not have many jobs to do.
Schact, an economist who gave advice to Hitler, at this time felt the danger of making more and more demands on economy for rearmament because Hitler in fact he was putting too much efforts on increasing the number of arms as he thought he could recover economy by doing so,[28] which was quite unreasonable. As Hitler started to use violence against Jewish people, a lot of them got work to do, tormenting Jews like they did in Crystal Night. Besides providing them a lot of jobs that were very violent but also simple, putting his ideals into practice could even add to his credibility as even a Jewish inmate had said that he has “more faith in Hitler than in anyone else” because “he alone has kept his promises,”[29] and in fact German citizens did not know much about to what extent the violence continued upon Jews because they could not witness their lives in concentration camps and neither heart about them because released prisoners were told to go back to concentration camps if they were telling any information about those.[30] Wow- what a long sentence… A lot of citizens rather remained supportive or nonchalant as historian Daniel Jonah Goldhagen said “that day (Crystal Night) could have been the day for the German people to rise up in solidarity to support the Jews but they didn’t,” and in fact 100,000 of them celebrated the Crystal Night in Nuremberg.[31] For Adolf Hitler to exterminate Jews, there was not any obstacle and by providing more jobs to more of his officers, it contributed to Hitler’s maintenance of high position with a strong supportive and submissive group of SS and the fact that he was making economic strides with the reduction of unemployment. But there’s little here that explains how persecuting 580,000 out of a population of 65 million would help him in any real way consolidate his power. I’m glad you reference Goldhagen but there’s a difference between actually resisting, supporting, or, in this case, apathetically doing nothing. That the Germans did nothing doesn’t push your claim one way or the other.
Most significantly, Hitler had to make all the citizens to believe and obey him, which he did with propaganda and education. Parallel to his elimination of political opponents, the books that were against the Nazi’s ideals, such as those written by Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann, were burned on May 10, 1933 in Berlin.[32] Thousands of students gathered at a square on Unter den Linden and started throwing the books in to the fire under the supervision of Dr. Goebbels, the new Propaganda Minister, who said “Here the intellectual foundation of the November Republic is sinking to the ground, but from the wreckage the phoenix of a new spirit will triumphantly rise,”[33] giving the students the passion about the new Nazi regime. OK…. but how did this make people support him? It was simply a staged event- does this one incident really show that people then supported him? Beginning with this book burning in 1933, the Nazis started to control the media. The editors of the Berlin daily newspapers held meeting at the Propaganda Ministry every morning and Dr. Goebbels told them what articles to write and how to do so.[34] As Adolf Hitler said “the primitive simplicity of people’s minds render them more easily prey to a big lie than a small one,”[35] he used propaganda in a big scale to brainwash people. From 1933 to 1944, the proportion of daily newspapers controlled by the Nazi Party rose from 3% to 82%[36] and especially radio and films were the media that Nazis used for their propaganda. Yes, but readership declined significantly. You’re guilty of using selective facts and quotes without proving your claims. For instance, in 1940, the Nazis promoted a film named Der ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew), which compared Jews to rats, convincing people about the idea that Jews were harmful parasites in their society and that it is justified to eliminate them and there were over 20.3 million people who watched it in 3 years[37] but the film mostly got unpleasant reactions from people[38]. Why? Such as? This is important- it would offer me evidence of analysis. Nonetheless, Dr. Goebbels realized that tasteless repetition of Nazi ideals in films would bore them, so he made appropriate use of entertainment in the Nazi-promoted films and as a result, the moviegoers increased from 250 million to 1,000 million from 1933 to 1942[39]. As the Nazi party’s control of mass media increased, the number of audience also increased, proving the fact that more and more people were being convinced with Hitler’s ideals that it helped him to a large extent to control German citizens. Even though there were adults among the citizens disagreeing with the Nazi government, Hitler was already ensuring the young people’s compliance to him. Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth), formed in 1926 with 6,000 members and it vastly increased to over 7 million in 1938[40], the year in which Kristallnacht took place. Members of Hitlerjugend were being stereotyped by the Nazi education, for instance, they were also engaged in the Crystal Night, tormenting Jewish people, and to them, it was simply taught as an “ethnic cleansing.”[41] Should thi not be another paragraph on this particular segment of the population? Look how unweildy your paragraph is…. With increasing loyalty from young generation, Hitler being confident, saying “When an opponent declares, ‘I will not come over to your side,’ I say calmly, ‘your child belongs to us already.’ ”[42] Controlling citizens by brainwashing them with Nazi propaganda through mass media and education for young generation kept Hitler to strengthen his authority and enabled him to keep people always having same opinions with him, if not, to make them unable to protest.
Such methods to help him control Germany were: use of terror, consolidation of social policy and most importantly, controlling the citizens with propaganda and “nazificated” education. Adolf Hitler, in order to make and keep himself as a “führer,” he eliminated all the other political parties and even certain people such as Jews and it was quite astonishing that this persecution of a race could contribute to the solution of unemployment problems by providing brutal jobs. Propaganda and education (for young generation) also played an important role as these were the factors that convinced the entire nation to listen to the Nazi Party. However, it should be kept in our consideration that these were not always successful. Using terror, although people could not protest due to their fear, were frequently being counter-productive method and the propaganda, as Hitler aimed to tell a “big lie,” some of them seemed unreasonable and even incomprehensible to the people. Therefore Hitler was able to consolidate his power but in short term, making Nazi Germany last only for 12 years.[43] Yeah. Because he was fighting the British, Soviets and Americans! Not sure how this point ends an effective examination of the success of his ability to brainwash and consolidate power before the war.
Knowledge- 4/4
Historiography- ¾ A reference to Goldhagen and to Nazi speeches and films compensates lack of historican’s arguments and nterpretations.
Understanding the question- 4/4
Skill- ¾ Your writing and organisation here were problematic. Not as tight and focussed as usual. Used selective points unquestioningly
Ability to meet demands of question- 4/4 Pretty much did what I’d wanted you to do
18/20
[1] Triumph of the Will, dir. Leni Riefenstahl, writ. Leni Riefenstahl and Walter Ruttmann, Reichsparteitagsfilm, 1935
[2] Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Volume II Chapter XII
[3] http://www.historystudystop.co.uk/php/displayarticle.php?article=66&topic=meu
[4] Frank McDonough, Conflict, Communism and Fascism, Europe (1890-1945),
[5] http://jewwatch.com/jew-leaders-lubbe-wikipedia-article.html
[6] http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichstag_fire
[7] http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jul2001/reic-j05.shtml
[8] http://www.insolitology.com/topten/koostrenite/ri-071ri.htm
[9] http://www.holocaustsurvivors.org/data.show.php?di=record&da=encyclopedia&ke=35
[10] William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Arrow Books, 1960, pg.200
[11] Frank McDonough, Conflict, Communism and Fascism, Europe (1890-1945),
[12] http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-gestapo.htm
[13] http://fcit.usf.edu/Holocaust/people/victims.htm
[14] http://library.thinkquest.org/15511/data/encyclopedia/naziparty.htm
[15] http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERconcentration.htm
[16] Alan Bullock, Hitler: A study in Tyranny, Harper Torchbooks, 1962, pg.288
[17] Alan Bullock, Hitler: A study in Tyranny, Harper Torchbooks, 1962, pg 294
[18] http://anonymouse.org/cgi-bin/anon-www.cgi/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives
[19] Compendium: Modern china 1800-2000, pg 282
[20] Frank McDonough, Conflict, Communism and Fascism, Europe (1890-1945),
[21] William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Arrow Books, 1960, pg.
[22] http://www.mtsu.edu/~baustin/nurmlaw2.html
[23] Miep Gies, Anne Frank Remembered, Simon&Schuster Paperbacks, 1987, pg. 45
[24] http://jbuff.com/c113000.htm
[25] William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Arrow Books, 1960, pg. 258-259
[26] William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Arrow Books, 1960, pg. 259
[27] http://www.german-helmets.com/SS-HWD_MAIN.htm
[28] Alan Bullock, Hitler: A study in Tyranny, Harper Torchbooks, 1962, pg 412
[29] Elie Wiesel, Night, Hill and Wang,2006, pg.81
[30] http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERconcentration.htm
[31] Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Hitler Youth, Scholastic Inc., 2005, pg. 55
[32] William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Arrow Books, 1960, pg. 241
[33] http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-bookburn.htm
[34] William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Arrow Books, 1960, pg. 244-245
[35] http://www.essentia.com/book/quotes/media.htm
[36] http://www.igshistoryonline.co.uk/Resources/How%20effective%20was%20Nazi%20propaganda.ppt
[37] http://www.igshistoryonline.co.uk/Resources/How%20effective%20was%20Nazi%20propaganda.ppt
[38] http://www.wallflowerpress.co.uk/publications/samples/film/holo_intro2.pdf
[39] http://www.planetpapers.com/Assets/4783.php
[40] Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Hitler Youth, Scholastic Inc., 2005, pg 160
[41] Susan Campbell Bartoletti, Hitler Youth, Scholastic Inc., 2005, pg 55
[42] http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/hitleryouth/hj-timeline.htm
[43] http://www.indopedia.org/Nazi_Germany.html
No comments:
Post a Comment