Adolf Hitler And The Nazi Party example essay topic

Introduction "Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party rose to total power in Germany by appealing to German nationalism and eliminating potential opponents one by one". By 1934 Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party had achieved total power in Germany. It had all the qualities of a totalitarian state. It was due to conditions in Germany after WWI that extremist's parties such as Adolf Hitler and the Nazis first got an opportunity to appeal to German nationalism and discontent, with such things as the Weimar Govt. Political stability for Germany between 1923-28 saw the Nazi Party decline in popularity but with the onset of the Great Depression the Germans expressed their discontent by turning away from the Weimar government.

After World War One Germany was politically, socially, economically, culturally and nationally in chaos. The two main causes that brought about these conditions were the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty and the loss of the war. The German people felt a sense of betrayal toward their own politicians, who were labelled by German nationalists as the November Criminals for 'their betrayal of Germany'. The Weimar republic signed the Versailles Peace Treaty in June 1919 and Germans despised them for this action. Extremist parties such as Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, were on the rise because they appealed to peoples discontent towards the government, peoples lives and conditions. Hitler failed to overthrow the government through the Munich Putsch, but it wasn't a complete failure.

The government had many things stacking up against it at this time. So Hitler believed that with the backing of authorities in Munich he could bring about the final collapse of the government. Hitler had the Nazis support for the National government thereby giving the action credibility. Hitler and the Nazi Party waited until the German Government had crushed the communists because by getting rid of them his was eliminating his enemy, and he was able to draw more attention to himself.

Between 1924 and 1929 Gustav Stress eman- the new chancellor of the Weimar Republic replaced the only inflationary currency with a new one that was secured to the value of gold, creating a stable currency. Stress man implemented the Dawes Plan- 1924 which secured American loans and recommended more vast loans to Germany from the USA. By November 1923 Hitler was convinced that the Weimar Republic was on the verge of collapse and he sought to overcome the Bavarian Government in the Munich Putsch, which fails. Even though Hitler is arrested, tried and found guilty, he succeeded in turning the tables on his accusers with a confident propagandist speech. After his release from prison he held a meeting where hardly anyone showed. Most of his original followers were not in the party anymore.

Never the less some 4000 people attended. Hitler had 2 objectives; to establish all the party power in his hands, and to re-establish the Nazi Party as a political force in Germany. In 1929 the Great Depression hit the United States, putting millions out of work and devastating the American economy. Until then, Germany had relied on America for large loans.

Now that the Americans were unable to lend Germany money, the German economy collapsed; German workers were unemployed; large sections of the German business community, which had just recovered from inflation in 1923, now faced ruin again. Many Germans believed that they needed a strong leader to return the country to strength and wealth. This was the situation that allowed Adolf Hitler to rise to power. In the 1930 elections the Nazi vote jumped dramatically from 810,000 to 6,409,000 (18.3% of the total vote), and they had received 107 seats in the Reichstag. The communists had received 77 seats and were the Nazis chief rivals. Elections in March 1933 gave the Nazi 288 seats out of 447, and although Hitler was determined to make himself dictator, he had, for the moment, to go through the democratic process of getting a 2/3 majority in the Reichstag to pass the bill giving him absolute powers.

Hitler organised the youth of Germany into youth groups. These groups drilled young people in Nazi beliefs, especially the idea that a boy's duty was to be a soldier of Germany and a girl's duty was to have children for the nation. Children were encouraged to spy on their families and report anti-Nazi talk to their leaders.