Rise Of Support For The Nazi Party example essay topic

On the 28th of June 1919 the Treaty of Versailles was sighed. When Germany reluctantly signed this diktat she was agreeing to the loss of all overseas colonies, and territories (which were claimed by her neighbours) The loss of territory to Poland was deeply resented, due to there being approximately 3 million Germans under Polish rule, and it also separated East Prussia from the rest of Germany. Also the payment of reparations, the total, which was decided on in 1921 of lb 6,600 million. Limitations were also imposed on the size and nature of her armed forces: General staff and tanks were abolished, and her military manpower diminished considerably.

And any union between Germany and Austria was forbidden, to safe guard surrounding countries from a strong united Germany. 6 million Austrian Germans shared the Resentment of the Treaty, they saw themselves as living in ' the beached wreck of a once mighty empire' It was also seen by most Germans that the huge reparations payments were impossible, and far to severe. Germany felt it impossible to pay these as by losing territories, and colonies she had lost means of income. It seemed to many that the Versailles Treaty was prolonging the war by economic means.

In addition it is clear that due to the Weimar Republic being a weak government, unable to pay the reparations many German peoples were turning their anger and bitterness of the Treaty on to it. Barely anyone had support for the Republic any more, and here it is evident that parties such as the Nazis and the Nationalists were beginning to take advantage, starting to get their views across. It's no coincidence that after the Jews, the treaty of Versailles receives the next most reference in Hitler's book Mein Kampf. One major criticism was that it was responsible for the hyperinflation, which hit Germany in 1923. Inflation within Germany had not begun due to primarily the Treaty, as by 1918 the German mark had lost three quarters of its pre-war value. And the annual average rate of inflation had shot up from 1% in 1890 to 32% by 1914.

All this was due to the way the German government was handling war expenditure. It would simply print of money to fund the War, as there wasn't enough for the costs, taxation only covered approximately 14% of German government expenditures throughout nearly 5 years of war. By 1923 money in Germany was worthless. Civil service and white-collar workers salaries became stagnant, and this was a huge contrast to the inflated wages of skilled workers. And many people's wages failed to match the rising prices. The economic collapse and hyperinflation led to erosion of German savings, and so anyone with fixed incomes, pensions and / or savings were worst hit.

It has been said that the government should have raised taxes and pursued vigorous deflationary policies; this would have however raised unemployment (as seen in other countries such as Britain) but it concentrated on welfare and fulfilment of war obligations to widows, wounded and orphans. This then meant that one third of the Reich's disposable funds went on pensions. At this time the Nazi's began to try to gain power. In the summer of 1923, in Bavaria, some right-wing extremists led by Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist party tried to seize power. However this attempt failed. The party was also beginning to gain support from the lower middle classes who had been stripped of their savings by the inflation.

The NSAP party was attractive to them as it stated it would overturn Versailles, and bring Germany back as a strong prosperous country. However this was not to last for long, and 5 years later in October of 1929 the Wall Street crash hit. Before this Germany had been relying on loans from overseas countries (these by this time had begun to believe the Treaty as being too harsh) such as America. She had been putting the short-term loans into long-term projects, and so could not afford this. This depression was going to have devastating effects on Germany.

The government increased taxes and reduced spending; this led to masses of unemployed. As in October of 1929 the number of registered unemployed was 1.6 million, this rose however, to 6.12 million in 1932 and 33% of the work force was out of jobs. Now, the support for the Nazi party had dropped after Germany began to get herself back on her feet, by taking in loans and establishing the 'Dawns plan' to revive the German economy again i.e. 32 seats down to 14, and a further drop to 12 in 1928. However after the depression hit Germany, the Nazi's began to gain support again, as in 1930 their number of seats in the Reichstag went from 12 to 107. Other extremist parties were also gaining from this as the KPD (the communist party) had their number of seats rise from 54-1928 to 77, in 1930. By looking at these results it is obvious that in times of hardship Hitler's support rose.

Helmuth Gerlach is quoted as saying 'If the sun shines once more on the German economy, Hitler's voters will melt away like snow. ' The Nazi's had begun to use propaganda to give the German people scapegoats, something on which to blame their hardships. Propaganda was a tactic that the Nazi party used from early on in their campaigns. As seen in 1929, the Nazi's deployed sleazy details of the Sklar ek brother's relationship with the Berlin SPD city government.

Also in 1929, the leader of the D NVP Alfred Hugenberg placed his newspaper chain at Hitler's disposal for the distribution of Nazi propaganda. Hitler's early speeches were targeted at the unfairness of the Treaty of Versailles, Communism in the form of the SPD, KPD and the Jews. The Jews were the main targets, as they were blamed for Germany's defeat, and they were also blamed for Germany's economic hardships. This was due to 'economic exploitation' by the bank Jews. The Nazi's promoted the Jews as an alien race within Germany. They were conspiring against the German people through ideologies such as Liberalism, Socialism and they were undermining Germany's economy due to them being 'promoters of international capitalism'.

They hated the Germans and sought to bring them down to their level by an endless sequence of 'fiendishly cunning conspiracies'. The Nazi's also used the Treaty. It had brought Germany down to the weak unstable nation it had become. It was far too harsh and humiliated the German people. And the KPD, communism was a threat to German society; it would only bring darkness to the country. Hitler knew that all the propaganda was needed in the rise of support for the Nazi party.

He himself said 'first task of propaganda is to win men for the organisation' and 'to win adherents to the idea. '.