Some say that it was Hitler's Anti-Jewish attitude, others say that it was the way he gave his speeches and his rallies, in this essay I will look at the most important factors which allowed Hitler to get into power which are:
1) Treaty Of Versailles/Loss of the war
2) His Anti-Jewish attitude
3) Direct Action - His speech and rallies
4) Propaganda and censorship
The loss of the war and the Treaty Of Versailles which came to follow in May 1919 was a major blow to Germany, Hitler like the majority of people thought they had not been defeated, and that they could have still won the war, when it was clear that they couldn't. The treaty Of Versailles was harsh to many Germans; some of its points were that:
- Germany lost 10% of its land
- Germany lost all of it's over seas colonies
- Germany lost 12.5% of its population
- Its army was reduced to 100,000 men
- £6600 Million in reparations had to be paid
- And the biggest part of it all and which probably caused World War 2 was that Germany had to accept the blame for the war
Once the Treaty had been signed the majority of the German people believed that they had been stabbed in the back by the “November Criminals” Hitler used this as a starting point for his campaign stating that the “November Criminals” were Jews and Communists. This gave Hitler a lot of support as it gave the German people a scapegoat.
Hitler had a very rough life. In his youth while he was training to become an artist in Vienna he lived on the streets while the Jews had the majority of the well paid jobs, they were the ones who were in charge of the big business and had the professional occupations. From this Hitler began his hatred of Jews, and as he became the propaganda minister for the Nazi party, the biggest message Hitler would get across was that the Jews and the Communists were to blame for Germanys state after the war, by giving the German public a scapegoat and someone to put all the blame on, it gave Hitler a huge amount of support.
Hitler also had a much more hands on approach than other party leaders, he was an amazing speaker who could whip up a crowd, he used to use exaggerated hand gestures and used a lot of emotional and direct language. When Hitler failed in the Munich Putsch in 1923, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison of which 9 months were served; however during the trial Hitler gained massive amounts of publicity, Hitler saw it as an opportunity to put out his message to the public.
Hitler's propaganda and censorship was immense, the amount of publicity Hitler was receiving was unimaginable, Hitler used his book “Mein Kampf” to show his feelings and thoughts out to the German people, and he also put Goebbels in charge of propaganda to boost his popularity. Hitler created various articles and posters which showed his view on what the Jews, Communists and other parties were doing to corrupt Germany. Hitler used Negative Cohesion as well to gain favour, people did not agree on the positives he offered such as work and money, they agreed with him on the negatives such as his Anti-Jewish attitude and his hatred of communists, this was all due to his propaganda.
Hitler's Anti-Jewish policies and how he used Jews and communists as scapegoats as well as his propaganda helped boost his parties popularity however I personally belive that it was Hitler's Direct action, his speeches and his rallies, his over exaggerated gestures and his emotive and strong language which enabled him to seize power of Germany in 1934.
By Chavez Ameen 11B-PZR Page of
