Rise of Hitler

Rise of Hitler

As we know from our history books the era surrounding WWII was a gruesome time for Germany and all over the world. In Germany however the Nazis have taken over and are implementing their control all over. They forced shops to close, controlled newspapers, and the radio. How was this possible? How could one man, Adolph Hitler lead one of the nastiest movements the world has ever seen? Hitler took advantage while Germany was down; suffering from the losses it gained in WWI and eventually the hard times during the depression. It was the fall of the Weimar Republic that allowed Hitler to slide in.

When World War I ended Germany had suffered defeat. Many thought that this meant liberal democracy in Europe was saved. They were right for a short while. In Germany the monarchy collapsed and the Social Democrats (SPD) came to power. A new constitution was created in the city of Weimar in 1919, hence the Weimar Republic. During this republic Germany had a history of problems. Things were not looking very bright for the citizens.

Some problems the Weimar Republic had were frequently changing cabinets and party coalitions, civil disagreements, and economic and political problems. Reparations also had to be made by Germany to pay for the war debts it caused as said in the Treaty of Versailles. From the years 1925 to 1929 Germany found relatively good stability until 1930 when the Great Depression began.

During the depression Europe as a whole faced many challenges from each side of the political spectrum and democracy was questioned everywhere. Since the Weimar Republic was already weak it was facing many obstacles. With all the reparations being paid and money being scarce because of the depression, inflation became a huge problem for the republic and this had to do with French occupation of German cities to help force reparation payments. Another growing problem was the uncontrollable economic fluctuations. Citizens also became a problem because of job losses and high widespread unemployment. This struggle often cause citizens to clash between their social classes as each were trying to survive in this mixed up world.

The whole time the Weimar Republic was struggling for success the young Army Corporal with military decorations named Adolph Hitler was rising with success. He joined the Germans Workers party as it's fifty- fifth member but wasted no time become it's leader in February of 1920 and he renamed it the National Socialist German Worker's Party (NSDAP). With Hitler frustrated over the loss in the war and the continuing thinking that the republic was in place because of the Allied forces, Hitler tried to gain power by walking in on a nationalists rally and declaring himself the leader, but that did not work. He did not have enough man power behind him to make it happen so he decided to cancel his other plans at a meeting held in Munich. During this announcement police ordered the group to disperse and when the didn't comply a shootout began and Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison for the deaths of sixteen Nazis and 3 policemen. After his release Hitler began to again start his quest as becoming Germany's leader.

Adolph Hitler learned from his previous experience and decided this time he would take over Germany legally. When he founded the NSDAP he wanted to create a party that would be able to generate tons of supporters. He wanted to be able to connect with a different variety of social groups. To gain even more support the Nazis program was founded and it contained different stipulations such as restricting the right of Jews, wanting a greater German Reich, demanded censorship of the press, and told members to put the common interest of the group ahead of individual interests. Dismantling Germany's Jewish community was Hitler's next big idea. He managed to start the movement against the Jews by blaming the economic problems on the Jews because many of them owned small businesses and he also said that democracy and socialism were Jewish conspiracies. These false statements helped Hitler gain a tremendous about of support against the government and also against the Jewish citizens. As his number of followers continued to grow did his resentment toward Jews and he began stating to the public that