Hitler's rise to power

“The most important reason for the increase in support for the Nazi Party in the late 20’s and early 30’s was due to the oratorical skills of Adolf Hitler”. How far do you agree?

By: Maria Beatriz Segura
9.2

Presented to: Jason Ward

Colegio Anglo Colombiano
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Essay……………………………………………………………………………3

Appendix………………………………………………………………………7Glossary……………………………………………………………………..12

Bibliography……………………………………………………………….13

Germany was passing through a very difficult situation in the late 20’s. The Treaty of Versailles had left this country really damaged, plus hyper-inflation left a big scar in the German economy. The actual situation was not really good looking, and an Austrian man, by the name of Adolf Hitler, and his party just took advantage of this and rose to power. Many people have now said that hisspeaking skills and oratorical skills gave a great impact in the society of the time, but the question is: ¿Would Hitler have the same popularity nowadays, even if we managed to erase the Holocaust from people’s minds? The answer is no, and the reason is that there were many other factors which influenced in the popularity Hitler and the Nazis gained in the early 30’s.

Nazis learned how to gettheir party known by everyone. In popular terms, they knew how to get everyone fed up with their propaganda. Rallies, posters, and pamphlets could be found and seen all over the country. Using generalized slogans, as they did, made it much more difficult to get criticized. But when they did get criticized, they immediately dropped it.[1]This obviously didn’t make them have negative policies (orat least they weren’t seen as enemies). In the 1925 Reichstag elections, only 810,127 Germans voted for the NSDAP; in July 1932 13’765,781 did so. The NSDAP share of the vote increased from 2.6% in 1928 to 37.4% in July 1932.[2]

Hitler, in one of his speeches said: “I see no hope for the resurrection of Germany if we regard the foreign politics of Germany as the primary factor.”[3] He wouldleave any crowd cheering loudly after every speech. Hitler was magnificent at building up anticipation and expectation. He would keep crowds waiting, and then remain silent for about a minute once he arrived on the podium. He would begin quietly and slowly and then burst into full charge as he got up to emotions within the crowd. He was vague so that he could not be held to promises and emphasized inthe same points.[4] All he did was say what the people wanted to hear. In the middle of those crises he just gave them a light of hope, which came along with a change. A change no one expected, but welcomed by the middle-class population.

During 1924 and 1929, 24 Nazis were killed in street fighting with the KPD, which was the communist party, and hundreds were injured.[5] The aggressivenessfrom the Nazis matched that of the KPD and its paramilitary force: the Red Fighting League, which was made up by 120,000 persons.[6] This League battled with the authorities, the SA (the first Nazi paramilitary group to develop pseudo-military, also known as brownshirts or stormtroopers) and with the SPD’s paramilitary organisation, the Reichsbanner. This conflict attracted middle-class businessowners, because they had read about how the communists in the USSR discriminated people like them, giving them another point to support the Nazis.[7] Also the owners of the big industries feared the communistsbecause they had plans to introduce state control of businesses, making them lose power and money. They also felt Nazis would fight these threats and so they began to give money for Nazis’funds.

The biggest negative Nazis used in their favor was democracy. The Weimar politicians could not solve the crisis, and the depression got worse in 1930, when the chancellor of Germany, Heinrich Brüning had to take a difficult decision. He decided to cut government spending and welfare benefits.[8] Some historians think that Brüning did this...