Liliana Baker
29 December 2017
Adolf Hitler’s rise to power is an example of the success of fascism in a country fertile for change. There were a few things that made Germany fertile for change. The Great Depression and its effect on the German people and economy, the failure of the Weimar Republic, the Treaty of Versailles which infuriated and humiliated the German people, and the rise of Nazism.
The Great Depression began in 1929 when the stock market crashed in America, however, due to large loans the USA were lending the Weimar Republic in Germany throughout the 1920s, Germany was severely affected by the crash. The biggest issue in Germany were the serious unemployment problems, this led to homelessness and poverty “An almost unbroken chain of homeless men extends the whole length of the Hamburg-Berlin highway. It is the same scene for the entire two hundred miles, and all the highways in Germany over which I travelled this year.”- Heinrich Hauser, 1932. This was Hitler’s window of opportunity to get on the people’s side again after being in jail for eight months of a five-year sentence for high treason[1]. While in jail he wrote a book called ‘Mein Kampf which was full of information about Hitler and a mass of Nazism details and propaganda. This is one of the many things that helped Hitler rise to power. Without the Great Depression, Adolf Hitler would have never been in charge.
The Weimar Republic came into power in 1918, this kind of government being what Germany needed at the time. Yet, the Republic collapsed in 1933 due to a range of reasons. The reason that started the collapse was the removal of the very strict pre-war censorship, this censorship helped keep the German people shielded from propaganda from Nazism, when this was removed people began to make their own decisions on what they believed was ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. Next was when the Weimar Republic signed the Treaty of Versailles which ended the war, many people believed the Weimar Republic should not have signed it, as it gave at-the-time Chancellor Adolf Hitler the power to decree laws without the involvement of the Reichstag. When the Weimar Republic officially signed the Treaty of Versailles many people thought they were ‘betraying the fatherland’ because it signed away their land, military power, and honour.
The Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919 by the Weimar Republic. In the Treaty there was a guilt clause and reparation payment. Plus an extreme loss of land, this helped create the ‘Dolchstosslegende ’ or ‘Stab in the back’ myth start. Germany lost 13% of their land in the Treaty of Versailles as well as the Rhineland occupied by troupes for 15 years. The reparation payments they had to pay were extremely high, crippling their already fragile economy, which they were still paying well into 2010. Due to Germany believing that they didn’t lose the war they needed to blame the loss on someone else. The Germans then began to blame someone else for everything on the Treaty of Versailles, they spread the word with extreme propaganda about Fascism and Nazism.
Fascist Nazism became tremendously popular after the Great Depression. Fascism, at the time, being a very popular philosophy, fascism an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.[2]Most Germans joined the Nazis after being convinced by propaganda, Hitler’s book, and Hitler’s powerful and convincing speeches. Propaganda was ‘given’ to the people in several ways including: posters, books, word of mouth, and the brown shirts. Hitler’s book Mein Kampf helped promote the fascist and Nazi way by teaching readers why and how the Nazi party is run and why it was the ‘best’ party to follow. The Reichstag fire was suspiciously started in 1933, this was very important for Hitler as he was able to persuade President Hindenburg to pass an emergency decree, to suspend all articles in the constitution which gave the German people the right to freedom of speech, personal liberty, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly, this decree lasted 12 years. When President Hindenburg died, Hitler became führer or Supreme Chancellor, this is when the Nazis were in power and thriving.
Adolf Hitler’s rise to power is a very strong example of the success of fascism in a country fertile for change. The Great Depression is the main factor that started the Nazi rise due to it being the trigger of large economy crippling event, but other things including the failure of the Weimar Republic, the Treaty of Versailles, and Nazism.
[1] "The Story Of Hitler's Months In Prison". All Day. N.p., 2017. Web. 18 Mar. 2017.
[2] "The Definition Of Fascism". Dictionary.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 27 Mar. 2017.