JC Griggs

History per.2

10/26/09

Hitler’s Rise to Power

There are several factors that led to Hitler’s rise to power. First of all the country

of Germany was in disarray. The Versailles Treaty had taken large amounts of territory,

enforced billions of dollars of reparation payments, and robbed a once proud nation but

after the war was embarrassed and lost much of its pride. Not only was the treaty

devastating to Germany but the war itself took a toll on the people on the home front.

Germany lost a fifth of its male population during the war and civilians were dying from

malnutrition and foul hygienic conditions. This was much the same when Hitler became

Chancellor in January of 1933. Also around that time, Hitler’s party, the Nazi’s, won

almost half the vote. Hitler did not become “Fuehrer” overnight. Over time his views

which were shaped during his childhood and youth were strengthened while he was a

soldier after World War I when he felt the leaders of Germany betrayed his homeland and

then blamed the loss on the Jews. The foundation for World War II took place in the days

after Germany’s defeat to the Allies in World War I. The 1920’s laid the groundwork for

Hitler’s great rise in power in the 1930’s.

Hitler’s great ambition throughout his life was to become an artist but the start of

World War I causes him to put his plans on hold. There being a war gave Hitler goals to

accomplish he no longer had since he had been rejected as an artist. He even wrote in his

book Mein Kampf, “I am not ashamed to say that, overcome with rapturous enthusiasm; I
fell to my knees and thanked heaven . . . for granting me the good fortune of being

allowed to live at this time”. After war was declared upon France, Hitler attempted to

become an officer in the army but was ruled unfit. He then petitioned to be able to enlist

in the army and was granted permission to join in the military ranks. While Hitler was in

the army he escaped death situations many times. He also hated the talk of the

“defeatists” and had no patience for them. While Hitler spent four years in the trenches,

he began to despise pacifists and slackers and thought they were betraying Germany. In

October of 1918 Hitler finally was injured and got blinded when his company was

attacked by poison gas. When Hitler finally the hospital and figured out the war was

over, Hitler grew extremely angry at the people who betrayed Germany.

In 1919, Hitler began working as a political officer in the army. Later in that

year, Hitler was introduced to the German Workers Party, a nationalistic and anti-Semitic

group. Here was where Hitler learned to become a great speaker and orator. Just two

years later Hitler had increased participation within the Party and then was named leader

of the German Workers Party which changed its name to the National Socialist German

Workers Party (Nazi). Although Hitler was a terrific and charismatic speaker, the main

reason for the increase in attendance of the Nazi party is because Germany’s economic

situation was absolutely horrid. Having to pay so much in reparations to the Allies was

causing bankruptcy, food shortages, and many families were living in insufficient

conditions. The payments to the Allies were strongly resented and viewed by many

people as taking away from the already poor. Hitler wanted more power and gained the

title Chairman in order to gain a dictatorship. After gaining power he began a revolution

and started building his own private army (SA). Hitler wanted a revolution and began it
by staging many public provocations, becoming great at dealing with propaganda, and

beginning his war against the Jews.

When the Stock Market crash happened in October of 1929, the world was hit

unexpectedly and Germany found itself back in its previous position of poverty. Their

flourishing ways ended and unemployment doubled from three million to six million

within the next three years. The depression hit at almost every level. The existing

government, collapsed and many people saw Hitler’s party as the only way to go. In

1933, Hitler finally comes to full power by becoming Chancellor of Germany. The first

things he did were much like a dictator such as forgoing new elections and declaring The

National Socialist German Workers’ Party as the only political party within Germany.

Most of the German people were caught up in Hitler’s ideas and soon the majority of

them were falling prey to Hitler’s masterful ways of deception. By being able to

practically single-handedly bring back Germany’s economy, many people overlooked the

fact that Hitler committed many murders, including killing all of his generals of the SA.

A big reason for Germany’s new economic boom was that Hitler expanded the once

proud German army. He made Germany a nation of workers and the people loved him

for this accomplishment. In 1934 the President of Germany died and with this new , more

powerful position, Hitler made the German military to swear undying loyalty to him and

him alone. He soon begins all of the plans that he has though of through the years by re-

establishing the German army and bringing his army into the demilitarized Rhineland.

Since the Allies did not make an action towards this aggressive maneuver, it later proved

as a mistake and began future plans for Hitler’s other invasions. Germany would soon
invade and take over Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Yugoslavia,

and Greece before the start of World War I.

Hitler had many different policies that helped his rise to power. He eradicated his

party rivals which allowed the people to only vote for him and his Nazi party. He also

installed racial rulings against certain people such as the “Nuremburg Laws” and the

“Subordination of Inferior Races”. He attempted to rebuild an economy that had never

fully recovered from their fall after World War I by banning independent labor unions

and initiated public work projects such as creating the autobahn. Hitler was big on

developing the youth program by banning groups such as Boy Scouts and other groups

and forcing the children to join the Hitler Youth. This was a great success with about 6

million children in the group before the beginning of the war.

Glancing back on Hitler’s reign of destruction, it is amazing that one man could

do so much harm without being stopped. Although he did return Germany back to their

years of old glory and prosperity, he gassed and imprisoned millions of its Jewish citizens

and other people that did not meet his “specifications”. The 1940’s were as much as

Hitler’s downfall as it was the great nation of Germany’s second downfall of the half-.

Hitler’s reign ended when he committed suicide April 30, 1945 as Berlin falls to the

Soviets that he betrayed earlier in the war. We look back now with hindsight and

realized all of the different ways we could have stopped his rise to power and wonder

how a man like Hitler ever came to power and how a once proud country were so blinded

by the ideas of this man.