How far do you agree that Hitlers rise to power was his oppositions

making?

I agree that Hitlers rise to power was his oppositions making. Through the
examination of Hitlers personal strengths, the weakness of his opposition, the
onset of events in Hitlers favour, and the appeal of Nazi ideology to the native
Germans, I will defend my stand. I will define opposition as The many political
parties that made up the coalition government of the Weimar Constitution, the
ruling body in Germany during Hitlers rise to power from the 1920s to 1933;
oppositions making as the action, inaction or inadequacy of action on the
oppositions part that facilitated Hitlers rise to power; and rise to power as the
series of events up till the point Hitler became Chancellor in January 1933.

Hitler rose to power due to his own competent oratorical skills, which helped him
propagate his ideologies convincingly. He was a powerful speaker and
communicator with a strong belief in himself. He was animated, using gestures,
actions and speech tones to arouse his audience. He chose to make many
speeches in beer halls where people were at ease and tended to be easily swayed.
He started his speeches calmly and logically and began to rant about his political
opponents when the audience got drunk. For example, many Germans believed
that the Weimar government had signed the Treaty of Versailles even though the
army was not militarily defeated, and hence felt strongly that the Weimar
politicians betrayed Germany, giving the politicians the label November
Criminals. Well aware of this, Hitler chose to exploit this widespread belief and
denounced the Weimar Republic at his campaign speeches, accusing the
November Criminals for the pitiful economic situation the Germans were
experiencing, as well as promising to abolish the Treaty of Versailles by stopping
the reparations from Germany to the Allies. By affirming the widespread myth that
the Weimar politicians had intentionally betrayed Germany, many of the Germans
thought Hitler was empathising with them and thus lent him their full support by
voting for his party at the elections. Additionally, Hitler frequently criticized the
left-wing Communist Party, which was another extremist party that offered
alternatives to the democratic Weimar Government that posed a political threat.
Hitler exploited the Germans existing fears of Communism by using Stalins USSR
as a negative example, to great effect. Hitler claimed that the Communist Party
would implement collectivization and take the peasants land away, and claimed
that all the wealthy businessmen would have their businesses taken away from
them, if the Germans voted the Communist Party into power. This was effective as
the wealthy businessmen, being owners of big industries, held capitalist ideologies
and particularly afraid the Communists would take away their businesses, hence
giving generous financial support to the NSDAP in the hope that they would win
and thus create an anti-communist government. With their financial support, the
NSDAP was able to finance their election campaigns in 1932, giving the party an
edge over other parties, in order to not only win more votes than the Communist
Party but also come in first in the Federal Elections of 1932 for the first time,
winning 230 seats in the Reichstag, as compared to the SPDs 133 seats and the
Communist Partys 89 seats. As Hitler usually made up to 3 or 4 speeches a day,
this ensured that his charismatic oratorical skills would have their maximum effect
on swaying Germans over to his side so that they would vote for his party. By
denouncing the Weimar Republic, the existing system of government, as well as
the Communist Party, he ensured that all significant opposition to the NSDAP was
thumbed down, so that his party would appear the most promising and competent
among all the other parties. This was an essential move that not only enabled his
party to gain the most favour among the Germans, enabling the NSDAP to receive
both political and economic support, but also made his political opponents lose
favour. As such, he was able to swing voters to his side such that the NSDAP
became the largest political party voted into the Reichstag which was the
grounds for Hitler to demand President Hindenburg to make him Chancellor in
January 1933. In the interest of creating a puppet government to appease the
masses, where previous chancellors had failed to achieve due to the lack of mass
support, Hindenburg made Hitler Chancellor. Therefore, Hitlers charismatic style
of speaking, combined with the Nazis extensive propaganda to reinforce his
ideology, proved effective in swaying many Germans over to his side.

Hitler rose to power due to the weaknesses of his opponents. The Weimar
Constitution, based on proportional representation, led to the formation of
different coalition governments that kept changing, each made up of different
political parties that often disagreed with each others ideologies. Specifically,
from 1919 to 1933, there were 20 different coalition governments, and from 1923-
1930, the longest coalition lasted barely 21 months. Governments with short
lifespans was highly disruptive to the extent that firm and decisive action was
made difficult, leading to a lot of disorder and inefficiency of laws being passed.
For example, after the Great Depression, unemployment rose drastically from 1.8
million in 1929 to 5.6 million in 1932, which was 1/3 of the working population;
this in turn lead to widespread poverty. All these reflected how the existing
Weimar Constitution was ineffective and many Germans saw the Weimar
constitutions inability to remediate the dire economic situation as a fatal
weakness. This was a reason why many Germans lost confidence in the existing
Weimar constitution and turned to other extremist parties like the NSDAP. Hitler
and the NSDAP criticized the apparent disorganization of the Weimar constitution
to the NSDAPs, and by extension Hitlers, advantage. Hitler managed to
successfully manipulate the frustration of the middle-class Germans against the
Weimar government, who, in the long-term, was unable to stop unemployment
from increasing in the long-term. To do so, Hitler promised to create a strong
central government with unrestricted authority as opposed to the Weimar
constitutions coalition government, which appeared much more efficient and
competent than the inefficient and chaotic coalition governments in the Weimar
Constitution, to the Germans. Hitler also manipulated the Germans unhappiness
over the Weimar governments signing of the Treaty of Versailles, by promising to
abolish the reparations and placing the economic needs and well-being of the
Germans as the top priority. The failure of the Weimar government to solve the
peoples problems created a necessity for an efficient and strong government,
something which the NSDAP, under Hitlers leadership, eagerly promised to
provide. It was because of this lack of competence that the existing Weimar
Republics political structure showed, that galvanized the frustrated Germans to
seek for extremist alternatives. Where the Weimar Republic failed terribly, the
NSDAP proposed an attractive radical alternative that assured the Germans that
their economic needs would be well taken care of. Such alternatives, proposed in
the midst of a chaotic and ineffective system, managed to attract many Germans
to vote for the NSDAP in the elections. The NSDAP received so much mass support
that it was the largest party in the Reichstag by 1932, gaining 37.2% of the vote.
Seeing that Hitlers party was so popular among the Germans, Hindenburg had no
choice but to make Hitler chancellor since the previous chancellors were
unpopular among the people, concluding Hitlers rise to power. Hitlers
alternatives were able to make up for and compensate for the flaws in the existing
Weimar constitution. As a result, the NSDAPs proposed policies and ideology
seemed much more attractive and refreshing as they promised a higher standard
of living that all Germans knew the Weimar government had ultimately failed
terribly to provide. Hence, it was the underlying weakness of the existing Weimar
government that left it open to attack, enabling Hitler to capitalize on these
weaknesses and the unhappiness they caused the Germans to make his party look
more competent and promising in comparison.

Hitlers rise to power was facilitated by the onset of favourable circumstances that
Hitler had nothing to do with and thus could not be credited for. Yet, Hitler
managed to take advantage of these circumstances for himself and his party to
gain support. Germany had to pay 132 million gold marks of reparations to the
Allied powers under the Treaty of Versailles that the Weimar Republic signed. In an
attempt to pay of its debts, the Weimar government printed money to pay off its
debts. However, printing money created hyperinflation, which caused savings to
become worthless, in turn causing most Germans to become poor overnight.
Despite this, the Weimar government set up the Dawes plan, taking loans from
USA to buy itself more time to pay off the reparation to Allies, in order to appease
the Germans, as well as buying foreign currency to offset hyperinflation.
Unfortunately in October 1929, the stock market in the USA crashed, causing the
Great Depression, in which thousands of businesses closed and millions of
Americans were thrown out of work, causing USA to recall their loans from
Germany which Germany was so dependent on for economic recovery. This was an
economic blow the Weimar government was unable to get Germany to recover
from. As a result, Germany had no more capita to maintain its industries causing
many businesses in Germany to be forced to close, causing millions of Germans to
lose their jobs and become unemployed, with unemployment reaching an
unprecedented high of 6 million in 1932. As the ruling body, the blame for the dire
economic conditions fell entirely on the Weimar government. Such a series of
events that reflected the failure of the Weimar Republic, made it convenient for
Hitler to blame the Weimar Republic for making the Germans lose their savings
not just once, but twice. It was the onset of economic problems in Germany that
provided Hitler with an opportunity to denounce the Weimar government as weak,
ineffective and indecisive. As a result, Germans lost faith and support for the
Weimar government. Where the Weimar Government had failed, the Hitler and the
NSDAP offered their promises. The Nazis offered all the Germans hope, jobs and
an economically strong Germany which was not dependent on help from other
countries, which was something the Weimar Government had been proven, in the
eyes of the Germans, to be unable to achieve. It was the severity of the economic
situation brought about by the Great Depression that enhanced the appeal of the
promises of the NSDAP, like work and bread for all Germans, hence causing
many Germans to be attracted to the promises made by the Nazi Party. Hence, the
failure of the Weimar government, when juxtaposed against the Nazis
alternatives, made the latter more attractive in comparison. Therefore, the onset
of these favourable events ruined the already declining credibility of his political
opponents, namely the Weimar Republic, and presented easy opportunities for
Hitler to capitalize on. In so doing, Hitlers opponents lost favour among Germans
and Hitler gained favour.

The Nazis political ideology was appealing to the native Germans, who formed the
majority and thus were in the capacity to vote Hitler into power. Hitler was well
aware that the Germans were angry with the Weimar Governments signing of the
Treaty of Versailles, as the War Guilt Clause hurt the Germans nationalist sense of
pride and the Reparations many Germans to go unemployed and starve. The Nazi
Party introduced the 25 points that not only promised to abolish the Treaty of
Versailles, but also promised that only Germans alone would be granted would be
granted citizenship, get a job and a decent standard of living, and promised to
expel non-Germans like Jews from the country if necessary, in order to improve
lives for the Germans. Additionally, Hitler published Mein Kampf, a book of his
political ideas which emphasized the superiority of the Aryan race. All these
promises by the NSDAP made the Germans feel exclusive and special right in their
home country, appealing to their intrinsic nationalist sense of pride which had just
been wounded by the Weimar governments decision to sign the TOV. These
promises motivated many Germans to vote for Hitlers NSDAP as they were certain
they would enjoy a better quality of life under his rule. Such radical promises were
unlike those of other political parties and this made the NSDAP stand out. By
promising such benefits to the native Germans alone, Hitler was guaranteed to
have their full support. Therefore, in the 1932 Federal Elections, Hitlers party
gained the most votes and the most number of seats in the Reichstag, motivating
Hindenburg to make Hitler chancellor as it proved Hitler was the most popular
among the German population.

In conclusion, Hitlers ideologies would not even be seen as an alternative if there

were no problems in the existing Weimar government that needed to be solved.
Hitler depended for mass support in order for his NSDAP to win at the elections,
and this support could only be accorded to his party if the Germans had lost faith
in the existing Weimar Republic in the first place. Hitlers competent oratorical
skills and the onset of events in Hitlers favour, would be offset by a strong and
effective government. A government that was truly strong and effective would be
able to withstand the test of unfavourable circumstances and sporadic attacks
from opponents like Hitler. However, this was not the case with the Weimar
government. As cunning as Hitler was, his personal strengths would not enable
him to seize power legally if the Weimar government did not provide opportunities
for him to exploit its weaknesses and denounce them using his oratorical skills.
Therefore, the weakness of the Weimar government was the root cause of Hitlers
rise to power, as it gave Hitler opportunities that Hitler would not have otherwise
been able to create legally.