“The receptive powers of the masses are very restricted, and their understanding is feeble. On the other hand they quickly forget. Such being the case of all effective propaganda must be confined to a few bare essentials and these must be expressed as far as possible in stereotyped formulas. These slogans should be persistently until the very last individual has come to grasp the idea. Propaganda must not investigate the truth objectively but must present only the aspect of truth which is favourable to the party”
When he delivered speeches, some people said that they were hypnotised by his speeches. All of the steps that Hitler had taken since becoming leader and re-organising the party show that he was a strong leader, this was the message that he was trying to get out to the German people. This was shown in the way he had organised his party, they had a symbol, and a personal army force and no other party had this in Germany and this also prepared him for the future, he had everything planned and was very organised unlike his opponents.
Another important long-term cause for Hitler‘s rise to power was the “Munich Putsch” or the “Beer hall Putsch”. On the evening of the 28 November Hitler and his SA burst into a meeting held by general von Kahr in a beer hall in Munich. There Hitler declares that he was taking over the state government of Bavaria. Next he declared that he was going to march into Berlin to take over the German government. Hitler tried to win the support of Kahr and others by threats, but they refused and Kahr managed to escape. The next morning, Hitler tried again; he led 3,000 supporters to march to the centre of Berlin mean while President Ebert had declared a “national State of Emergency”. On the way Hitler and his supporters were met by 100 Bavarian Police, who were sent to disperse the Putsch. When they opened fire 16 Nazi’s were killed & the Putsch had collapsed. Hitler managed to keep in the background but was arrested two day’s later.
In many ways the Putsch was a failure in the short term, but it was a success and a very important cause of Hitler and the Nazi’s rise to power in the long term. Hitler had gone ahead with the Putsch because he felt the time was right, as there was a lot of anti-government felling in Germany due to hyperinflation. Another reason was that he thought that he would get support from von Kahr and other right –wing Parities. The consequences of the Putsch were that Hitler was put on trial and sentenced to 5 years imprisonment in landsberg castle. But before his imprisonment Hitler was given a lot of publicity. This was the first time Hitler could express his ideas. Many people felt the same way & wanted to over throw the Weimar Republic & tear up the Treaty of Versailles. The failure of the Putsch also allowed Hitler to re-think his strategy, he decided to change his approach from violence ,to gaining more votes and he said ” I will have to use Democracy to destroy itself” while he was in prison, so he had clearly shown that he was going to use the democratic system to get into power. Also while in prison Hitler wrote his book, “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle) in which he mentioned his beliefs and ideas of s perfect race and laid out his plans for the future. In one of the letters he wrote out after the failure of the Putsch he writes;
“When I resume active work it will be necessary to pursue a policy. Instead of working to achieve power by an armed coup, we will hold our noses and enter the Reichstag against Catholics and Marxists members. If out voting them takes longer that out shooting them, at least the result will be guaranteed by their own constitution. Sooner or later we shall have a majority, and after that- Germany!”
The struggle for peace, pg 51
So we have seen that the Putsch greatly contributed to Hitler’s rise to power, because as a result, he was able to change his strategy and plan things out and prepare him for the future. We have also come across another important cause to Hitler and the Nazi’s rise to power, while evaluating the “Munich Putsch”. The weakness of the Weimar republic is an important cause because it shows that if the government wasn’t weak from the start and things went right then no-one would listen to extremist parties, such as the Nazi party.
The Weimar Republic had been weak from the start; this was due to many causes. One of these was that the Republic was based on “Proportional Representation”. This meant that no party had a majority in the Reichstag and therefore the government was made up of “Coalitions”. This way the parties were always arguing over problems and couldn’t reach a decision. Another problem was “Article 48 of the Constitution” this article gave the president the power to pass democracy in a crisis and not consult the Reichstag. This was also seen when Hitler tried the Munich Putsch and Pres. Ebert declared a “national State of Emergency”. The Weimar had been politically unstable from the beginning and Hitler used this to his advantage to exploit the Weimar and gain support. This can be proved by the many rising that tried to overtake the Weimar. These include the “Spartacist Rising” in 1919 and the “Wolfgang Kapp” in 1920. The weakness of the Weimar is an important cause in Hitler’s rise to power because had the Weimar been a strong government from the start and not faced as many problems then the chances are that extremist groups would cease to exist as no-one would support them.
This notion that no-one likes to listen to extremist parties when things are going right can be proved. This was true for the Nazi’s; the Nazi’s and Hitler were unable to make an impact between 1924 and 1929. This was due to the fact that the Weimar republic was doing quite well at the time. The republic was under the leadership of Gustav Stresemann, who was very influential. Under Stresemann Germany did quite well, the economy recovered quickly from the collapse of the mark and inflation and the Rentenmark was introduced to replace the old devalued currency. Germany was also greatly helped by the Dawes plan of 1924; this was a bank loan from America. By this plan the allies agreed for Germany to pay off it’s reparations in easier stages. Stresemann also signed the Young Plan; this plan went further from the Dawes plan and extended the payments by another 59 years. Although Germany seemed to be doing well Stresemann knew what could happen;
“The economic position is only a flourishing on surface. Germany in fact is dancing on a volcano” Gustav Stresemann
Weimar Germany- Josh Brooman
What Stresemann meant from this was that Germany was only the support of America. If the American banks recall their loans, the Dawes and the Young Plan’s. Then Germany would greatly suffer, the economy would collapse again and the Weimar would again be distrusted. This was what Hitler needed. During the “Stresemann era” Hitler couldn’t make an impact no matter how hard he tried. In 1925 he completely re-organised the party. He divided the party in to local units called “Gaue” and each under a “Gauleiter” appointed by Hitler himself. In 1926 gained the support of northern Nazi’s and DR Joseph Geobbels and extended his control beyond Bavaria. He started used powerful propaganda to target specific grievances, and developed the Nazi newspaper the “Volkischer Beobachter” to spread the Nazi ideas. Despite these efforts the Nazi’s still were doing badly. Below is a table showing election results between 1924 and 1928.
Hitler and the Nazi’s were really struggling at this time, they needed two things; a new campaign strategy and a national crisis which they could exploit as they had done in 1923. During 1928-1938 the Nazi’s got what they wanted and their vote rocketed. On 29th October 1929, share prices fell to their lowest in history in America. This was referred to as the Wall Street crash. The Wall Street crash later led to the Great depression.
The great depression was another very important long-term cause for Hitler and the Nazi’s rise to power. As we have just seen that Hitler was unable to make an impact, had the depression not taken place, Hitler would have never been able to rise to power. As Stresemann had predicted, Germany was dancing on top of a volcano. When the Wall Street crash occurred American banks recalled their loans from Germany. This meant that German economy took a turn for the worse again, unemployment increased quickly (see graph), poverty increased as many middle-class people were suffering the most. Farmers were also doing badly and taxes were high.
This graph shows how the unemployment increased as the great depression hit Germany. Hitler had the answers for people; he promised them that he’ll give them jobs.
The coalition government could not keep the support of the Reichstag due to proportion representation and there had been 15 different government’s in just 14 years. The Germans needed a party with an over all majority in the Reichstag, so there wouldn’t be many disputes. No-one was quicker than Hitler and the Nazi’s to exploit the Great Depression and to market themselves as “the party that may have the solutions to Germany’s many problems.” Hitler quickly started a new election campaign, where other parties deliver 1 speech a day, Hitler would travel by plane and deliver 4-5 speeches at mass rallies in one day. Hitler also spoke over the radio; he was the first to use technology in his campaign.
Below is a picture of a crowd listening to Hitler at one of his rallies.
Hitler was a very good speaker; he managed to control the people who came to listen to him. The communist party was one of Hitler’s major opponents and he used the fear of people that communism was spreading and told people that only his party have an armed force to battle communism. However the communist also copied Hitler, they too had an armed force and they too tried to take advantage of the great depression. Hitler had an answer for every one’s problems and people had seen that other parties were unable to do anything so they thought it would be worth to vote for another party. The table below shows how the Nazi’s vote rocketed from 1928.
The people that voted for Hitler were mainly the middle-class and poor people and rich businessmen whom he had partnerships with. But mainly the vote for Hitler came from those who were desperate. The result of this was that from just having 12 votes in 1928 to 107 in 1930 shows that Hitler’s election campaign was a success. The great depression was a very important cause for Hitler’s rise to power, had it not occurred the Nazi’s wouldn’t have gained power so quickly and it was Hitler’s luck that it happened because something like this can’t really be planned. The Nazi party was the 2nd largest party in the Reichstag in 1930. In 1932, the Nazi’s were made the largest single party in the Reichstag and Hitler stood for presidency against Hindenburg but lost. This was because the Nazi party didn’t have an over all majority in the Reichstag and the fact that president had personally disliked Hitler. However on the on 30th January 1933 Hitler was virtually invited to become chancellor. How had this happened? Hitler becoming chancellor is a very important short-term cause of Hitler and the Nazi’s rise to power because this was the first time that Hitler actually had some real power in his hands. When Hitler lost the challenge of presidency, Hindenburg appointed Franz Von Papen as his chancellor. Papen had no support in the Reichstag but hoped to create a right-wing coalition government with the support of the Nazi’s and other right-wing parties. Hitler refused to co-operate so Hindenburg had no choice but to call another election. The November election of 1932 was a bad election for the Nazi’s as we can see in the election results table. Their votes dropped from 230 to 196. This was due to the thuggery and intimidation of the SA. The Nazi’s were still the largest party but there was a real sense of gloom among the Nazi’s. Through the result of the November election Hindenburg reluctantly appoints Von Schleicher as the new chancellor. Von Papen sees that von Schleicher is having trouble keeping a majority in the Reichstag and he sees his chance to win back power. Von Papen privately agrees to work with Hitler and they work out a deal. Hitler will be chancellor and von Papen will be vice chancellor. Just in time von Schleicher has to admit defeat and resigns and von Papen persuades Hindenburg that as long as the number of Nazi’s in the cabinet is limited, then even with Hitler as chancellor the most extreme Nazi policies could be resisted and Hindenburg agrees to this.
This short-term cause of Hitler coming to power is important, because had Hitler not been appointed power, the Nazi’s votes would have continued to decrease and slowly they would lose everything they had planned.
Once Hitler is chancellor he has a strong position is the Reichstag but he still doesn’t have real power, because President Hindenburg could still use article 48 of the constitution. Hitler realises that he needs a majority to win presidency, so the first thing he does is recall the election so that he can gain that majority and win supreme power. The March election is another important short-term cause of Hitler’s rise to power, because it would allow him too challenge presidency. Although Hitler had recalled an election, he still needed to make sure that the Nazi’s get the required vote. On the evening of the 27th of February the Reichstag building caught on fire and a communist named Van der Lubbe was caught on the scene with matches and fire lighters. The Nazi’s found such a plot very useful because they were looking for an excuse to ask Hindenburg to declare a national state of emergency. This in turn would help the Nazi’s gain more votes. Hitler moved quickly and managed to persuade Hindenburg that a communist revolt was taking place. Overnight 4,000 communist party officials were arrested. The next day the “Decree for the protection of the people and the state” was introduced. This emergency law was passed ion the wake of the Reichstag fire. The decree took away all basic rights from the German people including freedom of speech and assembly. The Nazi’s exploited the new law in the final days before the election making it impossible for their opponents to campaign freely.
As you can see that the Reichstag fire was also a very important cause, as it allowed Hitler to win those all important few votes. If it had not happened then the Nazi’s would have found it hard to find those extra votes.
The results of the march election was that despite all the laws that Hitler brought in, the Nazi’s still only received less than 50% of the votes. Hitler and the Nazi’s needed 2/3 majority to bring about change. He did two things to achieve this; first he made a deal with the centre party to protect the Catholic Church and then he used the emergency decree to ban the communists, taking up their 81 seats. This gave Hitler the 2/3 majority he needed to bring about change.
The next important cause for Hitler and the Nazi’s rise to power was the Enabling act. With a majority in the Reichstag, Hitler was able to introduce this law. He informed the member of the Reichstag that this law will enable him to make and pass laws without having to consult the Reichstag. He used the argument that in a crisis the Reichstag is unable to agree on things so this new law will allow him to sort the problems.
Below are the results for the votes for and against the enabling act.
Only the social democrats stood up to Hitler. With the enabling act Hitler used democracy to destroy itself like he had originally planned. He used the enabling act to ban all other parties making Germany a one party state. On the 14th July Hitler passed a law against the formation of parties, anyone attempting to run or form a party would be jailed. Now that Hitler and the Nazi’s were the only party in Germany the only thing left between Hitler and supreme power was Hindenburg. Hindenburg could still call the army and destroy Hitler and Hitler realised that he needed to win the support of the army to complete the final step of supreme power. However the army generals did not trust the leaders of Hitler’s SA and therefore they refused to become one with them. The SA by now was enormous with over 2 million members. Its leader Ernest Rohm had particular ideas about the direction he thought that the Nazi’s should be taking. Rohm also wanted to merge with the army and this would make Rohm more powerful than Hitler. Hitler had realised before that the Munich Putsch had failed because he didn’t have the support of the army.
So to get the support of the army Hitler has the “Knight of the Long Knives” carried out by his SS (black shirts) or personal body-guards. In the knight of the long knives Hitler has all the leader of the SA murdered and wins the army’s support and therefore consolidating his power. Hitler betrayed his SA who had helped him all along to get to where he was now.
So the knight of the long knives is also another important cause for Hitler’s rise to power, b4ecause had it not taken place Hitler wouldn’t have been able to win the army’s support and consolidate his power. On the 2nd August, President Hindenburg dies and Hitler announces that there would be no presidential election. He united the president and chancellor and took responsibility for both and became the Fuhrer of Germany, one strong leader. Army leaders were grateful to Hitler for saving them from Rohm and the SA and Hitler make the army swear an oath of personal allegiance to him.
“I swear to god this holy oath that I shall offer total obedience to the fuhrer of the German Reich and people, Adolf Hitler, the supreme commander of the Army, and that I shall be prepared, as a brave soldier, to lay down my life at any time.”
In this essay, I have discussed all the long-term and short-term causes for Hitler’s rise to power. All of the causes that I have discussed in this essay are very important for the rise of Hitler and the Nazi’s, causes like the great depression are very important because without them Hitler would never been able to come to power. However there was a combination of causes that led to Hitler’s rise to power and most of these were manipulated by other causes. The causes are interlinked and deeply rooted. But I think that the most important cause for Hitler’s rise to power was the Enabling Act. This is because this act gave Hitler real power and the power to use democracy to destroy itself.
History Coursework
Ramnik Singh Sall
Candidate No: 8496
Centre No