I believe that one of the more damaging terms of the treaty of Versailles was the War Guilt Clause which stated that Germany was to accept all the blame for starting the war and for all the damage caused in the war. This really damaged Germany’s pride as most Germans and a lot of other people didn’t believe that Germany should be blamed for the entire war, the deaths and all the destruction that happened, and that the blame should be shared with the other countries involved in the First World War.
These two terms were only part of what the treaty entailed but they were the two biggest factors of the treaty that contributed immensely to Hitler coming to power as it meant that he could base his argument for becoming chancellor and then ruler of Germany on the promise to abolish the treaty and regain Germany’s losses and most importantly their pride. I believe that without the treaty of Versailles and the after effects that it caused, Hitler would never have had the basis on which to gain the power he needed to become a dictator.
The Munich Putsch was another long term cause that without, Hitler may have never come to power.
After economic depression set in and the French invasion on the Ruhr Hitler and the Nazis decided to try and take control of Germany by force. The Putsch was Hitler’s attempt to take over Bavaria in Germany with the help of the Nazis. On the 8th November 1923 Hitler hijacked a local government meeting and announced he was taking over the government of Bavaria.
Nazi storm troopers began taking over official government buildings. The next day the Weimar government hit back and the storm troopers were rounded up Hitler managed to escape in a car but the putsch gained him no support and him and other leading Nazis were arrested and charged with treason.
At the trial Hitler gained loads of publicity for himself and ideas. Hitler should have got a life sentence as that was the legal amount of time for treason but Hitler impressed the judges so much that he and his accomplices got of lightly and Hitler was only made to serve 5 years in prison. In the end Hitler only served 9 months in this time Hitler wrote his book “Mien Kampf” (my struggle) in which he stated all of his ideas about Germany’s future.
I believe that the Munich putsch was a great contributor to Hitler coming to power Because he learnt from his mistakes and used his time in prison to rethink his approach of coming to power he had time to realize the strongest points of the Nazi party and he also realized that they would have a much stronger chance of taking control of Germany if they did it the legal way through parliament and so helped Hitler’s cause rather than hinder it.
A very short term cause of Hitler’s rise to power was the enabling law which helped the Nazi party and especially Hitler have more power and control after he became chancellor. For Hitler to get this power he first had to get a majority vote in the next election. He got the majority vote and was given power over Germany. I believe that if Hitler had not got the enabling law that he would never have had enough power to take control of Germany and become dictator.
