Question 2
There are a number of long and short- term causes that helped Hitler into power, the Enabling Law was one of many short-term causes which helped Hitler. In March 1933 Hitler wanted to pass laws without consulting the Reichstag, to do this hitler had to have support of over two thirds of the Reichstag, Hitler only had half. Hitler ordered SA men to intimidate the opposition and the 81 communist members of the Reichstag were expelled and the Enabling Law passed by 441 votes to 91. This gave Hitler ultimate power for four years. During the four years time Hitler outlawed all the other parties and Germany became one party state. This allowed Hitler to take on position of Fuhrer (leader) of Germany. Germany was now a dictatorship.
Another short-term cause was when Hindenberg and Von Papen appointed Hitler Chancellor in January 1933. Hindenberg and Von Papen replaced Schleicher who didn’t have any support in the Reichstag, with Adolf Hitler, who’s support was in decline in the Reichstag, and Hindenberg and Von papen thought the could manipulate Hitler into doing what they wanted. Hitler was going to none of it.
One of the long-term causes of Hitler’s rise to power was the Treaty of Versailles; this was because Germany felt bitter about how they were treated and what they had to agree on. Germany had to pay reparations of £6600 million to the allied countries; they had to sign the “War Guilt Clause” which included full responsibility for the start of the First World War. They had to sign this otherwise the naval blockade, which prevents the Germans importing food and supplies, would not be lifted. Germany felt it was unfair that they were being punished for winning in the east and punished for losing in the west. Hitler thought that they were being “stabbed in the back” as they were told that they were winning the war and all of a sudden the German government gives into the Allieds and sign the Armistice. This is important for Hitler’s rise to power as Hitler used the weaknesses of the German government to his advantage. The second long-term cause of Hitler’s rise to power was the Munich Putsch. After Hitler was imprisoned for treason he decided to make his way up to the top by going through the legal way of politics. Hitler despised the way that he was going to do but to become Chancellor he had to do it. Hitler also wrote a sketchy blueprint of his plans, for the future, which later became a “Bible” for the Nazis. This book was called “Mein Kampf” or My Struggle.
Question 3
It is difficult to order the reasons for the Hitler’s rise to power as it is a case of, if one event didn’t occur then another event would not have happened and Hitler would never have become Fuhrer. A lot of the reasons for the cause of Hitler’s rise to power interact with each other such as the appointing of Hitler as Chancellor and the Enabling Law. The Economic Depression was an important event in the time between both wars as the whole world was economically distressed by it. Hitler used this very much to his advantage and organised a lot of rallies to express his views to the confused German people. Hitler showed the people that there was a light at the end of the dark tunnel. He told the people how he could give them jobs and make Germany strong again like it was before the First World War. Hitler used the countries weak democracy as a safety blanket, so that if the people did not fully agree with him he could blame the democracy. Germany had always done well with dictatorship but as soon as the democracy had arrived everything had gone pear-shaped. In Hitler’s rallies he always stood in front of his supporters for a minute or so to build up the tension and the supporters went crazy over it. There were many more reasons for Hitler’s uprise in power such as Hindenberg dying and the Munich Putsch so I can not give them a mark and rate them.
However I personally believe that there was an all-important event which sparked up the Hitler reign, that was the Treaty of Versailles. Germany was left in such a crippled state as most of her supplies had been split and most of the German money had been given to the Allies. The Treaty was like a bully picking up a small crippled boy and taking all his possessions and throwing him on the floor after he has been run dry of goods. All this was a signal for one person to stand out from the crowd and speak up for what he thought was right. That man was an ex-solder called Adolf Hitler. He righted all the wrongs of the Treaty and was a saviour of the German people.
I have come to a conclusion that I think that there wasn’t one for the start of Adolf Hitler’s tyranny that all the events were linked like a chain and if one event didn’t happen then something else would be missed out fairly important. But as Adolf Hitler was a determined man somehow he would make up for the event which was missed and become Chancellor of Germany, earlier or later than history it wouldn’t matter he would still avenge his loss of World War 1.