Hitler's Rise to Power

Authors Avatar

Depth Study A: Germany 1918-1945

Assignment 1: Objectives 1 & 2

Hitler’s Rise to Power

Five reasons contributing to Hitler's rise to power:

  1. The Treaty of Versailles
  2. The Munich Putsch
  3. Hitler’s oratory, personality and leadership
  4. The Economic Depression
  5. The Enabling Law

6.  The decision by Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor

1) Using one of the causes from the list explain how it contributed to Hitler's rise in power.

Hitler’s oratory personality and leadership contributed to his rise to power as he managed to gain great popularity from the German people through his charisma, his dominating personality and his exceptional public speaking skills. So it was he himself that was a very significant factor, which helped him to spread the Nazi’s message, and certainly aided his rise to power.

Hitler was recognised for his speaking skills during the First World War; his officers gave him the job of using his oratory to counter enemy propaganda when leaflets where showered on German trenches. After the World war Hitler continued working for the German army still using these abilities to successfully counter the opposition of various extremist groups.

The army sent Hitler to a meeting of a small nationalist group called the German Workers party. Hitler found that he agreed with many of the opinions and ideas of the group so he soon became a member himself. Here Hitler's talent as a propagandist helped him to gain recognition from the group’s leader and Hitler was soon helping to draft the party’s programs. Hitler soon became a large part of the Nazi party promoting their message using his propaganda to gain popularity from German people. The party grew after various propaganda stunts. For example, Hitler opened buildings, kissed babies and had constant front-page newspaper coverage of his every move. This was the exact kind of publicity the Nazis wanted. Hitler worked to become an intelligent and decisive leader of the Nazi party using his great speech making skills to get the Nazi message across - that they would lead and direct Germany in a very different, new and even daring ways.

Hitler's piercing blue eyes would fix on listeners as he made speeches, he used many small tricks to increase the overall effect of a speech, for example he would often arrive late for a meeting, then he would stand silent for a few minutes. He would start lightly and then gradually come to a fierce finish, driving the audience wild with enthusiasm and emotion. Hitler would keep his audiences in suspense deliberately letting the tension increase, emphasizing the fact that they needed him to be able to regain Germany’s stability and pride. He skillfully played on the emotions of the audience that were weak and corrupted; they surrendered to him individualistic ideals that they had because he seemed to be the answer to all of Germanys recent troubles and grief. “To look upon one of Hitler’s audiences was to look at him with persuading religious adoration”.

Join now!

Hitler's rise to power was greatly due the fact he came across as a likeable character to the German people and had shown good leadership skills. Without these the Nazi party may not have been at all as successful as it came to be under the influence of Hitler.

Q2) Using some of the causes in the list explain how both long term and short term causes contributed to Hitler’s rise to power.

 

Some long-term causes contributing to Hitler's rise in power from the list include the treaty of Versailles and The Munich Putsch.

I think that the ...

This is a preview of the whole essay