Hitler always emphasised the fact of how there were too many political parties that existed in the republic, which made them look weak and ineffective as they were constantly having to form coalitions to agree with each other. Many people agreed with Hitler, and saw him as a powerful political figure, with one leader rather than a mess of parties, which also gained him a lot of support for those who wanted a strong government.
In 1923, the Nazis attempted to take control of the government of Bavaria by force. However, this failed as the Nazi’s did not enjoy widespread support at the time and were unrecognized by the majority of the Voters.
The government also controlled the army and the police, which gave them a huge disadvantage. As a result Hitler was imprisoned due to the Putch uprising.
While in prison, Hitler thought about the methods he used to take power and realised the mistakes he made. He knew in order to gain more support, he would have to take a more democratic route to power and his party would have to be more widespread to achieve this. However he wasn’t fond of democracy and claimed he would ‘’hold our noses as we walked into the Reichstag’’.
As a result of this, he write the book ‘’Mein Kampf’’ (My Struggle).
His book outlined his beliefs, which surprisingly appealed to a large variety of people. When he was released in 1924, Hitler reorganised the party. This was a big turning point, in how Hitler was attempting to take power.
The Nazi’s began to become much more highly organised after 1923, Hitler had organised a new military force known as the SS (blackshirts), used as Hitler’s own bodyguards. Later they became a much larger organisation with far power and many more functions.
People were employed to use advertising as an effective use to gain more support. This was known as Propaganda.
The head of the Propaganda department was Joseph Goebbels who masterminded the Nazi’s use of Media. Many large rallies were arranged, which gave the Nazi’s a huge impression of strength and militaristic imagery. A number of Hitler’s rallies were filmed which meant a wider population was given a chance to see how the party were strong and well organised. Radio as well as rallies, made great use of Hitler’s powerful speaking ability, and his oratory emphasised on the things that the public wanted to hear. He believed shot simple yet strong speeches would win over a large majority of the population.
Many posters were plastered all around Germany, which briefly showed Hitler’s intentions and also gave him a chance to discredit many other political parties, especially the communists. He also appealed to women rather than just men to gain a wider range of votes, which worked effectively.
The appeal of the Nazi Party grew as the Weimar government failed to deal with the economic crisis known as the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
Other parties rose in popularity at the time, however, the Nazi’ offered radical and effective solutions to the economic crisis. Ignoring the Treaty if Versailles and protecting the country from communism appealed too a wide mass of people, most of the policies made by the Nazi’s were focused at the pleasing the public in order to gain more support. Due to the Wall Street Crash, it was easier to gain more support as most of the public were desperate due to the economic crisis they were dealing in.
On the 30th of January 1933, Hitler had become Chancellor of Germany with Von Papen as his Deputy. Hindenburg still did not trust Hitler and put Von Papens supporters into government, thinking he could control Hitler. Although ,he underestimated Hitler.
All these factors had contributed to Hitler rising to power, however I think the most important reason by far, was the Munich Putsch for definite. If the Munich Putsch had never of happened, Hitler may not of decided to take a more democratic route to power.
His book Mein Kampf would of never been written, which in my opinion was an effective way of which he expressed his ideas to the public which gained him a lot of support. Hitler also wouldn’t of decided to reorganise his party, therefore he might of carried acting in his violent manner, and lost a lot of his support throughout the years.
