Hitler left Vienna at age 24, to avoid mandatory military service in the Austrian army and went to Munich. On August 1, 1914, a huge, enthusiastic crowd including Hitler gathered in a big public plaza in Munich to celebrate the new of war. When Hitler first heard the news of war he sunk to his knees and thanked heaven for being alive, two days later he volunteered into the German army.
During the First World War Hitler was just an ordinary soldier fighting in the muddy trenches of the French boarders. By all accounts Hitler was an unusually ill disciplined soldier but was eager to fight and would often volunteer himself for dangerous missions. Throughout the war Hitler rarely got hurt as luck seemed to get the better of him, but soon his luck ran out as his leg got wounded during the battle of Somme. Hitler was thus sent back to Munich but insisted to return to the action so in March 1917 he was sent back to the frontline. In August 1918 Hitler received the Iron Cross First Class, a rarity being a foot soldier. In October 1918, Hitler was again wounded he was temporarily blinded by British Chlorine attack at Ypres. He was again sent back and this time he was not to return as the war ended with failure against the allied forces.
When Hitler found out that Germany was defeated he did not seem to accept the fact. He blamed the politicians of Germany and strongly believed in the ‘stab in the back’ theory where by politicians forced Germany into surrendering. He also strongly blamed Jews and Marxists in Germany for weakening war efforts. When Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles it was bitter to swallow for the German people especially for Hitler, as now he started to feel that all of the fighting that that he did for his country was for nothing. Now being in Germany Hitler continued to serve the army and was recruited into the Germany Intelligence Unit and was ordered to research into the ‘German Workers Party. At the time the party had only several members but they expressed a right-wing attitude similar to Hitlers personal opinions. Two days after going to the gathering he joined the committee of the German Workers' Party and thus entered politics.
In 1919, Hitler joined the German Workers’ Party, becoming only its seventh active member. The founder of the party Anton Drexler was so impressed by Hitler's tirade that he asked him to join their organisation. Hitler after some thought he agreed to join the committee in 1919. The National Socialist ideology contained several basic points: anti-Semitism, nationalism, militarism, and anti-communism. Jews were racially alien to Europe and were supposed to be the source of all European troubles. Second Germany should become the strongest country in Europe because Germans were racially superior to other Europeans and should lead everyone else. Third force was seen as the cure of all problems and was a natural part of life. As such, the military spirit was the truest expression of human creativity, courage, self-sacrifice, and survival. Finally, Russian bolshevism threatened European civilisation and should be destroyed.
When Hitler joined the party it was disorganised and had no clear objectives. Once Hitler joined he got the wheel rolling and drafted a party program consisting of twenty-five points. Given responsibility for publicity and propaganda, Hitler first succeeded in attracting over a hundred people to a meeting in held October at which he delivered his first speech to a large audience. The meeting was a great success, and subsequently in February 1920 he organised a much larger event for a crowd of nearly two thousand in Munich. Hitler himself was not the main speaker, but when his turn came he succeeded in calming a massive audience and presented a twenty-five-point programme of ideas that were to be the basis of the party. Among the twenty-five-point ideologies included revoking the Versailles Treaty, confiscating war profits, revoking civil rights for Jews, and expelling those Jews who had emigrated into Germany after the war began. The name of the party was itself changed to the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi) on April 1st 1920.
Hitler continued to expand his influence in the party and began to form a private group of thugs who he used to suppress disorder at party meetings and later to break up rival party's meetings. This group became to be known as Hitler’s personal army, which was named the Sturmabteilung or S.A. - Hitler's brown shirted storm troopers. He also became the regular main speaker at party events, he attracted large crowds for each meeting and would astound them with his powerful speeches. During the summer of 1920 Hitler chose the swastika as the Nazi party emblem. Hitler described the Nazis' new flag: "In red we see the social idea of the movement, in white the nationalistic idea, in the swastika the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man, and, by the same token, the victory of the idea of creative work, which as such always has been and always will be anti-Semitic."
By 1921 Adolf Hitler had virtually secured total control of the Nazi party, however this was not to the liking of all Nazis. In July whilst Hitler was away in Berlin the dissatisfied members of the party proposed a merger with a political party in Nuremberg in the hope that this would decrease the influence from Hitler upon the party. On hearing the news of the proposed merger Hitler rushed back to Munich to confront the party and threatened to resign. The other members were aware that Hitler was bringing in the most of the funds that helped the party to operate. Thus they knew they couldn't afford his resignation. Hitler then proceeded to turn the tables on the committee members and forced them to accept him as formal leader of the party with dictatorial powers. Thus on July 29th 1921 Adolf Hitler was introduced as Führer of the Nazi Party marking the first time that title was publicly used to address him.
Now Hitler intended to take-over the whole of Germany and he intended to do this by force. On November 8th 1923 Hitler held a rally at a Munich beer hall and announced a revolution. The following day he led 2,000 armed SA troops in an attempt to take over the Bavarian government. The small Nazi Party first won national attention in the Beer Hall Putsch of November 1923. Hitler and his Nazis joined with General Ludendorff and his conservative nationalist followers in an attempt to seize power in Munich. The support that Hitler and Ludendorff expected to receive from some conservative Bavarian politicians failed to materialise the police easily suppressed the revolt.
In February 1924 Hitler was put on trial and he exploited this to gain widespread publicity. He was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment but served less than 9 months in the comfortable surroundings of Landsberg Castle. During his time in prison Hitler had the opportunity to write his book Mien Kampf. He also realised that it would be impossible to seize power illegally and that he would have to use democratic methods.
Hitler’s early approach had very limited appeal but between 1924 and 1926 he developed a strategy that was more effective in exploiting the problems of the Weimar Republic. He decided to seek power through the constitutional process and only then did he resort to a revolution. Although Hitler intended to take power legitimately he did not intend to not use his SA troops, his troops were very influential in forcing people to support the Nazi party and vote for them. As a result of the Beer Hall Putsch Hitler intended to create a personal bodyguards and thus the SS was created, the SS was Hitlers private bodyguards, they demobilised NGOs, freebooters, labourers, and adventurers, shared utter loyalty to Hitler whom they had sworn to protect at all costs.
During the Golden Years of the Weimar Republic politics was not a very important bases to the normal German person due to the stableness of the economy, inflation and low rates of unemployment. During the late 1920’s the Nazi party had very little appeal to the normal German people and the ideologies and dogma that the Nazi party was based upon did not attract support from any specific group within the masses. This was shown by the poor results of the 1927 when the Nazi party won only 1 seat in the Reichstag. But this all changed once the world-wide depression struck in late 1929 when Wall Street collapsed thus causing world wide economies to plunder. This effected Germany most as American firms called back in reparation loans that the German economy survived upon.
After the Wall Street collapse the economy when into the Great Depression which seemed to get ever worst as the government tried to cure the economic problems of the country. As the depression continued unemployment soured to rates that were never imaginable and this was the ideal breeding ground where by a dictator was needed to stand up above the rest and help the people to survive in these hard times. This was were Hitler saw his chance of taking power and thus becoming dictator of Germany.
In 1930 elections were called for and the Nazis used their extreme propaganda tactics to gain support from the population. Hitler’s grand speeches caught the ears of the people and his popularity started to increase as people begged for someone to save them from the poverty trap that the Great Depression brought about. Hitler seemed to offer something for everyone and he attracted people from all walks of life in Germany. He appealed to all the social classes within the German population and the Nazi party used every trick in the book to get the message across to the people. When the votes were made on the 14th September 1930, the Nazis received 6,371,000 votes thus entitled to 107 seats in the German Reichstag. It was a stunning victory for Hitler and the Nazi party. Within one day the Nazi party went from the smallest to the second largest party in Germany.
Once the Nazi party had become the second largest party in Germany it was clear to Hitler what he had to do in order to become Chancellor of the German Reichstag. The next 3 years would become one of the most memorising three years of Hitlers life as the Nazi party would be declared the only political party in Germany and he would be become Führer of Germany. In April 1932 the ageing President Paul von Hindenburg announced that he would stand for President again and Hitler decided that he would oppose him and run for President himself. Hitler had the support from most of the German industrialists and the result of the elections was too close to call thus elections were to be held again in March. April elections saw Hindenburg win comfortably 19 million votes to Hitlers 13 million and as a result of Hitler running against Hindenburg the government immediately banned the SA and SS because they feared a violent take-over.
As a result of Hindenburg becoming President again he was forced to appoint aristocratic Von Papen as Chancellor of Germany. But this was under the false promise that he would be supported by Defence Minister Schleicher but instead Schleicher out did him and went to Hitler to propose that he become Chancellor and Hitler become Vice-Chancellor. Hitler did not intend to become Vice-Chancellor and rejected Schleicher’s offer but intended to remove Von Papen from the being the Chancellor. But Von Papen out did Schleicher and gained support from Hitler when he authorised the ban on the SA and SS to be lifted and hoped that Hitler would now support his government but this was unimaginable as Hitler would not support any government unless he was Chancellor. In July Reichstag elections were taken again and the Nazi party gained 230 seats becoming the largest party in Germany. As Von Papen could not get any support from anywhere he was forced to resign and in December Hindenburg chose Schleicher to become Chancellor. Hitler now became impatient and went to Hindenburg to force him into making himself Chancellor but this was met with by harsh force as Hindenburg refused Hitler’s proposal and gave him a ‘tongue lashing’. Within a month of being Chancellor Schleicher was struggling and Von Papen saw this and intended to take advantage of this and thus privately agreed to work privately with Hitler in making him Chancellor. By the end of the month Schleicher admitted defeat and resigned as Chancellor. Hindenburg wanted Von Papen to become Chancellor again but was advised that by re-appointing such an unpopular Chancellor it could trigger off a movement against himself. Thus Hindenburg was persuaded to appoint Hitler as Chancellor or the consequence could be a civil war. Thus on 30th January 1933 Hitler became Chancellor of Germany and the Nazi party became the dominant party within the nation.
When Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany it was clear to see that the Nazi Party was dependent upon Adolf Hitler and that the Nazi party would be nothing without him. When Hitler joined the Nationalist Socialist German Workers Party is was a party that had no clear aims or objectives its primary aim was to survive in a country where political parties were created and forgotten about so quickly that it became a regular act within the political arena. But once the founder of the party Anton Drexler saw the power that Hitler contained within himself it was clear that the party needed someone that could was just as powerful and strong minded as Hitler was. Drexler saw Hitler for what he was and quoted “he is a man that will create a lasting impression upon the German population.”
When considering how influential Hitler was to the rise of the Nazi party the characteristics and attributes that made Hitler what he was must be considered. By looking at the positive aspects of Hitler we can see why the German people adored him so much. First off we must consider his past, Hitler had such a rough early life that it could be said that it influenced his future and thus affected his personal opinions and attitudes. He grew up in an atmosphere of little love and thus it meant that he became strong minded and did not rely on people to do things for him but relied upon himself to become successful. He became a an orphan by the age of 18 and was forced to live on his own in a world without any love or support from anyone. This shows that he was to grow up to become a man that would be self reliant, mentally strong and challenging as he survived hardship before he even became and adult.
When the Hitler joined the Nationalist Socialist German Workers Party he whipped it into shape by writing up a twenty-five-point party programme. His organisational skills proved to be invaluable to the Nazi party and by creating the programme it meant that over 2000 volunteers were willing to join the party. He was seen as a man of action rather than words and this was clearly shown by creating the programme, as he wanted the party to have aims and objectives. He was a man of structure and discipline and it meant that it reflected upon the party as a whole thus it showed that the Nazi party was able to dominant within the German political arena.
Another characteristic that made Hitler such an influential leader to the rise of the Nazi party was the fact that his ambitious carried him to the limits. He had personal goals of succeeding and wanted to achieve them by any means. This cohered with the Nazi party aims to succeed by any means and thus Hitler was the man that would carry out this without heisting. He was a man that was easily motivated and he did not seem to fear danger as the results of World War I and the Beer Hall Putsch show. He was a nationalistic icon that wanted to become the leader of the German people, his self image reflected upon the party and thus was able to show that because he was a man of structure and discipline it meant that the Nazi party would be based upon structure and discipline. Hitler was intelligent and decisive, he had a powerful and dominating personality and was a charismatic public speaker. His attributes reflected upon the Nazi party and it showed that Hitler had a vision of a better and bigger Germany and that the people could only help him by supporting the Nazi party.
A decisive factor that made Hitler such an important character within the Nazi party was because he was the main reason why big businesses and industrialists supported the Nazi movement. This was shown when he threatened to resign from the party but leaders knew that if this was to occur the Nazi Party would crumble because Hitler was the main reason why businesses were funding the Nazi party. Industrialists saw Hitler as the cure to the communist problem within the country and thus were willing to fund the Nazi party in order to get rid of communism. Thus Hitler was forced not to resign and he forced the committee leaders to accept him as the dictator of the Nazi Party. This shows that Hitler did not struggle to become the leader of the Nazi party but the party members had no choice but to choose Hitler as the leader because if they didn’t it would threaten a break up within the Nazi party. His influence over the Nazi party was under-estimated as members of the party released and thus when Hitler became in charge of the party it showed that the Nazi movement was not in charge of him but he was in charge of the Nazi movement.
A distinctive factor that was very influential in making Nazism such a successful political party within the German Reichstag was the way in which Hitler made his speeches. Speaking in front of thousands of people can be nerve raking but Hitler made an art of it and thus was influential in increasing the popularity of the Nazi party within the masses. As an American diplomat described “ His ability to influence a assembly is uncanny…he is a forceful and logical speaker, which when tempered with a fanatical earnestness, made a very deep impression on a neutral observer.” When he spoke people would listen, he could transform the mood of an audience like no other with the power and strength he put into the words he spoke. When his speeches were over there would be roaring enthusiasm and applause from the crowd. People came to believe that the way Hitler spoke was the way he lived, strong, powerful and merciless. It was not what he said but it was the way he said, he inspired people to believe in Nazism and its cause and thus it provided the Nazi party with a significant increase in support.
But it must be realised that although Hitler was an important and decisive part of the Nazi movement he was not the Nazi movement in total. There are several key factors that show that with or without Hitler the Nazi party could have survived. Factors include the fact that if the Nazi party was to succeed all they needed was a person who could control the whole party. Hitler did a lot of the work in front of the German people but he was actually a very lazy person and hated to work instead a lot of the background work that helped the Nazi party to rise was done by important figures such as Josef Goebbels, Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess, Heinrich Himmler and Ernst Rohm.
When the Nationalist Socialist German Workers Party was set up it was clear to see that it needed to be organised by a sole leader who would be able to handle the leadership role and guide the political party to become the largest and only party within the German Reichstag. Historians argue that all the Nazi movement needed to succeed was one single leader who had several able qualities that would make a good leader. Historians such as Ian Kershaw in his book Hitler Hubris 1889-1936 states “ the Nazi movement was no different to the Fascist movement in Italy or the Communist revolution in Russia. All 3 movements were similar in the fact that Mussolini, Lenin and Hitler were seen as the centre to the whole ideology. Thus is can be argued that all a movement like Nazism, Fascism and Communism needs is a dictator who can handle the job...” Kershaw argues that Hitler although being influential to the rise of the Nazi party the fact is the job could have been done by anyone who was willing and able to accept the challenge.
When talking about specific personalities that are influential to the rise of Nazism the name Josef Goebbels is a very common one to arise. Goebbels was small and physically weak but it did not prevent his intelligence from succeeding. He was well educated and a brilliant public speaker and by 1932 he became on of Hitler’s most influential supporters. He was responsible for organising propaganda within the Third Reich and used propaganda as one of the main tools in which to attract support for the Nazi party. The influence that Goebbels had upon the rise of the Nazi party cannot be underestimated his continuos work rate and determination to succeed was astonishing. He was a master at propaganda and made the Nazi an efficient, well-organised and motivated party within the Reichstag. Goebbels was very influential because of his propaganda techniques and this greatly increased support for the Nazi movement and helped it rise. His work rate was continuously hidden as he did a lot of the back round work in order to help the Nazi movement succeed and this is shown by his enormous popularity within Germany during the 1940’s.
Although Goebbels does seem to take a lot of credit for work within the rise of Nazism other Nazi leaders must be mentioned that were influential to the rise of Nazism. Key figures that helped Nazism in becoming the single and largest party within the German Reichstag include Erich Ludendorff, Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess, Heinrich Himmler, Ernest Rohm and Reynard Heydrich. Each of these figures had specific jobs within the Nazi movement and each performed them to the limits. There contribution the rise of the Nazi movement has been covered up to a large extent due to the extent of Hitler’s popularity.
Another key factor that must be taken into account when asking how influential Hitler really was to the rise of the Nazi party is asking how popular was Hitler within the Nazi movement? This question can be answered when considering the means in which Hitler became Führer of the Nazi party. When Hitler went to Munich other Nazi leaders plotted against Hitler and wanted to merge with another party in order to decrease the influence that Hitler had upon the Nazi movement. When Hitler heard of this he hurried back to Berlin and threatened to resign but instead it was a means of forcing the committee members of declaring him as formal leader of the Nazi movement. This showed that although he was a very influential to the people his influence did not seem to be very strong within other Nazi leaders. It showed that Hitler was not liked within the Nazi party and that he was seen as over ambitious and thus he was a commodity to the Nazi movement and not a key figure within the Nazi party.
Overall it can be said that although there are several negative aspects to Hitler’s personality and although his influence upon the rise of Nazism is a slight bit questionable it is unquestionable that he was the leader of the Nazi movement. Hitler was the one that inspired the German Workers Party to succeed into becoming the largest party within the German Reichstag. His personality is undoubtedly the most famous within the Third Reich, Hitler was and still is seen was the triumph card to the Nazi movement. Without Hitler it can be said that that the Nazi movement would have never started, Nazism would have never grown, the Second World War would have never occurred and the Holocaust would remain in nightmares not in history books. Thus answering the question from the evidence that has presented it can be said that with little doubt Hitler was the most influential force in the rise of the Nazi party, his character, ambition, patriotism, intelligence, attitude, personality, ideologies, military knowledge, opinions and speech making ability made him the main reason in why people in Germany supported the Nazi movement. Because of his ideas upon communism he was able to fund the Nazi movement, because of his ideas upon the Treaty of Versailles he gained support from the Nationalists, because of his ideas on the economy he gained the support from the working class and because of his ideas upon the Jewish problem he gained the support from most of the German population. Hitler was the main reason in why Nazism rose and became such a power in Europe, he is the main reason in which Nazism grew out of and he is the main reason in which Nazism fell.