Hitler had a vision, was able to energise a large number of people around it, and develop the effectiveness of the organisations he was responsible for. He had many qualities that made him a successful and popular leader, of which include his charisma, his ability as a powerful orator, his determination, motivation, hard work, and the fact that he was respected and liked by many. However, Hitler also had several weaknesses; he had great distrust in his generals, which led to ‘the Night of the Long Knives,’ and also had many suspicions about him, some originating from the Reichstag Fire on February 27 1933.
Hitler’s personality, leadership and oratory skills were one of the factors that helped him into power in 1933. Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda chief, organised many rallies across Germany to spread the Nazi’s anti-Semitic beliefs, and during these Hitler whipped the crowds into hysteria. Hitler would arrive about an hour late to the rallies to build up the anticipation and expectation, and would usually arrive from the back. When he arrived on the platform, he would remain silent for a minute or so while he was waiting for the people to pay full attention. He would then start speaking slowly and quietly, forcing the crowd to be quiet so they could hear him. Then he would become charged with dynamism and energy, pouring out exactly what the German people wanted to hear; how Germany was stabbed in the back by those who had accepted full blame for the First World War during the Treaty of Versailles in November 1918, known as the ‘November Criminals,’ and used such groups as Jews, Communists, blacks, Slavs and ‘Marxists’ as scapegoats. By using emphatic hand gestures he was able to whip the crowds further into hysteria, and he would place his fist on his heart as he told the crowd how he would reverse the Treaty of Versailles and make Germany strong again. After the Wall Street Crash Germany was in a state of economic collapse, where people were struggling to buy food, and the money that they did have was useless. They were in a complete state of desperation and were, therefore, more likely to listen and accept Hitler’s radical theories and beliefs. The rallies conveyed a sense of discipline and strength, which was what Germany needed to escape the Depression, so they saw Hitler as a ‘saviour.’ ‘The roaring and especially the power of his repetitions delivered in a certain infectious rhythm,’ quoted by a person who went to Nazi meetings describing the impact of Hitler’s speeches.
Hitler, due to his well-crafted methods, gained a great deal of votes and eventually passed the ‘Enabling Act’ which allowed Hitler to rule Germany without Reichstag, the German parliament, intervention. After the German invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland, Britain and her allies declared war on Germany, which would continue for six years between 1939 and 1945. This resulted in the deaths of millions of people of all nationalities and ages.
As opposed to Hitler who was a good leader but fought for an immoral cause, Martin Luther King would definitely have been a good leader as he was fighting for something that both he and his followers deserved, and he went about it in the most noblest of ways. King was the antithesis of Hitler, who believed in the idea of ‘non-violence,’ and began a nationwide campaign to fight for racial equality in America in the 1960s. His most promising quality was his ability to inspire the African American minority to have courage to oppose the unethical racial oppression.
King, after hearing a lecture on the non-violent civil disobedience campaign orchestrated by the world famous Hindu pacifist, Mahatma Gandhi, who was against the British rule in India. King believed that he could employ the same methods as Gandhi to obtain civil rights. He was particularly struck by Gandhi’s words, ‘Through our pain we will make them see their injustice.’ King became a pastor in Montgomery, Alabama, a town where the public buses were segregated. However in 1955, a black woman by the name of Rosa Parks took a seat in the middle of the bus and refused to give up her seat for a white woman. She was ejected from the bus and later arrested. After this with the help of some of his friends, King began organising protests against bus segregation, which later became known by historians as the ‘Montgomery Bus Boycotts.’ It was decided that black people in Montgomery would refuse to ride the public buses altogether until the buses became integrated. However, both King and other boycotters suffered from harassment and intimidation, but the protests continued. For over a year, the 17,000 black people in Montgomery found alternative ways to work each day and this resulted loss of revenue, so the Montgomery Supreme Court decided to rule against bus desegregation. Black people had won a significant victory in their fight for civil rights, which led to a number of different approaches to protests. The non-violent campaign spread to students in North Carolina, who organised a sit-in at the restaurant of their local store, which had a strict policy to not serve black people. These students were often physically assaulted but turned the other cheek, following King’s teachings.
King began travelling the country, giving speeches and inspiring people to involve themselves in the Civil Right Movement. As well as encouraging non-violent sit-ins, he suggested more economic boycotts similar to the events in Montgomery. The uprising of the black community to led to lynching and horrific acts of violence: a fourteen year old boy, Emmett Till, was murdered by a white shop owner, after he whistled at a white woman, while others were murdered for encouraging others to vote. King helped organise voting registration campaigns in such states a Missouri, though it’s progress was slow,
John F Kennedy was president at this time and strongly agreed with racial equality, and therefore brought the Civil Rights Bill to Congress in 1963. In his speech he argued the disadvantages a black person has in comparison to a white person. In an attempt to have the Bill passed, King organised a march to Washington D.C, where he delivered his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech: I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. I
have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former
slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down
together at the table of brotherhood.
The march was a complete success and estimates of the crowd varied from 250,000 to 400,000. However, while Congress was still discussing the Bill, Kennedy was assassinated in November1963 in Dallas, Texas. This didn’t affect King’s cause because Lyndon Johnson, Kennedy’s vice-president became his predecessor, and eventually had the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed, which abolished discrimination, in education, work and public places.
Martin Luther King was assassinated in March 1968 by a white man named James Ray Charles, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 99 year in prison. However, King’s death was not in vain, as he had achieved so much, leading the black people in their struggle for equal rights, which eventually was granted to them. The qualities that King possessed included charisma, devotion, nobility, trustworthiness, honesty, confidence, reliance, and power. It was these that allowed him to become an icon, representing the black people.
The qualities that Adolf Hitler and Martin Luther King possessed were mostly responsible for the achievements they had aspired to accomplish. They were able to have a vision of what they believed should be made a reality, and were able to see it through to the end. However, both leaders had very different ideals; Hitler believed that the Jewish community that inhabited Germany and other adjacent countries were to blame for Germany’s failure during the First World War, and sought after the genocide of these people. He was able to do this by the rounding up of Jews into concentration camps that were spread across Germany, Austria and Poland, and the eventual extermination of them. Despite his unspeakable conduct, Hitler definitely deserves admiration. On the other hand, King had a vision of a nation where black people were accepted as equals, and where people of both races were able to co-exist peacefully in ‘one nation, under God.’ He did this by promoting the idea of non-violence, as he believed violence would lead to the spiritual self-destruction of the perpetrators and would invoke the collapse of the tolerance of all white people across the country. King, therefore, must be acknowledged as a dignified revolutionist, with his honourable approach to the gain of racial equality. Personally I am completely against both Adolf Hitler and the entirety of Nazism but I do believe that he was a remarkable leader of society. However, I am largely inclined to harbour a greater deal of respect and admiration for Martin Luther King.