Adolf Hitler began to express his thoughts by engaging in public speeches at national socialist groups, convincing people that the enemy were Jews and Comunists. This allowed him to quickly discover his greatest skill- persuasion. His speaking skills were able to persuade listeners into thinking what he thought.
As his name became more and more famous, Hitler creates his image; he designs his own symbol- the swastika and cuts back his mustache to acquire a distinct look which people would remember. Such change made Hitler’s name even more popular among Germans which saw his posters displaying his picture and the eye catching symbol of the swastika.
After the failure of the Munich Putsch in 1923, Hitler gets sentenced to spend 5 years in prison. His sentence is then reduced to only a few months. The Fuhrer
sees such imprisonment as an opportunity to express his ideas by dictating his ideologies and writing a book which was entitled “mein kampf”- “my struggle”.
This represents Hitler first attempt to use propaganda as way of gaining support from his people. The book reveals to be a failure as the Nazi party lost support.
As the Depression heavily hit Germany causing the development of a hyperinflation and unemployment, the Nazi support starts rising as Hitler states to have the solution to the issues affecting the country. Germans were desperate, many died of hunger as others were bound to spend billions only to buy a loaf of bread. Discouraged by the situation of their country, Germans saw Adolf Hitler as the only way out of the suffering they were going through. Furthermore, Hitler had a very effective method of promoting himself: propaganda played a decisive role in Hitler’s election; he made use of the airplane to speak in a number of cities in only one day. This allowed the Nazi leader to be known all over Germany, contrarily to the other electives who primarily ran their campaign in big cities like Munich. Also, Hitler had no opposition as the stormtroopers had the order to eliminate anyone who did not agree with him, diminishing any resistance to the Nazi party.
The promises Hitler made to his people were good, however not much different from the ones made by his enemies. Hitler’s superiority was granted by the fact that he promised something to everyone, not only the poor or the rich, he was capable of conveying such promises through his speeches which nearly hypnotized the listeners and made him be seen as the superior and most reliable leader.
The Fuhrer’s ability to never give up shows another quality which allowed him to finally reach his goal. Most people would have given up after the Putsch's failure, or the first election, but Hitler’s conviction of having been chosen by God to save Germany drove him to be determined until the end. Which finally payed off as he acquired control of the country and put into practice his ideology of the arian race and the extermination of Jews, who, in his mind, were the cause of the German suffering.
After the Putsch, Hitler changed his policy and decided to attempt his rise to power legally, this allowed him to become chancellor in January 1933. In order to gain the people’s trust Hitler put into practice numerous operations: the Reichstag Fire was one of them; He ordered the Nazi party members to set fire to the Reichstag and make it look as if the Communist were responsible for it. This allowed Hitler to convince Germans that the communists were in the process of attacking the German government; this allowed the Nazi party to gain huge support of the people as they lost trust of left wing parties. A second attempt to gain support and promote the Nazi party was his creation of the Enabling Laws which effectively allowed Adolf Hitler to gain power “legally”. The Enabling Laws consisted in imprisoning supporters of enemy parties and grouping them in improvised prisons such as abandoned factories. Here, the legitimate officers were tortured and forced to hard labour- this process represents the very beginning of Nazi concentration camps. A similar operation carried out during Hitler’s time as Chancellor was the Night of the Long Knives- a purge which took place between June 30 and July 2, when Hitler ordered the murders of a number of politicians which, in Hitler’s mind, presented a threat to Nazi Germany. Finally, shortly after Hindenburg’s death, which represented Hitler’s final obstacle in his run to power, the army swore oath to him as the people voted in favor of Hitler’s power on August 19, 1934
Thanks to his outstanding persuasive qualities and determination, together with the conditions Germany was suffering, Adolf Hitler was able to create a one-of-
a-kind single party state which got Germany out of the Depression, solved the issue of unemployment and spread Germany’s territory all over europe. Thanks to these qualities and successes, Hitler gained the support of a country which, blinded by poverty and hunger, allowed a mentally unstable man to kill 6 million people and commit one of the most tragic genocides in history. This shivering event stands to show how, in a possibly near future, all of us, must be careful is taking decisions and granting power over to one individual who might look different from what he truly is. Never judge a book from it’s cover.