At the beginning Hitler changed lots of things and came with some innovations in the Nazi party: He changed the flag of the Nazi party with swastika and introduced the Nazi salute, he set up the Sturmabteilung (SA – storm-troopers) to protect the party from attacks. They were largely recruited from the Freikorps. Hitler wanted to seize the power by force as Mussolini did in Italy in 1922. Beerhall Putsch was the name of the operation in 1923 but it failed and he was sentenced to prison for more than a year. In prison he wrote his book Mein Kampf which was mainly about his ideas and how the Aryan race is strong. When he came back from the prison he decided to achieve the power by legal means and later on by using power he will establish a dictatorship. He reunited the party- the Fuhrerprinzip. He also changed the name of the party National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). Hitler wanted the party to be more popular, especially with the middle-class, so he moved away from socialist ideas and emphasized his nationalistic program more so he used SA to distribute more propaganda. Hitler divided the party into 35 regions (Gaue) and in 1926 he created the SS (Schutzstaffel) as his bodyguards and established the Hitler Youth. Hitler was very smart in this because he knew that young people and children don’t know much about the world and when you offer something interesting and inspire them with some words they will go with you, so he mostly recruited them. In 1926 party had 35 000 members but in 1928 it won only 12 seats which was less than 3% in the Reichstag. During the Great Depression, many Germans turned to Hitler as a “messiah”. Popularity of the Nazi Party closely was correlating to unemployment levels but the Nazis promised to create jobs which were more appealing than Bruning’s austerity measures. In 1930 they had 107 seats but the unemployment was 3 million and in 1932 they had 230 seats but the unemployment was 6 million. The tension in Germany started to be very tough, Germany needed a leader with charisma who will led them out of the crisis and the only one was at that time Hitler. Weimar government’s traditional policies for solving the economic crisis were ineffective and Hitler had aggressive violations to the Treaty of Versailles as Hitler didn’t appreciate the compensation to Germany which was set by it.
Hitler wanted to be the only ruling men in the Germany but he needed to defeat the President Hindenburg, it was the only men who stood in his path to power. The Nazis promised to reduce unemployment, offered protection against communism and also promised to protect peasants and farmers with subsidies. Hitler candidate for the presidency but he lost with 13 million votes against 18 million votes. The main reasons of growing popularity of the Nazis was mainly in the lower-middle class because Nazis would protect their jobs, they also gained popularity with the working class and huge companies financially supported the Nazis Party’s electoral campaigns. They presented and image of youth and dynamism, their propaganda skillfully managed by Goebbels which was offering jobs, law and order, revival of German glory etc. They promised to unite the country and get everyone working together and also they provided scapegoats for Germany’s problems which were Jews, democracy, Communists, the Treaty of Versailles. There was no government in 1930-32 which will have a majority in Reichstag so Hindenburg used article 48 to declare a state of emergency. When Nazis got the majority of the votes in Reichstag, Hindenburg wanted with them to form coalition as he didn’t want to let Hitler to become a chancellor and he was afraid of SA but Hitler refused. Hindenburg decided to have one more elections in November 1932 in which Nazis won 196 seats, and he wanted once more to have the coalition with Hitler but he refused once more. Hindenburg decided to appoint Hitler as a chancellor in 1933 but with one condition that only 3 ministers can be from the Nazi party.
In January 1933 Hitler became a chancellor and he started to make changes and destroying all his opponents as quickly as he could to became the dictator or later how he was called “The Fuhrer”. SA became the only police in Germany, in February, there was fire in parliament and communists were blamed for it and arrested with the trade union leaders. In March Nazis won 44% of seats in elections to Reichstag- Enabling Act passed – Communist deputies were in prison; the Centre voted to change the Constitution after Hitler promised to leave the Catholic Church alone. Hitler was now able to by-pass the Reichstag in making laws, all state parliaments were ordered to have Nazis majority. In April Hitler replaced all 18 governors with Nazis. In May trade union is banned and are replaced with (Nazis) German Labor front. In June all the parties are banned except the Nazis and in July the law is passed which states that the Nazi party is the only legal party in Germany. 29-30 June 1934- “Night of the Long Knives”-purge by Hitler of SA leaders who were rivals to his power. In August 1934 president Hindenburg died, he was the last men who could stop the Hitler from becoming the dictator. Soon after this he declared himself “The Fuhrer” which was a combination of chancellor and president. The army had to swore and oath of loyalty to him that he could start to do all the massacres and brutality in Germany, in Europe and at last in the World.
From the moment he wasn’t accepted to the architecture school and when the Germany lost the war, he started to be interested in the racism and that the Aryan race is the strongest. He shortly became a Nazi party leader and from the party which wasn’t strong enough he created one of the most brutal and strongest party in that times via his charisma, speech skills and propaganda of recruiting young people who will trust him. Since 1928 Nazis were gaining more and more power in Reichstag till the 1933 when they won the majority of the seats and Hitler became the chancellor. As the chancellor he had such a power to destroy other parties and motivate people to believe into him. The last obstacle was Hindenburg who died in 1934 and then “The Fuhrer” was born.
