Hitler’s strong leadership helped him to gain the support of the German public. He influenced and manipulated the people of Germany to make them believe that he and his Nazi party could solve all their problems. He did this by identifying himself with the public; it gave them a new sense of hope. With his powerful and inspiring speeches, he managed to get the public to believe in his ambitious promises. These promises included; solving Germany’s economic problems, providing strong leadership, building an army and making Germany a great country again. The promises were designed to appeal to everyone, they were very flexible in what they said and if a decision was unpopular, they would drop it. Therefore, the Wall Street Crash was the most important reason for Hitler’s increase in support as the crash left Germany in need of a strong leader who would help Germany to become strong and dependent once again – this was a spot that only Hitler could fill.
This leads to another factor that also affected Hitler’s increase in support. This was the fact that the opposition to the Nazis was weak and divided. The Nazi’s two main rivals, who were bitter enemies, were the Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party. These were the only other parties that offered a strong, effective leadership. The Communist Party had a lot of support from the working class and the German Communist Party was the largest in Europe. This again shows the importance of the Wall Street Crash as before the crash, the Nazis only had 3% of the German vote. The Wall Street Crash gave the Nazis a chance to convince people that they were the best party. However, even though the Communist Party were very popular, people feared them. They feared that they would take over the country and this would not benefit people of upper or middle class.
The Nazis cleverly took advantage of the Wall Street Crash by using it to advertise themselves as Germany’s last hope. They used powerful posters and simple slogans as propaganda. They also used the latest technology to spread their message, this included; loud speakers, slide shows and films. Nazi propaganda was well organised by Joseph Goebbels. He helped the Nazis to raise a lot of money for their election campaigns as they received huge donations from rich businessmen; this enabled them to use more expensive and effective propaganda. However, it was not just money that helped the Nazis in their rise to power; they also worked extremely hard to gain the support of the public. They put leaflets through every door and had many public meetings. They also used mass rallies and marches to give the impression of discipline and order; they convinced the public that they were capable of looking after Germany.
In conclusion the Wall Street crash was an extremely important factor in helping the Nazis in their rise to power and increasing their support from the German public. The Wall Street crash left Germany in need of major help and Hitler and the Nazis convinced the public that they were the only solution to all of Germany’s problems.
