To What Extent Were The Nazis Helped Into Power?

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Sophie Tataryn                                                                                       Miss Marsh

To What Extent Were The Nazis Helped Into Power?

In 1933, on the 30th of January, with the biggest party in the Reichstag with 288 seats, Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi’s, was appointed Chancellor by President Hindenburg. However 10 years before this, the Nazi’s only had 32 seats and dwindling support from the German republic. So how did Hitler come into such power? Through his own means? Or was he helped by simply using of a series of events to his advantage?

In 1919, during the Weimar republic period, Hitler knew that if he wanted to make a formidable change in the German community, the republic would need to go. To do this he formed a somewhat alliance with the German army who wanted to crush all left wing parties and overthrow the republic by force. Yet Weimar failed on its own accord due to the hatred of democracy by the German society amongst other factors, so it can be shown here that Hitler made a minimal effort in contributing to its failure, and was helped by his fellow community. However, due to Hitler’s patriotic loyalty, he attracted the attention of Captain Karl May and was asked to join the DAP (German Workers Party), which would later become the Nazi party, and most powerful in the Reichstag. Here it can be stated that Hitler’s character and morale views were responsible for the forming of the Nazi party.

         November 1923, Hitler, accompanied by 600 members of the SA attempted to seize power in Munich. Although Hitler failed in what he intentionally set out to do (start a national revolution), the Munich Putsch, became one of the most important events of the Nazi’s rise to power. Firstly, by Hitler’s irrational behaviour, his trial gained a lot of publicity, which Hitler used to his full advantage in getting the Nazi party recognised. Hitler spent nine months in the Landsberg Prison (due to a Pro Nazi judge) and was banned from speaking publicly, as well as having his party banned. However, whilst in prison Hitler learnt many valuable lessons. Firstly, he learnt that the only way to get power was to stand in elections and use less violent methods, then once in power, destroy the system from within. Secondly, he realized that he needed the support of the army and the business community. The army had refused to support Hitler in the Munich Putsch, resulting in its failure. But when he was released from prison he won the support of the army by reassuring them that he would not ignite a future war in Germany if he got into power and he promised to deal with Communists and expand the army. He won the support of the business community by saying he would reduce the power of workers and weaken trade unions. Finally, Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, which allowed him to work out his own beliefs. It also provided a 'Bible' for the Nazi party and he provided himself as a martyr. These acted like corner stones for the Nazi party. In no way was Hitler helped into power here, as the Munich Putsch was of his own means, and although the German people choose to support him, this was purely down to his public speaking abilities in the court room of his trial. If Hitler hadn’t been sent to prison after the failure of his Putsch he wouldn’t have assessed the Nazi party was failing, and reorganized it into a fully national party, or gained support from various social groups, and would have probably had tried to start another revolution and been sent to jail for the rest of his life.

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          One of the events, which is most likely to suggest Hitler was helped into power, was the economic depression (Wall Street crash) and the 1919-1923 where the German mark went into free fall as inflation rose high, (which led to the another nail in the coffin of the Weimar republic) in 1929, as he obviously had no control over this. The Wall Street crash came at the perfect time for Hitler. This is because Hitler offered the people what they were desperate for- food, jobs, and a strong leader. He played on their desperation ...

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