Was the promise of employment the only reason for Hitler's popularity?
Adolf Hitler was a manipulative and purely evil dictator who killed and hurt many innocent people in Germany, and eventually all over Europe.
But how did a man like this ever become so popular? How could a man like this sweep his country into something like this?
In January of 1933 Hitler was made Chancellor of Germany. His Nazi party were becoming more and more popular. But how was this happening? I think the main cause of Hitler's popularity and growing votes was because Germany was in such a bad state of depression, and so many people were unemployed. All the political parties, including the Communists, (who Hitler later got rid of,) were making promises to the Germans. The Nazi party was just one of these many parties promising employment for the people. The Germans were so desperate for employment and better conditions and were almost looking for a strong leader who they felt could help Germany out. And plus, when Hitler was made Chancellor unemployment went down. This, in my opinion, is mainly why Hitler was so popular. As unemployment rose, (at one point 17 million people were relying on dole money,) so did Nazi votes in election.
However, if every political party were making these great promises, (which the Germans probably had their doubts about but were so desperate,) then why did so many people favour Hitler and his Nazi's? Although I strongly believe unemployment was the main nationalist factor for Hitler's population, I think there is a lot more that helped him gain popularity than meets the eye.
For example, The Nazi party was appealing. They had smart, convincing uniforms and propaganda. The party symbol was made of vibrant colours and posters/slogans made them look very powerful. People of Germany also read Hitler's book he wrote in prison and were soon swept away with his nazi ideas. Hitler had something that appealed to everyone, and therefore, if someone disliked a little bit of his vision, (Eg) racism, they would ignore it... they brushed off the bits they didn't agree with. I think some people were influenced, almost pulled in, by the whole Nazi propaganda and fancied ...
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For example, The Nazi party was appealing. They had smart, convincing uniforms and propaganda. The party symbol was made of vibrant colours and posters/slogans made them look very powerful. People of Germany also read Hitler's book he wrote in prison and were soon swept away with his nazi ideas. Hitler had something that appealed to everyone, and therefore, if someone disliked a little bit of his vision, (Eg) racism, they would ignore it... they brushed off the bits they didn't agree with. I think some people were influenced, almost pulled in, by the whole Nazi propaganda and fancied a change, a new political party that appealed to them greatly.
Also, by blaming the Jewish population of Germany for everything that was going wrong for the country, Hitler had created, almost, a sense of pride for the non-Jews. He made the people seriously believe that it was all the Jewish people's fault for the state Germany was in at present and then because the people had found somebody to blame they forgot the humiliation Germany was feeling and could almost say 'It's not our fault it's the way it is, it's all the Jew's fault!' Which is actually not true at all. By making a blame, Hitler could channel all hate away from him.
Germany wanted a stop to all the humiliation and release from the on-living embarrassment of 'being stabbed in the back.' They, at the point of Hitler introducing his party, were still fuming inside about the whole Treaty of Versailles situation. Some of the German population thought that if Hitler was going to be this strong dictator who would 'create a greater Germany,' they would have their chance to show the rest of the world that Germany was actually still going strong. Again, we go back to this idea of Germany looking for a leadership to pull them through and make them shine as a nation, some felt the democracy was making Germany weaker as a country, and maybe they just wanted to try out a new concept to make Germany a better place. I think that Some German's truly believed they could get revenge by using Adolf Hitler, they wanted to regain their pride as a nation even if they had to go with some of Hitler's nazi ideas they didn't really agree with.
Another reason which makes me think unemployment was not the only reason for Hitler's popularity was that Hitler used his clever method of actually creating and wanting havoc on the streets to show up the weak democracy, so his popularity would grow. He tricked the people of Germany by using democracy to getting as popular as hew anted/ where he wanted, and then destroying it! He used propaganda and violence to play with the German's minds and sweep them in on his ideas. In addition to this point, Adolf Hitler, after brainwashing the Germans began to blame other political parties for things that were going wrong. For example, the burning down of the Reichstag. Things like this made Hitler and the Nazi's look like a much better party, and created hatred/anger towards other political parties, (in this case the Communists, an extreme party that rivalled the Nazi's,) this made Hitler's votes go up and their votes/popularity decrease.
I believe as well as unemployment, the American stock exchange crash in Wall Street helped raise Hitler's popularity too. This was the match of the bonfire.
Although, in my opinion, unemployment was one of the main nationalist reasons to why Hitler became so popular, his ideas/concepts appealed to different classes of people, and as I've said before, there was something that appealed to everyone, even if they disliked little bits of the Nazi ideas/vision. In other words, although there were reasons that appealed to the whole of Germany (Eg) ' The Greater Germany' idea, there were certain ones that really made certain, individuals or groups favour Adolf Hitler and the Nazi's
For example, the middle class offered a lot of support to Hitler and the Nazi party were definitely very popular with the middle class as Hitler wanted to get rid of other political parties, (including the Communists who terrified middle class.) This is a reason why Hitler was popular among this class
Although the upper class were less keen they still supported some of Hitler's ideas and this therefore helped with his popularity. The working class also helped with Hitler's popularity because they supported his business ideas including helping small businesses and profit sharing.
At the end of the day, Hitler was offering something to every section in Germany. And every single person who wanted Germany's power were obviously voting for him and the Nazi party. People wanted his ideas to take place and were basically brainwashed by Hitler. So, no, I don't think unemployment, (although it played a big part in it,) was the only reason for Hitler's popularity, but it certainly was one of the biggest. However, there were other small factors, national and ones that applied to certain groups/classes, that helped Hitler to override other parties and become so popular, which are what I have explored in my essay.