To what extent did ideology play a role in helping Hitler come to power in 1933?
To what extent did ideology play a role in helping Hitler come to power in 1933?
Hitler came to power in 1933 after a long struggle rooted back to as late as 1919. However, when he became Chancellor, he wasn’t in full power as the President, Hindenburg, was still in full command and a coalition government was present. To change these circumstances he had to win a two-thirds majority in the Reichstag. Many historians say that it was due to his ideologies that he gained that majority and changed his status into the Fuhrer of Germany. ‘Ideologies’ being a set of beliefs, were never defined for Hitler and through the course of his rein we can see that his beliefs changed to suit the situation. There were many other factors that contributed to his success and evidence shows that ideology was only part of his scheme to power.
What were Hitler’s ideologies? Hitler never really stuck to one set of beliefs, however they revolved around a strong sense of anti-Semitism, anti-communism and lebensraum. Anti-Semitism and anti-communism were emerging ideas at that time when during a time of hardship people needed someone to blame. Anti-Semitism had always been a popular ideology in Europe where the Jews were seen as misers due to their occupation, which was generally as moneylenders. Most of the time this meant that they were rich and successful again creating a lot of anger towards them. Hitler built on this and blamed the deterioration of Germany, the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and the many economic crises on the Jews. During a time of hatred and uncertainty the German people readily accepted, and even to some extent due to Hitler manipulation skills and use of scapegoats, this chance to blame their problems on someone else. Moreover, Hitler believed that Germany should only be then land of the pure Aryan Germans and that the Jews were ‘poison to their blood’ and an inferior race. This sense of importance that the Germans felt was a change to the usual subordination and defeat faced since 1919. The two ideas of Nationalism and socialism were united in the idea of the 'Volk'. The community was everything to Hitler whereas the individual was nothing. His aim was to create a society in which individuals saw themselves contributing to the greater good of the German Volk. He attacked individual rights and his Volksgemeinschaft had no room for the gypsies, the disabled, or the non-Aryans. Through this he wanted to create a war economy, which would enable him to achieve ‘lebensraum’ or living space by invading other countries; mainly USSR. The bourgeoisie who were Hitler’s main source of funding hated communism so Hitler had to find a way to suppress it in order to gain support. Hitler also believed in the idea of one leader, the Fuhrer, and did not agree with the communist way during the early years of his struggle. Additionally, as he wanted a nationalised war economy, he could have the communist bringing up workers rights and trade unions during a time when he need full control of the society. Thus in 1933, the Communist Party was banned and with the help of the SS and the SA, trade unions were also abolished. With the Communist Party banned, the Nazi Party easily achieved the two-third’s majority needed leading to another swift victory. With the two-thirds majority Hitler then passed the ‘Enabling Act’ allowing him full control for the next 4 years. Even the fact that he retained the 25 points of the Nazi structure helped as he established a party, which appealed to all the masses. It contained both socialism and capitalism so people had a reason to support the Nazis as they could relate with their ideologies. It became clear later on that he was neither to socialism nor democracy. He believed in an authoritarian regime with him in power as Fuhrer of Germany. Furthermore, Hitler’s use of ‘nationalism’ as a policy was crucial as it liked together all the loose end of their aims and created a core for the Nazi ideology.
