Torres- Hitler's steady and efficient rise to power

Between the years of 1928 and 1932, Germany went through some drastic change. In four years alone, the support of the Nazi party rose from 2.6% to 37% in 1932. As the weaknesses and problems of the Weimar Government were exposed more and more, the people were more open to accept change. They were even willing to accept the radical changes that Nazi Party and their leader, Adolf Hitler, were proposing. It can be observed that the Weimar Government and the Nazi Party have an inverse relationship. As the support for the Weimar dwindled, support for the Nazis began to rise. Due to the conditions of Germany and aided by the manner in which the Nazi Party gained support, it can be easily seen how Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany.

If one takes a look at the conditions that Germany was in during the twenties and the early thirties, it is not difficult to see how Adolf Hitler managed to rise to power. During this time period the Weimar Government was on a rapid decline. People were not happy at all with the government and were calling for drastic changes. History has proved to us that drastic times call for drastic measures. With the Weimar government failing the people of Germany, they were forced to look elsewhere for help to restore Germany back to its Pre-WWI prowess. They found this “change” in Hitler’s Nazi Party. As the Weimar Government’s popularity plunged, the Nazi’s popularity rose. To make conditions worse, a catastrophic event took place in the United States which had an equally catastrophic effect on Germany. Due to the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, which the Weimar Government agreed to, Germany was slammed with having to come up with sufficient funds to cover the war debts. With most of their natural resources depleted, they were forced to look elsewhere for assistance. They turned to the U.S. to lend them money. For awhile this seemed to work for both Germany and the U.S. However, after the October of 1929 stock market crash in America, the U.S. now had bigger needs for their money. As a result, America withdrew their financial support which left Germany in economic ruin. The first of the problems was the rapid inflation which came as a result of the Government deciding to print more money. Next, the unemployment rates where through the roof. Now not only were prices extremely high, the citizens did not have proper funds to pay for anything. Further, by 1930 five of the major banks in Germany had completely crashed. All of these events discredited the Weimar Government. To make matters worse, the Weimar tried to make promises to improve it. These were promises they could not keep. As a result, the people grew tired of empty promises. As the Weimar looked worse with each passing day in the eyes of the German citizens, with each passing day the Nazi Party looked more and more favorable.


While these events were taking place, Hitler and the Nazi party kept their name in the picture. They were constantly putting out propaganda demonstrating their beliefs. Hitler toured the country in airplane stopping frequently to make speeches to thousands who wanted to hear what the Hitler craze was all about. The truth is that Adolf Hitler had a way with words and knew exactly what the people of Germany wanted to hear. Knowing that the German people were sick of empty promises, Hitler made no promise of improvement or anything. Although in most situations this tactic would be frowned upon, given the circumstances, not having to deal with broken promises was a breath of fresh air for the German citizens. Another of Hitler’s tactics was to constantly point out the problems of the Weimar Government. Specifically, he kept referring back to how they dealt with WWI and the resulting Treaty of Versailles. He criticized them for giving up too soon and called them criminals. He even took this a step further and blamed the Jewish people for this based on the fact that there was a majority of Jewish people in the upper ranks of the left wing party. Focusing on the Jews gave the German people a particular group of people to blame their problems on. History and psychological studies show us that in bad times people are quick to point fingers to try and solve the problem. This was the principal that the Nazis relied on. They put all the blame on the Jews and focused on eliminating them to solve the problems by uniting the German citizens under a common enemy.


Germany was ready for change. The economy was devastated, the government had great weaknesses, and the reputation of Germany was steadily dwindling. Something had to change. It can be said that Hitler was “at the right place at the right time.” He took advantage of the conditions Germany was in and manipulated the people of Germany to “buy into” his ideology through his impressive speeches and propaganda to raise to power in Germany.