Thursday, January 7, 2010

Patel-Hitler was just lucky.

Conditions in Germany were dismal. Hope for better lives seemingly died along with the extremely successful Gustav Stresemann, the German foreign minister who nursed Germany back to health after the damages of World War I. (notes) The Stresemann era was a time for improvement in Germany, a time that changed the terrible post war conditions which made it ripe for an extremist group to rise to power. (notes) These vulnerable post war conditions that clinched Germany after World War I fixed Hitler and the Nazi party to methodically to rise into power.
Poor decisions made by the Wiemar government led to the belief that Democracy was hopeless and unsuccessful. While the “November Criminals” accepted defeat by signing the War Guilt Clause, nationalism was diminishing within Germany. This affected the Germans because they had little respect to those who quit after working tirelessly for years and after the promises that the war would be a simple achievement. This means that the German citizens did not even feel any kind of connection to their country whatsoever. This diminished nationalism was a contributing factor of ripened conditions in Germany. This allowed Hitler to legally portray the Democratic government in a bad light using propaganda. (notes) Hitler claimed, “Democracy has achieved nothing.” (Hitler movie) When the Friekorps, coup d’etat, rebelled, Hitler emphasized that the democratic government needed the Sparticists help to aid the disruptions. This showed that the government the Germans were living under was weak and needed a change. The propaganda simply expressed all the reasons for why the Democratic government was not helping the German people in any way. The people responded accordingly to Hitler because they too felt that they were untended under Democracy and when one is not happy with what they have then the only knowledgeable solution is to change it. Conditions that the Germans were living in were tough and arduous primarily because of the money inflation after the signing of the treaty of Versailles. (notes) This only worsened the feelings for change in Germany and only ripened the possibility of an extremist take over. Germany’s efforts with repayment of the war reparations were destroying the value of German currency. This affected the people because they were unhappy with how they were living. The economy was facing terrible times not only because of the valueless currency, but because of also the multiple bankrupt banks that caused many more Germans in debt. (notes) The hard times were so strenuous that goods and necessities were too expensive to purchase, so the Germans could not take care of their families. Germany was falling apart. Hitler’s method was to portray Democracy as a failure and the Nazi Party’s ideologies as probable and fulfilling. He also emphasized the humiliation felt by Germany when France and Belgium seized the Ruhr Valley. This was most humiliating for Germany because the German people were actually being taken over by their enemy troops. The sense of pride for their country was then ridiculed when the land was seized and the Germans were dismayed that the seizure was actually taking over their homes. (notes) These conditions enhanced the appeal of Hitler and the Nazi’s Platform because Hitler was claiming to put “Germany First” and always pride nationalism for his country. (notes) The people felt comforted by his refreshing words and his appearance of a strong leader. He also re-established many banks and revived the German currency from its valueless state.
His success rose from the popularity of the German people. Hitler only acted as a cheerleader. He showed pride for his country and support for Germany. Hitler possessed the pride from the very beginning and he wanted to see Germany become the strong and powerful nation it was. He connected with the peoples needs and desires, and the conditions supported the rise of a new form of power.

1 comment:

  1. Hello, Dhara. :]

    I'm going to jump right in and go paragraph by paragraph with your essay. The first paragraph had a good thesis, absolutely. But, leading up to the thesis, your ideas seemed a little bit vague. I would have liked to know more about what you were going to write your post on. However, you refer excellently back to your thesis throughout the post. It therefore has pretty great focus! Your analysis goes pretty deeply into the issues you bring up, but I'm not seeing much of a counter-argument, which could always strengthen your argument more.

    Generally speaking, you came here to say that the conditions were ripe for Hitler's rise, and you got that message across well.

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