Thursday, January 7, 2010

Paul, Hitler's rise to power

The Weimar government was in power at the end of World War I and for a few years after. The government started off with a vast majority of the people supporting them because they were a democratic government. Germany had never had this type of government but had seen the success in other countries and was willing to support them. If the people of Germany had not put so much faith in the government and so much pressure to succeed, the Weimar government probably would not have been thrown out as quickly as it was. After the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler and the Nazis labeled them the November Criminals and many German people agreed. Many people felt like the war was not over and Germany should not have given up so easily. It is true that the war was not over but the U.S. had recently entered and was replacing the British fleet that had been fighting for years. The Germans had been fighting just as long and the fresh U.S. soldiers would have probably stopped them very quickly. The treaty even told Germany they would be invaded if they did not step down. An invasion of the country would have done much more damage then just signing the treaty. The people’s support of the Weimar government began to dwindle causing Hitler’s methods to begin to take action.
Riots began to take place because of the signing which made the government have to call for help with the friekorps, later known as the Nazis. Of course at the time the Weimar government was unaware of what the friekorps actually was but it was their only means of help since their military was now so limited from signing the Treaty of Versailles. Trusting in a form of military like the friekorps was not the best decision for the Weimar government because soon they would find out that the friekorps would turn on them.
After agreeing to the Treaty of Versailles, the Weimar government began making careless decisions for their country. Germany had never been a democratic government before so it is natural to make mistakes and decisions that might not benefit the country in the way they planned. But by printing off more money in order to pay back war debts was a very bad decision on the government’s part. The only thing printing off money caused was a huge inflation and made the German money basically worth nothing. The war debts were not being able to be paid back, the people were basically starving to death because normal groceries were way to expensive to afford. Hitler and the Nazi’s saw this as their opportunity to move in and gain power. People were losing support of the Weimar government fast so it looked like Hitler would have his chance. Unfortunately for them, the United States stepped in with the Young and Dawes plan to help out Germany. Things in Germany were looking up much like in the United States until the stock market crash of the U.S. in 1929. Germany’s source for paying back war debts was gone and they were unable to help themselves as they had shown before. Hitler and the Nazis saw their chance and took it. Hitler was a great persuasive speaker and could basically brainwash the Germans into doing anything he wanted. His propaganda techniques changed the minds of the Germans to what he was thinking because they had lost all faith in the Weimar government. Hitler came in at a time that all Germans wanted a change and a dramatic change not like the government they had had in the past. Their neighbors, the Russians had just undergone a dramatic change and seemed to be doing fine. But instead of supporting the Bolsheviks in Russia, Hitler saw any means possible to implant a negative image of them in the minds of the German people. His speeches made this possible for the Germans to support him. The Weimar government’s inability to provide for their country was the main reason for Hitler and the Nazi’s being able to rise to power.

3 comments:

  1. I like your interpretation of the issue that the Weimar Government failed because of the people's high expectations of the new system. I haven't seen too many people talk about that. I feel like you introduce a lot of good points but don't go as far with them as you could, such as when you talk about the Freikorps. You explain about their involvement with the Weimar Government, and that they turn on them, but how did the Friekorps turn on them? Also be sure to tie it back into the topic.
    Just make sure you are very explicit about anything you are trying to explain because though most normal people will understand that propaganda was one of Hitler's methods, IB would probably refuse to accept it because you didn't spell it out for them.
    Overall I would give the paper a 10.

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  2. Overall an excellent response to the question. You support your stance with many relevant facts. However it appears to me that this paper is very narrative. As Mr. Belk says its just "regurgitation." While you provided some analysis you did not develop the ideas as much as you could have. Further, it is of my opinion that most of the first paragraph is not necessarily relevant to the question. It is of my understanding that we are to address how Hitler got to power, not how the Weimar government failed.

    I scored it a nine because of the mostly narrative manner it has been presented in and that some of the information presented in it was not necessarily pertinent.

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  3. Changed my mind...10. After reading some other posts I found the information in the first paragraph to be a bit more relevant. Good job!

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