Schusterman - Conditions made perfect timing for Hitler's methods

After World War I the Weimar Government agreed to the peace agreements in the Treaty of Versailles only 2 days after being in office. Although the Weimar Government was forced to sign the treaty, the loss of militia, land, and the impossible war reparations they had to pay left Germany very unstable(1). As this was happening, unemployment rates were increasing as the popularity of the Nazi party was also increasing(1). The Nazi's message never changed, but the conditions in Germany changed the people's willingness to listen and succumb to their methods.

These unstable conditions in Germany were due to the Weimar Government's mistakes and weaknesses, which were evident by themself, but Hitler used these weaknesses as a method to come to power. He portrayed the Weimar Government in a negative light as a type of propaganda during his powerful speeches. He referred to incidents that happened such as the Spartacist uprising, of which the German army group, the Friekorps, had to abolish(2). He also showed this by pointing out when the Weimar Government could not stop the French and Belgians troops when they seized the Ruhr Valley when reparations were not paid(2). By Hitler using this as propaganda he was showing that the Weimar Government was too weak to abolish coup attempts and therefore were too weak to run the country. This had to give a message to the people that he believed he could be a significantly stronger leader than the Weimar Government could be. Although, the people also might have just trusted him because it was similar to the situation in Russia when Lenin used the weakness of the Provisional Government to come to power, which worked, so they could have been assuming conditions would just improve that way. He also portrayed the Weimar Government as the 'November Criminals' for agreeing to the peace terms and war guilt clause. This made it seem like Hitler would have handled the situation differently had he been in office, but if the Weimar Government wouldn't have agreed to the terms than the Allies would have invaded Germany which would have been possibly worse. During this same time the German soldiers were wondering why the armistice was signed so early when they still believed they had a chance at winning (2). Hitler also used this as propaganda to get the Germany army on his side by saying that was a mistake of the Weimar Government as well. This made Hitler seem more powerful to the people because he had the support of the army, especially because in his 25 points he mentions how much money he intended to give to the militia (3).

Another poor condition in Germany at this point was the unemployment rate, as stated previously. It was very hard for citizens to find jobs and the German currency was almost completely worthless in 1931 (2), leaving the German people with a feeling of insecurity. This style of life lead them to gravitate towards Hitler and the Nazi's because they found a sense of security in them. Hitler used this weakness in the citizens to make promises such as to get the country of the economic crisis and to lower unemployment (2). The problem was that he never implemented specific plans for doing these things, he only published his 25 points. These points were always the same, but the citizens did not pay attention to them or Hitler during the time of the Beer Hall Putsch (2) when they were still giving the Weimar Government a chance. When the citizens finally would give Hitler a chance yet another method he used was his belief in Social Darwinism. This is the idea that most superior race will naturally rise to the top (natural selection) (2). This implies that Hitler believed the Nazi's were the most superior race, so it gave any citizens that felt they did not belong to a group an opportunity to join the most powerful one in Germany.

Once conditions got horrible, the German citizens were ready to give Hitler's ideas a chance because they then had no other option and things couldn't get any worse for them. Although Hitler was successful in his second attempts to come to power, it is doubtful that he ever would have ruled Germany if the conditions were not so poor.

1- Belk notes
2- Nazi video
3- Hitler's 25 Points