Was Hitler's rise to power due to his own strengths or to the situation in Germany - Essay Example

WAS HITLER'S RISE TO POWER DUE TO HIS OWN STRENGTHS OR TO THE SITUATION IN GERMANY A plan of the investigation Political power sometimes is achieved out of situational advantage. The greatest racist in history Adolph Hitler did exactly that. He incorporated racism within the cross section of the German mass against the Jews though various methods like using media to his benefit and through overwhelming oratory. His views as a racist seeped into the general German mass that ultimately helped him to perform the notorious genocide killing 5 million Jews. The idea of racial discrimination through methodical racial institutionalization of education, employment and health was put into the ultimate practice with fearful results. For example the speech presented at Munich on the date April 12, 1922 presents the insight of the conceptualization and formulation of raciest ideas and making it the instrument of gaining power at the Reichstag. The situation and the groundwork were favorable for Hitler. Germany was passing through a phase of humiliation and unemployment with economic downfall after the defeat of First World War. A Summery of the evidence The Weimar republic was in power during the post First World War period starting from 1919. The Weimer government was completely unsuccessful with their political and financial policies and unemployment was on a high. As it is the country's defeat in the First World War resulted in economic instability that further incorporated fascist and Spartacist coups, like that of Hermann Ehrhardt's Freikorps, with wide spread political extremism and overall lawlessness. Constitution formed after abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II was inappropriate and weak and soon it lost popularity. The economy was badly hurt as a result of WWI defeat and treaty of Versailles claiming 20,000 billion gold marks as war reparations. This result in the currency to be unstable with 469,000 million marks national debt. Furthermore the economic coal fields of Rurh were occupied by the French government. To add more problem the 1929 stock market crisis made matter more severe. All these conditions ultimately led into hyperinflation that summed up to 663 billion marks. There are also enough evidences that Hitler political power was based upon brute force with his incorporation of brutal political murders with included murder of communist leaders. Additionally, he blamed the Jews for all economic and political crisis of Germany and motivated the population to become anti-Semitic. Once the population became Anti-Semitic it was helpful to gain popularity and thus gain political power as the Germans regarded Hitler to be their savior. However, election results show that there is a gradual rise of popularity of the Nazi party from 1928-1932 but the main problem remained that there was no specific party individually strong enough to rule. This was a situation of an example of political instability in Germany that Hitler took complete advantage. (Rise of Nazism, 14-15) An evaluation of the sources Hitler, Adolph; Hitler Speaks in Munich; SPEECH OF April 12, 1922; NBT; 1999 The Rise of Nazism; pp-14-15 This book published in 1999 was recovered from Russian Achieves and presents a wide range of speeches by Hitler. These speeches show the methods by which Hitler uses to motivate the audience with fact at the beginning and fallacy to back his intentions. In his speech Hitler started off with the right note by pointing towards the defeat of the First World War as this would be the best possible mode of attracting the audiences' attention as logically enough that would be the most concerned element of the mass during the 1922 Germany. He promptly indicates that there was a "debt of some 7 or 8 millions of marks and beyond that was faced with the debts of the rest of the world" (Hitler, 1, 1). This the best possible manner by which he could effectively guide his intentions towards a well formulated methodical approach that would enable him to take the audience by his side and thus impose his theory of racism on the listeners. Hitler is speaking predominantly about economy but with a sudden twist of speech he inclines the entire matter to the Jews by saying a quote from a statesman of his time that "Don't forget that Jews too have capital". (Hitler, 2, 2) But on the next instance he skillfully removed the focal point by saying "Capitalism as a whole will now be destroyed, the whole people will now be free. We are not fighting Jewish or Christian capitalism, we are fighting every capitalism: we are making the people completely free." (Hitler, 2, 2) The texts thus provide us a good insight about how Hitler used the favorable conditions for political change with his words. Lamb, Davis; Cult to Culture: The Development of Civilization on the Strategic Strata; National Book Trust. 2004, 229, 3 Lamb's book conveys the rise of political forces in greater parameters and particularly in the context of Germany and Hitler. He evaluates Hitler's rise to power and comments that the Nazi campaigns can be enumerated as 'slow poisoning the audience' as depicted by Davis Lamb. (Lamb, 229) He explains how Hitler was influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche and manipulated truth with statistical evidences to achieve his goal of gaining power in Germany. Alongside Lamb presents a thorough scenario of the manner Hitler gained power during this period. Harold, Tim; 2005; The Essence of Words: The Perspective of Public Speaking; NBT Ltd. 331-332, 8-1 Harold's book is primarily focused at the oratory power of Hitler but is not willing to give all the credits to his speeches for his power abduction in Germany. Rather he presents enough evidences that Hitler would have been quite successful without his oratory power as the socio-political situation of the country at that period was extremely favorable for a person like Hitler and his goal oriented principals. An analysis For a democratic society with its democratic form of government system it is but an obvious choice to opt for a society that is predominantly color blind. The basis norm of a democratic society is to provide its mass with a structural form that offers equality in terms of justice and social characteristic. It is an unwanted phenomenon but it is also extremely true at the same time that racism is a curse that exists among us whether we like it or not. The presence of racism is well documented in many societal domains including workplace, school, health care, and housing. It is very peculiar to consider racism is an ideology where humans are separated into various groups in the belief that some people are superior because they belong to a particular ethnic or national group. It could be summarized that racism is the result of having negative judgments, beliefs, and feelings towards certain identifiable groups. This group was the Jews. Hitler blamed them for every misery of Germany and proved his point with fallacies. This was a hugely popular move but the main reasons of his ascend to power lies in the given situation of country. At the same time the Nazi Party was instrumental in gaining political mileage from the situation and soon became one of the largest political parties. Hitler created a policy that was backed by campaigning and propaganda and promised the population to not only restore the economic condition of the country and provide wide scale employment but also recover pride that was lost during the WWI. The mass felt Hitler was the leader who is strong and willing to recover Germany out of crisis. (Harold, 227-30) Conclusion It is evident from the analysis that Hitler's was more of a circumstantial result rather than the conclusion of a theoretical or ideological success. It could also be stated that in this case the personal charisma of Hitler as an orator did contributed for his success but the most instrumental factor operational in this context was the political, social and economical instability of Germany after the First World War. Thus it can never be stated that Hitler's rise to power during the post First World War period was due to his own strength but it is more logical to believe what ever achieved by Hitler was due to the fact that there was hardly any true and able opposition in the political arena at that era in Germany and the economic policies failed to satisfy the German population. Hitler's credit in this context was that of an opportunist. He took advantage of the situation with both hands. List of sources Hitler, Adolph; Hitler Speaks in Munich; SPEECH OF April 12, 1922; NBT; 1999 The Rise of Nazism; pp-14-15 Lamb, Davis; Cult to Culture: The Development of Civilization on the Strategic Strata; National Book Trust. 2004 Harold, Tim; 2005; The Essence of Words: The Perspective of Public Speaking; NBT Ltd. Read More