The Nazi Party Performance - Essay Example

?THE NAZI PARTY ` Nazi was a political party based in Germany in the period 1920-1945. The party was created from the current far-right racist nationalist movement of and the hostile anti-communist culture, which fought against the emergency of communist revolutionaries after the First World War in Germany. Nazi party was formed by Anton Drexler as a way of drawing workers out of communism and nationalism. Its leader, Adolf Hitler, developed a totalitarian government called Third Reich. The party was presented by Hitler together with his proponents and perceived by several scholars as operating as neither right- wing nor left -wing. Several reasons lie behind the rise and support of the Nazi party. Contemporary historians argue that Nazi rose as a result of: Hitler’s mesmerizing skills and personality, the party’s effective use of propaganda, the challenges faced by the republic of Weimar, Hitler’s utilization of the Dolchstoss myth, the great depression encountered by the Germany people, and their fear of communism, attracted a massive support in 1920s. Hitler had an ability to grasp his audience’s attention by use of his speeches. People could always listen to him and appreciate the sense in his talk. The most remarkable ability of this leader was to capture the mood of his audience by allowing free admission to his speeches unlike his opponents. Logically, the fact that Hitler was much of a popular and eloquent speaker was a reason behind Nazi’s attraction to growing support during the 1920s. His impressive nature was the key contributing factor to the party’s electoral success in the late twenties. Even though the war was no more, the fondness and militarism for military tradition retained its strength in Germany. The Nazis attracted enormous interest with the help of their processions, sheer energy, leaflets, and military bands in appealing to the soft spot, which most Germans possessed, for the Prussian armed forces style, with pride and discipline (Bottaro 2001, 234).. The marches by the Nazi storm troopers were very impressive and had a massive presence. The prospect of these parades stimulated emotions among the people of Germany, and those who honored the militaristic principles that Germany had stood for in the past supported Hitler at their best. Hitler had a brilliant grip of propaganda principles, ahead of most of his opponents. His propagandists portrayed him as a savior, who could battle the working class and large businesses on behalf of those ignored by the community. One of Hitler’s main propaganda specialists, Dr. Joseph Goebbels described Hitler as a “contemporary monk” who worked industriously for his country. This gives a perfect illustration of how the media was used by the Nazi party to convince Germans of Hitler’s superlative leadership credentials, which in turn boosted the party’s support and growth. Hitler intellectually manipulated the media in order to be portrayed in the most affirmative light possible. Consequently, Germans were efficiently brainwashed ( Hehn 2005, 22). Hitler assured restoration of honor to the Germans, to bring back work and wages, and to renew political order. Before the world depression that began around 1928, he dedicated much of his political energy to the middle class. Even though the Nazis found it very hard to attract efficient support for those groups that stood by socialist parties like KPD and SDP, Germany experienced an agricultural disparity that pre-empted the international depression that came afterwards, and Hitler turned his attention to rural citizens, who would be in need for somebody to look into their problems. With such promises in their minds, German’s middle class had to support the Nazi party so that they could get those promises fulfilled. The impoverished small farmers, skilled workers, peasants, and rural traders were promised a reconstruction of farming enterprises and abolition of numerous taxes. The Nazis referred to peasants as having true German blood with true German life yet they had been shamefully been ignored by the Republic of Weimar. Hitler convinced them that the Nazi government would consider them as the most useful people in Germany. The rural Germans were at the climax of starvation and bankruptcy and embraced these promises. The Nazi party through these policies attracted much support from the workers in Germany. They promised an excess of amazing aids and concessions to massive groups of voters who would be anxious to accept the Party’s promises. Living in such poor conditions, the agricultural sector of Germany were keen to find someone to place their blame. The party adopted the motto of “Soil and Blood” and gave the discontented countryside community a scapegoat in the Jewish form. This was a strong mixture of success for Nazi. During the German elections of 1928, not more than 3% of voters casted their votes for Nazi party, which only allowed it to get twelve seats, twenty less than they attained in the 1924 election. Interestingly, the party was perfectly organized and its membership had dramatically risen. On of the new followers was Joseph Goebbels, whose abilities as a speaker and writer impressed Hitler. They shared a concern in propaganda and planned how the Nazi would win German people’s support. Propaganda needed finances of which the party had run short. In his effort to attain funding by industrialists, Hitler documented a pamphlet in 1927 called “The Road to Resurgence (Fullbrook 2004, 174). In this pamphlet, he entailed that the anti-capitalist strategies integrated in the original twenty-five ideas of the Nazi programme would never be implemented incase he obtained power. Hitler argued that capitalists had used their capacity to reach the top and so basing on this selection, it is their right to lead. He further claimed that public socialism meant that all people do their best for the good of the society and caused no threat to the riches of the wealthy. Some wealthy industrialists were predisposed by these arguments and donated some funds to the Nazi party. Wealthy and prominent American businesspersons supported the Nazi party in the period from 1920 to 1940s. Primary and famous companies and Americans involved with the Nazi include I.G Ferben, which was a German company, National City Bank, and prominent businesspersons from Australia and England. I.G Farben was the biggest chemical manufacturing organization during the early years of the 20th century. The enterprise was crucial in supplying the Nazi party with equipments needed for financial support. The Du Ponts financed the Black Legion, which was a Nazi style group sustained by the du ponts who were Nazi movement’s supports in fanatical members of the third Reich and in Germany. The movement was an American anti-socialist grouping that used violence to oppose union members and leaders (Spielvogel 2010, 564). They were implicated in the killings of a number of members of working groups working in support of their benefits and rights. The Black Legion was believed to have more than 1.5 million members in America and was a group that was against the FDR administration and was allegedly working to overthrow it. It also had links with other pro-Nazi groups such as the American Liberty League. Actions and financial support of such movements were a great support to the Nazi party. American banks continued to support the party by giving billions of dollars in forms of loans until the day Germany pronounced war on America. William Randolph was a famous industrialist in the media industry. During the 1930s, he collaborated with the Nazi party to promote Nazi party’s positive image in American media. He received loans from Italian bankers in Italy during this time. His actions were a vital element in reconstructing American sentiment on not getting involved in Germany’s political activities since most Americans believed that there was nothing wrong in European political and economical sectors. However, even after the war, some Americans went on supporting the Nazi party basing on the propaganda that they had been interpreted to by Randolph media source. Randolph’s publications presented the Nazi party in a positive way until America entered the battle. The Nazis used communist concepts such as state control of industry, better pensions, and land to peasants to be supported by the working class. They even formed a fun youth club to indoctrinate youths to believe in the message passed across by the Nazi party (Lemons 2005, 307). IBM Company helped the Nazi party to set up its census databases by use of data sorting equipment that enabled the party to carry out the holocaust (ultimate Solution of genocide) perfectly than if the members could have done it by themselves. Hitler awarded Thomas Watson a medal for his role in helping the Nazi party and his high esteem expressed for Germany, its people, and for Hitler. There is a further documentary evidence of the role of Industrialists and bankers in the funding of Nazi party for the German election of 1933. Prominent firms subscribed a total amount of three million Reichmarks through the Delbruck bank to Hitler for use in financing the party activities (Berghahm 1987, 78). Adolph Hitler’s rise to power was funded via the Warburg-administered Mendelson Bank, and later by Scheder bank whose branches were based in New York, London, and Frankfurt. In 1939, the Rockefellers’ oil of Jersey put up for sale $20 million in to I.G Farben, which was already connected to the Nazi party. With Germany strongly under Hitler’s heel, he moved to gain a stronger control of Nazi. His major rival, Rohm Ernst, headed the powerful brownshirts, which was the Para-military team of thugs that the Nazis used to impose intimidation and violence. Many industrialists and army officers feared that Hitler would substitute the army with Brownshirts, yet Hitler feared Rohm’s power. As a result, he won the support of industrialists and the army while at the same time achieving his interests through ensuring the murder of Rohm and his acquaintances in the “Night of the long knives.” To some extend, it is widespread that Hitler himself was responsible for Rohm’s death as he pulled the trigger in the killing. The Brownshirts were broken up and replaced by more deadly and efficient Blackshirt Storm Troopers, popularly called the Schtzsraffel (SS). Since then, they have remained the key agents of the Nazi terror (Yeadon 208, 111). By August 1934, the symbol of the ancient Prussian order, President Hindenburg died. Hitler had been so careful in associating with him. To signify the dawn of a revolutionary fresh order and the reign of the Third Reich, which had lasted for 1000 years, Hitler demanded an allegiance vow from the army, to himself and to the Nazi party rather than to Germany. Since then, Germany was to be Hitler and he was to be Germany. Bibliography Berghahm, Rolf. Modern Germany: Society, Economy, and Politics in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Bottaro, Jean. History for the IB Diploma: Democratic States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Fullbrook, Mary. A concise History of Germany. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Hehn, Paul. A Low Dishonest Decade: the Great Powers, Eastern Europe, and the Economic Origins of World War II, 1930-1941. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005. Lemons, Everette. The Third Reich, A Revolution Of Ideological Inhumanity: The Power Of Perception. London: Lulu.com, 2005. Rindalie W., Norling, Bernard. The Nazi Impact on a German Village. Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2004. Spielvogel, Jackson. Western Civilization: A Brief History, Volume 2. New York: Cengage Learning, 2010. Yeadon, G. Hawkings, John. The Nazi Hydra in America: Suppressed History of a Century. London: Lulu.com, 2008. Read More