Rachel Hexham EUH 3206 Stackhouse Essay One: Question 3 February 17, 2014

Recovering from the stark desolation and possessing depression of the World War, the German people were left as shadows of their former glory their visage now tattered and ugly. The newly assembled and weak Republican government was left to tarry with the ravishing of political and economic responsibility forced on them in Versailles by the other nations. A myriad of voices erupted from the simmering tension, rallying the people to rise and conquer their ordeal, but only one was truly heard. In the lowest point of her history, Germany parlayed at a Faustian exchange, and drowned in the fascist tide of Nazism. Seizing the tumultuous chaos, Hitler and his party subjected Germany to an efficacious flurry of propaganda and hypnotic oratory that subjugated it into supporting National Socialism and lauding the Swastika. Faced with the aftermath of the war, the hyperinflation, and the Great Depression, the situation for the average German was nearly hopeless. Unemployment had never been higher, nearly 30% by 19321. The working class was unable to recover from this because any savings accrued by the individual were rendered worthless in 1923, when the inflation rate had reached nearly 30,000%2 . After a slight recovery, production dropped by nearly 47% in 1932 during the Great Depression. In addition, The Treaty of Versailles Article 119 left Germany to renounce3 its claim to former colonies, so it could not import food or basic resources for industry. The new government was trapped in the peril of debt and deficit, largely due to the reparations it was forced to pay as a consequence3 for Germanys hostility against the allied powers in the First
1 2

V.R. Berghahn, Modern Germany, Cambridge University Press (1987), p. 284. Web. Statistisches Reichsamt (ed.) Zahlen zur Geldoentwertung in Deutschland 1914 bis 1923, Berlin (1925) p. 33. Web. 3 Article 119 The Peace Treaty of Versailles, Paris (1919). Web.

World War, rendering it incapable of implementing inflationary monetary policy and regulating its economy. Without the appropriate means with which to implement and enforce policy, left alone the question of whether it was even capable of passing any laws, the government was highly debilitated and unable to assist the constituency4, leaving emotions raw and unstable. It left behind a people desperate for answers and solutions, something only the National Socialists and Hitler seemed able to provide because of their organization. This answer to the workers woes, rather, the so-called blame and cause of it, became the Jews. The German Workers Party, before it became the Nazi Party, was well-known for its passionate display, radical patriotism, and their extreme Anti-Semitism. When they began to form up a basic base of support, they targeted those who demonstrated a likewise hatred of Jews. During the 1920s and 30s, Anti-Semitism was prevalent throughout the social classes of the German electorate.5 While it was never at the forefront of the peoples attention compared to the economic turmoil, Hitler made the prejudice against Jews a key topic in his speeches and the object of many waves of Nazi propaganda when it became pertinent to drop the hammer.5 The Nazi Party effectively turned the Jews into a scapegoat for all of Germanys tribulations. This became, most importantly, a point of empathy which Hitler could now effectively exploit in order to promote his National Socialism. It was a mechanic by which the Nazis, being a self-proclaimed authority of the people and the beacon of a new German dawn, could appear irreproachable.5 Not only to the Jews, but the Nazis also targeted the other parties: the Democratic government, Communists, and the old Germany that had lost its core values to foreign ones. The Nazis defame them by showcasing the crises in Russia, and inspire the people

Frey, Bruno S. "A Statistical Study of the Effect of the Great Depression on Elections: The Weimar Republic, 19301933." Political Behavior 5.4 (1983): 403-20. Web.
5

Hartmann, Dieter D. "Anti-Semitism and the Appeal of Nazism." Political Psychology5.4 (1984): 635-42. Web.

to rise up and retaliate against the demoralization of Germany by the Communists.6 Hitler claimed that all of these groups sought to uphold the chaos as their opportunity to suppress the Germans and sink the fatherland into perpetual destitution6. By delivering this ideology with a passionate rhetoric, Hitler bestowed upon the German people a sense of anger, and became the ethos for which they identified as the source of an innervated German identity. Hitler succeeds in victimizing the Germans, claiming that they were betrayed and robbed of their crown. He claimed that they were not shown the equality and fraternity6 that was promised to them. To an audience of mostly working-class men weakened by hunger and hungry for pride, this is widely accepted. They buy into the grandeur and embrace it gladly. 7 The people were eager to hear that they had not lost the war; that glory had been robbed from them and that they were merely being tested to reclaim it - that Germany was still the greatest civilization in the world. They yearned to hear that they were members of the apex race, the zenith of humanity, because it appealed to their pride.8 What was then a sillage from the First World War became a reawakening. They began to relate to Hitlers vision of a Germany dominated by National Socialism.7 This delusion of German superiority is key to the pernicious nature of Anti-Semitism and the potency of Nazisms popularity. It is the justification of a greater German power. The effect, then, is bloodlust. The German people, filled with pride, become hungry for vengeance, the end for which only Hitler can provide the means. Beginning in 1932, this public opinion began to reflect in the elections when the National Socialists won 230 seats in the Parliament, more than any other party.9

J. Noakes & G. Pridham, "Documents on Nazism 1919-1945, Hitlers statement on the National Uprising" London (1974), pp. 162-64. Web. 7 Welch, David. "Nazi Propaganda and the Volksgemeinschaft: Constructing a People's Community." Journal of Contemporary History 39.2 (2004): 213-38. Web. 8 Kershaw, Ian. "Hitler and the Uniqueness of Nazism." Journal of Contemporary History 39.2 (2004): 239-54. Web. 9 Compiled from tables in: Eyck, Erich. A History of the Weimar Republic, trans. Web.

Compared to other dictatorships, Hitlers was determined to effectively control the people by tailoring his public relations to the public opinion. Hitler actively sought to gauge - and paid particular attention to - the moods of the people to tailor his oratory towards whichever current event held the publics attention. Thus, during the Nazi movement, propaganda and the public mood were inexorably linked.7 That is not to say, however, that public policy was enacted based on the whims and wishes of the people. It was, in fact, the opposite. The National Socialists worked to show the Germans what it was the latter needed, which then coincided with what Hitler sought to accomplish. As a result of this link, National Socialism became less identified as such by the public, and became Hitlerism. Even when it was the German Workers Party, the National Socialists sought to reeducate the public. Focusing, then, on the core-values of a new Nazi Germany, Hitler further moves to emphasize Germany as paramount by eliminating class boundaries, and thusly, opposition. His propagandists accomplish this by promoting the ideals of his Volksgemeinschaft. The concept of this national or peoples community was key in the revolutionary aims of the Nazi regime.7 It was necessary to ensure that National Socialism was completely accepted, and that the people could be easily manipulated. The most popular pamphlets and posters were ones that showcased future industry - depicting a futuristic German enterprise gleaming brightly from the steel and metal of the next utopia thriving beneath the stoic eagle and swastika of the Nazis.7 Film and media culture had a heavy focus on the ideal German citizen10, upbeat and cheery, Aryan, and patriotic. By emphasizing the superiority of the German people, the attention to class and social standing began to fade away behind the greater importance of One people! One Reich! One Fhrer!
10

Roberts, S. H. "The Rise of Hitlerism." The Australian Quarterly 5.18 (1933): 57-68. Web.

Societal momentum itself carried the rest of the National Socialist movement. As the Nazi influence began to grow larger, and the presence of other players began to dwindle, the non-political population began to distinguish itself into factions: those who were included and those who were outcasts8. Jews, Communists, and Marxist-thinkers were targeted largely by the general public. Hitler himself at this point abstained from passionate motivation when it came to the matter of the final solution. He wanted ruthlessness and efficiency, but no longer deigned himself to acknowledge them directly.5 Nazi Germany had already picked up the torch, and the party was free to place the country in a choke-hold. When Hitler came into power, free speech was repressed and the SS and Gestapo were given jurisdiction to detain subjects of insubordination so as to produce loyalty11, taking lead after the already self-policing population. Struggling to rediscover its national identity after the ramifications of World War I, the German peoples turned to heel behind the man who rose to restore their pride. His National Socialist ideology hinged on the vlkisch doctrine, being the populist and national identity pushed by unity and fueled by the hatred of enemies, xenophobia, and characteristic leadership. Hitlers successful institution of these ideas in the population through the use of propaganda and oratory secured the sovereignty of the Nazi way and mobilized the people for war.

11

Noakes, ed., Nazism, 1919-1945, Vol. 4: The German Home Front in World War II . Exeter: University of Exeter Press (1998) pp. 137-38. Web.