Hitler became leader of Germany because he was leader of the most popular party’ How far do you agree with this statement? By 1933 Hitler had consolidated full power over Germany, it can be argued that the main reason he was able to achieve this power was purely down to the fact that he was the leader of the most popular party. However it seems to be clear that there are other factors, which resulted in Hitler becoming leader in Germany, such as the collapse of the Weimar constitution, the effects of the Great depression and the political actions of people such as Von Papen and Schleicher. Some may argue that Hitler had become such a powerful leader due to the popularity of the Nazi party. Anti – democratic figures had seen the Nazi party as potential allies to provide popular support for an authoritarian regime.
On its own the Reichstag fire was a very significant event yielding important consequences for the succession to Hitler’s iron fist but in hindsight it was one event in a crowed year and the proceedings that followed only enforced further something that the fire could never have done on its own. On the 27th of February 1933 a blaze was seen towering over Berlin as the symbol of democracy was ironically sentenced to demise without trial. It was “supposedly” set a light by a communist ‘Van De Lubbe’ but was more widely believed to be a Nazi ploy. I believe that this was the most important event on the road to totalitarianism because after the great depression in 1929 Hitler and the NSDAP were not the only ones doing well. Communists or the KDP also saw the opportunity that Hitler saw but with the democracy on its way out there was only room for one government, and Hitler new this.
While the Munich Putsch was not a success, as Hitler failed to seize power through force, his movement was however publicised, and made known to the German people. This would thus, the first step in building the Nazis movement and making it known to the German public. The years from 1924 to 1929, The Nazi party did not gain much popularity as the current Weimar Democratic Government was enjoying a period of economic growth and relative stability. The people of Germany were not appealed by the extreme values of the Nazi party as political and social stability was existent under the democratic leadership of Gustav Stresemann who mended Germany’s hyper-inflation through the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan, and
Explain how the Nazi Party came to power, despite setbacks, by 1934. The rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party came to prominence by a facilitated series of events and factors which subsequently saw the collapse of democracy and marked the introduction of the dictatorial rule. Although cautious of the drastic nature of the Nazi movement, the role of the conservative elites and the subversive elements of the Weimar Constitution played a key role in appointing Hitler as chancellor in 1933, signifying decisively the collapse of the democratic system. The Reichstag fire of 1933 further served as a symbolic display of the failure of democracy, the consequences of which would catalyse a campaign against communism and flag the way for Nazi electoral success at the March elections. With the Nazi Party now firmly rooted in the political scene, Hitler sought to combine his power through the implementation of the Enabling Act; this law would effectively abolish any trace of power held by the Reichstag and the president.
How important was Hitler to helping the Nazi Party come to power in 1933? In this essay I will be answering the question ‘How important was Hitler to helping the Nazi Party come to power in 1933?’. To do this I will split it into 4 paragraphs: How Hitler was important in the rise of the Nazi Party, How the other Nazi leaders were important, How the Depression helped the Nazis and How the weakness of the Political System helped the Nazi’s. Before the 1920’s, the Nazi Party were a new extreme right wing political party called the German Workers Party. The party was created in 1919 by a railway mechanic called Anton Drexler.
There were many factors to explain why Hitler became Chancellor. They all played their part and in 1933 Hitler become Chancellor but not as he had first planned. After the failure that was the Munich Putsch of 1923, Hitler realised that things needed to be done differently. Normally the leader of the party with the most votes in the Reichstag becomes Chancellor. In 1932 Hitler won 230 seats in the Reichstag, making the Nazi party the largest in the Reichstag automatically making Hitler Chancellor.
The main reason that Hitler was able to move from Chancellor to Fuhrer was because he had the consent of the German people. How far do you agree with this statement? Hitler became Chancellor of Germany on the 30th of January 1933, causing mass celebration in Berlin. Just 18 months later, on the 2 August 1934, he had worked his way to becoming Fuhrer. Some historians say it was the consent and willingness of the German people that took him to Fuhrer but there are other strong arguments such as the Enabling Law, the demolishment of other political parties and trade unions, his agreements with the church, media and industrialists and the Night of the Long Knives.
How Far Did the Economy create Opportunities for Hitler and the Nazi’s 1924-29? The Economy in Germany helped create several opportunities for Hitler and the Nazi’s to gain acclaim and greater sway with the German people. However I don’t believe that some of the bigger opportunities for Hitler to gain power came specifically from the economy. The German Economy was in a bad way throughout the years 1924-1929. the economy had only just recovered from the tragic and disastrous hyperinflation of 1923 which saw the country crippled and the German currency plummet in value to as low 20,000 million marks to the point, considering that 5 years previous it was only 20 marks to the pound this was unbelievably bad. This however was supposedly solved by the intervention of the Dawes Plan of August 1924.
The Night of the Long Knives Describe and explain how and why Hitler consolidated his power by eliminating opposition and accommodating support in this event. Between 1929 and 1933, a series of events brought Adolf Hitler to power in the crumbling Weimar Republic; now facing economic crisis and political disunity. Although encountering great opposition from the general public and, particularly, the left wing, within a year of his appointment Hitler had already removed most, if not all, of the surrounding disapproval. However, even though opposition from the outside had been terminated, there still remained dangers from within the government and the Nazi Party itself. On one side, Hitler needed to gain the approval of the Reichswehr and, on the other; he had to reassert his power by eliminating any threat of opposition from the SA and its leader, Ernst Röhm.
The police, helped by the SS and the Gestapo, tried to prevent all open opposition to the regime. (Lowe, 2005) Hitler ordered the SS to murder suspected SA officers on the Night of the Long Knives on June 13 1934 to ensure his absolute control of the party. The judges of the courts were Nazis, and they were not fair and impartial to the trials. Hitler’s opponents, mainly comprised Communists, Social Democrats, Catholic priests and Protestant pastors were arrested by the Gestapo and many of them were sent to concentration camps. In Nazi Germany the police were allowed to arrest anyone they suspected to be a threat to the party and anyone who openly opposed Nazi in public would be tortured, even to death.