In the crisis, people wanted someone to blame, and looked to extreme solutions - Hitler offered them both, and Nazi success in the elections grew. The Germans turned to the Nazi’s because they were desperate. To Hitler, this depression was like a gift because for every problem the Nazi Party had come up with an explanation or promise. These included; promise to get rid of the hated Weimar government and replace it with a strong leader-Hitler, a promise to get people back to work on road building and public works. In a time of chaos (the depression) people chose to support Hitler because of his discipline and his promises he inflicted on the German general public.
In an effort to promote such reconciliation, President Woodrow Wilson called for the creation of the League of Nations which would serve as an international peacekeeping organization. Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles under protest and eventually sought revisions to the sanctions outlined in it while, at the same time, “the US Senate rejected the Versailles settlement and vetoed U.S. membership of the League of Nations”. The peace that was sought by crafting the Versailles Treaty had failed to materialize and it was this very treaty that became a contributing factor to World War II. German Reaction to the Treaty of Versailles The German people began to
Question; What reasons did the Germans have to feel that they had been conquered by the Allies? After World War One, the leaders of the three major allied countries, Britain, America and France, decided upon several terms which aimed to maintain peace. These were compiled together, after much negotiation and compromise, into a treaty which was signed at Versailles. Many of the terms centred on the punishment of Germany, mainly to ensure that it couldn’t cause another war and to make it pay for all of the damage. Germany was treated in this way because, by invading Belgium, it was seen as starting the war by the Allies, as it had unnecessarily marched through a neutral country to invade a country with which it wasn’t yet at war.
People argue that this was just because in the armistice, it was clearly set out that Germany would have to accept war guilt and the German leaders signed this at their own free will. As well as this, the German invasion of Belgium was what pulled the war into one of physical action in the form of man to man fighting rather than political discussions. However, I disagree with this; I think that although the Germans had originally agreed to this, it was not, in truth, the German's fault entirely. For example, many of the countries involved such as Serbia when Serbian gunmen assassinated the archduke Franz Ferdinand. Furthermore, the German people didn’t see themselves as a defeated state, many of them were unaware that they had lost; they thought that a temporary ceasefire had been introduced as there were no foreign soldiers marching down their streets.
When the Treaty of Versailles was written up, Clause 231 stated: “The Allied governments affirm, and Germany accepts, the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied governments and their peoples have been subjected as a result of the war.” Germany was guilty for causing the war. But although Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles, it refused to accept the blame. Historians have argued about this issue ever since. Was Germany really guilty for causing WWI? Would the war have happened without Kaiser Wilhelm II’s aggressive foreign policy?
Hitler’s demagogue personality and the successful spreading of pro-Nazi propaganda cannot be forgotten even though the depression was also of paramount importance. Hitler’s success came mostly from his propaganda, promising “work, freedom and bread” to the masses. Posters like Source 9 show Hitler as the only solution to the German crisis. It also highlights one of his main successful strategies which is to capitalise on the emotions of the population who were feeling hopeless. However, this source is published by the Nazis in the lead up to the 1932 elections, most likely being bias.
This made people give up hope on the democracy as it was not working and caused people to resort to extremist groups which made the Nazis seem like they were the solution to the problem. This links to Germans viewing the Nazis as an alternative party to support. The rise in unemployment and a renewed fear of communist uprisings gave Hitler’s messages a new importance which increased the support for the Nazis. They had Hitler, someone who could be seen as strong party leader, to be seen as being someone who could prevent a similar crisis from happening again. The Nazi’s had also made promises to solve the problems and promised most groups in Germany what they wanted such as being promised jobs, employers having restored profits, farmers higher prices and shopkeepers protection against competition.
Woodrow Wilson came to Paris bringing with him a peace program, which was about his moral, idealistic notion of a new world order. His idea was to link the instrument of surrender for the Germans to the creation of the League of Nations. On the way to Paris, Wilson went to England, where he spoke about how he wished to overthrow the old diplomatic system, which had led to the escalation of the war even before he had made his "Fourteen Points" speech in January 1918. When the US first entered the Great War, the President wanted that there be “peace without victory” and his Fourteen Points outlined a proposed arrangement that altered diplomatic relationships to such an extent that future wars could be prevented. Wilson could clearly see that the conclusion of the Great War was an opportunity for him to advance his progressive policies.
In result Hitler began to rise up in his vengeful and expansionist plans for Germany. He was able to play on German resentment of the terms imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. He was helped also by another proposal, by promising those in poverty great jobs and riches causing many Germans and allies to follow Hitler into his racist and prejudices ways. Allied with the Empire of Japan, Italy and several other countries Adolf Hitler, in control of Nazi Germany began to dominate and gain control of Europe, and later, the world. Unlike World War One, The second War used the entire world as its battlefield.
Even films were censored to promote Nazis as a superior race. Therefore this paragraph proves that the Nazis successfully managed to keep control of Germany as the people were all forced to at least listen to the Nazi message and as well as being scared of them and the Nazi police state, they also were constantly being shown glorified images of the Nazis get them to all be complacent and to believe they were doing the best for their