Albert Speer wasn’t any ordinary citizen, he was smart and sophisticated. He knew that he may need employment in the future and he knew the Nazi party may have been a path. However, Speer announced that he joined because of “fear of communism, fascination for Hitler and rejection of the Treaty of Versailles”. Speer joining the Nazi Party was a significant event in his personality becoming prominent to history because this event led to further events in which made his prominence progress. Speer’s appointment as Architect of the Third Reich contributed greatly to his rise in prominence.
During a depression, political trends become extremist and so the Nazis flourished; Hitler offered both a scapegoat and himself as a strong leader to look up to. The depression gave Hitler the edge he needed to gain ninety-five[1] seats in the Reichstag and ultimately progress from the leader of a minority party to the Dictator of the Third Reich. The Depression also drew attention to the weaknesses of the Weimar Constitution; as poverty and unemployment increased, respect for the democratic system drastically decreased. The German population did not want to be governed by a democracy as it was such a governing body that signed the Treaty of Versailles. Hatred for this document was still rife in Germany and so Hitler, who openly detested the Treaty, became the obvious choice.
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.
The Nazis used hate and fear to great effect in their elections, Hitler wanted to appeal to the German people so he blamed the prevailing poor economic conditions on the democratic government and the communists. He advanced the idea of his government uprising which could restore national pride and unity. Hitler always promised things but never committed himself fully to the details of a political and economic program. Creating dictatorship within 2 months was also help by the improved Nazi financial position, he was promised three million Reichmarks. Along with backing from Goebbels and his exploitation of the media, Nazis were confident in securing the majority of votes in the election.
Hitler chose his army to be his own rather than be mercenaries or auxiliaries. He also wanted two kinds of principalities, “new” and “mixed”. Machiavelli also described how to hold on to the lands a prince gained, which Hitler took into account. Machiavelli stated “it would be best to be both loved and feared…the two rarely come together…” Hitler had rare qualities that made him both loved and feared by people. This is one of the reasons he was so successful in building such a loyal following in Germany.
‘The most important factor enabling the Nazis to control the people was their use of terror’ The Nazi use of terror played a large role in controlling the people. However there were many other factors such as the desperation of the people and the way the Nazis tapped into what the German people wanted. So terror was a factor but not a determining one. The majority of the German population accepted Hitler and his policies. The Weimar Republic had recently failed and they were still sore about The Treaty of Versailles.
The Nazi state idolized Hitler, centralising all powers in his hands. Propaganda was used to propagate the regime, however; much of it was based on Hitler himself, being quite effective in creating what historians called the ‘Hitler Myth’. With Hitler being a controversial character, most historians have come to believe that the Fuhrer of Nazi Germany was not a strong dictator at all but a weak one. Although this is not the case for all historians, with some believing Hitler was at the centre of the regime. Without Hitler’s massive personal popularity, the high level of ‘plebiscitary acclamation which the regime could repeatedly call upon’ (Kershaw), would have been unattainable.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt used freedom symbols such as the bald eagle and used kind words such as "friend" or "my fellow..." to get people to support his ideas. Hitler and his Nazi party used the swastika and other militaristic symbols and used strong words in his speeches. Hitler and Roosevelt had a number of similarities and differences. Most notably, they came into power in the same month and solved the crisis of depression which was causing many social and political issues in both Germany and the USA. They also both hated Communism and Democracy, while Roosevelt was accused of founding a dictatorship.
These factors caused the loss of public support for the grand coalition of the Weimar Republic and the German people subsequently looked for a new style of leadership. Therefore it was these reasons, rather than just being the leader of the most popular Party in Germany, that allowed Hitler to become Chancellor. The Nazi Party underwent a huge reorganisation which was overseen by their leader Adolf Hitler, in December 1924. The reorganisation aimed to get the Nazi Party more influence in different aspects of German society and by doing so, gain the Party more voters. Hitler began the reorganization of the Nazi Party by constructing a network of local Party organizations such
However by looking at the longer-term effects of the Putsch it is clear to see that the Putsch had many benefits to the Nazi Party and could be considered to be instrumental in their rise to power. Hitler’s arrest, although seemingly catastrophic for the Nazis, was actually of great benefit to them. Hitler was put on trial, which meant extensive publicity for the Nazi Party. Hitler used his trial as a propaganda tool to get the message of the Nazi Party across, he knew that the trial judge would be lenient on him because of an earlier incident he’d been involved in. This gave Hitler the freedom to express his ideas to the national press without fear of damning himself in court.