‘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 Nazis felt like this political group was trying to undermine their “people’s community”. Hitler made it very clear that he did not want the communists in his people community when he and the Nazi party realised their 25 point programme of 1920.However the Nazis also portrayed the socialist and any other party of which had taken part in coalition governments during the Weimar republic as they collaborated with communism and Jewish democracy. Hitler wanted to introduce the policy of volksgeminschaft in this case because if he could eliminate the communists and the other parties who were associated as collaborating with them, the Nazis could then get their votes as they had a high amount of supporters, which would mean them having the majority and coming into power. Anybody who the Nazis believed that represented a threat to the racial purity of which Hitler wanted would come under the socialism categories. This included, Jews, gypsies and those who were seen as mentally or physically unfit.
All of this shows that the Nazis succeed in creating a Volksgemeinschaft because they had achieved control of the state and had eliminated most of their main opposition. Social Darwinism and Racism were forced on the German people through propaganda and education. Hitler saw Darwinism as a struggle between people, races and nations.
By the time the Nazi party got control of Germany completely, the other parties popularity decreased rapidly. This may not seem to show how effective terror is at first, however due to events such as ‘the night of the long knives’ (1934) many people who supported the other parties feared that not supporting the Nazi party could lead to big consequences. The Night of the Long Knives gave a massive reminder to anyone who the Nazis felt as a potential threat would be treated with severe consequences; in this case it was Ernst Rohm and the SA. Soon after this many parties dissolved themselves, most likely due to fear of the Nazi party. The Gestapo (secret police) is another example of how terror was effective.
Stalin greatly feared older members of the party too as they knew the truth of Stalin’s rise to power and what Lenin’s testament contained which would have ruined Stalin’s career. Under Yagoda’s influence of suggesting communists questioned Stalin, his paranoia further developed and caused the emergence of the great terror. Undoubtedly Stalin felt he had to perform the mass purges because of his paranoia that he would be removed from power. As Stalin was in control this must be the main cause of the great terror as his desire to remain in power was the drive for allowing the great terror to happen. The Congress of victors was a short term cause of the great terror and only added to the main cause of Stalin’s paranoia.
Nazi consolidation of power in 1933 was primarily due to the use of terror and violence. How far do you agree? The consolidation of power in 1933 could not have taken place were it not for the underlying threat, and use of terror and violence. However the Nazi party’s policy of legality and the widely perceived threat of communism are also vital in explaining how they were able to not only destroy much of the political opposition but become dominant by the end of 1933. The use of legality generated respect for the Nazi party as their actions were seen as fair.
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 current president Hindenburg was old and the people of Germany needed someone new, with new ideas. Hitler promised to scrap the Treaty of Versailles which appealed to many Germans, this is said to have won him many votes in the election. He portrayed himself as a strong leader and a good speaker; he promoted family and moral values to show his country how much he cared for them. This perceived the people that he was right for the country and wasn’t at all dangerous; however there is evidence to show that he was in fact a very dangerous man. Hitler first proved to be dangerous when he set up the SA (brownshirts) they used violence against the voters to intimidate them so that they would vote for the Nazi party.
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.
Although Hitler was appointed chancellor, the Nazi party was still outnumbered in the cabinet, so when the election was called in February 1933 Hitler knew that he must once again win the support of the public. At the same time a Communist Dutch named Marinus Van De Lubbe burnt down the Reichstag building which coincidently tremendously helped the Nazi party to consolidate its power. The event caused country wide panic and Hitler and the Nazi party used this panic to their advantage. They blamed communism for the fire and made it seem as if the country was in a state of emergency because of the threat of communism. This ultimately allowed for Hitler and the Nazi party to implement the "Reichstag Fire Decree" which allowed the government to restrict the liberty of the public.