* He believed Germans belonged to the master race. (Aryan race) * He called the men who signed the Versailles Treaty traitors – November criminals * Hitler wanted to build a Third Reich and to expand Germany’s territories eastward to create living space lebensraum. * He wanted all Germans to be united in one country. Hitler comes to power After the 1st world war, Germany had a democratic government (Weimar republic). But Germans blamed it for signing the Versailles treaty and for hunger and unemployment.
In the face of these deep troubles Hitler proposed to regenerate the country through significant changes. Appointed chancellor the 30th of January 1933 and reinforcing his power in march 1923 with the enabling act finally followed by the death of president Hindenburg on August 2nd 1934, Hitler combined the offices of Chancellor and President, thus gathering great power. Hitler wasted no time in changing German society according to Nazi principles. To what extent did Nazi policies affect German society 1933 – 1945? Body: The Nazi Volksgemeinschaft (people’s community) the base concept of Nazi society.
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.
The question historians have long since debated is whether Hitler’s hatred led to his decision on the mass murder of the Jews in the 1920s and thereafter worked with consciousness and calculation towards that goal? It is clear from reading his own words in Mein Kampf that he showed blame and fear towards the Jews for many of Germany’s misfortunes and formed an obsession with Aryan superiority. However, posing the question whether the “final solution” was part of his original ideology which formed in the 1920s one must also consider if the mass murder of the Jews was a result of Nazi Jewish policy which evolved overtime under Hitler’s influence leading to the decisions of 1941? Believing the Germans to be the master race or Herrenvolk, Hitler’s anti-Semitism was an important part of his ideas and this hatred formed his thinking on race. Not only were the Germans the greatest civilisation in history- producing the best artist, writers and athletes but Hitler believed the German race had to be protected.
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.
However, this source is published by the Nazis in the lead up to the 1932 elections, most likely being bias. It’s also important to note that it’s a typical Nazi source, glorifying Hitler and depicting the average German family as struggling and brave, pleading to get out of the inherited disaster left by the Weimar Government. Not only did Hitler capitalise on the economic problems, he was successful in highlighting the faults of the treaty of Versailles. Source 11 introduces Hitler as a hypnotist by describing his words “like a whip”. Karl Ludecke stated that he was ready to attack any enemy, proving that Hitler’s words created a “hypnotic spell by the sheer force of his beliefs”.
Hitler had strong ideologies about the Aryan race of pure Germans, who he considered the superior race. He believed the race had been weakened by interracial marriages and wanted to keep them separate from other races. As the Aryans were so important to him, he wanted to give them their own area (lebenstraum) to occupy. He felt Sudetenland, part of Czechoslovakia, was the appropriate choice, with 3 million Germans already living there. In 1938, Hitler’s generals made plans to invade Czechoslovakia.
[17+ marks] for fully analytical and relevant answers with detail, insight, perceptive comments and perhaps different interpretations, which address all aspects of the question. 18. Analyse the main factors which contributed to Hitler’s rise to power in January 1933. Nov 2005 This should be well known: for the German situation candidates could analyse; German defeat in the First World War; Treaty of Versailles; weaknesses of the Weimar Republic; German nationalism; anti-semitism; Wall Street Crash. They then need to address the attraction of Hitler and the Nazis for the German people: promises made; Nazi organization; Nazi policies; Hitler’s personality, oratory etc.
Wagner did not believe in anti-Semitism purely for the sake of hatred; as Barry Goldensohn puts it, “Wagner’s anti-Semitism was woven into his idealistic utopian nationalism, whereby Jews, with their racial degeneracy and financial power, threaten to destroy the purity of German-Volk based culture and of the Nordic race” (Goldensohn 246). A proponent
In this essay I will discuss and evaluate the different responses of Richard Rubenstein and Abraham Joshua Heschel. I believe that it is possible to believe in an all-powerful and loving God even after the occurrence of the Holocaust. Hitler was elected as president after WWI and he didn’t like Jews and blamed them for all of Germany’s problems (e.g. financial crisis). He started an organised persecution of Jews in Germany which would eventually spread across Europe.