Was Adolf Hitler a Planner or a Gambler?

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Essay Was Hitler a Planner or a Gambler? Adolf Hitler was a German politician and leader of the Nazi Party. He became dictator in 1934 and set his foreign policy into action in which he aimed to abolish the Treaty of Versailles, increase ‘living space’ and unite all German speaking countries. However, to what extent Hitler planned the execution of his foreign policy and how much he gambled is a major historical debate. Was Hitler a strategist like Lenin, who made sure everything was in order before taking action, or an opportunist? Or perhaps he was simply a hot-headed romantic led only by his extreme ideology? By looking into every element of Hitler’s foreign policy we can have an insight into his ideas and how he tried to bring them to fruition – by creating a brilliant master plan or simply by ‘playing by the ear’. In his economic planning Hitler displayed many attributes of a good planner. These included bringing down unemployment rates by having a compulsory National labour service, conscription and increasing government spending and limiting imports which would make Germany less dependent on other nations and would stimulate its industry. His extermination of the Jews, which seemed to be purely ideological, helped bring unemployment rates down because their jobs and citizenship were taken away, so they were not recorded as unemployed citizens. His plan worked quite well since German unemployment numbers crashed from 6 to 1.5 million and the currency value increased. As he proved himself competent his popularity increased as well. However, not all his plans worked. His four year plan to eliminate imports of raw materials failed and in 1939 Germany still imported 1/3 of its raw materials. Although the economy was back on its feet, it had not fully recovered and was only prepared for a short war. Hitler also needed to gain the support of the people. His
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