Hitler’s Rise to Power
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Who was Hitler?
Hitler was born in 1889 in Austria.
He left school at 16 having failed his exams.
At 18 he went to Vienna, Austria’s capital. He lived in a
hostel for down-and-outs and scraped a living painting
postcards and selling them on the streets.
He left Austria and went to Germany to avoid Austrian
military service.
When World War I broke out in 1914, Hitler signed up for
the German army. He won six medals for bravery including
an Iron Cross First Class, the highest award a German
soldier could win.
In 1918 he was temporarily blinded with mustard gas. He
cried with despair when he heard of Germany’s surrender.
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The birth of the Nazi Party
The Nazi Party began as the German Workers’ Party
(DAP). Hitler joined it in 1919 when it had just six
members. Before long, Hitler was running the party and
holding meetings in halls and beer cellars.
Hitler soon began to attract big audiences. This was due to
the fact that he was an interesting and powerful speaker
who could get his message across without using a
microphone.
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In 1920 Hitler renamed the party the
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei
(National Socialist German Workers’ Party) or Nazi
Party. A 25-point programme was launched, including
demands for provision to be made for old age, profitsharing in the big industries and the abolition of the
Treaty of Versailles.
The party grew rapidly and had 3,000 members by
1920. The Nazi flag helped attract attention.
Swastika: an ancient religious symbol
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Party meetings
As members of opposing parties often came to meetings to
boo and heckle, meetings were often rowdy and violent. To
deal with this opposition, Hitler set up a ‘Gymnastic and
Sports Division’ in 1921. It contained ex-soldiers who liked to
fight, especially with Communists. This private army was later
renamed the Sturm Abteilung (Storm Troopers) or SA.
“A few angry cries, and a man suddenly leaped on a chair and
yelled ‘Liberty!’ In a few seconds the hall was filled with a yelling
and howling mob … Chair legs smashed, glasses shivered … My
storm troops, as they were called from that day on, attacked. Like
wolves they rushed in … on the enemy and began gradually to
sweep them out of the hall…” Hitler’s account of a meeting in a
beer hall in 1921.
Once Hitler took over, why did the Nazi Party
membership increase so rapidly?
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Hitler
“A new age was beginning; history was once more setting
the mighty wheel in motion and apportioning lots anew. We
had come to a turning point in world history … He saw
himself as chosen for superhuman tasks, as the prophet of
the rebirth of man in a new form…” Hermann Rauschning,
1939.
“The most seductive factor was Hitler’s messianic image.
For Germany found itself in an ideological and ethical
vacuum. We had lost our Emperor … The majority of the
population had no religious faith … for many, National
Socialism was a substitute religion which aroused a deep
enthusiasm and provided a new source of strength…” Isa
Vermehren.
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[German people were vulnerable to the collective selfdelusion that]” … a man would come, a leader, a Caesar,
a Messiah, and perform miracles … put an end to misery,
create new people, a glorious new Reich…” Ernst Toller,
1933, when his books were burnt.
What impression do you gain of Hitler from these
sources?
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Hitler the orator
“Hitler is not a man but a megaphone…” The Observer,
1930.
“The atmosphere of general enthusiasm into which the old
city has been plunged is amazing and quite indescribable:
the peculiar frenzy which has gripped hundreds of
thousands of men and women, the excitement and mystic
ecstasy which has overtaken them like a holy
rapture…they return home seduced and taken in, ready to
save the cause…” by the French Ambassador to
Germany, on Hitler at the Nuremberg Rally, 1937.
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“As time went on he became drunk with his own oratory
… and his voice lost its former character through the
intervention of microphone … In his early years he had a
command of voice, phrase and effect which has never
been equalled…” E Hanfstaegl, 1957.
What skill put Hitler apart from many other
politicians?
How do you think this helped the Nazis gain support?
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Hitler’s rise – an historian’s view
Read the historians’ opinions on why Hitler came to
power. Which do you most agree with and why?
Zevedei Barbu (social psychologist): “Hitler succeeded
not because of a conspiracy of the few but because his
movements gave high hope to the many of solving the
pressing psychological demands of a people living under
conditions of acute stress. Defeated by war and broken by
inflation, the … insecure Germans were attracted to
Nazism because they felt … their personal problems would
be solved…”
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Franz Neumann (economist): Neumann believed that
economics was the main cause. The industrialists and
Junker landlords (aristocrats) feared popular
government, and so conspired with the Nazis to prevent
genuine social democracy so they could continue making
vast profits.
A J P Taylor (British historian): “The political parties
were atomised and ineffective; the political leadership,
inexperienced and inept … they could have stopped the
‘Bohemian corporal’ if they had summoned the will to
resist. Instead they sought to accommodate him … he did
not seize power; it was handed to him.”
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William L Shirer: Shirer concludes that the Nazis came to
power because the movement was “...a logical continuation
of German history.” For centuries, leading German
intellectuals had proclaimed the mystique of racism,
endorsed the Leadership principle, glorified the power of the
State, scoffed at democracy and quashed individuality.
Many historians in this school use the following as
examples of this view: Luther in religion, Hegel and
Nietzsche in philosophy, Spengler in history and Wagner in
music. Basically, all humane and liberal tendencies had
been stifled out by ruthless efficiency and military
dominance.
It was the importance of German militarism and the long
history of anti-Semitism which led to the success of Hitler.
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The Beer Hall Putsch
In November 1923, with hyperinflation at its worst, Hitler
decided that the Nazis were strong enough to overthrow
the government. Stresemann had also just given in to the
French and ended the passive resistance campaign in the
Ruhr. Hitler felt sure that when he marched to Berlin,
people would flock to join him.
On 8th November, Hitler, backed up by 600 SA, broke into
a meeting being held by three leaders of the Bavarian
government in a Munich beer hall. Holding a gun to one of
the leaders’ heads, he forced him to tell the audience they
would help him with his plan. Then General Ludendorff, a
great German war hero, entered the hall and promised his
support. The audience were convinced.
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The next day, however, the three Bavarian leaders went
back on their word and ordered the army to attack the SA.
In the centre of Munich the two sides met. 16 Nazis were
killed, and Hitler escaped with a dislocated shoulder. He
and Ludendorff were arrested and charged with high
treason.
The Putsch had failed, was this the end for Hitler?
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Hitler imprisoned
Hitler’s trial lasted 24 days, and catapulted him onto the
front page of every German newspaper. Everything Hitler
said was reported in the paper. Finally, he was speaking to
a national audience.
Hitler’s eloquence in his defence so impressed the judges
that they set Ludendorff free and sentenced Hitler to five
years imprisonment, with the chance of parole after six
months. The other Nazis in the dock got off with equally
light sentences.
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Most of Hitler’s time in prison was spent writing Mein
Kampf (my struggle), in which he described his ideas
on history, politics, race and Germany’s future.
After serving only nine months of his sentence, Hitler was
set free. A police report said: “The moment he is set free,
Hitler will … become the driving force of new and serious
public riots…”
The punishment for high treason should be life
imprisonment. Why did Hitler get such a light
sentence?
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Why were ordinary Germans swayed?
Things had become so bad for the ordinary German, that
the hope offered in Hitler’s powerful speeches was
bound to sway them toward Nazism.
As a Social Democrat in the Ruhr mining community put
it: “They had four, five, even six years of unemployment
behind them – they would have hired on with Satan
himself…”
Workers were promised the prospect of mass
consumerism. They were to have what the people of the
West had.
Working-class girls and boys liked the freedom of the
Nazi Youth organizations.
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Unemployment and the growth of Nazism
8,000,000
7,000,000
6,000,000
Number of
Unemployed
Membership
of the Party
5,000,000
4,000,000
3,000,000
2,000,000
1,000,000
1932
1931
1930
1929
1928
1926
0
What link do you notice between unemployment and
membership of the Nazi Party? Give reasons for the
pattern.
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Why did the Nazis come to power?
Read the reasons given below and put them in order of
importance.
Hitler appointed
Germany
The Reichstag agreed
chancellor of Germany.
finished
to the “Enabling Law”.
Beer
paying
Nazi
The Great
Hall
reparations
Party
Nazis are
Depression –
to France.
grows. Putsch.
the largest
world trade
party in the Hitler wrote Reichstag
has collapsed. Reichstag.
dominated by
“Mein
Kampf”
while in
prison.
Kaiser
Wilhelm flees
Germany.
The
Reichstag
Fire.
France seizes
German
coalfields.
The Nazis used the
Jews as scapegoats for
Germany’s problems.
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power struggles,
with many small
political groups
vying for power.
Unemployment
worsens.
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The main points of the Nazi programme
1. The union of all Germans to form a Great Germany.
2. Equality of rights for the German people in its dealings
with other nations, and the abolition of the peace
treaties of Versailles and St Germain.
3. Extension of Germany’s territory for the nourishment of
the population.
4. None but those of German blood, whatever their creed,
may be members of Germany. No Jew, therefore, may
be a member of the nation.
5. Anyone who is not a citizen may live in Germany as a
guest, and is subject to the Alien laws.
…continued…
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6. The right of voting for leadership is to be enjoyed by
the citizens of the state alone.
7. The state shall make its first duty to promote industry.
8. All further non-German immigration must be
prevented.
9. All citizens of the state shall possess equal rights and
duties.
10. All citizens must work for the state.
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