Dictatorship and Democracy (graded)
Analyze Adolph Hitler's rise to power and the policies he used to rule Germany. Textbook tyrant? Overheated
... [Show More] Nationalist? Or the right man for at the right time for the right job?
Responses
Response
Hitler's Rise to Power
Class,
I really think that last week's discussion laid an excellent ground work for what we'll be discussing this week. Therefore, let's start with the second part of the above prompt.
How did Hitler become dictator? What social, economic, and political realities existed in Germany that allowed his rise to power to happen?
RE: Hitler's Rise to Power Professor,
Adolf Hitler rose to power in German politics as leader of the Nazi Party (Biography.com). After that became the chancellor of the German republic of Germany. Hitler started to made promises to the Germans to gain their vote. “A decisive percentage had been prepared by their recent experience to follow someone who, if nothing else, promised to destroy the existing order of things” (Brower, 2013). Some of the realities that existed in Germany were a big economic depression that had hit the country hard, and a big percent of people were out of work and lack of confidence in the current government.
RE: Hitler's Rise to Power
Beatriz and all,
Hitler's rise to power can definitely be traced back to WWI and the failure of the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler himself fought during the full four•year conflict and held much resentment toward Germany's political leadership that ended the war without a Austro•German victory.
Last week we discussed how the Versailles treaty and WWI left Germany with absurd inflation (people actually burned money for heat since it was worth more in the fire than at a store!), depression, humiliating military restrictions, and great loss of territory.
What did Hitler offer to the German people who were dealing with these problems?
RE:
Hitler's Rise to Power
One of the key positions Hitler held up to the Germans that appealed to his nationalistic rhetoric was the scapegoating of specific people. In his case, anyone not of "pure Aryan race", and more specifically, the Jewish population. He was also shaped by his experience on the front lines of WWI, and he, as did Italy's Benito Mussolini, felt he was the rightful leader of his new nation. Both Mussolini and Hitler believed, as stated in text, "denounced the alleged decadence that democracy and modern life had spread among their people. They blamed toleration of diversity and individualism for these ills. Both scorned human rights and glorified national solidarity and combat. In mass democracies, they turned the liberties guaranteed citizens into the means to create political dictatorship" (Brower 2013, p.128).
Hitler used the ethnic diversity of Europe as a means to stoke hatred against those who he felt had wronged Germany. He wrote about the how Jews had profited from the war in his book Mein Kamph, and equated the Bolsheviks and Social Democrats with the perceived "Jewish threat" to Germany.
RE:
Hitler's Rise to Power
Professor Ohara 9/14/2016 2:55:09 PM
Ivan, [Show Less]