Inquiry Question

Inquiry Question: Was it favourable circumstances or Hitler’s leadership abilities that led to his rise in prominence in the late 1920s?

I believe that is mostly Hitler’s leadership abilities that led to his rise in prominence. One of them being his charisma and oratorical skills. Charisma-what is defined as
“compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others.”
Contrary to beliefs, Hitler was actually an unsociable person, but he makes up for it in his determination reach his goals and ability to convince people to understand his views and support them, when he is determined to do something and intends to convince others to support his goals, his charismatic skills show. However, it is believed that he still lacked sociable skills and wouldn’t be as charismatic when it comes to personal interactions as when he is facing a large group. It helped that during his speeches, he would say out loud what people at the time were thinking secretly which made it seem as if he knows what he is talking about which made the people more believing in him

Then comes his oratorical skills. Joseph Goebbels , his loyal supporter, said in his book entitled, “ Bilder aus dem Leben des Führers” , which said of how Hitler is a speaker from the heart which is a unique trait and that it is what made many people support him. Joseph Goebbels then proceed to praise Hitler’s words in flowery details. This is one of the many proofs of how his skills in speaking is one of hist talents which nearly singlehandedly led to his rise to power

Reorganisation of The Nazi Party (Jun Wei)

At early November,1923,Hitler and his Nazi followers-that were still a small group at the time-attempted a coup in what became called the 'Beer Hall Putsch'. During those times, chaos was everywhere with fights,killing and attempted assassinations being common occurrences. Hitler saw it as an oppurtunity to grab political power and as well topple the German national government.Complications happened which led to Hitler's initially 8-years imprisonment in which he learned that in order to gain power, he must resort to manipulating the already existing political system instead of violence. After an early release, the Nazis began participating in elections which wasn't successful due winning only 3% of the votes.However, that changed within 10 years as Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany.He accomplished this through certain methods

Nazi propaganda

One of the methods were through Nazi propaganda. The person in charge was a man named Joseph Goebbels. He deliberately play on the people emotions, making them believe that the Nazis will lead Germany to a bright future.He gave them ideas that the Nazis are a strong party led by an infallible leader who would do things for the betterment of Germany and her people. he also added in many Nazi ideals that many Germans would agree on due to their hatred at the time. One example is the the subjugation of every other race, especially the Jews.Many German weren't fond of the Jews then, so Joseph Goebbels did everything he could to influence that anger into outright unadulterated hatred which led to the creation of 'concentration camps'

https://youtu.be/XU9Sz0Evp_g


The video explains how the Reorganization of The Nazi Party helped Hitler rised to power .

Exploitation of fears of communism (Muhd)

Exploitation of fears of communism

In order to spread fear about the aims of the communist,Hitler used propaganda such as giving speeches stating about the bad interest that the communist had. Hitler said that the communist would take away the rich people such as the landowners and leading industrailists’ property away and give them to the workers.However, Hiter was also stressed out about the possiblility on being the only political party that could provide order and prevent it from turning into a communist country like Russia. Due to that , the Nazi were supported financially by the rich people after hearing the consequences of having a communist country. People in Germany had fears after hearing that the government of the soviet union had taken away farmers’ land and personal properties. Hence, the Germans were living in fear under communism. As a result, Hitler made a promise to his country to help the Germans that were afraid of communism if the right decision was made.After he was released from jail, he began a rapid and solid reorganization of the Nazi party. The Nazis started off as a small-right wing party, he then build up a parliamentary group to defend his meeting and attack other parties

Weakness of the weimar government 

Weakness of the weimar government 

There are three main reasons that caused the weakness of the Weimar government. Proportional Constitution, Weak Support and the opposition from the left and the right.

Proportional Constitution

Proportional Representation 

The proportional representation caused many problems for the weimar government as people voted for a party rather than candidates. There were too many parties competing without any of the party being exceptionally popular.

Source from ......

The above shows a picture of the various parties vote count. It shows various parties participating instead of candidates.The votes above shows that there are no parties that are exceptionally popular.

Coalition Government

The coalition government is when all the parties came together to form a government. Parties had a lot of disagreement as they had different ideas and there are many times where they could not come up with a conclusion of whose idea to use.The coalition government kept breaking apart making it difficult for the government to establish laws .By the end of 1933 there were 20 different coalition government .Hence,the government was seen as weak to the germans.

Photos of some of the parties in the government - KPD party , SDP party 

Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution

This allowed the president to dissolve both houses of the parliament and rule by decree in time of emergencies.At that time what was counted as a emergency was not defined clearly.This was exploited by Hitler to remain in power.Article 48 was used by President Paul in 1930 to deal with the economice crisis of the time.

Article 48

In the event of a State not fulfilling the duties imposed upon it by the Reich Constitution or by the laws of the Reich, the President of the Reich may make use of the armed forces to compel it to do so.If public security and order are seriously disturbed or endangered within the German Reich, the President of the Reich may take measures necessary for their restoration, intervening if need be with the assistance of the armed forces. For this purpose he may suspend for a while, in whole or in part, the fundamental rights provided in Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124 and 153.The President of the Reich must inform the Reichstag without delay of all measures taken in accordance with Paragraphs 1 or 2 of this Article. These measures are to be revoked on the demand of the Reichstag.If danger is imminent, a State government may, for its own territory, take temporary measures as provided in Paragraph 2. These measures are to be revoked on the demand of the President of the Reich or of the Reichstag.Details are to be determined by a law of the Reich.

The above text is an extract of Article 48 of how article 48 is being used and the rules.

Weak Support

The Weimar Government lacked support from the people, politicians and soldiers. The government lacked support as the people wished for Kaiser's return. Big businesses were mostly under the support of Kaiser hence it was difficult for the government to gain the germans support and loyalty. Without their support , the government struggled to hold on to power and authority and remained weak.The government was also weak from the start.

The above shows a picture of the military opposing the government. Image from......

Opposition from the left and right

Both left and right extremists tried to seize power by violent ways.

Left-wing opposition

The left wing opposition wanted more equality in the society and they opposed to democracy.Those who believed in left wing politics were mainly communist. They believed that money, land and power should be shared out equally amongst everybody, and that there shouldn’t really be anyone in charge that people should all work together to run the country.In January 1919,there was a Spartacist rebellion in Berlin.The President Erbert made an agreement with the army and the Freikorps to put down the rebellion.And in the 1920 the army, police and friekorps ruthlessly crushed the communist rebellion in the ruhr.

Right-wing opposition

The right wing opposition tend to believe in very traditional customs and attitudes and were also of the opinion that their country was superior to everyone else. These people were furious with the Weimar Republic for having surrendered in the First World War, and wanted to return to the days of a German Empire being run by a Kaiser. They felt they had been stabbed in the back by weak ‘left’ supporters and communists.They felt that Germany should not be solely responsible for WW1 and disagreed with the Treaty of Versailles.

- Text from ......

The above source shows a picture of the parts if its left or right opposition. Image from ......

Great Depression (Hai Swee)

Germany's Great Depression in 1929

Background information of the great depression:The great depression was a long and extensive economic crisis which affected most of the developed nations then in early and mid 1930s.

What caused the great depression?:The great depression was triggered by a stock market crash in New York City in 1929 and soon it spread towards other countries and crippling the economies of other countries from around the world.The great depression was particularly severe on for Germany as it enjoy artificial prosperity as it had loan from the USA. With the lack of funds to pay for economic development, many factories and industries shut down and many businesses were declared bankrupt and the rate of unemployment increased.

Children seen playing with worthless bank notes in Germany.
sourced from:http://differentlensesofthegreatdepression.weebly.com/germany1.html

Paul warburg,a banker,issued a warning that unrestrained speculation were to spread too far,the ultimate collapse would bring a great depression involving the entire country.

However,people disregarded Paul's words and thought he was a party pooper and said that everything was going to be fine.

On the 24th day of October 1929, "black Thursday" was the beginning of the stock market crash. Thomas Lamont,a banker,had a emergency meeting with the other top bankers in the city including the vice-president of the stock market to figure out what they could do to support the plunging stock market.They had a plan where they put together $250 million dollars to support a key list of stocks and it worked,stocks started going up again and people thought that the worst was over.

sourced from;https://www.pinterest.com/pin/80994493268857171/

The whole world was hit hard by the economic crisis but Germany suffered the most from it as Germany mainly relied their economy by loans and investments from the USA.Within a night,all the rich people from Germany became poor.Millions of people became homeless,starvation starts to set in and eventually death as USA demanded that Germany is to return the loans that they had borrowed under the Dawes Plan and Young Plan.

Unemployment in Germany during the great depression
sourced from: http://theweek.com/articles/442096/chilling-irony-german-austerity

 In 1932, about 5 million Germans were unemployed. Many blamed the Weimar Republic. The dire conditions of the 1930s great depression caused many German voters to abandon mainstream political parties and look for more radical parities such as Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party as they were the only ones left whom the Germans had high hopes that they would make Germany strong again and also Hitler made promises to the Germans that he would do his best to end the unemployment. 

Germans did not have trust in the Weimer goverment and choose more radical parties like the Nazi Party
sourced from: https://www.pinterest.com/WHShistory/aspects-of-life-in-nazi-germany/

Reference from:http://alphahistory.com/nazigermany/the-great-depression/