On November 18th of 1918, Germany, a member of the Central Powers, surrendered unconditionally to the allies. World War I had ended with a total of 37 million casualties, including 9 million dead combatants. German propaganda had not prepared that nation for defeat, and its suddenness resulted in a sense of injured German national pride. Following the defeat of Germany in World War I and in the midst of a great worldwide depression, both the social and political climates were prime for a dictator such as Adolf Hitler to rise to power. A year later, in June of 1919, the leaders of the Allies met at the Palace of Versailles to decide on the peace settlement after World War I. The treaty, which was a compromise of ideas from George Clemanceau, Prime minister of France, David Lloyd George, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Vittorio Orlando, the Prime minister of Italy, and Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States. According to the terms of the peace agreement, Germany was forced to reduce its army to 100,000 men, reduce the navy to 6 warships and was not allowed to have any submarines, destroy all of its air force and give land to Belgium, France, Denmark and Poland. This was not all, however.
The allies concluded the Germany must be forced to “pay” for it’s mistakes against the rest of the world, so it was also forced to hand over all of it’s colonies, agree to pay reparations to the Allies for all of the damage caused by the war, a sum totaling over 6 and a half billion marks, and to accept all blame for the war in the ‘War Guilt Clause’. To Germany, the Treaty of Versailles seemed as if the Allies dictated it purely on revenge. In such a war-ravaged country, it seemed impossible for the government to pay back this incredible amount of money. Although economists at the time declared that such a huge sum could never be collected without upsetting international finances, the Allies insisted that Germany be compelled to pay, and the treaty permitted the Allies to take punitive actions if Germany were to fall behind on its payments. Many Germans did not believe that the German army had actually been defeated in 1918 because Germany had not been invaded. Many Germans, including a young Adolf Hitler, came to believe that the army had been “stabbed in the back” by the “November Criminals”, the politicians who had signed the armistice which had brought the Great War to an end on the 11th of November in 1918.
The Essay on War Allies German Africa
For this assignment I was given the task of researching and giving a short presentation regarding the role of the United States in Europe after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, which took place in December 1941. Upon first pondering the subject to which I was assigned, I could not recall anything off the top of my head regarding this subject, so I immediately turned to my old U. S. History book to ...
Also, Germany felt that it had been made a scapegoat by the other countries involved in the war. After all, didn’t the war start when a Serbian assassinated an Austrian ruler? In any case, the German people were getting more and more restless with their government. The reparation costs were incredibly high, and Germany felt no obligation to pay them because in their minds the Allies had betrayed them, forced them to sign the treaty once they could not continue fighting. When the subsequent peace-treaty did not reflect United States President Woodrow Wilson’s lenient 14 points, the myth arose that Germany had not been defeated in honest battle but by dishonest deceit. By 1920, the economy of Germany was rapidly crumbling to an all-time low. As far as natural resources, Germany was only producing three-fourths of it’s possible coal production and only one-half of it’s steel. Both small and large farms alike began to declare bankruptcy due to the lack of animals available, causing a lack of fertilizer and then, bad crops of food. Between 1913 and 1919 the national debt rose from five to 154 billion gold marks, while paper money in circulation increased from two to 45 billion.
“On the occupation of the Rhur in January 1923, it fell to 18,000 to the dollar; by July 1, it had dropped to 160,000; by August 1, to a million. By November, when Hitler thought his hour had struck, it took 4 billion marks to buy a dollar, and therefore the figures became trillions.” (Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany) At five billion marks, interest on the national debt was larger than the budget had been in 1913. As the gap between receipts and expenditures continued to grow in 1919, the policy of reckless borrowing, inflation, and currency devaluation continued as well. “In reality, the postwar years were almost as bad as the war itself, as far as living conditions for civilians went. People in towns lived on starvation ratios, although country people usually had eggs and butter, bread and meat for which they charged high prices.” (Grey, Ronald. Hitler and the Germans) Between 1922 and 1923, hyperinflation set in. The value of the German mark fell from $600 per mark to $.01 per mark. “By 1923, wages were paid in millions of marks, and it was necessary to pay millions for quite ordinary things.” (Grey, Ronald.
The Essay on Nazi Party Hitler German Germany
In a time of peace and prosperity one of the most brutal organisations ever known to man was formed. An organisation made up of murders, the ives, and rapists. The organization we " ve come to know as the "Nazis." On January 2, 1919, two men by the names of Karl Harder and Anton Drexler founded a group called the "German Workers' Party." It started out as nothing more than a few blue collar ...
Hitler and the Germans) The government had betrayed its people once again and lost what little trust and faith the middle class had in the democratic system. The far left and the far right would always oppose the Weimar Republic for this, and when the worldwide depression hit in 1930, the middle classes, with nothing left to fall back on, would join them. As one economic philosopher stated, “What good where the standards and practices of such a society, which encouraged savings and investment and solemnly promised a safe return from them and then defaulted? Was this not a fraud upon the people?” (Shirer, William.”The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”) Consequently, following the strong economic unrest at that time in Germany, political unrest quickly followed. In Berlin and Munich, left-wing Communist groups proclaimed Russian-like revolutions, only to meet violent opposition from right-wing nationalist Freikorps along with regular Army troops. Both Communists and National Socialists argued that democracy had fatal weaknesses, and that a dictatorship was necessary. Although they agreed on this, they were bitter enemies, with rival armies of citizen volunteers who often engaged in street fights.
Violence regarding social and political unrest eventually prevailed and it led to Communists, Socialists and even innocent bystanders being called to appear and murdered in January, 1919, in Berlin, and in May in Munich. In early January of 1919, approximately six months prior to the signing of the peace treaties at Versailles, a small political party called the German Workers Party was formed. This anti-Semitic, high German nationalism party was led by Anton Drexler. As stated by Hitler the party was, “This absurd little organization with its few members seemed to me to possess the one advantage that it had not frozen into an ‘organization,’ but left the individual opportunity for real personal activity. Here it was still possible to work, and the smaller the movement, the more readily it could be put into the proper form. Here, the content, the goal, and the road could still be determined…” (Hitler, Adolf. Mien Kampf) On 12th September, 1919 Adolf Hitler became a member of this Party, and at the first public meeting held in Munich, February 24th of 1920, he announced the Party’s program. That program, which remained unaltered until the Party was dissolved in 1945, consisted of 25 points, including these five which where the basic standings on which the German Worker’s Party was based: “Point 1.
The Term Paper on Did The German People Benefit From Nazi Rule In The 1930's?
... all parties other than the Nazi party making Hitler a dictator. A benefit to the German people was the fact that Germany would become more stable ... camp, this left the German people with no defence against anything Hitler did. Once Hitler had established his totalitarian dictatorship, Germany was fairly safe from ...
We demand the unification of all Germans in the Greater Germany, on the basis of the right of self-determination of peoples. Point 2. We demand equality of rights for the German People in respect to the other nations; abrogation of the peace treaties of Versailles and Saint Germain. Point 3. We demand land and territory for the sustenance of our people, and the colonization of our surplus population. Point 4. Only a member of the race can be a citizen. A member of the race can only be one who is of German blood, without consideration of creed. Consequently no Jew can be a member of the race…. Point 22. We demand abolition of the mercenary troops and formation of a national army.” Of these goals, the one that seems to most pertinent to the party was the removal of the “disgrace” of the Armistice, and the restrictions of the peace treaties of Versailles and Saint Germain. In a speech in Munich, Hitler stated, “The Treaty was made in order to bring 20 million Germans to their deaths, and to ruin the German Nation.” As stated by a critic, “He had always promised to remove the humiliations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, and the rearmament programme was essential for that”.
The Essay on Hitler German Germany Austria
Adolf Hitler HITLER, Adolf (1889-1945). The rise of Adolf Hitler to the position of dictator of Germany is the story of a frenzied ambition that plunged the world into the worst war in history. Only an army corporal in World War I, Hitler became Germany's chancellor 15 years later. He was born on April 20, 1889, in Braunau-am-Inn, Austria, of German descent. His father Alois was the illegitimate ...
(Grey, Ronald. Hitler and the Germans) In 1923, Hitler’s attempt at an armed overthrow known as the Beer Hall Putsch failed miserably. Subsequently, he was convicted on charges of high treason, and jailed. While in jail, Hitler wrote “Mien Kampf”, or “My Struggle”, which detailed his plan for Germany’s future Third Reich. In “Mien Kampf”, Hitler divides humans into categories based on physical appearance, establishing higher and lower groups, or types of humans. At the top, according to Hitler, is the Northern-European man with his fair skin, blond hair and blue eyes, also known as an Aryan. He asserts the Aryan is the master race. And so, if there is a supreme form of human, then there must be others less than supreme, called the ‘Untermenschen’, or racially inferior. Hitler assigns this position to Jews and the Slavic peoples, notably the Czechoslovakians, the Polish, and the Russians. Hitler, however, made it clear that it was the Jews who are engaged in a conspiracy to keep this master race from assuming its rightful position as rulers of the world. He claimed that the Jews were ruining the races’ racial and cultural purity and even inventing forms of government in which the Aryan comes to believe in equality and fails to recognize his racial superiority.
This conspiracy idea would become widespread beliefs in Nazi Germany and would even be taught to schoolchildren. This, combined with Hitler’s racial attitude toward the Jews, would be shared to by millions of Germans, so that they either remained silent or actively participated in the Nazi effort to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Germany, and eventually Europe. The propaganda of the German Worker’s Party was easy to accept, as it not only offered hope in the form of new jobs for workers and the cessation of the Treaty of Versailles, but it allowed for many scapegoats in which the German people could blame the economic depression and political unrest on. The German people looked onto Hitler as a sort of savior. Hitler’s expertise in propaganda helped him to come to power because no matter how evil his methods were, he controlled the information that the general public received. Hitler was able to convince the public that everything he was doing was to save Germany from the people who wanted to destroy her. In the public’s eye he was a hero. These factors along with his unbendable will allowed Adolf Hitler to eventually take control of every aspect of life in Germany.
The Term Paper on Adolf Hitler Germany Jews German
... nation such as Germany. Historians believe that Hitler saw a great opportunity to get his views across to the German people who had lost ... that were considered enemies. Teachers had to belong to the Nazi party, and children were taught that Jews were the very ... the forefront of Germany. While spending time in prison for trying to overthrow the government Adolf Hitler wrote his famous book "Mein Kampf', ...
His dispensing of decrees was so fast after he took office that no one was able to react or retaliate until it was much too late. As stated by Goethe, “I have often felt a bitter sorrow at the thought of the German people, which is so estimable in the individual and so wretched in the generality.” (Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany) Hitler created an agenda of what he wanted accomplished and nothing could stand in his way of attaining his goals. He would lie to make allies, intimidate to get his way, and then smooth it all over to the public through his propaganda and oratory abilities. “Both Goebbels and Hitler had understood how to unleash mass instincts at their meetings, how to play on the passions that underlay the veneer of ordinary respectable life.” (Speer, Albert. Inside the Third Reich) Because of this, the popularity of the party only rose in the Reichstag from 12 members in 1928, to 107 members in 1930, to over 230 members in 1932. Hitler also had the support of Alfred Hugenberg, a millionaire who owned 53 newspapers, all of which backed Hitler. The general election in Germany took place on March 5th of 1933.
The Nazis won 288 seats, which was not a majority, but 52 Nationalists supported them. At the first meeting, the 81 Communists stayed away. Hitler could now do as he liked. The Enabling Act was immediately passed, which made Hitler dictator of Germany for four years, causing him to crush all opposition to him in Germany. All trade unions were abolished and all political parties banned, except for the Nazis. In November 1933 in another general election, in which only Nazi candidates were allowed, 92% of the people supported the Nazis. It was often thought that Hitler’s abrasive personality and cruel ideas where simply a bi-product of the benefits the German people were sure to receive as a result of his coming to power. In fact, it was stated that, ” In the early days after 30 January 1933 many Germans were ready to believe that the brutality of the Nazi’s was only a minor fault, which Hitler would correct.” (Grey, Ronald. Hitler and the Germans).
The Essay on Propaganda and Terror wwere equally important for enabaling Hitler and the Nazis to keep control over Germany
Propaganda and terror were equally important for enabling Hitler and the nazis to keep control over Germany. How far do you agree? I this essay I will explore the merits of both methods in keeping control and analyse the arguments for the different cases associated with the statement before concluding with my own personal opinion. There are some who believe terror was more important than the use ...
However, as modern history knows, the correction was never made, and Hitler rose to power, showing that democracy can easily be destroyed by using the weaknesses of the people, and someone’s own ability to say the right things.
Bibliography:
Gray, Ronald. Hitler and the Germans. Lerner Publishing Company, Minneapolis, Minn. 1983 This book is a relatively easy book to read and understand. It’s separated into sections, which are then divided into sub-categories, with easy to understand titles. The information is good, but basically somewhat elementary, as it doesn’t go deeply enough into each of the sections, I thought. Speer, Albert. Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs. Macmillan Publishing Company, New York. 1981 This book was an extremely challenging book, although a very good source. It’s incredibly detailed, with many pictures and quotes from ‘Mein Kampf’ and his speeches to the German people. It’s divided into chapters, and has a long introduction. Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. Simon & Shuster, Inc. New York, 1959 This book was incredibly long and cumbersome, although it had excellent information. It was detailed, with many footnotes and personal accounts, which made it more interesting to the reader. It’s divided into 6 books, each with chapters. Hitler, Adolf. Mein Kampf This book was the most horrible and scariest pieces of literature I have ever read.
Hitler’s thoughts are well organized; however, they harbor cruel and hateful ideals for the motherland, Germany. It gave me great insight into Hitler’s mind, and what he did to help the Third Reich rise to power. Weinberg, Gerard L. A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II Cambridge University Press, New York, 1994 This book was a good source, although it had more military information then political. However, it still gave me much information involving the conditions in Germany prior to World War II, and Hitler’s rise to power after the Weimer Republic. One thing I especially liked about this book was the fact that it did not just focus on Germany; it explained what was occurring across the world during the same time. Heiden, Konrad Der Fuehrer: Hitler’s Rise to Power The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1944. (Translated by Ralph Manheim) Although this book contained good information, or so it seemed, it was somewhat difficult to follow as it was originally written in German, and I had some trouble with the translation. Sax, Benjamin and Kuntz, Dieter Inside Hitler’s Germany – A Documentary History of Life in the Third Reich. D.C. Heath and Company, Boston, Mass. 1992 This book had good information, although it was somewhat ambiguous at times. The detail in certain sections was minimal, and I did not find any useful quotes in it. It gave me more a basic background of what occurred during the time period, instead of the specifics I was essentially looking for. Spievogel, Jackson, Hitler and Nazi Germany – Third Edition. Prentice Hall, Inc. Newark, NJ. 1988. I actually enjoyed this book, more then I expected to. It was more of a story then a history type book. It gave me good background information which I found useful. It also had some great pictures, which gave me a good sense of what was occuring at that time in Germany.
