Branden Beekman
Eng 132
Mrs. Greulich
What’s the Worst That Could Happen?
I can remember back in school learning all about Hitler and the Nazis. I can recall reading little excerpts underneath the pictures in my history book about the holocaust. For some reason that I am unaware of my mind was always drawn to Hitler and how he was able to seduce an entire nation. My history books never went into enough detail to exactly how Hitler gained his power. My books and teachers always talked about how charismatic Hitler was yet, never really mentioned what was happening in Germany at the end of World War One. I was taught that the Treaty of Versailles ended the war and that Germany had to pay reparations. I also recall reading that us as Americans were only concerned about joining the League of Nations and whether or not that was a good idea. We were never taught about how the treaty affected Germany. In some ways I almost felt like it was taboo to talk about Germany in a way that wasn’t in a bad light. Admittedly, this could stem from the knowledge of the holocaust before even learning about World War One. The older I got the more I wanted to learn about the Nazis and whether or not there were some warning signs that can keep another party like this from gaining power anywhere in the world.
As I researched this subject I expected to see anger about losing the war and having to pay reparations. What I found was an unfortunate set of circumstances that just happened to fall against Germany and in an act of desperation gave complete control to a tyrannical sociopath who believed that the Jewish people were sub-human and was not shy to scream it. My main belief is that the economic and political problems had a major impact on the Nazi’s rise to power because of the effects of the Treaty of Versailles, the impact of the Great Depression, and amongst this turmoil Hitler was able to persuade the masses to vote him into power. The scariest part about my research is that I found that some of the problems Germany faced then are happening now. With the upcoming elections, our economic recession, and mass unemployment many folks are ready for a change. We as a people need to really listen to who we vote for and not because they are a democrat or republican. First though, I will talk about some smaller factors first that set a background to how Germany felt towards the Jews as well as how the Germans thought they were doing as World War One ended on the battlefields.
I, like many, saw a Germany with slim to no anti-Semitic views. That they like us were a nondiscriminatory country and everyone got along great. In truth, according to Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's book "Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust" Germany has a long history of anti-Semitic views possibly dating back to the spread of Christianity.(1) He says that the anti-Semitic views weren’t written down anywhere because they were such a normal thing. Much like how we believe that every customer service representative is an Indian worker, even if they have an American accent. It was common knowledge to think that the Jews were out to get the real Germans. Whenever there was a problem the Jews were always to blame. This thought was extremely prevalent in the German soldiers’ minds as the fighting on the World War One battlefield stopped. According to the history books and sites the Russians were pulling out of the war but fresh American soldiers and supplies were coming in for the Allies. August 8th, 1918 a force of Australians broke the German lines. The German High Command panicked and in September the German army commander, Ludendorff, demanded that the German government ask for an armistice through the American government. (2) This confused and angered the Germans out on the front lines who believed that they were winning the war. They knew that Russia was backing off and they thought that they were actually gaining ground. The soldiers believed that they were stabbed in the back by the Marxists and the Jews. (3) And that there was a worldwide conspiracy that the Jews were planning to take over the world. No matter what caused it the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1918 and World War One was officially over yet, for the Germans the real problems were just beginning.
The Treaty of Versailles, to the Germans, was a disgrace and that it punished Germany unfairly. David Lloyd George of Britain, Georges Clemenceau of France and Woodrow Wilson of the US wrote the Treaty of Versailles and the views on what to do with Germany varied among the three. On one hand David Lloyd George wanted to be firm on Germany and make her pay for the war. However, he also believed that the spread of communism from Russia would be a greater risk than the defeated Germany. President Wilson, despite coming up with the League of Nations, wanted to be kept out of European affairs. He wanted Germany to be punished in a way that helped Europe reach reconciliation. Georges Clemenceau, though, wanted vengeance against Germany for destroying the top eastern corner of France. He didn’t want Germany to ever be able to fight a war again. This hatred would come into factor later on in my paper. They had to pay a total of six point six billion pounds to Britain, France, and the US. By signing the treaty Germany had to give land to France, Belgium, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. (See map on Page) Among the many clauses of the treaty there was one that really stuck with the Germans. That was the infamous guilt clause, which meant that Germany had to take all the blame for the war. This especially hurt the Germans because they didn’t believe they started the war. (4)
The Germans believed that they were dragged into the war by a series of treaties among other nations. It all started with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand of Austro-Hungary. The Austria-Hungarians believed that the Serbian government got a group called the Black Hand to kill him. Austria Hungary sent an ultimatum to Serbia to have the assassins brought to justice, which Serbia rejected. Serbia had a treaty with Russia the two of them declared war on Austria-Hungary. Austria-Hungary also had a treaty with Germany that said that if Austria-Hungary went to war then so did Germany. (7) So even though the whole situation started between Austria-Hungary and Serbia the Germans were forced to admit guilt and suffer the most of the consequences.
The problems with the Treaty of Versailles were a constant speaking point of all the political parties in Germany. The Weimar Republic was not working and neither were the German people. The Weimar Republic had a system of proportional voting which led to twenty-eight different parties in the Reichstag. (8) In times of crisis these political parties would flock to the extreme sides of the political spectrum. On the extreme left you had the Raterepublik, or the communist party, and on the extreme right there was the National Socialists German Workers Party, also known as the Nazis. (3) The Raterepublik had seven people in their top ranks and five of them were Jewish. So it was easy for the Nazis to associate communism with the Judenfrage, or Jewish problem. One of these times of crisis was when France invaded the Ruhr demanding reparation payments. Germany had lost some valuable economic areas from the Treaty of Versailles and Germany was in an economic slump and didn’t have any money. So what the French ended up doing was alienating the German people.
With France invading Germany, the government decided to just start printing money to pay for reparations with nothing to back it. Inflation skyrocketed as a result and things got worse for Germany. Emil Klein who is a former Nazi party member said that he can recall paying one billion reichmarks for some sausage and bread. (3) There was widespread hunger and poverty. Germany did see a little bit of economic relief when the Weimar Republic borrowed the money to pay for reparations from the US. This relief only lasted for a short period and was really a band-aid on a deep gash. In a couple of years that band-aid would come off and things would get worse for the German people.
In the 1928 election ninety-seven percent of Germany rejected the Nazis. A government report gathered right before the election states that “the Nazi party has no noticeable influences on the great masses of the public.” (3) In the next year that number would change. In the months before the Great Depression global agriculture prices dropped and left the country sides of Germany in poverty. So when the Depression actually hit Germany ended up being the worst hit country in the world. (3) The US called in their loans and unemployment grew to five point five million people by 1931. Just when things couldn’t get any worse the five major banks in Germany crashed and more than twenty thousand German businesses folded. The Great Depression had affected the middle class German families and now there were more people out of work which meant more people were listening to the extreme political parties that were calling for a change. Most people were voting for whatever party was speaking out against the Weimar Republic. This led to a huge jump in Nazi support; in 1932 the Nazis became the largest political party with thirty-seven percent of votes. Though he lost the election to President Hindenburg, less than a year later Hitler would be ruler.
Hitler’s rise to power took him from nothing to power in less than ten years. He was able to become dictator of Germany through democratic methods. He did have help from all the political and economical problems of the times. He took advantage of the chaos around and rose to power seemingly out of nowhere. When Hitler joined the Nazi party it was really just getting started. Hitler used his charisma to persuade the other party members to put him in control with his speeches about taking away citizen rights to Jews. Yet they were still one party amongst the many other parties that were out there. When France invaded the Ruhr demanding reparation payments Hitler convinced the other right wing parties to march on the left wing controlled Berlin.(3) Hitler believed that the police in Berlin would be on their side but found out wrong when they tried to take it over and a fire fight broke out and four policemen were killed. Hitler ended up spending nine months in jail. By the time he got out the Nazi party was all but irrelevant due to the minor economic relief from the US.
When the Great Depression hit both the Nazi and communist parties started to gain voters. When the unemployment numbers jumped more people were now willing to listen to any one that was speaking out against the Weimar Republic; even if that leader spoke of German-Jews being stripped of their citizenship and obvious dictatorship. Many people from both sides of the political spectrum would run into each other at the unemployment lines and fights would break out between them. Once the Nazi party started to grow Hitler went on a twenty cities in seven days campaign trail. The popularity of the Nazis grew so much that even towns that Hitler didn’t visit and didn’t have a Nazi headquarters still voted for the Nazi party.(3) Though Hitler lost to President Hindenburg in the 1932 elections he established himself as a credible leader. According to Jutta Rudiger, a former Nazi party member, “…with the depression and poverty caused by the mass unemployment…Hitler seemed to bring salvation.”(3) Business leaders also joined in with the Nazis because the Nazis promised discipline and order and businesses could strive under discipline and order. Johannes Zahn, an economist and banker since 1931, claims that “…at the early days you couldn’t tell if the National Socialism was a good thing with a few bad side effects or an evil thing with a few good side effects.” After the 1932 election, that Hitler lost, an aristocrat and former Chancellor named Franz von Papen struck a deal with President Hindenburg. Since he and the rest of the right wing parties needed Hitler’s mass followers and wanted to destroy the communist Hindenburg and von Papen offered Hitler the Vice-Chancellor position. Hitler refused and demanded to be Chancellor. (8) They agreed to this as long as von Papen would be Vice-Chancellor, thinking that he would be able to keep Hitler under control under the current laws. Apparently nobody realized that he would change these laws once he got into power. While the communists were unhappy with this development they figured that Hitler would fail eventually and then they would get a chance to run Germany. The Jews’ view is even sadder than that the general consensus was what the worst that could happen?
So Hitler became Chancellor and the world will never forget it. Although he got help from the poor economy and people desperate for change he was Chancellor none the less. The Treaty of Versailles created a stressed and tension filled atmosphere that no German liked. Then the hyperinflation and Great Depression forced people out of their jobs and more people became unemployed. This led to more people wanting a change from the democratic ways of government. Probably the most amazing thing about Hitler’s rise is that he didn’t just barge in and take control, although he did try, he actually went out and gained voters and supporters and rose to power the democratic way. He was silver tongued and took advantage of every opportunity he could. But when it came right down to it, big business leaders and poor judgment gave Hitler power.
Before the war:
(5)
After the War:
(6)
Bibliography
1. Daniel Jonah Goldhagen. "Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust". Alfred A. Knopf. New York. 1996
3. “The Nazis: A Warning from History", Laurence Rees, 1997, BBC, DVD
4. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/treaty_of_versailles.htm
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