When Did Hitler Become Chancellor?
Question
Task: Provide a detailed report on when did Hitler become chancellor.
Answer
The article “when did Hitler become chancellor” would be extremely helpful for the readers who are seeking political clarity. Adolf Hitler was appointed as the chancellor of Germany as per the invitation of President Hindenburg on the 30th January 1933. Though the emergence of Hitler was perceived as an incident of surprise and astonishment, the other section of the community considered it as one of the inevitable events. It was being perceived by the majority of the public and political experts that he rose to political excellence because of the Nazi tactics and excellent political strategies. There is also a political division that considers the major role behind the emergence of Hitler, which was the weakness of the Weimar republic setup. Since the citizens of Germany have witnessed extreme poverty and unemployment, they were ready to accept a strong dictator who could better their situation (Bartoletti, 2016).
Scholars have listed down many factors that had led to the emergence of Hitler as a chancellor and the same has been explored further in this article on “when did Hitler become chancellor”. The best milestone in the political career of Adolf Hitler was the Munich Putsch. The initial growth of the Nazi group in Germany was witnessed in the period 1919 to 1923, though they failed to gather huge support from the common public (Mitcham, 1996). The regions like Bavaria had displayed humungous support to Hitler and his Nazi party; it turned out useless in the public elections. It is in 1923 that Hitler decided to seize power by using his Nazi army. Hitler believed in defeating the Weimar Republic Government and its force, though he retained only three thousand soldiers. The move turned out to be a blunder, and the Nazi army was defeated by the government on 9th November 1923 (Turner, 1997). It was considered to be a huge loss for the Nazi army at that time. However, many historians claim that the event of Putsch thought was a failure, and it gave Hitler an image in the national frame. The incident had made Hitler famous among the nation. Hence this incident turned out to be one of the crucial events for the emergence of Hitler and his Nazi army. Hitler was subjected to judicial trial after the defeat in Munich Putsch. Even though he was ruled for the punishment of five years of punishment, he was released even before nine months were completed. He had to face a lot of challenges after the incident of the Munich Putsch. Even he had opined in one of his speeches that the incident of Munich Putsch was positive for the Nazi army since they were not ready to face the challenges at that time (Rauschning, 1939). The same incident has helped Hitler in presenting the concept of National Socialism all over the country. His visions and thought process regarding it are well described in his autobiography Mein Kampf.
It was being revealed to Hitler by the incident of Munich Putsch that the authority and power could only be retained by legal means. It is by this realization that the future advancement of the Nazi party was designed by him. As a part of it, he had totally reorganized the party so that it could achieve good success in the public elections. The party continuously tried to win the favour of working classes and conducted frequent public meetings in the 1920s (Rogge, 1961). It was realized by the party that the major way to sway the working class towards them was to use anti-Semitism propaganda. We have observed in this article on “When did Hitler become chancellor” that, It was by this concept that the leaders of the Nazi party brainwashed the common public into changing their opinion and political preferences. The anti-Semitism propaganda was circulated all over the nation via the communication medium like newspapers, posters, films, radios, etc. It was believed by Hitler that posters made a higher impact on the public as compared to other tools in media. The poster was considered one of the most efficient tools because they were very easy to be circulated, convenient to multiply, and very cheap in production (Jäckh, 1943). Though the Nazi party had created a sudden influence over the working class, he found it difficult to influence the middle class towards his ideology. It was realized by him that it would not be a practical approach to influence the middle class by just presenting the anti-Semitism concept. To amass the support of the middle class, Hitler decided to take an anti-governmental stance. The middle class started to sway towards the ideology of the Nazi party by viewing critical posters against the Dawes Plan and Gustav Stresemann. It was being opined in the posters that they are staking the citizens of Germany against the evil intentions of Jewish bankers (Heilbronner, 2004). To evoke the same feeling all over the nation, the party had conducted multiple public meetings. Very effective propaganda was thus circulated by the Nazi party all over Germany.
Though the incident of Wall street Clash in October 1929 is considered to be one of the darkest phases of America and the world economy, the same was considered as a humungous opportunity and gift by the Nazi party of Germany (Fay, 1933). The incident had forced the contemporary German government to pay back the humungous loan that has been taken by the USA. It was the aftereffect of the Dawes Plan, and the same had created a disastrous financial impact on the whole nation. The various section of the German society was being impacted differently by the incident of Wall Street clash. The situation was even compared to the instance of Germany being defeated in the world war. Even the huge companies were affected by this instance, and the unemployment level hiked to a new height. Every citizen of Germany was hoping that the Weimar Republic government would come to the rescue with some innovative policies. The life of the German citizens was at stake since around six million people were unemployed at that time. The Weimar Government was totally clueless on how to deal with the current condition of high poverty and unemployment. Though the government was not facing a financial disaster for the first time, it was humungous in magnitude. The government had refrained from increasing the expenditure and circulating more money since they have borne the burnt from the Hyperinflation of 1923 (Haltom, 1944)The government had decided to reduce the subsidy, unemployment compensation, and increase the taxes. The approach was being countered by strong criticism on behalf of the German population. By the study conducted under this article on “when did Hitler become chancellor” Weimar government turned out to be a huge failure in facing instances of financial disasters. The country had not even risen from the disastrous impact created by the defeat in World War I in 1919. A huge chunk of land was deducted from the country as war compensation, and the government was forced to reduce the military power by 100,000. The move has even unemployed the soldiers who had actively contributed to World War 1. The anger against the Weimar constitution was emerging amongst the public since they had shown no interest in avenging the defeat faced in the first world war. The position of Reichstag was weakened in the German political system since the President, States, and associated army was given higher power by the Weimar Republic. The lower division of the German society, which was not even interested in politics started to observe each occurrence and dynamics keenly and was highly eager to contribute a change in the nation. The promise of engaging the common public in national development activities was offered by the Nazi party to reduce the rate of unemployment. There was a clear plan strategized by Hitler to appeal to various sections of the society. The concepts like Right to work, cancelling the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, Making Germany great again, etc. attracted a large mass of population towards it (Kershaw, 2001). Apart from just making alliances with Herman Goring and Ernst Rohm, Hitler organized a large army to suppress the higher level of criticism against the opposition. The communists were dealt with a high handed army by the brown shirts of Hitler. The move was not only helpful in suppressing the opposition but also amassing huge support from the public.
Hitler has utilized the maximum of his political and leadership skills to amass a higher level of support from the German citizens. He has proven his ability in presenting public speeches, and through them, he had effectively conveyed the intended ideology to huge masses. He made reference to the excellence that prevailed under the rule of Kaiser, which swayed the opinion of the public. The WEIMAR Republic was not even a comparison for the strong and vibrant personality of Hitler and his Subordinates. The same factor had displayed a huge impact on the result of the election conducted in the year 1930. It was by scoring the total of 107 seats in Reichstag that the Nazis had made history in German politics. The basic reason behind the success of the Nazi party is one of the crucial factors to be analyzed. The major part of the Nazi party consisted of ex-military officials of the Nazi party, who strongly criticized the signing of the Treaty of Versailles by the government. They perceived it as a stab in the back and wanted to avenge this huge dishonour and treachery. The members of the Nazi party displayed a high level of obedience and teamwork, which made it easy for Hitler to imply its effectiveness on the whole nation. The major right hand of Hitler, Joseph Goebbels also played a high role in the success of the Nazi party and circulating its propaganda (Turner, 1969). Though he was not as efficient as Hitler, he displayed high ability in circulating the message among the party members and organizing official gatherings. It was his idea to display derogatory posters among the public to create hatred against the Jews community and communists.
The people belonging to the upper class of the society like rich industrialists declared high support to Hitler and the Nazi party. The votes of these elite clubs initially belonged to the political group of the conservative party, which was deviated towards the Nazi party from the year 1930 (von Schleicher, 1933). The political parties with right-wing ideology decided to corporate with Hitler and provided backup in legislative elections. Hitler decided to convert that support as the financial backup for his advancements. To assimilate the support from more such groups, he decided to include much flexibility in the structure of the Nazi party (Gellately, 2002). The approach of Hitler was not only to utilize the support from various groups but also to utilize the maximum output from the weaknesses of the opposition (Orbach, 2016). The power and talent of the Nazis were underestimated by the Social Democrats. The social democrats thought that the constant support from the public towards them could not be hindered and the same was observed in this article on when did Hitler become chancellor.
The loopholes in the structure of the Weimar Constitution was revealed before the public by the year 1932, and the same is discussed in this article on when did Hitler become chancellor. The signing of the Treaty of Versailles had created a negative sway among the public against the Weimar constitution. The major section of the society which displayed large criticism against the stance of the German government consisted of majorly Ex-soldier. The large sum of war reparation imposed on them had intensely affected the daily life of German citizens. It was the primary reason why most of the public chose to accept the ideology of extreme political groups. It was by President Hindenburg, an 84-year-old man that Germany was initially ruled by. The contemporary political parties were unable to handle the challenging situation of Germany at that time. The Nazi party was the only option before the population that provided a ray of hope for the future. It was president Hindenburg who placed himself as the only hindrance before Hitler to the path of power. Not only Hitler was despised by him, but also he had some skirmishes with the members of the Reichstag. It was by securing 37.3 % of the whole votes that the Nazi party secured its emergence by winning 230 seats. Hindenburg refused to hand over the power of chancellor to Hitler since he believed that he is a very intolerant and unorganized person and endowing him with so much power would be very disastrous. Many people from the elite section of the society like industrialists tried to persuade the opinion of Hindenburg towards Hitler. Though there was huge criticism from the society, Hindenburg decided to appoint Franz con Papen as the chancellor of Germany. There was no proper support for Von Papen, though he hoped to gain some sort of back up from the right-wing party leaders. The expectation of Von Papen had all gone in vain since Hitler was annoyed by the decision to appoint Papen as chancellor (Breitman, 1999). The condition encouraged Hindenburg to call out for another election. The move turned out to be a disaster for the Nazi party since they were going through a financial crisis. The political scenario had drastically changed when Genera von Schleicher had decided to place himself as the candidate for chancellor rather than supporting Franz von Papen. It was in 1932 that Von Schleicher had been appointed as the Prussian chancellor. Hence there emerged new political strife between Schleicher and Papen. In the later stage, the failure was accepted by Schleicher, but he demanded Hitler to be appointed as the chancellor rather than the Von Papen. He put forward the concept that the strength of the Nazi party was very weak in the parliament; the aggressive policies of Hitler could easily be resisted. It is by this specific suggestion that Von Papen was appointed as vice-chancellor, and Hitler was appointed as Chancellor by President Hindenburg. It was believed that the actions of Hitler could be easily brought under control (Uhl, 2006).
It could be hence concluded in this article of when did Hitler become chancellor, that the major factor behind the emergence of Hitler was the strife between General von Schleicher and Franz von Papen. Though Von Papen displayed a high hand in this competition, the overall circumstances have favoured the political emergence of Hitler (Tobias, 1963). The heavy presence of Nationalism and extremism among the German population has favoured when did Hitler become chancellor. The same extreme and inorganized approach of Hitler had hindered the president Hindenburg from appointing Hitler as chancellor. The condition of Hitler was not robust at that time since the Nazi party was not formed, and even being chancellor of Germany would be a distant dream. The ideology of communism was also rising among the public at that period, and the conservative votes had also started to move on. Hitler would not have emerged as the chancellor if there was no political strife between Von Papen and von Schleicher. It was the financial ability of the country which later turned out to be the backbone of the Nazi party. We hope that this article on when did Hitler become chancellor was quite helpful for you.
References
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von Schleicher, K. (1933). Minister of the Reichswehr (June 1932), he became chancellor after the resignation of von Papen (December 1932) but had to give way to Hitler in January 1933. He was assassinated by the Nazis the following year. It seems that Foucault here mixes up Röpke and Rüstow (see below, note 23). When did Hitler become chancellor, It was actually to the latter that Schleicher wanted to give the Ministry of Economic Affairs in January, 18.
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