Saturday, December 11, 2010
Hitler's Rise to Power
Okay, so in one of my comments last week I was essentially blaming the German people for going along with Hitler's rise to power, even in its early stages. So, to be fair, I thought I would talk about some of the evidence that lines up more in defense of the German people. First of all, Hitler gained his original public attention by joining the German Worker's Party. At the time of his joining it, it was disorganized and had little focus, it was anti-communism, but it was certainly not a anti-Semitic force at this time. Hitler used this party as a vehicle to his own success, he implemented anti-Semitic points into party speeches, and his charismatic and powerful speech giving skills allowed him to force his way to the head of the party. It is understandable that party members would be glad to give Hitler more leadership in their party because it was his speeches that were attracting new members to the still-growing party and bringing in huge monetary donations to the party's cause. Hitler became chairman of the party, and with the help of his staff, he assembled a party program made up of 25 points. He presented these ideas at a public meeting in 1920. This is where the point I made last week about those initial audiences being willing to listen comes into dispute. There were 2,000 people at this speech, eager to hear about Hitler's anti-Semitic ideas. However, there were also hundreds of protesters that were forcibly removed by party members armed with truncheons and whips. Hitler's speech focused not only on criticism of the Jewish population, but also very valid-sounding ideas on how to recover from the Versailles Treaty, on ways to get around some of its conditions and on solutions to the economic crisis. So, in this situation, I can see how some people may have been misled. A leader who came along with all of the answers, it would certainly seem like an okay deal that he had a prejudice towards Jews. Nobody knew what he really had in mind for them, and there was a lot of pre-existing animosity towards the Jewish population. The thing that bothered me here, that is really evidence to my original statement that Hitler's rise to power was the fault of the German population, is that Hitler spoke openly of plans to limit the civil rights of the Jewish population. This seems to be like one step too far for the average German citizens to wave off as a nasty idiosyncrasy. This same year the party was renamed the National Socialist German Worker's Party, or the Nazi Party. In 1923, Hitler led the Munich Putsch, a rebellion against the Bavarian government, declaring that he would rid the government of communists and Jews. He was tried for treason and went to prison. Following his internment, he pursued an electoral rise to power rather than a militaristic rise. In January 1933 he became Chancellor of Germany. It seems to me that Hitler's rise to power reached the point of no return as soon as he renamed the Worker's Party. Obviously, when he had to be elected to further his power to the point of Chancellor, but I think that the German public was too far gone by this point to back out. These original speeches that promised recovery from the war, recovery of territories, recovery of pride are what did it, what got him started on a constantly accelerating rise to power. And at the time, there was no precedent. Nobody would assume that a leader who promised these things was merely power hungry and driving his own agenda. Everyone believed the government wanted to help them, had their best interests in mind. So, now that there's some evidence for both sides, I guess the question is still, what do you think? Was the naivete and selfishness of the German people to blame for Hitler's rise, or was the master manipulation of this political genius just too much to expect an everyday citizen to understand?
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17 comments:
I feel that if I was cold, hungry and barley had a roof over my head, any leader that said I just had to support him and it would all go away, I would support. I am not saying that the German people were right or wrong, smart or naive, I am just saying that if one person says "the times will get better someday" and other says "I will force the times to change tomorrow." If i am desperate I will support the forcer even if I know he is 'evil' and will
persecute someone.
So I still think the German people wern't responsible, because I find it hard to believe that many of Hitler's "supporters" had all of this information. And I agree with AJ that, in this situtation, the Germans would have gone along with pretty much anything.
I agree that, by the time Hitler was being elected to major positions of power, the Germans should have been prehaps a bit leery of his (now) widly-expressed views. But by that time I'm not sure they really could have done anything.
I also still stand by my opinion that the average German citizen is not to directly blame for Hitler's rise. I do think that some of the party's members who were close to him did have the information and were too selfish and interested in their own individual progress to take note of his horrible plans. But as far as the average citizen, I don't blame them at all for attaching to someone who would lead the way in the worst of times.
I do not think that it was any way the German peoples fault. Sure that they voted for him but can you blame them for Hitler taking advantage of their weak and desperate state? After all its human nature anybody would vote for a person thats says he can make things all better if they were weak, hungry and deprived of any shelter like the United States for example with Barrack Obama.
I don't think the German people were really to blame. Hitler was ultimitly the master of manipulation and he used it. I mean no one in Germany was saying the government was out to get them, they thought the government was only trying to help. What I relate this to is like when your mother is telling you that veggys are good for you, you believe her and maybe you don't like it but you still go along with it because she's telling you thats whats best, and thats exactly what German peopele were doing. They were doing what someone was telling them was best, they didn't see the need to question.
Sorry Im gonna stay strong to my beliefs and I still think the German people were responsible. Although in this post you added a lot more info to the background of his whole rise to power, and I do understand how it happened. I still do not believe it was completely unstoppable and the German people most definitely could've stopped it! I mean how can you not look into what he's talking about and see how much hatred he had for the jews and communism. He never hid hs feelings and anyone who wasn't desperate enough to just see through his charming speeches, could've called him out. And how did absolutely no one else have had any other answers!!!!???
I tend to agree with Hannah, though I can see both sides. We talk about how poor and uninformed the German public was and how ready they were to believe anything. Personally I think Hitlerts not-so-moral intentions were very clear if you were looking for them, and the German people just didn't want to look.
Both sides are valid: AJ, I understand what you mean about people wanting to see change immediately. After all, wasn't that how Obama got elected, by promising "change we can believe in"? No, Kaitlyn, I am not comparing Obama to Hitler, I just feel like this point ties in. The other point, that the average person couldn't understand Hitler, is also very true. People either didn't believe, or didn't consider, what he would do when he held the reins of power.
I think that the German people followed Hitler despite his anti-Semitic views because he promised a brighter future. And hey for the average German who was not Jewish this was a good deal. Life would get better, and who cared if the Jewish people suffered a little? As long as it got better for the other Germans the Jewish suffering could be tolerated.
Kaitlyn - I think when you were talking about how the people protesting against Hitler's speech of 1920 is an example of how not ALL the German people really wanted Hitler as their leader. Many saw through the promises of payback, redemption and glories of the future. They knew that what Hitler was saying was wrong. People had so many different reasons for going along with it anyway. If you have four young children sitting at home starving, and you don't know what to do about it and this guy comes along and says he's going to make sure they never go hungry again, you're going to go along with what he says, even if you think it's wrong. Now pretend you're the parent of four children who aren't starving, so if you don't agree with Hitler, you don't have to support him - you can even go against him. So you do, and Hitler uses his various methods of intimidation on you, like threatening to kidnap or otherwise harm your children and wife. Or husband, if you're a woman, which you probably aren't if you're protesting against Hitler. Anyway, Hitler's methods of intimidation will shut you down, and even though in1920 Hitler may not have been powerful enough to intimidate your family, to protest would be to go against what the public was supporting, even if they themselves didn't agree with it, and as we all know, going against the majority can be a daunting prospect. And then there were those other power-hungry monsters like Hitler who just didn't care about anyone but themselves, but who supported Hitler for their own benefit. Then there were those who were highly nationalistic, and wanted Germany to be restored to it's former glory after the embarassing and blow-striking Treaty of Versailles, and Hitler, a powerful speaker and influential person, could do that. And then there were those who truly believed that Hitler was right to blame the Jews. So, all that taken into consideration, to me it really seems like people were so desperate and/or so afraid, and so eager to prosper again and have their country to the same, that they ignored the fact that Hitler was a psycho Jew-hating mass murderer, or would someday probably be. And someone - I forget who - said that the people didn't know all the facts. In reality, what they did know was the tip of the iceberg. They didn't know that Hitler would go on to become responsible for the systematic murder and genocide of 6 million Jews and 4 million other minorities. So I guess my question is, if people had known that Hitler's hatred of Jews wasn't just talk, wasn't just going to be protesting against Jews, wasn't just having them register as Jews, wasn't just the murder of only a few to a few hundred Jewish people; if they'd known what was really going to happen, would anything have changed? I'd like to think so...but people, unfortunately, are selfish. Not just German people, people in general. Therefore I think it's hard to say it's entirely the fault of the German people.
Sorry there's 3 versions of my post, it kept saying my post was too long so I didn't think it posted and kept cutting it down and reporting by accident :)
I still think the German people were responsible for Hitler's rise to power. I think they probably doubted that he'd go so far as to attack Jewish rights, and priveleges. I know that's what he said he was going to do, but lets face it how often do leaders actually do what they say they will. As far as actually comitting the crimes, that's on Hitler and his men in my mind, as a dictator he had complete rule, and that was a choice he made all on his own.
Well, to do what we always do in class, what about the situation we're in today? If Americans keep fearing Muslims, and attacks throughout the world increase as the number of Muslims in the United States continues increasing, too, would we want to support someone who promised us He/She could eliminate that problem?
Diplomatically, Hitler was a genius. He manipulated Von Hindenburg to gain power, and with the growing popularity in the Nazi party he was able to further his position. Without the people, though, he wouldn't have been able to climb much further than he had made it from there. His Nazi following helped his campaign through KrystallNacht, his SS taking out the members of parliament and the burning of the Reichstag.
I actually think I agree with Hann. Shocking :). I do think Germany is mostly to blame. Yes, there were other factors, but i think the people of Germany played a big role. Although I don not think it is fair to blame them exclusively, they had actions and those actions had consequences, regardless of whether it was what they intended or not.
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