The Wall Street crash on October 29th, 1929 sent financial markets
the world over into a tailspin. Germany was one of the most vulnerable, since
it was dependent on foreign trade and had taken out many loans from America
after its defeat in World War 1. German exports dried up after the repayments
of these loans, and the well-oiled German industrial machine quickly ground to
a halt. This led to the layoff of many industrial workers and the failure of
banks, which ruined the living standards of most middle class Germans. Amidst
political instability, uncertainty and poverty, the German population was
looking for a way out. At the time, Adolf Hitler seemed their best way out.Since
the failed Beer Hall Putsch movement in 1923, Hitler had matured as a
statesman. By surrounding himself with a number of middle class socialites and
industrialists, he was ready to build a shadow government that would soon come
into power. The downtrodden people were willing to listen to him, and he
offered what they needed most, encouragement. He skilfully played to the
emotions of people, offering something to everybody: work to the unemployed;
prosperity to failed business people; profits to industry; expansion to the
Army and the tearing up of the Treaty of Versailles by refusing to pay war
reparation to the Allies; social harmony and an end of class distinctions to
idealistic young students; and restoration of German glory to those in despair.
He promised to bring order amid chaos; a feeling of unity to all and the chance
to belong. He would make Germany strong again; stamp out corruption; keep down
Marxism; and deal harshly with the Jews (who he blamed for Germany’s defeat in
World War 1). Hitler offered vague promises that enticed everybody. He did this
without offering any concrete details on how these promises would be achieved
though. However, in their present conditions, the Germans were ready to follow
anybody who seemed strong enough to bring back stability, something the present
government had not been able to achieve.With help from his aide, the propaganda
genius Joseph Goebbels, Hitler attended thousands of meetings, plastered
posters all over the countryside, organized torchlight parades and printed
millions of special Nazi newspapers. He was a skilled manipulator of the
masses. Along with the SA, Hitler’s band of storm troopers, he was able to
project a picture of hope and a better future. His speeches, while grandiose,
were quite simple. His favourite slogan was “Freedom and Bread”, the basic
necessities that the German masses were finding hard to come by.While the Nazi
party failed to win the 1930 elections, it did become almost overnight, the
second largest party in the country. The German industrialists started
offering funds to Hitler, since they believed that the Nazis were the wave of
the future, and hoped that when he got to power, he would in return help them
out. The German General Staff also supported Hitler, since he was ready
to tear up the Treaty of Versailles, which prevented modernization and limited
the German Army to 100,000 men. He was the hero that Germany deserved, and the
one it needed as well. Or so it seemed.The period from 1931 and 1933 were
crucial for the Nazi party, who still received stiff competition from various
political figures. Some of these included the old President of Germany, Paul
Von Hindenburg and Chancellor Heinrich
Brüning . Both were aware of what would happen to Germany once Hitler was
brought into power, and did their best to prevent this. While their work on the
international scene to improve Germany’s fate was exemplary, the dismal results
of their domestic policies turned the common man against them. Other
politicians who were trying to take advantage of the situation included Kurt von Schleicher and Franz von
Papen. Following a series of
political games and backstabbing involving the afore mentioned politicians,
Adolf Hitler was chosen as the Chancellor of the German nation on January 30th,
1933. The Nazi party was soon officially in power. The party was an embodiment
of Hitler itself, who was, for all practical purposes, was the man who ran the
country.
The Nazi party, under Hitler’s command soon took over the state
governments, using a state of emergency decree to establish martial law
throughout the country. Decrees were passed to allow the arrest of anyone suspected
of maliciously criticizing the government and the Nazi Party. Special courts
were established to try public offenders without a jury or defence council.
Democracy had been legally brought to an end. The Reichstag was made redundant.
The German citizens had unknowingly signed away all their rights to the
state. Under Hitler, the State, not the individual, was supreme.While
Adolf Hitler had promised that the government would use these new powers only
if they were deemed essential. However, people would soon realize that Hitler
had no intentions of making good on this promise. From the moment of birth one
existed to serve the State and obey the dictates of the Führer. Any person, who
objected, was disposed of. While the masses could not comprehend this at
the time, the finest minds of the country recognized this. Writers, musicians
and scientists, the finest minds of the country saw through the farce, but
could do nothing since the power of the government was supreme. To save their
lives, they fled the country, leaving behind a country filled with
impressionable Germans whose minds could be played with and moulded as Hitler
saw fit. Drunk with power, Hitler quickly sprang into action. The self-educated
high school dropout with anti-intellectual views wanted to awaken the age-old
German spirit with all its militaristic qualities.The downward spiral for the
Jews began in April 1933 with the boycotting of Jewish Stores. In the next ten
years, over 400 laws would be passed targeting the Jews alone, robbing them of
all their rights. Laws were passed to ensure that only citizens of Aryan
descent would be allowed civil service positions. It is important to note
that Hitler created a state of fear. The formation of the Gestapo was just a
stepping stone in this direction. The Gestapo was allowed to hold files and
records on any citizen in the country, and take any action on public offenders
as they saw fit. Rules were passed to make the Gestapo above the law, without
any chance of legal appeal. The survival of an individual depended on the
Gestapo and its arbitrary justice.To mould the youth, Hitler established youth
camps to draw them to his cause. Germany was once known for its fine
universities. However, with the rise of the Nazi party, professors too were
expected to take an oath of allegiance. They were expected to teach exactly
what the government ordered them to. The ever present threat of indefinite
confinement in a concentration camp proved effective to keep them in line. If
any student denounced them for any reason, they could be executed. This
academic timidity led to a lowering of educational standards, which helped the
Nazi cause even further.The Germans had soon realized that the promises that
Hitler made came at a severe price. If they did not comply with all of Hitler’s
commands, they would be considered an enemy. And what choice did they have? The
leader of their country believed that Fate itself had given him the power to
take control of Germany and restore the country to its past glory.Hitler did
keep his word regarding one of his promises though. Soon after being sworn into
power, the Fuhrer decided to reintroduce military conscription, not unlike the
compulsory Army Draft first introduced in France during the French revolution.
This would allow his army to have 36 divisions with a total of 550,000 mean.
This was, of course in direct violation of Part V of the Treaty Of Versailles.
Hitler was known for taking risks, and this time, his gamble paid off. Some
cautious Army generals of Germany feared a military response from Britain and
France. Surprisingly though, apart from a few diplomatic protests, nothing
happened. This was partly thanks to political-in-fighting in France and
Britain’s economic depression. Still, this helped inflate his ego, and lowered his
opinion of the Allies.In a smart move, he managed to convince diplomats the
world over that the military build-up was not an offensive move, and was purely
a defensive measure, since Germany had the right to defend itself against other
nations. Most took him for his word, presuming that he was a man that could be
trusted. However, this was all a ruse by Hitler to prepare Germany for war. He
was, in fact, a man who could plan a catastrophic war while endlessly
proclaiming his love and desire for worldwide peace. Even the Germans and many
top leaders in the Reich could not perceive the depth of his cynicism.Still,
the Nazi party needed to improve its image to the rest of the world. Hitler’s
actions had not gone unnoticed to the foreign powers. Sensing this, Joseph
Goebbels, now the Propaganda minister convinced Hitler to allow Germany to host
the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. The festivities were exploited to further the
Nazi cause both inside and outside Germany. While there were a few Jewish
athletes who boycotted the Games, the general opinion was that Germany had
organized the most lavish Olympic Games ever. It was also the first Olympic
Games to be televised. Hitler had succeeded once again to give the party what
it had desperately needed- Respectability.Hitler’s lifelong goals were to
acquire living space of Lebensraum for the Germans and a final reckoning with
the Jews. The latter was put on the backburner till 1938. To protect the
southern and eastern flanks of Germany, he needed to seize Austria and Czechoslovakia.
For this, three war strategies were created. However, Hitler’s plans had no
real practical consideration. Even if they delayed the attack till 1943,
Germany would not be adequately armed for war. His inflated ego though,
prevented Hitler from seeing this. The smarter generals in his command could do
nothing, as it was Hitler’s show entirely. They had no real say in the matter.
Anyone who objected was immediately replaced with a younger general who was
ready to pledge complete loyally to Hitler. It should be noted that Hitler was
not unaware of their misgivings. He would never be fully accepted by the upper
echelons of his own General Staff. He was regarded as an amateur self-taught
strategist who was nothing more than a dispatch runner during World War I (who
was reportedly never promoted due to lack of leadership skills). Yet the
generals had no power to overthrow him. Hitler didn't care about
consequences. He was only interested in results. And any attempts to get him to
change his mind were a complete waste of time. The generals didn't realize they
were dealing with a man who never changed his mind once he made a firm decision
and would do anything to achieve a desired goal. Hitler’s first plan of action
was to take control of the German Army, which was achieved in late 1938.The
initial target was Austria, the first step down the path that would lead to a
new world war. To expand the borders of his Reich, Hitler adopted a gangster
diplomacy which involved threatening, bullying, lying and bluffing to get his
way. And the other European nations had no real choice. They were dealing with
a man always willing to go the limit, willing to send in the troops and shed
blood in order to get what he wanted.Through political manoeuvres, Hitler took
Austria without firing a single shot. Czechoslovakia next door now trembled at
the thought that it was surrounded on three sides by the German Army. Hitler
wasted no time in pressing his advantage. He began to consider plans for the
occupation of the Sudetenland, the western portion of Czechoslovakia home to
about three million ethnic Germans.While he initially had plans of a military
invasion of Czechoslovakia, this was not to be. Again, he was able to trick the
leaders of France and England to literally give him the Sudetenland area during
the Munich Conference on September 29th, 1938. Soon after though,
Hitler revealed that he had tricked the others, and had no plans of just taking
the small region. Once again he managed to take over the country without a
single shot. The Nazis had perfected the art of stealing neighbouring
territory. They would start by encouraging political unrest inside the area. At
the same time, they would wage a propaganda campaign citing real or imagined
wrongs committed against local Germans. When neighbouring political leaders
finally came to see to Hitler to resolve the on-going crisis, they would be
offered help in the form of a German Army occupation to "restore order."Now
that this was achieved, Adolf Hitler decided to focus on his second target, the
massacre of the Jews. Up until now, he had held off largely due to
international opinion. Now though, even Goebbels, who was anti-Semitic, urged
him to proceed in his plans. On November 9th, known as the Night Of Broken
Glass, Hitler authorized the burnings of hundreds of synagogues. Hundreds of
thousands of Polish origin Jews were expelled from Germany, branded as unwanted
persons. Thousands of others were taken to concentration camps. Ordinary
Germans could do nothing to protest this, for fear of themselves being dragged
to concentration camps.Thankfully, the outside world took notice and had
finally seen through Hitler’s veil. They knew for sure that he was a dangerous
man who could not be trusted and was out to conquer the whole of Europe. This
led to the end of pro-Nazi movements outside of Germany all over the world.
Sadly, Hitler and his cronies did not care what the world thought. Hitler
considered the other European leaders as worms, based on his experience at the
Munich conferences.England and France decided to react when Hitler vowed to
take over Poland next. The era of Hitler's bloodless conquests had ended. The
next time German troops rolled into foreign territory there would be an actual
shooting war. Hitler flew into a rage when he heard about this. The disaster
that would be called World War II was now only a matter of months away. Thus
the time had come for the major powers in Europe and elsewhere to pick sides.
Britain and France were already aligned with Poland. It could also be assumed
that the United States would side with Britain at some future point.The recent
moves of the Nazi party stunned even the Italian Fascists. While Mussolini’s
regime was almost as barbaric as Hitler’s, he did not possess the same
murderous mentality as his German counterpart. Still, the Italians had sworn a
pact to join Hitler in the War, even though the world knew that the Italian
Army was not adequately prepared to defend itself. The game had changed. No
longer was it a matter of bluff and dare. It had come down to actual threats of
war, upon which rested the fate of millions. Hitler threatened war. Poland
threatened war. Britain and France were threatening war.The problem was that
Hitler could not lie his way out of this one. His previous lies had been
noticed, and the outside leaders would no longer trust him. The British and
French governments were outraged by his antics at the Munich conference. The
German masses too were not looking for war. Most had realized that Hitler was
not the saviour they had hoped for. But there was nothing else they could do.
By 1939, all news and information from the outside world had essentially been
cut off and only pre-approved music, entertainment, Nazi speeches and news
reports were ever heard.Hitler’s crystal clear insight into international
politics was now fogged due to his own bloated ego. He now believed that he was
infallible, and had turned into a megalomaniac.The bloodiest war in history
began on September 1st, 1939, when Hitler decided to finally attack
Poland. It soon became clear that Hitler was no war-time general. A steady
stream of flawed military tactics led to the takeover of Berlin and culminated
in Hitler’s own suicide on April 30th, 1945.While Adolf Hitler was a
brilliant orator and could mold the masses as he chose, his own
hubris led to his downfall. In my opinion, the government that he created was
flawed from the start. History has shown that no totalitarian state has been in
the best interests of the people. In this case, the government, which of
course, was more of a dictatorship, was the state itself, and the citizen had
no say in the matter. The youth were instructed that Hitler’s status was almost
God-like, and there was immense value in duty and sacrifice. The life of the
individual meant nothing. And that duty and loyalty to the Fatherland and to
the Fuhrer himself was what really counted. It’s safe to say that the concept
of civil society was a joke in itself. The absence of civil society is what led
to the downfall of the government. It’s reasonable to say that if the citizen
were granted more rights and had a say in certain matters, the massacre of the
Jews and the war itself might just have been avoided.
On the off chance that you've actually read till here without falling
asleep, i'll have you know that I've only uploaded this essay only because i
have a tendency of losing documents.....and Google Drive is just WAY too much
effort.
