Saturday, February 23, 2013

Hitler's Rise

In in a paragraph, discuss how your section of the reading relates to these themes (your reading may not touch on all of them):

Be prepared to discuss the following themes in class on Monday – underline, make marginal notes as you go—the blog will be related to this material
  • Individual characteristics about Hitler – what about the man appealed to Germany
    • o Pay particular attention to his public personality, personal experiences (Mein Kamf), the idea of masculinity, etc.
  • The historical happenings in Germany that allowed for the Rise of Hitler and the Third Reich (pay particular attention to the reaction against the Treaty of Versailles)
  • What strategies Hitler and the Third Reich used to eliminate the opposition
Notes on these ideas will also be helpful to you so that you can expand your discussion in class tomorrow.

13 comments:

  1. I am assigned to group 2 which read pages 8-15.
    One factor that lead to Hitler's as well as the Third Reich's rise to power was how the opposing conservative political party underestimated Hitlers ability to take control. Also when Hitler became chancellor he was the leader of the largest political party. Also Hitler's party had gained access to the resources of the state.

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  2. Section 2 (pgs 8-15)
    Hitler used Gleichschaltung in order to systematically get rid of the opposition parties in Germany i order to achieve a single party state. This process, also known as "co-ordination", involved the eradication of all other political partied that once existed under the Weimar Republic in order to "Nazify" the life of Germany. Using the SA brownshirts and SS blackshirts as a brutal police force, the Nazi party succeeded in instilling fear into those on the side of the opposition. In addition to the SS, well crafted propaganda was used continuously throughout the Nazi campaign in order to win people over to the Nazi party, thus leading to the degradation of the opposition parties. Ultimately, the the Nazi party was able to eliminate all opposition by July 14th of 1933. Though most parties such as the Nationalists and the Catholic Center Party agreed to just give up their power, other parties were eliminated because of some crucial events in the buildup of the 3rd Reich. For example, the implications of Reichstag fire extinguished the Communist party because van der Lube, a Communist, was thought to have started it.

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  3. I am assigned for section 1.
    This section talks a lot about the time before the NSDAP came to Power, about the failure of the Weimar Republic, but it also underlines how they could come to so much power and why people believed in their ideals. People were frustrated because Germany had to pay for the Reparations of WW1 for the victorious countries. That the Great Depression arrived at the same time, didn't really help of course. And as usual, people blame the government (Weimar Republic) and its leader (Hindenburg). As we red in the reading about dictatorships, people are open to very extreme forms of governments. The Nazis with their patriotism made people think they could be proud of their country again.
    Hitler was the key person in all this. The reason people loved him is because he knew how to tell the masses what they wanted to hear, he was a great public speaker and a very charismatic person. People saw in him the hero that would bring Germany back to its greatness.

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  4. Section 2.
    I think that many people think the Hitler rose to power by brute force and over powering the government of Germany, but it was quite the opposite. When Hitler became Chancellor, there was only one other nazi in office and he basically a nobody. But Hitler knew how to push people to vote for him and of course there was some brute force used by the SA and the SS. Hitler also used the fire at Reichstag to eliminate the communist threat in the election campaign. Hitler also used intimidation tactics in order to secure that the nazi party gains the ability to vote him a legal Dictator by passing the Enabling Act. Hitler went about becoming dictator in a very professional and smart manner.

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  5. Section 2
    Its interesting that Hitler actually had to give up quite a bit to become "fuhrer" for example, because of Hindenburg's imminent death Hitler had to put aside his friendship with the leader with of the SA and take brutal action. In order to gain office Hitler killed about 200 people, including a good friend of his. When there were problems to be overcome in achieving power Hitler didn't just work things out as they came, he nocked them down and made sure they could not come back up. so i'm sorry Mike, but i'm afraid you and I have very apposing opinions, perhaps because of the different pieces of the story we read. Im sure it was all civilized at first when coming to power but by the time he had gained followers he was too big to fail perhaps saw no other alternative but to exterminate the problem instead of simply quieting it.

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  6. pgs. 2 - 7

    The Weimar Republic was already “dead” before the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship due to the hostility of German elites, persistent economic problems, and a limited popular support foundation. More specifically, many leaders in the society rejected a democratic republic regime, which was a major problem for Weimar. Regarding economic problems, Germany had to deal with WWI payments, welfare benefits, and other consequences of the Great Depression. And most importantly (in my opinion), was how the Weimar democracy never obtained widespread support; there was never “total acceptance” of its tactics. Due to the ubiquitous discontent and sense of instability, the people were vulnerable to Hitler’s dictatorship. They needed and longed for a change because of their hopelessness. His combination of racist, nationalist, and anti-democratic ideas was accepted by a majority of the population. The Nazi Party increased their influence and power by using modern propaganda techniques, violent exploitation of “scapegoats”(Jews and Communists), and developing an organized structure. In addition to the party’s strategies as a whole, Hitler himself was (or seemed) charismatic and exemplified that his policies would rejuvenate Germany.

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  7. Section 1
    This section was mainly about the failure of the Weimare Republic leading to the rise of Nazism. The Weimar Republic failed due to hostility toward the elites, economic problems, and a lack of popular support. The idea of a democratic republic was rejected, hyper-inflation caused extreme economic problems, and parties did not support the Weimar semocracy. Hitler was seen as charismatic and was a skilled politician. He also was extraordinary in ruthlessness when it came to political infighting. In the midst of chaos, the people relied on Hitler to get them out of this economic depression. The methods of the Nazi organization were propaganda, violent scapegoats, and extreme structure to the party itself.

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  8. I was assigned section 1
    This section talks a lot about the failure of the Weimar Republic. They mentioned a few things that lead to the ultimate failure of the republic. Some include the obvious economic problems during that time, hostility of German elites, but also, at least what I got from it, a lot had to do with the popularity. The Weimar Republic was not really popular at all during its time. It says, "there was never really an acceptance of, or confidence in the system and its beliefs." As for the economic problems, after the First World War, they took on heavy costs and some,"post-war reconstruction. I believe that the Weimar Republic was so unsuccessful simple because it had nothing going for them. They kept getting hit while they were down and they were unable to recover.

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  9. Section 3:

    This section was about how Hitler solidified his power within the party and in Germany. He did this by killing his good friend Rohm, leader of the SA, who initially introduced Hitler to the Nazi Party. This made his allegiance to the conservative part of the party clear especially during the Night of the Long Knives in which he killed many of his political rivals in the party. The terror that the SA had instilled on the German people had nothing on the SS who terrified the world when they heard of their exploits and the horrors they visited on Germany.

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  10. Section 2:

    People will always believe that Hitler forced his way into power, but it was very much the people's decision. The people wanted change from the tough times that they were having. The Nazi party was able to influence the public. This way mainly due to Hitler's immense talent in public speaking, but also because of Nazi tactics to discount other parties from the election race.

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  11. Section 3:

    Hitler was able to kill the very man who brought him into the Nazi party, showing his allegiance and willingness to sacrifice friends (and obviously the lives of the party's rivals) for the Nazi party. Germany was at a perfect standing to allow the Third Riech to rise. After losing WWI and a great deal of land, their economy was destroyed. Hitler promised and delivered on fixing employment, etc. The people were looking for someone to restore the great country that once was Germany. His rise to power, while violence was involved, was mainly through the legal system. As chancellor, he passed acts which rightfully granted himself the title of dictator, and he crushed the opposition by using the SA, SS, and the Fire of Reichstag.

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  12. When Hitler came into power he was one of the few members of the Nazi party in parliament. He came in one a wave of change similar to tea partiers, but like the tea party their influence is disproportionate in relation to to their small size. Once in power he established a political machine that would create a single party state in Germany. The SS and SA physically imposed this single party state.

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  13. Section 1: Weimar and nazism
    The reading covered some historical happening in Germany that allowed the prosperity of Nazi. It mentioned the unpopularity of weimar party because its democracy republic belief was not broadly accepted by the elites like army, business man, civil service and Junkers. Plus, even some mainstay within the Weimar administration did not really have the faith and dedication to collaborate with each other. The post war reconstruction burden and the post effects of the treaty of Versailles added insult on injury. On the flip side, Nazi were getting popular because Hitler's charismatic characters which the portion of article i read did not really elaborate about and the message nazis tried to
    deliver that seems favors the interest of middle class, it also provides an alternative that could satisfy the mass community's will to reform the Imperial Germany- a presidential dictatorship backed up by hard-core dictator power and Hitler himself, the "Kaiser" instead.

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