Analyze the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary. The National Socialist Party rose in the 1920s and was largely a marginalized and often ridiculed political organization. In response to the Great Depression, however, the party made significant gains in elections to parliament, gaining 37 percent of the seats in 1932. Germany was particularly hard-hit by the Great Depression because it had already suffered through the economic devastation of both World War I and the reparations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. Even with the Dawes Plan providing a slight period of economic recovery, Germany had massive unemployment and little industry, and had suffered under the ineffective Weimar Republic. The Social Democrats lost power, and there were no clear political candidates likely to lead Germany to any kind of economic recovery, so many put their faith in the National Socialist Party. Hitler had written a book while jailed in 1923, Mein Kampf, in which he laid blame for the economic conditions of Germany on various entities (Jews, Communists, and the German government that had betrayed its citizens in World War I), and proposed a theory of Lebensraum ("living space"), in which he claimed Germany needed more territory and would have to spread east. By distilling his message into an accusation of blame against all those who had weakened Germany, he gave a target for his audience, as well as a goal of eliminating these targets. He subsequently took note of what Mussolini was doing in Italy with fascism, and throughout the 1920s, Hitler also built up a supporting apparatus, including the SS for paramilitary support. He and his Brown Shirts attracted many followers. In 1933, he was elected chancellor after the death of President von Hindenberg and began to impose control through the legally obtained emergency powers he requested. He controlled the press, suspended free speech, called for new elections (which increased the Nazi majority to 44 percent), and particularly cemented his power through the Enabling Act. This last part was the key to Hitler's claim of dictatorship in the name of the Third Reich.