What allowed Hitler to rise to power and could something similar happen again?
As someone who has always been deeply interested in politics, it has always intrigued me how rapidly and to what extent Hitler managed to orchestrate the takeover of Germany, a country that had fully recovered from the first world war by 1929, a country with newly diplomatic roots and a country that was viewed safe enough by the rest of the world to re-join the league of Nations. Hitler was born on April 20th 1889 in the upper Austrian border town of Braunau am Inn as a baptized catholic. His farther had changed his name in 1876 to Hitler, the Christian name of the man who married his mother five years after his birth. In 1898 Hitler, and his family, moved to the capital of Upper Austria and the young Adolf Hitler discovered a love of painting and art, wanting to pursue a career as an artist. As Klara, his mother, was dying of breast cancer in the autumn of 1907, Hitler took the entrance exam to the prestigious Vienna Academy of the Arts, which he failed.
Hitler served as a Lance corporal in the First World War and was decorated with the Iron cross second and first class for bravery. After the defeat of the German army and there inevitable surrender on the 11 November 1918, the major powers of the time came together to form a treaty, the infamous and hugely damaging Treaty of Versailles. Germany was left utterly hopeless and defenceless, unable to survive economically or politically. The Kaiser had fled the country earlier that year, leaving Germany penniless and leaderless. Unemployment was writhe, with nationwide general strikes, the French invasion of the Ruhr, rampant hyperinflation and a weak government trying to rescue the country from peril. Hitler saw an opportunity and started the Munich Putsch, where he marched upon the German Capitol with a huge army of SA members, hoping to copy the tactics of the Italian Fascist, Mussolini, who had come to power in Italy in 1922 by marching on Rome. The coup failed dramatically, with Hitler and General Ludendorff fleeing the scene. Hitler was later captured and sentenced to five years in prison, of which he served less than a year, an extremely lenient sentence given the charges of treason. His party was banned and Hitler was prevented from speaking in public until 1927. However, these were the first failures of the government that allowed Hitler to gain any sort of momentum. During his comfortable time behind bars, he wrote his autobiography ‘Mein Kampf’ , a propaganda book setting out Nazi beliefs. It sold in huge quantities and millions read it, with his ideas becoming very well-known. Not only this but the leniency of the judges suggests that some people on authority had sympathy in his cause. The putsch, subsequent trial and autobiography made him a national figure and granted a platform with which to voice his policies and ideologies.
The next chapter of Hitlers political career begins in December 1924 when he is released from jail, he realises he has to take power through peaceful measures and so restructures the Nazi party to take part in elections. The Nazi party grew in numbers from 27,000 to 130,000 members in 1929 although they failed to gain many seats in the Reichstag, possibly due to the economic successes of Germany, which, under the leadership of Gustav Stresemann, had fully recovered to pre-war levels. By this point the rise of Hitler seemed unlikely with dwindling support. However, in 1929 the great depression began, crippling the worlds major economies, people turned to extremist politics and Hitler began gathering more support. By the time Hitler became chancellor in 1933 one in three Germans were unemployed with the figure reaching 6.1 million and industrial output had halved. Hitler found loop holes in the German constitution, using Article 48 to declare a state of National emergency and allowing the President to pass laws by decree, arguably opening the country up for his dictatorship. Over the following years Hitler used more and more forceful measures to gain power, bullying his political oppositions with his SA soldiers.
So what actually allowed Hitler to gain power in the way he did. Well it was a combination of factors, starting with the leniency of the judges which showed he had support from powerful people in positions of authority, giving him a stage to voice his extremist politics. Hitler was also phenomenal at persuading people and suited the political climate of the time, both in 1923 and 1929 when Germany was in political, social and economic turmoil. The German political system also leant itself to Hitler’s advantage. The system was newly formed and members of the Reichstag were elected on a proportional system, many experts argue that this gave Hitler a huge stage in the Reichstag to promote his politics, despite his few seats and relatively low numbers of votes and this, many would argue is the main factor that allowed Hitler to rise to power. My final question is what can be done in future to stop a scenario such as that of Hitlers rise to power in Germany? Well the answer is complex and not entirely certain, political systems such as First Past the Post in Britain making it extremely hard for extremists to voice there opinions although they come with the increasingly large downsides of misrepresentation and the formation governments, whose legitimacy is greatly undermined. I believe social media plays a huge role in both promoting and ending the rise of extremist politics. People can be swept up into echo chambers, where their voices are rebounded around with other like-minded individuals, convincing people that their own ideas are superior and are held nationally, rather that those ideologies being challenged in a more open way. Perhaps, schools can instigate politics into the national curriculum to keep younger voters engaged and interested, hopefully swaying them well clear of being persuaded into far left or right wing politics. Politicians should be allied against extremism on either side rather than forming coalitions with them, like those in 1930’s Germany. But overall, I think the key is to keep an open mind and allow ones own ideas to be challenges in a more progressive and thought-provoking way which would hopefully lead to politicians and leaders who promote the advancement of society for all rather than those of a chosen race, class or demographic, something we can all improve upon and learn from.