The Nazi Tactics and Appeal.

1. Hitler was a clever demagogue who knew how to play on the emotions of desperate and proud Germans caught in the depression.

2. The Nazis general political tactic was to promise changes that would appeal to the greatest number of people; while asking Germans to follow unquestioningly. They used the Versailles Treaty and the Jews as scapegoats for Germans plight.

The Nazis come to Power.With the elections of July 1932, the Nazis became a plurality in the Reichstag with 230 seats. They were the largest political party, but they did not hold a majority of the seats in the Reichstag, and were having difficulty putting together a coalition.

Hitler was appointed as a Chancellor. On January 30, 1933, President von Hindenberg appointed Hitler chancellor.

-The coalition government composed of Nazis and conservative nationalists and militarists.

-Like their Italian counterparts, many German politicians mistakenly believed that exigencies of coalition government would mitigate the extremism of the Nazis.

-Like Mussolini, Hitler did not moderate in power; indeed he became a dictator much faster than his Italian counterpart.

-As chancellor, Hitler would not compromise with his coalition and the Reichstag at large; hence he received a vote of no confidence. The Reichstag was paralyzed, and new elections were ordered for March 5, 1933.

-The Elections of 1933 and the Reichstag Fire. During the election the Reichstag building was set on fire in an act of terror. Hitler and the Nazis claimed that it was the work of Communists, but evidence exists that the Nazis set it themselves to propel themselves into power.

-The Nazis persuaded President Von Hindenberg to issue state of siege decrees that suspended freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

-The presidential decrees silenced Nazi opponents, and the Nazi Party and its organs used rallies, demonstrations, and storm trooper attacks to assure a Nazi victory

-The Nazis still only won 44% of the votes. Their most pliable coalition partners won 8% of the vote. The new Nazi-nationalist government had a majority but not the two-thirds majority necessary to amend the constitution.

-The Enabling Act. Hitler was able to persuade the Catholic Center Party to support the Nazis with a promise to negotiate a concordat with the Papacy, like Mussolini did, if the Catholics would vote for the Enabling Act.

The Enabling Act (passed 23 March 1933) gave Hitlers government dictatorial powers until April 1, 1937.

-Only 94 members of the Reichstag opposed the Enabling Act, and these were all Socialists and Social Democrats.

-After the Death of Von Hindenberg in 1934, Hitler was than able to obtain the power to change the constitution by decree. Thus Germany became a totalitarian dictatorship under a party founded upon racism, militarism and aggression

Opinion in Germany

After World War I, Germans from Marxist to ultra-conservative were united in looking forward to their nation's regeneration, but they differed as to how regeneration was to be accomplished and where to cast blame for their nation's troubles. Public opinion in Germany was like public opinion elsewhere: it contained portions of half-truths, untruths and myth. Many Germans blamed their nation's troubles on the old regime of Wilhelm II for losing the war and for having turned power over to the socialists. Some blamed their nation's defeat on those who had signed the armistice, seeing these men as traitors and pacifistic cowards. They believed that the German army had marched home in tact after having been stabbed in the back.

Prominent among those believed to be traitors were Jews -- among them the murdered Communist leaders, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, and Kurt Eisner, who had led the takeover Communist takeover in Bavaria. The leaders of the Bolshevik Revolution were thought to be predominately Jewish -- as was Leon Trotsky, Gregory Zinoviev and Karl Radek. Béla Kun, who led the Soviet regime in Hungary, was also Jewish -- as was Karl Marx. Many Germans who opposed Communism saw Jews as inclined to be internationalist rather than loving the German fatherland, because, they believed, the Jews had a heritage of wandering and rootlessness.

Many Germans saw little difference between the Communists and the Social Democrats who had taken power in Germany just before the Armistice. The Social Democrats were traditionally a Marxist party. They still had a red flag, although they had long given up on Marx's idea of revolution. And seeing the Social Democrats as internationalist like the Jews, some Germans -- including the decorated war veteran, Adolf Hitler -- associated the Social Democrats with Jews.

Germans tended to look upon themselves as a superior people. It was a view that had been reinforced by Germany's accomplishments in science and industry. From reading the ancient Roman historian, Tacitus, some Germans believed that Germans had an inborn special character. Tacitus had described Germans as a people who did not mix with other tribes. And believing themselves superior, most Germans saw this as having benefited their nation, and they disapproved of Germans interbreeding with lesser breeds - including Jews.

Anti-Semitism in Germany dated back to Martin Luther, the founder of Protestantism. Luther had wanted Germany to deprive its Jews of all their cash, jewels, silver and gold. He had wanted their synagogues set afire, their homes destroyed and Jews driven out of the country. In the late nineteenth century, when people were superimposing Darwin's theory of evolution onto social development, anti-Semitism in Germany -- as well as elsewhere -- received a boost with enhanced concern about bloodlines and race. And Germany's anti-Semitism had some of its roots in its peasantry's opposition to the big cities.

Perhaps anti-Semitism was greater in Germany than in Italy or France because Germany had more Jews per capita. Nevertheless, the Jews in Germany were but a small percentage of the population: 0.9 percent, compared to 0.5 percent in France, and 0.13 percent in Italy. In absolute numbers, about 600,000 Jews lived in Germany, as opposed to about 100,000 in France and 45,000 in Italy.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 740