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How Did It Happen? Adolf Hitler’s Rise to Power
Adolf Hitler: A hundred years ago, no one knew his name. Now, it is synonymous with evil. How did it happen that a failed artist from a small town in Austria rose to power and lead his country in an unthinkable genocide and world war?
The answer is complicated and perhaps better suited for an entire book than a blog post, but the condensed and abridged version is this:
war –> economic instability –> inflation –> division –> distrust of government –> scapegoating –>civil unrest –> war
It began at the end of “The War to End all Wars.”
The peace terms dictated at the treaty of Versailles after WWI were harsh, requiring the Germany to pay huge reparations to the victories countries. The inflation that followed was astronomical. In 1913, the American dollar was worth 4 German marks, but by the end of 1919, one dollar could buy 47 marks. The value of the mark continued to decline rapidly. By 1923, the mark’s value had declined to such an extent that buying a pound of coffee now cost a struggling German half a million marks.
By the end of 1923, 90% of an average family’s budget was spent on food. Economic instability increased with rising inflation. Crime became commonplace as desperate people tried to survive and feed their families.
Eventually, inflation was brought under control but the damage had been done — rampant unemployment, unsafe streets, and a rising distrust of government. In addition, the German population was polarized into radical left and right wings.
The National Socialist German Workers’ Party was one of the most ruthless right-wing groups led by an unknown and would-be artist. A failed attempt at a coup led to his arrest and incarceration in prison, where he wrote his most famous work, Mein Kampf (My Struggle). When he was released from prison, he began to assemble a following of anti-Semitic, nationalistic, master-race supporters. But the National Socialist Party had yet to tap into the mainstream of the German people, and the Nazis only took 2.6% of the 1928 vote.
The tide turned when the Great Depression hit not only America, but the barely-recovered Germany. American banks, hard hit by the Crash, called in their international loans to German banks. In turn, German banks called in their loans to German businesses and by 1931, 30% of German works were unemployed with millions more barely making ends meet. The German government bickered on party lines — the left advocating spending on welfare, the right pushing for cutbacks.
Militias of unemployed young men engaged in frequent street-fights and violence. Political extremism was a way of life and these aimless young men either belonged to the Left — the Communistis– or the Right — the Nazi brownshirts — with no middle ground.
The Communist party rhetoric promised the destruction of capitalism, which pushed the large middle-class — who remembered very well what had happened just years earlier in Russia — toward the radical political right of fascism.
Meanwhile, the Nazis began the effective use of scapegoating, pointing to the Jews for all the evils that had befallen the country. They successfully used propaganda to convince the public that the Jewish bankers were the ones who had ruined the German economy. Germany, they said must regain its rightful place in the world, and they could only do that if they drove the Jewish race from their country.
In the elections of 1930 and 1932, the Nazis gained ground. The failing and fractured government reached out to the now-popular National Socialist party, hoping to unite the people. President Hindenburg appointed the leader of the Nazis as Chancellor of Germany in January of 1933.
Tragically, the rest of the story is well-known. The man they appointed to save Germany became a ruthless and brutal dictator, a genocidal maniac, and the epitome of evil: Adolf Hitler.
What are your thoughts on the rise of Hitler? Could it happen again? Let me know in the comments.
Although the United States was far from Germany in distance, we were not immune to the rise of the Nazi regime. My upcoming novel, Code Name Edelweiss is based on this true story: how a lone Jewish lawyer and his amateur spies foiled Hitlers plot to take over Hollywood.
Consider pre-ordering Code Name Edelweiss at any of these bookish places:
Bookshop.org — support your local independent bookstore!
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