Misconceptions Of Hitler And Nazi Germany

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One of the many misconceptions people have with Hitler’s rise to power as Führer involves how many people think that Hitler must have illegally overtaken the German government. However, by reading the book Hitler and Nazi Germany: A History by Spielvogel and Redles and by going through various government documents it becomes clear Hitler took over Germany in a mostly legal way. Hitler managed to take over in a legal way by winning over the hearts of Germany’s most important voters the middle class and the workers. He did this by taking advantage of the constantly fluctuating Weimar Republic and using propaganda brilliantly to appeal to the broken German people. Thus, by having most Germans believe in him they voted for the Nazi party majorly. …show more content…

Hitler saw that thanks to the militia forces of the Sturmabteilung (SA) and Schutzstaffel (SS) the young and lower class people were in favor of the Nazi’s ideas, but middle class workers still were reluctant to join (Spielvogel and Redles, pages on: Nazi Members and Leaders, 1925-1930). Luckily for Hitler the Great Depression hit and with the Weimar Republic broken, it caused the workers to look for a new radical government. Hitler got their attention from the various propaganda him and Joseph Goebbels worked on, which primarily involved simplistic posters that had succinct messages. One of them saying “Work and Bread”, which directly appealed to the workers for those were the two things most important for them (Closmann, Powerpoint #3). Additionally, Hitler played a major role in making sure the workers did not join the rival party’s like the Communist party by explaining to the people that Germany needs to be united in one ideology for it to become a powerful nation again (Hitler’s Letter to Reichenau, germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/docpage.cfm?docpage_id=2439). Hitler spread this ideology more so as Heinrich Himmler, the commander of the SS made law that “the SS is a band of German men of strictly Nordic descent chosen according to certain principles.” (SS Order, germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=1505). This ideology of removing foreigners from Germany like the Jews appealed to the upper class of Germans who felt their businesses were not succeeding because of Jews. Overall, Hitler used propaganda brilliantly to capture the various kinds of people in Germany ranging from the working class to the upper class. By managing to capture the heart of the nation it would not take long for them to vote for the Nazi’s in elections, thus leading them to have most of

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