Adolf Hitler Love And Fear Analysis

People have been idolizing leaders forever. These idolized leaders may be good or they may be bad. Adolf Hitler was born in Austria in April 1889. In August 1914, despite being an Austrian citizen, he joined the German Army to fight in World War I. After the war his German patriotism grew since he was bitter over Germany losing. In 1932 Hitler ran for German president but, was elected as chancellor. A year after being appointed as chancellor, he became the head of state as well. Hitler was the leader of Germany from 1933-1945. Although, he was a harsh leader Hitler was idolized. He provided hope and sense of security for the German people. The people believed that Hitler would help them and fix their country. Hitler had been an idolized leader

A leader can gain followers though love or they can use fear to gain their supporters. The question is, is it better to be loved or to be feared? In Niccolὸ Machiavelli’s The Prince he states “It might perhaps be answered that we should wish to be both” (1513). An effective leader should aim to use both as they lead. Hitler was a leader that was successfully able to apply both love and fear as a leadership tactic. Hitler was able to use the love the people had for their country to his advantage. Both Hitler and his followers loved their country and wanted the best for it. The people believed that he cared about Germany the same way they did. The war and the Great Depression affected Germany greatly. They left it broken and destroyed. Hitler promised the people that he would fix the problems with the country. Hitler also encouraged the people to keep their bodies pure, causing the people to feel like their leader cared for them on a personal level. The people had a feeling of love for their leader. Fear was also used by Hitler. He wanted to completely rule without having any opposition. So, he used fear to get the other political parties to disband. This helped him create a legal dictatorship. Hitler also focused much of his leadership on ‘purifying’ the country. He had a hatred for minority groups, mostly the Jewish. The Jews were blamed for Germany’s problems and people were convinced that this was true because of Hitler. The Jewish population, other minorities, and those that were sympathetic to these groups feared Hitler. Hitler created laws that restricted the rights of these individuals and made plans to exterminate them. Hitler had his own secret police and these were the people that would make arrests on Hitler’s behalf. Many of these arrests resulted in torture. Hitler was both feared and loved by the people of