Hitler's Rise to Power.

Whilst World War II was one of the most catastrophic events in the history of mankind, what is arguably even more mind-boggling is how did Adolf Hitler, a tyrant that killed millions, ever even get into power of a democratic country?

The story of Hitler’s rise to power starts at the end of World War I. In 1918, allied forces were advancing into German-held territory. Realising the upcoming threat, German Supreme Army Command informed both Kaiser Wilhelm II and the Chancellor that the military situation facing Germany was unwinnable. Quartermaster General Erich Ludendorff, fearing a breakthrough, called for an immediate ceasefire which eventually led to Germany signing an armistice, putting an end to the war.

With the end of World War I, the German government collapsed, leading civil unrest and worker strikes to spread across the nation. The German economy was in ruins from its post-war debts and with this came high levels of unemployment, which reached 33% in 1919.

Fearing a communist uprising, which in part was driven by the introduction of German communist political parties, such as the KAPD (Communist Worker’s Party of Germany), a provisional government was announced in Germany. This provisional government would be made up of members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD). On the 6th of February 1919, the German National Assembly met in the town of Weimar and formed the Weimar coalition and elected the Social Democratic Party leader, Friedrich Ebert, to become the President of the Parliamentary Weimar Republic.

One of the first tasks of the new German government was to implement the peace treaty imposed by the allies. On top of losing 13% of its territory, Germany had to dismantle its army, accept responsibility for the war and pay reparations, to the tune of 132 billion gold marks (269 billion inflation-adjusted dollars), weakening its already crippling economy. In an effort to stimulate its already tanking economy, and to pay its striking worker, the Weimar government started to print large amounts of money. However, this backfired as it led to hyperinflation which made the Mark worthless. In 1922 a loaf of bread in Berlin would cost 160 Marks, but by the end of 1923, the same loaf would cost 200,000,000,000(two hundred billion) Marks.

The combination of Germany losing the war, losing territory, being forced to pay reparations and Germany's failing economy was seen as a humiliation by many German nationalists and veterans. They, wrongly, believed that the war could have been won if the army had not been betrayed by politicians and protesters. These views deeply resonated with a young Adolf Hitler whose bigotry and paranoia led him to pin the blame, for Germany's’ economic and military failure, on Jews. Whilst Hundreds of thousands of Jews had disseminated into German society, many Germans still perceived them as outsiders.

The accusations on Jews mainly stemmed from Jewish financial success in this period. This success led many Germans to make the baseless accusation that Jews were guilty of war profiteering and subversion. These accusations were driven by fear, anger and bigotry and lack a single remnant of factual evidence to justify them. This fallacious theory, which was called the stab-in-the-back-myth, stated that Germany had remained undefeated in the battlefield and had been stabbed in the back by civilians, Jews, Marxists and those whose who signed the armistice to end the fighting. This theory would later form the basis of Hitler’s political agenda.

At the end of World War I, Hitler remained a solider but due to his impressive oratorical skills, he was ordered to infiltrate a small anti-Semitic, nationalist, political party called the German Workers Party, the precursor to the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDP/the Nazi Party).

Whilst being a member of the German Workers Party (DAP/the old name for the NSDAP), Hitler met Dietrich Eckart, one of the of parties’ founders who later became Hitler’s mentors. Hitler and Eckart would often exchange ideas and Eckart introduced Hitler to a wide range of Munich society. After being discharged from the army Hitler started to work full time for the NSDAP. Hitler, who had impressive crowd control abilities and an ability to stoke up nationalist feelings, found success in the party. His ability to manipulate was so good that following a mutiny in the NSDP he was able to coerce the party into allowing him to become the party chairman.

Combining anti-semitism with populist resentment, the Nazi Party denounced both Communism and Capitalism as an internal Jewish conspiracy to destroy Germany. Initially, the Nazi party was a failure, they led an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the government in Bavaria, a German state, which led to the party being banned in Bavaria and Hitler to be jailed for treason. After being pardoned, a year later, Hitler quickly began to rebuild the movement. To the demise of Hitler, in the time that he was in prison, Germany had become less combative and the economy had started to recover. This reduced the fuel for Hitler’s political agenda which had previously been built on the poor economic and military conditions in Germany.

However, then came the Great Economic Depression of 1929. The Great Depression caused American Banks to withdraw any loans they had from Germany, causing the newly recovering German economy to collapse overnight. Hitler was perfectly positioned to take advantage of the resulting resentment as his country had once again been knocked down. Hitler began to build his following as he was able to present convenient scapegoats for Germany's economic and military failures. He followed this with promises that he would restore Germany to its former greatness, which at the time was the leadership that many Germans believed was needed.

To follow from the newly found discontentment in Germany, the traditional German political parties failed to handle the circumstances. The left-wing political parties became fractured with internal conflicts. This left the inflamed German population to be drawn to the extreme agenda that Hitler pushed. Due to Hitler’s ability to capitalise on the Great Depression, there was a 16.7 % increase in the Nazi parties’ parliamentary vote in just two years, from 2.6% in May of 1928 to 18.3% in September 1930.

In 1932, Hitler ran for the German presidency but lost the election to German war hero, General von Hindenburg. But with 36% of the vote, Hitler had shown that there was public consensus for his message. In the following year, a collection of advisers, politicians, businessmen and industrialist wrote to Hindenburg recommending that he appoint Hitler as Chancellor in hope of using Hitler’s popularity to drive their own agendas. These agendas mainly derived from Hitler’s anti-communist regime as these businessmen feared that they could lose all their wealth if a communist government was formed.

Although the position of a Chancellor is only to be the administrative head of Parliament, Hitler extended the power of his newly acquired position. At the point that Hitler began to establish himself in politics, his supporters became increasingly militarized , forming paramilitary groups and fighting protesters in the streets. To aid Hitler’s political prevalence he was able to draw crowds to himself by stoking up fear of a communist uprising, which at the time, in a failing economy, was something that the public was afraid of. He posed himself as a leader by stating that only he could restore law and order in Germany.

The major turning point in Hitler’s power grab came on the 27th of February 1933. One the 27th of February 1933 the German parliamentary building was set on fire. Hitler was able to capitalise on this event and convinced the Weimar government to grant him emergencies powers under Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution. Article 48 allowed for the suppression of basic civil rights and pre-trial detentions in emergencies. Within months, Hitler had abolished freedom of the press and had begun to disband the NSDAP’s political opposition.

Despite not having an absolute majority in parliament, Hitler’s government brought the Enabling Act to a vote in the newly elected Reichstag. This Act gave Hitler’s cabinet the powers to enact laws without the consent of the Reichstag, for four years. To ensure that the Enabling Act was passed Hitler forcibly prevented communist parliamentary members from voting. The Enabling Act, along with the Reichstag Fire Decree, transformed Hitler’s government into a de facto legal dictatorship as there would be no checks or balances on Hitler’s power.

Having achieved full control over the legislative and executive branches of government, Hitler and his allies began to suppress any remaining opposition. The Social Democratic Party was banned, and its assets seized. Trade Unions, who were driving strikes, were forcibly dissolved, some of whose leaders were arrested and sent to concentration camps. To replace the trade unions, the German Labour Front was created which was an umbrella organisation created to represent all worker, administrators and company owners. This was Hitler’s attempt at Nationalising socialism.

By June 1934, all other German political parties where disbanded. This included the Nazis’ nominal coalition partner, the DNVP, the leader of which resigned due to mounting pressure from Hitler. On the 14th of July 1933, the NSDAP was declared the only legal political party in Germany. Even the SA, the Nazi paramilitary, were dealt with heavy-handedly. As the SA began to demand more political and military power, Hitler conducted a purge on its leadership who were rounded up, arrested and some of whom were shot.

When President Hindenburg died in 1934 it became apparent that there would be no new election. The day before Hindenburg died his cabinet enacted the "Law Concerning the Highest State Office of the Reich". This act merged the office of President with that of the Chancellor making Hitler the Head of State and the Head of the Government. This Act importantly got rid of the final legal remedy against Hitler by which he could be removed from office.

From then on in Hitler was an emerging global threat who conducted unspeakable atrocities across the world, atrocities that the world claims to have learnt from. But in the worlds of Mark Twain, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes”.

Hitler fed and created fears in society to gain public support for his political agenda, which is something we see very often in today’s world. This is in part why we see bouts of racisms and polarisation in today’s society.

What is very worrying is that it is not a minority of bigots that feed racists views, it is some of the most powerful and influential people in the world. Donald Trump, arguably the most powerful man in the world, clearly perpetuates societal fears against racial minorities. Trump launched his presidential campaign in 2015 by calling Mexican immigrants’ “rapists” who were “bringing crime” and “bringing drugs” into America. Trump also referred to Haiti, El Salvador and a collection of African Nations as “shithole countries” during a closed-door meeting with congressional leaders and Cabinet members. He brought in what was widely referred to as a “Muslim Ban”, where he banned international travel to the US from Muslim majority nations, stoking Islamophobia. He belittles migrants; this is clear as Trump said that Nigerians would not “go back to their huts” after they saw what the US had to offer. These comments are made by one of the, if not the, most powerful person in the world. These comments stoke anger and resentment further dividing an ever-polarising population. Worryingly these actions seem to mirror that of Hitler in the 1920s and early 1930s who also pinned the blame for domestic problems on migrants. This is not to say that Donald Trump is Hitler, but the result of these actions can lead to a society where racial hate crimes are rampant as they were in the 1920s and 30s.

Boris Johnson can also be seen making racially insensitive comments. In 2002, when writing for the Telegraph about a global trip of the then prime minister Tony Blair, Johnson referred to Africans as “Piccaniccies” with Watermelon smiles.” As recent as 2018 Johnson compared Muslim women, who wear burqas, to “letterboxes” and “bank robbers” and after the 2005 London bombings, Johnson pinned the blame for the bombings on Muslims as he said that “Islam is the problem.” In a world where we are working towards equality, these comments reverse any progress made. These comments feed people’s ignorance and feed negative perceptions of minorities. Blaming a religious group for the actions of a few people, who in reality have no ties to that religion, reflects the anti-semitism that Hitler pushed in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s.

Hitler’s rise remains a warning of how fragile democratic institutions can be in the face of angry crowds and leaders who are willing to perpetuate these fears. Some of the world’s most powerful and influential people, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Narendra Modi, Xi Jinping and Benjamin Netanyahu, are all guilty of this political fear-mongering, which worryingly resembles that of Hitler. There is thus a real fear that the world has not learnt from the lessons of Hitler, we are ever getting closer to repeating them.