How did the Nazis take control of Germany?
In this section we will look at the voting that took place between the year of 1924 to 1933 (when the Nazis took control of Germany). This section will analyse how the Nazis manipulated elections and took advantage of the social and economic conditions at the time in Germany to gain the support of the populous through mostly legitimate means. Hitler's means to deal with dissent will also be looked at as a bridge to the following Inquiry Questions that deal with the administration of Germany after 1933 and into the Holocaust.
SUMMARY:
After he became Chancellor in January 1933, Hitler transformed his democratic position into dictatorial power. Calling an election - and taking advantage of the Reichstag fire - he got the Reichstag to pass the Enabling Act. Then, using the power this gave him to make his own laws, he set up the Gestapo, banned Trade Unions and opposition parties and (on the Night of the Long Knives, July 1934) removed even the opposition within the Nazi Party. When Hindenburg died, Hitler declared himself Fuhrer. (John Clare 2013)
RECOMMENDED READING/VIEWING -
- Hoepper, B. et al (1996) Inquiry 1. Jacaranda. pp. 92-93
- ABC (1991) Documentary (also available on ClickView) - The Fatal Attraction of Adolf Hitler (5 part series - 93 min. in total): CLICK HERE
WHAT HAPPENED TO POLITICS IN NAZI GERMANY?
i. Read and answer question in text: Briefing 3 (Hoepper et al 1996 pp.92-93)ii. Create a flow-chart in your books from JOHN CLARE'S '8 steps to becoming a dictator': CLICK HERE
OR
Document Study - Hitler's Rise to Dictatorship taken from Dixon, B. (2008) Key Issues in Modern History. Oxford University Press. p. 330. Answer the questionsWatch the following clip to compare, consolidate and/or corroborate that which you have read on the political rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party:
How did Hitler deal with dissent or opposition?
The Infamous 'Night of Long Knives'
i. It is our job as historians to make sense of the evidence by critically analyzing and evaluating each source independently and collectively:
Read pages 94-97 of Text Inquiry 1 responding to the source questions
ii. In a table with two columns labelled 'Corroborating evidence' and Conflicting Evidence', list information from the PowerPoint and video below of 'The Night of the Long Knives'
What can we understand from voting data in Nazi Germany?
i. What does the data tell us about the support (voting) for the Nazi Party between 1924 and 1933?
ii. Between which time frame(s) did support increase most for the Nazi Party?
iii. When did support decrease? Why might this have been?
ii. Between which time frame(s) did support increase most for the Nazi Party?
iii. When did support decrease? Why might this have been?
iv. Considering all data (above and below), why do you suppose that support for the Nazi Party rose dramatically after 1932?
REVISION:
i) Revise your understanding of Hitler's consolidation of power - moving Germany from a democracy to a totalitarian dictatorship - by clicking on the link below. Navigate through the four pages, adding any information to your notes that you have not already captured. Then, play the activity on the final page. CLICK HERE
ii) Read through the following information to strengthen your understanding of this section and add any points not covered in your notes, ready for the writing task below. CLICK HERE
EXTENDED WRITING:
Answer this sections focus question 'How did the Nazis Take Control Of Germany?' in an extended piece of writing using the source evidence studied above and other to support your ideas - the next installment in your preparation for the upcoming Category 1 Exam. The success criteria is below in order to guide you and allow you to self-evaluate, i.e. gauge how well you are doing. When you have finished the writing, post it in the 'Comments' at the bottom of the page.
SUCCESS CRITERIA (things to include):
Silver: Analyses EXPLICIT reasons for the Nazis coming to power between 1923 and 1933. CORROBORATES secondary evidence to support your ideas. Includes evaluation of the likely RELIABILITY of evidence used in writing.
Bronze: Describes what happened in Germany between 1923 and 1933 and how the Nazis came to power.
EXTENSION (Optional):
CLOZE EXERCISE 1: CLICK HERECLOZE EXERCISE 2: CLICK HERE
CLOZE EXERCISE 3: CLICK HERE
Reply to this comment for your EXTENDED RESPONSE to this sections Focus Question: 'How did the Nazis take control of Germany between 1923 and 1933?'
ReplyDeleteTo gain complete control of Germany, the Nazi's took advantage of events occurring between 1923 and 1933. After the war, Germany was in turmoil financially and politically. The Nazi's were a right-winged political party, offering absurd ideas that gave Germans someone to blame. Hitler was a good public speaker with very radical philosophies on who was to blame, how to revive Germany's economy and his view on a pure, powerful German race. His confidence in his ideas and the way he spoke comforted and persuaded Germans to support the Nazi Party in elections. The party offered hope and a long term solution. To eliminate opposing parties, to help ensure the Nazi's would gain power, Hitler used his army, the stormtroopers, to quieten opponents through killing the leaders of the parties. As Hitler continued to gain power, through what would seem unfair means, no one was prepared or able to stop Hitler. When Hitler came to power, Chancellor of Germany, the Reishtag approved the Enabling Act, further adding to Hitler's control on all aspects of German life. This control eventually lead to strict education regimes.
ReplyDeleteYou explain the significant events well Louise. However, you have not used any authoritative evidence in corroboration to support your ideas. As I suggested in class it is imperative that this is done and can be easily done by using the language of history, the language of the criteria: 'unemployment graphs shown here explicitly demonstrate.... However when interpreted together with a quote form Adolf Hitler in 1933 where he states " .... The implicit message that can be taken from this is ...' This is simply an example and I think you could do an even better job Louise. You are a wonderful writer and I really look forward to reading your work in a accordance with the GOLD success criteria above.
DeleteThe Nazis took control of Germany over a 10 year period, from 1923 to 1933. Between 1923 and 1929, support for the Nazi party decreased. As can be seen from the graphs above, voting for the party fell during this period of time. The reason for this was that Germany found itself in a much better financial position, where Hitler and his policies no longer had the same appeal to the working class as they did before. However this changed when the Great Depression hit Germany in October 1929, again sending the country into turmoil with unemployment dramatically rising. After 1929, support for the Nazi party began to dramatically rise. Because Hitler had answers to the questions that many were asking and also because of his public speaking skills, he was able to gain support quickly. Over a three year period, Hitler’s party became the largest in the Reichstag and Hitler was eventually appointed Chancellor on the 30 January 1933. When Hitler became Chancellor, his actions suddenly took a harsh turn, creating the enabling act which gave him and his party total power to make laws, abolishing state governments and other political parties and opponents. So by the end of 1933, Hitler and his party hard total control over Germany.
ReplyDeleteGood paragraph Cassie. To improve your paragraph you could use more sources or referenced pieces of evidence, corroborate your sources and more of a diverse use of sources to strengthen your points. You could perhaps use some more direct and indirect quotes to strengthen your evidence as well. Evaluating the credibility, utility and perspective of sources will add to making your paragraph even better. Good job so far.
DeleteHitler and the Nazi party took control of Germany through an ordered set of events, many of which were fortunately placed for Hitler. Hitler and the Nazi party truly began to rise after the Wall St crash and the great depression struck. Due to the Nazi party’s policies being very socialist, they appealed to people such as businessmen and their workers, as shown in source C, skilled workers made 33% of the Nazi party membership and businessmen 19%. These are the people who would have been most affected by unemployment and the great depression as corroborated in Graph I where it can be seen that as unemployment rises, so does the Nazi vote share. This gave Hitler and the Nazi party motivation to continue their campaign in Germany and through his powerful public speaking skills, displayed in ‘A historical Adolf Hitler Speech’ and further corroborated in ‘Hitler, the Rise of Evil.’ Both sources explicitly show Hitler’s great speaking power. His strongly nationalist policies gave the people something to believe in, and so, Hitler became chancellor of Germany. Becoming the chancellor of Germany gave Hitler and the Nazi party further motivation in the quest for power and gave Hitler the opportunity to create the enabling act which explicitly, gave Hitler a colossal amount of power over the laws of Germany and therefore gave him the opportunity to ban all other political parties, making the Nazi Party the sole party of Germany and eliminating all political competition. The only competition left for Hitler to worry about before he became in unthreatened totalitarian control of Germany was that within his own party. This concerned Hitler and motivated him to totally eliminate anyone whom he saw as a threat, he did this through the Night of the Long Knives. Hitler killed anyone whom he viewed as a threat or as a traitor and this struck fear into people and this gave the Nazi party a firm grip over the country, people were now scared to go against the party. After the death of President Hindenburg, Hitler declared himself Fuhrer and this gave Hitler complete totalitarian control of Germany.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely fantastic Lillie. You have a wonderful framework of events in responding to this question and you cohesively flow through them. One suggestion following our chat about this today is the language of history. You could include the language from the criteria to clearly signpost throughout your writing and demonstrate your understanding further of the discipline of History. For example, when you note well the explicit in Hitler's speaking you could follow up with the implicit messages in the video that show the sinister side of the power amassing through Hitler's speaking ability as he has those viewing him 'eating out if the palm of his hand' and that this control is like a drug to Hitler... Also, evaluations of primary/secondary nature and the credibility of evidence should also be added, especially when referencing films. Otherwise, you have done a wonderful job here Lillie.
DeleteHitler and the Nazi party were very clever in the way they came into power of Germany. There were many opportunistic events that took place that assisted Hitler gaining complete totalitarian control over Germany.Shown in source C, 30% of the Nazi Party members were workers, it is these people who would have been the most affected by unemployment in the great depression. And corroborated in the graph, as the unemployment rate increased so did the Nazi vote share. With this support behind him and his skills in public speaking, Hitler gained popularity quickly. These skills were shown in the video “A historical Adolf Hitler Speech” and corroborated in the video snip from “Hitler the rise of evil”, both sources show Hitler as a powerful and respected speaker, who has the full attention and support of those watching and listening. Hitler’s extremely right-winged and nationalistic policies gave the people of Germany someone to blame for all the hardship, and the Jews were the culprits. Then in 1933 Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, this benefited him as he was then able to introduce an enabling act, which allowed him to create and abolish laws, ultimately giving him all power. Hitler manipulated elections so that they would go in his favour; he banned all rival political parties, enabling the Nazi party to have majority in the Reichstag whilst eliminating all political competition. Soon after this in 1934, Hitler and the Nazi’s commenced the ‘Night of Long Knives’ this was where a hit list was created with the names of any opposition who posed a threat to or was classified as a traitor by Hitler or the Nazi Party, Hitler was so ruthless he even killed one of his closest friends Ernst Roehm. This made people of Germany fear Hitler and the Nazi’s, people feared that if they opposed Hitler they would be killed, this gave an advantage to Hitler. When President Hindenburg died, Hitler announced himself as the Fuhrer, giving him total control over Germany.
ReplyDeleteVery well executed paragraph, good use of sources that have been corroborated well. You could expand more on the totalitarian rule, and link to Hitler youth at the end of the paragraph. Good reflection of events that had occurred and explained wonderfully :) GREAT JOB!
DeleteReally good use of sources that corroborated what was being said in the paragraph, adding a source about the 'Night of Long Knives' might be helpful to back up what you're saying and would give more evidence. The part about the 'Night of Long Knives' could be longer just to give an insight on the importance of it in relation to Hitler gaining power.
DeleteAs a result of a series of events, Hitler became the Fuhrer which gave him full power for him and the Nazis to take control of German. As seen in NSDAP Results in the Elections to the Reichstag, the Nazi party started gaining supporters at the time of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 when Hitler promised the unemployed work and food. Hitler’s policies appealed to the unemployed, small businesses and workers as they are the ones who are affected by the Walk Street Crash the most. This can be seen in German Unemployment and Nazi Vote Share and can be corroborated with Source C where the largest groups of people supporting the Nazis are skilled workers 33% and businessmen 19%.The Nazi party continued to gain supporter until July 1932 when the supporters started to decrease. This decrease was a result of Germany being in better financial position and Hitler’s policy was not as appealing to the people as it once was. The decrease continued until December 1932 when they started gaining supported again. Hitler’s skills of public speaking also helped the Nazis to gain supporters. This can be seen in A Historical Adolf Hitler Speech and corroborated with Hitler: Rise of Evil as they both show the way Hitler addresses the population. After Hitler became the Chancellor in January 1933, he took advantage of the Reichstag Fire by blaming it on a communist, who was caught red-handed and used this as an excuse to arrest many of his communist opponents. This also influenced the Reichstag to pass the ‘Enabling Act’ which makes him the Dictator of Germany and the power to create his own laws. Using this power, he banned the Trade Unions and opposition parties in July 1933, making the Nazi party the only party in the Reichstag. From then on, Hitler’s only opponents were the ones in his party. This motivated Hitler into eliminating who he saw as threats to his success through the Night of the Long Knives. This created the population to fear him and abolished any idea of going against him and his party. After President Hindenburg’s death, Hitler declared himself Fuhrer, giving him and the Nazis complete totalitarian control on Germany.
ReplyDeleteVery good paragraph Steph. Excellent use of primary and secondary sources. A few direct quotes would've made your point stronger. Good corroboration of sources, but not much evaluation of sources. Evaluation is good but could be better. All in all a very good paragraph.
Deleteyour paragraph is very good Steph, but you wrote "Walk Street" instead of "Wall Street" at the beginning of your paragraph. Good use of statistics and referencing of "Hitler: Rise of Evil". Your paragraph was informative and answered the question well.
DeleteGood work Stef. You use data evidence beautifully to support your argument. Remember though, when using films as evidence in history, you should always evaluate the accuracy of the information mentioning the flaws in the credibility of the source, eventuality you corroborate it and strengthen its authoritativeness. Well done here Stef!
DeleteHitler and the Nazis were able to gain power between 1923 and 1933 through a set of important events which took place then. Germany was in financial and political trouble after the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression. Germany wanted a way out and the Nazi was able to provide it. Hitler was a very persuasive speaker and was able to rally large groups of people to agree with him. He dreamed of a pure German race and was willing to almost anything to get there. By 1933 he had eliminated all opposing parties, making the Nazis the largest party in the Reichstag. Hitler then became chancellor and the ‘Enabling Act’ was passed which gave him power to change and create laws. By 1933 Hitler had complete power in Germany and was able to make Germany a totalitarian country.
ReplyDelete- Could elaborate more on the events like the Enabling Act, How the Wall Street Crash helped Hitler gain supporters, how he elimiated the opposing parties
Delete- Could have linked a source about the Hitler's speaking and corroborated it with another source from page 4
- Evaluate sources
- Explicit meanings are needed
- Go into more detail about how Hitler gain supporters in the first place, hoe was the Nazi able to provide Germany with a way out of the Great depression....... etc
Tash you have demonstrated explict knowledge about how Nazi germany took control of Germany. although more implict and direct quotes need to be used to improve this paragaph. A quote could have been used when talking about pure race or the Enabling Act.
DeleteHow did the Nazis take control of Germany?
ReplyDeleteHitler envisioned a stronger, economically stable, military driven country as Germany. Hitler was a very smart man who legally became the strongest man in Germany. To overcome threats and other inside opposition, Hitler had to become chancellor to issue an enabling act. This act would lead to the complete control of laws made and would mean Hitler could implement his strategies for making Germany an Aryan race legal. When Hitler was approved as the chancellor in 1933 and the enabling act was passed in March 1933, Hitler soon removed all other opposition members meaning no other political party could exist exempt from the NAZI (German Workers) party. This was depicted by David Low in his impression of the Night of the Long Knives, the night all of Hitler’s opposition members where wiped out. This political cartoon shows the SA saluting Hitler with both hands, in defeat or possibly fears. Hitler had killed the leaders of the SA, his long-time friend Ernst Roehm. This meant that the army saw that Hitler was loyal to the Military and they supported Hitler. Without this support Hitler would not have been able to take over Germany. With all other threats and opposition member wiped out, Hitler only had one thing standing in his way of becoming the President of Germany. And that was Rosenberg. Rosenberg was however ill, old and frail. his death was quickly followed and Hitler became the Fuhrer of Germany. He had complete control of everything; it was a dictatorship and a complete totalitarian rule. The government controlled every aspect of the media and all aspects of daily life. This was to ensure no one could print negative things towards Hitler’s and to ensure all people of Germany knew about the political changes in society. This soon led onto the brainwash of young children as they had no room to think for themselves. This was later developed into the Hitler Youth.
Good use of the David Low cartoon, maybe use the terms implicit and explicit in this section. You could also corroborate different sources and talk about who Hitler's supporters were, and why they supported him. Overall very well executed paragraph, good link to the development of Hitler Youth
DeleteThe Nazis gained power over Germany through a number of significant events that occurred over a period of time from 1923 to 1933, of which, fortunately for Hitler, made him a more favourable man to Germany at the time. The Nazis were seen to be on the rise following the 1929 Wall Street Crash, when the US stock exchange prices collapsed and an inflow of new loans ceased. The international trade had declined heavily, which had sent Germany into the Great Depression. For Hitler, it was an opportunity to gain power as a leader of Germany. Being a good public speaker with ideas that appealed to the unemployed and small business men, Hitler gained a following quickly, and the more he spoke in public, the more followers he gained. This can be seen in the videos above, where Hitler's followers are being controlled by Hitler. Germany seemed to have the answers to the Great Depression and Germany liked the idea of having a powered leader who they believed could get them out of the depression. As it is shown in Graph II, as unemployment rose, so did the Nazi vote share, showing just how powerful Hitler was, as he appealed very much so to the unemployed, which was many Germans affected by the depression and Wall Street Crash, because he provided a way for Germany to rebuild our economic state. Becoming Chancellor of Germany, it gave Hitler and the Nazi Party the ability to have more of a control on Germany and to create the enabling act, something of which gave Hitler the power over the laws of Germany. Using this to his full advantage, Hitler eliminating all other political parties, meaning the Nazi Party was now a sole party with no competition as such. Wanting complete power and a totalitarian Germany, Hitler became aware of competition within his own party and came to a decision that they must too be eliminated. Hitler did this through the Night of the Long Knives, eliminating anyone in the Nazi Party that he saw as a threat or potential enemy in the future, as seen in the video "Hitler - The Rise of Evil 2003" and corroborated with by the powerpoint above, "The Night of the Long Knives". By doing this, Hitler and the Nazi Party had gained total power of Germany by 1933.
ReplyDeleteGood reference to sources,also corroborate your evidence well with more than one source. An evaluation of sources may also be needed. You also showed implicit and explicit information well.
DeleteYour paragraph is well structured in regards to the chronology of the events and you show good understanding and insight. Some of the words you used here could be replaced with historical language though. For example; explicit, implicit and motivations. Evaluation of sources also needs to fit in. But otherwise, Good work!
DeleteThe Nazi Party right from the start jumped on any chance of weakness because it meant that the German people would most likely succumb, seeking someone to lead them out of the bottom so they could again be at the top. Germany after the war was badly damaged and needed direction to get out of the financial situation Germany was in. The Nazi Party were the favoured candidates because they gave the people what they wanted, a strong leader who would be able to stand up for them when attacked. Adolf Hitler was this man, a good public speaker with different views on almost everything including how to save Germany's economy and his view on what the pure German race is. This confidence persuaded Germans to support the Nazi Party in elections because he gave them a person to look up to, a leader with the ability to fight. The Nazi Party first began their tirade as they realized their competition was a big threat to their power because not everyone was voting for the Nazi Party. To fix this they eliminated opposing parties, Hitler using his army, the SA, to do so. This act of brutality struck fear into the people, especially people who were spoke against in his act likes Jews. This is all resulted in Hitler gaining power, total power, by 1933 and going on to further dictate the people of Germany.
ReplyDeleteReally good, info Cat, just needs to be corroborated from the sources :)
DeleteNazi control over Germany took many steps, sacrifices and patience. After the treaty of Versailles was signed and Germany went into an economic depression after pay retribution to other European countries, there was wide spread resentment throughout Germany and its people. To take total control over Germany, the Hitler and his Nazi followers to advantage of the German people and their vulnerabilities. Hitler was favoured by the people affected most by the depression and the budget cuts made by the government to pay the £50 Billion debt. On the 27 of February 1933, Hitler requested the Reichstag be burnt down. When the fire was investigated, a Dutch Communist, Van Der Lubbe, was convicted of starting the fire, but no other communists were convicted, which made Hitler furious, but the burning of the Reichstag did get Hitler and the Nazis more seats in the Reichstag. To control, and gain power of Germany, Hitler used the anger and need to blame someone the German people felt. So Hitler blamed the economic troubles and lack of funds and jobs on the Government and Jewish people. Hitler was a show man, he had a way with words, and he was charismatic and persuasive. Hitler used his natural persuasive skills to gain full control over Germany.
ReplyDeleteHow the Nazi Party Took Control over Germany?
ReplyDeleteHitler slowly took over Germany between 1925 to 1934. After the great depression Hitler entered the Reichstag election on 30 September 1930 and he became the second largest party. On the 20 January 1933 Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany. At this point the Nazis have some political power but not enough to have control. When Hitler created the enabling act on 23 March 1933 it gave him absolute power to make his own laws. Hitler banned trade unions and opposing parties. By July of 1933 the Nazi party is the largest party meaning the Nazi has the most power in the Reichstag. This led to the night of long knifes on 30 June 1934, which is where the Nazi and other Germans could damage or harm Jews, communists, homosexuals and blacks. Hitler has gained power over the year but it was enforced when Hindenburg died as Hitler became the Fuhrer on 19 August 1934. Hitler gained most of his power in the era. This can be verified with data on voting which states between 1925 and 1930 the voting for the Nazi party doubled by 1934 Hitler had 43.91% of the votes. This data shows Hitler’s support and how it grows as certain events occur. This information of how Hitler got his power is verified in the movie Rise of Hitler part 11 and 12, this also show the accuracy of the movie and that it has correct historical evidence on how Hitler and the Nazi party took control over Germany.