Nazi's

Assess the effectiveness of the tactics used by the Nazi party to maintain power up until 1939. The First World War had a significant impact on Germany. The wars legacy allowed Adolf Hitler to rise from obscurity to overthrow this short-lived democracy, impose a dictatorship, and pursue a foreign policy that, in the name of righting the wrongs of the Versailles settlement, plunged the world into another war. In 1919 Adolf Hitler was employed as an investigator by his army superiors to check on the range of right-wing groups in Bavaria. In this role he attended a meeting of the German Worker’s Party in September. Attracted by this group, Hitler, and his exceptional speaking talents, was drawing larger audiences, he helped develop its 25 Point Program, and by 1921 he was their clear leader. He then renamed the party, the National Socialist German Workers Party(NSDAP, or, more commonly the Nazi Party.) The program called for strong leadership from a central government, the abolition of the Treaty of Versailles (a conference/agreement about the future treatment of Germany), and the unification of all Germans in a greater Germany; anti-capitalist measures such as land reform, profit sharing, etc., and it had anti-Semitic views declaring NO Jews could be a member of the German nation. By 1923, the party had about 55,000 members, its own newspaper and was attracting huge crowds. The party enjoyed the support of powerful conservative interests, yet its message was addressed to ordinary Germans, and its meetings were often rough and violent affairs where, from its inception in 1921, the Sturm Abteilung (SA, or Brownshirts) would beat up opponents or hecklers. The opportunity to lift the profile of the party came in 1923 at the height of hyperinflation (a rapid and uncontrolled rise in prices that takes place over hours, days and months, rather than years.) On 8th November, Hitler attempted to seize power. This was called the Munich Putsch or the Beer Hall Putsch. Hitler was arrested two days later and was charged with high treason. If the Munich Putsch was a failure, the trail was an unquestioned success for Hitler. It lasted for 24 days and was front-page news throughout Germany. He drew applause in the courtroom and sympathy from judges. Hitler received the minimum sentence of five years’ imprisonment, but only spent 9 months in Landsberg prison. While in prison, he used the opportunity to dictate the text of his book Mein Kampf which detailed Hitler's radical ideas of German nationalism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Bolshevism. When he was released from prison, he formally resurrected the Nazi Party. He began rebuilding and reorganising the Party, waiting for an opportune time to gain political power in Germany