Adolf Hitler: Proclamation to the German People

Context

Hitler's appointment as chancellor of Germany capped fourteen years of political agitation. After he returned from service in World War I, Hitler became active in the German Workers' Party, a nationalist party built around opposition to Jews and Communists that later changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers' Party, or the Nazi Party (a name derived from the German Nationalsozialismus, or “national socialism”). He quickly rose through the ranks until he was elected chairman of the party in 1921. He was already attracting a number of influential followers with his oratorical skills and nationalist sentiments, and he determined to use this backing to seize power in the German state of Bavaria in a coup attempt that began on November 8, 1923, called the Beer Hall Putsch. The coup failed, and Hitler was arrested, tried for treason, and sentenced to prison. During the year he spent in prison he wrote the first volume of Mein Kampf, or “My Struggle,” which outlined his political beliefs.

After the Beer Hall Putsch, the Nazi Party was in disarray. Hitler devoted his efforts to rebuilding it, but in the national elections of 1924 and 1928 the party received few votes. The start of the Great Depression, though, made the party's message more attractive, so in the 1930 election the party claimed over 18 percent of the vote. This number rose to over 37 percent in the 1932 elections, giving the party 230 seats in the Reichstag. In 1932 Hitler ran for president against the incumbent president, Paul von Hindenburg; although he lost, he gained national stature. In the year that followed, despite Hindenburg's victory, his chancellors—first Franz von Papen and then Kurt von Schleicher—were unable to form workable coalitions (agreements among various political parties to work together). With German industrialists backing Hitler, Hindenburg reluctantly appointed him to the post of chancellor.

These events all took place in the context of political and social chaos in Germany after World War I. In 1918 members of the military, allied with industrial workers, staged a rebellion that appeared to the more conservative elements in Germany to resemble the Russian Revolution of a year before. The events that surrounded this effort deepened divisions between right-wing and left-wing parties; the conservative right wing wanted to see a return to a prewar imperial government, while the left wing called for a Communist government. In 1919 a new government was formed, and a new constitution was written in the German city of Weimar, giving the new parliamentary government the name Weimar Republic. But almost immediately, the government came under attack from both the right and the left. Uprisings occurred in numerous cities; rebels declared a Soviet-style republic in Munich and tried to do so in Berlin. Fighting in the streets became commonplace. Worsening the situation was the Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended World War I on June 28, 1919. At the conference in Versailles, France, the victorious Allies blamed Germany for the war. Germany was disarmed, required to pay reparations and make territorial concessions to the Allies, and forced to accept the “war guilt” clause of the treaty. Many Germans believed that their nation had been humiliated by the Allies. A once proud and prosperous people had been reduced to the status of a conquered nation.

In the aftermath of the treaty and the formation of the Weimar Republic, the chaos continued. Assassinations and bloody street fighting between paramilitary groups—the right-wing Freikorps and left-wing pro-Communist Red Guards—were frequent. Communists took over the government in the German state of Bavaria. The Freikorps tried to install a right-wing government in Berlin. By 1923 the government had concluded that it could no longer afford the reparations called for by the Treaty of Versailles and at the same time meet its obligations to pensioners, war veterans, and others. Accordingly, it simply began to print money, creating hyperinflation. A 50 million mark bill that twelve years earlier would have been worth about $12 million was worth $1 when it was printed, and people used bundles of German banknotes as notepads because the bills were so worthless. A common expression was that it took a wheelbarrow full of banknotes to buy a loaf of bread.

During the period from 1923 to 1929, conditions in Germany improved markedly. Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch had been put down. Inflation eased, and the United States agreed to provide loans to Germany to help it make its reparations payments. In 1926 Germany was admitted to the League of Nations, enhancing its international stature. But conditions took a turn for the worse in 1930 with the onset of the Great Depression. For three years the government was in disarray. Papen and Schleicher were unable to form coalitions. Hindenburg tried to rule by presidential decree rather than through the parliament. Meanwhile, the Nazi Party was rapidly expanding to include not just disaffected workers, farmers, and war veterans but also many members of the middle class. Faced with dissension and lack of support, Hindenburg made what proved to be a fatal appointment when he was persuaded to name Hitler as chancellor. Hindenburg and his supporters believed that they were co-opting the Nazis and that they would be able to control Hitler by surrounding him with more right-wing appointees. They failed to recognize Hitler's immense popularity. Later, Nazi propaganda would call Hitler's appointment the Machtergreifung, or “seizure of power.” The Third Reich of Nazi Germany was under way.