Hitler

I was wondering what everyone's opinion is of Adolf Hitler...Why were people loyal to him? What do you think drew them to him?

Mai wrote:

I was wondering what everyone's opinion is of Adolf Hitler...Why were people loyal to him? What do you think drew them to him?

I'd never consider myself conversant with WWII as a war, or indeed it's surrounding political basis, however a large proponent of Hitler's support was probably fear, pure and simple.

Probably stating the obvious, but hey-ho.

What drew people to him is even more obvious. Desperation. They were going through a huge economic depression after they got screwed after WWI and were looking for any manner of hope. The government thought they could use Hitler as a tool to inspire german pride into the people and for their own means, but instead, his intents took precedence and no one realized until it was too late to stop him.

Well, there's also the fact that post WWI Germany had no real direction and was still trying to pay off war reparations and was one of the hardest hit by the world depression. The fact that Hitler, a charismatic guy with a message of German dominance, had appeared on the scene at this crucial time probably led to a lot of rallying around this guy. You have to remember, though, that Hitler's National Socialists party never had a majority in the Weimar Republic, only a plurality. The party gained its supreme power after Hitler managed to declare himself Fuhrer after the Reichstag fires.

True, after a while, it was probably a lot of fear going into it; but it wasn't fear of Hitler. It was probably a fear that the USSR would win in the east while the Western Allies would slowly encroach on their homes after liberating the rest of Europe. A lot of nationalism was drummed up by Hitler before and during WWII, trying to appeal to the financial instability of the Weimar Republic. Volksgrenadiers, Volkssturm, all of these home-guard armies were drummed up by conscription and motivated by invasion fears and nationalism.

So, yeah. The Third Reich was nationalism motivated.

Wassup hit it on its had when he mentiond the word Charisma. That was the difference between the Nazi's and every other radical party of the time. They could stick Hitler on the stage and everyone would go all faint and he'd wion people other with just his voice and his presence. People fainted when they walked in to the same room as him! But yeah if the Nazis hadn't come in to power then a different radical, and probably as dangeropus, party would of come in to power so...