The Road to Power

So, as I

A)check the status of blogs and quickly realize that my group has failed YET ANOTHER WEEK to write anything on their subjects and

B)look at my Grandparent's bookshelf, i noticed this GIANT BOOK called the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany by William L. Shirer. Let me just repeat that this book is over 1,000 pages.

So i opened up the book to page 117, chapter 5, The Road to Power: 1925-31, which i figured would be helpful since i am trying to learn how Hitler came to power and managed to persuade the majority of the nation to VOTE away their democracy. I guess it is important to know the context for when Hitler started to come to power. So it appears that the years of 1925-1929, were "lean years for Adolf Hitler and the Nazi movement" but he persevered and never lost his hope or confidence even though he had a very excitable nature "which often led to outbursts of hysteria." During the years of 1925 and 1928, unemployment fell dramatically, wages rose, and the "lower middle classes, all the millions of shopkeepers and small-salaried folk on whom Hitler had to draw for his mass support, shared in the general prosperity" (117). So if the people are happy- i would either guess that it'd be easier for hitler to gain support since everyone is in a good mood OR and more likely, that the people don't want to listen to some politician advocating for a new way to live their lives, since their lives are going pretty well with all the money flowing in. 

During this period of time, "life seemed more free, more modern, more exciting" where the "intellectual life seemed so lively" (118). "Most Germans one met- politicians, writers, editors, artists, professors, students, businessmen, labor leaders- struck you as being democratic, liberal, even pacifist" (118). If this is the case, then how did this majority of Germans turn into the Nazis that violently killed millions. 

I love the writing of this book- "one scarcely heard of Hitler or the Nazis except as butt of jokes- usually in connection with the Beer Hall Putsch, as it came to be known" (118). So i guess at the beginning, if Hitler hadn't had perseverance- none of this would have happened. I mean, in the elections of May 20,1928- the Nazi party only polled 810,000 votes out of the total 31 million cast. It looks to me that Hitler didn't have it as easy as i might've guessed. I don't know- i guess i always have wondered how a totalitarian dictator like Adolf Hitler comes to power. I kind of just figured he TOOK IT. But not in Germany. Hitler was a the butt of jokes for a while- if anyone had made a joke about him to his face in 1940 he or she would've been slaughtered.