Thesis: Hitler's Rise to Power can be credited to the Economic issues (The Great Depression and Reparations), the political instability of the Weimar Government, and Hitler's appeal to the population as a strong leader.
Economic Issues
Political Instability
Hitler's Appeal As A Strong Leader
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Economic issues were a very important part of Hitler's rise to power. During times of economic hardship, people tend to go towards the extremes of the political spectrum. The Nazis were more towards the right of this spectrum. Hitler appealed to the people on the far right by telling them that he would not bring socialism and that the rural people could keep their culture, religion, etc., while also not having to share property with other people. This also interested business owners and rich people because Hitler saying that he would not redistribute wealth meant that they could keep their money, so they financially supported him. To the people in the cities and the factory workers, he promised them things that would be seen in a socialist's government, but he told them that those things only applied to the Jews, which made the Jews the common enemy.
Political instability was a big part of Hitler's rise to succession. The Weimar Government was extremely unstable, on top of the fact that most of the people did not like the Weimar Government at all as they blamed the Weimar Government for their problems. With chancellors having to coming and out of office because of them not being able to do their job, this gave Hitler the chance for that position, which was what happened. The leaders of the Weimar Government made Hitler the chancellor as they believed they could keep him and his party happy while also controlling him. Well this backfired, as the leader of the Weimar government died, giving Hitler all the power.
Hitler appealed to people all over the political spectrum. His ideas for what he wanted the government to look like made him gain supporters in the rural and urban parts of the country. Hitler used the Jews as a scapegoat for all the problems of Germany. His ideas was what appealed to the German people.
Historical Debate: One historical debate that we analyzed in the pdf was the view that Hitler was just bad luck. I disagree with this view as a lot of issues that piled up were what led to Hitler coming into power in Germany. Whether Hitler existed or not, Germany was having economic and political problems, and the people of Germany were bad at the Weimar Government. It was a matter of time before somebody came up to the people and told them that they could fix all their problems.
Debate I Chose: The debate I chose was the argument that Nazism was an emotional response to a crisis. The reason why I chose this debate is because that is what makes most sense to me. In Germany, there were a variety of problems in the country, ranging from economic to political. The people looked to the Nazis to solve these problems and this is why they came into power, especially because the Nazis and Hitler promised to fix all their problems.