When did Hitler start sending people to prison in WW2?

Answer 1

Hitler was a brilliant speaker and a good organiser and politician. He was a driven, unstable man, who believed that he had been called by God to become dictator of Germany and rule the world. This kept him going when other people might have given up. His self-belief persuaded people to believe in him. However, I do not think it was solely the brilliance of Hitler's leadership which brought the Nazis to Power.

The Treaty of Versailles, which was a peace settlement in which the Germans had no choice and were forced to sign after WW1, was an important reason why the Nazis came to power. The German general public were so angry over the Treaty and found it hard to accept the terms of it because it became a symbol of Germany's humiliation and defeat. This made the new Weimar government, who signed the Treaty, extremely unpopular and there was a lot of opposition to the government. Deep anger about the First World War and the Treaty of Versailles created an underlying bitterness to which Hitler's viciousness and expansionism appealed, so they gave him support. Hitler promised to get rid of the Treaty.

After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the US called in its loans to Germany, and the German economy collapsed. The number of unemployed grew; people starved on the streets. In the crisis, people wanted someone to blame, and looked to extreme solutions - Hitler offered them both, and Nazi success in the elections grew. Germans turned to Nazism because they were desperate. The number of Nazi seats in the Reichstag rose from 12 in 1928 to 230 in July 1932. To Hitler, this depression was like a gift because for every problem the Nazi Party had come up with an explanation or promise.

These included; promise to get rid of the hated Weimar government and replace it with a strong leader-Hitler, a promise to get people back to work on road building and public works, and a promise to deal with a communist take-over. In a time of chaos (the depression) people chose to support Hitler because of his discipline and his promises he inflicted on the German general public. The organisation of the Weimar government also helped Hitler's rise to power because of its many weaknesses; it had many enemies, it had proportional representation,

Article 48, the president had too much power and the states could be hostile to the national government. Most importantly the proportional representation helped Hitler. Proportional representation meant that the governments had to be coalitions. In November 1932, Hitler, in the Reichstag elections, the Nazi Party won 37.3% of the votes (230 seats) proving the Nazi party to be the most popular party. President Hindenburg however, despised Hitler and appointed Franz Von Papen as his chancellor.

General Von Schleicher stopped supporting Von Papen and decided he himself should become chancellor. This triggered off a power struggle between Von Schleicher and Von Papen, which ended up with them handing power to Hitler.

In the end I do not think Hitler took power at all- he was mostly given it!