Paper 2 - Successes and Failures of Hitler

During his rule in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, Hitler achieved a particularly inconsistent level of success regarding both domestic and foreign policies. Although he was a strong dictator in many ways, Hitler made a few poor decisions which ultimately kept him from being a truly successful ruler. One can see a strong contrast between cautiously planned policies and actions that were seemingly based on nothing more that Nazi ideology in the methods Hitler used as a ruler of a single-party state.

One of Hitler's primary aims in domestic policy was the total indoctrination of the German people. He believed that, by using propaganda, his regime would be able to spread the popularity of Nazism among citizens, making them more loyal to the state. To do this, Hitler appointed Dr. Joseph Goebbels as the Minister of Propaganda, giving him control over what the people could and could not see. Goebbels' expansive propaganda campaigns included the use of radio, film, newspapers, and mass rallies, all of which were used only in ways that purely support Hitler. Any anti-Nazi messages in media such as literature and journalism were prevented from reaching the public. Such censorship quickly became a vital part of Hitler's domestic policy; within a year of his rise to power, about 4,000 books were banned for being "un-German." Children, being very impressionable, were perfect candidates for indoctrination. Education was closely controlled by the state, with textbooks being rewritten in favor of Hitler's views on history and biology. Teachers were also selected carefully, and had to be approved of by Nazis. It was made necessary for boys and girls to join youth groups, such as the Hitler Youth and the League of German Maidens. These groups had further impact on German children and prepared them for their future roles as ideal Nazi men (soldiers) and women (mothers). Overall, Hitler was successful in his attempts at indoctrination. While there were some groups of rebellious young people, such as the Edelweiss Pirates, no notable movements against Hitler came from the people of Germany.

Another of Hitler's domestic aims was the unification of Germany under one political party. Hitler hoped to turn Germany into a single-party state under the Nazis, eliminating any internal threats of political opposition. The method he used to achieve this goal was known as Gleichschaltung, meaning "forcible coordination." Hitler effectively transformed Germany into a police state, using force and violence to keep order in his nation. These methods were often carried out by the Gestapo, Hitler's secret state police, who were responsible for the arrests of "Enemies of the State," which included a range of potential political opponents to the Nazis, ranging from Jews to communists. After being arrested, these people were sent to concentration camps, where they were kept as prisoners and systematically killed. Hitler also used legal methods to maintain his position of power. The Enabling Law was passed in 1933, allowing the dictator to establish his own laws without receiving the consent of the Reichstag. Hitler appeared to be successful in this case as well, but it could easily be argued that this success was almost entirely false. Hitler did very little in terms of actually uniting Germany. He did not make any convincing efforts to make peace with Germans who had different political views. Rather than bringing the people of Germany together, Hitler simply turned those who did not agree with him into outcasts and "Enemies of the State."

Hitler was able to achieve some amount of success in his foreign policy aims, specifically in his attempts to overrule the Treaty of Versailles. After the First World War, Britain and France forced this treaty on Germany, which was blamed for causing the conflict. Germany was inflicted by several strict limitations and punishments from which it seemed impossible to recover. Hitler, like most Germans, viewed the Treaty of Versailles as being cruel and unfair, and made it's abolition one of his goals. There were many situations in which Hitler blatantly ignored the treaty, but Britain and France showed no tangible opposition to his actions. (Stopped here in class) For example, by 1935, Hitler had increased the size of Germany's military by 550,000 troops, when the Treaty of Versailles had only permitted the country to have 100,000. France and Britain were concerned by this, but did nothing to stop it. The next year, Hitler sent 30,000 armed soldiers into the Rhineland, which had been occupied by the French. Hitler remilitarized the area, knowing that he would be forced to give up if France reacted, but there was no reaction. Similarly, in 1938, Germany formed an Anschluss, or union, with Austria. Germany was forbidden from making this type of alliance, but again, Hitler was largely ignored by western Europe.

Hitler's final foreign policy aim was the creation of a "great German Reich" in Europe. This empire would require "lebensraum," or living space. In addition to this, Hitler hoped that he would be able to unite all German speaking countries under the power of the Nazis. Hitler made some definite progress toward this goal, forming a union with Austria in 1938 and then invading and annexing Czechoslovakia in 1939. There was very little resistance to either of these actions, making it appear as if the expansion of Germany's Reich would be unstoppable. However, Hitler made a deadly mistake in 1939 when he invaded Poland. France and Britain felt that Germany had become too much of a threat and that Hitler could not be trusted, as he had claimed that he was done expanding his power after taking Czechoslovakia. Because of this, the two western countries reconsidered their policy of appeasement and declared war on Nazi Germany. Meanwhile, Hitler had agreed to a non-aggression pact with Russia, meaning that neither country would attack the other when they both invaded different parts of Poland. Germany broke this Nazi-Soviet pact in 1941 by invading Russia. By doing this Hitler had opened a two-front war, which he was not ready to fight. Germany's involvement in World War II ended along with its hopes of creating an empire in 1945, when Hitler committed suicide.

In conclusion, Hitler was an unsuccessful ruler of a single-party state. His few successes were generally more dependent on the weaknesses of others, such as the German people's susceptibility to propaganda and Europe's unwillingness to be strict with Germany, than on his own strengths as a dictator. Even with these accomplishments, Hitler did very little to help or improve his nation, instead merely improving his own image and that of his regime. In the end, almost everything that Hitler had achieved in his reign either proved to be superficial or collapsed after Nazi Germany's defeat in the Second World War.