Nazi Impact

There is no doubt Hitler was successful in mesmerizing the German masses to vote for the Nazi party in 1933. It is fair to say that a madman who was not under public scrutiny could become Chancellor. But there is no doubt that behind Hitler's ability to arouse the German people through fiery, nationalistic speeches, he was as argued a total demagogue who became delusional with the notion that he had the last word on every matter.

He was not an expert on economics, military affairs, and foreign affairs. Initially unemployment fell as Germany began recovering on the economic front. The Nazi party implemented four programs: the creation of the autobahn highway, investment in housing and government buildings, and finally the largest investment went to reviving the nation's military. According to Kitchen, Germany spent 90 thousand million marks on defence. This proved to be a bad idea in the long run, the Nazi regime soon faced severe shortages of raw materials and food. Kitchen wrote, "In 1938, meat consumption was still below the 1929 level and there was a shortage of quality consumer goods." Hitler was so focused on Germany avenging it's humiliating defeat in World War I, that his regime made sure that by all means, money and all the resources would be devoting in re-arming the German military.

This leads to my second point, money was poured to give Germany a better army, an improved navy, and exceptional airforce, the Luftwaffe. The only problem was Hitler was not a brilliant military strategist and his decisions to lead Germany to invade Britain and the Soviet Union was nothing short but a fiasco. Hitler was obssesed with expanding the Third Reich that he himself made the decision to invade Soviet Union. His strategy costed Germany and became a turning point in World War II.

The last point, Hitler was not an expert on foreign affairs. He did invade Czechslovikia and annexed Austria. But when he invaded Poland, it was then that Britain and France declared war on his country. Hitler's army did enjoy the early victories, but these victories soon turned out to be defeats when the Fuhrer decided to ignore the German-Soviet Pact which promised that neither country would invade one another.

Failure of the Weimer Republic

The Weimer Republic failed largely due to Germany never experiencing a democratic system in dire times when the nation is facing the biggest post-World War I crisis. Historically, Germany has always turned to strong, iron-fist leaders such as Bismarck to alleviate the nation's woes. However this time around, no larger than life leader with strong political will could solve the rising unemploment, frustration, and disillusionment among the German people. It can be said as well that the Germans themselves were reality deniers and actually never gave a chance to support the government in harsh socio-economic times.

The Weimer Republic failed to address important problems. It, first, I believe failed to communicate with the people. When Franklin Roosevelt was elected president, he conducted "fire-side" chats with the American people. He was constantly in tuned to the needs and concerns of the American people whereas it seemed that the German politicians did not at once seem to care about communicating via radio or hold mass rallies to get their message across to the Germans. Once again this is largely due to previous 3-tier class system that every German from a wealthy man to penniless hobo knew and conformed to.

Unfortunately, the reason why the Nazis were able to capture power was Hitler's ability to communicate his ideas to Germans. He was able to establish a connection, that in contrast, the leaders of Weimer Republic could not do.