The Rise of Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was one of history's notorious villains. He used his gift of speech to persuade people to follow him and the Nazis. Hitler did not become a success quickly, but through sheer determination and perseverance, he managed to entice people to follow his ideas. This essay will be discussing the rise of Hitler and the Nazis during 1919 to 1933.

One of the major events that occurred which affected Hitler's rise was when Hitler joined the German Worker's Party in 1919. He was one of the seven committee members who headed the political party. The Worker's Party held meetings to discuss the existing government and its weaknesses, to reminisce about the days before the war, to talk about the threat posed by the communists and to discuss about the enemy within Germany, the Jews. Hitler was hardly satisfied with the idea of discussion and "sought" to create a force for change, says Holocaust "An End to Innocence".

Hitler then decided to voice out his ideas by planning an evening of speech, by placing advertisements in a local anti-Semitism newspaper. His plan turned out to be successful. From then on the weekly meetings had more people, so did the German Workers Party.

Another event occurred after which played an important part in the rise of Hitler. It is the Munich Putsch in 1923. The Munich Putsch was an attempt by the Nazis to seize control of Bavaria in November 1923, and then to try gain control of Germany. With his huge party of Nazis and army of storm troopers, Hitler decided to hold a revolution. But it all failed, and Hitler was sent to prison.

Although this failure occurred, it propelled Hitler to try harder in gaining control of Germany. During his imprisonment, Hitler wrote a book entitled 'Mein Kampf' or My Struggle. This book was an autobiography, which stipulated some of Hitler's future plans. This book sold millions of copies after Hitler published it. The Munich Putsch and Mein Kampf brought him closer to his goal in taking over Germany.

Even though Hitler had lots of power, he had a huge amount of opposition. He used three main groups to help him exterminate the opposition. They were the Gestapo, S.S and S.A. An event also happened, which was known as the Night of Long Knives.

Gestapo means "secret police". They were used to eliminate Hitler's threats and fear and were the official secret police of Nazi Germany, led by Hermann Goeing. Their job was to kill Hitler Germans who opposed Nazism or showed any disloyal act which was normally a sabotage by people or when caught red handed. They were also responsible for the round up of the Jews throughout Europe for deportation to work camps and death camps.

Adolf Hitler founded the Schutzstaffel (SS) in April of 1925, as a group of personal bodyguards. As time went on, this small band of bodyguards grew from 300 members in 1925 to 50,000 in 1933 when Hitler took office. The man responsible for this growth was Heinrich Himmler, who commanded the SS from 1929. The General SS dealt with local police matters and with "racial matters."

Another group is called the S.A. In 1921 Adolf Hitler formed his own private army called S.A. The SA (also known as stormtroopers or brownshirts) were instructed to disrupt the meetings of political opponents and to protect Hitler from revenge attacks. Captain Ernst Roehm became the SA's first leader. The SA wore grey jackets, brown shirts swastika armbands, ski-caps, knee-breeches, thick woollen socks and combat boots. Accompanied by bands of musicians and carrying swastika flags, they would parade through the streets of Munich. At the end of the march, Hitler would make one of his passionate speeches that encouraged his supporters to carry out acts of violence against Jews and his left-wing political opponents.

Night of the Long Knives refers to a night in which Hitler wiped out his political rivals in the Nazi party and also used the opportunity to murder external political opponents too. The SA was a Nazi paramilitary organisation that helped Hitler to power but by 1934 their leadership was seen as a threat to Hitler. For example, they wanted a socialist style revolution whereas Hitler could not do this without risking the loss of the support of the Army and the capitalists who helped him to attain power. The SA leaders, like Ernst Röhm,