Vo, Kayla
Period 3
3/28/14
The Nazi Party’s Ascension to Power in Germany
The signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 intended to bring worldwide peace after World War I and to penalize Germany for being responsible for the casualties that resulted. The penalty caused Germany to lose its pride, power, and nationalism, thus leaving the country in a helpless economic state and in an abyss. This poor condition after the Great War in 1918 caused citizens to have a strong will for change, which provided the perfect stage for political parties to rise in power. One political party in particular, the National Socialist German Worker's Party--otherwise known as the Nazi Party--captured the interest of the German public. Led by Adolf Hitler,
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The Nazi Party used forms of propaganda, including photography, posters, rallies, and literature, as a crucial instrument for their ascension to power and to publically promote their policies to the German people. The Nazi party was represented by their principal symbol, the swastika flag, which took up a black, white, and red color scheme. To wholly promote the Nazi party, posters, flags, and other media were displayed all throughout Germany. A photograph of a German Dry Goods Store taken in 1936 features many swastika flags hanging on the walls and signs saying the Nazi salutation, “Heil Hitler”, meaning “Hail Hitler” (Document 7). This shows that Nazi propaganda was featured in almost every common place in order to promote their ideology to the common public, and that the party itself was gaining support. A German newspaper article about the Nazi Party Nuremberg Convention stated that “...innumerable swastika flags [fluttered] in the evening breeze, torn from the darkness by the floodlights, and [provided] a sharp contrast to the pitch black nocturnal sky…” and that numerous applauses were heard (Document 8). The German newspaper promotes Adolf Hitler and his party by revealing that the Nazi Party’s intriguing symbol was featured everywhere in the convention and that many people were applauding and were supportive of them. In addition, literary works, such as Hitler’s Mein Kampf, were published in Germany to promote Hitler’s ideas on his nation, which the Nazi Party was built based on. With the mass promotion of the Nazi Party all across Germany, the party gained the public’s support through the spread