Questions
1. Describe the problems faced by the Weimar Republic.
2. Discuss why Nazism became popular in Germany by 1930.
3. What are the peculiar features of Nazi thinking?
4. Explain why Nazi propaganda was effective in creating a hatred for Jews.
5. Explain what role women had in Nazi society. Return to Chapter 1 on the
French Revolution. Write a paragraph comparing and contrasting the role of
women in the two periods.
6. In what ways did the Nazi state seek to establish total control over its people ?
Answers
Explanation:
Explain why Nazi propaganda was effective in creating a hatred for Jews.
5. Explain what role women had in Nazi society. Return to Chapter 1 on the
French Revolution. Write a paragraph comparing and contrasting the role of
women in the two periods.
6. In what ways did the Nazi state seek to establish total control over its people ?
Answer:
2.
Explanation:
It was during the Great Depression that Nazism became a mass movement. After 1929, banks collapsed and businesses shut down, workers lost their jobs and the middle classes were threatened with destitution.
In such a situation Nazi propaganda stirred hopes of a better future. In 1928, the Nazi Party got no more than 2. 6 per cent votes in the Reichstag – the German parliament.
By 1932, it had become the largest party with 37 per cent votes.
Hitler was a powerful speaker. His passion and his words moved people. He promised to build a strong nation, undo the injustice of the Versailles Treaty and restore the dignity of the German people. He promised employment for those looking for work, and a secure future for the youth. He promised to weed out all foreign influences and resist all foreign ‘conspiracies’ against Germany.
Hitler devised a new style of politics. He understood the significance of rituals and spectacle in mass mobilisation.
Nazis held massive rallies and public meetings to demonstrate the support for Nazi propaganda skilfully projected Hitler as a messiah, a saviour, as someone who had arrived to deliver people from their distress. It is an image that captured the imagination of a people whose sense of dignity and pride had been shattered, and who were living in a time of acute economic and political crises Hitler and instil a sense of unity among the people.