Thursday, October 3, 2019
Why did Hitler become a Chancellor?
Why did Hitler become a Chancellor? On 30th January 1933, President Hindenburg invited Adolf Hitler in public and appointed him as the chancellor of Germany. Whilst some believed that Hitlers rise to power was inevitable, to others it came as astonishment. Many assumed that Hitlers rise to power was only due to his political brilliance and his witty Nazi tactics. Yet, there are many that believe that it had everything to do with the weakness of Weimar Republic and after the rising level of unemployment the German people were ready to accept a dictator. There are many reasons behind the rise of Adolf Hitler. The Munich Putsch was a major event in the rise of Adolf Hitler. Although the Nazis had progressed well from the end of World War One in 1919 to 1923 they did not have much support in Germany. There main support was in Bavaria and was no use to Hitler in Germany. So Hitler, along with the Nazis attempted to seize power 1923. Hitler believed that even though he only had three thousand members in the Nazi Party, he had a chance to win over Weimar Republic Government. However on 9th November 1923 Hitler and the Nazis were defeated. Although many say that this was a big defeat for the Nazi Party, others stated that even though the Putsch itself might have failed, it had launched the Nazis and Hitler into a national frame along with making Hitler famous. It was the main building block of Nazis success. Two days after the Munich Putsch, Adolf Hitler was captured and put to trial. Hitler was sentenced to five years imprisonment, but se rved less than nine months before he was released. Although the years after the Munich Putsch there were many difficult times for the Nazis, Hitler said, ââ¬Ëit was the greatest good fortune for us Nazi that the putsch collapsed because the Nazis were not yet prepared to face the great difficulties at the time. He also thought that the putsch ââ¬Ëhad proven the most effective propaganda for National Socialism. Hitler also had an opportunity to write his thought and vision in a book called, ââ¬ËMein Kampf. The collapse of the Munich Putsch persuaded Hitler that the only way of seizing power was ââ¬Ëlegal means. He introduced his own tactics into the Nazi Party system. He decided to reorganise the party and make it more effective for elections. Throughout the late 1920s the Nazis ran public meeting and worked on winning over the working classes. They had soon discovered that the anti-Semitism propaganda worked best amongst the working class. Propaganda worked best with them because it is ââ¬Ëbrainwashing of public and altering their viewpoint. There were many different Nazi Propagandas including posters, radios, films and newspapers. Though the Nazis had many different methods of propaganda, Hitler believed that posters were the best means of propaganda for various reasons. Posters were cheap and easy to distribute and was used for constant reminder of ideology. Hitler was finding it difficult to win over the middle classes. He finally realised that he had to focus more on his mes sage because the anti-Jewish message did not work well with the middle classes. He decided to criticise the government. There were many posters published criticising Gustav Stresemann and the Dawes Plan suggesting that there were holding Germany on ransom along with the Jewish bankers. The Nazis also held public meetings in various different parts of Germany in order to evoke the same feelings in the German citizens as the Nazi Members. Using this method, the Nazis developed a very accurate and sensitive system of propaganda. The Wall Street Clash in October 1929 was the beginning of a great depression but for the Nazis it was the biggest gift they could have ever received. Germany had been hit badly by this because they had to pay back the entire loan they had acquired from the USA as part of the Dawes Plan. In Germany, the depression affected different people in different ways. It was as if Germany had lost another World War. Unemployment had risen massively in Germany and even the businessmen, who always kept themselves well-protected, felt the impacts of the Great Depression. Everyone in Germany was suffering apart from the Nazis. Everyone, from Businessmen to factory workers and farmers were hoping that the government, Weimar Republic would help them. Six million German people were unemployed and others were hanging on to their hinges. But the Weimar Republic had no idea what to do about the problem of rising unemployment and poverty. It was the second major economic devastation for the Weimar Consti tution. They had resisted themselves from printing more money and increasing government expenditure due to the impact it had on Hyper-inflation in1923. Instead they increased taxes, cut benefits and reduced unemployment benefits. They were not winning the support of German people. Weimar Republic seemed to have made a hopeless mess of handling the situation. They were already struggling due to the consequences Germany had to face after the end of World War One in 1919. Germany had lost land and their army had to be cut down to 100,000 men only which meant that many ex-soldiers who had fought in World War One were unemployed. They were angry with Weimar Constitution for accepting defeat and were eager to get back their revenge. And now Weimar Republics policies had given too much power to the President, the States and the army which weakened the Reichstag as well as dividing them into different groups. Many more inhabitants of Germany, who didnt vote before became more interested in politics because they needed someone who can better the situation. Extremists parties like the Communists part and the Nazi Party became better known among those who were desperately in need of help. The Nazi said that the Weimar Republic is to be blamed, the treaty of Versailles and the Jews. They assured the angry Germans that Hitler was their man. The Nazis promised to reduce unemployment by putting them back to work on road building and public works. Hitler had his plans on how to attract many sections of society. Some of his ideas that attracted the Germans included ââ¬ËRip up the Treaty of Versailles, Work Freedom and Bread and Germany as a national and prideful state. Hitler clearly knew the desires of the Germans and was quick to promise anything that would help the Nazis gain vote in the Reichstag. Whilst, on the other hand the Communists Party said that the Depression showed the capitalist system has doomed and that the only answer was communism. Hitler became aware of the strong oppositions and thus along with Ernst Rohm and Hermann Goring he introduced his own set of men to destroy the opposition, the SA. They wore brown uniform and knew how to deal with the Communists. They were not only used to intimidate opponents but also to gain support for the Nazi Party. During this time Hitler mostly used his leadership skills and tactics to gain as much supporter and power as possible. He was an excellent public speaker and was easily able to put his points across with his powerful and moving speeches. Along with getting his views to his crowd he also demonstrated to them his excellent and strong leadership in the ââ¬ËGreat German tradition dating back to Kaiser and beyond. His strong personality and powerful ideas seemed to outwit the Weimar Republic. This had a great impact on the elections in 1930. The Nazis made their first great breakthrough when they gained a total of 107 seats in the Reichstag. They were suddenly the second biggest party and at the time, they seemed likely to take over. They were seen as a major force in German history and politics. But what got them these seats? The Nazis were ex-soldiers who felt as if the Treaty of Versailles was a ââ¬Ëstab on the back and what they brought with them was decisive. There excellent te amwork and obedience enabled Hitler to work through the whole of Germany. Another of Hitlers main tools was his henchmen; Joseph Goebbels was an effective piece of propaganda. He was well trained and used every means to pass his message across. Though he wasnt as good as Hitler, he was intelligent and new how to bring up hatred for the Communists and Jews. He created excellent poster that created fear and disgust not only for the Jews but also the Communists. Hitler was then able to point out that the Nazis knew how to deal with the Communists and their records showed this. The Nazi Party also had support from rich industrialists. Usually rich industrialists voted for the Conservatives Party but after the elections in 1930, they started supporting the Nationalists. Hitler agreed to make a deal with the right wing nationalists and the two parties agreed to co-operate. Hitler used this deal as a financial backup. This showed the Nazi Party was quite flexible. If they realised that if a proposal was not working for them they would change it. Not only did Hitler use tactics but weakness of opposition parties supported them along with the elections and uprising of the Nazi Party. Other opposition like the Social Democrats underestimated the Nazis. They saw that there support was constant and so they were not willing to change their policies. In 1932, the weakness of Weimar Constitution was clear to all Germans. The Weimar Republic was already unpopular amongst the Germans because they had agreed to sign the Treaty of Versailles and this had left many Germans and ex-soldiers bitter. The Germans were also largely affected by the Depression because they were already damaged by having to pay large sums as part of the reparation. They were then attracted to extremists groups like the Nazis and the Nationalists. Germany was run by an 84 years old man, President Hindenburg. No political leader was strong enough to rule Germany. At the time, the Nazi Party was the largest party and normally the leader of such party was likely to become leader. In this case it was Adolf Hitler. But the only thing that stood in between Hitler and him becoming the chancellor was President Hindenburg. He disliked Hitler along with other Reichstag members who would not work with Hitler. In July 1932 elections, the Nazis won 37.3% of the votes (230 se ats) and had once again proved to be the largest party. Hitler demanded to be appointed as the Chancellor but Hindenburg refused and he said, ââ¬ËI cannot give all the power to an unorganised and intolerant and violent party. Though after this event, many industrialists and politics wrote to Hindenburg and persuaded his to give Hitler dictatorship. After high pressure, Hindenburg appointed his favourite man, Franz con Papen to be the chancellor of Germany. Von Papen had no support but had hoped to create a right wing coalition government with the support of the Nazis. Hitler was furious that Hindenburg had selected Franz von Papen to be the dictator and thus refused to co-operate with von Papen. Hindenburg decided to call another election. However, this time it was a bad time for the Nazis. They were facing the financial crisis. Though surprisingly help came from two men, General von Schleicher and Franz von Papen. Von Schleicher had stopped supporting Von Papen and decided he hi mself should become Chancellor. So in December 1932 von Schleicher was appointed the chancellor of Prussia. Unfortunately, this triggered off a power struggle between these two men. Schleicher admitted defeat and Hindenburg wanted to re-appoint von Papen but he refused. Instead he suggested that Hindenburg should appoint Hitler instead because as long as the numbers of Nazis in the cabinet are limited the most extreme of Nazi policies could easily be resisted. Following this, President Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as the Chancellor of Germany and von Papen as the vice-chancellor of Germany. They (Hindenburg and von Papen) believed that Hitler would be tamed. In conclusion, I believe that the main reason behind Hitler becoming the Chancellor of Germany is the political manoeuvring between Franz von Papen and General von Schleicher. After von Schleicher had failed, von Papen persuaded Hindenburg that another option now existed. The Nazis together Nationalists would have a realistic chance of gaining the majority number of seats in the Reichstag. However Hindenburg was still a little bit cautious, he wasnt very enthusiastic on appointing Hitler as chancellor due to his extreme ideas. He had on a previous occasion refused to appoint Hitler. The Nazis were also suffering from a big problem. They were running toward bankruptcy and were gradually losing seats in the Reichstag. Many of their supporters have left and this could be due to Hitler failing to become the chancellor on various occasions. The Communists votes were increasing and the Nazis were going towards the biggest landslide they would have to face. I believe that if the political p ower struggle wouldnt have occurred then Hitler would not have come to power. I believe that economical power was Hitlers and the Nazis backbone and in 1932 their backbone was due to break. This is basically what helped in revealing the great frame in Hitlers rise to power in Germany in January 1933 as he was appointed as Chancellor and the rise of ââ¬ËGreat Evil began. The Monk by Matthew Lewis | Summary and Analysis The Monk by Matthew Lewis | Summary and Analysis Introduction The monk which is an historical novel written by Matthew Lewis in 1796, is noted as one of the most complicated among the classic gothic novels that were published in those times; between 1764 and 1820). From the begging, the novel portrays reveals sexuality and the meaning of catholic lust and incest. The novel later overted the complicated and homoerotic nuances of sexuality which have shocked and intrigued those readers who believe in the more chaste and faithful oeuvres of Radcliffe Ann. The thesis of the novel which can be regarded as the black legend of monastic Catholism was agreed to and upheld by those individuals who were hostile to the Catholic Church in France and England (Steven Blakemore, 1998). According to Steven, Catholism avoided the pure religion which in turn promoted deviant sexual practices which came from the unnatural vows of chastity that violated nature. The sexual repression of catholic stimulated the obscure insincerity that covered the orgiastic sexuality carried out in unnatural and convents and monasteries. In England, the demonization of sex by the aberrant catholic other was part of the ideological formation of national identity of protestants in England. Moreover the monk was published at a time when france was at war with England and the French revolution was still linked with the terror. As a result there were a series of political and sexual anxieties, in particular anxieties concerning feminine men and masculine men. These anxieties are also involved in the contexts and texts of The Monk. According to Steven, although the critics have for along time focused on the erotic dimensions of the novel, its many inversions in sex and religion as well as the ideological implications of the attendants, have not yet been systematically evaluated. Lewis in his writing of the monk, he performs linguistically the equivalent of a black mass, while subverting and inverting the traditional purposes of sex and religion, which is an ironical correspondence of the satanic ceremonies in the novel. This paper concentrates on the significance of sexual and religious inversions in the novel The Monk while making references to the gendered language of femininity and masculinity. The paper also extends its research to the way these inversions inform about the connection between misogyny and feminine, catholic Other in the protestant discourse of the eighteenth century. Sexual and religious inversions in The Monk The idea of anti-Catholicism in the monk is basically portrayed through Ambrosio; who was a chief catholic villain. Ambrosio was discovered as an infant at the door of abbey, raised by the church, but latter became flair. Having been brought up by the church, Ambrosio rose to the position of abbot and was celebrated in the whole of Madrid while being respected for his virtue particularly his strict respect for chastity. Since the beginning, Ambrosio is put in a feminine position, as a young virgin who is sheltered and protected so that she can maintain her virtue and innocence. More so Ambrosio is not familiar to the world and its temptations. In the monk, the emphasis on monastic male chastity by the catholic, which is normally a condemned issue in the literature of Protestants, has its base in female virtue and virginity, which has been an issue in most of the novels and conduct books of the nineteenth century. In t this context, Ambrosio is particularly related to Antonio who is also a sheltered and protected young virgin and equally unknown to the world and its temptations just like Ambrosio (p.12). In this story, Antonio and Ambrosio are a sister and a brother but both of them are not aware of the blood relationship since they had been separated during their early ages. On the other hand both Antonio and Ambrosio seem to have a sublimated, mutual incestuous attraction. An admirer of Antonio, who was known as Lorenzo, identified Ambrosio to Antonio and her aunt Leonella while thematically presenting Ambrosio as a virgin by referring to his story; where he was found and how he was brought up. Ambrosio was found/ discovered at the capuchins door and was therefore largely believed to a present from Virgin Mary (p.17). Ambrosio who was thirty years at that time, had lived in seclusion from the outside world and therefore knew nothing about sex, actually he was a strict observer of chastity and knew nothing of what consisted the difference between a man and a woman (p.17). His character was undisputable, and had not been stained. The author of the monk uses suggestively gendered language, to make the male monk appear like a holy virtuous female and then connects him with Antonio a female who is also ignorant of sex. Leonellas ridiculous reply that Antonio, just like Ambrosio does not know the difference between an man and woman and that she views everybody as being of the same sex with herself, happen to connect the same brother and sister together (pp17-18). The authors point in using metaphors and suggestively gendered language is to show that the vows of chastity in catholic feminize monks who then are made susceptible to hypocrisy and temptation by their sexual ignorance. This is emphasized when Rosaria, a fiend camouflaged as a young male novitiate, discloses that he is actually a woman. Rosaria, whose real name was Matilda had reformulated Leonellas unworkable imperative. Just like Antonio, Ambrosio was supposed to forget that Matilda was a woman because she had disguised her sex so that she could be fr iends with Leonella and shield him from sexual knowledge (p.63). The fact that Matilda is actually an evil spirit (demon), who pretends to be a woman while she is a man, exploits the sexual controversy as well as brings confusion of gender roles in the novel. Sexual knowledge in the novel is viewed as the forbidden apple which makes which tempts allusively the feminized monk to fall. Matilda is at the same time archetypal fatale woman who later corrupts the virtues of Ambrosio. However hi devilish seduction is enhanced by Ambrosios ignorance on sexual matters which then makes him very susceptible to Matildas seduction. Ambrosio evaluates his repressed attraction to Matilda by repeating her seductive arguments after showing her nakedness to him; may I not safely credit her assertions? Will it not be easy for me to forget her sex and consider her as my friend and as my disciple?, She strove to keep me in ignorant of her sex.. She has not made attempts to rouse my slumbering passions, nor has she ever conversed with me till this night on the subject of love (PP.66-67). According to Lewis (), prelapsarian ignorance and innocence of knowledge about sex is an illusion, hence Ambrosio is easily lured into sexual relationship with the deceiving Matilda: the sexual repression lastly ends up in the very knowledge which the monk was denying. Ambrosio is also further feminized by vocabulary that is specifically gendered which contextually differentiated by the female from the male sex, but them its averted and reapplied by Lewis to the central catholic villain of the novel. In the eighteenth century such words like virtue, innocence, shame and honor, had a gendered significance. For example a, word like virtue came from a Latin word vir which means man, while virtus implied masculine strength, excellence and courage. Generally the word meant male virtue. Although it had other meanings, when applied to the sexes the word signified sexual division of labor. In the monk, just like a gendered virgin of the eighteenth century, Ambrosio is respected for his virtue, particularly his chastity which on the other side makes him susceptible to temptations of sex. In the early part of the book, Lorenzo indicates that although the character of Ambrosio is undisputable since he had grown up in the monastery for his whole life, he is therefore not ready to face the world together with its temptations. Lorenzo noted that being a monk the ecclesiastical duties of Ambrosio will make him enter into the outside world where his virtue and righteousness will be put to test. The Monkââ¬â¢s numerous sexual, religious interventions and their attendant ideological implications have not been systematically explored.â⬠He goes on to say, ââ¬Å"In this context, I focus on the significance of the novelââ¬â¢s sexual and religious inversions with reference to the gendered language of ââ¬Å"masculinityâ⬠and femininity,â⬠Works cited Steven Blakemore 1998 Matthew Lewiss black mass: sexual, religious inversion in ââ¬Ëthe monk. (http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1g1-54196880.html)
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