Why did Hitler come to power?

1. Why did Hitler come to power? L.O. To examine causes and significance. To produce a mind map on the life and rise to power of Hitler. To classify reasons for rise of power into order of improtance.

2. Spelling and definition test! • Dictatorship is when one person or party runs the country without allowing opposition or voting (sometimes voting happens but there is only 1 party or person to vote for!) • Democracy is when every one is allowed a vote and a say in running the country

3. Spelling and definition test! • Communism is when everyone is considered equal. The state owns everything which means individuals could not become wealthy and everyone should be paid a good wage according to their ability (in theory) and have the same standard of living. • Capitalism is when people are allowed to work for profit and make their own money (Britain is a capitalist country), they are allowed to make their own decisions, some become rich others are poor

4. Word of the day • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI1i5yhwOz8 • Task: Write down in your own words what HYPERINFLATION WAS. Hyperinflation

5. What problems did Germany have first • On a post it write down your ideas on what life would have been like in Germany after the loss of WW1.

6. Did you come up with? They were angry about the Treaty of Versailles High Unemployment Everyone saw them as a joke As they had lost WW1

7. How did Hitler come to power? • Watch the video and make a list or a spider diagram of the ways Hitler got people to support him. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1uoB1BHScA

8. How did Hitler come to power? • Try to group reasons together (you could colour code them) • Possible groups might be: Fear of communism Hope The Depression Violence

9. The birth of the Nazi Party The Nazi Party began as the German Workers’ Party (DAP). Hitler joined it in 1919 when it had just six members. Before long, Hitler was running the party and holding meetings in halls and beer cellars. Hitler soon began to attract big audiences. This was due to the fact that he was an interesting and powerful speaker who could get his message across without using a microphone.

10. In 1920 Hitler renamed the party the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei(National Socialist German Workers’ Party) or Nazi Party. A 25-point programme was launched, including demands for provision to be made for old age, profit-sharing in the big industries and the abolition of the Treaty of Versailles. The party grew rapidly and had 3,000 members by 1920. The Nazi flag helped attract attention. Swastika: an ancient religious symbol

11. Party meetings As members of opposing parties often came to meetings to boo and heckle, meetings were often rowdy and violent. To deal with this opposition, Hitler set up a ‘GymnasticandSportsDivision’in 1921. It contained ex-soldiers who liked to fight, especially with Communists. This private army was later renamed the Sturm Abteilung (Storm Troopers) orSA. “A few angry cries, and a man suddenly leaped on a chair and yelled ‘Liberty!’ In a few seconds the hall was filled with a yelling and howling mob … Chair legs smashed, glasses shivered … My storm troops, as they were called from that day on, attacked. Like wolves they rushed in … on the enemy and began gradually to sweep them out of the hall…”Hitler’s account of a meeting in a beer hall in 1921. Once Hitler took over, why did the Nazi Party membership increase so rapidly?

12. What type of man was Hitler? Let’s look at some sources

13. Hitler the orator “Hitler is not a man but a megaphone…”The Observer, 1930. “The atmosphere of general enthusiasm into which the old city has been plunged is amazing and quite indescribable: the peculiar frenzy which has gripped hundreds of thousands of men and women, the excitement and mystic ecstasy which has overtaken them like a holy rapture…they return home seduced and taken in, ready to save the cause…” by the French Ambassador to Germany, on Hitler at the Nuremberg Rally, 1937.

14. “As time went on he became drunk with his own oratory … and his voice lost its former character through the intervention of microphone … In his early years he had a command of voice, phrase and effect which has never been equalled…”E Hanfstaegl, 1957. What skill put Hitler apart from many other politicians? How do you think this helped the Nazis gain support?

15. Hitler’s rise – an historian’s view Read the historians’ opinions on why Hitler came to power. Which do you most agree with and why? Zevedei Barbu(social psychologist):“Hitler succeeded not because of a conspiracy of the few but because his movements gave high hope to the many of solving the pressing psychological demands of a people living under conditions of acute stress. Defeated by war and broken by inflation, the … insecure Germans were attracted to Nazism because they felt … their personal problems would be solved…”

16. Why did people vote for Hitler?

17. Now have a go at the Hitler crossword.

18. How did Hitler come to power? • What do you think was the biggest reason? • Why?

19. Why did the Nazis come to power? Read the reasons given below and put them in order of importance. Hitler appointed chancellor of Germany. Germany finished paying reparations to France. The Reichstag agreed to the “Enabling Law”. Beer Hall Putsch. Nazi Party grows. The Great Depression – world trade has collapsed. Nazis are the largest party in the Reichstag. Reichstag dominated by power struggles, with many small political groups vying for power. Hitler wrote “Mein Kampf” while in prison. Kaiser Wilhelm flees Germany. The Reichstag Fire. France seizes German coalfields. The Nazis used the Jews as scapegoats for Germany’s problems. Unemployment worsens.

20. What was life like in Nazi Germany? • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD0LGY9lMRM

21. Homework • Complete the sheet of the things Hitler wanted from the bottom of the sheet and write them in the speech bubbles around the picture of HItler