In the decade after World War 1, Germany was thrown into chaos. After the Kaiser was overthrown, various factions throughout Germany tried to gain power, such as the Communists, the Social Democrats, Spartacists, the Freikorps, the Reichswehr, while the German Republic struggled to keep power. The violence continued into the 1930s, with far-right and far-left members murdering each other. Meanwhile, the crisis was exacerbated by the Great Depression, which caused severe levels of hyperinflation. On top of that, after the harsh Treaty of Versailles, there was mass resentment in Germany, and a common drive to reverse those terms, no matter the cost. So in the 1932 German elections, when the Nazi party promised to end the chaos, fix the economy, and most importantly, retake the territory lost in 1919, and make Germany a superpower again. The people loved this, and voted Hitler into power, where he became chancellor. However, not everyone loved Hitler, and thought he was dangerous and would try to subvert German Democracy. Hitler had just gained power, now he had to keep it.

After becoming chancellor, Hitler had to maintain political power despite center, lift wing and right wing opposition. In the end, he was successful as he wiped out all his opposition in the Night of the Long Knives, used the Enabling act to set up a dictatorship, and used propaganda to make the German people support their ideology. After the Reichstag, the German Parliament building, was set on fire, he convinced the parliament to pass the Enabling act which allowed Hitler to enact laws that did not need to be approved by the German Parliament, or President Hindenburg. This was passed so that the nation could be protected against Communist uprisings, but Hitler used it to do whatever he wanted, as nobody was going to stop him. To make sure the law passed, Hitler got the Nazi paramilitary organization, the Stormtroopers, or SA, to imprison the communists and Social Democrats, preventing them from voting. Soon after the Enabling Act passed, he began setting up concentration camps at Dachau to imprison Communists, Social Democrats, and Jews. After Hindenburg died in 1934, Hitler became an absolute dictator, and anyone who dared oppose him would go to a concentration camp. Dachau was run by the SS, so, unlike prisons, they aren’t subject to judicial review, meaning Hitler could do what he wanted. 

Meanwhile, he also ordered a purge of the Nazi the Stormtroopers, while also killing his political opponents, in the Night of the Long Knives. This was because Hitler soon realized that, if he wanted to gain complete power in Germany, he needed the unwavering support of the army, which wasn’t going to come from the SA, as Ernst Rohm, the leader of the SA, suggested merging the SA and the Reichswehr to create a new “People’s Army”. However, this would not stand with the army, so they proposed that, if Rohm was eliminated, the army would support Hitler. On the Night of the Long Knives, the SS murdered Rohm, but also various other opponents of the Nazi Regime, including the right wing former chancellor Kurt von Schleicher, and various others. Hitler defended his actions, claiming that Rohm was trying to overthrow the government. This gained Hitler favorable support within the Army, so when President Hindenburg died, the Army Generals, rather than swearing an oath to Germany and the Constitution, swore an oath to Hitler. This would make Hitler have absolute political power in Germany.

However, after securing power politically, Hitler had to gain support among the German Population. Because of the Great Depression, Hitler had to maintain power economically through the construction of the Autobahn, intense job creation programs, and the Volkswagen program. During the Great Depression, the German economy collapsed, and hyperinflation soared as the government printed more money to pay their reparations to the Allies. The Autobahn was a major highway system across Germany, much like the interstate system in the United States, but was built earlier, in the 1930’s. Now, the Nazi’s used the construction of the Autobahn to their advantage in gaining support among the German people by showing that the Nazi’s were doing something to create jobs and fix the economy. This is shown by seeing that voting records from 1933 and 1934 show that the areas where the Autobahn was constructed, even when they in 1933 were solidly in opposition to Hitler, were pro Nazi by the time of the next elections. This can be seen as a sign that the Nazi’s were jumpstarting the economy, while the Weimar government could not. 

Meanwhile, Hitler also created the Volkswagen, or People’s car project as part of the Strength through Joy Program, to again show that the German economy was improving to the satisfaction of the people. However, the car was a fraud, as it was stolen from Czech designs, and was rebranded as the Volkswagen Beetle, which would become one of the best selling cars in history, and made Volkswagen one of the largest car manufacturers in the world. Despite that, the German people believed these promises. Also, the Nazi’s made an investment program into the car by making workers across Germany into putting some of their wages into the production of the car. But, the funds were actually used for rearmament, and none of the workers got a Volkswagen in return.

However, the biggest problem the Nazi’s had to face was unemployment. They had to combat this by creating laws and initiatives to reduce the unemployment in Germany, including the Battle for Work program and the already mentioned Autobahn programs. This was seemingly successful, as from 1933 to 1936, the unemployment rate dropped from 26% to 7%. However, this was more of how the world economy improved, rather than the Nazi’s fixing it, but it appeared to the German people that Hitler had done the impossible and fixed the economy.

However, maintaining political and economical power were one thing, but Hitler and the Nazi’s wanted their ideology to permanently remain in German circles forever, and had to maintain power socially. This was done by setting up a national community that supported the Germans and indoctrinated them into the Nazi ideology, and getting the next generation into it through the Hitler Youth.

Hitler and the Nazi’s ideology was that the German and Germanic peoples were part of the Aryan Race, a race superior to all others, and that everyone else, but especially Slavs and Jews were subhuman. To prove the German people’s superiority, Hitler created a national community where only Germans were allowed in. This was former enforced by the Nazi’s strict enforcement of Germans working to preserve the racial state, including getting rid of priorities such as school and church. Meanwhile, the Nazi’s also created propaganda to paint themselves as superior. Meanwhile, they treated others like animals, locking them in concentration camps, which would later lead to the Holocaust.

However, if Hitler really wanted to maintain his grip on Germany, he had to indoctrinate his beliefs onto the next generation, the children. This was done through the Hitler youth. The Hitler Youth was the Nazi Party’s youth organization that, after Hitler gained power, rapidly expanded. This wasn’t so much on kids suddenly wanting to join, but more through peer pressure, pressure from the Nai regime, and coercion. This led to the membership of the Hitler Youth skyrocketing, from only 100,000 members in 1933 to around 7.2 million, 82% of all German 10-18 youth, were in the organization. However, this organization indoctrinated young people into the Nazi ideology, and imposed conformity. Meetings were required, so children often had to leave other activities, like school, church, and family. This weakened the role of those institutions, to the point of the Hitler youth being the dominant part of children’s lives, making them fully indoctrinated into Hitler’s ideology.

By 1936, Hitler’s dominance on Germany was complete, and he had full control of the country. He had seemingly fixed the German economy, which made him well loved among the German people, thanks to Job Creation, the Autobahn, and the Volkswagen program. He had instilled propaganda into the hearts and minds of the German people, making them indoctrinated into the Nazi ideology. And most importantly of all, Hitler had complete power politically, as he had total support of the army, and anyone who dared oppose Hitler would be sent to the concentration camps. Hitler appeared to be unstoppable. However, his ambition didn’t end with controlling Germany. Ever since 1919, the Germans had sought to reverse the Treaty of Versailles, to cancel the reparations and regain their lost territories. Hitler further wanted to unite the German people, as much of the German population was in other areas in Central Europe, like Austria, Poland, Switzerland, and other places. With Germany openly defying the terms of the treaty through remilitarization and beginning of expansion, Germany was being seen again as a threat to the nations of Europe, and it would soon begin the deadliest conflict in human history. A new World War was about to begin…