Propaganda the Problem Instigator

I felt some slight confusion about the Weimar Republic so I thought I would give a little summary of the research I did to clarify, sorry if this is repetitive for anyone. The Constitution of the Weimar Republic set the stage for Hitler’s evil because Hitler goes on to use the parliamentary structure that was the basis of the Republic in 1919. After the abdication of the Kaiser and WWI there was still a weakened authority in place in Germany however its position was precarious. The position of Chancellor was transferred from Prince Max von Baden to Fredrich Ebert, who was the leader of the SPD. This interim government had immediate issues because of the Spartacus Group. The Spartacus Group was a left wing Marxist revolutionary movement that was organized during WWI. After the Spartacus Uprising many paramilitary groups were formed. (171) The group is named after the leader of the largest slave rebellion in the Roman Republic, Spartacus. As we discussed the group was founded by Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, and Clara Zetkin. The main issue with the interim government was that it quelled all of the social unrest with force. This forceful government intervention only led to worse anger. The question remains how did Hitler’s party, NSDAP, gain so much power? I find myself at an interesting crossroads here because although I am a fan of democracy the German democratic system was what gave Hitler and his party the ability to gain strength in politics because they were able to increase representation in the Reichstag.

My personal opinion on how the Nazi’s gained so much power in such a short time is the significant role that propaganda played. Propaganda is the advertisement of a political idea. The NSDAP initially used propaganda in the form of posters, public meetings, speeches, and this led to the conscious decision to present the party in a specific way. After the Munich Putsch fails the propaganda changes radically. Poster propaganda begins as basic words and then changes to be more image-based. Politics for Hitler was in essence propaganda meaning: “ceaseless mass mobilization for a cause to be followed blindly…” (170). Not only was the NSDAP initiating the propaganda but the masses of supporters were also creating propaganda for example “Germany’s Mussolini is called Adolf Hitler…Hitler’s followers [also] invented the Führer cult” (180). The main benefit of propaganda, other than it providing publicity is that it paid for itself (189). Meaning that whenever propaganda led to a new membership it bought more propaganda. The concept of propaganda as a whole is one of the simplest but most effective political advertising strategies and I believe that it was the main factor behind the Nazi Parties culmination of power.