The Rise of the National Socialist German Worker's Party (Nazi Party)

When we her the word 'Nazi,' we think of terrible people, killing for the hell of it and brutally gaining power while advancing towards Moscow and Dunkirk. We think of them quickly gaining ground, committing atrocious war crimes, and of flaming convoy ships falling out of formation, struck by a U-Boot's torpedo.

And then we think of them getting quickly dismantled by the allies 1944-45. But how did they get there? How did a political party that suppressed freedom and believed in ethnic cleansing gain the popular vote? To see how, we need to travel back the end of WWII, where the Triple Entente along with some allies formed the Treaty of Versailles, or as I like to call it, the "how far can we screw Germany over" game. The Treaty limited almost all aspects of the German economy and government. The economically rich Rhineland was "given" to France, the military was cut down to a ridiculously small amount, and the submarine force, the pride of Germany, was all but destroyed. Suffice it to say that the German people were not happy. Germany also had to pay 132 billion gold marks (33 million 1919 USD, or 482 MILLION current USD) of reparations to France and Britain for "starting the war." The government somehow forgot how currency value worked and printed a ton of money to pay the reparations. This is really dumb because 1) currency value is based on how much there is (the more there is the less it's worth) and 2) if you print a ton of money, you're goinna to trigger hyperinflation (dun dun dunnnnnnn). So yeah. Everyone's cash money sorta became worthless. That was too cash money of them.

The situation closely paralleled the Great Depression, although it only lasted from 1921-23. During this time, everything went down in the Wiemar Republic. It became cheaper to burn bank notes then to buy firewood. People would bring literal wheelbarrows full of money just to buy bread. Children built kites and played with banknotes and literal stacks of money because the money was nearly worthless. In January 1915, 1 US dollar (1915 dollars) was equal to 4.18 Marks (German currency). Fast forwards only 9 years later to December 1923, 1 USD was worth .... 4.2 TRILLION marks. The value of Marks dropped by 1,000,000,000% in 9 years. This upset many people, and one of those people, Anton Drexler, a nationalistic man who was bitterly opposed to the Treaty of Versailles' terms. In January 1919, Drexler created the German Worker's Party. As early as 1920, the party was openly anti-Semitic, selling tobacco labelled "Anti-Semit." At around this time, the head of the Education and Propaganda Department, Captain Mayr, appointed Hitler as an intelligence agent, and told him to infiltrate the Nazi Party and 'influence other soldiers,' whatever that means. Hitler liked the ideas of the Party, and following the encouragement of his superiors (!) joined the party as member 555 (actually 55. The Party started counting from 500 to make themselves seem bigger). He later falsified his document by erasing the 555 and writing in 7.

Hitler's Party membership card

In the early 20's, Hitler became Chief of Propaganda for the National Socialists, as his talent for persuasive speech was recognized by other party members. As Party membership grew, crowds flocked to see Hitler's speeches. The topics were always the same: The Treaty of Versailles, and the "Jewish Question." On July 29 1921, Hitler replaced Drexler as party chairman by a vote of 533 to 1. Yeah. Hitler was quite persuasive. In 1923, the Party (which now had a significant following) held a rally in a beer hall. Maybe everyone was drunk, or maybe they actually thought that it was a good idea, so they decided to try a coup d'etat, or putsch in German. They were quickly stopped by the police and the army. This became known as the Beer Hall Putsch, something you might remember from Freshman history class (or was it CWI?). Hitler and some other Nazis were arrested and given surprisingly short sentences, and so received only about a year of jail time. during this time, Hitler wrote his book Mein Kampf ("My Suffering"), a sorta bibliographical political manifesto. After getting out of jail, Hitler was surprised that the Nazi Party had been banned in Germany. In 1925, after a few months out of prison, Hitler convince some Bavarian officials to remove the ban on the Nazi Party.  By 1930, the leadership of the Party had all been handpicked by Hitler. Some of these officials might sound familiar: Heinrich Himmler, Joeseph Goebbels, and Hermann Goering. These men would go on to have a huge role in WWII. As the Great Depression impacted Germany, Hitler saw an opportunity for his party. In the 1932 elections, the Nazis became the largest political party by quite a bit. Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933. And then the Reichstag, the German parliamentary building, burned down. Hitler blamed this on political opponents (basically anyone who wasn't a Nazi). He pressured the President to issue the Reichstag fire Decree which removed most Civil liberties. One of the final blows came in 1933, when the parliament voted in the Enabling act of 1933. This gave the cabinet the power to enact laws without the approval of the parliament. This basically made Hitler a dictator. He used this power to the fullest extent, imprisoning political opponents, and abolishing labor unions and other political parties. By the end of the 30's, the Nazis had absolute power in Germany, using this power to carry out the Holocaust and wage the Second World War.

German Panzer V "Panther" medium tanks in action