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Hitler's Silent Rise to Power Essay

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In the aftermath of World War I, Europe faced financial, economic, and physical devastation. Although figures are still exactly unknown, according to Encyclopedia Britannica (2011), it is believed that nearly 8.5 million soldiers died, while approximately 21 million were wounded. Vast areas of north-eastern Europe had been reduced to rubble and ruined. Furthermore, the infrastructure of the region was so severely damaged that such loss greatly hindered the area's ability to function normally. Consequently, someone needed to make amends for the fiscal instability in the region, and according to the United States, Great Britain, and France; Germany was the lone scapegoat. This angered the German citizens and through the use …show more content…

Through the Treaty of Versailles, the Great Depression of 1929, and political appointment by incompetent yet manipulative government officials, Adolf Hitler was able to silently rise to power in Germany, consequently causing the Second World War. In order to fully understand the role the Treaty of Versailles played in the initial upcoming of Adolf Hitler, we must first delve into the reasoning behind German involvement in World War One. Since the late 1800s, Germany was intent on expanding its borders, by any means necessary. Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Germany, was obsessed with his desire to “create a German Empire out of the group of smaller German states” mainly under Austria-Hungary’s authority (Schmidt, 2006). In order to expel Austria as the primary influence over these smaller German states, war was inevitable. Subsequently following the war, also known as the Seven Weeks War, Bismarck extorted the small German states of “Schleswig, Holstein, Hanover, Hesse, Nassau, and Frankfurt, which created the North German Federation” (Schmidt, 2006). Even more importantly, Austria was successfully displaced as the major influence over those small German states. Bismarck’s next calculated move was to achieve the same unification in the southern parts of Germany.

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