How Hitler and the NSDAP Gained Power in Germany

One way in which Hitler was personally able to gain popularity among the German people was through his powerful speeches. This had helped in early on in his political career to gain popularity in Bavaria and was to be a major factor in him gaining popularity as his political career advanced.  The most successful form of propaganda for Hitler and the Nazis was the use of mass rallies to get their message across. In these mass rallies flags, salutes, songs and speeches were all used to make these rallies a very potent way of projecting their message and gaining the peoples support. “The intention was to create an atmosphere so emotional that all members of the crowd would succumb to the collective will” (Layton, 2000, pg28). Nazi propaganda was tailored made to suit any class of person no matter what their occupation or whether they were unemployed the Nazis would have a message to suit each differing group of people. At local level their propaganda message was projected through fairs, social and sporting events. Hitler and the Nazis had a masterful understanding of how powerful propaganda could be, and used it more successfully than any other political party. “What differentiated the Nazis and ensured that it was them the voters chose was their revolutionary political style or, to use present-day-jargon, the presentation and packaging of the party and its programme” (Layton, 2000, pg27). The German people saw Hitler as being untainted by Weimar politics, and he was portrayed through his propaganda campaigns as being the man with all the answers to Germany’s problems a saviour like figure. The portraying of Hitler as a saviour was a dominant theme of Nazi propaganda, it was in fact a cult called the Fuhrer cult, and this portrayal of Hitler was successfully projected to the masses.

In Conclusion many factors contributed to Hitler and the NSDAP gaining power in Germany. Economics played a major role due to Germany being in economic crisis, Hitler and the Nazis were able to flourish in such depressing and evil times. They were able to successfully exploit this economic misery and the humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles more successfully than any other political party through their powerful propaganda campaign. Adding to this Papen convincing Hindenburg to make Hitler the Chancellor of a coalition government so as he mistakenly thought to make Hitler their puppet, the Nazis and Hitler gained power in Germany