Hartley 1 Shea Hartley Tonya Wertz-Orbaugh English 1103-008 20 November 2013 Inquiry into The Nazi Government This

specific inquiry assignment led me down many rabbit holes regarding the structure, organization, and over all effectiveness of the Nazi government. At the beginning of this process, I found that my topic was extremely broad and would be difficult to research due to the lack of specificity. However, as I began to understand the assignment more and more, I came to realize that my broad topic allowed me to expand my knowledge to places that I initially did not anticipate to reach. When I started my research by looking into the structure of the Nazi government, I did not realize I would make it all the way to Hitler as an excellent public speaker but I learned a lot along the way. My first search I did for this paper was just a simple Nazi Government structure into the Google search engine. I was hoping to find out a general structure of the Nazi government or even maybe a hierarchy by this search but instead I found an acronym used to explain how the Nazi government gained control of Germany: H - Hitler became Fuhrer E - Enabling Act L Local Government Reorganization P Political Parties Banned () I found this acronym H.E.L.P. to be disturbing and ironic due to the historical events that took place while Adolf Hitler was the dictator of Germany. Through this specific source I realized that I needed to understand how the Nazi

Hartley 2 party came to power before I could truly understand how they organized themselves as a functioning and powerful entity. Although this source did not tell me anything about how the government was organized, it did lead me to question more about how Hitler himself gained enough momentum from the general public to achieve a complete and total take over of Germany. To understand Hitlers power, I decided that I first needed to research a little about the Nazi partys platform, or what they stood for. This inquiry topic had me both surprised and disappointed in the human race as a whole. I realize that this is a very strong way of seeing things but I just dont see how the general public could be so willing to allow these Nazi men to take control of Germany with such extreme views. The National Socialist German Workers Party, better known as the Nazis, made a twenty-five-point program in 1920 that laid out their main concerns and also outlined how they would create the ultimate Germany (). Some of these points called for diplomatic reforms such as the abolition of the Treaty of Versailles, which was signed following World War I, and also the end of non-Germans immigrating into Germany. Before starting this portion of my inquiry, I had previous knowledge about the state that Germany was in after WWI; complete economic free-fall due to the debt they owed stated in the Treaty of Versailles (Castillo), no real leadership, and ruined cities due to the fighting on their home front. The parts of this platform that I found to be disturbing were regarding the Jewish population not being able to be a citizen of the country that they may have been born in or have lived in their entire lives, and also the general vanity placed upon the German race. Being patriotic and loving your country is one thing, but taking it to as extreme of a place

Hartley 3 as saying that anyone who is not German is not even allowed in the country and only allowing Germans to own newspapers and other publishing businesses is crossing a line of morality. Being an American and exercising my rights to free speech and other civil rights and liberties, I find it hard to wrap my head around the thought of exiling one particular group of people in hopes to create a more dominate race. Nazis honestly saw these as the only solutions in getting Germany back to a prosperous country, and the people of Germany were desperate for a change, which is why it was so easy for Adolf Hitler to gain so much momentum and ultimately gain the entire countrys trust and loyalty. This type of extreme dictatorship made me begin to question Hitlers persuasive personality traits that allowed him to gain the trust of the German public so rapidly. The name, Adolf Hitler, undoubtedly has a negative connotation with it but what about viewing him from a different perspective? Almost like viewing him through a different genre like we did in paper one with Maus. It is clear that he had to have been an excellent public speaker in order to reach so many people so quickly, and also he had to be extremely detail oriented in order to stay organized in his fight for power. Dr. Joseph Goebbels described Hitlers speaking ability as, His ability to reach the masses is unique and remarkable, fitting no organizational scheme or dogmahe is a rhetorical genius who developed his own abilities with no help from anyone elseHe speaks his heart, and therefore reaches the hearts of those who hear him. He has the amazing gift of sensing what is in the air. He has the ability to express things so clearly, logically and directly that listeners are convinced that that is what they have always thought themselves. (Goebbels) This depiction of Hitler as a great public speaker made me curious as to what might have happened if he had used his abilities for good instead of evil. With this type of public speaking ability, he could have changed the world for the better,

Hartley 4 rather than the worse. I strongly believe that everything happens for a reason but I just think it would be so interesting to know what couldve happened if the Nazi party had not put such a stigma on the Jews and if they had not created massive death camps and killed millions. These things will never be able to be answered and I find that so upsetting. My inquiry process for this paper was most definitely all over the map but I, personally, find it all to be very beneficial to me. Ive learned an enormous amount about the Nazi party and Hitler himself that I previously had not known. The train of thought that I took may be confusing to some, but I view this paper as a great success in not only learning about the topic, but also learning how to let my curiosity lead me to the unknowns.

Hartley 5 Works Cited Castillo , D.. N.p.. Web. 21 Nov 2013. <http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/33d/projects/1920s/Econ20s.htm>. Goebbels, J. The Fuhrer as a Speaker. 1936. Print. <http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/ahspeak.htm>. . N.p.. Web. 21 Nov 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/germany/controlstructurerev_pr int.shtml>. . N.p.. Web. 21 Nov 2013. <http://weimar.facinghistory.org/content/nazi-partyplatform>.