Alayna Yost

Mr. Palcsey

Honors English 10

April 22, 2018

The Three Pillars That Constructed the Nazi Regime

To this very day, it baffles historians how Adolf Hitler, one of the most notoriously

heinous dictators of all time, manipulated the German people into following him. The

simplest way of understanding as to how this happened can be broken down into three

factors. These three factors contain social and economic chaos after World War I, a

generation of shame, and the blame of the Jewish people. The success of the Nazi Regime

was not spontaneous at all, but instead well planned and carefully executed. The officials of

the regime used every advantage possible against a population desperate for redemption. The

post-WWI social and financial instability, a broken sense of nationalism, and the use of a

scapegoat were the three pillars assisted in constructing the Nazi Regime in Germany.

Without the pillars, the regime would not have succeeded in gaining support from the

German public.

The first pillar of the regime's tower is the social and economic unreliability after

World War I. Before World War I, Germany's economy was booming. Some sources say that

they were only second to the U.S. Funding war efforts such as building materials, guns,

bombs, infantry was already a big pill to swallow, but poor choices by the government

significantly worsened their chances at economic rebirth. It would be expected by most that

to pay off these expenses that the German government would raise taxes. However,
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government officials took another route by selling "war bonds," which in short is the

government borrowing money to make ends meet with their finances. Matters only became

after the Treaty of Versailles which stated Germany herself must take full responsibility for

World War I. At first, the treaty demanded that Germany must also pay 33 billion dollars in

reparations to the enemy nations affected by the war (Magana 6). The Inter-Allied Reparation

Commission later reduced to 6.2 billion dollars (Hickman, paragraph 15). This later resulted

in the German government borrowing massive amounts of money in a short amount of time.

In fact, Benjamin Garrison states “After the conclusion of WWI Germany was sent into deep

economic turmoil. This was in large part due to the reparation payments Germany was

required to pay to the League of Nations under the Treaty of Versailles” in the article Rise of

German Nazism Post WWI. Surprisingly, Germany slowly began to recover and was on the

way to economic stability between 1924 and early 1929. However, the wall street crash once

again put Germany at the bottom of the economic food chain. With the crash followed

poverty, unemployment, and inflation. The urban dictionary defines inflation as "a general

increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money." Germany achieved

hyperinflation by printing significant amounts of money at an unregulated rate. During this

economic disaster, Germany did not only lose massive amounts of cash but 13.5% of its

territory (Magana 3). From this point, Germany's economy spiraled downward into a

tragically bottomless pit that was impossible to escape. As a result of another economic

downfall, the everyday people of Germany lost hope for their future generations. This loss

left the German public desperate for change and a chance for redemption.

Due to Germany's previous economic success, German citizens considered

themselves to be a proud standing nation. They felt the need to improve their means of
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succeeding continually. Their past success is one of the leading reasons as to why they

invented several impactful war-machines such as the flamethrower, poison gas, and U-boat

(Sass 1-3). Despite their best efforts, Germany lost the war in a bitter defeat to the Allies. The

loss left the majority of the German people with nothing to improve. The Treaty of Versailles

to the German people resulted in a nation-wide sense of shame and embarrassment. This

shame is mainly due to the "War Guilt Cause" section of the Versailles Treaty (Hickman,

paragraph 16). It crushed their spirit and ambition to improve themselves. This

embarrassment shattered the public mind because after, there was no way for Germany to

return to its former glory.

Nationalism can be described as excessive pride in one's nation or homeland.

Nationalism is very prominent throughout several European countries due to rich culture;

such as Germany. Germany has its unique language, way of life, and belief in their

government. Before WWI, they believed in the efficiency of their economy and capability of

their government officials (Kershaw 138). However, since the loss in WWI, it disproved

something that most Germans thought was true. Thus, the defeat in WWI took away the

sense of trust the German people had in their nation. Their specific way of doing things, like

government setup, no longer made sense to the public (Kershaw 139). The loss of trust and

questioning of higher officials in Germany post-WWI resulted in a broken sense of

nationalism. III

The last pillar that assisted in constructing the Nazi Regime was the use of the Jewish

people as a scapegoat. This was necessary to use because it took the weight of past social and

economic stress off of Germany’s hands and placed it onto the Jews. Supporting this,

Garrison states “By creating a social group that discriminated against “life unworthy of life”
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he was able to increase his control. His followers obeyed his every command because they

believed they were benefitting Germany and purifying their country,” (Garrison 2). This “life

unworthy of life” was a term pointed towards the Jewish community. Almost all of Germany

pointed their fingers at the Jews for their loss in WWI. The public did this because of Jewish

stereotypes that consisted of trends like Jews are not loyal to any country, even though this

was proven false. This contradicted with the previous strong sense of nationalism in

Germany, so, the public took this negatively and took the philosophy of “If Jews had

supported the war, Germany would have succeeded.” Additionally, the Jews were blamed for

the downfall of the economy in Germany due to another stereotype. This stereotype was that

all bankers are Jewish, and with the collapse of hundreds of banks in the great depression, the

fall of the banks was placed at the fault of the Jews. Thus, the German public and

government officials blamed economic failure and the loss of WWI on the Jewish

community. These two factors built the third pillar, because Hitler had someone to place

blame on for the economy and for the loss in WWI. After the scapegoat was established, it

was easy for the Nazi Regime to dehumanize a whole group of people with public support.
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Works Cited;

Castillo, Daniel. “German Economy in the 1920s.” The 1920s, Dec. 2003

Garrison, Benjamin. “Rise of German Nazism Post WWI.” Washington State University, 30

Aug. 2015

Kershaw, Ian. Hitler. Routledge, 2013

Miron, Guy. The Warning of Emancipation. University of Israel, 2011

Sass, Erik. "12 Technological Advancements of World War I." Mental Floss, 30 Apr. 2017