In 1929 came the Great Crash on Wall Street, and this had a severe impact on Germany as well. By 1930, unemployment was increasing up to the six million mark.
The Germany people were becoming afraid:.
1. The government seemed to be helpless in a time of crisis.
2. With so many strikes and violence, there were fears of a Bolshevik/Communist take over.
3. What was needed, or so it was thought, was a leader .
Adolf Hitler was born in Austria, in 1889. He left home after a failed education to go to Vienna, where he wanted to become an artist. But he was rejected by the Academy of Fine Arts, and he had to make a living as best he could.
Vienna proved to be a crucial period in Hitlers life. It was here that he absorbed ideas such as Anti-Semitism, along with theories of Racial Superiority of the Aryan. He began to dream of a Germany that expanded into Central Europe.
Hitler was rejected as being unfit for the Army, so he enlisted in the Bavarian Army where he served behind the lines. During the last days of WW I, Hitler was hospitalized and heard the news of Germans defeat. From that moment on, he vowed to break every clause of the Treaty and rebuild Germany to its former glory.
After the War, Hitler moved to Munich and joined the German Workers Party, which became the Nationalist Socialist Workers Party, or NAZI for short. Hitler looked at what Mussolini was doing in Italy and began to copy some of what he was doing. He organized a militia of armed thugs, called the Stormtroopers or Brown Shirts with the Crooked Cross as the Partys emblem.
These Stormtroopers broke up meetings, attacked enemies and broke up strikes. .
There were many discontented, unemployed, armed men who were eager to join up. Also, Hitler developed a reputation for being an orator, one who was able to command attention with his speeches, and this helped to draw supporters to his cause.
Again, he looked to see what Mussolini had done.
