Good Things Hitler Did Reddit

Before he was the Fuhrer, he was a Gefreiter in the Imperial German Army, a rank equivalent to Lance Corporal. Before he was a nationalist, he was a painter, documenting the everyday life on the battlefield.

Adolf Hitler survived the First World War describing it as “the greatest of all experiences”. He was appointed as a dispatch runner for the Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment 16. Even though his position was a rather fortunate one, since he spent most of his time in the headquarters, he was wounded several times and given the Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd class and a Black Wound Badge.

After the war, he nurtured the image of a disappointed foot soldier, an image which many Germans in the immediate post-war period could relate to. These are the ten events that laid the foundation for his rise to power and his role in the biggest conflict in history.

1 – Treaty of Versailles

Hitler was supposed to monitor the party but when he became the 55 th DAP member, things changed. Anton Drexler, motivated by anti-semitism, anti-capitalism, nationalist and pretty much anti-everything philosophy, went on to establish the Nazi Party out of the DAP the year Hitler joined. Hitler has been made out to be one of the most “evil” people to have ever lived, slaughtering millions of innocent jews. This same story has been echoed throughout Hollywood for decades, and by now it’s safe to say billions of dollars have been spent to convince you of this black and white, good vs evil perspective about the Nazi regime. 8 – Hitler uber Deutschland – the election 1932 Reichstag on fire, 1933. On 13th of March, 1932, Adolf Hitler became the main opposition candidate to Paul von Hindenburg in the elections. Hindenburg was an aging war hero who was appointed president in 1925.

Good Things Hitler Did Reddit by admin Dec 12, 2019 Hitler appeared on the cover of TIME on multiple occasions — most famously perhaps on Jan. 2, 1939, when he was named Man of the Year.

The start of the rise of Hitler was the peace treaty signed in Versailles in 1919, which served as a severe punishment for the German involvement in the First World War. The treaty stripped Germany of all its colonies in Africa and the Far East. A large part of European German territory was given to France and Belgium.

Due to reparation agreements, the most developed industrial regions – the Ruhr and Saar – were occupied by the French. The treaty also included large limitation on the German Army, which has turned the Imperial Army into a symbolic interior peace-keeping force.

These circumstances caused mass unemployment and hyperinflation. Also, after the Great War, Germans felt humiliated by their historic enemies, the French, who had designed the peace agreement. Hate and despair were looming across the remnants of an empire, and the situation provided fertile ground for a dictatorship .

2 – The Stab in the Back Myth

The harsh conditions of the Treaty of Versailles helped create a conspiracy theory that became widely accepted among Germans. The Stab in the Back myth said that the Army wasn’t to blame for losing the war, but the workers led by Bolsheviks and Jews.

Hundreds of worker strikes were held in Germany in the period of 1916-1918, due to hunger and general discontent on the home front, this was merely a consequence of the exhausting war effort which was bleeding the country dry. The nationalists blamed the politicians for signing the capitulation on November 11th, 1918, calling them the November Traitors.

Hitler used the myth to spread hatred towards Jews and political adversaries alike, as the National-Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) grew larger in numbers, under the leadership of Anton Drexler. Drexler was Hitler’s mentor and a political father-figure in his early days. They gathered the disbanded soldiers without a job and angry citizens of all classes, reviving old Germanic legends and historical accomplishments that evoked pride towards the nation and hatred towards the foreigners, so-called traitors, and outsiders of any kind.

3 – The Bavarian Republic/The Spartacus Uprising

The year 1919 was marked by civil unrest across Europe, but especially in Germany. The country transformed into a post-war republic with its capital in the city of Weimar. The Weimar Republic was created with the sponsorship of the winning side to guarantee the decisions Treaty of Versailles. The Republic’s leadership was in an ungrateful position of preserving order in a country that was under constant threat of a civil war between radical groups – left and right alike.

In January 1919, the leftist organization – The Spartacist League, tried to violently take power in Berlin with deadly consequences. The revolt was crushed by the police and German paramilitary called the Freikorps. A similar thing happened in Munich that same year, with the forming of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic.

At that time, Hitler had already infiltrated the NSDAP and was known for his rowdy antisemitic and anti-Marxist speeches mobilizing the popular discontent for his own gain while the left elements were slowly losing their momentum after a series of failed revolutions.

4 – The Beerhall Putsch

In 1921, Hitler became the head of the NSDAP and in 1923, he attempted a coup in Munich that shook the foundations of the Weimar Republic. Burgerbraukeller was the famous beer hall in Munich in which the riots started. The putsch was inspired by the March on Rome, a coup that landed Benito Mussolini in power only a year earlier. The Party already had a military wing called SA – Storm Detachment.

They had about 600 SA members surrounding the beer hall and a machine set up in the auditorium. Hitler declared a national revolution in the hall and called everyone to join him, in a hostage-like situation, since there was a machine gun behind him. About 2,000 people gathered in support of the Nazi Party and they headed to the Munich main square Marienplatz where he gave an inflammatory speech ending it with a sentence:

“Either the German revolution begins tonight or we will all be dead by dawn!”

The response came quickly but not as bloody as the earlier uprisings in Berlin and Munich. In the last attempt to overthrow the Bavarian government, the putschists marched to the Ministry of Defense, where they were met by a force of 130 armed soldiers. After a short skirmish, 16 Nazi supporters were dead and Hitler was lightly wounded. The Bavarian Army lost 4 soldiers.

Hitler was arrested, and a trial was held in which he had yet another chance to practice his speaking skills. The judges were pro-Nazi oriented and he was sentenced to five years but got out only a year later. Leading figures of other coup attempts like the Spartacus uprising were all shot for treason. This shows that Hitler had a huge amount of sympathy from the ruling elites.

In the meantime, in prison, he wrote his manifesto, Mein Kampf. The putsch was a Nazi propaganda victory that turned the nation’s attention to Munich and Hitler.

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5 – The Financial Crisis, 1929

The Great Depression was a serious blow to Germany’s already unstable economy. Widespread unemployment reached 25% as every sector was hurt. The government did not increase government spending to deal with Germany’s growing crisis, as they were afraid that a high-spending policy could lead to a return of the hyperinflation that had affected Germany in 1923. Germany’s Weimar Republic was hit hard by the depression, as American loans to help rebuild the German economy now stopped.

A change in the government was inevitable. The Weimar government was ineffective, and the people considered Hitler to be the leader capable of regaining Germany’s former glory. In the meantime, his antisemitic propaganda had affected the population to a significant extent, and he was preparing to shift his politics from the streets into the parliament.

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6 – German Referendum 1929

The German referendum of 1929 was held to vote on the “Law against the Enslavement of the German People,” which referred to the famous Treaty of Versailles and it denounced all its decisions by the German people and government. The referendum was very favorable to the Nazi Party and again won them public attention, since Hitler was the loudest opponent of the treaty signed in 1919. “Adolf Hitler” by this time became a well-known name in every household in Germany.

In addition to this, he made an important step in campaigning with the more mainstream right-wing political parties with whom he formed a coalition to see the referendum through. This gave him a wider support as he was recognized by the more traditional nationalist voters.

The referendum itself had very low voter turnout, at only 14 %, but 94% of those voters were in favor of denouncing the treaty. Nevertheless, the turnout wasn’t enough for the referendum to pass and this event proved to be yet another victory for Hitler and raised his profile, with no real consequences in German politics.

7 – German Federal Reichstag election 1930

In 1930, Federal elections the Nazi Party showed considerable growth earning 107 seats out of 577 in the Reichstag (German Parliament). The party which held the most seats was the Social Democrat Party, but the Nazis were gaining ground in state affairs. The other important fact is that the traditional nationalist party, DNVP, which was an alliance of nationalists, reactionary monarchists, völkisch, and antisemitic elements lost its influence in the Reichstag and it slowly fragmented, as its supporters stood behind Hitler, whom they saw as their new leader.

8 – Hitler uber Deutschland – the election 1932

On 13th of March, 1932, Adolf Hitler became the main opposition candidate to Paul von Hindenburg in the elections. Hindenburg was an aging war hero who was appointed president in 1925. This was to be Hindenburg’s second seven-year term, but his real political power faded as he himself became disappointed with the Weimar Republic. In the end, he remained president, only because of the grudging support of the Social Democrats, who were keen on keeping him in the office, just to deny that right to Hitler.

Hitler’s rhetoric was often pointed directly against the Social Democrats, who leaned towards the left-wing politics at that time. Hindenburg thought he could rely on Hitler, who came second in the elections and appointed him Chancellor of Germany. At this point, Hitler was a popular figure who had the support of conservative politicians, huge industrialists, soldiers, and workers alike.

He incorporated the idea of technological progress into his concept of racial purity as he saw Germany as the leading force in Europe, opposed to the primitive peoples of other races. He justified colonialism and slavery, as he believed that one nation is superior to all others. His campaign during the elections was marked by hate-filled speeches, which anticipated his future politics.

He also became known as the first politician to utilize the airplane as a fast means of transport from one rally to another, across the country. The campaign was popularly known as “Hitler above Germany” because of his flights and a record number of political rallies.

9 – The Reichstag Fire or Nero burning Rome

The Reichstag fire occurred on February 27th, 1933. It was an arson attack on the building of the German parliament, known as the Reichstag. The event is recognized as pivotal for the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship in Germany. Just weeks earlier, Adolf Hitler was preparing to push through the Enabling act as a Chancellor of Germany, that would give him extraordinary powers to deal with his political adversaries in an undemocratic way.

During the elections in 1932, he had already begun a propaganda campaign claiming that the communists were preparing a revolution in Germany. This claim improved his image with the middle classes who had reasons to fear revolution and the confiscation of property that follows.

On the evening of the fire, a young Dutch communist, Marinus Van Lubbe, was arrested, and he confessed he was the culprit. After the arrest of Van Lubbe, three more Bulgarian communists were imprisoned as accomplices.

Among them was a high ranking Comintern agent, Georgi Dimitrov. The Bulgarians were set free, but Van Lubbe was executed. The fire gave wings to Hitler as he now had proof that the communists were plotting against the state. The event remains a mystery to this day, as most historians claim that Van Lubbe acted alone while some of them think that it was a false flag operation conducted by the Nazis to gain complete control and deal with their main political opponents in unconstitutional ways.

10 – The Banning of Political Competition

After the Reichstag fire, Hitler had initiated the EnablingAct. He was now capable of enacting laws without the consent of the other parties in the parliament for four years. These laws could in some cases even deviate from the constitution. It was absolute power for Hitler, from this point on. Having achieved full control over the legislative and executive branches of government, Hitler and his allies began to suppress the remaining opposition.

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The Social Democratic Party was banned and its assets seized. While many trade union delegates were in Berlin for May Day activities, SA stormtroopers demolished union offices around the country. On 2nd of May 1933, all trade unions were forced to dissolve, and their leaders were arrested.

Some were sent to concentration camps. The German Labour Front was formed as an umbrella organization to represent all workers, administrators, and company owners, thus reflecting the concept of national socialism in the spirit of Hitler’s Volksgemeinschaft (“people’s community”).

After banning the political left in the country, Hitler turned against his coalition partners, the nationalists from the DNVP, making their influence minimal. The next step was a purge among his own ranks in the SA. The SA saw itself as Hitler’s paramilitary organization, that should be granted more political and military power. But an autocratic leader couldn’t let anyone get in his way, so he removed the entire SA leadership, crowning his decision with the execution of Ernst Rohm, the official leader of the SA.

At that point, Germany was firmly in his grip, and he could focus on foreign policy and the final dismantling of the Treaty of Versaille.

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By/April 27, 2017 10:08 am EST/Updated: Jan. 17, 2018 5:14 pm EST

Not everyone has the stuff to be a dictator. Being the sole leader of a totalitarian state takes intelligence, the ability to connive and persuade, and a penchant for violence and terror. The most infamous dictators in history—Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, etc.—all had unique characteristics and signature tactics that got them their dark spot in history. So how did they do it?

Hitler the orator

Hitler knew how to win over the German people at a time when they felt weakest, after the devastating results of World War I. While his scheming, his military actions, and his undeterred ego all helped him rise to power, his influence truly came from his oratory skills. Hitler was an impassioned, charismatic, and eloquent speaker who knew how to strike at the hearts of his people.

Hitler's Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, recognized the importance and intensity of Hitler's rhetoric in his analysis 'The Führer as a Speaker.' In this essay, Goebbels explains exactly what it was that made Hitler the best orator Germany had ever seen and how that propelled his cause to incredible ends. 'The Führer is the first person in Germany to use speech to make history,' he writes. 'As he began, it was all he had.' Before taking his place as Chancellor of Germany and Führer, Hitler was just one of many who felt deeply wounded by the diminished motherland after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. It was his ability to transfer his feelings into compelling speech that began to win him notoriety.

'He speaks his heart,' Goebbels says, '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's what they have always thought themselves.' Hitler exuded extreme confidence and promise at his rallies, and by the end had delivered over 5,000 speeches that invigorated the German people, gathering them together for what would be a most terrible cause.

Mussolini the journalist

Did Hitler Do Anything Good

Before Benito Mussolini became the dictator of fascist Italy, he was a journalist. As such, he had a great understanding of the power of the press and of the written word.

At first, he was a writer for a socialist paper, where his writing was already charged with violent rhetoric that pushed the need for revolution. After the First World War, however, Mussolini changed his political views from socialist to fascist. It was then that he started his own newspaper, Il Popolo d'Italia, that he used as his personal platform to push his fascist movement forward. It was his ability to rely on the written word and language to back up his vision for the future of Italy, in which he sought to 'organize middle-class youth, control workers harshly, and set up a tough central government to restore 'law and order.' Mussolini became the mouthpiece of revolution for his country and a violent, tyrannical leader.

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Lenin and the proletariat

At first, Vladimir Lenin's ideas seemed beneficial, reasonable, and desirable to a great portion of the Russian population. A socialist, he championed the working class and sought to revolutionize Russia by putting power into the hands of the people instead of the Tsars of the time. This goal and his passion for it galvanized the public and won him their support. He spoke to and identified with the downtrodden portion of Russia and used that to his advantage.

However, Lenin, a proud and fiery individual, placed himself at the top of this movement and employed violent means to keep the state under his control. After he and his followers successfully performed a coup d'etat, he began what would become known as The Red Terror, a cruel campaign that called for the total elimination of anyone who stood to oppose him.

Stalin and propaganda

Stalin rose to power after Lenin and sought to secure his own vision of Russia. He wanted to transform what was largely a peasant state into one of grand industrialism. Stalin ended up accomplishing the task of industrialization but in the most brutal way possible. Like Lenin, he killed anyone who stood in his path, including civilian farmers who had their land taken away and made property of the state. Unlike Lenin, he was not initially sympathetic or coy about his intentions. He was forthright about his brutality and immediately used violent means to secure his ends.

While he made his ability to use terror and violence known, he did understand the value of propaganda. He built a cult of personality, renaming cities after himself and revising textbooks to put himself in their center. He even stuck his name in the national anthem. Though his reign was seen as terrible by his own people as it was happening, Stalin's vice grip on his country held for many years as he put himself in such high esteem through propaganda tactics. He certainly looked like a man that could not be taken down.

Mao and his strength

Chairman Mao Zedong was one of the world's absolute worst leaders. He plunged the country into poverty and starvation, and his polices killed millions. However, for some strange reason, millions of Chinese people today still actively worship Mao. Given the historical context, outright demonstrations of love for the deceased dictator appear unbelievable. But it's not what he did that sticks with the Chinese people, but how he did it.

A CNN article written back in 2012 tries to explain this seemingly paradoxical situation. 'To many people in China, Mao Zedong is the country's eternal father,' it says. 'No Mao, no China' is the mantra often repeated by his supporters.' A display of strength in a time of weakness is absolutely necessary for a despot. Even though in his own time he caused absolute horror and chaos, he is now remembered for his strength and resolute character by many Chinese citizens who feel their country currently lacks such qualities.

Saddam and his double life

Saddam Hussein was as two-faced as they come. When he first came to power in 1968 as deputy to President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr as the result of a coup, he made it a priority to put his best foot forward. To present himself as an effective and worthy political figure, he made motions to modernize and improve Iraq. He reformed everything from health care to education to the way the country did business. What a great guy, right?

Well, at the same time as he was making all of this progressive moves in the public forum, he was setting himself up as the ruthless dictator we know him as today. He built the nation's first chemical weapons program, set up a private army to guard against coups, and attacked enemies with extreme violence, turning to rape, torture, and murder.

It wasn't long before he dropped his nice guy facade entirely and showed the world just how brutal he could be. But we must remember, it was because of his initial sneaky, calculated, and 'positive' approach that he wormed his way into one of the worst dictatorships the modern world has seen.

Kim Jong Il and his showmanship

The recent figures of the Kim dynasty in North Korea are known as total laughingstocks worldwide, but they're also simultaneously known to be incredibly dangerous. So how do we resolve this conundrum? What makes figures like Kim Jong Il so unnerving is that they're highly unpredictable and cruel while at the same time being beloved by their countrymen. For example, Kim Jong Il's reign was marked by a lot of pomp and circumstance. His arrival to any given place was treated as nothing less than a total celebration. It all boils down to the culture's core values of nationalism, filial respect, and utopia.

Hitler Good Things

But while parades and displays of appreciation for their leader were being put on, Kim Jong Il was starving his nation and having people killed left and right. 'Called the 'Dear Leader' by his people,' the New York Times writes, 'Kim Jong-il presided with an iron hand over a country he kept on the edge of starvation and collapse, fostering perhaps the last personality cult in the Communist world even as he banished citizens deemed disloyal to gulags or sent assassins after defectors.' It's because the Kim dynasty is able to keep their civilians in awe and worship that they can get away with so many horrors. It's all about presentation.

Five decades of Fidel Castro

Cuban dictator Fidel Castro died just last year, but his almost 50-year reign will never be forgotten. It was one that came to fruition after years of plotting, rioting, and unsuccessful coups. When he and his guerrilla military forces finally overturned the existing government in 1959, it began what would be a total shift to communism, a terrible relationship with the United States, and the removal of Cubans' civil liberties that ended in mass imprisonments, exiles, and deaths.

However, Castro was not a man without his good deeds. During his rule, approximately 10,000 new schools opened, literacy increased to 98 percent, and a universal health care system was set up. But some of his 'good deeds' weren't really good for the people after all. Take, for instance, his move to decrease the amount of land one could hold and the ban on foreign ownership of these lands. It seemed to aim to put some power back into the hands of farmers and increase their independence, but as a result of these measures, their land went directly to the state, so they had no say in their land development or income. Castro also made efforts to unite African and Latin American countries, but by spreading militant communism instead of ideas of peace.

In this way, Castro was a perplexing figure who won favor with some and hatred from others. He sought to improve his and other neighboring countries, but through radical, violent and harsh means. Every beneficial idea on the surface was extreme or detrimental at its core. This dictator was very adept at dressing up his schemes to make them look better than they were. Maybe this is why he was never deposed and maintained such a long hold on his nation until he voluntarily handed the reigns to his younger brother, Rául, in 2008.

Robert Mugabe: democracy to dictatorship

In 1980, Robert Mugabe was democratically elected to be the president of Zimbabwe. When a ruler is elected democratically, it's usually difficult to imagine the word dictator next to their name just a few years later. What makes that concept even more difficult to believe is Mugabe has been reelected several times and still maintains his station as ruler of his country. However, he has edged himself into the category of tyrant with his policies, both attempted and actualized, and with violent war efforts that have killed tens of thousands.

In the year 2000, for instance, Mugabe tried to expand his presidential power to absolute power by altering the Zimbabwean constitution. He also famously had 20,000–30,000 Ndebele people killed as part of a campaign to destroy any remaining opposition to Zimbabwean independence. As The Independent puts it, 'He interfered in the economy, and, when the money ran out, tried to pay for his rash promises to 'war veterans' (some born after the liberation struggle) by stealing white farmers' land.' All of these facts certainly don't seem like the kind of behavior one would expect from a democratic president, but these events did indeed happen. As a result, Mugabe's rule serves to point out perhaps one of the most dangerous characteristics of a dictator—their ability to turn democratic power into totalitarian power and abuse their own and other countries for personal purposes.