Management Study

Briefing Notes – Leadership Styles

For valid study purposes only

History of Hitler from 1920 to gaining Power in Germany

A month before leaving the army Hitler and Drexler changed the party name from the German Workers Party to the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische – Later abbreviated to NAZI – Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
1920 elections German sympathies taking a notable turn to the right.
Spring 1920 – Hitler was holding public meetings with crowds seldom less than 1200. By summer it was 1800 people at meetings.
In his speeches used the Versailles treaty to attack the government
He criticised the liberals, the socialists, the democrats, the communists and the Jews (basically everyone). Increasingly he hammered home his belief that the Marxist revolution in Europe was but a first step in a Jewish/Marxist plot to control the world.
He also used “The Protocols of the Wise Men of Zion” to attack the Jews
Hitler’s audiences continued to grow and become more and more vocal and radical. Hitler would ask how the Jews should be dealt with the audience reply was “Hang them” and “Beat them to death”
He started to promote the struggle between the “Aryan Race” and the “Jewish race”.
By August 1920 the party had 725 dues paying members and new members were signing up at the rate of 70 week.
There was a one-mark admission fee to the meetings to fund the party. He also had one big backer at the time, Dietrich Eckart. He influenced other wealthy people including business owners to contribute.
Hitler then hired a business manager to help coordinate activities and help expand the party.
That year Hitler also introduced the swastika as the party emblem. He recognised the importance of symbolism for the young movement. He altered the swastika in relation to thickness and size to get the best effect. He wrote “in red we see the social idea, in white the nationalist idea, in the swastika the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man.”
May 1920 Rudolf Hess heard Hitler speak and became an instant disciple. He was a fanatic anti-Semite and anti-Communist. They immediately got along and he would become the second most powerful man in the NAZI party.
After dinner most evenings Hitler would go to beer gardens or coffee houses to understand the feelings of the population and gain insights to add to his speeches.
Hitler had two different faces he presented to people. One was the loud, compassionate, motivating speaker and the other was a very soft, though low-keyed voice he used in small gatherings or with party members. Although his ideas were radical he spoke reasonably, simply and earnestly which made him very convincing.
He regularly had meetings with his inner circle to sound out ideas and debate on how best to take advantage of any changing political situation. He made sure this group was a broad community mix to ensure he had reliable information from many sources. This included former wrestlers and bouncers so they could be bodyguards to Hitler. They also were responsible for the protection squads used during meetings.
He liked the company of beautiful woman and despite his lack of sophistication, woman of all ages, and classes, were attracted to him.

When talking to woman his normally low rough voice become soft and gentle. He would allow then to disagree with him and hear them out quietly and with patience (this was contrary to his normal stance with men were he would not accept someone disagreeing). Most woman found him remarkably charming.
He openly scorned the upper class as the pretentious and elite.
He mixed with show people, actresses and dancers, again to broaden his understanding of the whole society, however showed indifference when with us more upper class supporters.
Hitler attended performances of top comedians, actors, and personalities so he could learn public performance from them. He studied their timing, wording, body movements and their strong points in holding the attention of the crowd. He practiced his body, head and hand movements before a full-length mirror and later had pictures taken of him so that he could better study his speaking gestures.
He would put on a phony beard and attend the rallies and meetings of rival party speakers so he could learn from them
He was glad he did not posses an educated accent or vocabulary because he felt the crowd would sense he was not one of them and not support him. Instead of using reason to support his viewpoint Hitler learned to use facts that invoked emotions. He also learned to keep his speeches centered on a few points and to keep them simple.
He also said that the public must know to understand (the vision). That’s why in politics we have constantly to repeat the same things then the people will realise that what were saying must be true, since we say it over and over again.
As he become more and more popular the communist supporters would continually try and disband meetings. Due to this his protection squads grew bigger and bigger to handle the problem. These men were commonly ex-service men who were given license to be particular brutal and ruthless.
The general population had no problem with these confrontations and the squads beating up any opposition. This vindicated Hitler’s further development of these squads overtime.
The party was now holding public meetings on a regular basis. Hitler was the feature speaker at over 60% of the meetings. He also gave speeches out of Munich at the four other locals the party had established.
His ability as a speaker became recognised and he was also paid, in a private capacity, by various groups to deliver his message.

Hitler coached men around him that showed promise so the party would have some depth and a number of speakers to spread the word.

By October 1920 the party had grown to over 1000 dues paying members and ten’s of thousands of sympathisers. At this time he had a meeting that drew a crowd of 3500 people.
Formed an alliance with General Ludendorff, a hero of WW1, a fierce anti-Communist and the symbol to all patriotic and nationalist groups in Germany
Bavarian militias and private armies now numbered 300,000 men. They were united in their hatred of the communists and their determination to overthrow the existing government. Hitler knew this and made sure that he was seen as the man to achieve this.
By December they were 10 locals in different towns and 2000 members.
At Hitler’s direction the party purchased a newspaper “The Observer” and this was used as the main propaganda tool to spread the word to the masses. Hitler took over the paper and replaced the old management with members from his inner circle.
His articles appealed to people’s emotion and were merciless against opponents. Hitler insisted people could only be won over by a “ruthless and fanatical one sided orientation” and not by “a so-called objective viewpoint”.
Hitler had the protection squads start to break up opposition meetings so other people found it difficult to speak against him. He also had them disrupt or picket controversial plays and performances that the majority of Germans found offensive. These actions made him even more popular and strengthen his position as representing the people of the nation.
Due to post WW1 policy by the allies many of the German working population went hungry during the winter of 1920-21. Germany had to pay staggering high fixed annual payments which threatened to bankrupt the nation and also hand over 12 percent of all exports for the next forty-two years. This only fueled the nationalist sediment and again added to Hitler’s power as he used this to build hatred of the west.
Hitler would print up to 20,00 leaflets and have them distributed around town from the back of trucks with 15-20 men shouting slogans and catchwords to promote meetings.
February 1921 Hitler holds a meeting with around 6500 people attending (around one in five were woman) and speaks continuously for two and a half-hours.
March 1921, 8000 people attend a meeting and pay the one mark entrance fee. Hitler also started to hold meetings at venues that would attract a more middle class audience.
May 1921 Hitler receives support from von Kahr and the Munich government and also the police president. They did this as they believed the NAZI party was the most likely movement to turn Marxist workers back to the nationalist camp.
With this jump up the social ladder more important doors began to open to Hitler and he began to move in far more influential circles. Although Hitler repulsed many of the upper class they saw him as a means to an end.
He learned that any aspiring politician in a Republic must hobnob with the members of the upper crust, however regretful, in order to gain power. He latter excused this has something that he simply had to do to gain the power he wanted and needed to run the country.
By summer 1921 he had turned the party into a fairy respectable right wing force. He was spending time taking advanced lessons in public speaking, establishing ties with other right wing groups and raising money.
A lot of people in the party felt Hitler had far to much power so unknown to him they started discussions to merge with the German Socialist Party (a larger party) as a way to dissolve some of his power. When he found out he immediately reacted against it and threatened to resign from the party if it continued. Publicly the merger talks ceased however they continued in private and unknown to Hitler.
When Hitler learned that the talks were continuing he again confronted the other members of the committee and when they refused to stop resigned from the party. Without Hitler the merger talks with the German Socialist Party stalled, as he was the man they wanted to be the public face.
Due to this the committee asked Hitler to return to the party. However he made many demands to do this including complete power over the party “I demand the position of First Chairman with dictatorial authority”.
He called a public meeting to demonstrate his power to the committee and over 6000 people attended to hear him speak.
On July 29 1921 a special meeting was held to vote on whether or not give Hitler dictatorial powers in the party. He made his intentions clear by saying, “we will proceed ruthlessly. Only Germans can bring about the salvation of Germany, not by parliament, but by revolution. Only one person voted against the motion so he now had complete power.
Hitler’s appeal as a speaker lay in his choice of words, as he would use common language and terms to inspire the audience. His greatest asset as a speaker was his ability to present for over two hours without a prepared speech. This made him truly believable to the audience.
He speeches were great performances that engaged everyone in the audience. He would start of slowly and quietly making everyone strain to listen and then build over time up to a fever pitch. He would reach levels of passion never before witnessed by spectators. He would start by taking about everyday issues that affected every working German to gain support and then move onto more controversial issues. He would dress down to lower class meetings and dress up to middle class meetings.
Hitler accurately saw that millions of Germans, from the right and left, were becoming disillusioned with the current government and their “pseudo-democratic organisations” and was determined to cash in on the trend of the times toward a strong leader who could reshape the shattered postwar world by a ‘dictatorship of order’.
By 1923 the party had 50,000 active members
The party’s popularity continued to grow over the next nine years as Hitler continued to do all the things that had done previously to ensure his own and the parties success.
In 1932 Hitler’s party became the largest in Germany, which, under the terms of the Weimar constitution, entitled Hitler to the position of Chancellor. Although the government elite did everything possible to deny Hitler what was rightfully his, on Jan 30, 1933 he finally took his position.
A month later he called for a new round of elections and received 44% of the total vote. This was unprecedented in German voting history as there were over twenty parties including seven major ones. He formed an alliance with the German National People’s Party and achieved a majority of nearly 53%.
At this time party membership climbed to 2,500,000. Shortly after this Hitler was voted dictatorial powers over all Germans.
Importantly at this time he mad very good political decisions. By placing a 6% cap on the profits on industrialists, by instituting huge public works projects, subsidising home repairs, loans to newlyweds and other government programs, Hitler was able to put two and a half million of the six million unemployed back to work in less than a year.
By locking up Communist leaders, forming “block watches” across the country and coming down hard on criminals, the disorder and crime that had infected German streets disappeared.
Ten months after coming to power Hitler held a referendum as to how he was doing and nine out of ten voters gave him an approval.
He now had ultimate power to do anything he wanted to do - and he did.

TheSpiel.com study material - Copyright 2006 Robert K. Russell

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Management Study

History of Hitler from 1920 to gaining Power in Germany

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