IRL 9, December 7, 2009

URL; http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/hitlerssuccesses.htm

This source is a webpage from the United Kingdom designed for history students who are looking for a brief outline on Hitler's rise to power and why he appealed to the German people. This is pertinent to what we are studying in class because we learned how Hitler rose to power and why he appealed to the people of Germany and what led to his success, but this source gives a basic outline of the political and social climate at the time. According to this source, Germany at the time was recovering from the Treaty of Versailles and its restrictions on the country, which angered many Germans. Hitler used this for political gain, promising the people of Germany that he would restore the country to its former condition and do away with the Treaty of Versailles and this is one way that he won approval of some of the people. One thing we learned in class that is consistent with my findings here is that Hitler did not like the Communist party of Germany, and his rise to power was made able by his sneaky tactics of eliminating this political opposition, and I read here that the German middle class did not like the Communists either and was worried they would end up in power, so Hitler won their support as well. Other contributions to Hitler's success are outlined as well, such as his ability to convince the Germans that the Jews were responsible for their troubles, and that Hitler's book Mein Kampf was a great success as it showed the people of Germany what his intentions were, which many were supportive of. This adds value to what we studied in class because it is consistent with what was learned in class and it also provides an easy-to-read, summarized outline of Hitler's rise to power and how he appealed to the people. It is well organized and outlines the information, and in addition I read information here that I did not already know much about, such as Hitler's initial attempts at the Munich Putsch to weasel his way into power, and that since this tactic was a failure and landed him in prison, it was then that he had to think of another way to get into power, which is what he did. He became Chancellor not too long after this incident either so I learned that his rise to power was relatively quick. This source is just a good summary of what I already know and contains information that I did not know, or was less clear on, so it was useful to me in my understanding of Hitler's rise to power. The main limitation is that many situations or methods used by Hitler are mentioned here, such as his blaming the Jews for Germany's problems, and his desire to end the effects of the Treaty of Versailles, but it was not described exactly how he did this or HOW it contributed to his rise of power, it is just stated that he did these things. This source would be more helpful if it was more detailed and gave a little bit of description. If it says Hitler did such-and-such to gain the support of the people, it'd be more useful if it was explained what he did, or an example was given of when he did this or that.