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Source based essay about influence of right wing elites in German politics
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Assess how convincing the arguments are in relation to the influence of the right-wing elites in Germanyin the years 1919 to 1945.
In Source A, Fischer argues the ‘Power elites attempted to maintain their position against democracy in
the Weimar regime.’ This is evident particularly due to the way in which the elite-dominated judiciary of
the Weimar era dealt with political threats. Due to them being of the elite class, the judges were more
sympathetic of the right wing, even when this was towards extremists and were dealt with less severely.
This was exemplified by the fact that between 1919 and 1922, there were 22 political assassinations by
the left wing and 354 by the right but by comparison, 10 left wing extremists were sentenced to death,
whereas not a single right wing extremist got this treatment. This shows as Fischer argues that the elites
used their influence to undermine the democratic foundations of the Republic. A further sense of the
influence of the elite is conveyed as Fischer says it was not the ‘electoral results that brought Hitler into
power but the elites’. In some aspects this is accurate as Hitler was never elected to the role of Chancellor,
rather aided by the politics of intrigue as Papen was convinced that Hitler could be controlled and
manipulated. The control that the right-wing elite had on the post-Weimar government was further
illustrated in the way that Hitler gained his position as he was selected by a member of the elite (von
Papen) who clearly exerted a considerable amount of influence on political affairs as he was able to
persuade Hindenburg to agree with the appointment of Hitler. Fischer goes on to say that ‘big business
pursued the rearmament programme more ruthlessly than Hitler himself’ and when considering the
amount of influence that an organisation such as I G Farben had in the creation of the Four Year Plan, this
can be seen as accurate. The firm had a lot to gain economically from a policy of rearmament as it would
have created a drive for autarky and increased a demand for the resources they produced such as
synthetic rubber.
In Source B, Fulbrook expresses that ‘The elites felt they must ally with the Nazis to gain a mass base’
and this was particularly true of figures such as Hugenberg, the newspaper magnate. He allied himself
with the NSDAP as he believed that Hitler’s oratory abilities would bring more support to the nationalist
cause. Hugenberg then allowed Hitler to use his media empire to spread NSDAP propaganda and further
encourage people to their cause. In this statement Fulbrook is suggesting that the elites had a sense of
reliance on the Nazis instead of it being very much the other way around, as Fischer implied. However it
can be seen in the way that the NSDAP used and then discarded Hugenberg that perhaps they were more
in control of the elites than was earlier thought. Although this is not to say that the party didn't need the
support of the elites as this was a section of society that they also tried to appeal to, mainly by playing on
their political paranoia about the threat of Communism and by presenting Hitler as a leader who could
govern by strong, authoritarian rule. Fulbrook goes on to say that ‘’Hitler's clash with the army leaders
marked a further step in the gathering momentum of the Nazi regime’’ which marks the opposition of the
right-wing elites that persisted even after Hitler was supposed to be a figure of total power after the army
was brought under his control. Hitler created outrage as the majority of elites wanted to go to war
immediately but Hitler made his opposition to this idea clear in the Hossbach Memorandum 1937 in
which he expressed his desire to fight smaller wars in order for Germany to stabilise its economy but not
the full-scale continental war that his army generals were insisting on. Fulbrook’s overall interpretation
was that the elites had to depend on the NSDAP to a degree as they were now the ones that were
supposed to be in power, yet that this did not deter them from clashing with the leadership when they
disagreed on an issue, showing that they still had more of an influence than the government.
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