Friday, September 7, 2012

Hitler and the German People's Faith in Him

     Hitler rose to power at a time of depression in the German economy and society. People were very willing to follows some like him who seemed to have everything together and a plan on how to get Germany back on track. Since no one else came forward to lead the German people, Hitler seemed to be the go to option because he was willing. Hitler gave the German people something and he gave them an identity to be apart of. Hitler talked about the providence and destiny of the German people and made them promises that enticed, excited, and brought them together under his reign.
     But I do agree with our analysis of the book and how we determined that German people were blindly following a leader (Hitler, the Gas Man). And the German people followed Hitler because who else were they going to follow? I just wanted to give another point of view about the German people leaving their future in the hands of a man they were blindly following.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I kind of touched on this in my essay. A large part of what enabled Hitler to gain and maintain power was the use of art, or more specifically, propaganda. I think that in the Tin Drum Grass is partly writing about the dangerous aspects of art and its ability to manipulate others. In the story, Oskar uses music and his drum to lead the Dusters. They call him Jesus and follow him with an almost religious fervor. I think this closely parallels the way Hitler used art to gain power, and what led his supporters to follow him with such zeal.

Unknown said...

I kind of touched on this in my essay. A large part of what enabled Hitler to gain and maintain power was the use of art, or more specifically, propaganda. I think that in the Tin Drum Grass is partly writing about the dangerous aspects of art and its ability to manipulate others. In the story, Oskar uses music and his drum to lead the Dusters. They call him Jesus and follow him with an almost religious fervor. I think this closely parallels the way Hitler used art to gain power, and what led his supporters to follow him with such zeal.

Tyler Dean said...

I also wrote about that in my essay. I dont think that the only reason the German people did not go against Hitler was that they were just ignoring the reality of the war. Hitler's propaganda drew the German's in with his strategic lies before the atrocities were committed, so the German's felt like they could trust in their charismatic leader. Yes, the definitely ignored some obvious signs of the terrible things that were going on.