Hitler Was NOT German... So How Did He Take Over Germany?

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Hitler rose to power by bending the rules and exploiting loopholes in the fragmented political system of post-war Germany.

You know the story of what happened once he BECAME Chancellor, but how did this man get elected as Germany’s head of state… when he wasn’t even a German? After 623 years as a global player, the Ottoman Empire is wiped out for good. The Russian Empire’s 196-year stint crumbled, paving the way for the Soviets. As for the German Empire, it was cut short at just 47 years while the Austro-Hungarian Empire lasted only a bit longer at 51 years. Old Europe was dead. New Europe was getting started, made up of a patchwork of lone states or remaining empires divvying up the continent for themselves.

Everyone’s identity was in flux.

And with Germany’s humiliation and Austria’s imperial demotion, many Austrians felt disillusioned. Their sense of longing found kinship with their long-time German brothers, who too were looking for a sense of unity and strength. He knew these feelings were shared amongst his fellow Austrians, and felt by neighbouring Germans. He also knew these sentiments were kept at bay by despondency, pessimism, and harsh, economic living conditions. To anyone else, this was a sign they had lost but couldn’t accept it. But to Hitler this was the opposite. This was his first real step to bending the world to his will. In sales terms, he hadn’t just figured out what his customer wanted. He had figured out why they wanted it.

So long as he kept touching this pressure point, he’d always have supply chain to meet their demands, no matter what form their desires took.

It’s time to learn how history works as we study how Hitler ruled Germany, even though he wasn’t German.

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#ww2 #History #documentary

Written By: Sam

Video Created By:
Svibe Multimedia Studio
Editor: Cardan
Media Gatherer: Andrea Rivas

Footage Courtesy of: Getty Images

Music Provided By: Epidemic Sound

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SOURCES

[mdynasty]

Napoleon was not French and Stalin was not Russian

[thunderbolt]

He wasn't born a german national, but shared the same culture and language. This is important when trying to understand Hitler. Just as Napoleon Bonaparte was Corsican, he was more French than Italian

[codycannady]

Austrians are ethnicly German and they speak German and border Germany he really is only foreign on paper

[yggdrasil]

If you read german history you know Austria is a german state . so he was not foreign in their eyes

[ggbpartystarter]

I a nutshell.
He grew in Austria, had a horrible father, was rejected by Arts academy in Wien, moved to Germany, joined the german armed forces and served during ww1, and saw the opportunities of the weak German new republic.

[chellybub]

Hitler was German. You should look into the unification wars and the Zollverein. You'll learn that phrases like "the Jewish question" were not alien and Nazi, but very German. During this period they had the German question. And the main focus was whether there would be a Greater German solution or a Lesser German solution. The former being the formation of Germany which included Austria, favoured by the Austrians, and the latter without Austria, favoured by the Prussians. Basically this was a rivalry between Prussia and Austria, which was settled by the Austro-Prussian war, though the unification was more complex than I'm making it sound. Really what worked for the Prussians was the ceeding of the Rhineland, especially the Ruhr, during the Congress of Vienna. We could talk about this all day. Hitler was a German though. Why do you think he was allowed to join the military of the German Empire? He wasn't some special Austro-Hungarian attache. He got written permission, because in those days being German was still very much an ethnic group beyond a state. Anschluss was also argued for by the Nazis using this well established concept. I think you probably know this. You may be making the mistake of looking at things from a contemporary perspective. It's pretty common. It's really what separates a history enjoyer and a history academic.

[SangoProductions]

Because diversity was clearly Germany's strength.

[noahlonaker]

Saying that an Austrian is not a German is such a bad faith argument and anyone who makes it knows what their doing

[tesserae-cy]

Hitler was ethnically German as many were in Austria-Hungary.

[mrnygren]

It's like saying an individual from the Confederate States of America isn't an American because he's born in the Confederacy.

[tomlxyz]

1:50 Austria didn't buddy up with Hungary. They already controlled the territory but with increasing nationalism combined with the fact that the Austrian empire was multi ethnic and thus nationalism was a driving force to rip it apart and to prevent that they gave more autonomy to Hungary for self governance for internal affairs.

[nrve]

A piece of paper means little when compared to descent, culture, language and religion between two peoples.

[janejones]

Hitler was from Austria. A country joining Germany and the people speak German

[tomlxyz]

Saying he's not German is technically correct from a legal entity standpoint but people back then did have a common identity and Austria and Germany probably would have merged post ww1 if it wasn't disallowed by the winning powers

[mladentomic]

For God sake he is German. And Austria didn't make an alliance with Hungary. Hungary was a part of the Austrian empire. Austria just refined the state.

[Dr.-Dank]

I think a lot of people - at least Americans - vastly underestimate how much the break up of Austria-Hungry and the post-WW1 chaos that gripped central Europe enabled the rise of Nazi Germany and Hitler. Had countries like Hungary and Romania not been in such bad shape following the war, they may not have allied themselves with the Nazis and cooperated with Hitler, allowing the Nazis to annex Austria and Czechoslovakia. And had the countries Hitler did conquer, Austria and Czechoslovakia, not been so beaten up in the 1920s and 30s, maybe they would have been better suited to stand up to Nazi Germany? After all, had Hitler been stopped from annexing Austria, whose to say he would have stayed in power? Or that the Nazis would have remained as popular, as in control of Germany if they faced setbacks from diplomatic missteps?

[abrvalg]

He was as foreign to germans as canadians are to americans.

[martinvasquez]

There's no 1 reason for his rise. It was a perfect storm of poor politics regarding the treaty of Versailles, poor admin of the Weimar republic, effective use of propaganda and the great depression

[sephondranzer]

The supreme leader of Iran is also not Iranian. Not even kidding - is strange how that happens.

[loladelawoyin]

Napoleon wasn't from France either, he was from Corsica

Stalin was from Georgia (the country), he wasn't from Russia