Essay Example: The Cause of World War Two Centered on Germany

When World War One ended it had impacted Germany immensely. The treaty of Versailles took away important territory from Germany that was used to produce important materials such as iron. This alone created a domino effect in Germany and throughout German citizens. Through Germany getting important land taken away, the population of Germany decreased and grew poor in multiple ways. By the end of the First World War, the people of Germany created resentment for the rest of Europe. Germany's population had been continuously decreasing before World War Two. Germans had become a nation of fear from Eastern Europe because of the borders closing and the “migration panic” from thousands of Jewish people who fled to German cities. Germany had lost a lot of its own citizens and in their eyes, the migration of these non-German citizens was an infection.

The Treaty of Versailles took a lot from the Germans, a huge mass of their land, and many materials that were very valuable. This treaty made Germany, along with its allies, take the blame for World War One and in turn took away money, territory, and reduced military. This territory was not just the land that was attached to Germany, it was also colonies they had built in other countries. Versailles had also taken militia from Austria, who actually was to blame for this war, but Austria did not pay any amount of money. The amount of money that Germany had to pay was supposed to make up for the war damage, they were the only country that ended up paying for the reparations. All of these requirements that the treaty forced Germany to meet ended up pushing them into a depression. This treaty weakened Germany's government which created a huge amount of resentment and vulnerability within the German citizens.

Austria played the biggest part in this war and ended up not having to pay any repercussions and the Versailles treaty ended up blaming Germany for beginning the war. Due to Germany being blamed, German allies also took part in the blame. Austria was one of Germany's allies and the Austria- Hungarian empire was torn apart. This was the only ramification that Austria had to fulfill. Austria had walked away from this war, that they had started, with no detrimental damage, unlike Germany.

This fear-based country that had little left was infuriated at the rest of Europe for the blame that was placed on them. Due to the treaty and how much money Germany was forced to pay, Germany went through hyperinflation from overprinting money. German currency became worthless, this is what sparked the Great Depression in Germany. So now, German currency was little to nothing, they had lost important land, German citizens were immigrating to America, and the Jews and Russians began fleeing to German cities from the violence in Eastern Europe. Germany had become irritable, but they did not have a leader who reflected that. Germany was also not a part of the negotiations involving this treaty.

The Nazi party was a nationalist group that promoted white supremacy and German nationalism. They were aggressive and made it seem that Germany needed them in order to succeed in becoming a threat to Europe instead of being seen as worthless after the war. People argued that people who were not German or white were considered taking up “dead space” and that the space should be filled in by “the superior German race” (Denning, 1489). This Nazi party was able to push these values into citizens by exploiting the fear that was already instilled in them and providing them with hatred and reason to fight. 

Throughout these years Germany and its citizens are in a dark depression and worth little to nothing. The German citizens are seeing hope through the Nazi party. The Nazi party had motivation, passion, and a strong leader, these all were what Germany needed. The Nazi party created these views that anyone who was not a German was inferior and that German was the superior race. Nationalism was needed in Germany, they had been in a depression where everything was worthless, when they saw someone who was promising to take that away and get revenge they saw hope. Germans had been going through constant change and this view that German blood was superior became an eternal identity and cushion for the citizens. This racism brought together the citizens and the Nazi party came into power over Germany.

The Nazi party became Germany's saving grace at the time. They had been through a war that they took the blame for which made them lose a lot of money, which created hyperinflation. They had lost territory which took away important materials that created income and jobs. Germany had lost many citizens to America, and they also lost colonies all over. Many Jews and Russians had fled to German cities in place of the German citizens who immigrated away. Nazis had flooded Germany with the ideology of German supremacy and due to the desperation of citizens, they had sided with the ideals. “Racial nationalism offered a rooted, eternal identity to brace Germans against constant change. Race provided a spiritual anchor that connected mobile Germans across the globe while shutting out recent arrivals from the East” (Denning,1489)ю