Hitler And Gandhi Essays - Adolf Hitler, Hitler Family,

Hitler And Gandhi In the late 1800's and the early 1900's the people of northern Europe, southern Africa and Asia were in despair. They had no leaders. They were defenseless. India had been taken over by the British Empire and now the 315 million Indians were under the rule of the 100 thousand British soldiers there. In Germany there were six different political groups; nobody knew what to do. These countries were in shock, they need a change, but more importantly, they needed a leader. Mohandas K. Gandhi was a law student, born and raised in India, but schooled in England. Early on in his career he returned to his birthplace and attempted to practice law there, but he was very unsuccessful. A few years later he moved to South Africa, and again attempted to set up a law practice there. But South Africa was now in British control and the Indian lawyer was subjected to a lot of racial prejudice. Almost immediately he was abused because of his heritage and his law practice went down the drain. Gandhi began to notice the awful discriminations that all Indians suffered from. In 1894 he began a movement that would shape the way that Indians are viewed even today. He began to take charge; he began to lead his people. Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau, Austria in 1889, about the time that Gandhi was realizing his mission in life. Like Mohandas K. Gandhi, Hitler was very smart as a child. Being the son of a public servant, he was able to attend the best schools and was able to partake in any extra-curricular activities he desired. All his father wanted was for his son to follow in his footsteps and attain the rank of public servant or even better, but the boy was very stubborn and when his father refused to let him chase a career as an artist, he decided to stop doing his work, and his grades began to fall drastically. When his father died he quit school and for the next few years lived off his family's money. He did nothing but read books, draw pictures and daydream all day long. When he was 18 (in 1907) he moved to Vienna, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and tried to get into an art school there. But unfortunately for the world, he failed his entrance exams, twice. His mother died a few years later and he inherited quite a bit of money, so for the next part of his life he lived quite comfortably in Vienna as an "artist." Around this time Hitler became very interested in politics. He joined the military and became a Social Democrat. He developed a huge hatred for Jews and Slavs and became an extreme nationalist. He recognized that no form of government could ever last as long as the people of all different nationalities were treated equally. When the war broke out in 1914, Hitler immediately volunteered. He was accepted and served as a messenger. But Hitler was too smart to stay as merely a messenger. His knowledge of war and his extreme military tactics helped him to achieve the rank of corporal. After Germany's defeat in World War I, the country went into a state of turmoil. When Hitler recovered from the shock of having lost the war, he joined a small political group called the German Workers Party. He quickly gained rank and changed the name of the political group to the National Socialist German Worker's Party. The NSGWP was soon to take over the title of Nazis. In May of 1929, the NSGWP had only about 3% of the Germans following them, but by the time Hitler took over in 1933, around 35% of Germany were backing the Nazis. In 5 years Hitler had taken over the NSGWP and Germany. Hitler rose because Germany needed a leader, and that was exactly was he offered them. Hitler and Gandhi both gained the respect of their people in very short periods of time. They both even used some of the same techniques. Both Hitler and Gandhi knew that writing and having his thoughts and ideas published was very important, but the only way to really get the peoples attention was to go out and speak to them. "...the people can be moved only by the power of speech." They both used speech as a weapon and they used it well. At one point in his life, Hitler even refers to the, "magic[al] power of the spoken