Flipping through our history books we’ve all read about great triumphs and with that came equally; great defeats. One time in history known worldwide; the Holocaust, the systematic killing of an entire race. Led by the infamous Adolf Hitler. A time of despair on all parts and a time of perceived vanquish. Adolf Hitler is known for being a notorious demagogue who made himself and millions of Aryan people believe in a false reality; a fantasy life, if you will. An Associate Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Texas, Austin, Patricia Roberts-Miller, defines the strategy of demagoguery as “polarizing propaganda that motivates members of an ingroup to hate and scapegoat some outgroup(s), largely by promising certainty, stability, and what Erich Fromm famously called “an escape from freedom” (Miller 462). Throughout Millers' essay, she goes in-depth about the use of demagoguery and its effectiveness. After reading her paper Democracy, Demagoguery, and Critical Rhetoric, Adolf Hitler appeared to be best suited for an analysis. Convincing many and killing more, I sat there wondering “How?” Patricia Roberts-Millers writing will be the focal point in my analysis of Hitler’s use of demagoguery or maybe, lack thereof.
It was the 1930s and the beginning of Nazi Germany. The people of Deutschland; as they call it, are in disarray after being a central power that lost the war. Hitler had just been appointed Chancellor of Germany and shortly after; the dictator at the time, Hindenburg died. This was the beginning of Hitler’s reign as a dictator. At this time, the economy was broken and each part fighting for more and more power. The German people were poor, starving, and struggling to find light at the end of the tunnel. Without hope and answers, their audacious leader set out on a mission to make a change within the country in hopes of providing the answers that would put all anxiety to rest. But at what risk? Hitler was soon to impact the lives of millions and the course of history forever.
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Commonly used by a true demagogue is the characteristic of scapegoating. The act of scapegoating according to Roberts-Miller is represented as, “the solution to the complicated problem is the removal of that group” especially when it’s convenient (Miller 465). This was seen to be the case with Hitler, the Nazis, and their place of blame amongst the people of Jewish descent. Roberts-Miller continues by saying, “It takes a tremendously complicated situation, about which people are very anxious, and makes them feel better by presenting a simple solution that anyone can grasp: elimination of the outgroup and promotion of the ingroup.” (Miller 465) This strategy was most effective because of that very reason; Nazi Germany needed answers, and the public needed answers. During this time of struggle and hopelessness amongst the Germans, they were desperate to find a central source to take responsibility for all of their troubles. During Hitler’s speech on September 18, 1922, he exclaimed, “No salvation is possible until the bearer of disunion, the Jew, has been rendered powerless to harm” (Munich -- Speech of September 18, 1922). This speech broadcasted all across Germany was the announcement of the Germans taking their control back from the Jews; who he claimed had control of the economy at this time. Hitler stated, “We in Germany have come to this: that a sixty-million people sees its destiny to lie at the will of a few dozen Jewish bankers” (Munich -- Speech of September 18, 1922). Using scapegoating to gain the support of this annihilation from the German people. Germans lacking stability, and security, and being at their most vulnerable state allowed Hitler to pose the problem and its simple solution as if it were the only logical way out of this desperate time. In light of this speech, the Germans had no other faith to fall back on and intertwined themselves with these negative views of the Jews. In psychology, there is a term called “groupthink” which is defined as the “phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome.” This idea of groupthink was displayed across Nazi Germany as the people all turned their backs on logic to put their anxiety at ease.
Another strategy used amongst demagogues is polarization. The use of the rhetoric of polarization is defined as making “the collective identity a reality, and also defines a situation upon which the audience will act.” Patricia Roberts-Miller states that many demagogues use this with the mindset of, “those who are not with us are against us” meaning membership in the outgroup is defined simply by not being in the ingroup, and this latter membership is demonstrated by unthinking loyalty to the policies of the demagogue.” Even mentioning Hitler’s ideology being, “...all opposition to him collapses into Jewification” (Roberts-Miller 464). In many aspects, it was hard to call Judaism a religion in correlation to how he treated those of Jewish descent. Even those who weren’t practicing Judaism were ostracized and stripped away of their basic human rights; many were not even aware of their tie to the Jewish background and hated on behavior of their unknown ancestors. Kairos played a big role in the rhetorical use of his strategies; timing is everything, and an audience is more persuadable when the moods of the people are changing. Throughout this time of instability and anxiety, the people of Germany were beginning to change moods as they found a sense of clarity. The divide between Nazi Germany and the Jews was beginning to increase rapidly. Hitler’s objective to create Germans as the out-group and the Jews as the in-group was in the palm of his hands. To further this divide, Hitler gave a speech addressing the SA and the SS; being the fourth time in German history that the groups had gathered, authorizing these men that the opposition was before them and that this opposition was the Jewish. Miller explains that oftentimes demagogues use their polarization with dependency on the idea of in-group and out-group thinking in hopes of expediting the split. Also stating, “While this can be a fairly harmless tendency, social psychologists have described how this kind of thinking contributes to stereotyping and racism” (Miller 462). Being that Hitler intended to spark a Deutschland-wide hatred against those not of the Aryan race, his use of polarization was executed the way it was intended and the way it was explained by Miller; racism at its peak and Germany’s free of being held accountable for their troubles.
Victimization is a characteristic described by Patricia Roberts-Miller. It is described as the action of the in-group placing themselves in a frame of being the oppressed and the out-group becoming the oppressor in the eyes of the in-group; being the Germans in this case. Miller claims that victimization is derived from polarization. In his proclamation of the Reich government Hitler emphasizes to the people that, “MORE than fourteen years have passed since the unhappy day when the German people, blinded by promises from foes at home and abroad, lost touch with honor and freedom, thereby losing all” (Berlin: Proclamation to the German Nation). In the eyes of the Aryan race; who considered themselves the oppressed, obtaining that reassurance that the negative result of World War I was not to be blamed on Germany or its people was key. Hitler knowing his people were vulnerable, took World War I and made Germany the victim of a battle they were a key component in sparking. Hitler was able to employ victimization to its full capacity and did in great deal to the disparity of his people. Hitler was the person that many sought hope and security from so they followed their “great” leader to a conceptualized idea of solidarity. By implementing this “us vs. them” mentality amongst the German people he was able to then boost this idea of groupthink that I had previously mentioned and Germany began to gain their presumed power back from those they claimed to have stolen it. While presenting his speech in Berlin Hitler gave personification to communism in hopes of creating an evil image of the ideology and what it has done to his country stating, “It seeks to poison and disrupt to hurl us into an epoch of chaos.... This negative, destroying spirit spared nothing of all that is highest and most valuable… Fourteen years of Marxism have ruined Germany; one year of Bolshevism would destroy her” (Berlin: Proclamation to the German Nation). Hitler utilized this victimization to create an alternate reality for his people that was unlike that of the true circumstance Germany had found itself fixed upon after WWI. It was the ideology of communists that had run Germany into the ground, not the acts of their people. While living in the 1930s, everywhere around the world; especially in Europe where many countries were being led by communist leaders, communism had begun to obtain a “bad rap”. In a sense, Hitler gave communism this image of being the bully and made Germany the defenseless child. He mastered the demagogic technique of victimization by siding with a fear shared amongst his people, communism. He allowed his people to know that he was aware of the fear they had towards communism and that he was making it a priority for the German people to overcome it. With all the destruction that had reigned upon Germany, communism was a simple target to place liability upon. During this time the Germans were becoming more cohesive in thought and finding the security they longed for within the words of their leader. Miller's interpretation of victimization and its link to the polarization of others is utilized empathetically and meticulously by Adolf Hitler. By creating a false reality and manipulating his audience, Hitler was able to obtain the support needed by Germany to execute his two four-year plans in hopes of making Germany Great Again.
Hitler was infamous for his fallacies when addressing the German people. According to Roberts-Miller fallacies are defined as, “failures in the form of argument” and they are not necessarily “a false belief... Rather, fallacies are missteps in the process of reasoning your way to a logically sound conclusion” (Miller 466). Hitler’s most predominant application of fallacy is seen in his frequent utilization of guilt by association. This is defined best by stating, “This fallacy attempts to discredit an idea or belief by associating it with an undesirable person or a group” (Tectonics). Hitler’s entire propaganda was founded on creating this image of the Aryan race being good, doing no wrong, and Jews causing the ruination of Germany. In his attempt to further discredit the image of the Jewish people living in Nazi Germany, he takes his speech in Munich 1923 a few steps further and includes the Jewish Americans in the havoc that has unraveled. Hitler then states, “Jewish firms of the United States began supplying ammunitions” placing the blame on not only the Jews living in Germany but those in the United States as well (Munich -- Speech of April 13, 1923). This is an example of the guilt by association that was previously mentioned. A major focus of Hitler’s advertisement of a better or greater; if you will, Germany was decreasing population. This idea of decreasing population was; in essence, to allow for Aryans to fit into the territory that Germany occupied during this time. Many agreed that the idea of controlling the population was a way for Hitler to manipulate Germans into thinking that this too would better Germany as a Zustand (state). Leading to the intentions he has of extermination camps for those falling outside the Aryan race. He says in his 1927 Nuremberg Rally, “Is it not wonderful to have thousands of men who grew through struggle, who matured in it. It is not the outward patriotism of middle-class citizens. We want to put an end to this silly squandering…” (1927 Nuremberg). Hitler instills into the minds of the Aryan people that due to the faults of the Jews, they are now able to become one and live the lives they aspire to whilst enhancing their country as a whole. It is best stated that “this idea leads to him making it acceptable to systematically kill the entire race” (Hitler: The Commander of Logical Fallacy). The use of irrelevant information to validate future actions that were to be done by Nazi Germany was Hitler’s way of receiving the support he needed from the German people. The Aryans: vulnerable, confused, and hopeless; and in Hitler’s eyes, easy to manipulate. His arguments lack sufficient evidence but were used to make sense of the immorality done by the Nazi party. Thus allowing the German citizens to turn a blind eye and feel as if they were being freed from the shackles of oppression.
Before furthering my research and writing this essay, I thought to myself, “Is Hitler a populist, a demagogue, or just a fool?” It is clear that he somehow managed to fit the description of all three. Analyzing his speeches enabled me to take a deeper look into the rhetorical strategies and how he used them to manipulate millions. It is without a doubt that Adolf Hitler was a true demagogue. Although he was an awful man he utilized many devices to their full capacity and is an infamous figure that people will study for generations to come. The use of demagoguery is fascinating and can be done in more ways than one as we have seen. In the world of political chaos that we live in now, it is evident that many of these things are used by our current world leaders. They say that history repeats itself and making things “Great Again” is not on my agenda.
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