Nazi Germany

AUTHORITARIAN AND SINGLE PARTY

STATES

Following WWIArmistice 11/11/18Germany required

to submit to Treaty of Versailles – June 1919

Loss of territoryForbid anschluss

(alliance with Austria)

COLLAPSE OF GERMAN EMPIRE

Replaced Kaiser Wilhelm – abdicated 11/9/1918

Politically weak – required coalitions because of proportional representation

Weakness leads to attempted overthrows

Spartacus League left-wing Socialist movement Jan. 1919 attempted coup; founders of KPG German Communist Party.

SPD – Socialist Democratic Party and KPD do not form coalition NAZIS later take power

WEIMAR REPUBLIC

Loss of industrial lands Reparations – inability to pay

leads to French/Belgian occupation of Ruhr (another industrial heartland). Passive resistance – strikes, sabotage, failure to work.

Weimar Republic prints money to pay off reparations Hyperinfl ation!

1924 Dawes Plan – All ies leave Ruhr, staggered reparation repayment, 800 mill ion mark loan from US

Germany stil l unable to repay reparations – set that high deliberately by Versailles?

Oct. 1929 – US recalls loans following Wall Street collapse

ECONOMIC HARDSHIPS

NSDAP – National Socialist German Workers’ Party

Founded 1919 Anton Drexler as German Workers’ Party

Adolf Hitler would become chairman 1921

NAZIS

1889 – born Braunau, Austria

1907/1908 – failed art student

1914 – Western front, dispatch runner, eventual corporal

1918 – hospital recovering from poison gas attack – armistice

1919 – enlightenment project spying on political movements for army

ADOLF HITLER

1921 – SA (sturmabteilung) created becomes paramilitary group; Voelkischer beobachter (People’s Observer) Nazi newspaper

1923 – 55,000 members (German electorate of 38 mill ion)

Nov. 1923 – Beer Hall Putsch – Nazi led attempted coup “March on Berlin”

March on Rome – Mussolini comes to power in Italy leading to Fascist control of gov’t Oct. 1922

Late 1920’s see participation in Reichstag and development of SS

NAZIS DEVELOPMENT

1929 forces changes in world markets

Nazis begin gaining seats – 230 in July 1932, largest in Reichstag

Promises of jobs, middle class values, and a restoration of national strength for Germans

RISE TO POWER

von Papen vs. von Schleicher

Neither held Chancellorship for long – both ineff ective

von Papen – after dismissal moves to push Hitler as Chancellor, hoping to control him

von Schleicher also pushes for Hitler, hoping to maintain high ranking position in a Nazi gov’t

Hindenburg – president during political grab bag; denies Hitler Chancellorship Aug. 1932, only to approve it Jan. 1933.

POLITICS

Reichstag Fire – Feb. 27, 1933.

Dutch Communist accused of setting fi re to the Reichstag

Hitler seeks emergency decree

For the Protection of People and State Used to silence opponents Forces Communists from

Reichstag Leads Nazis to 49% - makes

coalition with Catholic Centre Party for full control

POLITICS

Hitler allowed to issue decrees without oversight from Reichstag or President

Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich

Communists and Socialists already arrested under Reichstag Fire Decree

Required 2/3 vote as an amendment to Constitution

Gained from Centre Party and Right-wing parties

After passage, Hitler begins Gleichschaltung – Nazifi cation of German institutions (eliminates Reichsrat (representatives of states))

ENABLING ACT 1933

Volksgemeinschaft – state before all other loyalties, people bound together by blood

Social Darwinism – loose association with Theory of Evolution, strongest wil l survive strongest being Aryans

Lebensraum – Organic State Theory, states must grow to survive, l ike all l iving creatures German state must expand to acquire l iving space for Germans

Herrenvolk – German Aryans as master race Anti-Democracy – gives importance to weaker races Führerprinzip – leader’s wil l is the source of political authority

cult of leader Anti-feminism - women’s role is to bear more Aryans Anti-Marxism – internationalism weakens nations Anti-Semitism – Jews are the lowest race in social heirarchy Blut and Boden (Blood and Soil) – blood of the community is in

the soil – a belief that peasants and landowners l ive in organic harmony

IDEOLOGY AND STATE

Hegel – individual desires may only be realized through relationships of mutual recognition with others – Volk and State

Anti-Semitism prevalent throughout Europe

Nietzsche – Übermensch – superhuman Fuhrer above all

Social Darwinism – states, just like animals, struggle to survive

LONG-STANDING EUROPEAN TRADITIONS

Mein Kampf – My StruggleGermany must fi ght

CommunismMarxism was the invention

of Jews bent on world domination

National Socialism could fi ght communism – democracy was a stage towards communism

Prepare for war to gain Lebensraum in Polish corridor – racial unity, eliminate Jews, authoritarian gov’t, no dissent or diversity

HITLER’S IDEOLOGIES

March – July 1933Communists, Socialists

banned/arrestedRight wing coalition

parties disbandCatholic Centre Party

disbands after Concordat with Pope July 1933 – state would not interfere with Church and vice versa

July 14 1933 – Law Against the Establishment of Parties

ESTABLISHING THE ONE PARTY STATE

Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Services – April 1933 Jews and non-Aryans must

resign positions in administration, courts, universities, and schools

Law to Ensure the Unity of Party and State – Dec. 1933 Secures NSADP monopoly No regulation or division of

power leading to institutional distress

Overlap in authority between branches or local authorities

CONSOLIDATION

Night of the Long Knives Himmler – SS commander,

Gestapo leader SA leader Röhm wished

for a second revolution June 30, 1934 SA leaders (near 200)

shot Hitler ‘acted on behalf of

the German people’ cult of hero

Hindenburg dies August, army swear allegiance to Hitler

CONSOLIDATION

GoebbelsMinistry for Popular

Enlightenment and Propaganda

By 1939 – owned 2/3 of newspapers

Reich Broadcasting Corporation 1933 – all radio

Film conformed to Nazi ideals – Triumph of the Will (1935) Nuremberg Rallies of 1934 (full video on YouTube)

PROPAGANDA

SS replaces SA Waff en SS – 1938, established

to be functioning members of the army

SS-Totenkopf (Death’s Head) expanded as reserve military force, eventually oversee concentration camps

Army supports reverse of disarmament and expansion to old empire

Army dissents on war with Russia and need for Lebensraum

Those opposed were dismissed or reassigned

1936 Rhineland remilitarized, Anschluss w/ Austria

1938 entry into Czechoslovakia

ARMY

Simple – reading banned material, listening to banned music

Rot Kapelle (Red Orchestra) – anti-Nazi resistance in Berlin, Soviet espionage rings in German occupied Europe and Switzerland

Schwarze Kapelle (Black Orchestra) – July 20 Plot – assassinate Hitler at Wolf’s Lair, remove SS and Gestapo authority, end War and keep gains from Hitler’s invasions – military leaders

OPPOSITION