• What problems did the Weimar Republic face?• How did Hitler come to power?• What political, social, economic, and cultural

policies did Hitler pursue?• How did Hitler take action against German

Jews?

Section 4Chp. 17

and the Rise of NAZI Germany

Setting the Scene

• In November 1923, a German army veteran and leader of an extremist party, Adolf Hitler, tried to follow Mussolini's example. His brown-shirted thugs burst into a beer hall in Munich, where a political meeting was set to start. Hitler climbed onto a table and fired his pistol. “The National Socialist revolution has begun!” he shouted.

• The coup failed, and Hitler was soon behind bars. But Hitler was a force that could not be ignored forever. Within a decade, he made a new bid for power. This time, he succeeded by legal means.

The Weimar Republic4

• As WWI ended Germany was in trouble, almost chaos at home. The Kaiser abdicated and the new democratic government signed the armistice and then under protest the Treaty of Versailles

• In 1919 the Weimer Republic was created at Weimer Germany. It was a constitutional democracy with a parliamentary system led by a Chancellor.

• The new government gave women the right to vote and included a Bill of Rights

Struggles of the Republic

• The Weimar republic was weak from the start, like France the government had many small parties and to have control the Chancellor had to build coalitions

• Both sides plastered the Democratic socialists in the middle with demands– The communists wanted reforms like those in the

USSR– The conservatives attacked the government as too

weak– Everyone blamed the Weimar Republic for the treaty

of Versailles and reparations– Many people looked to scapegoats to blame, the

Jews

Inflation

• Economic problems didn’t help the Republic• After Germany fell behind in payments to France,

France seized and occupied the Ruhr Valley, with vast deposits of coal

• Germans resisted by refusing to work• The Republic printed more money which caused

inflation– An item that cost 100 marks in July 1922 cost 944,000

marks in August 1923– Bread cost 10s of thousands of marks!

• Runaway inflation spread misery and despair, even though wages rose they could not keep up with costs, most lost everything they had saved

Recovery and Collapse

• The Republic eventually brought inflation under control with the help of the United States and the lessening of reparations payments

• Then the Great Depression hit and all was lost in Germany.

• Germans turned to an energetic leader Adolf Hitler, who promised to solve the problems and return Germany to greatness.

Adolf Hitler

• Born in 1889 in Austria the son of a minor customs official and a peasant girl a poor student who didn’t complete high school

• Applied to the Vienna Fine Arts academy but was rejected for lack of talent

• Stayed in Vienna until 1913 living off an orphan’s pension and then selling some pictures he drew.

• In Vienna he developed anti-Jewish and anti-democratic beliefs, had an admiration for the outstanding individual, and a contempt for the masses

Adolf Hitler cont.

• Hitler moved to Germany and then joined the German army during World War I

• He never was promoted above the rank of private 1st class because his superiors thought him lacking in leadership qualities

• After the war he joined the nationalist German Worker’s party and in 1920 went to work full time for the party now known as the NAZI party.

Mein Kampf• While in prison Hitler wrote a book titled “Mein

Kampf” translated to “my struggle” it reflected Hitler's obsessions:– Extreme Nationalism– Racism– Anti-Semitism– A Master Race of “Aryans” light skinned Europeans

whose greatest enemy was the Jews• He believed Jews were not a religion but a race anyone

with one grandparent that was Jewish was a Jew to Hitler

• He claimed that Germany had not lost the war but had been betrayed by Marxists, Jews, corrupt politicians, and business leaders

• Hitler urged Germans to unite and gain Lebensraum or living space.

• He believed Germany needed a strong leader and that he was that Fuhrer

The Road to Power• Hitler served less than a year in prison, on

release he returned to his speech giving• People listened and followed Hitler

because of the depression and unemployment

• The Nazi party soon had over a million members, appealing to workers, the lower middle classes, small-town Germans, and business people.

• Hitler promised to end reparations, create jobs, and defy the treaty of Versailles by rebuilding the military

• The Republic government was divided, and the Nazis and Communists won seats in the Reichstag, the conservative leaders turned to Hitler even though they despised him, because they thought they could control him

The Road to Power cont.

• Hitler was elected chancellor in 1933

• Within a year he was master of Germany, he suspended civil rights, destroyed the socialists and communists, and disbanded other political parties.

• Germany became a one party state, Nazi flags waved across the country replacing the Weimer Republic flags.

• Hitler purged his own party, by brutally executing Nazis he believed were not loyal

• Hitler demanded unquestioning obedience

The Third Reich

School courses and textbooks were written to reflect Nazi racial views. The Nazis sought to purge, or purify, German culture.

Hitler sought to replace religion with his racial creed.

The Nazis indoctrinated young people with their ideology.

Hitler spread his message of racism.

The Nazis sought to limit women’s roles.

Hitler launched a large public works program.

Hitler began to rearm Germany, in violation of the Versailles treaty.

Hitler repudiated, or rejected, the hated Treaty of Versailles.

Hitler organized a system of terror, repression, and totalitarian rule.

POLITICAL POLICIES ECONOMIC POLICIES

SOCIAL POLICIES CULTURAL POLICIES

4

Hitler’s Campaign Against the JewsHitler set out to drive Jews from Germany.

In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws placed severe restrictions on Jews. Jews could:

No longer marring non-Jews etc.No longer teach non-JewsNot hold government jobs, practice law, or publish books

Many German Jews fled Germany and sought refuge in other countries.

In 1938, Nazi-led mobs attacked Jewish communities all over Germany in what came to be called Kristallnacht, or the “Night of Broken Glass.”

Hitler sent tens of thousands of Jews to concentration camps, detention centers for civilians considered enemies of the state.

Hitler planned the “final solution”—the extermination of all Jews.

4

Work will make you Free

Work Frees Work Clears