Kapp Putsch - 1920
• Led by reactionaries within the army
• Failed as the German workers wouldn’t
support them, going on strike
Munich (Beer Hall) Putsch - 1923
French occupation of the Ruhr
Inability to pay reparations
hyperinflation
Weaknesses of the Weimar
• No democratic tradition in Germany
• Weimar had signed the Treaty of
Versailles
• Mark became worthless in 1923
• A series of weak, feeble coalitions
Founding of the Nazi Party 1925
Hitler would become leader of the
German Workers’ Party in 1920
He changed the name to the
National Socialist German Workers Party
This party created the S.A. or “Brownshirts”
Strumabteliung – “Brownshirts”
Ernst Rohm
Gregor Strasser
“Social Darwinism”
this is what this person suffering from hereditary defects costs the Community of Germans
during his lifetime. Fellow Citizen, that is your money, too
Aryan “Struggle”
To Hitler, Germans were the purest example of
a superhuman “Aryan” race.
The other key feature of Nazi racial policy was
the concept of “lebensraum” (living space)
Anti-Semitism
“The Jew: War Monger,
War-Prolonger”
Anti-Bolshevism
“Bolshevism without a mask”
Great Depression
Electoral Growth
1930 – Nazis gain 107 seats out of 647 –
2nd larges party in Reichstag
1932 (1st election) – Nazis gain 230 seats –
largest party in Reichstag
1932 (2nd election) – Nazis drop to 198 seats –
Hindenburg ‘safely’ appoints Hitler chancellor
President
Paul von Hindenburg
Chancellor
Chancellor
Franz von
Papen
Heinrich
Bruning
Reichstag burns…??
Allegedly done by a young Dutch communist –
convicted and executed
Hitler used this as evidence of an impending
communist revolution
Enabling Act
“Night of the Long Knives”
Ernst Rohm,
Leader of the
SA
(Brownshirts)
• Goering and Himmler constructed
“evidence” of an SA conspiracy aimed at
overthrowing Hitler
• Hitler summoned all SA leaders to meet
with him at the hotel in Bad Wiessee
• Executions of SA went on throughout the
weekend
Hindenburg dies – Hitler “elected” president
Hitler merges the position of Chancellor and
President – no opposition exists
Nuremburg Laws – 1933-39
All Jews must wear the Star of David
Jews must give up businesses and professions
Jews may not marry/mingle with Germans
Jews must give up German citizenship
Creating the Totalitarian State
• The Nazi party is soon declared the only party
• Free speech is abolished
• Freedom of press, radio, stage, cinema – all gone
• Education served the interests of the Nazi Party
Staatspolizei – “Gestapo”
• Ruthlessly efficient
• Inhumanely cruel
• In charge of concentration camps
Joseph Goebbels
Hermann Goering – Reich
Commissioner
Heinrich Himmler – Chief of the
S.S., head of the Gestapo