Conditions in Germany pre-Nazi’s:
● Germany lost World War 1
○ Felt humiliation, anger towards political leaders (Diktat)
● Treaty of Versailles 1919 + Diktat (November Criminals)
○ War guilt
○ No conscription, 100000 soldiers only (felt unsafe)
○ Loss of overseas colonies (4m people)
○ Reparations - 6600 million
● Economic Problems
○ Crippling debts
○ 1929 Great Depression - failure to deal with the situation
○ Reparations
○ Unemployment
○ Ruhr Crisis 1923 - hyperinflation
● Weimar was weak
○ Kaiser abdicated
○ New constitution - Article 48 (emergency law abused by Hindenburg. This law gave power to the
leader to create laws without discussing it first at the Reichstag), Proportional Representation (made
all govt. coalition govt. hindering the efficiency of the Reichstag, each area in the country, depending
on its size was represented by a specific number of politicians in the Reichstag)
Aims in Nazi Party:
1. Unite all Germans under a greater Germany (lebensraum)
2. Revoke the Treaty of Versailles
3. Gain territories to accommodate surplus population
4. Restriction of Citizenship (Aryan ideal)
5. Jews to be denied membership of the Volk
Path to Chancellorship:
● Party politics ceased to function - no party had a majority in the Reichstag
○ Coalition govt. had to happen
○ Germany had to rely on Hindenburg (Article 48)
● 1930-1932 - Brü ning
● 1932 -von Papen
● 1933 - Schleicher
○ 3 Chancellors fought themselves out
○ Hitler was offered a minor role but preferred to bid time
● Presidential Elections 1932 - Hitler used them as a measure of popularity
● Hindenburg felt that Hitler would be less harmful in office than out
○ Appointed him as Chancellor (1933)
○ Hitler then outmanoeuvred everyone and worked his way up
● Hitler was able to exploit people’s fears to gain more votes
● Nobody could match Hitler’s determination
● Protest vote (against Weimar)
Role of Ideology:
● Jews were used as scapegoats for Germany’s problems
● Mein Kampf
● Nationalism
● Hatred towards TOV - exploited general sentiment
● Hitler used ideology to justify actions
● Belief in survival of the fittest (Social Darwinism)
---> Hitler wanted to be seen as a superman; Germany’s saviour, leader.
Key Points to remember:
1. Hitler’s individual personality
2. Propaganda
3. Fear and Terror
4. Ideology
5. Holes in Opposition
6. Germany’s conditions
Role of Propaganda
● Propaganda was key in spreading ideology to the German and greater public
● Example of German public education (new subjects like eugenics, change in curriculum and content
for History (aimed at glorifying Germany’s past), aimed at youth
● Hitler youth also aimed at youth
● People’s Receiver (cheap radios, illegal to listen to the international signals, used to spread
propaganda
From Chancellor to Fuhrer 1933-34
● 1933 - Reichstag Fire → propaganda tool
○ Dutch communist set fire to Reichstag
○ Law for the protection of people and state
○ SA took over → especially KDP
● Reichstag Elections
○ ⅔ of votes required to pass Enabling Law
○ coalition governments
● Enabling Act
○ Allowed Hitler to govern as Chancellor without reference to the Reichstag
○ Free to turn principle into practice
● Gleichschaltung - consolidation of authority
○ Turned Germany into a 1 party state
■ outlawed all political parties
■ destroyed trade unions
■ coerced churches
■ removed Jews
● Night of the Long Knives
○ got rid of SA (opposition)
○ Took power away from Rohm
○ SA was replaced by SS (Hitler’s bodyguards)
● Presidency
○ Hindenburg died
○ Hitler became Fuhrer
○ Plebiscite → 92% voted yes
■ legal election
Methods of Control
● Army
○ without its power Hitler would have been fragile
○ known as Wehrmacht
○ army oath → did not want army to be independent
○ unconditional loyalty to Hitler
○ Blomberg Fritsch Crisis 1938
■ purge of army leaders
■ Hitler became active commander
● SS
○ originally Hitler’s bodyguards
○ Heinrich Himmler
○ 3rd Reich was an SS state civilian police run on military lines
○ Ran concentration camps
○ Death Head Division
○ maintained ideology
■ protection of Germans against racial corruption
■ loyalty
■ absolute obedience
○ Gestapo
■ secret police
■ no legal restriction
■ fear and violence
Structure of Government
● Theory - balance between state and party
● Reality - all key posts were held by Nazis
● Organization and institution overlapped → created confusion
○ meant that Hitler was the only fixed point in the system
● “Working towards the Fuhrer”
○ did not want to create a whole new system
○ ministers would make a judgement from Hitler’s statement as to what policies he wanted them to
follow
○ created rivalry which encouraged workers to work harder and prevented opposition
● Hitler created bodies of government to suit his own purpose
○ e.g.: Ministry of Propaganda → Goebbels
Nazi Ideology
● Lebensraum
● Anti - Semitism
● Superior Aryan Race
● Anti - Marxism
● Anti - feminism
● Anti - democracy
● Social Darwinism
● Blut und Boden
● Fuhrerprinzip
Propaganda
● Promoted the idea of a German nation united under the Nazi Party
○ repetition was key to inculcating ideas
○ Hitler was the new Messiah
● Aims
○ Fuhrer Principle
○ Promote German nation
○ Promote Hitler in the most positive light
○ Encourage price in Aryan race
● Berlin Olympics 1936
○ Hitler attended everyday
○ great sporting success for Germany
● Press
○ Goebbels brought newspapers under control
○ Eher Verlag
○ DNB
○ Editor’s Law
○ The newspaper was a highly influential weapon
● Arts
○ guard against Jewish corruption
○ defined culture by what it was against
○ censorship
● Radio
○ Reich Radio company
○ Number of Germans with a radio went from 20% to 70%
○ ban on all foreign broadcasts (especially during war)
Education
● Main medium to promote Nazi ideas
● School system was brought under control
● Curriculum
○ race and ideology
○ subjects reflected Nazi superiority
■ Eugenics
● Dispute with Churches
○ exclusion of religious instruction
○ church was scared that Nazis were undermining their beliefs
○ Concordat 1933
● Hitler Youth
○ Aim was to train young men into Nazi values
○ great emphasis on physical activities
● BDM - sister movement to Hitler Youth
○ Aim was to make youth truly part of the volk
○ though membership was voluntary, peer pressure inspired people to join
■ 90% of youth joined
○ 1939 - membership was made compulsory in preparation for war Working Class
● German Labour Front was the single largest organization that affected German people
○ Aim was to regulate German workforce along military lines
○ destroyed trade unions
○ came under state control and lost independence
○ 12 years - 25 million workers
○ mechanism of oppression
● Kraft durch Freude
○ leisure for masses
○ provided holidays for workers and family
○ tourism
○ 10 million Germans were involved● Welfare program
○ provided insurance and education
● War time - KDF was destroyed and GLF was made dictatorial
Women
● Hitler's plans for economy did not include the advancement of women → anti-feminism
○ separated women from society to keep them under control
● Hitler was concerned that the birth rate was dropping
○ 3Ks
○ fewer women allowed in universities
○ no women allowed in civil service
○ abortion was made illegal
● Impact of War
○ abrupt change in policy
■ conscription into army
■ reintroduced women in the workplace
○ war destroyed social conventions
Treatment of minorities
● Aims
○ Hitler believed that undesirables were expendable
○ wanted to exterminate defectives to create a pure and strong volk
● Methods
○ 1933 - Law for the Prevention of diseased offspring
○ By 1939 350000 were sterilized
○ Defectives were subject to euthanasia
■ set up killing centres (70000 deaths)
● Opposition
○ Some doctors protested by refusing to cooperate in the program
■ Dr. Friedrich Holzel
■ other doctors found ways of saving patients
○ Religious protests about euthanasia
■ Bernhard Lichtenberg
■ Van Galen
● Effects
○ 1941 - T4 was suspended and euthanasia program ended
Anti-Semitism into Genocide
● Jews made up 1% of German population
○ no evidence that Jewish persecution was planned from the beginning
● Cumulative Radicalization
● Major Stages
○ 1933 - organized violence and Jews barred from jobs
○ 1935 - Nuremberg Race Laws
○ 1938 - Jews businesses shut down; mass migration organized
○ 1939 - Kristallnacht
○ 1942 - Final Solution - Holocaust