fascism in germany (christmas exam 2025)

when were the interwar period dates

1918 - 1959

How did conditions in europe in the interwar period contribute to fascist regimes

• Dolchstross / Weimar republic / November criminals

• (1923) German economy collapsing under burden of reparations

  • munich putsch 1923

• Vienna’s antisemitism - Mein kamf

• Weakness of weimar republic in germany (hitler only in prison for a year, reorganizing party)

• Wall street crash, weak coalition govts (more power to extremist parties)

  • political instability in germany

Hitler’s early career

• Austrian

• Vienna = university = anti semitism = down and out

• german army 1914, iron cross, messages across trenches

• armistace, disgusted, belived in dolchstross

Dolchstross

belief that germany would have won, or gotten better terms in the treaty of versaille if the polticians, or november criminals, did better jobs

Origins of nazi party/hitlers political career 

• hitler’s career began in 1919

• anton drextor’s socialist party 

• 1921, leader

• powerful orator 

• adopted swastika 

• blamed problems on the jews, communists and weak weimar republic 

• SA under Rohm

Munich putsch

1923

• economic collapse, reparations

• French Ruhr region - strike - further decline

• inflation + difficulties in Ruhr = convinced Hitler to stage a coup

• 8th November, proclaimed president of Germany

• commander lost nerve, snitched, easily suppressed, arrest and imprisonment

• only a year instead of ten, learn to seize power democratically, blood splattered flag = symbol

• Weimer republic weak = prison for a year after staging a coup

  • Release = goebells, restructure party, fuherprinzip

How did hitler restructure the nazi party

• Fuherprinzip, loyalty to one person

Stresemann years

1923 TO 1929

• recovery under stresemann

• Dawes 1924 (new and better schedule for repayment, 50 million per year for five years and 125 million from 1929 on) and young plan 1929 (reduced payments from 6600 million to 2000 milion)

• support dropped 

• stresemann restructured loan payments and got loans 

• restored confidence in republic

Two plans of stresemann years

• dawes plan 1924

• Young plan 1929

What was the dawes plan

1924 - new and better schedule for reperation repayments, 50 million per year for 4 years, 125 million a year from 1929 onwards

Wall street crash

• 1929 October

• collapse of stock market 

• loans recalled, investment dried up

• unemployment rose dramatically - 6 million peak

• Weak coalition govts cant cope (20 coalition govts in 20 years)

• german voters = extremists 

• nazi votes went from 2.6 to 37.4%

unemployment figures in germany after wall street crash

6 million peak 1933 

What was the young plan

1929

Reduced payments from 6600 million to 2000 million

Post wall street crash nazi support figures

May 1929 and july 1932, 2.6% to 37.4%

who did hitler/nazi party appeal to

• german nationalists - treaty of versaille = root of german difficulty

• middle class liked dismantling treaty - life savings wiped out twice in six years 1923, 1929

• enemplyed liked employment plans

• antisemites hated jews

• people hate communism

Describe german poltical instability

• 1930 - 1933

• bruning, papen and schleicher was able to rule with majority

• hindenburg had to rule by decree

what happened in the presidential election in april 1932

hitler test mood of german voters, opposed popular hindenburg in election, received 13 million votes to hindenbergs 19 million, VERY GOOD SHOWING 

How many votes did hitler get against hindenburg, when?

1932 april elections, 13 million to hindenburgs 19

how did hitler first come to power

1933, papen convinces hindenburg to end political instability by offering hitler chancelor

papen was gonna control hitler, but hitler swept him aside and quickly moved to consolidate nazi power

when was the wall street crash

october 1929

who were the three weak govts in germany during its poltical instability times

19 to 1933, bruning, papen, schleicher

how and when did hitler consolidate power

Came into power in 1933, used the next 6 years to stamp his authority on germany and transform in into a one party totalitarian state

• Enabling law 1933

• centralisation of the government

• night of long knives (1934)

• subordination of the army

• der fuhrer (august 1934)

Enabling law

1933

• rule by decree

• 4 years

• end of democracy

how did hitler centralise the government 

• civil, police, legal and teaching professions all under germany 

• 1933 labour front  - trade unions 

• all political parties stamped out bar nazi

what happened on the knight of the long knives

• rohm referred to hitler as swine

• 1934 june

• eliminated rohm and his private army the SA

• saw as a potential threat to authority

• army hated rohm as they thought hitler would put him in charge of them

Subordination of the army

august 1934 - army loyal to hitler

der fuhrer

hindenberg died, hitler merged office of president and chancellor

What was, broadly, hitlers domestic policy, and what was it called in german

gleichschaltung

Saught to bring all aspects of daily life under nazi influence

Describe how the nazis had a police state

• 2 terror groups to control german population - SS and Gestapo

• Leadership - Himmler

• Tracked down, tortured, murdered and imprisoned enemies of state

• Political prisoners sent to concentration camps like dachau

Headings of nazi state characteristics

• police state

• Totalitarianism

• Gleichschaltung

• Propaganda

• Nuremburg rallies, youth groups

• Leni riefenstahl

• Education

• Autarky

• Rebuilding of the economy

Totalitarianism

Political system in which one individual or party controls everything, no opposition tolerated

Who was joseph gobbles

• head of ministry of propaganda and public enlightenment

• Dr of philosophy

• Totally loyal to hitler

• All books, films, radio broadcasts and newspaper had to have his approval

Propaganda in germany

• reich press law 1934 - all newspaper editors must possess german citizenship, be of Aryan descent and not be married to a jew

• Well known daily papers replaced by das reich

• Films not suiting nazi views banned, eg tarzan and its mate

• Peoples receiver 1933, cheap radio set, allowed nazis to spread propaganda

• Spread black propaganda during the second world war, most famous broadcaster was william joyce/lord haw haw

When was radio introduced into nazi germany and what was it called

Peoples receiver in 1933

Nuremburg rallies !

• every september

• Nuremburg - glorified old germany as a speech

• Spread propaganda

• Lasted a week

• Hitler, up to 20 speeches

• Themes

• Soldiers sworn in on bloody flag

• Main purpose - celebrate achievements, announce new policies

• British ambassador neville Henderson “cathedral of ice”

• 1934 - first year of nazi party in germany, dr wagner delivered speech on euthanasia

• 1934 - rally of freedom (from treaty of versailles)

  • Nuremburg laws introduced

  • Strong attack on jews

• 1938

  • Celebrated anschluss

Leni riefenstahl

• best ever directors

• Triumph of will 1934, olympia 1936

• Triumph of will considered to be one of best documentaries ever made

• Celebrates nazis in power

• Portrays hitler has high priest

Nazi youth movements and education

• hitler believed third reich last for 1000 years

• Essential next generation introduced to nazi blieves asap

• Hitler youth for boys in 1926, league of german maidens established in 1928

• 1934, membership of hitler youth stood at 3.5 million

• education - history, biology, sport

• Biology - racial purity

• Sport - german master race

• 32% of teachers - nazi party members

• Religious instruction phased out

Nazi economic policy

• Nazi election campaignes based off of promise to end economic crisis after wall street crash

• Acted immediately to create jobs

• dr schact - president of reichsbank

  • Money provided to assist industry, help was given to factories wanting to replace old machinery

  • Provided jobs 1935 onwards

    • Rearmament factories

    • Conscription (100,000 → 550,000)

    • Public work program (roads, gave companies using more workers jobs)

• autarky

  • 1936

  • 4 year plan to make germany self sufficient

  • Substitutes for petrol, wool, rubber - less efficiant

  • Despite huge emphasis on virtue of agricultural life, agriculture remained weak

    • Farm labourers earned half of those working in industry during the 1930s

• Dr schacht eventually resigned, guns v butter argument, thought hitler was overeliant on arms instead of agriculture

• Hitlers economic plan was short term

economic acheivements in germany

• schachts achievements

  • Amazing

  • Gnp grew 102% between 1932 and 1937

  • Unemployment fell from 6 million in 1933 to 2 million in 1936

  • 1939, shortage of labour in germany

    • Figures painted false picture, most jobs around rearming

    • Agriculture increasingly neglected

    • No oil

hitler’s relationship woith the church

• catholic church

  • good start in 1933

  • concrodant between church and state signed between von papen and hitler 

  • hitler wouldnt interfere with church, church wouldnt interfere with politics

  • tensions mount as indirect nazi interference though increasing control of youth movements and education

  • 1936, catholic bishops said that nazis werent adhering to the spirit of the condordat in an open letter

  • 1937, pope pius condemned hitlers persecution of the jews in the “with burning anguish” papal letter

• 1941, cardional von galen condemned euthanasia, and reported it as a crime to the civil police

• protests met with public support, goeblles adivsed hitler not to arrest him

• abandoned as a result of galens intervention

Protestant church

• greater control

• 28 different churches merged into one large church, reichskirche, in july 1933, brought under leadership of pastor muller

• confessional church was set up and were against the reichskirche

• many of these members were put into concentration camps

anti semitism def

term used to describe hatred and discrimation against the kews

feature of european society for centuries, but took its most violent and evil form in the holocaust during ww2

Hitler and the jews

• hatred of jews major force behind growth of nazi party

• less than 1% of german population

• blamed for all germanys difficulties

• jewish problem

• developed hate n vienna

Anti jewish discrimation pre war years by nazis 

• introduced anti jewish policy by banishing jews from public life, business activity and eventually life itself

main anti jewish laws

• 1933 official boycott of jewish shops

  • outsted from civil service, judiciary and teaching professions

  • quote system introduced to schools and unis

• 1935 nuremburg laws

  • forbade marriage between aryans and jews (mischlings)

  • punishable by death

  • star of david in public

• 1936, brief pause due to olympics

• 1937 - jewish businesses could be confisticated without justification

  • no longer allowed to enter parks or keep pets

• 1938 kristallnacht

• 1939 curfew forbade jews from leaving house after dark, no public transport, a bike or radio

How many jews emigrated before the war

• half a million jews in 1933, 1939 360,000 had emigrated successfully

• others werent able to leave due to lack of money and inability to pay tax on emigrants

Kristallnacht

1938 - night of broken glass, killing of german ambassador in paris by a jew caused wave of organized attacks and violence gaainst jews

20,000 jews imprisoned and many left the country

anti semitism during war years

• nazis got much more radical

• millions of jews now under german government after invasion of russia

• initially just did legal measures, jews banned from public office, had property seized and had to live in ghettos like the warsaw ghettos

  • warsaw ghetto (450,000)

  • anyone trying to leave shot

  • overcrowding and poor living conditions led to throusands dying - 96000 in warsaw alone

• 1941, mobile ss units began to systematically kill thousands of jews as they swept into the soviet union

What happened in the holocaust 

• 1942, january, heydrich chaired wansee conference 

  • exterminate european jews

  • final solution - mass extermination, formally agreed on policy to deport european jews to east and exterminate anyone too weak to work

• eichmann put to task of rounding up jews

• 6 million jews died in extermination camps like auschwitz birkenau

Anti semitism in other countries

• romania coperated with nazis by sending thousands of jews and gypsies to the camp

• hungarian jews protected by governemnt until nazi occupation in 1944

• 350,000 hungarian jews transported to auschwitz birkenau

• 250,000 of those were gassed within 2 months of arrival

• pope pius the 12th got the hungarian dictator, horthy, to stop deportations, saving 170,000 jews

result of halocaust

• 9 million jews went down to 3 milion

• zionism becomes really popular

• birth of israel 1948

• arab israeli conflict