IB History Hitler Consolidation

Why was Hitler appointed Chancellor

Hindenburg’s conservative advisors believed that Nazi extremism would be held in check by the conservative majority. Hindenburg was heavily against this idea until he was convinced otherwise. Franz Von Papen was an ex-chancellor was embittered by being pushed out of the chancellor position that he promoted Hitler’s chancellorship

Night of the Long Knives

June 1934, last elimination of opposition for the Nazis, Hitler arrested and shot the SA leader, Ernst Rohm. Hitler claimed that Rohm was organizing a putsch against him. Hitler wanted full control over the army so he disbanded the SA to implement the SS which were fully loyal to him

Reichstag Fire

February 1933, dutch communist set fire to the Reichstag building in Berlin. The Nazis denounced this as a communist plot. Hitler used this as propaganda to crush the communists. The Nazi’s asserted that only a strong Nazi government with Hitler as its leader would stop the communists

Main Instruments of Control of the Nazi’s

The Gestapo, The SS, and the Army

The Gestapo

dedicated to exposing and removing enemies of the state, had unlimited powers of arrest, torture, and interrogation, making it the most feared

The SS

Hitler’s personal bodyguard replaced SA, a control system over Germany, a civilian police network run on military lines, that enforces the law while working outside of the law

The Army

helped gain a strong power base, Hitler’s notion that the army was betrayed at the end of the First World War they stressed the importance of Wehrmacht. Army Oath: declared unconditional loyalty to the Fuhrer

Opposition to the Nazi

The left: made up of communists and socialists, The right: made up of traditionalists and conservatives, the young, and the church

The Left

already driven to the ground by Nazi persecution, most of it’s members were in concentration camps. Preventing any organized opposition

The Right

Completely unorganized but all aligned under one goal; to eliminate Hitler’s leadership. One attempt on Hitler’s life that injured him: July Bomb Plot in 1944, that failed

The Youth

spread out opposition in small groups like the White Rose, the Swinging Youths, and Edelweiss however they were eventually found out and publically hanged to discourage opposition

The Church

None of the churches openly resisted or challenged the Nazi Regime mostly due to it’s belief in non violence and Hitler never attempted to anger the Archbishop/catholics in fear of the reprocussions like lost followers.

The Saarland returned

under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles the industrial Saarland region had been detached from Germany, a plebiscite was held in January 1935, agermany sent thousands of Nazis into the Saar to mount a huge pro-German campaign, the plebiscite had an overwhelming Nazi victory with over 90%

German Rearmament

1935, boldest step Hitler took, introduced conscription, aiming to increase the German army to hald a million men, five times the size allowed under the Treaty of Versailles. Britain and France issued a mild reprimand to Germany for this breach of of the Treaty, but neither did anything more

Remilitarization of the Rhineland

1936, hitler ordered troops into the Rhineland, an area that had been demilitarized by the Treaty of Versailles. This was his most proactive act yet, France and Britain did nothing, all of Hitler’s actions thus far was reclaiming German lands and not crossing any international borders which he felt he was justified by

Anti-Comintern Pact

1936, Italy and Japan, declared their common opposition to the Comintern, an ‘axis’ of power

Anschluss

1938, demanded that the Austrian government surrender to the Germans; the Austrian government capitulated and resigned. France and Britain still failed to intervene

German recovery of the Sudetenland

In 1938, Hitler demanded the Sudetenland, a region of Czechoslovakia with a large German population. Despite Czech resistance, Britain, France, and Italy conceded to Hitler's demands at the Munich Conference, allowing Germany to annex the Sudetenland.

The Polish Crisis

1939, Germany demanded that Poland give up all authority over German peoples living in Polish-occupied areas. When Polish ministers attempted to negotiate with German officials, they were rebuffed. Germany prepared to invade Poland in September 1939, and the international response from France and Britain was much more firm and threatening

Nazi-Soviet Pact

August 1939, non-aggression pact, the main attraction for Hitler was that an agreement with the USSR would make it easier to defeat Poland, also secure Germany’s eastern borders. shortly after Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3

Hitler as a warlord

In committing Germany to war, Hitler exposed his leadership, War had been decision and his status and reputation now hung upon whether his armies would be successful. As a German newspaper put it, “trust in the Führer will now be subjected to its hardest acid test” Initially the war went very well, as the victories continued his authority would have been unassailable and opposition to him unthinkable. After 1942, his wisdom and judgement were called into question until the last few months when faith was finally extinguished