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WWI Central Powers
Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire
WWI Allied Powers
Great Britain, France, Russia
What did the Treat of Versailles do?
- WAR GUILT CLAUSE
- Germany lost 13% of its land and 12% of its population
- The land made up 48% of Germany's iron production and a lot of coal productions
- They had to pay reparations to the Allies
- Germany could only hold a military of 100,000 soldiers, 15,000 sailors
TREATY WAS VERY UNPOPULAR IN GERMANY
What was the War Guilt Clause?
Germany had to accept full responsibility for starting the war
What new nations were created by the Treaty of Versailles
Finland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, POLAND, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Hungary.
What was the name of Germany after WWI?
The Weimar Republic
What was the Inter-war Period? What changed during it?
Between WWI and WWII, The Reichstag - German Parliament - created a constitution to make the Weimar Republic a multi-party democracy similar to the U.S.
- Women could vote (1918) - CHANGE IN WOMEN'S ROLES
- Cities were more liberal (gay bars, art, modernism, etc.)
What were flaws in the Weimar Republic constitution?
- No Bill of Rights
- Article 48: allowed the president to suspend constitutional rights INDEFINITELY if a state of emergency declared
- NO CLEAR DEFINITION FOR A STATE OF EMERGENCY
Challenges during the inter-war period
- Political turmoil and violence
- EXTREME DEBT AND POVERTY FROM WAR DEBT
German Workers Party
The party that Hitler joined in 1919, which then changed it's name to the Nationalist Socialist German Workers Party
Who was Adolf Hitler?
- Born in Austria in 1889 - NOT GERMAN
- Abused by his extremely strict Father - died when Hitler was 14
- Obsessed with his Mother - died when he was 18
- Rejected from Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna
- Moved to Munich, Germany in 1913
Hitler's Military Service
- Screened for Austrian military service in 1914; failed his fitness test
- When the WW I broke out, he petitioned to serve with the Bavarian army and was deployed to Belgium
- He was wounded in 1916 and was awarded the Iron Cross for bravery
- TOOK GREAT PRIDE IN HIS MILITARY SERVICE
Hitler's answer to the Jewish Question (1919)
1. Jews are a race and not a religious community.
2. The presence of Jews creates a "race-tuberculosis of the peoples"
3. The initial goal of a German government should be to enact legislation against the Jews.
4. The "ultimate goal must definitely be the removal of the Jews altogether."
Stab in the Back Myth
Hitler's idea blaming the Jews for Germany's loss in WWI and the economic disaster that followed
25 Point Plan
A plan announced by Hitler in 1920 which included points such as the unification of Germans, colonization of land, new land and territory, and required German blood, calls for equality of rights for all German people, only a member of the race can be a citizen, fundamental tenants of Nazis
Aryan Race
the pure Germanic race, used by the Nazis to suggest a superior non-Jewish Caucasian typified by height, blonde hair, blue eyes
The Nazi Flag
In Mein Kampf, Hitler described the Nazis' flag: "In red we see the social idea of the movement, in white the nationalistic idea, in the swastika the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man, and, by the same token, the victory of the idea of creative work, which as such has always been and always will be anti-Semitic."
Most important tool used by the Nazis
Propaganda
Beer Hall Putsch (1923)
failed attempt at revolution when Hitler unsuccessfully tried to seize power in Munich. This uprising resulted in Hitler's arrest, but it did in fact get the Nazi mantra out into the world.
- a judge said describing Hitler "of a man whose thoughts and feelings are as German as Hitler's"
- served 9 months, wrote Mein Kampf
Lebenstraum
"living space" - the additional territory that, according to Hitler, Germany needed because it was overcrowded
What did Hitler title himself?
Fuhrer - Leader
May 12, 1925
•Paul von Hindenburg is elected president of the Weimar Republic, contributing to conditions in which the Nazi Party rose to power.
Oct. 24, 1929
- US stock market collapses
- America stops making loans to Germany
- Germany's economy collapses, leading to job loss, widespread poverty, and desperation, which the Nazi Party exploited.
- The Nazi Party grew exponentially during the Depression.
July 1930
Nazi Party wins 230 seats in Reichstag elections, making it the biggest party in Germany, 38% of the vote
January 30, 1933
Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany - makes the Republic a dictatorship
Reichstag Fire Decree
After the burning of the Reichstag, said that Germany was under a state of emergency, started throwing "enemies of the state" in jail, Socialists and Communists
What did it cause?
- Through the Reichstag Fire Decree, Nazis invoked Article 48 of the German constitution by declaring a national emergency and suspending constitutional guarantees protecting;
•Freedom of speech
•Freedom of the press
•Freedom of assembly
•Freedom from search and seizure without probable cause
•Due process under the law
Enabling Act
enabled Hitler to get rid of the Reichstag parliament and pass laws without reference to parliament
Third Reich
The Third German Empire, established by Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.
Dishonor Role
- Heinrich Himmler, Head of the SS
- Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler's top assistant and Chief Lieutenant of the SS
- Hermann Goring, original Head of the Gestapo
- Joseph Goebells, Minister of Propaganda
The SS
the Schutzstaffel, or elite protective unit that numbered over 50,000 when the Nazis came to power in 1933, administered the concentration camp system.
The Gestapo
German secret police, eliminated opposition to the Nazis and rounded up Jews for deportation to extermination camp
Dachau Concentration Camp
- The first concentration camp in Nazi, Germany
- constructed immediately after the Reichstag fire
- Served as model for other CC camps, 200,000 people were killed here
- Work Camp
- Imprisoned political prisoners, Communists, Jews, and homosexuals
Empathy
the ability to understand and share the feelings of another
Sympathy
feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune
Universe of Obligation
The circle of individuals and groups "toward whom obligations are owed"
Helen Fein, American Sociologist
1933 legislation targeting Jews
- Jewish businesses were boycotted
- Jews could not work for the government in civil service positions or in journalism
- The number of Jews who could attend public schools was cut dramatically;
- Jewish books were burned.
As a result of this legislation, many Jews emigrated, but the government required them to leave behind their homes, property, and financial savings.
August 2, 1934
Hindenburg dies and Hitler becomes Fuhrer
Nuremberg Race Laws
1935, German laws that took away the rights and citizenship of Jews, legally forced people to persecute them
Law For the Protection of German Blood and German honor
- Article 1: Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or related blood are forbidden, punishable with a prison sentence with hard labor.
- Article 2: Extramarital relations between Jews and citizens of German or related blood are forbidden. A male will be punished with a jail term or a prison sentence with hard labor.
- Article 3: Jews may not employ in their households female subjects of the state of Germany or related blood who are under 45 years old. Any person violating will be punished with a jail term of up to one year and a fine, or with one or the other of these penalties.
1938: more antisemitic legislation
- Nazis force Jews to register all financial assets—a first step toward total exclusion from and participation in the German economy.
- Jewish doctors are forbidden to treat Aryan patients.
- Any Jew whose name does not clearly identify them as Jewish is required to add the name "Israel" or "Sarah" to their passport or identification papers.
- Jewish passports are marked with a "J" for Jude (Jew). Jews must surrender all old passports, which will become valid only after Nazi officials have stamped the letter "J" on them.
Mischung
Mixed in German
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht ("Night of the Broken Glass") initiates an outbreak of street violence aimed at "preparing" the German people for harsh antisemitic legal measures to come.
- destroyed hundreds of synagogues
- vandalized more than 7,000 businesses
- desecrated Jewish cemeteries
- almost 100 Jews killed, 30,000 men sent to work camps
Pogroms
organized violence against Jews - Russian for demolish violently or to riot
How did the U.S. respond to Kristallnacht
- the U.S. withdrew its ambassador to Germany
- did not offer to help thousands of Jews now trying desperately to leave Germany
- NO AID OFFERED
Decree on the Elimination of Jews from Economic life
bars Jews from any trade, operating a store, or selling anything
