Power and Authority

1919

Treaty of Versailles signed

Mussolini establishes Fascist Party in Italy

1920

Nazi Party has ~3,000 members

1921

Hitler becomes Nazi Party leader

SA (Stormtroopers) founded

1923

Hyperinflation crisis in Germany

8 Nov: Munich Putsch fails

16 Nazis killed; Hitler imprisoned

1924

Nazi membership drops to 700

1925

Feb, Nazi Party ban lifted

SS founded

1926

49,000 Nazi Party members

1929

Goebbels becomes Chief of Propaganda

1933

30 Jan: Hitler appointed Chancellor

27 Feb: Reichstag Fire

23 Mar: Enabling Act passed

German Labour Front replaces trade unions

Concordat signed with Catholic Church (July)

Book burning event (May)

Goering founds Gestapo

SS takes greater role

1934

30 June–2 July: Night of the Long Knives

Law Against Malicious Attacks (Dec)

People's Court established

1935

Luftwaffe (Air Force) under Goering

Nuremberg Laws passed

Reich Labour Law introduced

1936

4-Year Plan initiated by Goering

Berlin Olympics (increased Jewish persecution after)

1938

9–10 Nov: Kristallnacht (state-sponsored pogrom)

Jewish community fined 1 billion RM

1939

Start of WWII (Germany invades Poland)

Hitler Youth compulsory (ages 10–18)

Unemployment reduced from 6 million to ~0

Aktion T4 euthanasia program begins (Oct)

1941

Goering becomes Hitler's deputy

Aug 18: SS arrest 300 Swing Kids

1942

Wannsee Conference chaired by Heydrich: “Final Solution”

1944

July: Failed army assassination attempt on Hitler

1945

April 22: Goering expelled from party

Hitler dies; Goebbels made successor (briefly)

End of WWII

San Francisco Conference → UN Charter drafted

1946

Beginning of post-war tribunal and new world order

Nazi ideology

Key terms: Lebensraum, Volksgemeinschaft, Führerprinzip, Social Darwinism, Aryan race

Antisemitism and Eugenics central

Inspired by: Mein Kampf, Nietzsche’s Übermensch, Wagner's and Chamberlain’s writings

Nazi method of control

Legal: Enabling Act, Reichstag Fire Decree, banning of parties

Terror: SS, SA, Gestapo, concentration camps, block wardens

Propaganda: Goebbels’ Ministry, controlled press, Nazi films, rallies, radios

Censorship: Editors Law (1933), Book Burnings (1933)

Youth Indoctrination: Hitler Youth (boys), League of German Maidens (girls)

Life in Nazi Gemany

Women: “Kinder, Küche, Kirche”; rewarded with Mother's Crosses; marriage loans

Workers: Strength Through Joy, Beauty of Labour, but poor conditions; unions banned

Youth: Education Nazified; alternative groups (Edelweiss Pirates, Swing Kids) repressed

Minorities:

• Jews: Nuremberg Laws (1935), Kristallnacht (1938), deportations, Holocaust

• Others: Roma (Gypsies), homosexuals, disabled, Jehovah’s Witnesses targeted via sterilisation, camps, Aktion T4

Religion

Nazis clashed with both Catholic and Protestant Churches

Concordat with Catholic Church undermined

Confessing Church opposed Nazi ideology

German Faith Movement attempted to replace Christianity

Germany's Aims and Foreign Policy

Lebensraum in the East

Undo Treaty of Versailles

Unify all Germans (Grossdeutschland)

Economic self-sufficiency (Autarky)

League of Nations (1919–1939)

Some early successes (e.g., Austria, Albania, drug trade)

Major failures:

• Manchuria (1931)

• Abyssinia (1935)

• Spanish Civil War (1936–39)

No enforcement power, major powers ignored it

United Nations (Post-1945)

Formed at San Francisco Conference, 1945

Security Council: 5 permanent members with veto

Key branches: UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank

Early work: Korea (1950), Palestine conflict, health and economic development