Exam 1 Flashcards Foundations of the Third Reich: From Prussia to Putsch

Prussia

The most powerful German state; under Bismarck it led the unification of Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm I. Its militarism and Junker officer class dominated the empire and later undermined Weimar democracy.

The Three Reichs

Reich = kingdom/empire/realm. 1st = Holy Roman Empire; 2nd = the German Empire created by Bismarck, ended by defeat in the Great War; 3rd = Nazi Germany. Hitler used the numbering to claim he was restoring an ancient German tradition.

Lebensraum (im Osten)

"Living space in the east." Germany's supposed need to expand into Poland, the Baltics, and Russia for farmland and resources. Point 3 of the 25-Point Program and a core idea of Mein Kampf.

Social Darwinism

Applying Darwin's "survival of the fittest" (from On the Origin of Species) to people, races, and nations: the strong may dominate or destroy the weak. Darwin wrote about animals; others misapplied it to human races, making Aryan supremacy sound scientific.

Volksgeist

"The spirit of the people" - term used by Herder to argue each people has its own spirit, from which its language, customs, and institutions grow organically, forming the real bond of unity among them. Gave a theoretical foundation to nationalism. HIGHLIGHTED.

Volk / Volksgemeinschaft

Volk = "people," in the sense of nation/race bound by blood and soil. Volksgemeinschaft = "people's community," a racially pure classless German community. Hitler claimed to be protecting it; the Pan-Germans and Nazis called the Jews its destroyers.

Völkisch ideology

Nationalist worldview combining devotion to the Volk, blood-and-soil nationalism, occultism, and anti-Semitism - the ideological seedbed of Nazism (Langbehn, Haeckel, Chamberlain, Schönerer, Lanz, Thule Society, Pan-German League).

Richard Wagner

Germanic opera composer and rabid anti-Semite, called a forerunner of Nazi ideology. Operas on Germanic mythology and the hero; anti-Semitic themes (Jews should be driven out and not breed with Aryans); wrote "Jewishness in Music." Hitler loved his operas in Vienna, and Wagner reinforced his anti-Semitism.

Julius Langbehn

Wrote "Rembrandt as Teacher." Believed the German Aryan would dominate the world and that preserving a PURE BLOODLINE was the primary function of the state - meaning removal of non-Germans, primarily Jews. The intellectual forerunner of Hitler.

Ernst Haeckel

Biologist, naturalist, physician, and professor who MIXED DARWIN'S IDEAS WITH HUMANS, arguing German Aryans were superior to all others and had a right to land. Made Social Darwinism scientifically respectable.

Houston Stewart Chamberlain - two themes of The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century

1) Aryans were the true creators and bearers of civilization; 2) Jews were a negative racial force and a degenerate influence in history. Conclusion: the Aryan race must fight for civilization and the Jewish race must be eliminated. He married Wagner's daughter Eva. BOTH THEMES HIGHLIGHTED.

Pan-German League (Alldeutscher Verband) + its 4 characteristics

Believed in the union of all German-speaking peoples under German rule, claiming Germans in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Switzerland, and Alsace were linked by a BLOOD TIE to the fatherland. CHARACTERISTICS: 1) antidemocratic; 2) extreme German nationalism; 3) advocated social imperialism to unite all classes; 4) attacked the Jews as destroyers of the Volksgemeinschaft. ALL HIGHLIGHTED.

Spark of the Great War

Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb in the terrorist organization the BLACK HAND. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia and the alliance system pulled Europe into war. Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire were multi-ethnic realms (Germans, Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, Poles).

Belligerents in the Great War

CENTRAL POWERS: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria. ALLIES: Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Greece, United States. Trench warfare, poison gas, tanks and artillery at the end, a stagnant war with no movement. The US was neutral under Wilson and said it would fight only to help democracy.

Wilson's Peace Proposals (the Fourteen Points)

1) Self-determination for nationalities; 2) open diplomacy; 3) freedom of the seas; 4) disarmament; 5) creation of a League of Nations. Wilson wanted a PEACE WITHOUT VICTORS - exactly what Germany wanted and expected. HIGHLIGHTED.

Freedom of the seas - WHY?

Because German submarine (U-boat) warfare and the British blockade had strangled neutral shipping and helped drag the US into the war. Wilson wanted neutral ships free to trade in wartime.

End of the Second Reich / birth of Weimar

Kaiser Wilhelm II, emperor during the war, ABDICATED and fled, and was replaced by the Weimar Republic - Germany's first democracy, whose first elected president was Friedrich Ebert. Fighting stopped with no enemy army on German soil, which made the stab-in-the-back myth believable.

Treaty of Versailles - what/who/where/why resented

The treaty that ended the Great War, signed at the Palace of Versailles in France. It was drafted by the Big Four; Germany did NOT participate and had to sign through the Weimar Republic under threat of invasion. Germans rejected it as a Diktat, felt forced, and were left bitter and vengeful - Hitler and many others insisted Germany never actually lost the war.

The Big Four

David Lloyd George (British Prime Minister), Georges Clemenceau (French Premier, wanted Germany permanently weak), Vittorio Orlando (Italian Prime Minister), Woodrow Wilson (US President). They met behind the scenes to draft the treaty and handed it to the roughly thirty other nations.

Article 231 - War Guilt Clause

Germany accepted responsibility for all loss and damage caused by the war imposed on the Allies by German aggression. It was the last page of the proposal, it put the blame on Germany, it justified reparations, and it created lasting hostility. HIGHLIGHTED.

Terms of the Treaty of Versailles pertaining to Germany (all 8)

1) Pay reparations (32 billion) under Clause 231; 2) army cut to 100,000, leaving thousands of officers unemployed; 3) drastic reduction of the navy - no submarines; 4) elimination of the air force; 5) France annexes Alsace-Lorraine; 6) international control of the Saar Basin (coal and iron for steel); 7) demilitarization of the Rhineland (still German, a buffer zone with no troops); 8) loss of the Polish Corridor from East Prussia, giving Poland sea access.

Post-war map of Europe

Austria-Hungary was broken up and new independent states appeared: Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland. It left millions of Germans outside Germany - Hitler's later excuse for expansion.

Dolchstoss-Theorie + "November Criminals"

The stab-in-the-back myth: the army was never beaten in the field but was betrayed at home by socialists, democrats, and Jews who signed the armistice and Versailles. Spread by Ludendorff and Hindenburg. The politicians who signed were branded the "November Criminals." Hitler embraced it in the hospital and called Weimar a Jewish government.

Political structure of the Weimar Republic

PRESIDENT: elected every 7 years; appointed/dismissed the Chancellor; could dissolve the Reichstag; controlled the army; could issue laws by decree in emergencies (Article 48). CHANCELLOR AND MINISTERS: needed the confidence of the Reichstag. REICHSTAG: elected by all Germans over 20 by proportional representation. REICHSRAT: 67 representatives of the 17 states; could advise and reject laws but be overridden. HIGHLIGHTED.

Article 48

Let the president, when order was seriously disturbed, use the armed forces and TEMPORARILY SUSPEND fundamental rights. "Emergency" was never defined, so it was abused - invoked around 300 times BEFORE Hitler was in power. It normalized rule by decree and gave Hitler a legal road to dictatorship. HIGHLIGHTED.

Four reasons the Weimar Republic was weak

1) Leaders who were not democratic (Hindenburg, a general used to giving orders); 2) Article 48; 3) proportional representation - about 12 parties, no majority, coalitions that collapsed when one partner pulled out; 4) war reparations, paid over roughly 30 years for a war Germany was blamed for.

Weimar political parties

LEFT: KPD (communists), USPD, SPD (socialists) - working class. CENTER: DDP and Zentrum - middle class. RIGHT: DVP and DNVP - upper class. The Zentrum protected the interests of the Catholic Church and mostly supported the democratic regime. The pro-democracy WEIMAR COALITION was SPD + Zentrum + DDP. HIGHLIGHTED.

Party abbreviations

KPD = Communist Party. SPD = Social Democratic Party. Zentrum = moderate Catholic Center Party. DDP = German Democratic Party (left liberal). DVP = German People's Party (liberal). DNVP = German National People's Party (conservative nationalists). NSDAP = National Socialist German Workers' Party. SA = Sturmabteilung, the NSDAP's paramilitary (Brownshirts).

Paramilitary groups in Weimar Germany

EVERY major party had one: DNVP-Stahlhelm, NSDAP-SA, DDP-Jungdeutscher Orden, SPD-Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold, KPD-Rotfrontkämpferbund (the principal enemy of the SA). Politics was fought in the streets, making democracy look incapable of keeping order.

Reparations crisis and Poincaré

Germany, in recession, requested a three-year MORATORIUM - a temporary halt or suspension of a financial obligation. French President Raymond Poincaré denied it and said France would take "reparations in kind" instead.

French Occupation of the Ruhr

French and BELGIAN troops marched into the Ruhr, Germany's industrial valley, to seize goods as reparations in kind. Germany responded with PASSIVE RESISTANCE - workers struck over the "stolen goods" - and the government printed money to pay them. Results: rampant unemployment, runaway inflation, economic chaos, political instability - a window of opportunity for right-wing dreams of overthrowing the Weimar government.

Hyperinflation and the barter economy

The mark collapsed exponentially against the dollar. Money became worthless: people burned banknotes because currency was cheaper than firewood, and Germans traded goods directly instead of using money. It wiped out MIDDLE-CLASS savings - the group that later voted Nazi.

Dawes Plan (3 points)

Charles Dawes, an American banker, was sent to stabilize Germany's economy. 1) Allied troops evacuate the Ruhr; 2) reparations restructured (about 30 years stretched to 50) but payments begin immediately; 3) the Reichsbank reorganized under Allied supervision. The US provided MASSIVE LOANS - it did not want Germany to fall economically or politically, or to see the Soviet Union expand. HIGHLIGHTED.

Results of the Dawes Plan / Golden Years / the Depression

SHORT TERM: softened reparations, stabilized the currency, brought foreign investment - producing the GOLDEN YEARS of Weimar prosperity, which for Hitler were the "years of waiting." LONG TERM: it made Germany DEPENDENT on the United States, so when Wall Street crashed and the loans were recalled, German unemployment went from under two million to over SIX MILLION - which is what turned the Nazis from fringe to largest party.

Hitler's birth and nationality

Born in Braunau am Inn, AUSTRIA, on the border river with Germany - so he was Austrian, not German. He later dodged the Austrian draft by moving to Munich, and bypassed his citizenship to volunteer for the German army.

Three personal tragedies of young Hitler

1) Failure at school - he left without graduating and blamed his teachers; 2) rejection from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts - he passed the first part but failed the drawing test, examiners saying his work had too few heads/human figures, and was rejected again the next year; 3) the death of his mother Klara from breast cancer, whose physician Eduard Bloch was Jewish. He blamed Jews for each rather than himself.

Hitler's years in Vienna / Weltanschauung

Unemployed, living off family money, spending his days in museums, opera houses, and CAFÉS where politics was the main topic; when the money ran out he lived in a homeless shelter and men's hostel selling paintings and postcards. It was here that he developed his WELTANSCHAUUNG (world view) - racial anti-Semitism, pan-German nationalism, hatred of Marxism and democracy.

Georg Ritter von Schönerer

Leader of the Austrian Pan-German movement; advocated the union of all Germans in one national state and COMBINED NATIONALISM WITH RABID ANTI-SEMITISM. Demanded exclusion of "subhuman" non-Germans, wanted to stop Jewish refugees from the Russian Empire, and equated Jews with rodents. His ideas circulated in the cafés and influenced Hitler. HIGHLIGHTED.

Karl Lueger

Mayor of Vienna and leader of the Christian Social Party; wanted to exclude Jews from the political and economic life of Vienna and to stop Russian and Romanian Jews from coming. Hitler admired his political skill and copied his speaking style - the lesson that ANTI-SEMITISM COULD WIN VOTES.

Lanz von Liebenfels / Theozoologie / Ostara

An ex-Catholic monk expelled for anti-Semitism who founded the Order of the New Temple and called himself the father of National Socialism; his aim was ARIOSOPHY - occult ideas + völkisch nationalism + anti-Semitism. In Theozoologie he said Jews and other "ANIMAL-MEN" must be eliminated by genetic selection, sterilization, deportation, forced labor, and direct liquidation. Hitler owned every issue of his magazine Ostara. HIGHLIGHTED.

Usury

On the Pope's orders Christians could not lend money at interest, and Jews could not own land, so Jews became mainly bankers and money-lenders - and were then resented as exploiters. The root of the claim that Jews controlled "international capitalism."

Hitler in the Great War

The start of the war was announced at the ODEONPLATZ in Munich (by the Feldherrnhalle) and Hitler was in the crowd. He volunteered for the German army and served as a DISPATCH RUNNER across the trenches, earning the Iron Cross. He was blinded by a BRITISH GAS ATTACK in Belgium and sent to a hospital at Pasewalk, where three weeks later he learned Germany had surrendered - and embraced the stab-in-the-back myth.

Hitler's job after the war

Demilitarization left veterans jobless, but Hitler stayed in the army as an INFORMATION/EDUCATION OFFICER in Munich - enthusing officers with nationalist ideas and gathering information on local political groups. That is why he was sent to spy on the DAP.

Sterneckerbräuhaus and the DAP

A Bavarian beer hall where Hitler was sent by the army to INFILTRATE a meeting of the DAP (German Workers' Party), then about a dozen men who believed in the stab-in-the-back myth. Beer halls were loud and private. When a speaker said Bavaria should SECEDE from Germany, Hitler erupted that Bavaria should not secede but LEAD Germany - and ANTON DREXLER recruited him on the spot. Hitler became propaganda chairman and later resigned from the army.

Thule Society

Occult-völkisch secret society founded in Munich by RUDOLF VON SEBOTTENDORFF, its symbol an early version of the swastika. GOALS: 1) achieve German racial purity; 2) attack the Jews; 3) establish Germans as the leaders of Europe. Members: Hess, Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Eckart - no evidence Hitler belonged. Members swore the BLOOD DECLARATION OF FAITH that no Jewish or colored blood flowed in their or their wives' veins.

Völkischer Beobachter

The Thule Society bought the weekly Münchener Beobachter (Munich Observer); Hitler and the NSDAP bought it from them and renamed it the Völkischer Beobachter (People's Observer), the official party newspaper. Hitler had complete control of its editorial content; Eckart was its first editor.

DAP first mass meeting and the renaming

Held in the Festival Hall of the HOFBRÄUHAUS in Munich before about two thousand people - a huge jump from the dozen at the Sterneckerbräuhaus. Hitler was the main speaker, announced the 25-POINT PROGRAM, and renamed the party the NSDAP - "National" for nationalists, "Socialist/Workers'" to steal support from the left.

25-Point Party Program

Written by Hitler and Anton Drexler and proclaimed at the Hofbräuhaus. Members swore to go straight forward and if necessary SACRIFICE THEIR LIVES to fulfill it. It committed the party to expansion and to excluding Jews from German life from the very start.

25 Points - Points 1, 2, 3

POINT 1: union of all Germans in a Greater Germany on the basis of national self-determination. POINT 2: equality of rights for Germans and REVOCATION of the peace treaties of Versailles. POINT 3: land and territory (colonies) to feed the people and settle the surplus population - Lebensraum.

25 Points - Points 4, 5, 7, 8

POINT 4: only those of German BLOOD, whatever their creed, may be members of the nation - accordingly no Jew may be; the exclusion is RACIAL, so conversion is irrelevant. POINT 5: non-citizens may live in Germany only as guests, subject to foreign laws. POINT 7: if the state cannot feed everyone, non-citizens must be DEPORTED. POINT 8: all non-German immigration prevented, and non-Germans who arrived after the outbreak of war must leave.

Hitler's ultimatum - three conditions

Drexler proposed MERGING the NSDAP with other nationalist groups (the Augsburg branch); Hitler objected because it would dilute his control, and resigned. He would rejoin only if: 1) a new executive committee was elected; 2) he was appointed FIRST CHAIRMAN; 3) the MUNICH branch had primacy over all other branches. They agreed, and he became FÜHRER of the NSDAP. HIGHLIGHTED.

Führerprinzip

The leader principle: authority flows down from the Führer and obedience flows up; the leader's will, not votes or committees, decides policy. Established by Hitler's ultimatum and confirmed party-wide at Bamberg.

Common themes in Hitler's early speeches (5)

1) Denounced the Treaty of Versailles; 2) attacked the Weimar Republic as the "November Criminals"; 3) condemned international capitalism (claimed to be run by Jews); 4) condemned all Marxists; 5) called for an end to international Jewry. Note 3 and 4 let him blame BOTH capitalism and communism on the Jews.

SA - Sturmabteilung

Established officially as a "Gymnastic and Sports Division" to disguise it; in reality the party's storm troopers/Brownshirts, used to protect Nazi meetings and intimidate enemies. Led by ERNST RÖHM, who supplied army contacts and recruited veterans and students. The government turned a blind eye because Versailles capped the army at 100,000, so paramilitaries were a hidden reserve. One SA section became Hitler's bodyguard and grew into the SS.

Early supporters - the three bridges

ERNST RÖHM - bridge to the army and paramilitaries. DIETRICH ECKART - bridge to Munich's wealthy and literary society. ALFRED ROSENBERG - bridge to the intellectual elite; Hitler made him acting party leader while in prison because he was loyal and not charismatic enough to overshadow him. Each reached a constituency the tiny party could not otherwise touch.

Dietrich Eckart

Founded, published, and edited the anti-Semitic weekly "Auf gut Deutsch." Funded by the Thule Society; worked with Rosenberg, his "co-warrior against Jerusalem"; fierce critic of the Weimar Republic; opposed Versailles as TREASON; proponent of the stab-in-the-back myth; with Drexler an ORIGINAL FOUNDER OF THE DAP; FIRST EDITOR of the Völkischer Beobachter.

Wealthy patrons and party growth

HUGO AND ELSA BRUCKMANN, xenophobic völkisch publishers, backed Hitler after hearing him at the Circus Krone; HELENE AND EDWIN BECHSTEIN, the piano family, bankrolled him and introduced him to donors. Party membership went from a couple hundred to roughly 55,000 in the year of the Ruhr occupation and hyperinflation - growth tracks CRISIS.

Beer Hall Putsch - what happened

Hitler and armed SA men burst into the BÜRGERBRÄUKELLER in Munich where state commissioner GUSTAV VON KAHR was speaking, fired into the ceiling, declared a national revolution, and at gunpoint forced Kahr, General von Lossow, and Colonel von Seisser to back him - then let them go and they withdrew support. The next day Hitler, LUDENDORFF, and about two thousand men marched to the FELDHERRNHALLE, where police opened fire and sixteen Nazis were killed. Hitler fled, was arrested, and charged with TREASON.

Beer Hall Putsch - why then, and why it failed

WHY THEN: the Ruhr occupation, hyperinflation, and a helpless government created a window for overthrowing Weimar, and Hitler hoped to copy Mussolini's March on Rome. WHY IT FAILED: the Bavarian triumvirate defected, the army and police stayed loyal and were willing to shoot, there was no popular uprising, and there was no plan beyond taking Munich.

Trial of Adolf Hitler and judicial leniency

Tried for treason before a sympathetic Munich court, Hitler ACCEPTED RESPONSIBILITY and turned the trial into a propaganda platform, attacking the Republic while the national press printed every word: "I consider myself not a traitor, but a German, who desired what was best for his people." He got the MINIMUM sentence and the judge backed early release; Ludendorff was acquitted outright. A left-wing radical could serve nine months for robbing a bank. Weimar's imperial-era judges protected the right - and the trial made Hitler NATIONALLY famous.

Landsberg Prison and Mein Kampf

Hitler served only about nine months of a five-year sentence in comfort - a suite of rooms, personal chef, library access, visitors, freedom of the grounds - with RUDOLF HESS as his secretary. There he dictated MEIN KAMPF ("My Struggle"): his childhood, Vienna, the war, the Putsch, and his plans. It later became a quasi-holy book given to everyone; WINSTON CHURCHILL and Stalin were among the few who took it seriously. Banned after the war, later republished annotated to educate people about anti-Semitism.

Mein Kampf - three fundamental ideas

German nationalism, virulent anti-Semitism, and anti-Bolshevism linked by a SOCIAL DARWINIAN theory of struggle: 1) the right of the STRONGER in racial conflict; 2) the right of the superior nation to gain LEBENSRAUM through foreign expansion; 3) the right of superior individuals to establish AUTHORITARIAN LEADERSHIP over the masses. HIGHLIGHTED.

Three lessons Hitler learned from the Putsch

1) He alone would have to lead the national revolution - he could not rely on anyone else; 2) the German Army had to be approached carefully to win its support or at least its NEUTRALITY; 3) MOST IMPORTANTLY, power had to be sought by LEGAL MEANS within the framework of the Weimar system. This is the turning point that leads to his being appointed Chancellor.

Gregor Strasser and the National Socialist Working Association (4 differences)

Strasser built the party in NORTHERN Germany while Hitler was in prison and stressed the "socialist" half of National Socialism. DIFFERENCES WITH THE NSDAP: 1) objected to domination by the MUNICH leaders; 2) supported EXPROPRIATION of the private property of the JUNKERS (landed gentry); 3) opposed election campaigns and favored STRIKES; 4) believed regional organizations should help frame policy. All four challenged Hitler's authority.

Bamberg Conference

Hitler summoned party leaders to Bamberg to settle the split. Strasser spoke first for the Working Association and joint north-south leadership; Hitler then spoke for about FOUR HOURS, rejected expropriation, insisted on the Munich line and his own authority, and won the vote. The northern wing was absorbed, the Führerprinzip was confirmed party-wide, and JOSEPH GOEBBELS switched to Hitler - later made GAULEITER (regional leader) of Berlin and chief propagandist.

Internal organization of the NSDAP

Munich/Reich Leadership (national) > Gau (regional, a Gauleiter) > Kreis (district) > Ortsgruppe (city/village) > Zelle (ward) > Block. Copied from the army so orders ran from Hitler down to individual streets.

Key names and slogans

CAPTAIN ERNST RÖHM - leader of the SA (Brownshirts). HERMANN GÖRING - war flying ace, early Nazi, later Hitler's second-in-command. HEINRICH HIMMLER - chicken farmer who became commander of the SS. DEUTSCHLAND ERWACHE - "Germany Awake." TOD DEM MARXISMUS - "Death to Marxism." JUNKERS - the Prussian landed gentry.

Documentary: Why did Weimar democracy struggle for legitimacy?

It was born in defeat, and its first acts were the armistice and signing Versailles - so it was branded the work of the "November Criminals." Germany had no democratic tradition, and the old elites (army, judiciary, civil service) stayed in place and hostile. Many leading figures were socialists or Jews, which the right used to call it a Jewish government. Hyperinflation and depression meant most Germans experienced democracy as humiliation and ruin.

Documentary: How did Article 48 lay the groundwork for legal dictatorship?

It allowed rule by emergency decree and suspension of rights with "emergency" undefined. Used around three hundred times before Hitler, so government by decree became normal; after the Depression chancellors governed almost entirely by decree with the Reichstag sidelined. Hitler then used the same legal tool to suspend civil liberties. The dictatorship was built from the constitution's own machinery.

Documentary: How did the legal system favor the right?

Judges were imperial-era conservatives who saw nationalists as patriots and the left as traitors. After an armed attempt to overthrow the state, Hitler got to make speeches at his own trial, received the minimum sentence, was held in comfort, was released early with his judge's support, and Ludendorff was acquitted - while left-wing offenders got heavier sentences for lesser crimes. The courts protected the movement trying to destroy the Republic.

Documentary: How did the Nazis tailor their message to different classes?

FARMERS: debt relief and blood-and-soil respect. MIDDLE CLASS: order, property, protection from communism after inflation wiped them out. UNEMPLOYED YOUTH/WORKERS: jobs, bread, a uniform, comradeship in the SA. VETERANS: tearing up Versailles. BUSINESS AND ELITES: smashing the unions and the KPD. The glue was that every group was told the SAME enemies - Jews, Marxists, the November Criminals - caused their problems.

Documentary: What made Hitler appealing to ordinary people?

Witnesses describe him as unimpressive and comical up close - the tiny mustache - but transformed when speaking: total conviction, emotional intensity, simple repeated messages naming an enemy and promising salvation. People felt he spoke to their own humiliation, seemed incorruptible, and offered certainty. His appeal was SITUATIONAL - ignored in the prosperous years, treated as a savior during the Depression.

Documentary: How were anti-Semitism and anti-communism unifying tools?

They gave a fractured society one enemy. Jews were blamed at once for capitalism, communism, the defeat, Versailles, inflation, and unemployment - one cause, one cure. Anti-communism frightened the middle class, farmers, churches, and the army into seeing the Nazis as the only defense, while SA street fights advertised them as defenders of order. Songs, uniforms, rallies, and communal ceremonies gave people belonging and a "Germany first" identity.

Documentary: Backroom deals - Papen and Schleicher

Kurt von Schleicher was the army's political fixer who manipulated Hindenburg's appointments, brought down chancellors, and briefly became Chancellor before failing to get a majority. FRANZ VON PAPEN, ousted and wanting revenge, secretly negotiated the deal making Hitler Chancellor with himself as VICE-CHANCELLOR and only two other Nazis in a conservative cabinet, then persuaded the reluctant HINDENBURG to appoint him. Power was handed over in private, not won at the polls.

Documentary: The miscalculation - why did elites think they could control Hitler?

They wanted his MASS FOLLOWING to give their authoritarian anti-Marxist government popular legitimacy without giving him real power. With three Nazis in a cabinet of eleven, conservatives in the key ministries, and Hindenburg holding Article 48, Papen believed they had him boxed in. They also assumed an uneducated demagogue would prove INCOMPETENT and be discarded, or that they could take his place. Within months Hitler destroyed them instead.

Documentary: Why did Hitler gain power while Nazi votes were falling?

The Nazi share fell from roughly 37% to 33%, the party was in debt, and Strasser's defection suggested it was cracking - but voters never made the decision. Parliament had stopped functioning, governments ruled by decree, conservatives needed a mass base, Papen wanted revenge, and fear of communism made a Hitler cabinet look safest. The decline HELPED: it convinced the elites he was weakening and controllable, and made him accept a compromise cabinet. He was APPOINTED Chancellor by Hindenburg.

Documentary: How do democracies collapse?

Not overnight and not by armed coup - the Putsch failed, the legal route worked. It is gradual erosion from within: lost legitimacy, normalized emergency decree, courts and police enforcing the law unequally, tolerated street violence, parties refusing to compromise, and elites deciding democracy is expendable. Every step looked LEGAL, which is what made it possible.

Documentary: The role of the citizen / collective responsibility

Interviews with former Nazis and bystanders show most were not terrorized into obedience - they joined for jobs and status, looked away, denounced neighbors, or quietly benefited when Jews were removed, and many still insisted decades later they had done nothing wrong. Consent, apathy, and self-interest did the work. The regime rested on the everyday choices of millions, not on Hitler and the Gestapo alone.

Biggest takeaway: why the Nazis succeeded

IDEAS: völkisch nationalism, Social Darwinism, and racial anti-Semitism were already respectable (Langbehn, Haeckel, Chamberlain, Wagner, Schönerer, Lueger, Lanz). STRUCTURE: Versailles and the stab-in-the-back myth, a democracy with no legitimacy, proportional representation, Article 48. ECONOMICS: hyperinflation, then the Depression with six million unemployed. ORGANIZATION: the Führerprinzip, propaganda, the SA, a nationwide party machine built in the Golden Years. HUMAN: elite miscalculation and ordinary Germans going along.

Gustav Stresemann

Chancellor and then long-serving foreign minister who ended passive resistance in the Ruhr, replaced the worthless currency with a new stable one (the Rentenmark, later Reichsmark), negotiated the Dawes Plan with the Allies, signed the Locarno Treaties, and brought Germany into the League of Nations. NOT IN YOUR SLIDES - your notes credit the recovery to Charles Dawes alone - but he is the name most courses attach to the Golden Years, so know he existed.

Rentenmark

The new currency introduced to end hyperinflation, backed by German land and industry rather than gold, later renamed the Reichsmark. It restored confidence in money and made the Dawes Plan workable. NOT IN YOUR SLIDES.

Freikorps

"Free Corps" - right-wing paramilitary units of demobilized ex-soldiers after the war, used by the Weimar government itself to crush the communist left. Many later joined the SA. NOT IN YOUR SLIDES, but it explains where the armed, unemployed veterans of the 100,000-man-army cut actually went.

Spartacist Uprising / Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht

Failed communist uprising in Berlin at the very start of the Republic, led by the Spartacus League. Ebert's government had the Freikorps crush it, and Luxemburg and Liebknecht were murdered. It permanently split the left - the KPD never forgave the SPD - which is one reason the left could not unite against Hitler. NOT IN YOUR SLIDES.

Kapp Putsch

Failed right-wing coup in which Freikorps units marched on Berlin to overthrow the Republic; the army refused to fire on them and it collapsed only because workers called a general strike. Shows the army's unreliability and that the Beer Hall Putsch was not the first attempt. NOT IN YOUR SLIDES.

Arthur de Gobineau

French writer whose Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races argued that civilizations decline through racial mixing and that the Aryan race is superior. He is the standard starting point for the racial-thinking chain that runs Gobineau - Wagner - Chamberlain - Haeckel - Hitler. NOT IN YOUR SLIDES, but commonly listed with Chamberlain.

Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act

After being appointed Chancellor, Hitler used the burning of the Reichstag to get an emergency decree under Article 48 suspending civil liberties, then pushed through the Enabling Act letting the cabinet make laws without the Reichstag - legally ending the Republic. LIKELY NEXT UNIT, but know the names, since they are how the Article 48 story ends.