H Weimar and Nazi Germany

TWR: Origins of the Republic

• Of the 8 million Germans who fought in the war, around 2 million died and 4 million were wounded

• Cost of war caused Germany's debt to triple from 50 billion marks to 150 billion marks

• Due to German port blockages, 750K died of food shortages

• 19 January 1919 - SPD won 40% of the vote and the centre party 20%, a new 'Weimar Republic' constitution was formed

TWR: Early challenges to the Republic

• L = Land (11 colonies lost, 13% of European territory, 10% of its population --> Decrease in tax revenue)

• A = Army (Limited to 100K men --> Led to homeless veterans --> Manpower for Freikorps)

• M = Money (Reparation set at £6.6 billion --> More money printed --> Hyperinflation - 1 loaf is 200K billion)

• B = Blame (Blamed for WW1 --> Public hatred, labelled them 'November Criminals')

• Spartacist Uprising - 4 January 1919, 100K workers led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht went on strike and held protests

• 13 March 1920 - Kapp Putsch, 5K ex-soldiers of the Freikorps led by Wolfgang Kapp on Berlin

TWR: The Golden Years

• Dawes Plan - 1924, reduced reparation payments to £50 million a year, US banks gave loans of $25 billion between 24-30

• 1929 - Young Plan, reduced total payments to £2 billion, gave Germany an extra 59 years to pay, H against

• Locarno Pact - 1925, Between Germany Italy Britain France, Rhineland demilitarised, France border agreement

• 1926 - League of Nations membership, showed int respect, increased public's confidence

• Kellogg-Briand Pact - 1928, agreement that war would not be used to achieve foreign policy objectives, signed by 62 nations

• November 1923 - Rentenmark created, tied to price of gold, backed by industrial plants and agricultural land, later renamed Reichsmark, ended hyperinflation

• Under Stresemann, industrial output doubled by 1928, popularity in extremist political parties decreased and confidence in the Weimar government increased

TWR: Changes in society

• 1925-1928 - working week shortened by 4 hours, wages rose by 25%

• Private companies built 37K new homes and building associations 64K between 1925-1929

• 1928 - Uni students went from 70K pre-WW1 to 110K

• 112 women had been voted into the Reichstag by 1932

• 1918 - 75% of women in work

• Women on average were paid 33% less

• Birth rate fell (80 live births per 1K by 1925) and divorce rates rose

HRP: Early development of the Nazi party

• German Workers' Party (DAP) founded February 1919

• September 1919 - Hitler joins the DAP

• Became head of propaganda in 1920 and wrote the 25 point programme alongside founder Anton Drexler

• December 1920 - DAP buys the Volkischer Beobachter, a newspaper

• SA formed August 1921 made of ex-soldiers and students, 800 by 1922

• 1922 - Hitler had gained complete control of the NSDAP

HRP: The Munich Putsch and the Lean Years

• Munich Putsch - 9 November 1923, Hitler + 1K SA + 2K volunteers launched an attack on first a Beer Hall but then to the streets of Munich, 14 supporters and 4 policemen killed

• Hitler found guilty and to 5 years in Landsberg, but only spent 9 months

• NSDAP banned but lifted in 1925

• SA grew to an untrustworthy 400K

• 1926 - Bamberg Conference, Addressed splits between nationalist and socialist sides of the party, power as leader and vision of Nazism secured

HRP: Growth in Nazi support

• Stresemann dies of a heart attack in October 1929

• 1929 - Great depression, Wall street crash led to US loans being demanded back, Taxes increased, business shut, internal loaners demanded repayment

• 1.3 million unemployed by September 1929, 6.1 million in January 1933

• 1928 KDP had 10% of the vote, 1932 had 15% (Largest commies outside of USSR)

HRP: How Hitler became Chancellor

• NSDAP won 18% if the vote in 1930 (Commies had 13%, SPD had 25%)

• 1932 - A frail 84 year old President Hindenburg runs for re-election, he gets 18M votes, Nazis get 11M, no majority so repeated, he gets 19M, Nazis get 13M

• NSDAP won 38% of the vote in the July 1932 elections

• Hitler then demanded Hindenburg sack Von Papen and make him chancellor

• November 1932 - Von Papen calls another election hoping Nazi support would fall, seats fell to 192 but still largest party

• Hitler became chancellor on January 30 1933, in the hope he could be made a puppet

NCD: Creation of a dictatorship

• 27 February 1933 - Reichstag fire, commies blamed and 4K arrested, used to issue decree to imprison political opponents and ban opposition newspaper

• Election called in March 1933, Nazis secure two thirds of seats by using emergency powers to block commies

• 24 March 1933 - Enabling Act allowed overruling of the constitution when it came to law-making, won 444 to 94

• Trades unions banned and strikes made illegal in May 1933

• July 1933 - All parties but the NSDAP made illegal

• 18 regional parliaments abolished in January 1934 and Hitler-appointed governors replaced them

• 30 June 1934 - Night of the long knives, Rohm and 100 SA leaders arrested imprisoned and shot

• Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934 and Hitler declared himself Fuhrer

NCD: The Police state

• SS began as 240 men as Hitler bodyguards, by 1936 controlled all Germany's police and security forces, expanded to 240K men during the 1930s

• 1931 - SD formed to gather intelligence on 'enemies of the state'

• Gestapo set up in 1933 and placed under SS control in 1934, 160K people arrested for political offences in 1939

• By 1939, 150K people 'under protective arrest' for speaking out against the Nazis

• First camp opened in 1933 in Dachau

• Between 1934 and 1939 - 534 people sentenced to death for political offences

NCD: Controlling religion

• 1/3 of German Christians were Catholic so in July 1933 Hitler signed a concordat with the Church promising they would be able to practise as normal, but he later broke that promise

• 1933 - Reich Church set up, led by Ludwig Muller, made of 2K protestant churches, some wore Nazi uniforms

• Niemoller set up Pastors' Emergency League in 1933 to convince other pastors to go against Nazism

• PEL banned in 1937 and Niemoller sent to a concentration camp

NCD: Controlling and Influencing Attitudes

• 1933 - Goebbels made Minister of people's enlightenment and propaganda

• Newspapers opposing Nazis were shut down, including 1600 in 1935

• 1939 - 70% of German homes either bought or had been given radios, which had been strictly censored by 1933

• Nuremburg Rally in 1934 had 200K attendees

• 1936 - Germany wins 33 medals at Olympics, more than any other country, but still gets beaten in the sprint by Jesse Owens

NCD: Censoring and utilising artworks

• Reich Chamber of Culture set up in 1933 to promote Nazi 'Aryan' ideals, including artwork highlighting them

• 1936 - 12K paintings and sculptures removed

• 2500 writers banned, and 20K books burned by students in Berlin, that were written by Jewish, Communist and other Anti-Nazi authors

• Films shown in cinemas were preceded by a 45-minute highlight reel of German achievements

NCD: Opposition, Resistance and Conformity

• By 1939 - Edelweiss Pirates number 2K whereas Hitler Youth had 8M

• Swing Youth admired American culture and met up to drink smoke and listen to Jazz, attended by up to 6K youths

• 1934 - PEL sets up Confessing Church, joined by 6K pastors, spoke out against Nazis, 800 arrested and sent to concentration camps

• Catholic priests spoke out too and 400 were sent to Dachau

• 1933 - SPD print 'Red Shock Troop' as an opposition newspaper and circulate 3K copies

• SOPADE set up as SPD abroad

LNG: Nazi Policies towards Women

• 1934 - Gertrud Scholtz-Klink appointed Reich Women's leader

• All women's organisation forced to merge with DFW, had 6M members, taught courses on cooking sewing and childcare and taught to 1.7M by 1939

• 1933 - Law for the Encouragement of Marriage gave loans to young married couples

• Divorce laws changed in 1938 to force divorces for interracial couples and allowed infertility as grounds

• Mother's cross given to women for having certain number of children (4-5,6-7,8)

• 1935 - Lebensborn, started by SS leader Himmler, gave 'racially pure' women support to have children, kidnapped 'Aryan' children and put them in German households (during WW2)

• Focus for women put on 'Kinder ,Kuche, Kirche' (Children, kitchen and church)

• End of 1934 - 360K women had given up work

• Grammar schools banned in 1937

• 1933 to 1939 - Number of women in work went from 5M to 7M (increase)

LNG: Nazi Youth groups

• 1933 - All non-Nazi youth groups banned and attendance mandatory for 10+ in 1939

• 6-10 = Little Fellows, 10-14 = German Young People, 14-18 = Hitler Youth

• 1938 - 1.2M little boys trained in small arms

• Gliding Hitler Youth had 55K members, Naval Hitler Youth 45K

• 1936 - League of German Maidens membership made compulsory

LNG: Nazi Policies towards formal education

• Bernhard Rust made education minister in 1934

• By 1939, 200K teachers had attended courses run by the Nazi Teachers' League

• Amount of time for PE was doubled and took one-sixth of lesson time by 1939

• 1935 - Law made that all textbooks had to be approved by the nazis

LNG: Employment changes

• From 1933 to 1939, employment went from 25% of the labour force to only half a million people

• National Labour Service (RAD) was set up in 1933 but in 1935 made compulsory for all young men to serve for six months, 442K in 1935

• 7K mile network roads planned to improve transport

• By 1935 - 125K men were employed building motorways

• 3.5km had been finished by 1938 (30% done)

• 1933 to 1938 - Spending on public works grew from 18 billion marks to 38 billion

LNG: Other attempts to improvement Living standards

• Hitler announced military conscription in 1935 and 1.36M were in the army by 1939

• 1933 to 1939 - Government spending on arms increased from 3.5 billion marks to 26 billion

• DAF set up in 1933 to protect the rights of workers

• To improve quality of life, KdF was set up in 1933 and provided free/low-cost activities to reward dedicated workers, had 35M million members by 1936

LNG: Persecution of other minorities

• Early 1930s - 26K gypsies were in Germany

• Gypsies started to be sent to concentration camps from 1933, in 1936 had to live in special camps, banned from travelling in groups in 1938, in 1939 deportation plans started

• 1935 saw stronger laws against homosexuality, 4K arrested in 1936, 1938 8K were arrested

• The Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseased Offspring passed in 1933, making it compulsory for all who were at least one of the following to be 'sterilised': mentally ill, alcoholic, deformed, epileptic, deaf, blind, with 400K being sterilised by 1939

• 1939 - T4 programme ordered that babies with severe disabilities should starve or overdose, killing over 5K children

LNG: Persecution against Jewish people

• Jews were banned from government jobs and teacher sacked in 1933

• 1935 - Nuremburg Laws passed, making only those of 'German blood' citizens, demoting all Jews to subjects, creating laws around wearing visible yellow stars for 'ease of identification'

• Jewish people had to wear identity cards and register all possessions from 1938

• 9-10 November 1938 - Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), 814 shops + 171 homes + 191 synagogues were destroyed (resentment stirred after a 17 year old Polish Jew shot a German in the German embassy in Paris)

• Jewish people were evicted from Germany from 1939