Germany 1918-1945

key events

Armastice signed - ended all fighting

11th Nov 1918

not a formal end to the war / surrender

baden announces abdication of kaiser

9th nov 1918

spartacist uprising

• january 1919

• led by rosa luxemburg and karl biebknecht

• did not trust new government - wanted full scale communist revolution

• took over goverment’s newspaper headquarters in berlin and hoped other left wing groups would join - this did not happen

• government ordered army and freikorps to crush uprising - 100+ workers were killed

• failed because it was badly planned and did not get support from other left wing groups

TOV signed

• 28th June 1919

• germany had no say in the terms and was not invited to any negotiations - many saw the treaty as a diktat (dictated peace) as it was forced upon them

what it was

• germany not allowed to join LON

• Rhineland demilitarised

• Saar with its rich coalfields given to france for 15 years

• Alsace Lorraine returned to France

• Anschluss was forbidden (germany uniting with austria)

• lands in eastern germany e.g polish corridor given to poland

• Danzig made a free city under LON control

• all German colonies taken and given to France and Britain as ‘mandates’

• army restricted to 100000 soldiers

• navy restricted to 6 battleships and no submarines

• no airforce or tanks

• article 231 - war guilt clause - germany responsible for all damage and loss caused by war

• germany would have to pay reparations eventually set at 6.6 billion pounds

Hitler joins DAP

September 1919

Kapp Putsch

• march 1920

• happened bc government ordered the disbandment of freikorps due to little need for them

• 12k freikorps marched to berlin - government was forced to flee & army refused to fire at war mates

• freikorps put forward kapp as the new leader of Germany

• failed due to lack of support from workers - strike in berlin in protest, kapp was forced to flee from berlin after 4 days

Red Rising

• 1920 march 15 - april 6 in the ruhr

• many workers were angry about bad pay and poor working conditions - had been protesting throughout 1919

• communist ‘red army’ of 50000 workers occupied the ruhr region and took control of raw materials

• crushed by the freikorps and german army - over 1000 workers killed

• failed due to weak leadership and unclear plan - no widespread committed support

hitler in charge of propaganda

• by 1920

• saw himself as a drummer for a national cause

• quickly became party’s most active speaker

publication of 25 point plan

• feburary 1920 by Hitler and Drexter

• outlined DAP’s beliefs

• - strong germany - TOV should be abolished and all german-speaking people united in one country

• - Fuhrer - idea that there should be a single leader with complete power rather than democracy

• - social darwinism - idea that aryan race is superior and jews are ‘subhuman’

• - autarky - idea that germany should be economically self sufficient

• - germany was in danger from communists and jews who have to be destroyed

• - lebensraum - need for more ‘living space’ for german nation to expand

DAP changes name

• on feb 24th 1920

• at hitler’s suggestion the party changed from DAP → National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP or Nazi Party)

• idea was to make party more appealing to larger segments of the population

• adopted swastika as emblem

• more members = more money - with this money the nazis were able to to buy a newspaper called Volk Beobachter in 1920 which helped further spread their message

nazi membership grows to 1100

by june 1920

SA created

• 1921 hitler created the SA or Storm Troopers

• paramilitary group made up of angry ex-soldiers and functioned as a private army for the party

• helped provide security at meetings and break up meetings of opposition groups

• the ‘thuggish’ group appealed to many angry young men who quickly joined up

Hitler resignation in protest

• in june 1921 some party leaders wanted to merge NSDAP with rival German Socialist Party

• hitler resigned in protest - party lost most influential speaker

• realising this would mean the end of the party, the committee begged for hitler back

• hitler agreed on the condition he was made leader of party & had unchallengeable authority - known as ‘leadership principle’ (fuhrerprinzip)

• made leader on 28th July 1921

nazi membership grows to 3000

1922

first default on reparations & occupation of the ruhr

• november 1922 - could not afford to make payment

• however france thought they were choosing not to and in response sent troops to occupy the ruhr’s industrial goods & sites e.g. coalfields and factories

• these were all things that were important to germany’s economy

• german gov ordered workers to follow policy of ‘passive resistance’ by refusing to work or cooperate & in return the government continued to pay their wages

• french responded firmly - in Krupp steelworks uncooperative workers were shot at and others were overall expelled from the region

• overall 132 were killed and 150000 were expelled

• government decided to print more money to pay workers - contributing to hyperinflation

hyperinflation

• already suffering from inflation due to war and increasing gov debt

• the flood of money from paying striking workers weakened economy further & prices rose

• marks became worthless - in 1919 £1 was equal to 20 marks, by 1923 £1 was 20 billion marks

• consequently foreign suppliers refused to recognise printed money so imports stopped

• a loaf of bread costing 230 marks in jan 1923 had risen to 200000 million marks by november

• by autumn 1923 it cost more to print the note than it was worth

• people carried wheelbarrows of cash around - some suppliers refused to take cash at all

• workers were often payed twice a day as by lunchtime their wages were practically worthless

• people with fixed income or savings were hit particularly hard - if you had a pension or bank account all of this was now worthless and middle classes were worst affected

• many quickly blamed weimar politicians for these problems - hyperinflation further humiliated the government

• unsurprisingly led to rebellions and uprisings - group called Black Reichswehr in september, communists took over govs of saxony and thuringia in oct & same month took over rhineland and declared it independent, nazi munich putsch

nazi membership grows to 20000

by november 1923

amidst economic and political chaos

had spread from munich to rest of germany

hitler also gained support from number of important individuals in german army

how Stresemann fixed hyperinflation

within a few weeks he introduced a series of crucial initiatives

• called off ‘passive resistance’ in the Ruhr and promised to resume payment of reparations - needed to conciliate the french to invoke international sympathy for germany’s economic position

• under Foreign Minister Hans Luthers guidance, gov’s expenditure was cut to reduce deficit - over 700000 public employees were sacked

• in dec 1923 the old german marks were replaced by a new temporary currency the ‘rentenmark’ - based on land and industry rather than gold and gave people new confidence in the currency

• rentenmark was replaced by the ‘reichmark’ by the reichsbank which was the new permanent currency that people could rely on

• drew sympathy from the Allies by the ‘miracle of the rentenmark’ and therefore asked them to hold an international conference to consider germany’s economic position- as a result the Dawes Committee was established and the Dawes plan followed (published in april 1924)

• dawes plan gave germany 800million marks from the US in loans and fixed first 5 years of payments with germany’s ability to pay. reduced annual pay by 20%

• young plan in 1929 reduced annual payments to 1/3 of origional and stated germany should only pay rest if she could afford it

stresemann’s new foreign policy

• comply with TOV to improve relations with britain and france - which will encourage them to revise the treaty

• negotiation because germany lacked military power

• ending germanys diplomatic isolation & gaining confidence from western powers

• using economic rather than military potential as a means to get TOV revised

• close cooperation with US to gain economic aid

• satisfying french demand for security

• building links with ussr - slight pressure on west to improve relations through fear of germany moving towards USSR

as a result stresemann hoped

• the reparations problem would be solved

• the ruhr and rhineland occupation would end

• military control over germany would end

• revision of germany’s eastern boarders

munich putsch

• november 1923

• by 1923 weimar germany had experienced several year of political unrest and economic turmoil

• previous uprisings left the government looking weak and vulnerable

• hitler chose 1923 as:

• - he felt the party was now strong enough to take control of munich before marching on to berlin

• - wanted to take advantage of the context (hyperinflation, french invasion of ruhr) to gain support

• - impressed by mussonlini who took power in italy in 1922

• - worried that new politician stresemann might fix problems and he may lose this opportunity if he waited too long

what happened

• 8-9th november 1923

• nazi party led by hitler and general ludendorff - believed democracy only led to weak government and wanted only one political party with one leader

• planned to take over government and set ludendorff as leader. started in munich where hitler and 600 members of SA burst into a meeting where the leader of Bavaria was speaking (in a beer hall)

• forced Kahr to promise to support their plan, but when he was allowed to leave he withdrew his support the following day

• it was badly planned, and the gov responded quickly - ordered army to crush revolt.

• when nazis marched to a military base they were met with armed police and soldiers - 14 nazis were killed in the following fight

• leaders were arrested and hitler was sentenced to 5 years but released just after 9 months

• without their leader(s) the nazis almost fell apart during this time

aftermath of munich putsch

• hitler put on trial and charged with 5 years in prison - but released after only 9 months

• nazis temporarily banned in bavaria

• hitler used trial as a platform for publicity - explained his aim of saviing germany from current government which was failing the people

• hitler wrote Mein Kampf during his time in prison

• used time in prison to change his strategy - using democratic political power and destroy german democracy from within rather than violence

• failed putsch showed great deal of opposition to weimar government

• hitlers light sentence suggested that german judges and courts also opposed and disproved of the government

when was rentenmark introduced

december 1923 - based on land, agriculture and industry rather than gold in banks

dawes plan introduced

• april 1924

• us loaned 800mil marks to germany

• reduced first reparation to 1000 million marks, then 2.5 bil annually

• allowed flexible payments to ensure less payments will be missed

SS created

• 1925 set up as hitler’s personal bodyguards

• later on grew into a formidable private army which hitler used to intimidate and eliminate his opponents

• members had to be: of complete aryan decent (tracing ancestry back to 1800), completely obedient to Fuhrer, commited to germany

mein kampf

• outlined his facist ideas and plans for german society

• sold over 228000 copies between 1925 and 1932

• outlined:

• - german race will rule the world because they are superior

• jews are leading a conspiracy to undermine aryans

• jews want to weaken aryan race by intermarriage

• jews are taking over german businesses and moderate political groups

• TOV must be undone

• lebensraum is needed so aryan population can expand

• germany must invade russian land to drive out communist threat

• germany’s wealth must benefit working people not the rich

• democracy is weak - germany should have one leader who organises everything for the benefit of the people

Locarno Pact

• collection of 7 treaties signed in 1925

• germany accepted new western boarders

• all involved countries agreed to avoid using military force except in self defence - provided important reassurance for france and germany as they shared a long boarder

• germany agreed to alsace lorraine being french - in return france agreed to not occupy the ruhr again

• all parties agreed germany’s east boarders would be settled by peaceful means

• led to significant improvement in relations with the west & stresemann was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1926

bamberg conference

• feb 1926

• hitler called for a special nazi conference at bamberg in southern germany

• during his imprisonment disagreements had grown between the two sections - northern sect led by Strasser was keen to emphasise socialist elements of 25 point programme to attract support from workers & southern section was more interested in nationalist and and racist policies to attract support from middle class and farmers

• hitler insisted that policies which could be painted as communist such as taking land from rich nobelmen would not be pursued

• reaffirmed 25 point plan

• hitler established fuhrerprinzip - idea that party leader was in absolute control and all members must follow his direction & no dissent was expected or tolerated

germany joins LON

• september 1926 - stresemann successfully persuaded the other great powers to allow germany to join LON

• parly the result of signing the Locarno Pact

• germany was given a place on the Council - very significant as members of the council made the most importance decisions

• this increased many Germans’ confidence in the Weimar Regime

• however many germans also saw thie LON as a symbol of the despised TOV

Hitler Youth established

• 1926

• provided age 14-18 boys with opportunities whilst indoctrinating them

Quiet Years

• 1925-28

• hitler released from jail in december 1924

• period up to 29 known as nazis’ ‘lean years’ bc it struggled to win seats in the reichstag

• may 1924 nazis had 32/472 seats

• dec 1924 dropped to 14/493

• by may 1928 nazis only had 12/491 seats

• struggled to win seats because of economic recovery and people were less likely to turn to extremist solutions

kellogg briand pact

• in August 1928

• 62 countries including germany us and uk signed pact promising not to use military force and solve disputes peacefully

• usa was not part of LON and saw this as a way to be involved in building peace with other nations

• showed clear improvement in germany’s foreign relations - previously was excluded from TOV negotiations but now was among main powers once again & was now clear that Weimar Republic was now a respected, stable state

• however people still disapproved of the pact as it did nothing to end the hated TOV

young plan

• 1929

• chaired by owen d young

• reduced total reparations from $6.6bil to $2bil

• new 59 year repayment plan → ends in 1988

• made it much more realistic for germany’s economic state

stresemann’s death

3rd october 1929 - died of stroke

Wall Street Crash

late october 1929

• 1920s was a ‘boom decade’ for US economy, american companies tallied up record production figures and ever-increasing sales (millions of profit in conclusion)

• these profits encouraged growing investment in shares.

• in 1927&28 the Wall Street Stock Exchange became the epicentre of a new gold rush as thousands of americans rushed to invest in the booming market

• the rapid returns on investment fuelled reckless decisions: some investors borrowed heavily, mortgaged homes or sold anything to purchase shares

• the investment bubble burst on ‘Black Thursday’ October 24th 1929, when shares on New York stock exchange plummeted

• this crash had disastrous effects on US economy - between 1929 and 1932 american industrial production fell by 45%#

• many companies announced bankruptcy or ceased trading, others attempted cutting costs by releasing workers

effects of WS crash on Germany

• worst affected in europe - germany’s previous economic recovery was described by stresemann as ‘dancing on a volcano’ and ‘only flourishing on the surface’

• american banks called in all foreign loans at very short notice - these agreed loans under the dawes plan had been the basis for economic recovery & funded german industry / helped pay reparations

• without the loans the germany industry collapsed - led to huge rise in unemployment and depression began

• industrial production also more than halved over this period

unemp figures:

sept 1928: 650000

sept 1930: 3mil

jan 1933: 6.1mil

impact of unemployment

• by 1933 50% of young people were unemployed, even those with education

• 40% of factory workers could not get jobs

• businessmen and farmers struggled as germans had less money to spend on their goods

• significantly raised government expenditure on unemployment insurance and other benefits

• germans began to lose faith in democracy -more people turned to extreme parties: unemployed tended to turn to communism & those who feared communism turned to the nazis

SA grows to 400000

by 1930 - hitler filled the ranks with ex-soldiers and the unemployed

• used in rallies to make the nazis appear strong and organised - especially in the midst of economic and social turmoil the nazis seemed strong enough to control unrest and stand up for germany

• used to whip up feelings of hope for the future

• used to disrupt opposition parties - e.g meetings, offices and destroying posters

• intimidated voters outside poling booths

muller resigns

• march 1930

• resigned when government could not agree on how to tackle rise in gov spending from unemployment

• replaced with bruning

bruning cuts gov expenditure

• july 1930

• cut gov expenditure, wages and unemployment pay - added to spiral of decline and unemployment continued to rise & made the cut off workers even poorer

• however he could not get the reichstag to agree to his actions, so Hindenburg used article 48 - giving him power to pass laws by decree

• this undermined democracy and weakened power of the reichstag - arguably opening a way for hitler’s later dictatorship

rise in extremism

between 1930-33 support for extreme right-wing nazis and left-wing communists soared

nazis become biggest party in reichstag

in 1928 nazis only had 12 seats in the reichstag, but by july 1932 they had 230 seats & became largest party

there were many reasons their support grew

• effects of great depression

• failure of WR to deal with effects successfully

• fear of communism - germans esp businessmen were frightened of the communists taking over their country since they had a lot to lose

• hitler’s appeal

• strength of SA

• nazi propaganda

• improved nazi party organisation

bruning bans SS and SA

• april 1932 to calm political unrest

• made right wing angry

• von schleicher organised a right-wing coalition, inc army officers and business interests to convince hindenburg to sack bruning

von papen selected as new chancellor

• may 1932

• selected by von schleicher

• acted as a puppet and controlled by schleicher behind the scenes

von papen coalition loses seats

• july 1932, nazis win 230 seats

• hitler wanted hindenburg to sack von papen and be appointed as new chancellor, but hindenburg resisted believing hitler was not suitable

papen calls for another election

• november 1932

• nazi vote fell but remained largest party

• refused to give support to papen

• powerful business leaders signed a letter to hindenburg asking hitler be appointed chancellor - hindenburg refused

von schleicher appointed chancellor

• december 1932

• asked hindenburg to suspend constitution and give him special powers as he was paranoid papen and hitler were trying to overthrow him

• hindenburg did not agree & news of this request lost schleicher support from the reichstag

hitler appointed chancellor

• january 1933 - hindenburg reluctantly appointed hitler as chancellor as a last resort

• von papen underestimated hitler and believed they could ‘tame’/control him

• papen’s plan was to surround him with conservative ministers and so control him

reichstag fire

• 27th feburary 1933

• reichstag building burned down and dutch communist van der lubbe was found with matches and fire-inducing materials

• hitler used this opportunity to whip up public fear against communist threat

• convinced hindenburg to use article 48, declaring a state of emergency. decree for the protection of the nation and state was passed:

• ^ secret police could hold people without trial, civil liberties were suspended and communists were arrested in large numbers (over 400) and communist newspapers were banned

• since his new control of the police force, hitler ensured they turned a blind eye to the SA’s activities

• hitler used this as an opportunity to persuade Hindenburg to call another election for march 1933

elections after reichstag fire

• 5th march 1933 - called by hitler just 6 days after the fire

• as well as benefitting from the decree for the protection of the nation and the state, the nazis also:

• issued huge quantities of propaganda

• used SA to shut down opposition election meetings

• threatened people at polling stations to ensure they voted ‘correctly’

• secured funds from rich industrialists who were keen to destroy communists

nazis did end up winning lots of new seats in reichstag, but not a majority. hitler had hoped for a 2/3 majority which would allow him to change the constitution (now had 288 seats)

• in the following weeks, he used his emergency powers to ban communists from taking up their 81 seats. this + support from other nationalists meant hitler had 2/3 majority

• he now had enough votes to change the constitution

enabling act

• 23rd march 1933

• reichstag voted to give hitler power to govern without reichstag for 4 years - this was extended in 1937 and SA &SS troups stood both inside and outside the kroll opera house to intimidate all reichstag members

• catholics decided on cooperation with the nazis in fear of being treated like communists - in return they retained control of catholic schools

• only social democrats dared to oppose

• this act made hitler the dictator of germany - allowing him to do anything he liked legally. there was now nothing hindenburg or anyone else could do

why was hitler still not secure after enabling act?

he had seen how civil service, army and judiciary had undermined WR

he was not yet strong enough to remove opponents, and would have been possible for other institutions to overthrow him:

• unions could have organised a general strike like during Kapp putsch 1920

• opposition parties could have regrouped and challenged the legality of his actions

• civil service could have stalled procedures and made it difficult for hitler to introduce new laws

• state governments could have pursued non-nazi policies

• army could have organised a coup authorised by their supreme commander hindenburg

he therefore set about a clever policy to remove these obstacles

local government control

• 26th april 1933

• nazi officials were put in charge of all local government

• ‘alien elements’ (people from other countries) were removed from their positions

trade unions banned

• 2nd may 1933

• trade unions offices were closed, money confiscated and leaders put in prison

• in replacement, hitler established the German Labour Front (DAF) and all german workers had to join - this was set up not only to replace trade unions but also employers’ groups

• wages were decided by DAF and workers received work-books - records of employment and employment depended on ownership of a work-book

• strikes were outlawed - any dissenters were to be sent to new prisons/concentration camps for ‘political reeducation’

• workers were granted a MayDay holiday

• in june, a major programme of public works began (e.g. road building) to create jobs

first concentration camp opened

• at Dachau in 1933

political parties banned

• 14th july 1933 - Law against the Formation of Parties declared the Nazi party to be the only political party in germany

• all other political parties were banned & leaders were put in prison

• mean that in the 1933 general election, the nazis were the only choice on ballot paper

• however there was some protest - about 3mil ballot papers were spoilt

why did the Night of Long Knives happen?

• the SA was becoming very powerful - had over 2mil members by 1934 & its leader Ernst Rohm was a possible rival to hitler as leader of the nazi party

• Himmler (head of SS) resented the SA’s influence and was keen to reduce its importance

• some of the SA continued to use violence and intimidation, and there were frequent drunken fights between members, which embarrassed Hitler. as a result, the nazis lost the support of many conservative germans

• Rohm had different views to hitler - rohm wanted to take measures against big businesses and adopt social policies, while hitler wanted support from the business leaders and the funding that they would bring

• some nazis were offended by rohm’s homosexuality and believed he was ‘corrupting’ the hitler youth

• perhaps most importantly, the SA’s influence affected the party’s relations with the regular army - despite the army’s limited size, the leaders were very influencial men. hitler had planned to rearm germany and enlargen army while SA wanted to take the place of the army

• in 1934 SA units began stopping army convoys and confiscating their weapons - hitler felt he had to take action

Night of Long Knives

• 30th June 1934 - hitler launched NOLK

• members of the SS arrested around 200 SA officers, who were taken to munich - many of them including rohm were executed (believed around 90)

• over 400 members of the SA were murdered

• old enemies were also targeted - e.g von Kahr and Schleicher and possible rival for Nazi leadership, Strasser

• hitler was more than happy to take responsibility, and he claimed he was defending the nation against a plot that rohm was leading

NOLK was very significant as:

• destroyed all opposition to hitler within the party

• gave more power to the brutal SS which became more important than the party itself in running the dictatorship

• discouraged potential opponents because they knew they would be dealt with ruthlessly

hindenburg’s death

2nd August 1934

by mid 1934 hindenburg was seriously ill with lung cancer, and with this hitler took steps to ensure he would be the absolute leader after the president’s death

• 1st august: hitler got Hindenburg to agree that the positions of chancellor and president would be merged into the new position fo Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor. this allowed hitler to be the undisputed leader of germany after his death

• previously, the president was in charge of armed forces, now hitler would be in control

• 2nd august: after Hindenburg’s death, hitler had the army swear a personal oath of loyalty to him personally. their loyalty would no longer be to germany but to him

• civil servants had to swear a similar oath