Case Study One: Nazi Germany

Emergence to power

(1919 - 1933)

Long-term weaknesses of the Weimar Republic

Impact of the Great Depression, 1919 Versailles, Guilt Clause 231 blaming Germany for the War

Big Four:

Wilson (U.S.A.), Orlanso (Italy), David Lloyd George (UK), Clemenseau (France)

Wilson (U.S.A.) (President)

March 4, 1913 - March 4, 1921

Orlando (Italy) (Prime Minister)

October 1917 to June 1919

David Lloyd George (UK) (Prime Minister)

1916 to 1922

Celemenceau (France) (Prime Minister)

1917 to 1920

Diktat

an imposed settlement

Reich

The German word for empire, there were three

1933 Enabling Act

allowed the Reich government to issue laws without the consent of Germany's parliament

What was Germany like before WWI

Kaiser, then Reichstag (Parliment), then the Chancellor.

Weimar

A country town chosen as the new capital and seat of government of Germany

Führer

often used to refer to the supreme leader of the Nazi Party and the country.

Reichstag

historic building in Berlin, Germany, that serves as the seat of the German parliament

Germany after 1918

After the first world war, Germany had been defeated and embittered. They were embarrassed and angered towards their political leaders for losing

Treaty of Versailles

signed in June 1919

Scapegoats

Germany blamed the political leaders for the war loss

Article 231

Guilt Clause blamed germany for the entirety of world war I.

Articles 40-45 and 81-86

Loss of territories in Europe to France and Poland, depriving Germany of 4 million people, Loss of Germany’s overseas colonies

Article 160

Germany army limited to 100,000

Article 173

Conscription banned

Post-War political instability

Diktat, treaty of versailles

shock of military defeat

nation had been betrayed by politicians

Economic Problems

war debts

reparations

high unemployment

Weimar Republic

a president elected every 7 years and given emergency powers to rule when necessary, a chancellor appointed by the president and is head of the government, elected reichstag, seats allocated by proportional representation

The threat from the left

there were efforts to spark communist revolt in 1920-1921 by the army, mostly workers risings in the Ruhr and the Spartacists

Spartacists Revolt

January 1919, They wanted Germany to be run by the working class, believing power and wealth should be shared equally among the population. Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg led this movement. 100,000 workers strike, buildings were seized and they armed themselves, they then returned home due to lack of planning. Freikorps crushed them known as The Bloody Week. Leaders were murdered

Right wing threat

Not united but agreed on similar issues, disliked democracy, believed the “stab in the back” and “November Criminals.” Right wing parties won Reichstag seats, some state gov. were controlled by the right, Right-wing army officers, judges, and civil servants retained positions of power, and they had the support of the Freikorps

Kapp-Putsch

1920, wanted to restore a monarchy in Germany, led by the Freikorps, specifically Wolfgang Kapp. Germany tried to disband them, and they responded by marching on Berlin declaring they were overthrowing the government. Gov. responded with a strike. Kapp was forced to resignn and they were disbanded

Porportional Representation

the allocation of seats according to the number of votes cast for each party

Flaws of the Weimar Constitution

Proportional representation: Allowed smaller parties to gain seats, Influenced coalitions, Instability, and10 different government between 1919-1923

Article 48 (Weimar Constitution)

Allowed the Reichstag President to take emergency measures without consulting the Reichstag; Intended as a safety measure, but gave him dictorial powers

Freikorps

German paramilitary units by demobbed soldiers

Mein Kampf

(My Struggle) Hitler’s book, Hitler’s past written in 1924, Austria’s art school rejection, homeless.

Mein Kampf political ideas

the conviction that politics was dialectical, belief in Germany’s destiny as a great Aryan nation to destroy Jewry and seize the Slav lands of the east, a passtionate hatred of communists, belief in the power of the state as the central social organization, and the conviction that women were subordinate to men and should not engage in politics

Soviet

an attempted tecreation of the type of workers council which Lenin’s communists had established in Russia

Hitler’s support

First he decided to support the communists who seized power in April 1919 Munich; once they lost, he switched to the socialist right wing.

Continuity of traditional institutions

The civil service, The judiciary, The army

The civil service

left in the hands of those who tended to conform to the anti-Democratic, conservative values of Imperial Germany

The judiciary

Article 54 of the constitution guaranteed the independence of the judges, men were conservative in nature and anti-Democratic in their views. In their verdicts against those who threatened the constitution in the years after 1919, they handed out severe sentences to left-wing agitators and acted leniently to those on the right

The army

Many of the generals were linked with the Prussian landowners and they were anti-Republican

White Émigrés

Tsarist supporters who had fled to Germany from Russia after the Russian Revolution

White Émigrés take on the German Crisis

the product of a Jewish-Bolshevik plot to undermine German culture and society

Targets to German Suffering

The politicians who had accepted German defeat in 1918, communists, Jews

NSDAP

National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party)

DAP

Munich-based German workers party, Hitler became its leader a year later, name changed to NSDAP

New Party Program (NSDAP)

1. the union of all Germans in a greater Germany 2. the revocation of the Treaty of Versailles

   3. the gaining of territories to accommodate Germany’s surplus population

   4. the restriction of state citizenship to those of German blood

   5. Jews to be denied membership of the Volk

Volk

The nation as a community of racially pure Germans

SA

Hitler established (1920) them under the leadership of Ernst Röhm, wore brown shirt uniforms, “sturmabteilung” (storm troopers), Hilter’s paramilitary force, and attacked Jews and communists.

Munich Putsch (Beer Hall Putsch)

November 8th 1923, Hitler tried to rise to power because of the social unrest due to hyper-inflation; wanted to overthrow the government by bursting into a beer hall declaring the president and government had been ousted causing chaos, which the police sorted and imprisoned Hitler, increased Hitler’s popularity and followers

Between January and October 1923

the value of the German Mark fell from 7,290 US dollar to 4,200,000,000,000

Hyper-Inflation

very rapid and destructive fall in the purchasing value of money, causing a rapid drop in the value of the currency and a sharp rise in prices

What caused hyper-inflation

German government had printed increased amounts of paper money to pay soldiers and to purchase guns, ammunition, and other supplies; instead if raising taxes, there was more currency in circulation than there were things to buy. Germany then failed to make reparation payments so France occupied the Ruhr and took the natural resources themselves to make payment.

Putsch

an armed uprising

Hitler’s Imprisonment

He wasn’t treated so severely in the court process because of the judges bias and of Hitler’s nationalism that he was released less than a year later

Martyr’s Day

The putsch became part of Nazi lore and celebrated annually

Aryan

a person of caucasian race; as understood by Hitler, the ideal racial type that was superior to all others

Hitler after prison

Hitler despised democracy and it’s feeble process; however, he was prepared to go through the process to achieve his goal. Instead of using violence, he would present the Nazi movement as constitutional

Power Struggle 1925-30

He upset the others in the Nazi Party who wanted to continue with the tough movements. Factions developed, and he had major opponents, Otto and Gregor Strasser. Who believed that Nazism should be more socialist and oppose capitalism. Otto tried to split the NSDAP; however, he only had 25 followers, proving to Hitler that he truly had unconditional support.

Great Depression

October 1929, The Wall Street Crash, the value of shares collapsed and many people were ruined, pulling their investments from Germany. Ruining thousands of businesses, due to this Extremists thrived and earned even more Reichstag seats

“Golden Age”

1924-1929, coincided with the influence of chancellor and foreign minister Gustav Stressemann, Dawes Planned was introduced, extending the reparation repayment period and providing a large loan from the USA

Lower Middle Class

Shopkeepers, traders, and professional people, regarded as respectable, dependable elements in German Society and who felt the most threatened by the economic crisis.

Nazi appeal

Weimar Republic, judged to be incapable of dealing with Germany, Ineffectual moderate parties, rise popularity of extremist parties, Nationalist Nazi Party greater support than pro-soviet bias of the KPD, Other political parties represented sections pf Germany and lacked wide appeal the Nazis had, Nazism=great protector against the menace communism, young voters drawn to Hitler’s populist image, unemployed saw hope in the Nazis promise of salvation, among others

KPD

Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (German Communist Party)

Between 1930-33 (Government)

As coalition governments continued to fail and relied on the president now that they lacked majority, Hitler bided his time beneath the three successful coalition governments, waiting for his chancellorship to be given to him because he could no longer be ignored

The presidential elections, 1932

Hitler strengthened his hand by standing against Hindenburg in the election, not intending to win but he wanted to measure his popularity.

Reichstag Elections 1932

The Nazis doubled their previous vote and won twice as many seats

January 30th, 1933

Hitler named Chancellor

Conditions allowed for Authoritarian States to rise

Economic, weakness of the political system, and impact of war

Methods Authoritarian States use

Propaganda, Legal Means, Ideology, economic policies, Charisma, Eliminate opposition and violence, terror and force

Propaganda

Nazis’ efforts to shape the German “national community” according to their racial ideals; this meant privileging “Aryans” and discriminating against those of so-called inferior races, such as Jews. Used through radio, the press, feature films and newsreels, theater, music, art exhibits, books, the school curriculum, sports, and more—to influence the beliefs, feelings, and actions of individuals to help further this goal

Legal Means

Enabling Act

Charisma

charm, persuasive, oratory

Forces of Terror

Freikorp, SA (Sturmabteilung)

Ideology

strong nationalism, the need for an all-powerful leader, a strong state limitation of individual freedoms, stress on militarism and military strength, the importance of maintaining the purity of the German race, expansionist foreign policy (lebensraum), creating a volksgemeinschaft

Enabling Bill

A measure which granted the German Chancellor the power to govern by personal decree without reference to the Reichstag

The Reichstag Fire

February 1933, Dutch communists set fire to the government (Reichstag); Nazis claim this is part of. large-scale communist plot and start an aggressive campaign against them. Hitler phrased it as if only he could save the Germans from communists, so they started to mass arrest them.

Führer

The leader, used informally from 1924 to refer to Hitler and adopted in 1934 as his formal title

The Reichstag Election (March 1933)

NSDAP’s share of vote increased from 33% to 44%, they had far more support than any other party.

Gleichschaltung

1933-34, consolidation of authority, implemented a one-party state, brought the parliments under total Nazi control, outlawed all political parties except Nazis, destroyed trade unions, subordinated the legal system to nazi control, begun the process of removing Jews from public, coerced the churches

Diplomatic Alliances in 1933

Britain and France could not agree upon a way to deal with Hitler.

Hitler’s policy of appeasement

Hitler claimed he only wanted peace but his actions over the next five years undermined collective secruity

Night of the Long Knives

June 1934, killed SA leader, Ernst Rohm, who supposedly was organising a putsch against them, SS emerged

SS

Nazi Schutzstaffelm (protective squads), created after the SA was disbanded, Hitler’s personal bodyguard in 1924, Heinrich Himmler took over the SA, ran the concentration camps

SS ideology

the protection of Germany from racial corruption, the cultivation of a fighting spirit among its members, loyalty to the German state and absolute obediance to the orders of the Führer

Concentration Camps

originally detention centers where anti-nazis were held, deveolped into a wide-spread prison networkdeveloped

Death’s Head Division

A unit which took its name from the skull and crossbones emblem its members wore on their caps

Hitler becomes President

August 1934, Death of Hindenburg

The Gestapo

special state police in Germany and German-occupied Europe. Branch of SS, dedicated to the removal and exposal of the state enemies, no legal restrictions (torture), most feared

The army

civilian police, Waffen-SS, branch of SS, Wehrmacht, German armed services, it was essential for Hitler to have their support without it power is fragile. Army sex scandals that Hitler exploited to kick the former army’s leaders out to ensure there was no opposition that made him commander-in-chief

Wehrmacht

previously the Reichswehr, the german armed services, comprising the army, navy and air force, though the term was often used simply to describe the army

The army oath

One of his shrewdest moves soon after coming to power was to make the army feel that it had a special relationship with him as leader of the nation. He did this by making the oath that the officers and men took a declaration of ‘unconditional loyalty to the person of the Fuhrer’

The structure and organisation of the government

no balance between the German state and nazi party, all working towards the “Führer”

Three main types of opposition

The left, made up of communists and socialists, The right, made up of traditionalists and conservatives and the young

Opposition from the left

Broad and unorganized because they were already being persecuted by the Nazis, 1,000 SDP members and 150,000 KPD members were in concentration camps, this threat had been driven underground. Nazi-Soviet Pact eased these tensions

Opposition from the right

completely unorganised but shared one common goal to end Hitler’s leadership. Organized to kill Hitler like the July Bomb Plot 1944

July Bomb Plot

1944, militarily organized the bombing from the inside, bomb went off but Hitler survived and executed very man who was with him when the bomb went off

Opposition from the Young

The White Rose group, Edelweiss, and Swinging Youth. No one could organize an effective opposition.

The White Rose group

five students, and a teacher started to secretly print out leaflets about their group. They avoided detection for a year until someone exposed them and they were all executed

Edelweiss

Strong Catholic associations and groups wish to promote lasting German values in the face of the amoral doctrines of Nazism. 12 young people who were known members were hanged by the Gestapo, which halted the movement

Swinging Youth

stood against German Nazi views and ideas of strictness and seriousness, enjoyed jazz and long hair, free style. Disbanded and stopped