The Rise of the Dictators, Part II

Images: - Adolf Hitler climbing stairs during the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg. - Josef Stalin (in white), photographed in 1933.

What was responsible for the rise to power of the Nazi Party in Germany during the 1930s?
What were the components of the ideology of Adolf Hitler?
What were the characteristics of the Stalinist Soviet Union during the 1920s and 1930s?

1918: End of World War I; Wilhelm II abdicates.
1919: Weimar Republic organized. - January 1919: Communist uprising thwarted by the German army and right-wing Freikorps.
1920: Kapp Putsch; a right-wing attempt to seize power thwarted by a nationwide general strike.
1921: Hitler becomes leader of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nazi Party).
1923: Beer Hall Putsch; Nazi Party launches an attempted coup that collapses, leading to Hitler's arrest and sentencing to 5 years in prison.

Freikorps members parading in Berlin in 1920 during the Kapp Putsch - Notable for military equipment and uniforms, indicative of the right-wing reaction to the Weimar government.

Adolf Hitler served in a Bavarian regiment during World War I. - Served as a dispatch runner, decorated for bravery multiple times but never promoted beyond corporal. - Superior officers doubted his effectiveness as a leader.

Marianplatz Plaza, Munich, during the Beer Hall Putsch of November 1923. - An attempted coup against the Weimar government which quickly collapsed, resulting in arrests of leaders including Hitler.

First-edition printing of Hitler’s autobiography, Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”). - Written while imprisoned after the Beer Hall Putsch. - Outlined ideas for a reinvigorated German state, vicious anti-Semitism, and contempt for non-Aryan races.

Establishes a hierarchy of races: - “Aryan” peoples: Germans, Scandinavians, Dutch, Flemish Belgians, English. - Other Western European Peoples: French, Spanish, Italians. - Eastern European Peoples: Slavic Peoples, Poles, Russians, etc. - Asians and African Peoples: Considered inferior. - Jews: At the bottom of this hierarchy.

German Reichstag political party seats: - Notable increase in Nazi party seats beginning with the 1930 elections. - By 1933, Nazis become the dominant power in the German legislature, solidifying Hitler's control.

November 1932: Nazi Party becomes the largest party in Germany’s Reichstag.
January 1933: Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg.
February 1933: Invocation of a Weimar Constitution article allowing rule by decree; the Reichstag fire used to discredit the Communist Party.
1935: Hitler repudiates the Treaty of Versailles.

Analyze how Mussolini and Hitler successfully rose to power, focusing on arguments and situations exploited to convince citizens of their solutions to national problems.

February 27, 1933: Arson of the Reichstag used as a pretext to further discredit the Communist Party and initiate persecution of Jews, codified in the Nuremberg Laws.

April 1933: Passage of early laws discriminating against “non-Aryans.”
March 1935: Hitler announces the abrogation of the Treaty of Versailles; begins open rearmament of Germany.
September 15, 1935: Enactment of the Nuremberg Laws.

Events of November 9-10, 1938; - A wave of violence directed at German Jews following the assassination of a German diplomat by a Polish Jew.

Photograph taken in 1942; birth name Iosef Dzughashvili, later adopted the name Stalin, meaning “steel.”
Known for his ruthless leadership style throughout nearly 30 years in power.

Abandonment of Lenin’s goal of “exporting” the communist revolution.
Massive commitment to forced industrialization of the Soviet Union.
Forced collectivization of agriculture, which resulted in millions of deaths.
Intense personal paranoia leading to mass purges of government and military officials perceived as disloyal to Stalin.

Exile of Ukrainian kulaks from farms circa 1929.
Stalin’s admission: approximately 10 million Soviet peasants died as a result of forced collectivization during the first Five-Year Plan; the true number could be much higher.

Notable Soviet Army Field Marshals (e.g., Mikhail Tukhachevsky) subjected to purges; only Budyonny and Voroshilov survived.
Poor performance of the Red Army in early World War II attributed to senior officer losses during the purges.

Depicts territory controlled by each side prior to the Nationalist victory in February 1939, reflecting the complex landscape of Spanish political conflict.

Francisco Franco reviewing victorious troops in 1939.
Notable involvement from Germany and Italy in support of Franco’s Nationalists, using the conflict to test new warfare technologies.

German Panzer Mark I tank on display in a Spanish museum.
Pablo Picasso’s Guernica painting illustrating the bombing of a Basque town, marking the use of terror bombing against civilian populations, foreshadowing World War II.

Adolf Hitler: Leader of the Nazi Party and Chancellor of Germany; known for totalitarian rule and genocide against Jews.
Mein Kampf: Hitler's autobiography detailing his ideology and political plans for Germany.
Nuremberg Laws: Racial laws enacted in Nazi Germany that institutionalized many of the racial theories prevalent in Nazi ideology.
Kulaks: Wealthy peasants in Russia who were targeted during Stalin's collectivization efforts.
Spanish Civil War: A multi-faceted conflict that served as a prelude to World War II, marked by ideological divides and foreign intervention.