• Germany starts printing more money to pay reparations

  • Reichsmarks become super inflated

  • Losses of middle class

  • Former middle class moved toward rightist pirates 

  • Lower middle class moved toward extremist views

  • Government established new currency and stabilized inflation

  • Psychological scars deep

• Gustav Stresemann

  • Leader of the DVP (German People’s Party)

  • First opposed the Weimar Republic

  • Feared dictator would take over

  • Wanted peaceful cooperation with Allies

  • Appointed Chancellor

  • He called off the resistance in the Ruhr

  • Stated:

    • Germany would pay reparations

    • Accept its current border with France and Belgium

    • This resulted in the Locarno Treaty

• Locarno Treaty

  • Belgium, France, UK, Germany

  • Germany accepted western borders with France and Belgium

    • Guaranteed by UK and Italy

  • Germany became member of LON

  • Established normal relations with European countries

• Locarno Treaty Results

  • Forward movement on Franco-German Reconciliation

  • Germany could grow economically without threatening Europe

  • Eastern borders of Germany had not been fixed

  • Britain doesn’t guarantee the countries to the east of Germany

  • Germany set to challenge eastern borders with little objection from the Allies

Dawes Committee 

• Uk, italy, France, USA, belgium send two members to the committee 

• Find a way to restructure weimar economy

• Ultimate goal to help germany pay reparations 

Three Main points of the dawes plan 

• Return full control of the Ruhr to Germany 

• Restructure reparation payments to be more german friendly - 1 billion marks in the first year

• Restructuring of the Weimar national bank, Reichsbank

  • Supervise by the allies

  • Allowed their money to become revalued

  • Helped their economy recover

• American bank loans stabilizing the German economy

  • US funnels money into germany, which pay for reparations

  • Then, with that reparation money, the Allies pay the US back

  • Unfortunately, it falls apart when the great depression hits

Sigma Backstory

• After the war, worked as an army informant 

• Investigated the national socialist German workers party - Nazi party ended up joining 

• By 1921 -head of the Nazi party, adopted swastika

• Ideology the superiority of the German race, anti semitic, anti-communist, the survival of the fittest, the national community and the cult of the leader 

• Did not recognize weimar republic 

• Saw democracy as weak associated it to ‘stab in the back’ lie of end of the war

• Party increased membership during 20’s

• 1921 SA Created paramilitary force 

• Peoples observer nazi newspaper 

• 1923 55,000 members

• Nov 8 1923 beer hall putsch fails

• Defends himself, gains many supporters 

• Sentenced to 5 years in jail(serves 9 months) at LandsBerg fortress

• Spends time writing Mein Kampf (My Struggle) 

Main Points

• Germany had to fight international marxism in order to regain status

• Communism was the investigation of the Jews intent on Jewish world domination 

• National socialism was the only doctrine capable of fighting communism. Liberal bourgeois democracy was the first stage to socialism and communism 

• After 1924 began to contest Reichstag elections. Hitler demands obedience in the party because ‘he knew best’. SS was set up 25-26 hitler personal bodyguard 

• 1926 SA brown shirts refounded new party organization created for women, students, young people, and teachers 

• Appealed to a wide spectrum of society concentration on middle class and farmers left out of weimar success 

• High unemployment 1923 6 million 

• Field extremist parties 

• Nazis claimed to be a nation party that railed against communists and had no real plan.

• Political dysfunction in germany

• Nazi projected discipline and action

• 1930 reichstag election 107 seats

• Hitler ran for president in July 1932 Reichstag election 230 seats

• Hitler offered vice-chancellorship but turned it down 

• Now 1932 196 seats

• Political upheaval continued 

• Von papen and Hindenburg offered Hitler the chancellorship

• Both believed Nazis were in decline and they could use Hitler politically

The strongest must survive:

• Leader of the party who pushed the superiority of Germany

• He believed all other races were weaker mentally, and physically

• If people were different, they should be removed.

• Eugenics: Disabled people would be sterilized

• People with certain traits, who were not “the master race” could not make certain role such as the SS

• He believed that Democracy was weak because the “weaker races” had a say in the government which he did not like.

How he gained traction:

• Beer Hall gained a lot of publicity

• Popularity grew after he defended himself in court and people found out about it.

• Gains up to 55k members

• Still ended up going to prison

Jews

• If the grandparent was a jew, they are a Jew

• Ethnically classified

• Believed they were an embodiment of the devil and unholy

• He thought he was “doing the work of the Lord” by getting rid of them 

Notes for 12.5:

• SA was the Nazi paramilitary force

• Law against establishment of parties

  • No parties outside of the NSDAP

• Law for Restoration of the Professional Civil Service

  • Non-aryans were not allowed to be in government anymore

• Long Knives

  • Expended the SA and purged them by saying they were planning a coup, and was extinguished by the SS showing hitler was a hero.

• Army

  • Repudiation of disarmament and conscription

  • Fired War minister and Commander in Chief in order to gain full control over the army and not face opposition from their criticisms

• Lebensraum

  • Expansionist policies to gain German land

  • At Hossbach conference, the top Generals disagreed with him

• Cult of Personality

  • Propaganda showing he was the Fuhrer who represented the German union and will act in the interests of Germany, rather than being selfish and petty.

  • All powerful and all knowing

  • Controlled press through censorship and allowing the Nazi publishing house, Eher Verlag, to buy up private newspapers until 1939 when it controlled ⅔ of the press

  • Publishers could be prosecuted for publishing unapproved material

  • Usage of radio in workplaces, shops, cafes, and blocks of flats with speeches through the loudspeakers for everyone to hear, as well as the home radio.

  • Slogans, posters, and the salute with the greeting of ‘heil hitler’

  • Cinema with censored and degenerate things being filtered out. All cinema had to be Nazi approved to air

  • Concert halls bedecked with swastikas, meetings, rallies, festivals, and such to celebrate Hitler’s birthday and chancellor anniversary

• Characteristics of the Government

  • Political authority over every aspect of German life

  • The party being inseparably linked with the state

  • Party membership essential to succeed in Germany

  • Himmler, SS leader, took over the whole political police force

  • All government positions were filled by Nazis, including the lawyers who had to study Nazi ideology

  • Consequences of non-conformity, political, racial, or moral

• Opposition

  • The reading of banned literature, listening to foreign news, protection of Jews and other Nazi victims, and refusal to join Nazi organizations

  • The youth listened to Jazz music or joined the Swing movement or Edelweiss Pirates

  • Anti-Nazi jokes

  • Brave socialists continuing to distribute anti-Nazi flyers

  • Emigrating or joining the SPD in exile, Berlin Red Patrol, Hanover Socialist Front

  • George Elser planted a bomb in a beer hall where Hitler was speaking and made him leave early.

  • Underground cells in Berlin, Mannheim, Hamburg, and central Germany, from where leaflets against regime were issued

  • Judges refusing to administer ‘Nazi’ justice and of churchmen such as Bishop Galen and Pastor Ditrich Bonhoeffer who spoke out against Nazi policies

  • Groups were made to engage in discussion of the removal of Hitler, but broken up after the Gestapo stopped them

  • Organized resistance in Universities and distribution of pamphlets about the treatment of Jews and Slavs

  • Painting of anti-Nazi slogans on public buildings, but the members were caught and executed

  • Around 225,000 Germans convicted of political crimes and 162,000 placed in prison without trial

13.1 Enabling Acts:

Reichstag Fire

• February 27, 1933 Reichstag (German parliament) was set on fire 

• Nazis blamed the communist Marinus van der Lubbe 

• Hitler asks Hindenberg for an emergency “Decree for the protection of people and state” 

  • Power to search

  • Arrest and censor 

  • Until further notice

• March 23, 1933 the Reichstag met in the Kroll Opera 5

Education 

• Religious education phased out

• Nazis anti-intellectual 

  • Standards dropped 

  • Research suffered, Einstein banned “Jewish physics”

• Compulsory youth organizations changed 

• Prepare youth as soldiers and mothers 

• Abolished class differences 

• The only purpose of women were to have babies

Nazi Youth

• Indoctrination of the youth

  • Oaths at all ages to the Fuhrer

• Creating soldiers from young age

  • Napolas (National political educational institutions) were set up from 1933-36 under the SS

  • Produced highly trained youth of armed forces 

  • Classes referred to as platoons 

  • Communal living 

  • Sporting drills before breakfast 

  • Nazi colleges set up in 1937 emphasis on physical training

  • Physical education in the Nazi Youth. Focused more on athleticism rather than learning. They believed physical requirements were more important.

  • This allowed them to build up an army from the youth with strong people.

Dumb people don’t ask questions. 

• Students had to reach a required standard in sport to move to the next class 

• Sport was an examination subject for grammar school entry 

  • Could be refused b/c of physical handicap 

• Continual unsatisfactory in sport could = expulsion 

• Germany's 1933 Law for the Protection of Genetically Diseased Offspring

Mass Media 

• Controlled by the Ministry of Propaganda. Joseph Goebbels 

• Books newspapers films censored 

• Writers, artists and scholars who failed to express the opinion of the nazi teaching were attacked

Agencies of Coercion 

• The SchutzStaffel SS Divided into three components 

  • Liebe Standard Hitlers Bodyguards 

  • Waffen SS the vanguard unit within the army (special ops) 

  • Totenkopfverbande “Death’s head” units which ran the concentration camps

• The gestapo set up by Hydrick in 1933 was a political police force 

• Both under the control of Heinrich Himmler 

• Coordination Campaign 

Economic Changes In Nazi Germany

Nazi Goal

• Reduce unemployment 

• Build up armaments industry to prepare for war 

• Autobahn

Mein Kampf

(hitler indirectly caused this) insert kerosene)

Nazi Economic policies 

• Schacht and the New Plan

• Dr Schacht was made Minister of the Economy in 1934, his aims were to reduce unemployment and Make germany self sufficient (autarky)

• Self sufficiency means no reliance on a foreign country

• Goring took over Economic policy from 1936

• His four year plan dealt with preparing Germany for war. 

• Regulation of imports and exports 

• Autarky 

• Rearmament 

• Labor force with industrial skills 

• Entire economy geared towards rearmament (total war)

• Goebbels developed a propaganda campaign to encourage workers to hep in the struggle for autarky

How did the nazis reduce unemployment 

National Labour service (RAD)

• From July 1935 it was compulsory for all men 18-25 to serve six months in the RAD.

• The men built autobahns and other large scale building projects 

• This removed millions from the unemployment figures 

• The RAD was not popular 

Invisible Unemployment 

• Women and jews were forced out of jobs 

• Men aged 18-25 had to join the RAD 

• Those serving in the military 

• Opponents of the Nazi were sent to concentration camp

Rearmament 

• The Four year plan meant the economy was geared to preparing for war.

• Rearmament created new jobs 

• Billions spent on making weapons 

• Army forces built up 

• More the a million of official unemployment figures 

The DAF (German Labour Front)

• Strength through joy 

• Membership mandatory 

• Trade union controlled by the state 

• Purpose to control workers and push Nazi agenda 

• Put people to work building Germany

Programs sponsored by DAF

• Cheap walking and skiing holidays 

• Outings to opera and theater 

• Adult evening classes 

• Saving schemes to buy “people's car” VW

• Between 1936 and 1939 wages increased because of longer working hours 

• People worked longer for the same money before the Wall St Crash

• Cost of living went up in the 1930’s real wages actually fell 

• Food shortages