hitler and nazi germany

  • hitler: austrian art-school reject who built his political ideas in vienna. based on racism (especially anti-semitism) and extreme nationalism (very effective propaganda/terror)
  • served four years on western front in ww1, remained in germany and joined an extremely right-wing political party called the german workers’ party (1919)
  • taken complete control of the party by 1921, renamed nsdap (national socialist german workers’ party) or nazi for short. 55,000 people, with 15,000 in the storm troops/brownshirts
  • tried to take over munich in 1923, failed, ended up in prison where he wrote “my struggle”
    • links german nationalism, anti-semitism, anti-communism, and social darwinism
    • says that superior nations should have the right to lebensraum (living space) through expansion
    • superior individuals have the right to authoritarian leadership over others
  • decided to take over legally, expanded the nazi party to become the largest party in parliament- many people joined because they were sick of unemployment
  • in 1933, the president agreed to pressure to make hitler the chancellor and restructure the government (the parliament, which hitler controlled, had little actual power)
  • official turning point was in march 1933, when hitler passed a law that let him ignore the constitution for four years and become a dictator
  • outlawed all other political parties, shipped jews off to concentration camps, got rid of democracy- seven months after becoming chancellor, hitler had created a totalitarian state
  • hitler’s main goal was to develop an aryan racial state that controlled all of europe.
  • created the ss (schutzstaffeln)
    • originally hitler’s bodyguards
    • controlled secret police as well as normal police
    • based on terror and ideology
    • concentration camps, death camps, execution squads
    • to further the aryan master race
  • rearmed the country, practically eliminating unemployment, pulling out of the depression, and convincing many more germans to accept nazi power
  • once in power, anti-semitic views became anti-semitic policy
    • started in 1935- defined jews as anyone with even one jewish grandparent
    • jews were stripped of citizenship/rights
    • required to wear yellow stars of david and carry id cards saying they were jewish
    • 30,000 jewish men were arrested/sent to concentration camps
    • barred from all public transportation and places (including schools and hospitals)
    • weren’t allowed to own businesses
    • kristallnacht- 1938, burned/looted 7,000 jewish businesses
  • radios and film were becoming increasingly popular, nazis made propaganda for them
  • used leisure (concerts, sports, films, etc) to prove how effective nazi germany was