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