interwar years
What was the Beer Hall Putsch? What happened to Hitler as a result?
Beer Hall Putsch: When it appeared that the Weimar Republic was going to collapse in the fall of 1923, Hitler and the Nazis staged an armed uprising in Munich to try to seize power- the uprising was a failure
Hitler was arrested, put on trial for treason, was found guilty, and put in prison for 5 years
What are the main themes of Mein Kampf? What is lebensraum?
-Extreme nationalism, anti-semitism, and anti-communism
-The need for struggle- the right for superior nations to dominate inferior ones
-Lebensraum (living space): superior nations have a right to expand and take land from inferior races
What did Hitler realize about how the Nazis could gain power after the Beer Hall Putsch?
-He now realized the Nazis couldn’t take power by force
-To gain power, they must try to gain a majority in the Reichstag and would need to compete for votes in parts of Germany
What was the significant shift in strategy that the Nazis made?
-Before, the Nazis tried to attract workers in cities to their cause→ unsuccessful
-So the Nazis began to try and attract middle-class and lower-class voters in small towns and rural areas
By 1930, how was Chancellor Heinrich Bruning running Germany?
-Bruning could not get a majority in the Reichstag ( so he had little power)
-So he relied on the use of emergency decrees by Paul von Hindenburg (prez.)
Which groups convinced Pres. Hindenburg to appoint Hitler chancellor in 1933?
-Wealthy industrialists
-Landowners
-Military
-They saw Hitler as the man who could save Germany from Communism
What was the Reichstag fire? What was the Enabling Act?
Feb 27 1933→ a fire broke out at the Reichstag
Hitler convinced Hindenburg that communists had started the fire
thus Hindenburg issued a decree that gave the gov’t ‘emergency powers’--> all rights of citizens were suspended, anyone could be arrested for no reason
Enabling Act: allowed the gov’t to rule w/out the constitution for the next 4 years and issue new laws by decree
What laws did the Nazis pass once they were in full power?
-Civil service was purged of all Jews
-Concentration camps were established for any opponents of the new gov’t
-All trade unions and all political parties (except the Nazis) were abolished
Who was Ernst Rohm? What deal did Hitler make with the German army?
-The army, and the SA, the army w/ in the Nazi party began to become a threat to Hitler’s authority
-SA was led by Ernst Rohm: He openly criticized Hitler, spoke for the need of a ‘2nd Revolution’
-Neither Hitler nor the army liked Rohm- Hitler had Rohm and other SA leaders killed in return for the army’s support
What does it mean when we say that Hitler wanted to develop an Aryan state?
Believed that Germans/Scandinavians were the master race → wanted to develop ARyan racial state that would dominate Europe and eventually, the world
What was the SS?
Protection Squads → carefully chosen group of elite soldiers, fully indoctrinated in racial ideology → eventually came to control all the regular and secret police forces. Was a Nazi Instrument of terror and oppression
Primary goal of SS was to further the Aryan master race
Who was Heinrich Himmler?
SS leader
What were the organizations aimed at the young people of Germany?
Hitler youth (boys)
German Girls Association
What was the Nazi view of women?
Child bearers →were to be wives and mothers → Nazi goal was to drive women out of jobs that might hinder them from bearing healthy children
What were the Nuremberg Laws?
Excluded German Jews from German citizenship
Forbade marriages between Jews and German citizens
→ essentially separated Jews from the Germans politically, Socially, and legally
What was Kristallnacht?
“Night of Shattered Glass”
German secretary was murdered by a polish Jew → this became the excuse for the Nazi-led destructive rampage against Jews in Germany
What was the state of Russia after the civil war?
There was agricultural disaster (famine and hunger) → led to an Industrial collapse → industrial output was at only 20% compared to 1913 levels
What was Lenin’s New Economic Policy?
Modified version of the old capitalist system → peasants could now sell their crops openly and some businesses could be owned privately (but banking/mining/heavy industry was still govt run)
LNEP saved Russia’s economy
What happened to Lenin between 1922-24?
Lenin suffered a series of strokes that finally led to his death in 1924
What was the Politburo?
Institution that had become the “leading organ” of the Communist Party → there was a struggle for power w/in the Politburo after Lenin’s death
What were the two sides in the Politburo and how did they differ?
Left: led by Leon Trotsky → wanted to end the NEP and launch the Soviet Union on the path of rapid industrialization. Supported communism and Russian Revolution
Right: rejected the cause of the world revolution and wanted to concentrate on constructing a Socialist state. Also believed rapid industrialization would worsen peasant living standards. Favored the NEP.
What role did Stalin have in the Politburo? Why was this important?
Party General Secretary. This was important because The General Secretary appointed the regional, district, city, and town party secretaries. Stalin would appoint trusted followers into these key positions
Who did Stalin eliminate from the party?
The Bolsheviks
What was the goal of the first 5 year plan?
Transformation of the Soviet Union from an agricultural country into an industrial state
What were the social and political costs of this plan?
Millions of workers and families lived in horrible conditions, wages declines, strict laws limited workers’ freedom of movement
Why did Stalin want to collectivize agriculture?
STalin believed that the capital need for industrial growth could be gained by creating agricultural surpluses through eliminating private farms, and pushing people into collective farms
Who were the kulaks?
Wealthy farmers who were sent to the Siberian camps beginning in 1930
What did Stalin do to peasants who didn’t comply with collectivization?
Would starve them → artificially created famines
What types of people did Stalin purge from the party between 1936-38?
The most prominent Old Bolsheviks were put on trial and condemned to death
Stalin also undertook a purge of army officers, diplomats, union officials, party members, intellectuals, and numerous ordinary citizens
How did the Communists view the role of women?
Child bearers/mothers
What did Hitler believe about the Slavs?
Hitler believe that the slobs were inferior and threatening slaves
What is Lebensraum?
The idea that a nations power depended on the amount of land occupied
In this quest for land Germany would inevitably collide with white country? What did Hitler think about this country?
Germany would collide with the Soviet Union, Hitler thought Russia was weak with the Bolshevik in power
What was Germany’s position in Europe?
Week, they were restricted by the Versailles treaty
Geneva disarmament conference/ League of Nations:
Hitler went through from them because he wanted to “ show the German people that they were no longer dominated by other European states”
Rearmament:
military rear meant that Hitler eventually removed – had many secret “happenings“ Hitler also announce the creation of new Air Force and military
Appeasement:
Based off the belief that European states wanted more and more power – debility and peace would be achieved. Britain wanted to avoid this war
Anglo-German Naval Pact:
Regulated size of the kriegsmarine
Re-militarization of the Rhineland and the British/French response:
Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland, France wanted to respond but needed British support
Rome-Berlin axis:
political alliance between Italy and Germany
The anti-Comintern pact:
Germany and Japan agreed to maintain commune front against communism