(Luture July 3)Rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party- Part 2 Hitler and the Rise of the Nazi Party (1919-1933)

Hitler’s Early Life (1889 – 1914)

Born $20$ April $1889$ in Braunau am Inn, Austro-Hungarian Empire (Austrian sector).
Family background
- Father Alois: strict, minor customs official.
- Mother Klara: doting, emotionally close to Adolf.
- Socio-economic status: lower-middle / petite-bourgeois.
Education
- Mediocre grades, discipline problems, disinterest in formal study.
- Early fascination with German national history, architecture, opera, grand building plans.
Vienna years (1907-1913)
- Twice failed entrance to Vienna Academy of Fine Arts ➝ the “failed artist” trope.
- Supported himself by postcard water-colours; evidence of technical but uninspired draftsmanship.
- Crucial ideological influence: exposure to pan-German, völkisch, romantic, ethnic nationalism, and political antisemitism circulating in Viennese cafés & pamphlets.
- Absorbed ideas of social-Darwinist racial hierarchy and conspiracy theory.

Move to Munich & Pre-War Developments (1913-1914)

Relocated to Munich in $1913$ partly to dodge Austro-Hungarian draft; declared medically unfit when finally examined.
Motivations: rejection of multi-ethnic empire; attraction to ‘pure’ German cultural center.

First World War Experience (1914-1918)

Volunteered for Bavarian Army at outbreak, August $1914$ .
Served as dispatch-runner on Western Front.
- Decorated with Iron Cross 2nd Class ( $1914$ ) & 1st Class ( $1918$ ) – rare for rank of Gefreiter (corporal).
War provided: camaraderie, purpose, hierarchical clarity; became emotional touchstone for future propaganda (“front experience”).
Blinded by gas near war’s end; learned of Armistice in Pasewalk hospital ⇒ trauma & narrative of “stab-in-the-back (Dolchstoß)” by internal enemies.

Entry into Politics: German Workers’ Party ➝ NSDAP (1919-1920)

Post-war Munich awash with revolutionary & counter-revolutionary currents.
Reichswehr intelligence assigned Hitler to observe the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP) in Sept $1919$ .
Impressed by its discussion forums; enrolled as member #55 (party bookkeeping inflated numbers by factor $10$ ).
Became main orator; leveraged charisma & vitriolic rhetoric to recruit.

Transformation into the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP)

Feb $1920$ : unveiled 25-Point Program (drafted by Hitler + Drexler, Feder).
1. Union of all Germans in a Greater Germany via national self-determination.
2. Cancellation of Versailles & St-Germain treaties; equality for Germany in foreign relations.
3. Acquisition of colonies/territory (Lebensraum) to feed and settle surplus population.
4. Citizenship reserved for “nationals of German blood”—explicit exclusion of Jews.
- Additional planks: profit-sharing, nationalization of trusts “where appropriate,” outlaw unearned income, strong central authority, educational reform, press control, obligatory physical fitness.
Name change stressed:
- “National” = aggressive German ethnic chauvinism.
- “Socialist” ≠ Marxist class doctrine; redefined as organic, racially homogeneous Volksgemeinschaft (people’s community) in which economy serves racial state.

Ideological Foundations Consolidated

Core elements
- Pan-German nationalism & revisionism.
- Biological antisemitism: Jews defined as racial, not religious, enemy.
- Racial hierarchy: Aryans at apex; struggle between superior & inferior groups is motor of history.
- Anti-Marxism & anti-liberalism (parliamentary democracy = weakness & decadence).
- Cult of charismatic Führerprinzip.
- Lebensraum: territorial expansion eastward (Russia & borderlands) as existential duty.

Paramilitary Growth: Sturmabteilung (SA)

SA (Sturmabteilung) formed $1921$ from party “gymnastic & sports” detachment.
- Uniform: brown shirts (surplus tropical gear).
- Functions: protect Nazi rallies, intimidate opponents, street brawls—primarily against KPD & SPD.
- Attracted demobilized veterans, adventurist youth, those yearning for wartime camaraderie.

Rapid Expansion & Beer Hall Putsch (1921-1923)

Membership: from $\approx 2{,}000$ (Jan $1921$ ) → $10{,}000+$ (late $1922$ ) → $55{,}000$ (by Nov $1923$ ).
Catalysts: hyper-inflation crisis, political assassinations, French occupation of Ruhr.
Inspired by Mussolini’s October $1922$ “March on Rome.”
Beer Hall Putsch, Munich
- 08 Nov $1923$ : Hitler, SA, and Gen. Erich Ludendorff burst into Bürgerbräukeller; coerce Bavarian leaders Kahr, Lossow, Seisser to endorse coup.
- Overnight, conspirators fail to seize key nodes (barracks, telegraph). Hostages released by Ludendorff.
- 09 Nov: ~ $2{,}000$ Nazis march toward Feldherrnhalle; police gunfire kills $16$ Nazis & 4 policemen; putsch collapses.
- Hitler arrested; NSDAP banned.

Landsberg Prison & Mein Kampf (1924)

Trial (Feb – Apr $1924$ ) broadcast nationwide; Hitler converts dock into propaganda rostrum.
Lenient sentence: $5$ years Fortress confinement; served $\lt 1$ year (Dec $1924$ release).
Dictated Mein Kampf to Rudolf Hess:
- Vol I (published $1925$ ): autobiography + ideology.
- Vol II ( $1926$ ): policy prescriptions (party, propaganda, strategy).
Key quotations
- Race struggle: “victory of the better and stronger… subordination of inferior and weaker.”
- Lebensraum: “Germany will be a world power or not exist at all… Primarily Russia and its border states.”

Strategic Reorientation: “Legal Path” (1925-1929)

NSDAP re-founded Feb $1925$ ; ban lifted.
Hitler pledges pursuit of power via electoral/constitutional means while retaining option of force.
Organizational architecture
- Gau system: $34$ regional districts; each Gauleiter wielded quasi-feudal authority.
- Mass-membership organizations: Hitler Youth (HJ), League of German Girls (BDM), Nazi Teachers’ League, Doctors’ League, Students’ League, etc.
Financing: dues, admission fees to rallies, sales of newspapers (Völkischer Beobachter) & badges, donations from anti-Versailles industrialists.
Membership climbs to $\approx 150{,}000$ by end of $1929$ .

Economic Collapse & Political Polarization (1929-1932)

Wall Street Crash ➝ US loans to Germany recalled under Dawes/Young Plans.
Industrial output falls $40\%$ by $1932$ ; unemployment: $1.33\,\text{million} \to 6\,\text{million}$ (Berlin: $133{,}000 \to 600{,}000$ ).
- Total dependents + jobless ≈ $13\,\text{million}$ (≈ $\frac{1}{4}$ of population).
Middle-class anxiety: fear of proletarianization, loss of status & savings from earlier hyper-inflation.
Simultaneous surge of KPD membership/vote share intensifies anti-communist panic.
- SA marketed as bulwark against “Red terror.”

Electoral Milestones

Date	Election	NSDAP Vote (%)	Reichstag Seats
May $1928$	Reichstag	$2.6$	12
Sept $1930$	Reichstag	$18.3$	107
Jul $1932$	Reichstag	$37.4$ (peak)	230 (plurality)
Nov $1932$	Reichstag	$33.1$	196 (decline)

Presidential election (Mar/Apr $1932$ )
- Paul von Hindenburg re-elected (second round): $53\%$ vs. Hitler $36.8\%$ , KPD’s Ernst Thälmann $10.2\%$ .
- Nazi propaganda mocked as “whining corporal” vs. venerable Field Marshal.

Conservative Deal-making & Appointment as Chancellor (Jan 1933)

Political paralysis: Brüning ➝ Papen (Jun) ➝ Schleicher (Dec) ➝ deadlock.
Papen & DNVP elites persuade aging Hindenburg to harness Nazi mass appeal.
- Plan: place Hitler as figurehead Chancellor, surround him with conservative ministers (only 3 Nazis in $11$ -man cabinet: Hitler, Frick – Interior; Göring – w/out portfolio/Prussian Interior).
- Expectation: “We’ll box him in; within two months we’ll have pushed him so far into a corner that he’ll squeal.” (Papen)
30 Jan $1933$ : Hitler sworn in as Reichskanzler; Weimar constitution still formally intact.
Underestimation of capacity for rapid Gleichschaltung (coordination) would prove fatal for republic – topic of next lecture.

Contemporary Eyewitness Reflection (Luise Solmitz, Hamburg teacher)

Observes victory parade Jan $1933$ ; mixed conservative-Nazi demonstration.
Notes children shouting “Heil Hitler!” and intermittent chants “Death to the Jews.”
Retrospective comment: “Who took that seriously then?” underscores widespread minimization of antisemitic violence despite explicit public calls.

Key Themes & Take-aways

Personal trajectory of Hitler intersects macro-crises: post-WWI humiliation, hyper-inflation, Versailles resentment, Great Depression, communist specter.
NSDAP blended modern mass-marketing, pseudo-socialist rhetoric, paramilitary theatrics, and mythic nationalism.
Failure of democratic & conservative elites to grasp radical intent/organizational depth facilitated constitutional accession to power.
Ideological pillars—racial hierarchy, antisemitism, Lebensraum—fully formulated long before 1933; seizure of state power enabled implementation.

Chronological Anchor Points

$1889$ – Birth of Adolf Hitler.
$1907$ / $1908$ – Academy rejections.
$1914$ – Enlists in Bavarian Army.
$1919$ Sept – Sent to investigate DAP, joins.
$1920$ Feb – 25-Point Program & renaming to NSDAP.
$1921$ Jul – Hitler assumes party chairmanship.
$1923$ 8-9 Nov – Beer Hall Putsch.
$1924$ Feb – Putsch trial; Dec – release from Landsberg.
$1925$ – NSDAP refounded; Mein Kampf Vol I published.
$1929$ Oct – Wall Street Crash triggers German crisis.
$1932$ Jul & Nov – Elections show Nazi zenith + slight ebb.
$1933$ 30 Jan – Hitler appointed Chancellor; start of Third Reich consolidations.