Download HI136 The History of Germany

HI136 The History of Germany - Week 10
The Rise of the Nazis
and the Nazi Seizure of Power
Possible Coalitions
• Weimar Coalition of center-left, which
was never able to constitute more than
a minority govt.
• Center-right, also a minority coalition
• Great Coalition of a left-center-right
majority coalition like under Stresemann
in 1923
• Bourgeois Coalition: center-right-farright majority coalition
Who were the NSDAP?
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National
Socialist
German
Worker’s
Party
The Origins of Nazism
• Interwar Germany a fertile breeding ground for radical right-wing
organizations.
• 1919: Anton Drexler founded the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (German
Workers Party, DAP).
• Adolf Hitler joined the DAP in Sept. 1919, quickly rising through the
ranks to become the party’s chief theorist and propaganda officer.
• Feb. 1920: Hitler headed a committee which drew up the Party’s ’25
Point Programme’-- the basis of Nazi ideology until 1945.
• April 1920: The DAP was renamed the Nationalsozialistische
Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party,
NSDAP or Nazi for short).
• July 1921: Hitler ousted Drexler & was appointed Party Chairman.
People’s Party
• Boasted a wide range of support.
Actual Membership depended on the middle
classes:
• White-collar workers 25.6 %
• Small businessman & shopkeepers 8.2%
• Self-employed professionals 3%
• Other govt. employees 6.6%
• Teachers 1.7%
»45.1 %
• Workers 28.1%
• Farmers 14.1%
• Other 12.7
Nazi Membership
Source: G. Layton, Democracy and Dictatorship in Germany (2009)
The Rise of Nazism
• 1925: After Hitler’s release from prison, the Nazi party was
reestablished with a new commitment to achieving power
through legal means.
• 1926: The Bamberg Conference – Hitler re-established his
supremacy in the Party, overcoming the challenge to his
leadership from Gregor Strasser, but was forced to concede that
the 25-Point Programme (with its socialist elements) remained
inviolable.
• Establishment of new efficient Party structure and youth and
women’s organisations led to a growing membership: 27,000 in
1925 increased to 108,000 in 1928.
• But still had little popular support – they won only 2.6% of the
vote in the Reichstag elections of 1928.
National Socialist Ideology?
Key concepts:
– Race
– Führerprinzip
– Anti-Communism
– Nationalism
– Volksgemeinschaft
From the 25 Point Programme (1920):
– Creation of a Greater Germany encompassing all ethnic
Germans
– Revocation of Treaty of Versailles
– Demand for colonies (Lebensraum)
– Only members of the Volk can be citizens: no Jew can
be a citizens & all non-citizens to be deported
– The primary duty of the State is to provide a livelihood
for its citizens: introduction of profit sharing & extension
of welfare state.
The Great Depression
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Soucre: R. Overy,
The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Third Reich
(1996)
October 1929: the Wall Street Crash led to
a worldwide economic downturn.
Germany was particularly hard hit – the
German economy was heavily dependent
on foreign loans and the banking system
was geared towards short-term credit to
finance long-term ventures.
As foreign investment dried up and debts
were called in, German firms folded and
banks collapsed leading to mass
unemployment.
2 million Germans out of work by the
winter of 1929-30.
Unemployment reached 3 million in 1931 &
had risen to 5.1 million by Sept. 1932. It
peaked at 6.1 million in early 1933.
This led to material hardship, but also had
an important psychological effect – fear,
uncertainty, loss of pride and status,
feeling that the fabric of society was
unravelling.
The economic crisis quickly became a
political crisis as the social insurance
system became overloaded.
Immediate Effects in Germany
German loans by 1929 were nearly 15 billion marks.
German stock exchange fell drastically
Business failures multiplied
Unemployment rose to three million during the course of
the year.
By the winter of 1932, unemployment reached six
million.
Germany's industry fell to less than 50% of capacity.
German foreign trade fell by two-thirds between 1929
and 1932.
Soucre: R. Overy, The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Third Reich (1996)
Why did people vote for the
Nazis?
1. How did their ideas fit into right-wing, antiRepublican thought?
2. What international factors aided their breakthrough
in the polls?
Chancellors, 1930-33
Heinrich Brüning
(Centre Party)
March 1930 – May 1932
Franz von Papen
(Centre Party)
June – Dec. 1932
General Kurt von Schleicher
(Non party)
Dec. 1932 – Jan. 1933
Article 48
• Constitutional article granting the
President the right to declare a state of
emergency
• Built-in safety clause: Parliament could
overturn the president’s emergency
decree by mustering a majority vote
Paul von Hindenburg
• Elected president in
1925 at age of 78 after
Ebert’s death
• Conservative candidate
• Had helped disseminate
the “stab in the back
legend”
• Worked to strengthen the
role of the presidency
Crisis of Legitimacy
Max Weber’s notions of traditional, rational, or
charismatic legitimacy.
• Continued popularity of Wilhelmine elites
• Weimar beset by legacy of compromises and
burden of war as well as economic weakness
• New moves to tap into charismatic appeals
rather than pro-Republic sentiments
• Political fragmentation preceded the Nazi rise
to power
The Final Crisis, 1930-33
• March 1930: Hermann Müller’s Grand Coalition collapsed
• Hindenburg appointed Heinrich Brüning, leader of the Centre Party,
Chancellor.
• By 1930 the Nazis were the 2nd largest party in the Reichstag.
• Oct. 1931: the Harzburg Front – anti-republican alliance between the
Nazis, Alfred Hugenburg’s DNVP and the Stahlhelm.
• 1932: Hitler challenged Hindenburg for the Presidency.
• By May 1932: Brüning lost the support of the President and his
advisors
• June 1932: Franz von Papen headed the right-wing ‘Cabinet of
Barons’.
• July 1932: Preussenschlag
• Nov. 1932: Papen replaced by General Kurt von Schleicher.
• Papen entered into secret negotiations with the Nazis, big business
and large landowners.
• Jan. 1933: Hindenburg reluctantly agreeed to dismiss Schleicher
and replace him with Hitler.
30 January 1933
Hitler’s first Cabinet, 30 January 1933:
Seated (left to right): Hermann Göring, Hitler, Franz von Papen
Standing (left to right): Baron Konstantin von Neurath (Foreign Minister), Günther Gereke
(Commissioner for Job Creation), Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk (Finance Minister),
Wilhelm Frick (Interior Minister), General Werner von Blomberg (Defence Minister), Alfred
Hugenberg (Minister of Agriculture and Economics)
The Reichstag Fire
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27 Feb. 1933: The Reichstag
burned down.
An
unemployed
Dutch
bricklayer named Marius van
der Lubbe arrested.
The Nazis claimed this was part
of a Communist plot.
‘Decree for the Protection of the
People
and
the
State’:
suspended civil liberties &
increased the power of central
government
–
the
Nazis
rounded up political opponants.
Van der Lubbe & Bulgarian
Communist Georgi Dimitrov put
on trial for the fire.
But on-going debate about who
was responsible.
Election Results,
5 March 1933
Party
NSDAP
Votes
43,90%
DNVP
8,00%
DVP
1,10%
BVP
2,70%
Zentrum
Deutsche Staatspartei
11,20%
0,90%
SPD
18,30%
KPD
12,30%
Other
1,60%
The Enabling Law
(Ermächtigungsgesetz)
• Without the two-thirds majority in the Reichstag necessary to
change the Constitution, Hitler proposed an ‘Enabling Law’ that
would enable him the government to pass legislation without the
approval of either parliament or the President.
• 23 March 1933: ‘Law for the Removal of Distress from People
and the Reich’
– Article 1: In addition to the procedure prescribed by the
constitution [i.e. decision by parliament], laws of the Reich may also
be enacted by the government of the Reich. This includes laws as
referred to by Articles 85 sentence 2 and Article 87 of the
constitution.
– Article 2: Laws enacted by the government of the Reich may
deviate from the constitution as long as they do not affect the
institutions of the Reichstag and the Reichsrat. The rights of the
President remain undisturbed.
Gleichschaltung
• April 1933: Laws passed enabling Nazi-dominated State
governments to pass legislation without the approval of provincial
parliaments.
• Jan. 1934: State parliaments abolished & local government
subordinated to the federal Minister of the Interior.
• 2 May 1933: Leading Trade Unionists arrested & workers’
organizations merged to form the Deutscher Arbeitsfront (German
Labour Front, DAF).
• 22 June 1933: The SPD officially banned.
• June-July 1933: Other political parties dissolved themselves.
• 14 July 1933: The Nazi Party proclaimed the only legal political party
in Germany.
The Night of the Long Knives,
30 June 1934
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Ernst Röhm (1887-1934)
Pressure from the party rank-andfile (and particularly from within
the SA) for a ‘second revolution’.
Fears that the radicalism of the SA
would bring about a military coup
against the Nazis.
This led to a purge of the party on
30 June 1934 – the SS carried out
raids against targets across
Germany. Critics of the regime
such as Vice-Chancellor Papen
were arrested, while old enemies
such as Gregor Strasser & Gustav
Ritter von Kahr were summarily
executed. Over 1000 people were
arrested & at least 85 killed.
Triumph of the Will, 1935
Documentary of the 1934 Nazi Party Rally in Nuremberg
dir. Leni Riefenstahl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcFuHGHfYwE
Understanding the Collapse
of Weimar Democracy
• Domestic Factors:
– Lack of popular support
– Constitutional flaws
– Role of established elites
• International Factors:
– Legacy of Versailles
– World economic crisis (the Great Depression)
– General crisis of liberal democracy