Download Hitler Intro - Aurora Public Schools

Introduction to Der Fuhrer
 April 20, 1889 in Austria
 Older abusive father, younger affectionate mother
 Smart but not a good student
 Very religious, considered becoming a monk
 Pretended to run off to art school
 No real relationships with women—one imaginary?
 Avoided military service but liked to play war as a kid
 Moved to Germany, very nationalistic
 Fought in WWI and was deeply humiliated by
Germany’s loss and post-war treatment by Europe
 State Secret Police
 (Geheime Staatspolizei)
 Had carte blanche to imprison people without any
judicial proceedings
 People had to sign their own request for imprisonment
(out of fear?)
 Before the Gestapo was the SA, or Storm Troopers, or
the Brownshirts… the official military of the Nazi party
 Then Hitler had the Night of the Long Knives in 1934
and purged…
 Founded the Gestapo
 WWI ace fighter pilot, stayed as head of the Luftwaffe
(air force) through WWII
 Guided the German economy pre-WWII
 Hitler actually liked him for a successor one day
 At the Nuremburg trials it was determined that
besides Hitler, he was 2nd in command of all atrocities
and “was the leading war aggressor” and sentenced to
death, but…
 Military commander, leading Nazi party member
 In charge of setting up and running the concentration
camps under Hitler’s orders
 At the end of the war he tried to go into hiding, but
was captured by the British and…
 Reich Minister of Propaganda
 Very anti-semitic, joined the Nazi
party during the big reaction
to the French occupation
of the Ruhr
 Highly educated, slightly disabled,
refused from WWI military
service
 1923, failure of the Weimar Republic to pay reparations to
France, so the French invaded that Ruhr Valley, full of
coal…
 resulted in strikes and a rise in German nationalism
 “My Struggle”
 Written while Hitler was in prison for the failed 1923
Beer Hall Putsch
 Full of antisemitic statements and his process of
concluding why all Jewish people should
be eliminated
 Speaks of “lebensraum”, or “living space”
for the German people
—territorial expansion
 Hitler and the small group of Nazi followers attempted
to overtake the German government at a bar
 Ultimately, no one followed them and he was arrested.
 Hermann Goring was there, and got shot
 Germany was not ready for the revolution Hitler
proposed
 Listen to Goebbels and Hitler’s first speeches as official
rulers in 1933.
 What is your impression of Goebbels?
 What are Hitler’s messages, especially in regards to
WWI/post-war treatment?