Download What Role did Hitler Play in the Development of the Nazi Totalitarian

What Role did Hitler Play in the
Development of the Nazi
Totalitarian State 1933–45?
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The decline of the cabinet government
Since Germany had become a republic, it had been
traditional to run the country by cabinet government. In a
cabinet government a decision is made after all members
have discussed an issue. All members of the cabinet are
then expected to accept the decision.
During Hitler’s first year in office, Hitler ran the country
with the cabinet, which included many non-Nazis.
However, over the next two years Hitler worked to remove
from the cabinet all those who were not Nazis, and the
cabinet was called less often to help make decisions. The
cabinet met for the last time in February 1938.
The Reich Chancellery took over the role of the cabinet.
Its key role was to draw up legislation. Lammers, head of
the Reich Chancellery, was extremely important, as he
controlled the flow of information to Hitler.
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The organization of the Nazi party
Führer
Reichsleitung
party
Landesinspekteur
The undisputed leader of the party.
The Führer’s closest advisers, e.g.
treasurer and the Führer’s deputy.
Regional inspectors; there were
originally 9, but they were later replaced
by the Gauleiter.
Gauleiter
36 leaders of districts, such as Saxony.
The number grew as more areas were
included.
Kreisleiter
Equivalent to a rural council.
Ortsgruppenleiter Leaders responsible for a town.
Zellenleiter
Responsible for a neighbourhood or
employment unit.
What do you notice about the organization of the
party?
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The Party v state civil service
From 1934, Hitler began to give more power to other
members within the party. In 1934 the Führer’s deputy,
Rudolf Hess, was given power to supervise new laws. In
1935 he was given a say in new appointments.
Hess and his Chief of Staff, Martin Bormann, set up an
organisation to rival the Reich Chancellery. It ran party
affairs and managed party-state relations. It meant that by
1937 all state officials were directly responsible to Hitler and
civil servants had to be party members.
Bormann became the Führer’s Secretary in 1943. This
further strengthened state-party relations, as most people
had to go through Bormann to see Hitler. This meant the
party now had a greater influence than the civil service.
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Maintaining employment
“In order to keep their jobs many men felt forced to join the
Party, whether they sympathized with its aims or not …
whole professions, such as school teachers and … all
government employees … were forced to join or resign. In
many of the professions, such as law or journalism,
membership of the appropriate Nazi Party professional
organisation was essential. Thus a friend of mine, a lawyer
and at all times a convinced anti-Nazi, maintains that he
deliberately joined the Party because only thus was he able
to defend anti-Nazis in court…” C Fitzgibbon, 1969.
What does this tell you about life in Nazi Germany?
How great was Nazi control of people’s lives?
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The Nazi police state
The key aim of the police in Nazi Germany was to arrest
people before they committed crimes.
Why do you think they did this?
Why were they allowed to do this?
All local police forces had to draw up lists of potential
‘enemies of the state” and give them to the Gestapo (the
secret police). The Gestapo, as a branch of the SS,
were basically allowed to do what they wanted.
What do you think the Gestapo did with these lists
of names? Why do you think that no one stood up
to them when they took people away?
Another branch of the SS (the Death Head Units) ran the
concentration camps. Their uniforms had a skull and
crossbones badge.
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Enemies of the state
Read the source on the next slide which is by a former
prisoner.
Make a list of the kinds of people who were likely to be
listed as ‘enemies of the state’.
What does this tell you about how complete Nazi power
was?
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“…In Buchenwald there were 8,000 of us, 2,000 Jews and
6,000 non-Jews … [including] ‘politicals’ (as, for example,
the Communist members of the Reichstag) … In addition
… there are many poor devils … accused of having
spoken abusively of the sacred person of the Führer…
“After the ‘political’, the category of the so-called ‘work-shy’
is the largest … An example. A business employee lost his
position and applied for unemployment relief. One fine day
he was informed by the Labour Exchange that he could
obtain employment as a navvy on the new motor roads.
This man, who was looking for a commercial post, turned
down the offer. The Labour Exchange then reported him to
the Gestapo as being ‘work-shy’ … The fourth category
consisted of the homosexuals…”
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Undoing Versailles
Hitler had three main foreign policy aims:
to tear up the Treaty of Versailles
to unite all Germans in a single country
to provide Germany with ‘lebensraum’ (living space).
Explain why Germans would like these policies.
the Treaty of Versailles blamed Germany for starting the
war, and took away large amounts of money and her
army.
millions of Germans were now separated from their
families, living in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Austria.
the problems with the economy during the 1920s and
1930s showed that Germany did not have enough raw
materials for its needs. One solution was to take over the
rich farmlands and mines of countries to Germany’s
east.
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Rearmament
Hitler had only been in power for a year when he issued his
first orders to expand the armed forces. He planned for the
army to treble from 100,000 to 300,000, the navy to build
six submarines and two ‘pocket battleships’; and Göring
was given the task of forming an air force and training them
secretly in civilian air clubs.
Why were these initial orders so secret? (think of
Versailles).
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In 1935 Hitler publicly announced that there would be
compulsory military service in order to build the army up
to 550,000 men.
What do you think the reactions of Germany’s
neighbours were to this announcement?
Why did Hitler now feel he could cast off the veil of
secrecy?
Britain, France and Italy condemned Hitler’s
announcement, but no country took military action to stop
this breach of the Treaty of Versailles.
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The Rhineland
River
Rhine
Germany
France
The Rhineland
The Treaty of Versailles forbade the German army from
being within 50 kilometres of the River Rhine. In 1926,
Britain and France agreed to use their armies if German
troops moved into this area. Yet in 1936, Hitler ordered his
army to march into the Rhineland.
Hitler had only 30,000 fully equipped troops.
What should the Allies do?
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River
Rhine
Germany
France
The Rhineland
The British refused to help the French, and the French did
not want to fight Germany alone. This meant that the
Germans were able to stay. They started to build a line of
forts on Germany’s borders with France and Belgium in order
to prevent future attack.
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Hitler’s alliances
In 1936, Spain erupted in Civil War.
Hitler sent his best air force unit, the Condor Legion, to
fight on the side of General Franco. Not only did this give
the Condor Legion a chance to practice bombing
methods, but it would also provide Hitler with an ally if
Franco won.
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Mussolini, leader of Italy, was a fascist like Hitler. In
1936, Hitler and Mussolini signed the Rome-Berlin Axis
Pact, agreeing to work closely together in foreign affairs.
Hitler also signed an agreement with Japan. The AntiComintern Pact meant that Hitler had a strong ally outside
of Europe.
Hitler’s next step was to unify Germany and Austria. This
was known as anschluss.
Why do you think Hitler took care planning this
anschluss?
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Annexing Austria
Because of the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler did not want to
simply march in and make Austria part of Germany.
Instead, he wanted a situation to occur meaning the
Nazis were invited in.
In 1938, Hitler ordered the Austrian Nazi Party to start
causing trouble in Austria. They set fire to buildings,
organized fights and even set off bombs. The Austrian
leader, Kurt Schuschnigg, retaliated by banning the
Austrian Nazi Party.
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Hitler met with Schuschnigg and threatened to invade
Austria if he didn’t give all the important jobs in the
government to Nazis.
Schauschnigg had to agree, but tried to get round it by
organising a plebiscite (vote) to see whether the
Austrians wanted to join with Germany or stay
independent.
Hitler moved his army to the Austrian border. Schuschnigg
asked Italy, France and Britain for their protection, but
they refused to help, so Schuschnigg had to resign. He
was replaced by an Austrian Nazi who asked Hitler to
send in the German army to help restore order.
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Germany in Europe
The Rhineland – this was
demilitarized under the
Treaty of Versailles to
protect France & Belgium
Polish Corridor –
this split Germany
in two, and left
many Germans
under foreign rule.
The Sudentenland –
richest part of
Czechoslovakia.
Poland
Contained 3 million
German speakers,
and had been part of
Austrian Empire
Germany
France
Austria
Austria – 8 million
German speakers,
many of whom wanted
to join with Germany.
Hungary
0
km
500
Imagine you are Göbbels. Design a poster explaining
why Germany should expand her European borders.
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Appeasement
As you can see from the map, Czechoslovakia was like
a thorn in Germany’s side, one which Hitler intended
removing. Over 3 million Germanic people were living in
Sudentenland, and they were keen to join with Germany.
They supported a Nazi-style party (the Sudeten German
Party) led by Konrad Henlein.
Germany
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In 1938, Hitler told Henlein to stir up trouble in
Sudentenland. Meanwhile, Hitler moved his troops to the
Czech border. The Czechs found out and got ready to
fight. They had a large army and France was their ally.
Hitler had to back off.
Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister, was sure
that there would be a big war if Hitler wasn’t given
Sudentenland. He persuaded France that the areas really
should belong to Germany, due to its cultural make-up.
Hitler once again began to plan for invasion. Heinlein
stirred up trouble again. Germans were shot and so Hitler
threatened the Czechs with war.
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The Munich Conference
Chamberlain was still worried about war, and met with Hitler
on several occasions throughout 1938. On 29 September
1938, Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini and Edouard Daladier
(France) met at Munich to sign the Munich Agreement.
This compelled Czechoslovakia to surrender the
Sudentenland to Germany.
Chamberlain claimed it would guarantee ‘peace in our
time’.
How do you think Hitler viewed the Munich Conference?
What message was it sending him?
Hitler saw it as an indication of how weak the Allies had
become. He realised that they would condemn, but not
take military action. It left the door open for further
expansion.
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The Nazi-Soviet Pact
In March 1939, Hitler’s army marched into the rest of
Czechoslovakia and took over the western half, while Poland
and Hungary took the rest.
Britain and France now realised that Hitler would stop at
nothing to get his ‘lebensraum’. They believed his next
target would be Poland. Finally, the two countries agreed to
fight to protect Poland. This should have stopped Hitler, but
it didn’t.
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In 1939 Hitler signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact with the
USSR.
Why would this pact have been so surprising to the
rest of Europe?
The pact included an agreement that Germany and Russia
would not fight each other. They also secretly agreed to
attack Poland and divide it between them.
This meant that Hitler could invade Poland and reclaim
the land that had been taken from Germany to make up
the Polish Corridor, without worrying that the USSR would
attack.
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Germany takes Europe
In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Britain
declared war on Germany.
In the Spring of 1940, the German armies invaded
Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and
Luxembourg.
On 10 May 1940, the Germans invaded France. Britain
was pushed back to Dunkirk.
Finally on 22 June 1940 Paris surrendered.
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Hitler was victorious across Europe. He had achieved
‘lebensraum’ and proved that Germany were once again
a force to be reckoned with. Versailles had been
overturned.
Hitler was well on his way to achieving his ‘Reich’
(empire), all of Europe was to be Germany’s colonies.
This initial German sortie was known as ‘Blizkrieg
(lightning strike).
Explain why Blizkrieg is such an appropriate name for
the events of 1939–40.
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