Download Hitler Consolidates Power

Hitler Consolidates Power
11/21 & 11/22
1. Is ideology essential for political success?
2. Does a firm ideology always breed intolerance?
3. What is the main quality that defines an ideology? Is
it revolutionary? Is it inspirational?
4. What ethical issues arise from Hitler’s racist
theories? Are we likely to judge such ethnical
consideration differently today from those living at
the time?
Consolidation of Power-Warm Up
Icebreaker:
1. Review: How did Hitler obtain power?
2. Review: How did Mussolini obtain power?
3. Review: How did Stalin consolidate power?
Consolidation of Power-Warm Up
Icebreaker:
Review: How did Hitler obtain power?
Believed that he been called by God to be dictator of Germany. Treaty of
Versailles which forced Germany to sign, public angry over treaty because it was
sign of humiliation & defeat. Weak Weimar Republic & Great Depression.
Public looked for someone to blame. Hitler & Nazi party promised return to
glory.
Review: How did Mussolini obtain power?
Italy was badly hit from WWI and gov’t in place lost popularity
Review: How did Stalin consolidate power?
Urged purges & violence to make people fear him. Also used propaganda & secret police
How did Hitler Consolidate
Power?
Between March and July 1933—all political parties banned
KDP already banned
Many socialists imprisoned
Even supporting parties disbanded
Catholic Central Party
Concordat w/ Vatican
Church recognized Hitler; Nazis left Church alone
Law Against the Establishment of Parties (July 14, 1933)
Länder
Reference to state government
Took over through
Forced resignation
Seized buildings, docs, and supplies
Loyal Nazi commissioners were appointed
Law for the Restoration and Professional Civil Service (April
1933)
Trade Unions bannedreplaced w/German Labor Front
Single-Party State Made Legal
Law to Ensure the Unity of Party and State (Dec. 1933)
Structrualist Historians argue that Hitler set up parallel
institutions to maintain power
Others argue Hitler did this because of disinterest and neglect
Gleichschaltung – making the
same, bringing into line
Nazi party control over every aspect of life
Starts with politicsSlowly took over every aspect of German
life.
Period between 1933 – 1937
Systematic elimination of non-Nazi organizations (trade unions
& political parties
Churches & education came under direct control
Hitler’s Storm Troopers
SA – Sturmabteilung – Brown
Shirts – Original Parliamentary
wing of the Nazi Party –
Used to maintain control @
speeches, parties &
intimidating Jewish citizens
Led to problems w/ the
military.
Rumors of a military coup; SA
became disposable
Propaganda
Propaganda was skillfully used by
the NSDAP in the years leading
up to and during Adolf Hitler's
leadership of Germany (1933–
1945). National Socialist
propaganda provided a crucial
instrument for acquiring and
maintaining power, and for the
implementation of their policies,
including the pursuit of total war
and the extermination of millions
of people in the Holocaust.
Propaganda
Hitler believed masses could
be won over easily
Censorship (Party controlled
2/3 of private newspapers)
Radio
Slogan (“Heil Hitler”)
Movies
Decorations on buildings
Anti – Bolshevik Poster
Repression
Even before Hitler became the official leader, his chancellorship
had led to the death of 30,000 communist (arrest of 300,000)
SS: The Security Service
Ran concentration camps
Gestapo: State Secret Police force
Class Discussion
Do you consider propaganda or repression more important in the
consolidation of power in a totalitarian state, such as Hitler’s?
Consolidation Complete in 1938
1934-Night of the Long Knives – Political purge between June 30th
& July 2nd 1934 where Nazi regime carried out a series of political
murders
Slowly began to transition the military into a Nazi force
1935: Restoration of conscription—peacetime army of 500,000
Military didn’t like the SS
suppose to be a domestic police force
Technically part of the “war time army”
Some didn’t like the expansionist policies (Lebensraum) of the pace
of rearmament
War minister von Blomberg and Commander in Chief von Fritsch
both were dismissed
Hitler became war minister.
Exit Card
1) What were 3 FACTORS that contributed to Hitler rising
to power?
2) What were 2 SPECIFIC things Hitler did to maintain
control?