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Hitler and Nazi Germany
Adolf Hitler
• Hitler was born in
Braunau am Inn,
Austria, the son
of a minor
customs official
and a peasant girl.
Hitler’s Father
Hitler’s
Mother
• A poor
student, he
never
completed
high school.
• He applied for
admission to
the Academy
of Fine Arts in
Vienna twice
but was
rejected for
lack of talent.
“Then I came to Vienna….”
• Staying in Vienna
until 1913, he
lived first on an
orphan's pension,
later on small
earnings from
pictures he drew.
“Is this a Jew? was my first thought.
They surely didn't look like that in Linz. I observed the man stealthily and
cautiously. But the longer I stared at this alien face, examining it feature for
feature, the more my first question was transformed into a new conception: Is
this a German?”
- Mein Kampf
• While in Vienna he read
voraciously, developing
anti-Jewish and
antidemocratic
convictions, an admiration
for the outstanding
individual, and a contempt
for the masses.
The major influences on
Hitler's ideology included
• The musical
dramas of
Richard
Wagner.
• The demagogic,
anti-Semitic, and
mass political
party methods of
the Vienna,
Austria mayor,
Karl Lueger;
• the virulently
ultra
nationalistic
diatribes of
Pan-German
leader Georg
von Schönerer.
• and the
racist and
nationalist
literature of
Lanz von
Liebenfels.
• In World War I,
Hitler,
volunteered for
service in the
Bavarian army
and served as a
dispatch runner.
• He proved a dedicated,
courageous soldier, but was never
promoted beyond private first
class because his superiors
thought him lacking in leadership
qualities.
• After Germany's
defeat in 1918
he returned to
Munich,
remaining in the
army until 1920.
The German Workers’
Party
• In September 1919 he
joined the nationalist
German Workers' party,
and in April 1920 he
went to work full time
for the party, now
renamed the National
Socialist German
Workers' (Nazi) party.
The Original Nazi Party
Nazi Fuhrer
• In 1921 he was
elected party
chairman
(Führer) with
dictatorial
powers.
• Hitler spread his gospel of racial
hatred and contempt for democracy.
• He organized
meetings, and
terrorized political
foes with his
personal
bodyguard force,
the Sturmabteilung
(SA, or Storm
Troopers).
• He soon became
a key figure in
Bavarian politics,
aided by high
officials and
businessmen.
The Beer Hall Putsch
• In November 1923, a
time of political and
economic chaos, he led
an uprising (Putsch) in
Munich against the
postwar Weimar
Republic, proclaiming
himself chancellor of a
new authoritarian
regime.
“One last thing I can tell you. Either the German revolution begins
tonight and the morrow will find us in Germany a true nationalist
government, or it will find us dead by dawn!"
• Without military support, the
Putsch collapsed and Hitler was
arrested and sentenced to five
years in prison.
• He was released after nine months
• The failure of
the uprising
taught Hitler
that the Nazi
party must use
legal means to
assume power.
Mein Kampf
• He spent the nine months
in prison dictating his
autobiography Mein
Kampf (My Struggle).
• The book set forth Hitler's
twisted ideology of
racism, Aryan supremacy,
and anti-Semitism.
Rudolph Hess
Lebensraum
• Hitler also outlined his
belief that the superior
Aryan peoples needed
living space and therefore
had the right to seize
territory through
expansion and rule over
the inferior masses of
non-Aryans.
The Big Lie
• The only really
original ideas in the
book related to the
use of mass
propaganda and
mass psychology.
• Hitler
became the
master of the
“Big Lie.”
The Fuhrerprinzip
• When released from
prison Hitler rebuilt
the Nazi Party based
on the Fuhrerprinzip
– the belief in the
absolute obedience
to the leader.
•The Young Man’s Party
• By the time the
depression hit in
1929, the Nazi Party
had grown to be a
highly structured
national party with
over 178,000
members – 40% of
them under the age of
thirty.
•The Great Depression
• When the Great
Depression struck in
1929, he explained it
as a JewishCommunist plot, an
explanation accepted
by many Germans.
• Promising a strong
Germany, jobs, and
national glory, he attracted
millions of voters.
• Nazi representation in the
Reichstag (parliament)
rose from 12 seats in 1928
to 107 in 1930.
Chancellor Heinrich Bruning
• The German
Chancellor in 1930
was forced to rule
by the use of
emergency decrees
from President
Hindenburg.
•“Hitler over Germany”
• The Nazis began a
massive campaign,
traveling all over the
country and
appealing to national
pride, honor and
traditional
militarism.
• Hitler’s message appealed
to the industrial
magnates, landed
aristocrats, military
establishment and higher
bureaucrats who saw him
as the best man to
establish a right-wing
government.
Chancellor Adolf Hitler
• On the advice of former
chancellor Franz von
Papen, Hindenburg
appointed Hitler
chancellor on January 30,
1933.
• Most leaders believed
Hitler would be easily
controlled.
Franz von Papen
Hitler
Goering
Goebbels
Hess
Rohm
Tall like Goebbels; thin like Goering and blonde like Hitler…….
•Herman Goering
• Nazi Herman
Goering became
minister of the
interior and
established an
interior police force
made up of Nazi SA
members.
•The Reichstag Fire
• When a mysterious
fire burnt down the
German Parliament
building, Hitler
convinced
Hindenburg to grant
him emergency
powers.
The window into the building
• The Nazis blamed the
Communists for the fire
and made the incident a
pretext to suppress the
Communist party with
brutal violence; later,
the Social Democratic
party was also violently
suppressed.
•The Enabling Act
• Hitler quickly
established himself
as a dictator.
• A subservient
legislature passed
that permitted
Hitler's government
to make laws
without the
legislature.
• The act
effectively
made the
legislature
powerless.
• Hitler used the act to
Nazify the bureaucracy
and the judiciary,
replace all labor unions
with one Nazicontrolled German
Labor Front, and ban
all political parties
except his own.
•The Gleichschaltung
• The economy, the
media, and all cultural
activities were brought
under Nazi authority by
making an individual's
livelihood dependent
on his or her political
loyalty.
• Thousands of
anti-Nazis were
taken to
concentration
camps and all
signs of dissent
suppressed.
Burning the Books
The Economy and the Purges
• The most crucial
problem the party
leadership confronted
on coming to power
was unemployment.
• German industry was
then operating at
about 58 percent of
capacity.
• Estimates of the
number of
unemployed
people at that time
in Germany vary
from 6 to 7 million.
• Tens of thousands of
party members
expected Hitler to
carry out the anticapitalist promises of
National Socialist
propaganda.
• They wanted to put an
end to the monopolistic
enterprises and cartels,
and revive industry
through the
establishment of a
large number of small
businesses.
•The Second Revolution
• The party rank
and file now
demanded a
“second
revolution.”
• The SA, led by
Ernst Röhm,
included control of
the Reichswehr
(the army) in the
program of the
second revolution.
• Hitler had to choose
between a “plebeian”
National Socialist
regime and an
alliance with the
industrialists of the
country and the
general staff of the
Reichswehr.
• He chose the latter course.
Long Knives
• On the evening of June
30, 1934, later known as
the “night of the long
knives,” Hitler ordered the
SS to murder members of
the unruly SA, a group
Hitler feared would
agitate the Reichswehr.
Ernst Röhm
• A number of SA and
party leaders
(including Röhm)
and between 400
and 1000 of their
followers, many of
them innocent of
any opposition to
Hitler, were killed.
• Also included in the
purge were other
enemies such as
General Kurt von
Schleicher and some
monarchists who had
advocated restoration of
the Hohenzollern
dynasty.
General Kurt von Schleicher
The Third Reich
• On August 2, 1934,
President
Hindenburg died
and Hitler became
the sole leader of
Germany.
• Public officials
and soldiers were
required to take
an oath of loyalty
to the “Fuhrer of
the German
Reich.”
Hitler Addresses the Reichstag
The Thousand Year Reich
• On August 19, 1934, a
plebiscite of 85% of
the voters established
the new order – the
Third Reich was born.
• Hitler declared it
would last a thousand
years –
It lasted a little longer than Ten
•The Nazi State
• Hitler now set out
to establish an
Aryan racial state
that would
dominate Europe
and possibly the
world.
Nuremburg Rallies
• Mass
demonstrations
were held every
year to create mass
enthusiasm for the
“total state.”
The Gestapo
• Hitler relied on his
secret police, the
Gestapo, and on jails
and camps to
intimidate his
opponents, but many
Germans supported
him enthusiastically.
Heinrich Himmler
The SS
• After June 30 purge, the
SA were replaced by the
armed and black-shirted
Schutzstaffeln
(protective units), or SS,
known as the Elite
Guard, under the
direction of Heinrich
Himmler.
• The SS, like the
Gestapo, used
violence and
intimidation to
exterminate
dissenters,
communists and
Jews.
Hitler Youth
• Still another important
party auxiliary was the
Hitler Jugend (Hitler
Youth organization),
which prepared boys of
14 to 17 years of age
for membership in the
SA, the SS, and the
party.
Hitler Youth Parade
Adolf Hitler
“Terror is the most
effective political
instrument...It is my
duty to make use of
every means of training
the German people to
cruelty, and to prepare
them for war...There
must be no weakness or
tenderness.”
•The New Order
• The creation of the “new
order,” or total control of
the economy, enabled
the Nazis to end
unemployment; provide a
tolerable standard of
living; enrich the elite
ruling group of the state
and build a stupendous
war machine.
Anti-Semitism
• The German
Reich was meant
to be an Aryan
Empire and the
Nazis quickly
instituted antiSemitic policies.
• On April 1, 1933,
the Nazis
instituted a twoday boycott of
Jewish
businesses.
• Laws were
passed
excluding
non-Aryans
from most
professions.
The Nuremberg Laws
• In 1935, the Nazis
enacted a series of
laws that excluded
German Jews from
German citizenship
and essentially
separated Jews from
German society.
Kristallnacht
• On November 910, 1938, the
“Night of
Shattered Glass,”
the Nazis led a
destructive
rampage against
Jewish businesses
and synagogues.
• 100 Jews were
killed in the
violence and
30,000 Jewish
males were
rounded up and
sent to
concentration
camps.