Download Fascism and Hitler

Between the Wars
Rise of Fascism
Young Adolf Hitler
• Born in Austria, 1889
An indifferent, sullen
student, he dropped
out of high school to
work as an aspiring
artist but failed to
gain entrance into
the Vienna Academy
of Fine Arts
• Left Austria to enlist
in the 16th Bavarian
Infantry Regiment
during WWI.
• After being injured,
Hitler left the
German Army in
1919 with a rank of
corporal.
Young Adolf Hitler
• Hitler joined the
German Worker's
Party, which he
later helped
expand into the
National Socialist
German Workers
Party, better
known as the
Nazis.
• In 1923, made a
failed attempt to
seize power
• Sent to prison
where he wrote
“Mein Kampf”
(My Struggle)
• Stated that
Germans were
“master race” of
Aryans.
Hitler’s Rise to Power
• Economic crisis in
Germany after World
War I
• U.S. stock market
crash of 1929
• Created a climate of
fear and anger that
Hitler and the Nazis
skillfully manipulated
to gain political clout
and power.
Adolf Hitler at a Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, Germany, ca. 1928
Copyright © 1999 - Hitler Historical Museum - All Rights Reserved
Hitler designed the prototype of what would
become the successful Beetle design for
Volkswagen. He believed that all people should be
able to own a car and thought that its design could
allow for reliability, enjoyment, and vacation travel.
Hitler’s Rise to Power
• Hitler was appointed
chancellor by
Hindenburg in 1933.
• After Hindenburg's
death next year, Hitler
combined the
positions of president
and chancellor and
declared himself the
"uncontested leader"
of Germany.
"Germans, defend yourselves, do
not buy from Jews."
•
Hitler played on the
fears of impoverished
Germans by blaming
Jewish people for the
national economic
plight.
• This photograph
documents the Nazi
boycott of Jewish
goods that was
launched on April 1,
1933.
Hitler’s Rise to Power
• Adolf Hitler
ascends the steps
of Buckeberg in
Germany in
October 1934.
Later that year, he
becomes the
Fuhrer .
Hitler’s Third Reich
• Appealed to
nationalism saying
that German master
race would dominate
Europe
• Began planning to
unite Germany and
Austria
• Formed totalitarian
state
• Gestapo and SS
troops enforced his
will
• Launched large public
works program
• Rearmed Germany
• Nazi propoganda
highlighted
improvements
• Women’s role limited
Nazism and the Churches
• Martin Niemoeller: quote on Adolf Hitler
• "When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew,
therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler
attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and
therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler
attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was
not a member of the unions and I was not
concerned. Then, Hitler attacked me and the
Protestant church—and there was nobody left to
be concerned."
Purging German Culture
Nazi gangs raided the Berlin Library and gathered "un-German" books soon
to be burned.
Nazi students and SA unloading "un-German"
books as fuel for a book burning on May 10, 1933
in Berlin, Germany.
Lebensraum*
• Hitler enters the
Sudetenland in 1938.
• Foreshadowed his
imminent power play
• Largely ignored by
other European
powers.
• (Appeasement)
*Living Space
What was a Jew?
• The Nuremberg Laws, as they became known,
did not define a "Jew" as someone with
particular religious beliefs. Instead, anyone who
had three or four Jewish grandparents was
defined as a Jew, regardless of whether that
individual identified himself or herself as a Jew
or belonged to the Jewish religious community.
Many Germans who had not practiced Judaism
for years found themselves caught in the grip of
Nazi terror. Even people with Jewish
grandparents who had converted to Christianity
were defined as Jews.
Hitler Youth with German
chancellor Adolf Hitler
Fascist Allies
• Italian dictator Benito
Mussolini and
German chancellor
Adolf Hitler stand
together on a
reviewing stand
during an official visit
to occupied
Yugoslavia, ca. 19401943.