Download E-Book WJEC The Development of Germany 1919-1991

1
The Development of
Germany, 1919-1991
The Weimar Republic, 1918-29
Hitler and the rise of the Nazi Party, 1919-33
The Nazi Dictatorship, 1933-39
Nazi domestic Policies, 1933-39
German foreign policy 1933-1945
Germany during the Second World War
Germany after the Second World War
East and West: The Berlin Wall
Reunification
Page
2
21
43
64
87
108
127
139
154
2
The Weimar Republic, 1918-33
The Origins and Early Problems of the Weimar Republic
The German people had gone to war in August 1914 expecting a quick and easy
victory, but the failure of the Schlieffen Plan followed by four years of trench warfare had
devastated Germany. By 1918, Germany was on its knees, but the German High
Command, headed by Hindenburg and Ludendorff, was encouraged by the collapse of
Russia and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and decided on one last throw of the dice. They
ordered a massive offensive (Operation Michael) in March 1918. The German forces
advanced fifty miles, but failed to break the Allied line. In August, the Allied counterattack was a great success and Ludendorff described 8th August as the ‘black day’. The
war was lost.
On 29th September, Ludendorff admitted that German had been defeated, although he
had a subsequent change of heart and claimed that the war could be continued until the
spring of 1919. However, the collapse of Germany’s allies, Bulgaria and Austria, meant
that Germany would have had to fight on its own. Ludendorff suggested an appeal to
President Wilson, hoping that the ‘Fourteen Points’ would result in a generous peace,
but Woodrow Wilson refused to consider an armistice unless the Kaiser abdicated.
On 28th October, the Reichstag agreed to the creation of a constitutional government,
but Wilhelm II ignored the Reichstag and went to the Army HQ. The High Seas Fleet
was ordered to sea to take on the Royal Navy. The refusal of the Kaiser and the High
Command to accept the decision of the Reichstag resulted in massive protests. The
fleet mutinied and sailors seized control of Kiel. Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils
(Soviets) took control of many major cities. It was clear that support for the Kaiser was
minimal. On 9th November, von Baden, the Chancellor, announced that the Kaiser had
abdicated and handed over power to Friedrich Ebert, the leader of the Socialist Party.
The Kaiser fled to Holland, where he lived until his death in 1941. Ebert was horrified
when he heard from the generals how bad the situation was and called for a cease-fire
on November 11th, 1918. At 11.00 a.m. on the eleventh day of the eleventh month,
Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. That meant that Germany would
have to accept whatever conditions the allies imposed in the peace treaty.
Unfortunately, the news that Germany could not go on any longer was not shared with
the German people. The German people had been told that the war was defensive and
so did not understand why the government surrendered when Germany had not been
invaded .The true state of the German armed forces had been successfully concealed
for many months and the sudden collapse was greeted with disbelief by many.
Furthermore, some units of the German army had seen little action and did not
understand why the Armistice was signed and unconditional surrender accepted. One
person who thought like this was Adolf Hitler. He had served in the German army
throughout the war and had been decorated for bravery. On 16th October, he had been
blinded in a gas attack and had spent the last weeks of the war in hospital in eastern
Germany. Like many he did not understand why the government had surrendered and
came to believe in a Jewish conspiracy to save property in Germany. He accused the
‘November Criminals’, the politicians who had signed the Armistice, of betraying
Germany. The failure to appreciate the true state of affairs was made worse by the
3
Allies who allowed German soldiers to return home in uniform and carrying their
weapons. This gave the impression that the army had not been defeated. It also meant
that ex-servicemen could therefore be easily formed into the Freikorps.
Ebert’s first task was to form a government, which meant writing a constitution. The
constitution would establish rules for elections, a parliament and how Germany would
be governed. Most Germans wanted democracy, but the communists, who had gained
support after the Revolution in Russia in 1917, wanted a revolution. While the work on
the constitution was going on, extreme communists formed the Spartacus Union and
tried to seize control of Berlin on 5th January 1919. The Spartacists were led by Karl
Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. It was a hopeless attempt because few communists
were actually prepared to support them. The Spartacists were easily cut off and
attacked by government troops and units of the Freikorps. The latter were gangs of exsoldiers which had been formed by right wingers who were angry that the Armistice had
been signed so easily. Liebknecht and Luxemburg were arrested and murdered on 15th
January. However, the Spartacist Revolt had one important effect; the unrest in Berlin
resulted in the government being moved to the town of Weimar and the foundation of
the Weimar Republic.
German troops with weapons captured from the Spartacists
For more information about they Spartacists, click here Spartacists
The Spartacist Revolt was only one of a number of communist risings in Germany in
early 1919. In April, communists seized control of Bavaria in the south of Germany and
4
set up a Soviet Republic. All revolts were were crushed, usually by the Freikorps, who
acted with great violence. This encouraged right wing nationalists to believe that the
Weimar Government was weak and could be overthrown by force. It was against this
background that the Treaty of Versailles was published in May 1919 and signed six
weeks later.
The Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June, five years to the day after the
assassination of the Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo. The German delegates
had not been allowed to attend any of the meetings at Versailles, but had been shown
the terms of the treaty in May. When they saw the terms, they were horrified. They had
expected that the Treaty would be based upon Wilson's 'Fourteen Points', which
recommended 'Self-Determination', but the Treaty was heavily influenced by
Clemenceau's desire to 'make Germany pay'. The German delegates considered
restarting the war, but this was impossible.
The main terms of the Treaty of Versailles
Land - Germany lost about 10% of her land, Alsace-Lorraine was given back to France,
the Polish Corridor was created to give the new country of Poland a way out to the
Baltic. This cut Germany into two. Germany also lost land to Belgium, Denmark and
Czechoslovakia.
Colonies - all German colonies were taken away and were handed to Britain and
France to look after under League of Nations mandates until they were ready for
independence.
Armed forces - the German army was reduced to 100,000 men and conscription was
banned; the navy was reduced to six ships and submarines were banned, all other
warships were to be handed over to the Allies; the airforce was to be completely
destroyed.
The Rhineland - this was to be demilitarised, no soldiers or military equipment were to
be kept within thirty miles of the east bank of the river. The Allies would occupy it for
fifteen years.
The Saar - this was to be occupied for fifteen years and France would be able to mine
coal in it for those years.
War Guilt - Germany was to accept the blame for the war, alone.
Reparations -In 1919 the Germans were required to pay for all of the civilian damage
caused during the First World War. The final bill was presented on 1 st May 1921 and
was fixed at £6,600,000,000, to be paid over thirty years.
5
Why was the Treaty very unpopular in Germany?
The German people had not been told much about the war: they thought they were
fighting a defensive war against aggressive neighbours; they did not know about the
scale of Germany’s defeat in autumn, 1918. The terms therefore came as a huge
surprise to many of the German people. The Reparations were regarded as very severe
as they punished the German people for years to come, not the Kaiser who had fled to
Holland. The War Guilt Clause was also regarded as very unfair. The war had been
sparked off by the murder of an Austrian by a Serb, Germany had only been one of the
countries which became involved. Many Germans believed that they were being used
as scapegoats for all of the other countries.
Was the German reaction justified?
Some of this was justified – the negotiations had been opened on the basis of the 14
Points, and Reparations had more to do with revenge and with French war-debts than
with fairness. The losses of territory and resources were not that great. The German
economy revived rapidly and successfully in the later 1920s. Also, Germany had
rejected the 14 Points while they stood a chance of winning the war and their own
treatment of Russia at the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918 was very punitive.
6
Checkpoint: How much do you know about the Treaty of Versailles?
Fill in the correct terms in the left-hand column.
This had to be completely destroyed.
This was demilitarised, no military equipment within thirty miles of
the east bank of the river. Allies to occupy it for fifteen years.
Germany had to pay for the cost of the war. The sum was fixed at
£6,600,000,000 in 1921.
This had to be handed over to the Allies.
This was to be occupied for fifteen years and France would be
able to mine coal in it for those years.
This was to be returned to France
Germany was responsible for the war. It alone was to blame.
This was banned.
These were taken over by the League of Nations and given to
Britain and France to look after
This was restricted to 100,000 men and border duties.
This divided Germany into two parts.
For more information about the Treaty of Versailles, click here Versailles
The Weimar Constitution
The Constitution was published in July 1919. The overall aim was to try to prevent one
party seizing power as had happened in the years before the First World War.
Consequently, the Constitution was based upon proportional representation. This gave
numbers of deputies in the Reichstag in proportion to the numbers of votes cast for their
party in elections. This meant that it was very difficult for one party to gain an overall
majority in the Reichstag, the lower house of the German parliament. The Allies hoped
that this would prevent a strong government coming to power. In fact it meant that all
German governments were coalitions made up of more than one party, many were
weak and were unable to take decisions. Because Berlin was in chaos, the new
democratic government met in the small town of Weimar. The constitution said:
Everyone over 20, male and female, had the vote. Freedom of speech and religion were
guaranteed. There was an elected parliament, called the Reichstag. The Chancellor, (as
the Prime Minister was called), had to have the voting support of the Reichstag. There
was a President, elected every 7 years. It was expected that the President would just be
a figurehead, but there were plans for the President to rule without democratic support
in the Reichstag in a crisis. Article 48 of the Constitution allowed the President to
suspend the Reichstag and rule by decree. It was expected that this power would only
7
be used in extreme circumstances. In fact, proportional representation resulted in a long
series of coalition governments which often prevented decisive action being taken. This
became a serious issue in 1929 when Germany was hit by the effects of the depression
after the Wall Street Crash. The President began to intervene more often and allowed
his power under Article 48 to be used by chancellors to try to tackle the effects of the
Depression.
Why did the Constitution of the Weimar Republic create problems?
The constitution of the Weimar Republic was intended to make it impossible for a strong
government to emerge in Germany. In fact, it prevented governments actually governing
because they could often not command a majority in the Reichstag. The Weimar
constitution was one of the most democratic in the world, but it created difficulties.
Proportional representation meant that it was worthwhile setting up new parties and the
result was that no one party ever had a majority in the Reichstag. All governments had
to be coalitions and these were frequently changing.
Checkpoint: The Weimar Constitution
How did each of the following contribute to the weakness of the Weimar
Government?
Proportional
Representation
Article 48
Coalitions
Reactions to the Weimar Constitution
The publication of the Constitution of the Weimar Republic only a month after the
signing of the Treaty of Versailles had dramatic effects in Germany. To right wing
nationalists, people who believed that Germany had not been defeated in 1918, it was
further evidence that Germany had been, and was being, betrayed. In November 1919,
Hindenburg told a committee set up by the Reichstag that the German armed forces
had been ‘stabbed in the back’ and that the Treaty of Versailles had been a ‘diktat’. He
blamed the Socialists who had taken power in November 1919 and were in most of the
8
coalitions in the 1920s. The terms became popular slogans of abuse, to which Adolf
Hitler added the ‘November Criminals’; as a description of the politicians who had
signed the Armistice on 11th November 1918.
In the second half of 1919, it seemed as if law and order in Germany was breaking
down and the Allies became very concerned. Ebert was ordered to ban the Freikorps,
who seemed to be causing most of the trouble, but when he did, the Freikorps reacted
by trying to seize power in Berlin in March 1920; it was the Kapp Putsch. Wolfgang
Kapp, one of the leaders of the Putsch, attempted to overthrow President Ebert and the
Weimar government. Government buildings were seized in Berlin and the government
fled to Stuttgart. Many within the army supported the putsch. It was defeated by a
general strike organised by the trade unions. After the Kapp Putsch, the Freikorps were
disbanded but the army and police forces did little to tackle the militarily styled right wing
associations which were their successors. In the next two years there were more
revolts, by both left and right. There were also more than 400 political murders between
1919 and 1923. The most famous were the murder of Paul Erzberger in 1921 he was
one of the ministers who had signed the Treaty of Versailles. Walter Rathenau was
murdered in 1922. He had just negotiated the Treaty of Rapallo with Russia. He was
accused of doing a deal with the communist government in the Russia. In fact Rathenau
had reached an agreement so that the German armed forces could train in secret inside
Russia and so break the Treaty of Versailles.
For more information about the Kapp Putsch, click here Kapp
The Occupation of the Ruhr
In early 1921, the London Conference met to set the exact figure of reparations. It was
immediately agreed that there would be sanctions against Germany if she refused to
accept their proposals. An initial figure was set for repayment at 226 billion gold marks,
but this was rejected by the German government and the final demand for reparations
was fixed in April 1921 at 132 billion gold marks (£6,600,000,000). The German
government accepted the figure. However, payment was going to be difficult because
by late 1922, the national debt was a staggering 469 billion marks. To cope with the
situation, the government began to print money to cover its debts. The result was
inflation and in January 1923 prices had increased by 350% since 1918.
The new German government made its first reparations payment in 1921, but in August
1922 asked to be allowed to delay the next instalment. In December 1922 it announced
that it would not be able to make any further payments. In January 1923 the Germans
stopped coal shipments. The Allied Reparations Commission declared Germany in
default and on January 11th the French and Belgian governments retaliated by sending
troops into the Ruhr. They intended to force the Germans to hand over coal and iron ore
in place of the payments. The German workers in the Ruhr went on strike and the
Weimar government called for passive resistance to the French and Belgians and paid
strike pay to workers by printing paper currency. This made hyperinflation in Germany
even worse.
The French attempted to set up a separatist movement in the Rhineland, but then cut
off the Ruhr from the rest of Germany and brought in their own workers to work in the
coalmines. Civil servants, the police and other government officials were expelled from
9
the Ruhr and violence broke out in which a number of French soldiers were killed. The
French government was really trying to make up for what it believed was the lenient
treatment of Germany at the Treaty of Versailles. The French had wanted the Rhineland
to become part of France and were angry that this had been prevented. Instead,
therefore, they used reparations as a way of turning the screw on Germany; firstly they
had tried to get the figure set as high as possible, now they were using non-payment as
justification for occupying the Ruhr.
Checkpoint: Unrest in Germany
How did the following contribute to unrest in Germany?
The Spartacists
The Freikorps
The Kapp Putsch
Reparations
The Ruhr
Passive
Resistance
10
What were the results of the occupation of the Ruhr?
From January 1923 inflation in Germany reached ridiculous proportions as the
government printed money to pay the strikers. Eventually 62 factories were working
around the clock to keep up with demand. By August prices were rising by up to 400%
every day. People who had saved money lost everything. The middle classes were
worst hit. War pensioners and anybody on a fixed income were also hit very hard. Many
were soon out of work as businesses collapsed and for those with a job, wages were
paid every hour and then people rushed to spend their money as quickly as possible,
buying anything that they could. Shopkeepers tried to keep their shops closed, but the
government forced them to open. A loaf of bread which cost 29 pfennigs in 1913, cost
1200 marks by summer 1923 and 428,000,000,000 marks by November 1923.
But some people benefited. Anybody who had borrowed money could repay the loan
very easily, speculators and gamblers did very well and multi-millionaires appeared
overnight. Foreigners flocked into Germany to buy up works of art as Germans
desperately tried to make ends meet. Industrialists who had borrowed to finance
expansion could repay their debts at a stroke.
In other words, it was people who had been careful and who had put money away for a
rainy day who suffered. Ex-soldiers who had fought for Germany in the war suddenly
found themselves in inescapable poverty. But, on the other hand, people who had been
reckless and borrowed sums that they could not afford to repay suddenly found
themselves wealthy overnight.
Prices index in Germany: each figure shows how much prices had increased
since 1914
July 1914
1.0
Jan 1919
2.6
July 1919
3.4
Jan 1920
12.6
Jan 1921
14.4
July 1921
14.3
Jan 1922
36.7
July 1922
100.6
Jan 1923
2,785.0
July 1923
194,000.0
Nov 1923 726,000,000,000.0
11
This banknote was issued in November 1923. On November 1, 100 Billion Marks would
buy 3 pounds of meat. Bread was 3 Billion Marks a loaf. On November 15, 100 Billion
Mark would buy 2 glasses of beer. Bread was 80 Billion Mark a loaf.
How did hyperinflation affect the Weimar Government?
Despite the chaos, the Weimar government became relatively popular for the first time.
Its support for the strikers began to swing public opinion behind it. Hyperinflation was
seen as something forced upon Germany from outside. In August Gustav Stresemann
came to power. He immediately offered to call off passive resistance and restart
reparations if the French and Belgians would withdraw. Passive resistance ended in
September, and Stresemann then immediately tackled hyperinflation. Stresemann
issued a new currency called the Rentenmark, which was based upon German land and
not gold. The old marks could be exchanged for Rentenmarks at the very good rate of
300,000,000 to 1. To encourage people to adopt the new currency, the old notes were
burnt on huge bonfires all across Germany.
12
The Rentenmark was a stroke of genius. The old currency had become worthless
because people knew that the government had simply printed masses of notes in an
effort to pay its debts. There was nothing to back them up; Germany’s gold reserves
were ear-marked for Reparations. But the Rentenmark was based on the value of
German land. Therefore anyone who did not accept it at its face value was in effect
stating that Germany itself was worthless. It was all a trick of course, but it worked and
Stresemann got away with it. At the same time, 700,000 government employees were
sacked to reduce government expenditure and help him balance the books.
Checkpoint: The effects of hyperinflation
Who gained from Hyperinflation?
Who lost from Hyperinflation?
13
The Recovery of the Weimar Republic under Stresemann, 1924-29
Gustav Stresemann became chancellor in August 1923 but, because he was the leader
of a small party, he was replaced in November and took the post of Foreign Minister. He
kept this until his sudden death in October 1929. By the end of 1923 he had called off
passive resistance in the Ruhr, cancelled the old mark and introduced a new currency,
the Rentenmark, so ending inflation. He then persuaded the Allies to agree to the
Dawes Plan. They agreed because they were impressed by Stresemann’s readiness to
implement the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and the conciliatory tone he had
adopted over the occupation of the Ruhr, which was finally ended in January 1925.
Gustav Stresemann
The Dawes Plan
The Dawes Plan was financed mainly by US banks and was the brainchild of Charles H.
Dawes. Under the Plan, the Ruhr area was to be evacuated by Allied occupation troops;
Reparation payments would begin at one billion marks for the first year and would
increase over a period of four years to two and one half billion marks per year. Foreign
14
loans (primarily from the United States) would be made available to Germany US, which
could be used to finance reparations to other European nations. 800 million marks
flowed into Germany in the next few years. The plan was accepted by Germany and the
Allies and went into effect in September 1924. Although German business picked up
and reparation payments were made promptly, it became obvious that Germany could
not continue those huge annual payments for long. As a result, the Dawes Plan was
eventually replaced in 1929 by the Young Plan.
The Dawes Plan provided short term economic benefits to the German economy. It
softened the burdens of war reparations, stabilized the currency, and brought increased
foreign investments and loans to the German market. However, it made the German
economy dependent on foreign markets and economies, and therefore ensured that
problems with the US economy would severely hurt Germany. After World War I, this
cycle of money from US loans to Germany, which then made reparations to other
European nations, which then used the money to pay off their debts to America, locked
the western world's economy on that of the U.S.
The Locarno Pacts
Stresemann’s success was not limited to economics; his readiness to cooperate with
the Allies also enabled him to win political concessions. As relations between Germany
and her neighbours improved, Stresemann was able to persuade the Allies to agree to
the Locarno Pacts.
The Locarno Pacts were signed in October 1925 by France, Belgium and Germany.
They guaranteed the borders between France and Belgium and Germany. Britain and
Italy signed as guarantors of the treaty. A second set of agreements finalised arbitration
treaties between Germany and France, Belgium, Czechoslovakia and Poland. These
were intended to bring an end to the bitterness that had prevailed after the First World
War. A third section created mutual defence pacts between France and Poland and
Czechoslovakia. These were intended as protection against any future German
aggression.
Why were the Locarno Pacts important?
At the time they were seen as important steps in the process of Collective Security.
There was talk of the 'spirit of Locarno', which seemed to offer the prospect of a Europe
free from war. Locarno marked the re-emergence of Germany onto the European stage,
thanks to the leadership of Stresemann. In 1926, Germany was admitted to the League
of Nations and became one of the Permanent Council Members; they were responsible
for upholding the Covenant of the League. Germany had been banned from
membership in 1920, when the League of Nations had been set up, as part of its
punishment for the First World War. Being admitted so soon was a remarkable
achievement. Becoming a Permanent Member of the Council was an even greater
success and was an enormous triumph for Stresemann. It seemed to suggest that
Germany had recovered completely from the effects of the war. Perhaps the most
surprising aspect of the whole episode was that France sponsored the German
application for membership. Only seven years before, some French politicians had
demanded the dismemberment of Germany in order to prevent a further world war.
15
In 1928, Stresemann signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact. This was originally an agreement
between the USA and France which other countries were invited to join. Thirteen other
countries did so, including Germany, and a further thirty-one agreed to accept the terms
of the Pact. In essence, the Pact simply asked members states to renounce the use of
war. In fact, the Pact had little effect because three of the signatories, Japan, Italy and
Germany (all Permanent Members of the Council of the League of Nations) ignored in
the 1930s.
The ‘Golden Years’
By 1926, Germany appeared to have recovered from the effects of the war and the
political unrest that had succeeded it. There was growing support from many Germans
for the Weimar government, however, coalitions continued to come and go regularly
and there was a new chancellor on average every twelve months. There was increasing
support for Democracy, from Germans who wanted their country run on democratic
lines for the first time. Trade unions worked with the biggest party, the Socialists, and
were in most governments. In the later 1920s, under Stresemann’s recovery, wages
improved.
Businesses prospered again under the recovery programme. New industries, like cars,
radios, telephones, aircraft as well as shipbuilding all did very well. Coal exports
increased in the latter 1920s, partly boosted by the General Strike and coal miners
strike in Britain. Artists enjoyed the new freedom from censorship that Weimar offered
after the heavy hand of the Kaiser. Film-makers, like Fritz Lang, and architects like
Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus School, led the world. Jazz clubs and cabarets were
popular as people spent the money they now had. Berlin became one of the most
popular and freest cities in Europe. The film ‘Cabaret’ illustrates the atmosphere of
Weimar and the entertainment that was available.
The recovery marginalised extremist politicians. The Nazis, had twenty-four deputies in
the Reichstag in 1924, but in the 1928 election fell to only twelve and attracted no more
than 800,000 votes. They were saved from total defeat by the proportional
representation that had been introduced to prevent domination by any one party.
On the other hand, there were writers and artists who attacked the liberal ideas of
Weimar. They longed for the more disciplined days of the Empire and the traditions of
the nineteenth century. Some writers ridiculed liberalism and even argued that war was
natural and the only way of achieving man’s goals. These writers and their ideas helped
to pave the way for the success of the Nazis. One factor in the determination of Hitler to
overthrow Weimar was its liberalism and attacks on the traditions of Germany.
Furthermore, this recovery was unfortunately only skin-deep and was financed by US
loans. Consequently, there was always the risk that it could be easily upset by
unforeseen events. By 1928, farmers in the north of Germany were complaining of
falling prices for their produce and were beginning to support more radical policies. In
1929, unemployment began to rise and reached 1.5 million and unemployment often led
to desperation and extremism. In the meantime, however, Stresemann had one last
success to enjoy.
16
The Young Plan
In 1929, he managed to arrange the Young Plan, which reduced Germany’s reparations
still further. The amount payable by Germany was reduced to 1,707,000,000 marks per
year, of which only 660,000,000 had to be paid. The rest could be postponed for up to
two years. Payments would gradually increase for thirty-six years and would end in
1988. Because the payments under the Young Plan were less than Germany was
making under the Dawes Plan, most people expected this to be a final settlement of the
reparations problems.
However, the Young Plan was unpopular with right wing nationalists who saw it as
accepting the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Right wing parties in the Reichstag
launched an Anti-Young Plan campaign and forced the government to hold a
referendum before the Plan was approved. The vote was heavily in favour of
acceptance of the Plan, but one of the politicians who was invited to take in the
campaign was Adolf Hitler. This marked his return from obscurity after the disastrous
Munich Putsch in 1923.
Checkpoint: Gustav Stresemann
How did Stresemann help Germany to recover? Tick the correct column on the left
Economically
The Rentenmark
Ending Passive Resistance
The Dawes Plan
Restarting Reparations
Persuading the French to leave the Ruhr
The Locarno Pacts
The League of Nations
The Kellogg-Briand Pact
The Young Plan
To find out more about Gustav Stresemann, click here Stresemann
Internationally
17
Hitler and the Rise of the Nazi Party, 1919-33
The founding and early growth of the Nazi Party, 1919-23
Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 in the Austrian town on Braunau-am-Inn. Hitler later
claimed that his father, who was a customs official, beat him while he was a child and
also attacked his mother, whom he loved. His father died in 1903 and his mother in
1907. Hitler dropped out of school and moved to Vienna in 1905. He twice tried applied
to be admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts, but was rejected on both occasions. He
tried to earn a living painting postcards and from 1909 lived in hostels or lodgings.
Vienna had a large Jewish community and Hitler later claimed that it was there he
acquired his anti-Semitic ideas. In fact, he was often entertained by Jewish merchants
who bought his paintings. He more likely picked up anti-Semitic ideas after the First
World War and the defeat of Germany and Austria.
When war broke out in 1914, Hitler enlisted in a Bavarian Regiment in the German
Army. He served in Belgium and France and ended the war as a Lance-Corporal. He
was a messenger, who carried orders about the battlefield, a very dangerous role. He
was awarded the iron Cross Second Class in 1914 and First Class in 1918. It was very
rare for someone of his rank to receive the Iron Cross First Class. On 15 th October
1918, Hitler was blinded in a mustard gas attack and was in hospital until the middle of
November. It was during this period that he claimed he became convinced that his
purpose was to ‘save Germany’.
Hitler (on the left) with soldiers during the First World War
Hitler remained in the army at the end of the war and eventually got a job as a spy for
the German army. In September 1919, he was ordered to join the German Workers'
Party (DAP) and became member number 555. The party started numbering its
18
members at number 500 to try to make out that there were more than there really were.
Anton Drexler, the leader, was fanatically anti-Semitic. Whether this was the origin of
Hitler's hatred of Jews is uncertain. Some historians believe that Hitler was bullied by a
Jewish boy at school; there is also the theory that he began to hate Jews in pre-war
Vienna. Hitler joined the Party Committee, becoming Number 7, and was appointed to
be in charge of propaganda.
To find out more about the life of Hitler, click here Hitler
A copy of Hitler’s membership card of the German Workers’ Party
In 1920, Hitler and Drexler composed the 25 Point Programme, which was a statement
of the aims of the DAP.
1. We demand the union of all Germany in a Greater Germany on the basis of the right
of national self-determination.
2. We demand equality of rights for the German people in its dealings with other
nations, and the revocation of the peace treaties of Versailles and Saint-Germain.
3. We demand land and territory (colonies) to feed our people and to settle our surplus
population.
4. Only members of the nation may be citizens of the State. Only those of German
blood, whatever their creed, may be members of the nation. Accordingly, no Jew may
be a member of the nation.
19
5. Non-citizens may live in Germany only as guests and must be subject to laws for
aliens.
6. The right to vote on the State's government and legislation shall be enjoyed by the
citizens of the State alone.
7. We demand that the State shall make it its primary duty to provide a livelihood for its
citizens. If it should prove impossible to feed the entire population, foreign nationals
(non-citizens) must be deported from the Reich.
8. All non-German immigration must be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans
who entered Germany after 2 August 1914 shall be required to leave the Reich
forthwith.
9. All citizens shall have equal rights and duties.
10. It must be the first duty of every citizen to perform physical or mental work. The
activities of the individual must not clash with the general interest, but must proceed
within the framework of the community and be for the general good.
11. The abolition of incomes unearned by work.
12. In view of the enormous sacrifices of life and property demanded of a nation by any
war, personal enrichment from war must be regarded as a crime against the nation. We
demand therefore the ruthless confiscation of all war profits.
13. We demand the nationalization of all businesses which have been formed into
corporations (trusts).
14. We demand profit-sharing in large industrial enterprises.
15. We demand the extensive development of insurance for old age.
16. We demand the creation and maintenance of a healthy middle class, the immediate
taking over of big department stores, and their lease at a cheap rate to small traders.
17. We demand a land reform suitable to our national requirements, the passing of a
law for the expropriation of land for communal purposes without compensation; the
abolition of ground rent, and the prohibition of all speculation in land.
18. We demand the ruthless prosecution of those whose activities are injurious to the
common interest. Common criminals, usurers, profiteers, etc., must be punished with
death, whatever their creed or race.
19. We demand that Roman Law, which serves a materialistic world order, be replaced
by a German common law.
20. The State must consider a thorough reconstruction of our national system of
education with the aim of opening up to every able and hard-working German the
possibility of higher education and of thus obtaining advancement.
20
21. The State must ensure that the nation's health standards are raised by protecting
mothers and infants, by prohibiting child labour and by promoting physical strength
through legislation providing for compulsory gymnastics and sports.
22. We demand the abolition of the mercenary army and the foundation of a people's
army.
23. We demand controls on the press to prevent deliberate lies being spread about
political parties. The publishing of papers which do not support to the national welfare
must be forbidden.
24. We demand freedom for all religious denominations in the State, provided they do
not threaten its existence not offend the moral feelings of the German race.
The Party, as such, stands Christianity, but does not commit itself to any particular
denomination.
25. To put the whole of this programme into effect, we demand the creation of a strong
central state power for the Reich.
The leaders of the Party promise to work ruthlessly -- if need be to sacrifice their very
lives -- to translate this programme into action.
Checkpoint: Which of the 25 Points later became Nazi policies? Which did Hitler
later ignore?
Nazi Policies
Ignored by Hitler
21
The Twenty-Five Point Programme was a surprising list. On the one hand, there are
elements of Hitler’s later policies when he took power in 1933; on the other, there are
demands which sound much more like communism. The explanation is that although
Anton Drexler was a nationalist and anti-Semitic, he was also a socialist. He was
concerned to build a strong Germany, but he also wanted to ensure that working people
benefited from the changes. The following year, 1921, the differences between Hitler
and Drexler came to the fore.
In 1921, Hitler became the leader of the DAP in rather unusual circumstances. While
Hitler was away in Berlin in July, Drexler put forward a plan to unite the DAP with a
group of socialists. Hitler was horrified and threatened to resign. He hated socialists
because he blamed them for the ‘stab in the back’; the betrayal of the Army in
November 1918. Like many Germans, Hitler believed that the War had not been lost;
the Socialist Party had taken power in the first weeks of November and had then
decided to bring the war to an end and signed the Armistice on 11th November 1918.
Hitler coined a name for the politicians who had betrayed Germany; he called them the
‘November Criminals’.
After some discussion, the committee backed down and asked Hitler to stay as a
member. He agreed, but on condition that he replaced Drexler as leader with unlimited
powers. Eventually the decision was put to a vote of Party members and Hitler won by
543 votes in favour to 1 against. As leader, Hitler changed the name of the Party to the
'National Socialist German Workers' Party' (NSDAP) because he wanted to attract as
many supporters as possible, National was intended to attract right-wing nationalists,
and Socialist to attract workingmen. The party soon became nick-named the Nazis by
their opponents. But this was a term never used by Hitler. He always referred to his
followers as National Socialists.
The Nazis were just one of a number of extremist fringe parties in Bavaria in the early
1920s. They had a few thousand supporters, but were unknown in the other parts of
Germany. Their main appeal was through the speeches of Hitler, who soon gained a
reputation as a powerful orator, despite his Austrian accent. He tried to pose as a strong
man who could solve Germany’s problems. Hitler set up his own private army, the
Sturm Abteilung (SA), led by a violent ex-soldier Ernst Roehm, and used it to attack his
opponents in the streets. Hitler soon attracted popular support; at one of his speeches,
a crowd of more than 6,000 turned up to hear him. Two early recruits were Rudolf Hess
and Hermann Goering, both of whom became leading figures in the Nazi Party in the
1930s.
To find out more about the early history of the Nazi Party, click here NSDAP
22
The Munich Putsch
One of the supporters who was drawn to the NSDAP was Erich Ludendorff, who had
been the most senior general in the German Army in 1918. He had launched the
offensive in March 1918 that the High Command hoped would win the war and at one
point he had wanted to try to hold out until the spring of 1919. Like many Germans, he
came to believe the ‘stab in the back’ idea, which was actually coined by his close
colleague Field Marshall Hindenburg. Ludendorff supported the Nazis because they
planned to re-establish a right wing government and restore Germany’s prestige. Hitler,
for his part, believed that he could use Ludendorff, who was widely respected
throughout Germany, as the figurehead in an attempt to seize power. His opportunity
came, or so he believed, in 1923.
The German government’s refusal to pay the second instalment of reparations and the
French occupation of the Ruhr, threw Germany into crisis. Worse still followed when the
German workers in the Ruhr went on strike and the government began to print money in
order to pay the strikers. Hitler believed that the chaos that resulted from hyperinflation
gave him a perfect opportunity to try to seize power. He had already tried to stage a
coup in May, but this had been easily broken up by the authorities. This time, therefore,
he delayed as long as possible; in fact, he took so long to make his move that members
of his own party demanded action.
Looking back, the Munich Putsch was doomed to failure. The Nazis could only muster a
few thousand supporters and by November 1923, Stresemann was in power and was
getting hyperinflation under control. Why did Hitler take such a gamble, which could
have resulted in death or long term imprisonment? One reason is that he completely
misunderstood the situation. He was a small time politician in Bavaria in southern
Germany. This was an area that had seen a great deal of political activity since the end
of the war, but in the rest of Germany the situation was quite different.
In September 1923, Hitler had announced that he would hold fourteen mass meetings
to challenge the Bavarian government. This prompted the Bavarian government to
declare a state of emergency and appoint three officials to keep order; they were, von
Kahr, von Seisser and von Lossow. Hitler came to believe that von Kahr would support
him if he tried to seize power. He was also influenced by the apparent success of the
Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, who had been appointed prime minister after
leading a March on Rome in October 1922. Hitler planned to seize power in Munich and
then March on Berlin. However, he was almost certainly unaware that the March on
Rome had been little more than a bluff and that there was wide support for the Fascists
in Italy. Even the King was a secret admirer of Mussolini and appointed him at the first
opportunity. Other right wing groups promised to support Hitler if he made a move, but
in reality, he had only a small following in Bavaria and the governments of both Bavaria
and Weimar were opposed to the Nazis.
Nevertheless, Hitler went ahead with his plan and involved Ludendorff as a figurehead.
He discovered that a meeting would take place at the Burgerbraukeller (a beer hall) in
Munich on the evening of 8th November, and that three Bavarian officials were due to be
present, he decided to act. At exactly 8.30 p.m., Hitler broke up the meeting; he fired a
gun at the ceiling and announced that he was going to try to take over the government
23
the following morning. The officials, von Kahr, von Seisser and von Lossow present
agreed to support him, but in the confusion they were released and the authorities were
warned of the plot. The night was apparently spent drinking and the owner of the beer
hall later claimed that the Nazis had drunk nearly 2,391 pints of beer and caused
considerable damage.
A painting of Hitler addressing the crowd in the Burgerbraukeller on the night of
8th November 1923; this was painted by a Nazi artist in 1937.
List ways that the artist has tried to paint a favourable picture of Hitler
1
2
3
24
An eyewitness account of events in the Burgerbraukeller on the evening of 8
November 1923; this was written by a member of the Nazi Party who left the
party and Germany in the 1920s.
Hitler was standing with Rosenberg near the entrance with a watch in his hand. The
minute hand advanced – 8.27 – 8.28 – 8.29 – 8.30. The door was flung open; steelhelmeted men burst through, pushing maxim guns into the hall. Other steel helmets
appeared menacingly at every window. Hitler snapped his watch back into his pocket,
seized his revolver and elbowed his way through the crowd behind his heavily armed
bodyguard. The hall was thrown into the wildest commotion. Within a few seconds one
could be heard above the uproar. Hitler jumped up on a table and fired two shots into
the ceiling demanding quiet. In an instant the silence was absolute; one could even
hear Hitler breathing hard.
From Hitler’s speech at the Burgerbraukeller on the evening of 8 November
1923
The government of the November Criminals and the Reich President are declared
removed. The National Revolution has begun. This hall is occupied by 600 heavily
armed men. No one may leave. A provisional government will be formed this very
day, here in Munich. The army and police barracks have been occupied, troops and
police and marching on the city under the swastika. Now I am going to carry out the
vow I made five years ago when I was a blind cripple in the army hospital.
The bill for the evening of 8 November; this was sent to the Nazi Party by the
owner of the Burgerbraukeller on 15 November; he also sent a separate
demand for the damage caused.
Consumed
Broken
Stolen
800
2372
98
143
80
2
148
Meals
Pints of beer
Chairs
Tankards
Glasses
Music Stands
Set of Cutlery
In soon became clear that the Putsch had little chance of success. When Nazis tried to
leave the Beer Hall to arrest the Munich City Council they were ambushed. Attempts to
whip up support in local army units and the police failed. In contrast, the Head of the
Munich Police Force ordered his men to seize the telegraph office and the telephone
exchange and the local commander of the army, Major-General Danner, ordered his
men to stop the Putsch and open fire if necessary.
By morning, Hitler realised that the Putsch was a fiasco, but to keep a brave face, he
and the war-hero Ludendorff led the march into Munich at about 11.00.a.m. They had
about 2,000 supporters. The marchers passed through the outskirts of the city but were
25
stopped by 100 soldiers in the city centre. In a brief exchange of fire, four police officers
and 16 Nazis were killed, including Hitler’s bodyguard who dived on top of Hitler to
protect him.
What happened to Hitler?
In a Nazi biography, Hitler claimed that his shoulder was dislocated when the man next
to him was shot. Other versions of the story suggest that he fell to the ground to avoid
being shot. Whatever the truth, what is certain is that Hitler fled and was arrested a few
days later and put on trial for high treason. Under normal circumstances, that would
have been the end of the matter and the end of Hitler. He had committed a very serious
crime which had resulted in the deaths of twenty people. There was no doubt of his guilt
and he made no attempt to deny his responsibility at his trial. However, events did not
go as expected.
Hitler and other defendants before the trial
The judge at Hitler’s trial, in February 1924, allowed him considerable freedom in
making his defence and he was permitted to make a long speech in which he attacked
the Weimar government. He also went over all his beliefs about Germany’s defeat and
who was to blame. He should have been told to stop, but he was allowed to continue for
several hours. This was important for two reasons. Firstly, the judge, and probably other
important people in Bavaria, supported Hitler’s aims to re-establish a strong government
in Germany; overthrow the Weimar Republic and destroy the Treaty of Versailles.
Secondly, there is no doubt that Hitler was a powerful and persuasive speaker. Many
people who heard him speak described how he influenced them. In this case, not only
was his speech heard in court, but it was printed in many newspapers and read by
people all over Germany. Many people simply ignored as the ramblings of a mad man,
26
but to some, it marked Hitler out as somebody to watch for the future. Several very
wealthy businessmen, Franz von Thyssen and Alfred Hugenberg, were very interested
in what Hitler had to say and saw him as a way of achieving their political and economic
aims.
In the meantime, however, Hitler was a convicted traitor and he had to be left to his fate.
Once again, however, events went his way. Considering the serious nature of his crime,
he should have been given a lengthy prison sentence. In fact, he was only sentenced to
five years and sent to Landsberg Prison, which was far from being uncomfortable.
Clearly, there were people on his side other than the judge. Hitler was not the only
person to be given a lenient sentence; Ludendorff was found not guilty and let off
completely. However, he never had anything to do with Hitler after 1924. When the
latter had fallen to the ground when the soldiers had opened fire, Ludendorff had
continued to march straight forward, right through the soldiers and had been unharmed.
From that moment, he regarded Hitler as a coward.
To find out more about the Munich Putsch, click here Munich
27
Checkpoint: The Munich Putsch
SOURCE A: A description of the events of 9 November in Munich in a biography of Hitler
published by the Nazi Party in Germany in 1934
Hitler shouted, ‘Close the ranks’ and linked arms with his neighbours. The body of
the man with whom Hitler was linked shot up into the air like a ball, tearing Hitler’s
arm with him, so that it sprang from the joint and fell back limp. Hitler went to the
main and stood over him. A boy was severely wounded. Blood was pouring from
his mouth. Hitler picked him up and carried him on his shoulders. ‘If I can only get
him to the car’, Hitler thought, ‘then the boy is safe’.
Details
Significance
Nature
Origin
Purpose
SOURCE B: From ‘Hitler the Pawn’, this was written in 1936 by a member of the
German SDP; it was published outside of Germany
At about noon on 9 November, a procession of 2000 Nationalists marched, twelve
abreast, through the town. At the first shot, Hitler flung himself to the ground. He
sprained his arm, but this did not prevent him from running. He found his car and
drove into the mountain.
Details
Nature
Origin
Purpose
Significance
28
Mein Kampf
Even after he was sent to prison, Hitler’s good luck continued. A famous photograph of
Hitler shows him in prison with various visitors; one was Rudolf Hess, who had also
taken part in the Putsch and would become Hitler’s deputy in the 1930s. Both men are
wearing traditional Bavarian costume, not prison uniform. There is a bottle of beer (or
may be wine) on the table in front of them. Clearly, Hitler was allowed privileges that
most prisoners would have been denied. In fact, he was allowed many visitors and
access to papers and books. Consequently, he took the opportunity to start work on
‘Mein Kampf’ (My Struggle), which was a cross between his autobiography and a list of
his political ideas. In it he set out his plans for Germany and explained his hatred of
Jews.
The cover of the first edition of Mein Kampf
In the book, Hitler stated that:
The German people were a master race, a 'herrenvolk'.
All other races (Slavs, Jews, black people) were inferior.
Germany should be re-united and seize land to the east.
To make Germany great again, a new leader was needed.
Democracy was a weak system and should be replaced by dictatorship.
Communism was also evil.
Anyone who read it would have been left in little doubt about how he intended to act in
the future.
To read extracts from Mein Kampf, click here Kampf
However, there was still one final stroke of good luck in store for Hitler. He had been
expecting to be held in prison for five years, but instead, he was released after only nine
months. His sentence was reduced to eleven months but as he had already served two
before his trial, he was out in December 1924. Nevertheless, his time in prison had
given Hitler time to reconsider the tactics of the Nazi Party and the reasons for the
29
failure of the Putsch. He realised that a violent attempt to seize power would not work a
second time; if the Nazis were to be successful, they would have to behave much more
like normal political parties and that would mean major changes in the ways that the
Party was organised and how it went about its business. Consequently, when Hitler left
Landsberg Prison, he had a great deal to do.
The reorganisation of the Nazi Party
At first, the situation seemed to be quite hopeful for the Nazis. They put up candidates
for the first time in the general election in May 1924 and won 32 seats in the Reichstag;
it appeared that the Munich Putsch had not been such a disaster after all. But in a
second general election later in the year, the number of Nazi deputies fell to 14. The
failure of the Putsch and the growing success of Stresemann were beginning to have an
effect. Hitler was helped once again by the authorities in Munich. After the Putsch, the
Nazi Party had been banned in Bavaria, but in January 1925, the ban was lifted,
consequently, Party headquarters could be set up in Munich. Rudolf Hess took charge
of the Party structure. He also built the cult of the Fuhrer in order to draw together
support from different right wing groups.
Nationally, the Nazi Party was divided into thirty-five regions or ‘Gaue’. Each ‘Gau’ was
led by a ‘Gauleiter’, who controlled the local branches in his region. In addition,
however, there were also national organisations which were responsible to Hitler
directly. The SA, the Nazi Teachers’ Association, the Hitler Youth and other
organisations did not come under the control of the Gauleiters; they were controlled by
Hitler. This gave him great power within the Party and enabled him to deal with any
opposition. The most important group that Hitler controlled in person was the blackuniformed SS (Schutz Staffel). This was Hitler’s personal bodyguard and was formed in
1926.
Most of the leading figures in the Nazi Party had known Hitler for some years, but he
made one new appointment; Josef Goebbels was made head of propaganda. His job
was to put the Nazi message across as clearly as possible. In many ways Goebbels
was an unlikely Nazi. He was disabled and a Catholic; unlike most Nazis, he came from
the Rhineland. He was also an intellectual, whereas the Nazis usually attacked higher
education and proclaimed that the solutions to problems were simple. Goebbels was,
however, very important. He was able to portray the Weimar Republic as weak and
feeble and Hitler and the Nazis as the saviours of Germany.
As Germany recovered from the effects of the war under Stresemann, Hitler found that
the tactics that he had used in the years 1921 to 1923 were no longer effective.
Consequently, attacks on the Jews began to be toned down. They were still common in
Nazi newspapers, like the Volkischer Beobachter, but Hitler’s speeches to the general
public were more moderate. He began to concentrate on the need to rebuild Germany,
rather than blaming scapegoats. He also reined in the SA, the Brownshirts, who had
been used to attack political opponents. Many ex-soldiers and unemployed workers had
joined the SA because they were paid a few marks a week; were given a uniform and
could take part in fights with Communists. Their leader until 1923 had been Ernst
Roehm, a violent ex-soldier, who wanted to bring about a revolution in Germany in
favour of the workers. After the Munich Putsch, Roehm resigned and left Germany for
30
South America; he only returned in 1930 to take over leadership of the SA once again.
This helped Hitler to tone down SA activity after 1923. Most Germans were not in favour
of street violence while the German economy appeared to be doing well, but by 1930,
the picture was very different.
Checkpoint: The Reorganisation of the Nazi Party
What part was played by each of the following?
Rudolf Hess
Schutz
Staffel
Gauleiters
Josef
Goebbels
Volkischer
Beobachter
Nazi
organisations
For pictures of Nazi leaders, click here Nazis
The growth in Nazi support in the years 1929-32
In the 1928 elections to the Reichstag, the Nazis won only twelve seats, a drop of two
since 1924, but there were already signs of increased support. In 1928, unemployment
in Germany began to rise and the economy began to suffer. The worst effects were felt
in rural areas of northern Germany, where farmers had been struggling with low prices
for a number of years. Consequently, for the first time, the Nazis were able to win
31
support in an area outside of Bavaria. However, their real chance came in 1929, when
Hitler benefited from a series of strokes of luck.
The first came when Stresemann negotiated the Young Plan with US banks. This was
intended to reduce reparation payments but would have meant that Germany would
have had to go on making payments until the 1980s. Nationalists opposed the Young
Plan and Alfred Hugenberg, the multi-millionaire leader of the German National Party,
invited Hitler to take part in the Anti-Young Plan campaign. He was so impressed with
Hitler’s oratory that he subsequently decided to back the Nazis in successive election
campaigns. Without Hugenberg’s financial support, the Nazis would never have been
able to mount such effective campaigns as they did from 1930 to 1932.
Alfred Hugenberg with Nazis
32
The second stroke of luck was the sudden death of Gustav Stresemann on 3 rd October
1929. He had been responsible for Germany’s recovery from economic disaster after
the w end of the war and had rebuilt Germany’s international position since 1924. He
had organised both the Dawes and Young Plans. However, his greatest contribution
had probably been his presence in every coalition government since the summer of
1923, firstly as Chancellor and then as Foreign Minister. Unfortunately for Germany,
and fortunately for Hitler, there was no one capable of taking Stresemann’s place. His
death left a huge void in German politics, which Hitler was able to exploit.
The third stroke of luck came only three weeks after the death of Stresemann. On 24 th
October and again on 29th October, Wall Street crashed and the German economy went
with it. As US banks struggled to meet their commitments, loans to Germany under the
Dawes Plan were withdrawn and unemployment began to rise. Bruning’s attempts to
deal with the situation by reducing expenditure and raising taxes played into Hitler’s
hands. He was able pose as the champion of the ordinary people of Germany and could
offer simple solutions to deal with the problems that Germany faced.
In the 1930 general election, the Nazis launched a massive propaganda campaign to
attract as much support as possible. Hitler told the German people that the problems of
the Depression were not their fault. He blamed the Jews and the Weimar democrats for
Germany’s problems. He used them as a scapegoat. Hitler said that he would be able to
solve the problems. He offered strong leadership and easy solutions. He claimed that
he would do away with the Treaty of Versailles, which had treated Germany so badly
and make the country great again. Hitler was always backed up by large numbers of
disciplined and uniformed followers. Membership of the SA rose from 30,000 in 1929 to
440,000 in 1932. The discipline, the processions and the uniforms gave the impression
of toughness and knowing what was needed. It reminded people of the old days under
the Kaiser. Violence increased with the return of Ernst Roehm in 1930. This gave the
impression of action and purpose. They particularly attacked Communists, which
pleased middle class and business people. The chaos that resulted from street battles
also made the Weimar system look as though it could not keep order.
The Nazi Party propaganda chief, Goebbels, made the most of the opportunity. He had
Hugenberg’s money and newspapers to back Hitler. This enabled him to hire a private
plane to fly Hitler around Germany; he was the first politician to do this. He also had two
high-powered Mercedes to take him from airports to town halls to make speeches. The
result was that Hitler was able to speak to far more voters than any of the other
politicians in Germany. To back up this programme of speeches and appearances,
Goebbels organised torchlight processions, rallies, radio broadcasts and films. Nazi
propaganda was far ahead of any of their rivals and won increasing support from people
all over Germany.
In terms of electoral success, the Nazis achievements were remarkable. In the 1928
elections they had won just twelve seats, but in 1930, the number of Nazis in the
Reichstag increased to 107. Hitler achieved national popularity for the first time.
33
Nazi posters from 1930
National Socialism, the will of the nation
We are for Hitler
34
Checkpoint: Why did Nazi support increase from 1928 to 1932?
The Anti-Young
Plan campaign
The death of
Stresemann
The Wall Street
Crash
The Depression
Nazi propaganda
Hitler’s speeches
Alfred Hugenberg
The SA
35
The impact of the Great Depression, 1929-33
On 3 October 1929, Gustav Stresemann died suddenly. He had been responsible, more
than any other politician, for Germany’s recovery in the 1920s. Since 1923, he had been
in every coalition and exuded confidence in Germany’s future. The suddenness of his
death meant that there was little opportunity to plan for his replacement. This was
particularly significant because on Thursday, 24th October 1929, Wall Street, the
American Stock Exchange, crashed. There was a temporary recovery over the weekend
but there was a further major fall on Tuesday 29th October. The boom that had
sustained the US economy for the previous eight years suddenly came to an end.
Throughout the 1920s, the USA had experienced a great economic boom. It was partly
brought about by the First World War, when US companies had supplied the European
Allies and partly by the invention of the assembly line which enabled goods to be
produced and sold at much lower prices. The US government had encouraged the
boom by refusing to intervene in the economy. Consequently, as profits rose, share
prices went sky high. But much of the boom was financed by borrowing; even shares
could be bought ‘on the margin’ – ten per cent down and the balance paid off when the
price went up and the shares were sold. Finally, in October 1929, the bubble burst.
Share prices fell by up to eighty per cent and fortunes were lost. By 1930, a Depression
had begun; businesses were closing down and unemployment was rising.
How was Germany affected by the Depression?
Germany was much more badly hit by the effects of the Depression than any other
country. It had relied upon loans from the USA since 1924 and now the loans dried up.
By 1932, 6,000,000 Germans were out of work. Unemployment pay only lasted six
months. After that came real poverty and homelessness. Millions of Germans found
themselves thrown out of work and force to live in poverty on the streets of Berlin and
the other big cities.
The Weimar government seemed unable to deal with the crisis (along with most
governments in the world). The task of dealing with the effects of the Depression fell to
Chancellor Heinrich Bruning, who took office in March 1930. He was faced with a
Budget deficit of 1,700,000,000 marks and realised that desperate measures were
needed and persuaded the Allies to agree to Germany stopping reparation payments.
He then proposed restrictions on all pay settlements, reductions in welfare payments,
cuts in government spending, big tax increases and tight controls on credit. But his
proposals were rejected by the Reichstag, which was controlled by the Socialists. The
Socialists refused to cut unemployment pay and so went into opposition. Bruning used
Article 48 to enforce the Budget by presidential decree. When a majority in the
Reichstag demanded the withdrawal of the decree, Bruning called a general election in
September 1930.
Bruning hoped that the election would give him a majority in the Reichstag, but in fact it
only made his situation worse. The most significant result was an increase in the
numbers of Nazi and Communist deputies. The Nazis deputies in the Reichstag rose
from 12 to 107 and the Communists went up from 54 to 77. Bruning was forced to rely
even more on Article 48 of the Constitution and used presidential decrees to force
36
through his measures. For the next two years, President Hindenburg interfered time and
time again to keep Bruning’s government going. Consequently, Hindenburg and his
close adviser, General Kurt von Schleicher, became increasingly involved in the
government of Germany. They really wanted to undermine the Reichstag and establish
some sort of military government in Germany.
Unfortunately, the general election led to many foreign investors withdrawing money
from Germany. Within a couple of months, more than 600 million marks left the country
in foreign currencies and gold. This made it much more difficult for Germany to pay for
imports and weakened the economy still further. The full effects of the withdrawal did
not become really serious until July 1931, when an Austrian bank, the Kreditanstalt,
went bust. The shock resulted in a ‘run on the banks’; people with money in German
banks trying to withdraw their savings as quickly as possible. However, within a few
days all the banks were forced to close. The problem was that the banks just did not
have enough money to be able to allow people to make the withdrawals. This led to a
major crisis of confidence in the banking system. However, Bruning showed economic
skill and was able to tackle the situation by providing one billion marks to help the banks
out of the mess.
In fact, Bruning had a number of good ideas that might well have tackled the effects of
the Depression. The most important was the setting up of the Labour Service, in which
young men aged 18-20 spent six months doing public works. This was an effort to
tackle unemployment and was later taken over by Hitler after he came to power in
January 1933. Bruning managed to balance the budget by cutting government
expenditure, particularly on wages and, raising taxes. He also planned a customs union
with Austria in 1931, which would have encouraged German industry, but this was
banned under the Treaty of Versailles.
Unfortunately, Bruning did not get the opportunity to put his plans into operation.
Hindenburg wanted Bruning, who was a member of the Centre Party (Catholics), to take
more right wingers into the government. Bruning was against this because the Nazis
were brutal and intolerant; when he banned the Sturm Abteilung in April 1932,
Hindenburg and his advisers decided to get rid of him. He was sacked in May 1932 and
replaced by Franz von Papen. The latter was also member of the Centre Party, but had
virtually no support at all in the Reichstag. Consequently his appointment came as a
complete surprise. He was probably appointed at the suggestion of von Schleicher, who
wanted to take power himself. The problem that both men faced was that the Nazis
were the largest Party by far in the Reichstag with 230 seats after the July 1932 general
election.
The power struggle that developed in Germany in 1932 completely undermined all
attempts to tackle the effects of the Depression. Only Bruning had any real long term
plans; both von Papen and von Schleicher were interested in little more than political
power for themselves. The squabble that developed between them only served to pave
the way for Adolf Hitler to come to power.
To find out more about President Hindenburg, click here Hindenburg
37
Why were German governments unable to tackle the effects of the Depression
from 1929 to 1932?
Obviously one major reason was the fact that Germany had relied so heavily on US
loans since the Dawes Plan of 1924. When US banks demanded the return of their
money, the German government faced a financial crisis. Another long term reason was
the Weimar Constitution which made large majorities in the Reichstag almost
impossible. In 1930, Bruning had hoped to form a coalition using a group of parties, but
when the Socialists, the largest party, dropped out, he was left in a weak position. He
was forced to rely on presidential decrees to get his policies through. Bruning called a
general election, hoping that he would win a majority, but instead found that the Nazis
and Communists became much stronger.
Nevertheless, despite all of these problems, Bruning had the right ideas; his policies
might well have worked, if he had been given the opportunity. Unfortunately, there were
three reasons why he failed. The first was the success of the Nazis led by Hitler.
Bruning had no answer to the propaganda and dynamism of the Nazis, who appeared
to offer new hope to a nation in distress. Secondly, many of Bruning’s policies made the
situation worse in the short term; unemployment rose and wages fell. By contrast, Hitler
offered simple solutions and promised that Germany would recover.
In many ways, however, the most important reason for Bruning’s failure was neither his
policies not the appeal of the Nazis; it was the plotting of Hindenburg and von
Schleicher. Both men were army officers. Hindenburg had been commander-in-chief
during the First World War and von Schleicher was a general. They wanted a return to
the style of government that Germany had had before the First World War. Political
parties had been less important and the Kaiser, his ministers and the army had held
more power. Hindenburg refused to back Bruning in 1932 and forced his resignation.
This resulted in a squabble between von Schleicher and von Papen and Hitler
becoming chancellor. You will find full details of these events in the next section.
Heinrich Bruning
38
Checkpoint: Bruning and the Depression
Methods used by Bruning to tackle the Problems he faced in trying to tackle it
Depression
39
How did Hitler become chancellor?
In 1932, Hitler was confident enough to stand in the presidential elections against
Hindenburg. Hindenburg won 17 million votes, Hitler won 11 million. Hindenburg was
not at all pleased. He made it clear that he did not like Hitler, who only took German
nationality in 1932 so that he could stand for president. Hindenburg did not believe that
someone who had only been a corporal in the First World War had a right to challenge
him, a field marshal, for president. He also disliked intensely Hitler’s attacks on Jews
because Hindenburg was well aware that Jews had fought and died for Germany during
the war.
An election poster for Hindenburg in 1932
When the Nazis won the largest number of seats in the July 1932 general election,
Hindenburg refused Hitler’s request to be appointed Chancellor. In fact, Hindenburg had
been partly responsible for the calling of the election only two years after the previous
one. He had refused to back Bruning and was hoping to restore military style
government with General Kurt von Schleicher. Instead of Hitler, he appointed Franz von
Papen, a little known politician with almost no experience of politics.
Hindenburg’s interference and scheming was an important factor in Hitler becoming
Chancellor. Von Papen was unable to form a government and was forced to resign in
November 1932 and call a further general election. This time, the Nazis won 196 seats
and appeared to have shot their bolt, at least as far as some politicians were concerned.
This time, Hindenburg appointed General von Schleicher as Chancellor, but he was
even less successful than von Papen and stood no chance of forming a government.
The problem was that the two largest parties in the Reichstag were the Nazis and the
Communists and neither were in the government. This meant that it was impossible to
get a majority of votes to take action.
40
Franz von Papen
General Kurt von Schleicher
Von Papen, who was furious that von Schleicher had taken his place and was
determined to get rid of him, believed that there was a solution. He suggested to
Hindenburg that Hitler should be appointed Chancellor in order to gain the Nazi votes to
create a majority in the Reichstag. Von Papen would take the post of Vice-Chancellor
and the government would be a coalition with a minority of Nazi ministers. Von Papen
believed that Nazi support was falling and that Hitler was a nobody who could easily be
controlled. He promised Hindenburg that he would be in charge and that Hitler would be
no more than a figure-head
Hindenburg, against his better judgement, agreed. On 31 st January 1933 Hitler became
Chancellor of Germany. He led a coalition cabinet with three Nazi ministers. Why
Hindenburg did this is difficult to explain. He did not like Hitler and he did not particularly
like von Papen either. Hindenburg wanted Germany to be governed by the traditional
ruling class; people like himself and von Schleicher. He preferred a military style
government, with less democracy and more central control. There are a number of
possible explanations for his decision. Firstly, he was a very old man, almost eighty-six,
and he was probably persuaded too easily. He may well have been taken in by von
Papen’s claims and believed that Hitler could be controlled. However, almost certainly
he did not see von Papen as a long term solution; he would have much preferred von
Schleicher to take control and that was probably his long term aim. Whatever the
reason, his decision was fateful. Von Papen was out of his depth and Hitler’s coalition
government lasted little more than a month; by 6th March, Hitler was in control.
41
The coalition government: Hitler is in the centre with Goering on the left and von
Papen on the right. Standing on the right is Alfred Hugenberg
42
Checkpoint: Why was Hitler appointed Chancellor in January 1933?
What part did each of the following play in his appointment?
Hindenburg
Von Papen
Von Schleicher
For more information about Franz von Papen, click here Papen
For more information about General Kurt von Schleicher, click here Schleicher
43
The Nazi Dictatorship, 1933-39
The removal of Opposition, 1933-34
When Hitler was appointed Chancellor on 31st January 1933, Germany was already
beginning to recover from the worst effects of the Depression. The policies of Bruning
had begun to work and unemployment was on the way down from a peak at 7 million.
Hitler was only too ready to adopt Bruning’s Labour Front to get young men out of
unemployment for six months at the age of eighteen and take the credit for its success.
In fact, Hitler and the Nazis had almost run out of steam by late 1932. They had little
funds for further campaigns and the fall from 230 deputies to 196 in November
genuinely reflected a loss of appeal for many voters. If Hindenburg had not allowed
himself to be persuaded by von Papen, Nazi support would almost certainly have fallen
still further as the German economy recovered. Instead, Hitler was presented with an
opportunity of which he was determined to take the utmost advantage.
Von Papen, like most German politicians, had been convinced that Hitler was a
minor figure who could easily be controlled. The educated, middle and upper class
figures in the German establishment were fooled by Hitler’s rabble-rousing approach
to politics. They assumed that there was nothing more to Nazism than the bully-boy
tactics of the SA and Hitler’s violently anti-Semitic speeches. They believed that
Hitler, with his dreadful Austrian accent, would be easy prey for experienced
politicians. They were wrong. They had not read Mein Kampf, or taken serious note
of the Twenty-Five Point Programme. They had never seen how easily Hitler could
sway an audience with his powerful oratory. Nor were they aware of how effective he
was in taking advantage of opportunities.
To von Papen and Hindenburg it appeared that they had stitched Hitler up well and
truly when he was lured into a coalition government with nine non-Nazis in the
Cabinet. However, they were easily outflanked when Hitler persuaded the other
members of the Cabinet to call another general election on 5th March. He then
appealed to the German people to allow the Nazis four years to show what they
could do for Germany, after the other Weimar parties had had fourteen years. He
then used Article 48 to ban all political meetings and opposition newspapers.
However, it was the Reichstag Fire that gave Hitler his greatest opportunity.
At about 9.15 p.m. on 27th February, just one week before the general election, the
Reichstag burst into flames. Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch former member of the
Communist Party, was found inside the Reichstag and arrested. Other leading
communists were also arrested and were subsequently put on trial along with van
der Lubbe. In the event, all were found not guilty with the exception of van der
Lubbe, who was sentenced to death and executed by beheading. Hitler used the fire
as an excuse to issue the Decree for the Protection of the People and the State,
which allowed the government to arrest people, open the post and search private
houses. If state governments refused to obey, they could be dismissed and the
central government would take over. In fact the Decree gave Hitler dictatorial
powers, which he was only to ready to use. The Communist Party was accused of
starting the Fire and its leaders were arrested and sent to Concentration Camps; the
first was at Dachau outside Munich.
44
The Reichstag Fire: A Case study
Source A: The Reichstag on fire on the morning of 28th February 1933
SOURCE B: Van der Lubbe’s statement to the police, shortly after his arrest
At the outset, I must insist that my action on 27 February was inspired by political
motives. I was a member of the Communist party until 1929. In Holland I read that
the Nazis had come to power in Germany. Since the workers would do nothing, I
had to do something myself. I thought arson a suitable method. I did not wish to
harm people, but something that belonged to the system. As to the question
whether I acted alone, I declare emphatically that this was the case. No one at all
helped me.
SOURCE C: An extract from Goebbel’s diary for 27 February 1933. Goebbels
was entertaining Hitler to dinner on the evening of 27 February 1933.
At nine the Führer came for supper. We had a little music and talked. Suddenly the
telephone rang. The Reichstag is burning. I thought the news pure fantasy ad wouldn’t
even tell the Führer about it. After a few more calls I got the terrible confirmation it was
true. I informed the Führer, and we raced downtown at 70 m.p.h. The whole building was
in flames. Goering met us, and soon von Papen arrived. It had already been established
that the fire was due to arson. There was no doubt that the Communists had made a final
attempt to seize power by creating an atmosphere of panic and terror.
45
SOURCE D: The official announcement about the Reichstag Fire by the
Prussian Government, 2 March 1933 [Berlin was in the part of Germany known
as Prussia]
This act of incendiarism (arson) is the most monstrous act of terrorism so far carried
out by Communism in Germany. Government buildings and essential factories were
to be burned down. The burning of the Reichstag was to have been the signal for a
bloody revolt and civil war. Today was to have seen throughout Germany, terrorist
acts against individual persons, against private property, and against the lift and limb
of the peaceful population.
SOURCE E: The testimony of Karl van Ernst, S A Grupenführer. He was killed
in a purge in 1934. His testimony turned up in Paris soon afterwards.
I suggested to Goering that we use the subterranean passage because that would
minimise the risk of discovery. Goebbels insisted on postponing the fire from 25
February to 27 February because 26th was a Sunday, a day on which no evening
papers appeared so that the fire could not be played up sufficiently for propaganda
purposes. Goering and Goebbels agreed to throw suspicion on the Communists.
The Dutchman had to climb in the Reichstag after we had left and the fire was
already started. Van der Lubbe was to be left in the belief that he was working by
himself.
SOURCE F: From a British journalist’s interview with Hitler, March 1933
It is nothing but a damned lie and a malicious libel. It is ridiculous. Europe, instead
of suspecting me of false play, should be grateful to me for my drastic action against
the Bolsheviks. If Germany went Communist, as there was every prospect of it
going until I became Chancellor, the rest of civilised Europe would fall prey to this
pest. The attack on the Reichstag was just one of a whole series of terrorist
activities which the police are able to prove were planned by the Communists. We
have seized hundred-weights of material in the secret cellar of the communist
headquarters proving that these fires were to be the beacon signals for a nation-wide
campaign of dynamiting and mass murder.
For more information about the Reichstag Fire, click here
Photographs
Description
Study the sources and then fill in the table on the next page
46
Checkpoint: The Reichstag Fire
What evidence is there to back each of the following statements?
The Fire was started by van der Lubbe
The Fire was started by Communists
The Fire was started by Nazis
On the next page, explain what you believe was the most likely reason for the
Reichstag Fire.
47
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
48
Who did start the Fire remains a mystery. It is certain that van der Lubbe could not
have done it alone, not only because he was mentally subnormal, but he could not
have got around the Reichstag to all the starting points of the blaze. In 1942,
Hermann Goering is reported to have claimed responsibility, but the investigations of
Rudolf Diels, a Berlin policeman, suggested that it was started by members of the
SA who were then shot by the SS to prevent the truth being discovered. The leader
of the group, Karl Ernst, was killed in the Night of the Long Knives in June 1934.
However, what is not in doubt is that the Nazis were able to make very effective use
of the Fire. Goering, who was Interior Minister of Prussia, used the police to round up
Communists and spoke on the radio only minutes after the Fire was discovered. A
book published soon after the Fire described it as an attempt by Communists to
overthrow the government.
What is certain is that the Nazis used the Fire to attack the Communists.
The cover of a book published in Germany after the Reichstag Fire. The title is
‘Armed Uprising’.
49
However, despite the Fire and the Nazis attempts to use it as anti-Communist
propaganda, Hitler did not win an overall majority in the March general election. The
Nazis won 288 seats and 43.9% of the vote; it looked, therefore, as if they would
have to rely on the German National Party for a majority in the Reichstag, when it
met on 17th March. However, Hitler did not want to appear to rely on other parties, he
was determined that he was going to get his way and dominate the Reichstag with
overwhelming force. In fact, he was planning to give himself dictatorial powers by
passing the Enabling Bill, which would allow him to rule without reference to the
Reichstag for a period of four years. Consequently, intense pressure was put on
deputies either to vote for the Bill or not to attend when the Bill was discussed. As a
result, on 23rd March, the day of the vote, the Communists were all absent, either in
Concentration Camps or in hiding. Most of the minor parties voted for the Bill and
only the Socialists voted against and the Bill was passed by 444 votes to 94.
The passing of the Enabling Act meant that Hitler had gained dictatorial power
legally, as he had decided he had to while he was in prison after the Munich Putsch.
Anyone or any body that opposed him was acting unlawfully. There were now only
two ways in which he could be stopped: he could be dismissed by Hindenburg, the
president, or he could be deposed by opponents within the Nazi Party. Hindenburg
was beyond his control, but the old man was now senile and unlikely to take a stand
against such a popular Chancellor. Opponents within the Nazi Party were far more
serious and Hitler knew that he would have to deal with them sooner rather than
later. In the meantime, however, he had the opportunity of removing all potential
opposition in Germany using his powers under the Enabling Act.
Hitler’s intentions were made clear very quickly. In April there were boycotts of
Jewish shops organised by the SA. Although, as they all took place on Saturdays,
when most Jewish shops were closed, they had little effect. Much more sinister was
the occupation of all trade union offices from 2nd May and their subsequent banning.
They were replaced by the German Labour Front. The Socialist Party was banned in
June and the Law against the New Formation of Parties ordered all political parties
to be dissolved and made the Nazi Party the only legal political party in Germany. All
other organisations were either abolished or taken over by the Nazis.
By the end of July 1933, Hitler was in effective control of Germany and most
opposition was at an end. He now had to deal with opposition within his own Party
and the greatest threat came from Ernst Roehm, the leader of the SA, which he now
claimed had 3 million members. Roehm belonged to the Socialist wing of the Nazi
Party. He had been attracted to Hitler when he renamed the ‘German Workers’
Party’ as the ‘National Socialist German Workers’ Party’ in 1921. The name had
been nothing more than a ploy to attract as many supporters as possible and it had
worked. Some Nazis were first and foremost nationalists, others, including Roehm
were Socialists. Now that Hitler had completed the ‘first revolution’, Roehm wanted
to start the ‘second revolution’, which would impose Socialism on Germany.
Roehm wanted a complete break with the past, including ending the power of the
army and people like von Papen, Hindenburg and von Schleicher. Instead, he
wanted a Germany in which German workers were the dominant force and the first
step would be the integration of the army into the SA, with control being in the hands
50
of SA leaders. To make his point, Roehm began to make extravagant speeches, in
which he appeared to threaten Hitler, and the SA began to attack its opponents and
behave as if it were a law unto itself. By October 1933, the police were beginning to
protest at the behaviour of SA units, which they were unable to control.
Ernst Roehm with Hitler
By the spring of 1934, Hitler found himself in a very serious situation. Ernst Roehm
was demanding a Socialist revolution and he had the SA to back him up. The army
generals were horrified at the prospect of being taken over by the SA and Hitler
needed their support if he were to carry out his plans for Germany. To make matters
worse, Hindenburg was in poor health and seemed likely to die in the near future. If
the situation had not been sorted out when he died, the army might seize power to
prevent Roehm taking over. On 17th June, von Papen criticised the excesses of the
SA and hinted at the possibility of martial law. Hindenburg said much the same when
he met Hitler on 21st June. It was clear that something had to be done, and quickly.
Fortunately, for Hitler there was already a plan and it was put into practice on 30 th
June. Roehm had announced that the SA would stand down for the month of July
and summoned the leaders to a conference in Bavaria. Isolated, Hitler ordered the
leaders to be murdered and eliminated other potential opponents at the same time.
The SS was given the job. General von Schleicher and his wife were shot in Berlin
and Gregor Strasser, the most important socialist in the Nazi Party was also killed.
Altogether, more than 400 people were eliminated. Hitler completed the job by
dismissing von Papen.
For more information on the Night of the Long Knives, click here Night
51
When Hindenburg obligingly died on 1st August 1934, Hitler combined the posts of
Chancellor and President and gave himself the new title of Fuhrer. The armed forces
were made to swear an oath of loyalty to him personally. These decisions were
approved by a massive majority in a referendum in August. There was now nobody
who could stop Hitler.
Checkpoint: The Night of the Long Knives
Why did Hitler order the Night of the Long Knives?
Yes
To weaken the SA
To increase the power of the SA
To get rid of Ernst Roehm
To ensure the support of the German Army
To create the post of Fuhrer
To destroy the socialist wing of the Nazi Party
To eliminate political opponents
To destroy opponents with in the Nazi Party
To avoid martial law being declared by Hindenburg
To secure his position before Hindenburg died
No
52
The Police State
It had already become clear by August 1934 life under the Nazis was going to be very
different from life under the Weimar Republic. To put it simply, the Nazis wanted to
dominate every aspect of German society and anyone who disagreed with their policies
had to accept them or shut up. Opposition was not tolerated and opponents were dealt
with ruthlessly. On 22nd March, 1933, the first Concentration Camp had been opened at
Dachau to hold Communists; it, and others, came to be used for anyone who spoke out
against Nazi policies. Although at first detainees were sent to camps to keep them away
from other Germans, conditions gradually got worse and by 1945 they were little better
than the Extermination Camps such as Auschwitz. Prisoners were made to do forced
labour on construction sites and could be executed without reason.
Dachau in 1936
At first, Dachau and other camps were run by the Gestapo (Geheime Staats PolizeiSecret State Police), which had been set up in 1933 by Hermann Goering. It was
responsible for investigating cases of espionage, treason and sabotage and was
exempt from the jurisdiction of the courts. That meant that complaints against it could
not be made and cases could not be brought against its actions. Consequently, the
Gestapo could take any action that it wished without fear of protest or restraint. This
power became even greater in 1934, when Goering handed the Gestapo over to
Heinrich Himmler and in 1936 it was merged with the SS. The Gestapo favourite tactic
to deal with opponents of the regime was ‘protective custody’. This involved the arrest
and detention of individuals, who then had to sign a document stating that they had
requested being given protection against personal harm
From 1937, the camps were run by the SS. In fact, Dachau became the headquarters of
the SS education and medical services. The SS had been set up as a small protection
squad for Hitler in 1925, but grew enormously under it leader Heinrich Himmler. By
1934, it had more than 50,000 members and they acted as if they were above the law.
SS officers were attached to army units to ensure that regular officers obeyed Nazi
instructions. Eventually, the SS had three sections. One section operated as a form of
53
political police force, which became very powerful after it was merged with the Gestapo
in 1936. The Waffen SS was a fighting force with superior weapons to the army; by
1945 it had 950,000 members. The final section was the Death’s Head SS, which ran
the Concentration and Extermination Camps. Members of this group were selected for
their sheer brutality.
Roll call at a concentration camp in 1933
For more information about concentration camps, click here Camps
However, the Gestapo and the SS could never have maintained control of Germany on
their own; they used a network of spies and informers who kept watch on people all
over Germany. Every block of flats had a warden who checked on people when they
went out and wrote down details of visitors. Informers mixed with shoppers and listened
for anti-Nazi comments or criticisms of Hitler. People who made them could be arrested
and sent away for ‘re-education’, which usually meant a spell in ‘protective custody’.
Children were encouraged to report their parents’ activities when they attended Hitler
Youth meetings. At first, questions would be quite innocent, but later on children would
be asked what books their parents read and whether or not they had listened to Hitler’s
speeches on the radio. It all seemed harmless, but it enabled the Nazis to exercise
control over the German through fear.
Known opponents of the Nazis were ruthlessly suppressed. By the end of 1934, all
political opponents, communists, socialist and other political parties were either in
concentration camps or had fled abroad. It was more difficult to tackle opposition from
Churches and the Nazis adopted two different approaches.
54
Nazis soon dominated the government and the judicial system. All provincial
assemblies were closed and replaced by Gaus. Each of these was run by a
Gauleiter. Within each Gau were a number of Kreis (districts or counties), followed
by the Ort (municipal) level, which was the lowest in the Nazi Party organization.
There were also two additional lower local levels (Block and Zelle), describing Party
Cells and local Neighbourhood Blocks. By this point, all political leaders wore official
uniforms, with the piping and background colour of the uniform collar tabs indicating
which level of the Party (Local, County, Regional, or National) within which a Political
Leader served.
All judges were purged and replaced by Nazis. New People’s Courts were set up after
the failure to convict four of the defendants in the trial after the reichstag Fire.
The opening of the first People’s Court
55
Checkpoint: The Police State
How did the Nazis use the following?
Concentration
Camps
The Gestapo
The SS
Informers
Children as Spies
Wardens
Protective custody
56
The Catholic Church
Hitler himself claimed to be a Catholic, but he rejected Christianity because he believed
that defended the weak and was Jewish in origin. Nevertheless, he was reluctant to
come into conflict with the Catholic Church and in 1933 made an agreement
(Concordat) with the Church. He agreed to safeguard the rights of the Catholics if the
Church kept out of politics. No agreement was made with the Protestant Churches.
Despite the regime’s apparent acceptance of Christianity and the Concordat with the
Roman Catholic Church in 1933, it became increasingly obvious that Nazism and
religious belief did not mix. Criticisms of brutality and changes in education began in
1935 and resulted in priests being arrested, often on trumped up charges. In March
1937, Pope Pius IX attacked Nazis in an encyclical (open letter) and the regime
reacted by arresting hundreds of priests. The problem that the Nazis faced in dealing
with the Roman Catholic Church was that they faced, as Hitler well knew, an
organisation that was better organised than the were and which had a more powerful
propaganda machine than National Socialism. However, many priests were arrested,
sent to concentration camps and even shot.
The Protestant Churches
Unlike Catholics, Protestants belonged to many different Churches, consequently,
the Nazis believed that they would be able to deal more effectively with them. The
Nazis were supported by ‘German Christians’, an organisation which believed that
National Socialism and Christianity shared common values. In church elections in
1933, the organisation was able to take control of many churches and replace
ministers who did not support the Nazis. Opposition to Nazification was led by Martin
Niemoller who set up the Confessional Church; this soon claimed 75% support
amongst church ministers. When attempts at compromise failed, the Nazis reacted
by declaring the Church illegal and arresting ministers; 800 alone in 1937, many of
whom were sent to concentration camps. These tactics enabled the ‘German
Christians’ to gain control of the Confessional Church but did not end opposition to
the Nazi regime. Church ministers continued to speak out against the Nazis until
1945. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Protestant minister, criticised Nazi policy during the
Second World War and the Bishop Mainz attacked killings of Jews in 1941, but most
Christians were prepared to keep quiet for their own safety. Even the Confessional
Church tried to avoid outright criticism of the Nazis.
57
Checkpoint: The Nazis and Churches, how did the Nazis deal with Churches
The Catholic Church
The Protestant Churches
58
Censorship and propaganda
Terror could be very effective as a means of keeping control of Germany, but the Nazis
knew that on its own it would not be sufficient in a country with a population of 70 million
people. There would have to be an effective propaganda machine if the German people
were to accept the changes that the Nazis wanted to impose. The Nazis wanted to
change German society completely and although they gave the impression that working
men and women would feel the real benefits, in fact, the opposite was going to be true.
In his speeches before he became Chancellor, Hitler had often stated that we believed
that workers and farmers needed to be put first in Germany. The Nazis talked about a
‘golden age’ of small-holders, when people lived on the land and produced for
themselves. In power, they encouraged a return to ‘peasant’ values; women were
expected to wear traditional, simple dresses, without make-up or fashions. However,
preparation for war could not be carried out using traditional methods. Peasant farmers
and craftsmen were of no use if the German armed forces were to be rebuilt;
consequently, the Nazis encouraged the development of big business and massive
corporations, in which workers were insignificant. In fact, workers rights were all but
destroyed and wages and the standard of living fell. Somehow, the German people had
to be persuaded that all of these sacrifices were in their own interests.
The main architect of Nazi propaganda was Josef Goebbels, who had joined the Nazi
Party in 1926 and became Minister for Propaganda and Enlightenment in 1933. His job
was to persuade the German people to accept the changes being imposed by the Nazis
and to believe that Hitler knew best. He had totals control of all forms of media in
Germany and used them to the utmost. On the night of 31st January, immediately after
Hitler became Chancellor, the Nazis staged a massive parade through Berlin
celebrating the event. Goebbels arranged for the parade to be filmed, so that it could be
seen in cinemas across Germany. This was a major and very expensive undertaking
because it was filmed in colour and at night, but it had the desired effect. Goebbels
understood the impact that rows of disciplined men in uniform could have on a country
that had been in chaos for years.
Films and parades became major features of Nazi propaganda. The Nazis produced
hundreds of films all glorifying themselves and Germany. Feature films were made
about German heroes, such as the Teutonic Knights and Frederick the Great, who had
created the state of Prussia in the eighteenth century. Thousands of extras were used
to create massive battle scenes in which the Germans were always successful.
Newsreel films were made by directors like Leni Riefenstahl, who filmed the Olympic
Games in 1936. Her most famous film was ‘The Triumph of the Will’, which encouraged
people to fight against the odds. These films were intended to emphasise the superiority
of the German people and show how much progress had been made under the Nazis.
For more information about Leni Riefenstahl and the 1936 Olympic Games, click here
Riefenstahl
59
The final scene of the ‘The Triumph of the Will’
Parades and rallies were even more important because they could involve hundreds of
thousands of people. The most famous were the Nuremburg Rallies which were held
every November. They were a perfect example of the success of Nazi propaganda
because they commemorated the Munich Putsch of 1923, when Hitler had tried to seize
power in Bavaria. The Putsch had actually been a disaster and Hitler had run away, but
Nazi propaganda created a new version of the facts in which Hitler had acted heroically.
The Nazis were among the first to realise the potential of the radio for propaganda.
Goebbels took charge of all broadcasting and made programmes that reflected Nazi
values and virtues. Hitler’s speeches were broadcast regularly and cheap radios were
produced so that all Germans could listen. It was expected that a Nazi flag would be
flown from a window when Hitler was speaking, which was an easy way of finding out if
someone was actually listening.
All newspapers had been taken over in 1933 and the surviving ones were dominated by
Nazi propaganda. The most well known was the Volkischer Beobachter (People’s
Observer), which was in effect the official paper of the Nazi Party, but the most effective
was ‘Der Sturmer’, edited by Julius Streicher, which had first appeared in May 1923. For
twenty-two years, it attacked Jews in crude, vicious and vivid ways and contained
reports of scandals involving Jews. Its visual material was often sexually explicit and
attracted younger readers. It aimed to spread anti-Jewish propaganda and was directed
60
to a mass audience. Its sentences were short and its vocabulary elementary. By 1925,
there were cartoons in every issue. Photographs were added in 1930. The number of
pages in each issue increased over the years. In 1927, it had a weekly circulation of
14,000 copies. This was a very low figure and only increased slowly after the Wall
Street Crash. When Hitler came to power in 1933, this figure had only risen to 25,000.
The headline reads: Who is the Devil? At the bottom is the slogan: The Jew is
our unhappiness.
The big jump in circulation came after Hitler became Chancellor and reached its
highest figure of 486,000 in 1935. The paper could be read free of charge in public
places, consequently, its readership was higher than its circulation. On the occasion
of the annual Nuremburg rallies, print runs were as high as 2 million. Since it relied
61
on scandalous material supplied by Nazi members, production costs were low and it
sold cheaply. The profits it made were then used to finance other party activities.
After 1940, circulation dropped sharply, in part due to wartime paper shortages
although Hitler guaranteed enough paper to keep publication going. The final issue
appeared in February 1945 with Streicher attacking the Allied invasion as a Jewish
conspiracy.
A great deal of propaganda was directed at young people. The Nazis were aware that if
the Reich was to last ‘a thousand years’ they would need to get the youth of Germany
on their side. Education was completely re-structured and children were indoctrinated
from the earliest possible age. The Nazis even produced nursery rhymes for mothers to
recite to babies.
A Nazi Nursery Rhyme
What puffs and patters?
What clicks and clatters?
I know what, oh what fun!
It’s a lovely Gatling gun
The real aim of the Nazis was to break down family relationships. They wanted children
to loyal to Hitler first and to their parents second. Consequently, Hitler was described as
their father in schoolbooks. Children were bombarded with Nazis propaganda at school
and in the youth movements, which they attended after school and at weekends. This
appears to have been successful. There seems to have been no mass feeling of
resentment against Hitler, at least until the middle of the war.
Part of a speech made by Adolf Hitler on 18 June 1933
We will educate our youths to that which we wish later to see in them. If there are
folk here and there who think they cannot change their outlook, then we will take
their children away from them and train them up into that which is necessary for the
German people.
Posters continually reminded Germans about the basic Nazi ideas. Men and women
had separate and quite distinct roles in society. Women were mothers and housewives;
men were soldiers and workers. These ideas were reinforced by films and the radio.
Newsreels showed events in Germany, roads being opened, rallies and speeches by
Hitler. Some films were made in colour to catch people's attention. They showed the
successes of the Nazis.
62
Nazi posters showing Hitler sowing peace and as the Fuhrer
Sport played a key role in Nazis propaganda. If Germany was to rise from the ashes, the
German people had to be fit and healthy. Men had to be fit so that they could fight in the
armed forces; women so that they could have large numbers of healthy children. The
marriage loan and the Mutterkreuz (Mothers’ Cross) (see next section) both encouraged
women to give up work, stay at home and have as many children as possible. Cross-country
was encouraged for all and boxing was made compulsory for boys. German had to become
used to pain and have the desire to win. The most important example of sport as propaganda
was the Olympic Games in 1936. Persecution was toned down and visitors only saw the
enormous progress that Germany had made under Nazi control. Hitler hoped that German
athletes would dominate the Games, which they did in many sports. However, the greatest
achievement was the winning of four events by Jesse Owens, the black American athlete.
Hitler stormed out of the stadium rather than present the awards.
The Nazis encouraged sport, but were not nearly so keen on the arts. This was partly
because they despised intellectuals, who they believed did little or nothing for Germany. They
preferred action to thinking. Consequently, intellectuals and academics were forced to join
Nazi organisations or be banned from taking part in national life. Musicians, playwrights,
authors, photographers, teachers and others were all required to abide by the rules of their
organisations, which prohibited criticism of the Nazis. They became members of the Reich
Chamber of Culture. Expulsion from the Chamber meant being banned from working. Only
approved artists, writers and musicians were allowed to practise and have their works
displayed or performed. That meant that composers like Mendelssohn, Hindemith and
Schoenberg were all banned and the writings of Jewish authors were censored. On the other
hand, Hitler’s favourite composer, Wagner, was played regularly and Hitler attended many
performances. Beethoven was acceptable, but the Nazis liked performances to be as
energetic and fast as possible. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which usually takes about sixtyfive minutes, was performed in forty-five minutes under the Nazis.
For more examples of Nazi posters, click here
63
Censorship was the other side of the propaganda coin. News from abroad was strictly
controlled and the vast majority of people only ever heard the Nazi version of events. This
portrayed the Allies conspiring against Germany in 1918-19 and now suffering far worse than
the German people under the Nazis. Most Germans had no access to any sources of news
from outside the country, and those that did usually kept it to themselves. From 1933, libraries
were ransacked and books written by Jews, or displaying anti-Nazi ideas were burnt. ‘All
Quiet on the Western Front’, and anti-war novel was rooted out as were copies of H G Wells’
novels ‘Things to Come’. It predicted a third world war in which humanity would be all but
destroyed.
For more information about the ‘Burning of the Books’, click here Books
So effective was Goebbels and the Ministry of Propaganda, that there was very little
opposition to the Nazis before 1939 and almost none until 1942, after three years of war.
Hitler’s claim that unemployment had fallen from 6 million to 500,000 and his successes
abroad satisfied most people. The promise of a Volkswagen was an even greater inducement
to accept Nazi rule and get on with life. Just what sacrifices that involved will be explained in
the next section.
Checkpoint: Propaganda
How did the Nazis use the following?
Films
Der Sturmer
Volkischer
Beobachter
Posters
The Arts
Censorship
64
Nazi domestic policies, 1933-39
Nazi policies towards women and the young
During the Weimar Republic, women had had full, legal equality with men. That did not
mean that there were equal numbers of women in all professions and all jobs, but they
were not officially discriminated against in law. There were 100,000 female teachers, 3,000
female doctors and 13,000 female musicians and women working for the government got
the same pay as men. There was a strong women’s movement in Germany. Women had
the vote and there were 30 women representatives in the German parliament.
All of that changed when Hitler came to power. He had made his views very clear about
the role of women in Germany. Their purpose was to produce babies, bring up children
and care for their homes and husbands. Outside certain specialist areas, Hitler saw no
reason for women to work. In 1921, the Nazis had banned all women from their party
leadership and committees. Only 3% of Party members were women.
Within months of Hitler coming to power, all married women doctors and civil servants and
most married teachers were dismissed. Women were barred from all involvement in the
law courts, whether as judges, lawyers or jurors. All women MPs were dismissed. There
was some logic in the idea that, in a time of high unemployment, women should leave the
paid jobs for men and concentrate on the unpaid job of housework. Consequently, in 1933,
women formed 37% of the labour force, but in 1939, the figure was only 33%. However, it
was higher in clothing and textiles and in distributive trades and catering. By the start of
the Second World War, there were even fewer German women in work. However, such
was the skills shortage that in 1937 a law was passed forcing women to do a ‘Duty Year’.
This meant that they could work in a factory to help the Nazi ‘Economic Miracle’.
Under Nazi rule only 10% of university places were for women and one third of high school
places. Girls were prevented from taking university entrance exams and the high school
syllabus was changed so that girls studied mainly domestic subjects. From their earliest
years, girls were taught that all good German women got married at a young age to a
German man and that their task was to keep a good home for her husband and to have
children.
The Nazis also tried to change the role of married women. Shortly after coming to power in
1933, all women’s groups were merged into a single ‘German Women’s Enterprise’, the
Deutsches Frauenwerk. It had 6 million members and organised Mothers’ Schools to train
women in household and parenting skills. In 1933, the Nazis also introduced The Law for
the Encouragement of Marriage. It stated that all newly married couples would receive a
government loan of 1,000 marks. This was about 9 months average income and 800,000
newly weds took up the offer. They had to agree that the future wife should give up her
job. This loan was not to be simply paid back. The birth of one child meant that 25% of the
loan did not have to be repaid. Two children meant that 50% of the loan did not need to be
paid back. Four children meant the clearing of the whole loan. The law aimed to
encourage newly weds to have as many children as possible but it had more long term
and sinister aspects. As Germany grew, she would need more soldiers and mothers.
Hence, a booming population was needed with young boys groomed as soldiers and
young girls as mothers. If ‘lebensraum’ (living space) was to be achieved, Hitler needed
German people to fill the spaces gained in Eastern Europe. It was therefore essential to
boost Germany’s population.
65
The marriage loan system encouraged many young people to marry early but did not
result in more babies. In 1900, the average births per thousand were 33.0. By the mid1920s, this had fallen to 20.3. In 1933, when the Nazis took power, it had dropped further
to 14.7. It did not rise throughout the 1930s. This was despite the creation of the
‘Mutterkreuz’ (Mothers’ Cross). Women who had four children were presented with the
bronze 'Mutterkreuz' on Hitler's mother's birthday. For six children a woman received the
silver cross and four eight children the gold cross.
A Mutterkreuz and the accompanying certificate; it reads, ‘To the Women of the
German People’.
A Bronze Mutterkreuz
66
The Nazi Party was quite simply a man’s party. There were no women in senior positions.
Hitler and the Nazis did not believe in equality for the sexes. Women had to stay at home,
produce more children and look after the family. This was for both racial reasons, to
produce more racially-pure Germans and for economic reasons to solve unemployment by
removing women from the labour market.
67
There was a great deal of propaganda about the ideal German family. Photographs and
posters showed the woman looking after the children and the man going out to work and
protecting the wife. Nazi propaganda also discouraged wearing make-up, high heels,
perfume, smoking in public because women were not expected to waste money on
themselves. Women’s roles could be summarised as three 'Ks', Kinder, Kirche, Kuche or
Children, Church, Cooking. Women with hereditary diseases or metal illness were
sterilised so as to keep the German race 'pure'. Unmarried women could volunteer to have
a child by a 'pure Aryan' SS member.
The Nazi ideal woman
68
German girls wearing peasant dress
To view a powerpoint on women in Nazi Germany, click here Powerpoint
To try an exercise on women in Nazi Germany, click here Exercise
69
Checkpoint: Women in Nazi Germany
How did the Nazis use the following to control the role of women?
Education
Propaganda
Youth
Movements
Mutterkreuz
KKK
Marriage Loan
Deutsches
Frauenwerk
70
Education
All schools now came under Nazi control. All school books were rewritten and included
Nazi ideas about hatred of the Jews and war. All teachers had to join the Nazi Teachers’
League. They had to be careful what they said in class. Children were encouraged to
inform the authorities if a teacher said something that did not fit in with the Nazi thinking.
There was always potential for conflict between teachers and pupils because Nazism was
anti-intellectual. It emphasised physical strength and power and played down the
importance of the intellect. Despite this, 32% of German teachers were Nazi Party
members by 1936 and they made up 14% of the Nazi Leadership Corps. Party leaders
encouraged the involvement of teachers because it gave a front of respectability when
other members could be more violent and brutal.
Boys and girls went to separate schools so that they could be taught different subjects. The
curriculum was changed. Subjects concentrated upon German history and nationalism. Girls
were prevented from studying science and could only learn the mathematics necessary to be
a housewife. They did not study any foreign languages. In history, students were taught about
great events of German history, from a pro-German point of view. The Nazis view of the First
World War, the ‘stab in the back’ was included as ‘the truth’. In geography, students studied a
possible invasion of Poland and looked for the best routes and possible obstacles to be
overcome. Science covered the development of new weapons and problems of ballistics. In
biology, students were taught the phoney ‘race science’ called eugenics, which was designed
to ‘prove’ the superiority of the German race. In PE, pupils got much more physical exercise.
Boxing became compulsory for boys and girls had to become fit and healthy for childbirth.
One mathematics problem even asked students to calculate the financial cost to Germany of
looking after the disabled and mentally ill.
Part of the report of the German delegation to the Fourth International Education
Conference in Geneva, August 1935
Courses of instruction in Biology shall deal primarily with heredity, the theory of the
survival of the fittest. The importance of physical exercise and gymnastics for the
development of will power and healthy thinking are recognised in the form of three
compulsory gymnastic exercises each week. Stress is not so much to be laid on mere
instruction, but upon positive character-building. In other words, the schools should teach
not only how to think, but also how to act.
Indoctrination was common in all subjects. Teachers were expected to use every
opportunity to attack the Jews. Textbooks and library books were re-written to include antiJewish propaganda. Books by Jewish authors were burnt. From 1935 onwards, Jewish
children were not allowed to attend schools. In 1937, pupils were given the choice of
studying Religious Instruction or not. The Nazis were to lessen the influence of Catholic
schools. Within two years of their coming to power, 76 of the 93 Catholic elementary
schools in Munich had become non-denominational.
For boys considered special, different schools were created. Those physically fitter and
stronger than the rest went to Adolf Hitler Schools where they were taught to be future
leaders of Germany. Six years of tough physical training took place and when the boys left
at 18, they went to the army or university. The very best pupils went to Order Castles.
These schools took pupils to the limits of physical endurance. War games used live
71
ammunition and pupils could be killed. Graduates from the Order Castles could expect a
high position in the army or the party.
Nazi policies on education often had detrimental effects. Whilst the grammar schools
generally maintained their high status, standards in elementary and vocational schools fell.
Teacher morale also appears to have suffered. In 1938, the size of the teaching force was
17,000 lower than in the Weimar period. Some became disillusioned by constant changes
in government policy. Others were unhappy about the greater importance apparently given
to the Hitler Youth.
Checkpoint: Education
In what ways were boys and girls educated differently in Nazi Germany?
Boys
Girls
To find out more about education in Nazi Germany, click here Education
72
What happened in the Nazi Youth Movements?
In the early years of the Nazi Party, Hitler made it clear what he expected of German
children. He said, ‘The weak must be chiselled away. I want young men and women who
can suffer pain. A young German must be swift as a greyhound, as tough as leather and
as hard as Krupp steel’. Nazi education schemes fitted in with this but Hitler wanted more
control of the minds of young Germans - hence The Hitler Youth. It began in the 1920s
and by 1932 its membership was 35,000. A year later when Hitler came to power, it
claimed 100,000 members. Baldur von Shirach led the Hitler Youth and was personally
responsible to Hitler himself. As other youth organisations like the Scouts and Protestant
and Catholic groups were banned, the movement grew. In 1936, it had 4 million members
– in the same year, membership became compulsory. Youths could avoid active service if
they paid their subscription but this became virtually impossible after 1939.
The Hitler Youth was a collection of several movements. Boys between the ages of 6 and
10 were enrolled in the Pimpfen (Little Fellows) where they were taught to enjoy exercise,
hiking and camping and were introduced to Hitler’s ideas. Boys aged 10 joined the
Deutsches Jungvolk (German Young People). Here they swore personal allegiance to
Hitler and became more familiar with military discipline and military music. Between 14 and
18, boys were expected to devote themselves to the Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth). This
placed much greater emphasis on military training.
A poster for the Hitler Youth; it reads ‘Youth serves the Fuhrer. Ten Years in the
Hitler Youth
73
At the age of 10, girls joined the Jungmadelbund (League of Young Girls) where they were
trained for health and motherhood. This was taken further between the ages of 14 and 21
in the Bund Deutscher Madel (League of German Maidens) At the age of 17, some girls
left and joined the organisation known as ‘Faith and Beauty’ with its emphasis on physical
culture.
Part of the memoirs of a German woman remembering her time in the League of
German Maidens
One day, fittingly enough on Hitler’s birthday, my age group was called up and I took the
oath: ‘I promise always to do my duty in love and loyalty to the Fuhrer.’ I was not, however,
thinking of the Fuhrer when I raised my right hand, but of the attractive prospect of games,
sports, hiking, singing, camping and other exciting activities away from the home and from
school. A uniform, a badge, a salute there seemed to be nothing to it. Thus
unquestioningly I acquired membership.
It was not long however, before plain-faced leaders taught us marching drill and marching
songs. I hated marching. There were lectures on Nationalism Socialism, stories about
modern heroes and about Hitler, while extracts from Mein Kampf were used to put forward
the new racial doctrines.
Meetings of the various sections took place in the evenings but there were also weekend
activities often outdoors. These often took the form of camps. These appear to have been
greatly enjoyed, as were the annual camps. In 1936, 100,000 members of the Hitler Youth
and Girls League attended the Nuremburg Rally. The Hitler Youth emphasised
commonality, a communal or collective approach with the individual being given less
importance. To the outside world, the Hitler Youth personified German discipline. In fact,
this image was inaccurate. Schoolteachers complained that boys and girls were so tired
from attending evening meetings of the Hitler Youth that they could scarcely stay awake at
school the next day. By 1938, attendance at Hitler Youth meetings was barely 25%. In
1939, it was decided to make attendance compulsory. After this, it reached 90%.
To find out more about the Nazi youth movements, click here Youth
To see photographs of the League of German Maidens, click here Maidens
74
Employment and the standard of living
When the Nazis took power in 1933, they inherited an economy with high unemployment.
There were 6 million unemployed – a third of the nation’s labour force. Average weekly
earnings for those in work had dropped by 33% as a result of the Depression. By January
1939, the unemployment figure was 302,000, a spectacular reduction over six years. Hitler
and the Nazis were therefore credited with an “economic miracle”. Was this true or was
the Nazi propaganda machine particularly successful in persuading the nation of the
success of party policies?
In reality, the peak of mass unemployment had already been passed in the autumn of
1932.The economy was beginning to revive as part of a natural cycle. In the November
elections of that year, the Nazi vote declined by 2 million. Nevertheless, the Nazis adopted
a number of strategies causing unemployment to fall. Women were no longer included in
the statistics. This meant that any woman who remained out of work did not exist as far as
the statistics were concerned. The unemployed were given a simple choice – do whatever
work is given to you by the government or be classed as ‘work-shy’ and be sent to a
concentration camp.
The Nazis used various tricks to give the impression that unemployment was falling
rapidly. Jews lost their citizenship in 1935. As a result, they were not included in the
unemployment figures even though they may have been without work since 1933.
Many young men were removed from the unemployment figures when conscription was
introduced in 1935 and they had to serve in the armed forces. By 1939, the army was 1.4
million strong. Supplying these men with weapons created many new jobs. In fact, by
1937-38, workers became a scarce commodity and by 1939 the demand for labour
exceeded supply by half a million.
German re-armament gave a huge boost to industry, which soon had millions of new jobs.
From 1935, at first secretly, then quite openly, Hitler ordered the building of submarines,
aircraft and tanks. This was quite contrary to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The army
was increased from 100,000 to 1,400,000 by 1939. Every man had to do two years military
service when he left the Labour Service.
Nazi propaganda attempted to convince workers that their living standards had risen since
1933. Compared to the low levels of 1932, they had. Compared to the higher levels of
1929, they had not. Great efforts were put into organising workers and keeping them
satisfied and under control.
The Labour Service
In the spring of 1933, German trade unions offered their support and cooperation to the
new Nazi regime. On May Day 1933, they were smashed. Throughout Germany, workers
were shepherded into local sports stadia whilst SA members seized trade union buildings
and financial assets. Any who spoke out against this faced arrest and imprisonment.
Strikes became illegal. In June 1936, a 17 minute stoppage at the Russelheim Opel
Works, during which, 262 workers protested against a wage cut, led to the immediate
arrest of seven ‘ringleaders’.
75
The Nazis introduced new ways of organising workers. One of them was the
Reicharbeitsdienst or RAD – The National Labour Service. The Labour Service built many
of Germany’s autobahns.
The men of the RAD wore military style uniforms, lived in camps near to where they were
worked and received what may be termed ‘pocket money’; about 50p a week. A period of
six months in the Labour Service became obligatory for eighteen year olds. Much of the
work was done by hand, even though machinery was available, because that created
more jobs and toughened men up for military service, which came next.
The Labour Service also allowed the Nazis to extend their control of young people for
another six months. After their education and period in the youth organisations, young
people were subject to Nazi propaganda throughout their time in the Labour Service.
76
Hitler starting work on the first autobahn in 1934
77
A Nazi poster advertising the new autobahns
For more information about, and pictures of, the autobahns, click here Autobahns
78
Many parents were pleased that it appeared to give young Germans some sense of
purpose. The National Labour Service also had a women’s section. Its members were
trained in a severe way. They were taught to do without cosmetics, to dress simply, to
display no individual vanity, to sleep on hard beds and to forgo all culinary delights. May
Day became National Labour Day and overshadowed every other event in the Nazi
calendar in terms of mass participation.
Checkpoint: Tackling unemployment
Hitler claimed that unemployment fell from 6 million in 1933 to less than 500,000 in
1939; was this a genuine fall?
Genuine because
Not genuine because
79
The Labour Front
To ‘protect’ those in work, the German Labour Front (DAF) was set up, led by Dr.Robert
Ley. The Labour Front took over the role of the banned trade unions, which it did – to an
extent. Ley ordered that workers could not be sacked on the spot but he also decreed that
a worker could not leave his job without government permission. Workers had to pay
membership dues to the Labour Front, which were deducted from their wages. This
method of collection was introduced after door-to-door collections were discredited as
dishonest. By 1939, the Labour Front had increased the number of weekly hours worked
from 60 to 72 (including overtime). Strikes were outlawed. However, the average factory
worker was earning ten times more than those on dole money and there were few
complaints. In enforcing legislation on wage levels and working conditions, the Labour
Front backed large firms rather than small ones when they were in dispute with workers.
Wage levels remained low.
‘Kraft durch Freude’ (KdF) – Strength through Joy
The Nazi belief in controlling the lives of German workers extended to their leisure time.
Ley and the KdF calculated that each worker had 3,740 hours per year free from work to
pursue leisure activities. The state, through the KdF, would provide these. There was a
long list of activities for workers to select from. They included, theatre performances and
concerts, hikes and sporting events, holidays and cruises, museum tours and exhibitions,
weekend trips and courses and lectures organised by the German Adult Education Office.
In the Berlin area, between 1933 and 1938, KdF organised 21,146 theatre performances
involving 11,507,432 people. They also arranged 61,503 museum tours for over 2½ million
people.
Workers in the Third Reich averaged between 6 and 15 days paid holiday each year.
Under Weimar, the figure was between 3 and 8 days. The prospect of cheap holidays
organised by KdF was a sure way to win the support of many ordinary Germans. A cruise
to the Canary Islands cost 62 marks – easily affordable for many. Walking and skiing
holidays in the Bavarian Alps and Hartz Mountains cost 28 marks. A 14-day tour of Italy
cost 155 marks. In 1938, 10 million Germans took part in KdF holidays. The vast majority
were trips of a few days or a week. Of that 10 million, 138,000 took part in longer cruises.
The specially built cruise ships had identical accommodation for crew and passengers.
The aim was to elevate the status of the workers, but in reality, the number of workers
participating in KdF cruises was limited. Cruise places were often filled by Nazi Party
officials.
The KdF also organised P.E. sessions and provided sports facilities in factories and
workplaces. By the middle of the war, 5 million KfD certificates had been issued for
sporting achievements. Belief in ‘folk community’ again ran through many KfD activities –
the idea of individuals losing their identities within groups was very strong.
80
A poster advertising the Volkswagen and its benefits for the German family
In 1938, the KdF launched the Volkswagen (The People’s Car), designed by Ferdinand
Porsche. It was priced at below 1,000 marks-repayable over 4 years. The VW would
involve buyers in weekly instalments (plus insurance) of 6 marks per week, exclusive of
running charges. In theory, when the account reached 750 marks, the worker would be
given an order number leading to him receiving a car. The foundation stone of the VW
plant was laid in 1938, two months after the Anschluss. Show models were exhibited at the
Munich and Vienna autumn fairs. By November 1940, there were 300,000 potential
purchasers but no cars were produced – only a few show models. No one received a car.
The millions of marks invested were re-directed into the expanding weapons industries.
This accelerated as World War Two approached.
Schonheit Der Arbeit (Beauty of Labour)
This was a movement aiming to improve working conditions in factories. It introduced
features not seen in many workplaces before such as washing facilities and low-cost
canteens. Beauty of Labour was a section of the German Labour Front created by Robert
Ley on 30th January 1934. It organised factory celebrations, folk dancing and political
education. It existed alongside the similar Strength through Joy movement.
81
Checkpoint: The standard of living
Were workers better off in Nazi Germany?
Yes, they were
No, they were not
82
Jews in Weimar Germany
During the Weimar years, German Jews were citizens in every respect. They were found
in all walks of life, especially the professions such as law, medicine, the universities and
the civil service. During the time the German economy was recovering under Stresemann,
Hitler’s attacks on the Jews were listened to by only a few.
In 1933, Jews made up 1% of the total German population, but 16% of all lawyers
practising in the Reich were Jews. They also accounted for 10% of all doctors and dentists
and 5% of university lecturers. In the financial world, 17% of German bankers were
Jewish. In the same year however, 1 in 3 Jewish taxpayers had an annual income of less
than 2,400 marks and 1 in 4 Jews in Berlin were receiving charity.
The treatment of Jews under the Nazis
After January 1933, the Jews became the ‘Untermenschen’ – the sub-humans. In April, the
first official boycott of Jewish shops, doctors and lawyers began. Nazi Stormtroopers
stopped Germans shopping in Jewish shops. The purpose of the boycott was to bankrupt
Jewish shopkeepers and to destroy what they had spent years building up. Later the same
month, the Civil Service excluded Jews from government jobs. In 1934, they were
forbidden from taking legal and pharmaceutical examinations. On buses, trains and in
parks, Jews had to sit on seats labelled for them. In school, children were taught antiSemitic ideas. Jewish children were ridiculed by their teachers and their bullying in the
playground by other children went unpunished. If Jewish children responded by not
wanting to go school, this served its purpose.
Stormtroopers outside a Jewish shop, however, it is closed because the boycotts
were on Saturdays.
83
The Nuremberg Laws
In these laws passed in September 1935, Jews lost their right to be German citizens and
marriage between Jews and non-Jews was forbidden. After this, violence against the Jews
began in earnest. Those that could pay fines were allowed to leave the country. Many
could not and many shops refused to sell food to those who remained. Medicines were
difficult to get hold of - many chemists would not sell to them. In fact, between 1933 and
1939, about 250,000 Jews left Germany. In 1936 and 1937, the professional activities of
Jews were restricted or prohibited. These professions included teachers, dentists,
surveyors, auctioneers, nurses and chartered accountants.
A chart used to explain the Nuremberg Laws. It lists which people are to be
considered Jews.
During the course of the Olympic Games, held in Berlin in 1936, open violence towards the
Jews was suspended, largely to give a favourable impression of the regime to the
international press. But persecution began again in earnest the following year. On 12 th
June 1937, a secret decree from Heydrich declared that Jewish women who had sexual
intercourse with Germans were to be sent to concentration camps. On 17 th August 1938,
all male Jews were ordered to add the name ‘Israel’ and all female Jews the name ‘Sara’
to their non-Jewish first names. On 30th September, the qualifications of Jewish doctors
were cancelled.
Kristallnacht
On 7th November 1938, Ernst von Rath, a German diplomat, was murdered in Paris by
Herschel Grunspan, a Jew. In retaliation, Hitler ordered a seven-day campaign of terror
against German Jews organised by Himmler and the SS. The campaign began on 9th
November with ‘Kristallnacht’ – The Night of Broken Glass. 10,000 Jewish shops were
destroyed and their contents stolen. Homes and synagogues throughout Germany were
set on fire and left to burn. Fire brigades showed their loyalty by letting the buildings burn.
84
Massive damage was done to Jewish property but the Jews themselves were ordered to
pay a fine of 1 billion marks to pay for the clear up. They were even forced to scrub the
streets clean. After ‘Kristallnacht’ over 30,000 Jews were sent to concentration camps.
They were later released after they had promised to leave the country.
A synagogue burning during Kristallnacht
For more photographs of Kristallnacht, click here and here
The period of terror beginning with ‘Kristallnacht’ was a major escalation of the violence
towards German Jews. On 15th November 1938, Jewish children were excluded from
schools and universities. On 3rd December, Jewish shops were closed and compulsorily
sold. In 1939, with war approaching, anti-Jewish measures became particularly harsh. In
February, they were forced to hand over all gold and silver objects and jewels in their
possession.
Once war broke out, the restrictions on Jews became much harsher. On 1st September, a
curfew was imposed on all Jews – 8 pm in winter and 9 pm in summer. On 23rd
September, all Jewish owned radios were confiscated. Towns and villages put up notices
on their approach roads – ‘Jews not wanted here’. Holiday resorts advertised themselves
as ‘free of Jewish taint’. In towns, it was usual to see outside a swimming pool the notice
‘Bathing prohibited to Dogs and Jews’.
85
Checkpoint: Anti-Semitism
What happened in each year?
Date
Action
Purpose
1933
1935
1938
1939
For more information about the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany, and some revision, click
here Jews
86
Despite all of the propaganda and regulations which the Nazis imposed from 1933, many
Germans found themselves getting better off; transport improved, there was more security.
Germany seemed to be recovering. In 1936 the Olympic Games were held in Berlin and the
Rhineland was reoccupied. Both these events made Germans proud of their country. The
‘Strength through Joy’ campaign gave workers cheap holidays, concerts, sport. The attempt
to build a cheap car, the Volkswagen, failed until after the war. After what had happened to
their country in the years after 1919 and during the Depression, many people were prepared
to accept Nazism. They preferred to close their eyes to the arrests of opponents, the
mistreatment of the Jews, the Nazi corruption. At least until the war started going badly, about
1942, most people were quite ready to go along with the Nazis.
Checkpoint: Life in Nazi Germany – better or worse?
Better
Worse
87
German foreign policy 1933-1945
In 1933, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. During the Depression his ideas for
Germany had won him tremendous support. His ideas were there for all to see and read in
his book ‘Mein Kampf’ (My Struggle). He believed in the idea of Grossdeutschland –
Greater Germany – this would comprise of all German-speaking people. He attacked the
Treaty of Versailles and promised to repudiate it. Above all he spoke of Lebensraum –
living space – when he had created Grossdeutschland, Germany would need extra land to
feed its population. This land would be found in the east. Moreover, these expansionist
policies could only be successfully achieved if Germany had strong armed forces. Thus it
seemed that when he took office there might be some diplomatic issues. However, he did
stress that he wished to achieve his aims as far as possible by diplomatic means.
Hitler’s first diplomatic move was to order the German delegates to walk out of the
Disarmament Conference and he stated that Germany was prepared to disarm if other
nations did so as well. He then left the League of Nations immediately afterwards. (Germany
had joined the League after Locarno in 1926)
His peaceful intentions were shown in 1934, when he signed a 10 Year Non-Aggression
Pact with Poland. This treaty meant that he had guaranteed his eastern border and could
now look to the acquisition of Austria. Hitler sought Anschluss, the union of Germany and
Austria, which had been specifically banned by the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler had been born
in the town of Braunau-am-Inn in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was therefore born
an Austrian and had only become a German citizen in 1932, when he planned to stand for
President of Germany. The union with Austria was an obvious step to creating Greater
Germany.
Hitler hoped to seize Austria with the help of the Austrian Nazis. In February 1934, the
Chancellor of Austria, Engelbert Dollfuss, ordered attacks on the Austrian Socialist Party,
which was then dissolved. From April 1934, Dollfuss began to rule as a dictator. On 25 July,
Austrian Nazis entered the radio station in Vienna and forced the staff to announce that
Dollfuss had resigned. They then entered the chancellery and shot and killed Dollfuss. The
murderers were quickly arrested by the Austrian armed forces, and Italy and Yugoslavia
moved forces to the Austrian border to prevent German intervention.
The return of the Saar
Following this failure, there was some success in January 1935, when the people of the Saar,
an area that had been administered by the League of Nations since 1920, voted by 477,000
to 48,000 to rejoin Germany. This was an enormous propaganda victory for Hitler. Not only
had he restored part of Germany that had been occupied since 1919, but he also won an
overwhelming vote of confidence in the plebiscite. He could claim that he had already begun
to put Germany’s past behind it.
88
The Saar
Postage stamp celebrating the Saar plebiscite
89
Rearmament
On 16 March 1935, Hitler announced that Germany was no longer bound by the military
clauses of the Treaty of Versailles and would introduce conscription (banned by the Treaty
of Versailles. In fact, he had already ordered the army to expand to when he came to
power in 1933, but had kept this secret until he was secure. This therefore, broke the
agreement that Germany had agreed upon when they signed the Treaty of Versailles.
Hitler announced that Germany had 2,500 war planes and an army of 300,000 men and
planned on increasing the army size to over 550,000 men.
Britain and France condemned Hitler’s action and formed the Stresa Front with Italy.
However, in June of that year, the Anglo-German Naval Treaty was signed; this
permitted Germany to build warships to an overall strength of 35 per cent of that Royal
Navy and with the same number of submarines. This broke the terms of the Treaty of
Versailles and encouraged Hitler to go even further. It also hardened Mussolini in his
decision to continue the conflict in Abyssinia. He saw that Germany was being allowed to
break the Treaty of Versailles – his quest for an empire in Africa was only solving an Italian
grievance which should have been dealt with in 1919.
German rearmament
Army
Warships
Aircraft
1932
100,000
30
36
1939
950,000
95
8,250
For more information about rearmament in Germany, click here
Checkpoint: Hitler 1933-35
How did Hitler challenge the peace settlement?
1933
1934
1935
90
The Rhineland
Under the Treaty of Versailles, the Rhineland had been demilitarised and Germany was
banned from stationing any troops, or building any military bases within fifty kilometres of
the east bank of the river. The Allies were to occupy the area for fifteen years, or for longer
if necessary. The Allied troops were withdrawn from the Rhineland in 1935.
On 7 March 1936, Germany denounced the Locarno Pacts and reoccupied the Rhineland.
Hitler later commented, 'the forty-eight hours after the march into the Rhineland were the
most nerve-racking of my life. If the French had opposed us we would have had to
withdraw. Our forces were not strong enough even to put up a moderate resistance'.
In fact, Hitler had committed virtually his entire trained military forces to the reoccupation
and the commanders carried sealed orders, which ordered them to retreat if opposed, but
he got away with it. The reoccupation of the Rhineland convinced Hitler that Britain and
France were unlikely to act against further aggression.
At the time of the re-occupation, Britain and France were trying to solve the Abyssinia crisis
and there was a feeling in Britain that Versailles had been too harsh on Germany. One British
politician said that Hitler going into his own backyard. Moreover, there was no real desire to
help France in the event of war. The French Government was prepared to resist German
aggression, but was prevented because it was told f by the French Chief of Staff that
intervention would cost 30 million francs a day. The re-occupation of the Rhineland was a
major propaganda coup for Hitler and allowed Germany to build its own line of fortifications
along the French border, thus neutralising the Maginot Line.
91
German troops marching into the Rhineland, March 1936
92
Checkpoint: The reoccupation of the Rhineland
Explain three reasons why the reactions of the Allies persuaded Hitler that Britain
and France would not oppose further aggression.
1
2
3
Diplomatic successes continued in 1936. Hitler gave Franco assistance in the Spanish
Civil War which thus ensured a close future relationship. In October that year, Hitler
concluded the Rome-Berlin Axis with Italy. Hitler followed up his intervention in the
Spanish Civil War with an invitation to the Italian foreign minister to come to Berlin, where
on 21 October 1936, Germany and Italy signed a formal alliance which came to be known
as the Rome-Berlin Axis. This alliance contained a protocol committing Germany and
Italy to follow a common foreign policy.
Hitler was pleased to make an agreement with Japan, and on 25 November 1936, Japan
and Germany signed the Anti-Comintern Pact. The ostensible purpose of the AntiComintern Pact was to contain the spread of communism, but it contained a secret
agreement which required both parties to consult with a view to safeguarding their
common interests if either Germany or Japan was attacked by the Soviet Union. Italy
signed the pact in 1937. The Pact gave Hitler a valuable ally in the east if and when he
became engaged in a war against the Soviet Union.
93
The Anschluss, March 1938
By the beginning of 1938, Hitler was ready to take action over Austria. He had failed to
create the Anschluss in 1934, but now the situation had changed. Mussolini was his ally
and had already indicated he would not defend Austria if Germany were to seek
Anschluss. Moreover, Austria and Germany had signed an agreement whereby Austria
acknowledged itself to be ‘a German state’. The Austrian Nazi Party was allowed to
campaign once again. There were many pro-Hitler demonstrations in the Austrian areas of
the Tyrol and Salzburg. Nazi Pressure increased on the Austrian Chancellor, Schuschnigg
during 1937.
At the beginning of February 1938, Hitler demanded that Schuschnigg appoint some
Austrian Nazis as ministers in the Austrian Cabinet and, importantly, that the Austrian
army became subject to the German army. Schuschnigg agreed and the key position of
Minister for the Interior was given to Arthur Seyss-Inquart (leader of the Austrian Nazis).
The Austrian Nazis then began to foment unrest in the country and soon there was chaos.
On 9 March, Schuschnigg announced that there would be a plebiscite so that the people of
Austria could vote on whether they wished to remain independent. Two days later, Hitler sent
an ultimatum demanding the resignation of Schussnigg or face the prospect of German
invasion (German troops were already massed on the border). Schussnigg gave in to Hitler’s
demand and Seyss-Inquart became Chancellor. Seyss-Inquart then asked for Germany to
restore order in Austria. On 12 March, German troops moved across the border. The
Anschluss, forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles had taken place.
On 10 April, a plebiscite was held which gave a 99.75 % majority in favour of Anschluss.
Austria was immediately incorporated into the German Reich, renamed the Ostmark.
Nazi troops moving into Austria, March 1938
94
Austrian and German police dismantle a border post
The speed at which these events took place made reactions by Britain and France difficult.
The two countries protested, but did little more. Hitler now felt emboldened to look to
Czechoslovakia. The Anschluss gave Hitler additional manpower but also had the
95
advantage of giving Germany a border around the whole of the western part of
Czechoslovakia. (See map below)
For more information about the Anschluss, click here
Checkpoint: The Anschluss
Explain three reasons why Hitler wanted to unite Germany and Austria
1
2
3
Explain three reasons why the Anschluss was successful
1
2
3
96
The Sudetenland Crisis and Munich Agreement
Once he had acquired Austria, Hitler turned his eyes towards Czechoslovakia. This country
had been carved out of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and contained about three million
German-speaking people in the area known as the Sudetenland. The territory also contained
important parts of the Czech industrial and armaments base and important defences that the
Czech government had built for defence against possible German aggression.
The Sudetenland
During early 1938, the Sudeten Germans were encouraged by the local Nazis to demand
self-government. The leader of the Sudeten Nazis, Konrad Henlein, also ensured that
there was press coverage of atrocities committed against the Sudeten Germans by Czech
officials. Hitler made it clear that he supported the Sudeten Germans unequivocally and
was prepared to use military force if a solution could not be found.
As the year went on, the situation worsened and on 12 September 1938, Hitler demanded
self-government for the German-speaking Czechs in the Sudetenland. The British Prime
Minister, Neville Chamberlain, had been expecting Hitler to try to seize the Sudetenland for
some time. He had already decided that, as soon as it happened, he would go to meet
Hitler face to face and settle the matter. Chamberlain called this Plan Z.
97
From Neville Chamberlain’s diary, 20 March 1938
You only have to look at the map to see that nothing France or we could do could possibly
save Czechoslovakia from being overrun by the Germans, if they wanted to do it. The
Austrian frontier is practically open; the great Skoda munitions works are within easy
bombing distance of the German aerodromes, the railways all pass through German
territory, Russia is 100 miles away. Therefore we could not help Czechoslovakia – she
would simply be an excuse for going to war with Germany. That we could not think of
unless we had a reasonable prospect of beating her to her knees in a reasonable time,
and of that I see no sign.
Chamberlain of course had no right to interfere in what was essentially a matter between
Germany and Czechoslovakia. He seems to have done it because he believed that
stopping war was all important.
For more information about Neville Chamberlain, click here
On September 15 Neville Chamberlain flew to meet Hitler at Berchtesgaden and agreed
to his demands. He returned to Britain and persuaded Edouard Daladier the French Prime
Minister of the need to support him. The Czech government was informed of
Chamberlain's decision, but was not invited to the discussions.
Chamberlain seems to have believed that Hitler could be trusted. In fact, in the following
letter it is clear that Hitler had completely fooled n him about his intentions.
From a letter written by Neville Chamberlain to his sister after his first meeting with
Hitler at Berchtesgaden on 15 September 1938
I had established a certain confidence which was my aim. In spite of the hardness and
ruthlessness I thought I saw in his face, I got the impression that here was a man who
would be relied upon when he had given his word.
The British government informed the Czechs of the decisions taken at Berchtesgaden.
From a statement made to the Czechoslovak government by the British
Ambassador on 21 September
For the maintenance of peace and the vital interests of Czechoslovakia, those areas of
Czechoslovakia with probably 50% German population would have to be handed over to
the Reich.
The British and French governments recognise how great is the sacrifice that is required of
the Czechoslovak government in the cause of peace, but we must ask for your reply at the
earliest possible moment.
The Czech government gave way.
98
From a statement by the Czechoslovak government to the British Ambassador on
21 September 1938
The Czechoslovak government, forced by circumstances, yielding to unheard of pressure
and drawing the consequences from the statement of the French and British governments
of 21 September 1938, accepts the Anglo-French proposals with feelings of pain.
It notes with regret that these proposals were drawn up without previous consultation with
the Czechoslovak government.
On 22 September, Chamberlain returned to meet Hitler at Bad Godesberg. But Hitler now
had new demands. He told Chamberlain that the Sudetenland must be handed over to
Germany immediately and that Polish and Hungarian claims for Czech territory must also
be met. Chamberlain returned to London believing that war was inevitable. Evacuation
began in London and 1,000,000 volunteers were called for by the government. But at the
last moment war was avoided, the Italian dictator Mussolini suggested a four power
conference. The four main powers, Germany, Italy, Britain and France, met at Munich on
28 September 1938.
The Munich Conference
Agreement was reached and on 30 September, Hitler was awarded the Sudetenland. The
Czechs were not allowed to attend the conference. Hitler and Chamberlain signed an
agreement that Britain and Germany would never go to war again. Hitler claimed that he
had only been interested in uniting Germans. He stated that his expansion was at an end –
this was his last territorial demand. Peace had been kept, and Hitler had been appeased.
Chamberlain was convinced that if Germany’s complaints about the Treaty of Versailles
could be satisfied, then Hitler being a ‘reasonable’ man would respond by maintaining
peace.
Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini and Ciano (Mussolini’s son-in-law) at
Munich
99
Chamberlain made this statement on arriving back in Britain
We, the German Führer and Chancellor, and the British Prime Minister, have had a further
meeting today and are agreed in recognizing that the question of Anglo-German relations
is of the first importance for two countries and for Europe. We regard the agreement
signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our
two peoples never to go to war with one another again.
We are resolved that the method of consultation shall be the method adopted to deal with
any other questions that may concern our two countries, and we are determined to
continue our efforts to remove possible sources of difference, and thus to contribute to
assure the peace of Europe. My good friends this is the second time in our history that
there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is
peace in our time.
Chamberlain waving the ‘piece of paper’ at Heston Airport
100
Checkpoint: The Munich Conference
Why did Hitler get away with taking the Sudetenland? Why did Chamberlain
give way?
Hitler
Chamberlain
101
Not surprisingly, reactions to the Munich Agreement varied widely
Source A: From a statement from the Czechoslovak government to the British
government on 25 September 1938
The proposals go far beyond what we agreed to in the Anglo-French plan of 21
September. They take away every safeguard for our national existence. We are to give
up large proportions of our carefully prepared defences. Our national and economic
independence would disappear. The demands in their present form are absolutely and
unconditionally unacceptable. Against these new demands the government feels bound to
make their utmost resistance.
Source B: From ‘Failure of a Mission’, written by Neville Henderson in JanuaryFebruary 1939. Henderson was British Ambassador in Berlin during the Munich
Crisis
Germany gained the Sudetenland without bloodshed and without firing a shot. The
humiliation of the Czechs was a tragedy, but it was solely thanks to Mr Chamberlain’s
courage that a senseless war was avoided. The course that the Prime Minister took was
the only sane one in the circumstances.
Checkpoint: Different reactions to the Munich Agreement
How and why do Sources A and B differ about the Munich Agreement?
Source A
Source B
102
For more information about the Munich Conference, click
For photographs of the Munich Conference, click here
Chamberlain returned to Britain as a hero. He himself was sure that he had saved the
world from a cataclysmic war. When he returned to London, he was met at the airport and
greeted as a hero. The newspapers claimed it was 'Peace for our time' and certainly, the
vast majority of British citizens were convinced that they could look forward to an era of
peace. Within days, Chamberlain had received some 40,000 letters congratulating him for
his success at Munich. Moreover, the vote in the House of Commons overwhelmingly
supported Chamberlain’s actions.
Photograph of Hitler on his triumphal tour of the Sudetenland, 3 October 1938
Those who did offer criticism of Chamberlain said that he had betrayed a fellow
democracy and let down a newly created country. Attlee, leader of the Labour party said
Munich was ‘a victory for brute force and Churchill said it was ‘a total and unmitigated
defeat.’
The collapse of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia suffered further indignities in October and November when land was
given to Hungary and Poland. One month after Munich, Hitler told his army chiefs to
prepare plans for ‘finishing off the remainder of Czechoslovakia’. Throughout, Hitler
encouraged the various minority groups to move towards separatism. In January 1939,
103
Slovak leaders were invited to visit Hitler and their separatist movement was encouraged.
The Czech Prime Minister, Hacha, was called to Germany and he was threatened with the
destruction of his country unless control was given to Hitler. Hacha gave way. Slovakia
declared its independence from Czechoslovakia and the Czech areas came under control
of Germany and were known as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The province
of Ruthenia was given to Hungary and parts of Silesia were given to Poland.
On 15 March, Hitler and his troops marched into Prague. This was a clear violation of the
Munich Agreement and showed that Hitler was not just aiming to unite all German
speakers in a Greater Germany.
The takeover of the Sudeten and Bohemia and Moravia meant that Hitler had acquired
much of Czechoslovakia’s military equipment and her armament works (including the
Skoda works). Within days of the takeover, Hitler forced Lithuania to give Germany the
port of Memel.
German troops arrive in Prague
104
The break-up of Czechoslovakia
Britain’s treaty with Poland
The events of March were a turning point for Britain. Hitler had broken his Munich
promises and the takeover of Czechoslovakia meant that Hitler had extended his rule over
people of a different nationality. Hitler showed his future intentions by demanding Danzig
and the creation of a strip of land to link Germany to East Prussia. Romania’s oil exports
were then threatened and these two actions pushed the British government into action.
On 31 March 1939, Britain made a Treaty of Guarantee with Poland. Chamberlain
stated:
‘…in the event of any action which clearly threatened Polish independence and which the
Polish government considered it vital to resist with their national forces, the British
government would feel themselves bound at once to lend the Polish government all
support in their power.’
Further guarantees were given in April to Greece and Romania following Italy’s seizure of
Albania. In May, an agreement was reached with Turkey for joint action against
aggression in the Mediterranean. These agreements showed the extent to which Britain
was now prepared to make foreign commitments following the events of March.
The Pact of Steel
So far, Hitler had been able to seize territory without resorting to war. In April 1939, he
announced Operation White which was his planned invasion of Poland. This was
scheduled for September. International tension was high and the Pact of Steel confirmed
the military alliance between Germany and Italy. It was signed on 22 May 1939.
The agreement was formally called the Pact of Friendship and Alliance between
Germany and Italy. The two parties assumed that there would be a war within three
years. Germany and Italy agreed to assist each other in the event of war, and they also
promised to help each other in military and wartime production. The Pact ensured that
neither country was able to make peace without the agreement of the other.
105
The Nazi-Soviet Pact
Britain had become so concerned about the deteriorating situation in Europe that partial
conscription was announced in April. Hitler accused Britain of ‘aggressive intentions’ and
then announced his rejection of the 1935 naval agreement. Moreover, he said the 1934
treaty with Poland was at an end. His demands for Danzig and the Polish Corridor
became more strident but Hitler was aware that in order to take any Polish territory he
would have to have the approval of the Soviet Union. Furthermore, he did not wish to
have to fight a war on two fronts – he knew that Britain and France could stand by their
treaty agreements with Poland.
This would not be easy. Hitler had always been vehemently anti- Communist and had
blamed German communists for the defeat in 1918. He had always said he would destroy
communism. Nevertheless, he began trade negotiations with the Soviet Union in the early
summer of 1939
On 18 April, the Soviet Union suggested a Pact of Mutual Assistance between
themselves, Britain and France. Stalin was well aware of Hitler’s plans and feared for his
country. However, British reaction was lukewarm and negotiations went on for three
months and were ended on 17 August. At the same time, the Germans opened
negotiations with the Soviet Union and on 23 August, Ribbentrop, the German Foreign
Minister went to Moscow and met Molotov, the Soviet Foreign Minister. It took only a few
hours for the two countries to agree on the Nazi-Soviet Pact.
Ribbentrop, Stalin and Molotov at the signing of the Nazi-Soviet Pact
106
On the face of it the Nazi-Soviet Pact was a simple non-aggression pact between the two
countries (scheduled to last for 10 years). They both agreed not to attack the other.
However, Hitler and Stalin had been bitter enemies and the agreement astounded
politicians throughout Europe. It was clearly the prelude to something dramatic.
In fact there were a number of secret clauses that were not made public. The Soviet Union
agreed not to interfere when Germany attacked Poland and also would allow Hitler a free
hand in Western Europe. In return, Germany would allow the Soviet Union to occupy
eastern Poland and would not interfere if Stalin occupied the Baltic States and Finland.
It was, therefore, a cold-blooded and calculated agreement to interfere in the lives of
helpless and innocent people. Stalin was happy to sign the pact – it was expedient. It gave
him more time to prepare for an eventual war with Hitler. In addition, the extra land gained
from Poland would act as a buffer zone to Hitler.
British cartoon published just after the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Hitler and Stalin are standing
over the corpse of Poland.
The British reaction to the Nazi-Soviet Pact was to confirm the treaty made in March.
Britain asked Mussolini to act as an intermediary – almost like Munich in 1938 – but Hitler
was unwilling to compromise this time. The Pact meant that Germany could now avoid a
war on two fronts if there was a conflict over Poland.
On 26 August, Hitler gave the orders to his military leaders that the invasion of Poland
(Operation White) was to begin. He then delayed it until 1 September and this time the
invasion went ahead. On the following day, the British Government sent an ultimatum to
Germany demanding that all forces should be withdrawn from Poland or war would be
declared. This was ignored. Therefore, on 3 September 1939, Britain declared war on
Germany.
107
Checkpoint: The Nazi- Soviet Pact
Why did Hitler and Stalin sign the Pact?
Hitler
Stalin
108
Germany during the Second World War
Changing conditions on the Home Front
The outbreak of war in September 1939 caught Hitler by surprise; he had been planning
for war in 1941-2. The German economy was nowhere near full production and
consequently the economy only became focused completely on the war effort from 1942,
when it became increasingly clear that the Eastern Front represented a war of attrition. Full
production was only achieved, surprisingly, in the autumn and winter of 1944. Hitler had
believed that in the short term the war would be on a limited scale and did not want to unnerve civilians with massive increases in production and expenditure.
For the first few years of the war, therefore, the German people noticed no significant
changes in Germany. The initial opposition to hostilities that had been evident in September
1939 was assuaged by the easy successes of the invasion of Poland and the ‘Phoney War’
and belief in Hitler and his policies was reinforced by the successful campaigns of April to
June 1940. It was widely assumed that Britain would see sense and sue for peace and that
therefore a new order would be created in Western Europe. Furthermore, the standard of
living of the German people was hardly affected from 1939 to 1942; consumer spending
remained at 1939 levels until well into 1942. It had been assumed by Hitler that Moscow
would be captured by Christmas 1941 and that the collapse of the Soviet Union would solve
Germany’s shortages of raw materials and labour, only when it became clear that Operation
Barbarossa had failed did the Nazis begin to reorganise the German economy systematically.
German production lagged behind for a number of reasons. Initially rearmament had been
aimed at infrastructure, new barracks, airfields and roads rather than weaponry. But even
Blitzkrieg needed munitions. Furthermore, many German companies were small or
medium-sized and were reluctant to change. It was feared that the introduction of
assembly line techniques would reduce quality. This view was shared by the Wehrmacht,
which preferred to carry out its own research and development and controlled production.
Consequently, German weapons and munitions were often of higher quality than those of
the British, but in shorter supply. In fact, from 1939-41, British munitions factories outproduced German factories by some 50%
One major reason for the failure to make major changes in the first year of war was Hitler’s
almost total lack of interest in economic planning. In the 1930s, responsibility for the
economy had been given at to different people; during wartime, the situation did not
change. Hitler spent most of his time at headquarters in East Prussia and the Ukraine. In
his absence, the Nazi government became increasingly disorganised. He banned attempts
to hold regular cabinet meetings and forbade ministers to meet unofficially. Most decisions
were made by Hitler on all aspects of the war, but he showed little interest in the running of
the country or the war economy.
Fortunately, for Hitler, responsibility for the wartime economy fell upon someone who was
qualified to tackle it. By 1941, it became evident that the economy had to change and
mass production and the rationalisation of industry were essential. In 1942, Albert Speer
took charge of the war economy.
The main ways in which Germany did change in the first years of the war were the increasing
powers of both the SS and the Nazi Party. Once war was declared, Nazis no longer
109
considered themselves to be bound by any pretence of decency and felt that they could afford
to ignore totally foreign opinion of the activities. In the short term, the worst effects of these
changes were felt by Poles. Prisoners of war were sent to German as slave labour, while
intellectuals, politicians and other elites were murdered. This was part of a systematic attempt
to destroy the Polish nation by cutting off its head. Much of the work fell to the SS and was
taken up by Himmler, who saw it as a means of increasing his personal empire. He became
responsible for resettlement of Germans and the removal of ‘harmful influences’ in newly
acquired territories.
The Nazi Party became responsible for the morale and well-being of the civilian population
once war was declared. Gauleiters became Reich Defence Commissioners on the
outbreak of war. They could assume the powers of martial law in emergencies. In the East,
Gauleiters imposed Nazi ideology on the occupied territories.
The use of slave labour allowed the SS to become a vast industrial organisation controlling
about 150 companies by 1944 and through his control of the Waffen SS (which expanded
from three to thirty-five divisions, he began to appoint senior ministers and commanders in the
army. Had Germany been successful in the war, Hitler had eventually planned to replace the
German army with the Waffen SS because it was more trustworthy. By 1943, the SS was in
effect a state within a state, with different loyalties and responsibilities. Any attempt to
challenge the men in black had to be carried out with circumspection.
Life during the latter years, 1942-1945
In 1942, Albert Speer set up a Central Planning Board, which controlled the supply of raw
materials. He forced the armed forces to stop trying to design their own weapons and gave
this work to trained scientists and engineers. He introduced new mass production methods
and replaced old-fashioned work practices with new shifts. The use of foreign and slave
labour greatly helped.
The shortage of labour was easy to solve. The obvious way of tackling a shortage was to
recruit women; in September 1939, women were already 37.5% of the workforce, but the
extension of female labour ran counter to Nazis ideas and proposals to conscript women in
1940 proved very unpopular, not least with soldiers on active service. The efforts that the
Nazis had put into restructuring the German family on more traditional lines were now
bearing the wrong sort of fruit. The shortages were temporarily overcome by the
occupation of Poland and France and the use of slave labour and would also have been
helped by a successful invasion of Britain; Himmler planned to force all British men aged
seventeen to forty-five to be transported to Germany. But the failure of Operation
Barbarossa once again forced a rethink; the anticipated arrival of hordes of Russian slave
labourers never came about on the scale that the Nazis had envisaged and alternative
arrangements had to be made. Consequently, it was not until January 1943, Himmler
announced that all men from 16-65 and women from 17-45 were to register for war work.
Non-essential businesses were to be closed down and workers reallocated. This proved
very unpopular and created much opposition to the Nazis.
After 1942, there were significant changes to the lives of the German people. Rations were
maintained at a reasonable level until late 1944, but were still about 10% below the minimum
required. Workers in heavy industry received more. Evacuation intensified in 1943, with 9
million children, women and elderly being moved from cities. This created enormous
problems in rural areas. In 1944, a further 5 million refugees arrived from East Prussia to
escape the advancing Soviet forces. The peasantry and farmers were forced to meet the
110
increasing demands of the Nazi Party. New demands, targets and orders flowed from the
Party almost non-stop. Farmers were ordered to sow new crops and harvest at different
times. This seriously undermined their traditional support for the Nazis.
The black market
Until 1944, the German people received adequate supplies of food. Rations were about
10% about the minimum level for survival and heavy workers received better diets. During
1944-1945, levels of rations fell and women were forced to try to feed their families on less
and less.
The Volkssturm
The People’s Home Guard was established in October 1944 as German forces retreated
before the Red Army in the east and the US and British forces in the west. All men aged
between 16 and 60 were forced to join and Hitler hoped to recruit 6 million all together; this
never happened. Members received basic military training, but had few weapons and little
by way of uniform. What weapons they had were old-fashioned and of little use.
Volkssturm units were only supposed to be used to defend their own local areas, but the
situation was so desperate by 1945 that they were often sent straight to the front line.
Allied bombing grew steadily during the war years and by 1945 was having appalling
consequences. Whole cities, such as Dresden were flattened by day and by night with
heavy loss of life. However, bombing had surprisingly little effect on industry; in 1945,
Germany was still at 90% production.
Dresden
For more photographs of Dresden, click here
111
Opposition to the Nazis
Opposition from civilians
Political parties like the Communists and the Socialists opposed the Nazis. They were
banned from 1933, but worked underground in secret, keeping their organisation together
and publishing newsletters. The SPD managed to smuggle literature into Germany. The
KPD set up an underground that was never completely eliminated. But, the KPD was
controlled from Moscow and seriously discredited by the Nazi-Soviet Pact and Soviet
policy until June 1941. Most working men were not prepared to take either organisation
seriously because of the economic benefits of National Socialism.
Swing groups were widespread in the late 1930s and opposed the activities of the Youth
Leagues. The most important were the Edelweiss Pirates who even acted as an
underground during the war. They helped deserters and escaped prisoners of war;
attacked military institutions and even murdered the head of the Cologne Gestapo. The
White Rose group, headed by Hans and Sophie Scholl was idealistically Christian and
distributed leaflets in Munich in 1942-3. The leaders were arrested, tried and shot in
February 1943.
For more information about the Edelweiss pirates, click here
Opposition to Nazification was led by Martin Niemoller who set up the Confessional
Church; this soon claimed 75% support amongst church ministers. When attempts at
compromise failed, the Nazis reacted by declaring the Church illegal and arresting
ministers; 800 alone in 1937, many of whom were sent to concentration camps. These
tactics enabled the ‘German Christians’ to gain control of the Confessional Church but did
not end opposition to the Nazi regime. Church ministers continued to speak out against the
Nazis until 1945. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Protestant minister, criticised Nazi policy during
the Second World War and Bishop von Galen of Mainz attacked killings of Jews in 1941,
but most Christians were prepared to keep quiet for their own safety. Even the
Confessional Church tried to avoid outright criticism of the Nazis.
Opposition from the military
In 1938, Erich Kordt and General Beck had planned to arrest Hitler and declare martial law
because they feared the prospect of a major war. In September 1939, a plan to kill Hitler
by a bomb was cancelled when it became clear that he was not planning a major offensive
against France. The Kreisau Circle was formed in 1941 and included politicians, priests
and army officers. It met at Kreisau, the estate of Count Helmuth von Moltke. The Kreisau
Circle was a radical group which envisaged a European Parliament with European
elections. It was reluctant to take action against the Nazis and was more interested in
planning for an idealistic new order after the end of hostilities. It was broken up in 1944.
Opposition groups in the army planned attempts on Hitler’s life in 1943 but all failed. One
involved a bomb on a plane carrying Hitler to the Eastern front which failed to explode.
Operation Valkyrie was organised by Count Claus von Stauffenberg and tried twice to
assassinate Hitler in July 1944. On the third attempt, the bomb went off but Hitler was
saved by the leg of an oak table. The conspirators failed to seize control of the
communications centre and news soon spread that Hitler was alive. 5,000 people were
executed in the aftermath.
For more information about the July bomb plot, click here
112
The Final Solution
When war broke out in 1939, Jews were moved in ghettos. There was nothing new in the idea
of a ghetto. They had existed for hundreds of years. There was also nothing new in antiSemitism. This also had existed for hundreds of years. Ghettos had been used throughout
Europe as a way of keeping Jews away from Christian society. But the Nazis began to use
them in a much more determined and organised way. Ghettos began to be built in many parts
of Germany and in the territories that were conquered from 1939. Jews were forced to leave
their homes and move to the ghettos.
At first ghettos were simply buildings or areas of cities. There were usually few restrictions.
Jews could come and go as they pleased and could continue to work and travel. Early ghettos
were often blocks of flats or hostels. The first occupants often found these pleasant and
acceptable. But as time passed, the picture changed dramatically. Whole areas of towns
began to be cordoned off and they became cramped, overcrowded and disease-ridden. As
more and more Jews were forced into them, restrictions also began to be placed on them.
There were not allowed to leave the ghetto except for specific reasons. There were curfews.
They had to carry special identity papers and were only allowed to work in certain factories.
Ghettos became much bigger in 1940 and 1941. Whole areas of towns and cities were taken
over and surrounded by walls. There was often only one way in. More and more people were
forced into the ghettos and regulations became increasingly strict. If Jews were found outside
they could be shot on sight. They were also banned from communicating with other people.
In ghettos Jews had to survive in any way that they could. Some Jews were able to work
for German firms, but only 10,000 jobs were provided for the Warsaw Ghetto. Rations
were provided, but were less than were given to convicts. Some people tried to set up
small workshops. Others sold their possessions on the street. Children were often used to
steal food and smuggle it into the ghetto, but anyone caught could be shot on sight. One
guard described just such an incident.
On 1 December 1941 I saw a Jewess climb a ghetto wall and stick her head through the
fence to steal turnips from a passing train. I made use of my firearm. The Jewess was
killed with two shots.
Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto
113
By 1942 some ghettos were becoming so over-crowded that even the Nazis were
becoming concerned. Notices were put up offering volunteers who agreed to deportation 3
kg of bread and 1 kg of jam.
The Krakow Ghetto in Poland was created in 1941 from 15 streets with 320 buildings. A
wall was built around it. This area usually housed about 3,000 people, but by April 1941 it
contained 12,000 and by December 1941 the number had risen to 17,000. Jews were
forbidden to leave without a pass on pain of death. In 1942 the Ghetto was reduced in size
as Jews were sent to death camps. In June 1942, 5,000 left for Belzec Camp and in
October 1942, 6,000 more left for Majdanek Camp. In February 1943 the inmates were
divided into two groups, A for Jews who could work and B for Jews who could not. On 1314 March 1943, the Krakow Ghetto was destroyed. 3,000 Jews were killed on the spot and
6,000 were sent to Plaszow Camp. This was the camp that was commanded by Amon
Goeth in the film ‘Schindler’s List’. Ghettos remained in some cities, such as Vilna, Riga
and Minsk, until the summer of 1943. After that the inmates were either shot or taken to
the extermination camp.
For more information about ghettos, click here Ghettos
The Einsatzgruppen
On 22 June 1941, Hitler ordered the beginning of ‘Operation Barbarossa’, the invasion of
Germany. Very quickly the Nazi forces overran large areas of the western Soviet Union. This
brought many more Jews under their control. Now the Nazis were faced with many millions of
Jews. Senior Nazis began to discus how they were to be dealt with
The Nazis considered a number of solutions, one particularly ludicrous one was to round up
all the Jews in Europe and deport them to Madagascar, which was an island off the southeast coast of Africa. This had been a French colony before the war and was now under the
control of the French Vichy government. This was never taken seriously. Instead the
Germans began to slaughter Jews indiscriminately. The first attempts involved
‘Einsatzgruppen’, murder squads. These were sent into the Soviet Union following the army.
They rounded up Jews and carried out mass slaughter. They shot thousands of Jews.
The Einsatzgruppen were specially selected and trained units of the Security Police and
the Sicherheitsdienst (SD). After the invasion of the Soviet Union, they rounded up Jews
and then searched them for anything of value. The Jews were shot with automatic
weapons and then allowed to fall into anti-tank ditches that had been dug to stop the
German advance. On other occasions the victims were forced to dig their own mass
graves. Then they were lined up and shot with machine guns. The dead and dying fell
back into the pits and then more bodies were heaped on top of them. As many as 700,000
Jews were killed in this way.
There were four Einsatzgruppen, A, B, C and D. They covered the area from the Baltic to
the Caucasus. Between them they had eighteen special task forces, but they were also
assisted by police and army units as well as local volunteers. From November 1941
gassing trucks were also used. They used carbon monoxide from the exhaust to kill their
victims. But the Einsatzgruppen did not prove effective enough for the Nazis. The numbers
of Jews killed was too low and the squads proved to be expensive. A more efficient way of
carrying out mass murder was needed.
114
For more information about the Einsatzgruppen, click here Einsatzgruppen
The Wannsee Conference
In January 1942, at the Wannsee Conference, the decision was taken to adopt the Final
Solution, the mass murder of Jews using Extermination Camps. These new Extermination
Camps were only built outside of Germany, in an effort to keep their purpose secret from the
German people. Inside Germany were Concentration Camps such as Belsen, near Hannover,
and Sachsenhausen, near Berlin. Conditions here were little better than in the Extermination
Camps. Soviet prisoners of war, political detainees, or Jews were worked to death and died in
thousands. At Belsen there are mounds containing the remains of tens of thousands bodies.
The main proponent of the Final Solution was Reinhard Heydrich, the deputy of Heinrich
Himmler the head of the SS. Heydrich was also Protector of Bohemia and had his
headquarters in Prague. He drove around the city without a bodyguard and became the only
senior Nazi figure to be assassinated when he was ambushed and shot in 1942.
In July 1941 Goering ordered Heydrich to prepare for the ‘Final Solution of the Jewish
Question in Europe’. This was to involve the murder of 11,000,000 Jews. However, the
Final Solution was to be only the first stage of a much bigger project ‘European
reconstruction along racial-political lines’. This would lead to the resettlement of as many
as 50,000,000 Slavs.
A conference was called by Reinhard Heydrich for 9 December to be held at a SS guest
house at Wannsee, south east of Berlin. But the conference actually took place six weeks
later than was originally planned. The original meeting was postponed, possibly because of
failure of the German forces to capture Moscow and also because of the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor. When the meeting took place on 20 January 1942,
By the time that the Wannsee Conference finally took place on 20 January 1942, the mass
slaughter of Jews had already been underway for six months and 700,000 were dead. The
purpose of the Conference was to involve other departments and ministries in the project
that had been decided upon by the RSHA (Reich Security Main Office). There was to be
no discussion. The Final Solution had already been decided upon. The Conference was
merely intended to work out how it was to be put into practice.
For more information about the Wannsee Conference, click here Wannsee
After the Wannsee Conference there was a series of other meetings beginning on 29
January and continuing throughout the year to decide on how the Final Solution was to be
carried out. For example:
29 January: Departmental meeting in the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Territories to
decide how exactly to define the term ‘Jew’.
23 February: Departmental meeting in the Foreign Ministry to decide how to deal with the
property of Jews.
6 March: Meeting in the Reich Security Main Office to decide on the sterilisation or
persons with mixed blood and on mixed marriages.
115
The Final Solution
The decision led to the setting up of extermination camps, such as Treblinka and
Auschwitz, where Jews were taken to be killed. All of these camps were set up outside
Germany and were run by special units of the SS, the Death's Head SS. The Nazis wanted
to hide the true facts from the German people. Jews were told that they were going to be
resettled.
Deportations had begun in late 1941, but increased in the spring of 1942. Each household
received precise written instructions. Each person could take one back-pack, a mess kit
and spoon, but no knives or scissors, two blankets, sheets, warm clothing and heavy
shoes. Maximum weight was 25 kg. Valuables had to be handed over as did house keys.
Jews were then put into trucks and taken to railway stations where there were shipped off
in groups of 1,000. Trains normally left twice a week. Jews were told that they were being
resettled, but news soon got out that they were being exterminated. When they arrived, the
able-bodied were sent to work camps. Women, children, the old and the sick were
exterminated in gas-chambers, which were disguised as shower blocks. The dead bodies
were ransacked for anything of value
The French Vichy government co-operated with the Nazis and began to send trains east in
1941. Most went to Auschwitz or Sobibor. Jews were deported from Le Bourget-Drancy, a
Concentration Camp set up on the outskirts of Paris. When France was defeated by the
Germans in 1940, part of the country was not occupied and was given a French puppet
government. This was set up in Vichy. The Germans demanded that the Vichy authorities
hand over 75,000 Jews. The Vichy government did so. Many were taken to Le BourgetDrancy and then brought to Auschwitz.
Theresienstadt, a transit camp near Prague was officially the Reich Nursing Home for
elderly Jews. By September 1942 58,000 people were squashed into the space set aside
for 7,000. Only 60% of the inmates had anywhere to sleep. Altogether 141,000 people
passed through Theresienstadt. 33,550 died there and 88,200 were transported to
extermination camps. 23,000 people survived.
From 1942 to 1945 at least 4,000,000 Jews died in the camps; many were gassed, others
were shot and then buried in mass graves.
Auschwitz and the camps
Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, ordered the building of a Concentration Camp at
Auschwitz on 27 April 1940. Rudolf Hoess was appointed the commandant. The first
prisoners arrived on 14 June 1940. They were 728 Poles sent by the Gestapo at Tarnow. The
original camp contained twenty buildings, but this was enlarged during 1941-2, when a further
eight buildings were added. The average number of prisoners was between 13,000 and
16,000, but reached 20,000 at one stage in 1942.
In 1941, Auschwitz Camp was selected by Heinrich Himmler as the site for the Final
Solution. Auschwitz was in the middle of a restricted area of about 40 square km. The
inhabitants of this area had been removed. By spring 1942 the plans for the extension of
the camp were well underway. 8,000 prisoners of war died building the camp.
The camp at Auschwitz was made up of blocks. These had been originally built for prisoners
of war. Each block housed between 700 and 1,000 people. At first inmates slept in straw on
the floor. Later three storey bunks were built, but these did not provide much improvement.
116
As the number of inmates grew, Auschwitz expanded. A second camp was constructed at the
village of Brzezinka, about two miles away. This became known as Birkenau, or Auschwitz II.
Auschwitz III was set up on land owned by IG-Farbenindustrie, a German chemical company.
From 1942 to 1944 about forty more branches of Auschwitz were set up at local factories,
steelworks and mines. These were run by Auschwitz III. It was one of these factories that was
owned by Oskar Schindler.
Jews arrived first of all from the surrounding area of Silesia, but then from all over Europe,
including Norway and France. In addition to Jews, at least 12,000 Soviet prisoners of war
were brought to Auschwitz, of whom about 8,320 died. Some of these were used in
experiments to discover the effectiveness of Zyklon B, others were shot and many died of
exhaustion. 21,000 gypsies were also murdered at Auschwitz.
Jews who arrived at Auschwitz were usually told that they were being transported east to be
re-settled. They were often sold fictitious businesses or plots of land, or offered work in nonexisting factories. These stories encouraged Jews to bring their most treasured and valuable
possessions with them. These were all looted by the Nazis.
Until 1943 all arrivals were photographed in three poses. Beneath the photographs is the
inmate’s name, occupation, date of birth, date of arrival at the camp and date of death. From
1943 inmates were tattooed with a prison number. They also wore one of twelve
distinguishing marks.
Arrival at the camp was by train in cattle cars that held about forty-five people. Inmates
stepped out of the trains onto the ramp at Birkenau. Inmates lined up for selection. They
were immediately inspected by two SS doctors. The old, the handicapped, the sick,
pregnant women and mothers with young children were killed immediately. In the winter
more people were killed on arrival because there were fewer jobs in the area. About 75%
of Jews were killed in this way.
The victims were herded into what the Nazis described as shower blocks and were told to
undress. They were then crammed into a second chamber about 210 sq. metres. These
contained artificial showers. The remains of some of the showers can be seen in the
museum. Each block held about 2,000 people. Gas was pumped into the block. After 15
minutes all the people were dead and their bodies were then ransacked for anything of
value. The bodies were then burnt in the ovens, or on large bonfires. 10: The Nazis used
phrases which attempted to hide what was going on. ‘Accommodated separately’ referred
to people who had been gassed immediately. The healthy were then used as slave labour.
They usually lasted bout nine months at most.
Auschwitz continued to operate until a few days before the camp was overrun by the Soviet
army on 27 January 1945. The guards tried to destroy the camp before the Soviet forces
arrived, but failed. About 7,500 inmates were left. The rest, about 55,000 had been forced to
march west.
For more information about Auschwitz, click here Auschwitz
For photographs of the Holocaust, click here
117
1. This is an account written by a German woman who was sent to Auschwitz at the
age on thirteen.
Finally the cross bars were taken off and the doors opened. In the dark searchlights were
focused on us from all directions. There were shouts of ‘Out, out, faster, faster’. Nobody
knew what was happening. Men and women were separated. Everything happened very
fast. I saw lots of barbed wire and searchlights. We were herded into a huge hall and we
had to undress completely.
We stood in rows waiting to be shaved, everywhere. Our clothes and belongings were
taken away. The person who shaved me was a man. But then he was not a man. He was
just a poor prisoner in a striped uniform with hollow cheeks and gaunt eyes. He did his job
without caring. Girls were shaved everywhere, heads, underarms, pubic area. We all
looked like monkeys.
Then we stood for hours naked until we were given old rags to ear. Some girls were only
given a coat with nothing underneath. Others just got a thin dress. To degrade people
even more, tiny clothes were given to big women, while smaller women were given
oversized things.
After we were given clothes to wear, we had to stand again to be tattooed. My mother was
given number 71501, I was 71502 and my sister Ruth was 71503. After tattooing we were
driven into barracks without mattresses. From now on the women had to live squeezed
together, on three levels of bunk beds. The food was some kind of feed, called soup, a
dark watery liquid, for which we had to stand in line in order to get some of it in a small tin
bowl. Within weeks we all became thin, numb and listless. Our camp was called Birkenau,
B 2 B, Block 12.
One day Ruth was looking when another transport arrived at Birkenau’s railway. These
were Hungarian Jews, who were taken straight away to be gassed. Ruth was caught
looking at the train and was taken to be punished. She had her head shaved bald again.
The roll calls at Birkenau were horrible. They got us up at 4.30 am and would make us
stand for hours at a time in freezing cold or during a heat wave. Sometimes there were two
or three a day just to annoy us. Many people collapsed and were dragged away to be
killed.
Birkenau’s latrines were also appalling. They were deep pits, only separated by a narrow
board and transparent material. Men and women could see each other through it. One
woman called Kleinova used to carry her bread ration around with her. One day she
dropped it into the latrine. She crept into the filthy pit to recover it. The animal instinct to
survive had triumphed. I saw this woman died next to me a few months later, but it was a
miracle that she had survived so long.
One day Josef Mengele appeared and asked if there were any girl twins in the camp. Two
girls in the bunks opposite me called out ‘Yes we are twins’. Mengele took them and we
never saw them again.
Mengele came again on July 5th and carried out a selection of people for medical
experiments. I saw my father standing in a row and ran to him and hugged him. Luckily
none of the SS men saw me. That was the last time I saw him alive.
118
2. This was written by Elizabeth de Jong, a Dutch Jew, who was married in 1936.
We were arrested in September 1943, after being in hiding for several months and then
pushed into cattle cars, very tightly. There were hardly any toilet facilities, so in a few days
the car stank to high heaven. We eventually arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau and my father
and brothers were taken away with the men.
My sister-in-law and I, and all the other young women were taken to a building, and forced
to strip stark naked and leave all our possessions behind. They shaved off all of our body
hair, gave us a brief shower and then handed out striped uniform to wear.
They looked into our mouths and extracted the gold crown that I had in one of my teeth
right there and then. Then we were taken to be tattooed. My mouth was bleeding and I
was crying. The tattoo man took pity on me and tattooed the smallest numbers possible.
Most women were marched off to the camp, but we were taken to Block 10, because we
were going to be punished for hiding in Amsterdam. From the block we could see the other
women all bald. We could smell a stench like rubber burning and ashes flying all over the
place. We could see chimneys spewing out flames and smoke. Then someone pointed at
the chimneys and said, ‘Look there is your mother’. Even at that moment I could not
believe what she had just said. ‘But don’t worry’, she continued, ‘you’ll go that way too’.
In a short while a number of SS men came to see us with some papers. They explained
that in Block 10 they did experiments on women. We had to sign the papers to show that
we understood that we were submitting to this out of our own free will. If we did not sign up
we were taken to the gas chambers to be gassed. Some choice. Many of the women did
not sign and decided to die. Why suffer and have all that pain first and then be gassed
anyway? But my sister-in-law, Lilian, and I decided to sign up.
Later on we looked around Block 10 and saw all these women with all sorts of wounds and
holes in their bodies or limbs missing. Many were experimented on with x-rays. They were
all prisoners of course. I was so shocked and horrified that I didn’t even get close to them.
Seeing them I started to get really scared. So I told Lilian, ‘I don’t want to go through that.
Let’s be brave and died now’. Lilian agreed and in the morning when the SS men came we
told them that we had changed out minds. They told us that we could not.
The experiments started two or three days later, but they never let you know what was
going to happen. We had to go downstairs to a special room, you had to stretch out on a
table, they strapped us down and they started first with twenty-four injections in many parts
of our bodies. We were terribly sore after this. Another day they injected some substance
into the womb and ovaries. Of course this was all done without anaesthetic. After the war
my husband found out that the substance was formaldehyde.
There was a woman doctor in Block 10 called Dr. Slavka. She was a prisoner from Poland
or Russia who was forced to help the Nazis. At night she would come to the room where
we slept and would gently wash and dress our wounds. Another time she had to inject
blood into our veins, but not our own type. When it was my turn I pretended to get dizzy
and she let the needle fall out. The Nazis got angry but she insisted that it was an
accident. I know that without her kind help I would not have survived.
Then one day the trucks came to take us to the gas chambers. There were thirty of us on
the truck. We cried that we didn’t want to go after all the tortures, but there was nothing we
119
could do. Then an SS man came with a list from Dr. Klauber, the Butcher, one of the
doctors in Block 10. He pulled me and Lilian off the truck saying that the experiments were
not finished. So we stayed in Block 10 and endured more sufferings until the first week of
January 1945, when the Nazis evacuated Auschwitz.
We were forced to go on a death march, or from time to time we were transported in open
cattle trucks without food or water. It was bitterly cold and I did not have any shoes. Some
of my toes froze. This lasted seven to eight days and many were shot dead or died of
exposure. By the time we arrived Lilian weighed 63 lbs and I weighed little more.
We were finally liberated by the Russians in April 1945.
Auschwitz Picture: The Execution Wall Next to Block 11 in Auschwitz
120
For a powerpoint revision exercise on Germany 1919-39, click on this screen
Look at the timeline on the next page.
It has the main events in German History between 1918 and 1934.
Each event is important to the course you have studied.
For each event:
What can you remember?
Brainstorm it onto a piece of paper.
Then click on the event and it will take you to a slide about the event.
How much did you remember? Try again later – did you do any better?
121
Germany during the Second World War
Blitzkrieg
On 1 September 1939 the German army invaded Poland. Britain declared war on 3
September 1939. The British action had no effect on events in Poland. The Polish forces
fought bravely, but they were overwhelmed and defeated within three weeks. The outbreak
of hostilities was followed by the 'Phoney War', which lasted from September 1939 until
April 1940. There was no fighting and people were lulled into a false sense of security.
Then in April and May 1940, Denmark, Norway, Holland and Belgium were all conquered.
France was invaded in May and surrendered in four weeks.
The success of the German forces in 1939-40 was partly brought about because Hitler had
begun to rearm in 1935, before any other country, this meant that the German army was
much larger than any other European army, except for the French. Poland was not
prepared for a major war. Its armed forces were out of date and were easily out-fought by
the Germans. Denmark, Holland and Belgium were also all neutral countries and only had
small armed forces. They could put up very little resistance. But the most important reason
for the success of the Germans was Blitzkrieg.
During the 1930s, the Germans had developed new tactics called Blitzkrieg, or lightning
war. This involved sudden attacks using massed tank formations, dive-bombers and
paratroops. The tactics had been practised during the Spanish Civil War in 1936-9. In
1939-40, the German forces had more experience than any other European country.
Consequently, the Germans had very successful new weapons. Their tanks were more
mobile and the Stuka dive-bomber was very effective in Poland.
On the other hand, the Allied armies were expecting a war similar to the First World War
and were taken by surprise by the mobility and speed of the German army. For example,
The French government had pinned its hopes on a massive line of fortifications along the
Franco-German border. It was called the Maginot Line after the general who designed it. It
was believed to be impregnable, and it probably was, but it ended at the Belgian border.
In 1936 the French tried to extend the Maginot Line, but this proved to be impossible and
in 1940 the Germans simply went round it, sending their tanks through the Ardennes, a
wooded hilly area. They were able to take the French army completely by surprise. The
French commander had not even bothered to station troops behind the Ardennes. In
addition, although the French army outnumbered the German army and much of its
equipment was superior, the French appeared to lack the determination to fight.
The collapse of France left the British Expeditionary Force in a very difficult position. It had
taken up position in Belgium in 1939, but in May 1940 it was forced back onto Calais and
Dunkirk and had to be evacuated in the first two weeks of June. Almost all of its equipment
was lost, but 310,000 men were rescued. The survival of the British forces may have been
brought about because Hitler ordered the German forces to halt on the outskirts of
Dunkirk. He hoped that this would allow the British government to ask for terms.
Winston Churchill, who had become prime minister of Britain in May 1940, refused to
surrender to Germany. This forced Hitler to attempt to invade Britain. The attack began in
July 1940, when British ports and airfield were bombed. But the real assault began in
August when Fighter Command was attacked in the Battle of Britain.
122
The Battle of Britain
At first the British pilots were able to shoot down their German opponents, but by early
September the tide was turning. Although the British planes were superior to the German
fighters, losses began to mount. At a crucial moment Hitler switched the German attacks
from Fighter Command to London. He had apparently been annoyed at the lack of
progress, but also wanted to avenge a British bombing raid on Berlin. This gave the RAF a
chance to recover.
The RAF had a great advantage over the Germans. Robert Watson Watt had invented
Radar in 1936. By 1939 a network of radar Stations had been built along the east and
south coasts. These were able to warn the RAF of approaching raids. Britain also began to
receive aid from the USA. In September 1940 the 'Destroyers for Bases' agreement was
signed and in March 1941, 'Lend Lease' began.
123
Operation Barbarossa
The whole course of the war in Europe changed in June 1941 when Hitler ordered the
invasion of the Soviet Union. Hitler was determined to smash communism and sent his
forces in on three fronts. One prong advanced towards Leningrad, a second moved on
Moscow and the third stuck south east towards the Crimea and the Don Basin. At first the
Germans were very successful and within weeks were deep inside the Soviet Union.
One reason for the German success was that Stalin was taken by surprise. He had signed
the Nazi-Soviet Pact in August 1939 and did not believe reports that Germany was about
to invade. He seems to have been in a state of shock for a week or so after the invasion.
The German army had also fought several campaigns in Western Europe and had been
able to perfect the tactics of Blitzkrieg, the Red Army simply had no answer to this.
Moreover, the Red Army was outgunned. It simply did not have the equipment to face the
German armed forces. Its tanks were out of date and many frontline units were under
strength. The Purges of the 1930s had also had a dramatic effects. Many of the most
senior officers had been purged and consequently the Red Army was being commanded
by junior officers, with very little experience.
There were also many people who had no reason to stay loyal to Stalin. In the Ukraine and
the Crimea the Germans were welcomed as liberators and were given bread and salt, the
traditional gifts of welcome.
But after the initial success, the Germans soon found themselves bogged down in a
slogging match. The invasion had been planned for April but was delayed for two months,
whole Hitler sent forces to help Mussolini when he tried to conquer the Balkans. This
meant that the invasion took place in June. Although the weather stayed fine and warm
until October, the Germans failed to take Moscow and were then counter-attacked by
reinforcements from Siberia.
124
The three-pronged attack stretched the German resources. Leningrad was not taken and
the Germans had to besiege the city. This lasted for 900 days before they were forced to
withdraw. Only in the south east did the advance go completely to plan. Perhaps if the
Germans had been concentrated on one target they would have made even better
progress.
The invaders were also hindered by Stalin’s 'scorched earth policy'. As the Red Army
retreated anything that could aid the Germans was either carried away or destroyed. This
meant that the Germans found no supplies as they advanced. In some cases whole
factories were dismantled and moved beyond the Urals into Asia. This meant that the
Germans were unable to destroy Soviet industry.
The turning point in Operation Barbarossa came at Stalingrad. In November 1942 the
German Sixth Army was ordered by Hitler to capture Stalingrad. It was the farthest point of
the advance into the south east and it was named after Stalin himself. But the Germans
were surrounded by the Red Army commanded by Marshal Zhukov. Von Paulus, the
German commander, was cut off, but Hitler would not allow the Sixth Army to surrender
and tried to send supplies by air. Despite that, in February 1943 von Paulus was forced to
surrender; 70,000 men were left out of his original force of 140,000. But at the end of the
war only 3,000 had survived the effects of Soviet prison camps. The battle of Stalingrad
proved that the German army was not invincible. It was the first major defeat that Germany
suffered during the Second World War.
The following years the Germans tried again to advance further east. They attempted to
capture the town of Kursk, which was in a salient that projected into the frontline. The
attack began at 3.30 a.m. on 5 July and ended in the defeat of the German forces. Kursk
was one of the decisive battles of the Second World War. It was fought from 5 to 16 July
125
1943 along a two hundred mile front. The battle involved 6,000 tanks and 4,000 aircraft; it
was the greatest tank battle in history.
Kursk marked the end of the German advance into the Soviet Union. From July 1943 the
Red Army turned the tide and forced the German back into eastern Europe. It revealed
that the Red Army could match the Germans in technology as well as courage. The Soviet
T-34 tanks were the equal of the German Tigers.
The defeat of Germany
The defeat at Kursk forced the Germans to retreat. For two years they were pursued by
the Red Army. At the same time, the British, Canadians and Americans began the
conquest of occupied Europe. Firstly, North Africa was cleared of German forces, then
Italy and finally in June 1944 the Allies landed in Normandy on D Day. The D-Day
landings were very carefully planned. Floating harbours were built and towed across the
Channel, 10,000 aircraft gave the Allies complete superiority, and sea-sick pills were
invented for the invasion force.
The landings took the German commanders by surprise. They were convinced that the
attack would take place at Calais and many had gone to Brittany for a conference. When
the Allies gained a bridge-head, Hitler refused to allow Panzer divisions to be used against
the invaders. This allowed the allied troops to begin to get equipment ashore.
Although the war lasted another eleven months after D Day, the superiority of the Allies in
men and supplies was overwhelming. The Germans could not fight a war on two fronts
and were overwhelmed by the superior numbers of men and supplies of war material that
the Allies possessed. By May 1945 Germany was on its knees, having been bombed
around the clock and starved by the Allied blockade. The surrender was signed in northern
Germany on 8 May 1945.
126
The final defeat of Germany was partly caused by Hitler’s insistence on interfering in
military matters on too many occasions. In May 1940 he ordered the German tanks to stop
on the outskirts of Dunkirk. He stopped attacks on Fighter Command on 7 September. He
held back production of U-boats in 1939 and 1940, so that when the Battle of the Atlantic
began in 1941 the German Navy only had 37 submarines.
A second important factor was the determination of the British people in holding on alone
from June 1940 until June 1941 showed that the British people were not prepared to give
in. Churchill again played a key role in maintaining morale by his speeches and visits to
bombed areas. While Britain could not defeat Germany alone, it did offer hope to the
occupied countries and provided a bridge for US aid.
Britain also received invaluable aid from President Roosevelt of the USA in 1940 and 1941
and after the USA declared war on German on 11 December 1941, aid to Britain was
stepped up. US aid was also sent to Stalin to help him repel Operation Barbarossa. By
1943 US war production was in full swing, producing four times as much each month as
Germany. In the end the military and economic might of the USA was to be a key factor in
victory.
From 1942 the RAF began to bomb Germany every night. When the US air force arrived it
began to bomb during the day. By 1943, 1000 bomber raids were organised which
plastered German cities with incendiaries and heavy explosive.
But the real body blows to Germany were struck on the Eastern Front, where the German
armed forces suffered 90% of their total casualties in the war. Stalingrad and Kursk
severely weakened the German army and it never recovered.
127
Germany after the Second World War
The Yalta Conference, February 1945
By early 1945, Stalin’s army had reached the German border and was ready for the final
onslaught. Stalin’s army now totalled 12 million and this outnumbered the forces under
Eisenhower (4 million). Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met at Yalta in the southern Soviet
Union to plan the end of the Second World War. Decisions about the fate of Germany, its
Allies and those territories it had absorbed had to be made. Some of the Teheran decisions
were confirmed. Roosevelt appeared rather tired and weak at the conference and afterwards
some observers accused him of giving in to Stalin’s demands.
Differences between the Big Three emerged. Churchill was becoming convinced that
Soviet troops would remain in the countries they liberated from German occupation.
Churchill’s distrust was evident in his letters to Roosevelt when he said that Stalin was a
threat to the free world. Nevertheless, both Churchill and Roosevelt needed Stalin's
support in case it was necessary to invade Japan.
This cartoon appeared in the Chicago Tribune, shortly after the Yalta Conference. It
shows Stalin playing poker with Churchill and Roosevelt.
128
The ‘Big Three’ at Yalta
What decisions were made at Yalta?
Germany
The Allies eventually decided to divide Germany into four zones; each one would be
occupied by one of the four allies. Stalin agreed to accept France as one of the powers –
this was after much persuasion by Churchill. It was also decided that Berlin would be
divided into four sectors. (Austria and Vienna were to be divided in a similar way.) In
addition, it was agreed that Nazi war criminals would be tried in an international court of
justice.
However, no agreement could be reached about reparations. Stalin was keen to cripple
Germany’s so that it could never become a military power and Churchill did not want any
punishment to bee too severe – as had happened in the peace settlement of 1919.
However, a figure of $20 billion dollars was put forward.
The Potsdam Conference, July–August 1945
After Yalta, it soon became evident that Stalin was not about to adhere to the promises he
had made. By July Soviet forces had occupied most of Eastern Europe: Finland, Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Poland. In addition,
Soviet forces were occupying parts of Germany and Austria. Wherever possible, Stalin and
129
his Soviet forces resisted democracy and tried to ensure that new governments would be
loyal to the Soviet Union.
However, when President Roosevelt died on 12 April, relations between the USA and the
Soviet Union became more strained. He was succeeded by Harry Truman who took a much
tougher line with Stalin. When Truman became aware of Stalin’s anti-democratic actions in
Poland, a message condemning the actions was sent to Stalin. So, by April colder relations
between the two countries were already evident.
The Potsdam conference was the last of the conferences between the leaders of the allies
during the Second World War. During the conference, Churchill was replaced by Clement
Attlee, who had become Britain’s new Prime Minister following the July general election.
On 16 July the USA had tested its atomic bomb, which meant that Truman no longer
needed to rely upon the Soviet Union in the war against Japan. The USA did not wish to
share the technology which had created the atomic bomb and Stalin saw this as a clear
threat to the Soviet Union.
What was decided at Potsdam?
The ‘Big Three’ at Potsdam
130
Germany
Ideally, Stalin wanted the permanent partition of Germany, but Britain and the USA were
able to resist this. Germany was divided into four zones. Each zone would be occupied by
one of the four Allies, Great Britain, France, the USA and the USSR. Berlin was divided
into four sectors. Germany was to be de-militarised. All German naval and merchant ships
were to be given to the Allies.
The Nazi Party would be dissolved. War criminals would be tried and punished. Nazis
were removed from important positions and leading Nazis were to be put on trial for war
crime. These trials were held in Nuremberg during 1946.
There would be free elections in Germany, freedom of speech and a free press.
Germans living in Eastern Europe would be transferred into Germany.
Germany would pay reparations for the damage caused by the war. Most of this would go
to the USSR, either in money or goods. Stalin was desperate to re-build the damaged
Soviet economy. It was agreed that Stalin could take machinery from the Soviet occupied
zone and would be allowed some machinery from the western zones (the Soviet zone was
primarily agricultural).
Checkpoint: Yalta and Potsdam
What decisions were reached at each conference?
Yalta
Potsdam
131
Churchill at the end of the ‘Iron Curtain’ speech
US reaction to Churchill’s ‘Iron Curtain’ speech
132
What was the Cold War?
The events of 1945 to 1949 led to what became known as the COLD WAR. This is the
name used to describe the hostility between East and West which existed until the late
1980s. It was a war of propaganda and ideas, but there was very little actual fighting. A hot
war is a conflict in which actual fighting takes place. A cold war is a war conducted against
an enemy by every means without resorting to fighting. At first it was confined to Europe,
but during the 1950s and 1960s it spread across world, as the USA and the Soviet Union
sought to gain influence and control over as many countries as possible.
The ‘Iron Curtain’
In February 1946, President Truman received a note about Soviet foreign policy from one
of his advisers. The note stated that the Soviet Union would never co-operate with the
USA and its long-term aim was to expand its empire. Thus the Soviet Union had to be
contained – the policy of containment was born. In March of that year, Winston Churchill
made a speech in Fulton, Missouri in 1946, during which he referred to the ‘iron curtain’.
Churchill said the ‘iron curtain’ started at Stettin in the Baltic and went to Trieste in the
Adriatic. Eventually, the ‘iron curtain’ became a thousand mile long armed border cutting
off the Communist countries of Eastern Europe form the non-communist west.
A map of the Iron Curtain
133
Truman also wanted to help the countries of Europe recover from the effects of the
Second World War. Marshall Aid was announced in 1947. Truman also hoped that he
might be able to persuade some of the countries of Eastern Europe to break away from
Communism.
A German poster for the Marshall Plan; translated, the words read – ‘An open road
for the Marshall Plan’
How did Marshall Aid work?
Marshall Aid was an attempt to rebuild Europe after the Second World War. It put the ideas of
the Truman Doctrine into effect and together the two were called ‘two halves of the same
walnut’ by Truman. In March 1947 President Harry Truman offered grants of American money
to all European countries. The plan was named after his Secretary of State George C
Marshall who had visited Europe and seen the devastation caused by the war. Truman had
also been shocked by the damage caused when he visited Europe for the Potsdam
Conference. He had also served as a captain in the US army in Europe in 1918 and wanted
to help Europe recover from the effects of a second world war.
The USA intended to offer Marshall Aid to all countries in Europe. This would mean that
the USA would be able to influence the countries of the east and undermine communism.
This was what Truman had hoped would happen. The USSR and other eastern countries
did attend the first meetings in 1948, but withdrew when they discovered that they would
have to join the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation, the body which was
set up to determine how the money would be divided amongst participants.
When the Soviet Union realised how much influence the USA would have and that the
USA would become close trading partners with members of the OEEC. The Eastern Bloc
134
countries were forced to withdraw applications for Marshall Aid. Poland and
Czechoslovakia had applied early for Marshall Aid and looked forward to receiving
assistance – until Stalin stepped in.
Altogether seventeen countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Eire, France, Great Britain,
Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland,
Turkey and the West’s zones in Germany) received a total of $13,750,000,000, which
allowed them to recover from the war much more quickly than the countries of the east.
Italy, which had been an ally of Germany during the war, received $600,000,000.
Marshall Aid was one of the reasons why Stalin tried to force the west out of West Berlin in
1948.
How was Germany governed after the war?
The agreements at Potsdam about Germany’s future eventually caused the major rift
between the wartime allies. It had been agreed that Germany would be divided into four
zones, one each for the USA, the USSR, Britain and France. Each of the four allies was to
be responsible for its own sector. Decisions affecting Germany as a whole would be taken
jointly and it was intended that Germany would be reunited in the future. But the key
agreement was that all decisions had to be agreed by the four occupying nations. Berlin
the capital of Germany was inside the Soviet Zone, and this was also divided into four
sectors. It was governed by the Joint Kommandatura, which contained the military leaders
of the four allies.
The Berlin Blockade, 1948-49
The Berlin Blockade lasted from June 1948 until May 1949. In June 1948, Joseph Stalin
ordered that all traffic between West Germany and West Berlin should be stopped. He
closed all the road, canal and rail routes, but was not able to prevent the western allies,
Great Britain, France and the USA from bringing supplies into West Berlin by air. This was
the Berlin Airlift.
Why did Stalin blockade Berlin?
The main reason for the blockade was that Great Britain and the USA had made it clear
that they intended to rebuild the economy in their zones of Germany. In January 1947, the
British and US zones were joined together in ‘Bizonia’. Stalin said this broke the Potsdam
agreements. Moreover, he did not like the prospect of parts of Germany recovering
economically – his aim still remained - to keep Germany weak. Bizonia would assist in the
future economic recovery. His fears increased in April 1948, when the French zone was
added to create ‘Trizonia’. Once more Stalin said that this broke the Potsdam
agreements.
Tension continued to increase. Shortly after the creation of Trizonia, the Western Allies
announced that they were going to introduce a new currency, the Deutschmark, to help the
economy get going again. Stalin yet again said the new currency broke the Potsdam
agreements. The Western Allies said the new currency was introduced to prevent inflation
and to stop the black market trade and bartering which were still common three years after
the end of the war. The new currency would mean that the eastern and western parts of
Germany would now be separate economically and would begin to develop at different
rates. This angered Stalin and the Soviet authorities. Furthermore, Stalin saw that West
135
Berlin was a temptation to East Berliners. In the west, the Marshall Plan was beginning to
make life much better and already East Berliners and East Germans were trying to escape
to the west.
For more information on the Berlin Blockade, click here
Checkpoint: Western and Soviet aims in Germany
How did the aims of the West and Stalin differ over Germany?
West
Stalin
How did the Allies react to the Blockade?
The Western Allies were determined that Stalin should not succeed in his plans to
blockade West Berlin. General Lucius Clay, the US commander in Berlin said, ‘If West
Berlin falls, West Germany will be next’. This seemed to accord with the US view of
communism; that once it had a foothold in an area it would spread like in on blotting paper.
The Allies believed that if they gave in Stalin would behave as Hitler had in the 1930s, then
more and more countries would be taken over. Clay offered to fight his way out of West
Berlin, but was ordered not to by Truman. The USA had reduced its army after the war
and, by 1948 it had only about 500,000 soldiers.
The solution was to fly supplies to the two million citizens of West Berlin. The U.S. action
gave the name Operation Vittles and the British gave the name name Operation Plainfare
to the airlift.The Airlift began on 28 June 1948.The Allies began to bring supplies into West
Berlin by air. 4,000 tonnes were needed every day. Eventually they were bringing in 8,000
tonnes; even coal was brought in by plane. The airlift reached its peak on 16–17 April
136
1949 when almost 1400 flights landed nearly 13,000 tons of supplies in 24 hours. On 12
May 1949, Stalin called off the blockade. He had failed to starve the Allies out of Berlin.
Map showing the Allied flight routes to West Berlin during the Airlift.
During the Airlift, more than 320,000 flights were made. Success came with a price, 79
pilots and aircrew were killed as a result of accidents during the Operation.
West Berliners waiting for a plane to land
For more information about the Airlift, click here
For more photographs of the Airlift, click here
137
What were the consequences of the Berlin Blockade?
The distrust that had been growing between the USA and USSR was now clear for the
world to see. It was a sign that relations between the Superpowers were now so bad that
some form of military alliance was necessary. The Cold War had started in earnest. The
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was set up in April 1949. During the Berlin
Blockade, the USA had become concerned about the military power of the USSR in
Europe and set up its own military alliance to counter the threat. Member states were –
USA, Great Britain, France, Canada, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Iceland,
Norway, Denmark, Italy and Portugal. The members of NATO made it clear that any attack
on any part of their territories would be considered an attack on the whole alliance. NATO
led to US troops and aircraft being stationed in European countries to protect them against
a possible attack by the countries of Eastern Europe.
Not only did the Blockade lead to the formation of the military alliance which showed once
and for all that the wartime alliance was over. The division between East and West was
further confirmed when many East German and East Berlin citizens began to try to escape
the Soviet zone and move to the West. Above all, 1949 saw the creation in May of the
Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic
(East Germany) in October.
A map showing the division of Germany in 1949
138
The Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact was set up in 1955 in response to the admission of West Germany (the
German Federal Republic) to NATO. This seemed to confirm to Khrushchev that West
Germany was becoming a distinct military threat to the Soviet Union. The fear of invasion was
never far from the minds of Soviet leaders and this time, as a member of NATO, West
Germany had several allies.
The Warsaw Pact was a military alliance of the Communist countries of Eastern Europe. It
was the communist equivalent of NATO. The full title was the 'Pact of Mutual Assistance
and Unified Command'. It was an attempt to protect the USSR by drawing the countries of
Eastern Europe even closer together. The members of the Pact were the Soviet Union,
Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania and East Germany.
The Warsaw Pact had three important features:



It created a joint command of the armed forces of the alliance.
It set up a Political Committee to co-ordinate the foreign policies of the members.
It bound its signatories to come to the aid of the others, should any one of them be
the victim of foreign aggression. This was no different from NATO.
The Pact increased the influence of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe and led to more
Soviet troops being stationed there. Although it was stressed by all signatories that the
Warsaw Treaty was based on total equality of each nation and mutual non-interference in
one another's internal affairs, the Pact quickly became a powerful political tool for the
Soviet Union to hold sway over its allies and harness the powers of their combined
military. This made the crushing of the Hungarian Rising of 1956 all the easier. Moreover,
its forces outnumbered those of the West and an invasion through northern Germany
always seemed very likely.
The West took the threat from the Warsaw Pact extremely seriously until its demise in 1991.
Eventually, support for the Pact was financially ruinous for the Soviet Union and was an
important factor in the bankruptcy and collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Map showing NATO and Warsaw Pact countries
139
East and West: The Berlin Wall
A map of East and West Berlin; The thick black line shows the Wall around the western
part of the city, 1961.
After World War II the city of Berlin was divided into four sectors. The American, British and
French sectors were part of the western system and the Soviet sector was part of the
communist system in the East. Until the erection of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961 Berlin
citizens were allowed to cross the city’s border sectors from West to East or East to West.
Berlin.
140
Why did Khrushchev order the building of the Berlin Wall?
After 1945, the British, French and American zones of Germany and Berlin were given
economic assistance. Eventually, the three zones amalgamated to form Trizonia and with the
introduction of the common currency (the Deutschmark) economic recovery began. Stalin
wanted to push the Allies from their Berlin occupation zones because they were situated in the
Soviet occupation of Germany. As prosperity returned to the city, Stalin did not want a visible
example of economic recovery when those citizens of East Berlin and the Soviet zone were still
experiencing hardships. The influx of Marshall Aid only served to highlight the growing gulf
between the two areas.
The situation over Berlin came to a head in 1948 when Stalin blocked all land and water
communication between the Allied zones in Germany and their zones on Berlin. The result was
the Berlin Airlift. For almost one year the Western Allies flew in supplies to feed the 2 million
citizens of their Berlin zones. In May 1949, Stalin called a halt to the Blockade. However, the
diplomatic situation had now changed – the wartime alliance was now clearly over and a key
result of the Blockade was the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany)
and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).
Many East Germans did not like life under communist rule and fled to the West through Berlin. It
has been estimated that during the period after the Airlift until the construction of the Berlin Wall,
about 4 million East Germans moved to West Germany. Stalin did not want this gap in the Iron
Curtain and sought to block it after the Airlift. The Soviet Union became convinced that the USA
and Britain used West Berlin as a base for spying.
What was life like in East Germany and East Berlin?
People left after 1949 because life in the East was dominated by the Communist Party. In East
Germany the Communist Party exercised greater control than in any other East European state.
East Germany was the only Communist country that had, in effect, been created from nothing
and it became the model which the other Soviet satellite states were expected to follow. As in
all other communist states, no other political parties were permitted and elections involved a
selection from a list of candidates supplied by the communists.
Freedom of expression was restricted. Consumer goods were limited and often of poor quality.
Sales of foreign goods were restricted. Foreign travel was difficult and currency sales were
strictly controlled in an effort to obtain foreign exchange. The Communist Party controlled the
media, which meant that there was no legal means of finding out about what was happening in
the world on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Newspapers and the radio and television could
only report the official version of the news. This was rather more difficult in East Germany
because of the ease of movement into West Berlin. It was this issue in particular which began to
exercise East German and Soviet leaders in the 1950s.
People were subject to the secret police. Such organisations operated outside the law and
there was little that an ordinary citizen could do about their actions. The Secret Police of
East Germany (STASI – Staatssicherheit translated - State Security) was established with
Soviet help. It was responsible for both domestic political surveillance and espionage.
Eventually, it employed 85,000 and had hundreds of thousands of informers so that it
could monitor the population closely.
141
The Stasi operated for more than forty years and collected a vast amount of information
about the people of East Germany. When its archives were taken over by the Federal
Government, they were found to contain 122 kilometres of paper, including 46.5 kilometres
on microfiche, 360,000 photographs, 600,000 negatives, 24,000 slides, 3,850 videos, 730
films and 99,500 sound recordings. Altogether, the Stasi had information on about
6,000,000 people, out of a total population of 16,000,000. In addition to security
information, there were also details of debts, drinking habits and sexual preferences.
These were used to blackmail unwilling individuals.
What were the benefits of life in the East?
All citizens of the countries of Eastern Europe had a job. Prices were controlled at a low
level. Rent, electricity, gas and telephone charges were minimal by western standards.
Public transport was very cheap and very reliable. But these advantages were outweighed
by the possibility of greater freedom as well as much higher earnings and a much higher
standard of living in the West.
Checkpoint: East and West
Why did so many people try to leave the East?
Negative aspects of the East
Attractions of the West
142
The refugee problem
East Germans fled to the West because they were dissatisfied with the economic and political
conditions of a communist society. The forced collectivisation of agriculture and the end of
private trading were not popular among the people of East Germany. Moreover, there were
shortages of consumer goods, which could be easily bought at low prices in West Berlin. The
people of East Berlin and East Germany could readily see the prosperity of the West. It had
always been possible for Berliners to travel from one part of the city to another. Many worked in
one sector and lived in another. It was easy for them to see what life was like on the other side.
Wages were much higher in the West and there was a much higher standard of living. In the
West there were no secret police and no censorship. In West Berlin all of these advantages
could be clearly seen.
Eventually defectors (the word defector eventually replaced the term refugee) were welleducated engineers, scientists, teachers, doctors and lecturers. They were just the sort of
people that the Communist Bloc could not afford to lose as it tried to modernise its industry and
agriculture. Defectors also made it very difficult for Khrushchev (Stalin’s successor) to prove that
the Soviet system was better than the West. He needed to stop the brain drain (the term given
to the loss of highly educated professional people) if East Germany was to catch up with the
West. By the summer of 1961, the number of defectors rose to 10,000 per week and
Khrushchev knew that he would have to step in and prevent such a continued exodus of skilled
people.
In November 1958, Khrushchev had demanded that the three Western powers should leave
West Berlin. He put forward the idea of creating one neutral city from the four original
occupation zones. President Eisenhower of the USA was prepared to discuss the future of the
city and it was agreed that he would meet Khrushchev in May 1960. However, the summit
conference was tarnished by events following the shooting down of an American U2 spy-plane
on 1 May 1960.
The U2 Crisis, May 1960
Relations between the Soviet Union and the USA were worsened by the U2 incident, when
a US spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union on 1 May 1960. President
Eisenhower said he would stop all future U2 flight over the Soviet Union, but he would not
apologise for the incident. He claimed that the U2 was carrying out weather
reconnaissance and was not in fact spying. He did this because he was assured by his
aides that if the plane had been shot down, it would have been destroyed and the pilot
would have been killed. In fact, the pilot, Gary Powers, was alive and was put on trial in
Moscow. The plane had largely survived the crash landing and was evidence that the USA
had been used for spying. This came in the middle of a Summit Meeting in Paris and on
one occasion Khrushchev famously stormed out of talks with Eisenhower; grabbing the
headlines of the world’s press as he did so. Khrushchev was able to use the U2 incident
to embarrass the USA who had initially lied about the plane. The summit meeting
collapsed and relations between the USA and Soviet Union worsened dramatically.
For more information about the U2 incident, including film, click here
143
After the U2 Crisis, the situation in Berlin did not improve. In 1960, the number of defectors
rose to 199,000 and in the first seven months of 1961, about 207,000 left East Germany.
In September 1960, East Germany forced West Berliners who wanted to travel to East
Berlin to obtain a police pass. This was the first time that any restriction had been placed
on travel between the four sectors in Berlin. It was clear that the West was not going to
leave West Berlin of its own free will. The only way to plug the gap in the Iron Curtain was
to cut off West Berlin from East Germany.
At the Vienna summit in June 1961, Khrushchev told the new President Kennedy that the
Soviet Union was considering signing a peace treaty with East Germany and this would
give East Germany control of all communication links between West Germany and West
Berlin. This would break the wartime agreements. Kennedy felt that he stood up to
Khrushchev in Vienna, but when later asked about the meeting he said:
‘Khrushchev, he beat the hell out of me.’
By the early summer of 1961, East German President, Walter Ulbricht, told the Soviet
Union that an immediate solution was necessary and that the only way to stop the exodus
was to use force. This presented a delicate problem for the Soviet Union because the fourpower status of Berlin specified free travel between zones and specifically forbade the
presence of German troops in Berlin. East Germans, seeing the crisis worsen, fled to West
Berlin in even greater numbers than ever. In July 1961, alone there were some 30,000.
The construction of the Berlin Wall started at 2:00 A.M. on August 13, 1961 when access
routes were blocked by barbed wire. Two days later, the first concrete blocks being put in
place and the barrier separating the two parts of the city was constructed in earnest. .The
Wall effectively sealed off the best escape route open to disenchanted East Germans, thus
halting the mass movement of people to the West. After its construction, the number of
refugees entering West Berlin and West Germany fell drastically.
144
Photographs of the building of the Berlin Wall, August 1961
145
Data about the Berlin Wall
Total border length around West Berlin: 155 km
Border between East and West Berlin: 43.1 km
Border between West Berlin and East Germany: 111.9 km
Concrete segment wall: 3.6m high, 106 km
Wire mesh fencing: 66.5 km
Anti-vehicle trenches: 105.5 km
Contact or signal fence: 127.5 km
Column track: 6-7 m wide, 124.3 km
Number of watch towers: 302
Number of bunkers: 20
Persons killed on the Berlin Wall: c. 300
Persons injured by shooting: c. 200
146
For more photographs of the Berlin Wall, click here
To visit the Wall Museum at ‘Checkpoint Charlie’, click here
147
Why did Khrushchev believe that he could get away building the Wall?
Khrushchev believed that he could get away with building the Wall because John F
Kennedy, the US president, had been made to look foolish over the Bay of Pigs (see
below). Following the Vienna meeting, Khrushchev decided that Kennedy was
inexperienced and could be easily pushed around.
What were the consequences of building the Berlin Wall?
In some ways it made relations between the superpowers better. Khrushchev did not have
to worry about defectors and there was also a clear dividing line between East and West.
There was less confrontation between the two sides in Berlin. But many Berliners were
caught on the wrong side of the Wall and were cut off from their families. Although visits
across the Wall began in 1964, it was impossible to reunite families until 1989. Many
people tried to escape from the East and 300 people were killed trying to cross the Wall
President Kennedy ordered three increases in the US defence budget in the next two
years. He realised that he could not afford to lose out again. He would have to stand up to
Khrushchev the next time. In 1963 he visited Berlin and made a speech to hundreds of
thousands of West Berliners. In it he said, ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’. This was meant to show
that he was sharing their difficulties, but it actually meant ‘I am a doughnut’. ‘Berliner’ was
a slang term for a doughnut.
Part of Kennedy’s speech in Berlin, 1963.
Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we never had to put up a
wall to keep our people in. All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and
therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, 'Ich bin ein Berliner’.
Kennedy hoped that his words would echo around the free world, but was probably
puzzled by the slow response of his audience at the time. He was unaware that a ‘Berliner’
was slang for a type of popular pastry and had therefore described himself as a doughnut.
It is important to understand that the pictures of the Wall that are published in books often
give a very false impression of its appearance and construction. In many parts of Berlin it
was something of a ramshackle structure, which was continuously improved. In fact, for
some years, the Wall hardly existed at all in some areas of the city and was patrolled by
East German Border Guards to stop people escaping. In Bernauer Strasse, the site of the
Wall Memorial, the Wall ran along the front of houses on the south side of the street. It
actually ran through some of the houses, so people could escape by going from one room
to another.
The Wall was continuously being improved and there were at least four different stages of
work. The fourth generation of the Wall was made of reinforced concrete blocks with a
rounded top. This was intended to make escape over the Wall very difficult. But these
sections are not regarded as being the Wall proper and the only genuine piece remaining
is at the Wall Memorial. The main Wall was completed by 1974, when it had 1053 watchtowers and 493 underground bunkers.
148
There were many attempts to escape across the Wall. Some of the more notable include:

On 4 August 1984, Josef Hlavaty, a Czech, and his wife and three sons all escaped in
a home made aircraft. It was fitted with an engine that came from a Trabant (an East
German car) and it flew for 100 km.

A couple who put a wreath on top of their car and said they were going to lay it at the
Soviet memorial in West Berlin. They were waved through the first barrier and then
smashed their way through the second.

One tunnel was 120 metres long and was dug by nine people. There were six men
aged 81, 76, 70, 58, 57 and 55, and three women aged 68, 48 and 46. The earth that
they removed was hidden in a disused hen-house.

One girl escaped by hiding in the gap hollowed out between two surfboards, but the
most spectacular escape of all was by two families on 6 September 1979. They built a
hot air balloon which measured 20 metres by 28 metres and all stood on a plate 1.4
metres square. Their flight lasted 28 minutes in which time they covered 22 km at a
speed of 50 kph.
A photograph of East German soldier, Hans Conrad Schuhmann, leaping across the
barbed wire fence to West Berlin and freedom, 14 August 1961, two days after East
Germany closed the border and began erecting the Berlin Wall.
149
Photograph of East German soldiers carrying the body of Peter Fechter, 18 back into
East Berlin. Fechter was the first person killed trying to escape over the Berlin Wall,
1962. He was shot and left to bleed to death.
For an interactive history of the Berlin Wall, click here
150
How significantly did life change for the German people after 1945?
Germany under Adenauer from 1949 to 1963: the economic miracle
Unemployment rose to more than 2 million in the winter of 1949-50. There were also the
9.5 million refugees from the east, who had to be resettled, clothed and housed. The
weakness of the German economy led to a balance of payments crisis and shortages of
raw materials. Agriculture was unable to compete with imported products and the
government was forced to subsidise prices. These problems suggested that ‘social market
economics’, the brain child of Ludwig Erhard, were about to collapse. Social market
economics involved aspects of both capitalism (free enterprise and competition) with
limited state intervention to control prices and supply for the benefit of the general public.
Additionally, the occupying powers were overall responsible for foreign policy, security,
exports and controlled the Ruhr, the heartland of German industry. Consequently,
Adenauer had to step warily through a mine-field.
How did Adenauer overcome his problems?
He adopted a positive approach to the problems, encouraging the policies of Erhard, who
tried to increase production but at the same time controlled prices of basic necessities.
151
As the nature of the regime in the East became clear, there were few who wanted a
rapprochement. Germans were able to cross the borders between the sectors in Berlin
and it soon became clear what life was like in the East. In fact, hundreds of thousands of
refugees began to leave the East. As these were mostly highly educated scientists and
technicians, the West German economy benefited greatly. The value has been estimated
at DM2.6 billion a year. The Cold War also brought US forces in large numbers and their
spending power. From 1950, the West German economy began to experience a minor
boom. The Korean War provided a welcome boost for industry from 1950. Heavy industry
and machine tools were in big demand.
Increasingly, most young Germans and refugees saw Adenauer as the best prospect. He
also attracted support from both Protestants and Catholics. As Chancellor, he had
powerful machinery at his disposal. He was able to construct a web of support throughout
Germany. He began massive house-building programmes, which were essential because
25% of housing had been destroyed in the war. This was partly supported by Marshall Aid,
which provided $1.5 billion to the West German economy. The Construction Law of
1950, provided grants to the Lander and 4 million homes were built in six years. With
security guaranteed by the occupying powers, Adenauer could afford to focus on
economic regeneration. The Equalisation of Burdens Law in 1953 offered a new and
fairer society. Owners of property were taxed at the rate of 50%, which was to be collected
over a thirty year period. The proceeds would be re-distributed as grants and pensions.
Between 1951 and 1959, industrial production rose by almost 80%. Productivity rose by a
similar amount. After 1951, strikes became very rare. In 1952, Adenauer passed the
Works Constitution Law which created workers councils throughout industry. These
allowed disputes to be settled reasonably peacefully. Social integration of refugees was
achieved by the Construction Law and the Equalisation of Burdens Law.
The European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community
Most Western European politicians believed that the best way to ensure that Germany did
not fall victim to dictatorship again was to integrate it into the West. In 1951, the European
Coal and Steel Community was created which linked Germany and France for the first
time. In 1955, preliminary talks about the European Economic Community began and the
Treaty of Rome was signed in 1957. West Germany was one of the founding members,
along with France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The main advantage
of membership of the EEC was that German goods could be exported freely through the
Community.
152
Life in Germany during the Cold War
What was life like in East Germany and East Berlin?
People left after 1949 because life in the East was dominated by the Communist Party. In East
Germany the Communist Party exercised greater control than in any other East European state.
East Germany was the only Communist country that had, in effect, been created from nothing
and it became the model which the other Soviet satellite states were expected to follow. As in
all other communist states, no other political parties were permitted and elections involved a
selection from a list of candidates supplied by the communists.
Freedom of expression was restricted. Consumer goods were limited and often of poor quality.
Sales of foreign goods were restricted. Foreign travel was difficult and currency sales were
strictly controlled in an effort to obtain foreign exchange.
The Communist Party controlled the media, which meant that there was no legal means of
finding out about what was happening in the world on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
Newspapers and the radio and television could only report the official version of the news.
This was rather more difficult in East Germany because of the ease of movement into
West Berlin. It was this issue in particular which began to exercise East German and
Soviet leaders in the 1950s.
People were subject to the secret police. Such organisations operated outside the law and
there was little that an ordinary citizen could do about their actions. The Secret Police of
East Germany (STASI – Staatssicherheit translated - State Security) was established with
Soviet help. It was responsible for both domestic political surveillance and espionage.
Eventually, it employed 85,000 and had hundreds of thousands of informers so that it
could monitor the population closely.
Stasi headquarters
The Stasi operated for more than forty years and collected a vast amount of information
about the people of East Germany. When its archives were taken over by the Federal
153
Government, they were found to contain 122 kilometres of paper, including 46.5 kilometres
on microfiche, 360,000 photographs, 600,000 negatives, 24,000 slides, 3,850 videos, 730
films and 99,500 sound recordings. Altogether, the Stasi had information on about
6,000,000 people, out of a total population of 16,000,000. In addition to security
information, there were also details of debts, drinking habits and sexual preferences.
These were used to blackmail unwilling individuals.
A Stasi listening post for recording telephone calls
What were the benefits of life in the East?
All citizens of the countries of Eastern Europe had a job. Prices were controlled at a low
level. Rent, electricity, gas and telephone charges were minimal by western standards.
Public transport was very cheap and very reliable. But these advantages were outweighed
by the possibility of greater freedom as well as much higher earnings and a much higher
standard of living in the West.
In some ways, there was little difference between life in West Germany and the East. In both
states, citizens received generous welfare benefits, free education and health services.
However, in the West, these benefits were the result of a successful economy and democratic
government. In the East, they were little more than a bribe to persuade East Germans to put up
with the dominant position of the ruling party and the activities of the Stasi, the secret police.
154
Reunification
German reunification started in the summer of 1989, when Hungary decided on 2 May 2 to
dismantle its portion of the Iron Curtain and open its borders on 23 August 23. This caused
an exodus of thousands of East Germans who were trying to reach West Germany via
Hungary. However, the Hungarians then prevented many more East Germans from
crossing the border and returned them to Budapest. These East Germans flooded the
West German embassy and refused to return to East Germany. The East German
government responded by preventing any further travel to Hungary, but allowed those
already there to return.
These events resulted in a similar incident in neighboring Czechoslovakia. On this
occasion, the East German authorities allowed them to leave, providing that they used a
train which went through East Germany on the way. This was followed by mass
demonstrations within East Germany itself.
Protest demonstrations had broken out all over East Germany in September 1989. Initially,
they were of people wanting to leave to the West, chanting ‘We want out’. The longtime
leader of East Germany, Erich Honecker, resigned on October 18, 1989, and was replaced
by Egon Krenz a few days later. By November 4, the protests had swelled significantly,
with a million people gathered that day in in East Berlin.
Meanwhile the wave of refugees leaving East Germany for the West had increased and
had found its way through Czechoslovakia, tolerated by the new Krenz government and in
agreement with the communist Czechoslovak government. To ease the complications, the
politburo led by Krenz decided on November 9, to allow refugees to exit directly through
crossing points between East Germany and West Germany, including West Berlin; thus
Berlin Wall was at an end. However, the Wall actually remained in place for some time.
West Germans and West Berliners were allowed visa-free travel starting on 23 December.
Until then they could only visit East Germany and East Berlin under conditions that
involved application for a visa several days or weeks in advance, and compulsory
exchange of at least 25 DM per day of their planned stay, all of which hindered visits. In
the weeks between November 9 and December 23, East Germans could travel ‘more
freely’ than Westerners. Almost all of the remaining sections of Berlin Wall were rapidly
chipped away.
Technically the Wall remained guarded for some time after November 9, though at a
decreasing intensity. In the first months, the East German military even tried to repair
some of the damage. On 13 June, 1990, the official dismantling of the Wall by the East
German military began in Bernauer Straße. On 1 July, the day East Germany adopted the
West German currency, all border controls ceased, although the inter-German border had
become meaningless for some time before that. The dismantling continued to be carried
out by military units and lasted until November 1991. Only a few short sections and
watchtowers were left standing as memorials.
155
156
157
For photographs of the fall of the Berlin Wall, click here
Helmut Kohl
Following the breach of the Wall and the collapse of the East German Communist regime
in 1989, Kohl, like most West Germans, was initially caught unaware when the East
German government was toppled in late 1989. However, he wanted to bring about
German unity, he immediately moved to make it a reality. Taking advantage of the historic
political changes occurring in East Germany, Kohl presented a ten-point plan for
‘Overcoming of the division of Germany and Europe’. In February 1990, he visited the
Soviet Union seeking a guarantee from Mikhail Gorbachev that the USSR would allow
German reunification to proceed. He received assurances from Gorbachev that a reunified
Germany would be able to choose which international alliance it wanted to join, although
Kohl made no secret that he wanted the reunified Germany to remain part of NATO and
the EC.
By the spring of 1990, the East German economy had sunk into near-paralysis.
Accordingly, on 18 May 1990, Kohl signed an economic and social union treaty with East
Germany agreeing Monetary, Economic and Social Union. This came into force on 1 July
1990, with the Deutschmark replacing the East German mark as the official currency of
East Germany. The Deutschmark had a very high reputation among the East Germans
158
and was considered stable. While the GDR transferred its financial policy sovereignty to
West Germany, the West started granting subsidies for the GDR budget and social
security system. At the same time many West German laws came into force in the GDR.
This created a suitable framework for a political union by diminishing the huge gap
between the two existing political, social and economic systems.
A reunification treaty was signed on 31 August 1990, and was overwhelmingly approved
by both parliaments on 20 September 1990. On 3 October 1990, East Germany officially
ceased to exist, and its territory joined the Federal Republic.
To commemorate the day that marks the official unification of the former East and West
Germany in 1990, 3 October has since then been the official German national holiday, the
Day of German Unity (Tag der deutschen Einheit). It replaced the previous national holiday
held in West Germany on 17 June commemorating the Uprising of 1953 in East Germany
and the national holiday on 7 October in the GDR.
On 14 November 1990, the German government signed a treaty with Poland, finalising
Germany's boundaries as permanent along the Oder-Neisse line, and thus, renouncing
any claims to Silesia, East Brandenburg, Farther Pomerania, Gdansk (Danzig), and
territories of the former province of East Prussia. The treaty also granted certain rights for
political minorities on either side of the border. The following month, the first all-German
free elections since 1932 were held, resulting in an increased majority for the coalition
government of Chancellor Helmut Kohl.