Download Nazi Germany 1933

Nazi Germany (1933-1939)
Quick revise
Dictatorship Established January-March 1933
 January 1933 Hitler appointed Chancellor
 February there was a Nazi reign of terror in run-up to the elections
 Also – anti-left campaign to weaken opposition
 Reichstag Fire destroyed the parliament building
 March 1933 election Nazis gained more seats in parliament (Reichstag)
 Main opposition parties were banned and Communists expelled from Reichstag
 23rd March Enabling Act gave Hitler power to rule for 4 years without consultation
The video provides an overview into the events of 1933 and 1934 that took Germany from a democracy into a
dictatorship.
June – August 1934: Sturmabteilung ("Storm Battalion") SA and Army
 SA leader Ernst Röhm wanted a socialist policy
 Also wanted SA and army merged under his control
 Hitler feared Röhm as an opponent within the Nazi Party
 Also feared the power of the Army general Staff who disliked Röhm
 30th June 1934 SA Purge: “The Night of the Long Knives” in which Röhm was murdered
 August – President Hindenburg died
 The Army Oath – army swore oath of loyalty to Hitler
 Hitler now merged the role of President and Chancellor (prime minister)
 He took this role and the title of Fuhrer
 This made him Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces
Important Nazi Ministers
Hermann Göring
 Minister of the Interior in Prussia – most important state in Germany
 Founded the Gestapo (secret police)
 He organised the reign of terror against Nazi opponents 1932-3
 Led the anti-left campaign after Reichstag Fire
 One of main organisers of SA Purge
 1934 in charge of industrial development and 4 Year Plan
 Later became head of the Luftwaffe (air force) until 1945
Joseph Goebbels
 Nazi Party head of propaganda
 1926 became Gauleiter (Party leader) in Berlin
 1927 founded Der Angriff (a Berlin daily newspaper)
 1928 elected to the Reichstag
 1929 became Nazi propaganda chief
 1933 appointed Minister of Propaganda and Enlightenment in Nazi state
Heinrich Himmler
 1929 Hitler made him leader of the Schutzstaffel (SS)
 Later succeeded Göring as head of the Gestapo
 He was responsible for –
a) The SA Purge 1934
b) Crushing opposition to Hitler
c) Anti-Jewish campaigns
d) Running concentration camps
Hjalmar Schacht
 1918 he was a partner in a Bremen bank
 1924 devised plan to restore stable currency after 1933 inflation collapse
 Issued new currency called the Rentenmark
 1924 while head of the Reichsbank involved in securing the Dawes Plan
 1933 supported Hitler’s rise to power
 1933-7 Nazi Economics Minister
 As Economics Minister he –
a) Devised a scheme to re-arm Germany
b) Supported public spending to reduce unemployment
c) Arranged trade and currency deals with other states to enhance trade
 2nd January as Reichsbank President he wanted to reduce arms spending to stop inflation and
balance the budget so –
 Hitler sacked him
The video below highlights prominent Nazi’s and their roles within the evil regime.
Nazi Organisations
Hitler Youth
 Formed 1920s
 Nazis won the support of the young by it
 Boys sent to camps and wore uniforms at weekends
 Similar organisation for girls: The League of German Maidens
Sturmabteilung (SA)
 This was Hitler’s private army
 Commanded by Captain Ernst Röhm
 Industrialists provided the finance for the SA being afraid of communism
 The SA fought the communists on the streets in the late 1920s
 They wore a brown uniform hence the nickname “Brown Shirts”
 1930 they numbered 2 million
 They disrupted the meetings of other political parties opposed to the Nazis
 January-March 1933 terrorised the opposition helping Hitler establish dictatorship
 They were purged by Hitler in 1934 using the SS
Schutzstaffel (SS)
 These “Black Shirts” (after their uniform) were set up in 1928
 They were Hitler’s bodyguard originally, and rivalled the SA
 SS = Protection Squads
 SS had a military organisation like SA but also had artillery
 There were full-time members (like in SA) but many were part time
 SS had 500,000 members
 1929 Hitler appointed Himmler leader of the SS
 They were used in the Night of the Long Knives or SA Purge
Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei)
 1933 Hitler set up the Gestapo as his secret police
 Himmler replaced Göring as its leader
 So now the SS and Gestapo were under Himmler’s control
 Gestapo infiltrated every ant-Nazi organisation
 Used terror to wipe out anti-Nazi opposition
 Compiled secret files on every important German including Nazis
 Himmler used these to blackmail people and gain more power
 Himmler organised the anti-Jewish campaigns
 They ran the concentration camps and “Final Solution” (Jewish extermination)
The Labour Front
 All workers were members
 Trade unions were abolished – it was claimed they were socialist/communist organisations
 Srikes were banned as anti-state activities
Opposition to the Nazis
 State parliaments were abolished in 1934
 The Reichsrat or 2nd House of Parliament went with the abolition of separate states
 This gave power to the Reichstag
 This gave Hitler dictatorial powers for 4 years
 All political parties except the Nazis were abolished
 Included Nationalists, Catholics, Conservatives
 Trade Unions were also illegal
The Catholic Church
 Hitler said a German could not be a good German and a Christian
 1933 he made a Concordat with the Pope
 This allowed Catholic Church to have schools and newspapers
 Many Catholics saw this as Papal approval of Nazism
 Persecution of the Jews caused a rift though
 1937 Pope issued an Encyclical (papal letter) called ‘Mit Brenneder Sorge’ (With Burning
Anxiety) – condemning Nazi race theories and practices
 Some Church leaders wrote and preached against Nazism
 The majority of Catholics went along with Nazi policy because it seemed to work
The Protestant (Lutheran) Church
 Many Protestants supported Hitler who gave hope and pride
 Opposition was led by Pastor Niemöller
 He, along with many others, were sent to concentration camps
Support for the Nazis
The Army
 The officer corps helped their rise to power
 Ludendorff took part in the Munch Putsch of 1923
 Schleicher used his influence politically during 1932-3 but was killed during the SA Purge
 The officer corps supported the post 1933 rearmament programme
 Also supported Hitler’s demands for the end to the Versailles Treaty
 Hoped to have the same control in Nazi Germany as the army leaders had under Bismarck and
when Kaiser Wilhelm II let Schlieffen and the army to determine foreign policy
 1934 they swore an oath of loyalty to Hitler
 Hitler knew they might oppose him because –
a) He was Austrian – most of them were Prussian Junkers
b) He had only been a corporal in World War I
c) They hated the Brown Shirts (SA) and terrorist tactics – saw them as gangsters
d) Opposed his expansionary foreign policy but –
 Success of Hitler’s foreign policy 1935-40 made their opposition unlikely
Industrialists
 Stresemann had presided over Germany’s recovery
 So by 1930 their economy was the second most powerful industrial country
 Provided finance for the Nazis e.g. Thyssen and Krupp
 Supported the Nazis in the newspapers they owned
 After 1933 they prospered from rearmament i.e. –
a) Large numbers of tanks built
b) ½ million men called up into the armed forces
c) Luftwaffe (air force) ordered large numbers of aircraft
d) German navy expanded – both surface ships and u-boats
e) Rearmament led to expansion of iron and steel, coal and engineering
 Also the development of public works –
a) Roads (autobahns)
b) Houses
c) Hospitals
d) Schools
Middle Class
 Feared repeat of inflation and chaos of 1923
 1931 feared more of the same
 Provided leadership for SA
 Welcomed strong government provided by the Nazis
Working Class
 Hitler inherited 6 million unemployed 1933; it was zero by 1939
 Provided jobs by –
a) Conscription into the armed forces
b) Rearmament and industrial expansion e.g. 4 Year Plans
c) Public works e.g. roads
d) Helped agriculture
e) Promoted industrial development e.g. cars (Volkswagen), radios, etc.
Anti-communists
 Hitler had a fanatical hatred of communism
 Signed Anti-Comintern Pact (anti-communist) with Japan and Italy
 This was liked by -
a) Industrialists feared loss of property
b) Churches feared atheistic Marxism
c) Middle classes
Nationalists
 Nationalists from all classes liked the growing strength of Germany
 Also regaining of provinces lost at Versailles e.g. Saar 1935
 New confidence as German economy boomed
Propaganda
 In Mein Kampf Hitler writes at length about the importance of propaganda
 1922 onwards Goebbels was in charge of propaganda
 Hitler used it against –
a) Communists
b) Jews
c) Socialists e.g. Stresemann
d) The Treaty of Versailles
 He promised –
a) To crush Bolshevik (communist unrest)
b) ‘Work and bread’ instead of unemployment
c) A ‘Greater Germany’ instead of the Weimar Republic
 Goebbels was a brilliant orator whose speeches aimed to rouse the masses
 He also used the following –
a) Radio (government controlled) to send out propaganda in plays, stories and news broadcasts
b) The Press (government controlled) to push the Nazi point of view
c) Demonstrations, rallies and marches in which thousands sang songs and chanted slogans while
carrying Nazi banners
d) Sports events and individuals e.g. the 1936 Olympics in Berlin
Education
 Teachers had to teach what they were told
 Textbooks fitted Nazi views on history and race
 Children were recruited into various organisations:
a) The Little Fellows at age of 6
b) The Jungvolk at 10
c) Hitler Youth at 14
 All swore an oath to Hitler as ‘the saviour of Germany’
 Girls joined the League of German Maidens
 Teachers who didn’t measure up to Nazi ideological demands were sacked
 Books unacceptable to the Nazis were burned
 All was enforced by the Gestapo and the concentration camps
The Jews and Anti-Semitism
 Hitler said that the Jews were responsible for the defeat of 1918
 They were also blamed for the economic collapse of 1923
 They were also blamed for the economic crisis of 1929-32
 They were the bankers who caused the Wall Street Crash
 Der Sturmer was a Nazi newspaper specialising in anti-Jewish propaganda
 1st April 1933 Hitler declared boycott of Jewish shops, businesses, doctors and lawyers
 SA put notices on Jewish shops telling the public not to enter
 Guards were posted outside to enforce this order
 1933 Jews banned from universities
 Later they were banned from certain professions
1935 Nuremberg Laws
 Germans of Jewish blood lost citizenship
 People with even one Jewish grandparent were classed as Jewish
 Marriage between Jews and Aryans were banned
 Jews had to wear a yellow Star of David badge for identification
 Concentration camps were built to house Jews and opponents of the Nazis
 First was near Munich and held 5,000 people
 Many Jews fled abroad e.g. Albert Einstein
Crystal Night 1938
 7th November German Jewish refugee killed a member of the German embassy in Paris
 In reprisal the Nazis launched an attack on Jews in Germany
 Synagogues, homes and businesses were destroyed
 Name Crystal Night comes from the broken glass of the thousands of broken windows
 200 synagogues were destroyed
 35 Jews were killed
 20,000 were arrested for ‘resistance’
 Afterwards all male Jews aged 16 and over were sent to concentration camps
The Final Solution
 This was ordered in 1942 and involved the extermination of Europe’s Jews
 They were killed in gas chambers in the concentration camps
 6 million died by 1945