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Hitler’s Germany, 1929 - 1941
HITLER'S PERSONALITY AND THE SHAPING OF HIS CHARACTER AND BELIEFS
April 20 1889
Hitler was born into a poor peasant family.
January 1903
Hitler’s abusive father dies
December 1907
Hitler's mother dies.
February 1906
Adolf Hitler was rejected from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. After being rejected, Hitler became an anti-Semite in Vienna, which contained a large Jewish community. May 1914
Joined German army to fight in World War 1. He was a dispatch runner, taking messages back and forth from the commanding staff in the rear to the fighting units near the battlefield. - Gained an Iron Cross
September 1919
Hitler was ordered by the military to investigate a small group of German workers in Munich,known as the German Workers Party.
At the party, Hitler was inspired by an economist speaker Gottfried Feder, who gave a speech entitled, "How and by what means is capitalism to be eliminated?" It was here He began public speaking 2 of 29
Background
Kaiser Willhelm was the leader of Germany in 1918 - during this time Germany was a monarchy.
- Willhelm grew up with a withered left arm, his parents made him exercise to compensate for this, he
then became obsessed with his strength and fitness.
- In 1888 Willhelm’s father died leaving him to be king at the age of 29, he was intelligent but suffered
ADHD. He was a great show off, he almost always wore a uniform and wanted all paintings of him to
reflect strength.
- He was quite rude and even called the King of Italy a “dwarf”
The first world war
➔ In 1917 Germany had defeated Russia which allowed them to move their troops from the Eastern front to
the Western front
➔ In 1918 Germany tried to defeat Britain and France in one last big push before America had time to enter
the war
➔ But the Big Push failed and soon Germany was seriously outnumbered fighting both Britain, France and
the USA. Wilson promised that if Germany surrendered they would not be harsh on them.
➔ In October 1918 one of the top German Generals, Ludendorff, told the Kaiser that Germany should
surrender as it could never win in the war. The German army was just too small and the German people
were starving
➔ The Kaiser refused to surrender. Instead he ordered the German Navy to break the British blockade.
This led to the Kiel mutiny and revolution. The Kaiser abdicated and Ebert became the new President
➔ On 11th November at 11 am Ebert agreed to surrender in World War I
THE STAB IN THE BACK MYTH
This was first introduced by Ludendorff, a general whose idea it was to surrender on November 11 1918. He needed a scapegoat in order to maintain the support of his soldiers. Therefore, he told the press that it was Ebert and the other politicians who had agreed to the armistice in an attempt to backstab the army. The media then started creating propaganda to depict this betrayal and some extremists even blamed the Jewish people for the surrender. Many believed this myth, including Germans soon to be dictator, Hitler. 3 of 29
PROBLEMS FACING THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC
There were various strengths of the Weimar republic which made it seem like a perfect political system. Firstly, there was the Bill of Rights which guaranteed all citizens freedom of speech, religion and equality under the law. Along with this all Germans above the age of 20 had the right to vote, including women which was quite uncommon in Europe (In the UK only women above 30 could vote). There was also a democratically elected president and Reichstag (parliament). The Reichstag could make the laws and appoint the government - the government would be controlled by the Reichstag.
The Weimar republic was an attempt to make a perfect democracy, and although it looked like one, under the surface there were two major weaknesses. The first weakness was proportional representation, in order to make the democracy fair there were dozens of tiny parties and none of them held the majority; thus making it impossible to enforce or vote on new policies and laws. Along with this article 48 states that in an emergency situation the president could issue decrees without the need of the Reichstag. This article would have been fine if the term emergency was defined, instead an emergency situation could be anything therefore, allowing a president or Hitler to exploit the system legally.
Remember:
1. What the Weimar Constitution of 1919 said.
2. How good the Weimar Constitution was.
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THE SPARTACISTS REVOLUTION BERLIN 1919
Background
The Independent Socialists were a political group from the end of the first world war. The Spartacists broke away from this political group to form the German Communist Party in January 1919. The Spartacist leaders were Karl
Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg.
Revolution
The Communists wanted absolute power and they wanted Ebert to step down. Ebert’s response was to first attempt a negotiation in order to stop the chaos and resume the work of consensual government. The Spartacists ignored the attempted negotiation which forced Ebert to call in the army to resolve the problem. Street fighting broke out between the Freikorps and the Communists and resulted in the death of Liebknecht and Luxemburg.
The result of the revolt was the continued hostility from the left towards the Weimar Republic as those on the left believed that Ebert had sold out to the conservatives and those on the right by using the Freikorps to suppress the left.
KAPP PUTSCH
In 1919 there were 250,000 troops in the Freikorps and 350,000 in the regular army. This was problematic after the Treaty of Versailles as Germany was only allowed 100,000 armed forces. Therefore, in 1920 the Freikorp was disbanded which caused great problems. The leader of the Freikorps, Wolfgang Kapp, did not want to disband the
Freikorps, Ebert refused to listen so on March 13, 1920 the Freikorps marched into Berlin and Kapp tried to make himself President - Ebert ran away.
The people wanted Ebert back and therefore striked meaning that Berlin had no electricity or heating, after 100 hours Kapp gave up and fled to Sweden and Ebert returned.