O Population Unable to Accept Defeat

Conditions WWI  WWI o Population unable to accept defeat . ‘Criminals of November 1918’ o Resentment of Versailles . Diktat . Article 231 . De-militarization . Loss of territory . Reparations o Outbreak of unrest – strikes, riots, mutinies  Weaknesses of the Weimar Republic  Political  Failures of the Constitution  Proportional representation meant it was difficult to achieve majority coalitions with a large number of parties and ideas in the Reichstag  Led to instability  Article 48 would later allow President Hindenburg to make his own appointments  Economic  Hyper-inflation crisis  Rising unemployment  Witnessed in the Ruhr strikes of 1923  Germany becomes dependent on American capital in Dawes Plan (1924) and Young Plan (1929)  Rise of extremist parties  Threats from the Left  1919 Sparticist Uprising  1920 Communist Uprising in the Ruhr  1923 German October  Threats from the Right  1920 Kapp Putsch  1920-22 White Terror  1923 Beer Hall Putsch  Good Years 1924-29  Stresemann made a series of foreign policy gains in the mid-20s  Moderate parties growing in the Reichstag  Hindenburg’s election to President seen as a stabilizing factor  Evidence of economic progress  Rise of industry, exports  Impact of the Great Depression  Economic  Return to hyper-inflation and unemployment  Political  Little reaction by Chancellor Bruning, conservative response  Led to the return of extremist groups  Violence, para-military organizations like the SA  Nazis win 107 seats in 1930  Failures of four consecutive chancellors will cause Hindenburg to appoint Hitler  Hindenburg a nationalist himself, sees the Nazis as the lesser of two evils

Methods in Rise  Hitler, on assignment from army, infiltrates the German Workers Party in 1919  Same year, in charge of recruitment and propaganda  1920, took over as party leader, produces the 25 Point Program  1921, sets up the SA  1921, renamed the National Socialist German Workers Party  1923, Munich Beer Hall Putsch o Imprisoned . Decided to distance himself from left elements of the party . Turned to legal methods . Wrote Mein Kampf  1926, SS and Hitler Youth founded  Used propaganda and sweeping promises to appeal to nearly all classes  Rising popularity in elections from 1930-32 o July 1932, largest party, without majority, 230 seats  Events of 1933 o January - Appointed Chancellor by Hindenburg to replace von Schleicher o February – Reichstag Fire o March – Enabling Act o April – State governors replaced with Naxis o May – Trade unions banned o June – All parties other parties banned o July – Nazi Party sole legal party  Events of 1934 o June – Night of the Long Knives . SA leaders arrested or killed, organization absorbed into the military o August – Hindenburg dies . Hitler combines the positions into the Fuhrer, forced the army to swear an oath of loyalty to him  Hitler in power in August 1934

Hitler’s Ideology  Supremacy of the state and volk  Social Darwinism  Lebensraum  Pan-Germanism  Anti-democracy  Leader’s will was the political authority  Anti-feminism  Anti-Marxism  Anti-Semitism  Blood and soil

Economic Policies  Targeting of unemployment with deficit spending  1934 New Plan  1935 general rearmament programs  1936 Four Year Plan  1942 Central Planning Board

Social Policies  Minorities o Strerilization and Euthanasia programs target asocials, disabled, gypsies, and other non-Aryans . 1933 Nazi Sterilization Law o Anti-Semitism . 1933 – SA boycott of Jewish businesses, Jewish civil servants fired . 1935 – Nuremberg Laws deprive Jews of German citizenship . 1938 – Night of Broken Glass . 1942 – Wansee Conference  Hitler provides ‘Final Solution’  Media and Propaganda o Use of film and radio address . Triumph of the Will o Goebbels in charge of all propaganda, messages . Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda o Bans on subversive materials/literature o Himmler running the SD, gathering intelligence and monitoring public opinion o Strict control of the press  Women o Kinder Kurche Kuche o 1933 – women paid to leave the workforce o Women’s Enterprise trained women in domestic skills o Medals for high birth rates  Youth o Hitler Youth and German Maidens . Compulsory membership in 1939  Education o 1933 Law for Restoration of a Professional Civil Service forced teachers, judges, civil servants into Nazi loyalty o Use of indoctrination in biology, history and German courses  Religion o 1933 – Concordat with the Pope . Bishops take an oath of loyalty to the Nazi state o Infiltrated the Protestant church from within . Nazis won 75% of seats in church elections

Response to Opposition  Little formal opposition o SPD working in exile o Opposition from the Church seen in With Burning Desire  1933 o Decree for the Protection of People and State o Concentration camps such as Dachau first opened o Gestapo established  1935 o SS created  Use of propaganda and fear meant popularity was always high

Foreign Policy  1928 o ‘Secret Book’  1933 o Withdrawal from the League  1934 o Non-Aggression Pact with Poland  1935 o Rearmament o Anglo-German Naval Agreement  1936 o Re-militarization of the Rhineland o Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan o Intervention in the Spanish Civil War o Rome-Berlin Axis  1937 o Hossbach Memorandum o Italy joins the Anti-Comintern Pact  1938 o Anschluss o Invasion of the Sudetenland o Munich Conference o Invasion of Czechoslovakia  1939 o Nazi-Soviet Pact o Invasion of Poland  1940 o Tripartite Pact  1941 o Invasion of the Soviet Union o Declaration of War on the United States