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The Rise of the Nazi Party and Its Consolidation of Power, C. 1929–34

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The Rise of the Nazi Party and Its Consolidation of Power, C. 1929–34 The rise of the Nazi Party and its ì consolidation of power, c. 1929–34 hat was the impact of the Weimar period on the rise of Wthe Nazis? The political and economic problems of Weimar The end of World War One THE PRESIDENT • Elected every seven years. In March 1918, the German commander on • Controlled the armed forces. the Western Front, General Ludendorff, • Stayed out of the day-to-day decided to gamble with an all out attack. He running of the country. hoped to win the war quickly before large • Could make laws in an emergency without numbers of American troops arrived. The going through the Reichstag (Parliament). Ludendorff Offensive was initially successful, but ultimately it failed. By 1918, German Appointed… civilians were also suffering great hardship and starvation. There were many strikes and THE CHANCELLOR demonstrations. By November 1918, soldiers • Responsible for the day-to-day and sailors began to mutiny. Realizing that running of the country. he had lost control, the German king, Kaiser • Chosen by the President. Wilhelm, abdicated and fled to the • Needed support from the Reichstag. Netherlands. A provisional government was • Like a Prime Minister. immediately set up and a republic was declared. On 11 November 1918, the new Needed the support of more than half of… government agreed to the signing of an armistice to end the First World War. THE REICHSTAG • Voted on new laws. The Weimar Constitution • Members elected every four years, through a All countries have rules for how they are to system called proportional representation be governed. These rules are called a (PR). This system gave small parties a chance to have a say in Parliament. constitution. Sometimes the rules are written down, sometimes not. In a country like Germany in 1919, which had just got rid of Was elected by… one system of government — the Kaiser’s — and was trying to establish a new one, THE GERMAN PEOPLE deciding on a new constitution was very • Elected the President important. Due to the chaos in Berlin at the and the members of the end of 1918, the provisional government met Reichstag. in the town of Weimar in central Germany to • All men and women over the age of twenty draw up the new constitution. This is why could vote. historians refer to the years 1919S33 as the • All adults had equal rights and the right of ‘Weimar’ period. free speech. 1 WHAT WAS THE IMPACT OF THE WEIMAR PERIOD ON THE RISE OF THE NAZIS? The Weimar Constitution was a brave Germany was a very divided country in 1919. attempt to set up a government that was Politicians had no experience of making genuinely democratic. Power had been democracy work. Moreover, many influential carefully balanced between the President, the Germans, such as judges and generals, were Chancellor and the Reichstag. Unfortunately, hostile to the new system of government. Strengths of the Weimar Constitution Weaknesses of the Weimar Constitution U All Germans had equal rights. Both men Y The Weimar Republic had many enemies. and women over the age of 20 could vote Was it wise to give equal rights to those in elections. who wished to destroy it? U Proportional representation (PR) meant Y PR encouraged lots of small parties. No that political parties were given seats in one party could get a majority so proportion to the number of votes they governments had to be coalitions where got. If a party received 10% of the votes it two or more parties joined together. This got 10% of the seats in the Reichstag. led to weak and unstable governments. This was fair. Y The President had too much power. U A strong president was necessary to keep Article 48 of the constitution said that, in control over the government. an emergency, the President could abandon democracy and rule by decree. Y The army’s generals had fought for the Kaiser and wanted his return. Y Judges and civil servants had worked for the Kaiser too and were also hostile to the Weimar Republic. The Treaty of Versailles Matters grew worse in June 1919 when the victorious allies — Britain, France and the One of the Weimar government’s first acts USA — announced the terms of the peace had been to surrender in November 1918. treaty that would be imposed on Germany. This meant that many Germans would These terms were agreed at the Palace of always associate the new republic with the Versailles in France, but the new German shame of defeat. Moreover, most ordinary government was excluded from the Germans were deeply shocked when they discussions. The German people knew they discovered that Germany had lost the war. would have to pay a price for losing the war. Under the Kaiser, only good news about the However, they were optimistic that the peace war was allowed to be printed so the German treaty would not be a harsh one. people thought that they were winning. When the terms of the treaty first became Some people claimed that the German army known, the German government refused to had been ‘stabbed in the back’ by the new sign it and resigned. It was a hopeless Weimar government. This accusation was gesture. The Allies made it clear that, if the totally unfair, but many Germans believed it. Germans did not sign, they would resume The new government was immediately the war. A new government was formed unpopular and the politicians who signed the which reluctantly signed the Treaty. They Armistice were nicknamed the ‘November called it ‘the shameful diktat of Versailles’. criminals’. Turn over to find out why. 2 WHAT WAS THE IMPACT OF THE WEIMAR PERIOD ON THE RISE OF THE NAZIS? How harsh were the terms of the Treaty of Versailles? War Guilt Military restrictions In all, the Treaty contained 440 separate The German armed forces had to be clauses, but it was Clause 231 — the ‘war drastically reduced. guilt’ clause — which the Germans found • The air force had to be disbanded. particularly humiliating. It stated that • The army was limited to 100,000 soldiers Germany was entirely to blame for causing and no tanks. the war. • The navy was limited to only six battleships and no submarines. • The Rhineland would be occupied by the Allies for fifteen years and no German troops or forts allowed in the area. Reparations As Germany was held to be responsible for the war, the Allies could claim reparations (compensation) for damage caused by the war. No sum was fixed at Versailles. But, in 1921, a special commission fixed a sum of Territorial losses £6,600 million to be paid in annual Germany lost 13% of its land, which installments. contained about six million of its people. 3 WHAT WAS THE IMPACT OF THE WEIMAR PERIOD ON THE RISE OF THE NAZIS? The early development of the Nazi Party The Nazi Party was founded in January 1919 extremist groups which were flourishing in by Anton Drexler. Initially, it was called the Munich at that time. In 1919, Hitler was sent German Workers’ Party. Drexler and about to a meeting of a small, extreme nationalist forty other members held their meetings in a group called the German Workers’ Party. beer cellar in Munich. They had little money He liked what he heard and he was invited to and no real political programme. All the join. Hitler’s organizational ability was quickly members knew was that they disliked the recognized by Drexler and, in 1920, he was Weimar Republic and wanted to make put in charge of the party’s propaganda Germany great again, as it had been before machine. Hitler also helped to draft the the war. party’s programme (see Source B). At the end of the First World War, Adolf Hitler was recovering in hospital from being badly gassed. Despite being an Austrian, Hitler had joined the German army when the war broke out in 1914. He was a good soldier, who won medals for bravery. Germany’s defeat in 1918 left him extremely bitter. Like many other soldiers, he blamed defeat on the Communists and Jews who he felt had ‘stabbed Germany in the back’. After the war, Hitler returned to Munich where he had lived before joining the army. He was still employed by the army. One of SOURCE A Hitler’s renewed membership card his duties was to check up on the various for the German Workers’ Party (DAP), 1920. SOURCE B The first four points of the German Workers’ Party’s programme, 1920. It changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP or Nazis) in the same year. Ÿ1. We demand the union of all Germans Many Germans lived in Austria, Poland and in a Greater Germany on the basis of Czechoslovakia — a new state created by the national self- determination. peace treaties after the First World War. The Germans hated the Treaty of Versailles, 2. We demand equality of rights for the which forbade the union of Austria and German people in its dealings with Germany, and moved borders so that other nations, and the revocation of ‘Germans’ in the former Austro-Hungarian the peace treaty of Versailles. Empire were now living in Italy and Poland. 3. We demand land and territory to feed The Nazis wanted to take over LEBENSRAUM, our people and settle our surplus or living space, in eastern Europe for the population. growing German population. 4. Only members of the nation may be The Jews were successful in business and commerce in Germany. The Nazis were citizens of the state.
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