Dictatorship & Democracy, 1920-1945

Nazi Germany

1933 - 1939

Key Points 1. How did the Nazi’s consolidate their hold on power in Germany after taking

power in 1933?

2. What were the main Nazi economic policies and how effective were they in turning around the German economy?

3. How did the Nazis use education and youth groups to indoctrinate German youth to their ideology?

4. What was the relationship between the Nazi state and the various Christian churches?

5. How did the Nazis institutionalise and carry out anti-Semitic policies during the Third Reich?

6. How did the Nazis use propaganda to influence public opinion during the Third Reich?

7. What were the main points of German foreign policy in the build up the second World War?

8. Evaluate Hitler’s foreign policy in the build up to the second World War.

Background Collapse of Weimar Republic

Economic collapse

Great Depression / Wall St Crash – reliance on US loans

Dissatisfaction with democracy

Fails to solve economic problems

Fails to deal with Communist threat

Fails to secure order

Dissatisfaction with ToV

Germany no longer great power

Punishment – punitive reparations, loss of territory

Nazi appeal to these concerns

Political Violence – restore order

Anti-communism, anti-semitism

Reclaim lost territory, suspend reparations

Aims: Example – Territory

Early Days

First Hitler Led Cabinet

Frick & Goering = only Nazis Franz von Papen

Von Papen encourages President Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as

chancellor, assuming Hitler will be a failure => he can take over

Instead… Nazi control of police forces

Allows then to suppress opposition

SA members co-opted as police officers

Communists and Social Democrats targeted

Meetings broken up

Members arrested & harrassed

By tackling political opposition first, the Nazi’s aimed to take

legal and political control quickly so they could execute the

rest of their agenda.

Who else do they need onside?

The Nazi’s need to get the Army on their side

Army can take power, and prevent Hitler from carrying out his policies

Army is concerned senior officers will be replaced by Nazis

They fear the SA will replace them as the official army of the state

Hitler assures army leaders he has no intention of replacing them and the SA will be integrated

A stroke of luck?

27 February 1933

Reichstag set on fire

Marinus van der Lubbe found inside

Dutch communist

Nazis able to play on fears of middle-class

Germans that a communist revolution was

imminent and initiate a clampdown.

Did he do it?

Effects of the Reichstag Fire

Communists rounded up

10,000+ arrests

Beginnings of concentration

camps to handle the volume

Reichstag fire decree

Rights suspended

Police powers to arrest ‘suspects’

1933 Elections

Hitler declared beforehand they would be the last in Germany!

He expected a landslide victory

Nazis win 44% of the vote

This means the Nazis don’t have a majority and will need to work

with other parties to stay in power

Instead Nazis behave as if they had won an absolute majority

The Enabling Act

Legal basis for the Nazi Dictatorship

Passed thanks to political intimidation of non-Nazi MPs

Kroll Opera House surrounded by uniformed SA members

Communist deputies prevented from entering

Growing political violence around the country

Economic uncertainty

Vote passed with a huge majority

Full text

Hitler now has the power to

rule by decree

Gleichschaltung

The process of the ‘Nazification’ of German society

All political parties now targeted – banned by law

Nazi Governors appointed to federal states

Federal institutions abolished

See Goering quote in TB

The final touches… Paul von Hindenburg dies aged 86

August 2 1934

Office of President merged with

Office of Chancellor => “Fuhrer”

Hitler now effectively an absolute dictator

Lines between ‘Germany’ and ‘Nazi party’ very blurry

What is your evaluation of Hindenburg’s role in the Nazi’s coming to power?

Establishing and maintaining control

The role of the Gestapo

State Security

Protect the regime from its enemies – esp internal enemies

Helps prevent criticism of the regime

Concentration camp system institutionalised

‘Protective custody’

Camps effectively lawless

Harsh conditions

Rights abuses

Jews, Communistst, Slavs, LGBT, intellectually disabled……

The Night of the Long Knives

1934 – SA = 3m+ total strength

Under command of Ernst Rohm

Close ally of Hitler since beginning of movement

Others within party jealous of him

Army, police and political leaders within the Nazi

movement are nervous of Rohm’s power

29-30 June

SA leaders rounded up and shot, including Rohm

von Papen supporters

Gen. von Schleicher

Effects Hitler’s power absolute

Popular among the people. SA had been marauding around the country

Popular with the army. Threat to their role and position now gone

Rise of Himmler & the SS

What lessons do we learn about Hitler and his regime from this episode?

The Economy Why is a strong economy so important to

maintaining a popular regime?

Hjalmar Schacht – ‘Hitler’s Banker’

Had been involved in Weimar era govts

Strong opponent of Reparations etc

Appointed Nazi economics minister

The “New Plan”

Supports programmes of public works

Helps fund rearmaments

Gets Germany’s foreign debt under control

Creating the fiscal situation for a sound economic footing for the new Nazi state.

Policies, Practices

Public works

Autobahnen

Railways

Construction sector quadruples in employment numbers

Preparing for war

Huge increases in military spending => REARMAMENT

Illegal under the T. of V.

Steel – tanks, weapons, vehicles etc

Army numbers greatly expanded

++ employment

Policies, Practices

Labour Unions made illegal

Replaced with German Labour Front

Nazi Controlled

Allows for greater control of working hours

and conditions (increased)

Volksgemeinschaft – people’s community

Reach out to the working classes

Cheap holiday schemes

Exercise and sports programmes

‘Volkswagen’ – the people’s car

Effects Economic recovery successful

Most impressive and successful economic performance of any country in the world

Unemployment drops to pre-Great Depression levels

6m down to 1m by 1937

Industrial output greatly expanded

Steel, fuel etc. – rearmament, the War Economy

Motoring industry expansion

Close control of labour force

Preparing the country – economy, people, production capacity… for war

Germany’s Youth

By placing a strong emphasis on youth

indoctrination, the Nazis hoped to

teach the next generation of Germans

that Nazi ideologies are correct.

Indoctrinating the young Boys

Hitler Youth

Indoctrinated in Anti-Semitism

Physical training

Military training – weapons, assault courses,

basic tactics

Uniforms, ranks etc

Many drafted into regular service in later years of the war

Girls

League of German Girls/Maidens

Similar anti-semitic indoctrination

Trained as wives, mothers

Reflected in school curriculum

Education

Curricula altered to emphasise Nazi beliefs

History

Emphasis on the glory of Germany

1918 defeat caused by Jews

Great depression caused by Jews

National resurgence under Hitler’s leadership

Biology

Focus on issues of racial purity – proof Nazi theories were right

Negative effects of racial mixing emphasised.

Languages: ‘Subversive’ literature banned

Education Geography

Lebensraum

Lands given up in 1919

Science

Ballistics

Aviation science

Engineering

What about teachers?

Trained in new curricula

97% joined Nazi teacher’s organisation

What do you think happened to the rest?

Nazi exam questions

"To keep a mentally ill person costs approximately 4 marks a day. There are

300,000 mentally ill people in care. How much do these people cost to keep in

total? How many marriage loans of 1000 marks could be granted with this

money?”

Source: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Nazis_Education.htm

"A bomber aircraft on take-off carries 12 dozen bombs, each weighing 10 kilos. The aircraft takes off

for Warsaw the international centre for Jewry. It bombs the town. On take-off with all bombs on

board and a fuel tank containing 100 kilos of fuel, the aircraft weighed about 8 tons. When it returns

from the crusade, there are still 230 kilos left. What is the weight of the aircraft when empty ?"

How do these reflect a

policy of indoctrination?

Women in Nazi Germany

Nazi ideology sees women as mothers and

home-makers – Kinder, Kirche, Kuche

Women’s duty to support husband and

have many children

Medals and prizes for women with most

children

Focus on racial purity – notice the blond hair, blue-eyed ideal

of the people in the image

Marriage incentives offered – loans for newlyweds etc.

Women in War Time

As more and more men sent to the front, women made to

pick up the slack in factories at home

Some serve in concentration camps as female guards,

military nurses etc.

Church & State in Nazi Germany Population divided into roughly

60% protestant, 40% Catholic

Very small minorities, eg Jewish

Problem: Nazism is totalitarian, so it needs total loyalty of its people – religion is a threat to this.

Some Nazis want to create a new religion based their own ideologies and believe Christian faiths are not compatible with Fascism

Religion in Weimar Germany Churches have significant influence on education.

Many Church run schools, with clergy teachers

Churches suspicious of Weimar constitution/Govt.

Potential influence of communism

Individual freedoms vs. Traditional morality, values

Nazism strong anti-communist stance appeals to the churches

Church leaders tentatively prepared to work with the new regime.

Nazi policy on religion Subject of significant debate among Historians

Some elements of Nazi party wanted a return to ancient pagan religions

If Nazi plan is to control society, then churches are a problem

Was there a plan to destroy churches within the Reich?

Why would the Nazi regime have/have not come up with such a plan?

Protestant Churches

Protestant churches merged

Regional churches combined into one Reichskirche –

German Evangelical Church

Unopposed – state control/involvement in religion not unusual

since the reformation

Allows for closer control

German Christian Movement (German Christians)

Combine Nazism with Christian Beliefs

Seen by Nazis as a reliable means to exert control over church

Anti-semitism institutionalised: Baptised Jews expelled

Religious role for Hitler

Old Testament to be removed from sacred scriptures – Jews

cannot be God’s chosen people.

Ludwig Müller Leader in the German Christians

Strong personal believer in

Hitler and Nazism

Enables Gestapo to monitor sermons and expel / arrest

pastors who do not tow the line.

Complete Aryanisation of church – pastors of Jewish descent

expelled

Opponents of this arrangement

The Confessing Church

Martin Niemoller

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Opposed the blending of Christianity with

the ideals of Nazism

Anti-semitism

Anti-christian policies of the regime

Regime response:

Church banned

Leaders arrested: Bonhoeffer sent to

concentration camp – killed there

Catholic Church

What aspect(s) of the Catholic Church worried the regime?

Loyalty to the Pope in Rome

Concordat between Germany and the Catholic Church

Catholic education in schools

Freedom of worship

Catholic organisations protected from censorship

Church to withdraw from politics – Centre party disbanded

Attacking Religion

Gestapo monitors Catholic organisations, politicians

Persecution of Jesuits and other religious orders

Catholic Youth groups pressurised – threat to Hitler Youth

No. of Catholic schools drops significantly

Intimidation of parents

Priests forbidden to teach

Propaganda campaign against church & church officials

Arrests on trumped up charges

Violence against churches and church leaders

Polish clergy severely targeted – thousands executed

Pius XI’s burning anxiety

Papal encyclical ‘Mit Brennender Sorge’

Deeply critical of the regime

Anti-semitism, racism

Removing religion from education

Banned in Germany, smuggled in

Little effect on Hitler’s popularity

Opposition to the regime within Germany

Bishop von Galen

Vehemently opposed to Nazi Euthanasia programme

Successfully got programme cancelled (publically!)

Evaluation of the Church How effective was opposition to anti-semitism?

Should the church have been more active in opposing the

regime?

Evaluation of the Regime

How effective was the regime in dealing with the church?

No significant decline in church membership

Increase during the war

No serious / organised resistance to the regime by the

church – limited in scope and reach

Increased co-operation between Catholic & Protestant

churches after the war

Common suffering?

Nuremburg Laws

Reich Citizenship Law

Deprives Jews of German citizenship

‘German blood’ required for citizenship

Citizenship must be approved by papers

Reich law for the protection of German Blood and Honour

Marriage between Jews and non-Jews forbidden

Forbidden to have a non-marital relationship between Jews and

non-Jews

Jews forbidden to display Reich/German symbols and flags

Jews forbidden to employ German in their homes

Jews in Germany c. 500,000 total

Based mostly in cities

Most towns have no Jewish population

Successful in the professions

Law, business, medicine, academia – professors, the Arts…

Anti-semitism nothing new

‘Aryan paragraphs’

Jews responsible for death of Christ

Jealously of economic and professional success

Racism

Nazi ideology takes it to the extreme

Legal manouevres Date Law and effect

April 1933 Boycott of Jewish business. Organised by NSDAP.

April 1933 Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service

May 1935 Jews forbidden to join Armed Forces

September 1935 Nuremburg Laws

Law for the protection of German Blood and Honour

Reich Citizenship Law

1936 Banned from all professional jobs

1938 Government contracts no longer allowed to be awarded to Jewish companies

German doctors barred from treated Jewish patients

Jews with non-Jewish names must add ‘Israel’ or ‘Sarah’

Passports of Jews have a large ‘J’ printed on them

Jewish children barred from ‘normal’ schools

Measures against Jewish Business

1933: 100,000 Jewish Businesses (mostly SMEs)

1933: 50,000 one-man business – shops, tobacconists etc.

1938: 60% of these transferred to ‘Aryan’ Germans

Legal measures

Intimidation

‘Health inspections’

Violence

Financial issues

Lack of customers

Withdrawal of credit

Tax bills

Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht in numbers

200 Synagogues destroyed

90+ Jews Killed

7500 Jewish Businesses attacked

30,000 Jews arrested

RM 1bn Fine imposed on Jewish

Community to pay for the

riots and the clean-up

Rudolf Peierls Hans Bethe Felix Bloch

Emilio Segré

Otto Frisch

Albert Einstein

Jewish scientists, artists and intellectuals fled Germany. These men pictures here are all German Jews who fled to America and were instrumental in building the first Atomic Weapons.

The World Turns a Blind Eye?

The Nazis use the 1936 Olympics in Berlin as an enormous

propaganda exercise to show the world the success of the

Regime.

Only three years before the start of the war!