Hitler’s Germany (1929-1941)

Why did he gain power?

Problems facing the Weimar Republic:

 By early 1929, Stresemann had worked hard to

secure restricting of Germany’s reparations (Dawes
plan) and reparations reduction (Young Plan).
 Germany received sizeable loans from the USA
which helped her economy recover and meet
reparation payments.
 The economic prosperity of the WR made Hitler lose
support from the Germans.
 In October 1929, Stresemann died, and the Wall
Street Crash followed in USA that significantly
imposed a setback on Germany’s economic recovery.
 The crash resulted into a world depression and
caused serious problems to the WR.

Economic problems:

1. USA ended loans to Germany > collapse in USA stock

exchange made it cut off her loans to Germany. The USA
immediately demanded repayment of the loans by
Germany. This ended Germany’s economic prosperity
since the little revenue they collected was used to pay the
loans and reparations. Weimar politicians lacked means to
solve these issues, hence the collapse of the WR.

2. Bankruptcies and collapse of industries > due to the world

depression, Germany was unable to import raw materials
for industries. Thus, the industries collapsed, followed by
bankruptcy.
 3. Rise in unemployment levels > as industries collapsed,
many workers were laid off their jobs leading to an
increase in unemployment.
 1928: 1.4 million jobless Germans.
 1929: 2 million jobless.
 1930: 3 million jobless.
 1931: 4 million jobless.
 1932: 6 million jobless.

4. Collapse in agriculture > as food prices increased due to

inflation, peasant farmers were badly hit, agricultural
produce declines, and sales of food (demand) fell as
Germans had no money to purchase it.

Political problems:

1. Increased unpopularity of WR > President Hindenburg

applied decrees to control the government which was only
needed in times of emergency. This undermined the
normal parliamentary government. by using the decrees,
he took the role of selecting all German chancellors
instead of the Reichstag which were all his personal
favourites. The use of decrees made large groups of
Germans support extremists lie Hitler.

2. Overuse of presidential decrees > the government lost

support in the Reichstag resorting to overuse of use of
presidential decrees to pass laws and budget.
Parliamentary democracy was replaced by use of
presidential rule by decrees.

3. Collapse of the grand coalition > the Weimar coalition was

composed of 5 political parties from SPD on the left wing
to the moderate right wing in the form of DVP. Due to the
wall street crash and depression, unemployment
 increased. The government found it a burden to pay the
increased unemployment benefits from low tax revenue
collected.

4. Growth of extremist support > a response to the

depression was to cut expenditure and raise taxes to meet
the budget. Hindenburg continued to apply presidential
decrees to pass laws. As a result, the SDP took a motion
in parliament to stop passing presidential decrees, and it
passed. This made Bruning (chancellor) dissolve the
parliament and call for elections in September 1930.

 In the elections:
- Communists gained over 1 million votes, most
from SPD with 77 seats in the Reichstag.
- The Nazi party increased its votes from
810,000 in 1928 to 6.5 million in 1930
elections. Its seats in the Reichstag increased
from 12 to 107.

5. Intensification of political violence > 1919-1923 had seen

frequent political riots, assassinations, and rebellion in
Germany.

 The Nazis and communists took their political struggles into

the streets.
 Each side attempted to disrupt political meetings of rival
parties leading to full scale riots.

Growth of Nazi support

By 1929, the Nazi party had increased its membership to

100,000; mainly made of peasant farmers, small business
owners, and the unemployed.
Strategies used:

 Propaganda campaigns:

Massive use of propaganda raised Hitler’s public profile and his

Nazi party; this was evident in the 1930 elections.

 In the 1930 elections, Nazi seats in the Reichstag increased

from 12 to 107 with 6.5 million votes.
 In 1932 presidential elections, Hitler’s Nazis gained 11 million
votes.

With financial support from the industrialists, the Nazis mounted

an extensive campaign in July 1932 elections.

 This led to an increase in Nazi Parliamentary seats to 230 –

37% of the votes. It became the largest party in the
Reichstag.

1. Lufthansa airlines provided him with planes to promote his

slogans such as: make Germany great again.

2. Hitler was closely related to the biggest publishing

company which made the spread of his slogans and
policies very effective.

3. Trade unions were controlled, communism was slowly

being eliminated.
 Negative cohesion over the hatred of communism is what
additionally gained him support.

 The Stormtroopers (SA):

Nazi increased support was due to the violence to intimidate
people to support them. The violence was stepped up in 1932
disrupting meetings of other rival parties.

 This created fear leaving many with the only option to

support the Nazis for safety reasons.

 Lack of unity between SPD and KDP parties:

 Deep divisions between the left-wing parties.

 They used to lead the elections before the Nazis.
 Their combined share dropped to 37% in November 1932
elections, although they were still above the Nazi party.

Reasons for divisions between KDP and SPD:

1. SPD leaders distrusted KDP and their call for a worker’s
revolution. This made them unable to discuss a serious
united front against the Nazis.
2. Instead of working on stopping Nazism, they focused on
spreading communism.
3. From 1930-1932: the KDP took away votes from the SPD,
increasing its seats from 77 to 100. This led to a decline in
SPD seats in the Reichstag from 143 in 1930, to 121 in
1932.
4. Based on KDP policies, the depression would lead to a
revolution that would help wipe away both the SPD and
the Nazis.
5. KPD members hate the SPDs for using an army and the
Freikorps to suppress the Spartacists in 1919.

This clearly ruled out a chance for cooperation, as a result,

leading the Nazis to exploit their disunity and grow in support.

 Weak centre-left coalition to stop Hitler:

 The centre left coalition including the right-wing liberals did
not believe in liberal cooperation to stop Hitler between
1930-1933.
 Although they remained committed to the Weimar Republic,
these political groups lacked power to stop Hitler.
 Members of the middle class in the coalition parties shifted
their allegiance to the Nazis.
 Other parties like the DNVP hated the WG, hence
collaborating with the Nazis to weaken the Weimar
democracy made sense.

 Loss of confidence in the WG solving the economy:

The main hard-core Nazi supporters were mainly unemployed

and peasant farmers.

 In 1932, the Nazis started winning support from

professionals, teachers, civil servants, lawyers, engineers,
etc.
 They lost confidence in the WG to solve economic sufferings
and inability to stop growing threat of communist revolution.
 They were promised no collectivisation: merging farms,
leading to starvation.

Nazi support from women:

- The period of 1930-19332, women grew
support for the Nazis.
- This was due to Nazi propaganda of helping
the family and a return of ‘traditional values.’
- However, these promises were false as the
NSDAP intended to force women out of the
workplace.

Support from the youth:

- Students grew support for the Nazis in the
1930s.
 - They were attracted to Nazis militant and
dynamic attitudes towards traditional
institutions and their promise to solve
unemployment problems.

Hindenburg and Hitler

In 1914 > Hindenburg was called out of retirement to bolster

the German army’s efforts on the eastern front during WW1.

Chief of Staff > General Ludendorff

They engineered a defeat of Russian forces at the battle of

Tannenberg; their partnership was successful.

In Feb. 1925 > Hindenburg was convinced to run for German

President in a bid to unify the country.
 He won due to his own support, and a lack of the
opposition’s unity.
 He struggled to maintain cabinets that could remain in power
and effect change.
 Frustrated by the Weimar Republic, he often ruled by decree,
via constitutional articles allowing him authoritarian powers.

This strategy, along with the disunity and unrest of the period,
stimulated a widespread desire for political stability among the
German populace, which facilitated Hitler’s rise to power.
By the 1930s > the Weimar G. was increasingly challenged by
forces on the Right. Hindenburg abandoned some of his more
moderate positions in order to appease right-wing critics.

In the 1932 Reichstag election > Hitler’s Nazi party received

37% of the vote, the most obtained by a single party.

 As a result, Hitler demanded Chancellorship. Hindenburg

refused; his contempt for the ‘Bohemian corporal’ was not a
secret.
 This rejected humiliated Hitler, and he withdrew his party’s
support, forcing another round of elections.

The new chancellor, Schleicher, couldn’t create a coalition or a

successful government.
 Hindenburg’s advisors convinced him that Hitler must be
given the chancellorship to ensure support of the Nazi party
and a functional government.
 Despite his distaste for Hitler, Hindenburg made him
chancellor on January 30th, 1933; the Nazis got 2 seats in
the cabinet.

After the Reichstag fire in March 1933 > the parliament

passed the Enabling Act.
 This effectively granted Hitler the same dictatorial powers
held by Hindenburg.
 Hindenburg did little to restrain Hitler’s increasing power or to
curb his attacks on his rivals and racial targets.

With Hindenburg’s death on August 2nd ,1934 > the last

obstacle to Hitler’s complete power was gone.

 Hitler’s propaganda machine immediately suggested that the

dead former president had been the Fuehrer’s strong
supporter.
The terms of the TOV

A) Territorial arrangements

- Alsace-Lorraine was handed over to France.

- West Prussia and Posen were surrendered.
- Upper Silesia was divided between Poland and
Germany.
- Danzig and Memel were made international free
cities under the LON control.
- Anschluss (union with Austria) was forbidden.
- Saar and Rhineland disarmament.
- All German colonies were distributed as mandates
under the LON control.

B) War guilt

- Forced to sign the war guilt clause (Article 231)

accepting blame for starting the war and causing
damage to many nations.

C) Reparations

- The sum in 1921 was fixed at 6.6 billion euros.

- The Saar was under the LON control until 1935.
- Territorial loss = 13%
- Population loss = 12%
- Agricultural loss = 15%

D) Disarmament

- Germany to abolish conscription,

- Reduction of arms to 100,000
- No tanks or big guns
- No military aircraft
- Limited navy
- The German fleet surrendered to Britain in 1918.

E) Maintaining peace

- The TOV set out the covenant of the LON.

Why did the Germans view the TOV as unfair?

- The terms were seen as a ‘Diktat’.

Video Notes:

 Goebbels had a PHD in philosophy – understood psychology

and ethics etc.

 Hitler began concentration camps in 1933.

 1933-1934 > public book burning took place; communist

books, books written by Jews, were all burned.

On May 10th 1933, Nazi-dominated student groups organised

public burnings of books which they claimed were ‘un-German’.

This happened all over Germany (34 towns). Works of

prominent Jewish, communist, liberal writers ended up in
bonfires. The book burning stood as a powerful symbol of Nazi
intolerance and censorship.

 Reichstag fire – van der Lubbe (communist found on the

crime scene).

Reichstag Fire Decree = the decree of the Reich President

for the protection of people and state:
a) It suspended freedom of speech, right to assembly,
freedom of press, restrains on police investigations.
b) Political parties banned, confiscation of private property.

 Only one publishing house for all of Germany (promoting

Nazism) > Franz Eher.

Enabling act = bypass the parliament, legislative power.

 The Reichstag fire was a turning point in history; he knew
how to take advantage of people’s fear of communism, to get
industrialist’s support etc.
 The blame is attributed to van der Lubbe, but many believe it
was a scheme by Hitler.

Notes {email links} – [6.11.24]

 Jews and communists stabbed Germany in the back.

 Hitler grew up in Vienna, whose mayor was antisemitic despite the
big Jewish population in Vienna at the time.
 The slogan was “One people, One nation, One leader”. The key
message is nationalism, racial superiority, and dictatorship.
 When Hitler first joined the German Worker’s Party, the leader
(Anton Drexler), was already highly antisemitic. Early party policies
were antisemitic.
 German historian Klaus Fischer: stressed that the Jews were “an
ancient cultured people” who practices a reverence for learning and
philosophical thinking centuries before the existence of the early
Greek city-states or the Roman republic. When jews came to Europe
in the middle ages, they found themselves living among primitive
western people who were repelled by their superior intelligence and
businesses. There was mutual hate; the 2 people were living
amongst each other, but they were immersed in different cultural
stages.
 The European response towards jews involved religious differences,
cultural differences, the suspicion of one group of people toward
‘outsiders’, and envy.

Euthanasia – killing people with disabilities.

Why?
 Racism
 Not fit to survive.
 Didn’t want to spend money on treating them – wanted to invest in the
army.
 Wanted to expel them from the German society.

Persecution of Roma (1933-1939)

Persecution of Roma preceded Nazi takeover of power in 1933; after the

Nazis came to power in 1933, police in Germany began more rigorous
enforcement of pre-Nazi legislation against Roma.

 The Nazis identified Roma as having “alien blood” and thus being
racially ‘undesirable’.
 The law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour,
1 of the 2 Nuremberg Race Laws adopted by the Nazis in
September 1935, was expanded to include Romani people.

The Nazis turned to racial hygiene; eugenics. They sought to determine

who was Romani based on physical characteristics.

 Roma actually had originated as Aryan race, but they had

corrupted by mingling with lesser peoples during their migration to
Europe.
 90% of Roma people in Germany were of mixed blood and were
carriers of ‘degenerate’ blood and criminal characteristics.

In 1936, the Nazis centralised all police power in Germany under

Himmler, SS chief of the German police.

 Policy towards Roma people was centralised; Himmler established

an agency which extended bureaucratic measures to
systematically persecute Roma.
 Roma became subject to the Nuremberg Race Laws shortly after
1935. Many Roma who came to the attention of the state were
required to be sterilised.
 Before the opening of the 1936 Olympic games in berlin, the police
ordered the arrest and forcible relocation of all Roma.
 All over Germany, local citizens and local police began forcing
Roma into municipal camps.
Under the Nazi regime, German authorities subjected Roma to arbitrary
internment, sterilisation, forced labour in concentration camps,
deportation, and mass murder.

 German authorities murdered 10,000s of Roma in the German-

occupied territories to the Soviet Union and Serbia in Auschwitz.

In September 1939, Heydrich met with Security Police and Security

Service officials in berlin. With German victory in Poland assured, he
intended to deport 30,000 German and Austrian Roma to the General
Government.

 German authorities did deport some Roma from Germany to

Poland in 1940 and 1941. In May 1940, the SS police deported
2,500 Roma from the Rhineland to the General Government.
 The SS incarcerated them in forced labour camps; the conditions
under which they had to live, and work proved lethal to them. The
SS murdered those who were still alive in the gas chambers of
Treblinka.

Persecution of homosexuals

Paragraph 175 was a German statute which criminalised sexual

relations between men. It did not criminalise lesbians. The Nazis revised
Paragraph 175 in 1935 to make it broader and harsher. It was 1 of the
main tools that the Nazis used to persecute gay men and accuse them
of sexual relations.

 There were about 100,000 arrests for violations of Paragraph 175

during the Nazi regime.
 Policies had a significant impact on the number of men convicted
under Par. 175.
 Most men arrested under Par. 175 were give fixed prison
sentences. This number totalled to between 5000 and 15,000.
 The Gestapo had the power to send men accused of
homosexuality to concentration camps. Gestapo prisoners were
held under ‘protective custody’.
The Nazis classified prisoners in camps into groups according to the
reason for their imprisonment; the men imprisoned for allegedly violating
Par. 175 had to wear pink triangles. This identified them as
‘homosexual’, sometimes referred to as ‘175ers’.

Racist utopia

The Nazi regime attempted to set up a system of rule based upon race.
The racial homogeneity they desired could only be created negatively
through discrimination, exclusion, and eradication.

 These included members of the Aryan race who they considered

weak (sick, homosexuals, asocial), and foreign races.
 Among the latter, Jews were considered to be the chief enemy;
they were represented as an ‘anti-race’ and had come into being
through negative selection.
 The Nazis believed the goal of the jew was to prevent the
construction of the national community the Nazis were striving for.
 This racist antisemitism was able to build on a centuries-old
Christian hostility to jews, which over time became a social
convention.
 Gypsies (Roma) were also considered sub-human.

Legalised persecution

During 1933-34, the focus was on the exclusion of jews from public life.

Nazi economy {18.11.24}

 Based on fascist economic theories; resources and production are

managed for the greater benefit of the state, rather than to
increase profit, wages, or the standard of living.
 Fascist governments dictate what is produced and for what
purposes.
 There is considerable government control over the allocation of
resources, such as land and raw materials.
  Fascism also encourages autarky (self-sufficiency) rather than
foreign trade.

Hitler was not interested in economic theory; his speeches in the 1920s
contained almost no reference to economic policy.

 Once in power, Hitler paid little attention to formulating policy; instead

he relied on a group of advisors to form policy in line with his broad
goals.
 One of these members was Schacht, a former member of the DDP,
who implemented economic reforms which achieved impressive
results, at least on the surface.

At the core of the ‘German economic miracle’ were work programmes

and rearmament. The Nazis initiated massive spending to stimulate the
economy, generate jobs, and encourage economic growth.

 In July 1934, the government formed the RAD, National Labour

Service, which attacked unemployment by conscripting out-of-work
Germans into vast work teams.
 The RAD workers were given an armband, then sent or public
works, construction, or agricultural labour.
 One of the earliest RAD programs was the construction of
autobahns: 100s of miles of freeway connecting Germany’s major
cities. These autobahns had a positive effect on the car industry,
which flourished in the 30s when Hitler established Volkswagen; a
state-sponsored company to produce cheap cars for German
families.

By 1936, 2 million Germans were working on construction industries,

almost 3x the number when Hitler became chancellor in 1933.

 By 1936, there was full employment in Germany, although the Nazis

manipulated these statistics to appear as the economy was
improving.

Another factor was rearmament; Hitler had initiated programmes to re-

arm and expand the Reichswehr.
  He commissioned battleships and submarines; he tasked
Goering with building a new Luftwaffe (air force).
 In 1935, Hitler introduced compulsory military service and
increased the army to 550,000 men.
 Rearmament became a national economic priority – which was
problematic since German industries were still heavily reliant on
imported raw materials.

In 1936 at the Nuremburg party conference, Hitler announced the Four

Year Plan.

 A plan for Germany to reach complete self-sufficiency and prepare for

war.
 Goering was appointed by Hitler to oversee the plan’s armament
programme. The economy underwent significant changes in this
period, but despite these changes, Germany was still far from self-
sufficient.

By 1939, it was still importing 33% of its raw materials and 20% of its
food. Enough had been done to facilitate the expansion of the German
military and its re-armament.

1. Hitler played only a minor role in the 4. An attempt to make Germany self-
economic recovery of Germany, relying sufficient and end its reliance on imports
instead on advisors and bureaucrats. was only partly successful.

2. Rearmament was a critical part of this 5. In 1936 Hitler ordered a Four-Year

recovery – the government ignored Plan, overseen by Goering, to further
reparations to fund military spending. militarise production and prepare for war.

3. There were large public works

programs, such as construction, roads and
autobahns, to reduce unemployment.

1933-1939 timeline of events

1933: ‘Battle for work’

1934: Schacht’s ‘New Plan’
1936: Goering’s ‘Four Year Plan’
1937: Schact resigns
Schacht - Minister of economics, chief of the National Bank (1933/34)

1933: Battle for Work

 Natural economic recovery.

 Schacht: public schemes; land reclamation, road repair, house
building.
 Rearmament from 1933-35; remilitarisation of Rhineland in 1936.
 Doctor statistics: jews were not counted in unemployment since they
weren’t considered citizens.
 Women and jews exempt from all work.
 Reich Labour Service 19-25 year olds.
 Rearmament and conscription.

Schacht’s ‘New Plan’ – 1934

 Problems
a) rearmament: imported raw materials.
b) Exports struggling due to high tariffs.

Goering notes [20 Nov.]

 Joined NSDAP in 1923

 Ruthless disciplinary
 First aim was to nazify the police; remove jews and communists.
 Important role in the night of the long knives
 Competed with Ernst Rohm
 Important in rearmament; economic and foreign policy
 By TOV Germany wasn’t allowed aircraft; in 1922 they got
permission for transport planes. He was the one in charge of
reintroducing the air force, making the planes in a way they could
easily turn into fighter planes.
 In WW2, he was the leader of the Luftwaffe.

Four Year Plan - 1936

 Main aim to improve economy and prepare country for war.

 Aimed to expand the industry, reduce unemployment, improve the
standard of living, and introduce the National Labour Service
(RAD) and the German Labour Front (DAF).

Hitler’s foreign policies

When Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, he pointed out his main aims as:
 1. Destroy the TOV; he saw this as a ‘stab in the back’ by the socialists,
democrats, and Jews who signed it.
2. Unite all German speakers; Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland. Hitler believed
by uniting them he would create a great Germany (Grossdeutschland).
3. To expand eastwards into Poland and Russia to gain land – Lebensraum.

His tactics included using:

 Violence
 Realising France and Britain wouldn’t go to war, so they could reach a
compromise.
 Took advantage of events for his own benefit.

“Everybody thought that there was some justification in Hitler’s demands. All
Germans hated Versailles. Hitler tore up this hateful treaty and forced France to its
knees. He’s got courage to take risks.” 1933-34

 Hitler protested that the allies had not disarmed after WW1, and he left the
disarmament conference and the LON in 1933. He secretly intensified
rearmament.

In 1934, Poland and Germany concluded an alliance; this broke Germany’s

diplomatic isolation while weakening France’s series of anti-German alliances in
eastern Europe.

 This was a tactical move and Hitler had no intention of honouring the agreement
in the long term.

In July 1934, an attempt by Austrian Nazis to overthrow the government in their

country was crushed. The Austrian PM was killed in the attempt. Italy rushed troops
to the border of Austria to prevent Austria from falling into Nazi hands.

In January 1935, the Saar voted to return to Germany; this region had been placed
under the League’s control by the TOV, which allowed the French to exploit its
cornfields for 15 years.

 90% supported this return of the Saar to Germany; this boosted Hitler’s
propaganda by claiming his policies were working for the people.

In March, Hitler announced that Germany would reintroduce conscription and create
an army of 36 divisions. He also said he would build up an air force (Luftwaffe) and
expand her navy.

SS notes {4.12.24}
Ernst Rohm > leader of SA:
 Successful in increasing SA membership
 They wore brownshirts,
 Organised political rallies and meetings,
 Safeguarding Hitler during his speeches,
 Intimidated opposition before elections, before passing the Enabling Act, etc.
 Created slogans and hung them up (anti-Jew slogans),
 Street fights, marching; demonstrated propaganda.

SS:
 Elite of the army
 Organised the NLK in 1934 (the murder of the SA)