Germany 1918-1939 Notes

Germany 1918 – 1939 1. The Weimer Republic

* Emergence of the Democratic republic and the Impact of the Treaty of Versailles * REVOLUTION AND THE BIRTH OF THE WEIMER REPUBLIC * October 2nd 1918: Reichstag (parliament) informed GR couldn’t win war * Prince Max von Baden: became chancellor, brought Social Democratic Party (SDP) majority socialists into his cabinet hoped to maintain monarchy * Allies wouldn’t sign Armistice until Kaiser no longer ruled. * October 28 1918: revolution began in dockyards of Kiel final battle with British fleet many disagreed, mutinies began and then spread * Workers and Soldiers joined mutinying Sailors and took control of Kiel * Beginning of Revolution: GR set up councils based on Soviet Russian Bolshevik/communist revolution * Independent Socialists: set up a republic * Left Wing: Communism * Moderate: SDP * Right: Democratic * Left wing of GR politics was split between the Majority Socialists, Independent Socialists and Spartacists (revolutionary group who became GR communist party in December 1918) * Friedrich Ebert first Weimer president wanted to maintain law and order * Rosa Luxemburg: leader of Spartacists wanted ongoing (Bolshevik like) revolution (badly beaten and shot in January 1919) * Philip Scheidemann first elected chancellor proclaimed a new republic * General Groeger controlled the army after armistice in return for support, offered services to resist left wing extremism; Ebert placed future on the army * November 9th 1918: Weimer Republic was created, partially by accident * Revolution order + turmoil. * Freikorps formed due to breaking down of discipline, provided the republic with a military force defend the country against “the evils of communism” * January 11th 1919: 2000 Freikorps entered Berlin (first real test) and fought Spartacists * They acted with brutality, communists, and those suspects were round up and shot (Rosa) number of victims estimated at 1200 * January 19th 1919: first elected government was produced * Ebert’s Social Democrats won more seats than any others not absolute majority; wound up with support from 76% of the electorate * Scheidemann made Chancellor and Ebert elected first president. * New republic soon had to face Bavarian Republic (declared November 7th 1918) under Kurt Eisner dedicated socialist * February 2nd 1919: Eisner was assassinated workers protested; Bavarian Parliament dissolved in panic * Aril 1919: Soviet republic declared; Red Guard formed * May 1st 1919: Freikorps sent to Bavarian capital Munich, killing the ‘White Terror’ * May 8th 1919: siege over; 700 men and women dead * THE IMPACT OF THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES * Treaty of Versailles another obstacle * Terms of the treaty saw to the resignation of Scheidemann lots of protest, but acceptance inevitable; no condition to restart war * GR’s stunned by harshness; someone blamed * Blame could not be placed on the army as they had not been defeated in the field * November Criminals: the socialist politicians who signed the armistice were blamed * Country still lived with legacy of the war, even as democracy continued to come through challenges (mid 1919) * lots of militaristic influence in the Weimer Period Nazi’s, Social Democrats, Red Front-Fighters League, Stalhelm (Steel Helmets)

* Political, Economic and Social Issues in the Weimer Republic in 1929 * ISSUES IN THE WEIMER REPUBLIC TO 1929 * August 1919: the constitution of the Weimer republic was proclaimed; was an improvement to its imperial predecessor played an important part in developing instability of the republic * Proportional Representation: made difficult for one party to gain clear working majority. Power placed in hands of elected president was criticised could dismiss chancellor and suspend public rights * THE KAPP PUTSCH * Wolfgang Kapp launched German Fatherland Party aimed to annex enemy territory and establish authoritarian style of Govt. * Attempted to seize power in an incident which showed the lack of authority of the Weimer Govt. * Allied with commander of Freikorps around Berlin * March 13th 1920: Freikorps entered the city * Weimer Govt. fled from Berlin and Freikorps encountered no military opposition. * Workers bought the Kapp Putsch to an end by organising a general strike which effectively brought the city to a standstill. * March 17th 1920: Kapp announced he’d achieved the overthrowing of the Govt and fled to Sweden * Military leaders declared their support for the Putschists and the clashes between Freikorps and workers militia occurred in several cities. * The Ruhr: Red Army was set up, involving 100,000 workers Govt. returned to Berlin ordered a call to return to work. Over 1000 workers killed before order was restored in the region.

* THE OCCUPATION OF THE RUHR * January 1923: telegraph poles had not been delivered, as part of reparations, French sent troops to occupy Ruhr Industrial region * FR took over factories and coal mines attempting to make GR work for them * Passive resistance was ordered by Govt. French retaliated with arrests and shooting but were unable to secure normal resumption of work * End of March: they were receiving only 1% of coal that had previously been delivered. * THE HYPERINFLATION OF 1923 * Inflation: economic rise in general level of prices money has lost value? * Hyperinflation: rapid and uncontrolled rise in prices taking place over hours, days and months rather than years. * July 1922: US$1 = $550 GR marks * December 1922: US$1 = $7500 GR marks events in the Ruhr worsened the situation * Prices began to spiral, reaction was firstly to print more paper money; didn’t work. Old notes were over printed with new inflated values * Official rate of exchange changed several times a day * Confidence in the money supply collapsed, people began using butter, eggs and cigarettes (at different times) as means of bargaining * Some did well out of the situation: * People with fixed rent * Export Businesses * Anyone with access to dollars or pounds * Large Businesses * Landowners, large and small * Country Dwellers & Foreigners * THE STRESEMANN ERA 1924-1929 * Seen as a period of prosperity for Weimer democratic republic had flourished * August – November 1923: Gustav Stresemann was Chancellor he detested the terms of the Treaty of Versailles * Realised that directly challenging the victorious powers would be unproductive instead used a policy of fulfilment * Fulfilment Policy: that is, meeting the requirements of the victorious powers as long as it served Germany’s greater interest * Dawes Plan: in 1924; dealing with the problem of reparations. It fixed GR annual reparations payments at a level within its capacity to pay * Consequence: increase in American loans to Germany which helped to boost its economic recovery * In return for the GR signature on the Dawes Plan; the French assured they would evacuate the Ruhr within a year * July 1925: French withdrew from the Ruhr * Dawes Plan: drawn up in 1929; placed a time limit on reparations requiring annual repayments up until 1988 * Allies agreed, in return for Germany’s discontinuance of occupying Rhineland by June 1930 five years earlier than laid down by ToV * Locarno Treaties: 1925 gave FR assurance of no repetition of invasion; for GR meant no repeat of humiliating invasion of the Ruhr, and ended any hope for extension of French influence * Stresemann era was a period of cultural innovation in Germany, particularly Berlin. * Sexuality entered a permissive phase, with nudity and open homosexuality becoming a regular part of the club scene * Middle period of the Weimer years; success in foreign policy, a stable economy, a cultural revival and an absence of the politics of violence * WEIMER IN THE MIDDLE YEARS AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW * Right wing constantly critical of fulfilment policy, even before the onset of the world depression (which brought the Stresemann era to an end) * Days of fulfilment were numbered. * Democratic system was unable to provide a stable government * 1924-1930: a succession of brief coalition Gov. were in power * Constant shifts in power added to the instability * 1928: Nationalist Party, elected right wing businessman Hugenberg as their new leader. * The Catholic Centre Party experienced a similar rightward shift in the late 1920’s as shown by Bruning’s chancellorship from 1930 till 1932 * The Democratic Party and the People’s Party, both supportive of the republic; combined total of over 20% of the Weimer but by 1932 were only able to gain 2% between them. * November 15th 1918: Experimentation with social partnership between employers and the trade unions * The Stinnes-Legien Pact: employers recognise the right of unions to represent the workers, and accepted the demand for an 8 hour day; in return they received industrial peace. * Early 1920’s: employers pushed for longer working day and resisted claims for higher wages industrial disputation increased * Many of the influential institutions of the Weimer Republic were filled with those who owed their loyalty to the former monarchical regime. Among these were the higher civil service, the judiciary and university staff, who became even more right wing * Economic dependence on foreign loans * Between 1918-1931: Germany received a total of $33,000 million marks in foreign loans, mainly for the USA * The Result: was an unhealthy dependence on foreign capital. * Stresemann described this as: German dancing on the edge of a volcano, a prediction of problems that were to come true with the onset of the Great Depression at the end or 1929 * Collapse of the Weimer Republic 1929-1933 * THE COLLAPSE OF THE WEIMER REPUBLIC, 1930-1933 * March 27th 1930: Muller Govt, resigned as a result of coalition disagreement marked the beginning of the end for the democratic experiment. * Reichstag: became irrelevant to the process of political decision making

* Change did not come around by accident, nor was it forced upon the country by the demands of the economic depression * Central to the changing mood was the figure of the Reich president, Paul von Hindenburg * CONSERVATIVE ELITES AND THEIR INFLUENCE * Field Marshal Hindenburg: called back into public life after the death of President Ebert in 1925, when he became the candidate of the political right for the vacant presidency against William Marx Hindenburg won the election and became the 2nd president of the Weimer Republic * There was a rightward shift from parliamentary to presidential power. He was able to bring his preferences to bear to a greater extent than would otherwise have been the case * He included Nationalists within the government and preferred, if possible, to keep the Social Democrats out * The objective was to transform the parliamentary democracy into an authoritarian stat, governed by the political right. To aid their cause, the press empire of Hugenberg, the Nationalists’ leader, poured out a constant stream of anti-republican propaganda. * Hindenburg asked Bruning: to form a government, specifying, that it should have a rightward orientation and should not include the social democrats, despite the fact that they were the largest party in the Reichstag * Bruning’s first priority was to end reparations by convincing the allies that Germany could no longer meet her obligations due to the poor state of the economy. To further this aim, he was prepared to contemplate high levels of unemployment and the impoverishment of large sections of the population due to the Great Depression * The number of unemployed rose from 2, 258,000 March 1930 to 6,031,000 March 1932 * If the Reichstag would not support his policies, he would request the use of emergency powers under Article 48 of the Constitution * Bruning’s ultimate aim: was the restoration of the monarchy with a right-wing government. * September 1930: new elections catapulted the Nazis into prominence. They rose from 12 seats to 107 second largest behind the Social Democrats * Since Hitler’s imprisonment the party had not been able to make much impression on the electorate * 1926 Agricultural Depression: Nazis won power in the rural areas and the small and medium sized towns that were part of the rural economy * 1929: chance to prove themselves when they opposed the Young Plan * The campaign was a failure; the Nazi’s still made a favourable impression nationwide with their campaigning. * Nuremburg Rally: of that year, the Nazis grew 200,000 supporters * The Nazis growing reputation were first seen in local elections in late 1929, and they maintained this popularity into the Reichstag elections of 1930 * There was no possible way in which a republican coalition could be formed * No way in which a right-wing government could take office without the inclusion of the Nazis. A stalemate had developed * The Social Democrats: now found themselves in a dilemma. They were unwilling to support Bruning because of his deflationary policies, but even more unwilling to move to unseat him because it might open the way for Nazis, they also feared that their hold on the important state Govt of Prussia * Would be prejudiced if they were seen to oust the leader of the Centre Party from the chancellorship. * The SDP entered a period of toleration of the Bruning Govt * May 1932: Bruning’s downfall because Hindenburg’s conservative, anti-republican friends believed that Bruning had not moved the govt. sufficiently far to the right. * Excuse for his removal: some land reform legislation, which threatened the big estates of the Junkers, was labelled as ‘Bolshevism’ * March 1932: Hindenburg’s term as president expired. His major opponents were Hitler and the communist leader Thalmann. Hindenburg gained 53% of the vote to Hitler’s 36.8% * July 1932: Growing popularity of the Nazi movement, as was further seen becoming the largest single party * Nazis and communists, both sworn enemies of the republic, now controlled 52% of the Reichstag * Weimer republic was no effectively dead; only question was how to dispose of the remains * Hitler told Schleicher that the Nazis could no longer tolerate the Papen Govt. and demanded the chancellorship for himself * 1932: Hitler maintained an ‘all of nothing’ strategy: either the Nazis would enter govt with him as chancellor, or they would not enter it at all * August 13th 1932: was rebuffed as chancellor * Hindenburg disliked Hitler: he was critical of the violence on the street caused by the SA * November 1932: as Hindenburg looked for a chancellor who could provide a right-wing majority in the Reichstag result was a setback for the Nazis * Schliecher’s turn to intrigue on his own behalf. Convincing Hindenburg that a continuation of Papen’s chancellorship might lead to a civil war. Said he would be able to split the Nazi party * His attempt was aimed at Gregor Strasser the leader of the left, socialist, wing of the Nazi party. * Hitler found out about the move and dismissed Strasser, thus maintaining the unity of the party. * Schleicher, asked for authority to rule by emergency decree, and Papen now came forward to persuade Hindenburg of the necessity of accepting a coalition with Hitler as chancellor * Papen told Hindenburg: in a few months the older, experienced politicians would be able to push Hitler to one side and provide the right-wing government that the president and his advisers had been seeking since 1930 * January 30th 1933: Adolf Hitler became chancellor * He had come to power legally, as he had said he would, yet he had never been able to secure a majority of votes in the electorate or seats in the Reichstag. * Success: came from the old elites of land, industry and the army were determined to replace the Weimer democracy with an authoritarian system * ESTABLISHING RELATOINS WITH THE WEIMER REPUBLIC * Army tried to maintain for itself a separate and superior place in German society, and frequently involved itself in the political decisions of the day * 1918: Army made a determined attempt to pass the responsibility for the loss (of war) to a civilian govt * The Social Democrat Politicians who, in Ludendorff’s view, had failed to support the war effort. The fact that a civilian govt. allowed the army to preserve the myth that it had been undefeated in the field, and later gave substance to the ‘November Criminals’ slur when scapegoats were needed at the time of the signing of the ToV * RECAPTURING LOST GROUND AT VERSAILLES * General von Seeckt’s reaction to the ToV was to work in secret to circumvent its terms. * Development of armoured warfare was disguised as transportation * The army limited to 100,000 of whom, 4000 were to constitute the officer corps * Those who were monarchist, strongly anti-republican, and who disliked parliamentary control * Secret agreement was reached with the Soviet Union whereby GR built a number of factories on Soviet territory for the manufacture of aircraft, tanks and gas in exchange for the Soviets allowing German military personnel to train with these weapons * For most of the 1920’s the army stayed in the background, through the government relied on it at key moments as was illustrated in 1923 when, in the crisis generated by hyperinflation (Munich Putsch) * Clearly, the army saw itself as the final arbiter in questions of national unity * September 1923: for six months, von Seeckt in effect ran the country under a state of emergency, before handing back to civilian rule. * ESTABLISHING RELATOINS WITH THE WEIMER REPUBLIC * Army or ex-army officers to civilian office increased the army’s influence in Germany’s political life * General von Blomberg: whose willingness to serve in Hitler’s Cabinet was instrumental in gaining Hindenburg’s approval for the new govt. * General von Schleicher: manipulated much of the political scene from 1930-1932 was responsible for the creation of conditions that enabled Hitler to come into power.

* Collapse of the Weimer Republic 1929-1933 * THE IMPACT OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION * October 1929: The Great Depression began with the Wall Street crash had the most severe effect in Germany * Not only because of the numbers unemployed, but because of the effect on the republic itself * Weimer Democracy had never been embraced by powerful groups such as big business, the army, large landowners and leading civilian servants, and the onset of the Depression allowed them to openly express their disaffection * Authoritarian rule did not mean Nazi rule. The Depression provided the golden opportunity for the Nazis, it was not, in the narrow economic sense, the sole cause nor arguable the main cause of their rise to power. There was no inevitable linking of the onset of the Depression with the Hitler’s accession to power * The Depression encouraged President Hindenburg to move towards a more interventionist policy based on his powers * End of 1932: industrial production was rising and Nazi fortunes were falling and thought to have been repulsed, yet within a month, Hitler was in power. The key to understanding why lies in the policies and actions of Hindenburg 2. The Rise of the Nazi Party

* Rise of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) from 1929 * HITLER AND THE RISE OF THE NAZI PARTY * Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau, Austria on the 20th April 1889 * 1914: he volunteered for the German army and reached the rank of Corporal * October 1918: he was temporarily blinded by gas and was in hospital recovering his sight when he heard of the end of the war * Employed as an investigator attended a meeting of the German Workers Party * September 1919: Hitler reported that the party was harmless; however he saw it as a vehicle for his own ambitions and joined the party * 1920: he had clearly emerged as the reader renamed the party “National Socialist German Workers’ Party” (NSDAP; or more commonly known as the Nazi’s” * Set out a 25 point program designed to attract a wide variety of support * Leadership from a central govt. abolition of the Treaty of Versailles, and the unification of all Germans in a greater German * Anti-capitalist measures * Incorporated anti-Semitic views declaring that no Jew could be a member of the German nation. * Party membership grew, reaching about 55,000 by 1932

* THE MUNICH PUTSCH * 1932: lift of profile opportunity; height of hyperinflation * Hitler saw this as a moment to seize power * S.A: fired shots into the Beer Hall where Bavarian Leaders and Weimer were meeting declared that the national revolution had begun * 3 Bavarian leaders were persuaded to agree to Hitler’s actions were allowed to escape and immediately began organising resistance to the Nazi’s * Hitler decided on a march through the city the next day to regain the initiative * Hitler and Ludendorff in the front rank, opposed by a cordon of the armed police who open fired * Ludendorff strode on through the police cordon, Hitler fell and 14 Nazi’s were killed. * Hitler was arrested 2 days later * Munich Putsch: considered a failure, the trial was a success lasted for 24 days, * Hitler made patriotic speeches ‘No such thing as high treason against the traitors of 1918’ * Hitler received the minimum sentence of 5 years imprisonment * THE STRUCTURES AND POLICIES OF THE NAZI PARTY * Hitler learned from the failed Putsch that the way to power lay through the ballot box rather than street riots * December 1924: Hitler released Nazi party dropped to around 700 * 27th February 1925: party officially refounded * Hitler’s next problem was to reunify the party * February 1926: Hitler’s authority over the whole movement was reimposed * Joseph Goebbels’s: a loyal follower, Gauleiter in Berlin * 1924-1929: Nazi’s little electoral success time when the part developed its structures and rituals * 1924: Brown shirts became party uniform Swastika (crooked cross) became party emblem * 1926: ‘Heil Hitler’ became established as party ritual * 1925 S.S: Schutzstafflen: set up as Hitler’s bodyguard * 1926: membership rose to 49,000 * Hitler’s Accession to Power * Nazi’s were heavily outnumbered * January 1933: Hitler insisted on controlling key domestic posts: Willhelm Frick became Reich minister; Hermann Goering became minister of the interior of Prussia * Nazi’s were ideally placed to control the local police * Karl Dietrich Bracher: has described it as a ‘legal revolution’ * As soon as Hitler became chancellor; the fate of the republic was sealed turning point in the nation’s history * Hitler was the ‘non-politician’ to fix the broken political system * Other coalition members were known as ‘yesterday’s men’; part of the republican mistake * Few army officers supported the Nazi’s in the early 1930’s * Hitler began the intensive campaign to win them over * November 2nd 1933: Hitler promised to restore German military strength by rearmament and an assurance that the army would not be called upon to intervene in a civil war * February 1934: A symbol of growing link between the Nazi’s and the army; the Swastika was to be worn on all uniforms of all members of the armed forces * 1933 to 1936: Hitler was careful to respect the opinions of the army ensuring he had established political control * ‘The chancellor no longer enjoyed the confidence of the army’ was the sentence that ended most political leaders’ careers * ‘Legal Revolution’ ; stretched constitutional law and conventions * February 6th 1933: decree, giving Goering nearly full control of Prussia was a clear breach of the findings of the Prussian State Court when it dealt with a similar constitutional question in 1932 * Strict limitations on the freedom of assembly and other civil rights definitely defied constitutional convention * The SA carried on its campaigning of street violence, brawls and assassinations - they continually broke the law * Why did Bracher call it a legal revolution? The creation of an authoritarian system had to appear legal. * Politically conservative Germans had repeatedly shown themselves to be hostile to violent political revolution * Nazi revolution could only come from above, using and abusing the political powers of the state * Hitler was not content to be ‘captive’ his goal was to win absolute and crushing majority * January 31st 1933: ‘Appeal to the German People was the basis of his campaigning continuing with his theme of blaming the ‘November Criminals’ and the communists for all of Germany’s ills (1918) * February 27th 1933: Reichstag building was set on fire during the election campaign Van der Lubbe was arrested for it * Van der Lubbe: was unemployed; he dabbled in anarchist circles, and made previous unsuccessful arson attempts he freely confessed to starting the fire * Hitler requested and got special emergency powers from the president to resist the supposed communist threat * Civil rights were set aside and arrests made as the Nazis used the episode as an excuse to attack their political enemies * Nazis failed to win more than 43.9% of the vote although Hitler pressured on his bid to destroy democracy * Enabling Act on 23rd March 1933: made Hitler an apparently legal dictator, it also led to Gleichschaltung’ , the ‘coordination of Germany’s political structure’ * May 2nd 1933: trade unions were abolished and replaced by the German Labour Front * 14th July 1933: a decree made the Nazi Party the only legal political party in Germany * October 1933: Hitler withdrew Germany from the League of Nations, showing disregard for the body created by the despised Treaty of Versailles * It is true that no opposition parties were allowed, but the overall mark of approval for Hitler by the end of 1933 was genuine * THE NIGHT OF LONG KNIVES * Hindenburg’s hope that upon his death, the monarchy would be restored not Hitler’s wish * Upon his death, Hitler intended to combine the two positions and thus achieve absolute power * He needed the support of the army which meant he needed to address the problem of the SA * SA had provided the ‘muscle’ and physical intimidation in Nazi election * Throughout 1920’s: they had been involved in brutal street brawls with communists * SA: drawn from old soldiers of the lower class many were the worse types of hooligans and thugs, attracted by the uniform, comradeship, racial hatred and violence * SA: celebrated Hitler’s chancellorship with murders and beatings: they had free hand to settle old scores * Ernst Rohm: leader of the SA be a threat to Hitler’s position within the Nazi Party * Initial Consolidation of Nazi Power 1933-1934 * Nazi’s: endorsed the socialist elements of national socialism and called, in 1933 and 1934, for the Second Revolution to attack big business and propertied classes * Rohm: called for the reconstitution of the German army with the SA at its core – an idea that appalled the upper-class generals of the Reichswehr * Hitler couldn’t ignore the wishes of the army high command who wanted the threat from the SA removed * April 1934: Hitler met with the army commanders and arranged a deal the army would support Hitler’s succession to presidency in return for the suppression of Rohm’s plans and the acceptance of the army’s position as the sole armed force of the state * Until 1933: Rohm and the SA had been useful allies had become a liability * SA: seen as criminals by upper-class and middle-class * June 30th 1934: Hitler used Heinrich Himmler’s SS to murder the Rohm and other leaders of the SA * Killing extended to other ‘enemies’ of the Nazi Party: communists, Jews, outspoken politicians, and trade unionists * Hitler later admitted to about 70 deaths, but the number closer to 400 * THE AFTERMATH * July 13th 1934: Hitler defended his actions in the Reichstag by highlighting the threat the SA had posed of a second revolution * Public reaction: was approval proved to be symptomatic (highlighted) of Hitler’s strong, decisive leadership * SA continued: under Viktor Lutze, but was never again to play a prominent part in the THIRD REICH * The SS: now independent from the SA under Heinrich Himmler * August 2nd 1934: Hitler combined the leadership positions to be known in the future as Fuhrer of the Reich * Army took an oath of allegiance to Hitler personally * August 19th 1934: 90% of German people approved these actions in plebiscite (referendum) 3. Nazism in Power

* Hitler’s Role in the Nazi State * HITER’S ROLE IN THE NAZI STATE * Fuhrerprinzip: the principal which made Hitler the basis of the party, placed all authority in the hands of the leader * Nazi propaganda deliberately built up his image, creating the ‘Hitler Myth’ * Hitler represented the national will and worked tirelessly for his people he was a defender of Germany’s rights and a rebuilder of national pride * Possible for the public to separate their devotion to Hitler from their anxieties or complaints about the Nazi Party * Nazism as Totalitarianism * DID HITLER RULE A TOTALITARIAN STATE? * Definition: state is led by a dominating often ruthless, individual presiding over a single political party or groups, with no opposition groups allowed * Totalitarian leaders: retain control of policy; know all and decide all * Kept submissive by a system of terror that includes the use of secret policy and arbitrary imprisonment * The Role of Propaganda, Terror and Repression; SA and SS; Opposition to Nazism * PROPAGANDA AND CULTURE * Entertainment and culture had to conform to Nazi ideology and be approved by the authorities * Goebbels was a master of propaganda and used all means at his disposal to perpetuate the Hitler myth and propagate Nazi values * The radio became the principal means of reaching ordinary Germans * 1939: 70% of German households had a radio; the highest percentage of any country in the world * They used the cinema as propaganda; Nazi message was subtly conveyed through the lives of the main characters * Anti-Semitic propaganda film likened Jews to rats was produced on Hitler’s orders but against Goebbels’ wishes he recognised quite correctly that audiences would be revolted by the images * 1936: Berlin Olympic Games, cultural spectacle and propaganda opportunity * Painting and sculpture: realism was favoured * Architecture: along classical lines and size was valued * THE ROLE OF TERROR AND REPRESSION * Hitler’s popularity: reduced unemployment and promoted national pride * Nazi’s: established a system of terror and repression to discourage dissent * April 1933: Goering established a new secret police force – the Gestapo * ‘Enemies of the State’: dealt with in special courts and concentration camps * 1933-1939: 225,000 Germans imprisoned for ‘political crimes’ * All Germans became wary of criticising authorities as family, friends and neighbours began “dobbing” * Conformity was expected * THE SA * Began as a street fighting organisation * Power was curbed by the night of long knives * Violent tendencies could still be called upon when necessary * November 1938: led the destruction that accompanied the persecution of all Jews * THE SS * Rohm Putsch saw the confirmation of the SS as the principal uniformed organisation of the Nazi Party * June 30 1934: took over the running of concentration camps * Under Himmler: the power of the SS spread throughout society * The SS was feared * OPPOSITION TO NAZISM * Opposition was largely a matter of civil resistance 1. Popularity of Hitler 2. Promotion of ‘Peoples’ Community’ 3. Fear of retribution * All ensured the submission of population and authorities * Opposition was seen from 1. Political Left: ideologically opposed to Nazis and did not forgive the smashing of unions in 1933 encouraged acts of sabotage, work to rule and absenteeism in factories 2. The army (before 1939): plots were suggested to get rid of Hitler Hitler’s success at Munich ended these plans and assumed personal control over the army (1938) 3. Young people: formed groups opposed to the Hitler Youth Organisation 4. Individuals: some men joined the party in order to oppose Nazism from within * Social and Cultural Life in the Nazi State; Role of Hitler Youth, Women, Religion * SOCIAL AND CULTURAL LIFE IN THE NAZI STATE * Nazi Aim: to create a new people’s community, based on what they saw as the traditional values of the German people * Growing cities represented corruption of the modern industrial society * People’s Community: a classless society * Hitler’s Aim: create national solidarity ONE PEOPLE, ONE COUNTRY, ONE LEADER * Full employment 1936: (was achieved) the system continued as a massive ritual aimed at raising popular feeling and encouraging self sacrifice * Nazi’s made great effort to win over industrial workers into the new German state * First priority: provide work * June 1st 1933: law to reduce unemployment was passed * September 1935: all young men between 18 and 25 were required to perform 6 months labour service * Controls: worker’s lives were controlled, pay was controlled * 1933: Hitler abolished trade unions * Volkswagen: the people’s car * ‘Beauty of Work Campaign’: sought to improve working conditions * Illusions that Nazi regime was achieving a social revolution * 1937: Hitler claimed that he had succeeded in breaking down the old class systems, achieving a genuine people’s community * THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN NAZI GERMANY * Women were summed up in the slogan ‘CHILDREN, KITCHEN AND CHURCH’ * No female Nazi members of the Reichstag, and a party rile of 1921, banned women from senior leadership positions * National Socialist Womanhood (NSF): followed the party line that women should stay home and have babies was a Nazi organisation for women * Work: employers were asked to favour men * Success?: statistics on marriage and birth rates suggest that Nazi policies were unsuccessful declined after 1939 * Mobilising for War: the need to draft women into the workforce to provide cheap and reliable labour * Result: Nazis relaced restrictions on women working from 1938. * THE HITLER YOUTH * Transformation to Society: required Nazi’s to capture the minds of young people and indoctrinate them with Nazi ideology Set up in 1926 * 1933 Rapid development: boys and girls recruited voluntarily * Hitler Youth Law, December 1936: membership was regarded as compulsory * Second Hitler Youth Law, 1939: dealt with those who sought to find loopholes in regulations * Reactions: Some found exciting and attractive, others found confining and resented the attempts to get rid of individualism * Young people were expected to keep watch on their parents and report any anti-Nazi sentiments to authorities * THE CHURCH * March 23rd 1933: Hitler told that the national government saw in both Christian denominations ‘the most important factors for upholding our nationhood’ * Historically: Germany was divided into a Protestant (Lutheran) north and Catholic south * Nazis’ pledge support for ‘positive Christianity’ * clashes occurred between the branches of the faith * Protestant Church: divided into 28 separate regional churches * July 1933: brought together under Ludwig Muller * Muller: former naval chaplain and head of the Nazi-inspired ‘German Christians’ in east Prussia natural gifts for Church leadership * Confessional Churches: formed in 1934 under the leadership of Pastor Martin Niemoller as a result of the Protestant Church attempting to introduce Nazi measures such as: 1. Banning the Old Testament of the Bible on the grounds that it was a ‘Jewish Book’ 2. and excluding ‘non-Aryans’ from Church attendance in 1933 * confessional Church: was used as a platform to criticise the Nazi govt * Was essentially religious movement to preserve the integrity of the Lutheran faith, not a political movement of opposition to the Nazi state * Niemoller joined the Nazi Party in 1933 * Church Struggle: as it intensified Niemoller was sent to a concentration camp in 1937 * Muller’s influence: waned and the Nazi’s never succeeded in bringing the Protestant Church entirely under their control * Periodic attacks on the church surfaced Hitler saw the ‘Church Struggle’ as more of an irritation rather than a campaign * July 1933: Hitler signed the Concordat (agreement) with the Vatican, promising to guarantee the freedoms of the Catholic church on condition they did not interfere with the political life of the state * Concordat: Hitler saw it as a triumph because it nullified the opportunities of Catholic political interference * Nazi’s attempted to introduce Nazi teachings in Catholic schools * March 1937: Pope Pius XI issued an encyclical complaining that Hitler had gone back on the terms of the Concordat; he made no mention of concentration camps, fate of the Jews, or any policies which did not affect the church directly * Periodic attacks on church activities in an effort to limit Catholic influence * Resistance: as resistance grew, over 400 Catholic priests were sent to concentration camps. * Nazi Racial Policy; anti-Semitism: Policy and Practice to 1939 * NAZI RACIAL POLICY * Early 1930’s: 500,000 Jews in Germany, less than 1% of population * Jews: heavily concentrated in law, medicine and journalism * Hitler’s view: a struggle between the Aryan master race and inferior races; Jews the worst example * 1933-1939: more than 400 pieces of anti-Jewish legislation were introduced to deprive the Jews of their civil rights and keep Aryan Germans at racial superiority * ANTI –SEMITIC LAWS * Nuremburg laws of 2935: any individual with even one Jewish grandparent; could be deprived of their German citizenship * ‘Law for Protection of German Blood and Honour: made it illegal for Jews to marry or have sex with Aryan’s * Position of Jews in Germany became more difficult * property was taken, businesses forced into bankruptcy or ‘Aryanisation’ sold for low prices to Aryan firms or individuals * Walter Buch (Supreme Part Judge): declared in 1938 the Jew was outside the law as he was not a human being * Community encouraged to despise and distrust the Jews * Constant stream of anti-Semitic broadcasts on radio, and films * KRISTALLNACHT * November 1938: a young Jew killed a German diplomat in Paris * November 9th 1938: the Nazi’s organised an outbreak of violence against Jewish people and property, which led to the death of 74 Jews, 20,000 arrests and the destruction of 875 Jewish shops and the burning of 191 Synagogues * Kristallnacht: ‘The Night of Broken Glass’ 25 million marks * Nazi’s now made the Jewish community pay for the damage by imposing on them a fine of one billion marks 4. Nazi Foreign Policy

* Nature of Nazi Foreign Policy: Aims and Strategies to September 1939 * AIMS AND STRATEGIES TO SEPTEMBER 1939 * 1933: Hitler came into power aim was to revise the Treaty of Versailles * more preoccupied with establishing domestic control * 1935: he was able to turn his attention to revising the treaty terms * March 1935; he reintroduced conscription and rearmament * Between 1935 and 1939: everything appeared to work in Hitler’s favour * freed Germany from the military and territorial limitations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles and began to create a ‘Greater Germany’ with the following key events: 1. The Saar: small territory on the border with France that had been controlled by the League of Nations since WWI, voted to rejoin Germany. seen as a vote of confidence in Hitler’s new Germany 2. The Rhineland: March 1936 Hitler sent German troops into Rhineland, neither France nor Britain opposed it. Confidence and domestic popularity grew; gave him greater influence over the army 3. Civil War in Spain: July 1936Germany supported General Franco in the Civil War in Spain test new weapons under battle conditions 4. the Rome-Berlin Axis: October 1936 Hitler established a political understanding with Mussolini, the Fascist Dictator of Italy 5. The Hossbach Conference: November 1937 Hitler held a meeting, setting out plans to occupy Austria and Czechoslovakia 6. Anschluss with Austria: March 1938, Austria became part of Germany; was a popular move in Austria. Britain and France did not oppose it 7. The Sudetenland Crisis and Munich Conference: September 1938; German people had been victimised by the Czech government... He threatened war. British Prime Minister Chamberlain arranged a settlement at Munich involving the leaders of Britain, Germany, France and Italy; Sudetenland was given to Germany. Hitler felt cheated of the opportunity to take the Sudetenland by force 8. The Invasion of Czechoslovakia: March 1939 Hitler had the military triumph; his armies occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia. Britain and France and steps were taken to protect Poland 9. The ‘Pact of Steel’: August 1939 Germany and Italy agreed to a military alliance 10. The Nazi-Soviet non-Aggression Pact: August 1939, Hitler and Stallin signed a non-aggression pact. The Nazi-Soviet pact paved the way for the German invasion of Poland; Britain and France would not intervene 11. The Invasion of Poland: September 1939; the German army invaded Poland; Chamberlain issued an ultimatum for German troops to withdraw 12. Declaration of War: 3rd September 1939; Chamberlain’s ultimatum had expired, Britain and France declared war on Germany, The Second World War had begun. * Impact of Ideology on Nazi Foreign Policy to September 1939 * HITLER AND THE ARMY * Reichswehr in Germany was jealous of its reputation, its independence and its own special interests * Inclusion of General von Blomberg as war minister in Hitler’s first Cabinet had been done to reassure the army leadership of the acceptability of Hitler as chancellor * February 3rd 1933: Hitler met with the leaders of the armed forces to reassure them on major issues: his determination to restore German military strength by rearmament and the reintroduction of conscription, effectively overturning Versailles, and an assurance that the army would not be called upon to intervene in a civil war * 1933: army generals were prepared to accept the Nazi’s, underestimated Hitler, so did the Reichswehr Hitler used and controlled them * leaders of the army were prepared to support many of the new laws, particularly those which were anti-Semitic, or aimed at restricting civil liberties * February 1934: Blomberg ordered that the Nazi Party emblem of the Swastika was to be worn on the uniforms of all members of the armed forces * The elimination of the SA in the ‘ Night of the Long Knives’ consolidated Hitler’s hold over the army * General and former Chancellor von Scleicher was shot, the army made no protest * August 2nd 1934: the army’s allegiance to Hitler was secured by oath * December 1933: Hitler had changed the oath so that a recruit swore allegiance to ‘the people and the Fatherland’ and in August 11934, this changed to ‘unconditional obedience to Adolf Hitler the Fuhrer of the German Reich’ symbolically marked the army’s acceptance of the new order * Reintroduction of conscription, and the reoccupation of the Rhineland, the new army was kept busy * Hitler’s confidence grew ignored the wishes of the army * February 1938: Hitler moved to increase Nazi Party control over military and foreign policy * January 1938: General Blomberg married a young women who turned out to have a police record for prostitution wouldn’t have the marriage annulled, he was sacked. * Hitler adopted the role of Commander in Chief of the armed forces * Hitler showed the balance of the army laid firmly with him * army could no longer consider itself ‘a state within a state’ but had become an instrument of Hitler’s will * the absence of real resistance to Hitler from the army in the run up to WWI, was guaranteed by 3 factors: 1. Military training which emphasised obedience and order 2. personal oath of loyalty to Hitler taken by every army member 3. Hitler’s record of unprecedented success in the field of foreign policy