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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
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.
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 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.