Nazi Germany AUTHORITARIAN AND SINGLE PARTY STATES.
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Transcript of Nazi Germany AUTHORITARIAN AND SINGLE PARTY STATES.
Nazi Germany
AUTHORITARIAN AND SINGLE PARTY
STATES
Following WWIArmistice 11/11/18Germany required
to submit to Treaty of Versailles – June 1919
Loss of territoryForbid anschluss
(alliance with Austria)
COLLAPSE OF GERMAN EMPIRE
Replaced Kaiser Wilhelm – abdicated 11/9/1918
Politically weak – required coalitions because of proportional representation
Weakness leads to attempted overthrows
Spartacus League left-wing Socialist movement Jan. 1919 attempted coup; founders of KPG German Communist Party.
SPD – Socialist Democratic Party and KPD do not form coalition NAZIS later take power
WEIMAR REPUBLIC
Loss of industrial lands Reparations – inability to pay
leads to French/Belgian occupation of Ruhr (another industrial heartland). Passive resistance – strikes, sabotage, failure to work.
Weimar Republic prints money to pay off reparations Hyperinfl ation!
1924 Dawes Plan – All ies leave Ruhr, staggered reparation repayment, 800 mill ion mark loan from US
Germany stil l unable to repay reparations – set that high deliberately by Versailles?
Oct. 1929 – US recalls loans following Wall Street collapse
ECONOMIC HARDSHIPS
NSDAP – National Socialist German Workers’ Party
Founded 1919 Anton Drexler as German Workers’ Party
Adolf Hitler would become chairman 1921
NAZIS
1889 – born Braunau, Austria
1907/1908 – failed art student
1914 – Western front, dispatch runner, eventual corporal
1918 – hospital recovering from poison gas attack – armistice
1919 – enlightenment project spying on political movements for army
ADOLF HITLER
1921 – SA (sturmabteilung) created becomes paramilitary group; Voelkischer beobachter (People’s Observer) Nazi newspaper
1923 – 55,000 members (German electorate of 38 mill ion)
Nov. 1923 – Beer Hall Putsch – Nazi led attempted coup “March on Berlin”
March on Rome – Mussolini comes to power in Italy leading to Fascist control of gov’t Oct. 1922
Late 1920’s see participation in Reichstag and development of SS
NAZIS DEVELOPMENT
1929 forces changes in world markets
Nazis begin gaining seats – 230 in July 1932, largest in Reichstag
Promises of jobs, middle class values, and a restoration of national strength for Germans
RISE TO POWER
von Papen vs. von Schleicher
Neither held Chancellorship for long – both ineff ective
von Papen – after dismissal moves to push Hitler as Chancellor, hoping to control him
von Schleicher also pushes for Hitler, hoping to maintain high ranking position in a Nazi gov’t
Hindenburg – president during political grab bag; denies Hitler Chancellorship Aug. 1932, only to approve it Jan. 1933.
POLITICS
Reichstag Fire – Feb. 27, 1933.
Dutch Communist accused of setting fi re to the Reichstag
Hitler seeks emergency decree
For the Protection of People and State Used to silence opponents Forces Communists from
Reichstag Leads Nazis to 49% - makes
coalition with Catholic Centre Party for full control
POLITICS
Hitler allowed to issue decrees without oversight from Reichstag or President
Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich
Communists and Socialists already arrested under Reichstag Fire Decree
Required 2/3 vote as an amendment to Constitution
Gained from Centre Party and Right-wing parties
After passage, Hitler begins Gleichschaltung – Nazifi cation of German institutions (eliminates Reichsrat (representatives of states))
ENABLING ACT 1933
Volksgemeinschaft – state before all other loyalties, people bound together by blood
Social Darwinism – loose association with Theory of Evolution, strongest wil l survive strongest being Aryans
Lebensraum – Organic State Theory, states must grow to survive, l ike all l iving creatures German state must expand to acquire l iving space for Germans
Herrenvolk – German Aryans as master race Anti-Democracy – gives importance to weaker races Führerprinzip – leader’s wil l is the source of political authority
cult of leader Anti-feminism - women’s role is to bear more Aryans Anti-Marxism – internationalism weakens nations Anti-Semitism – Jews are the lowest race in social heirarchy Blut and Boden (Blood and Soil) – blood of the community is in
the soil – a belief that peasants and landowners l ive in organic harmony
IDEOLOGY AND STATE
Hegel – individual desires may only be realized through relationships of mutual recognition with others – Volk and State
Anti-Semitism prevalent throughout Europe
Nietzsche – Übermensch – superhuman Fuhrer above all
Social Darwinism – states, just like animals, struggle to survive
LONG-STANDING EUROPEAN TRADITIONS
Mein Kampf – My StruggleGermany must fi ght
CommunismMarxism was the invention
of Jews bent on world domination
National Socialism could fi ght communism – democracy was a stage towards communism
Prepare for war to gain Lebensraum in Polish corridor – racial unity, eliminate Jews, authoritarian gov’t, no dissent or diversity
HITLER’S IDEOLOGIES
March – July 1933Communists, Socialists
banned/arrestedRight wing coalition
parties disbandCatholic Centre Party
disbands after Concordat with Pope July 1933 – state would not interfere with Church and vice versa
July 14 1933 – Law Against the Establishment of Parties
ESTABLISHING THE ONE PARTY STATE
Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Services – April 1933 Jews and non-Aryans must
resign positions in administration, courts, universities, and schools
Law to Ensure the Unity of Party and State – Dec. 1933 Secures NSADP monopoly No regulation or division of
power leading to institutional distress
Overlap in authority between branches or local authorities
CONSOLIDATION
Night of the Long Knives Himmler – SS commander,
Gestapo leader SA leader Röhm wished
for a second revolution June 30, 1934 SA leaders (near 200)
shot Hitler ‘acted on behalf of
the German people’ cult of hero
Hindenburg dies August, army swear allegiance to Hitler
CONSOLIDATION
GoebbelsMinistry for Popular
Enlightenment and Propaganda
By 1939 – owned 2/3 of newspapers
Reich Broadcasting Corporation 1933 – all radio
Film conformed to Nazi ideals – Triumph of the Will (1935) Nuremberg Rallies of 1934 (full video on YouTube)
PROPAGANDA
SS replaces SA Waff en SS – 1938, established
to be functioning members of the army
SS-Totenkopf (Death’s Head) expanded as reserve military force, eventually oversee concentration camps
Army supports reverse of disarmament and expansion to old empire
Army dissents on war with Russia and need for Lebensraum
Those opposed were dismissed or reassigned
1936 Rhineland remilitarized, Anschluss w/ Austria
1938 entry into Czechoslovakia
ARMY
Simple – reading banned material, listening to banned music
Rot Kapelle (Red Orchestra) – anti-Nazi resistance in Berlin, Soviet espionage rings in German occupied Europe and Switzerland
Schwarze Kapelle (Black Orchestra) – July 20 Plot – assassinate Hitler at Wolf’s Lair, remove SS and Gestapo authority, end War and keep gains from Hitler’s invasions – military leaders
OPPOSITION