NAZISM AND THE RISE OF ADOLF HITLER

CONTENT EFFECTS OF FIRST WORLD WAR ON

GERMANY WEIMAR REPUBLIC THE GREAT DEPRESSION ADOLF HITLER NAZI PARTY CONSTRUCTION OF A RACIAL STATE THE HOLOCAUST END OF ADOLF HITLER

EFFECTS OF FIRST WORLD WAR ON GERMANY

SOCIAL COSEQUENCES OF WAR German society changed enormously as a result of the war. During the war the percentage of women in the workforce had risen to 37%, a massive rise. At the end of the war the figure increased meaning that from now on women had a significance role to play in the German economy. The reaction of many Germans to the ending of the war had a large impact on the society. Many of the former soldiers were of the opinion that they had not lost the war the army had been cheated. As a consequence of this many Germans looked for people to blame. Many others blamed the new government and some even blamed the communists and the Jews. So in the immediate post war era, there was a mass of suspicion within Germany. Combined with these factors there was a threat to the social order. . The first President of the Weimar republic, Ebert, worked hard to try and win the support of the elite groups. he wanted their support in order to maximize the stability of the new republic.

In this picture there is a red cross woman who is helping a wounded soldier.

In this picture we can see the chaos caused among the people after the end of the first world war.

ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR The economic consequences of the war were dire for Germany. The German economy had suffered terribly during the war. Industrial output fell by over 40% between 1914 and 1918. Machinery was, at the end of the war, obsolete in many cases, run by ill trained people - remember that millions of working men had been killed in the war. The workforce was not physically fit enough to work as hard as required as food shortages had been so bad that, "Germans ate dogs, crows, zoo animals and rodents, and even the front-line troops were reduced to meager portions of horse-meat." Estimates suggest that up to 35% of all trade was organized illegally on the Black market. The economy also suffered from shortages of raw materials. From 1915 until the end of the war, Germans were forbidden to drive a car. The situation hardy improved as a result of the Armistice, the Germans hadn't the means to purchase fuel on a large scale and found it difficult to purchase raw materials in any case as the international community shunned them as a consequence of the war.

Political impact of the war This is the most obvious area of change. The war led to the kaiser being forced into abdication. This left a power vacuum that was filled by the Weimar Republic. However there were other political consequences of the war that may be less obvious. The food shortages across Germany led to a radicalisation of peoples views. As a result extremist views, such as communism, became widely supported, particularly in the industrial cities. In 1919 there were several Left Wing uprisings; The Spartacist's attempting a revolution in Berlin and a short lived Soviet Republic was formed in Bavaria. The implications of these uprisings are great. Germany was extremely isolated at the end of the war. Trade was hard to come by as most of her previous trading partners now sunned Germany, preferring to do Business with the victorious Allies. Likewise the Germans struggled diplomatically, most notoriously their views were ignored at the Peace conference at Versailles.

In this picture we can see the attempt of Sparticist to overthrow the Republic.

In 1919, the Sparticist rebelled in Berlin.

Physical cost of the war The cost of the war for Germany is estimated to be in the region of $38 Billion. In addition to this consider the massive loss of life. Germany suffered the loss of 1.7 million young men, with another 4.3 million men being wounded during the conflict. The total casualties amounted to over 7 million, though this includes some men who were prisoners or listed as missing.

In this picture we can see dead soldiers in the battlefield. This was the aftermath of the world war.

The hyperinflation episode in the Weimar Republic in the 1920s was not the first hyperinflation, nor was it the only one in early 1920s Europe or even the most extreme inflation in history (the Hungarian pengő and Zimbabwean dollar have both been more inflated). However, as the most prominent case following the emergence of economics as a science, it drew interest in a way that previous instances had not. Many of the dramatic and unusual economic behaviors now associated with hyperinflation were first documented systematically in Germany: order-of-magnitude increases in prices and interest rates, redenomination of the currency, consumer flight from cash to hard assets, and the rapid expansion of industries that produced those assets. John Maynard Keynes described the situation in The Economic Consequences of the Peace: "The inflationism of the currency systems of Europe has proceeded to extraordinary lengths. The various belligerent Governments, unable, or too timid or too short-sighted to secure from loans or taxes the resources they required, have printed notes for the balance."

WEIMAR REPUBLIC

This is the flag of the Weimar republic

The pictures below show hyperinflation.

THE GREAT DEPRESSIONGermany was, indeed, especially hard-hit by the Great Depression. A major

factor was the Treaty of Versailles, which was supposed to settle outstanding disputes following the cessation of hostilities in World War I. Instead, the Allies allowed their desire for revenge to get the better of them, and historians are nearly unanimous in their judgment that the terms dictated to Germany were unnecessarily debilitating. Germany reeled from the huge burden of reparations payments required of it as a condition of the treaty. Payments made by Germany to the victorious Allies represented a drain of capital that would have otherwise been directed toward the growth of German industry.Another devastating factor contributing to Germany's economic collapse was the international trade war triggered by the passage of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in the United States in 1930. This provision effectively prevented many German industries from selling their goods in foreign markets.

Workers lost their jobs or were paid low wages. The number of unemployed touched an unprecented 6 million. Unemployed youths played cards or simply played cards at street corners, or desperately queued up at the local employment exchange. As jobs disappeared, the youth took to criminal activities and total despair became commonplace. With the coming to power of Adolf Hitler in 1933, the German economy became increasingly socialized and militarized, which frightened foreign investors and prevented a healthy economic recovery.  Instead, the "recovery," when it happened, was focused on war industries as opposed to those industries manufacturing goods that better the lives of everyday consumers.  Unemployed queued

up at coffee house.

THE BIG THREEThe treaty was signed on June 28th 1919 after months of argument and negotiation amongst the so-called "Big Three" as to what the treaty should contain. Who were the "Big Three" and where did they clash over Germany and her treatment after the war ?The "Big Three" were David Lloyd George of Britain, Clemenceau of France and Woodrow Wilson of America. David Lloyd George of Great Britain had two views on how Germany should be treated.His public image was simple. He was a politician and politicians needed the support of the public to succeed in elections. If he had come across as being soft on Germany, he would have been speedily voted out of office. However, in private Lloyd George was also very concerned with the rise of communism in Russia  and he feared that it might spread to western Europe. After the war had finished, Lloyd George believed that the spread of communism posed a far greater threat to the world than a defeated Germany.

Georges Clemenceau of France had one very simple belief - Germany should be brought to its knees so that she could never start a war again.This reflected the views of the French public but it was also what Clemenceau himself believed in. He had seen the north-east corner of France destroyed and he determined that Germany should never be allowed to do this again.Woodrow Wilson of America had been genuinely stunned by the savagery of the Great War. He could not understand how an advanced civilization could have reduced itself so that it had created so much devastation.In America, there was a growing desire for the government to adopt a policy of isolation and leave Europe to its own devices. In failing health, Wilson wanted America to concentrate on itself and, despite developing the idea of a League of Nations, he wanted an American input into Europe to be kept to a minimum.

THE VERSAILLES TREATYThe treaty can be divided into a number of sections; territorial, military, financial and general.

TerritorialThe following land was taken away from Germany :Alsace-Lorraine (given to France)Eupen and Malmedy (given to Belgium)Northern Schleswig (given to Denmark)Hultschin (given to Czechoslovakia)West Prussia, Posen and Upper Silesia (given to Poland)The Saar, Danzig and Memel were put under the control of the League of Nations and the people of these regions would be allowed to vote to stay in Germany or not in a future referendum.The League of Nations also took control of Germany's overseas colonies.

MilitaryGermany’s army was reduced to 100,000 men; the army was not allowed tanksShe was not allowed an airforce She was allowed only 6 capital naval ships and no submarines The west of the Rhineland and 50 kms east of the River Rhine was made into a demilitarized zone (DMZ). No German soldier or weapon was allowed into this zone.

FinancialThe loss of vital industrial territory would be a severe blow to any attempts by Germany to rebuild her economy. Coal from the Saar and Upper Silesia in particular was a vital economic loss. Combined with the financial penalties linked to reparations, it seemed clear to Germany that the Allies wanted nothing else but to bankrupt her.Germany was also forbidden to unite with Austria to form one superstate, in an attempt to keep her economic potential to a minimum.GeneralThere are three vital clauses here:1. Germany had to admit full responsibility for starting the war.

This was Clause 231 - the infamous "War Guilt Clause". 2. Germany, as she was responsible for starting the war as

stated in clause 231, was, therefore responsible for all the war damage caused by the First World War. Therefore, she had to pay reparations, the bulk of which would go to France and Belgium to pay for the damage done to the infrastructure of both countries by the war. Quite literally, reparations would be used to pay for the damage to be repaired. Payment could be in kind or cash. The figure was not set at Versailles - it was to be determined later.

The Germans were told to write a blank cheque which the Allies would cash when it suited them. The figure was eventually put at £6,600 million - a huge sum of money well beyond Germany’s ability to pay.   3. A League of Nations was set up to keep world peace. After agreeing to the Armistice in November 1918, the Germans had been convinced that they would be consulted by the Allies on the contents of the Treaty. This did not happen and the Germans were in no position to continue the war as her army had all but disintegrated. Though this lack of consultation angered them, there was nothing they could do about it. Therefore, the first time that the German representatives saw the terms of the Treaty was just weeks before they were due to sign it in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles on June 28th 1919.There was anger throughout Germany when the terms were made public. The Treaty became known as a Diktat - as it was being forced on them and the Germans had no choice but to sign it. Many in Germany did not want the Treaty signed, but the representatives there knew that they had no choice as German was incapable of restarting the war again.

Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.

Protest against Versailles treaty.

The treaty of Versailles.

ADOLF HITLER Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 was an Austrian-based German politician and the leader of Nationalist Socialist German Workers Party, commonly known as the Nazi party. He was chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and, after 1934 also the head of the state, ruling the country as an absolute dictator of Germany. Hitler's father, Alois Hitler, was an illegitimate child of Maria Anna Schicklgruber, so his paternity was not listed on his birth certificate; he bore his mother's surname.

For young Hitler German nationalism quickly became an obsession, and a way to rebel against his father who proudly served the Austrian nationality. Most people who lived along the German-Austrian border considered themselves German-Austrian but Hitler showed his loyalty only towards Germany.

From 1905 on, Hitler lived a bohemian life in Vienna on an orphan's pension and support from his mother. He was rejected twice by the Academy of fine Arts Vienna (1907–1908), citing "unfitness for painting", and was told his abilities lay instead in the field of architecture. His memoirs reflect a fascination with the subject:The purpose of my trip was to study the picture gallery in the Court Museum, but I had eyes for scarcely anything but the Museum itself. From morning until late at night, I ran from one object of interest to another, but it was always the buildings which held my primary interest. The old

residency in Munich where Adolf Hitler received education.

Hitler served in France and Belgium in the 16th Bavarian Reserve Regiment (called Regiment List after its first commander), ending the war as a Gefreiter(equivalent at the time to a Lance corporal in the British and private first class in the American armies). He was a runner, "a dangerous enough job on the Western Front, and was often exposed to enemy fire. He participated in a number of major battles on the Western Front, including the First Battle of Ypres, the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Arras and the battle of Passchendaele. The Battle of Ypres (October 1914), which became known in Germany as the Kindermord bee Ypern (Massacre of the Innocents) saw approximately 40,000 men (between a third and a half) of the nine infantry divisions present killed in 20 days, and Hitler's own company of 250 reduced to 42 by December. Biographer John Keegan has said that this experience drove Hitler to become aloof and withdrawn for the remaining years of war.

Hitler was twice decorated for bravery. He received the  Iron Cross, Second Class, in 1914 and Iron Cross, First Class, in 1918, an honor rarely given to a Gefreiter. However, because the regimental staff thought Hitler lacked leadership skills, he was never promoted to Unteroffizier (equivalent to a British corporal). Other historians say that the reason he was not promoted is that he was not a German citizen. His duties at regimental headquarters, while often dangerous, gave Hitler time to pursue his artwork. He drew cartoons and instructional drawings for an army newspaper. In 1916, he was wounded in either the groin area or the left thigh[during the Battle of the Somme, but returned to the front in March 1917. He received the Wound Badge later that year. A noted German historian and author, Sebastian Haffner, referring to Hitler's experience at the front, suggests he did have at least some understanding of the military.

While at Landsberg, he dictated most of the first volume of Mein Kampf (My Struggle, originally entitled Four and a Half Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice) to his deputy Rudolf Hess.[55] The book, dedicated to Thule Society member Dietrich Eckart, was an autobiography and an exposition of his ideology. Mein Kampf was influenced by The Passing of the Great Race by Madison Grant, which Hitler called "my Bible."[57] It was published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926, selling about 240,000 copies between 1925 and 1934.

THE NAZI PARTYNazi Germany, or the Third Reich, is the common name for the country of Germany while governed by Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) from 1933 to 1945. Third Reich (German: Drittes Reich) denotes the Nazi state as a historical successor to the medieval holy Roman Empire (962–1806) and to the Modern German Empire (1871–1918). Nazi Germany had two official names, the Deutsches Reich (German Reich), from 1933 to 1943, when it became Großdeutsches Reich (Greater German Reich).Nazi German war crimes and crimes against humanity revived internationalism in Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc, resulting in the establishment of the United Nations  (26 June 1945). One of the organization’s first orders of business was establishing war crimes tribunals to try Nazi officials in The Nuremberg trials, held in the Nazis' (former) political stronghold, Nuremberg, Bavaria.

THE RACIAL STATEThe racial policy of Nazi Germany were a set of policies and laws implemented by Nazi Germany, asserting the superiority of the “Aryan race", and based on a specific racist doctrine which claimed scientific legitimacy. It was combined with a eugenics programme that aimed for racial hygiene by using compulsory sterilizations and extermination of the untermensch (or "sub-humans"), and which eventually culminated in the holocaust. These policies targeted peoples, in particular Jews, who were labeled as "inferior" in a racial hierarchy that placed the Herrenvolk (or “master race") of the Volksgemeinschaft (or "national community") at the top and included Romani, persons of color and Jews at the bottom. Between 1933 and 1934, Nazi policy was fairly moderate, not wishing to scare off voters or moderately minded politicians (although the eugenics program was established as early as July 1933). On 25 August 1933, the Nazis even signed the Haavara agreement with Zionists to allow German Jews to emigrate to Palestine-by 1939, 60,000 German Jews had emigrated there.

The Nazi Party used populist anti-semitic views to gain votes. Using the “stab-in-the-back”, they blamed poverty, the Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic, unemployment, and the loss of World War I by the “November criminals" all on the Jews and the left-wing. German woes were attributed to the effects of the Treaty in Versailles. In 1933, persecution of the Jews became active Nazi policy. It only became worse with the years, culminating in the Holocaust, or so-called “Final solution”, which was decided by Hitler during World war 2 and made official at the January 1942 Wannsee conference.On April 1, 1933, the Nazi boycott of Jewish business was observed throughout Germany. Only six days later, the Law for the restoration of the Professional civil service was passed, banning Jews from government jobs. It is notable that the proponents of this law, and the several thousand more that were to follow, most frequently explained them as necessary to prevent the infiltration of damaging, "alien-type" (Artfremd) hereditary traits into the German national or racial community (Volksgemeinschaft). These laws meant that Jews were now indirectly and directly dissuaded or banned from privileged and superior positions reserved for “Aryan Germans”. From then on, Jews were forced to work at more menial positions, becoming second class citizens or to the point they were "illegally residing" in Nazi Germany.

JEWISH RESPONSESThe Laws decided upon by the Reichstag in Nuremberg have come as the heaviest of blows for the Jews in Germany. But they must create a basis on which a tolerable relationship becomes possible between the German and the Jewish people. The “Reichsvertretung Der Duetschen Juden" is willing to contribute to this end with all its powers. A precondition for such a tolerable relationship is the hope that the Jews and Jewish communities of Germany will be enabled to keep a moral and economic means of existence by the halting of defamation and boycott. The organization of the life of the Jews in Germany requires governmental recognition of an autonomous Jewish leadership. The Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland is the agency competent to undertake this. the Jewish educational system must serve to prepare the youth to be upright Jews, secure in their faith, who will draw the strength to face the onerous demands which life will make on them from conscious solidarity with the Jewish community, from work for the Jewish present and faith in the Jewish future. In addition to transmitting knowledge, the Jewish schools must also serve in the systematic preparation for future occupations.

THE HOLOCAUSTBetween 1939 and 1945, the SS, assisted by collaborationist, governments and recruits from occupied countries, systematically killed somewhere between 11 and 14 million people, including about six million Jews, in concentration camps, ghettos and mass executions, or through less systematic methods elsewhere. In addition to those gassed to death, many died as a result of starvation and disease while working as slave laborers (sometimes benefiting private German companies). Along with Jews, non-Jewish Poles, Communists and political opponents, members of resistance groups ,homosexuals, Roma, the physically handicapped and mentally retarded, Soviet prisoners of war (possibly as many as three million), Jehovah’s witnesses ,Adventists, trade unionists, and psychiatric patients were killed. One of the biggest centres of mass-killing was the industrial extermination camp complex of Aucshwitz-Birkenau. As far as is known, Hitler never visited the concentration camps and did not speak publicly about the killing in precise terms.

The Holocaust (the “Endlosuna der judischen Frage" or "Final Solution of the Jewish Question") was planned and ordered by leading Nazis, with Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich playing key roles. While no specific order from Hitler authorizing the mass killing has surfaced, there is documentation showing that he approved the Einsatzgruppen, killing squads that followed the German army through Poland and Russia, and that he was kept well informed about their activities. The evidence also suggests that in the fall of 1941 Himmler and Hitler decided upon mass extermination by gassing. During interrogations by Soviet intelligence officers declassified over fifty years later, Hitler's valet Heinz Linge and his military aide Otto Gunsche said Hitler had "pored over the first blueprints of gas chambers." His private secretary, Traudl Junge, testified that Hitler knew all about the death camps. On 22 February, Hitler was recorded saying to his associates, "we shall regain our health only by eliminating the Jews".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Buchenwald_Corpses_60623.jpg

END OF ADOLF HITLEROn 29 April, Hitler dictated his will and political statement to his private secretary, Traudl Junge, Hans Krebs, Wilhelm Burgdorf, Joseph Goebbels, and Martin Bormann witnessed and signed this last will and testament of Adolf Hitler. On the same day, Hitler was informed of the assassination of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini on 28 April, which is presumed to have increased his determination to avoid capture. On 30 April 1945, after intense street-to-street-combat, when Soviet troops were within a block or two of the Reich Chancellery, Hitler committed suicide, shooting himself in the temple with a Walther PPK while simultaneously biting into a cyanide capsule. Hitler had at various times in the past contemplated suicide, and the Walther was the same pistol that his niece, Geli Raubal had used in her suicide. Hitler's body and that of Eva Braun were put in a bomb crater, doused in gasoline by SS Sturmbannführer Otte Gunsche and other Führerbunker aides, and cremated as the Red Army advanced and shelling continued.

Hitler, the Nazi Party and the results of Nazism are typically regarded as gravely immoral. Historians, philosophers, and politicians have often applied the word evil in both a secular and a religious sense. Historical and cultural portrayals of Adolf Hitler in the west are overwhelmingly condemnatory. The display of swastikas or other Nazi symbols is prohibited in Germany and Austria. Holocaust denial is also prohibited in both countries. Outside of Hitler's birthplace in Braunau am Inn, Austria, the Memorial stone against war and Facism is engraved with the following message:FÜR FRIEDEN FREIHEITUND DEMOKRATIENIE WIEDER FASCHISMUSMILLIONEN TOTE MAHNENLoosely translated it reads: "For peace, freedom // and democracy // never again fascism // millions of dead remind [us]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mahnstein.JPG

SOME MORE PICTURES

Adolf Hitler (right) beside Benito Mussolini (left), the founder of fascism and dictator of Fascist Italy. Mussolini provided financial assistance to the Nazis prior to their rise to power.

The trench life of the soldiers.

Dr. Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht (22 January 1877 – 3 June 1970) was a German economist, banker, liberal politician, and co-founder of the German Democratic Party. He served as the Currency Commissioner and President of the Reichsbank under the Weimar Republic. He was a fierce critic of his country's post-World War I reparation obligations.

A Volkswagen used in Germany during the reign of Nazi party.

Charles Robert Darwin FRS (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist[I] who established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection. He published his theory with compelling evidence for evolution in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species. The scientific community and much of the general public came to accept evolution as a fact in his lifetime,[3] but it was not until the emergence of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s that a broad consensus developed that natural selection was the basic mechanism of evolution. In modified form, Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life. Adolf Hitler's racism borrowed from thinkers like Charles Darwin.

Herbert Spencer (27 April 1820 – 8 December 1903) was an English philosopher, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era. Spencer developed an all-embracing conception of evolution as the progressive development of the physical world, biological organisms, the human mind, and human culture and societies. He is best known for coining the concept "survival of the fittest", which he did in Principles of Biology (1864), after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

THANK YOU

A PowerPoint presentation by Priya Chaudhary, 9th E, Roll no.12, NCS