Depth Study - Germany - 8A

German revolution and establishment of the republic Oct 1918 - Nov 1918

● When Germany lost the war, the allies offered Germany peace under one condition,
which was for Germany to become Democratic and for the Kaiser to abdicate.
● When the Kaiser refused, sailors in northern Germany mutinied and took over the town
of Kiel.
● This triggered other revolts till the Kaiser was left no choice
● Many Generals saw defeat as inevitable. Citizens began calling for peace. German
leaders were concerned at the socialist threat and persuaded the Kaiser to abdicate.
● There was nothing that Kaiser Wilhelm could do to control his country, for the army
generals refused to support him. All he could was to abdicate.
● On 9th November 1918, the Kaiser abdicated his throne and left Germany for the
Netherlands.
● Friedrich Ebert became the new leader of the Republic of Germany.
● He signed an armistice with the allies, bringing an end to the war
● Germany had a new government, a Republic.

How did Germany emerge from defeat in the First World War?
● Economic Impact – Germany was virtually bankrupt
○ National income was about 1/3 of what it had been
○ Acute food shortages, shortages of fuel
○ War pensions were draining state budget
○ Industrial production was 2/3rd of what it had been
○ Loss of population to starvation and hypothermia

● Social Impact
○ Law and order was breaking down
○ Factory owners got richer, but workers got poorer due to restrictions on their
incomes
○ Deepened divisions in German society, huge gaps between living standards of the
poor and rich

● Political Impact
○ Recent revolution, unstable democratic republic, extremist parties tried to gain
○ power, hatred towards Ebert for signing the treaty
 The Weimar Republic under Ebert
January 1919 to 1923

Establishment of the Republic

● In January 1919, free elections took place for the first time in Germany's history.
● Eberts party won a majority and he became the President of the Weimar Republic.

The constitution
● The Constitution was designed to be as democratic as possible, and to represent the
many different groups which made up German society. It was meant to provide a
practical, workable solution to the challenge of ruling Germany.
○ All Germans over the age of 20 could vote
○ There was a system of proportional representation.
○ In order to make day to day decisions, the Chancellor needed the support of half of
the Reichstag
○ The head of state was the president. He could rule the country directly through
Article 48 of the Constitution. It gave him emergency powers, which meant he did
not have to consult the Reichstag

Weaknesses with the constitution

● The Chancellor needed support of half the reichstag: Under the Weimar
Constitution, the Chancellor was responsible to the Reichstag, but it usually
failed to give a clear lead because the parties refused to compromise.
● Emergency powers: President may abuse article 48
● Proportional Representation: A political party received the same percentage of
places in the parliament as they had received of the votes.It encouraged a lot of
small parties to be formed.There were so many different groups that no party
could ever form an overall majority. This helped the people who were trying to
replace the Weimar Republic with a completely different kind of government.
The Nazis.
● Lack of Respect for Democratic Governments: Moreover, there was a traditional
lack of respect for democratic governments and a great admiration for the army
and the ‘officer class’ as the rightful leaders of Germany. In 1919, the view was
widespread that the army had not been defeated: it had been betrayed – ‘stabbed
in the back’ – by the democrats who had needlessly agreed to the Versailles
Treaty.
● Negative Association with the Versailles Peace Treaty: The Weimar Republic
had accepted the humiliating and unpopular Versailles Treaty with its arms
limitation, reparations and war guilt clause. And was thus always associated
with defeat and dishonour. German nationalists could never forgive it for that.
Threats
● The Spartacist Uprising: January 1919
● The new government faced threats from Left – Wing Revolutionaries, known
as the Spartacists and lead by Rosa Luxemburg
 ● The Spartacists were a group of communists who wanted a real socialist
revolution just like in Russia the previous year and did not trust Ebert as they
thought he wouldn't look after the interests of the working class.
● The Spartacist uprising was an attempted revolution to overthrow Ebert’s
Government in Berlin while the government was still in turmoil.
● Ebert sent members of the Freikorps to settle the issue and within 5 days, the
Spartacists headquarters was captured and 5 days after that, the movement was
crushed, 100 Spartacists were killed compared to 13 Friekorps.
● Both leaders were killed
● The Kapp Putsch: March 1920
● Right – Wing Revolutionaries like the Freikorps led by Wolfgang Kapp.
● The Friekorps were an armed group formed of Unemployed Ex – soldiers with
extreme Right – Wing views who helped Ebert keep control of Germany; their
leader was Wolfgang Kapp.
● The Freikorps grew in strength after the Spartacist Revolt in 1919. However,
in March 1920 the Government attempted to disband the Freikorps and
consequently the Ebert government lost control of the Freikorps. Members of
the Freikorps did not want to become unemployed again as they had after the
First World War, so they turned against the Government
● When around 5,000 Freikorps marched on Berlin, Ebert initially ordered the
German Army to stop the rebellion. However, the Army refused to do
anything as they did not wish to act against former soldiers.
● So, the Freikorps managed to take over Berlin and declare a new government
headed up by Wolfgang Kapp who then invited the Kaiser to return from the
Netherlands to retake his post as Emperor.
● The Weimar Government fled Berlin and, in an attempt to stop the putsch,
encouraged the workers of Berlin to go on strike.
● This strike brought Berlin to a standstill and meant that it was very difficult for
the new government to do anything as all essential services were stopped.
● This resulted in the collapse of the putsch after only four days and the
restoration of the Weimar Government

Impact of the treaty

● On May 19th the terms of the Treaty of Versailles were announced.
● The right wing opponents of Ebert’s government blamed him for betraying
Germany.
○ Germany lost 10% of its land, all of its overseas colonies, 12.5% of its
population, 16% of its coal and 48% of its iron industry.
○ Its army was also reduced to 100,000 soldiers and it was not allowed to
have an Air Force. Its Navy was also reduced.
● Even though Ebert had no choice in signing the treaty, many Germans would
always blame him for it and its negative impact on Germany.
Economic Impact
Reparations
● The reparations bill was announced in April, 1921. It was set at 6.6 billion
pounds, and was meant to be paid in annual instalments of 2% of Germany's
annual output.
● This put a terrible strain on Germany's economy as it was still being
rebuilt after the war
The occupation of the Ruhr 1923
● After failing to pay the second instalment in 1922. The Allies ran out of
patience, in particular the French. Because they too had war debts. In January
1923, French and Belgium troops entered the Ruhr and began to take what was
owed to them in the form of raw materials and goods
● In response, the government ordered the workers to go on strike. That way
there would be nothing for the French to take away.
● But now, Germany was also suffering from that as they couldn’t get the
regular output from the Ruhr.
Hyperinflation
● The halt in industrial production in Germany in its most important region
caused the collapse of German currency. Because it had no goods to trade, the
government simply printed money.
● It paid off its debts in worthless marks, including war loans of over 2200
million pounds.
● The great industrialists were able to pay off all their debts as well.
● With so much money in circulation, however, prices and wages rocketed as
there weren’t enough goods to buy.
● And people soon realised that this money was worthless. Wages began to be
paid daily instead of weekly.
● All faith had been lost in the government under Ebert, and the situation
needed urgent action.

The Weimar Republic under Stressman

January 1923 to 1929

Achievements

Economic:
● Called of passive resistance in the Ruhr
 ● Replaced the worthless marks with a new currency Rentenmark
● Negotiated the Dawes plan - reparations were spread over a longer period, loans from
USA
● Money invested into businesses and public works
● Industrial power revived, production increased
● Wages for workers increased, welfare benefits too
● Higher standard of living

Political:
● No more attempted revolutions after 1923
● Parties began to co-operate again
● Hitler only had 3% of the votes in 1928 election

Culture:
● Free expression, no censorship
● Artists tried to represent reality in everyday life
● Golder age for german cinema

Foreign policy:
● 1925 Locarno treaties - germany accepted it’s western borders with france and
belgium
● Revised some terms of the treaty of versailles
● Negotiated young plan 1929
● Final removal of foreign troops from rhineland

Problems
● Economic: germany was depending on its loans, increased inequality because big
business owners, and land owners benefited only, whereas peasant farmers and small
business owners were in debt, unemployment also rose
● Political: nazis and communists were rising, 30% of the votes regularly went to the
opposition of the republic, hindenburg was elected who was opposed to democracy
● Foreign policy: criticism for joining LON and signing international agreements
because it meant the republic accepted the treaty, communists also attacked republic
● Culture: represented moral decline and hostility

Depth Study Germany - 8B

Nazi Germany under Hitler

What helped him
Oratory skills
● Hitler's energy, commitment and above all, his power as a speaker attracted attention.
SA:
● The SA or stormtroopers protected Hitler's meetings but also disrupted those of other
parties.
 ● More than half of the SA were from the unemployed ranks.
Munich Putsch - Nazi Policies
● Hitler’s trial due to the Munich putsch gained enormous publicity for him and his
ideas as his every word was reported in the newspapers.
● Hitler had gained sympathy and support from important figures in the legal system,
and because of his links with Ludendorff, Hitler probably gained the attention of
important figures in the army.
● He used the time in prison to write a book, called the Mein Kampf
○ Nationalist socialism - loyalty to germany, sate control of economy
○ Racism - aryan race was superior
○ Armed force - importance of war
○ Lebensraum - living space - expansion of germany
○ Führer - democratic discuss was useless, loyalty to fuhrer was vital
Proportional representation – the constitution
● Many communists were building up their strength through youth organisations and
recruitment drives
● Encouraged by this, Hitler created a network of local Nazi parties which in turns set
up the Hitler Youth.
● This helped him gain publicity and importance, hence votes
The Economic Depression
● Since the US was now asking for its loans back. The result was economic collapse in
Germany. Businesses went bankrupt, workers were laid off and unemployment
rocketed. Along with which, Germany still had to pay the hated reparations from the
treaty of Versailles.
● When the Weimar government, as the government tried to act, the Constitution, with
its careful balance of power, made firm and decisive action by the government
difficult.
● Hitlers ideas now seem to have a special relevance.
● Because the Weimar constitution was seen as indecisive.
● The reparations were hated more than ever. Hence so was the Treaty of Versailles.
● Unemployment was also a huge issue, and now people seemed more keen on letting
the unemployed join the army.
● Since the Nazis 24 points promoted all these ideas. They were the most attractive to
those most vulnerable to depression. It was clear that democratic parties could not get
Germany back to work.
● Hence, the depression helped secure more votes for the Nazi party, as extreme action
seemed more necessary than ever.
Common enemy:
● He gave them someone to blame for Germany's problems: the allies, the treaty, the
communists and the jews
● Hate for democracy
Targeting the farmers:
● The Nazis found they gained more support from peasant farmers
 ● To increase their support from this class of people they praised them as naturally
pure German’s and highlighted their importance in their plans for Germany
Goebbels - Propaganda campaigns:
● He was highly efficient at spreading the Nazi message.
● He produced posters, leaflets, films and radio broadcasts, and he also organised
rallies and photo opportunities.
Depression
● Used the inability of politicians to deal with the depression in germany to exploit
the discontent of the people
Conservatives
● Targeted those with traditional values

What didn’t
1. The Munich putsch failed. Hitler was arrested. It was a win for Stressman. Nazis
had been humiliated.
2. Stressman’s success in foreign policy made Germans uninterested in extreme
politics

Rise of hitler
Hindenburg appointed Hitler as chancellor in 1933

The Reichstag Fire

● The fire allowed Hitler to blame the communists and demand special emergency
powers to deal with the situation, which he was given by President Hindenburg.
● The Nazis used these powers to arrest communists, break up meetings and frighten
voters.
The Enabling Act
● Using the SA and the SS, Hitler intimidated the Reichstag into passing the
Enabling Act, which allowed him to make laws without consulting the Reichstag.
● He used this to ban communists, and it made Hitler a virtual dictator.
● For the next 4 years, if he wanted a new law, he could just pass it.
● There was nothing President Hindenburg or anyone else could do.
The Night of the Long Knives
● Ernst Rohm, the leader of the SA, threatened Hitler because he talked about turning
the SA into a second German army, he saw Rohm and the SA as rivals
● He raised the homes of leading figures of the SA and arrested them
● Accused Rohm of plotting against him
● He used this to execute Von Papen as well, who was a fierce critic of Hitler
● It gave Hitler Hindenburg’s trust, and the army's loyalty
● It also helped Hitler eliminate his competition; Röhm.
Hindenburg’s death
● After he died. Hitler took over as supreme leader.
● The entire army swore an oath of personal loyalty to him as Fuhrer of Germany.
 ● In return, Hitler spent large sums on rearmament, brought back conscription and
made plans to make Germany a great military power again.

Depth Study Germany - 8C

How much opposition was there to the Nazi regime?

Nazi aims
1. A strong Germany. Hitler blamed Germany’s problems on weak leadership. He
wanted strong leadership as in the days of the Kaiser. He wanted strong Germans,
ready for war who were able to restore Germany’s military pride.
2. A racially pure Germany. Hitler believed in Aryan supremacy and blamed the Jews
for many of Germany’s problems. He wanted to remove Jews and other non-Aryans
from any positions of leadership.
3. A People’s Community (or Volk). The Nazis wanted people to give their hearts and
minds to Hitler. In the VOLK people would see their contribution to Germany as
more important than their own fulfilment.

How they seized power in towns

1. They took over the council by bullying and intimidation.
2. They set up a search of all houses supposedly looking for illegal ammunition.
3. Coordination of all organisations. They argued that because the Nazis were a majority
in national government that all local bodies should also have a Nazi majority.
4. Boycotting Jewish businesses. A newspaper campaign told Northeimers not to shop at
Jewish-run businesses. SA men were stationed outside to turn people away.
5. By ending unemployment. Most Nazis were put to work repairing roads and clearing
the woods around the town. However, socialists were dismissed from jobs which were
then given to Nazis.
6. Relentless propaganda. In the first three months of Nazi power they organised a
torrent of propaganda events including the ceremonial burning of the Weimar flag; a
book burning to destroy unacceptable books; and a torchlight parade

How effectively did the Nazis deal with their political opponents?

1. The Gestapo
○ It was the secret state police.
○ It was commanded by Reinhard Heydrich.
○ Gestapo agents had sweeping powers. They could arrest citizens and send
them to concentration camps without trial or even explanation.
○ They were believed to have a network of ‘informers’ listening in on people’s
conversations.
○ Most feared by ordinary citizens. However, recent research has shown that
Germans believed the Gestapo was much more powerful than it actually was.
 ○ As a result, ordinary Germans informed on each other because they thought
the Gestapo would find out anyway.

2. The SS
○ After virtually destroying the SA in 1934, the SS grew into a huge
organisation with many different responsibilities.
○ It was led by Heinrich Himmler.
○ SS men were Aryans, very highly trained and totally loyal to Hitler.
○ Under Himmler, the SS had the main responsibility for crushing opposition
and carrying out Nazi racial policies.
○ As its power grew, the SS set up its own courts. Around 200,000 Germans
were sent to concentration camps by these courts
○ There were three particularly important sub-divisions:
i. The SD was the SS’s own internal security service. The SD would
investigate potential disloyalty within the armed forces or politically
sensitive cases.
ii. The Death’s Head units were responsible for the concentration camps
and the transportation and murder of the Jews.
iii. The Waffen-SS – armoured regiments that fought alongside the regular
army.

3. Concentration camps
○ The first camps were set up as soon as Hitler took power in 1933.
○ They were makeshift prisons in disused factories and warehouses, usually in
isolated rural areas.
○ Jews, socialists, communists, trade unionists, churchmen and anyone else
brave enough to criticise the Nazis ended up in these camps.
○ These camps were run by SS Death’s Head units.
○ Prisoners were forced to do hard labour. Food was limited and prisoners
suffered harsh discipline, beatings and random executions.
○ The aim was to ‘correct’ opponents of the regime. However, by the late 1930s,
deaths in the camps were increasingly common and very few people came out
alive.

4. The police and the courts

○ Top jobs in local police forces were given to high-ranking Nazis reporting to
Himmler.
○ As a result, the police added political ‘snooping’ to their normal law-and-order
role.
○ They were, of course, under strict instructions to ignore crimes committed by
Nazi agents.
○ Similarly, the Nazis controlled magistrates, judges and the courts. They
appointed all the judges and sacked those they disapproved of.
 ○ This led to self-imposed control – magistrates knew what they were expected
to do and did it. They knew they would not last long if they did not.
○ This meant that opponents of Nazism rarely received a fair trial.

How did the Nazis use culture and the mass media to control the people?

Propaganda in Nazi Germany

○ One reason why opposition to Hitler was so limited was the work of Dr Joseph
Goebbels, minister for enlightenment and propaganda.
○ Goebbels passionately believed in Hitler as the saviour of Germany. His
mission was to make sure that others believed this too.
○ Throughout the twelve years of Nazi rule Goebbels constantly kept his finger
on the pulse of PUBLIC OPINION and decided what the German public
should and should not hear.
○ He aimed to use every resource available to him to make people loyal to Hitler
and the Nazis.
The Nuremberg rallies
○ Took place in summer each year.
○ There were bands, marches, flying displays and Hitler’s brilliant speeches.
○ The rallies brought some colour and excitement into people’s lives. They gave
them a sense of belonging to a great movement.
○ The rallies also showed the German people the power of the state and
convinced them that ‘every other German’ fully supported the Nazis.
○ Goebbels also recognised that one of the Nazis’ main attractions was that they
created order out of chaos hence the rally was organised to emphasise order.
Media
1. Books
a. No books could be published without Goebbels’ permission. Not surprisingly
the bestseller in Nazi Germany was Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf.
b. In 1933 Goebbels organised a high-profile ‘book-burning’. Nazi students
publicly burned books that included ideas unacceptable to the Nazis.
2. Art
a. Artists suffered the same kinds of restrictions as writers. Only Nazi-approved
painters could show their works.
b. These usually had to be paintings or sculptures of heroic- looking Aryans,
military figures or images of the ideal Aryan family.
3. Newspapers
a. Within months of the Nazi take-over, Jewish editors and journalists found
themselves out of work and anti-Nazi newspapers were closed down.
b. Those that remained were not allowed to print anti-Nazi articles. German
newspapers became dull reading and Germans bought fewer newspapers as a
result – circulation fell by about 10 per cent.
4. Cinema
 a. All films had to carry a pro-Nazi message.
b. The newsreels before each feature film told of the greatness of Hitler and the
achievements of Nazi Germany. There is evidence that Germans avoided these
by arriving late!
c. Goebbels censored all foreign films coming into Germany.
5. Music
a. He banned JAZZ music, which had been popular in Germany as elsewhere
around Europe.
b. He banned it because it was ‘Black’ music and black people were considered
an inferior race.
6. Posters
a. If people missed the radio broadcasts they would see the posters. Goebbels
plastered Germany with posters proclaiming the successes of Hitler and the
Nazis and attacking their opponents.
7. Radio
a. He made cheap radios available so all Germans could buy one and he
controlled all the radio stations.
b. Listening to broadcasts from the BBC was punishable by death.
c. Just in case people did not have a radio Goebbels placed loudspeakers in the
streets and public bars.
d. Hitler’s speeches and those of other Nazi leaders were repeated on the radio
over and over again until the ideas expressed in them
e. German expansion into eastern Europe, the inferiority of the Jews – came to
be accepted as normal by the German people.

1936 Olympics

● Why did they host it

○ One of Goebbels’ greatest challenges came with the 1936 Olympic Games in
Berlin.
○ Other Nazis were opposed to holding the Games in Berlin, but Goebbels
convinced Hitler that this was a great propaganda opportunity both within
Germany and internationally.
○ Goebbels and Hitler also thought that the Olympics could be a showcase for
their doctrine that the Aryan race was superior to all other races.
● Backlash
○ However, there was international pressure for nations such as the USA to
BOYCOTT the Games in protest against the Nazis’ repressive regime and
anti-Jewish politics. In response, the Nazis included one token Jew in their
team!
● The olympics
○ Goebbels built a brand new stadium to hold 100,000 people.
 ○ It was lit by the most modern electric lighting. He brought in television
cameras for the first time. The most sophisticated German photo-electronic
timing device was installed.
○ The stadium had the largest stopclock ever built. With guests and competitors
from 49 countries coming into the heart of Nazi Germany, it was going to take
all Goebbels’ talents to show that Germany was a modern, civilised and
successful nation. No expense was spared.
● Pros
○ When the Games opened, the visitors were duly amazed at the scale of the
stadium, the wonderful facilities and the efficiency of the organisation.
However, they were also struck, and in some cases appalled, by the almost
fanatical devotion of the people to Hitler and by the overt presence of army
and SS soldiers who were patrolling or standing guard everywhere.
○ To the delight of Hitler and Goebbels, Germany came top of the medal table,
way ahead of all other countries.
○ To the majority of German people, who had grown used to the Nazi
propaganda machine, the Games appeared to present all the qualities they
valued in the Nazis – a grand vision, efficiency, power, strength and
achievement.
● Cons
○ However, to their great dismay, a black athlete, Jesse Owens, became the star
of the Games. He won four gold medals and broke eleven world records in the
process. The ten black members of the American team won thirteen medals
between them.
○ So much for Aryan superiority! To many foreign visitors who were not used to
such blatant propaganda it backfired on the Nazi regime.

Nazis and the churches

● Co-operation, Hitler’s tactics

○ In the early stages of the Nazi regime, there was some COOPERATION
between the Nazis and the Churches.
○ Hitler signed a Concordat with the Catholic Church in 1933. This meant that
Hitler agreed to leave the Catholic Church alone and allowed it to keep control
of its schools. In return, the Church agreed to stay out of politics.
○ Hitler tried to get all of the Protestant Churches to come together in one
official Reich Church. The Reich Church was headed by the Protestant Bishop
Ludwig Müller.
■ However, many Germans still felt that their true loyalties lay with their
original Churches in their local areas rather than with this
state-approved Church.
○ Hitler even encouraged an alternative religion to the Churches, the pagan
German Faith Movement. Many churchgoers either supported the Nazis or did
little to oppose them.
 ● Opposition
○ The Catholic Bishop Galen criticised the Nazis throughout the 1930s. In 1941
he led a popular protest against the Nazi policies of killing mentally ill and
physically disabled people, forcing the Nazis temporarily to stop. He had such
strong support among his followers that the Nazis decided it was too risky to
try to silence him because they did not want trouble while Germany was at
war.
○ Protestant ministers also resisted the Nazis. Pastor Martin Niemöller was one
of the most high-profile critics of the regime in the 1930s. Along with Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, he formed an alternative Protestant Church to the official Reich
Church.
○ These church leaders suffered a similar fate to Hitler’s political opponents.
Niemöller spent the years 1938–45 in a concentration camp for resisting the
Nazis. Dietrich Bonhoeffer preached against the Nazis until the Gestapo
stopped him in 1937.

Why did the Nazis persecute many groups in German society?

The persecution of minorities
● Through their twelve years in power the Nazis persecuted any group that they thought
challenged Nazi ideals.
● Homosexuals were seen as a threat to Nazi ideas about family life
● Mentally handicapped were a threat to Nazi ideas about Germans being a perfect
master race
● Gipsies and Jews were thought to be inferior people.

Methods of persecution
1. Organisations for gay and lesbian people were shut down. Homosexuality was already
a crime. Books by gay authors were banned. Around 100,000 gay people were
arrested with around 50,000 sent to prison and others to concentration camps. They
were forced to wear a pink triangle to mark them out.
2. A so-called ‘euthanasia programme’ was begun in 1939 against the mentally
handicapped: at least 5000 babies and children were killed between 1939 and 1945
either by injection or by starvation. Between 1939 and 1941, 72,000 mentally ill
patients were gassed before a public outcry in Germany itself ended the
extermination.
3. The attempted extermination of the gypsies, on the other hand, did not cause an
outcry. Five out of six gypsies living in Germany in 1939 were killed by the Nazis.
4. Similarly, there was little or no complaint about the treatment of so-called ‘asocials’ –
alcoholics, the homeless, prostitutes, habitual criminals and beggars.
The Jews

Hitler’s anti-Semitism
● One reason for this persecution was religious, in that Jews were blamed for the death
of Jesus Christ.
● Another reason was that they tended to be well educated and therefore held well-paid
professional jobs or ran successful stores and businesses.
● Hitler hated Jews insanely. In his years of poverty in Vienna, he became obsessed by
the fact that Jews ran many of the most successful businesses, particularly the large
department stores. This offended his idea of the superiority of Aryans.
● Hitler also blamed Jewish businessmen and bankers for Germany’s defeat in the First
World War. He thought they had forced the surrender of the German army.

Early measures against the Jews

● As soon as Hitler took power in 1933 he began to mobilise the full powers of the state
against the Jews.
They were immediately banned from the Civil Service and a variety of public services
such as broadcasting and teaching.
● At the same time, SA and later SS troopers organised boycotts of Jewish shops and
businesses which were marked with a star of David.
● In 1935 the NUREMBERG LAWS took away German citizenship from Jews.
● Jews were also forbidden to marry or have sex with pure-blooded Germans.
Goebbels’ propaganda experts bombarded German children and families with
anti-Jewish messages.
● In daily life Jews faced discrimination. They might be refused jobs or refused service
in shops. In schools, Jewish children were humiliated and then segregated.

Kristallnacht - Night of Broken Glass

In November 1938 a young Jew killed a German diplomat in Paris. The Nazis used this as an
excuse to launch a violent revenge on Jews. Plain- clothes SS troopers were issued with
pickaxes and hammers and the addresses of Jewish businesses. They ran riot, smashing up
Jewish shops and workplaces. Ninety-one Jews were murdered. Hundreds of synagogues
were burned. Twenty thousand Jews were taken to concentration camps. Thousands more left
the country. This event became known as KRISTALLNACHT or ‘The Night of Broken
Glass’. Many Germans watched the events of Kristallnacht with alarm and concern. The
Nazi-controlled press presented Kristallnacht as the spontaneous reaction of ordinary
Germans against the Jews. Most Germans did not believe this. However, hardly anyone
protested. The few who did were brutally murdered.

Was Nazi Germany a totalitarian state?

Opposition to Nazi rule, 1933–39

 ● Through their mix of ruthless violence and constant propaganda they forced people to
do what they wanted.
● Not all Germans became Nazis, but most kept their fears or opposition to themselves
because they felt powerless or unwilling to risk their lives by saying or doing
unacceptable things.

Political opposition
○ The Nazis had not killed or imprisoned all the socialists. Some socialists did
still meet secretly, but they had lost their leaders and were divided from each
other so their activities were small scale.
○ There were no attempts to challenge or topple the Nazi regime until well into
the Second World War.
○ However, in the 1930s there was some sabotage of factories, railways and
army stores. The Gestapo claimed to have broken up 1000 opposition
meetings in 1936. They record having seized 1.6 million anti-Nazi leaflets in
1936 alone.
○ So either the political opposition was still active or it was powerless.

Social opposition
○ Social opposition means people or groups who tried to keep their own identity
or refused to accept and conform to Nazi ideals. This was much more common
than political opposition
○ Local party officials reported that they increasingly had to bully people to
attend Nazi rallies The Nazis had to use ‘radio wardens’ to force people to
listen to Hitler’s speeches.
○ The Gestapo reported a lot of complaining in bars, trains and other public
places. They reported that some people refused to give the Heil Hitler salute,
others told jokes about Hitler and the Nazis or refused to contribute to party
funds.
○ Some national Church leaders publicly criticised the Nazis.
○ Joseph Fath was reported for hanging his own flags in his church instead of
Nazi flags
○ Pastor Grueber risked his life protecting Jews and helping them to escape the
Nazis.
 Depth Study Germany - 8D

At school
● Taught to be supporters of Hitler
● Teacher was an approved teacher who had been on a training course run by the
National Socialist Teachers Alliance.
● History of Germany and how the German army was ‘stabbed in the back’ by the weak
politicians who had made peace.
● Taught that the hardships of the 1920s were caused by Jews squeezing profits out of
honest Germans.
● History would teach that loyalty to the Führer was right and good.
● Biology lessons would paint children as special members of the Aryan race that is
superior in intelligence and strength to the Untermenschen or sub-human Jews and
Slavs of eastern Europe.
● Students were not expected to go to university. Between 1933 and 1938 the number of
university places fell from 128,000 to just 58,000.

In the Hitler Youth

● German Young People (Deutsches Jungvolk) for boys from the age of ten to fourteen.
● League of German Girls.
● Hitler Youth (for boys) or the LEAGUE OF GERMAN MAIDENS (for girls).
● Children marched in exciting parades with loud bands and were physically fit.
● Leisure time was also devoted to Hitler and the Nazis.
● Children were strong cross-country runners, and confident at reading maps.
● Boys were comfortable camping out of doors and knew how to clean a rifle and keep
it in good condition.
● Girls would be taught sewing, cooking and other domestic tasks, as well as about race
and how to be a good German mother.
● Children were attracted to the Nazi youth movements by the leisure opportunities they
offered. There were really no alternatives.
● All other youth organisations had been absorbed or made illegal. By 1936 the Hitler
Youth had around 6 million members.
● However, if one did not join this would have been looked on with surprise and
suspicion. When it was time to apply for an apprenticeship or a job one of the first
things an employer will ask will be whether you had been in the Hitler Youth.

At home
● Children may have felt alienated (estranged) from their parents because they were not
as keen on the Nazis as them.
● Family expected their first loyalty to be to their family, whereas Hitler Youth leaders
made it clear that their first loyalty was to Adolf Hitler.
● Parents found the idea of Nazi inspectors checking up on the teachers rather strange,
for the youth it was normal.
Nazi attitudes to women
● Very traditional view of the role of the German woman as wife and mother.
● The role of a woman was to support her husband.
● resentment towards working women in the early 1930s, since they were seen as
keeping men out of jobs.
● Leni Riefenstahl was a high-profile film producer. Gertrude Scholz-Klink was head of
the Nazi Women’s Bureau, although she was excluded from any important discussions
● Many working-class girls and women gained the opportunity to travel and meet new
people through the Nazi women’s organisation.
● Overall, however, opportunities for women were limited. Married professional
women were forced to give up their jobs and discrimination against women applicants
for jobs was encouraged.

Rewards for mothers

● The Nazis offered tempting financial incentives for married couples to have at least
four children.
● Mothers got a ‘Gold Cross’ for having eight children.
● Posters, radio broadcasts and newsreels all celebrated the ideas of motherhood and
homebuilding.
● The German Maidens’ League reinforced these ideas, along with school
● With all these encouragements the birth rate did increase by 1939.
● There was also an increase in pregnancies outside marriage. These girls were looked
after in state maternity hostels.

Workers, farmers and businesses in Nazi Germany

Economic recovery
● The brilliant economist Dr Hjalmar Schacht organised Germany’s finances to fund a
huge programme of work creation.
● The National Labour Service sent men on public works projects, in particular to build
a network of motorways, or AUTOBAHNS, and railways.
● There were major house-building programmes and grandiose new public building
projects such as the Reich Chancellery in Berlin.
● Job creation was almost entirely funded by the state rather than from German
businesses.

Rearmament
● In 1935 he reintroduced conscription for the German army.
● In 1936 he announced a Four-Year Plan under the control of Goering to get the
German economy ready for war.
● Conscription reduced unemployment.
● The need for weapons, equipment and uniforms created jobs in the coal mines, steel
and textile mills.
● Engineers and designers gained new opportunities, particularly when Hitler decreed
that Germany would have a world-class air force (the Luftwaffe).
The Nazis and the workers
○ Hitler promised (and delivered) lower unemployment which helped to ensure
popularity among industrial workers.
○ These workers were important to the Nazis: Hitler needed good workers to create the
industries that would help to make Germany great.
○ The Nazis never really won the hearts of the workers but they did provide a range of
benefits which kept most workers reasonably happy.
● Schemes such as STRENGTH THROUGH JOY (KDF) gave them cheap theatre and
cinema tickets, organised courses, trips and sports events.
● BEAUTY OF LABOUR movement: This improved working conditions in factories.
It introduced features not seen in many workplaces before, such as washing facilities
and low-cost canteens.
Drawbacks
● Workers lost their main political party, the SDP.
● They lost their trade unions and for many workers this remained a source of bitter
resentment.
● All workers had to join the DAF (General Labour Front) run by Dr Robert Ley. This
organisation kept strict control of workers.
● They could not strike for better pay and conditions. In some areas, they were
prevented from moving to better-paid jobs.
● Wages remained comparatively low, although prices were also strictly controlled. E
● ven so, by the late 1930s, many workers were grumbling that their standard of living
was still lower than it had been before the Depression.

The Nazis and the farming communities

1. In September 1933 he introduced the Reich Food Estate under Richard Darre. This
set up central boards to buy agricultural produce from the farmers and distribute it to
markets across Germany. It gave the peasant farmers a guaranteed market for their
goods at guaranteed prices.
2. The second main measure was the Reich Entailed Farm Law: banks could not seize
their land if they could not pay loans or mortgages. This ensured that peasants’ farms
stayed in their hands.
3. The Reich Entailed Farm Law also had a racial aim. Part of the Nazi philosophy was
‘Blood and Soil’, the belief that the peasant farmers were the basis of Germany’s
master race. They would be the backbone of the new German empire in the east. As a
result, their way of life had to be protected.
Drawbacks
● More efficient, go-ahead farmers were held back by having to work through the same
processes as less efficient farmers.
● The Reich Entailed Farm Law stated that only the eldest child inherited the farm.
● As a result, many children of farmers left the land to work for better pay in Germany’s
industries. Rural depopulation ran at about 3 per cent per year in the 1930s – the
exact opposite of the Nazis’ aims!
Big business and the middle classes
● Certainly many middle-class business people were grateful to the Nazis for
eliminating the Communist threat to their businesses and properties.
● They also liked the way in which the Nazis seemed to be bringing order to Germany.

Small businesses
● If you owned a small engineering firm, you were likely to do well from government
orders as rearmament spending grew in the 1930s.
● However, if you produced consumer goods or ran a small shop, you might well
struggle.

Big businesses
● Despite Hitler’s promises, the large department stores which were taking business
away from local shops were not closed.
● The big companies no longer had to worry about troublesome trade unions and
strikes.
● Companies such as the chemicals giant IG Farben gained huge government contracts
to make explosives, fertilisers and even artificial oil from coal.
● Other household names today, such as Mercedes and Volkswagen, prospered from
Nazi policies.

‘National community’: Volksgemeinschaft

● Hitler wanted all Germans (or more exactly all ‘racially pure’ Germans) to think of
themselves as part of a national community, or Volksgemeinschaft.
○ Under Nazi rule, workers, farmers and so on would no longer see themselves
primarily as workers or farmers; they would see themselves as Germans.
○ Their first loyalty would not be to their own social group but to Germany and
the Führer.
○ They would be so proud to belong to a great nation that was racially and
culturally superior to other nations that they would put the interests of
Germany before their own.
● Germans in the 1930s certainly did not lose their self-interest, nor did they embrace
the national community wholeheartedly.

The impact of the Second World War on Germany

How the Nazis maintained morale

Beginning of the war: (1939)

● Food rationing was introduced soon after war began in September 1939.
● Clothes rationing followed in November 1939.
● Even so, from 1939 to 1941 it was not difficult to keep up civilian morale because the
war went spectacularly well for Germany.
● Hitler was in control of much of western and eastern Europe and supplies of luxury
goods flowed into Germany from captured territories.
Downfall: (1941)
● However, in 1941 Hitler took the massive gamble of invading the SOVIET UNION,
and for the next three years his troops were engaged in an increasingly expensive war
with Russian forces
● As the tide turned against the German armies, civilians found their lives increasingly
disrupted.
● They had to cut back on heating, work longer hours and recycle their rubbish.
● Goebbels redoubled his censorship efforts. He tried to maintain people’s support for
the war by involving them in it through asking them to make sacrifices.
● They donated an estimated 1.5 million fur coats to help to clothe the German army in
Russia. At this stage in the war, the German people began to see and hear less of
Hitler.
● His old speeches were broadcast by Goebbels, but Hitler was increasingly
preoccupied with the details of the war.
● In 1942 the ‘Final Solution’ began (see pages 289–291), which was to kill millions of
Jewish civilians in German-occupied countries.

Germany’s war economy

● When war broke out it did not bring massive changes to the German economy
because Germany had been preparing for it since the mid-1930s.
● In the early stages of the war, Germany was short of raw materials. This was made
worse when the British navy blockaded sea routes into Germany.
● As the German forces conquered territories they took raw materials and goods from
these territories. For example, Germany took around 20 percent of Norway’s entire
production in 1940.
● From 1942 German production was shifted towards armaments to supply the army
fighting against Russia.
● Huge corporations like IG Farben produced chemicals, explosives and the infamous
gas used in the death camps.
● German factories used forced labour from occupied countries. Most factories had a
significant number of prisoners in their workforce and estimates suggest that forced
labourers made up around 25 per cent of the workforce.
● By 1944 there had been a vast increase in military production. Production of aircraft
and tanks trebled compared to 1942.
● Production was hampered by Allied bombing and some factories were moved
underground.
● There is an ongoing debate about the effectiveness of the Nazi war economy. The
traditional view is that the economy was mismanaged until 1942 and then improved.
● However, this account is based on the writings of Albert Speer. Some historians
believe he exaggerated his own importance and that the war economy became more
efficient after 1942 simply because Germany focused production away from civilian
goods and onto military equipment.
With defeat looming, support for the Nazis weakened. Germans stopped declaring food they
had. They stayed away from Nazi rallies. They refused to give the ‘Heil Hitler’ salute when
asked to do so. Himmler even contacted the Allies to ask about possible peace terms.

The bombing of Dresden 1945

● It was the bombing of Germany which had the most dramatic effect on the lives of
German civilians.
● In 1942 the Allies decided on a new policy towards the bombing of Germany.
● Under Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris the British began an all-out assault on both industrial
and residential areas of all the major German cities.
● One of the objectives was to cripple German industry, the other was to lower the
morale of civilians and to terrorise them into submission.
● The bombing escalated through the next three years, culminating in the bombing of
Dresden in February 1945 which killed between 35,000 and 150,000 people in two
days.

The end of the war

● By 1945 the German people were in a desperate state. Food supplies were dwindling.
Already 3.5 million German civilians had died. Refugees were fleeing the advancing
Russian armies in the east.
● Three months after the massive destruction of Dresden, Germany’s war was over.
● Hitler, Goebbels and other Nazi war leaders committed suicide or were captured.
● Germany surrendered. It was a shattered country.
● The Nazi promises lay in tatters and the country was divided up into zones of
occupation run by the British, French, US and Soviet forces.

How did war affect young people?

The ‘Swing’ movement

● This was made up mainly of middle-class teenagers.
● They went to parties where they listened to English and American music and sang
English songs.
● They danced American dances such as the ‘jitterbug’ to banned jazz music.
● They accepted Jews at their clubs.
● They talked about and enjoyed sex. They were deliberately ‘slovenly’.
● The Nazis issued a handbook helping the authorities to identify these degenerate
types.

The Edelweiss Pirates

● The Edelweiss Pirates were working-class teenagers. They were not political
opponents of the Nazis. But they resented and resisted Nazi control of their lives.
● The Pirates were mainly aged between fourteen and seventeen (Germans could leave
school at fourteen, but they did not have to sign on for military service until they were
seventeen).
 ● They sang songs, just like the Hitler Youth, but changed the lyrics to mock Germany,
and when they spotted bands of Hitler Youth they taunted and sometimes attacked
them.

Response:
1. The Pirates’ activities caused serious worries to the Nazi authorities in some cities. In
December 1942 the Gestapo broke up 28 groups containing 739 adolescents.
2. As long as they needed future workers and future soldiers they could not simply
exterminate all these teenagers or put them in concentration camps (although
Himmler did suggest that). They therefore responded uncertainly – sometimes
arresting the Pirates, sometimes ignoring them.
3. In 1944 in Cologne, Pirate activities escalated. They helped to shelter army deserters
and escaped prisoners. They stole armaments and took part in an attack on the
Gestapo during which its chief was killed. The Nazi response was to round up the
so-called ‘ringleaders’. Twelve were publicly hanged in November 1944.

How did war affect the Jews and other persecuted groups?

Polish ghettos
● After invading Poland in 1939, the Nazis set about ‘Germanising’ western Poland.
This meant transporting Poles from their homes and replacing them with German
settlers.
● Around one in five Poles died, either in the fighting or as a result of racial policies in
the period 1939–45.
● Polish Jews were rounded up and transported to the big cities. Here they were herded
into sealed areas, called ghettos.
● Able-bodied Jews were used for slave labour but the young, the old and the sick were
left to die of hunger and disease.

Mass murder
● In 1941, Germany invaded the USSR. Within weeks the Nazis found themselves in
control of 3 million Soviet Jews (in addition to the Jews in all the other countries they
had conquered).
● German forces had orders to round up and shoot Communist Party activists and their
Jewish supporters.
● The executions were carried out by special SS units called Einsatzgruppen.
● In Germany, all Jews were ordered to wear the star of David on their clothing to mark
them

The ‘Final Solution’

● Himmler, head of the SS and Gestapo, was put in charge of the systematic killing of
all Jews within Germany and German-occupied territory.
● Slave labour and death camps were built at Auschwitz, Treblinka and Chelmno in
Poland, among other places.
 ● The old, the sick and young children were killed immediately. The rest were sent to
work at the labour camps. Some were used for medical experiments.
● Six million Jews, 500,000 European Gipsies and countless political prisoners,
Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals and Russian and Polish prisoners of war were sent
to these camps, where they were worked to death, gassed or shot.

Who resisted?
1. Many Jews escaped from Germany before the killing started. Other Jews managed to
live under cover in Germany and the occupied territories.
2. Gad Beck, for example, led the Jewish resistance to the Nazis in Berlin. He was
finally captured in April 1945. On the day he was due to be executed, he was rescued
by troops from the Jewish regiment of the Soviet army.
3. There were 28 known groups of Jewish fighters, and there may have been more.
Many Jews fought in the resistance movements in the Nazi-occupied lands.
4. In 1945, the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto in Poland rose up against the Nazis and held
out against them for four weeks. There were armed uprisings in five concentration
camps, and Greek Jews managed to blow up the gas ovens at Auschwitz.
5. The industrialist Oskar Schindler protected and saved many people by getting them on
to his ‘list’ of workers.
6. The Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg worked with other resistors to provide Jews
with Swedish and US passports to get them out of the reach of the Nazis in Hungary.

Responsibility

The Civil Service bureaucracy: collected, stored and supplied information about Jews

Police forces in Germany and the occupied territories: many victims of the Nazis were
actually seized by the police rather than the Gestapo or SS

The SS: Adolf Eichmann devised a system of transporting Jews to collection points and then
on to the death camps. He was also in charge of looting the possessions of the Jews. The SS
Death’s Head battalions and Einsatzgruppen also carried out many of the killings

The Wehrmacht (the German armed forces): army leaders were fully aware of what was
going on

Industry: companies such as Volkswagen and Mercedes had their own slave labour camps.
The chemical giant IG Farben competed with other companies for the contract to make the
Zyklon B gas that was used in the gas chambers

The German people: anti-Semitism was widespread. They may not have wanted mass
murder but they turned a blind eye to it. Many German civilians went further and took part in
some aspect of the HOLOCAUST, but ignored the full reality.
Did the war increase opposition to the Nazi regime?

White Rose: run by Hans and Sophie Scholl and friends. The White Rose published and
distributed anti-Nazi leaflets. This was a small movement, although its members were
certainly brave. The Scholls were executed in February 1943.

Church leaders challenged Nazi policies

The Catholic Bishop Clemens Galen had criticised the Nazis throughout the 1930s. In 1941,
he led a popular protest against the Nazi policy of killing mentally ill and physically disabled
people, which forced the Nazis to stop this programme temporarily. Galen had such strong
support that the Nazis decided it was too risky to try to silence him – they did not want social
unrest while Germany was at war.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer had also preached against the Nazis until the Gestapo stopped him in
1937. He then became involved with members of the army’s intelligence services who were
secretly opposed to Hitler. He helped Jews to escape from Germany. In 1942, he asked Allied
commanders what peace terms they would offer Germany if Hitler was overthrown. He was
arrested in October 1942 and hanged shortly before the end of the war, in April 1945.

Army leaders plotted against Hitler

1. General von Fritsch and Field-Marshal von Blomberg argued against Hitler’s plan to
invade Germany’s neighbours, fearing a disastrous war. Hitler had them removed –
Fritsch because the Nazis ‘found out’ his wife was a prostitute and von Blomberg was
accused of homosexuality.
2. As the war progressed the army became increasingly indivisible from the Nazi
regime. Even so, there were attempts by senior army officers to assassinate Hitler. We
know of five attempts between June 1940 and December 1943, but they all failed.

The July Bomb Plot, 1944

Colonel Count von Stauffenberg: On 20 July he planted a bomb in Hitler’s conference room.
The plan was to kill Hitler, close down the radio stations, round up the other leading Nazis
and take over Germany. It failed on all counts because the revolt was poorly planned and
organised. Hitler survived and the Nazis took a terrible revenge, killing 5000 people.
Why was there not more opposition to the Nazis?

Terror: The Nazi police state was designed to scare Germans into submission, and it worked.
Even in the final days of the war, when all seemed lost, the local Gestapo still rounded up and
hung some saboteurs who had blown up a railway track to help the enemy.

The ‘Hitler myth’: Hitler was a charismatic leader. Nazi propaganda had built him up still
further into a godlike figure who controlled Germany’s destiny. Even Germans who disliked
the Nazis still respected Hitler personally and did not blame him for many of the unpleasant
or unfair things which Nazi officials did. This belief in Hitler remained strong and was only
shaken towards the end of the Second World War.

Divided opposition: Left-wing groups such as the Communists and the Social Democrats
were the natural enemies of Nazism. They were both banned. However, these groups did not
trust each other and were not prepared to work together. They were leaderless and divided.
They never mounted any co-ordinated resistance.

Approval: Many people were pleased with the Nazis. They had been swept to power in 1933
because of the failings of Weimar democracy. Hitler had delivered on many of his promises.
He had restored German pride internationally. He had got the economy moving again. Even
those who did not support all Nazi policies were prepared to tolerate them for the sake of the
stability and prosperity the Nazis had brought. This continued well into the early years of the
war.

Propaganda and censorship: Censorship and propaganda meant that the newspapers and
radio only spread news of Nazi achievements. After Kristallnacht in 1938, when they could
see that many Germans were unhappy with it, the Nazis kept all future measures against the
Jews secret and did not publicise them in the way they had their anti-Jewish policies in the
early 1930s.