Nazism and Rise of Hitler

Birth of the Weimar Republic

Germany was a powerful empire in the early years of the twentieth

century. It fought the First World War (1914-1918) alongside the Austrian
empire and against the Allies (England, France and Russia). The Allies
were strengthened by the US entry in 1917 and won the war in
November 1918.
The defeat of the Imperial Germany paved the way for democratic
republic in Germany. The parliamentary parties met at the National
Assembly at Weimar and established a democratic constitution with a
federal structure. Universal suffrage was allowed for electing the
Deputies to the German Parliament (Reichstag).
Versailles Treaty 1919: But after the First World War, Germany was
forced to accept certain terms which hurt the pride of the German
people. As per the peace treaty signed at Versailles, Germany lost its
overseas colonies, a tenth of its population, 13% of its territories, 75% of
its iron and 26% of its coal to France, Poland, Denmark and Lithuania.
To weaken its power, the Allied Powers demilitarized Germany. The War
Guilt Clause forced Germany to pay compensation amounting to £6
billion. The resource rich Rhineland was occupied by the Allied armies
for much of the 1920s. Because of these developments, many Germans
were not happy with the Weimar Republic.

The Effects of the War

Europe had turned into a continent of debtors from being a continent of

creditors, after the war. The Weimar Republic was forced to pay for the
sins of the old empire. The supporters of the Weimar Republic became
easy targets of the attacks by the conservatives.
Glorification of Soldiers: After the First World War, the soldiers came
to be placed above civilians all over Europe. Politicians and the media
glorified the life of a soldier. Aggressive war propaganda and national
 honor became the theme of public debate. Democracy was a nascent
idea which could not survive the war-ravaged Europe.

Political Radicalism

This was the time when the Spartacist League revolution began to rise
on the pattern of Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. There was a charged
political atmosphere in Berlin and there were demands for Soviet style
governance.
The socialists, democrats and the Catholics met in Weimar to give shape
to the democratic republic. The uprising of the Spartacist was crushed
with the help of war veteran organizations called Free Corps. The
Spartacist later founded the Communist Party of Germany.

Economic Crises
The economic crisis of 1923 further heightened the political radicalization
in Germany. Germany had to pay war reparations in gold which led to
depletion of gold reserve. When Germany refused to pay in 1923, the
French occupied its leading industrial area Ruhr; to claim their coal.
Germany responded with passive resistance and printed paper currency
recklessly. Increased circulation of currency led to hyperinflation in
Germany. Price rise was phenomenal.
Finally, America decided to bail out Germany from this mess. America
introduced the Dawes Plan. According to this plan, the terms of
reparations were reworked to ease the financial burden on Germany.

The Years of Depression

Some stability could be seen between 1924 and 1928. But that stability
was short-lived because the industrial recovery in Germany was
dependent on short-term loans. A large portion of those loans came from
 the USA. This support was withdrawn after the infamous Wall Street
crash.
The Wall Street Exchange crashed in 1929 and people sold their shares
in a mad spree. This was the beginning of the Great Depression. The
effects of this recession in the US economy were felt all over the world.
The German economy was the worst hit by Great Depression. By 1932,
industrial production became 40% of what it was in 1929. Number of
unemployed touched a high of 6 million. Unemployment also led to an
increase in criminal activities.
A Weak Republic: The Weimar Republic was politically weak as well. Its
constitution had some inherent defects and hence the Weimar Republic
was prone to be unstable and vulnerable to dictatorship. The provision of
proportional representation meant that majority by a single party was
impossible and coalition government was the norm. Article 48 gave the
President the powers to impose emergency to suspend civil rights and to
rule by decree. The average life span of a cabinet was just 239 days and
emergency was declared many times. People were losing confidence in
the republic.

Hitler’s Rise to Power

Hitler was born in 1889 in Austria and spent his youth in poverty. He
served in the army during the First World War where he rose through the
ranks. He was furious at various sanctions imposed on Germany through
the Versailles Treaty. In 1919, he joined a small group called the German
Workers’ Party. Subsequently, Hitler took over the organization and
renamed it the Nationalist Socialist German Workers’ Party. This came to
be known as the Nazi Party.
In 1923, Hitler made an unsuccessful bid to capture power at Berlin. He
was arrested, tried for treason and later released. Till early 1930, the
Nazis could not mobilize popular support. The Nazi Party got about 2.6%
votes in 1928 but emerged as the largest party; with 37% votes; in 1932.
Oratory Skills of Hitler: Hitler was a powerful orator. He could sway the
masses with his powerful words. He promised to build a strong nation
 and restore the dignity of German people. He promised all around
development and employment to youth.
Hitler understood the significance of rituals and spectacle in mass
mobilization. He used the Swastika symbol, red banners, pamphlets and
ritualized rounds of applause to great effect during his massive rallies.
Hitler was projected as a messiah; who could free people from their
distress. For people who were shattered by acute economic and political
crises; Hitler provided a ray of hope.

Destruction of Democracy: Step by step

 On 30 January 1933, Hitler was offered the Chancellorship by

President Hindenburg. It was the highest position in the cabinet of
ministers. After acquiring power, Hitler began to dismantle the
structures of democratic rule.
 A mysterious fire broke out in the German Parliament in February
and it gave an excuse to Hitler to assume all the powers. A Fire
Decree was announced on 28 February 1933. Under the Decree,
various civic rights were suspended.
 After that, Hitler turned on to his archenemies, the Communists.
Most of the Communists were packed off to the newly established
concentration camps.
 The famous Enabling Act was passed on 3 March 1933. This Act
gave all powers to Hitler and established dictatorship in Germany.
All political parties and trade unions were banned; leaving the
monopoly to the Nazi Party. The state acquired complete control
over the economy, media, army and judiciary.
 Special surveillance and security forces were created to control
and order the society. The regular police in green uniform and the
SA or the Storm Troopers were the existing police forces.
Additional police forces were also raised; viz., the Gestapo (secret
state police), the SS (the protection squad), criminal police and the
Security Service (SD).
 These police forces enjoyed extra-constitutional powers. People
could be detained in Gestapo torture chambers, rounded up and
sent to concentration camps, deported at will or arrested without
any legal procedures.

Economic Reconstruction of Germany by Hitler

The responsibility of economic recovery was given to the economist

Hjalmar Schacht. He initiated a state-funded work-creation programme to
ensure full production and full employment. The famous Autobahn and
Volkswagen were the results of this period. The economy was on the
road to prosperity.
Hitler got quick successes in foreign policy as well. In 1933, he pulled out
of the League of Nations. He reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936 and
integrated Austria and Germany in 1938. After that, he went on to wrest
German-speaking Sudentenland from Czechoslovakia and usurped the
entire country. England gave unspoken support to Hitler in these
endeavours.

Expansion Madness: Hitler was convinced that expansion of territory was

a only way to acquire resources and more resources would help fight the
economic crisis. Germany invaded Poland in September 1939 and this
event started a war with France and England. A Tripartite Pact was signed
between Germany, Italy and Japan in 1940. This fact strengthened Hitler’s
claim to international power. In a large part of Europe, puppet regimes
(which were supportive of Nazi Germany) were installed. By the end of
1940, Hitler was at the zenith of his power.

Soviet Hegemony over Eastern Europe: Now Hitler moved to achieve

his long-term aim, i.e. of conquering the Eastern Europe. Hitler attacked
the Soviet Union in June 1941 which proved to be a historic blunder.
With this step, the western front of Germany was exposed to British
aerial bombing and the eastern front was exposed to the powerful Soviet
armies. The German Army was handed a crushing defeat by the Soviet
 Army and the Soviet forces finally reached the heart of Berlin. This
established the Soviet hegemony over the entire Eastern Europe for half
a century thereafter.
US involvement in War: The USA did not want to face all the economic
problems which were caused by the First World War. Hence, the USA
was unwilling to get involved in the Second World War. But Japan’s
advances in the east, its support to Hitler and bombing at the US base at
Pearl Harbor, forced the US to enter the Second World War. The US
dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima in Japan and the war ended in
May 1945 with Hitler’s defeat.

The Nazi Worldview

The Nazi ideology did not believe in equality among people but only in a
racial hierarchy. According to this, the Nordic German Aryans were at the
top and the Jews were at the bottom. All other coloured people were
placed in between. Hitler interpreted the ideas of Darwin and Spencer to
suit his own views. While Darwin and Spencer proposed the idea of
Natural Selection and Survival of the Fittest, Hitler wanted human
intervention to ensure the elimination of other races. According to him,
such races were not fit for survival and should be eliminated to make
place for the purest race; the Nordic German Aryans.
Hitler’s ideology was also related to the geopolitical concept of
Lebensraum, or living space. He believed in acquiring new territories to
spread the race of the Nordic German Aryans.

Establishment of the Racial State

The Nazis quickly began to implement their dream of creating an

exclusive racial community of pure Germans. They did this by physically
eliminating all those who were seen as ‘undesirable’ in the extended
empire. The pure and healthy Nordic Aryans were seen as the only
‘desirable’ race. Many Germans who were considered ‘undesirable’ were
killed under the Euthanasia Programme. Even the mentally or physically
unfit were killed under this programme.
 The Jews, the Russians and the Poles; all of them were widely
persecuted. After the German occupation of Poland and parts of Russia,
the captured civilians were forced to work as slave labour. Most of them
died because of hard work and starvation.
Stereotyping the Jews: There had been a long tradition of Christian
hostility towards the Jews. They had been stereotyped as killers of Christ
and usurpers. Until medieval times, the Jews were barred from owning
land. Trade and money-lending was their only means for survival.
Periodic organized violence and expulsion from land were often used for
persecuting the Jews.
The Nazis wanted a complete elimination of the Jews. From 1933 to
1938, the Jews were compelled to leave the country through different
means of terror and segregation. In the next phase (1939-1945), there
was an aim of concentrating them in certain areas and eventually killing
them in gas chambers.

The Racial Utopia

After German occupation, Poland was divided up and much of north-

western Poland was annexed to Germany. Poles were forced to leave
their homes and properties behind. They were to be occupied by ethnic
Germans brought in from occupied Europe.
The Poles were sent to the other part which was called the General
Government. Members of the Polish intelligentsia were killed so the
Polish could be kept intellectually and spiritually servile. Some of the
largest ghettos and gas chambers were also present in the General
Government. Thus, it also served as the killing field for the Jews.

Youth in the Nazi Germany

Hitler felt that by teaching the Nazi ideology to children, a strong Nazi
society could be established. All schools were ‘cleansed’ and ‘purified’ to
propagate the Nazi ideals. The teachers who were Jews or seen as
‘politically unreliable’ were dismissed. German and Jew children were
segregated and the ‘undesirable children’; Jews, physically handicapped
 and Gypsies; were thrown out of school. Finally in the 1940s, they were
taken to the gas chambers.
School textbooks were re-written so that the ‘Good German’ children
could be brainwashed through a prolonged period of ideological training.
Racial science was introduced in the curriculum to justify the Nazi ideas
of race.
Children were taught to be loyal and submissive, hate Jews and worship
Hitler. The sport of Boxing was promoted to instill mental strength among
students.
Youth organisations were given the responsibility of educating the
German youth in the spirit of National Socialism. Ten year olds had to
enter Jungvolk. At 14 years of age, all boys had to join the Nazi youth
organization; Hitler Youth. After a long and rigorous training in the Nazi
ideology, they had to join the Labour Service; usually at the age of 18.
After that, they had to serve in the armed forces and enter one of the
Nazi organizations.

The Nazi Cult of Motherhood

The boys were taught to be aggressive, masculine and steel hearted.

The girls were told that they had to become good mothers and rear pure-
blooded Aryan children. The girls had to maintain the purity of the race
and hence had to distance themselves from the ‘undesirables’.
Women who bore racially undesirable children were punished. On the
other hand, women who bore racially desirable children were awarded.
They were given special treatment in hospitals and also got concessions
in shops, theatres and railways. Honor Crosses were awarded to
encourage women to produce more children. A bronze cross was given
for four children, silver cross for six and golden cross for eight or more.
The ‘Aryan’ woman who deviated from the prescribed code of conduct
was publicly condemned and severely punished.

The Art of Propaganda

 The Nazi regime used the language and media with great effect. They
coined various deceiving terms to be used for ‘killing’ or ‘murder’.
Photographs, films, radio, posters, catchy slogans, etc. were used to
propagate the Nazi ideology. Those opposed to the Nazis and the Jews
were stereotyped through various campaigns.
Many people began to see the world through Nazi perspective. There
was widespread hatred against the Jews. People believed that Nazism
would bring prosperity and improve general well-being.
But many others organized active resistance to Nazism, braving police
repression and death. But a large majority of the German population was
composed of passive onlookers. They were too scared to act, to differ, to
protest.

Knowledge about the Holocaust

Information about Nazi atrocities had trickled out of Germany during the
last years of the regime. But it was only after the end of the war that the
world came to realize the horrors suffered by the Jews and other
‘undesirables’. Many Jews wrote their memories in diaries and
notebooks, and created archives.
When the Nazi leadership could see that they were fighting a losing
battle, they distributed petrol to its functionaries to destroy all
incriminating evidences.