NOTES

History – Ls Nazism and the rise of Hitler

BIRTH OF THE WEIMER REPUBLIC

* Germany fought the First World War (1914–1918) along with the Austrian empire and
against the Allies (England, France and Russia).

* Germany initially made gains by occupying France and Belgium. However, the Allies won
defeating Germany and the Central Powers in 1918.

* The defeat of the Imperial Germany and the abdication of the emperor gave an opportunity
to parliamentary parties to recast German polity.

A National Assembly met at Weimer and established a democratic constitution with a federal
structure. The republic, however, was not received well by its own people largely because of
the terms it was forced to accept after Germany’s defeat at the end of the First World War.

THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES:

* The treaty of Versailles was humiliating on the Germans:

1. The war guilt clause held Germany responsible for the war and damages, the allied
countries suffered.

2. Germany was forced to pay war compensation of about 6 billion pounds

3. Germany lost her overseas colonies.

4. Germany’s military power was reduced to 100,000, no Air force and modern weapons.

5. Germany lost her National territory (13% ), 75% of its iron deposits and 26% of its coal.

6. Resource rich Rhineland was demilitarised and was taken by allied armies.

* Many Germans held the new Weimer Republic responsible for not only the defeat in the
war but the disgrace at Versailles.

THE EFFECTS OF THE WAR:

* The war had a devastating impact on the entire continent both psychologically and
financially.

* From being a creditor, Europe became a debtor.

* The supporters of the Weimer Republic were criticized and became easy targets of attack in
the conservative nationalist circles.

*Soldiers came to be placed above civilians. Aggressive war propaganda and national honour
became important.

*The fragile democracy could not survive and led to instability in Europe.

POLITICAL RADICALISM AND ECONOMIC CRISIS:

POLITICAL CRISIS

1.The birth of the Weimer Republic coincided with the uprising of the Spartacist League on
the pattern of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.
2. The Spartacists founded the Communist Party of Germany.

3. The Weimar Republic crushed the uprising with the help of a war veterans organisation
called Free Corps.
ECONOMIC CRISIS:
1. As Germany refused to pay the war reparations, France occupied its leading industrial
area, Ruhr.

2.Germany retaliated with printing paper currency recklessly. The value of the mark
collapsed. Prices of goods soared.

3. The hyperinflation further created chaos in Germany

4. USA introduced the Dawes plan to bailout Germany from crisis.

THE YEARS OF DEPRESSION

* Germany was totally dependent on short-term loans, largely from the USA. This support
was withdrawn with the crash in 1929 of the Wall Street Exchange. German economy was hit
badly.

* It led to social unrest. The middle class and working population was filled with the fear of
proletarianisation.

*Loss of jobs or reduced wages.

* currency lost values, savings reduced.

* unemployment reached to the peak.

THE WEIMER REPUBLIC HAD SOME DEFECTS:

*Proportional representation: Made achieving a majority by any one party a near impossible
task, which led to a rule by coalitions.

• Article 48: Gave the President the powers to impose emergency, suspend civil rights and
rule by decree.

• The republic was not received well by its own people largely because of it had to accept the
peace treaty of Versailles after Germany's defeat at the end of the First World War.

HITLER’S RISE TO POWER

* Hitler was born in Austria in 1889. He earned many medals for bravery in the First World
War.

* The German defeat horrified him. The Treaty of Versailles made him furious. He joined the
German Workers Party and renamed it National Socialist German Workers’ Party. This later
came to be known as the Nazi Party.

*By 1932, it had become the largest party with 37 percent votes.
* Nazism became a mass movement only during the Great Depression. The Nazi propaganda
stirred hopes of a better future. Hitler was a powerful and effective speaker. He promised the
people a strong nation where all would get employment.

* His politics included the significant rituals and spectacle in mass mobilization.

THE DESTRUCTION OF DEMOCRACY

* President Hindenburg offered the Chancellorship, on 30 January 1933, the highest position
in the cabinet of ministers, to Hitler.

*The Fire Decree of 28 February 1933 suspended civic rights like freedom of speech, press
and assembly that had been guaranteed by the Weimar constitution.

*On 3 March 1933, the famous Enabling Act was passed which established dictatorship in
Germany. The state took control over the economy, media, army and judiciary.

*Communists were hurriedly packed off to newly established concentration camps.

* All political parties were banned.
*Apart from the already existing regular police in green uniform and the SA or the Storm
Troopers, these included the Gestapo (secret state police), the SS (the protection squads),
criminal police and the Security Service (SD).

RECONSTRUCTION:

*Economist Hjalmar Schacht was given the responsibility of economic recovery. He aimed at
full production and full employment through a state funded work creation programme.

*Hitler pulled out of the League of Nations in 1933, reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936 .

* He integrated Austria and Germany in 1938 under the slogan One people, One empire, One
leader.

* Hitler chose war as to get out of the Economic Crisis.

* In September 1940 Germany invaded Poland. This started a war with France and England.

* USA was unwilling to join the war. But when Japan extended its support to Hitler and
bombarded Pearl Harbour, the USA entered the war. The war ended in 1945 with Hitler’s
defeat and the US bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

THE NAZI WORLD VIEW

*According to Nazi ideology there was no equality between people, but only racial hierarchy.

* The Nazis quickly began to implement their dream of creating an exclusive racial
community of pure Germans by physically eliminating all those who were considered
undesirable.

* They wanted a society of pure and healthy Nordic Aryans. Jews, Gypsies, blacks, Russian,
Poles, even certain Germans and abnormal were considered undesirable.

*The other aspect of Hitler’s ideology related to the geopolitical concept of Lebensraum, or
living space.
*Jews were the worst sufferers in Nazi Germany. Hitler believed in pseudo scientific theories
of race which said that conversion was no solution to the Jewish problem. It had to be solved
through their total elimination.

* From 1933–1938 — the Nazis terrorized, pauperised and segregated the Jews, compelling
them to leave the country.

*The next phase, 1939–1945, aimed at concentrating them in certain areas and then killing
the min gas chambers in Poland.

THE RACIAL UTOPIA

Genocide and war became two sides of the same coin. Occupied Poland was divided. Poles
were forced to leave their homes and properties behind to be occupied by ethnic Germans
brought in from occupied Europe.

YOUTH IN NAZI GERMANY

* Hitler sought to teach Nazi ideology to children.

*All schools were cleansed,by dismissing jews teachers.

* Children were divided into two groups — desirable and undesirable.

* Textbooks were rewritten, functions of sports in schools was to nurture the spirit of
violence and aggression.

*Ten-year-olds had to enter Jungvolk. At 14, all boys joined ‘Hitler Youth’, they joined the
Labour Service at 18.

* Children taught to be loyal, submissive, and aggressive, hate jews and worship Hitler

THE NAZI CULT OF MOTHERHOOD

* Boys were taught to be aggressive, masculine and steel hearted.

* Girls had to become good mothers and rear pure-blooded Aryan children.
•*All mothers were not treated equally.

* Women were told to be good mothers and rear pure blooded Aryan children. * They were
encouraged to produce many children. They had to be the bearers of the Aryan culture and
race.

* special awards to mothers with many children. And

* given concessions at shops, theatre tickets and railway fare.

*Women who didn’t follow prescribed code of conduct were publicly condemned, and
severely punished.

THE ART OF PROPAGANDA

* The Nazi regime used language and media with care and often to great effect.
*Mass killings were termed special treatment, final solution, euthanasia, selection and
disinfection.

* They used films, pictures, radio, posters, etc. to spread hatred for Jews.

* Nazism worked on the minds of the people, tapped their emotions, and turned their hatred
and anger at those marked as ‘undesirable’.

CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

*Many people were influence by the idea of Nazi.

* They believed Nazism would bring prosperity and improve general well-being.

* Every German was not a Nazi.

* Large majority of Germans were passive onlookers.

KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST

* It was only after the war ended that people came to know about what had happened.

* The Jews wanted the world to know about the atrocities and sufferings they had endured
during the Nazi killing operations.

* They just wanted to live, even if it was for a few hours, to tell the world about the
Holocaust.

* They wrote diaries, kept note books and created archives.

* Memories of Holocaust still present in the form of memoirs, fiction, documentaries, poetry,
memories and museums.