Kagan, Ch. 27

RISE AND SPREAD OF FASCISM: HITLER’S GERMANY

WEIMAR GERMANY• The Constitution, while refreshingly Liberal, was also

fundamentally flawed, as it allowed small parties to gain seats easily• The president was permitted to rule by decree in an emergency,

permitting presidential dictatorship

• The republic also lacked broad popular support• It was viewed as the government that had saddled Germany with the

humiliation of the Versailles treaty

• In the early 20s there were a number of violent uprisings, but they failed

• There was massive inflation, due to the reparations imposed by the allies

• The invasion of the Ruhr caused the German people to resent the Weimar government even more

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HITLER: THE EARLY YEARS• Adolf Hitler: raised on anti-Semitism, racism

Jews = “a race and not a religious community”

• Anti-Semitism: “its final aim…must be the uncompromising removal of the Jews altogether.” (1919)

• By 1921 controlled German Workers’ Party – master of propaganda

• Renamed National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP = Nazi): Twenty-Five Points (see next slide)

• SA (Sturmabteilung = Storm Troops)

• 8 Nov. 1923 – Beer Hall Putsch – 5 yrs. imprisonment

• Mein Kampf – manifesto on what actions to take

• Führerprinzip and Lebensraum

TWENTY-FIVE POINTS (AS STATED IN OUR TEXTBOOK)

1. Repudiation of Versailles Treaty

2. Unification of Austria and Germany

3. Exclusion of Jews from German citizenship

4. Agrarian reform

5. Prohibition of land speculation

6. Confiscation of war profits

7. State administration of giant cartels

8. Replacement of department stores with small retail shops

9. Nationalization of industry in an attempt to compete directly w/ socialist/Marxist political groups

WEIMAR GERMANY(CONT.)• The Stresemann Years

• In order to repair inflation, Chancellor Gustav Stresemann introduced a new German currency

• He also agreed to Dawes Plan, a new system of reparation payments in 1924, which helped to lower inflation

• In 1925, right after the French left the Ruhr, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg became president

• Locarno• The 1925 Locarno Agreements helped to integrate Germany

back into the European system• However, its conciliatory outlook continued to alienate the

German nationalist public• Kellogg Briand Pact, 1928• Young Plan, 1929 – ultimately US defaults on its loans

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HITLER COMES TO POWER

• 1924-29: Building Nazism – vs. Bolshevism• Attracted young leaders

• 1925-27 draw workers votes from socialism/communism

• 1928 won only 12 seats in Reichstag

• By 1929 turns toward middle classes

• 1930: Chancellor Brüning using emergency decrees by Hindenburg to rule • Nazis 2nd largest party in Reichstag = 107 seats

• 1932: Hitler runs against Hindenburg for president and loses – “make way, you old ones”• 6 mill. Unemployed, Great Depression hits Germany

hard

HEIL HITLER!• 1933, Hitler named as Chancellor by coalition!!!!

• Hermann Goering – Minister of Interior/Head of Police

• Reichstag Fire, 27 February 1933 - Blamed on communists –Enacted Article 48 of constitution

• Nazis win 288 seats in March election

• Enabling Act: dictatorial power to Hitler - 4 years --- smash opposition---control ALL

• April 1933 – German states’ power ended• Gleichschaltung – coordination of all institutions under Nazi

control• Jews dismissed from civil service• Concentration camps established for all opponents of regime

• May 1933 – no independent labor unions, political parties, 2-day boycott of Jewish businesses

• June 1934 – purge of top National Army by Nazi SA• August 1934 – office of president abolished; Hitler

voted “Führer of the German Reich and People”

TERROR AND COERCION

• SS (Schutzstafel)• Lead by Heinrich Himmler

• started out as personal bodyguards – ended as special security units

• Controlled regular and secret police

• Concentration camps, execution squads, death camps

WHO IS A JEW? NUREMBERG LAWS, 1935

ARTICLE 5

(1) A Jew is an individual who is descended from at least three grandparents who were, racially, full Jews...

(2) A Jew is also an individual who is descended from two full-Jewish grandparents if:

(a) he was a member of the Jewish religious community when this law was issued, or joined the community later;

(b) when the law was issued, he was married to a person who was a Jew, or was subsequently married to a Jew;

(c) he is the issue from a marriage with a Jew, in the sense of Section I, which was contracted after the coming into effect of the Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor of September 15, 1935;

(d) he is the issue of an extramarital relationship with a Jew, in the sense of Section I, and was born out of wedlock after July 31, 1936.

• September 15, 1935 – Nuremberg Laws• Defines Reich citizen

as German or related blood; forbid interracial marriage

KRISTALLNACHT, NOV. 9-10, 1938

• Night of Shattered Glass• At least 100 Jews killed,

30,000 Jewish men sent to concentration camps

NAZI IDEOLOGY IN THE LIVES OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN

• Cross of Honor of the German Mother

• 4-5 children = bronze

• 6-7 children = silver

• 8+ = gold

• Unfit mothers faced sterilization and/or death

• For the Children

• Hitler Jugend

• Bund Deutscher Mädchen

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NAZI ECONOMIC POLICY

• Hitler’s oppressive regime received support because he swiftly ended the Depression in Germany

• People would sacrifice all political and civil liberty, limit private exercise of capital in order to prepare for war and aggression

• Massive public works programs • Renunciation of the Treaty of Versailles leads Hitler to

appoint Hermann Goring to undertake a four-year plan to prepare the army and economy for war

• Trade unions crushed and outlawed

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