Weimar Republic

1
Weimar Republic

• Born in Defeat
• 1st act was to sign the Versailles Treaty
• Named for the city in which the constitution was
  developed
• A Parliamentary system, not a US style
  Presidential system
• A Republic, so no king.

2
Four Putsches

• Red Bavaria Leninists take over in Bavaria for
  a few weeks.
• Spartacist Revolt. Leninists fail to take over
  in Berlin after defeat by the Freikorps
• Kapp Putsch. Berlin nearly falls to rightists
• Beer Hall Putsch. Hitlers attempt

3
Occupation of the Rhineland

• 1923, Germany fails to pay reparations to France
  and Belgium.
• France and Belgium occupy the Rhineland to force
  payments
• Germans launch a general strike of
  non-cooperation with the occupiers
• Govt. pays strikers to strike

4
Hyperinflation

• Payments to strikers forces Weimar government to
  print money to fund it.
• Far too much is printed compared to what it is
  worth.
• In 1914 there were four marks to every dollar.
• In 1924 there were 4,000,000,000,000,00 marks per
  dollar.

5
Stresemann Miracle

• Gustav Stresemann served as the prime minister
  and stabilized the mark by following the advice
  of Hjalmar Schacht
• Germany stabilizes and begins to grow again
  without inflation
• Finally, Stresemann settles the western border
  with France with the Locarno Treaty.

6
Treaty of Locarno

• Perhaps the high point of the Weimar Republic
• Germany agrees to respect its western border with
  France and Belgium.
• This allows Germany to enter the League of
  Nations and removes Germany from diplomatic
  isolation

7
Golden Era 1924-1929

• Economy grows quite well
• Culture become famous for its plays, art, etc.,
  though decadent.
• Americanization as some parts of culture look
  to America for guidance.
• Movie industry become world famous, esp., the
  Mountain films like a US Western.

8
Crisis years 1930-1933

• Great Depression hits as unemployment goes to
  record levels.
• Governments fall as no one can solve the problem
  of the Depression
• Private armies of political parties battle in the
  streets as public loses faith in the Republic to
  solve problems.

9
Death of the Center

• As the crisis deepens, the centrist parties begin
  to collapse. The Social Democrats (SDP) and the
  Catholic Centre parties disintegrate.
• These two parties do not have solutions radical
  enough to solve the economic problems. As a
  result they lose members.
• The main beneficiaries are the Communists and the
  National Socialists.

10
Totalitarian Growth

• With their promises of solving the economic
  crisis the National Socialists and Communists
  begin to grow rapidly. Many SDP go to the
  Communists, but most SDP and Centre party members
  gravitate toward the National Socialists
• The National Socialists benefit the most and by
  1931 are the largest party in Germany, surpassing
  the fading Social Democrats.

11
Guarding the Door

• In 1931, President von Hindenburg appoints
  Bruning, from the Centre Party as the Chancellor.
  Bruning rules by decree with Presidential
  approval since the Parliament is so deeply
  divided that nothing can be done in a normal
  process of voting.
• Hindenburg will not give the National Socialists
  (and Hitler) the chance to form a government or
  be Chancellor. He keeps Bruning until later 1932.

12
Last Ditch Defense

• In 1932, the National Socialists are clearly the
  biggest party but Hindenburg will not give them
  the chance.
• Hindenburg then picks right-wing nationalists
  Franz von Papen and then Kurt von Schleicher.
  However, both fail by early 1933.
• Hindenburg finally gives the National Socialists
  and Hitler a chance to run the government in
  January of 1933.

13
National Socialism Ascendant

• Though Hitler is finally given the chance to be
  Chancellor, the National Socialists are not even
  close to a majority in the cabinet.
• Nationalists, considered more responsible, make
  up most cabinet members.
• Hindenburg and von Schleicher figure they can
  control Hitler and his friends to serve
  conservative ends.

14
Hitler Gains More Power

• Reichstag Fire. After the Reichstag burns down
  due to arson, the National Socialists ask for a
  vote to give Hitler Emergency Powers to deal with
  an assumed Communist attempt to take over.
• Enabling Act. Reichstag formally votes to give
  the Chancellor (Hitler) power of decree. Hitler
  can now simply say what a law will be and it will
  have full legal force.

15
Enabling Act and its Effects

• The Enabling Act gave Hitler the right to suspend
  civil rights and liberties in Germany until the
  crisis passed
• Under these rules, the National Socialists hold
  new elections in the spring of 1933 and win 44
  of the vote. Along with their Nationalist
  allies, the NSDAP now hold a clear majority.
• Now, the NSDAP makes up nearly the entire
  cabinet. Hitler and his pals now run Germany.

16
Cautious National Socialists

• Though Hitler is in power, there are still major
  opponents.
• The Army
• The Lutheran Church
• The Catholic Church
• France
• Until these four are neutralized or allied with
  the NSDAP, Hitlers goal of a totalitarian state
  will be put on hold.

17
Crushing the Churches

• Lutherans. Rather easily crushed. They were
  part of the government and could be controlled as
  such. Also, most Lutheran bishops were afraid of
  confronting the legal authority in the nation and
  one which was very popular.
• Catholics. The top German archbishop (Pacelli)
  wrote the official Papal decree condemning many
  ideas of National Socialism.

18
Crushing the Churches

• The Lutherans soon had prayers thanking God for
  Hitler in their services thanks to Hitlers
  appointing new bishops. Some Lutherans broke
  away to form the Confessional Church free from
  Nazi pressure. They were heavily persecuted.
• The Catholics cut a deal with Hitler to save
  their youth groups from being abolished, but they
  had to disband the Centre Party.
• Hitler wanted ONE church and ONE party. However,
  he privately told his colleagues that after the
  future war he would destroy both churches.

19
Winning over the Army

• The Army liked much of what they saw in Hitler.
• However, they hated the idea of being turned over
  to the S.A. and Ernst Rohm. His SA were just a
  bunch of thugs to the top military brass.
• The Army did suggest to Hitler that they would
  swear loyalty, and put themselves under civilian
  control, if they were run by the German
  government, and not the S.A.
• Rohm had to go for Hitler to have the Army.

20
Night of the Long Knives

• In the Summer of 1935, Hitler moved on the SA.
  He used the SS under Heinrich Himmler to crush
  the SA.
• Also, many other political opponents were
  arrested and/or shot over one weekend.
• Kurt von Schleicher and Ernst Rohm were at the
  top of the list. Troublesome Catholics and
  Lutherans were shot along with some top Social
  Democrats and other undesirables.
• Hitler now had full control of Germany. Now he
  was ready to implement his plans.

21
Nuremberg Laws

• In 1935 Hitler announced a series of decrees that
  took most civil rights from Jews.
• In addition, these race laws prohibited
  marriage between Jews and Aryans. Any sexual
  relations were also prohibited.
• Some jobs were also denied to Jews
• Finally, Jews now had to identify themselves as
  Jews with the infamous yellow Star of David.
  Businesses also had to be identified in such a
  manner.

22
Eugenics (Good birth) Laws

• Also part of the Nuremberg Laws were laws to
  promote a genetically healthy Germany.
• The simple minded, retarded, mentally ill,
  deformed and other defectives were to be
  sterilized to prevent their reproducing.
• Eventually this extended itself to the Euthanasia
  (good death) program which killed such people.
  Usually they went in for a tonsillectomy or some
  such surgery and died during surgery.

23
Breaking out of Versailles

• In 1935 Hitler formally abrogated the Versailles
  Treaty. He announced that Germany would no
  longer abide by the reparations clause of the
  Treaty and denounced the injustice of the treaty.
• Germany then reinstated the draft, the General
  staff, expanded the army and began building a new
  powerful air force, the Luftwaffe.
• However, Hitler was careful to keep to the Naval
  disarmament treaties, at least publicly.

24
The First Step in the Saar

• In 1935, the Saar held a scheduled plebiscite
  (vote) to decide if they wished to be part of
  France, or, part of Germany.
• The Germans pushed a huge, successful propaganda
  campaign to get this small region back into
  Germany.
• It was not even a close vote and showcased the
  power of German propaganda.
• This gave the National Socialists great prestige.

25
Reoccupying the Rhineland

• In 1936 Hitler took a huge gamble by sending
  troops into the Rhinelanda region to be
  demilitarized according to the Versailles Treaty.
• French troops were ordered to do nothing.
• Hitler had ordered his troops to retreat
  immediately if the French showed any signs of
  resistance or movement. However, France did
  nothing
• A plot to kill Hitler by the Schwarz Kappel,
  Catholic anti-Hitler officers, fizzled as Hitler
  succeeded in the Rhineland.

26
Good Times

• 1936 and 1937 saw the German economy booming
  again. Unemployment disappeared, Germany was a
  respected nation again and peoples lives simply
  better than that dark days of 1933.
• In addition, the Four Year Plan of a planned
  economy was paying off as businesses finally had
  a good outlook. Socialism was good for German
  businessmen and Germans in general. Hitler
  wasnt promising, he was delivering.

27
Going HomeAnschluss

• While Hitler was an Austrian, he seemed more of
  Berlin, than of Vienna.
• For that reason, many felt that Hitler would
  finally meet his fate if he tried to bring
  Austria into Germany. They were wrong.
• When Hitler rode into Austria in 1938, the
  reception was rapturous. Even Nazi propaganda
  was surprised. And it was done without any
  violence. Greater Germany was finally a reality.
  Not even Bismarck had done this much as
  Chancellor.

28
The Sudeten Crisis

• The region bordering Czechoslovakia and Germany
  was called the Sudetenlandand was majority
  German.
• Hitler made a huge issue of this, as did the
  Sudetens who wanted to be in Germany, not
  Czechoslovakia.
• By September of 1938, Hitler had decided to take
  the Sudetenland by force. War seemed likely and
  France mobilized her army
• And then came Neville Chamberlain and Appeasement.

29
The Munich Agreement

• Chamberlain was simply unwilling to fight over
  Czechoslovakia.
• France did not want to fight, and would not do so
  without Britain. So, it was clear, there would
  be no war over Czechoslovakia.
• However, Hitler was ready to fight.
• Chamberlain rushed to meet with Hitler and sold
  out the Czechs at the Munich Agreement.
• The Czechs were not even invited to the sell out
  of their nation. France went along.

30
Reaction to Munich

• The whole world rejoiced that war was averted.
  Chamberlain was an international hero. He was
  greeted in Britain with rapturous cheers.
• He declared, We have Peace in Our Time.
• Winston Churchill, derided as a war monger
  declared, Mr. Chamberlain had a choice between
  war and dishonor. He chose dishonor. He will
  get war.
• Of course, Churchill was only some nut.
  Chamberlain was the Man of the Hour.

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