Chapter 30 Section 4

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Chapter 30 Section 4
Hitler and the Rise of Nazi Germany
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• Setting the Scene
• In November 1923, a German army veteran and
  leader of an extremist party, Adolf Hitler, tried
  to follow Mussolini's example. His brown-shirted
  thugs burst into a beer hall in Munich, where a
  political meeting was set to start. Hitler
  climbed onto a table and fired his pistol. "The
  National Socialist revolution has begun!" he
  shouted.
• The coup failed, and Hitler was soon behind bars.
  But Hitler was a force that could not be ignored
  forever. Within a decade, he made a new bid for
  power. This time, he succeeded by legal means.
• Hitler's rise to power raises disturbing
  questions that we still debate today. Why did
  Germany, which had a democratic government in the
  1920s, become a totalitarian state in the 1930s?
  How could a ruthless, hate-filled dictator gain
  the enthusiastic support of many Germans?

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I. The Weimar Republic

• 1919 - Germans created a democratic government
  known as the Weimar Republic

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I. The Weimar Republic

• The republic was politically weak, criticized by
  both the left and right for the results of the
  Treaty of Versailles

One of the main problems for the Weimar
government was the right-wing the claim that the
Army had been 'stabbed in the back' by the
government
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I. The Weimar Republic

• Germany fell behind in reparations payments, and
  printed huge quantities of paper money, setting
  off out-of-control inflation

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I. The Weimar Republic

• 1924 - the Dawes Plan reduced payments, France
  withdrew from the Ruhr, and loans helped the
  German economy recover

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II. Adolf Hitler

• Hitler was born in Austria in 1889, moved to
  Germany, and fought with the German army in WWI

Corporal Hitler (right) in WWI
Little Adolf
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II. Adolf Hitler

• 1919 - Hitler joined the National Socialist
  German Workers (Nazi) party and soon became its
  leader

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II. Adolf Hitler

• Hitler organized the Nazis into squads of "Storm
  Troopers" who battled political enemies in the
  streets

Nazi storm troopers block the entrance to a
Jewish-owned store in Berlin. "Germans, defend
yourselves, buy only at German shops!"
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II. Adolf Hitler

• 1923 - Hitler tried to seize power in Munich and
  was sent to prison, where he wrote Mein Kampf
  ("My Struggle")

Scene of the "Beer Hall Putsch"
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II. Adolf Hitler

• Mein Kampf stated Nazi goals and ideology
  extreme nationalism, racism, anti-Semitism, and
  the Aryan "master race"

WWII Poster Which Book, Holy Bible or Mein
Kampf?
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II. Adolf Hitler

• Germany, with a Fuhrer, must expand to gain
  Lebensraum - inferior races must bow to Aryan
  needs

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II. Adolf Hitler

• As unemployment rose during the Great Depression,
  Nazi membership grew to almost one million

Unemployed looking for work, 1930
Unemployed people standing in line in front of an
employment exchange in Hanover in 1930
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II. Adolf Hitler

• Communists won seats in the Reichstag and
  conservatives, fearing communism, elected Hitler
  chancellor in 1933

January 30, 1933 - Adolph Hitler (shaking
President Hindenburg's hand) was sworn in as
Chancellor of Germany
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II. Adolf Hitler

• Hitler suspended civil rights, disbanded
  political parties, and purged the Nazi party

'They salute with both hands now' On the night of
30 June 1934, Hitler ordered the SS to kill more
than 400 SA men in what became known as the
Night of the Long Knives
Hitler, Herman Goering, and Joseph Goebbels
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III. Hitler's Third Reich

• The Third Reich used terror, repression, and
  totalitarian rule - SS troops enforced Hitlers
  will and the Gestapo rooted out opposition

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III. Hitler's Third Reich

• The economy improved with public works programs.
  Hitler violated the Versailles treaty by ending
  reparations and rearming Germany

Germanys 100,000-man army surrounded by heavily
armed neighbors
1933 Autobahn construction
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III. Hitler's Third Reich

• "Hitler Youth" were indoctrinated people with
  Nazis ideology Pure-blooded Aryan" women were
  rewarded for having children

"The weak must be chiseled away. I want young men
and women who can suffer pain. A young German
must be as swift as a greyhound, as tough as
leather, and as hard as Krupp's steel."
League of German Maidens
"Youth Serves the Führer."
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III. Hitler's Third Reich

• School courses and textbooks were rewritten to
  reflect Nazi racial views Hitler tried to
  replace religion with his own racial creed

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IV. The Campaign Against Jews Begins

• 1935 - the Nuremberg Laws placed severe
  restrictions on Jews

On 15 September 1935 at the Reich Party
Convention in Nuremberg, Adolf Hitler announced
the Law for the Protection of German Blood and
German Honour as well as the Reich Citizenship
Law. The Nuremberg Laws were used to deprive
the Jewish population of its civil rights and to
open all avenues to their further persecution.
The "Nuremberg Laws" established a
pseudo-scientific basis for racial discrimination
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IV. The Campaign Against Jews Begins

• Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) Nazi-led
  mobs attacked Jewish communities all over Germany
  on Nov. 9 and 10, 1938

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IV. The Campaign Against Jews Begins

• Nazi enemies and Jews were sent to concentration
  camps the Nazis began planning the "final
  solution to the Jewish Problem

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• Looking Ahead
• In the 1930s, Germany became Europe's second
  fascist state. Germans of all classes responded
  to Hitler's hypnotic speeches and programs, which
  restored their national pride and improved the
  economy.
• Despite the warnings of some courageous Germans,
  most individuals ignored the ugly side of Nazi
  rule. Those who opposed Nazism were not united
  and were soon silenced.
• While Hitler won absolute power at home, he
  moved boldly to expand Germany's power in Europe.
  In the next chapter, you will see how Nazi
  aggression set the stage for the largest war the
  world has yet seen.