1933-1945 Nazi Germany: The Big Questions.....

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1933-1945 Nazi Germany The Big Questions.....
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How did Hitler become dictator of Germany?

• Reichstag Fire Feb 1933
• Enabling Act March 1933 makes Germany a one
  party state
• Regional governments abolished
• Trade unions removed
• Secure relationship with Army
• Propaganda
• Terror
• Weakness of opposition
• Death of Hindenburg
• Gleichschaltung

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How did Hitler prepare Germany for war?

• Four Year Plan 1936 Germany must be prepared
  for war, increase production of raw materials,
  develop ersatz (substitute) products, increase
  agricultural production
• Guns vs Butter debate
• Autarky
• Increase military expenditure

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Social Policy Traditional or Radical?

• Traditional gender roles
• Traditional view of women, appearence
• Stressed in education
• Radical removal of non-Aryans

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Image vs Reality

• Image of Hitler as a strong leader
• Reality badly organised, lazy, focus on foreign
  policy
• Image of Gestapo as all seeing all powerful body
• Reality few Gestapo officers, bogged down in
  bureaucracy

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Image vs Reality

• Image Strong, Organised government
• Reality Chaotic, over lapping ministries, Four
  Year Plan// Ministry of Economics. Polycracy
  system of overlapping ministries. Cabinet
  meetings became more infrequent.
• 72 times in 1933, 4 times in 1936. After 1938 it
  didnt meet at all.

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Was the style of government intended?

• No evidence of Hitlers lack of organisational
  skills
• Yes belief in Social Darwinism would reward the
  most committed. Hitler wanted to keep leading
  Nazis on their toes Goering kept out of policy
  meetings after 1941, Hess adopted deputy because
  he wasnt a threat to Hitler.

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Intentionalists vs Structuralists

• Intentionalists Polycratic nature of the Third
  Reich was deliberately extended by Hitler, partly
  in order to divide and rule. Hitler was the
  master of the Third Reich
• Structuralists Hitler was indecisive, lazy and
  easily manipulated. As a result, the chaotic
  nature of National Socialism spiralled into
  criminal brutality and lawlessness. Hitler was
  a weak dictator

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How did the Holocaust happen?

• Anti Semitism existed in Germany before 1933
• 1933 April Boycott, removal of Jews from
  teaching posts, lawyers. Anti-Semitic propaganda
  and education
• 1935 September Nuremberg Laws Reich
  Citizenship Act and Law for the Protection of
  German Blood and Honour
• 1938 November Kristallnacht
• 1939 Creation of the Reich Central Office for
  Jewish Emigration
• 1942 January Wannsee Conference Final Solution.
  Chaired by Eichmann

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How did the Holocaust happen?

• Initial arrangements were haphazard and the Nazis
  did not have any clear programme to deal with the
  Jewish question until 1941
• No written order for killing the Jews from Hitler
  has ever been found.
• Probably around autumn 1941 it was decided by the
  top Nazi leadership to launch an extermination
  policy, this was agreed at Wannsee.