The Rise of the Nazi Dictatorship

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The Rise of the Nazi Dictatorship

• From the Weimar Republic to Adolf Hilter,
  1919-1933

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Weimar Republic, 1919-1933

• Republic was alien to German political culture.
• November criminals had created republic.
• Tepid support came from Centrist parties
• Left and Right (40 of electorate) wanted to
  destroy Weimar Republic

Left
Center
Right
Liberals, German Democrats, SPD, Catholic Center
Party
KPD
Nationalists, NSDAP
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Problems of Weimar Republic

• Sparticists Rebellion/execution of Wilhelm
  Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg
• Kapp Putch
• Ruhr Occupation (1923)
• Hyperinations (1923)
• Street violence left vs. right
• Of 376 political murders between 1919 and 1922,
  354 committed by right wingers.
• Beer Hall Putsch (1923)

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A Glimmer of Hope, 1925-1929

• Gustav Stresemann (1878-1929)
• Dawes Plan/Young Plan
• Fulfillment
• Admission to League of Nation
• Intellectuals drift toward Weimar Where they
  burn books, they will one day burn
  children.Thomas Mann, Magic Lantern.

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Stresemann, Chancellor, 1923, Foreign
Secretary, 1924-1929
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Great Depression

• High unemployment
• Right blames Weimar Government for Depression
  Left sees it as the end of capitalism.
• Nazi Party Grew in Numberslargest party in
  Reichstag in 1931
• 1932 Elections see Communist Party gains Big
  Business supports Hitler
• From Heinrich Brüning to Adolf Hitler Jan 30,
  1933

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Date Votes age Seats in Reichstag Background
May 1924 1,918,300 6.5 32 Hitler in prison
December 1924 907,300 3.0 14 Hitler is released from prison
May 1928 810,100 2.6 12  
September 1930 6,409,600 18.3 107 After the financial crisis
July 1932 13,745,800 37.4 230
November 1932 11,737,000 33.1 196
March 1933 17,277,000 43.9 288 After Hitler had become Chancellor
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Adolf Hitler, 1889-1945
Rassenpolitik und Lebensraum Hitlers
contradiction Use of Technology to bring back
a Medieval social order
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HITLER and Nazi Party

• June 1934purge of Ernst Röhm and Sturmabteilung
• Schutzstaffel und Geheimestaatspolizei
• 1934 Nuremburg Party Congress
• Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938
• Horst Wessel/Horst Wesel Lied
• Wehrmacht oath (August 2, 1934)
• "Ich schwöre bei Gott diesen heiligen Eid, daß
  ich dem Führer des Deutschen Reiches und Volkes
  Adolf Hitler, dem Oberbefehlshaber der Wehrmacht,
  unbedingten Gehorsam leisten und als tapferer
  Soldat bereit sein will, jederzeit für diesen Eid
  mein Leben einzusetzen."
• ("I swear by God this sacred oath that to the
  Leader of the German state and people, Adolf
  Hitler, supreme commander of the armed forces, I
  shall render unconditional obedience and that as
  a brave soldier I shall at all times be prepared
  to give my life for this oath.)

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Undoing of World Order

• Japanese invasion of Manchuria, 1933
• Italian invasion of Ethiopia, 1935
• German conscription resumes, 1936
• Spanish Civil War, 1936-39
• Anschluß mit Austria, 1938
• Sudetenland/Munich Conference, 1939

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Blitzkrieg into Poland, Sept. 1, 1939