Chapter 6: Germany 1918-1945

The Impact of the First World War

In 1914 there was great optimism of Germanys actual power and prosperity. People were proud of their country,
their army and of their Kaiser virtually a dictator. But in 1918 everything was destroyed and people were
suffering hunger and epidemic diseases.
Germany was bankrupt: many working men died, national income decreased 70% and industries
decrease 33%
German Society divided deeply: women were taken to work in factories and the richer people made
fortunes while poor people died of hunger
Germany became an unstable democratic republic: a revolution took place and many people hated the
new democratic leader

The birth of the Weimar Republic
After German defeat in the WW I, the Kaiser refused to become democratic. These brought mutinies and revolts
which finally ended with the Kaisers abdication. The Socialist Friedrich Ebert become the new leader. He made
peace with the Allies and passed a new Constitution (freedom of speech and worship and better working
conditions). However, other politicians were not enthusiastic. They restricted what the new govt could do and
many wanted the Kaiser back. However, in 1919, he became the President of the Weimar Republic after elections.

The Republic in danger, 1919 1924
The threat from the Left: a Communist Revolution took place. The SPARTACISTS wanted to organize
Germany with soviets as well as Russia. They tried to do so in some towns but the FREIKORPS anti-
communist soldiers who joined Ebert stopped them and killed their leaders. Another revolution took
place in Bavaria but it had the same end as the other one. By the 1920s there was a powerful
communist anti-government force.
Treaty of Versailles: the injustice of the Treaty appalled most Germans. These thought that Ebert was to
blame so a great source of bitterness was created.
The threat from the Right: people from the right had been proud of the Kaisers power. In 1920, the Kapp
Putsch rebellion took place. 5000 Freikorps rebelled and there was no way of stopping them. But Berlin
workers gave a general strike and the rebels suffered food and water shortage, so it failed. Political
assassinations were frequent. In 1923 Hitler led the Munich Putsch but failed. Nevertheless he received
a light sentence because he had friends in the govt.
Economic Disaster: the Treaty weakened German economy. Germany had to pay reparations to the
Allies, and then the French occupied the Ruhr industrial areas. The solution was to print money, but
this caused hyperinflation as a chain reaction.
In 1923 a new govt took over with Gustav Stesemann. He crated a new currency Rentenmark. He received
loans from the USA and solved the economic crisis.

The Weimar Republic under Stresemann
Achievements:
Economy: he built up Germanys prosperity again. Loans were asked to the USA and industry
recovered. In 1928, production was the same as before the war and reparations were paid and exports
increased.
Culture: a cultural revival took place. Writers, poets and architects developed as well as cinema.
Censorship was removed.
Politics: the Republic was beginning to settle and Germans were reconciling.
Foreign Policy: Stresemann signed the Locarno Treaties and Germany was accepted in the LN. He also
negotiated the Young Plan and took away all foreign troops from Germany.
Problems:
Economy: the economic boom was precarious and for a short time. Peasants and middle classes felt the
govt offered them little. They had been benefited with the Kaiser and the war. Farmers found
overproduction.
Culture: a moral decline seemed to lead that cultural change. In addition, many Americans and Jews
immigrated to Germany. Country values were lost.
Politics: Nazis and Communist built powerful party oppositions.
Foreign Policy: Nationalists and Communists attacked Stresemann after he had signed the Locarno
Treaties and accepted the Treaty of Versailles.

Hitler and the Nazis
The Nazis began as German Workers Party led by Anton Drexler. Then Hitler joined and created the Nazi Party
where he stirred nationalist passions.
The Munich Putsch: By 1923, Hitler hijacked a govt meeting and announced he was taking over Bavaria. This
brought chaos. He didnt receive people support and was arrested; although he got off very lightly.
The Nazis in the wilderness, 1924 1929: In prison, Hitler wrote a book to express his ideas. His plan was to gain
power in the democratic government so as then to destroy it. When he left prison, he tried to recruit members to
his party and created several organizations such as SS and SA. But they had not much support. So he aimed to
the peasants, farmers, middle classes and shopkeepers, where he found support. He appointed Goebbles to take
charge of Nazi propaganda. Even tough, they were the smallest minority party.
Mein Kampf:
National Socialism: loyalty to Germany, racial purity + centralized state
Racism: Aryans were the Master Race
Armed Force: war was essential for the Nazis
Living Space or Lebensraum: German expansion to the east
The Fhrer: strength lay in loyalty to the leader Hitler

How successful were the Nazis by 1928
o Workers: FAILURE supported the Communist Party
o Peasants, farmers and middle-classes: SUCCESS they hated the Weimar govt economy.
Nazis said peasants were real Germans and promised things.
o Conservatives: SUCCESS wanted moral values back, which were lost during the Weimar
Republic

The Depression and rise of the Nazis
In 1929, USAs crash affected Germany badly which took to collapse. Meanwhile, the Nazis tried to look for
support in unemployed, elderly and middle classes. Finally, they became the biggest single party.
Why did Nazis succeed in elections?
o Nazi campaigning: Modern, generalized slogans, posters and pamphlets were used to defend traditional
values and to show that Jews, Communists, Weimar politicians and the Treaty of Versailles were the
causes of German decline. Nazis gave food and shelter to the unemployed and put emphasis in
discipline. In addition, Hitler was a powerful speaker and seemed to be the governor of the people.
Support rocketed.
o Negative cohesion: people joined the Nazis not because they shared Nazis views but because they
shared Nazis fears and dislikes.
o Disillusionment with democracy: democracy was not capable of solving the Depressions issues. So
many people lost support to the democrats, specially the poorer classes.
o The Communist Threat: Communist support was increasing, so Nazis used this to gain support of anti-
communist civilians, specially middle classes, industrial leaders and farmers, who were afraid of ending
like Russia under communism.
o Moral Decadence: Nazis gained support from all those who felt that traditional values where under
thread.

How did Hitler become Chancellor in 1933?
Hitler demand the post of Chancellor to Hindenburg the President - , but he him. On the other hand, he gave it to
the old Chancellor von Papen. As a consequence, Nazis lost a lot of support. Hitler threatened suicide as the
Nazis started running out of funds. His appeal was again refused and von Schleicher took the charge. But he was
weak and was forced to resign. A powerful man was needed. So Hindenburg and von Papen then chose Hitler as
Chancellor after some meetings with aristocrats with the idea of limiting his power and just having him to gain
support. But they were very wrong. It was almost impossible for them to control Hitler.

Hitlers Germany
Hitlers Dictatorship
How could Hitler become the supreme dictator?
The Reichstag Fire: In 1933, the Reichstag building burnt down. The Nazis blamed the Communists for
it although it was not confirmed so as to have an excuse to kill communists.
In an election, Nazis won their largest share of votes and intimidated the Reichstag to pass the Enabling Act
allowed Hitler to pass laws without the participation of the Reichstag. After it, Communists were banned, and the
Catholic party joined Hitler. Hindenburg had very little power.
The Night of the Long Knives: Hitler tried to kill off opposition. The leader of the SS Ernst Rhm was
gaining too much power, so he decided to murder him as well as other 400 oppositors.
Der Fhrer: Hitler became the Supreme Leader (Fhrer) of Germany

Nazi control of Germany, 1933 1945
The Nazis had a powerful range of organizations and weapons that they used to control Germany and terrorize
Germans into submission.
The SS was formed and led by Himmler was in charge of killing off opposition to Nazism and carrying
out the racial policies.
The Gestapo (secret state police) was in charge of arresting citizens on suspicion and sending them to
concentration camps.
Concentration camps were the Nazis sanction against people. Prisoners were forced to do hard labor,
food was limited and deaths became common.
The police and courts were all controlled by Nazis

Opposition to Nazis
There were four main opponents to the Nazi Party:
I. Trade Unionists: sindicates were abolished so they were disbanded. This brought revolts that were
stopped by the SS, SA and Gestapo
II. Political Opponents: other parties had different beliefs and criticized the Nazi policies. But the Nazi
disrupted the others meetings, frightened voters, etc. Thus, the Nazi Party became the biggest one by
1928.
III. Church: it was against the idea of killing and doing experiments with mentally handicapped. There were
protests and the protestant church was created. But Nazi stopped experimenting and finally stuck the
Church out of policies.
IV. Army Officers: Rhm was getting to much power in the army. Everything was solved in the Night of the
Long Knives.
However, opposition was little because:
Germans admired and trusted Hitler
Germans had fears (keep your head down)
The Propaganda machine

The July Bomb Plot: In 1944 some army officers came close to take Hitler from power. On July von Stufferbers
left a bomb in Hitlers conference room to try to kill him. But it failed. Hitler survived and the Nazis took terrible
revenge killing 5000 people.

Propaganda, culture and mass media
Newsreels and movies
Radio
Posters
Books
Newspapers
Music

Indoctrination: Hitler appointed to the children to indoctrinate and teach them Nazi views. He was able to do this
by hard physical training, Youth Camps, the German Teachers League, Performance books and Order Castles
where students were taught endurance. Nuremberg Rallies.

Youth opposition to Nazis
SWING Movement: accepted Jews and talked about sex. Listened to jazz.
EDELWEISS PIRATES: working-class teens who attacked Hitler Youths bands. Included boys and
girls, army deserters and escaped prisoners.
However, Hitler did little to stop this movements as he knew he would need their support as workers or soldiers in
a near future.

The role of women
The Nazis had clear ideas of what they wanted from women.
Women were expected to stay at home and look after the family. Women doctors, teachers and civil servants were
forced to give up their careers. Even at the end of the war, women were never asked to serve in the armed forces.
Their job was to keep the home nice for their husband and family - their life should revolve round the three 'Ks':
church
children
cooking
Goebbels said: "The mission of women is to be beautiful and to bring children into the world."
Hitler wanted a high birth rate, so the population would grow. The Nazis even considered making it law that
families should have at least four children. Girls did keep fit in the BDM to make themselves healthy for childbirth,
but they were discouraged from staying slim, because it was thought that thin women had trouble giving birth.
The Law for the Encouragement of Marriage gave newly wed couples a loan of 1,000 marks, and allowed them to
keep 250 marks for each child they had. Mothers who had more than eight children were given a gold medal.
Unmarried women could volunteer to have a baby for an Aryan member of the SS.

Rearmament
Hitler came to power in 1933. One of his first steps was rearming. Thousands of unemployed workers were
drafted into the army, reducing unemployment. German people supported rearmament, but Hitler knew it would
alarm other countries, but he handled it carefully, because at first he did it secretly, and made a demonstration
saying he didnt want to rearm.

Economic Recovery
National Labour Service: unemployment decreased
Public Works: Railways, houses, motorways, etc were built from scratch
Rearmament & Conscription: also created jobs in factories
Four Year Plan: prepared Germany to war
Hitler also encouraged workers improving working conditions, giving them prices, etc.

Policies and benefits
Hitler's economic policy had four main ideas:
1 Full employment - the idea that everyone should have a job. By 1939, there was virtually no unemployment in
Germany.
2 Beauty of Work - the Nazis set up the SdA (Beauty of Work) to help Germans see that work was good, and
that everyone who could work should. In fact - because the Nazis had abolished the trade unions, banned
strikes, and given more power to the industrialists - real wages fell and hours were longer under Hitler.
3 Re-armament begun in 1935 - the idea of 'guns before butter'.
4 Autarky - there was an unsuccessful attempt at making Germany self-sufficient.

Nazis and the Farming Communities
The Reich Food State: gave farmers a guaranteed market but most efficient farmers were not treated as
such.
Reich Entailed Farm Law: Banks couldnt take over the peasants lands. As a consequence banks
stopped lending loans to these farmers.
Blood and Soil: Peasants were real Germans and were the backbone of German Empire. However
some policies made farmers leave their lands. This caused rural depopulation.

Who did the Nazis persecute?
The Nazis believed that only Germans could be citizens and that non-Germans did not have any right to the rights
of citizenship.
The Nazis racial philosophy taught that some races were untermensch (sub-human). Many scientists at this time
believed that people with disabilities or social problems were genetic degenerates whose genes needed to be
eliminated from the human bloodline.
The Nazis, therefore:
Tried to eliminate the Jews.
Killed 85 per cent of Germany's Gypsies.
Sterilised black people.
Killed mentally disabled babies.
Killed mentally ill patients. Euthanasia Programme.
Sterilised physically disabled people and people with hereditary diseases.
Sterilised deaf people.
Put homosexuals, prostitutes, Jehovah's Witnesses, alcoholics, pacifists, beggars, hooligans and
criminals - anti-social - into concentration camps.
How the Nazis persecuted the Jews: key dates
Boycott of Jewish businesses.
Jewish civil servants, lawyers and teachers sacked.
Race Science lessons to teach that Jews are untermensch.
'Jews not wanted here' signs put up at swimming pools etc.
Nuremberg laws (15 September) Jews could not be citizens. They were not allowed to vote or to marry a
German.
Jews could not be doctors.
Jews had to add the name Israel (men) or Sarah (women) to their name.
Jewish children forbidden to go to school.
Kristallnacht - attacks on Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues.
Jews were forbidden to own a business, or own a radio.
Jews were forced to live in ghettoes.
Army Einsatzgruppen squads in Russia started mass-shootings of Jews.
All Jews were forced to wear a yellow star of David.
Resistance
O. Schlinder: Protected Jews by getting them as workers
R. Wallenberg: Provided Jews with foreign passports as they could escape
Some Jews groups such as Marsaw ghetto and Greek Jews rose up against the Nazis.

Hitlers actions
DATE ACTION
1933

















War
Took Germany out of the League of Nations
Began rearming Germany
1934 Tried to take over Austria but was stopped by Mussolini
1935 Held a massive rearmament rally in Germany
1936
Reintroduced conscription in Germany
Sent German troops into the Rhineland
Made an anti-Communist alliance with Japan
1937
Tried out Germanys new weapons in the Spanish Civil War
Made an anti-Communist alliance with Italy
1938
Took over Austria
Took over the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia
1939
Invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia
Invaded Poland