The Rise of Hitler and the

Early Third Reich

1918-1924
The First World War
Origins of the war:
Nationalism
Alliances
Assassination of Franz
Ferdinand
Germany attacks both
Russia and France
War quickly becomes a
stalemate (trench
warfare)
Germany eventually
loses as the US enters
the war
German Trenches
German Revolution of 1918-
19
Spartacist Uprising
Communists, under Karl
Liebknecht and Rosa
Luxemburg instigate
revolts
Democrats ally with
nationalists and liberals,
defeat the Spartacists by
force
Liebknecht and
Luxemburg are found
murdered, Jan 1919
The revolution fails
Managing the End of the
War
Oct 1918 - Prince Max
von Baden as chancellor
Constitutional monarchy
established
Nov 9 1918 Republic
declared
Nov 10 1918 Friedrich
Ebert (SPD) and the
military collaborate
Military will remain
autonomous, even
though it is reduced
 The Treaty of Versailles
National Self-
Determination
League of Nations
Much of German
Empire is dismantled,
given to Poland,
Czechoslovakia, France
War Guilt Clause
Germany accepts full
responsibility
Unspecified reparations
The Weimar Constitution

Created by a
coalition of parties
Parliamentary
Democracy
Chancellor plus a
President
Vote of no
confidence possible
Paragraph 48
 Political Parties
KPD (communists)
USPD (left-wing social democrats)
SPD (social democrats)
Center (Catholics)
Center Conservative Splinters
DDP (liberals)
DVP (conservatives)
DNVP (reactionaries)
NSDAP (Nazis)
1918: A Catastrophe for German
Nationalists
Defeat and the
Treaty of Versailles
(1918-19)
Reparations
Steep inflation
War Guilt Clause
Demilitarization of
the Rhine
Many Germans
1919 Postcard
never saw the war
firsthand
 The Kapp Putsch
Wolfgang Kapp, right-
wing paramilitary groups
and Army Group I seize
Berlin (Mar 1920)
Ebert and others flee to
Dresden
Nobody follows Kapp, he
steps down
General amnesty
Same month: communist
uprisings in the Ruhr
Crushed by the military
More than 1,000 deaths
Anti-Democratic Forces within the
Weimar Republic
Judges
Harsh punishments for
communists
Lenience for right-wing
extremists (street
violence)
Kapp Putsch Amnesty
(750 charged, only 1
does prison time)
Army as a state within
a state
Never checked by the
Reichstag
Fehrenbach and Wirth: The
Reparations Crisis
Konstantin Fehrenbach
= chancellor, June 1920
Moderate, compromiser
Allies agree on heavy
reparations, kills the
govt
Joseph Wirth, May 1921
Also Catholic Center, but
agrees to comply with
the reparations
Has to fight right-wing
insurgents
Nobody wins
 Walther Rathenau
Foreign Minister
Jewish moderate
An able administrator and
politician
DDP (liberal) party
member
Signs Treaty of Rapallo,
Apr. 1922
Pact with the Soviet Union
Assassinated in June 1922
Antisemitism and
nationalism gone overboard
 Hyperinflation
Reparation payments
cause massive inflation
Government bonds are
worthless
1924 The Dawes Plan
American loans, lower
reparations
Radical left and right
gain seats, because
they argue that any
reparations are too
much
Gustav Stresemann
Aug 1923 =
Chancellor
Later in 1923, a
Center Party govt
takes over and
Stresemann
becomes foreign
minister
DVP (National
liberal)
Has to deal with
two crises
 Uprisings in Bavaria and
Saxony
Saxony, 1923:
KPD state government
Army tries to arrest the
new regional cabinet
KPD calls a general strike
Federal govt organizes a
crackdown (Paragraph 48)
Bavaria, 1923
Right-wing groups and
socialists organize
concurrent strikes
Beer Hall Putsch
With Hitler; see below
Adolf Hitler Early Life
Born 1889 in rural
Austria
Speculation that he has
Jewish blood in his
veins
Probably unfounded
Adolfs father, Alois,
was a customs officer
Middle-class
Children went to private
school
Intelligent, but lazy
 Adolf Hitler - Youth
Passes exams, but quits
school in 1905
Becomes a professional
loafer no job, no
school
No evidence of madness
or of strong Anti-
semitism
1907 moves to Vienna
to become an artist
Mediocre, unoriginal
His mother dies in 1907
Adolf Hitler - Vienna
Fails to get into art
school
Listens to Karl Lueger,
mayor of Vienna, who
was a gifted speaker
(and an Antisemite)
Little evidence that
Hitler was strongly
Antisemitic at first
In fact, he had many
Jewish acquaintances

Karl Lueger
 Adolf Hitler WWI
Fears Austrian
conscription, flees to
Munich in 1913
Grows to love Munich as
a more German city
Volunteers for the
German army, Aug 1914
Mostly a dispatch rider
The army becomes his
new family
Other soldiers find him
irritating
Adolf Hitler After the War
Wounded in 1916
returns to Munich and
sees Jews everywhere
Returns to the front,
stays until 1918
Gas attack victim, hears
of the end of the war in a
hospital
Defining moment:
decides to enter politics
so that his efforts would
not be in vain
 The Origins of the NSDAP
Bavaria in a state of civil
war
See above
Army Information
Department recruits Hitler
to act as a spy
Assigned to a small party
called the Deustsche
Arbeiterpartei (DAP)
DAP values = Volk,
nationalism, and
countering socialism
Bar rants!
Hitler invited to join, soon
wows members with his
speaking abilities (1919)
NSDAP, cont.
Party names changes in
1920, adopts the swastika
Hitler promises to
introduce some socialist
measures, but this is
ignored
Becomes party
chairman in 1921
Ernst Rhm forms the
Storm Troopers (SA)
under Hitler a
paramilitary org.
 The Beer Hall Putsch, 1923

600 Nazis interrupt a

conservative strategy
meeting in Munich
Hitler orders a coup
d'tat in Bavaria
Many right-wing parties
join in
Nov. 9 1923,
demonstrations in the
city
Police open fire Hitler
is later arrested
 Prison and Mein Kampf
Trial for high treason
Led by a conservative
judge
Hitlers sentence: 5
years
Actual term: 8 months
Mein Kampf
Written while Hitler is
in prison
Blames Communists
and Jews for Germanys
problems
Hitler in Prison, 1924
 The Rise of Gregor Strasser
Hitler banned from
public speaking (during
and after prison term)
Enter Strasser, also a
gifted speaker and
supreme organizer
Gregor Strasser builds
up the NSDAP in the
north
Is later seen as a rival
to Hitler
Gregor Strasser
National Socialism on the
Rise
1924-1933
 Major Question (for
Fulbrook)
Was the Weimar Republic doomed
from the start?
Paul von Hindenburg

Field Marshall, WWI

hero
Elected president
in 1925
Conservative,
Aristocratic
NOT a friend to
democracy
 Reichstag Politics, 1924-
1928
Systemic failure to compromise
Nationalist, bourgeois, liberal, and socialist
parties all bicker
No coalition lasts longer than a year
Trade Unions, Strikes, and
Industrialists
1925-26: trade unions
launch strikes, many
industrialists lock out
workers
Industrialists lose faith
in the democratic
system
Unions lose power and
influence, workers
suffer
The workers, too, lose
faith in the system
 The League of Nations and Allied
Withdrawal
1926: Germany
joins the League of
Nations
However, the
League becomes a
joke
1927: Allied troops
are completely
withdrawn from
Germany
Reparations
continue
 Changes in the Nazi Party, 1924-
1928
Legal pursuit of power
Special interest groups
within the party
The Hitler Youth, etc.
Antisemitism blended
with a desire to win
living space for
Aryans abroad
Vision of a racial
community
A classless society
Founding of the Fhrer myth
Invented by Joseph
Goebbels
Hitlers commands
must be obeyed
minutely
Over-the-top
salutes
Massive rallies and
speeches
Designed as a sort
of anti-
democracy
The Great Depression: The Nazis
Opportunity
Oct 1929 the stock
market crashes in
New York
Crisis for export-heavy
Weimar Republic
Extreme right and left
erode the center of
the political spectrum
Nazis gain 18.3% of
The Great Depression
vote in 1930 (up from
2.6% in 1928)
 Democracy in Crisis
1930: Minority
government under
a president-
appointed
chancellor
(Heinrich Brning)
Aggressive deflation
leads to
unemployment
Rule is now by
presidential decree
 1930-33: Propaganda and the
Conversion of Germans
Joseph Goebbels
and Hitler are mass
media savvy
Radio, newspaper,
film
Emotion and
simplicity
Nationalism
reaches its zenith

Nazi Propaganda Poster

 Sucked Dry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHs2coAzLJ8
Insatiable
Get rid misery, get rid of the
Jews The workers have
awakened!
 The Sturmabteilung (SA)
Nazis vs.
Communists in the
streets
Nazi SA
(Brownshirts) win
the gang wars
SA = ex-WWI
soldiers, many are
little more than
thugs
400,000 strong in
1932 Nazi Brownshirt
Parliamentary Democracy
Fails
(July) 1932 Elections:
No coalitions possible
Again: Rule by
President Hindenburgs
decrees
Franz von Papen calls
new elections in Nov
1932
Nazis win 33% of vote,
down from 37% during
the previous summer
Franz von Papen
 Hitler Becomes Chancellor
Von Papen cannot find
enough supporters to form
even a minority
government
Crisis talks between
agrarian landholders and
conservative politicians
They decide to use Hitler as a
puppet leader
Jan 1933 President
Hindenburg is persuaded to
invite Hitler to be chancellor
No other Nazis in high-ranking
positions
Feb 27 1933 Reichstag Fire
Started by a Dutchman,
Marinus van der Lubbe
Loosely connected with
the Communist Party
Apparently acted alone
has been called an
anarchist
Some historians have
suggested that the Nazis
set him up
Emergency Decrees
(Feb 28):
Communism banned
Civil liberties suspended
 March 1933 Enabling Act
Nazis still dont control more than 50% of the Reichstag
They use the Fire as an excuse to remove communists
They bully most Social Democrats into abstaining
The remaining party, the Catholic Center Party, is now isolated
Enabling Act:
Absolute power for Hitler
In theory, temporary