Hitler's Germany 1929-1939

All of Hitlers Germany sections 1,2+3.

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Wall Street Crash

Events

  • crash in the USA
  • not much Nazi support
  • collapse of Dawes plan
  • US wanted 800 million gold marks of loans back
  • high unemployment - many homeless
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Depression

Dealing with the Depression

  • raised taxes - more problems for businesses being taxed
  • reduced officials wages - public officials much more worse off
  • reduced benefits - unemployed became even more desperate

Consequences

  • people looked towards extremists
  • communists appealed to poor working classes
  • Nazis appealed to businessmen
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Collapse of Weimar

  • coalition fell apart
  • parties did not agree - couldn't agree on dealing with depression
  • President Hindenburg took control
  • put article 48 in place
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Gaining Support in the Depression

Propaganda

  • posters, leaflets, slogans
  • head of propaganda - Joseph Goebbels, better methods than others
  • speeches - particular topics for particular audiences, clap trap, repetition

Not Just Persuasion

  • SA threatened opponents
  • encouraged chaos
  • disrupted meetings
  • blamed communists for all violence
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Could President Hindenburg Keep Stability?

Problems in Weimar

  • proportional representation - ended up with coalisions, disgreements over everything
  • article 48 - president can pass laws without any consultation, dispute over what and emergency is
  • Heinrich Bruning - economic policies - raised taxes, cut benefits, reduced wages
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Hitler Wants to Take Control

Hitler

  • challenged Hindenburg in elections
  • Hindenburg won : 19 million - Hitler close second : 13 million
  • hammered home nationalism, hatred of ToV, suspicion of jews

                           May 28    Sep 30     July 32    Nov 32

Communists          54            77             89            100

Socialists              153           143          133           121

Centre Party          78             87            97            90

Nationalists           73             41             37            52

Nazis                     12             107           230          196

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Hitler Becoming Chancellor

  • May 1932 - Von Papen made chancellor
  • July 1932 - 230 seats for Nazis, at expense of minority parties
  • November 1932 - Von Papen got less seats so resigned
  • Schleicher appointed chancellor but couldn't gain majority
  • Hindenburg hated it - had to ask Hitler to be chancellor
  • January 1933 - Hitler officially chancellor
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Reichstag Fire 1933

Events

  • 27th February 1933 - Reichstag building on fire
  • Dutch communist - Marinus Van Der Lubbe
  • caught with matches - immediately blamed - charged with crime and executed

Consequences

  • President Hindenburg started emergency decree - article 48
  • Law for the Protection of People and the State
  • took away all freedoms, arrested communists, detained them
  • violence and propaganda - encouraged people to votes
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Hitler's Use of Article 48

Hitler's Actions

  • banned communists from Reichstag
  • won over centre party - concordat
  • right wing nationalist support
  • Reichstag ushered in to Kroll opera house by SA
  • The Enabling Act 1933 - Hitler had the power to make laws without Reichstag
  • Votes for act - 444 for, 94 against

No longer a democracy!

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Elimination of Political Opposition

  • communists - banned from the Reichstag
  • all other parties - banned between May and July
  • new parties - law against the formation, none allowed to be made
  • many socialists and communists - arrested
  • trade unions - closed down May 1933
  • Concordat - signed with Pope July 1933
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Night of the Long Knives

Events

  • 30th June 1934
  • SA - stormtroopers led by Ernst Rohm, formed 1921 - disloyal
  • ** wanted to replace SA - compiled hit lists
  • 77 people, Ernest Rohm and Von Schleicher killed
  • ** had 2 million men

Consequences

  • 1000 opponents killed
  • Rohm dead - leader of the SA
  • Hitler - head of armed forces, had to swear an oath of loyalty
  • Hitler made himself chancellor - complete control
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Hitler Changed Germany

Himmler (1900-1945)

  • 1929 - rewarded for early support, put as head
  • protected by the **
  • ruthless with opponents

Concentration Camps

  • Gustapo put 100,000 opponents in concentration camps
  • minor offenses=beatings, major offenses=death

Hitler's Character

  • lazy - decisions left to others
  • dreamt about Nazi plans - jobs left to colleagues
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Hitler Changed Germany

** and Gustapo

  • ** formed 1925 - Hitlers bodyguard
  • Hitler head of ** - responsible for imprisoning opponents

Law and Order

  • no right to trial - judges all pro-Nazi
  • everyone could be tried for crimes against the state
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Nazi Propaganda

Aspects

  •  Berlin Olympics 1936 - reports carefully controlled
  • Nuremberg rallies - annually, several days of marching
  • Hitler personality - caring, kind, friendly
  • Josef Goebbels - head of propaganda

Effects

  • Olympics - shown all around the world
  • Leni Riefenstahl - films showing everything positively
  • women - adored him, fan mail
  • memorable - slogans simple to remember
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Controlling the Media

Books

  • works of many writers banned - Karl Marx, Bertolt Bredt
  • bonfires - organised by young nazis, started May 1933

Cinema

  • Leni Riefenstahl - triumph of the will
  • mixture of entertainment and politics
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Controlling the Media

Radio

  • cheap radios - manufactured all over Germany
  • Goebbels - 6,000 loudspeakers installed in streets

Newspapers

  • daily press conference - how news should be presented
  • only newspapers - run by Nazis
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Hitler Controlling the Youth

School

  • biology - taught that Aryans were superior
  • geography - land that was once German
  • history - Nazi versions of the past

Eugenics

  • the study of how to improve the human race through selective breeding

Effect on Teachers

  • Jewish teachers sacked
  • all teachers took Hitlers oath of loyalty
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Youth Movements

Positive

  • opportunities to camp and hike
  • physical exercise
  • military discipline
  • meet partners from other parts of the country
  • fun with new friends

Negative

  • compulsory after 1936
  • girls did housekeeping
  • not thinking about Fuhrer - black mailed by trips
  • easier to take oath than refuse
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Hitler Controlling Religion

Shocked by Link to the Pope

  • no respect for Christians
  • appealed more to protestants
  • good propaganda - positive Christianity, protestants and catholics

Benefits to Catholics

  • all benefits for Hitler
  • look good to catholics
  • no change for catholics
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The Economy

Unemployment

  • 6 million in 1933
  • only 302,000 1939
  • Jews not included in numbers - dismissed
  • women at home having children
  • concentration camps not included

Self Sufficiency

  • needed a lot of imported raw materials
  • dependent on Swedish ores and food
  • four year plan from 1936 --> self sufficiency --> to be sufficient by 1940
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The Economy

German Labour Front

  • job creation schemes
  • public money doubled by 1938
  • labour front had 44,500 officials by 1939

Effects

  • public work provided - forestry, water projects etc
  • major project - road building

Rearmament

  • army grew from 100,000 1933 (ToV) --> 1.4 million in 1939
  • Huge amount of money spent - aircraft, tanks
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Social Policies

Nazi Social Policies

  • July 1935 - all German men between 18 and 25 had to 6 months work on projects
  • work for rewards
  • Strength Through Joy - provide activities for leisure time, happy workforce, holidays and cruises, concerts/theatre visits, sporting events, low cost trips
  • Beauty of Labour - better factory conditions
  • Volkswagen - car designed, 1938 foundation stone for factory laid - every family promised a car
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Social Policies

Benefits For Germans

  • 6 million unemployment ---> almost 0
  • 7000 km autobahn built by labour front
  • rearmed
  • few people starving
  • big businesses benefited from building projects - big profits made
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Nazi Policies - Women

Education

  • 1933 Nazis controlled schools
  • 'natural' occupations - wives, mothers

Physical Constraints

  • hair in certain styles - bun/plait, no dye/perm allowed
  • no fashions to follow
  • slim not good - big better for child bearing
  • makeup and trousers frowned upon

Marriage

  • 1933 - Law for the encouragement of marriage
  • newly married loan - 1,000 marks
  • each child - keep 1/4 of the loan
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Nazi Policies - Women

Employment

  • Kinde, Kurche und Kuche - children, church and cooking
  • 1939 - hardly any professional women
  • intelligent women - sacked from jobs as doctors etc

Breeding Programme

  • homes for the unmarried mothers - 'Lebenborn' spring of life, unmarried mothers give birth, used as brothels
  • local authorities - reabtes given to families with children, less to pay for gas etc
  • 12th August every year - Hitler's mum's birthday, motherhood cross given out - for women with the most children
  • contraception and termination - strictly banned
  • 1938 - awards - bronze=4 children, silver=6 children, gold=8 children
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Nazi Policies - Women

Opposition From Women

  • intellectuals - didn't want to stay at home - doctor, scientists, lawyers etc
  • protests - against anti-feminist policies
  • joined left wing groups - if caught sent to concentration camps
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Persecution

Hitler's View's

  • Aryans - super race
  • Jews and Slavs inferior to Aryan Germans
  • eliminate disabled, homosexual, different beliefs, gypsies

Position of the Jews

  • 1933 - 0.5 million in Germany
  • less than 1% of population
  • mainly good jobs, doctors, lawyers, bankers
  • German under the impression that Jews controlled society
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Persecution of the Jews Through the 1930s

April 1933

  • official boycott of businesses, SA stopped people entering

1934

  • increase in anti-Jewish propaganda

September 1935

  • Nuremberg Laws 1. Law for the protection of German blood and honour : banned marriage between Jews and Aryans. 2. Reich Citizenship Law : Jews are subjects not citizens.

1936

  • lull in persecution during Olympics, anti-Jewish posters hidden
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Persecution of the Jews Through the 1930s

September 1937

  • Hitler spoke out against Jews

June/July 1938

  • Jewish lawyers, doctors and dentists forbidden to serve Aryans

October 1938

  • Jews have red 'J' on passport

November 1938

  • Kristallnacht
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Kristallnacht

The Night of Broken Glass

  • Jewish youths killed Germany embassy official in Paris
  • 9th November - Goebells announced demonstrations against Jews
  • encouraged attack on 8,000 Jewish shops, homes and synagogues
  • 100s of deaths, 20,000 arrested and sent to concentration camps

Consequences

  • many properties damaged were rented by Jews
  • Jews fined 1 billion reichmarks for repairs
  • Jewish businesses confiscated
  • Jews given low paid jobs and employers encouraged to treat them badly
  • first mass arrest - March 1939, 30,000 Jewish men and boys sent to concentration camps
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