Intro:
Adolf Hitler co-founded the National
Socialist German Workers’ Party in 1919 and was Chancellor of Germany from
1933-1945. During this time as leader, he successfully made Germany into
a Fascist totalitarian state. He came to power as a result of the negative
economic situation Germany faced because of the 1919 Versailles Treaty and the
1929 Wall Street Crash. The people supported him because he aimed to make life
for the truly German people better. He did this by disregarding the League of
Nations, expanding empire (Lebensraum), and using non-Aryans as laborers
or as scapegoats.
Rise:
The Weimar government which ruled
Germany between 1919-1932 was inefficient and unpopular. It was seen as
traitorous because it was the government in power which accepted the dictate of
the Versailles treaty. In contrast, Hitler was a convincing orator who
represented a fresh and stronger option for leadership. The Nazi Party’s
fierce opposition to leftist thought endeared them to the wealthy
industrialists, aristocracy, and the Church. His political views were radical,
however, advocating anti-Semitism, abandoning the Treaty of Versailles, and
extreme nationalism. Thus, in the late 20s and early 30s Hitler gained
widespread support only when the economy was sour. According to Todd, in 1928
the Nazi party won 2.4% of seats in the Reichstag. However, following the Wall
Street Crash, there were 3 million unemployed Germans: banks went bankrupt;
agriculture suffered as food prices dropped, and industrial production dropped.
By 1932 the Nazis had 37.8% of the vote, making them the second largest party in
the Reichstag, He came into power democratically in a coalition government; he
was not seen as a threat. Upon being offered by Hindenburg (President of the
Weimar Republic) the role of Vice Chancellor, Hitler declined. Instead, he
demanded to be Chancellor. In 1933 he was given this role.
Maintenance:
Through legal means such as the
Enabling Act, propaganda, and the use of force, Hitler consolidated and
maintained control over Germany. The Enabling Act (1933) was essential in
ensuring his leadership would not be challenged. Hitler legally obtained full
emergency powers to make laws without the approval of the Reichstag. In short,
he was allowed to ignore the constitution and the President.
Propaganda in the form of media, mass
mobilization, and education facilitated the success of Hitler’s radical
domestic policies. It also created his cult of personality. Hitler’s manifesto
Mein Kampf, published 1926, is the book that outlines his political ideologies
and plans for a utopian Germany. His views became common law, and according to
Lowe, “many Germans began to look towards him as some sort of Messiah” (Lowe
306). Other forms of media, such as radio, were also essential to control. Nazi
ownership of the media was 69% in 1939 and 82% in 1944 (source?). This
ensured that Hitler’s speeches would be heard all over the nation, reaching and
mobilizing the maximum number of people. Hitler believed indoctrination was at
its most effective in youth. According to Lowe, boys were required to join the
Hitler Youth and girls the League of German Maidens; there they were taught
gender roles, to trust Hitler, and to even betray loved ones to the Gestapo.
Hitler reformed the education system: through German history and biology, the
syllabus legitimized German supremacy (the policies of Lebensraum and
anti-semitism) through scientific racism. According to Todd, in the (mid 30’s?)
1200 university professors were dismissed, 33% for racial reasons (for being
Jewish), and 56% for political reasons (not believing in the Nazis).
To quell dissidents, Hitler resorted to
using force. On the Night of the Long Knives in 1934, Hitler’s new
personal army, the SS, carried out a series of political murders. They aimed to
weed out traitors and ensure loyalty within the SA (the party’s army).
The SA was attractive to young men out of work because “it gave them a
small wage and a uniform” (Lowe 306).
Domestic:
His domestic polices dealt with
creating a stronger Aryan society and repairing the economy. His family
policies reflected this. Both genders had their own set of ideals to reach.
While a man’s role was to be loyal to the state and a hard worker, a women’s
role was as a mother and wife. Their working and birth control rights were
restricted so more babies would be birthed from Aryan blood. According to Lowe,
Germany even created state-run brothels, where Aryan women has babies with SS
men. Between 1935 and 1944, nearly 11,000 babies were born in this way. These
pro-natalist policies relate to Hitler’s foreign policies like lebensraum,
because for Germany to expand she needed a larger population.
Hitler’s aimed to repair the broken
economy in a number of ways. His first Four Year Plan (1932-1936) successfully
reduced unemployment rates from 6 million in 1933 to 1.7 million in 1935 (Wolfson
and Laver). He did this by engaging people in public work schemes (construction
of large scale projects such as the Autobahn) and removing Jews and women from
the job queue. Hitler saw how Versailles and the Wall Street Crash had damaged
Germany. He thus decided to make Germany’s economy as removed from other
countries’ and self-sufficient as possible (autarky). The economic
policy successfully Germany’s GNP doubled from 1933 to 1937. The aims of second
Four Year Plan (1936-1940) were similar, but with more focus on building a war
economy. This was because Hitler saw an impending second world war as a result
of his conquests. He placed investments mainly in heavy industry.
According to Collier, “In 1937-8, money spent on the military rose to 10 billion
RM and by 1938-9 this figure had risen to 17 billion RM.”
Foreign:
Throughout his regime, Hitler tried to
reunite all German speaking people (Lebensraum); Allied policies of
appeasement facilitated this until 1941. The land he thought rightfully belonged
to Germany included the Saar, the Gdansk Corridor, the Rhineland and Austria.
The Saar was taken without consequences in 1935 as a result of appeasement.
Hitler viewed this, plus the Manchurian and Abyssinian crises (1931 and
1936 respectively) as evidence of the League’s weakness. This only made Hitler
more reckless and in 1936 he remilitarized the Rhineland. Appeasement continued
to play a large part in Hitler’s conquests. The 1938 Munich Agreement was
agreed upon by France, Italy, Britain and Germany and stated that Hitler could
annex the Sudetenland (a region gained by Czechoslovakia after WWI, mainly
inhabited by ethnic Germans, over 3 million of them) given that Hitler wouldn’t
invade any other territories.
All the while, he was building a base
of support- Italy and Japan- to would eventually support him in WWII. These
agreements included the 1936 Rome-Berlin Axis (with Italy) , 1937
Anti-Cominterm Pact between (with both Italy and Japan) and the 1939 Pact of
Steel (with Italy). This is because Hitler foresaw a time where his aggression
would eventually be countered. The domestic economic policies in the late 30s
frantically built up Germany’s arms and forces. However, by 1939 he was still
not ready; in this he year signed the 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact (of
Non-Aggression).
In September 1939 he attacked
the Gdansk Corridor, a part of Northern Poland which would work as a buffer
zone, protecting Germany from attacks from the East. Britain and France were
forced to come out of their shell of appeasement and act, due to preexisting
collective security treaties with Poland. Hence began WWII.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Hitler led Germany from 1933-1945.
He rose to power on the waves of economic discontent, public opposition
to Versailles, and the inefficiencies of the Weimar government. He established
a totalitarian state and maintained it with the Enabling Act of 1933,
propaganda, and his private army. In domestic affairs, he focused on the
creation of a populous Aryan utopia and repairing the broken German economy. These
directly related to his broader foreign policies, which aimed to gather all
true Germans into the Nazi state and took over neighboring territories to do
so. Hitler’s efforts resulted in a second world war which lasted from 1939 to
1945.
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