What were the origins of the Nazi Party?
Anton Prexler formed the DAP (Germany Workers Party)
It later reformed as NSDAP (National Socialist German Worker’s Party)
Why did Hitler join the DAP?
He was sent as a spy by the German Army to report on their activities but became interested on their stance on Germany
What were the key ideas of the Nazi Party?
- German nationalism - the nation should be strong and native German speaker united, TOV abolished, expansion into eastern Europe needed
- Racial ideas - believed in pseudo science regarding social Darwinism and the superiority Aryan race
What were the immediate consequences of the Munich Putch for the Nazis?
- Number of party imprisoned including Hitler
- Party banned in Bravria
- Lost support
What were the later on effects of the Munich Putsch on the Nazis?
- Realised they had to gain power through votes
- Set up Hitler Youth and the SS (personal army)
- Membership grew from 27,000 in 1925 to 108,000 in 1928
Give the succession of events that lead to Hitler becoming Chancellor
- 1930 - Nazis gained 18.3% of vote whilst centre only had 14.3%
- 1932 April Presidential election - Hitler lost to Hindenburg 19.4 million votes to 13.9 million
- Hindenburg appointed Von Papen chancellor but V.P was unable to gain Reichstag support
- 1932 Reichstag election- Nazis got 37.4% of the vote and were now largest party in Reichstag. Hindenburg offered Hitler cabinet position but not chancellor. Hitler refused.
- 1932 November election - 33% of vote goes to Nazis, Von Schleicher now chancellor. Von Papen schemed to make Hitler chancellor and him self vice chancellor and control Hitler
- Hitler appointed chancellor 30 Jan 1933
What 7 events allowed Hitler to establish a dictatorship by August 1934?
1933 - The Reichstag fire, elections, The Enabling Act, Banning of political parties
1934- The Night of the Long Knives, Hindenburg’s death, Military oath to Hitler
Describe the events of the Reichstag fire and the consequence of the event
- The Reichstag building was burnt down and Marius Vander Lubbe, a dutch communist was found at the scene
- Hitler claimed fire was communist ploy to take over Germany 4000 communists were arrested
- Emergency powers were given to the police, the could arrest people and hold them indefinitely without trial
What happened at the March 1933 elections?
- Nazis used police and SA to threaten opponents
- 50 people killed
- Radio used to spread anti communist messages
- Nazis got 44% of the vote
Why was the passing of the enabling act on March 24 1933 significant?
The act, approved by the Reichstag 444 votes to 94 (more than the 2/3 majority Hitler needed) gave Hitler the authority to pass any law without the approval of the reichstag and reduced its power to nothing
What happened on the Night of the Long Knives?
- Leading SA figures were dragged from their bed and shot in Nazi headquarters
- Ernest Röhm, leader of the SA and friend of Hitler was told to commit suicide, refused and was then shot in prison
Why did the Night of the Long Knives happen?
- The SA posed a threat to Hitler with 3 million members, it was the only organisation that could overthrow him
- To reassure the army of their power - the army was smaller than the SA. The army was also supported by big business who wanted to make money manufacturing weapons for the army
When did Hindenburg die?
August 2, 1934
What happened after Hindenburg’s death?
Hitler made himself president and combined the role of chancellor and president in Fuhrer
When did the military swear an oath to Hitler?
August 1934
What two principals were key to the establishment of the Nazi government structure?
- Fuhererprinzip - all powere and sovereignty is vested in the Fuhrer
- Volkgemeinshaft - “the peoples community”, a united German nation who obey the government and are prepared to make sacrafices for the good of Germany
How was government structured under the Nazis?
Fuhrer Reich chancellery, Fuhrer chancellery, the Party R.C - ministries then officals F.C - Ministries, offices then officials T.P - policing and adminstartion
Give examples of ministries under the Reich Chancellery
- Foreign office
- Labour
- Finance
- Health
Give examples of ministries under the Fuhrer chancellery
- Propaganda
- Justice
- Finance
- Foreign affairs
- Labour
- War
Give examples of Offices under the Fuhrer chancellery
- Four Year Plan
- Health
- Race
- Family
- Highway
How did the administration of the Nazi party contribute to governing?
Acted on a more local level
Gouleiter (leaders of regional branch) oversaw the Hitler Youth and the blockwarts (lowever level official responsible of supervisions of neighbourhoods)
In what aspects did government under the Nazis stay the same as the Weimar government?
- Still a heirachy with people reporting to people above them
- Structure remained - Reichstag, cabinet minister (e.g. Konstantin von Neurath) and ministries
- Administration still done mainly by the civil service
How did the leadership within government change under the Nazis?
Hitler had ultimate power and the state operated under the principal of fuhrerprinzip
How did decision making within government change under the Nazis?
- People who demonstrated loyalty to Hitler were given more power
- Reichstag had no power - only passed 7 laws in the Nazi period
- Powers of former ministries restricted and forced to run alongside that of the fuhrer chancellery
- Hitler prevented groups of people working together in fear of the ability to generate opposition groups
How did the administration of government change under the Nazis?
Civil service often ignored
How did the governance of regional areas change under the Nazis?
- The Länder were were stripped of many powers, fully terminated under Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich in January 30th 1934
- The government became completely centralised
How was order maintained in Nazi Germany?
Through the creation of a terror state
What economic policy did the Nazi’s promise in their election campaign?
Economic recovery as soon as possible, promising to provide “work and bread”
What were the principals used to decide how the Nazis rebuilt the economy?
- Autarky - the Nazis wanted Germany to be completely self sufficient
- To prepare for war
What did the Nazis implement to aid economic recovery?
The four year plan
What economic problem did the Nazi’s not have to deal with?
Paying reparations as Brüning had agreed with the allies at Lausanne in 1932 it was impossible to do during economic depression
What was Hjalamar Schact’s role in the Nazi government?
Had to pay government debt on foreign borrowing but fell behind on it
How did the Nazis deal with the mass long-term unemployment?
- Set up Reich Labour Service (RAD) - helped unemployed people, putting them into manual work and provided basic food/accommodation
- Autobahn building schemes - created work and improved communications, eployed 84,000 between 1933-35
Did Nazi policy toward unemployment help?
- Unemployment was at 8 million in 1933 (29% in 1932), by 1936 it was 7.4%
- However figures were skewed as women and Jewish people were not counted in statistics
How did the Nazis deal with the recession in agriculture?
- Import tariffs to make German produce cheaper
- Banks told not to reposes farms in debt
- Margarine manufacturers made to put butter in product
- Reich Food Estate regulated production, distribution and set prices/wages
How did the Nazis help business?
- Small business got a lot of aid due to owners supporting Nazis, 1933 Law for the Protection of Retail Trade stopped expansion of department stores
- Trade unions banned and all workers had to join the German Labour Front (DAF) if they wanted representation
What was Hjalmar Schact’s plan to deal with international trade?
Bartering with nations such as Yugoslavia and Hungary
Give the aims of the Second Four-Year Plan (1936 - 1940)
- Autarky - increase production of raw food, agriculture to reduce imports
- To prepare for war with a command economy and expand army
What is a command economy?
An economy where the state dictates what and how much is produced
Who oversaw the second four year plan?
Herman Goering
What were the results of the first four year plan?
- Imports used to be 20% for agriculture but went to 17% by 1938
- Re-education on consumption need to reduce import needs eg meat and jam on toast instead of sausages
- Nazis feared introducing rationing as they thought it would decrease popularity
- Industrial output for coal and explosives went up - coal went from 18,000 tonnes to 300 thousand tonnes from 1936-42
What was the guns and butter debate?
The Nazis had to decide whether they bought guns in preparation for war of could continue to comfortably feed citizens. They chose guns
What was a way the Nazis aimed to build autarky?
Through using ersatz products that were ‘Nazi versions’ of the products eg buna was ersatz rubber
What evidence is there that the office of The Four Year Plan did no manage was production well?
It was reliant on several organisations that were competing against each other for funding
What did Hitler memorandum in December 1941 outline
- The need to simplify and improve armaments industry
* Rationing reeds, updating factories and equipment to create weapons efficiently as possible
What did Albert Speer, the Armaments minister, convince Hitler to do?
That he needed to be in full charge of a centralised war economy
What did the Central Planning Board control in the war economy?
- Closed smaller factories, concentrated production in larger ones
- Standardised machinery
- Adapted mass production methods
- Production became more mechanised
Why was moral towards the war from 1939 to 1942 relatively high?
- Rationing wasn’t too bad (e.g. meat was at 300g per week until April 1942)
- Early victories in Poland, Norway, Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium and France
- Propaganda
Why did the moral decline in the later half of the war?
- Difficult working conditions
- Shortages - food and clothes
- Bombing of German cities by allies
- Soviet advance from 1943 created fear of Russian invasion
- Failure of the V1 and V2 rocket scheme agains south east England
How did Albert Speer improve Germany’s production?
- Employed women in arms factories
- Used concentration camps prisoners as workers
- Prevents skulked workers from getting lost to military service
- Created uniform machinery and introduced methods of mass production
How did Albert Speer improve Germany’s production?
- Employed women in arms factories
- Used concentration camps prisoners as workers
- Prevents skulked workers from getting lost to military service
- Created uniform machinery and introduced methods of mass production
Were the Nazis able to meet their aims for the second four year plan?
No
• Ersatz couldn’t replace all materials
• Armaments production remained low compared to other nations 8,290 weapons to 10,780 from 1939-42 whilst Britain’s had trebles to 21,000
• Bombing from other nations stopped production during the war
What reasons meant the Germany war economy was overstretched?
- Allied bombing wiped out factories, mines and towns out
- Loss fo land for raw material
- damage to electricity/gas and water supplies
- sabotage by foreign workers
Evidence the Nazi economy was effective
• By the second half of 1944 German production had increased by 300% since 1942
• Ammunition production increased by 97% and munitions productivity per worker went up to 60%
However this didn’t mean that the quality of good was good
Evidence the Nazi economy was ineffective
- Hitler had outlines war production before the war started (e.g. no of aircraft and submarines)
- Women, PoW and concentration worker had to work to produce goods
- Allied bombing reduced the capacity of the German economy as it destroyed industry and communications
Name the 4 factors that allowed the Nazi regime survive between 1933 and 1945
- Propaganda and censorship
- Control of the opposition (Terror state)
- Large bodies of support
- Favourable social, economic and foreign policy
How did propaganda and censorship help the Nazi regime survive?
All forms of communication and culture were subject to their control
How did control of a terror state help the Nazi regime survive?
Created fear of rebellion against the Nazis, with Nazi ideas were upheld and implemented throughout judiciary and policing systems
How did large bodies of support and favourable policy help the Nazi regime survive?
Meant that the people were not going to try to overthrow the Nazis as people were tolerant of the regime or even strongly supported it
Evidence the Nazis controlled all forms of communication and culture is…
- Reich association established to create list of accredited journalists
- Nazi newspaper readers went from 750,000 to 3 million
- Reich Radio established to control radio content, racial purged 13% of workers. By 1939, 70% of people own a radio
- Nazi Publishing house Eher Verlog owned 2/3 of German press by 1939
Evidence the Nazis created a terror state is…
- 250,000 SS (Schutzstaffel) officers by 1939, had begun as Hitler’s bodyguards of 240 men
- 1939: Judges had to study Nazi beliefs and these were what people were tried by
- The establishment of the Gestapo (20-40,000) to find and arrest Nazi opponents
- Concentration camps (run by SS) held prisoners who opposed the Nazis and gave the “reducation”. Around 20,000 camps with 714,211 political prisoners by 1945
What popular economic, social and foreign policy did the Nazis introduce?
- Reduced unemployment to 7.4% by 1936
- Marriage loans (1000 marks, reduced by 250 for each child born) and Mother’s cross
- Overturned ToV - Militarised with navy 35% size of UK’s
Who were the 4 main large bodies of support that the Nazis had and why did they support them?
- Wealthy industrialists - benefited from banning trade unions and war economy
- The Mittelstand - lower-middle class who were threatened by mass industry, were helped economically by the money gained through the confiscation of Jewish business
- Agricultural workers - the regime idealised the peasant lifestyle but they were heavily aided by the Nazis
- Sympathisers - anti-semites, anti-communists, racists liked the Nazis policy
Who were the main opposers of the Nazi regime?
Acrive resisters • Communists • White Rose • Conservative Elites Dissenters • Youth • Christian Opposition • Workers
Communists
• Why did they oppose the Nazis
• How did they express their opposition
- On principal due their ideologies being on the opposite end of the political spectrum
- Distributed anti Nazi pamphlets and performed minor acts of sabotage
How did the Nazis ensure the communists did not build a successful opposition against them?
- Mass trials of communists
* Infiltration by the gestapo
White Rose
• Why did they oppose the Nazis
• How did they express their opposition
- Started by the Scholl siblings, the group formed of university students opposed on moral grounds
- Printed pamphlets on Nazi crimes
How did the Nazis ensure White Rose did not build a successful opposition against them?
The Gestapo found out and arrested, tortured and executed the 6 leaders of White Rose
Conservative elites
• Why did they oppose the Nazis
• How did they express their opposition
- Formed around the army but realised how right wing the Nazis were and began to oppose them out of necessity
- The bomb plot - tried to assassinate Hitler, Himmler (head of the SS) and Goering (head of Gestapo). Colonel Von Shauffenburg planted a bomb in Hitler’s briefing room on 20th July 1944 but it was moved and only minority injured him
How did the Nazis ensure the conservative elite did not build a successful opposition against them?
Shauffenburg was shot after the bomb plot and 5000 supporters were killed in aftermaths
Youth
• Why did they oppose the Nazis
• How did they express their opposition
- Disillusionment with the Hitler Youth and war training/restrictions that they underwent
- Swing youth set up jazz clubs that accepted American/British customs, Edelweiss flower became a symbol of rebellion, Edelweiss Pirate helped to hide concentration camp escapees
How did the Nazis ensure the youth did not build a successful opposition against them?
- Clubs were raided in 1942 and participants taken to concentration camps for re-education, beatings and manual labour
- 12 members of the Edelweiss Pirates were publicly hung
Christians
• Why did they oppose the Nazis
• How did they express their opposition
- Opposed to preserve the individual rights to freely express their belief
- Martin Nielmoller (protestant priest - “they came for the..”) joined a church that opposed Nazification of German protestant churches and criticised the Nazis in sermons and in poetry
How did the Nazis ensure that Christians did not build a successful opposition against them?
Placed Neilmoller into a concentration camp for 7 years and 50% of protestants/40% catholics were harassed by the Nazis
Workers
• Why did they opposed the Nazis
• How did they express their opposition
- Aligned more with the views of communists but did not take part in active resistance and also had economic discontent
- Strikes from 1935-36 and last few months of the regime
How did the Nazis ensure that workers did not build a successful opposition against them?
They didn’t, workers strike wasn’t a large enough force
