The Rise of the Nazi Dictatorship

From the Weimar Republic to Adolf Hilter, 1919-1933

Weimar Republic, 1919-1933• Republic was alien to German political culture.• “November criminals” had created republic.• Tepid support came from “Centrist” parties• Left and Right (40% of electorate) wanted to destroy

Weimar Republic

Left Center Right

KPD Liberals, German Democrats,SPD, Catholic Center Party

Nationalists,NSDAP

Problems of Weimar Republic

• Sparticists Rebellion/execution of Wilhelm Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg

• Kapp Putch• Ruhr Occupation (1923)• Hyperinations (1923)• Street violence: left vs. right• Of 376 political murders between 1919 and

1922, 354 committed by right wingers.• Beer Hall Putsch (1923)

A Glimmer of Hope, 1925-1929

• Gustav Stresemann (1878-1929)• Dawes Plan/Young Plan• Fulfillment• Admission to League of Nation• Intellectuals drift toward Weimar: “Where

they burn books, they will one day burn children.”—Thomas Mann, Magic Lantern.

Stresemann,Chancellor, 1923,Foreign Secretary,1924-1929

Great Depression• High unemployment• Right blames Weimar Government for

Depression; Left sees it as the end of capitalism.

• Nazi Party Grew in Numbers—largest party in Reichstag in 1931

• 1932 Elections see Communist Party gains: Big Business supports Hitler

• From Heinrich Brüning to Adolf Hitler; Jan 30, 1933

Date Votes %age Seats in Reichstag Background

May 1924 1,918,300 6.5 32 Hitler in prison

December 1924 907,300 3.0 14 Hitler is released from

prison

May 1928 810,100 2.6 12  

September 1930 6,409,600 18.3 107 After the financial crisis

July 1932 13,745,800 37.4 230

November 1932 11,737,000 33.1 196

March 1933 17,277,000 43.9 288 After Hitler had become

Chancellor

Adolf Hitler, 1889-1945

Rassenpolitik undLebensraum

Hitler’s contradiction: Use ofTechnology to bring back a Medieval social order

HITLER and Nazi Party• June 1934—purge of Ernst Röhm and Sturmabteilung• Schutzstaffel und Geheimestaatspolizei• 1934 Nuremburg Party Congress• Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938• Horst Wessel/Horst Wesel Lied• Wehrmacht oath (August 2, 1934)• "Ich schwöre bei Gott diesen heiligen Eid, daß ich dem

Führer des Deutschen Reiches und Volkes Adolf Hitler, dem Oberbefehlshaber der Wehrmacht, unbedingten Gehorsam leisten und als tapferer Soldat bereit sein will, jederzeit für diesen Eid mein Leben einzusetzen."

• ("I swear by God this sacred oath that to the Leader of the German state and people, Adolf Hitler, supreme commander of the armed forces, I shall render unconditional obedience and that as a brave soldier I shall at all times be prepared to give my life for this oath.“)

Undoing of World Order

• Japanese invasion of Manchuria, 1933• Italian invasion of Ethiopia, 1935• German conscription resumes, 1936• Spanish Civil War, 1936-39• Anschluß mit Austria, 1938• Sudetenland/Munich Conference, 1939

Blitzkrieg into Poland, Sept. 1, 1939