Wikipedia - Nazi Germany

8/10/2019 Wikipedia - Nazi Germany

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Nazi Germany 1

Nazi GermanyNazi Germany , or theThird Reich , is the common name for the country of Germany while governed by Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) from 1933 to 1945.Third Reich (German: Drittes Reich) denotes the Nazi state as a historical successor to the medieval Holy Roman Empire (962 1806) and to the

modern German Empire (1871 1918). Nazi Germany had two official names, the Deutsches Reich (German Reich),from 1933 to 1943, when it becameGrodeutsches Reich (Greater German Reich).

On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. Although he initially headed a coalitiongovernment, he quickly eliminated his government partners. At this time the German national borders still werethose established in the peace Treaty of Versailles (1919), between Germany and the Allied Powers (UnitedKingdom, France, the United States, Italy, Japanet alii.) at the end of the First World War (1914 18); to the north,Germany was bounded by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east, it was divided into two andbordered Lithuania, the Free City of Danzig, Poland, and Czechoslovakia; to the south, it bordered Austria andSwitzerland, and to the west, it touched France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Rhineland, and theSaarland. These borders changed after Germany regained control of the Rhineland, Saarland and the Memelland andannexed Austria, the Sudetenland and Bohemia and Moravia. Germany expanded into Greater Germany during theSecond World War, which began in 1939 after Germany invaded Poland, triggering the United Kingdom and Franceto declare war on Germany.

During the war, Germany conquered and occupied most of Europe and Northern Africa. The Nazis persecuted andmurdered millions of Jews and other minorities in the Holocaust Final Solution. Despite its Axis alliance with othernations, mainly Italy and Japan, by 1945 Germany had been defeated, and was occupied by four of the Allied powers(France, Soviet Union, UK and US).

HistoryNazi Germany arose in the wake of the national shame, embarrassment, anger, and resentment resulting from theTreaty of Versailles (1919),[1]that dictated, to the vanquished Germans, responsibility for:

Germany's acceptance of and admission to sole responsibility for causing World War I[2]

The permanent loss of various territories and the demilitarization of other German territory[3]

The payment by Germany of heavy reparations, in money and in kind, such payments being justified in theAllied view by the War Guilt clause[4]

Unilateral German disarmament and severe military restrictions[5]

Other conditions fostering the rise of the Third Reich include nationalism and Pan-Germanism, civil unrest attributedto Marxist groups, the global Great Depression of the 1930s (consequent to the Wall Street Crash of 1929),

hyperinflation, the reaction against the counter-traditionalism and liberalism of the Weimar Republic, and the rise of communism in Germany, i.e. the growth of the KPD (Communist Party of Germany). Many voters, seeking an outletfor their frustrations, and an expression for their repudiation of parliamentary democracy, which appeared incapableof keeping a government in power for more than a few months, began supporting far right-wing and far left-wingpolitical parties, opting for political extremists such as the Nazi Party, ( Na tionalso zialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP, National Socialist German Workers' Party)[6]
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Nazi Germany 2

Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of Germany, January 1933.

The Nazis promised strong, authoritarian government in lieu of effeteparliamentary republicanism, civil peace, radical economic policy (including fullemployment), restored national pride (principally by repudiating the VersaillesTreaty), and racial cleansing, partly implemented via the active suppression of Jews and Marxists, all in name of national unity and solidarity, rather than the

partisan divisions of democracy, and the social class divisiveness of Marxism.The Nazis promised national and cultural renewal based uponVlkischmovement traditionalism, and proposed rearmament, repudiation of reparations,and reclamation of territory lost to the Treaty of Versailles.

The Nazi Party claimed that through the Treaty, the Weimar Republics liberaldemocracy, the traitorous November criminals had surrendered Germany'snational pride, by the inspiration and conniving of the Jews, whose goal wasnational subversion and the poisoning of the German blood.[5] To establish thatinterpretation of recent German history, the Nazi propaganda effectively used the

Dolchstolegende ( Dagger-stab in the Back Legend) explaining the German military failure.

From 1925 to the 1930s, the German government evolved from a democracy to ade facto conservative nationalistauthoritarian state under war hero-President Paul von Hindenburg, who disliked the liberal democracy of the WeimarRepublic, and wanted to make Germany into an authoritarian state.[7] The natural ally for establishingauthoritarianism was the German National People's Party ( Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP), "the Nationalists",but, after 1929, with the German economy floundering, more radical and younger nationalists were attracted to therevolutionary nature of the National Socialist Party, to challenge the rising popular support for communism.Moreover, the middle-class political parties lost support as the voters aggregated to the left- and right- wings of theGerman political spectrum, thus making majority government, in a parliamentary system, even more difficult.

In the federal election of 1928, when the economy had improved after the hyperinflation of the 1922 23 period, the

Nazis won only 12 seats. Two years later, in the federal election of 1930, months after the US stock market crash, theNazi Party won 107 seats, progressing from ninth-rated splinter group to second-largest parliamentary party in the Reichstag. After the federal election of 1932, the Nazis were the largest party in the Reichstag, holding 230 seats.[8]

President Hindenburg was reluctant to confer substantial executive power to Adolf Hitler, but former chancellorFranz von Papen and Hitler concorded an NSDAP DNVP party alliance that would allow Hitlers chancellorship,subject to traditional-conservative control, for President Hindenburg to develop an authoritarian state. In the event,Hitler consistently demanded to be appointed chancellor, in exchange for Hindenburgs receiving any Nazi Partysupport of the cabinets appointed under his authority.

On 30 January 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany, afterGeneral Kurt von Schleichers failure to form a viable government (see Machtergreifung). Hitler pressuredHindenburg through his son Oskar von Hindenburg, and via intrigue by former Chancellor Franz von Papen, formerleader of the Catholic Centre Party. By becoming the Vice Chancellor and keeping the Nazis a cabinet minority, vonPapen expected to be able to control Hitler. Although the Nazis had won the greatest share of the popular vote in thetwo Reichstag general elections of 1932, they had no majority of their own, not even with the NSDAP DNVPalliance that started governing in 1933 by Presidential Decree, per Article 48 of the 1919 Weimar Constitution.[9]

The National Socialist treatment of the Jews in the early months of 1933 marked the first step in a longer-termprocess of removing them from German society.[10] This plan was at the core of Adolf Hitler's "culturalrevolution".[10]
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Nazi Germany 3

Consolidation of power

The new government quickly installed a totalitarian dictatorship to Germany with legal measures establishing aco-ordinated central government, (seeGleichschaltung). On the night of 27 February 1933, the Reichstag buildingwas set afire, and the Dutch council communist Marinus van der Lubbe was found inside; he was arrested, chargedwith arson, tried, and then decapitated. The fire immediately provoked the response of thousands of anarchists,

socialists, and communists throughout the Reich; describing said free-speech exercises as insurrection, the Nazisimprisoned many to Dachau concentration camp. The public worried that the fire had been a signal meant to initiatecommunist revolution in Germany, as in 1919, so the Nazis exploited the arson with the Reichstag Fire Decree (27February 1933), rescinding most German civil liberties, includinghabeas corpus , to so suppress their opponents.

In March 1933, with the Enabling Act, voted 444 94 (the remaining Social Democrats), the Reichstag conferreddictatorial (decree) powers to Chancellor Adolf Hitler; four years of political power authorizing him to deviate fromthe Weimar Constitution; in the event, Germany officially became a single-party state on 14 July 1933. Forthwith,throughout 1934, the Nazi Party ruthlessly eliminated all political opposition; the Enabling Act already had bannedthe Communists (KPD), the Social Democrats (SPD) were banned in June, despite appeasing Hitler, and, in theJune July period, the Nationalists (DNVP), the People's Party (DVP), and the German State Party (DStP) werelike-wise obliged to disband. Moreover, at the urging of Franz von Papen, the remaining Catholic Centre Party,disbanded on 5 July 1933 after obtaining Nazi guarantees for Catholic religious education and youth groups. On 14July 1933, Germany was officially declared a single-party state.

Flag of the Weimar Republic, 1919 33

Flag of Nazi Germany, 1933 45, theNazi Party flag

In establishing the Dritte Reich, the Nazi rgime abolished the WeimarRepublic symbols, including the black-red-gold tricolour flag, and adoptednew and old imperial symbolism representing the dual nature of Germanysthird empire. The previous, imperial black-white-red tricolour, mostly disusedby the Weimar Republic, was restored as one of Germany's two, official,national flags; the second was the swastika flag of the Nazi party, whichbecame the national German flag in 1935. The national anthem remained Deutschland ber Alles (aka the Deutschlandlied , "Song of Germany"), butonly the first stanza was sung, immediately followed by the Nazi anthem Horst-Wessel-Lied("Horst Wessel Song"), accompanied by the Hitler salute.

On 30 January 1934, Reich President and Chancellor Hitler formallycentralised government power to himself with theGesetz ber den Neuaufbaudes Reichs (Act to rebuild the Reich), by disbanding Lnder (federal state)parliaments, and transferring states rights and administration to the Berlincentral government. The centralization began soon after the March 1933Enabling Act promulgation, when state governments were replaced with

Reichsstatthalter (Reich governors). Local government also was deposed;Reich governors appointed mayors of cities and towns with populaces of fewer than 100,000; the Interior Minister appointed the mayors of cities with populaces greater than 100,000; and, inthe cases of Berlin and Hamburg (and Vienna after the Anschluss sterreichs in 1938), President and ChancellorAdolf Hitler had personal discretion to appoint their mayors.

By spring of 1934, only the Reichswehr remained independent of government control; traditionally, it was separatefrom the national government, a discrete political entity. The Nazi paramilitarySturmabteilung (SA, "StormDetachment") had expected to assume command of the German military; the Reichswehr opposed SA Leader ErnstRhms ambition to subsume the Reichswehr to the SA. Moreover, Rhm also aimed to launch the "socialistrevolution" to complement the "nationalist revolution" occurred with the political ascendancy of Adolf Hitler toGerman government. Rhm and theSturmabteilung leaders wanted the regime to fulfill its campaign promise of enacting socialist legislation for Aryan Germans.
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Nazi Germany 4

At the risk of appearing to talk nonsense, I tell you that the Nazi movement will go on for 1,000 years! . . .Dont forget how people laughed at me, 15 years ago, when I declared that one day I would govern Germany.They laugh now, just as foolishly, when I declare that I shall remain in power!

Adolf Hitler to a British correspondent in Berlin, June 1934 ,[11]

Possessing only virtual absolute power without the Reichswehr , and wanting to preserve good relations with them,

and certain politicians and industrialists (weary of SA political violence), Hitler ordered theSchutzstaffel (SS) andthe Gestapo to assassinate his political enemies both in and outside the Nazi Party with the "Night of the LongKnives". The purges of Ernst Rhm, his SA cohort, the Strasserist, left-wing Nazis, and other political enemieslasted from 30 June to 2 July 1934.

March at Reichsparteitag, Nrnberg,1935.

Upon the death of Paul von Hindenburg, on 2 August 1934, the Nazi-controlled Reichstag consolidated the offices of Reichsprsident (Reich President) and Reichskanzler (Reich Chancellor), and reinstalled Adolf Hitler as Fhrer und Reichskanzler (Leader and Reich Chancellor). Until Hindenburgs death, the Reichswehr did not follow Hitler, partly because the (multi-million-man)Sturmabteilung was larger than the German Army (limited to 100,000 soldiers bythe Treaty of Versailles), and because the SA leaders sought to first subsume the Reichswehr to the SA, and then launch the Nazi socialist revolution. Theassassination of Ernst Rhm and the SA leaders, fixed the Reichswehr s positionas the sole armed forces of the Reich, and the Fhrer s imperial expansionpromises guaranteed him military loyalty. Hindenburgs death facilitatedchanging the German soldiers oath of allegiance from the Reich of the GermanConstitution to personal fealty to Adolf Hitler, the Fhrer of Germany.[12]

In the event, the Nazis ended the official NSDAP DNVP government alliance,and began introducing Nazism and Nazi symbolism to public and private

German life; textbooks were revised, or re-written to promote the Pan-German racist fantasy ofGrodeutschland (Greater Germany) to be established by the Nazi Herrenvolk ; teachers who opposed curricular Nazification weredismissed. Furthermore, to coerce popular obedience to the state, the Nazis established theGestapo secret statepolice independent of civil authority. TheGestapo controlled the German populace with some 100,000 spies andinformers, thereby were aware of anti-Nazi criticism and dissent.

Happy with Nazi prosperity, most Germans remained silently obedient, while political opponents, especially theCommunists, Marxists, and international socialists were imprisoned; "between 1933 and 1945, more than 3 millionGermans had been in concentration camps, or prison, for political reasons".[13] [14] [15] "Tens of thousands of Germans were killed for one or another form of resistance. Between 1933 and 1945, Sondergerichte (Nazi "specialcourts") killed 12,000 Germans, courts martial killed 25,000 German soldiers, and civil justice killed 40,000Germans. Many of these Germans were part of the government, civil, or military service, a circumstance whichenabled them to engage in subversion and conspiracy, while involved, marginally or significantly, in thegovernments policies."[16]
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Nazi Germany 5

World War II

German and Axis allies' conquests (in blue) in Europe during WorldWar II

Conquest of Europe

The "Danzig crisis" peaked in early 1939, around thetime that reports of controversy in the Free City of

Danzig increased, the United Kingdom "guaranteed" todefend Poland's territorial integrity and the Polesrejected a series of offers by Nazi Germany regardingboth the Free City of Danzig and the Polish Corridor.Then, the Germans broke off diplomatic relations.Hitler had learned that the Soviet Union was willing tosign a non-aggression pact with Germany and wouldsupport an attack on Poland. Germany invaded Polandon 1 September 1939 and two days later, the UnitedKingdom and France declared war on Germany. WorldWar II was underway, but Poland fell quickly,especially after the Soviets attacked Poland on 17September. The United Kingdom proceeded to bombWilhelmshaven, Cuxhaven,[17] Heligoland[18]and otherareas. Still, aside from battles at sea, no other activity occurred. Thus, the war became known as "the Phony War".

The year 1940 began with little more than the UK dropping propaganda leaflets over Prague and Vienna[19] but aGerman attack on the British High Seas fleet was followed by the British bombing the port city of Sylt.[20]After theAltmark Incident off the coast of Norway and the discovery of the United Kingdom's plans to encircle Germany,Hitler sent troops into Denmark and Norway. This safeguarded iron ore supplies from Sweden through coastal

waters. Shortly thereafter, the British and French landed in Mid- and North Norway, but the Germans de factodefeated these forces in the ensuing Norwegian campaign.

British fisherman giving a hand to an Alliedsoldier while a Stuka's bomb explodes a few

metres ahead. More than 300,000 troops wereevacuated from Dunkirk and the surrounding

beaches in May and June 1940.

In May 1940, the Phony War ended. Against the will of his advisors,Hitler ordered an attack on France through the Low Countries. TheBattle of France ended with an overwhelming German victory.However, with the British refusing Hitler's offer of peace, the warcontinued.[21] [22]Germany and Britain continued to fight at sea and inthe air. However, on 24 August, two off-course German bombersaccidentally bombed London against Hitler's orders, changing thecourse of the war.[23] In response to the attack, the British bombedBerlin, which sent Hitler into a rage. The German leader orderedattacks on British cities, and the UK was bombed heavily during TheBlitz.[24] This change in targeting priority interfered with theLuftwaffe's objective of achieving the air superiority over Britainnecessary for an invasion and allowed British air defenses to rebuild

their strength and continue the fight.

Hitler hoped to break British morale and win peace. However, the British refused to back down; eventually, Hitlercalled off the Battle of Britain strategic bombing campaign in favor of the long-planned invasion of the SovietUnion: Operation Barbarossa. Germany and its allies invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. On the eve of the

invasion, Hitler's former deputy, Rudolf Hess, attempted to negotiate terms of peace with the United Kingdom in anunofficial private meeting after crash-landing in Scotland. By contrast, Hitler had hoped that rapid success in the
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Soviet Union would bring Britain to the negotiating table.

Operation Barbarossa was supposed to begin earlier than it did; however, failed Italian ventures in North Africa andthe Balkans concerned Hitler. In February 1941, the German Afrika Korps was sent to Libya to aid the Italians andhold the British Commonwealth forces from British-held Egypt. As the North African Campaign continued, in spiteof orders to remain on the defensive, the Afrika Korps regained lost Italian territory, pushed the British back across

the desert and advanced into Egypt. In April, the Germans launched the invasion of Yugoslavia to aid friendly forcesand restore order in the midst of what was believed to be a British-supported coup. This was followed by the Battleof Greece, again to bail out the Italians, and the Battle of Crete. Because of the diversions in North Africa and theBalkans, the Germans were not able to launch Barbarossa until late in June. Moreover, men and material werediverted to create the "fortified Europe" that Hitler wanted before Germany focused its attention on the East.

Nevertheless, Barbarossa began with great success. Only Hitler worried that the German Army and its allies were notadvancing into the Soviet Union fast enough. By December 1941, the Germans and their allies were at the gates of Moscow; to the north, troops had reached Leningrad and surrounded the city.[25]Meanwhile, Germany and her alliescontrolled almost all of mainland Europe, with the exception of neutral Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Portugal,Liechtenstein, Andorra, Vatican City and Monaco.

Supply trucks on their way to Leningrad on theRoad of Life. In 1942 alone, the Siege of Leningrad claimed some 650,000 lives.

On 11 December 1941, four days after the Japanese bombed PearlHarbor, Nazi Germany declared war on the United States. Not onlywas this a chance for Germany to strengthen its ties with Japan, butafter months of anti-German hysteria in the American media andLend-Lease aid to Britain, the leaking of Rainbow Five and theforeboding content of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Pearl Harbor speechmade it clear to Hitler that the US could not be kept neutral. Moreover,Germany's policy of appeasement towards the US, designed to keep theUS out of the war, was a burden to Germany's war effort. Germany hadrefrained from attacking American convoys, even if they were boundfor the United Kingdom or the Soviet Union. By contrast, after Germany declared war on the US, the German navybegan unrestricted submarine warfare, using U-Boats to attack ships without warning.

The goal of Germany's navy, the Kriegsmarine, was to cut off Britain's supply line. Under these circumstances, oneof the most famous naval battles in history took place, with the German battleship Bismarck , Germany's largest andmost powerful warship, attempting to break out into the Atlantic and raid supply ships heading for Britain. Bismarck was sunk but not before sending Britain's largest warship, the battlecruiser HMS Hood , to the depths of the ocean.German U-Boats were more successful than surface raiders like Bismarck . However, Germany failed to makesubmarine production a top priority early on and by the time it did, the British and their allies were developing thetechnology and strategies to neutralize it. Furthermore, in spite of the submarines' early success in 1941 and 1942,

material shortages in Britain failed to fall to their World War I levels. The Allied victory in the Battle of the Atlanticwas achieved at a huge cost: between 1939 and 1945, 3,500 Allied ships were sunk (gross tonnage 14.5 million) at acost of 783 German U-Boats.[26]
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An Einsatzgruppe D soldier shoots aJew kneeling before a full massgrave, Vinnitsa, Ukraine, 1942.

Persecution and extermination campaigns

The persecution of racial, ethnic, and social minorities and "undesirables"continued in Germany and the occupied countries. From 1941, Jews wererequired to wear a yellow badge in public; most were kept in walled ghettos,

where they remained isolated from the general populace. In January 1942, theWannsee Conference, headed by Reinhard Heydrich (direct subordinate of SSChief Heinrich Himmler), redacted the plans for the "Final Solution of the JewishQuestion" ( Endlsung der Judenfrage). From then until the end of the war somesix million Jews and many others, including homosexuals, Slavs, and politicalprisoners, were systematically killed. In addition, more than ten million peoplewere put into forced labour. This genocide is called the Holocaust in English andthe Shoah in Hebrew. Thousands were shipped daily to extermination camps andconcentration camps.

Parallel to the Holocaust, the Nazis executed theGeneralplan Ost (General PlanEast) for the conquest, ethnic cleansing, and exploitation of the populaces of thecaptured Soviet and Polish territories; some 13,7 million Soviet civilians (including Jews) and 2,5 million Poles diedas a result of warfare, genocide, reprisals, forced labor or famine.[27] The Nazis' aggressive war for Lebensraum(Living space) in eastern Europe was waged to defend Western Civilization against the Bolshevism of subhumans .Estimates indicate that, had the Nazis won the war, they would have deported some 51 million Slavs from Centraland Eastern Europe.[28]Because of the atrocities suffered under Stalin, many Ukrainians, Balts, and other oppressednationalities, fought for the Nazis. The populaces of Nazi-occupied Soviet Russia who racially qualified as of theAryan race, or had no immediate Jewish ancestors, were not persecuted, and often were recruited to theWaffenSchutzstaffel(Waffen-SS ) divisions; eventually, the Nazi regime meant to Germanize the racially acceptablevolk of occupied eastern Europe.

Allied victory

Field Marshal Rommel inspecting the Free IndiaLegion, France, 1944

In early 1942, the Red Army counter-attacked, and, by winters end,the Wehrmacht were no longer immediately outside Moscow. Yet theGermans and their fascist allies held a strong line, and, in the spring,launched a major attack against the petroleum fields of the Caucasusand the Volga River in south Russia. That established the conditionsfor the definitive Nazi Soviet confrontation, the Battle of Stalingrad(17 July 1942 2 February 1943), wherein Germany and its allies

were defeated. After winning a major tank battle at Kursk-Orel in July1943, the Red Army progressed west, to Germany; henceforth, theWehrmacht and allies remained on the defensive.
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US soldiers cross the Franco German SiegfriedLine

In Libya, the Afrika Korps failed to break through the line at FirstBattle of El Alamein (1 27 July 1942), having suffered repercussionsfrom the Battle of Stalingrad. Beginning in 1942, Allied bombing of Germany increased, razing, among others, the cities of Hamburg,Cologne and Dresden, resulting in the destruction more than 160 cities

and killing a total of more than 600.000 civilians, and causing hardshipfor the survivors.[29]Contemporary estimates of Nazi German militarydead is 5.5 million.[30]

In November 1942, theWehrmacht and the Italian Army retreated toTunisia, where they fought the Americans and the British in theTunisia Campaign (17 November 1942 13 May 1943). The Alliesinvaded Sicily and Italy next, but met fierce resistance, particularly atAnzio(22 January 1944 5 June 1944) and Cassino (17 January 1944 18 May 1944), and the campaign continuedfrom mid-1943 to nearly the end of the war. In June 1944, US and UK forces established the western front with theD-Day (6 June 1944) landings in Normandy, France. After the successful Operation Bagration (22 June 19 August1944), the Red Army was in Poland; and in East Prussia, West Prussia, and Silesia the German populaces fledenmasse, fearing Communist persecution, atrocity, and death.

Meanwhile, in the underground Fhrerbunker , Adolf Hitler, leader of Nazi Germany became psychologicallyisolated and detached, exhibiting the signsof mental illness; in meetingwith military commanders, he beganconsidering suicide, should Germany lose the war. In the event, the Red Army surrounded Berlin, leaving itincommunicado from Greater Germany; despite the losses of armies and lands, the Fhrer neither relinquishedpower, nor surrendered. Moreover, without communications from Berlin, Hermann Gring sent Hitler an ultimatum,threatening to assume command of Nazi Germany in April if he received no reply which he would interpret asHitler incapacitated. Upon receiving the ultimatum, the Fhrer ordered Gring's immediate arrest, and despatched an

aeroplane delivering the reply to Gring in Bavaria. Later, in northern Germany, Reichsfhrer-SS Heinrich Himmlerbegan communicating with the Western Allies about peace negotiations; Hitler responded violently, ordering the Reichsfhrer s arrest and execution.

In spring of 1945, the Red Army was at Berlin; US and UK forces had conquered most of west Germany and met theRed Army at Torgau on the Elbe on 26 April 1945. With Berlin under siege, Hitler and key Nazi staff lived in thearmoured, underground Fhrerbunker while aboveground, in the Battle of Berlin (16 April 1945 2 May 1945) theRed Army fought remnant German army forces, Hitler Youth, and theWaffen-SS , for control of the ruined capitalcity of Nazi Germany.

Capitulation of German forces

On 30 April 1945, as the Battle for Berlin raged and the city was being overrun by Soviet forces, Hitler committedsuicide in his underground bunker. Two days later, on 2 May 1945, German General Helmuth Weidlingunconditionally surrendered Berlin to the Soviet General Vasily Chuikov.

Hitler was succeeded by Grand Admiral Karl Dnitz as Reich's President and Dr. Joseph Goebbels as ReichChancellor. No one was to replace Hitler as the Fhrer , a position Hitler abolished in his will. However, Goebbelscommitted suicide in the Fhrerbunker a day after assuming office. The caretaker government Dnitz establishednear the Danish border unsuccessfully sought a separate peace with the Western Allies. On 4 8 May 1945 most of the remaining German armed forces throughout Europe surrendered unconditionally (German Instrument of Surrender, 1945). This was the end of World War II in Europe.

The war was the largest and most destructive in human history, with 60 million dead across the world,[31]includingapprox. 6 million people who perished during the Holocaust.[32] The Soviet Union lost around 27 million peopleduring the war,[33] about half of all World War II casualties.[34] One of every four Soviet citizens was killed or
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wounded in that war.[35] Towards the end of the war, Europe had more than 40 million refugees,[36] the Europeaneconomy had collapsed, and 70% of the European industrial infrastructure was destroyed.[37]

With the creation of the Allied Control Council on 5 July 1945, the four Allied powers "assume[d] supreme authoritywith respect to Germany" (Declaration Regarding the Defeat of Germany, U.S. Department of State, Treaties andOther International Acts Series, No. 1520).

The Fall of the Third Reich

The Potsdam Conference in August 1945 created arrangements and an outline for a new government for the post-warGermany as well as war reparations and resettlement. All German annexations in Europe after 1937, such as theSudetenland, were reversed, and in addition subject to a peace settlement Germany's eastern border was shiftedwestwards to the Oder-Neisse line, effectively reducing Germany in size by approximately 25% compared to its1937 border. The territories east of the new border comprised East Prussia, Silesia, West Prussia, two-thirds of Pomerania and parts of Brandenburg. Much of these areas were agricultural, with the exception of Upper Silesia,which was the second-largest center of German heavy industry. Many smaller and large cities such as Stettin,Knigsberg, Breslau, Elbing and Danzig were cleansed of their German populations and taken from Germany as

well.France took control of a large part of Germany's remaining coal deposits. Virtually all Germans in Central Europeoutside of the new eastern borders of Germany and Austria were subsequently, over a period of several years,expelled, affecting about 17 million ethnic Germans. Most casualty estimates of this expulsion range between one totwo million dead. The French, US and British occupation zones later became West Germany (the Federal Republicof Germany), while the Soviet zone became the communist East Germany (the German Democratic Republic,excluding sections of Berlin).

The initial repressive occupation policy in Germany by the Western Allies was reversed after a few years when theCold War made the Germans important as allies against communism. West Germany recovered economically by the1960s, in what was called the economic miracle (German termWirtschaftswunder ), mainly due to the currencyreform of 1948 which replaced the Reichsmarkwith the Deutsche Mark as legal tender, halting rampant inflation, butalso to a minor degree helped by economic aid (in the form of loans) through the Marshall Plan which was extendedto also include West Germany. West German recovery was upheld thanks to fiscal policy and intense labour,eventually leading to the influx ofGastarbeiter ("guest workers").

The Allied dismantling of West German industry was finally halted in 1951, and in 1952 West Germany joined theEuropean Coal and Steel Community. In 1955 the military occupation of West Germany was ended. East Germanyrecovered at a slower pace under communism until 1990, due to reparations paid to the Soviet Union and the effectsof the centrally planned economy. Germany regained full sovereignty in 1991.

The US Army blows up the swastika atop theNazi Party rally ground (Zeppelin field) in

Nuremberg.

After the war, surviving Nazi leaders were put on trial by an Allied

tribunal at Nuremberg for crimes against humanity. A minority weresentenced to death and executed, but a number were jailed and thenreleased by the mid-1950s due to poor health and old age, with thenotable exception of Rudolf Hess, who died in Spandau Prison in 1987while in permanent solitary confinement. In the 1960s, 1970s and1980s, some renewed efforts were made in West Germany to takethose who were directly responsible for "crimes against humanity" tocourt (e.g., Auschwitz trials). However, many of the less prominentleaders continued to live well into the 1980s and 1990s.
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The victorious Allies outlawed the Nazi Party, its subsidiary organizations, and most of its symbols and emblems(including the swastika in most manifestations) throughout Germany and Austria; this prohibition remains in force.The end of Nazi Germany also saw the rise in unpopularity of related aggressive manifestations of nationalism inGermany such as Pan-Germanism and theVlkischmovement which had previously been significant political ideasthere, and in other parts of Europe, before the Second World War. Those that remain are largely fringe movements.In all non-fascist European countries there were legal purges to punish the members of the former Nazi and Fascistparties. Even there, however, some of the former leaders found ways to accommodate themselves under the newcircumstances.

Nuremberg Trials

The prosecutions principal defendant wasHermann Gring (left, first row ), the mostimportant surviving Third Reich official.

Nazi German war crimes and crimes against humanity revivedinternationalism in Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc, resulting inthe establishment of the United Nations (26 June 1945). One of theorganizations first orders of business was establishing war crimestribunals to try Nazi officials in the Nuremberg Trials, held in theNazis' (former) political stronghold, Nuremberg, Bavaria. The first,

major and trial was theTrial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal (IMT), of 24 key Naziofficials including Hermann Gring, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Rudolf Hess, Albert Speer, Karl Dnitz, Hans Frank, and Julius Streicher.Many defendants were found guilty, 12 were sentenced to death byhanging. Many of those hanged praised Hitler in their last seconds of life, and a few officials evaded execution. Among them were Gring,who committed suicide by ingesting cyanide; Hess, (a formerly close confidant of Hitler's, sentenced to life in prisonand stayed in Spandau prison until his death in 1987); Speer, (the state architect and later armaments minister whoserved 20 years despite his use of slave labour); Konstantin von Neurath, (a Third Reich cabinet minister who was in

office before the advent of the Nazi regime); and another minister who also served in the pre-Nazi government, theeconomist Hjalmar Schacht. Nonetheless, some have accused the Nuremberg Trials of being victors justice ,because no like action was taken to punish the war crimes and crimes against humanity of the victors.[38] [39]

Geography

Administrative regions of Greater German Reich in 1944.

Administration

To consolidate Adolf Hitlers control of

Germany, in 1935, the Nazi rgime de factoreplaced the administration of the Lnder (constituent states) withgaus (regionaldistricts) headed by governors answerable tothe central Reich government in Berlin. Thereorganization politically weakened Prussia,which had historically dominated Germanpolitics. Moreover, despite havingcentralised and assumed the Gaugovernments, some Nazis still retained
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leadership title to the different Lnder ; Hermann Gring was and remained the Reichsstatthalter (Reich stategovernor) and Minister President of Prussia until 1945, and Ludwig Siebert remained as Minister President of Bavaria.

Regions and protectorates

A 50 Korun note, the currency of theGerman Protectorate of Bohemia and

Moravia.

In the years leading to war, in addition to the Weimar Republic proper, the Reich came to include areas with ethnic German populations, such as Austria,the Czechoslovak Sudetenland, and the Lithuanian territory of Memel (theKlaipda region). Regions conquered after wars start, includeEupen-et-Malmdy, Alsace-Lorraine, Danzig, and territories of Poland(Second Polish Republic).

From 1939 to 1945, the Third Reich ruled Bohemia and Moravia as theProtectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, with its own currency; conquered,

subjugated, and annexed before the war, like-wise, Czech Silesia was incorporated to the province of Silesia; andLuxembourg was a wartime annexation in 1942. Central Poland and Polish Galicia were governed by theprotectorate General Government. Eventually, the Polish people were to be removed, and Poland proper thenre-populated with 5 million Germans. By late 1943, Nazi Germany had conquered the Province of Bolzano-Bozen(South Tyrol) and Istria, which had been parts of Austria-Hungary before 1919, and seized Trieste after the(erstwhile Axis Ally) Italian Fascist government capitulated to the Allies.

The Greater Germanic Reich

A 42-pfennig postal stamp of Adolf Hitler (1944). Germany became the

Grossdeutsches Reich in 1943.

Beyond the territories directly annexed into Germany were the Reichskommissariate (Reich Commissariats), administrative regions establishedin a number of occupied lands that were ruled by Nazi civilian administrators(Reichskommissars). Although outside of the Reich in a legal sense these wereintended for eventual incorporation into it, both as sources for Lebensraum andto unite all the Germanic inhabitants of Europe into one nation. Nazi-occupiedSoviet Russia included the Reichskommissariat Ostland (encompassing theBaltic states, eastern parts of Poland, and western parts of Belarus) and a Reichskommissariat Ukraine. In northern and western Europe, there were the Reichskommissariat Niederlande (the Netherlands) and the Reichskommissariat Norwegen (Norway). In June 1944 a Franco Belgian Reichskommissariat derived from the previous Military Administration of Belgium and North Francewas also established to facilitate the area's intended annexation into Germany.This subsequently happened in December 1944 when it was split into three new

Reichsgaue: Flanders, Wallonia, and Brussels of the Greater German Reich. This meant little in reality however asthe majority of Belgium had already been liberated by the Allied forces at that point, although the Wehrmacht didmake small gains in retaking Wallonia in the Ardennes offensive.

Adolf Hitler and other leading Nazi politicians believed that thenon-German Germanic peoples of Europe, such asthe Scandinavians, the Dutch, and the Flemish, racially belonged to the superior Aryan Herrenvolk . Hitler announcedthat he wanted to do away with the "unnatural" division of the Nordic race into many different countries("kleinstaatengermpel"). This policy stated that since the union with Austria had transformed Germany into aGreater German Reich (Grossdeutsches Reich), so would its union with the rest of Germanic Europe create a Greater

Germanic Reich (Grossgermanisches Reich). The British however were expected to be accorded a higher status thenother "Germanic" Europeans (who were to simply be absorbed into the Reich), as partners in the Nazi's New Order
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rather than subjects. Hitler professed an admiration for the British Empire and its people as proof of Aryansuperiority in Mein Kampf.

Post-war changes

The de facto borders of the Reich changed long before its vanquishment in May 1945; as the Red Army progressed

westwards, the colonist German populaces fled to Germany proper, as the Western Allies advanced eastwards, fromFrance. At wars end, a small strip of land, from Austria to Bohemia and Moravia (and other isolated regions) wasthe only area not occupied by the Allies. Upon its defeat, some have historians propose that the Reich was indebellation. France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States, established occupation zones. Theprewar German lands east of the Oder-Neisse line and Stettin, and environs (nearly 25 per cent of pre-war Germanterritory) were under Polish and Soviet administration, sundered for Polish and Soviet annexation; the Alliesexpelled the German inhabitants. In 1947, the Allied Control Council disestablished Prussia with Law No. 46 (20May 1947); per the Potsdam Conference (6 July 2 August 1945), the Prussian lands east of the Oder-Neisse Linewere divided and administered by Poland and the Kaliningrad Oblast, pending the final peace treaty Later, bysigning the Treaty of Warsaw (1970) and the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany (1990),

Germany renounced claims to territories lost during the Second World War (1939 45).

EconomyIn keeping with the political syncretism of fascism, the Nazi war economy was a mixed economy of free-market andcentral-planning practices; historian Richard Overy reports: The German economy fell between two stools. It wasnot enough of a command economy to do what the Soviet system could do; yet it was not capitalist enough to rely, asAmerica did, on the recruitment of private enterprise. [40]

20 Reichsmarknote

When the Nazis assumed German government, their most pressingeconomic matter was a national unemployment rate of approximately

30 per cent;[41]

at the start, Third Reich economic policies were thebrainchildren of the economist Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, President of the Reichsbank (1933) and Minister of Economics (1934), who helped Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler implement Nazi redevelopment,reindustrialization, and rearmament of Germany; formerly, he had beenWeimar Republic currency commissioner and Reichsbank president.[41] As Economics Minister, Schacht was one of fewministers who took advantage of the administrative freedom allowedby the removal of the Reichsmark from the gold standard to maintainlow interest rates, and high government deficits; the extensive, national

public works, reducing the unemployment, were deficit-fundedpolicy.[41] The consequence of Economics Minister Schachtsadministration was the extremely rapid unemployment-rate decline, the greatest of any country during the GreatDepression.[41]Eventually, this Keynesian economic policy was supplemented by the increased production demandsof rearmament, inflating military budgets, and increasing government spending; the 100,000-soldier Reichswehr expanded to millions, and renamed as theWehrmacht in 1936.[41]
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Polish-forced-workers badge

OST-Arbeiter badge

While the strict state intervention into the economy, and the massiverearmament policy, almost led to full employment during the 1930s (statisticsdidn't include non-citizens or women), real wages in Germany dropped byroughly 25% between 1933 and 1938.[42] Trade unions were abolished, aswell as collective bargaining and the right to strike.[43]The right to quit also

disappeared: Labour books were introduced in 1935, and required the consentof the previous employer in order to be hired for another job.[43]

Nazi control of business retained a diminished investment profit-incentive,controlled with economic regulation concording a companys functioningwith the Reichs national production requirements. Government financingeventually dominated private investment; in the 1933 34 biennium, theproportion of private securities issued diminished from more than 50 per centof the total, to approximately 10 per cent in the 1935 38 quadrennium. Heavyprofit taxes limited self-financing companies, and the largest companies(usually government contractors) mostly were exempted from paying taxes onprofits in practice, however, government control allowed only the shell of private ownership in the Third Reich economy.[44]

In 1937, Hermann Gring replaced Schacht as Minister of Economics, andintroduced the Four Year Plan that would establish German self-sufficiencyfor war within four years by curtailing foreign importations; fixing wagesand prices (violators merited concentration-camp internment); stockdividends were restricted to six per cent on book capital, et cetera. Strategicgoals were to be achieved regardless of cost (as in Soviet economics): thusthe rapid construction of synthetic-rubber factories, steel mills, automatic

textile mills, et cetera.[41]

The Four-Year Plan is discussed in the German-expansion Hossbach Memorandum (5 November 1937)meeting-summary of Hitler and his military and foreign policy leaders planning aggressive war. Nevertheless, whenNazi Germany started the Second World War, in September 1939, the Four Year Plans expiry was not until 1940; tocontrol the Reich economy, Economics Minister Gring had established the Office of the Four Year Plan. In 1942,the increased burdens of the war, and the accidental aeroplane-crash death of Reichsminister Fritz Todt, placedAlbert Speer in economics ministry command; he then established a war economy in Nazi Germany, which requiredthe large-scale employment of forced labourers. To supply the Third Reich economy with slaves, the Nazis abductedsome 12 million people, from some 20 European countries; approximately 75 per cent were Eastern European.[45]

PoliticsThrough staffing of most government positions with Nazi Party members, by 1935 the German national governmentand the Nazi Party had become virtually one and the same. By 1938, through the policy ofGleichschaltung, localand state governments lost all legislative power and answered administratively to Nazi Party leaders, known asGauleiters, who governedGaue and Reichsgaue.

Government

Nazi Germany was made up of various competing power structures, all trying to gain favor with the Fhrer , AdolfHitler. Thus many existing laws were stricken and replaced with interpretations of what Hitler wanted. Any high

party/government official could take one of Hitler's comments and turn it into a new law, of which Hitler wouldcasually either approve or disapprove. This became known as "working towards the Fhrer ", as the government was
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not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of individuals eachtrying to gain more power and influencethrough the Fhrer. This often made government very convoluted and divided, especially with Hitler's vague policyof creating similar posts with overlapping powers and authority. The process allowed the more unscrupulous andambitious Nazis to get away with implementing the more radical and extreme elements of Hitler's ideology, such asanti-Semitism, and in doing so win political favor. Protected by Goebbels' extremely effective propaganda machine,which portrayed the government as a dedicated, dutiful and efficient outfit, the dog-eat-dog competition and chaoticlegislation was allowed to escalate. Historical opinion is divided between "intentionalists", who believe that Hitlercreated this system as the only means of ensuring both the total loyalty and dedication of his supporters and theimpossibility of a conspiracy; and "structuralists", who believe that the system evolved by itself and was a limitationon Hitler's supposedly totalitarian power.

Cabinet and national authorities

Office of the Reich Chancellery (Hans Lammers) Office of the Party Chancellery (Martin Bormann) Office of the Presidential Chancellery (Otto Meissner)

Privy Cabinet Council (Konstantin von Neurath) Chancellery of the Fhrer (Philip Bouhler)

Reich offices

Office of the Four-Year Plan (Hermann Gring) Office of the Reich Master Forester (Hermann Gring) Office of the Inspector for Highways Office of the President of the Reich Bank Reich Youth Office Reich Treasury Office

General Inspector of the Reich Capital Office of the Councillor for the Capital of the Movement (Munich, Bavaria)

Reich ministries

Reich Foreign Ministry (Joachim von Ribbentrop) Reich Interior Ministry (Wilhelm Frick, Heinrich Himmler) Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (Joseph Goebbels) Reich Ministry of Aviation (Hermann Gring) Reich Ministry of Finance (Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk) Reich Ministry of Justice (Otto Thierack)

Reich Economics Ministry (Walther Funk) Reich Ministry for Nutrition and Agriculture (Richard Walther Darr) Reich Labour Ministry (Franz Seldte) Reich Ministry for Science, Education, and Public Instruction (Bernhard Rust) Reich Ministry for Ecclesiastical Affairs (Hanns Kerrl) Reich Transportation Ministry (Julius Dorpmller) Reich Postal Ministry (Wilhelm Ohnesorge) Reich Ministry for Weapons, Munitions, and Armament (Fritz Todt, Albert Speer) Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (Alfred Rosenberg) Reich Ministers without Portfolio (Konstantin von Neurath, Hans Frank, Hjalmar Schacht, Arthur Seyss-Inquart)
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reich_Ministry_for_Weapons%2C_Munitions%2C_and_Armamenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fritz_Todthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Albert_Speerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reich_Ministry_for_the_Occupied_Eastern_Territorieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alfred_Rosenberghttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Konstantin_von_Neurathhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hans_Frankhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hjalmar_Schachthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arthur_Seyss-Inquarthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arthur_Seyss-Inquarthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hjalmar_Schachthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hans_Frankhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Konstantin_von_Neurathhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alfred_Rosenberghttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reich_Ministry_for_the_Occupied_Eastern_Territorieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Albert_Speerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fritz_Todthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reich_Ministry_for_Weapons%2C_Munitions%2C_and_Armamenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wilhelm_Ohnesorgehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reich_Postal_Ministryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Julius_Dorpm%C3%BCllerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reich_Transportation_Ministryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hanns_Kerrlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reich_Ministry_for_Ecclesiastical_Affairshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bernhard_Rusthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reich_Ministry_for_Science%2C_Education%2C_and_Public_Instructionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Franz_Seldtehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reich_Labour_Ministryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richard_Walther_Darr%C3%A9http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reich_Ministry_for_Nutrition_and_Agriculturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Walther_Funkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reich_Economics_Ministryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Otto_Thierackhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reich_Ministry_of_Justicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lutz_Schwerin_von_Krosigkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reich_Ministry_of_Financehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hermann_G%C3%B6ringhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reich_Air_Ministryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joseph_Goebbelshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ministry_of_Public_Enlightenment_and_Propagandahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Heinrich_Himmlerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wilhelm_Frickhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reich_Interior_Ministryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joachim_von_Ribbentrophttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reich_Foreign_Ministryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Munich%2C_Bavariahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Office_of_the_Councillor_for_the_Capital_of_the_Movementhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=General_Inspector_of_the_Reich_Capitalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reich_Treasury_Officehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reich_Youth_Officehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Office_of_the_President_of_the_Reich_Bankhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hermann_G%C3%B6ringhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Office_of_the_Reich_Master_Foresterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hermann_G%C3%B6ringhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Four_year_planhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Philip_Bouhlerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chancellery_of_the_F%C3%BChrerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Konstantin_von_Neurathhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Otto_Meissnerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Presidential_Chancelleryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Martin_Bormannhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Party_Chancelleryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hans_Lammershttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Reich_Chancellery


15/31

Nazi Germany 15

State ideology

National Socialism had some of the key ideological elements of f ascism which originally developed in Italy underBenito Mussolini; however, the Nazis never officially declared themselves fascists. Both ideologies involved thepolitical use of militarism, nationalism, anti-communism and paramilitary forces, and both intended to create adictatorial state. The Nazis, however, were far more racially oriented than the fascists in Italy, Portugal, and Spain.

The Nazis were also intent on creating a completely totalitarian state, unlike Italian fascists who while promoting atotalitarian state, alloweda larger degree of private liberties for their citizens. These differences allowed the Italianmonarchy to continue to exist and have some official powers. However the Nazis copied much of their symbolismfrom the Fascists in Italy, such as copying the Roman salute as the Nazi salute, use of mass rallies, both made use of uniformed paramilitaries devoted to the party (the SA in Germany and the Blackshirts in Italy), both Hitler andMussolini were called the "Leader" ( Fhrer in German, Duce in Italian), both were anti-Communist, both wanted anideologically driven state, and both advocated a middle-way between capitalism and communism, commonly knownas corporatism. The party itself rejected the fascist label, claiming National Socialism was an ideology unique toGermany.

The totalitarian nature of the Nazi party was one of its principal tenets. The Nazis contended that all the greatachievements in the past of the German nation and its people were associated with the ideals of National Socialism,even before the ideology officially existed. Propaganda accredited the consolidation of Nazi ideals and successes of the regime to the regime's Fhrer ("Leader"), Adolf Hitler, who was portrayed as the genius behind the Nazi party'ssuccess and Germany's saviour.

To secure their ability to create a totalitarian state, the Nazi party's paramilitary force, theSturmabteilung (SA) or"Storm Detachment" used acts of violence against leftists, communist, democrats, Jews and other opposition orminority groups. The SA "storm troopers" violently clashed with the Communist Party of Germany (German Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands KPD) which created a climate of lawlessness and fear. In the cities, peoplewere anxious over punishment or even death, if they displayed opposition to the Nazis. Given the frustrations of thepeople (after World War I and during the Great Depression) it was easy for the SA to attract large numbers of alienated (and unemployed) youth and working class people for the party.

The "German problem", as it is often referred to in English scholarship, focuses on the issue of administration of Germanic regions in Northern and Central Europe, an important theme throughout German history.[46]The "logic" of keeping Germany small worked in the favor of its principal economic rivals, and had been a driving force in therecreation of a Polish state. The goal was to create numerous counterweights in order to "balance out Germany'spower".

The Nazis endorsed the concept ofGr odeutschland , or Greater Germany, and believed that the incorporation of theGermanic people into one nation was a vital step towards their national success. It was the Nazis' passionate supportof the Volk concept of Greater Germany that led to Germany's expansion, that gave legitimacy and the support

needed for the Third Reich to proceed to conquer long-lost territories with overwhelmingly non-German populationlike former Prussian gains in Poland that it lost to Russia in the 19th century, or to acquire territories with Germanpopulation like parts of Austria. The German concept of Lebensraum ("living space") or more specifically its needfor an expanding German population was also claimed by the Nazi regime for territorial expansion.

Two important issues were administration of the Polish corridor and Danzig's incorporation into the Reich. As afurther extension of racial policy, the Lebensraum program pertained to similar interests; the Nazis dete

Documents

Wikipedia - Nazi Germany