Adolf Hitler
the government. Anarchy was more the rule in the cities.
Synopsis
Adolf Hitler, a charismatic, Austrian-born demagogue, rose to power in
Germany during the 1920s and early 1930s at a time of social, political,
and economic upheaval. Failing to take power by force in 1923, he
eventually won power by democratic means. Once in power, he eliminated
all opposition and launched an ambitious program of world domination
and elimination of the Jews, paralleling ideas he advanced in his book,
Mein Kampf. His "1,000 Year Reich" barely lasted 12 years and he died a
broken and defeated man.
Hitler's World War I Service
When World War I was touched off by the assassination by a Serb of the
heir to the Austrian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Hitler's passions
against foreigners, particularly Slavs, were inflamed. He was caught up in
the patriotism of the time, and submitted a petition to enlist in the Bavarian
army.
After less than two months of training, Hitler's regiment saw its first
combat near Ypres, against the British and Belgians. Hitler narrowly
escaped death in battle several times, and was eventually awarded two Iron
Crosses for bravery. He rose to the rank of lance corporal but no further. In
October 1916, he was wounded by an enemy shell and evacuated to a
Berlin area hospital. After recovering, and serving a total of four years in
the trenches, he was temporarily blinded by a mustard gas attack in
Belgium in October 1918.
Communist-inspired insurrections shook Germany while Hitler was
recovering from his injuries. Some Jews were leaders of these abortive
revolutions, and this inspired hatred of Jews as well as Communists. On
November 9th, the Kaiser abdicated and the Socialists gained control of
Free Corps
The Free Corps was a paramilitary organization composed of vigilante war
veterans who banded together to fight the growing Communist insurgency
which was taking over Germany. The Free Corps crushed this insurgency.
Its members formed the nucleus of the Nazi "brown-shirts" (S.A.) which
served as the Nazi party's army.
Weimar Republic
With the loss of the war, the German monarchy came to an end and a
republic was proclaimed. A constitution was written providing for a
President with broad political and military power and a parliamentary
democracy. A national election was held to elect 423 deputies to the
National Assembly. The centrist parties swept to victory. The result was
what is known as the Weimar Republic. On June 28, 1919, the German
government ratified the Treaty of Versailles. Under the terms of the treaty
which ended hostilities in the War, Germany had to pay reparations for all
civilian damages caused by the war. Germany also lost her colonies and
large portions of German territory. A 30-mile strip on the right bank of the
Rhine was demilitarized. Limits were placed on German armaments and
military strength. The terms of the treaty were humiliating to most
Germans, and condemnation of its terms undermined the government and
served as a rallying cry for those who like Hitler believed Germany was
ultimately destined for greatness.
German Worker's Party
Soon after the war, Hitler was recruited to join a military intelligence unit,
and was assigned to keep tabs on the German Worker's Party. At the time,
it was comprised of only a handful of members. It was disorganized and
1
had no program, but its members expressed a right-wing doctrine
consonant with Hitler's. He saw this party as a vehicle to reach his political
ends. His blossoming hatred of the Jews became part of the organization's
political platform. Hitler built up the party, converting it from a de facto
discussion group to an actual political party. Advertising for the party's
meetings appeared in anti-Semitic newspapers. The turning point of
Hitler's mesmerizing oratorical career occurred at one such meeting held
on October 16, 1919. Hitler's emotional delivery of an impromptu speech
captivated his audience. Through word of mouth, donations poured into the
party's coffers, and subsequent mass meetings attracted hundreds of
Germans eager to hear the young, forceful and hypnotic leader.
With the assistance of party staff, Hitler drafted a party program consisting
of twenty-five points. This platform was presented at a public meeting on
February 24, 1920, with over 2,000 eager participants. After hecklers were
forcibly removed by Hitler supporters armed with rubber truncheons and
whips, Hitler electrified the audience with his masterful demagoguery.
Jews were the principal target of his diatribe. Among the 25 points were
revoking the Versailles Treaty, confiscating war profits, expropriating land
without compensation for use by the state, revoking civil rights for Jews,
and expelling those Jews who had emigrated into Germany after the war
began.
The following day, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were published in
the local anti-Semitic newspaper. The false, but alarming accusations
reinforced Hitler's anti-Semitism. Soon after, treatment of the Jews was a
major theme of Hitler's orations, and the increasing scapegoating of the
Jews for inflation, political instability, unemployment, and the humiliation
in the war, found a willing audience. Jews were tied to "internationalism"
by Hitler. The name of the party was changed to the National Socialist
German Worker's party, and the red flag with the swastika was adopted as
the party symbol. A local newspaper which appealed to anti-Semites was
on the verge of bankruptcy, and Hitler raised funds to purchase it for the
party.
In January 1923, French and Belgian troops marched into Germany to
settle a reparations dispute. Germans resented this occupation, which also
had an adverse effect on the economy. Hitler's party benefited by the
reaction to this development, and exploited it by holding mass protest
rallies despite a ban on such rallies by the local police.
The Nazi party began drawing thousands of new members, many of whom
were victims of hyper-inflation and found comfort in blaming the Jews for
this trouble. The price of an egg, for example, had inflated to 30 million
times its original price in just 10 years. Economic upheaval generally
breeds political upheaval, and Germany in the 1920s was no exception.
The Munich Putsch
The Bavarian government defied the Weimar Republic, accusing it of
being too far left. Hitler endorsed the fall of the Weimar Republic, and
declared at a public rally on October 30, 1923 that he was prepared to
march on Berlin to rid the government of the Communists and the Jews.
On November 8, 1923, Hitler held a rally at a Munich beer hall and
proclaimed a revolution. The following day, he led 2,000 armed "brown-
shirts" in an attempt to take over the Bavarian government. This putsch
was resisted and put down by the police, after more than a dozen were
killed in the fighting. Hitler suffered a broken and dislocated arm in the
melee, was arrested, and was imprisoned at Landsberg. He received a five-
year sentence.
Mein Kampf
Hitler served only nine months of his five-year term. While in prison, he
wrote the first volume of Mein Kampf. It was partly an autobiographical
book (although filled with glorified inaccuracies, self-serving half-truths
and outright revisionism) which also detailed his views on the future of the
German people. There were several targets of the vicious diatribes in the
book, such as democrats, Communists, and internationalists. But he
2
reserved the brunt of his vituperation for the Jews, whom he portrayed as
responsible for all of the problems and evils of the world, particularly
democracy, Communism, and internationalism, as well as Germany's
defeat in the War. Jews were the German nation's true enemy, he wrote.
They had no culture of their own, he asserted, but perverted existing
cultures such as Germany's with their parasitism. As such, they were not a
race, but an anti-race.
"[The Jews'] ultimate goal is the denaturalization, the promiscuous
bastardization of other peoples, the lowering of the racial level of the
highest peoples as well as the domination of his racial mishmash through
the extirpation of the folkish intelligentsia and its replacement by the
members of his own people," he wrote. On the contrary, the German
people were of the highest racial purity and those destined to be the master
race according to Hitler. To maintain that purity, it was necessary to avoid
intermarriage with subhuman races such as Jews and Slavs.
Germany could stop the Jews from conquering the world only by
eliminating them. By doing so, Germany could also find Lebensraum,
living space, without which the superior German culture would decay. This
living space, Hitler continued, would come from conquering Russia (which
was under the control of Jewish Marxists, he believed) and the Slavic
countries. This empire would be launched after democracy was eliminated
and a "FÅhrer" called upon to rebuild the German Reich.
A second volume of Mein Kampf was published in 1927. It included a
history of the Nazi party to that time and its program, as well as a primer
on how to obtain and retain political power, how to use propaganda and
terrorism, and how to build a political organization.
While Mein Kampf was crudely written and filled with embarrassing
tangents and ramblings, it struck a responsive chord among its target those
Germans who believed it was their destiny to dominate the world. The
book sold over five million copies by the start of World War II.
Hitler's Rise to Power
Once released from prison, Hitler decided to seize power constitutionally
rather than by force of arms. Using demagogic oratory, Hitler spoke to
scores of mass audiences, calling for the German people to resist the yoke
of Jews and Communists, and to create a new empire which would rule the
world for 1,000 years.
Hitler's Nazi party captured 18% of the popular vote in the 1930 elections.
In 1932, Hitler ran for President and won 30% of the vote, forcing the
eventual victor, Paul von Hindenburg, into a runoff election. A political
deal was made to make Hitler chancellor in exchange for his political
support. He was appointed to that office in January 1933.
Upon the death of Hindenburg in August 1934, Hitler was the consensus
successor. With an improving economy, Hitler claimed credit and
consolidated his position as a dictator, having succeeded in eliminating
challenges from other political parties and government institutions. The
German industrial machine was built up in preparation for war. By 1937,
he was comfortable enough to put his master plan, as outlined in Mein
Kampf, into effect. Calling his top military aides together at the "FÅhrer
Conference" in November 1937, he outlined his plans for world
domination. Those who objected to the plan were dismissed.
Hitler Launches the War
Hitler ordered the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland in 1938.
Hitler's army invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, sparking France and
England to declare war on Germany. A Blitzkrieg (lightning war) of
German tanks and infantry swept through most of Western Europe as
nation after nation fell to the German war machine.
In 1941, Hitler ignored a non-aggression pact he had signed with the
Soviet Union in August 1939. Several early victories after the invasion of
3
the Soviet Union in June 1941, were reversed with crushing defeats at
Moscow (December 1941) and Stalingrad (winter, 1942-43). The United
States entered the war in December 1941. By 1944, the Allies invaded
occupied Europe at Normandy Beach on the French coast, German cities
were being destroyed by bombing, and Italy, Germany's major ally under
the leadership of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, had fallen.
Hitler's Last Days
Several attempts were made on Hitler's life during the war, but none was
successful. As the war appeared to be inevitably lost and his hand-picked
lieutenants, seeing the futility, defied his orders, he killed himself on April
30, 1945. His long-term mistress and new bride, Eva Braun, joined him in
suicide. By that time, one of his chief objectives was achieved with the
annihilation of two-thirds of European Jewry.
VOCABULARY
Anarchy - The absence of government or law in a society.
Demagogue - A person who gains power through impassioned public
appeals to the emotions and prejudices of a group by speaking or writing.
Free Corps - A paramilitary organization of German World War I
veterans who organized to oppose Communist insurgency.
Fuhrer - A leader, especially one exercising the absolute power of a
tyrant. Hitler's title as leader of the Nazi party, and Chief of the German
state.
Imperialism - A foreign policy which includes the taking of territory by
force or coercion.
Lebensraum (Living Space) - A German term indicating the Germans'
imperialistic designs on Europe. It also refers to the additional territory
deemed necessary to the nation for its economic well-being.
Mein Kampf - "My Struggle" in German. A book written by Hitler while
in prison which became the standard work of Nazi political doctrine.
Nazism - The abbreviation for National Socialist German Worker's Party.
The fascist dictatorship under Adolf Hitler in Germany from 1933-1945.
Paramilitary - Describing an organization which operates in the style of
an army, but in an unofficial capacity, and often in secret, such as the S.A.
Putsch - A revolt or uprising.
Reparations - Payments made by a defeated country to the victors to make
amends for losses suffered.
S.A. - The Sturmabteilung (Stormtroopers), also known as the "brown-
shirts." It was the Nazi paramilitary arm under the command of Ernst
Rîhm. It was active in the Nazi battle for the streets against members of
other German political parties and was notorious for its violent and
terroristic methods.
Swastika - An ancient symbol in the form of a twisted cross which was
adopted by the Nazi party as its logo in the 1920s.
Third Reich - The Third Empire. It refers to Hitler's name for his German
Empire as a successor to the 1st Empire of the Roman Emperors (First
Reich) and the Empire of Bismarck in 19th century Germany (Second
Reich).
Weimar Republic - The German democratic government from 1919-1934
formed after Germany's defeat in World War I. Its capital was located in
Berlin.
4
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born
politician who led the National Socialist German Workers Party. He was
Chancellor of Germany (1933-1934) and Führer (1934-1945).
The Nazi Party gained power during Germany's period of crisis after
World War I, exploiting effective propaganda and Hitler's charismatic
oratory. The Party stressed nationalism, antisemitism and anti-
communism, and murdered many of its opponents. The Nazis restructured
the state economy, rearmed the armed forces (Wehrmacht), and established
a totalitarian or fascist dictatorship. Hitler then pursued an aggressive
foreign policy, with the goal of seizing Lebensraum. The German Invasion
of Poland in 1939 drew the British and French Empires into World War II.
The Wehrmacht was initially successful and the Axis Powers occupied
most of Mainland Europe and parts of Asia. Eventually the Allies defeated
the Wehrmacht. By 1945, Germany was in ruins. Hitler's bid for territorial
conquest and racial subjugation had caused the deaths of tens of millions
of people, including the systematic genocide of an estimated six million
Jews, not including various other "undesirable" populations, in what is
known as the Holocaust.
During the final days of the war in 1945, as Berlin was being invaded and
destroyed by the Red Army, Hitler married Eva Braun. Less than 24 hours
later, the two committed suicide in the Führerbunker.
Early years
Childhood and heritage
Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary, the fourth
child of six.[2] His father, Alois Hitler, (1837–1903), was a customs
official. His mother, Klara Pölzl, (1860–1907), was Alois' third wife. She
was also his half-niece, so a papal dispensation was obtained for the
marriage. Of Alois and Klara's six children, only Adolf and his sister Paula
reached adulthood.[3] Hitler's father also had a son, Alois Jr, and a
daughter, Angela, by his second wife.[3]
Hitler said that, as a boy, he was often beaten by his father. Years later he
told his secretary, "I then resolved never again to cry when my father
whipped me. A few days later I had the opportunity of putting my will to
the test. My mother, frightened, took refuge in the front of the door. As for
me, I counted silently the blows of the stick which lashed my rear end."[5]
Hitler later said that his educational slump was a rebellion against his
father, who wanted the boy to follow him in a career as a customs official;
he wanted to become a painter instead. This explanation is further
supported by Hitler's later description of himself as a misunderstood artist.
After Alois died on 3 January 1903, Hitler's schoolwork did not improve.
At age 16, Hitler dropped out of high school without a degree.
In Mein Kampf, Hitler attributed his conversion to German nationalism to a
time during his early teenage years when he read a book of his father's
about the Franco-Prussian War, which caused him to question why his
father and other German Austrians failed to fight for the Germans during
the war.[7]
Hitler said he first became an anti-Semite in Vienna,[11] which had a large
Jewish community, including Orthodox Jews who had fled from pogroms
in Russia. But according to a childhood friend, August Kubizek, Hitler was
a "confirmed anti-Semite" before he left Linz, Austria.[11] Vienna at that
time was a hotbed of traditional religious prejudice and 19th century
racism. Hitler may have been influenced by the writings of the ideologist
and anti-Semite Lanz von Liebenfels and polemics from politicians such as
Karl Lueger, founder of the Christian Social Party and Mayor of Vienna,
the composer Richard Wagner, and Georg Ritter von Schönerer, leader of
the pan-Germanic Away from Rome! movement. Hitler claims in Mein
Kampf that his transition from opposing anti-Semitism on religious
grounds to supporting it on racial grounds came from having seen an
Orthodox Jew:
5
If this account is true, Hitler apparently did not act on his new belief. He
often was a guest for dinner in a noble Jewish house, and he interacted
well with Jewish merchants who tried to sell his paintings.[12]
Hitler may also have been influenced by Martin Luther's On the Jews and
their Lies. In Mein Kampf, Hitler refers to Martin Luther as a great warrior,
a true statesmen, and a great reformer, alongside Wagner and Frederick the
Great.[13] Wilhelm Röpke, writing after the Holocaust, concluded that
"without any question, Lutheranism influenced the political, spiritual and
social history of Germany in a way that, after careful consideration of
everything, can be described only as fateful."[14]
Hitler claimed that Jews were enemies of the Aryan race. He held them
responsible for Austria's crisis. He also identified certain forms of
Socialism and Bolshevism, which had many Jewish leaders, as Jewish
movements, merging his anti-Semitism with anti-Marxism. Later, blaming
Germany's military defeat on the 1918 revolutions, he considered Jews the
culprit of Imperial Germany's downfall and subsequent economic problems
as well.
Generalising from tumultuous scenes in the parliament of the multi-
national Austrian monarchy, he decided that the democratic parliamentary
system was unworkable. However, according to August Kubizek, his one-
time roommate, he was more interested in Wagner's operas than in his
politics.
Hitler received the final part of his father's estate in May 1913 and moved
to Munich. He wrote in Mein Kampf that he had always longed to live in a
"real" German city. In Munich, he became more interested in architecture
and, he says, the writings of Houston Stewart Chamberlain. Moving to
Munich also helped him escape military service in Austria for a time, but
the Austrian army arrested him finally. After a physical exam and a
contrite plea, he was deemed unfit for service and allowed to return to
Munich. However, when Germany entered World War I in August 1914,
he petitioned King Ludwig III of Bavaria for permission to serve in a
Bavarian regiment. This request was granted, and Adolf Hitler enlisted in
the Bavarian army.[15]
World War I
Hitler served in France and Belgium in the 16th Bavarian Reserve
Regiment (called Regiment List after its first commander). He was a
runner, the most dangerous job on the Western Front, and was often
exposed to enemy fire.[16]
Hitler was twice decorated for bravery. He received the Iron Cross, Second
Class, in 1914 and Iron Cross, First Class, in 1918, an honour rarely given
to a Gefreiter.[17] However, because the regimental staff thought Hitler
lacked leadership skills, he was never promoted to Unteroffizier. Other
historians say that the reason he was not promoted is that he was not a
German citizen. His duties at regimental headquarters, while often
dangerous, gave Hitler time to pursue his artwork. He drew cartoons and
instructional drawings for an army newspaper. In 1916, he was wounded in
the leg but returned to the front in March 1917. He received the Wound
Badge later that year. Sebastian Haffner, referring to Hitler's experience at
the front, suggests he did have at least some understanding of the military.
On 15 October 1918, Hitler was admitted to a field hospital, temporarily
blinded by a mustard gas attack. The English psychologist David Lewis[18]
and Bernhard Horstmann indicate the blindness may have been the result
of a conversion disorder (then known as hysteria). Hitler said it was during
this experience that he became convinced the purpose of his life was to
"save Germany." Some scholars, notably Lucy Dawidowicz,[19] argue that
an intention to exterminate Europe's Jews was fully formed in Hitler's
mind at this time, though he probably had not thought through how it could
be done. Most historians think the decision was made in 1941, and some
think it came as late as 1942.
6
Hitler had long admired Germany, and during the war he had become a
passionate German patriot, although he did not become a German citizen
until 1932. He was shocked by Germany's capitulation in November 1918
even while the German army still held enemy territory.[22] Like many other
German nationalists, Hitler believed in the Dolchstoßlegende ("dagger-stab
legend") which claimed that the army, "undefeated in the field", had been
"stabbed in the back" by civilian leaders and Marxists back on the home
front. These politicians were later dubbed the November Criminals.
The Treaty of Versailles deprived Germany of various territories,
demilitarised the Rhineland and imposed other economically damaging
sanctions. The treaty re-created Poland, which even moderate Germans
regarded as an outrage. The treaty also blamed Germany for all the horrors
of the war, something which major historians like John Keegan now
consider at least in part to be victor's justice: most European nations in the
run-up to World War I had become increasingly militarised and were eager
to fight. The culpability of Germany was used as a basis to impose
reparations on Germany (the amount was repeatedly revised under the
Dawes Plan, the Young Plan, and the Hoover Moratorium). Germany in
turn perceived the treaty and especially the paragraph on the German
responsibility for the war as a humiliation. For example, there was a nearly
total demilitarisation of the armed forces, allowing Germany only six
battleships, no submarines, no air force, an army of 100,000 without
conscription and no armoured vehicles. The treaty was an important factor
in both the social and political conditions encountered by Hitler and his
Nazis as they sought power. Hitler and his party used the signing of the
treaty by the "November Criminals" as a reason to build up Germany so
that it could never happen again. He also used the "November Criminals"
as scapegoats, although at the Paris peace conference, these politicians had
had very little choice in the matter.
Entry into politics
A copy of Adolf Hitler's forged German Workers' Party (DAP)
membership card. His actual membership number was 555 (the 55th
member of the party - the 500 was added to make the group appear larger)
but later the number was reduced to create the impression that Hitler was
one of the founding members (Ian Kershaw Hubris). Hitler had wanted to
create his own party, but was ordered by his superiors in the Reichswehr to
infiltrate an existing one instead.
After World War I, Hitler remained in the army and returned to Munich,
where he - in contrast to his later declarations - participated in the funeral
march for the murdered Bavarian prime minister Kurt Eisner.[23] After the
suppression of the Bavarian Soviet Republic, he took part in "national
thinking" courses organized by the Education and Propaganda
Department (Dept Ib/P) of the Bavarian Reichswehr Group, Headquarters
4 under Captain Karl Mayr. Scapegoats were found in "international
Jewry", communists, and politicians across the party spectrum, especially
the parties of the Weimar Coalition.
In July 1919, Hitler was appointed a Verbindungsmann (police spy) of an
Aufklärungskommando (Intelligence Commando) of the Reichswehr, both
to influence other soldiers and to infiltrate a small party, the German
Workers' Party (DAP). During his inspection of the party, Hitler was
impressed with founder Anton Drexler's anti-Semitic, nationalist, anti-
capitalist and anti-Marxist ideas, which favoured a strong active
government, a "non-Jewish" version of socialism and mutual solidarity of
all members of society.
Here Hitler also met Dietrich Eckart, one of the early founders of the party
and member of the occult Thule Society.[24] Eckart became Hitler's mentor,
exchanging ideas with him, teaching him how to dress and speak, and
introducing him to a wide range of people. Hitler thanked Eckart by paying
tribute to him in the second volume of Mein Kampf.
Hitler was discharged from the army in March 1920 and with his former
superiors' continued encouragement began participating full time in the
party's activities. By early 1921, Hitler was becoming highly effective at
speaking in front of large crowds. In February, Hitler spoke before a crowd
7
of nearly six thousand in Munich. To publicize the meeting, he sent out
two truckloads of party supporters to drive around with swastikas, cause a
commotion and throw out leaflets, their first use of this tactic. Hitler
gained notoriety outside of the party for his rowdy, polemic speeches
against the Treaty of Versailles, rival politicians (including monarchists,
nationalists and other non-internationalist socialists) and especially against
Marxists and Jews.
The DAP was centered in Munich, a hotbed of German nationalists who
included Army officers determined to crush Marxism and undermine the
Weimar republic. Gradually they noticed Hitler and his growing movement
as a vehicle to hitch themselves to. Hitler traveled to Berlin to visit
nationalist groups during the summer of 1921, and in his absence there was
a revolt among the DAP leadership in Munich.
The party was run by an executive committee whose original members
considered Hitler to be overbearing. They formed an alliance with a group
of socialists from Augsburg. Hitler rushed back to Munich and countered
them by tendering his resignation from the party on 11 July 1921. When
they realized the loss of Hitler would effectively mean the end of the party,
he seized the moment and announced he would return on the condition that
he would be given dictatorial powers. Infuriated committee members
(including Drexler) held out at first. Meanwhile an anonymous pamphlet
appeared entitled Adolf Hitler: Is he a traitor?, attacking Hitler's lust for
power and criticizing the violent men around him. Hitler responded to its
publication in a Munich newspaper by suing for libel and later won a small
settlement.
The executive committee of the DAP eventually backed down and Hitler's
demands were put to a vote of party members. Hitler received 543 votes
for and only one against. At the next gathering on 29 July 1921, Adolf
Hitler was introduced as Führer of the National Socialist Party, marking
the first time this title was publicly used. Hitler changed the name of the
party to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or National
Socialist German Workers Party.
Hitler's beer hall oratory, attacking Jews, social democrats, liberals,
reactionary monarchists, capitalists and communists, began attracting
adherents. Early followers included Rudolf Hess, the former air force pilot
Hermann Göring, and the army captain Ernst Röhm, who became head of
the Nazis' paramilitary organization, the SA (Sturmabteilung, or "Storm
Division"), which protected meetings and attacked political opponents.
Hitler also assimilated independent groups, such as the Nuremberg-based
Deutsche Werkgemeinschaft, led by Julius Streicher, who became
Gauleiter of Franconia. Hitler also attracted the attention of local business
interests, was accepted into influential circles of Munich society, and
became associated with wartime General Erich Ludendorff during this
time.
Beer Hall Putsch
Encouraged by this early support, Hitler decided to use Ludendorff as a
front in an attempted coup later known as the Beer Hall Putsch (sometimes
as the Hitler Putsch or Munich Putsch). The Nazi Party had copied Italy's
fascists in appearance and also had adopted some programmatical points,
and in 1923, Hitler wanted to emulate Mussolini's "March on Rome" by
staging his own "Campaign in Berlin". Hitler and Ludendorff obtained the
clandestine support of Gustav von Kahr, Bavaria's de facto ruler, along
with leading figures in the Reichswehr and the police. As political posters
show, Ludendorff, Hitler and the heads of the Bavarian police and military
planned on forming a new government.
On 8 November 1923, Hitler and the SA stormed a public meeting headed
by Kahr in the Bürgerbräukeller, a large beer hall outside of Munich. He
declared that he had set up a new government with Ludendorff and
demanded, at gunpoint, the support of Kahr and the local military
establishment for the destruction of the Berlin government.[25] Kahr
withdrew his support and fled to join the opposition to Hitler at the first
opportunity.[26] The next day, when Hitler and his followers marched from
the beer hall to the Bavarian War Ministry to overthrow the Bavarian
8
government as a start to their "March on Berlin", the police dispersed
them. Sixteen NSDAP members were killed.[27]
Hitler fled to the home of Ernst Hanfstaengl and contemplated suicide. He
was soon arrested for high treason. Alfred Rosenberg became temporary
leader of the party. During Hitler's trial, he was given almost unlimited
time to speak, and his popularity soared as he voiced nationalistic
sentiments. A Munich personality became a nationally known figure. On 1
April 1924, Hitler was sentenced to five years' imprisonment at Landsberg
Prison. Hitler received favoured treatment from the guards and had much
fan mail from admirers.[28] He was pardoned and released from jail in
December 1924, as part of a general amnesty for political prisoners.
Including time on remand, he had served little more than one year of his
sentence.[28]
Mein Kampf
While at Landsberg he dictated Mein Kampf (My Struggle, originally
entitled "Four Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice")
to his deputy Rudolf Hess.[28] The book, dedicated to Thule Society
member Dietrich Eckart, was an autobiography and an exposition of his
ideology. It was published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926, selling about
240,000 copies between 1925 and 1934. By the end of the war, about 10
million copies had been sold or distributed (newly-weds and soldiers
received free copies).
Hitler spent years dodging taxes on the royalties of his book and had
accumulated a tax debt of about 405,500 Reichsmarks (€6 million in
today's money) by the time he became chancellor (at which time his debt
was waived).[29][30]
The copyright of Mein Kampf in Europe is claimed by the Free State of
Bavaria and scheduled to end on 31 December 2015. Reproductions in
Germany are authorized only for scholarly purposes and in heavily
commented form. The situation is however unclear. Historian Werner
Maser, in an interview with Bild am Sonntag has stated that Peter Raubal,
son of Hitler's nephew, Leo Raubal, would have a strong legal case for
winning the copyright from Bavaria if he pursued it. Raubal has stated he
wants no part of the rights to the book, which could be worth millions of
euros.[31] The uncertain status has led to contested trials in Poland and
Sweden. Mein Kampf, however, is published in the U.S., as well as in other
countries such as Turkey and Israel, by publishers with various political
positions.
Rebuilding of the party
At the time of Hitler's release, the political situation in Germany had
calmed and the economy had improved, which hampered Hitler's
opportunities for agitation. Though the Hitler Putsch had given Hitler
some national prominence, his party's mainstay was still Munich.
Since Hitler was still banned from public speeches, he appointed Gregor
Strasser, who in 1924 had been elected to the Reichstag, as
Reichsorganisationsleiter, authorizing him to organize the party in
northern Germany. Strasser, joined by his younger brother Otto and Joseph
Goebbels, steered an increasingly independent course, emphasizing the
socialist element in the party's programme. The Arbeitsgemeinschaft der
Gauleiter Nord-West became an internal opposition, threatening Hitler's
authority, but this faction was defeated at the Bamberg Conference in
1926, during which Goebbels joined Hitler.
After this encounter, Hitler centralized the party even more and asserted
the Führerprinzip ("Leader principle") as the basic principle of party
organization. Leaders were not elected by their group but were rather
appointed by their superior and were answerable to them while demanding
unquestioning obedience from their inferiors. Consistent with Hitler's
disdain for democracy, all power and authority devolved from the top
down.
9
A key element of Hitler's appeal was his ability to evoke a sense of
offended national pride caused by the Treaty of Versailles imposed on the
defeated German Empire by the Western Allies. Germany had lost
economically important territory in Europe along with its colonies and in
admitting to sole responsibility for the war had agreed to pay a huge
reparations bill totaling 132 billion marks. Most Germans bitterly resented
these terms, but early Nazi attempts to gain support by blaming these
humiliations on "international Jewry" were not particularly successful with
the electorate. The party learned quickly, and soon a more subtle
propaganda emerged, combining anti-Semitism with an attack on the
failures of the "Weimar system" and the parties supporting it.
Adolf Hitler, behind Hermann Göring, at a Nazi rally in Nuremberg in
1928.
Having failed in overthrowing the Republic by a coup, Hitler pursued the
"strategy of legality": this meant formally adhering to the rules of the
Weimar Republic until he had legally gained power and then transforming
liberal democracy into a Nazi dictatorship. Some party members,
especially in the paramilitary SA, opposed this strategy; Röhm ridiculed
Hitler as "Adolphe Legalité".
Rise to power
Brüning Administration
The political turning point for Hitler came when the Great Depression hit
Germany in 1930. The Weimar Republic had never been firmly rooted and
was openly opposed by right-wing conservatives (including monarchists),
Communists and the Nazis. As the parties loyal to the democratic,
parliamentary republic found themselves unable to agree on counter-
measures, their Grand Coalition broke up and was replaced by a minority
cabinet. The new Chancellor, Heinrich Brüning of the Roman Catholic
Centre Party, lacking a majority in parliament, had to implement his
measures through the president's emergency decrees. Tolerated by the
majority of parties, the exception soon became the rule and paved the way
for authoritarian forms of government.
The Reichstag's initial opposition to Brüning's measures led to premature
elections in September 1930. The republican parties lost their majority and
their ability to resume the Grand Coalition, while the Nazis suddenly rose
from relative obscurity to win 18.3% of the vote along with 107 seats in
the Reichstag, becoming the second largest party in Germany.
Brüning's measure of budget consolidation and financial austerity brought
little economic improvement and was extremely unpopular. Under these
circumstances, Hitler appealed to the bulk of German farmers, war
veterans and the middle class, who had been hard-hit by both the inflation
of the 1920s and the unemployment of the Depression. Hitler received
little response from the urban working classes and traditionally Catholic
regions.
Hitler's niece Geli Raubal was found dead in her bedroom in his Munich
apartment (his half-sister Angela and her daughter Geli had been with him
in Munich since 1929), an apparent suicide. Geli, who was believed to be
in some sort of romantic relationship with Hitler, was 19 years younger
than he was and had used his gun. His niece's death is viewed as a source
of deep, lasting pain for him.[32]
In 1932, Hitler intended to run against the aging President Paul von
Hindenburg in the scheduled presidential elections. Though Hitler had left
Austria in 1913, he still had not acquired German citizenship and hence
could not run for public office. In February, however, the state government
of Brunswick, in which the Nazi Party participated, appointed Hitler to a
minor administrative post and also gave him citizenship on 25 February
1932.[33] The new German citizen ran against Hindenburg, who was
supported by a broad range of reactionary nationalist, monarchist,
Catholic, republican and even social democratic parties, and against the
Communist presidential candidate. His campaign was called "Hitler über
10
Deutschland" (Hitler over Germany).[34] The name had a double meaning;
besides an obvious reference to Hitler's dictatorial intentions, it also
referred to the fact that Hitler was campaigning by aircraft.[34] This was a
brand new political tactic that allowed Hitler to speak in two cities in one
day, which was practically unheard of at the time. Hitler came in second
on both rounds, attaining more than 35% of the vote during the second one
in April. Although he lost to Hindenburg, the election established Hitler as
a realistic alternative in German politics.
Appointment as Chancellor
Meanwhile, Papen tried to get his revenge on Schleicher by working
toward the General's downfall, through forming an intrigue with the
camarilla and Alfred Hugenberg, media mogul and chairman of the DNVP.
Also involved were Hjalmar Schacht, Fritz Thyssen and other leading
German businessmen. They financially supported the Nazi Party, which
had been brought to the brink of bankruptcy by the cost of heavy
campaigning. The businessmen also wrote letters to Hindenburg, urging
him to appoint Hitler as leader of a government "independent from
parliamentary parties" which could turn into a movement that would
"enrapture millions of people."[35]
Finally, the president reluctantly agreed to appoint Hitler Chancellor of a
coalition government formed by the NSDAP and DNVP. Hitler and two
other Nazi ministers (Wilhelm Frick, Göring) were to be contained by a
framework of conservative cabinet ministers, most notably by Papen as
Vice-Chancellor and by Hugenberg as Minister of the Economy. Papen
wanted to use Hitler as a figure-head, but the Nazis had gained key
positions, most notably the Ministry of the Interior. On the morning of 30
January 1933, in Hindenburg's office, Adolf Hitler was sworn in as
Chancellor during what some observers later described as a brief and
simple ceremony. The Nazis' seizure of power subsequently became
known as the Machtergreifung. Hitler established the
Reichssicherheitsdienst as his personal bodyguards.
Reichstag fire and the March elections
Having become Chancellor, Hitler foiled all attempts to gain a majority in
parliament and on that basis persuaded President Hindenburg to dissolve
the Reichstag again. Elections were scheduled for early March, but on 27
February 1933, the Reichstag building was set on fire.[36] Since a Dutch
independent communist was found in the building, the fire was blamed on
a Communist plot to which the government reacted with the Reichstag Fire
Decree of 28 February which suspended basic rights, including habeas
corpus. Under the provisions of this decree, the German Communist Party
(KPD) and other groups were suppressed, and communist functionaries
and deputies were arrested, put to flight, or murdered.
Campaigning continued, with the Nazis making use of paramilitary
violence, anti-Communist hysteria, and the government's resources for
propaganda. On election day, 6 March, the NSDAP increased its result to
43.9% of the vote, remaining the largest party, but its victory was marred
by its failure to secure an absolute majority, necessitating maintaining a
coalition with the DNVP.[37]
"Day of Potsdam" and the Enabling Act
Parade of SA troops past Hitler. Nuremberg, November 1935.
On 21 March the new Reichstag was constituted with an opening
ceremony held at Potsdam's garrison church. This "Day of Potsdam" was
staged to demonstrate reconciliation and union between the revolutionary
Nazi movement and "Old Prussia" with its elites and virtues. Hitler
appeared in a tail coat and humbly greeted the aged President Hindenburg.
Because of the Nazis' failure to obtain a majority on their own, Hitler's
government confronted the newly elected Reichstag with the Enabling Act
that would have vested the cabinet with legislative powers for a period of
four years. Though such a bill was not unprecedented, this act was
11
different since it allowed for deviations from the constitution. Since the bill
required a two-thirds majority in order to pass, the government needed the
support of other parties. The position of the Centre Party, the third largest
party in the Reichstag, turned out to be decisive: under the leadership of
Ludwig Kaas, the party decided to vote for the Enabling Act. It did so in
return for the government's oral guarantees regarding the Church's liberty,
the concordats signed by German states and the continued existence of the
Centre Party.
On 23 March the Reichstag assembled in a replacement building under
extremely turbulent circumstances. Some SA men served as guards within
while large groups outside the building shouted slogans and threats toward
the arriving deputies. Kaas announced that the Centre Party would support
the bill with "concerns put aside," while Social Democrat Otto Wels
denounced the act in his speech. At the end of the day, all parties except
the Social Democrats voted in favour of the bill. Deputies of the
Communist Party were unable to vote, having already been arrested by the
Nazis. The Enabling Act was dutifully renewed by the Reichstag every
four years, even through World War II.
Removal of remaining limits
With this combination of legislative and executive power, Hitler's
government further suppressed the remaining political opposition. The
Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the Social Democratic Party
(SPD) were banned, while all other political parties dissolved themselves.
Labour unions were merged with employers' federations into an
organisation under Nazi control, and the autonomy of German state
governments was abolished.
Hitler also used the SA paramilitary to push Hugenberg into resigning and
proceeded to politically isolate Vice Chancellor Papen. Because the SA's
demands for political and military power caused much anxiety among
military leaders, Hitler used allegations of a plot by the SA leader Ernst
Röhm to purge the SA's leadership during the Night of the Long Knives.
Opponents unconnected with the SA were also murdered, notably Gregor
Strasser and former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher.[38]
President Paul von Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934. Rather than
holding new presidential elections, Hitler's cabinet passed a law
proclaiming the presidency dormant and transferred the role and powers of
the head of state to Hitler as Führer und Reichskanzler (leader and
chancellor).[39] Thereby Hitler also became supreme commander of the
military, whose officers then swore an oath not to the state or the
constitution but to Hitler personally.[39] In a mid-August plebiscite, these
acts found the approval of 84.6%[40] of the electorate. Combining the
highest offices in state, military and party in his hand, Hitler had attained
supreme rule that could no longer be legally challenged.
Third Reich
Main article: Nazi Germany
Having secured supreme political power, Hitler went on to gain their
support by convincing most Germans he was their savior from the
economic Depression, communism, the "Judeo-Bolsheviks," and the
Versailles Treaty, along with other "undesirable" minorities. The Nazis
eliminated opposition through a process known as Gleichschaltung.
Economy and culture
Hitler oversaw one of the greatest expansions of industrial production and
civil improvement Germany had ever seen, mostly based on debt flotation
and expansion of the military. Nazi policies toward women strongly
encouraged them to stay at home to bear children and keep house. In a
September 1934 speech to the National Socialist Women's Organization,
Adolf Hitler argued that for the German woman her "world is her husband,
her family, her children, and her home." This policy was reinforced by
bestowing the Cross of Honor of the German Mother on women bearing
four or more babies. The unemployment rate was cut substantially, mostly
12
through arms production and sending women home so that men could take
their jobs. Given this, claims that the German economy achieved near full
employment are at least partly artifacts of propaganda from the era. Much
of the financing for Hitler's reconstruction and rearmament came from
currency manipulation by Hjalmar Schacht, including the clouded credits
through the Mefo bills. The negative effects of this inflation were offset in
later years by the acquisition of foreign gold from the treasuries of
conquered nations.
Hitler also oversaw one of the largest infrastructure-improvement
campaigns in German history, with the construction of dozens of dams,
autobahns, railroads, and other civil works. Hitler's policies emphasised the
importance of family life: men were the "breadwinners", while women's
priorities were to lie in bringing up children and in household work. This
revitalising of industry and infrastructure came at the expense of the
overall standard of living, at least for those not affected by the chronic
unemployment of the later Weimar Republic, since wages were slightly
reduced in pre–World War II years, despite a 25% increase in the cost of
living.[41] Laborers and farmers, the traditional voters of the NSDAP,
however, saw an increase in their standard of living.
Hitler's government sponsored architecture on an immense scale, with
Albert Speer becoming famous as the first architect of the Reich. While
important as an architect in implementing Hitler's classicist reinterpretation
of German culture, Speer proved much more effective as armaments
minister during the last years of World War II. In 1936, Berlin hosted the
summer Olympic games, which were opened by Hitler and choreographed
to demonstrate Aryan superiority over all other races, achieving mixed
results. Olympia, the movie about the games and other documentary
propaganda films for the German Nazi Party were directed by Hitler's
personal filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl.
Although Hitler made plans for a Breitspurbahn (broad gauge railroad
network), they were preempted by World War II. Had the railroad been
built, its gauge would have been three metres, even wider than the old
Great Western Railway of Britain.
Hitler contributed slightly to the design of the car that later became the
Volkswagen Beetle and charged Ferdinand Porsche with its design and
construction.[42] Production was also deferred because of the war.
Hitler considered Sparta to be the first National Socialist state, and praised
its early eugenics treatment of deformed children.[43]
He awarded the Order of the German Eagle, the Third Reich's highest
distinction, to the industrialist Emil Kirdorf in April 1937, in reward for his
financial support during his rise to power. The next year, he organized
state funerals for him.
The Holocaust
One of the foundations of Hitler's social policies was the concept of racial
hygiene. It was based on the ideas of Arthur de Gobineau, a French count,
a pseudo-science called eugenics which sought to breed humans as if they
were farm animals[citation needed], and a misuse[citation needed] of Charles Darwin's
ideas called social Darwinism. Applied to human beings, "survival of the
fittest" was interpreted as requiring racial purity and killing off "life
unworthy of life." The first victims were children with physical and
developmental disabilities; those killings occurred in a program dubbed
Action T4.[45] After a public outcry, Hitler made a show of ending this
program, but the killings in fact continued (see Nazi eugenics).
Between 1939 and 1945, the SS, assisted by collaborationist governments
and recruits from occupied countries, systematically killed somewhere
between 11 and 14 million people, including about six million Jews,[46] in
concentration camps, ghettos and mass executions, or through less
systematic methods elsewhere. Besides being gassed to death, many also
died as a result of starvation and disease while working as slave labourers
13
(sometimes benefiting private German companies). Along with Jews, non-
Jewish Poles (over three million casualties), alleged communists or
political opposition, members of resistance groups, Catholic and Protestant
opponents, homosexuals, Roma, the physically handicapped and mentally
retarded, Soviet prisoners of war (possibly as many as three million),
Jehovah's Witnesses, anti-Nazi clergy, trade unionists, and psychiatric
patients were killed. One of the biggest centres of mass-killing was the
extermination camp complex of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Hitler never visited
the concentration camps and did not speak publicly about the killing in
precise terms.
The Holocaust (the Endlösung der jüdischen Frage or "Final Solution of
the Jewish Question") was planned and ordered by leading Nazis, with
Heinrich Himmler playing a key role. While no specific order from Hitler
authorizing the mass killing has surfaced, there is documentation showing
that he approved the Einsatzgruppen, killing squads that followed the
German army through Poland and Russia, and that he was kept well
informed about their activities. The evidence also suggests that in the fall
of 1941 Himmler and Hitler decided upon mass extermination by gassing.
During interrogations by Soviet intelligence officers declassified over fifty
years later, Hitler's valet Heinz Linge and his military aide Otto Gunsche
said Hitler had "pored over the first blueprints of gas chambers." Also his
private secretary, Traudl Junge, testified that Hitler knew all about the
death camps.
To make for smoother cooperation in the implementation of this "Final
Solution", the Wannsee conference was held near Berlin on 20 January
1942, with fifteen senior officials participating, led by Reinhard Heydrich
and Adolf Eichmann. The records of this meeting provide the clearest
evidence of planning for the Holocaust. On 22 February, Hitler was
recorded saying to his associates, "we shall regain our health only by
eliminating the Jews".
World War II
Path to defeat
On 22 June 1941, three million German troops attacked the Soviet Union,
breaking the non-aggression pact Hitler had concluded with Stalin two
years earlier. This invasion, Operation Barbarossa, seized huge amounts of
territory, including the Baltic states, Belarus, and Ukraine. It also encircled
and destroyed many Soviet forces, which Stalin had ordered not to retreat.
However, the Germans were stopped barely short of Moscow in December
1941 by the Russian winter and fierce Soviet resistance. The invasion
failed to achieve the quick triumph Hitler wanted.
Hitler's declaration of war against the United States on 11 December 1941,
four days after the Empire of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and
six days after Nazi Germany's closest approach to Moscow, set him against
a coalition that included the world's largest empire (the British Empire),
the world's greatest industrial and financial power (the United States), and
the world's largest army (the Soviet Union).
In late 1942, German forces were defeated in the second battle of El
Alamein, thwarting Hitler's plans to seize the Suez Canal and the Middle
East. In February 1943, the titanic Battle of Stalingrad ended with the
destruction of the German 6th Army. Thereafter came the gigantic Battle
of Kursk. Hitler's military judgment became increasingly erratic, and
Germany's military and economic position deteriorated. Hitler's health was
also deteriorating. His left hand trembled. The biographer Ian Kershaw and
others believe that he may have suffered from Parkinson's disease.[53]
Syphilis has also been suspected as a cause of at least some of his
symptoms, although the evidence is slight.[54]
Following the allied invasion of Sicily(Operation Husky) in 1943,
Mussolini was deposed by Pietro Badoglio, who surrendered to the Allies.
Throughout 1943 and 1944, the Soviet Union steadily forced Hitler's
14
armies into retreat along the Eastern Front. On 6 June 1944, the Western
Allied armies landed in northern France in what was one of the largest
amphibious operation in history, Operation Overlord. Realists in the
German army knew defeat was inevitable, and some plotted to remove
Hitler from power. In July 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg planted a bomb in
Hitler's Führer Headquarters, the Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) at
Rastenburg, but Hitler narrowly escaped death. He ordered savage
reprisals, resulting in the executions of more than 4,900 people,[55]
sometimes by starvation in solitary confinement followed by slow
strangulation. The main resistance movement was destroyed, although
smaller isolated groups continued to operate.
Defeat and death
By late 1944, the Red Army had driven the Germans back into Central
Europe and the Western Allies were advancing into Germany. Germany
had lost the war, but Hitler allowed no retreats. He hoped to negotiate a
separate peace with America and Britain, a hope buoyed by the death of
Franklin D. Roosevelt on 12 April 1945.[56][57] Hitler's stubbornness and
defiance of military realities also allowed the Holocaust to continue. He
also ordered the complete destruction of all German industrial
infrastructure before it could fall into allied hands, saying that Germany's
failure to win the war forfeited its right to survive.[58] Execution of the plan
was entrusted to arms minister Albert Speer, who disobeyed the order.[58]
In April 1945, Soviet forces attacked the outskirts of Berlin. Hitler's
followers urged him to flee to the mountains of Bavaria to make a last
stand in the National Redoubt. But Hitler was determined to either live or
die in the capital.
20 April 1945. Hitler awards the Iron Cross to Hitler Youth outside his
bunker.
On 20 April Hitler celebrated his 56th birthday in the "Führer's shelter"
(Führerbunker) below the Reich Chancellery (Reichskanzlei). The garrison
commander of the besieged "fortress Breslau" (Festung Breslau), General
Hermann Niehoff, had chocolates distributed to his troops in honor of
Hitler's birthday.[59]
By 21 April, Georgi Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front had broken through
the defenses of German General Gotthard Heinrici's Army Group Vistula
during the Battle of the Seelow Heights. The Soviets were now advancing
towards Hitler's bunker with little to stop them. Ignoring the facts, Hitler
saw salvation in the ragtag units commanded by General Felix Steiner.
Steiner's command became known as "Army Detachment Steiner"
(Armeeabteilung Steiner). But "Army Detachment Steiner" existed
primarily on paper. It was something more than a corps but less than an
army. Hitler ordered Steiner to attack the northern flank of the huge salient
created by the breakthrough of Zhukov's 1st Belorussian Front.
Meanwhile, the German Ninth Army, which had been pushed south of the
salient, was ordered to attack north in a pincer attack.
Late on 21 April, Heinrici called Hans Krebs chief of the Supreme Army
Command (Oberkommando des Heeres or OKH) and told him that Hitler's
plan could not be implemented. Heinrici asked to speak to Hitler but was
told by Krebs that Hitler was too busy to take his call.
On 22 April, during one of his last military conferences, Hitler interrupted
the report to ask what had happened to General Steiner's offensive. There
was a long silence. Then Hitler was told that the attack had never been
launched, and that the withdrawal from Berlin of several units for Steiner's
army, on Hitler's orders, had so weakened the front that the Russians had
broken through into Berlin. Hitler asked everyone except Wilhelm Keitel,
Hans Krebs, Alfred Jodl, Wilhelm Burgdorf, and Martin Bormann to leave
the room,[60] and launched a tirade against the perceived treachery and
incompetence of his commanders. This culminated in an oath to stay in
Berlin, head up the defense of the city, and shoot himself at the end.[61]
15
Before the day ended, Hitler again found salvation in a new plan that
included General Walther Wenck's Twelfth Army.[62] This new plan had
Wenck turn his army—currently facing the Americans to the west—and
attack towards the east to relieve Berlin.[62] Twelfth Army was to link up
with Ninth Army and break through to the city. Wenck did attack and, in
the confusion, managed to make temporary contact with the Potsdam
garrison. But the link with the Ninth Army, like the plan in general, was
ultimately unsuccessful.[63]
On 23 April Joseph Goebbels made the following proclamation to the
people of Berlin:
“ I call on you to fight for your city. Fight with everything you
have got, for the sake of your wives and your children, your
mothers and your parents. Your arms are defending everything
we have ever held dear, and all the generations that will come
after us. Be proud and courageous! Be inventive and cunning!
Your Gauleiter is amongst you. He and his colleagues will
remain in your midst. His wife and children are here as well. He,
who once captured the city with 200 men, will now use every
means to galvanize the defense of the capital. The Battle for
Berlin must become the signal for the whole nation to rise up in
battle…[60]
Also on 23 April, second in command of the Third Reich and commander
of the Luftwaffe Hermann Göring sent a telegram from Berchtesgaden in
Bavaria. Göring argued that, since Hitler was cut off in Berlin, he should
assume leadership of Germany as Hitler's designated successor. Göring
mentioned a time limit after which he would consider Hitler incapacitated.
[64]
Hitler responded, in anger, by having Göring arrested, and when he
wrote his will on April 29, Göring was removed from all his positions in
the government.[64][65][66]
By the end of the day on 27 April Berlin was completely cut off from the
rest of Germany.
On 28 April, Hitler discovered that SS leader Heinrich Himmler was trying
to discuss surrender terms with the Allies (through the Swedish diplomat
Count Folke Bernadotte)[67] Hitler ordered Himmler's arrest and had
Himmler's representative in Berlin Hermann Fegelein shot.[68][65]
During the night of 28 April, General Wenck reported that his Twelfth
Army had been forced back along the entire front. Wenck noted that no
further attacks towards Berlin were possible. General Alfred Jodl
(Supreme Army Command) did not provide this information to Hans
Krebs in Berlin until early in the morning of 30 April.
Cover of U.S. military newspaper The Stars and Stripes, May 1945
On 29 April, Hans Krebs, Wilhelm Burgdorf, Joseph Goebbels, and Martin
Bormann witnessed and signed the last will and testament of Adolf Hitler.
[65]
Hitler dictated the document to his private secretary, Traudl Junge.[69]
Hitler was also that day informed of the violent death of Italian dictator
Benito Mussolini on 28 April, which is presumed to have increased his
determination to avoid capture.[70]
”
On 30 April 1945, after intense street-to-street combat, when Soviet troops
were within a block or two of the Reich Chancellory, Hitler committed
suicide, shooting himself while simultaneously biting into a cyanide
capsule.[71][72] Hitler's body and that of Eva Braun (his mistress whom he
had married the day before) were put in a bomb crater,[73] doused in
gasoline by Otto Günsche and other Führerbunker aides, and set alight as
the Red Army advanced and shelling continued.[71] Hitler also poisoned his
dog Blondi to test the poison he and Eva Braun were going to take.
On 2 May, Berlin surrendered. At the Chancellory the Russians found
Hitler's body and an autopsy was performed. Dental records apparently
16
confirmed the identification. Hitler and Braun's remains were buried by
SMERSH at their headquarters in Magdeburg. [74] In 1970, when the
facility was to be turned over to the East German government, the remains
were reportedly exhumed and cremated.[74] According to the Russian
Federal Security Service, a fragment of human skull stored in its archives
and displayed to the public in a 2000 exhibition came from the remains of
Hitler's body and is all that remains of Hitler. The authenticity of the skull
has been challenged by many historians and researchers.[74]
The Beer Hall Putsch
A series of financial events unfolded in the years 1921 though 1923 that
would propel the Nazis to new heights of daring and would even prompt
Hitler into attempting to take over Germany.
In April of 1921, the victorious European Allies of World War One,
notably France and England, presented a bill to Germany demanding
payment for damages caused in the war which Germany had started. This
bill (33 billion dollars) for war reparations had the immediate effect of
causing ruinous inflation in Germany.
The German currency, the mark, slipped drastically in value. It had been
four marks to the U.S. dollar until the war reparations were announced.
Then it became 75 to the dollar and in 1922 sank to 400 to the dollar. The
German government asked for a postponement of payments. The French
refused. The Germans defied them by defaulting on their payments. In
response to this, in January 1923, the French Army occupied the industrial
part of Germany known as the Ruhr.
The German mark fell to 18,000 to the dollar. By July 1923, it sank to
160,000. By August, 1,000,000. And by November 1923, it took
4,000,000,000 marks to obtain a dollar.
Germans lost their life savings. Salaries were paid in worthless money.
Groceries cost billions. Hunger riots broke out.
For the moment, the people stood by their government, admiring its
defiance of the French. But in September of 1923, the German government
made the fateful decision to resume making payments. Bitter resentment
and unrest swelled among the people, inciting extremist political groups to
action and quickly bringing Germany to the brink of chaos.
The Nazis and other similar groups now felt the time was right to strike.
The German state of Bavaria where the Nazis were based was a hotbed of
groups opposed to the democratic government in Berlin. By now,
November 1923, the Nazis, with 55,000 followers, were the biggest and
best organized. With Nazi members demanding action, Hitler knew he had
to act or risk losing the leadership of his Party.
Hitler and the Nazis hatched a plot in which they would kidnap the leaders
of the Bavarian government and force them at gunpoint to accept Hitler as
their leader. Then, according to their plan, with the aid of famous World
War One General, Erich Ludendorff, they would win over the German
Army, proclaim a nationwide revolt and bring down the German
democratic government in Berlin.
They put this plan into action when they learned there was going to be a
large gathering of businessmen in a Munich beer hall and the guests of
honor were scheduled to be the Bavarian leaders they now wanted to
kidnap.
On November 8, 1923, SA troops under the direction of Hermann Göring
surrounded the place. At 8:30 p.m., Hitler and his storm troopers burst into
the beer hall causing instant panic.
Hitler fired a pistol shot into the ceiling. "Silence!" he yelled at the stunned
crowd.
17
Hitler and Göring forced their way to the podium as armed SA men
continued to file into the hall. State Commissioner Gustav von Kahr,
whose speech had been interrupted by all this, yielded the podium to
Hitler.
"The National Revolution has begun!" Hitler shouted. "...No one may
leave the hall. Unless there is immediate quiet I shall have a machine gun
posted in the gallery. The Bavarian and Reich governments have been
removed and a provisional national government formed. The barracks of
the Reichswehr and police are occupied. The Army and the police are
marching on the city under the swastika banner!"
None of that was true, but those in the beer hall could not know otherwise.
Hitler then ordered the three highest officials of the Bavarian government
into a back room. State Commissioner Kahr, along with the head of the
state police, Colonel Hans von Seisser, and commander of the German
Army in Bavaria, General Otto von Lossow, did as they were told and
went into the room where Hitler informed them they were to join him in
proclaiming a Nazi revolution and would become part of the new
government.
But to Hitler's great surprise, his three captives simply glared at him and at
first even refused to talk to him. Hitler responded by waving his pistol at
them, yelling: "I have four shots in my pistol! Three for you, gentlemen.
The last bullet for myself!"
However, the revolution in the back room continued to go poorly for
Hitler. Then, on a sudden impulse, Hitler dashed out of the room and went
back out to the podium and shouted: "The government of the November
criminals and the Reich President are declared to be removed. A new
national government will be named this very day in Munich. A new
German National Army will be formed immediately...The task of the
provisional German National Government is to organize the march on that
sinful Babel, Berlin, and save the German people! Tomorrow will find
either a National Government in Germany or us dead!"
This led everyone in the beer hall to believe the men in the back room had
given in to Hitler and were joining with the Nazis. There was now wild
cheering for Hitler.
General Ludendorff then arrived. Hitler knew the three government leaders
still in the back room would actually listen to him.
At Hitler's urging, Ludendorff spoke to the men in the back room and
advised them to go along with the Nazi revolution. They reluctantly
agreed, then went out to the podium and faced the crowd, showing their
support for Hitler and pledging loyalty to the new regime.
An emotional Hitler spoke to the crowd: "I am going to fulfill the vow I
made to myself five years ago when I was a blind cripple in the military
hospital - to know neither rest nor peace until the November criminals had
been overthrown, until on the ruins of the wretched Germany of today
there should have arisen once more a Germany of power and greatness, of
freedom and splendor."
The crowd in the beer hall roared their approval and sang "Deutschland
über Alles." Hitler was euphoric. This was turning into a night of triumph
for him. Tomorrow he might actually be the new leader of Germany.
But then word came that attempts to take over several Army barracks had
failed and that German soldiers inside those barracks were holding out
against the Nazi storm troopers. Hitler decided to leave the beer hall and
go to the scene to personally resolve the problem.
Leaving the beer hall was a fateful error. In his absence the Nazi revolution
quickly began to unravel. The three Bavarian government leaders, Kahr,
18
Lossow, and Seisser, slipped out of the beer hall after falsely promising
Ludendorff they would remain loyal to Hitler.
Meanwhile, Hitler had no luck in getting the German soldiers who were
holding out in the barracks to surrender. Having failed at that, he went
back to the beer hall.
When he arrived back at the beer hall he was aghast to find his revolution
fizzling. There were no plans for tomorrow's march on Berlin. Munich
wasn't even being occupied. Nothing was happening.
In fact, only one building, Army headquarters at the War Ministry had
been occupied by Ernst Röhm and his SA troopers. Elsewhere, rogue
bands of Nazi thugs roamed the city of Munich rounding up some political
opponents and harassing Jews.
In the early morning hours of November 9, State Commissioner Kahr
broke his promise to Hitler and Ludendorff and issued a statement blasting
Hitler: "Declarations extorted from me, General Lossow and Colonel von
Seisser by pistol point are null and void. Had the senseless and purposeless
attempt at revolt succeeded, Germany would have been plunged into the
abyss and Bavaria with it."
Kahr also ordered the breakup of the Nazi party and its fighting forces.
General Lossow also abandoned Hitler and ordered German Army
reinforcements into Munich to put down the Nazi putsch. Troops were
rushed in and by dawn the War Ministry building containing Röhm and his
SA troops was surrounded.
Hitler was up all night frantically trying to decide what to do. General
Ludendorff then gave him an idea. The Nazis would simply march into the
middle of Munich and take it over. Because of his World War One fame,
Ludendorff reasoned, no one would dare fire on him. He even assured
Hitler the police and the Army would likely join them. The now-desperate
Hitler went for the idea.
Around 11 a.m. on the morning of November 9, a column of three
thousand Nazis, led by Hitler, Göring and Ludendorff marched toward the
center of Munich. Carrying one of the flags was a young party member
named Heinrich Himmler.
After reaching the center of Munich, the Nazis headed toward the War
Ministry building but they encountered a police blockade. As they stood
face to face with about a hundred armed policemen, Hitler yelled out to
them to surrender. They didn't. Shots rang out. Both sides fired. It lasted
about a minute. Sixteen Nazis and three police were killed. Göring was hit
in the groin. Hitler suffered a dislocated shoulder when the man he had
locked arms with was shot and pulled him down onto the pavement.
Hitler's bodyguard, Ulrich Graf, jumped onto Hitler to shield him and took
several bullets, probably saving Hitler's life. Hitler then crawled along the
sidewalk out of the line of fire and scooted away into a waiting car, leaving
his comrades behind. The rest of the Nazis scattered or were arrested.
Ludendorff, true to his heroic form, walked right through the line of fire to
the police and was then arrested.
Hitler wound up at the home his friends, the Hanfstaengls, where he was
reportedly talked out of suicide. He had become deeply despondent and
expected to be shot by the authorities. He spent two nights hiding in the
Hanfstaengl's attic. On the third night, police arrived and arrested him. He
was taken to the prison at Landsberg where his spirits lifted somewhat
after he was told he was going to get a public trial.
With the collapse of the Nazi revolution, it now appeared to most
observers that Hitler's political career and the Nazi movement itself had
come to a crashing, almost laughable end.
19
 A New Beginning
A few days before Christmas, 1924, Adolf Hitler emerged a free man after
nine months in prison, having learned from his mistakes. In addition to
creating the book, Mein Kampf, Hitler had given considerable thought to
the failed Nazi revolution (Beer Hall Putsch) of November 1923, and its
implications for the future.
He now realized it had been premature to attempt to overthrow the
democratic government by force without the support of the German Army
and other established institutions. He was determined not to make that
mistake again. Now, no matter how much his Nazi Party members wanted
action taken against the young German democratic republic, it simply
would not happen. He would not give in to them as he had done in
November 1923, with disastrous, even laughable results.
Hitler had a new idea on how to topple the government and take over
Germany for himself and the Nazis - play by the democratic rules and get
elected.
"...Instead of working to achieve power by an armed coup we shall have to
hold our noses and enter the Reichstag against the Catholic and Marxist
deputies. If outvoting them takes longer than outshooting them, at least the
results will be guaranteed by their own Constitution! Any lawful process is
slow. But sooner or later we shall have a majority - and after that
Germany." - Hitler stated while in prison.
The Nazi Party would be organized like a government itself, so that when
power was achieved and democracy was legitimately ended, this
'government in waiting' could slip right into place.
But before any of this could be started, Hitler had some problems to
overcome. After the Beer Hall Putsch, the government of the German state
of Bavaria banned the Nazi Party and its newspaper, the Völkischer
Beobachter (Peoples' Observer). Also, the Nazi Party was now badly
disorganized with much infighting among its leaders.
Early in 1925, Hitler visited the Prime Minister of Bavaria and managed to
convince him to lift the ban, on the promise of good behavior, and after
promising that the Nazis would work within the rules of the democratic
constitution. He then wrote a long editorial for the Völkischer Beobachter
called "A New Beginning" published February 26, 1925.
On February 27, the Nazis held their first big meeting since the Beer Hall
Putsch at which Hitler reclaimed his position as absolute leader of the Nazi
Party and patched up some of the ongoing feuds. But during his two hour
speech before four thousand cheering Nazis, Hitler got carried away and
started spewing out the same old threats against the democratic republic,
Marxists, and Jews.
For this, the government of Bavaria slapped him with a two year ban on
public speaking. It was a major setback for Hitler who owed much of his
success to his speech making ability. But rather than be discouraged or
slowed down, Hitler immediately began reorganizing the Nazi Party with
feverish effort.
The Nazi party itself was divided into two major political organizations.
PO I - Dedicated to undermining and overthrowing the German
democratic republic.
PO II - Designed to create a government in waiting, a highly organized
Nazi government within the republic that would some day replace it. PO II
even had its own departments of Agriculture, Economy, Interior, Foreign
Affairs, Propaganda, Justice, along with Race and Culture.
Germany was divided up by the Nazis into thirty four districts, or Gaue,
with each one having a Gauleiter, or leader. The Gau itself was divided
20
into circles, Kreise, and each one had a Kreisleiter, or circle leader. The
circles were divided into Ortsgruppen, or local groups. And in the big
cities, the local groups were divided along streets and blocks.
For young people, the Hitler Jugend, or Hitler Youth was formed. It was
for boys aged 15 to 18, and was modeled after the popular boy scout
programs. Younger boys aged 10 to 15 could join the Deutsches Jungvolk.
There was an organization for girls called Bund Duetscher Maedel and for
women, the Frauenschaften.
Also at this time, Hitler began to reorganize the SA, his Nazi storm
troopers, which he referred to in Mein Kampf as "...an instrument for the
conduct and reinforcement of the movement's struggle for its philosophy
of life."
The SA began as an organization of Nazi street brawlers originally called
the "monitor troop" that kept Nazi meetings from being broken up by
Marxists and fought with them in the streets as well. It had also been
Hitler's main 'instrument' in the failed Putsch.
Realizing the German man's fondness for uniforms, the SA adopted a
brown-shirted outfit, with boots, swastika armband, badges and cap. Nazi
uniforms along with the swastika symbol would become important tools in
providing recognition and visibility, thus increasing public awareness of
the party.
At this time, within the SA, a new highly disciplined guard unit was
formed by Hitler that would be solely responsible to him and would serve
as his personal body guard. It was called the Schutzstaffel, the staff guard
or SS for short. The SS adopted a black uniform, modeled party after the
Italian Fascists. A former stationery salesman, Josef Berchtold, was its first
leader. A young man who had done a variety of odd jobs for the party
became member number 168. His name was Heinrich Himmler.
But despite all this effort, the Nazis now ran into a big obstacle that limited
the Party's success. Things were getting better in Germany. The economy
was improving and unemployment was dropping. The big German
industrialists were now debt free. Factory output was increasing as
investment capital came pouring in from the United States.
An American named Charles G. Dawes had drawn up a plan, approved by
the Allies, that reduced German war reparations (the amount of money
Germany had to pay for damages it caused in the World War One). The
Dawes Plan stabilized the German currency, the mark. The plan also
provided for huge loans from America to help German industry rebuild.
The German government also borrowed from the U.S. to finance its vast
array of new social programs and municipal building projects including
airfields, sports stadiums and even swimming pools.
And Germany now had a new president, a sleepy-eyed old gentleman
named Paul von Hindenburg, a famous World War One Field Marshal. He
was unanimously backed by the conservative and middle-of-the-road
political parties to help bring stability to the republic and to thwart any
attempt by radical parties to capture the presidency.
The German Army had made its peace with the young republic. Although
forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles to exceed 100,000 soldiers and
denied modern equipment and planes, thousands of men existed in thinly
veiled paramilitary organizations funded by the Army. The German
General Staff, disbanded by the treaty, simply disguised itself among its
troops. The Army was also secretly engaged in developing new
technologies in Russian factories and was involved in training exercises
with the Russian Army.
Thus, despite appearances to the Allies, the German General Staff and its
Army was allowed to achieve its primary goal, self preservation and
advancement, and so it supported German democracy for the time being.
21
As things got better economically, there was a sense of relaxation among
the German people. Since they didn't have to struggle so much for daily
existence, they had time for enjoyment, outdoor recreation, the arts, and
sitting around beer halls and cafes. Among these people, the name of Adolf
Hitler was likely to bring a smile, perhaps getting him a bit confused with
the great film comedian Charlie Chaplin who looked like him and even had
some of the same body language.
Amid all this, Adolf Hitler knew it was going to be slow going for his
party which had counted so many unhappy, disgruntled men among its
early members. But Hitler also had a sense that the good times would not
last. The German republic was living on borrowed money and borrowed
time. The underlying political and racial tensions he was so keen to exploit
were still there, only dormant. And when the good times were over, they
would once again come looking for him. But for now he just had to wait.
The Reichstag Burns
Adolf Hitler, the new Chancellor of Germany, had no intention of abiding
by the rules of democracy. He intended only to use those rules to legally
establish himself as dictator as quickly as possible then begin the Nazi
revolution.
Even before he was sworn in, he was at work to accomplish that goal by
demanding new elections. While Hindenburg waited impatiently in another
room, Hitler argued with conservative leader Hugenberg, who vehemently
opposed the idea. Hitler's plan was to establish a majority of elected Nazis
in the Reichstag which would become a rubber stamp, passing whatever
laws he desired while making it all perfectly legal.
On his first day as chancellor, Hitler manipulated Hindenburg into
dissolving the Reichstag and calling for the new elections he had wanted -
to be held on March 5, 1933.
That evening, Hitler attended a dinner with the German General Staff and
told them Germany would re-arm as a first step toward regaining its former
position in the world. He also gave them a strong hint of things to come by
telling them there would be conquest of the lands to the east and ruthless
Germanization of conquered territories.
Hitler also reassured the generals there would be no attempt to replace the
regular army with an army of SA storm troopers. For years this had been a
big concern of the generals who wanted to preserve their own positions of
power and keep the traditional military intact.
Hitler's storm troopers were about to reach new heights of power of their
own and begin a reign of terror that would last as long as the Reich.
President Hindenburg had fallen under Hitler's spell and was signing just
about anything put in front of him. He signed an emergency decree that put
the German state of Prussia into the hands of Hitler confidant, Vice
Chancellor Papen. Göring as Minister of the Interior for Prussia took
control of the police. Prussia was Germany's biggest and most important
state and included the capital of Berlin.
Göring immediately replaced hundreds of police officials loyal to the
republic with Nazi officials loyal to Hitler. He also ordered the police not
to interfere with the SA and SS under any circumstances. This meant that
anybody being harassed, beaten, or even murdered by Nazis, had nobody
to turn to for help.
Göring then ordered the police to show no mercy to those deemed hostile
to the State, meaning those hostile to Hitler, especially Communists.
"Police officers who use weapons in carrying out their duties will be
covered by me. Whoever misguidedly fails in this duty can expect
disciplinary action." - Order of Hermann Göring to Prussian Police,
February 1933.
22
On February 22, Göring set up an auxiliary police force of 50,000 men,
composed mostly of members of the SA and SS. The vulgar, brawling,
murderous Nazi storm troopers now had the power of police.
Two days later, they raided Communist headquarters in Berlin. Göring
falsely claimed he had uncovered plans for a Communist uprising in the
raid. But he actually uncovered the membership list of the Communist
party and intended to arrest every one of the four thousand members.
Göring and Goebbels, with Hitler's approval, then hatched a plan to cause
panic by burning the Reichstag building and blaming the Communists. The
Reichstag was the building in Berlin where the elected members of the
republic met to conduct the daily business of government.
By a weird coincidence, there was also in Berlin a deranged Communist
conducting a one-man uprising. An arsonist named Marinus van der
Lubbe, 24, from Holland, had been wandering around Berlin for a week
attempting to burn government buildings to protest capitalism and start a
revolt. On February 27, he decided to burn the Reichstag building.
Carrying incendiary devices, he spent all day lurking around the building,
before breaking in around 9 p.m. He took off his shirt, lit it on fire, then
went to work using it as his torch.
The exact sequence of events will never be known, but Nazi storm troopers
under the direction of Göring were also involved in torching the place.
They had befriended the arsonist and may have known or even encouraged
him to burn the Reichstag that night. The storm troopers, led by SA leader
Karl Ernst, used the underground tunnel that connected Göring's residence
with the cellar in the Reichstag. They entered the building, scattered
gasoline and incendiaries, then hurried back through the tunnel.
The deep red glow of the burning Reichstag caught the eye of President
Hindenburg and Vice-Chancellor Papen who were dining at a club facing
the building. Papen put the elderly Hindenburg in his own car and took
him to the scene.
Hitler was at Goebbels' apartment having dinner. They rushed to the scene
where they met Göring who was already screaming false charges and
making threats against the Communists.
At first glance, Hitler described the fire as a beacon from heaven.
"You are now witnessing the beginning of a great epoch in German
history...This fire is the beginning," Hitler told a news reporter at the
scene.
After viewing the damage, an emergency meeting of government leaders
was held. When told of the arrest of the Communist arsonist, Van der
Lubbe, Hitler became deliberately enraged.
"The German people have been soft too long. Every Communist official
must be shot. All Communist deputies must be hanged this very night. All
friends of the Communists must be locked up. And that goes for the Social
Democrats and the Reichsbanner as well!"
Hitler left the fire scene and went straight to the offices of his newspaper,
the Völkischer Beobachter, to oversee its coverage of the fire. He stayed
up all night with Goebbels putting together a paper full of tales of a
Communist plot to violently seize power in Berlin.
At a cabinet meeting held later in the morning, February 28, Chancellor
Hitler demanded an emergency decree to overcome the crisis. He met little
resistance from his largely non-Nazi cabinet. That evening, Hitler and
Papen went to Hindenburg and the befuddled old man signed the decree
"for the Protection of the people and the State."
23
The Emergency Decree stated: "Restrictions on personal liberty, on the
right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press; on the
rights of assembly and association; and violations of the privacy of postal,
telegraphic and telephonic communications and warrants for house
searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are
also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed."
Immediately, there followed the first big Nazi roundup as truckloads of SA
and SS roared through the streets bursting in on known Communist
hangouts and barging into private homes. Thousands of Communists as
well as Social Democrats and liberals were taken away into 'protective
custody' to SA barracks where they were beaten and tortured.
"I don't have to worry about justice; my mission is only to destroy and
exterminate, nothing more!" - Hermann Göring, March 3, 1933.
Fifty one anti-Nazis were murdered. The Nazis suppressed all political
activity, meetings and publications of non-Nazi parties. The very act of
campaigning against the Nazis was in effect made illegal.
"Every bullet which leaves the barrel of a police pistol now is my bullet. If
one calls this murder, then I have murdered. I ordered this. I back it up. I
assume the responsibility, and I am not afraid to do so." - Hermann
Göring.
Nazi newspapers continued to print false evidence of Communist
conspiracies, claiming that only Hitler and the Nazis could prevent a
Communist takeover. Joseph Goebbels now had control of the State-run
radio and broadcast Nazi propaganda and Hitler's speeches all across the
nation.
The Nazis now turned their attention to election day, March 5.
All of the resources of the government necessary for a big win were placed
at the disposal of Joseph Goebbels. The big industrialists who had helped
Hitler into power gladly coughed up three million marks. Representatives
from Krupp munitions and I. G. Farben were among those reaching into
their pockets at Göring's insistence.
"The sacrifice we ask is easier to bear if you realize that the elections will
certainly be the last for the next ten years, probably for the next hundred
years," Göring told them.
With no money problems and the power of the State behind them, the
Nazis campaigned furiously to get Hitler the majority he wanted.
On March 5, the last free elections were held. But the people denied Hitler
his majority, giving the Nazis only 44 per cent of the total vote, 17,
277,180. Despite massive propaganda and the brutal crackdown, the other
parties held their own. The Center Party got over four million and the
Social Democrats over seven million. The Communists lost votes but still
got over four million.
The goal of a legally established dictatorship was now within reach. But
the lack of the necessary two thirds majority in the Reichstag was an
obstacle. For Hitler and his ruthless inner circle, it was obstacle that was
soon to be overcome.
As for Van der Lubbe, the Communist arsonist, he was tried and
convicted, then beheaded.
Hitler Becomes Dictator
After the elections of March 5, 1933, the Nazis began a systematic
takeover of the state governments throughout Germany, ending a centuries
old tradition of local political independence. Armed SA and SS thugs
barged into local government offices using the state of emergency decree
24
as a pretext to throw out legitimate office holders and replace them with
Nazi Reich commissioners.
Political enemies were arrested by the thousands and put in hastily
constructed holding pens. Old army barracks and abandoned factories were
used as prisons. Once inside, prisoners were subjected to military style
drills and harsh discipline. They were often beaten and sometimes even
tortured to death. This was the very beginning of the Nazi concentration
camp system.
At this time, these early concentration camps were loosely organized under
the control of the SA and the rival SS. Many were little more than barbed
wire stockades know as 'wild' concentration camps, set up by local
Gauleiters and SA leaders.
For Adolf Hitler, the goal of a legally established dictatorship was now
within reach. On March 15, 1933, a cabinet meeting was held during
which Hitler and Göring discussed how to obstruct what was left of the
democratic process to get an Enabling Act passed by the Reichstag. This
law would hand over the constitutional functions of the Reichstag to Hitler,
including the power to make laws, control the budget and approve treaties
with foreign governments.
The emergency decree signed by Hindenburg on February 28, after the
Reichstag fire, made it easy for them to interfere with non-Nazi elected
representatives of the people by simply arresting them.
As Hitler plotted to bring democracy to an end in Germany, Propaganda
Minister Joseph Goebbels put together a brilliant public relations display at
the official opening of the newly elected Reichstag.
On March 21, in the Garrison Church at Potsdam, the burial place of
Frederick the Great, an elaborate ceremony took place designed to ease
public concern over Hitler and his gangster-like new regime.
It was attended by President Hindenburg, foreign diplomats, the General
Staff and all the old guard going back to the days of the Kaiser. Dressed in
their handsome uniforms sprinkled with medals, they watched a most
reverent Adolf Hitler give a speech paying respect to Hindenburg and
celebrating the union of old Prussian military traditions and the new Nazi
Reich. As a symbol of this, the old Imperial flags would soon add
swastikas.
Finishing his speech, Hitler walked over to Hindenburg and respectfully
bowed before him while taking hold of the old man's hand. The scene was
recorded on film and by press photographers from around the world. This
was precisely the impression Hitler and Goebbels wanted to give to the
world, all the while plotting to toss aside Hindenburg and the elected
Reichstag.
Later that same day, Hindenburg signed two decrees put before him by
Hitler. The first offered full pardons to all Nazis currently in prison. The
prison doors sprang open and out came an assortment of Nazi thugs and
murderers.
The second decree signed by the befuddled old man allowed for the arrest
of anyone suspected of maliciously criticizing the government and the
Nazi party.
A third decree signed only by Hitler and Papen allowed for the
establishment of special courts to try political offenders. These courts were
conducted in the military style of a court-martial without a jury and usually
with no counsel for the defense.
On March 23, the newly elected Reichstag met in the Kroll Opera House in
Berlin to consider passing Hitler's Enabling Act. It was officially called the
"Law for Removing the Distress of the People and the Reich." If passed, it
would in effect vote democracy out of existence in Germany and establish
the legal dictatorship of Adolf Hitler.
25
Brown-shirted Nazi storm troopers swarmed over the fancy old building in
a show of force and as a visible threat. They stood outside, in the hallways
and even lined the aisles inside, glaring ominously at anyone who might
oppose Hitler's will.
Before the vote, Hitler made a speech in which he pledged to use restraint.
"The government will make use of these powers only insofar as they are
essential for carrying out vitally necessary measures...The number of cases
in which an internal necessity exists for having recourse to such a law is in
itself a limited one," Hitler told the Reichstag.
He also promised an end to unemployment and pledged to promote peace
with France, Great Britain and the Soviet Union. But in order to do all this,
Hitler said, he first needed the Enabling Act. A two-thirds majority was
needed, since the law would actually alter the constitution. Hitler needed
31 non-Nazi votes to pass it. He got those votes from the Catholic Center
Party after making a false promise to restore some basic rights already
taken away by decree.
Meanwhile, Nazi storm troopers chanted outside: "Full powers - or else!
We want the bill - or fire and murder!!"
But one man arose amid the overwhelming might. Otto Wells, leader of the
Social Democrats stood up and spoke quietly to Hitler.
"We German Social Democrats pledge ourselves solemnly in this historic
hour to the principles of humanity and justice, of freedom and socialism.
No enabling act can give you power to destroy ideas which are eternal and
indestructible."
Hitler was enraged and jumped up to respond.
"You are no longer needed! - The star of Germany will rise and yours will
sink! Your death knell has sounded!"
The vote was taken - 441 for, and only 84, the Social Democrats, against.
The Nazis leapt to their feet clapping, stamping and shouting, then broke
into the Nazi anthem, the Hörst Wessel song.
Democracy was ended. They had brought down the German Democratic
Republic legally. From this day onward, the Reichstag would be just a
sounding board, a cheering section for Hitler's pronouncements.
Interestingly, the Nazi party was now flooded with applications for
membership. These latecomers were cynically labeled by old time Nazis as
'March Violets.' In May, the Nazi Party froze membership. Many of those
kept out applied to the SA and the SS which were still accepting. However,
in early 1934, Heinrich Himmler would throw out 50,000 of those 'March
Violets' from the SS.
The Nazi Gleichschaltung now began, a massive coordination of all
aspects of life under the swastika and the absolute leadership of Adolf
Hitler.
Under Hitler, the State, not the individual, was supreme.
From the moment of birth one existed to serve the State and obey the
dictates of the Führer. Those who disagreed were disposed of.
Many agreed. Bureaucrats, industrialists, even intellectual and literary
figures, including Gerhart Hauptmann, world renowned dramatist, were
coming out in open support of Hitler.
Many disagreed and left the country. A flood of the finest minds, including
over two thousand writers, scientists, and people in the arts poured out of
Germany and enriched other lands, mostly the United States. Among them
26
- writer Thomas Mann, director Fritz Lang, actress Marlene Dietrich,
architect Walter Gropius, musicians Otto Klemperer, Kurt Weill, Richard
Tauber, psychologist Sigmund Freud, and Albert Einstein, who was
visiting California when Hitler came to power and never returned to
Germany.
In Germany, there were now constant Nazi rallies, parades, marches and
meetings amid the relentless propaganda of Goebbels and the omnipresent
swastika. For those who remained there was an odd mixture of fear and
optimism in the air.
Now, for the first time as dictator, Adolf Hitler turned his attention to the
driving force which had propelled him into politics in the first place, his
hatred of the Jews. It began with a simple boycott on April 1, 1933, and
would end years later in the greatest tragedy in all of human history.
Germans Elect Nazis
Adolf Hitler and the Nazis waged a modern whirlwind campaign in 1930
unlike anything ever seen in Germany. Hitler traveled the country
delivering dozens of major speeches, attending meetings, shaking hands,
signing autographs, posing for pictures, and even kissing babies.
Joseph Goebbels brilliantly organized thousands of meetings, torchlight
parades, plastered posters everywhere and printed millions of copies of
special editions of Nazi newspapers.
Germany was in the grip of the Great Depression with a population
suffering from poverty, misery, and uncertainty, amid increasing political
instability.
For Hitler, the master speech maker, the long awaited opportunity to let
loose his talents on the German people had arrived. He would find in this
downtrodden people, an audience very willing to listen. In his speeches,
Hitler offered the Germans what they needed most, encouragement. He
gave them heaps of vague promises while avoiding the details. He used
simple catchphrases, repeated over and over.
His campaign appearances were carefully staged events. Audiences were
always kept waiting, deliberately letting the tension increase, only to be
broken by solemn processions of Brownshirts with golden banners, blaring
military music, and finally the appearance of Hitler amid shouts of "Heil!"
The effect in a closed in hall with theatrical style lighting and decorations
of swastikas was overwhelming and very catching.
Hitler began each speech in low, hesitating tones, gradually raising the
pitch and volume of his voice then exploding in a climax of frenzied
indignation. He combined this with carefully rehearsed hand gestures for
maximum effect. He skillfully played on the emotions of the audience
bringing the level of excitement higher and higher until the people wound
up a wide-eyed, screaming, frenzied mass that surrendered to his will and
looked upon him with pseudo-religious adoration.
Hitler offered something to everyone; work to the unemployed, prosperity
to failed business people, profits to industry, expansion to the Army, social
harmony and an end of class distinctions to idealistic young students, and
restoration of German glory to those in despair. He promised to bring order
amid chaos, a feeling of unity to all and the chance to belong. He would
make Germany strong again, end payment of war reparations to the Allies,
tear up the treaty of Versailles, stamp out corruption, keep down Marxism,
and deal harshly with the Jews.
He appealed to all classes of Germans. The name of the Nazi party itself
was deliberately all inclusive - the National Socialist German Workers'
Party.
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All of the Nazis, from Hitler, down to the leader of the smallest city block,
worked tirelessly, relentlessly, to pound their message into the minds of
the Germans.
On election day September 14, 1930, the Nazis received 6,371,000 votes,
over eighteen percent of the total, and were thus entitled to 107 seats in the
German Reichstag. It was a stunning victory for Hitler. Overnight, the
Nazi party went from the smallest to the second largest party in Germany.
It propelled Hitler to solid national and international prestige and aroused
the curiosity of the world press. He was besieged with interview requests.
Foreign journalists wanted to know - what did he mean - tear up the Treaty
of Versailles and end war reparations? - and that Germany wasn't
responsible for the first World War?
Gone was the Charlie Chaplin image of Hitler as the laughable fanatic
behind the Beer Hall Putsch. The beer hall revolutionary had been replaced
by the skilled manipulator of the masses.
On October 13, 1930, dressed in their brown shirts, the elected Nazi
deputies marched in unison into the Reichstag and took their seats. When
the roll call was taken, each one shouted, "Present! Heil Hitler!"
They had no intention of cooperating with the democratic government,
knowing it was to their advantage to let things get worse in Germany, thus
increasing the appeal of Hitler to an ever more miserable people.
Nazi storm troopers dressed in civilian clothes celebrated their electoral
victory by smashing in the windows of Jewish shops, restaurants and
department stores, an indication of things to come.
Now, for the floundering German democracy, the clock was ticking and
time was on Hitler's side.
The Nuremberg Laws
From the moment the Nazis came to power in 1933, the Jews of Germany
were subjected to a never-ending series of discriminatory laws. There
would be, during the twelve years of Hitler's Reich, over 400 separate
regulations issued against Jews prohibiting everything from performing in
a symphony orchestra to owning a pet cat.
In the Reich's early years, anti-Jewish regulations were drawn up by a Nazi
bureaucracy that included both radical and moderate anti-Semites. None of
the bureaucrats had any moral qualms about being anti-Semitic. However,
the moderates were concerned with foreign reaction and the possible
disruptive impact of anti-Jewish prohibitions on Germany's still-fragile
economy.
Of the 503,000 Jews living in Germany in 1933, about 70 percent lived in
big cities such as Berlin, Frankfurt and Breslau. Many of the young Jews
in these cities married non-Jewish Germans.
Although Jews made-up less than one percent of Germany's overall
population of 55 million, Hitler considered them by nature to be the
"mortal enemy" of the German people. But within Hitler's bureaucracy,
radical and moderate anti-Semites strongly disagreed as to what legal (or
illegal) actions should actually be taken against the Jews. This bureaucratic
in-fighting resulted in complete stagnation concerning the development of
a coordinated Reich policy of anti-Semitism.
Local Brownshirts, upset by the bureaucratic bungling, often took out their
frustrations on local Jews in their neighborhoods, and by mid-1935 there
had been dramatic rise in the number of street incidents.
Ordinary citizens, encouraged in part by Goebbels' anti-Semitic
propaganda, also took part in spontaneous demonstrations. One such
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incident in the summer of 1935 was recorded by the Bavarian political
police:
"...there were anti-Jewish demonstrations in the swimming pool in
Heigenbrüken. Approximately 15-20 young bathers had demanded the
removal of the Jews from the swimming bath by chanting in the park
which adjoins the bath...A considerable number of other bathers joined in
the chanting so that probably the majority of visitors were demanding the
removal of the Jews...The district leader of the NSDAP [Nazi Party] who
happened to be in the swimming baths, went to the [pool] supervisor and
demanded that he remove the Jews. The supervisor refused the request on
the grounds that he was obliged to follow only the instructions of the baths'
administration and moreover, could not easily distinguish the Jews as such.
As a result of the supervisor's statement, there was a slight altercation
between him and the [district leader]...In view of this incident, the Spa
Association today placed a notice at the entrance to the baths with the
inscription: Entry Forbidden to Jews."
Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess ordered a halt to spontaneous anti-Jewish
actions, not out of consideration for the Jews, but to prevent "...bringing
Party members into conflict with the political police, who consist largely
of Party members, and this will be welcomed by Jewry. The political
police can in such cases only follow the strict instructions of the Führer in
carrying out all measures for maintaining peace and order, so making it
possible for the Führer to rebuke at any time allegations of atrocities and
boycotts made by Jews abroad."
By late summer 1935, the street violence and demonstrations had
diminished. But the bureaucratic in-fighting only escalated and would soon
come to a head at the annual Nuremberg Rally
At this year's Rally, held from September 9 to 15, a special session of the
Nazi Reichstag (Legislature) was scheduled for the last day at which Hitler
planned to deliver a major foreign policy speech concerning the League of
Nations and Fascist Italy. However, Hitler wound up canceling the speech
on short notice upon the advice of his Foreign Minister, Constantin von
Neurath.
The abrupt cancellation left a void as to just what the Reichstag would do
during its special Nuremberg session. Radical anti-Semites at Nuremberg
seized the opportunity and suggested to Hitler that the special session
would be an ideal opportunity to announce some kind of big new law
concerning the Jews.
Hitler accepted their suggestion and settled on the idea of a law forbidding
intermarriage and sexual relations between Jews and Germans, which he
knew the radicals had been wanting for some time. On September 14, the
night before the Reichstag's special session, Nazi legal officials presented
Hitler with four drafts of the new law. Hitler chose the fourth version,
which happened to be the least militant, although he crossed out one
important line stating: "This law applies only to full-blooded Jews."
Around midnight, Hitler told the same legal officials he also wanted an
accompanying law concerning Reich citizenship. The officials, scrawling
on the back of a hotel food menu, hastily drafted a vaguely worded law
which designated Jews as subjects of the Reich. Hitler (a night owl)
approved the draft around 2:30 a.m.
At the Reichstag's special session held later that day at 8 p.m., Hitler
delivered a short speech in which he characterized the new laws as an
attempt to "achieve the legislative regulation of a problem which, if it
breaks down again will then have to be transferred by law to the National
Socialist Party for final solution."
The laws were then read by Reichstag President Hermann Göring as
follows:
Reich Citizenship Law of September 15, 1935
29
I. 1. A subject of the State is a person who belongs to the protective union
of the German Reich, and who therefore has particular obligations towards
the Reich. 2. The status of subject is acquired in accordance with the
provisions of the Reich and State Law of Citizenship.
II. 1. A citizen of the Reich is that subject only who is of German or
kindred blood and who, through his conduct, shows that he is both desirous
and fit to serve the German people and Reich faithfully.
Law for the Protection of German Blood
and German Honor, September 15, 1935
Entirely convinced that the purity of German blood is essential to the
further existence of the German people, and inspired by the
uncompromising determination to safeguard the future of the German
nation, the Reichstag has unanimously adopted the following law, which is
promulgated herewith:
I. 1. Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or kindred blood are
forbidden. Marriages concluded in defiance of this law are void, even if,
for the purpose of evading this law, they were concluded abroad.
2. Proceedings for annulment may be initiated only by the Public
Prosecutor.
II. Sexual relations outside marriage between Jews and nationals of
German of kindred blood are forbidden.
III. Jews will not be permitted to employ female citizens of German or
kindred blood under 45 years of age as domestic servants.
IV. 1. Jews are forbidden to display the Reich and national flag or the
national colors. 2. On the other hand they are permitted to display the
Jewish colors. The exercise of this right is protected by the State.
V. 1. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section I will be
punished with hard labor.
2. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section II will be
punished with imprisonment or with hard labor.
3. A person who acts contrary to the provisions of Sections III or IV will
be punished with imprisonment up to a year and with a fine, or with one of
these penalties.
VI. The Reich Minister of the Interior in agreement with the Deputy
Führer and the Reich Minister of Justice will issue the legal and
administrative regulations required for the enforcement and supplementing
of this law.
VII. The law will become effective on the day after its promulgation;
Section III, however, not until January 1, 1936.
The announcement of the Nuremberg Laws had the unexpected result of
generating a lot of confusion and heated debate among Nazi bureaucrats as
to how one should define a Jew, given that there had been widespread
intermarriage up to this point.
As a result, two months later a supplemental Nazi decree was issued which
defined a "full Jew" as a person with at least three Jewish grandparents.
Those with fewer than three grandparents were designated as Mischlinge
(half-breeds), of which there were two degrees: First Degree Mischlinge -
a person with two Jewish grandparents; Second Degree Mischlinge - a
person with one Jewish grandparent.
The Nazis also issued somewhat complicated instructional charts to help
bureaucrats distinguish the various degrees of Jewishness. Generally, the
more "full-blooded" a Jew was, the greater the level of discrimination. But
much of the confusion remained. In many cases, the necessary
genealogical evidence concerning Jewish family backgrounds was simply
not available.
30
As it turned out, about 350,000 Germans could be classified as Mischlinge;
with 50,000 having converted to Christianity from Judaism; 210,000 being
half-Jews; and 80,000 considered quarter-Jews.
Nazi bureaucrats also disagreed on how strictly the Nuremberg Laws
should be enforced. Moderate anti-Semites wanted to protect "that part
which is German" concerning valuable civil servants in the government.
Radicals, on the other hand, viewed all Mischlinge as carriers of "Jewish
influence" and wanted them all dismissed. Much to their dismay, the
moderates prevailed, and Mischlinge civil servants and others were
allowed to keep their positions for the time being.
Surprisingly, many German Jews reacted to the Nuremberg Laws with a
sense of relief, thinking the worst was now over - at least they finally knew
where they stood and could get on with their lives even if they had
diminished rights. And to some degree they were correct. Over the next
few years, the Nazis moved slowly in regard to the Jews. This was the
quiet time for Jews in the Third Reich, as Hitler began to focus his
attention entirely on diplomatic affairs and military re-armament.
In diplomatic circles, Hitler was struggling to gain credibility. Over the
past few years, international observers in Nazi Germany had witnessed an
incredible chain of events including: the revolutionary-like seizure of
power in January 1933; the mysterious Reichstag fire in February; the anti-
Jewish boycott in April; book burnings in May; wild street violence by the
Brownshirts; heard rumors of concentration camps; knew about the
(already infamous) Gestapo; witnessed the blood purge of June 1934; and
observed the emperor-like ascension of Hitler as Führer.
For the Nazis, it was now necessary to refrain from any further actions
against the Jews that would serve to undermine Hitler's credibility on the
world stage. The Führer had to present himself as someone who could be
taken seriously, not as the leader of an anti-Semitic mob.
The turn of the Jews would come later. Presently, Hitler's goals were to
rebuild the German Army and exploit any opportunity to expand the Reich.
Early in 1936, he decided on a dangerous gamble and sent his soldiers
marching into the demilitarized portion of Germany known as the
Rhineland - the very first territory to be forcibly grabbed by the Nazis.
Profile of Adolf Hitler 1889-1945
Adolf Hitler was born on 20th April 1889 in Austria. His father was a customs official. The
originally Schickelgruber. Adolf Hitler grew up with a poor record at school and left, before
with an ambition to become an artist. He went to Vienna to fulfil his dream.
He failed to win a scholarship at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. In 1909 he moved to
Vienna hoping to find work but within a year he was living in homeless shelters and eating a
charity soup-kitchens. He took occasional menial jobs and sold some of his paintings or
advertising posters whenever he could. In Vienna he developed his hatred of foreigners and
Jews.
In 1913 Hitler moved to Munich in southern Germany.
Ironically, the regimental
1914 he immediately volunteered to join the German ar
captain who recommended
and was promoted to corporal. He won the both the Ir
Hitler for his Iron Cross (First
and first class. At the end of the war in 1918 Hitler wa
Class) award was actually
from temporary gas-blindness. He had been wounded
Jewish.
in the Ypres Salient.
Hitler remained in the army after the war and one of his duties was to spy on local political g
was the German Workers Party. Hitler became interested and soon joined the party. Hitler's
as a speaker saw him transform it into the Nazi Party. In 1923 he led an attempt to overthrow
government but this spectacularly failed. He was sentenced to nine months in prison where h
Mein Kampf (My Struggle).
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After 1925 he rebuilt the Nazi Party, deciding he had to obtain power by democracy
tactics
rather than by force. The Wall Street Crash in 1929 and the subsequent worldwide
depression hit Germany hard. Hitler used to situation to blame Jews and Communists,
Hitler decided to stop trying to seize power and sought election by legal means. He claimed
using them as scapegoats to gain support for himself. democracy. His chance came after 1929. America's economy was in trouble, so the America
Germany money. The German economy collapsed.
He became Chancellor in 1933 and President in 1934 and used the title Der Führer - leader.
Thousands
'Nazified' Germany, removing any potential opposition and establishing his ideas of Germans
for a greater Germany.were thrown out of work. In the election of 1932 the Nazi Party mad
of promises based on what Hitler had written in Mein Kampf. Hitler promised to provide job
and make
He led Germany to war in 1939 and tried to exterminate the Jews and other groups Germany proud and strong again. In July 1932 the Nazi party was the biggest in th
in Germany.
was defeated in 1945 Hitler married his mistress Eva Braun in his bomb proof bunker in Berlin. building. Yet in November 1932, the Nazi vote dropped back again.
German Parliament
30th April.
3. Hitler becomes Chancellor
How did Hitler come to power?
There was a power struggle in Germany after the 1932 election. Many of the po
1. The Munich they could use Hitler's popularity to their advantage. The power struggle ended
Putsch Hitler to become Chancellor.

By 1923 Hitler was the leader of the Nazi Party. With inflation running high, Hitler thoughtIt the
wastime
thought that other
was ripe for experienced politicians could control Hitler and the Naz
his party to seize control in Germany. With a group of ex-soldiers, including a war time air ace Hermann Goring, Hitler quickly organised another election and made sure
that this was a mistake.
well... and then stage a
and Field Marshall Ludendorff, the Nazis plotted to seize control of Munich, the capital of Bavaria,
march on Berlin.

It was a disaster. The plotters had not planned things carefully enough and Hitler lost his nerve. He spent most of the
crisis making speeches to his own supporters in a beer hall. When Ludendorff finally persuaded him to lead a
march through the streets, the police fired on the marchers and Hitler and the Nazis ran away.
was arrested.
The Reichstag Fire
Hitler received a five year prison sentence for the Munich Putsch, but prison was very comfortable and he was let
Just -before the election in 1933 the Reichstag building was set on fire. Hitler cleverly blame
out after serving less than a year. He spent the time writing a book about his ideas
were feared by many Germans. Most historians think that Hitler organised the entire event to
How did Hitler come to power? afraid of the Communists and thus vote for the Nazis.

2. A change of The Nazi vote increased in the election. By 1934 Hitler tightened his grip on Germany and h

32
 Behind the promises were a set of beliefs that were to lead to the Second World War and th
political parties. He created a Nazi dictatorship. innocent people:

Why did people support Hitler? 1. Rearm Germany and retake what was lost at Versailles.

Hitler's promises 2. The German Race (blonde, blue eyed Aryans) were a superior race. Anyone
else was racially impure and should be removed from Germany. Hitler called the
People supported Hitler because he promised them what they wanted and needed to hear. Germans the 'master race'.

The Weimar Republic appeared to have no idea how to solve the problems of the 3. The 'master race' needed more living space - known (in German) as
other hand promised to solve the problems. Hitler promised most groups in Germany what they wanted. Lebensraum'.
To all Germans
used the Jews and other sections of society as scapegoats, blaming all the problems on them. Hitler promised to restore German honour by tearing up the hated Treaty
time Hitler made sense, he united everyone by providing explanations for Germany's problems. making Germany great again.

People in Germany were tired of their poor quality of life. Hitler promised to make Germany proud again - it was
exactly what people wanted to hear. Hitler pledged something for every part of Germany society:

Group Promise

Farmers Higher prices for their produce - making up for all their
losses during the Depression.

Unemployed workers Jobs building public works such as roads and stadiums.

Middle Class To restore the profits of small business and the value of
savings. To end the Communist

To all Germans he promised to restore German honour by tearing up the hated Treaty of Versailles and by making
Germany great again.

Nazi beliefs

33