By Almudena Corrales

1. GERMANY 1919-1945
Almudena Corrales
Social Sciences

2. Introduction:
 The extremist opponents of the Weimar
government had not disappeared.
 One of the most important was the Nazi
Party (National Socialist German
Worker’s Party):
 The Nazis were led by Anton Drexler.
 Adolf Hitler joined the party in 1919.
 Drexler realised Hitler had great talent and put
him in charge of propaganda and the
political ideas of the party.

3.  In 1920 the party announced its Twenty-
Five Point Programme:
The most important points were:
 the abolition of the Treaty of Versailles
 union of Germany and Austria
 only ‘true’ germans to be allowed to live in
Germany
 large industries and businesses to be
nationalised
 generous provision for old age pensioners
 a strong central government in Germany

4. THE MUNICH PUTSCH, 1923
 By 1923 the Nazis were still very
much a minority party, but Hitler
had given them a high profile.
 Nazi storm troopers began taking
over official buildings.
 16 Nazis were killed and the
rebelion broke up in chaos.
 Hitler escaped in a car.
 He and other leading Nazis were
arrested and charged with
treason, but at the trial Hitler
gained enormous publicity .

5. THE NAZIS IN THE
WILDERNESS,
1924-1929
 Hitler used his time in prison to write a book, Mein
Kampf (My Struggle)
 He came to the conclusion that the Nazis would not be
able to seize power by force.
 They could have to work within the democratic system.
 Hitler created a network of local Nazi parties which in
turn set up the Hitler Youth, the Nazi Student’s League
and similar organizations.
 1925 Hitler enlarged the SA with the ranks of the
unemployed (many were ex-servicemen)
 He also set up a new group called SS fanatically loyal
to Hitller personally.

6.  Goebbels was chosen to take
charge of Nazi propaganda.
 Hitler and Goebbels believed the
best way to reach the masses
was by appealing to their
feelings rather than by rational
argument: posters, leaflets, films
and radio broadcasts.
 However, the prosperity of the
Stresemann years and
Stressmann’s success in foreign
policy made Germans
uninterested in extreme politics.

7. THE DEPRESSION AND THE RISE
OF THE NAZIS
 In 1929 the American stock market
crashed and sent the USA into a
disastrous economic depression.
 Countries around the world began
to feel the effects and Germany
was particullary affected.
 The USA asked German banks to
repay the borrowed money.
 Businesses went bankrupt and
unemployment rocketed.

8. NAZI CAMPAIGNING
 The Nazis’ 25 points were attractive to
those more vulnerable to the Depression:
 The unemployed
 The eldery
 The middle class
 Nazi campaign methods were modern and
effective:
 Slogans
 German people united behind one leader
 Tradicional values

9. HOW DID HITLER BECOME
CHANCELLOR IN 1933?
 After the Reichtag elections of July
1932 the Nazis were the largest
single party but no a mayority party.
 Hitler demanded the post of
Chancellor to the President.
 Hindenburg chose Franz von Papen
(and old friend).
 Von Papen had virtually no support at
all, and in December 1932 Kurt
Schleicher became Chancellor.
 January 1933, Hindenburg and von
Papen met secretly with industrialists,
army leaders and politicians. They
offered Hitler the post of Chancellor

10. HITLER’S DICTATORSHIP
 Few people thought by the summer
1934 he would be the supreme dictator
of Germany.
 He called election for March 1933 to try
to get overall Nazi majority.
 The Reichstag building burnt down.
Hitler blamed the Comunists.
 Hitler acted quickly against his
opponents -The Night of the Long Knives -
 He accused Röhm (SA leader) of
plotting to overthrow and murder him.
 400 others were executed included
the ex Chancellor Schleicher.

11. NAZI CONTROL OF

GERMANY a totalitarian state where
The aim of the Nazis was to create
could no be rival parties or political debate.
 The Nazis had a powerful range of organizations and
weapons to control Germany:
The police and the
The Gestapo courts
(secret state police) The Nazis controlled
They could arrest magistrates, judges
citiziens on and the courts, which
suspicion and send meant that opponents
them to of Nazis rarely
concentration received a fair trial
camps
Concentration camps
The SS Ultimate sanction against
Aryans very their own people. These
highly trained camps were run by SS
and totally Death’s Head units.
loyal to Hitler Prisioners were forced to
do hard labour and food
was very limited.

12. DID GERMANS GAIN FROM NAZI
RULE?
 Hitler and the Nazis promised to use radical
methods to solve the 2 main problems:
CRISIS IN GERMAN
UNEMPLOYMENT
FARMING
 Dr Hjalmar Schacht organised Germany’s finances
to fund a huge programme of work creation.
 The National Labour Service sent men on public
works projects.
 In 1936 Hitler announced a Four-Year Plan to get
the German economy ready for war.

13.  He won the loyalty of
industrial workers by a variety
of initiatives:
 Strength Through Joy (KDF):
cheap theatre and cinema tickets,
courses, trips and sports events.
 Volkswagen Beetle, the people’s
car. Symbol of the prosperous new
German.
 The Beauty of Labour movement.

14.  Certanly many middle-class
business people were grateful to
the Nazis for eliminating the
Communist threat to their
businesses and properties.
 The big companies no longer had
to worry about troublesome trade
unions and strikes.
 IG Farben gained huge
government contracts to make
explosives, fertilisers and artificial
oil from coal.
 Mercedes abd Volkswagen
prospered from Nazis policies.

15. THE IMPACT OF THE SECOND
WORLD WAR ON GERMANY
 In war, as in a peace time, the Nazis
used all methods available to make the
German people support the regime.
 Food rationing in september 1939
 Clothes rationing in november 1939
 Hitler tried to maintain people’s support
by asking them to make sacrifices.
 German people began to see and hear
less of Hitler.

16. The bombing of Dresden
 In 1942 the Allies decided a new
policy.
 The British began an all-out assault
on both industrial and residential
areas of all the major German
cities.
 The bombing of Dresden in
february 1945 killed between
35,000 and 150,000 people in 2
days.
 Three months after the massive
destruction of this city, Germany’s
war was over

17. HITLER AND THE JEWS
 Throughout Europe, Jews had experienced discrimination for hundred
of years.
 They were often treated unjustly in courts or forced to live in ghettos.
 Jews were blamed for the death of Jesus Christ.
 Another reason was that they tended to be well educated and
therefore held well-paid professional jobs or ran successful
businesses.
 Hitler became obsessed by the fact that Jews ran porperous
businesses, particulary large department stores.
 As soon as Hitler took power in 1933 he began to mobilise the full
powers of the state against the Jews