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102 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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SS
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Hitler’s private army, ran the concentration camps, wore all black. Occult aspect to it. Wore victory runes in tribute to the occult. Lead by Himmler, who is heavily into the occult.
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Himmler
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Runs police, in charge of racial policy. Runs huge slave empire. Rented them out to coporations. Life span of slave was 9 months.
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Rudolph Hesse
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Born in Egypt, travelled back to Germany to serve in the German army
- Joins the tulle society as well - Grooms Hitler by being the editor of Mein Kampf, which he wrote in prison after the Beer Hall Putsch - Becomes the deputy fuhrer once Hitler comes to power - If you want to talk to Hitler, you have to go through him. He is like Hitler’s secretary Hesse is afraid of a 2 front line war, tries to convince Britain to join Germany’s side - Gets involved with other Occult groups - Crashes in Britain, survives, but is arrested and thrown in the Tower of London - At the end of the war, he is put on trial at Nuremberg, given a life sentence - Gorbachev agrees to release Hesse on humane reasons in 1985 - Hesse kills himself before this can happen |
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Beer Hall Putsch
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Hitler attempts to seize power in Bavaria
- Ludendorf tells Hitler that the German army will not march against him - Right wing parties block the roads and take cabinet ministers hostage -Ludendorf lets the hostages go on their word, they don’t come back and call Berlin - Hitler now rushes to take the Bavarian war ministry - Putsch = Coup D’Etat - Even though Ludendorf promises that the German army will not shoot them, they do anyway, and the Nazis are shot at - Hitler is arrested - 16 nazis are killed, they are seen as martyrs - One nazi falls and bleeds all over the flag, it is the most sacred thing in Nazi Germany - Grimminger holds the flag, and ends up hiding it when Germany is losing it - Shows the importance of ritual in Nazi Germany - This publicizes Nazis - Judges are very sympathetic, sees it as a restoration of Germany’s glory, the humiliation of France’s occupation - Hitler goes to prison for 5 years, will serve 18 months - Mein Kampf, which he wrote in prison, becomes a bestseller even before he becomes fuhrer |
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Julius Streicher
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Seriously anti semetic
- Absorbed his own party into the Nazi party - Will become the governor of Nuremberg - Charged with rape and dismissed - Published an antisemetic weekly |
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Alfred Rosenberg
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Takes care of the Nazi party while Hitler is in prison
- Claims that jews caused the world war, seduce virgins, and will destroy anyone who is not jewish - Gets this from a fraudulent book (The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion) - To take the pressure off the failing Russian monarchy, the Russian secret service writes and gives away books that say this - Becomes Hitler’s ideololgist - Translated the Protocols of Zion into German, popularizes it - The Myth of the 20th century - Divides all of society into Helenic-Germanic or Jewish-Parasidic - Every race has its own soul, race from the interior - Hitler thinks this book is false, does not want it associated with the Nazis |
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German Inflation Problem
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The bill for Versailles is finally released, and Germans have to pay 34 billion dollars to France and Great Britain
- Destroys German middle class, destroys economy, currency is destroyed. 4 marks = $1 before the war, 4.2 trillion marks = $1 after war - Hyperinflation, money is changing every day, price is changing by the minute - Middle classes have to liquidate - French not lenient with Germany. Their land is destroyed, their cattle has been stolen, while Germany is still pristine and intact - Savings are wiped out - After World War I, there is a second crisis: an economic crisis. The entire German middle class is impoverished - French occupy Germany |
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Treaty of Versailles
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Germany is in armistice, soldiers are very unhappy, Ebert is afraid of a government overthrow
- Throws “victory parades” anyway - Germans did not think they were defeated - Americans, French, and British wonder if they should just take away the German army, but then realized they would be vulnerable to communism if they did this - Paris peace conference - Germans, in a state of war, are presented with the treaty. They are too weak to refuse - Humiliating, disastrous - Poland is created out of German and Russian territory - Very sloppy new creation of territories, not realizing the ethnicities being caught and divided - Germany loses 15% of its natural resources, and 7 million people - Germany has to demilitarize the Rhineland, no troops allowed there to assure the Belgians and the French that there won’t be retaliation - Germans are prohibited from having an air force, a navy. They are also only allowed to have 100,000 soldiers. - Police force is restricted as well - Germany has to pay 54 billion dollars in cash or resources - German coal mines are seized, natural resources are seized - Occurs as civil war is raging inside Germany, communists set up government in pockets of Germany |
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Rosa Luxembourg
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Calls on a faction in the SPD to form a communist party.
- Fighting breaks out after the armistice - Germany descends into civil war - Captured, and beaten to death |
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Constitutional Conference
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: Fighting gets so bad that there is meeting in Berlin
- Weimar constitution - Wanted to make a perfect democracy - 60,000 votes is one seat - No party could be a majority - Creates deadlock in government - It used to be that the richer you are, the more votes you get. Changed it to 1 person 1 vote - Article 48: A president is elected to a 7 year term by a majority, and the president becomes the head of state - President “invites” correct party to take power - People vote for a party, not candidates. When party gets 60,000 votes, it picks who gets the seat - Article 48 powers: President can decree that government and shut down and he runs it. But this can be overturned with 2/3rds vote |
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First Reich
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Holy Roman Empire (962-1806)
- Germany was included in this - Napoleon rips it apart - After the pagan tribes are Christianized, pagan soldiers become princes, that become kings, that become kingdoms, that become nations |
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Friedrich I
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Barbarosa/First king of kings
- Nazi invasion of Russia is named after him - Unifies German states into Germanic identity - Germanic tribes - Idea of living space is already being explored: Anyone slavic is subhuman, Germanic tribes can take their land and enslave them - Teutonic knights = German tribes |
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Martin Luther:
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A catholic theological student who concludes that the catholic church is corrupt. Has problem with indulgences
- Vatican has become powerful political system, has less to do with religion and more to do with power - Revolts against church, reforms religion into Protestantism - Strips Catholicism of its rituals, is more austere - Pope is kingmaker, you don’t become king unless Pope approves - Condemned to death, and Pope commands all kings and princes to hand over Martin Luther - King of Saxony who the pope doesn’t like harbors Luther - Many kings follow and declare themselves protestant Council of Trent: Declares protestants heretics - War breaks out between protestant kingdoms and catholic kingdoms - 30 Years War - Fought mostly in Germany - High German casualties |
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Treaty of Westphalia:
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Ends war, gives Princes and Kings the choice of what religion their nation practices
- Beginning of nation state - Germany is fragmented - “First treaty of Versailles” because Germany loses a lot of land - Hitler believes Britain and Germany are friends |
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Ernst Maurize Arnt
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Called for a fuhrer, a military tyrant, to a rise from Germany and save the germans
- Not guided by reason - Germany feels as though the French are forcing the Age of Reason onto them - Claims Germans are God’s chosen people - Nationalist, calls the Germans to love Germany more than anything - Germans are a special race |
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Johann Fichte
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Germans are a unique race of God chosen people with a destiny
- Calls for germans to unite as a nation, expand eastward, and flush out the French - Calls for a fuhrer |
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The Second Reich
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Prussians (1871-1918)
- The French go to war with Prussia, convinced they will defeat the Prussians easily - Prussians besiege Paris, and occupy it - The Chancellor of Prussia, Otto von Bismarke pulls all the German provinces together to fight against France - Unites German provinces to conquer the rest of the world - Installs Kaiser Wilhelm, the king of Prussia, as the new emperor of Germany - “Founding” of Germany - Takes place in Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors - French have to pay reparations to Prussia, and they lose some territory |
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Richard Wagner:
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Composes opera based around German legends, and leads the Volkish movement that the Germans are a special race, the race is an external manifestation of the soul
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Huston Stewart chamberlain
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: Foundations of the 19th century, one of Hitler’s favorite books. Argues civilizations rely on the purity of races and blood of their population
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Julius Langbehn
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: Germans are superior race, and that any great artist is therefore German, argues that Shakespere must have been German, any genius is German
- Anti-Semitism begins |
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Anti Semitism
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Began as a religious issue, for being nonchristian. Begins to change when these people above start to portray them not as people who have chosen to follow Judaism, but people who have Jewish blood in their veins
- Judaism is given a racial characteristic - Inspires Nazi anti-Semitism, does not allow them to convert because their blood remains Jewish no matter what |
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Wilhelm II
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Erratic, begins to start problems with other nations, builds a major navy, seeks out colonies for Germany
- Unlike Spain, Portugal, Holland, Britain, and France, Germany has no rich colonies - They’ve taken all the good colonies - “Fires” Bismarck - Military-Industrial complex - Under Bismarck, who read Marx’s Communist Manifesto and was intimidated, gives workers tons of rights including Universal healthcare - Germany is very unified, working classes and middle classes and military-industrial class are all on the same page - Wilhelm goes too far, gets involved in WWI |
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Enabling Act
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Communists are all in concentration camps, Catholic center is cooperating, this is how Hitler gets his 2/3rds majority
- Gives Hitler enormous power: He no longer needs to go through the Reichstag for any decisions - Renewed constantly - Completed the national/legal revolution |
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Coordination
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Nazis ban every other party and make it illegal to run a party
- Unions are shut down - Party and state are one: SS becomes official security, Nazi lawyers and doctors are officially state regulatory, bureaucracies are fused with party system - Hitler gets army support by promising to abolish the Versailles treaty and rebuild it to its former glory |
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SA
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Concentration Camps controlled first by SA, then SS
- SA are no longer allowed to arrest people with due process - Hitler is filling vacant positions not with SAs, but with anyone who is “competent” enough, annoying some very loyal 10 year SAs - Hitler even hires enemies that are good at what they do (Mueller) - Ernst Rohm begins to turn against Hitler - Concerning National Army, SA outnumbers them 25:1 |
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Operation Hummingbird/Night of the Long Knives
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: Himmler devises a plan to get rid of top rebellious SA members
- Word gets back to Hitler that Rohm is planning a coup d’etat - Hitler puts the SA on vacation, including Rohm - Then, Rohm and other senior members are arrested while on vacation, he is killed - The SA is completely broken without their high command, and are now irrelevant to the Third Reich - The SS is now free from the SA, Himmler becomes the leader - Schleicher is also shot - The Bavarian leader who put down the Beer Hall Putsch is also shot that night - Gregor Strasser is killed - Army sees this as a guarantee from Hitler, and that he is representing their interests |
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Pastor Nemoiler
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Becomes a voice of protest against Hitler
- Is arrested, and put into a concentration camp - First they came for… speech - Survived camp |
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Herman Schmitz
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When John Foster Dulles is on the War Trade Board, he is head of Foreign Operations for the World’s Largest Metals trader
- Chairman of IG Farbin, who partnered with the Nazis on the running of Auschwitz - Gets his metal company confiscated because he is German and it is wartime - Foster Dulles thinks this is a bad idea, wants corporate neutrality during war - After this, Schmitz finds Sullivan and Cromwell, who represents him to sue for American Metal co - Sullivan and Cromwell has just hired Dulles, who represents Schmitz - Impresses German so much that S&C opens a branch in Germany - General Kurt von Shroder is the banker of the SS, chair of the bank that launders Nazi money, and is the one who makes the call that puts Hitler in power |
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NSDAP
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Broke, can’t afford to run in another election
- NSDAP is angry at Hitler for turning down a vice-Chancellorship, they lock him out of power, even though the Nazis had the most seats in the Reichstag - Hindenburg is preventing Hitler from forming a government and becoming chancellor |
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Schroder
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Runs a bank called the Stein bank
- Part of a huge, international banking family - Connected to Papen - Schroder invites Hitler and Papen secretly to his apartment -Encourages Hitler and Papen to make up, get payback, and form a coalition - “Hour of the Birth of the Third Reich” - Hitler and Papin decide they are going to take out Schlicher - They need a third player, asks the most right wing party, the DNVP - They go to Hindenburg - Even Hindenburg’s son approves - Hindenburg: If von Bloomberg is the minister of war (not realizing Bloomberg is secretly a Nazi) then it’s okay - Hitler is appointed Chancellor - Papin becomes Vice Chancellor - The rest of the Cabinet is made up of the 2 other parties |
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Papin
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Convinced he will control Hitler like a puppet
- Does not know Nazis are forming a shadow cabinet, and are looking to remove all the other political parties - Hitler promises to get rid of all the other parties |
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Goring
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Major follower and participant in Hitler state
- Runs the German air force - Distinguished WWI Pilot - Joins the Nazi party in the early stages, is there for the Beer Hall Putsch - Becomes speaker of the house in the Reichstag - Forms the Gestapo - Art Thief: Loots every occupied European country’s museum - Very popular with German people - Economic genius - Possibly initiated the Holocaust - Popularity crumbles when he cannot defend Germany against Allied bombers - Air Force fails in Battle of Britain - At the end of the War, surrenders to the Allies assuming that he will be treated like a diplomatic figure, instead arrested for War Crimes and charged - Sentenced to death by hanging - Commits suicide at the last minute |
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Legal Revolution
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The process by which Hitler seizes power
- Goes to German army and tells them he is going to reign in communism, take apart the Versailles treaty, and return Germany to military glory - The Generals like what they hear, and put their support behind him |
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Decree for the Protection of the German People
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: Hitler’s first presidential decree
- Intended to try and provoke the Communist party - Prohibits political parties from holding demonstrations without a police permit - Introduces protective custody: If someone is possibly a victim of a mob, he can be arrested to protect him - Reversed during WWI: Applied instead to the people en masse - Britain and france are hoping he will clean out the communists - Freedom of press is removed |
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Schaft
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Corporations promise to pay the Nazi debt if Hitler respects private property, and ropes in Labor unions
- Horace Greeley is the link between the Nazis and corporation. - Cures hyperinflation, president of the Reichsbank - Smartest guy in the Nazi government - Highly respected in the financial world - Gets thrown into a concentration camp - Blood on hands, Reichsbank takes Jewish assets - Acquitted at Nuremberg because he was in the concentration camp - Arrested by German authorities right after for corporate crimes - Later in life, sets up central banking for Syria and Indonesia |
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NSDAP
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Chaotic Authoritarianism
- Hitler appoints numerous people to do the same function - Why we don’t know who gave the final order for the holocaust - People were in competition for different positions - People had to interpret Hitler’s whims to please him 30% of NSDAP are workers - Most are lower middle class clerks, storeowners, office workers - The higher your class, the higher your rank - Young persons party - Nazi groups (e.g. Hitler youth, Nazi league of physicians) become shadow leagues - Hitler promises he will abide by the constitution - Hitler does so poorly in 1928 he thinks Germany has too much stability. Almost retires |
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Dawes Plan
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Gives Germany money to repay war debt
- Does not go directly to war debts, is instead American investment in re-established German companies - Employs Germans, they and the companies start paying income tax, which goes to Britain and France - German steel and car factories - No military industry for money to be sunk into |
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German 1920s
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Indulgent, artistic, pre-nazi open, cosmopolitan, liberal, multicultural
- Dance clubs - Art critical of the time - Decadent, excitement - They don’t take Nazis seriously - Strasser/Group Northwest tells Hitler to become more serious and more radical to be taken seriously - Everyone is investing in stock market, on margin - US Money dries up, unemployment skyrockets during the Great Depression - Social Democratic Party collapses, Hindenburg has to appoint a new government, which is the Catholic Center Party |
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Chancellor Bruning
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Cuts social services, government spending
- Ronald Reagan of Weimar Germany - Smaller government - There are so many political parties in the Reichstag that it cannot do anything or accomplish anything - Has to pass economic emergency legislation, which he can’t get through Reichstag - President Hindenburg is begged to passed Article 48 decrees - Bruni begins to have dictatorial power, inspiring Hitler - Reichstag is so scattered it can’t even overthrow this with 2/3rds Majority |
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Hindenburg
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: Hitler feels as though he should form the government. He goes to Hindenburg and argues that he has way more seats, so he should be chancellor
- Hindenburg hates him, does not want him to be chancellor - Hitler is an Austrian still - Hitler challenges Hindenburg in Presidential Election - Runoff election between Hitler and Hindenburg ,and Hitler gets 37% - Hindenburg wins - Hindenburg removes Bruning, picks a right wing radical in the center party for Chancellor - Bans violent Nazi party - The people have to vote if they approve for the next Chancellor |
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Schleicher
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Hitler gets the most seats out of anyone, Nazis become biggest party
- Now, Hitler goes to Shliker and starts weaseling out of supporting Poppin, wants to be chancellor - Offers Hitler to be vice-Chancellor, and gives him the police in Prussia - Hitler is not satisfied, goes to Hindenburg who calls him out about Poppin - Hindenburg’s staff leaks Hitler is a “weasel” to press - Drops Hitler fever in Reichstag - Hindenburg considers Marshall law under military rule - Shliker tells Hindenburg that the German army won’t go for this - Hindenburg fires him, stabbing Poppin in the back, makes Shliker chancellor |
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Teutoburg Forest/Varus
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German forest
- Germanic tribes defeat sophisticated and experienced Roman army - Tony Clooney finds remains of battle - Narrow roads |
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Fallacies of Studying Nazis
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Any event before Hitler contributed to his power
- Hitler was the product of German history as a whole - Hitler’s rise to power was deterministic |
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Totalitarianism
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The monopolizing of human activities, private and public, by the state
- Disunity, lack of ability to “cope” with stressful events - Loss of identity |
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Great German Upheavals
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: Establishment of Imperial Germany, World War I, German Defeat, Treaty of Versailles, fall of monarchy, failure of democracy under Weimar, great depression
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Imperialism & Totalitarianism
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Imperialism reinforced aggressive habits and encouraged militarization of every day life, stimulated racial conflicts, encouraged arrogant authority
- Cause of WI (Nationalis, ideological fanaticism, imperialism) |
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Inequality of Races
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Arthur de Gorbineau
- Tried to explain the rise and fall of civilizations and history on racial ters - Race mixing is required, but with one race as a leader - Admired by Richard Wagner |
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Chamberlain
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Foundations of the 19th century
- Designed to be a cultural history of Europe - Pretended to be Scholarly, but was more popular advocacy - Race is the ultimate determinate of cultural greatness |
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Triumph of Authoritarianism
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Habits were deeply entrenched
- Even in attempts of democracy - Evolved from long standing feudal, monarchial, and elitist conservative backgrounds - Congress and democracy was too slow, ineffective |
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Preconditions of National Socialism
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: 1) Half feudal half industrial society with militaristic and authoritarian tradition
2) Nationalization of the masses as an instrument of social control and internal aggression 3) Biological-racial beliefs 4) Extreme stress by military defeat and economic ruin 5) Sociopathic personalities with xenophobic ovements |
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Kingdom of Prussia
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Lead by Otto Von Bismarck
- Unified Gerany under archaic military-feudal values - To be “German” was to be a good soldier - Second Reich - Feudal elites did not want to give up power - Against capitalism and liberalism |
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Anti-Semitism
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Common enemy: Jews
- Stab in the back legend - Convenient Scapegoats |
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Liebenfels
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Cultist who invented Aryan only Order of the Temple
- Periodical Ostara - Brought the Swastika into use |
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Germany in WWI
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Germany was fighting on 2 major fronts against an enemy with numerical and productive advantage
- Imposed crippling economic blockade on Germany |
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Von Hindenburg and Ludendorff
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Lacked strategic plan for war
- Took over the government, taking over supreme command of the war - Became superhuman heroes in the eyes of the German public - Disastrous, threw away chance of peace - Shipped Lenin to Russia to engineer Russian Revolution (by accident) - Accidentally got USA into war with sinking of Lucitania |
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Germany Loses WWI:
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Proud and arrogant nation is defeated, believed that victory was close
- Caused a collective trauma - Been conditioned by 4 years of Wartime propaganda to believe they were winning - Refused to accept the reality, instead blamed communists, pacifists, jews - German monarchy collapses |
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War Guilt Clause
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Germany had to withdraw from occupied territory
- All Germany rest of the Rhine had to be occupied by allied troops - All German fleet was put in allied hands - Germany had to free allied prisoners but did not get their prisoners back |
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Spartacist League
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Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht
- Communists inspired by the Russian Revolution, protested against warmongers, called for violent overthrow of the government |
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New Democratic German Government
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: Established by Friedrich Ebert and the Majority Socialists
- Marriage of convenience between fledging democratic republic and military-industrial complex - Pact saved both extreme parties from taking over, but reliance on traditional military doomed Weimar republic from the start - Radical socialists attacked with a massive general strike and seizure of public buildings - FreeCorps fought back, and killed Liebknecht and Luxemburg in the process |
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Freecorps
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Exclusive reliance on war-weary military wasn’t working
- Freecorps was born out of volunteers who hated communists and were little more than hired killers - Consisted of declassed imperial officers who were afraid of their privilege being taken away - More loyal to their commanders than to the government |
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Reichstag
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No one government could form a majority, so parties had to work with completely opposing parties
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Weimar Constitution
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Could be construed autocratically as well as democratically
- Reduced the power of individual states in favor of federal power - Central government controlled military, taxes - Strong basis for absolute sovereignty for anyone who cared to exercise it |
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Article 48
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In times of national emergency, one could suspend civil liberties and use the armed forces to “restore order”
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Proportional Representation
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For each 60,000 votes, a party was guaranteed one seat
- Fragmented the political process - Even small parties could get a seat - 40 parties had seats - Lack of common purpose, narrow interests - Germans losing faith in democracy - Divided Reichstag did not agree on much |
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Kapp Putsch
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Fueled by resentment towards the German government’s acceptance of the Versailles Treaty and demobilizing army
- Several army officers conspired to overthrow gov’t - Managed to get Ebert to temporarily flee - New leaders were inexperienced and had little support - German workers striked until Kapp resigned and Ebert returned - Shows how unreliable the military was at defending the government - Brought the right wing into power in Bavaria |
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Hyperinflation:
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German government funded the war on bonds
- Circulated notes with no gold to back it up - Printed more and more money to fund the war - Germany owed 35bil in gold - No Rhineland to generate profits |
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Alois Hitler
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Hitler’s father, born out of wedlock and given to his step-uncle to be raised
- Achieved the highest position he could in the imperial revenue board - Johann Heidler, his stepfather, offers to legitimize him by adopting him - Misspelled as Hitlr - Hitler would later keep his origins vague, leading to rumors and legends about him |
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Hitler in WWI
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Was deamed too weak to bear arms in Austria
- Fought for Germany instead as a courier and soldier - Ended his aimless life, gave him a sense of belonging - Hitler’s speaking got him promoted to instructional officer after the war - became a speaker for the DAP, the German worker’s part |
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Hitler’s Characteristics
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Paranoid fear of jews, a pigeon holed black and white mind, a need to find scapegoats, inability to form loving ties, fantasy, admiration for brute strength
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Kurt Eisner
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Wanted to create a socialist revolution in Bavaria
- More peaceful, less revolutionary, but still revolutionary - Declared the Bavarian republic, proclaiming the end of the Bavarian monarchy - Revolution was bloodless, because of the disintegration of military authority, and failure of state bureaucracy - Eisner’s government spent itself into bankruptcy |
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Franz von Epp:
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Nazi hero and right wing Bavarian
- Set up a freecorps with future SA leader Ersnt Rohm - Belonged to military caste - Both instrumental in launching nazi party |
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Thule Society
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Grew out of a sect called the Germanic order
- Early pioneers of Nazi movement - Ordered Eisner’s assassination, causing chaos between left and right |
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Bavarian Socialist Republic
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Coffeehouse Anarchist” that seized power in the wake of Eisner’s death
- Were thrown out by right wing freecorps - All left leaders were Jewish, furthering anti-semitism in Bavaria - Turned Bavaria very right wing |
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Free Workers Committee
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Lead by Anton Drexler
- Thule society wanted to use the to convert workers to Volksich movement - Renamed to German Workers Party/DAP - Drexler agreed the Working Class must be saved from comunists and jews |
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Dietrich Eckart:
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Spiritual Godfather of Nazism
- Created Patriotic plays, popular among nationalistic germans - Created an inflammatory anti-communist anti-seetic paper - Member of the Thule society - Paper became Nazi ideological mouthpiece - Hitler and Alfred Rosenberg’s mentor |
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Alfred Rosenberg
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Associated communism and Judaism, closing the Nazi ideological scapegoat circle`
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Protocols of the Elders of Zion
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An anti-seitic hate document that had been fabricated by Tsarist police
- Supposed to be records of secret meetings of Zionist leaders who vowed to overthrow western Christian society with democracy, liberalism, and socialism - Alfred Rosenberg swore by it |
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Adolf Hitler and the DAP
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: Joined, but was horrified at the lack of vision and discipline
- Determine to reorganize the party along military lines - Wanted to attract party members who were loyal and militaristic - Organized a mass meeting where he outlined the party platform - Evolution from Drexler’s beer drinking racist club to Hitler’s mass party - Changed name to NSDAP - Hitler demanded dictatorial powers in the party, which was granted because they could not afford to lose him - Emphasized the importance of associating symbols and myths with the party - United different class occupations |
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SA
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Recruited from the freecorps
- Nazi army, used to gain political control - Hitler didn’t trust leaders completely, so he created his own “bodyguards:” the ss |
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Right Wing Coup
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: The major leaders of Bavaria’s right wing organizations made a plan to band together to overthrow the Weimar republic
- Beerhall Putsch - Demand by Hitler for a march on Berlin, the declaration of a new, right wing government |
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Beerhall Putsch:
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Setting was a large beerhall packed with political and social elite of Bavaria
- The group look them hostage and Ludendorff appealed to their patrioticness, saying the Putsch was for the good of Germany - Hitler left to attend to other parts of the Putsch - Ludendorff let hostages go on their word that they would come back - Hostages declared military alar, and ordered dissolution of Nazi party - Putschists march on the city anyway - Ludendorff thought since he was there, no one would shoot on the, but shots were fired - Nazi martyrs - Hitler arrested |
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Hitler’s Trial
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Hitler’s judge, minister of justice, and the public all were sympathetic to the nais
- Claimed the hostages were actually part of the Putsch - Claimed he was proudly trying to overthrow a traitorous Marxist-jewish regie - Got sentenced to 5 years, served under a year |
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Nazis in Prison
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All Putscists were given very lenient sentences
- Prison became hub of party activity - Hitler decided here that the only way to get into power was legally |
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Mein Kampf
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Outlined Hitler’s worldviews
- Racist interpretation of history, Social Darwinism, militaristic way of life, belief in transforming Geranhy into a world power - Final solution - Denounced democracy - Lebensraum, taking over Russia |
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Dawes Plan
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Evacuation of Ruhr by the French
- Reduced reparation payments - Germany borrowed expensive capital from America - Caused a golden age in the Weimar republic, economic boom - Caused heavy losses for Nazis and communists |
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Kurt von Schleicher:
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Leader of the military (Reichswehr)
- Cooperated with conservative and authoritarian parties - Wanted an autocratic regime, believed democracy was self defeating - Military’s chief leason between them and the government - Told Von Hindenburg what to do - Given the chancellorship after Von Papen - Hitler and Nazis refuse to support him |
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Nazi Support
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Many back from the war were not adjusting well
- Wanted a return to the “good old days” - Paranoid, depressed, aggressive, needed a scapegoat and revenge - Society was becoming more liberal in cities, prostitution and crime was up - Desensitization thanks to brutality and violence of the war - Even German fairy tales were violent and authoritarian |
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Young Plan
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More flexible than the Dawes plan in payments
- Only a portion of payments were mandatory, the other portion could be postphoned - Allied withdraw from the Rhineland |
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Great Depression
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Without it, Hitler would not have rose to power
- Agriculture and rural places were hit hard - Economy finally crashed with US crash |
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Breakdown of Parliamentary Democracy
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German government was suffering financially trying to pay a huge welfare state
- Ran out of oney - Financial chaos renewed popularity of extremists - Democratic solution was no longer working |
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Heinrich Bruning
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Appointed chancellor
- Destroyed the democratic process trying to push through a financial plan - Used Article 48, dissolved Reichstag, passed his program by presidential decree |
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Financial Collapse
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Bruning signed customs treaty with Austrialia
- French regarded this as a violation of the Versailles treaty - Recalled their loans in both Austria and Germany, closing Austrian and German banks |
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Franz von Papen
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Elected Chancellor after Bruning failed
- Lifted the ban on the SA, trying to work with Nazis - Papen lacked popular standing, Nazis had become most popular party - Tried to weaken the Nazis, somewhat succeeded - Wanted to make a new constitution - Von Hindenburg, Afraid of Civil War, fired him |
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Kurt von Schroder
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Approached Papen and Hitler to mediate
- “Hour of the Birth of the Third Reich” - Papin wanted revenge against Schleicher - Hitler and Papen then went with Hindenburg |
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Von Hindenburg
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If he could be assured that a Hitler appointment was checked and balanced by trusted conservatives, he would back it
- Warner von Blomberg, who was actually a nazi - Rumors of a Schleicher putsch pushed von H to approve Hitler |
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Rize of Nazism:
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Anti-Semitism
- Nationalism - Imperlaism - War - Versailles Treaty - Economic catastrophe - Unstable and useless democracy - Hitler himself - Fear of Communism - Desire for a quick fix authoritarian solution |
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Gestapo
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Department 1-A located in Berlin’s police headquarters
- Delt with political matters, political police intelligence - Head: Rudolf Diels |
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Reichstag Fire
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Reichstag was lit on fire
- Policde arrested a deranged Dutch Comunist who was at the scene - Nazis framed this as a communist conspiracy, and that radical measures would have to be taken to stop the comunists |
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Decree of Reich President for Protection of People & State
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Restrictions on freedom of opinion/press, privacy, search warrents and confiscations
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Enabling Law
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Fundamentally altered the Weimar constitution, so it needed a 2/3rds majority
- Center agreed, only if Nazis promise to respect the center and catholic rights - Gave the government the right to pass laws without the Reichstag - Chancellor can directly issue laws - Allowed Nazis to bypass Hindeburg |
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Gleichschaltung
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The process by which German institutions synchronized to conform to National Socialism
- Eradication of all political opponents - Organizations for mass mobilization and control of all citizens - Prominent Nazis put into highest offices - State governments merged with the federal - Removed labor unions - Law against other parties forming or existing - Gov’t could confiscate any property and revoke citizenship with no grounds - Legalized sterilization and euthanatiion |
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Operation Hummingbird/Night of the Long Knives
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Hitler was in full control except for Rohm’s SA and President von Hindenburg
- Rohm was acting out on his own, was not as obedient to Hitler as he would have liked - Rohm thought Hitler wasn’t doing a good job - Military was pressuring Hitler to control the SA - Himmler and Goring hated Rohm, pushed Hitler to get him, spread rumors about Rohm rebelling - Rohm was killed, along with Hitler’s former enemies, Von Schleicher, removed Papin |
