Hitler Single Party State

Front 1

Treaty of Versailles

Back 1

1. 1919
2. Reparations 132-135 billion marks
3. Rhineland demilitarized
4. Limited Germany to 100K Troops
5. No Navy
6. War Guilt clause

Front 2

Hyperinflation

Back 2

1. 1923 (throughout 1920s)
2. Supply down, demand up, prices up
3. Money became worthless

Front 3

Great Depression

Back 3

1. 1929
2. Foreign loans ceased or recalled
3. Factories shut down
4. 6 million unemployed in Germany
5. People lost faith in economic system

Front 4

Ruhr Invasion

Back 4

1. 1923
2. French occupied Ruhr valley when Germany could not pay reparations demanded by France

Front 5

Weimer Constitution

Back 5

1. Germany as a parlimaentary republic; representative government
2. Article 48: IN a time of civil distrubance, president could suspend civil liberties and restore order with armed forces

Front 6

German People's problems in 1920s and 30s

Back 6

1. Unemployment (economic depression)
2. Weimar government
3. Rise of communist vote
4. Treaty of Versailles/ Unfair treatment by the West

Front 7

Beer Hall Putsch

Back 7

1. 1923
2. Hitler and National Socialists denounced the Weimer gov’t for being submissive to French who occupied the Ruhr
3. disturbance suppressed and Hitler sentenced to 5 yrs in prison: released after 1
4. Got lots of support from people, newspapers, radio stations in trial that followed
5. Importance: made Hitler known throughout Germany

Front 8

Mein Kampf

Back 8

1. 1923?
2. ideas reflected those of the Nazi party
3. Germany’s need for a strong gov’t, promise of full employment, tear up Germany’s part in Versailles treaty, unite Germany, build army, rid Germany of November criminals
4. The democratic gov’t had “sold out” Germany by agreeing to Versailles Treaty
5. Denounced Weimar democracy for producing class struggle, division, weakness
6. Converted Hitler into a political figure of national prominence

Front 9

Aims/Ideas

Back 9

1. denounced Treaty of Versailles as national humiliation
2. denounced Weimar democracy for producing class struggle, division, weakness, and wordy futility
3. called for “true” democracy in a vast and vital stirring of people, behind a leader who was a man of action
4. anti-Semitism: Hitler found that it appealed to all parties and classes
5. Jews were a minority: 600K in all Ger

Front 10

Election Results

Back 10

1924: 32 seats
1930: 107 seats
1932: 108 seats
1933: 208 seats

Front 11

Coalition w/ Franz Von Papen

Back 11

1. 1933
2. Von Papen wanted to be in power: thought he could use Hitler as a figure-head so he could run the country; Von Papen also feared another Beer Hall Putsch, so he co-allied w/ Hitler
3. Hitler = chancellor, Von Papen = vice chancellor

Front 12

Reichstag Fire

Back 12

1. Feb 1933
2. Police found Marvinus Von der Lubbe guilty, a communist party member: Nazis blamed him w/out hard evidence

Front 13

Reichstag Fire Decree or February 28 Decree

Back 13

1. 1933
2. Hitler asks Hindenburg to envoke article 48, he does so
3. Allowed Hitler to arrest and remove communist party members from power
4. Gave Hitler and Nazi party a majority in Reichstag

Front 14

1933 Elections

Back 14

441 nazi seats : 84 social democrats seats

Front 15

Enabling Act

Back 15

1. March 1933
2. Some opposition was coerced to vote for the Enabling Act: Hitler could rule for 4 years by decree and gave him the authority to make new laws

Front 16

Law Against the Formation of New Parties

Back 16

1. Jul 14, 1933
2. Only 1 legal party: the Nazi Party

Front 17

The Law Concerning the Head of the German State

Back 17

1. Aug 2, 1934
2. offices of the President and Chancellor combined into one office: that of the Führer = Hitler
3. Hindenburg had died

Front 18

Plebescite

Back 18

1. Aug 1934
2. 90% of the people agreed with the “Law Concerning the Head of the German State” => legitimized actions

Front 19

Hitler calls for Secret Police, the Gestapo

Back 19

1. Apr 1933

Front 20

Night of the Long Knives

Back 20

1.Jun 30, 1934
2. SA (Brownshirts) purged, Ernst Röhm shot, Von Schleicher shot (Chancellor b4 Hitler)
3. Why? Ernst Röhm wanted to combine SA and army; if he controlled both the armed forces and the stormtroopers, he would be the greatest power in the land => challenged Hitler

Front 21

Right Wing

Back 21

1. Left-wing were communists: were introducing radical ideas;
2. Nazis wanted to eliminate left-wing/communist ideas including Bolshevism
3. Nationalism, militarism, racism and discrimination against opponents, eugenics (creation of a superior race), anti-capitalism, but pro-industrialism

Front 22

Totalitarianism

Back 22

1. Hitler = Leader = Hero = symbol of the state
2.State > Individual
3.State runs economy w/ emphasis on industrialization
4.Official enemies of the state: Jews, Communists, “Western” society
5.Only 1 legal party
6.Militarism is a virtue
7.not nationalistic; rested on a principle of worldwide class struggle in all nations alike
8.claimed absolute dominion over every aspect of life
9.individuals had no independent existence
10.Valid ideas were of the group, people, or nation; science was a product of specific societies
11.“Nazi Science” rejected Western or “Jewish” Science, and Soviet science
12.Art and literature were considered “good” as long as it portrayed the nationality of the country or region it represented

Front 23

Propaganda

Back 23

monopolized by the state, demanded faith in a whole view of life;
manipulated opinion, rewrite history
propaganda experts were sometimes fanatics, but often they were cynics, too intelligent to be duped by the rubbish with which they duped their country
no one could learn anything except what the gov’t wanted people to know
people came to believe and even accept as truth the most extravagant statements if they were heard so many times: people became incapable of individual reasoning

Front 24

Racism

Back 24

it defined the nation in the tribal sense, as a biological entity
anti-Semitism was more prolific because Jews were obtaining positions of social, political, and economic importance and came to be regarded as a threat by non-Jews
used as a tool by propagandists who wished for people to feel their racial superiority or to forget the deeper problems, such as poverty and unemployment

Front 25

Coordinating Labor Unions

Back 25

Labor unions replaced by National Labor Front
Strikes were forbidden
Employers were set up as small scale Fuhrers in their factories and industries and given extensive control
Extensive public works program was launched: reforestation, swamp drainage projects, housing and superhighways built
Rearmament program absorbed the unemployed and unemployment disappeared in a short time

Front 26

The Glorification of Violence

Back 26

belief that struggle was beneficial
WWI habituated people to war and direct action
appealed to a kind of juvenile idealism; young people believed that by joining some kind of squad, donning some kind of uniform, and getting into the fresh air they contributed to a moral resurgence of their country

Front 27

Organization of Terror

Back 27

1936: Hitler gave Heinrich Himmler, who had helped assassinate Ernst Rohm control of all of Germany’s police and put him in charge of “law and order”, including the SS
SS was not answerable to anyone except to Hitler
Many concentration camps set up in 1933 were used to contain opponents arrested by the SS: Nazis called it “preventive detention”
Opponents (anti-social elements, alcoholics, mental cases) had a triangle sewn onto his or her uniform for identification; different colored triangles of different types of prisoners
By 1939, there were 25,000 prisoners in these camps