Hitler - Rise to power

Hitler’s Rise to Power

The War Guilt Clause

1.      Field Marshall von Hindenburg said that the Weimar Republic politicians had “stabbed Germany in the back” by agreeing the Paris Peace.

2.      Nationalists labelled the politicians who signed Versailles as the ‘November Criminals’.

3.      Clause 231 stated “The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.”

WWI Reparations

1.      In April 1921 reparations were set at 132 billion gold marks.

2.      In early January 1923 the Reparation Commission declared Germany to be in default of payments of timber and coal.

a.       This resulted in the French occupation of the Ruhr, despite British opposition.

                                                              i.      Occupation of the Ruhr resulted in a brief return of the spirit of 1914 (patriotism that united German people at the outbreak of WWI).

b.      Reparation payments were suspended and Ruhr workers showed passive resistance by refusing to work for the French.

                                                              i.      Ultimately these tactics worked and deliveries to the French were reduced significantly.

3.      To subsidize the strikers and to make up for lost tax revenues during the Ruhr occupation, the German government printed money.

a.       This resulted in hyper-inflation and by August 1923 the mark was virtually valueless.

                                                              i.      One dollar was worth 4.2 trillion marks in October 1923.

4.      The Young Plan of 1929 reduced reparations from 6600 million pounds to 200 million pounds.

Unemployment in Germany

1.      Unemployment rose to 6 million in 1932.

2.      By 1932 almost one in three workers were officially registered as unemployed.

a.       In industrial areas such as Silesia and the Ruhr, the proportion was even higher.

3.      Many of the younger unemployed attempted to escape the tedium of unemployment by joining paramilitary forces. This included the right’s SA or the left’s Rotfront under the KDP.

Weak Weimar Leadership

1.      Article 48 of the Weimar constitution stated that the president could declare a state of emergency and use special powers to rule by decree.

a.       This would by-pass the Reichstag and was a potential weakness of the Weimar Republic.

2.      The Weimar constitution employed proportional representation.

a.       This facilitated the growth of various small parties and resulted in weak coalition governments.

b.      In 1919 elections the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Catholic Centre Party (ZP) and the German Democratic Party (DDP) gained 76 per cent of the vote, 1920 elections, this dropped to 48 per cent.

3.      A legal obligation of the government required it to call a referendum if a tenth of the voters demanded it.

a.       This was a destabilizing factor and prevented the government from efficient action.

4.      During the Kapp Putsch of March 1920,  right-wingers under Wolfgang Kapp tried to seize government after the government tried to disband the Freikorps.

a.       Though the revolt was ultimately a failure, the Weimar Republic’s lack of control over the army was demonstrated since the army refused to actively suppress the revolt.

Role of the SS

1.      In July 1921 the Nazi Party’s own paramilitary force, the Strumabteilung (SA), a Freikorps group, were founded.

a.       Also called “brown shirts”, were an imitation of Mussolini’s black shirts.

2.      Hitler led 600 armed SA men during the Beer Hall Putzsch to try and take over government buildings.

a.       Despite its failure, the Putzsche gave Hitler “revolutionary credentials”.

Threat of Communism

1.      The Spartacus Union, led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, and the left wing of the USPD advocated a socialist Germany.

a.       They wanted a socialist parliament, a ‘red army’ or workers’ militia, and the nationalization of all medium to large-sized farms and key industries.

2.      The Spartacus Union and the Bremen left-wing radicals united to create the German Communist Party (KPD).

3.      The uprising organized by the KPD in January 1918 was ruthlessly crushed by the military and Freikorps units. Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg were murdered.

a.       The failure was called ‘the revolution’s battle of the Marne’. (E. Kolb, The Weimar Republic. 1988.)

                                                              i.      The German advance on Paris was stopped at the Marne in September 1914.

4.      For four months following the January attempt at uprising by the KPD, strikes and riots broke out throughout the Reich and ‘soviet republics’ were declared in Munich, Bremen, Muhlheim and Halle.

a.       The army and the Freikorps units brutally crushed the revolts, which caused an increasing polarization in German society.

Fascist Ideology

1.      Nazism employed volkisch nationalism, which was an extreme form of nationalism. It was based on extreme forms of racism.

a.       The white race was superior to all others, and the purest form of the white race was the blond-haired and blue-eyed Aryan who inhabited the forests of Germany during the Dark Ages. The formed the master-race, Herrenvolk.

2.      Social Darwinism was used to justify the Aryan superiority over Jews.

a.       Aryans were the master race and the Jews were a universal scourge.

3.      Nazi philosophy was outlined in Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

Stock Market Crash

1.      In July 1931 the German banking system plunged into crisis when the Austrian bank, the Kreditanstalt, collapsed in Vienna.

a.       This triggered a large scale withdrawal of deposits from German banks, from individuals who feared a similar collapse.

2.      On July 13 1921 the Darmstadter und Natoinalbank (DANAT) stopped all payments, and two dats later it was joined by the other German banks.

3.      The German government immediately invested 1 billion marks into the banks.

a.       This allowed the mark to float separate from the gold standard. It was key in avoiding a total banking

crash.

Cult of Personality

1.      After establishing the National Socialist German Worker’s Party in February 1920, it also incorporated a new design created by Hitler. This was a black swastika on a white and red background.

2.      The Nazi Party had their own newspaper, the People’s observer in Munich following December 1920.

3.      After his arrest following the Beer Hall Putzsch, Hitler was allowed to make speeches in his defence which received nationwide publicity in the newspapers.

a.       Despite its failure, the Putzsche gave Hitler “revolutionary credentials”.

4.      Hitler wrote the first volume of Mein Kampf in 1924, outlining his view of history and the future.

a.       This outline the philosophy of Naziism: Volkisch nationalism.

Three Quotes

1.      Hans Frank, who later became Governor-General of German-occupied Poland in 1939, stated: “Hitler alone would be capable of mastering Germany’s fate”.

Historiography

1.      David G. Williamson. The age of dictators. 2007.   The Weimar Republic was ‘the seedbed of Nazism.’”

2.      Detlev Peukert. The Weimar Republic: The Crisis of Classical Modernity. The Depression was “a trigger to the abandonment of a political system which had already lost its legitimacy”.

3.      Wolfgang Mommsen. Imperial Germany, 1867-1918. 1995. The fate of the Weimar Republic was “sealed from the start.”