IDs and Definitions

IDs and Definitions

• Hofbrauhaus• Mein Kampf

Questions and Imperatives

• Describe the origins of the Nazi Party in Germany. How did it move to gain power in Germany?

Beginning of the Nazis• Nazi Party:• German Workers Party (DAP) founded January 1919 in Munich with

Anton Drexler as its leader– Drexler envisioned a völkisch German state focused on broad middle-class

interests, and a purge of foreigners and Jews• (story of Hitler’s job after the war) Ernst Roehm had recruited him as

a civilian investigator; his job was to find out what was going on in meetings of any extremist parties; Hitler checked on the DAP– At first Hitler found the meeting boring and was ready to leave; he was then

drawn into discussion about Bavarian separatism, which vehemently opposed

– Hitler was invited back and joined joined the DAP in September (party # 555) and became the 7th member of the executive committee

• Soon, name of party changed to NSDAP• anti-Semitism characterized its meetings

1919-1921• 1919-1921 – violent anti-Semitic pogroms swept through

Poland and the Ukraine, with many Jews injured and killed (60,000)

• February 1920: first mass meeting of the NSDAP in Munich’s Hofbrauhaus: Hitler established the party program (perhaps with Drexler’s help)

• 1921: Ernst Roehm formed the Brown Shirts (SA), a paramilitary group; the swastika appeared and would be used as the symbol for the Nazi party– SA seemed mostly to be thugs, watched out for party leaders

• Summer 1921: Hitler becomes party’s first chairman with dictatorial powers; Nazi party based on leadership principle of a fuehrer (leader)

Better Organization• beginning of Hitler Youth and SS

– Adolf Hitler Boys Storm Troop, later called Hitler Youth (1926)

– Shock Troop Adolf Hitler, nucleus for SS founded the next year, an elite version of the SA (black uniforms with “ss”), brutal, but in a refined sort of way, initially Hitler’s guard and later elite armed guard of the Third Reich (lead by Heinrich Himmler)

• 1922: foreign minister Walther Rathenau,a Jew, is assassinated

• Jewish graves are desecrated throughout Germany for next 20 years

• Hitler gave talks at rallies to get people to believe in “stab in the back” theory

1923• Hyper-inflation, the currency becomes worthless

(German mark traded 4 billion to one U.S. $)

• we see the first issue of the pro-Nazi anti-Semitic newspaper Der Stürmer (The Attacker) published in Nuremberg; its slogan was “The Jews are our misfortune,” a quote picked up from Heinrich von Treitschke

• Der Sturmer banned by Weimar Republic soon after its beginnings, but resumes printing in 1925; The Nazi JULIUS STREIKER edited newspaper “Der Sturmer”...convinced Hitler to hold Nazi rallies in Nuremberg.

• Jewish homes are burned in Berlin• 1923 putsch in Munich (putsch is an uprising), party attempted to take

over the government, Hitler was arrested and spent about 9 months in prison, writing Mein Kampf (transcribed by Rudolph Hess, also in prison for Putsch)…the book will be published in 1925/26…and editions continued

Best way for Nazis to take power??

The End of the Beginning• Weimar had banned Hitler from speaking (1925), but lifted that ban

in 1927• Joseph Goebbels published the first issue of the anti-Semitic Der

Angriff (The Attack). It was founded to rally Nazi Party members because of the ban on the Nazi Party in Berlin

• 1929: Hitler appoints Heinrich Himmler Reichsführer-SS• Nazi Party day rally held in Nuremberg in August 1929 and draws

over 100,000 people• Great Depression hit • this gave the Nazis the boost they needed• the center parties had helped to stabilize the Republic???• with the Depression, German citizens looked to the extreme parties• Nazi’s increased their seats in the Reichstag

The End of the Beginning• Weimar had banned Hitler from speaking (1925), but lifted that ban

in 1927• Joseph Goebbels published the first issue of the anti-Semitic Der

Angriff (The Attack). It was founded to rally Nazi Party members because of the ban on the Nazi Party in Berlin

• 1929: Hitler appoints Heinrich Himmler Reichsführer-SS• Nazi Party day rally held in Nuremberg in August 1929 and draws

over 100,000 people• Great Depression hit • this gave the Nazis the boost they needed• the center parties had helped to stabilize the Republic???• with the Depression, German citizens looked to the extreme parties• Nazi’s increased their seats in the Reichstag

Political Parties in the

ReichstagMay 1924

Dec. 1924

May1928

Sep.1930

July1932

Nov.1932

Mar.1933

Communist Party (KPD) 62 45 54 77 89 100 81

Social Democratic Party (SDP)

100 131 153 143 133 121 120

Catholic Centre Party

(BVP)81 88 78 87 97 90 93

Nationalist Party (DNVP) 95 103 73 41 37 52 52

Nazi Party (NSDAP) 32 14 12 107 230 196 288

Other Parties 102 112 121 122 22 35 23

Election for President 1932

• German banks forced to close for financial reasons for a month in summer 1931

• Hitler speaks to German industrialists in 1932 as he makes his bid for the presidency

• 1932 election for President: Hindenburg, Hitler, and Thaelmann

• Hitler had enough votes to force a second vote against Hindenburg

• Hindenburg won, but Hitler’s following increased having been in the spotlight