DEPTH STUDY A : GERMANY 1918 – 1945
WAS THE WEINMAR REPUBLIC DOOMED FROM THE START?
The impact of the First World War on Germany was devastating, the Treaty of Versailles made the country’s problems even worse.The Weimar Government struggled from crisis to crisis. Adolf Hitler and the Nazis emerged as the most powerful group in Germany.
In 1918 the Allies had clearly won the war , Germany was in chaos and the Allies offered Germany peace , but under strict conditions, one conditions was that Germany had to be more democratic and when the Kaiser refused there were mutines led by sailors, workers , socialists from different parts of Germany.
On 9th November 1918, the Kaiser abdicated his throne, the Socialist Leader Ebert became the new leader of the Republic of Germany and immediately signed an armistice with the Allies.The was was over.He also announced to the people that the new Republic was giving them freedom of speech, a new Constitution was drawn up.
The impact of the Treaty of Versailles on the Republic was crisis.
Germany lost 10% of its land , all of its overseas colonies , 12.5% of its population, 16%of its coal and 48% of its iron industry.
Its army was reduced and it was not allowed to have an airforce , its navy was reduced as well; on top of this , Germany had to accept the blame for starting the war and was forced to pay reparations.
For all of these reasons, most Germans were appalled , they felt betrayed by the Allies and opponents of the Regime turned their fury on Ebert.
Ebert had opposition from the Kaiser’s former advisers who were still in the army, industry judiciary and civil service.
On the other hand , many communists believed that what Germany needed was a Communist Revolution just like Russia had in 1917.
Despite all the opposition free elections took place in 1919 and Ebert’s Party won and he became THE PRESIDENT OF THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC , CALLED LIKE THIS BECAUSE THE NEW GOVERNMENT met in the small town of Weimar, rather than in Germany’s capital BERLIN.
ECONOMIC DISASTER
The Treaty destabilized Germany politically and economically , the payments they had to pay for reparations were 2% of Germany’s annual output A LOT!!!
The Ruhr
The first installment (50 million pounds) was paid in 1921, but in 1922 nothing was paid and the French ran out of patience, so in 1923 French and Belgian troops entered the Ruhr and began to take what was owed to them
HYPERINFLATION
In August 1923, a new government took over.They introduced a new currency called the Retenmark , negotiated to receive American loans and even negotiated the reparations payments , the economic crisis was solved very quickly.
Between the achievements of the Weimar period we can mention: the Economy, Culture, Politics and Foreign Policy.
The economy was built back again , the reparation payments were spread over a longer period , and 800 million marks in loans from the USA were invested into German industry.
Germany finally achieved the same levels of production as before the war.
There was also a cultural revival regarding artists , writers , poets and painters.
Politics became more stable and Foreign Policy was their greatest triumph . Germany was accepted into the League of Nations and this gave them the opportunity to reverse some of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
WHY WAS HITLER ABLE TO DOMINATE GERMANY BY 1934?
The Nazis began as the German’s working party, led by Anton Drexler.In 1919, Hitler joined the party. Two years later , he removed Drexler as a leader , they were extremely nationalists.
Hitler blamed the Allies , the Versailles Treaty and politicians who signed it , the Communists and the Jews for Germany’s problems.
I believe Nazis had little success before 1930 because Hitler had underestimated the German people more than once. Nazis has taken over official buildings which ended up in chaos between Nazis and the police. Even though he was sentenced to prison, he had gained an enormous publicity.
Nazis had a 25 point programme and its most important points were:
*the abolition of the Treaty of Versailles
*the union of Germany and Austria
*the fact that only “true” Germans were to be allowed to live in Germany , JEWS in particular were to be excluded
*large business and industries to be nationalized
*a strong central government in Germany
By 1932 the Nazis had become the largest single political party , Hitler demanded the post of chancellor from the President , but Hindenburg, did not trust him so he refused. He allowed the current chancellor or Papen , to carry on. However, this one was soon on trouble and had no support so he had to be changed (1933).
The President refused again to give Hitler the post , so he chose one of his own advisers , Schleiner. One month later he was forced to resign. The President and Papen , met secretly with industrialists , army leaders and politicians . He finally offered Hitler the post of chancellor, everybody was surprised.
Hitler ended up as Chancellor , not because of the will of the German people , but because of a secret deal by some German Aristocrats. Both Hinderburg and Papen , thought they could control Hitler , they were both wrong.
Hitler became the supreme dictator of Germany by the summer of 1934 and he achieved this through a clever combination of methods (some legal others dubious)
He also managed to defeat or reach agreements with those who could have stopped him.
THE NAZI REGIME : HOW EFFECTIVELY DID THE NAZIS CONTROL GERMANY -1933-45?
There was supposed to be no room for opposition of any kind in Nazi Germany , the aim was to create a totalitarian state where there could be no rival parties.
Ordinary citizens must divert all their energy into serving the state and doing all what its leader wants.
The Nazis had a powerful range of organizations and weapons that they used to control Germany and terrorize Germans into submission.
The GESTAPO was THE SECRET STATE POLICE and it was the force that was feared the most by German citizens.
Gestapo agents had sweeping powers , they could arrest citizens on suspicion and send them to concentration camps without trial or even explanation.
Modern research has shown that Germans thought the Gestapo were much more powerful than they actually were . As a result , many Germans informed on each other because they thought that the Gestapo would find out anyways. There were many facts that determined Hitler’s consolidation of power. In the Reichstag Fire, 4000 communists were arrested and other Nazi opponents too. The Emergency Decree allowed the police to arrest suspects with no trial. Hitler took over regional governments . The Nazis intimidated opponents through the radio and also attracted many new voters.Eventually they took control of all the media.
In the Enabling Act Hitler was made a legal dictator because he won allowance to pass decrees without the President’s involvement.
The Night of the Long Knives was also very important , within a year any opponents of the Nazis had either left Germany or being taken to special concentration camps.
Other Political Parties were banned but Hitler was still not entirely secure. The S.A was a badly disciplined force and its leader, Ernst Rohm had talked about turning it into the second German Army . Hitler did not trust Rohm and accused him of plotting against him , so Rohm was arrested and murdered and approximately 400 other men who co-operated with Rohm were murdered too. The S.A remained as part of the Nazi organization.
This was very important because it raised fear among the population and that was an excellent strategy to avoid opponents or traitors.
THE NAZI REGIME : WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO LIVE IN NAZI GERMANY?
It was Hitler’s aim to control every aspect of life in Germany , including the daily life of ordinary people.
Most young people were strong supporters of Adolf Hitler. The Nazis had reorganized every aspect of the school curriculum to make children loyal to them.
At school children learnt the history of Germany and they were outraged to find out how the German army had been “stabbed in the back” by the weak politicians who had made peace. They were also told that the hardships of the 1920’s were caused by Jews squeezing profits out of honest Germans.
By the time students became senior pupils, they were confident that loyalty to the Fuhrer (Hitler) was right and good.
Biology lessons taught students that they were special , as one of the Aryan race which was so superior in intelligence and strength to the sub-human Jews and Slavs of Eastern Europe.
As members of the Hitler’s youth , they marched in exciting parades with loud bands. Young people’s leisure time was also devoted to Hitler and the Nazis .
Children were slightly alienated from their parents because they were not as keen on the Nazis as their children were.
Children were taught that their first loyalty was to Adolf Hitler and no to their parents.
As the war progressed , the activities of the youth movements focused increasingly on the war effort and military drill.The popularity of the movements decreased and an anti-Hitler movement appeared.
The Nazis identified two distinct groups of young people who they were worried about: The Swing Movement and the Edelweiss Pirates.
The Swing Movement was made up mainly of middle class teenagers , they listened to English and American music and accepted Jews in their clubs.
The Edelweiss Pirates were working class teenagers , they were not an organized movement.
Neither of the groups described above had strong political views , they were not political opponents of the Nazis , but they resented and resisted Nazi control over their lives.
All the Nazi leaders were men, the Nazis were a very male-dominated organization. Hitler had a very traditional view of the role of the German woman as wife and mother.
Many women agreed with him , they felt that their proper role was to support their husband.
There was also resentment towards working women , since they were seen as keeping men out of jobs. This situation created a lot of pressure on woman to conform what the Nazis called “the traditional balance” between men and women.
Alarmed at the falling birth rate , Hitler offered tempting financial incentives for married couples to have at least four children.
There were also some prominent women in the Nazi Germany.
One of the reasons why opposition to Hitler was so limited was the work of the Minister of Enlightenment and Propaganda. He personally believed in Hitler as the savior of Germany and his mission was to make sure that others believed this as well.
Throughout the 12 years of Nazi rule he constantly kept his finger on the pulse of public opinion and decided what the German public should and shouldn’t hear.
In the late 1930’s the Nazis suddenly needed more women workers because the supply of unemployed men was drying up. Many women had to struggle between both family and work responsibilities.
However, even during the crisis years of 1942-1945 when German industry was struggling to cope with the demand for war supplies , Nazi policy was still divided between their traditional stereotype of the mother , and the actual needs of the workplace.
There was no chance for German women to serve in the armed forces .
Hitler and the Nazis came to power because they promised to use radical methods to solve the country’s two main problems: desperate unemployment and a crisis in German farming.
In return for work and other benefits , the majority of the German people gave up their political freedom.
Hitler was fortunate in that , by 1933 the worst of the Depression was over. The Nazis acted with energy and commitment to solve some of the main problems.
The brilliant economist Dr.Schacht organized Germany’s finances to fund a huge programme of work creation. Men were sent on public work projects and conservation programmes, in particular to build motorways. Railways were built from scratch and there were major house-building programmes and grandiose public building projects.
Another measure that brought prosperity was the rearmament plan. He reintroduced conscription for the German army and he announced a 4 year plan to get the German Economy ready for war.
As well as bringing economic recovery , this measurements also brought national pride. Hitler promised and delivered lower unemployment which helped to ensure popularity among industrial workers. These workers were important to the Nazis because good workers were needed to create the industries that would make Germany great and establish a new German Empire in Eastern Europe.He won the loyalty of industrial workers by a variety of initiatives.
The price of these advances was that the workers lost their main political party the SDP. They all had to join the DAF(General Labour Front). This organization kept strict control over workers .They could not strike for better pay and conditions. Many workers expressed that their standard of living was still lower than it had been before the Depression so they did not gain much and had to pay a lot.
Between the farming communities something very similar to what had happened with the workers took place.They did not gain much and paid a lot too.
Regarding business, only big business benefited from Nazi rule, the others didn’t.
Hitler fulfilled the 4 most important aims he had : reverse the Treaty of Versailles, rebuild Germany’s armed forces , unite Germany and Austria and extend German territory into Eastern Europe.
He fulfilled each of these aims , but he started the Second World War in the process.
Germans had no great enthusiasm for was , they still remembered the First World War, but the Nazis used all methods to make the German people support the regime.
Food rationing was introduced , then clothes rationing , but war was going very well for Germany.
Hitler was in control of much of Western and Eastern Europe and supplies of luxury goods flowed into Germany from captured territories.
In 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union and for the next 3 years his troops were engaged in an increasingly expensive war with Russian forces who defeated the Germans.
German people began to see and listen less of Hitler, because he was preoccupied with war.
In 1942 Germans decided to kill millions of Jewish civilians in German-occupied countries, they called this “the final solution”.
Germany’s economy was focused on the armament industries, postal services were suspended, women were drafted into labour work. The S.S could not win the war , Germans were defeated , support for the Nazis weakened , Germans stopped declaring food they had and even refused to give the “Heil Hitler” salute when asked to do so.
Allies were contracted to asked about possible peace terms by Himmler who was the leader of the S.S.
***The SS was formed in 1925 from fanatics loyal to Hitler , it was led by Heinrich Himmler, SS men were of course Aryans , very highly trained and of course loyal to Hitler.
Under Himmler, the SS had primary responsibility for destroying opposition to Nazism and carrying out the racial policies of the Nazis .
Two important divisions of the SS were:
The Death’s Head Units responsible for the concentration camps and the slaughter of the Jews
The Waffen-SS special SS armoured regiments which fought alongside the regular army.
thank you so much.....
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