Updated 6/01/2025
The Treaty of Versailles and the Weimar Republic
The Second World War is inextricably linked to the First World War.
The Treaty of Versailles marked the formal end of the First World War and became effective on October 28, 1919. The Dictation of Versailles was seen as a severe humiliation of the Germans and was warned at an early stage about the disastrous consequences. Harold Nicholson, a British diplomat present at the talks criticized the fact that the opinion of the Germans had not been taken into account at all and called the reparations a major crime. He found the entire treaty immoral and not enforceable. Parts of Germany had to be ceded to France, Denmark, Poland, Belgium and Czechoslovakia.
The Weimar Republic (Germany from 1918 to 1933 and a full-fledged democracy, constitution issued in Weimar), recognized under compulsiveness to be responsible for the war damage and had to compensate it. Pending a final settlement, payments in kind were already started. Germany lost around 70,000 square kilometers of territory with 6.5 million inhabitants. The final level of reparations became a long-term haggling between the parties and the seizure of power of the National Socialists soon made this arrangement a farce. The Federal Republic of Germany resumed reparations in 1950 and in 1989 the repayments were met.
The military provisions of the treaty were not recognized by the German army in the 1920s and were already partially circumvented. Although the treaty banned Germany from owning tanks, there was experimentation with light, fast tanks. With Heinz Guderian, Erich von Manstein and Erwin Rommel, the idea grew to form Panzerdivisionen and later make the Blitzkrieg possible.
Emperor Wilhelm II had since resigned and left for Doorn in the Netherlands. Then a civil war appeared to emerge in Germany. The Communist insurrection of 1919 was brutally defeated. The first national elections were held and under the leadership of President Friedrich Ebert, the Weimar Koalition came into being. The SPD, DDP and the Zentrum partei gained a majority of 76%. In 1919, a new constitution came into force. In March 1920, the Kapp-putch took place, a first expression of the far right. The putsch failed.
On 11 January 1923, French and Belgian troops entered the Ruhr region. Germany had not paid. The German government’s response was to suspend all reparations. All the workers and officials went on strike and did not follow orders from the occupiers. The strikes soon got the German economy into trouble. Extra money was printed and this led to a disproportionate level of inflation. The incumbent government of Wilhelm Cuno stepped down in August 1923 and was succeeded by a government led by Gustav Streseman.
After this, actually up to the Bierkeller putch through which Hitler became known, a period of relative calm began. The Stock Exchange crash of 1929 in New York heralded the beginning of the end of the republic. During the 1930 election, the extreme parties on the left and right took advantage of the malaise. The Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD) grew from 54 to 77 seats, the NSDAP from 12 to 107 seats.
Democracy and Autocracy
We are used to democracy, but none of that is so common. China is already almost a world power with a dark vassal government with ramifications around the world. So too Russia, Iran and much larger and smaller states and states with dubious rulers. An autocracy is not controlled by a parliament, the people have no say in those countries. Human rights? Nothing to do with it, respecting other countries? Nothing to do with it either. Yet an autocracy could work well if, by normal human standards, those in power put the interest of the country first and not allow self-interest to prevail. Unfortunately, age-old practice teaches us that this is not the case.
In a well-functioning democracy, the state serves the citizen. Not a certain group, but all citizens. Lobbyists have limited access to policymakers. Everything that is said within consultative bodies about matters concerning the citizen are public and it is known who was present at the consultative bodies and who said something on behalf of what. Any decision, both nationally and internationally, must be approved in advance by the representatives of the people. Democracy is the basis of a free society. Better a “bad” decision with support is better than a “good” decision that has been made in back rooms. We are used to democracy. But something can always happen that should not has happened. Then it is up to the citizens, to the people’s representatives and to the press to ensure that this does not happen again.
The above paragraph gives a picture of the ideal democracy. But that a democracy can pit society against each other and block any progress proves the situation in America. The two-party system, Republicans and Democrats, has been creating a broiled relationship between one half of America and another for years. Improvements can hardly be made because the president in question often loses his majority after the intermediate elections and the last two years of his period can hardly do anything. This leads to a yo-yo policy where just introduced decisions (if any) are completely or partially reversed after the term of office.
The origin of the NSDAP
In the democratic Weimar Republic, the political landscape was divided into the left and far right, with Munich as a stronghold of extremist ideas. Many prominent Germans did not have much on with the Weimar republic. The later Nazi leaders, such as Hitler, Hess, Himmler, Göring and Goebbels, also found the Weimar republic a horror and could not accept the agreements made under the Treaty of Versailles.
Dietrich Eckart was on the far right side in the political landscape, along with Gottfried Feder, Karl Harrer and Anton Drexler. The foursome decided to establish the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei. A party with radical anti-Semitic and national-socialist ideas. The party’s problem was getting their ideas broadcasted to the right people. Listener, as an infiltrator of the army, at one of the party meetings was Adolf Hitler. The number of members was less than five hundred. Just when Hitler was about to leave, one of those present made a number of remarks that made him furious. Hitler spoke to the meeting in the later known way. Drexler and Eckart were very impressed with the argument and came up with the request to join the party. In September 1919, Adolf became a member and initially made a strong case for propaganda and fundraising. One of Hitler’s measures in February 1920 was the change of the name of the party to NSDAP. Eckart and Hitler spent a lot of time together and Eckart was soon impressed by the charismatic Hitler who managed to convey the message of the party to a larger public very well. Eckart introduced Hitler to his contacts and took over the Völkischer Beobachter. The newspaper quickly became the mouthpiece of the NSDAP with Eckart as editor-in-chief. Eckart also helped Hitler set up his public speeches, taught him better manners and made sure that Hitler appeared well dressed at the meetings.
Later, Eckart claimed that Hitler was the one who had discovered the plan of the Jews to overthrow the world order and that only Hitler was able to stop this plan and thereby protect Germany and ultimately the world from the Jews.
Dietrich Eckart was born on March 23, 1868 and was from a wealthy family. Eckart planned to become a lawyer, like his father. But soon he switched to training as a journalist. He also spent a lot of time writing poems. He became known to the Berlin theatre through his modified version of Peer Gynt. The performance was shown more than 600 times and drew full halls. Because of his fame, Eckart ended up in an environment that was extremely useful for spreading the later Nazi ideas. Even General Lüdendorff was impressed by Hitler and Nazi philosophy.
Eckart participated in the Beer Hall Putsch and was arrested as well as Hitler. He was only held for a short time partly because of his ill health. Eckart died of a heart attack on December 26, 1923, largely caused by excessive use of alcohol and morphine. However, the Nazis claimed that he had been treated poorly in prison and had been regularly beaten up.
Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Austria. Adolf had a close relationship with his mother, but with his father Alois he constantly argued. Dad Hitler, who suffered from greatness madness, had no more education than the primary school, but still managed to build a reasonable career at Customs. Family life did not fascinate him and partly due to excess alcohol consumption, the mood in the house Hitler was not good. Snawing and beating was normal in the family and Ma Hitler was unable to protect the children. This violent youth has had a profound influence on Adolf. The Jew-hatred Adolf was poured in via Alois. The family had to move several times due to conflicts with pawn shop bosses. And the pawnsmen were often Jewish.
Alois was an extramarital child who previously had the name Schicklgruber. His father was never discovered, but his mother married Johann Hiedler. After the death of mother, his brother Johann Hiedler raised Alois further. In the family of poor peasants, the name Hitler was created by simplification. After two previous marriages, Alois married Klara Pözl for the third time and Adolf emerged from this. Alois died quite suddenly in 1903. Alois was a supporter of the merger of Austria and Germany. The young Adolf took the idea of grif and that would later lead to the Anschluss in 1938. As he got older, he suffered from outbursts of anger and during his dictatorship many have been able to enjoy his infamous anger attacks.
Adolf was a shy person, working he didn’t like, he loved daydreaming more. He also felt too good for work, according to Adolf he was destined for more important matters. Self-criticism was unknown to him. He couldn’t come along well at school. He was outspoken lazy. Courses that didn’t interest him he left behind. His low grades were not his fault, but the teachers’ fault. He went through the substructure with the greatest difficulty and sat once. At the age of 16 he left school without a degree. In 1907, his mother died of breast cancer. He had always loved his mother. His father’s death had never hurt him.
It was Adolf’s ambition to become a great painter. He tried several times to be admitted to the art school in Vienna, but partly due to a lack of education and talent that has never succeeded. That he had failed as a painter he attributed to the teachers who had ruined education.
Hitler visited the Vienna parliament several times, where he received a great contempt for democracy and the Jews who had a great influence on the developments within Austrian society through politics. In a short time he became a fanatical anti-Semite.
In Vienna, the core of its great ideal, “one leader, one will and one people”, was established. Of course with himself in the lead. He dreamed of a future Third German Empire, where there would be no place for Jews and other inferior groups in society.
In 1913, Hitler emigrated to the German Empire. He moved to Munich. When World War I broke out in 1914, he enthusiastically enlisted in the Imperial German army. Hitler had preferred to fight against the Russians, but he was assigned to a part that was sent to Flanders to fight against the French. Hitler joined the battle of Ypres and in 1914 he received the Iron Cross 2nd class. After that he became ordinance between the headquarters, received a Regimental diploma in 1918 for bravery and was the Iron Cross 1e class granted to him (rarely granted to men) by the Jewish lieutenant Hugo Gutmann. In 1918, he was injured in a gas attack in Wervik and was injured in Mesen at his forehead by a grazing shot. To hide the scar, he now wore his hair with an oblique lock over his forehead. During his recovery in the hospital, the war was ended and also the German Empire and Germany became the Weimar Republic. Despite his track record, Hitler was never promoted. His superiors felt he had no managerial capabilities.
Anton Drexler was born in 1884 and trained as a locksmith and had been a worker at the Berliner Lokomotivenfabrik since 1902. in 1917 he founded the Workers’ Association for the Good Peace, later converted into the Politischen Arbeiterpartei. The organization had an anti-Semitic character. At the end of 1918, Drexler came into contact with Karl Harrer, a member of the Thule company, also an anti-Semitic club and founded the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei on January 5, 1919. Harrer became national chairman and Drexler 2 e chairman and chairman of the only department in Munich. In 1919, Hitler joined the party and renamed the party as a Nationaalsocialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei. Drexler became chairman, but Hitler grew into the true leader, Der Führer of the party. the role of Drexler within the party then decreased sharply. Until his death on 24 February 1942, he was a member of the propaganda department of the NSDAP.
The men of the first hour
One of the worshippers from the first moment he heard Hitler speak was Rudolf Hess. Hess was born on April 26, 1894 in Alexandria, Egypt, as the son of a German merchant. He had a rich youth and grew up in a closed German culture that was strongly nationalist. In 1908, his parents decided to send him to a boarding school in Bonn. Rudolf was found to be above average intelligent and excelled in physics and mathematics. After the boarding school, he continued his education in Neuchatel in Switzerland, where he completed the trade school École Supérieur de Commerce and started an internship at a trading company in Hamburg. On December 20, 1927, Hess married Ilse Pröhl and on November 18, they had their only son, Rüdiger Hess, who became the godchild of Adolf Hitler.
In the First World War, Hess volunteered with the German army. On 27 April 1915 he was awarded the Iron Cross 2 e class. He fought in 1917 at the Battle of Ypres and Verdun and was wounded several times. At the end of 1917 he left for Munich to follow a pilot training. But before he could make his first flight, the war came to an end. Hess, after the defeat, was heavily disillusioned and from then on a fierce anti-Semite. Hess began studying economics, history and world politics and in 1920 he joined the NSDAP. Hess was in close contact with Hitler from the beginning and acted as his political secretary. In 1932, he was appointed by Hitler as chairman of the Politischen Zentralkommision of the NSDAP, the highest position anyone within the NSDAP could hold after Hitler.
The NSDAP soon needed someone who had access to the higher echelons and could spread the ideas there. In November 1922, Hermann Göring met Hitler at a protest rally and then joined the NSDAP. Göring was commissioned by Hitler to engage as a leader in the building of the Sturmabteilung (SA).
Göring was born on 12 January 1893 in the Marënbad sanatorium, near Rosenheim in the south of Germany. His father was a lawyer, governor and diplomat, who worked for a long time in the German overseas colonies. His first years of life, Hermann spent in a foster home of the Graf family. His parents worked in Haiti at the time and as a toddler, Göring grew up without his parents. The young Hermann was fascinated by soldiers and war and he generally played war games. Hermann visited the Volksschule in Fürth and then the gymnasium. He wasn’t exactly a top student. From 1903 to 1905 he lived in a boarding school. After that, his father sent him to a Cadet training in Karlsruhe, switched to Berlin in the meantime, and in 1913 he left the educational program as an officer. In the beginning of the First World War, Göring fought in Alsace. He earned an Iron Cross but was soon hospitalized with joint rheumatism. There he was persuaded to sign up to the Air Force. In Darmstadt, Göring was given the lead over a flight unit and achieved his first air victory in November 1915.
Hitler and Himmler got along very well from their first meeting in 1923. Himmler observed with Hitler the lack of a decisive framework for the expulsion of Jews and Bolsheviks from the German population. He was given enough space by Hitler to develop a vision that would form the basis for the racial politics of Hitler’s government. Immediately after his appointment, Himmler suggested his idea of a military elite that would be unconditionally loyal to the Führer. Hitler supported him in this and founded the Schutzstaffel (SS) in April 1925.
Himmler was born the second child of a wealthy family on 7 October 1900 in Munich. His father was director of a gymnasium and raised Heinrich very strictly. During his childhood, Heinrich had poor health and compensated for his physical problems with hard study, with a great interest in history, ancient languages and religion. At the end of his studies, the First World War broke out and he signed up to the Navy. However, because of his nearsightedness, he was disavowed. Himmler quickly exchanged his Catholic faith for occultism, spiritualism and neopaganism (a collective name for various modern religious movements that often rely on a form of pre-Christian faith).
In the army, Himmler was admitted as an officer’s recruit and he completed his training in 1918 when the war was already over. From 1918 he studied agricultural science. He was known as an eccentric guy, who was not appreciated by his fellow students. To improve this, he became a member of several student associations. On 1 August 1922 he graduated and joined Stickstoff-Land, a fertilizer company. The employment lasted only a few months and until June 1923 he was unemployed until he came into contact with the NSDAP.
Joseph Goebbels was a son of accountant Fritz Goebbels and Maria Odenhausen and was born on October 29, 1897. He was disallowed in World War I for military service because of a deformed foot. In 1917, Goebbels was in school at the boys’ boarding school St. Maria Ter Engelen in Blijerheide. He studied literature and philosophy at various German universities and obtained his PhD in 1921. He wrote a novel and two plays, but could never find a publisher for his work. One of the refusers, publishing house Ullstein, was owned by a German-Jewish businessman. This aroused anti-Semitic sentiments with Joseph.
Goebbels tried unsuccessfully to find work as a journalist. Frustrated, he moved from Rheydt to Cologne, Berlin and then to Munich. There Goebbels was greatly impressed by Hitler and became a member of the NSDAP in 1924. Goebbels began to spread the National Socialist message and tried to win souls for Hitler. He also became publisher of the Nazi magazine Völkische Freiheit and in his articles went against the French occupation army of the Rhineland. In 1926, Goebbels was appointed Gauleiter of Greater Berlin and enjoyed his growing reputation as a grossly constituted propagandist. Goebbels was elected in 1929 as a member of the Reichstag for the NSDAP and was appointed Reichsleiter für Propaganda.
Ernst Röhm was born on November 28, 1887 in Munich, the son of a railway officer. In July 1906, he began military training as a cadet. On March 9, 1908, he was promoted to lieutenant. During the First World War, militant Röhm was wounded three times. First, a shrapnel knocked away part of his nose, then got injured on his cheek and eventually suffered injuries for the third time. In June 1916, an Iron Cross was awarded to Röhm for courage. He ended the war in the rank of captain.
Shortly after the First World War, Röhm became friends with Hitler. He became a member of a surrogate army of Franz Ritter von Epp, the Freikorps. He also joined the DAP, later the NSDAP. In 1921 he became chief of the Sturmabteilung (SA) founded by Hitler. At the 1923 Bierkeller putch, Röhm made sure that the participants in the putch were well armed. The SA played a major role in the uprising. Röhm was sentenced to 15 months in prison after the failed insurgency and was dismissed from the Reichswehr. On promise of good behavior, he was immediately released again. Röhm did not see himself as subordinate to Hitler, more his mentor. Hitler was very suspicious of the great role of the SA. Hitler eventually managed to reduce the role of Röhm and the SA, to which Röhm resigned and left for South America.
Hitler brought Röhm back himself and appointed him Chief of Staff of the SA in 1931. After Hitler’s seizure of power, Röhm became Reich Minister without a portfolio. Hitler felt that the SA should become part of the army, but Röhm refused because he felt that the SA was necessary to unleash a “social revolution” in Germany. Through the conflict, Hitler decided to set up a conspiracy against Röhm. The SS, which has now been established by Himmler, took care of the handling.
Until his death, Röhm was one of Hitler’s pillars. He was the only one who was allowed to address Hitler with “Adolf” or his nickname “Adi”. Eva Braun, Hitler’s girlfriend also used this nickname, indicating that only very close relationships were allowed to use it.
The growth of the NSDAP
After describing the protagonists of the NSDAP and the later Third Reich, we pick up the story about the development of the NSDAP again.
The high amount of reparations, the cost to the social services, the costs of the war widows and kids and the enormous issuance of paper money caused inflation to run wild. The exchange rate with the dollar in 1914 was 4.2 marks against one dollar. In 1922, the race jumped to 17,192 mark. A year later, inflation peaked and much of the national wealth went up in smoke.
Victims were the working-class and middle-class and banking institutions. In favor were industrialists and agriculture. In 1923, the emergency was stopped by Hans Luther, Minister Economy, on the basis of currency reform. The biggest problems were solved, but left a sense of distrust in the state.
Turning point, the Putsch of Munich
1923 was a turning point for the NSDAP. The collapse of the market and the explosion of nationalism as a result of the occupation of the Ruhr region made the NSDAP aware that the time was right for revolt against the democratic regime. Helped by Ernst Röhm with his surrogate army, Hitler tried to seize power in Bavaria on November 8, 1923 and tried to advance to Berlin from there. The coup failed but the trial of the rebels would show that the NSDAP could count on very many fellow fighters to overthrow the regime. Hitler, arrested and sentenced to five years of imprisonment, came out stronger, especially because his attack was declared a love for the homeland. Hitler was convinced that he had to do things differently. Not a violent overthrow, but a gradual conquest of power through the legal channels.
Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf was written in captivity by Hitler in 1924. As a sounding board, his buddy Rudolf Hess, also captured after the Putsch. The first part appeared in 1925, the second part a year later. The book included some of his political and ideological support points regarding the sphere of life and the Jewish question. Little attention was paid to economic issues. The book was translated into 16 languages and at the end of 1940 10 million copies had already been published.
Hitler’s plans – the route to the Third Reich
Hitler:
“The Volksgemeinschaft will join a powerful leader. To achieve this, political opponents must be eliminated and unwanted elements eliminated (Jews, Communists and other inferior elements) by terror. Political and socio-economic successes are indispensable and can be realized with the help of propaganda, idealism and technology, the creation of employment and a self-sufficient state economy. And of course a powerful leader. For that, the country must first end up in a recession. One simple message works best. There is one enemy, one idea and one solution. The Jews are blamed for everything and must be exterminated.”
The Resurrection of Germany
The United States, which financed the economic recovery of European countries after the war, also came to the conclusion not to completely kill the German economy. It was decided to reduce and spread the reparations and a consortium of American banks borrowed Germany 800 million marks. As a result of these measures, Germany reached the pre-war level of production in 1927 and was able to reintroduce and implement the country as a result of the growth of large companies and an increasingly strong state presence in the economy. However, the agricultural sector was in a major crisis. With the rise of the industry, agriculture had become a much smaller power block. The agricultural sector was increasingly negative towards the republic. With the economic crisis of 1929, agriculture was an important pillar for the Nazi seizure of power.
The economic crisis of 1929
The economic crisis of 1929 was mainly caused by the financial development of the United States. Germany had always had a close relationship with the United States and was therefore hit very hard. The decline of production took a dramatic form. Salaries were drastically cut and prices continued to rise. The unemployment rate rose from 8.5% in 1929 to 29.9% in 1932. The growing poverty was accompanied by the lack of better prospects, which led to a great sense of frustration. The crisis began to question the existence of the Weimar republic.
The consequences of the major world crisis coincided with the election gains of the NSDAP. The democratic idea had to lose popularity and the NSDAP benefited from that. Most of the Germans who were tired of the uncertainty demanded indifferent what order that was capable of guaranteeing stability for the future. Still, the election result for the Nazis was disappointing, despite the enormous amount of propaganda that Goebbels had thrown into the fight.
From 1939 onwards, the NSDAP continued to grow, thanks in part to the powerlessness of the other parties. The NSDAP achieved success in the countryside and in the smaller cities. The election results show that the NSDAP won the most votes among the traditional electorate between 1930 and 1933. Due to the increased number of delegates, the NSDAP was able to use parliament for their thinking. The NSDAP was very capable of manipulating the behavior of the population. The leading sectors of the German economy, which were convinced after 1930 to restore the authoritarian and anti-socialist order, contributed to the victory of the NSDAP. It was the economic crisis that caused the end of the Weimar Republic.
Between 1930 and 1933, the conservatives committed themselves to the NSDAP, believing that the party could be integrated into a governing coalition. However, the conservatives could not properly assess the authoritative and innovative power of the NSDAP and thus fell victim to their own strategy after 1933.
Hitler as Chancellor
The ranks around the Reichs President set aside their prejudices against Hitler so that he could be appointed chancellor, assuming that the right-wing trusters would keep Hitler in line. On January 30, 1933, Hitler was commissioned by Von Hindenburg to form a government. The result was a cabinet containing a minority of Nazis and representatives of various right-wing conservative currents and the armed forces, who thought they had the situation under control. However, in a few months the national revolution started. The cartel of economic elites, of the army and of the NSDAP which had the common aim of destroying the workers union and establishing the dictatorship took the form of the power structure of the Third Reich. The anti-fascist associations did not come to an overall strategy and on January 30, power finally ended up in other hands.
The Reichstag Fire
27 February 1933 the Reichstag was set on fire. A Dutch communist, Marinus van der Lubbe, a left-wing activist, was convicted as the arsonist of the Reichstag building. It remains unclear who was really responsible for this act. During the Nuremberg trial, General Franz Halder stated under oath that Göring had boasted that he had had the fire lit. Freiherr von Freyberg-Eisenberg-Allmendingen: “Ich verstehe nicht was die Leute alle für einen Unsinn über den Reichstagbrand verbreiten. Ich habe von meinem Freund Göring mit einer Gruppe von SA-Männern den Auftrag bekommen den Reichstag anzuzünden”. Either way, the event had huge consequences. Hitler who hated the Communists gratefully took advantage of the situation and the Nazis won the elections a week later (43.9%) in an atmosphere of terrorist violence. The Nazis used the opportunity to completely eliminate the German Communists and lock them up in concentration camps. On March 23, the new parliament came together. A law was voted on which granted full power to the Führer and thus laid the foundations for a final end of the Weimar republic. The law was approved by 444 votes to 94. The representatives of most parties were convinced that a strong executive was needed to restore order. From that moment on, the parliament rarely came together and if it did, it was mainly about applauding and ratifying the decisions of the Führer.
The NSDAP as the only party
The party of the Social Democrats was excluded from the law on June 22. The other parties dissolved and at the end of June the NSDAP was the only legal party. On 7 April, a law was enacted to subject the administrative apparatus to the regulations of the new regime. Officials who had entered service after November 1918 and officials of “non-aryan” descent were dismissed. At the same time, the street violence also targeted the Jews. An action was staged for the boycott of Jewish businesses. In an increasingly wide circle, the conviction began to spread that the Jews were guilty and especially inferior.
The Night of the Long Knives
In July 1933, Hitler declared the phase of “revolution” closed and proclaimed the beginning of “evolution.” Ernst Röhm, head of the SA and leader of the party’s activist wing, did not share this view and wanted to preserve the activist and revolutionary impulses. Thanks to the mediation of Von Hindenburg, the link between Hitler and Röhm was restored. Goebbels, Göring and Himmler, who were planning to increase their own sphere of influence, tried to limit Röhm’s plans regarding the “second revolution.” A scene was prepared to give the impression that the SA was preparing a coup. The night of June 30, 1934 (and a few days after) became known as “the night of the long knives”. Under the leadership of Himmler, who found Röhm but a nasty stand-in-the-way, Röhm, along with more than a hundred members of the SA, was murdered. Thus many dangerously considered opponents were eliminated and Von Hindenburg thanked Hitler for saving the country. The general staff of the army did nothing even though two generals had been murdered. The churches also kept silent and so violence and illegality were accepted as government means of preserving order.
The totalitarian state, Hitler in power alone
The law of 14 July 1933 ratified the existence of a single party. Gauleiter were appointed who were the head of an administrative district. All this in the context of the fusion between the state and the party. The legislative autonomy of the regions was abolished entirely with the law on the establishment of the Reich on January 30, 1934. During the year, Hitler gained every form of authority in his own hands. After the death of Von Hindenburg, Hitler, in addition to the task of Chancellor, also took on that of President of the Reich and of commander-in-chief of the army. Thus, the role of the Führer was completed not only within the party, but also from an institutional point of view.
In addition to the undisputed leadership over the party, Hitler now possessed such power that he could control the entire state apparatus in his own very own person.
Arguing in the top of the NSDAP
Hitler is now the sole ruler of the German empire, but that does not mean that all Germans are also behind him and his ideas. Although the NSDAP received 43.9% of the vote, the majority of Germans had a different opinion. As a minister of propaganda, Goebbels was aware of this and thought about how he could turn the tide for Hitler and the NSDAP. The Communists had already been more or less settled, so another scapegoat had to be sought. Goebbels had always had a deep-rooted hatred of the Jews. With his colleagues and also with Hitler, anti-Semitism was clearly present, but not with such great fanaticism as with Goebbels. In March 1933, Goebbels took the initiative to portray the Jews as people’s enemies number one and to get the German people behind Hitler. It was an open declaration of war on the Jews in Germany. His initiative was even viewed with suspicion by Hitler, but Göring was absolutely against the proposed approach. The plan would not do his relationship with the elite any good. Himmler was basically not against the plan, but wanted to keep anti-Semitism invisible and solve it in a different, more “discrete” way. Goebbels continued his plans and now anti-Jewish articles regularly appeared in the press. Goebbels organized an action against Jewish shopkeepers and the SA appeared in the street scene at the Jewish shops with the advice not to buy at the Jewish shops. Himmler had ordered the SS not to cooperate in these actions and left it to the SA. Many Germans did not agree with this boycott and continued shopping at the Jewish shopkeepers. The action was not a success and Goebbels therefore changed his tactics to get the German people along.
Goebbels wanted to take over all German media, so the newspapers but also the various radio stations. Göring, as boss of the great Prussia, was against. It resulted in a major conflict between Göring and Goebbels. The conflict escalated to Hitler who eventually made a decision and sided with Goebbels. As a result, the Prussian channels also came under the management of Goebbels. Göring was very angry and began to listen in as leader of the Gestapo. Goebbels, now in possession of all the media, gave a speech for the radio about a “new and better Germany” a number of times a day and set the newspapers full of anti-Jewish articles with a better Volksgemeinschaft and a guide for a superior German race. To reach more Germans, large amounts of radios were produced that could be picked up by the Germans for free. To the great disappointment of Goebbels, his initiatives did not bring the desired result. Moreover, the promised “Economic miracle” did not really work and the support of the German people began to decrease. According to Goebbels, this was the outsiders, the Jews, and they were blamed for everything.
At the September 1935 party meeting, this was again raised by Goebbels loud and clear. Hitler did not (yet) agree. Göring had not yet forgotten his defeat and found a reason to let Goebbels sing a tune lower. Göring had already mapped the private life of Goebbels via telephone tabs, which showed that Goebbels had a number of other women. Göring knew that Hitler was charmed by the wife of Goebbels, Magda and passed the information on to Hitler. After a consultation between Magda and Hitler, Goebbels was allowed to choose; whether to save his marriage to Magda or to be kicked out of the party. By now, Himmler had not sat still in the background. Due to the annexation of Austria in 1938, Himmler thought it was time to test out his anti-Semitic plans. In no time, the Jews had disappeared from Austria and had been taken to concentration camps. After all, Himmler was in favor of solving the “Jew problem” discreetly and thus received all the credits.
Kristallnacht
On November 3, 1938, Herschel Grynszpan received a letter from his sister in Paris about the deportation of the Polish-German Jews. That message infuriated him. On November 7, Grynszpan went to the German embassy. He shot five times at German diplomat Ernst vom Rath, who died of his injuries a few days later. For Goebbels, this was an excellent opportunity to improve the relationship with Hitler. He used the attack on Vom Rath for a tirade against the Jews: “Not Grynszpan but Judaism is responsible for the death of a German diplomat”. Hitler was convinced now and gave Goebbel permission two days later to start a violence against the Jews. Goebbels: “Together we must formulate our answer to this Jewish murder and the threat that Judaism poses to our infamous German empire.” It was not an explicit order to attack the Jews, but it was clear that the police would not intervene. According to Goebbels and Hitler, the Jews only had to feel the anger of the people once. The Gauleiter and SA leaders were informed by Goebbels what to do and the orders were distributed directly over the phone throughout Germany. Himmler watched again from the sidelines and wanted absolutely no street violence and instructed the police and the SS to stay at a distance. However, Himmler reports via Heydrich: “that synagogues may be set on fire if the fire does not pass to the surrounding houses. Shops and homes of Jews may be destroyed, but not looted. As many Jews as possible had to be arrested, especially the well-to-do.” Thus, it could happen that on the night of 9 to 10 November 1938, 7500 shops, 29 department stores, 171 houses and 262 synagogues were destroyed or burned by a violent explosion of power against the Jews. It is also estimated that between 400 and 600 people were killed and 600 seriously injured. The robbers made no distinction between women, men, children and the elderly. Although Kristallnacht was seen as a spontaneous popular uprising, it soon turned out to be the opposite. Goebbels had set the popular uprising in motion and Hitler himself had given permission.
Did the German people support the actions? Many Germans were not in favor of the explosion of violence. Sometimes Jews were helped, but most of them waited powerlessly until it was over. A British correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph writes: “Racial hatred and hysteria seem to have completely mastered the normally so decent people”. Goebbels writes: “the German citizens have been guided by their healthy instincts. After all, we are anti-Semitic and no longer want to be limited or provoked by Jewish parasites”.
Himmler was angry that it got so out of hand and got into a fight with Goebbels. But Hitler once again sided with Goebbels in the conflict, giving the go-ahead for the total destruction of the Jewish people. Meanwhile, the role of Hess has been played out and disappears from the scene with his curious “peace flight” to England.
The Peacekeeping Mission of Hess
On 1 September 1939, Hitler appointed Hess as his second deputy as Führer of the German Empire, after Hermann Göring. The appearance of Hess within the summit fell to a questionable level over the years and Hess felt that he had to make an important contribution to get closer to Hitler again. Hess left on 10 May 1941 in a Messerschmitt Bf-110 towards England (Englandflug), with the aim of negotiating peace between Germany and England after a conversation with the Duke of Hamilton, which Hess knew vaguely. Churchill was prepared to hear Hess’s ideas and sent a delegate to Hess. Hess’s proposal was not to get involved on the continent. As a thank you, the British Empire would be spared German violence. Hess’s proposal was roughly equivalent to the proposal Hitler made on July 19, 1940. The proposal was not taken seriously and Churchill’s orders made Hess prisoner of war and imprisoned in the Tower of London until the end of the war. Hess showed no remorse during the Nuremberg Trials and was imprisoned in Berlin’s Spandau prison. On August 17, 1987, Hess hung himself on a window cord, the last of four suicide attempts.
Martin Bormann and Albert Speer have emerged from his ranks. Bormann quickly manages to be a “gatekeeper” of Hitler. Someone who wants to speak to Hitler has to pass Bormann, also Himmler, Goebbels and Göring. It will be clear that these gentlemen did not appreciate that. Albert Speer, now the “house architect” of Hitler is the only one that can communicate directly with Hitler and is appointed by Hitler as responsible for the production of war equipment. Meanwhile, mutual distrust has risen to the maximum and the gentlemen are trying to undermine each other regularly and even make attempts to get rid of each other (Himmler and Speer).
With this collection of individuals who do not give each other the light in the eyes, the road is now open to a conflict that would ultimately claim 70 to 85 million victims, although the numbers differ from each other at the various sources. Military victims: between 21 and 25 million, crimes against humanity: between 29 and 31 million victims, hunger and disease between 19 and 28 million victims.
The start of the war
On March 12, 1938, Austria was annexed without a fight. 1 September 1939 Hitler, with a made-up story that the Poles had attacked Germany, invades Poland. The Germans are still friends with the Russians who invade the north of Poland via the Molotov-Ribbentrop treaty on 17 September 1939. This is all a bit too much for the Poles. They surrender on October 6, 1939.
England and France are allies of the Poles and declare war on Germany.
In April 1940, the Germans invaded Denmark and Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg followed in May. In the summer, despite the largest army in Europe, France is very quickly overrun. The French and British army in France can barely escape the Germans in Dunkirk.
Soon, however, it will appear that after these rapid successes Hitler will face setbacks. The German army is not as strong as he thought. The attack on England costs him the ascendancy in the air and the attack on Russia marks the beginning of the end of Hitler’s aspirations.
Krieg führen heisst
Unschuldige töten
und sich selbst unschuldig
töten lassen
Kann sich ein selbständiger
und anständiger Mensch
an einem solchen Geschäft beteiligen?
Albert Einstein
Source:
Nazism – Alessandra Minerbi
Various Wikipedia articles
History.net