Between Two Fires

Life after the War

• Women’s suffrage

• Labor unions gained power

• Social legislation passed

Europe in 1919

Eastern Europe

• New states created— Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania

• Only Czechoslovakia had a democratic tradition

• Ethnic minorities of Germans in Czechoslovakia and Poland

The Weimar Republic: 1919-1933Provides democratic government until Nazi rise to power.

Opposed as a weak substitute for Imperial Germany

Attempts to overthrow the new government

The “Stabbed-in-the-Back” Theory

Disgruntled German WWI veterans

Ruhr Valley• 1923-Weimar Republic fell behind on reparation payments• France and Belgium invaded Ruhr Valley

– Payments in coal and steel

• Weimar Government encouraged workers to passively resist– Had to pay workers benefits and wages– hyperinflation

The German Mark

The German Mark

Rise of Nazi PartyNational Socialist German

Workers’ Party

• 1919-Hitler denounces Weimar Republic

• Economic distress• Harmed middle class

especially• Worldwide depression

• Fear of communism• Nationalism

• Aryan “Master Race”• Anti-Semitism

The Beer Hall Putsch: 1923

The Beer Hall Putsch Idealized

Hitler in Landesberg Prison

5 year sentence

Mein Kampf [My Struggle]

• Germany required “Lebensraum” or living space in the east

• Blamed Germany’s problems on Treaty of Versailles

• Pledges to restore German honor

Locarno Pact: 1925

GustaveStresemann(German)Aristide

Briand(French)

Austin Chamberlain (Britain)

Recognized permanent Western borders of Germany and loss of Alsace Lorraine to France.

Germany signed treaties with Poland and Czechoslovakia, agreeing to change the eastern borders of Germany by arbitration only.

Germany allowed to enter League of Nations in 1926

Kellogg-Briand Pact: 1928

15 nations committed to outlawing aggression and war for settling disputes.

The Problem no way of enforcement.

The Great Depression (1929-1941)

Causes of the Depression• Global economy• International stability 1924-1929• Prosperity hindered by

– Inflation• borrowed money, depreciated currency

– Disrupted markets• At end of war European nations had difficulty reestablishing former

trade patterns– Agricultural depression

• Glut of grain drove down prices– Economic nationalism

• High tariff barriers to protect domestic markets– Reparations

• Money from US to Germany then Germany to France and Britain and then back to US making economic activity reliant on American financial conditions

– Credit financing • Buying on margin by borrowing up to 90% of stocks value

Effects of Depression

• Stock values plummeted• Businesses cut back production and laid off workers• Investment and world trade plummeted• Unemployment rose drastically

– Strengthened parties who promised solutions– Germany and US hardest hit with as many as 35% unemployed

• Stock market crash rippled throughout the financial world – Global bank failures

• Drain on national treasuries to pay off debts– Currency values depreciated– Lack of confidence in British pound – Britain forced off Gold Standard in 1931 and soon after the US

Democratic Responses

• Liberal economic theory said to pursue austerity but it failed to stimulate production

• John Maynard Keynes argued that government needed to “prime the pump”, cut taxes and spend on programs to aid needy

Great Britain• Depended on trade more

than other nations• Economic Nationalism• Labour Party replaced

Liberal Party• 1916—Easter Rebellion

– Irish Free State 1922

• Egypt given autonomy• Dominion status to former

colonies of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand

France

• Less dependent on trade and therefore not as hard hit by world downturn

• Popular Front- Blum– First Socialist and Jewish

Prime Minister– 40 hour workweek– Paid vacations– Collective bargaining rights

for workers

Scandinavia• Norway, Sweden, and Denmark

• Combined socialism and democracy– Enacted wide-ranging

social welfare programs to curb effects of Depression

– Regulation of price of agricultural products

– State ownership of key industries

Totalitarianism

• Dictators exploited mass media to mobilize the public to fanatical support of the “movement” not simply passive obedience as with absolute monarchies

• Dictators claimed total control of society

• Civic and social life subordinated to the party, movement, and leader

Rise ofFascismIn ItalyAnd Germany

What is Fascism?• Seen as an alternative to the faltering Liberal

democracies and Marxism• Militarism • Nationalistic

– Extolled war as proving ground of national identity• Glorification of the state• “Cult of Personality” • Antidemocratic• Anticommunist

– Middle class oriented– Upheld racial and national identity

• One-party rule• Rituals and symbols

Mussolini and Italy

• Unhappy with Treaty of Versailles– Unable to recapture “unredeemed” lands from

Austria and the new nation of Yugoslavia

• Economy suffered• Mussolini glorified state and violence as a

means to combat Italy’s enemies• “Blackshirts”

– Intimidated political opponents – Promoted breakdown of Parliamentary order

October 1922March on Rome

BlackShirts

King Victor Emmanuel IIMussolini named Prime Minister

Il Duce

1. “Made the trains run on time”2. Censored press3. Built up military4. Secret police5. Catholic Church and the Lateran Agreement

i. recognition of sovereignty of church over the Vatican with papacy’s promise to not interfere with functions of state

6. Promoted large families and motherhood for a healthy race to replace declining birth rate

Cult of personality

Mussolini

"I believe in Rome, the Eternal,

the mother of my country……

I believe in the genius of Mussolini

…and in the resurrection of the Empire."

Pledge required of the Balilla,

the Fascist youth

group of 14-18 year olds

( uniforms: all black)

known as legionaries

"Italy wants peace and quiet, work and calm. I will give these things with love if possible

and with force if necessary.”

Benito Mussolini

Promise them what they want EX. Mussolini’s Promises

“A little something for everyone”

• Are you Hungry? I’ll give you bread

• Are you worried about communism? I’ll protect your private property

• Are you unemployed after the war? Join my “Blackshirts”

Fascism vs. CommunismHow do they compare?

No StrongTheory

Authoritarian[cult ofpersonality]

Rituals,Ceremonies

Class Structure

Private Property

StrongTheory/beliefs

Authoritarian[cult ofpersonality]

Rituals,ceremonies

No Classes

No PrivateProperty

GermanyGrowth of the NAZI Party through Political Means

– Membership in Nazi party increases with anti-Semitic speeches

– S. A. or Brownshirts provoked street fights with rival political groups

– Originally pitched message at workers but gained little support with only 3% of the vote in 1928

– Membership increases because of Depression and switching its appeal to the middle class

• By 1930 6 million supporters • 1930 Nazis gains seats in Reichstag

• 1933 Hindenburg asks Hitler to become chancellor

Hitler appointed Chancellor1933

Nazi Total State

• Reichstag Fire blamed on Communist Party– Banned as illegal– Arrested leaders

• Nazis still fail to gain majority of seats• Still able to have Hitler rule by decree for five

years• 1933 all government employees had to swear

personal oath of loyalty to the Fuhrer• 1934 National Socialism declared illegal

Reichstag Fire1933

Night of the Long Knives June 30, 1934

• To gain support of military he purged leaders of S.A. who were seen as threat to army’s monopoly of military forces

• S.A. leader Ernst Rohm was seen as last potential threat to Hitler’s power

• Two months later Hindenburg died– Hitler now President

Terror as a Weapon

• Gestapo– Secret police arrested real

and imagined opponents– Sent to concentration camps– S. S. replaced S. A. as

enforcers of terror

The Economy and Youth

• Promoted self sufficiency especially in strategic goods such as fuel and rubber

• Membership in state run union required

• Autobahn

• To enforce gender roles and build strong racial stock– Hitler Youth– League of German

Maidens– Women relegated to

traditional roles– Anti-Semitic policies

1935 Nuremberg Laws

• Defined “Jew”

• Stripped of citizenship

• Prohibited sexual relations with Aryans

Kristallnacht November 9-10, 1938• Synagogues

burned

• Businesses destroyed

• Hundreds killed or arrested

Others Targeted

• Sterilization of “mentally unfit”• Euthanasia for terminally ill, insane, and

physically deformed• Approximately 200,000 killed between

1939-1941– Eventually protest by religious groups ended

this

• For those who read Mein Kampf this was apparent before WWII

Hitler’s Lebensraum Program

“I have issued the command - and I'll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad - that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formations in readiness - for the present only in the East - with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need.  Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?“

-Hitler’s speech in preparation for the invasion of Poland.

Soviet Union

• Communists adopt color Red

• New Name- USSR• Collectives• Rapid modernization• Police State• Socialist Realism—

Gorky• Purges• Religion ridiculed

Culture in the Interwar Years

• Lost Generation– Pessimism– Kafka– Remarque’s “All Quiet on the Western Front”

• War destroys innocence and meaning

– T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”– Stream of consciousness– Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein

Mass Culture and Leisure• Shift in Public Morals

– Displays of sexuality– Women smoked in public– Dance halls– More revealing clothing – Laws against birth control abandoned in many states

• Jazz– Josephine Baker

• Some condemned decadence while others embraced it • Buying on credit or installment plans• Advertising fed consumerism• Radios and motion pictures• Joseph Goebbels “Ministry of Propaganda”• 1927 BBC chartered• 1936 Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times• Increase in air travel and tourism• 1936 Berlin Olympics—Jesse Owens won five gold medals