HI 224Raffael ScheckColby College

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Establishing a Dictatorship

The Hitler Cabinet: Success of Papen’s Taming Strategy? Only three Nazis and ten conservative allies

– BUT: Nazis have important posts (chancellor, interior, Goering as minister without portfolio, soon Prussian interior minister)

Papen as vice-chancellor Hugenberg (DNVP-leader) as coalition

partner Hindenburg still President

Terror

Goering’s measures as Prussian Interior Minister– Fires 22 of 32 police presidents– Hires SA as “auxiliary police”– Result: massive wave of terror particularly

against communists (25,000 arbitrary arrests) Reichstag fire Concentration camps

Legal Measures

Reichstag Fire Decree (23 February 1933) New Elections (5 March 1933) Enabling Act (23 March 1933); opposed only by

SPD (Otto Wels) Dissolution of all other parties until July 1933 Gleichschaltung (Synchronization) Konkordat with Papacy Dismissal of all Jews in the civil service

Election Results March 1933

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Why did the Hitler Dictatorship Win Much Public Acceptance? Massive reduction of unemployment and

rapid economic recovery Semblance of order, stability, and peace

once the wave of terror subsides (July 1933) Many non-Nazis collaborated in hopes of

having a mitigating influence on Hitler There is no alternative

Building up German Hegemony in Central Europe

1933-39

Final Steps Toward a Legal Dictatorship Elimination of the SA leadership, 30 June

1934 („night of long knives“) Hitler appoints himself „Führer of the

German People“ after Hindenburg‘s death (2 August 1934)

Plebiscites

Unemployment 1932-39

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Unemployed (inthousands):Yearly averages

Military Spending 1932-39

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MilitaryExpenditure (inmillion marks)

Hitler’s Foreign Policy Goals

The REAL goal: Lebensraum in Eastern Europe; huge and crude genetic engineering project (upgrading the “Aryan” race)

Do NOT write „liebensraum“!The professor

The PERCEIVED goal: revision of the wrongs of Versailles

Hitler‘s Foreign Policy 1933-39

Defiance of Versailles, but with limited risk Mixed messages: declaration of peaceful

intentions mixed with threats and bullying Search for allies Massive rearmament Decisive step: break of Munich Agreement

through the invasion of Czechoslovakia, March 1939

Main Events of German Foreign Policy 1933-39

October 1933 Withdrawal from the League of Nations

March 1935 Reintroduction of the draft; air force buildup announced

June 1935 Anglo-German Naval Treaty

March 1936 Remilitarization of the Rhineland

Summer 1936 Alliance Germany-Italy-Japan; support for General Franco in Spain

March 1938 Anschluss: annexation of Austria

September 1938 Munich Conference: annexation of the Sudetenland

March 1939 Annexation of the rest of Czecho-Slovakia

Reasons for Hitler‘s Success?

Remorse about Versailles among the victors Longer economic crisis and slower

economic recovery in France and Britain Disillusionment with war among the victors British concern about Italy and Japan

The International Reaction

Containment (1933-35): efforts to build anti- German alliances (Stresa Front with Italy, April 1935; pact between France and the Soviet Union)

Appeasement (1935-38): concessions to Hitler hoping that he would voluntarily recognize a just revision of Versailles

Confrontation (1939): recognition that Hitler cannot be appeased. Rapid rearmament and guarantee treaties for Poland and Rumania

Blitz Victories

1939-1941

The Start of the World War II

Hitler‘s desire for war The Hitler-Stalin Pact (August 1939) The German Attack on Poland (1

September 1939) British and French declarations of war (3

September 1939)

Blitzkrieg

Rapid Victories: – Poland (Sept. 1939)– Denmark and Norway (April-May 1940)– France and Benelux countries (May-June 1940) – Yugoslavia and Greece (April-May 1941)

What was Blitzkrieg?– Rapid move of concentrated motorized forces– Air attacks to support these moves– Breakthrough at strategically crucial points– Element of surprise– Economic benefits

Total War

1941-1945

Why did Hitler Attack the Soviet Union? Hope to bring Britain to the peace table Conflicts with the Soviet Union (Finland;

Rumania) Ideological motivation (Lebensraum) Expectation of quick victory

Why did the Attack on the Soviet Union Fail? Depth of territory Determined resistance Underestimation of Soviet industrialization German treatment of civilian population

The German Defeat

No compromise peace Decisive: vast numerical inferiority and massively

overextended fronts Defeat in the Soviet Union War with the United States Defeat of the submarines, March-May 1943 Defeat in North Africa, May 1943 Allied landings in France, June 1944 Bombing campaign against Germany

The Nazi State, Industry, and Society

The State

Hitler: a strong dictator - „Working toward the Führer“ (Kershaw). Charismatic rule with a radicalizing dynamic

Primary instrument of Hitler‘s power: the SS under Heinrich Himmler

Corruption at the lower levels of the party and state administration (Gauleiter)

Crucial: Hitler was always much more popular than the party and Nazi ideology. He was often liked for things he did not condone and dissociated from unpopular measures („if only the Führer knew“). HITLER MYTH

Industry

Promotion of cars. The Volkswagen - Germany‘s answer to Ford

Heavy focus on rearmament. Hence: financial shortages and weak consumer sector

Society

The claim of Volksgemeinschaft (people‘s community): practicing social solidarity

The realities of Volksgemeinschaft– Discontent among the peasants– The workers: working hard for little money– Women: pushed out of the labor market, and then begged to

come back– Boys and girls: focus on athletics– The churches (Lutherans: official church and Confessing

Church; Konkordat with the Pope) Priorities: war preparation and racial policy

The Dark Sides of the Volksgemeinschaft Not everybody is equal Discrimination against Jews

– 2000 anti-Jewish laws 1933-1945– April boycott 1933– Dismissal from public service jobs and industry

(1933)– Nürnberg Laws (1935)

Discrimination against Sinti and Roma

Upgrading the Germans

Forced sterilization and abortion Euthanasia, 1939-45; protest by Bishop von

Galen

Slave Labor

Seven million forced laborers in Nazi Germany in 1944

1.5 million French POWs „Voluntary“ laborers from France Italian „Military Internees“ after 1943 (ca.

600,000) Concentration camp inmates (altogether 2.5-3.5

million) with high mortality (around half a million)

Separation of foreigners from Germans

Racial Murder

The Three Phases on the Road to Mass Murder 1. Restriction and Segregation 1933-38

(Nürnberg Laws, 1935) 2. Expulsion and exclusion 1938-41 (Night of

Broken Glass, 1938) 3. Extermination 1939/41-45 (Euthanasia

program; genocide)

Questions

Why did this happen? Who was responsible? Discussion?

The End of the War

The Allied Bombing Campaign against Germany British aim: to „de-house“ the working class and

inspire uprisings: area bombardment of large cities by night

American aim: to hit industrial plant and infrastructure: precision bombing by day

Ultimately: terror bombing by both air forces Hamburg firestorm, July 1943 Destruction of all German and Austrian cities.

Example: Dresden, February 1945

Bombing of Germany

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Total (in 1000 tons)RAFUSAF

Bombing by Month 1944-45

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Yearly Average by Month*1945: January through April

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The German Reaction

Indifference of Hitler and the other Nazi leaders

Priority on „revenge weapons“ Delayed development of ME 262 Crumbling of Hitler Myth, but also new

field for NSDAP support activity and propaganda

The End: Inferno

Hitler incapable of averting defeat and fanatically unwilling to surrender

Soviet atrocities Giant refugee movement from east to west Wilhelm Gustloff disaster Attacks on civilians by low-flying fighter planes Local resistance to national suicide German POWs

The German Resistance

The German Resistance

Conditions, Definitions, Motivations

Communist resistance– Workers– Harro and Libertas Schulze-

Boysen Christian resistance

– Bonhoeffer– Niemöller

The White Rose The bomb plot

– Stauffenberg– Ulrich von Hassell

My father’s cousin August Nitschke: