Hitler's Consolidation of Power

Stab in the Back Myth

Idea that Weimar Republic democratic politicians (Jews/communists) had stabbed the German military and people in the back by signing the Treaty of Versailles.

Beauty of Work

Improve factory environments by setting up sports fields and gardens around Smoky steel Works. Installed day rooms, painted window frames, dug swimming pools. Good lighting means good work. But pressure was still on workers to boost productivity, and clean lavatories and beauty of work did not alter the situation. It seemed like an excuse not to pay higher wages. Treated with skepticism.

Results of the Four Year Plan

It didn't produce economic self-sufficiency nor prepare Germany for the war economically. In 1939, it was still importing 20% of its food needs and 33% of raw materials. It also imported 66% of its oil, 70% of its copper, 85% of its rubber, and most of its aluminum. The manufacture of synthetic products didn't produce immediate benefits. The German economy wasn't close to collapse in 1939, but it wasn't healthy. This led to great pressure to solve the problem with imports through short wars of plunder. The government lack sufficient foreign currency and gold reserves.

Nazi leader for propaganda

Joseph Goebbels

Night of the Long Knives

June 1934. Hitler had Ernst Röhm, leader of SA, arrested and shot. Thousands of others were also rounded up and executed. Hitler claimed that Röhm was planning to overthrow him, as had been told him by Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the SS. Röhm's true intentions were unclear, but a group of army generals made a fake order that made it look like he had instructed his SA forces to prepare for a strike against Hitler and the army. In the new Germany, the military was eager to assert its authority over its chief rivals, the SA, by backing Hitler. The SA had played a key role in the rise of Nazism, but Hitler had no more use for it. Röhm was a socialist revolutionary who wanted the workers and soldiers to run society, and he thought that Hitler shared the desire to forcibly break the old German privileged society. However, Hitler wished to consolidate his position by winning over the traditional ruling classes in Germany. The SA wasn't immediately disbanded, but its place was usurped by a more powerful body, the SS.

Strength Through Joy

Kraft durch Freude (KDF). Organize leisure or the masses, including theater, concerts, opera, musicals, lectures, dancing, and sports. Provision of holidays (subsidized tourism) for workers and their families were especially successful. Nazis set up special hotels and campsites that were very comfortable. Boom in tourism with in Germany in the 1930s. Some 10 million Germans over 1/7 of the population were involved in KDF activities at some point from 1933 to 1943. 4 main departments: 1. After hours entertainment. 2. Mass tourism. 3. Sport. 4. Night classes. Most popular element of the German Labor Front. Didn't seduce every worker, but brought new world of opportunities. Workers were told that Nazism offered social mobility, physical mobility, and the opportunity to travel.

SS

Leader was Heinrich Himmler. Began as Hitler's personal bodyguard in Munich in 1924. In 1929, Heinrich Himmler started coordinating different protective squads to guard Nazi officials elsewhere. The destruction of Ernst Röhm and the SA opened up the way for SS to become an elite body answerable only to Hitler. It was basically a civilian police network run on military lines, enforcing the law by operating outside of it. One of the first SS tasks was running the concentration camps. There was a standard pattern of brutality and a special SS Death's Head division guarded the camps. By 1936 Himmler had brought the police forces of all the German states under SS authority. 4 fundamental principles of the SS: 1. Protection of Germany from racial corruption. 2. Cultivation of a fighting spirit among its members. 3. Loyalty to the German state. 4. Absolute obedience to the orders of the Führer.

Reichstag election

March 1933. A two-thirds majority was necessary for the Enabling bill to be passed, so Nazis needed to dominate the Reichstag. Their persuasive and aggressive election campaign was highly successful, increasing their share of the vote from 33 to 44%. Had more popular support than any other party by a lot. In discussions with Ludwig Kaas and Alfred Hugenberg, party leaders that the Nazis needed to get the act passed, Hitler adopted a conciliatory approach, expressing regret at the violence surrounding the elections and suggesting that it had occurred against his wishes. He convinced the leaders. When the Enabling Bill was presented in the Reichstag, the parties (Zentrum and DNVP) voted in its favor, and it passed by 441 votes to 94.

The Enabling Act

March 1933. Allowed Hitler to govern as Chancellor without reference to the Reichstag. The Reichstag had voted away its power. There was now no constitutional restriction on Hitler's personal authority or that of the Nazi Party.

Central government

Ministers were put in charge of areas of society. Hitler stops cabinet meetings and didn't have them meet from 1938 on Word. The right chancellery was the office of Hitler, doing a lot of things. It was full of bureaucrats, meaning that there were tons of layers of people. Therefore, there were Führer edicts, or laws passed by individuals. It all came down to how close you were to Hitler.

Motherhood

One of Hitler's particular concerns was that the birth rate was decreasing in Germany. He wanted women to embrace motherhood as an ideal. The motherhood campaign encouraged women to give up work, return home, and become mothers for the greater good. The national socialist womanhood backed the government measures introduced as part of the campaign. If you were women were allocated university places. The professions, like law and higher education, provided fewer positions for women. The civil services no longer excepted women entrants. Birth control clinics were obliged to close and abortion was made illegal. Authorities strongly discouraged women from wearing make up, calling it a Jewish habit. Smoking was also deemed unsuitable.

Euthanasia program

Philip Bouler got ahold of the mail sent to Hitler and used it to his advantage by showing Hitler a letter from a father of a disabled child asking if he could kill the child. This sparked the euthanasia program, in which some doctors filled out forms to kill children while others just did it. Babies and kids were given injections of lethal substances or morphine and were killed that way.

Support for Nazism

Propaganda was important, but also, many Germans protected their societal position by joining or supporting the Nazi Party. Their chances of preferment or promotion would be greatly increased by backing the Nazi Party (more/better opportunities). It was bureaucrats acting out if self-interest who allowed Nazism to flourish. Nazism became all-embracing, even among apparently non-political groups who chose to affiliate with the Nazi Party. This was done willingly by ordinary, respectable Germans. Most of those who might be regarded as the natural leaders of society (teachers, doctors, priests, professors, pastors) were among the strongest supporters of Hitler's Nazi regime. Where they led, most Germans followed. Many Germans regarded Hitler as a savior, and his conquests as war leader in 1939-1942 raised his prestige in the country to unprecedented heights. Opposition only became at all signifiant from 1942 on, when things started to go poorly with the war.

How did Hitler eliminate opposition?

Protective custody (SS/Gestapo) and concentration camps. Night of Long Knives and Ernst Röhm (leader of SA) made Hitler able to make the military happy.

Opposition from the Left

Socialist and communist didn't try to organize a broad resistance to Nazism due to the severity with which they were suppressed. By 1935, what remained of the communist party has been driven underground. The Nazi Soviet pact was signed in August 1939, and 10 year nonaggression agreement between third Reich in the USSR. This is some of the persecution. However, after the war with the Soviet union began in June 1941, German communist again became targets. Those who weren't arrested stayed quiet to survive. Workers were also suppressed. Over 2000 workers were executed for belonging to a legal labor organizations, and another 52,000 were imprisoned.

Control over the children

Some 17,000 kids were educated at 30 Napolas, or national political educational institutions. There were also 13 Adolf Hitler schools, and in Bavaria, a Reichsschule of the NSDAP. All of the schools mimicked British public school and army cadet college. They were almost universally popular with pupils. They emphasized tests of courage. Adolf Hitler school pupils consider themselves the future elite. They were selected on the basis of racial purity, party recommendation, and physical fitness. The quality of normal education had slumped, but Hitler took a special interest in these schools. The headmaster of an Adolf Hitler school was the only teacher to have regular audiences with him. Hitler saw the need for an elite fast lane form of education. Positive memories of school graduate suggest that Hitler knew which emotional buttons should be pressed: How to give boys back their childhood and at the same time, subtly prepare them for party service.

Hitler's seduction of the workers overview

Sophisticated reward system that seduced a sufficient number of workers to neutralize resistance. Dividing the workers rather than conquering them became one of the central goals of Nazi social policy as well as the guiding principle of the Gestapo. The workers and their parties, the communist and social Democrat parties, were only force in 1920s and 1930s that could've blocked the Nazis. Until the final year of the war, Nazis secured the active or passive support of many sections of the middle class and the various elites. The workers shift in allegiance to the Nazis was a temporary loan to the new party. The role of capital was strengthened, not SAP, by the Nazis with their capitalism, which was why there was no massive protest from within the working class.

Hitler's economic plans

The 1930s were a period of international recovery from depression that Germany shared in, giving Hitler a reputation for having created a powerful industry which had ended unemployment and restored Germany's pride. He was less concerned with increasing the peoples living standards then with creating a strong industrial economy to provide the sin use of war. He left economic planning to his economic ministers, but he demanded that they prepare Germany for rearmament. No single, consistent Nazi economic program or master plan was in place.

German workers

The German labor front began in 1939 under the direction of Robert Blake, the director of the front. He aimed to regulate the German workforce along military lines. He destroyed trade unions by making them part of. Came understate control and lost their independence. Couldn't take strike action or withdraw their labor. Wage rates and conditions were not negotiable and dictated by the way. He presented the front as the summit of Nazi ideals. Workers will work together for the good of Germany. Encouraged to wear identical uniforms to increase the sense of solidarity. In reality, the labor force required workers to do what they were told. They decided who was employed, promoted, dismissed, and the pay they got. Control increased after Germany went to war. But this was not just a mechanism of oppression, and it was still committed to workers welfare. Insurance games covering sickness, injury, bereavement, made available to deserving brothers. Schooling was provided for workers kids, and adult education was available to workers themselves.

Nazis and family

The Nazi party simulated a defense of the German family while actually concocting policies or tolerating behavior that eroded it. Hitler tried to supplant the personal physical love of a husband with an immaculate love of himself. By the same token, children were to be given an ersatz father. Hitler youth and elite schools loosened ties with parents and brought up thousands of children according to supposed manly and Germanic standards, equipping them to be the future leadership of the Reich.

Small business under Hitler

The Nazi promises to help small businesses never really happened. One of the key promises was to close down department stores, and the law for the protection of the retail trade in 1933 prevented department stores from providing certain services, but they did not actually close the department stores down. The ability to set up a new small business was greatly curtailed. In 1937, no individual could set up in business with capital of less than the equivalent of $200,000, and any company with capital of under $40,000 was forced out of business. This closed down 20% of all small enterprises. Artisans did win some important concessions. In 1933, the Law for the provisional construction of German craft trades said that anyone wishing to set up in business had to hold a master qualification in a registered trade. This helped qualified tradesmen and increased efficiency in the trade sector of the economy. Many independent tradesmen also benefited from increased spending on public buildings and the 500 Mark subsidy given to homeowners to install toilets and bathrooms. Still, the number of artisans decreased from 1936 to 1939.

The Hitler Youth and the BDM

The Nazis tried to get young people a sense of belonging in new society via the Hitler youth. It was an organization to train young men in national socialist values: patriotism, loyalty, and a readiness to put Hitler and the nation before thoughts of self. Emphasis on physical activities in the outdoor life. The league of German maidens was a system movement to the boys Hitler youth. Both aimed to poop provide an outdoor life to keep young people healthy while developing the understanding of national Socialism and making them feel like a part of the Volk (German community). Membership was voluntary at first for both, but strong peer pressure to join. By 1939, membership was made compulsory. Indicates the success of movement and tightening of central control in the third Reich.

Opposition from the Right

The Schwartz Kapelle: the "Black Organization," a Gestapo designation for those on the Political Right who were suspected of being anti-Hitler. Only in the loosest sense and organization at all. What links and was their dislike of Hitler's leader ship. Aristocratic Germans who is distaste for Hitler as a vulgar upstart deep and into hatred, as his war policies appear to be taking Germany towards destruction. Prominent people: 1. General Beck: Prussian officer who resigned as Chief of the General Staff in protest against Germany's seizure of Czechoslovakia in 1939. 2. Helmut von Moltke: landed aristocrat who founded the Kreisau Circle. By 1944, there were Germans who considered that the killing of Hitler was the only option left them to save their country morally and militarily. 3. Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg: organiser of the July Bomb Plot (1944). There was little that could be done to organize effective opposition. Assassinating Nazi leaders was a desperate notion that was usually rejected on practical, if not moral, grounds.

Big business under the Nazis

The big winners from Nazi economic policy were The large industrial companies, especially those geared towards rearmament. The cooperation of big business was vital for rearmament and economic recovery. In 1937, 70% of all production was controlled by monopolies. Nazis directed business to support their economic and foreign policy objectives, but left the control of companies in private hands. For many companies, especially in the rearmament program (motor transport, fuel, aircraft, machine tools, chemicals, tanks, cars), profits were astronomical. For example, IG Farben, a giant chemical monopoly which was heavily involved in the development of synthetic goods and chemical products, had large increases in profits (150%) and employment (50%) from 1933-1939. The managers of major industrial companies awarded them selves more perks and saw their wages rise by 50% from 1933 to 1939, the highest of any group in German society.

Dispute with the Churches

The churches were angered by the pointed exclusion of religious instruction from the curriculum in new schools. Churches were traditionally the main providers of schooling in Germany. The Catholic Church especially feared that the Nazis were intent on undermining religious schools by imposing an atheist curriculum. They claimed it would be in breach of the concordat of 1933, and agreement between the papacy and the Nazi government the guaranteed the right of the Catholic Church to administer his own schools independently of the state. Hitler ordered Nazi officials to stop threatening Catholic schools because he wished to avoid the confrontation which might follow due to the major section of the population that was Catholic.

Standard of living in Nazi Germany

The great majority of Germans felt better off than they had in the depths of the depression, and there were some economic improvements from the years of the depression. Economic indicators revealed, though, that Great Britain and the United States had a higher standard of living. The rich grew richer under the Nazi regime, and the demand for consumer goods increased, but whether Nazi Germany was a consumer society is not clear. [*for an economy to be sustaining, it has to be based on consumer goods, things that are repetitively bought. Germany was building more structural things, which were one and done. You even only need more weapons once the war starts. They were doing it so fast that inflation starts—problem develops.*]. If you were people had cars in Germany than they did in the US and Great Britain. By and large the German people under Nazi rule had a lower standard of living than the people in great Britain and we're vastly worse off than people in the USA. What Nazis did achieve in their economic policy, largely through successful propaganda, was to get Germans to think that they were much better off than they actually were.

Gleichschaltung

The process from 1933 to 1934 by which Hitler had: 1. Brought the parliaments in all the individual German states under total Nazi control. 2. Outlawed all political parties other than the NSDAP. 3. Destroyed the trade unions as an independent force. 4. Subordinated the legal system to Nazi control. 5. Begin the process of removing Jews from all public offices. 6. Coerced the Churches into accepting the Nazi regime.

Curriculum at schools.

There was a heavy emphasis on race and ideology. German language in history were modified to reflect Nazi notions of German superiority. History was study of Jews trying to undermine the great achievements of the Germans. Backed up in biology classes with models showing that the Jews could damage the whole society like germs could harm the whole body. High school students took a class in eugenics, science of breeding human beings for their fitness and intelligence. Throughout the 1930s, Jews were demoted or dismissed from teaching positions, and Jewish students were barred from entry,

Unemployment in Germany

There was a major economic recovery in Nazi Germany with a sharp fall in unemployment. It went from 6 million in 1933 to less than 1 million in 1938. This was due to state aid and job creation schemes, public works programs, and increased arms spending. Tax relief was given to companies to take on extra workers. Autobahns were built even though they were on necessary at the time due to the low level of car ownership. A good deal of spending on lavish public buildings existed. Do use of public money to create jobs artificially brings no long-term economic benefits and can actually produce long-term economic problems, most notably inflation. Even the low inflation rate Germany enjoyed in the Nazi. Was created by the artificial government device of a wage and price freeze. The economic miracle was a propaganda myth.

The press

There was an abundance before 1933 that Goebbels systematically brought under control. Eher Verlag was a publishing house which the Nazis had bought in the 1920s. They used its financial resources to negotiate the purchase of a wide range of newspapers and journals. By 1939, only 1/3 of newspapers were independent, and scared to take a Nazi line for survival purposes. All news agencies on which the papers depended for information were brought into one organization, the Nazi-dominated DNB. Editors Law was passed in 1933 and regularly renewed, stating that editors were personally responsible for what appeared in their papers, so editors became their own censors.

Kreisau Circle

A gathering of those concerned at the direction Germany was heading under Nazism. The circle was not an organized conspiracy, as its members couldn't agree on what action should be taken. There were many ethical qualms about assassination.

The Nazi state

A right wing dictator ship, led by a single dominant leader, the Fuhrer, with an official state ideology Nazism. And a single political party. Constitution under Nazi rule became the will of the Fuhrer. Personal dictatorship, not a one party state. Hitler was the source of all power. Hitler's role was not based exclusively on terror, force, or intimidation. He believed that popular support was vital to enhance the authority of a personal dictator. Orders could be given by him and followed without discussion. Key to power and influence in Nazi Germany was having access to and support from Hitler. Decision making was channeled through a Nazi elite and a multiplicity of conflicting and overlapping organizations.

Gestapo

A special arm of the SS that developed into a nationwide organization dedicated to exposing and removing enemies of the state. Civilian police force was subject to its authority, no legal restriction on its powers of arrest or methods of interrogation. Torture was the standard, no obligation to apply the normal rules of evidence. Unlimited powers of arrest and interrogation. Most fearful aspect of Nazi regime for ordinary Germans. But it depended on the support of the people at large and was not big enough to have imposed itself without the cooperation of the German people. Acquired much of its knowledge not from its own investigation but from information provided by ordinary citizens who were prepared to inform on their neighbors and workmates. This caused a lot of Germans to work the other way when they heard about atrocities because they didn't want to know things that we get them in trouble. Fear was very powerful in Germany, and it pervaded society, helping the Nazis to keep control.

Textbooks rewritten

Censorship of school textbooks was one of the first and perhaps most readily implemented strategies. Yet it was not directed centrally until spring 1938. Until then, the teachers did the job of censoring. Progress in censorship was slow due to the desires of various power groups within Germany to influence education for their own ends. German history was studied largely to the exclusion of all other histories, and focused on Hitler and the rise of national Socialism. It attempted to make the third Reich out to be splendid combination of specified developments and trends in German history. German literature showed blood ties and the sense of community. It had an emphasis on literature that explicitly promoted a racially pure German community. Religious instruction was increasingly replaced by a collection of anti-Christian nationalist ideas, enhanced by the steady abolition of confessional schools. Biology was revised in accordance with Nazi racial theories. Rachel science was granted an academic status. In German youth, Nazism found a more receptive constituency, cultivated equally inside and out of the classroom. Education was complemented in the Hitler youth.

Article 76

Gave Reichstag power to change/amend the government with 2/3 of the vote. Used in the Enabling Act.

Radio

Goebbels established the RRC (Reich Radio Company) in 1933 with the sole purpose of spreading Nazi propaganda. Campaign to provide as many people as possible with radios. From 1932-1937 the number of Germans with access to broadcasting increased from 22% to 70% of the population. There was a ban on listening to foreign broadcasts, enforced especially severely during the war.

Propaganda and the media in Germany

Goebbels promotes the idea of the German nation unified under the direction of the Nazi Party and Hitler from 1933 forward. Repetition of slogans, phrases, and images was the key. Used radio, film, gramophone, display boards, posters. Hitler's name, image, and the swastika were everywhere. There were Nazi Party rallies, with the major center in Nuremberg. The Triumph of the Will by Leni Riefenstahl showed Hitler as the man of destiny creating a Third Reich that expressed the will of the nation. Rallies gave a powerful religious impulse, that Hitler was the new messiah.

The arts

Goebbels stressed destroying Jewish influences, inhibited cultural growth. Nazism was an attempt to force people to think along prescribed lines, so it stifled creativity. Censorship made painting and sculpture glorify the myths of the German past and emphasize heroic, manly deeds. Abstract works were not acceptable and jazz was rejected. Art had to be formal and figurative. Music of Richard Wagner was revered as an expression of the German soul and Wagner was said to be a hero. Most Germans with art careers just confirmed to the Nazi way and ideas to keep their jobs. Philosopher Martin Heidegger actually called upon his colleagues and students to reject freedom of speech and be totally obedient in service of the new German Reich.

How did Goebbels try to please Hitler?

He fed his anti-Semitism with propaganda about the removal of the Jews. Ex: Night of the Broken Glass, after a Jewish person killed a German out of anger for how he was treating his family. Over 800 Jews were killed, and at least 1000 synagogues were damaged/destroyed. People saw the injustice but went along with the masses.

Problems that Hitler had to solve to consolidate power

He had to undo the treaty of Versailles, fix the economy which had been hurt during the great depression, and get rid of the Weimar Republic. He destroyed the Weimar Republic from within from 1933 to 1934 with the Reichstag fire, getting rid of civil liberties, enabling act, and banning all political parties.

How did Hitler "seduce" the German workers?

He knew that many workers were striving towards the middle class, so he offered something quite new: an image of organized work and leisure society in which hard work and loyalty were rewarded in a completely modern manner. He used beauty of work and strength through joy, which disoriented the workforce but ultimately made them feel grateful.

Hitler was never will to do what to living standards?

He was never willing to allow a major cut in German living standards, which was essential for a total mobilization of the economy for war. He wanted to spend enormous sums on rearmament and also protect the living standards of the average German family. In spite of enormous spending from 1933 to 1939, the German economy was not fully prepared for a lengthy war. In 1943. It was brought under central planning and control to meet the needs of total war.

Opposition to Hitler—overview:

There wasn't really moral objection to Nazism. It was only when Hitler wasn't taking Germany where Germans wanted to be. It was almost impossible for the left to resist because they had been crushed from the beginning, take into camps, reeducated, etc. However in the rate, people can get close to Hitler. The closest assassination attempt was the July bomb plot in 1944, which failed. However, Nazism wouldn't be stopped just by killing Hitler, and they had to have a plan in place to take over the government. Some opposition from the young was actually pretty successful and some of the youth were morally against Nazism. However, there were also some antiauthoritarian youth who just wanted to pick fights and weren't a real threat to the government. There was no consistent, organized resistance movement in Hitler's Germany. Not possible to oppose the Nazis after they came to power. Isolated cases of individual or group resistance that did occur usually coincided with times of unceratinty: 1939, when Germans doubted wisdom of going to war, and 1942-1945, when Germany began to suffer serious military reverses. When Hitler was making Germany master of Europe from 1939 to 1942, opposition became dormant.

What did the Nazis claim the problem was with the Jews?

They said that the Jews were involved in the Weimar Republic and signed the treaty of Versailles, the stab in the back. They were the bankers of the world who were out to destroy Germany. They used propaganda to try to make people think that Jews were involved in all the problems, so if they got rid of Jews, they helped solve problems.

How did the Third Reich project its ideology?

Through propaganda. It used all means of communication to sustain itself and deprive its objects of the power of independent thought. Hitler was a magician of illusion, and the Third Reich was a partnership in wishful thinking in which the masses were self-deluded as well as other-deluded. The target of the persuasion was more of a co-conspirator than a victim. The purpose of Nazi propaganda wasn't to brainwash the masses, but to absorb the individual into a mass of like-minded people. The purpose of "suggestion wasn't to deceive but to articulate that which the crowd already believed. Essence of propaganda was repetition of a few powerful slogans. It dethroned reason and celebrated emotion, appealing to feeling rather than thinking. Therefore, propaganda had to be primitive, so it appealed to the audience's primitive desire for simplification. Said there were only two possibilities: victory for the Aryan side or its annihilation and victory by the Jews. Fascists weren't ashamed of mass media and marketing. They understood the cultures of consumerism and exploited the media, the familiar language of the masses, for political purposes. However, morale ultimately deteriorated when it didn't materialize into victory—Nazi propaganda was based on seizing immediate advantages with complete disregard of the truth or their credit. Nazism didn't ask for belief but for surrender by assaulting the consciousness and giving you pictures to do the thinking for you.

Universities in Nazi Germany

Universities saw a substantial decrease in numbers of students and teachers, plus steady decrease in range and quality of scholarship, because: 1. nazification of curricula and the restrictions upon academic freedom made university life increasingly unattractive. 2. Non-Aryans and those who couldn't show a satisfactory record in the Hitler Youth were excluded from university. 3. Increasing opportunities for careers in business and in the armed forces since Germany was moving towards war. Therefore, many of the more distinguished scholars emigrated, and the staff decreased because of this emigration.

Local government

When Hitler took office, Germany had a federal system of government with each individual regional government (Land) enjoying a great deal of autonomy to enact legislation. April 7, 1933: individual German states were brought under central direction. New post was Reich governor (Gauleiter) to act as the representative of central govt in each Gau (which replaced the Land). Every Gauleiter, usually a Nazi party figure directly appointed by Hitler, had a wide range of powers to carry out the Fuhrer's policies at the local level. But Hitler retained the post of Minister-President for each reason, leading to frequent conflicts. These conflicts were not solved by the Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich (1934), which abolished all local assemblies in the federal states and subordinated both to the control of the Reich government. Both heads were to take orders from and carry out the wishes of the Fuhrer.

Impact of war on women in Germany

With the coming of war, women's duty changed to being to assist the war effort. In September 1939, the month of the war started, the land your program was introduced. It was a form of obligatory national service requiring unattached females to spend one year working on farms which was quite difficult. The Nazis were obliged to drop opposition to women in industrial workforce. In 1942, they began to encourage and even demand that women go into the factories. The war was a destroyer of social convention in Germany. Because so many people were killed, to secure a Germany's future, women had to have lots of kids, but so many husbands were killed. Therefore, Himmler encouraged women to get pregnant outside of the normal confines of marriage. The Ministry of Justice ruled in 1944 the leaders of Germany's youth movement were acting wholly legally in urging the girls to have unmarried sex in order to donate a child to the Führer. Nazis found it impossible to sustain their traditional policies towards women in the face of a war that ultimately destroyed German society.

Letters to Hitler

Women wrote love letters to Hitler, addressed to my sweet one, my dear sugar sweet Adolf, my hotly loved dear heart, etc. The letters were remarkably Internet, with one woman in 1939 begging for the Führer to father her child. Thousands of these letters existed. The writers were sometimes reported to the Gestapo, and most were treated with contempt. The triumph of Hitler's dictatorial style was shown through these letters. He wanted to bind all Germans to him personally, to circumvent and ultimately destroy mediating institutions. Hitler's cult of personality was evident.

Did the Nazi economic program reflect the chaos of the government?

Yes—there was no ministry or body with overall responsibility for organizing the war effort, and chaos was caused by rivalry and poor communication.

Edelweiss Pirates

Young German resistors with strong Catholic associations who took the edelweiss flower as their badge. The flower grows profusely in Bavaria in southern Germany, which symbolized the groups wish to promote lasting German values in the face of the amoral doctrine of Nazism. The groups that spread to many parts of Germany. They Gestapo claimed that some sections of the Hitler youth had been infiltrated by the movement and ferociously hunted down edelweiss members. The rebel youth gang which went camping and sang songs making fun of Hitler; they even physically attacked Hitler Youth groups. The gang included boys and girls, including Jews.

Swingjugend (swinging youth)

Young people with a passion for American jazz. They were never formally a resistance movement and actually made a point of being non-political. They were social nonconformists whose behavior and appearance didn't fit the Nazi image of responsible and serious German youth. They had long hair, unconventional clothes, and loud music. People called them deviants. They were constantly harried by the authorities. Their lighthearted non-conformity stood in marked contrast to dour and deadly seriousness of Nazism.

Berlin Book Burning

Burning Jewish books and un-German things to purify the culture. Burning books that weren't appropriate for the Nazi message.

Why Hitler was able to stay in power/resistance failed:

1. "Legal" revolution: Hitler came to power through the Weimar Republic, but when he got in power he legally (in the eyes of Germans) destroyed democracy. Therefore, resistance was doing something illegal, because they always had to act outside the law. Even just gathering when you weren't a Nazi organization was illegal. 2. Military: had an unbreakable oath of loyalty to Hitler. This became the excuse for the average German on trial - they never considered that orders were in moral so they could break them. They also didn't want to get put into concentration camps themselves. 3. Desire of all Germans: germans wanted a return to their rightful place in the world that was robbed from them with the treaty of Versailles in World War I. Worst, their possession was given to Slavic people, lesser races he didn't deserve it. More than anything, they wanted to return to greatness. They thought the Nazis had best path forward. Plus, they give into the Nazis because they could get them back to dominate European power fastest. Bringing the old world back was possible, but with war. Germans weren't sure about the war until they started winning. 4. German History: led Germans to accept authoritarianism. Got used to that type of government with the protestant reformation, related to following authority. The best and brightest of democracy left and came to America. The people who would normally resist (teachers, doctors, professors, priests, pastors) were often the strongest supporters of Hitler's Nazi regime. They didn't have the people who would stand up for democracy: lack of leaders. 5. Self-interest: germans could benefit so they overlooked some of the issues. They join the Nazi party, sometimes even the SS. Priest joined the SS! Self-interest drove a lot of people in Nazi Germany. 6. Public view of Hitler: Hitler really only ever gave one speech about Jewish stuff. People who didn't like the things that were happening in the regime could say that if Hitler knew, he would've stopped it. People who liked it could say that Hitler did a great job. So, people could check themselves into believing that Hitler was never to blame for a policy they didn't like and instead blame it on lower level people. 7. Cult of personality: convinced people that Hitler was Germany, he represented everything the country needed.

Ways that Nazis approaches economic problems (brief list): AND Goals:

1. National Labor Service. 2. Public works projects (huge...hired companies to do this stuff, which gave people jobs.) 3. Rearmament (making weapons). This way was the main way. Goals: 1. Decrease unemployment (they basically eliminated it). 2. Autarky (not possible due to lack of resources, limited access to water, so they didn't achieve it. They also saw Eastern Europeans as sub-human and not deserving of their resources, s wanted to take theirs.). 3. Create economy ready for war. 4. State-directed economy: let people run their businesses as long as they do what the state tells them to. Make extra things in addition to their normal products, businesses make a ton of extra money that way.

Essential tasks of the Propaganda Ministry:

1. Promote German nation as the supreme form of social and cultural organization. 2. Obligé media to always present Hitler and Nazi Party positively. 3. Develop the Führer principle: the notion of Hitler as the faultless leader to who, all Germans owed obedience. 4. Rid Germany of all Jewish influences. 5. Encourage pride in Aryan race as highest form of human development. 6. Develop German-Aryan arts free from corruption and decadence.

Important time periods in Hitler's Consolidation of Power

1933-1939: peacetime. 1936: Olympics. 1939-1945: wartime. (U.S. didn't get involved until 1941.)

Hjalmar Schacht

1934-1937: Hitler appointed him President of the Reichsbank in 1933 and economics minister in 1934. He was not a member of the Nazi party, but he admired Hitler, who he believes could make Germany powerful again. He had urged major industrial companies, like Krupp Steel and IG Farben (a chemical giant) to support the Nazis in the elections of the early 1930s. He had also urged Hindenburg to appoint Hitler chancellor. He established the organization of industry, a body made of business guilds, employers associations, and finance houses. This was successful in promoting trade and industry. A number of countries advanced loans to Germany, which was remarkable for a country which had struggled desperately since 1918 to raise capital for itself. He approved of taxation as a way of increasing state funds, but he said the taxes should be fairly assessed so it wasn't a burden or disincentive to private industry, and revenue should be reinvested by the government and productive ways. To end high unemployment, he introduced the New Plan in 1934. It froze all interest payments on foreign debts and created a system of regulating imports according to the regime's political needs. Enabled Germany to negotiate bilateral trade agreements, which allowed it to move the bulk of its trade to Europe and import most of its raw materials from the Balkans and South America. It included schemes to create employment through public works projects, like road repairs, forest clearing and planting, building new hospitals and schools, government buildings, the stadium for Nuremberg rallies. Autobahn was built this way (famous German highway system). Men of ages 18 to 25 were required to join the national labor service for six months to be trained in basic skills and directed to work where they were most needed. Schacht didn't want spending on arms to drain away vital funds and undermine economic recovery. Therefore, he proposed that rearmament be introduced in stages as the economy strengthened. This began to work, but it was too slow for Hitler. Hitler didn't dismiss Schacht, but he bypassed him in favor of Herman Goering, who was given the task of putting Germany towards rapid militarization.

The Berlin Olympics

1936. Sport became a propaganda tool. The specially-built athletics stadium held 110,000 spectators, and Hitler attended every day. German athletes won more metals than those from any other country.

July Bomb Plot

1944. After 1939, there were 15 attempts to kill Hitler, mostly by individuals who never got close enough to their target to be a real danger. The more serious attempts always came from within the army because: in the military there was the greatest dissatisfaction with Hitler, especially after the war began to go against Germany. Also, military personnel had closer access to Hitler than any other group of Germans. As a colonel, Stauffenberg personally attended Hitler's regular strategy meetings at his headquarters in East Prussia. He hoped he could blow Hitler up with a planted bomb. The aim was to establish a government of generals and leading civilians ready to make peace with the allies. The bomb exploded, but, despite being injured, Hitler survived. This strengthened hitler's belief that providence, the notion that fate is predetermined by the force of history, was on his side. Ring leaders were quickly rounded up and executed after a series of show trials. No further attempt within the military to remove Hitler.

Industrial workers under Hitler

All trade union rights were removed, and unions were replaced by a Nazi substitute organization called the labor front. The goal that was stated was to create a true social and productive community. Employment laws removed contracted employment and defined employer as master and employee as follower. The labor front in theory was an honest broker between interest of employers and labor. In practice, it was a vital means of controlling employees and ensuring they didn't demand increased wages. Wages were set an imposed by the labor front trustees, almost always followed the employers wishes. The labor front me cosmetic efforts to improve workers' leisure activities (Strength through Joy, Beauty of Work). Leisure benefits were taken advantage of by most workers, but they were largely indifferent to propaganda about the labor front being for the benefit of the workers. The economic position of workers was not greatly improved by the Nazi regime, and in many cases, the overall position became much worse. Hourly wages for skilled workers decreased. The introduction of performance related pay benefited a few individuals. In general though the take-home pay of industrial workers decreased further because of increases in income tax and health insurance deductions. The number of hours worked per week by each worker increased, so the people worked more than the average British industrial worker. Higher wages were achieved only by working longer hours, and the number of accidents at work increased dramatically. The mobility of workers was restricted by employers/Ex-employers.

Article 48

Allowed the president of the Weimar Republic to issue emergency legislation and deploy armed forces to restore order. Used by Hindenburg to appoint Hitler, and used to appoint many Chancellors due to the instability of the coalition government. Common from 1925-1933.

Albert Speer

Appointed by Hitler in 1942 as Minister of Armaments and War Production to tackle problems of liaison and coordination. Had a large measure of freedom. He: 1. Streamlined transport and freight movements to avoid bottlenecks and make sure materials reached plants on schedule. 2. Doubled German armaments production overall despite the increasing pressure from Allied bomb raids over Germany. He sustained a high output through to 1944, even though for most of that time, Allied attacks on Germany were causing sever damage to factories and plants. 3. Used slave labor, with 1/4 of the workforce being foreigners, mainly who had been deported to Germany and made to work in appalling conditions. Speer regarded them as economic units, not people.

Hitler becomes President

August 1934, following the death of Hindenburg. Adopted the title of Führer, or leader. Two weeks later, in a plebiscite asking the people if they approved of Hitler's extension of power, 92 percent of the electorate voted yes.

Education.

Centralized Ministry of education headed by Bernhard Rust. One project what is the creation of national political educational institutions (Napolas), training academies for young Nazis. There was a conflict between Rust and Baldur von Schirach, head of Hitler youth. He had Hitler youth set up and it sounds special Adolf Hitler schools. Hitler wouldn't take a side. He seemed to be satisfied by observing the enthusiasm with which Nazi administrators sought to show commitment to him. There was also a latent conflict with the Hitler Youth and the other Nazi schools, which set a rival focus for kids' energies and loyalties. Nazis indoctrinated young Germans in the proper political beliefs through the Hitler youth movement. Authorities also exerted strict control of schools, teachers, textbooks, and other educational materials. Teachers of the wrong race or he didn't conform to new Nazi ideals were ruled it out. The curriculum was re-written to reflect Hitler's distorted views on history, biology, and other academic subjects. This was an important part of Gleichschaltung, the process of re-organizing all social institutions to better serve the Nazi state. The ultimate goal of Nazi education was the creation of the political, national socialist, human being. This was not a training towards free, independent activity, but to develop abilities of young Germans so that they fulfilled the aims of the state. This change of education system involved: 1. Extensive revision of curriculum. 2. Progressive removal of political and racial undesirables from the profession of teachers. 3. Establishment of specialist schools where the future Nazi elite was to be trained. 4. Applied the Fuehrerprinzip (leadership principle) to whole structure of educational administration. 5. Enormous stress on physical education that slowed the learning process (students could spend up to 5 hours a day playing sports).

How did the German government control inflation?

Controlled wages and prices with wage and price freezes. Temporary solution, but Hitler doesn't care. The war is coming and they'll conquer places and take everything they need.

What had the Nazis promised economically? How did Hitler feel about these promises?

Curb monopoly powers of big business, abolish department stores, limit finance capital, give aid to small businessmen/farmers/artisans. Hitler was lukewarm to the anti-capitalist aspects of the party program, and he tried to calm the fears of business leaders (big business).m

May Day 1933

Declared a workers holiday, fulfilled a long-time ambition of the Social Democratic workers' movement. Seduction technique of Hitler and Goebbels: to hand the workers a triumph and at the same time plot to take away their power. It was a give then take approach. Give: from early morning, radio broadcast worker songs/plays/essays. Around ten million people marched, both white and blue collar workers, in support of event and Nazis. Take: at 10 a.m. the next morning, SA brownshirts and SS stormed into offices and banks of the social democratic unions and arrested union officials. Gave trumped-up corrruption charges against union leaders for abuse of union funds. Crude attempt to turn popular anger against worker leaders. In one hour, the union movement had been decapitated with barely any protest. The DAF was up and running in the same month, with a combination of unions in an action committee. Point was to end class warfare, but used vocabulary of militant socialists initially. Intention was to radicalize the workers and offer them a credible alternative not only to social democratic unions but also to the Social Democratic Party itself. By June 1933, the Social Democratic Party was banned, and the DAF started to transform itself from a union-like organization to a mass organization in which everyone was merely a member. Employment increased, sales increased, marriages increased.

Central government

Each government department was run by a single minister as a distinct area of individual power. The minister formulated policy and presented it to Hitler for approval. Most of the leading Nazi figures created their own empire for personal gain and profit. Until the late 1930s, three key ministries were under the control of non-Nazi old guard. Only after February 1938 was every government ministry under control of a member of the Nazi elite. The cabinet did not coordinate policy or discuss major policy decisions, and cabinet government gradually disappeared in Nazi Germany. There were only two requirements for the law to be passed, the agreement and signature of Hitler. The major legislative role in passing laws was given to the office of the Reich Chancellery, directly under the control of Hitler. It was the power broker between each minister and Hitler. An informal system of Fuhrer edicts emerged, whereby a minister simply gained Hitler signature for a law without even telling other ministers about it until afterwards. In 1941, the party chancellery under Martin Bormann was established, acted as a rival organization to the Reich chancellery. Adding to the confusion, Hitler often bypassed formal government departments to set up rival institutions and specialist agencies. He consistently blocked efforts to make the government more efficient and coordinated. Therefore, the political system in Nazi Germany was a complex maze of personal rivalries and overlapping party and state institutions, resulting in chaos and confusion. The failure by the Nazi state to coordinate policy and related objectives to available resources was a very important factor in the regime's ultimate collapse.

The army

Essential for any authoritarian regime to have the support of the army. Hitler stressed the role of the Wehrmacht in the creation of the Third Reich. He wanted a powerful army in Nazi Germany, but he did not want it to be an independent organization capable of challenging his authority. He accomplished the goal by making the oath that the officers and men took a declaration of "unconditional loyalty to the person of the Führer." From now on, the loyalty of the military was to Hitler personally, not simply to him as head of state. The army welcomed this because, although it was now tied to Hitler, it had also made itself independent of the Nazi party.

Reichstag Fire

February 1933. A Dutch communist sert fire to the Reichstag building in Berlin, and Nazis immediately denounced it as part of a large-scale communist plot. Goebbels and his team mounted an aggressive campaign, asserting that only a string Nazi govt led by Hitler could save Germany from communist revolution. The SA terrorized the other parties into virtual silence, the principal target being the KPD (communists).

The White Rose Group

Formed in 1942 by 5 students and 1 staff member at Munich university who were disgusted at the increasing brutality of the Nazi regime in Germany and occupied Europe. The key players were Hans and Sophie Scholl, brother and sister, who enlisted the help of a professor known to be critical of Nazi regime. Secretly produced and distributed a set of leaflets called the white rose, a symbol of peace, that called attention to the inhumane acts being committed in Germany's name. They avoided detection for over a year. In 1943, two weeks after the German defeat at the battle of Stalingrad, a savage six month battle on the eastern front in the winter of 1940to 1943 which ended with a humiliating defeat for the German armies at the hands of the Soviet forces, they distributed leaflets which bitterly condemned Hitler for senselessly and irresponsibly sending Germany's young men to their death. The university Porter exposed them to the authorities, and within five weeks, all six had been arrested, tried, and guillotined, the university staff and students praised the Porter for his patriotic action.

Hitler's leadership style

He wasn't a strong efficient leader like his propaganda said. The center of the government was in Berlin, but Hitler spent more time at his purpose built mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden (the Berghof) in southern Germany. He disliked bureaucratic procedures, paperwork, meetings, and administration. Nazi ministers who knew Hitler's leisurely routine well would go to the Berghof and attempt to charm Hitler to get his agreement to a particular line of policy. The rest of the time, ministers were expected to carry out the Fuhrer's will, which was open to wide interpretation. Therefore there was considerable variation in the way policies were implemented. Hitler was a hypochondriac, and during the war years, he was more or less a junkie, taking all manner of pep pills and pain killing injections to keep going. However, disputes in Nazi Germany were not about Hitler's undisputed power. Instead, they were concerned disagreements and power struggles among subordinates about who was most loyal in carrying out Hitler as well. This strengthened Hitler's position because it allowed him to divide and rule by playing off one group against another. Hitler was not interested in social or economic policy and really only played decisive roles in all the foreign policy/war preparation decisions.

Nazi leader of economy

Hermann Goering

The status of women

Hitler defined female emancipation as a Jewish idea deliberately designed to weaken society. Some local Nazi women's organizations were formed, but they weren't allowed to join the main party. In 1931, Hitler ordered that all women's groups be brought into one body, the national socialist womanhood (NSF). The purpose was to keep Nazi women under the control of the exclusively male party.

Jews as the enemy

Hitler understood the need for serial creation of enemies. He knew that all recent enemies could merge into one super-enemy, the Jews. Solidarity, identity, community are gained at the expense of others, as appeals based on the brotherhood of man would always fail. Hitler constructed tribal passion that could arouse the emotions and therefore render people vulnerable to any kind of visionary persuasion or invocation to an epic quest.

Impact of war on KDF

In purely material terms, because the Great Depression had set the bar so low, in the years up to 1942, the conditions for German workers had markedly increased. However, to meet Ward needs, a massive labor conscription program was introduced in April 1942. From 1942 to 1945, the grimness of war time conditions in Germany with a tie civilian casualty rate destroyed strength through Joy and made labor front increasingly dictatorial.

Four Year Plan

Introduced by Herman Goering in October 1936 to make Germany an autarky, or economically self-sufficient nation, and ready for war by 1940. There was a wrong materials crisis in the summer of 1936 that became acute because the cost of vital imports was increasing when Germany's reserves of gold in foreign currency were running out. This prompted the introduction of the plan. Set up alongside the New Plan. Targets: 1. Bring labor force under tighter control so it could be directed into vital areas like arms production. 2. Increased use of import controls to protect Germany from manufacturers. Decrease imports. 3. Production of synthetic substitutions for rubber and oil to avoid having to import them. (These industries was given extra support by state.) 4. Farmers were offered incentives to increase food production. Economic historians suggest that in the 20th century, this was an impossible goal for advanced industrial states like Germany. Their commerce was to interlinked internationally, and no country had all the vital resources to be self-sufficient. In 1939, German industry was still importing 1/3 of the raw materials I needed. Nevertheless, Germany had made significant economic advances. Growth in German manufacturing, recovery an average wage rates, file an unemployment. The most striking aspect of Germany's economic performance was the sustained a fall and unemployment, which greatly added to Hitler's popularity. Encouraged by figures of industrial growth, he announced major spending programs for all 3 armed services that would make Germany ready for war. However, when war came in 1939, a number of his generals feared that Germany wasn't yet ready for a major European conflict.

Government structure

Myth: order/stability/discipline, shown on the outside. Reality: chaotic on the inside, largely due to how Hitler himself functioned. I'll keep positions in the government were held by Nazis, so the lines blurred between state and party power. There was an overlap of organizations and institutions that Hitler welcomed because it made him become the one fixed point in the system. This emphasize the personal nature of Nazi rule. It was he who gave definition and purpose to at all. Hitler's method systematically disorganized the object of authority of higher departments of government so he could push his own authority to the point of despotic tyranny. After coming to power, Hitler didn't create a whole new government and legal system. If the people in the government weren't Jews and expressed loyalty, most institutions in the civil servants running them were left in place. Working towards the Führer was the practice of ministers and senior officials making a judgment from Hitler statements as to what policies he one of them to follow and then producing practical ways of implementing them. With the exception of World War II, Hitler didn't engage in it on a daily basis and instead left the work to appointed ministers. He gave them considerable personal power and room for initiative, which often lead to fierce rivalry between them. Hitler encouraged this rivalry since that person prevented opposition factions from being formed. Ministers were expected to carry out the Fuhrer's will, which was, of course, open to wide interpretation. This led to considerable variation in the way policies were implemented. Hitler didn't even go to the meeting about the Holocaust—just said he wanted to get rid of the Jews. Disputes in the Nazi Germany were not about Hitler's power. They were concerned disagreements and power struggles among subordinates about who was the most loyal in carrying out the Fuhrer's will. How powerful you were had much to do with how close you were to Hitler. This strengthen Hitler's position by allowing him to divide and rule by playing off one group against another. Hitler was not greatly interested in social or economic policy and generally allowed others to take the initiative in those areas. However, Hitler did play a decisive role in all the major policy decisions on foreign policy and military preparations.

The role of the party

Nazi Germany was a one party state, but the party ruled in a coalition of power with old elites. In practice, the chief role of the Nazi party was to indoctrinate German society with Nazi ideas. There was a genuine contempt of many Nazi activists two words the continuation of old guard at national and regional level. Party activists played leading role in organizing propaganda and popular displays of public support for regime and supporting the activities of Nazi organizations like the Hitler Youth and Labor Front. Major priority for the party was to increase membership, which was extremely successful. In the late 1930s, approximately 23% of adults were members. Membership became important in almost every occupation.

Attitude of the Churches towards Nazism

Neither the Catholic nor the Protestant Churches, apart from Niemöller's Confessional Church, formally challenged or resisted the Nazi regime because: 1. On certain major issues, the Church and State were in accord, including desirability of an ordered society and need to fight communism. 2. Had the Churches chosen to condemn Nazism, it would have polarized the situation and made things impossible for believers who were also loyal Germans. 3. Church dignitaries often showed an eagerness to support the Nazi regime which went beyond mere diplomatic courtesy. They wanted to win the war. For example, they praised the Anschluss (reincorporation of Austria into the Third Reich in 1938).

Farmers under Hitler

Not the electoral support before 1933 was strongest in rural areas, and propaganda held farmers as heroes. Now she's had to offer some land or form to satisfy rural Germany. From 1933 to 1937, agricultural prices increase by 20%, and wages of agricultural laborers increased faster than those in industry. The most significant agricultural reform was the hereditary farm law in 1933. It ensure that all farms up to 308 acres became hereditary is states of the families who owned them and couldn't be sold, mortgage, or closed because of debts. Only an Aryan German citizen who could prove purity of blood dating back to 1800 was allowed to own a farm. Major beneficiaries were the existing owners of large estates and commercial farms. Farmers' being bound to land was both desirable and restrictive for them, as it was hard to raise loans since they couldn't mortgage property.

How did Nazis form the cult of personality around Hitler?

a. Message of Aryan supremacy (said they were special and had a right to discriminate, annihilate counties, etc.) b. Skill set: public speaking (really important, no tv but heard on radio). c. Sacrificed for Germany, was there with them through the bad times. d. Diplomatic success: begins to overturn Versailles peacefully, militarized Rhineland, combines with Austria, peacefully gets Sudetenland. Starts doing what he promised to do. e. Military leadership: Germany starts winning in war, and Hitler gets the credit! Takes like 2 months for them to conquer France, their main defeater in WWI. Makes Hitler look really good, like a military genius. f. Visionary with conviction: bad because vision was bad. Had conviction and the power to carry it out, able to exterminate the Jews. g. Personified power: people are attracted to power. h. Magnetic/dynamic personality.