GERMANY 1933-1939
2.1 The Weimar Republic 1919-1933
January 1919 at Weimar. Liberal and
democratic.
Reichstag and Reichrat (like senate)
Crushed the Spartacist rebellion the same
month.
The Treaty of Versailles
Not negotiated
Article 231 ‘guilt clause’ and loss of land
angered Germans
Weimar government blamed.
Wolfgang Kapp led extreme nationalists and
soldiers (freikorps) in a march on Berlin.
A general strike supporting the government
ended the Putsch.
£6,600 million Reparations
1923 failure to pay French and Belgian troops
occupied the Ruhr.
German workers went on strike.
Currency collapsed.
The Streseman Era
Foreign Minister 1923-29
Believed they should try to fulfil
Versailles to make Germany ‘acceptable’ again.
Ended passive resistance and brought in a
new currency (Rentenmark)
1924 the American Dawes Plan eased
repayment schedule and gave a loan.
1929 the Young Plan reduced the amount to
£2000 million.
Signed Locarno Pact accepting Germany’s
borders.
Germany accepted into the League of
Nations.
The economy picked up but he died in 1929
The Great Depression
US loans stopped.
The government cut expenditure.
Unemployment soared to over 6 million.
Tenants evicted. Shops empty.
Democracy was blamed. Germans not used to
it.
Weak coalition governments contrasted with
Bismarck’s days.
President Hindenburg sacked the PM Heinrich
Bruning and Franz Von Papen took over.
In 1933 Hitler took over. He promised a
lot.
2.2 Hitler and the Nazi Party
Hitler’s Early Years (listed)
Braunau in Austria
Failed to get into Vienna art college
Iron cross for the corporal
War ended while he recovered from gas
attack. He felt betrayed.
Nazi Party
Sent to investigate Anton Drexler’s German
Workers Party and joined it.
His fanatical right wing views and
mesmerising speeches gathered support.
He became leader and renamed it the National
Socialist German Workers’ Party.
The Brownshirts
SA or Stormtroopers were gangsters who
protected Hitler’s rallies and broke up others.
By 1923 they numbered 15,000 and were
armed.
The Swastika was party of the effort to
create a religious aura.
The Beer Hall Putsch
1923 economy bad. Hitler thought it a good
time for rebellion.
Had General Ludendorff’s support.
Police killed 16 and they gave up
Landsberg Prison
Got 5 years and served 9 months.
Used trial well
Wrote Mein Kampf
Nazi Ideas
- Aryan master race
- Jews to blame for Germany’s ills
- Lebensraum
- Communism evil
- Treaty of Versailles torn up
- Totalitarianism
2.3 The Nazis Seize Power
1920s economy improved and the Nazis were
banned.
Hitler seemed to become democratic and the
ban was lifted.
He reorganised the party.
Sections for women and children were
established.
His team:
- Goebbles. Propaganda
- Goring. Second in command
- Hess. Hitler’s secretary
- Himmler Law and order
- Alfred Rosenberg. Party philosopher.
The Breakthrough
1928 got only 12 seats.
The Depression struck.
H promised jobs, land to tenants,
government contracts to business and to build up the army.
1932 they had 230 seats out of 650.
Hindenburg didn’t like Hitler but Von Papen
and then Von Schleicher did not have the support of the Reichstag and
eventually had to make Hitler chancellor in 1933.
1933 Election
1933 H called another election
Goring turned 50,000 SA into police and
opposition disappeared.
Reichstag fire blamed on a Dutch socialist.
Hindenburg issued an emergency decree and
Communists were banned and jailed.
Did not get an overall majority
March 1933 the Enabling Act allowed Hitler
to act without parliament.
All other parties banned.
State governments dismissed and replaced
with Reich governers.
The Nazi run Labour Front replaced the
trade union movement.
1934 Hindenburg died and H became Fuhrer.
The Night of the Long Knives
Rohm in charge of 2 million SA and
criticised H for taking employers side.
30th June 200 killed by the SS
led by Himmler.
The Nazi Economy
Minister for Finance Hjalmar Schacht. His
aim was autarky (self-sufficiency)
- Public works such as Autobahn created jobs
- Rearmament created jobs and iron industry boomed.
- Conscription
- Industry encouraged (Volkswagen)
- Imprisonment of Jews, communists and other opponents created jobs.
2.4 Hitler’s Foreign Policy
Main aims were to get rid of the Treaty of
Versailles and Lebensraum.
Rearmament
Began by asking that other countries disarm
as Germany could not defend itself.
When they refused he left the Disarmament
Conference and the League of Nations in 1933.
1935 Goring was forming the Luftwaffe and
Conscription was introduced.
1935 Naval Agreement with Britain allowed
Germany to have 35% of Britains ships and the same number of submarines.
Versailles was at an end.
1935 Italy invaded Abyssinia and the Stresa
Front was at an end.
Invasion of the Rhineland
1936 3 battalions sent in with orders to
retreat if they met resistance. They did not.
Now Hitler would continue to gamble
Rome-Berlin Axis
1935 after Abyssinia Hitler ignored the
League’s sanctions.
Hitler promised not to claim
German-speaking Tyrol
Both helped Franco.
1936 Rome-Berlin axis signed. Vague support
of each other.
1937 Anti Comintern pact with Japan.
1939 Pact of Steel a military alliance.
Anchluss
Once part of Germany and German speaking.
Anchluss forbidden by Versailles.
1938 the Nazi, Seyss-Inquart, replaced
Schuschnigg as PM.
He ‘appealed’ to Hitler to send in troops
to prevent civil war.
France and GB protested but did nothing.
The Sudetenland
1 million Germans
Hitler told Sudeten leaders to make
complaints about discrimination.
Chamberlain believed that if all Germans
were in Germany, Hitler would stop (appeasement).
Munich Conference 1938
M agreed to try to persuade Hitler.
M, Chamberlain, Daladier and Hitler met.
Neither Czechoslovakia nor USSR invited.
1st October 1938 Germany took
Sudetenland
Chamberlain claimed ‘peace with honour’
March 1939 Hitler took the rest of
Czechoslovakia.
Polish Guarantee
Britain and France armed and introduced
conscription.
Both countries gave Poland a guarantee that
they would help if Poland were attacked.
The Nazi-Soviet Pact
Hitler believed a deal with Stalin would
frighten Britain and France from helping Poland.
Also he did not want war on 2 fronts.
Stalin felt that he would be left alone
against the germans.
Stalin also wanted time.
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
To outsiders it was a10 year non-aggression
pact. There were secret clauses dividing Poland between them and giving USSR the
Balkan States.
War
31 August 1939 Germany claimed a radio
station had been attacked by Poles.
1st September Germany invaded
Poland
3rd Britain and France declared
war.
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