2.1 Early development of the Nazi Party, 1920–22

Question 1

Key facts about Adolf Hitler

Answer 1

-Hitler was born and raised in** Austria**.
-As a child his upbringing was not always happy,
-He wanted to become an artist and tried to enter art school in Vienna, but was rejected.
-In Vienna, Hitler spent time as a vagrant (drifting from place to place) and in boarding houses.
-He left Vienna and went to Germany in order to avoid military service.
-joined the army.
-Many of his early experiences in his book, Mein Kampf/ infulenced the book witten in prison
-Got 2 iron crosses for WW1 ( injured 2)
-shock to him and had a profound effect on his political views. Like many other German people at the time, he felt they had been ‘stabbed in the back’ by politicians: after WW1

Question 2

Whate were some veiw of th genrall public and the Nazi’s concerning the WW1 defeate?

Answer 2

->Many Germans hated the government for signing the
armistice in November 1918 - and called them the ‘November Criminals’.
->Many people were led to believe that Jews in the army and government had encouraged the surrender.
->The German government also signed the
Treaty of Versailles, which blamed and punished Germany for starting the war. As many German families had lost their men during the war, this was especially hard to bear.

Question 3

Descibe Hitlers progession in the Nazi party.

Answer 3

Was sent by German GOV to spy on the DAP before he joined them LOL
-1919 – Hitler joined the German Worker’s Party (DAP), a right-wing group led by Anton Drexler.
-1920 – Hitler became the Party’s leading public speaker and propagandist.
-1920 – The group changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) – or Nazis for short.
-1921 – Hitler was elected Party Chairman and leader of the Nazis.

Question 4

What were the Key Nazi beliefs contained in the 25-Point Programme?

a list of the policies it would introduce if it came to power

Answer 4

• A strong Germany - the Treaty of Versailles should be abolished and all German-speaking people united in one country.
  -Führer - the idea that there should be a single leader with complete power rather than a democracy.
  -Social Darwinism - the idea that the
  Aryan race was superior and** Jews** were ‘subhuman’.
  -Autarky - the idea that Germany should be economically self-sufficient.
  -That Germany was in danger - from
  communists
  and Jews, who had to be destroyed.
  Lebensraum - the need for ‘living space’ for the German nation to expand.

Question 5

The appeal of the Nazis

How did Hitler appeal to the Socialist?

Answer 5

-farmers should be given their land
-pensions should improve
-public industries such as electricity and water should be owned by the state

Question 6

The appeal of the Nazis

How did Hitler appeal to the Nationalist?

Answer 6

-all German-speaking people should be united in one country
-the Treaty of Versailles should be abolished
-there should be special laws for foreigners

Question 7

The appeal of the Nazis

How did Hitler appeal to the Racist?

Answer 7

-Jews should not be German citizens.
-Immigration
should be stopped.

Question 8

The appeal of the Nazis

How did Hitler appeal to the Fascist?

Answer 8

-focused on creating a strong central government
-government control of the newspapers

Question 9

How did the Nazis mebership grow?

Answer 9

-When Hitler joined the German Workers’ Party he became its 55th member.
- End of 1920s = 2,000
- During upheaval of the hyperinflation crisis membership grew rapidly, to 20,000 by the time of the Munich Putsch in November 1923.

Question 10

What was the SA?

Answer 10

Storm Troopers (Sturmabteilung) or SA, as the Nazi Party’s private army

Question 11

When did Hitler form the SA?

Answer 11

1921

Question 12

What nickname was the given to SA?

Answer 12

Brownshirts, after their brown shirted uniforms?

Question 13

What religon? was the majority of Germans?

Answer 13

the majority of the population were Catholic and things were quite traditional. This meant that many within that state intensely disliked the new Weimar government and saw them as weak. Hitler thought he would take advantage of this

Question 14

Who did Hitler rebell with (leaders)

Answer 14

wo nationalist politicians - Kahr and Lossow - to take over Munich in a revolution.

Question 15

Who called off the revolution? Did it continue and why?

Answer 15

-4 October 1923, Kahr and Lossow called off the rebellion
-impossible situation for Hitler, who had 3,000 troops ready to fight.
-Hitler and 600 SA members burst into a meeting that Kahr and Lossow were holding at the local Beer Hall. Waving a gun at them, Hitler forced them to agree to rebel

Question 16

Who foiled Hitlers plan?

Answer 16

Kahr had called in police and army reinforcements. There was a short scuffle in which the police killed 16 members of the SA
-Hitler fled, but was arrested two days later.

Question 17

When was the Munch Putch?

Answer 17

9 November 1923

Question 17

What were the short term failings of the Munich Putsch?

Answer 17

-The Nazi party was banned, and Hitler was prevented from speaking in public until 1927.
-Hitler was tried for high treason (betraying his country) and sentenced to five years in prison.

Question 18

What was the long term succes of the Munich Putsch?

Answer 18

-sentenced in April and out of prison by December. During his time in the comfortable Landsberg Prison, he wrote ‘Mein Kampf’ – a propaganda book setting out Nazi beliefs. Millions of Germans **read it, and Hitler’s ideas became very well-known.
-judge had been so lenient **with the sentence and that Hitler had served so little time suggests that some people in **authority had sympathy with Hitler and what he had tried to do.
-Hitler realised that he would never come to power by revolution and that he would have to use democratic means, so he reorganised the party to enable it to take part in elections.**
-Publicity for his ideas in his speeches

Question 18

Munich Putsch

When was Hitler relased form priosn?

Answer 18

December 1924

Question 18

Causes for the Munich Putsch

Answer 18

-By 1923, the Nazi party had 55,000 members and was stronger than ever before.
-The Weimar Republic was in crisis due to hyperinflation.
-In September 1923, the Weimar government had called off the general strike and German
nationalists were furious with the government.
-Hitler thought he would be helped by important nationalist politicians in Bavaria.
-Hitler had a huge army of SAmembers, but he knew he would lose control of them if he did not give them something to do.
-Hitler hoped to copy Mussolini - the Italian fascist leader - who had come to power in Italy in 1922 by marching on Rome.

Question 18

When were the lean years?

Answer 18

1924-1929

Question 19

What were the lean years?

Answer 19

two apparently contradictory things were happening to it:
-it was growing in size – its membership increased from 27,000 in 1925 to 130,000 in 1929
-but it struggled to win seats in the
Reichstag

Question 19

how may seets did thr Nazi’s have by 1928? Increase or decrease?

Answer 19

only 19/491
decrease
May 1924
32/472

Question 20

What was the higherky within the Nazi party interms of Hitlers re orgaisation?

Answer 20

Question 21

What does Mein Kampf mean in English

Answer 21

My struggle

Question 22

What was in Mein kampf?

Answer 22

-The belief that the Jews were an inferior race to the German Aryans, and also represented a threat to the German state.
-The need to destroy the parliamentary system of government and replace it with that of a single, strong dictator.
-Germany’s requirement for Lebensraum, or living space, to house its growing population. This required Germany to expand to the East into Poland and Russia.

Question 23

How did Nazi develop their techniques?

Answer 23

Josef Goebbels – the Berlin Gauleiter
at this time – was clever because he experimented with new techniques and methods to share the Nazis’ message. Posters started to show Hitler as a strong leader,speeches were arranged in public places and **rallies **were held to capture people’s enthusiasm.

Question 24

What was a Gauleiter

Answer 24

A local Nazi official in charge of a particular area, such as a city or region

Question 25

Whe was the Bamberg Conference?

Answer 25

1926

Question 26

Where was the bangurg confrence?

Answer 26

Bamberg in southern Germany

Question 27

Bamberg Conference

What divions were growing within the party wich lead to the confrence?

Answer 27

During his time in jail disagreements had grown between the two sections:
-the northern section, led by a man named Gregor Strasser, was keen to emphasise the
socialist elements of the 25-Point Programme to attract support from the workers
-the southern section more interested in the
nationalist and racist policies in order to attract support from the middle classes and farmers

Question 28

Bamberg Conference

Results of confrence?

Answer 28

-Hitler insisted that policies which could be painted as communist, such as taking land from rich noblemen, would not be pursued.
-However, the conference did reaffirm the 25-Point Programme, with its socialist ideas, as the party’s policy platform.
-In addition, Hitler established the Fuhrerprinzip, or ‘Leader Principle’, the idea that the party’s leader was in absolute control and all members must follow his directions. No dissent
from this was expected or tolerated.

Question 29

Bamberg Conference

Why were the Nazis were still on the fringes of politics?

Answer 29

-Gustav Stresemann’s economic policies had helped Germany a lot. After 1923, the introduction of a new currency and the Dawes Plan
had helped to turn Weimar’s economy around and Germans began to feel more
prosperous
.-As a result of this, Germany was also more politically stable. Germans voted for moderate parties who supported the Republic, rather than more extreme parties like the Nazis who wanted to abolish it.
-At a time of stability, **scaremongering and playing on people’s fears was less likely to work. The Nazis’ messages about the dangers posed by Jews** and the need to abolish democracy largely fell on deaf ears.
-Hitler was **jailed **and thenb from speaking in public until 1927 after the
Munich Putsch
. This prevented the party from campaigning effectively.
-The Nazi Party was under constant pressure from the Weimar authorities following the Munich Putsch. Several times it was **banned nationally **or in certain parts of Germany.