Germany Unit 2 Flashcards
5 parts to the improvement of the party?
Party policy
Hitler’s Personal Appeal
Party Organisation
Party Leadership
The SA
The 25 point Programme - Improvements
Party Policy
A manifesto of NSDAP beliefs
- Opposed Weimar politicians, TOV, Democracy and the Jews
Hitler’s Personal Appeal - Improvements
- His speeches ramped up
- Very persuasive
- Lots of gestures and eye contact
- Lots of publicity photos and paintings showing him as an orator
Result - Out of 46 party gatherings in a year, Hitler was star speaker in 31 of them
Party Organisation - Improvements (New Everything)
- HQ set up in Munich
- Party funds and advertisement increased- New name - represents the Nationalism and Socialism = NSDAP
- Clarified what they stood for
- Name appealed to different groups of people
- New name - represents the Nationalism and Socialism = NSDAP
- Swastika and salute differentiate them from other small socialist parties
- They eventually had enough people and funds and organisation to buy a newspaper
- The People’s Observer
- 17,000 copies
Party Leadership - Improvements
Rudolf Hess - rich
Hermann Goering - RAF hero
Julius Streicher - publisher, founded ‘The Stormer’ - a Nazi newspaper
Ernst Rohm - popular with workers
No treasurer or secretary yet = that’s in the lean years with Party Reorganisation, after the Munich Putsch
The SA - Improvements
- Formed in 1921
- 800 people in a year
- Used intimidation
- Parades
- Disrupting rallies of opposition - Organised like military
Reasons for the Munich Putsch (1923) - Lean Years
Long Term
- Dolchstoss, Reparations = Some hate for WR
- Moderates down = Extremists up
Medium Term
- Mussolini looking good to the NSDAP as he took over Italy
- NSDAP modelled their salutes and flags from Mussolini
Short Term
- Hyperinflation at its highest in 1923
- 200,000 BILLION marks for a bread lump
- Also in 1923 - The French in the Ruhr
= The people have lots of grievances and problems
The Munich Putsch (1923)
- Hitler + 600 SA burst into a beer hall, said he would take over Bavaria, then Germany (and then the world, but not yet)
- He forced 3 influential Bavarian leaders to join him
Next morning
- The Bavarians are out of custody (they were put in custody)
- They no longer supported Hitler, and took the army from the main - not Hitler controlled - barracks in Bavaria
- 1,000 SA vs Many Army on the streets of Munich
- Someone shoots, and breaks the stalemate
- A bodyguard takes shots for Hitler
- 14 Hitler supporters dead
- Everyone runs away
- Hitler found and arrested - He then wrote Mein Kampf in prison, but the NSDAP were banned
- He realises that he’s going to have to gain power politically, not by force
The Lean Years (1924-1928) - Improvements
Mein Kampf
- Expresses clear views on Aryans, Jews, Lebensraum etc
- Written in prison
- Nationalism, Socialism, Totalitarianism, Traditional German Values
Party Re-organisation
- Hitler only served 9 months of his 5 year sentence
- NSADP also got unbanned
- Nazi HQ in Munich
- Also appointed a Treasurer and a Secretary = Party is better financed and managed
- Organised like a mini state
- Mini departments eg Education, Finance, Foreign Affairs etc
- This meant they seemed organised and were ready to take control
- National Nazi Party
- Germany is divided into regions, with one leader for each
- Hitler let the most able leaders fight off others to gain power in different regions
- Goebbels rose up in the Rhineland
- Hitler let the most able leaders fight off others to gain power in different regions
- To pay for this, Hitler got funds coming in from wealthy industrialists
Reasons for limited support 1923-1929 (The Lean Years)
- Stresemann’s new economic policies, like Dawes Plan, Rentenmark etc restored stability
- People were better off = Moderate support increases
- SPD won 30% of votes in general election - New foreign standing in the world due to Stresemann = Nationalist Parties like NSDAP reduced
- People didn’t want to disrupt the peace/Germany being treated equal
- Hindenburg appointed = War hero = popular
- Increased WR support, reduced NSDAP support
- 1% of votes in Berlin and the Ruhr were NSDAP = no working class support
Growth in Nazi Support - The WSC
Investors lose millions - economy collapses
German banks get money taken away from them by American banks
- Unemployment, 40% reduction in industrial output
- Impacts to Unemployed
- Taxes raised, unemployment benefits cut - People with savings lost money
- Real wages down by 30%
WR’s failure to deal with unemployment, poor leadership
Chancellor Bruning was in control
- Moderate parties couldnt agree
- Reichstag only had 13 meetings in 1932
- Bruning used Article 48 66 times in the same year.
- Undermined the WR with useless decrees
- Resigned 1932
Rise in support for Extremists
As moderates failed, extremist support grew
- KPD grew in working class towns
- They could protect workers rights and wages
- Unemployment is at 5 million
- NSDAP grew faster
- German upper and middle class were afraid that their land and businesses would be state owned under KPD control
- Hitler seen as the best defence against the Communists
Why did people support the Nazis?
The Appeal of Hitler and the SA
- Many Germans were fed up of the WR
- Hitler seen as best alternative, could restore law and order and force other countries to treat Germany equal
- Hitler was also very popular in his speeches
- The uniformed SA made NSDAP seem organised and reliable
- They also intimidated opponents
- Destroying posters, disrupting rallies etc
- Much bigger than KDP’s Red Front Fighters - 400,000 vs 130,000
- They also intimidated opponents
Appeal to different German Societies
- Big Business
- Hitler persuaded wealthy industrials to give him loans
- They thought he was the best protection from communists
- Working Class
- The NSDAP appealed to them due to traditional German values
- Promised ‘Work and Bread’
- Workers still preferred the communists - Middle Class
- Hitler was seen as a strong leader that could recover the country
- Afraid of the communists taking their land
- Supported traditional German values
- Afraid of the communists taking their land
- Hitler was seen as a strong leader that could recover the country
- Farmers
- NSDAP wouldn’t confiscate their land, unlike the communists
- Nazis got 60% of the vote in rural areas
- NSDAP wouldn’t confiscate their land, unlike the communists
- Young People
- The rallies were exciting and colourful and full of atmosphere
- Women
- At first , many didn’t support
- Propaganda convinced that NSDAP would be best for their families
- At first , many didn’t support
How did Hitler become Chancellor?
March 1932 - Hindenburg stands for re-election to keep the government stable - President, not Chancellor
April - They do it again because no-one got a majority. Hindenburg wins
May - Chancellor Bruning does two bad things
- He bans the SS and SA
- He revealed a plan to buy land from the rich and give to the poor
Result - Right wing hate him now
- Hitler hates him, and other political parties thought their paramilitary group were next
- Landowners hate him
- Hindenburg is a landowner = he hates him too
Chancellor Bruning resigns because he has no more support in the Reichstag
Von Schleicher suggests von Papen as a new Chancellor to represent his new right wing coalition
Schleicher convinced Hindenburg that if the Nazis supported, they could govern with only article 48
von Papen becomes Chancellor
von Schleicher thinks he can use the NSDAP majority for his own uses
July - NSDAP get a huge increase in votes
- Hitler demands that Hindenburg sacks von Papen and appoint him
November - von Papen is sacked
December - von Schleicher is Chancellor
January 1933 - Hitler replaces Schleicher
