Germany Unit 3

Question 1

What happened at the Reichstag Fire?

Answer 1

van der Lubbe was arrested, along with 4,000 communists

• Hitler pressured Hindenburg into declaring a state of emergency
  - This means he can govern with decrees

What he did:
- Gave himself the power to imprison political opponents and ban communist newspapers

Question 2

Key features of the Enabling Act

Answer 2

• Hitler used SA to intimidate people to let this through Reichstag
• The Reich Cabinet could pass new laws
  - Which ignored the WC
  - And they were proposed by Hitler

Result: Democracy killed

Question 3

Removing opposition with the Enabling Act Powers

Answer 3

Trade Unions
- They could threaten his power
- He banned them, and arrested their leaders

Political Parties
- SDP and Communists got their HQ’s ‘visited’
- Newspapers destroyed, funds taken
- Then he made them illegal anyway

Local Governments
- Under WC, each region of Germany had its own mini government (Lander Governments)
- Guess what he banned them too, then replaced them with his own leaders

Question 4

The Night of the Long Knives 1934

Answer 4

Rohm is a threat
- He had the full support of the SA as their leader
- They could challenge Hitler
- Rohm opposed Hitler’s policies
- Rohm was openly gay
- Not good for Rohm

Hitler arranged to meet Rohm and SA leaders at Bad Wiesee, where he imprisoned and shot them all

He then got SS squads to cut off Von Papen and kill his staff because he protested during the night

Question 5

How was the police state enforced?

Answer 5

SS
- Hitler’s personal bodyguard
- Black Hugo Boss = intimidating
- Did the dirty work

SD
- Had a card index of all possible enemies, home and abroad
- Kept them in Munich HQ
- Formed by Himmler, who gave leadership to Heydrich

Gestapo
- Non uniformed secret police
- Identified any resistance in the population
- Had authority to use torture
- Main weapon was fear - 30,000 Gestapo for the whole country (80,000,000)

Concentration camps
- First set up with Dachau
- In isolated areas
- Jews, homosexuals, political prisoners etc

Question 6

How did Hitler control the legal system?

Answer 6

• He set up a League for judges
• They had to value Nazi policies over the law

People’s Courts
- For offences against the state
- Trials held behind closed doors
- There was usually death sentences

Question 7

How did Hitler control religious views?

Answer 7

Catholics
- Had their own schools, that weren’t Nazi
- Hitler reached a concordat with the Pope
- Said he wouldn’t interfere with Catholic schools and church if they didn’t interfere with Reich religion
- He went back on it, priests got harassed, schools closed, Catholic youth activities banned

Protestants
- The Reich Church
- Only Nazi pastors
- Some let swastikas be displayed
- Jews were banned, Jewish based Old Testament banned

Question 8

How was propaganda and censorship used in Nazi Germany?

Answer 8

Media

• Radio
  - All stations were Nazi
  - Cheap radios put everywhere -
  schools, factories - 70% of
  Germany had a radio = most in
  Europe

Sport - The Olympics
- 110,000 person stadium built
- Very well organized
- Germany won lots of medals
- Intended to make Nazis seem great and the Aryans seem superior
- + Lots of Swastikas

The Arts

Art
- Reich Chamber of Visual Arts
- Another league for artists
- If you weren’t in it, your art got destroyed

Literature
- All new books had to be approved by the Reich Chamber of Culture
- Millions of books by Nazi ‘enemies’ were burnt on one night

Film
- All films had a propaganda film shown before
- All film had to be approved by Goebbels
- The NSDAP made 1,300 films

Question 9

Resistance and Opposition

Answer 9

Churches
- The PEL and Niemöller
- Protestant pastors that opposed the Reich Church
- They set up the Confessing Church
- It was more popular than the Reich Church, 3x more pastors joined the Confessing Church than stayed with the Reich Church

The Young

Edelweiss Pirates
- Working class, big cities
- Long hair and American clothes

• Taunted HY, went on hikes away from the Nazis

The Swing Youth
- Named after their love for American swing
- Middle class, big cities like Hamburg
- Often had secret parties, indulging in American things e.g. dances and music

Both Groups were tiny compared to the 8,000,000 strong HY
Edelweiss Pirates had 2,000

Not really a real threat