Germany Unit 4 - Nazi Germany 1933-1939 Flashcards
1
Q
Initial limitations to Hitler’s power when becoming chancellor
A
- Weimar constitution
- Hindenburg’s presidential powers
- 2/12 in the cabinet were Nazis
- Only 1/3 of the Reichstag were nazis
2
Q
Reichstag fire
A
- Feb. 27th 1933- Reichstag building destroyed by a fire set by a Dutch communist - Marinus van der Lubbe - found on site with matches & firelighters
- Confessed and put on trial with 4 others, insisted he acted alone and was executed by guillotine - Jan. 9th 1934
- Doubt over situation - some believe he was set up by Nazis or Nazis started the fire
- Nazi chief of police - Goering - said it was part of a communist anti-government plot and Nazis needed to destroy communist opposition
- Hitler used the fire to attack the Communists - night of fire - 4000 communist leaders arrested
- Feb 28th - ‘Decree for the Protection of the People and State’ passed - gave police power to search homes and imprison & arrest without trial
- Police could also ban meetings & close newspapers - Goering took over the radio station
3
Q
March 1933 election
A
- Hitler called for an election shortly after becoming chancellor
- Held on March 5th, 1933 - 6 days after Reichstag fire
- Hitler wanted more Nazi seats and used tactics to ensure Nazi support
- Goering replaced police officers with Nazi supporters & recruited 50,000 SA members to be ‘police auxiliaries’ - Hitler therefore in control of police and SA violence wasn’t stopped
- Thousands of members of Communist Party & Social Democratic Party arrested & sent to concentration camps
- SA broke up election meetings of opposing parties
- Newspapers not supporting Nazis were closed
- Hitler secured funds from industrialists
- Nazis issued huge quantities of propaganda
- Threatening supporters posted at polling stations
- Hitler increased Nazi seats to 288 but wanted 2/3 to allow him to make changes to the constitution and have unlimited power
4
Q
Enabling act
A
- Method of getting Hitler 2/3 of Reichstag
- Hitler used emergency powers to ban the Communist Part members (81 seats of Reichstag)
- Nationalist party agreed to support Nazis based on similar beliefs (52 seats)
- Won the support of the Centre Party by promising to protect the Catholic Church (74 seats)
- Presence of SA & SS persuaded SDs to vote
- Enabling act passed 444 votes to 94
- Marked end of Weimar constitution - Hitler could make laws without the Reichstag
- Act applied for 4 years and was renewed in 1937 - Reichstag only met 12 times when Hitler was in power
- Hitler no longer needed Reichstag approval to make decisions - used his powers to remove Nazi opposition - known as ‘Nazi Revolution’
5
Q
Consequences of the Enabling act
A
- Local government:
- March 31 1933 - Nazis closed down Germany’s 18 separate state parliaments
- Hitler reorganizes parliaments so Nazis have a majority in each & appointed Nazi state governors to make laws
- Jan 1934 - Hitler abolished state parliaments
- Trade unions:
- May 2 1933 - Nazis broke into trade union offices & arrested leaders
- Nazis created German Worker’s Front & forced workers to join
- Other political parties:
- May 10 1933 - SDs suspended - Nazis occupied party offices & took funds
- End of may 1933 - Nazis suspended Communist Party
- July 1933 - Hitler creates a new law to ban all parties except for the Nazi party
6
Q
Night of the Long Knives
A
- Hitler wanted to reduce power of the SA
- SA had over 2 million members & Röhm was becoming a rival for leader of the Nazis
- Head of SS - Himmler - wanted to reduce SA power
- SA members’ behavior embarrassed Hitler and lost support of conservative Germans
- Röhm had different views to Hitler and wanted socialist policies
- People in the Nazi party were offended by Röhm’s homosexuality and believed he was ‘corrupting’ the Hitler Youth
- Hitler wanted to rearm Germany and increase army size but SA wanted to replace the army and in 1934 started to stop army convoys and confiscate their weapons
- June 30 1934 - members of SS arrested around 200 SA officers
- Officers taken to Munich - including Röhm - & were executed
- Around 90 died
- Hitler also took revenge on von Kahr & Schleicher & removed possible rival of Gregor Strasser & claimed he was defending Germany
7
Q
Hitler becomes Führer
A
- August 2nd 1934 - Hindenburg died at 84
- Hitler combined offices of chancellor & president and declared himself ‘Führer’ of Germany
- Hitler became in control of the Third Reich
- Army swore loyalty to Hitler directly and not Germany
- Hitler held a plebiscite to get the public to agree to the changes & gained 90% of public vote after a huge Nazi propaganda campaign
8
Q
Terror & Police state
A
- Hitler wanted to remove opposition and ensure Germans were too frightened to criticize the Nazis
- Germans could be arrested & imprisoned without trial - new court created called the People’s Court and established new ‘Special Courts’ - there were no juries and judges were expected to support Nazi policies & no right of appeal against a sentence
- SS & Gestapo brought together under Himmler - 1933-1935 60,000 SS members dismissed for being homosexuals, alcoholics or morally corrupt
- SS responsible for identifying & arresting political prisoner and running concentration camps
- Gestapo responsible for state security - informers & block leaders reported suspicious behavior to the Gestapo and would hand them over to the SS to be tortured
- Most suspected of Nazi opposition sent to prison or concentration camps & inmates forced to work and torture was common
9
Q
Censorship
A
- Newspapers strictly controlled and papers opposing the Nazis were shut down & all editors had to join Reich Press Chamber
- Programs on radios strictly controlled - 1934 - all radio stations in Germany brought together under Reich Radio Company & radios couldn’t pick up foreign broadcasts
- Ministry of Propaganda made a list of unacceptable literature which was seized and burned
- Writers, actors & musicians had to join the Reich Chamber of Commerce - couldn’t work if they weren’t in it - some types of music were banned and modern art
10
Q
Key Propaganda messages
A
- Supremacy of Aryan race taught and inferiority of Jews and other races
- Tried to show the evils of communism
- Different roles of men & women in society and importance of family
- All citizens had to suffer for the good of the nation
11
Q
Key propaganda methods
A
- Newspapers used to ‘plant’ positive nazi stories & messages & Ministry of Propaganda gave daily orders on what to publish
- Factories made cheap radio sets - 70% of German households had a radio
- Owners of factories, bars & restaurants ordered to install loudspeaker systems to broadcast Hitler’s speeches
- Public parades & rallies used with swastika flags
- Posters used which portrayed Hitler as a great leader
- Pro-Nazi films used and German folk music and marching songs alongside art that promoted the Aryan race
- 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin and used for propaganda - German won the most medals
12
Q
Nazi school curriculum & Leadership schools
A
- ‘Race Studies’ on Nazi superiority and Jews as the lowest racial type
- More time given to PE to have healthy boys for soldiers and girls to become mothers
- Mathematics often used military problems e.g. distance for bombing attacks
- Children learned about rise of the Nazi Party in history
- Biology taught about supremacy of Aryans
- Geography taught the need for Lebensraum
- Domestic science taught to females to prepare them as wives and mothers
- Nazis set up extra schools to educate boys to be future leaders in the Reich - trained boys militarily and in state administration
13
Q
Nazi Youth Movements
A
- 1933 - all other youth groups except for at first with the Catholic Church
- 1936 - Hitler Youth Law passed - all eligible young people had to join a Nazi youth organization
- Children spent evenings & weekends at Hitler youth meetings - learned about Hitler and how he saved Germany
- Performed military drills and taught about competition & race purity & girls taught about motherhood
14
Q
Women in Nazi Germany
A
- 1920s - women played an important role in society
- With a falling birth rate - families encouraged
- Nazis launched a campaign to encourage women to have more children and contraception & abortion banned
- 1933 - Law for Encouragement of Marriage provided loans to help young couples marry if women gave up work
- Medals awarded to women with large families (gold for 8, silver for 6, bronze for 5)
- German Women’s Enterprise Organization trained women in household skills
- Nazi policies started to make economic problems and as rearmament policy grew, women came back to work and in 1939, women were working 50% more than in 1933
15
Q
Catholic Church
A
- Catholics were loyal to the Pope but Hitler wanted to be seen as the supreme head of state, and wanted to increase his influence over catholics
- Hitler tried to cooperate with the church firstly - 1933 - concordat signed to agree that the church wouldn’t be involved in political affairs and Nazis would give freedom to the church
- Hitler soon broke the agreement - Christian symbols taken down and Catholic newspapers censored and propaganda hinted at corruption in the church
- Pope made a statement criticizing the Nazis
- In response, membership of the Catholic League was made illegal and all had to attend hitler Youth groups
- State funding for the Church was cut and property of some monasteries was seized
- Gestapo & SS agents began to spy on Church organizations
- Catholic Church schools closed and tuned into community schools
- Catholic priests who spoke out against the Nazis were arrested & held in concentration camps
