Hitler's reign (1933-1939) Flashcards
1
Q
Hitler’s ascension to Fuhrer
A
- After falling to 196 seats in the November 1932 federal election, Hitler realised he needed to seize power now.
- In 1933, Hitler became chancellor, and when Hindenburg died in 1934, Hitler assumed the position of president as well and became the Fuhrer.
- Hindenburg had wrongfully assumed that he could limit Hitler’s influence and only allowed 3 nazis in the cabinet
- Now with Hindenburg’s death, Hitler took measures to consolidate his power.
2
Q
Reichstag Fire (17 Feb 1933)
A
- Hitler called for a 1933 election so that he could reach the ⅔ majority mark required to change the constitution and bring about a dictatorship.
- On the 17 february, a week before the election, a fire burnt down the Reichstag and Van der Lubbe, a dutch communist, was found on site with matches and firesticks.
- Today, it is widely believed that the Nazis bribed Lubbe into appearing as though he committed the crime, he was later executed.
- It undermined the communist campaign and the Nazis gained 92 seats.
3
Q
Enabling Act (24 March 1933)
A
- Hitler wanted emergency powers to rule by decree (i.e. without Reichstag approval) so he could ban the SDP and Communists.
- He organised a vote of the Reichstag at the Kroll Opera House, which was surrounded by SS and SA soldiers, who intimidated delegates.
- He won the support of nationalists and the Centre Party.
- The act was meant to become invalid after 4 years, but the law surpassed this total until the end of WW2 and during that time the Reichstag only met a dozen times, with the Nazis being the only party present.
- This brought about the end of the Weimar democracy and led to Nazification.
4
Q
Night of Long Knives (29-30 June 1924)
A
- On the night of the 29-30 June 1924, the Night of the Long Knives occurred - a purge of nazi leaders by Htler
- It was a deadly night in which Hitler arrested Rohm, leader of the SA, and murdered many of their leaders as well as old enemies like von Kahr and von Schliecher in a show of force.
- Rohm was seen as a rival to Hitler and wanted the SA to replace the army rather than the rearmament ideas, despite the SA being the nazis’ official army, he was aso homsexual which offended the traditional wing of the party’s supporters.
- He also wanted to adopt major socialist policies and was seen as an incapable SA leader by Hitler
- Many conservative voters stopped supporting the nazis due to the state of the SA, who were often drunk and disorderly.
- This is in stark contrast to the orderly SS, for which Himmler was the leader of and resented Rohm’s influence.
- As a result of the night if any people now lived in fear of the regime.
5
Q
Political changes during nazi rule
A
- Following these attempts to seize power, many changes occurred in germany.
- The government was centralised, with state parliaments being closen, later reorganised with nazi majorities and then were abolished in 1934.
- Trade unions were abolished who fought the government over workers’ rights and the workers were forced to join the German Workers Front, now they had given up their civil liberties to the regime.
- In May 1933, the SDP and Communist party were suspended
- In July 1933, Hitler introduced a law banning all other political parties.
6
Q
Nazi rule through terror
A
- the SS ran concentration camps which were initially not extermination camps and were primarily for political opponents.
- This was effectively slave labour.
- People were sent there for ‘re-education’.
- Himmler was a firm believer in the aryan race and all of the SS were aryan and their primary goal was to enforce racial policy.
- They went from 300 members in 1929, to 240K 10 years on.
7
Q
Repression during Nazi rule
A
- Judges were forced to take an oath to Hitler, for which they were heavily biassed towards, and crimes punishable by death rose by 46.
- Petty crimes such as making jokes about Hitler could mean you were sent to concentration camps. Göring established the Gestapo, who were the secret police
- In 1933 and Himler was placed in charge in 1936 to punish people accused of having anti-nazi beliefs.
- They appointed local wardens, who in turn relied heavily on informants.
- Non-nazi newspapers were censored.
8
Q
Women under Nazi rule
A
- Under the Nazis, the laws of women returned to traditional maternal values.
- A male employee was to take the job over an equally qualified woman per civil service guidelines, who could not attend university or work full time.
- They were expected to wear traditional dress and their appearance was meant to show racial purity.
- The Nazis wanted large families to raise the numbers of the Aryan race and women were even awarded medals, known as the Honours Cross, for having large numbers of babies.
- Contraception and aborition were banned as well as divorce being made easier to boost birth rates.
- Young families were also given interest-free loans to marry if women gave up work.
- However, by 1943, the government supported cheating and men were encouraged to have 4 babies with one wife, before moving on to the next.
- This was in order to increase the military for WW2, which Hitler foresaw going on for decades
- This breached any basic moral ethics.
9
Q
Education under Nazi rule
A
- The goal of education under the Nazis was to indoctrinate the youth in their beliefs.
- Children were expected to attend nazi youth groups.
- Jewish and socialist teachers were dismissed and they were forced to attend nazi training camps so they could pass on the values to the children.
- The curriculum was changed:
- mandatory 2 hours of PE a day
- Race studies were taught where it was learnt that Aryans were superior to others
- Religious Studies was replaced
- maths textbooks featured anti-semitism
- sexes started to be separated
- There was also a significant reduction in those attending higher education, as there was less support for academics.
10
Q
Catholics during Nazi rule
A
- The Nazis successfully diminished the church’s influence on Germany.
- At first the Nazis and Catholics (who made up 32% of the population) cooperated.
- In 1933, the Concordat was signed, in which the Catholic church agreed to stay away from political affairs in exchange for concessions such as freedom of worship.
- However, this was broken when Pope Puis criticised the Nazis in a speech in 1937
- In response the Catholic League was banned, catholic schools were banned, state funding was cut and those who spoke out were arrested.
11
Q
Protestants during Nazi rule
A
- The Nazis had a different tactic with the Protestant church compared to catholics
- They attempted to infiltrate it and control from within.
- 58% of the population were protestant.
- The confessional church was against the regime.
- Neimoller, a pastor who protested, and hundreds of clergy were sent to concentration camps.
12
Q
German Faith Religion
A
- Yet, Hitler of course attempted to set up his own religion, known as the German Faith Movement
- It was based on ancient Pagan beliefs such as worshipping the Sun
- It didn’t get many followers and was deemed a massive failure
13
Q
Persecution in Nazi Germany
A
- Persecution was widespread in Nazi Germany.
- An untermenschen was a person considered racially or socially inferior.
- The mentally disabled were sterilised so they could not reproduce and extermination occurred almost instantaneously.
- The Nazis believed that asocials, who were delinquents, prostitutes, etc, were unworthy and needed to be removed via imprisonment, sterilisation or murder.
- Homosexuals were also a part of this group.
- They had to wear a pink star to signify their sexuality and were sent to concentration camps where they were subject to medical trials.
- Marriage between Aryans and black people was banned
- Some were found useful as entertainers or even put in human zoos!
14
Q
Persecution of Jews in Nazi rule
A
- From 1933, persecution of Jews increased.
- They had been blamed for the death of Jesus and therefore many Christians (who were the majority in Germany) resented them as well as being a scapegoat for WW1.
- In 1933, there was a boycott of Jewish businesses
- In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws were introduced in which Jews could not marry Germans and were not classed as Germans themselves.
- In November 1938, a German official in the Paris Embassy was murdered by a Jewish man. Nazis used this as an excuse to launch a campaign of terror against Jews.
- On the night of Nov 9-10 1938 the Night of the Broken Glass (aka Kristallnacht) occurred: over 800 Jewish shops were destroyed, 31K Jews were arrested, 91 were killed.
- Nazi newspaper presented it as a public uprising against Jews, yet in reality it was led by the nazis.
- The Nazis neglected that many of the buildings were owned by ‘Aryan’ Germans, they fined the Jewish community for this.
- In 1939, they were forced to live in Ghettos. Jews were expected to emigrate from Germany.
15
Q
Nazi economic policies
A
- The Nazis economic policies focused on increasing self-sufficiency and reducing imports.
- The 4 year plan from 1936 headed by Goering prepared Germany for war (re-armament)
- Unemployment reduced from 6 million to 0.5 million in 1939, however many people such as those in concentration camps were omitted from the statistics.
