Hitler's Rise to Power Flashcards

1
Q

when did Hitler join the army?

A

1914

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2
Q

give a list of groups of people who voted Nazi.

A
  • people afraid of the KPD
  • farmers
  • socialists
  • middle class
  • some women
  • upper classes
  • nationalists
  • patriotic militaristic young people who wanted to be part of germany’s bright future
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3
Q

why would farmers vote Nazi?

A
  • nazis promised better life quality and higher prices for their produce
  • they had been hit hard by the depression
  • they hated communists (worried the land they’d owned for generation would be taken from them)
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4
Q

why would socialists vote Nazi?

A
  • Nazis told them pensions would improve
  • public industries such as electricity and water would be owned by the state.
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5
Q

why would the middle classes vote Nazi?

A
  • wages had been cut - fell by 39% from 1929 to 1932
  • feared break down of law and order
  • wanted strong gvt
  • over 10,000 businesses closed every year from 1929-32
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6
Q

from 929-32 by what % did wages fall by?

A

30%

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7
Q

between 1929 and 1932, how many businesses closed every year?

A

10,000

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8
Q

why would some women vote nazi?

A
  • seeked a traditional family life
  • thought they were self-disciplined with good morals
  • were worried about the youth
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9
Q

why would the upper classes vote nazi?

A
  • ‘good old days’
  • promised to allow then to run their factories as they chose
  • didn’t support everything
  • plan to increase production
  • remilitarisation
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10
Q

why would nationalists vote nazi?

A
  • they promised all German-speaking people would be united in one country
  • Treaty of Versailles would be abandoned
  • special laws for foreigners.
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11
Q

how did the nazis use propaganda to rise to power?

A
  • aimed to exploit people’s fear of uncertainty and instability.
  • built an image of Hitler as a strong, stable leader that Germany needed to become a great power again.
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12
Q

what are some examples of nazi propaganda schemes?

A
  • ‘Bread and Work’, aimed at the working class and the fear of unemployment
  • ‘Mother and Child’ poster portraying the Nazi ideals regarding woman
  • Jews and Communists featured heavily as enemies of the German people.
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13
Q

when did Goebbels join the Nazi party?

A

1924

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14
Q

when did Goebbels become the Gauleiter for Berlin?

A

1926

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15
Q

how did Goebbels make effective Nazi propaganda?

A

used a combination of modern media (films and radio) and traditional campaigning tools (posters, newspapers, leaflets) to reach as many people as possible.

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16
Q

how was the Munich Putsch useful to Hitler?

A
  • created a media sensation in which hitler criticised gvt and put forward his own views
  • showed hitler he would not be able to take power by force so decided to change tactic and focus on winning support democratically and being elected into power.
  • presented his 25-point program for the creation of a Nazi state and society
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17
Q

what was Hitler’s 25-point program for the creation of a Nazi state and society?

A
  • extreme nationalism
  • racial antisemitism
  • rejected ToV
  • socialist concepts - raising pensions (only for ‘germans’)
  • improve health and education
  • aryan superiority
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18
Q

when was the Bamberg Conference?

A

February 1926

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19
Q

what happened during the Bamberg Conference?

A
  • some small differences remained, but Hitler was largely successful in reuniting the socialist and nationalist sides of the party.
  • restructured the Nazi Party to make it more efficient; made a new framework
  • new groups for different professions, from children, to doctors, to lawyers - aimed to infiltrate already existing social structures, and help the party gain more members and supporters.
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20
Q

why did the Bamberg Conference occur?

A

Hitler wanted to reunify the party, and set out a plan

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21
Q

what was the new framework of the Nazi party, agreed during the Bamberg Conference?

A

divided Germany into regions called Gaue. Each Gaue had its own leader, a Gauleiter. Each Gaue was then divided into subsections, called Kreise. Each Kreise then had its own leader, called a Kreisleiter. Each Kreise was then divided into even smaller sections, each with its own leader, and so on. Each of these sections were responsible to the section above them, with Hitler at the very top of the party with ultimate authority.

22
Q

how was the Bamberg Conference useful for Hitler?

A

political changes changed Nazi Party from a paramilitary organisation focused on overthrowing the republic by force, to one focused on gaining power through elections and popular support.

23
Q

who were the SA?

A

paramilitary organisation known as ‘brownshirts’ due to brown uniform made of mostly ex-soldiers or unemployed men.
- Violent and often disorderly and were primarily responsible for protection of leading Nazis and disrupting political opponents’ meetings

24
Q

why and how did Hitler try to change the SA’s reputation?

A
  • If Hitler was to gain power democratically, he needed to reform the SA. so he tried to change their reputation.
  • new leader, Franz Pfeffer von Salomon, was put in place in 1926
  • Salomon was stricter and gave the SA a more defined role
25
Q

when were the SA formed?

A

1921

26
Q

when was Franz Pfeffer von Salomon charged by Hitler with the leadership of the entire SA?

A

1926

27
Q

when were the SS established?

A

1925

28
Q

who were the SS?

A
  • initially created as Hitler’s personal bodyguards, although they would go on to police the entire Third Reich
  • saw themselves as the ultimate defenders of the ‘Aryan’ race and Nazi ideology.
  • terrorized and aimed to destroy any person or group that threatened nazism.
  • were a small sub-division of the SA with approximately 300 members
29
Q

when did Heinrich Himmler take over the SS?

A

1929

30
Q

by 1933, how many members did the SS have?

A

35, 000

31
Q

what happened when Heinrich Himmler took over the SS?

A

expanded it dramatically

32
Q

how were members of the SS chosen?

A

based on ‘racial purity’, blind obedience, and fanatical loyalty to Hitler

33
Q

how were the SS and SA used?

A

as symbols of terror; Terrified their opposition into subordination, slowly eliminating them entirely, or scaring people into supporting them.

34
Q

when was the Grand Coalition created?

A

June 1928

35
Q

who created the Grand Coalition?

A

Hermann Muller

36
Q

what parties made up the Grand Coalition?

A

SPD, DDP, DVP and the Centre Party

37
Q

how many seats did Muller have in the Grand Coalition?

A

secure majority of 301 seats out of a total of 491.

38
Q

why were people initially optimistic about the Grand Coalition?

A

Political parties seemed to be putting aside their differences and coming together for the good of Germany.

39
Q

why did the Grand Coalition fail?

A
  • parties could not agree on key policies and Müller struggled to get support for legislation.
  • in aftermath of the Wall Street Crash, gvt struggled to balance its budget as on top of usual payments, the amount of people claiming unemployment benefits was increasing.
  • gvt struggled to agree on the future of unemployment benefits so Müller asked Hindenburg for the use of Article 48 to try and restore stability.
  • Hindenburg was RW and therefore disliked having the LW SPD in power. He refused Müller‘s request. Müller resigned on the 27 March 1930.
40
Q

when did Muller resign?

A

27 March 1930.

41
Q

how did Bruning use Article 38? what effect did this have?

A

increasingly relied upon, and was granted, use of Article 48 - set a precedent of governing by presidential decree and moved the Republic away from parliamentary democracy.

42
Q

what did Von Papen believe about the leadership Germany needed?

A

agreed with the conservative elite that Germany needed an authoritarian leader to stabilise the country

43
Q

what happened when von Papen was chancellor?

A
  • called for another election in November 1932, hoping to strengthen the frontier against communism and socialism.
  • LW and socialist SPD did lose votes, so did the right-wing Nazi Party - Communist Party gained votes, winning eleven more seats in the Reichstag.
  • no one party had a majority and the election was a failure.
44
Q

what happened during von Schleicher’s chancellorship?

A
  • without a majority of his own in the Reichstag, von Schleicher faced the same problems as von Papen.
  • hindenburg refused to grant von Schleicher permission to rule by decree.
  • lasted just one month.
45
Q

from 1919 to 1933 how many chancellors did Germany have?

A

over 10

46
Q

who were the conservative elite/

A
  • old ruling class and new business class in Weimar Germany.
  • during 1920s became increasingly frustrated with the Weimar Republic’s continuing economic and political instability, their lack of real power, and the rise of communism.
  • believed that a return to authoritarian rule was the only stable future for Germany which would protect their power and money.
47
Q

describe the Weimar gvt’s move towards authoritarian rule.

A

Hindenburg’s increasing use of Article 48:
- 1925-1931 Article 48 was used 16 times.
- In 1931 alone this rose to 42 uses, in comparison to only 35 Reichstag laws being passed in the same year.
- 1932 - Article 48 used 58 times.

48
Q

from 1925-1931, how many times was Article 48 used?

A

16

49
Q

in 1931, how many times was Article 48 used? how many Reichstag laws were passed this year?

A

42 and 35

50
Q

in 1932, how many times was Article 48 used?

A

58

51
Q

how did the conservative elite move towards authoritarian rule?

A
  • helped Nazi Party gain power as they had a common enemy of the political left.
  • Once Hitler had removed the left-wing socialist opposition and destroyed the Weimar Republic, the conservative elite thought they would be able to replace Hitler, and appoint a leader of their choice.
52
Q

how did the conservative elite influence politics?

A
  • Hitler’s votes dwindled in Nov 1932 elections - knew that if they wanted to use Hitler and the Nazis to destroy the political left, they had to act quickly to get Hitler appointed as chancellor.
  • Von Papen and Oskar von Hindenburg (President Hindenburg’s son) met secretly and backed Hitler to become chancellor and suggested that Papen should be vice chancellor to safeguard
  • group of important industrialists, including Hjalmar Schacht and Gustav Krupp, also wrote outlining their support of Hitler to President Hindenburg.