Nazi Control & Dictatorship 1933 -39

Question 1

Election results leading to hitlers election

Answer 1

Nazi Party 196 seats in reichtag winning 33% of overall seats. Hitler was elected in January 1933

Question 2

What was the reichtag fire

Answer 2

• 1933 27th February the reichtag building was lit on fire

-suspect was Dutch communist van er lubbe who the nazi government who said he was planning a communist take over

Question 3

What was the impact of the reichtag fire

Answer 3

• the decree for the protection of people and state was passed

-replaced constitutional government and suspended basic civil rights

• it allowed the nazi party to imprison large numbers of their opponents
• 4000 communist party members were killed

-communist leader Ernst thallman was arrested

• communist and socialist newspapers were banned

Question 4

What was the enabling act

Answer 4

• it would give the nazi party full control over the government for the next four years
• as chancellor hitler would have greater power than the president

Question 5

When was the enabling act passed

Answer 5

March 24th 1933

Question 6

Removal of opposition

Answer 6

-2nd of may 1933 all trade unions were banned and was replaced with German labour front DAF

-strikes were banned

-14th of July the law against the formation of political parties was passed meaning the nazi party was the only legally party

-the lander was abolished . The federal districts with their own government was gotten rid of

Question 7

Night of the long knives

Answer 7

-the purpose of this was to purge hitters rivals in the SA . hitler saw the SA as a threat

-there was tension with the leader of the SA ernst rohm as he wanted complete social revolution with better equality

-hitlers personal bodyguards (SS) wished to break off SA

Question 8

What actually happened during night of the long knives

Answer 8

• hitler heard that rohm was about to seize power so on 30th June 1934 Hitler had rohm and other main leaders of the SS murdered
• Kurt Vonnegut shleicher was killed
• in total about 400 people were killed

Question 9

What is gleichaltung

Answer 9

-meant that all aspects of German life would be controlled by the Nazi party

Question 10

Who was the SD (sichererheitsdienst)

Answer 10

-was the intelligence portion of the Nazi Party

-led by Heinrich himmler

• main aims was to identify potential enemies and to have them removed

Question 11

Who were the gestapo

Answer 11

-was the secret state police

-set up in 1933 by goering and in 1936 it came under the control of himmler

-the destination for the suspects would be a concentration camp

• by 1939 there was an estimated 160000 people under arrest for political crimes

Question 12

What were concentration camps

Answer 12

• prison camps to keep people who they deemed a threat to the Nazi agenda

-SS and SD ran the camps but only the gestapo had jurisdiction to arrest people

-the first of those camps was dachau near Munich

Question 13

Nazi control of the legal system

Answer 13

-in 1934 the peoples court was established to try cases of treason

• the judges were loyal nazis and they knew that the minister of justice would check to see if they were lenient

Question 14

Nazi attitudes towards the church

Answer 14

-Hitler was unable to persecute Christianity as Germany was a majority Christian country

• Hitler set up ministry of church affairs in 1935 to weaken the catholic and Protestant churches had on the population

-The German faith movement was encouraged buy the nazis to replace Christianity but ultimately it was a failure because only 5% of people joined

-the pope signed a concordat with Hitler to say that he would stay out the church

Question 15

Gobbles and the ministry of propaganda

Answer 15

-newspapers:non nazi newspapers were closed down by 1935. Theirs reich law in 1933 removed Jewish newspapers

-rallies: annual mass rallies at nurenburg to advertise the nazi state . Local rallies were held by SA and hitler youth

-radio: cheap mass prroduced radios were sold and it meant that the nazi message was broadcast to as many people as possible

Question 16

Goebbels and the ministry of propaganda pt2

Answer 16

-film : all film plots were shown to goebbles before production meaning that the only fils published would have a Nazi message .

-Posters: they contained a simple but effective message that the Nazi way was the only way to salvation

-literature: all literature was censored and controlled by the Nazi government . Students in Berlin burnt 20,000 books written by anyone who was deemed anti-Nazi . Up to 2000 writers left Germany in may 1939

Question 17

Nazi control of arts

Answer 17

-Music & theatre: jazz was considered black music which was seen as racially inferior. Instead the Germans encouraged German folk music with classical music from Beethoven and Brahms

-arts & and architecture : hitler hated modern art and he wanted to reject the weak and ugly and artists were told to glorify workers peasants and women.

• paintings showed Nazi ideals of simple peasant life - hard work as heroic - the perfect aryan blonde hair white blue eyes -women should be housewives

Question 18

Nazi control of sports

Answer 18

-Sport was encouraged in Nazi germany as hitler wanted a healthy population

• the 1936 olympics was staged in Berlin and this gave the nazis a chance to prove the greatness that their regime had brought . Everything had been staged and Jews not wanted signs were removed
• when Jesse Owen’s (a black athlete) won hither refused to present his gold medal and Hitler was displeased

Question 19

Extent of support for Nazi regimes

Answer 19

-300,000 left Germany

-Hitler removed the army generals who critised his foreign policy aims

-in late 1938 some army general planed to overthrow Hitler , Same year he removed 16 generals therefore tightening his grip on the army

Question 20

Opposition from young people

Answer 20

-edelweiss pirates : they listened to swing music and they graffitied anti Nazi slogans . The nazis considered their clothes outlandish , check shirts and dark shorts . The earlier groups had number of 2000

• the swing youth: they took part in non Nazi German ideals like girls wearing make up and using bright colours on their lips

Question 21

Opposition from churches

Answer 21

• pastor martin neimoller opposed Nazi control of church . Many pastors were persecuted. Neimoller was arrested in 1937 and was released from concentration camps in 1945

-despite the concordat in 1933 there where further tensions bet=ween pope and Hitler trying to assume greater control of church