Nazi Rise To Power Flashcards

1
Q

Explain what happened between Feb 1923 to April 1933?

A

On GoodNotes

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2
Q

When and where was Adolf Hitler born?

A

Austria in 1889

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3
Q

What was Hitler’s childhood like?

A

His father was a violent drunk who made Hitler’s childhood very unhappy.
At the age of 18 Hitler ran away to the Austrian capital, Vienna. He hoped to become an art student, but he had little talent and failed to get a place at college.
In Vienna, he started to live rough, doing odd jobs to survive and living little better than a tramp.
Hitler was a failure, a loner, a loser.

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4
Q

What happened to Hitler when WW1 broke out?

A

He volunteered to fight in the German army.

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5
Q

How was Hitler as a soldier?

A

He was a brave soldier and was quickly promoted to lance-corporal.

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6
Q

What happened to Hitler towards the end of the war?

A

He was blinded in a British gas attack. When the war ended in November 1918 he was still in hospital recovering fom the injury to his eyes.

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7
Q

How did Hitler later describe the war?

A

‘The greatest of all experiences’

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8
Q

What was Germany like after the war?

A

It was in ruins.

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9
Q

Who was in charge!

A

Kaiser Wilhelm fled to the Netherlands leaving a new, deomcratic governement to try to pick up the pieces.

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10
Q

How did German feel about the Treaty of Versailles?

A

There was bitterness and anger in Germany at the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Many German people criticised their new leaders for signing it.

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11
Q

What happened that made things even worse in Germany?

A

Atter 1923, huge price rises led to unemployment and hunger for millions of German people.

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12
Q

What had soon happened to the German currency?

A

It became almost worthless. People needed a barrowful of notes to buy a loaf of bread. Children used banknotes as toys.

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13
Q

Where did Hitler go when the First World War ended?

A

He went to live in Munich

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14
Q

What happened to him when he was in Munich?

A

He became involved in politics.

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15
Q

What did Hitler now lead?

A

By 1922, he lead a tiny political party - the Nazis

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16
Q

What gained him a lot of support?

A

His brilliant speeches

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17
Q

What did Hitler do with the Nazis?

A

He organised them along military lines.
He formed his own private army known as Storm-troopers. It was their job to beat up and terrorise opponents.

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18
Q

What and when was Hitlers first grab for power?

A

In 1923 Hitler made his first clumsy grap for power.
He planned to march into Berlin with his Storm-troopers and to remove the Weimar government from power.

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19
Q

What was this known as?

A

The Beer Hall Putsch as it started in a Munich pub.

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20
Q

What was the outcome of this putsch?

A

The uprising was an embarrassing failure. 16 Nazis were killed and Hitler himself was arrested and sent to prison.

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21
Q

What did Hitler do in prison?

A

In 1924, in prison he started writing his book Mein Kampf which means ‘my struggle’.

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22
Q

What are some of the most important points which Hitler made in Mein Kampf?

A
  • Germany needs a strong government led by a single leader.
  • Germany demands land and colonies to feed our people.
  • The Germans are the master-race. They must keep themselves pure.
  • No Jews may be members of the nation. They helped to bring about Germany’s defeat in the First World War. They must be destroyed.
23
Q

When was Hitler released from prison?

A

1924

24
Q

What happened after Hitler was released?

A

For the next five years the Nazi party failed to gain much further support in Germany.

25
Q

When did things change dramatically in Germany. What was it?

A

In 1923, a world economic depression hit Germany hard. All kinds of Germans suffered hardship. Workers lost their jobs, the middle classes lost their savings, wealthy industrialists saw their businesses threatened.

26
Q

How did Hitler take advantage of this?

A

He made great promises: he offered.

27
Q

What had German voters doen to the Nazis?

A

By 1932 they had made them the largest single party.

28
Q

How did Hitler become Chancellor of Germany?

A

In Jan 1933 the elderly President Hindenburg asked Hitler to become Chancellor of Germany.

29
Q

Why did Hindenburg do this?

A

He thought that Hitler might solve Germnay’s economic problems.
He thought that Hitler would be easy to control: this was a terrible mistake!

30
Q

What happened to Germany’s parliament?

A

In February 1933, Germany’s Reichstag building was burnt to the ground.

31
Q

Who was blamed for the burning?

A

A young Dutch communist was found near the scene of the crime and was arrested.

32
Q

What do some historians think about the fire?

A

That the young Dutch communist was framed and that it was Hitler who was behind what had happened.

33
Q

How did Hitler use the Reichstag fire to his advantage?

A

He used it as an excuse to arrest many of his communist opponents.

34
Q

What was the relationship between the number of people unemployed and Nazi seats in the Reichstag?

A

As the number of people unemployed increased the number of Nazi seats in the Reichstag also increased between 1928 and 1933.

35
Q

What could Hitler do now that the opposition was out of the way?

A

He could do as he pleased

36
Q

What did Hitler force? What did this mean?

A

In March 1933, the Enabling Act was passed.

This gave Hitler the power to pass any new laws that he wanted.

37
Q

Who did Hitler then turn on?

A

Those people within his own party whom he did not trust.

38
Q

How did Hitler turn against these people?

A

On the night of 30 June 1934, Hitler’s own personal bodyguards - the SS - were sent out to murder leading members of the Nazi party who opposed Hitler. This later became known as the Night of the Long Knives.

39
Q

What happened the following day after the Night of the Long Knives?

A

The SS continued to shoot people one thier doorsteps. Meanwhile Hitler gave a tea party in his garden.

40
Q

When did President Hindenburg die?

A

2nd August 1934

41
Q

What happened after Hindenburg died?

A

Within an hour it was announced that Hitler was now no only Chancellor, but also Head of State and Commander of the Army. Hitler was now in complete control of Germany. He was a dictator.

42
Q

What are the two sides that could be argued about how the Nazis gained power?

A

The action taken by the Nazis after the beer hall putsch brought them to power.

Their rise to power can also be atributed to the circumstances in Germany at the time.

43
Q

How did Nazis appeal to all Germans?

A

They appeared to provide the solution to all of Germany’s problems. They adopted policies that could be supported by many different groups of Germans.

44
Q

How did Nazis appeal to Socialists?

A

They promised that farmers would be given their land, pensions would improve and public industries such as electricity and water would be owned by the state.

45
Q

How did Nazis appeal to nationalists?

A

They promised that all German-speaking people would be united in one country, the treaty of versialles would be abandoned and there would be special laws for foreigners.

46
Q

How did Nazis appeal to racists?

A

They promised Jews would not be German citizens and immigration would be stopped.

47
Q

How did Nazis appeal to fascists?

A

They promised a strong central government and control of the newspapers.

48
Q

How did the Nazis appeal to businessmen, landowners, the rich and the army?

A

They promised that remilitarisation would begin and contracts would be awarded to Germans. They also promised protection from the communists.

49
Q

How did the Nazis appeal to the unemployed and workers?

A

They promised an increase in employment and wages.

50
Q

How was Hitler a charismatic leader?

A

He was a popular and effective public speaker, at a time when politicians had to speak at public meetings on a regular badis.

He used these meetings to tell many Germans what they wanted to hear - that there was a political party which would solve all their problems.

He used simplistic language and short phrases to convey his message.

He came across as energetic and passionate - as someone who cared about the plight of the German people.

51
Q

How did Nazis use propaganda?

A

Hitler put Josef Goebbels in charge of Nazi propaganda. Methods of campaigning that Nazis used in the 1920s included radio, mass rallies, newspapers (e.g. Der Sturmer), Hitler’s speeches and posters.

The Nazis used simple slogans to introduce their ideas and to make them appeal to the ordinary people of Germany.

52
Q

How did the organisation of the party help the Nazis rise to power?

A

The Nazis were present in many German cities and towns with many local offices. Nazi party members worked efficiently to spread policies through propaganda.

The SA (stormtroopers) appeared to be a strong organisation which could protect Germany from its enemies - both within Germany and abroad.

The Nazis were able to fund their campaigns through funding from ‘big business’. Many of Germany’s rich industrialists supported the Nazis and wanted to see them in power. Hugenberg, a newspaper tycoon and Thyssen, a steel manufacturer made the expensive election campaigns of the early 1930s possible.

53
Q

How did fear of communism spreading help the Nazis rise to power?

A

Communists believed all private ownership of land and assets was theft. Germany’s rich landowners and businessmen wanted to prevent communists gaining any political influence at all.

The Nazis were violently opposed to,communism and the SA often attacked communist groups in the beer halls and the streets. This led to many landowners and businessmen supporting the Nazis.

54
Q

How did the effects of the Wall Street Crash help the Nazis rise to power?

A

The economic crash in the USA in 1929 meant that the loans given to Germany under the 1924 Dawes Plan were called in.

The German economy could not survive and as a result businesses closed and many Germans became unemployed. This worsened the situation with a lack of demand for goods leading to more closures and job losses.