The Rise of the Nazi Party and Hitler in Germany

Question 1

Hitlers initial leadership timeline…

Answer 1

• distinguished WWI service
• Believed in ‘Dolchstosslegende’ stab in the back myth
• In 1920 , his army role was to infiltrate the growing extremist and revolutionary groups for information
• he infiltrated the German Worker’s Party
• Due to his skills as a speaker and propagandist, he became leader of the party in 1921.

Question 2

Growing the Party….

Answer 2

• In order to appeal to a wider base, he changed the party’s name to the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) and formed policies and ideologies based on his 25 point program.
• Hitler led a ‘march through Munich’ in 1923 to take over the government of Bavaria, the biggest state in southern Germany. Inspire by Mussolini’s March on Rome.
• The event became known as the Munich Putsch. 16 Nazis were killed by armed police who crushed the Munich Putsch. Hitler was charged with high treason. The Nazi Party was banned in Bavaria.
  Upon his release, he convinced the Bavarian Prime Minister to life the ban on the Nazi Party.

Question 3

Hitler’s trial for his role in the Munich Putsch…

Answer 3

• was a public relations triumph for his leadership and for the Nazis
• Newspapers reported Hitler’s passionate speeches during the trial denouncing the failures of the Weimar Republic.
• His speeches received widespread public agreement and his support base grew
• Hitler was given the minimum sentence of 5 years but only served 9 months in a minimum security prison where he was allowed visitors and a chance to write Mein Kampf containing his ideology and political opinions, including his condemnation for Jewish people for everything that had gone wrong in germany.

Question 4

Fear, Force and Terror

Answer 4

• The NSDAP built their own paramilitary army from 1921 called the SA, Sturmabteilung or brownshirts because of their uniforms
• membership grew from 3000 at the end of 1921 to 70000 by 1923
• SA enacted attacks on Hitler’s political opponent groups while the SA pretended to act on their own initiative
• 4 April 1925, the SS Schutzstafel was created to serve as Hitler’s bodyguards and guarantee party members followed Hitler’s lead.

Question 5

Economic Turmoil

Answer 5

• Nazis blamed economic woes of Germany on the Weimar Republic

e.g.

• Diktat and the ‘November Criminals’ who ‘stabbed Germany in the back’
• Hyperinflation of 1923: Hitler blamed the government for this disaster and organised the Munich Putsch as a result
• Great Depression: Hitler argued that the Treaty of Versailles had tied Germany to the US and Europe and blamed them for dragging Germany into their depression
• Campaign against Germany’s acceptance of the Young Plan: the Young Plan was a restructuring of Germanys repayments so that the reparations could be payed off by 1988. Therefore, Hitler’s campaign against this long term ‘enslavement’ saw Conservative elites support of Hitler increase.

Question 6

Weimar Republic instability and Conservative Elites

Answer 6

• abuse of Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution which stated “Public security can be restored through intervention by the German President with the assistance of the armed forces”
• at the peak of the Great Depression, in 1932, it had been used 60 times
• Von Papen had been replaced by Von Scleicher as Chancellor and hatched a plan to remove him. He proposed to Hindenburg that Hitler should be made Chancellor with Von Papen himself as Vice Chancellor.
• Hindenburg hated Hitler, but on 30 January 1933, after Von Papen had persuaded his son Oskar von Hindenburg and important industrialists that Hitler could be controlled, who then supported Hitler’s appointment, Hindenburg decided to appoint Hitler as chancellor.

Question 7

Election success

Answer 7

• election success would allow Nazis to begin a legal revolution
  The golden age of the Weimar Republic saw the nation have no need to give their political support to the Nazis with such radical changes
• as a result , in 1928, the Nazis gained less than 3% of the vote
• At a grass-root level (state and local elections) Nazi support was growing. Farmers, who were experiencing economic hardship were a large and growing group of Nazi supporters
• In the 31st July 1932 election for the Reichstag, support for the Nazis was at 37% and then dropped 3 months later to 33%, shows the volatility and chaos of German political scape
• In both elections the combined support for the socialist SPD and communist KPD was almost exactly equal to that of the Nazis, if they were to combine
• With Hitlers chancellorship, all that was required was for Nazi Party to dominate the Reichstag
• After the drop in Nazi support leading up the 1933 election, the SA and SS increased terror and repression etc. and elections were “monitored”
• In the 1933 election Nazis saw a large increase although they only tallied 44%, unable to gain majority of the vote- consolidation of their power and removal of opposition was needed