Nazi Counter-Revolution: Germany

The Weimar Republic

• After Germany lost the First World War, the German Emperor (Kaiser) fled, and a new democratic government was declared in February 1919 at the small town of Weimar.
  • It was considered too dangerous to make the declaration in Berlin, where a revolt had just occurred led by a communist group called the Spartacists, so Weimar was chosen instead.
• The Weimar Republic represented a genuine attempt to build a fully democratic country. Several key features were designed to secure this democracy:
  • A Bill of Rights guaranteed every German citizen freedom of speech and religion, along with equality under the law.
  • All men and women over the age of 20 were given the vote — a franchise even broader than Britain’s, where only women over 30 could vote at the time.
  • There was an elected president and an elected Reichstag (parliament).
  • The Reichstag made the laws and appointed the government, which was required to act according to the Reichstag’s wishes.

Why Did the Weimar Republic Fail?

(1) It Began with Serious Disadvantages

Association with the Treaty of Versailles

• The Republic had accepted the humiliating and unpopular Versailles Treaty, with its arms limitations, reparations, and war-guilt clause — permanently linking it, in the public mind, to defeat and dishonour.
  • German nationalists could never forgive it for this association.

Lack of Respect for Democracy

• There was a traditional lack of respect for democratic government in Germany, alongside great admiration for the army and the “officer class” as the rightful leaders of the nation.
  • In 1919, a widespread view held that the army had not actually been defeated, but had been “betrayed” by the democrats who had needlessly agreed to the Versailles Treaty.
  • What most Germans failed to realise was that it was General Ludendorff himself who had requested the armistice, while the Kaiser was still in power.

Weaknesses in the New Weimar Constitution

• Proportional representation: The parliamentary system introduced under the new Weimar constitution had significant weaknesses, the most serious being its reliance on proportional representation, intended to ensure fair representation for all political groups.
  • Instead of voting for an individual MP, Weimar Germans voted for a party, with seats in the Reichstag allocated in exact proportion to the votes received.
  • Though this sounded fair in principle, in practice it proved disastrous — resulting in dozens of tiny parties, with no single party strong enough to secure a majority, and consequently no stable government able to pass its laws through the Reichstag.
  • A succession of coalition governments became inevitable, leading to chronic political instability and indecisiveness.
• Article 48: This provision stated that, in an emergency, the president did not require the Reichstag’s agreement and could instead issue decrees directly.
  • The problem was that it never defined what constituted an “emergency,” and it ultimately became the back door through which Hitler would later seize power legally.

Lack of Experience of Political Parties

• German political parties had very little experience operating within a genuine democratic parliamentary system, since before 1919 the Reichstag had not controlled policy — the Chancellor held final authority and effectively ruled the country.
  • Under the Weimar constitution, this relationship was reversed: the Chancellor was now responsible to the Reichstag, which held the final say.
  • However, the Reichstag usually failed to provide clear leadership, as the parties had not yet learned the art of compromise.
• The communists and nationalists did not believe in democracy in the first place, and refused to support the Social Democrats (SPD).
  • The communist refusal to cooperate with the SPD meant that no strong government of the left was ever possible.
  • Disagreements grew so bitter that some parties organised their own private armies — initially for self-defence, but ultimately increasing the risk of civil war.
• This combination of weaknesses led to repeated outbreaks of violence and attempts to overthrow the Republic.

(2) Outbreaks of Violence

The Spartacist Rising

• In January 1919, communists attempted to seize power in what became known as the Spartacist Rising.
  • Inspired by the recent success of the Russian Revolution, they occupied almost every major city in Germany.
  • The government managed to defeat the communists only by accepting help from the Freikorps — independent volunteer regiments raised by anti-communist ex-army officers.
  • It was itself a sign of the government’s weakness that it had to rely on private forces beyond its own control.

The Kapp Putsch (March 1920)

• This was an attempt by right-wing groups to seize power, sparked when the government tried to disband the Freikorps private armies.
  • They refused to disband and instead declared Dr Wolfgang Kapp as Chancellor; Berlin was occupied by a Freikorps regiment, and the cabinet fled to Dresden.
  • The German army took no action against the Putsch, as the generals sympathised with the political right.
• In the end, the workers of Berlin came to the aid of the Social Democrat government by calling a general strike, which paralysed the capital. Kapp resigned, and the government regained control.
  • The government’s weakness was evident, however, in that nobody was punished except Kapp himself (who was imprisoned), and it took two months to disband the Freikorps. Even then, its ex-members remained hostile to the Republic, and many later joined Hitler’s private armies.

Political Assassinations

• A series of political assassinations followed, mainly carried out by ex-Freikorps members — victims included Walter Rathenau, the Jewish Foreign Minister.
  • When the government sought strong measures against such acts of terrorism, it faced great opposition from right-wing parties, who sympathised with the perpetrators.
  • While communist leaders had been brutally murdered, the courts let right-wing offenders off lightly, and the government proved unable to intervene.

Hitler’s Munich Putsch (1923)

• A further threat to the government occurred in November 1923 in Bavaria, amid widespread public anger over the French occupation of the Ruhr and the disastrous collapse in the value of the mark.
  • Hitler, assisted by General Ludendorff, aimed to seize control of the Bavarian state government in Munich and then lead a national revolution to overthrow the government in Berlin.
  • The police, however, easily broke up Hitler’s march, and the Putsch quickly fizzled out. Hitler was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment but served only nine months, as the Bavarian authorities had some sympathy for his aims.

Why Did Hitler Attempt the Munich Putsch in 1923?

• By 1923, the Nazi party had 55,000 members and was stronger than ever before.
• The Weimar Republic was in crisis and appeared on the verge of collapse.
  • In September 1923, the Weimar government had called off the general strike, angering German nationalists.
  • Hitler believed he would be supported by important nationalist politicians in Bavaria.
  • Hitler commanded a huge army of storm troopers, but recognised he would lose control of them if he failed to give them a purpose.
  • Hitler also hoped to emulate Mussolini, the Italian fascist leader who had come to power in 1922 by marching on Rome.

Consequences of the Failed Putsch

• The Nazi party was banned, and Hitler was barred from public speaking until 1927.
• Hitler went to prison, where he wrote Mein Kampf, which was subsequently read by millions of Germans, spreading his ideas widely.
• Hitler concluded that he would never come to power through revolution, and that he would instead need to pursue constitutional means. He accordingly organised:
  • the Hitler Youth;
  • propaganda campaigns;
  • mergers with other right-wing parties;
  • local party branches aimed at getting Nazis elected to the Reichstag; and
  • the Schutzstaffel (SS), established in 1925 as his personal bodyguard.
  • It was this strategy of pursuing power through legitimate means that ultimately brought him to power.

Private Armies Expand

• Violence subsided during 1924 to 1929 as the Republic became more stable, but as unemployment grew in the early 1930s, private armies expanded once again, and regular street fights broke out — usually between Nazis and communists.
  • Meetings held by all parties were frequently broken up by rival armies, with the police seemingly powerless to prevent it.
  • This demonstrated the government’s inability to maintain law and order, and public respect for it steadily dwindled.
  • An increasing number of people began to favour a return to strong, authoritarian government capable of maintaining strict public order.

(3) Economic Problems

• The economic problems that plagued the Republic constantly, and which it proved incapable of permanently solving, were probably the crucial cause of its failure.
• In 1919, Germany was close to bankruptcy owing to the enormous expense of a war that had lasted far longer than most people expected.
  • Attempts to pay reparations instalments only made matters worse. In August 1921, after paying the £50 million then due, Germany requested permission to suspend payments until her economy recovered.
  • France refused, and in 1922 Germany claimed she was unable to make the full annual payment.
• In January 1923, French troops occupied the Ruhr — an important German industrial area — in an attempt to seize goods directly from factories and mines.
  • The German government ordered workers to pursue a policy of passive resistance, paralysing German industry in the Ruhr.
  • Although the French ultimately failed in their aim, the effect on the German economy was catastrophic — leading to galloping inflation and the collapse of the mark.
  • It was only when the new Chancellor, Gustav Stresemann, introduced a new currency, the Rentenmark, in 1924, that the financial situation finally stabilised.

Impact of the Financial Disaster on German Society

• The working classes were badly hit, as wages failed to keep pace with inflation and trade union funds were wiped out.
• Worst affected were the middle classes and small capitalists, who lost their savings entirely; many of them began to look toward the Nazis for improvement.
• Landowners and industrialists, by contrast, came through the crisis relatively well, as they retained their material wealth — farmland, mines, and factories — which strengthened big business’s grip on the German economy.

Recovery after 1924

• The economic situation improved dramatically in the years following 1924, largely due to the Dawes Plan (1924), which provided an immediate loan from the USA equivalent to £40 million, relaxed the fixed reparations schedule, and effectively allowed Germany to pay only what she could afford.
  • French troops withdrew from the Ruhr, the currency stabilised, and industries such as iron, steel, coal, chemicals, and electrical goods experienced a boom.
  • Wealthy landowners and industrialists were content to tolerate the Republic, since they were doing well under it; Germany was even able to meet her reparations instalments under the Dawes Plan.
• During these relatively prosperous years, Gustav Stresemann was the dominant political figure. Although Chancellor for only August to November 1923, he remained foreign minister until his death in October 1929, providing vital continuity and a steadying hand.
• The work of the Dawes Plan was carried further by the Young Plan, drawn up in October 1929 by the Allied Reparations Commission under American financier Owen Young.
  • This reduced the total reparations bill from £6,600 million to £2,000 million, to be paid in annual instalments over 59 years.

The Depression of 1929

• Thanks to Stresemann’s diplomatic work, the Republic also enjoyed successes in foreign affairs and appeared stable and well established — but fatal weaknesses remained beneath this success, soon to bring disaster.
  • Germany’s prosperity was far more dependent on American loans than most people realised. Had the USA found itself in financial difficulty and been forced to halt these loans, or worse, demand rapid repayment, the German economy would inevitably be shaken again — and this is precisely what happened in 1929.
• Following the Wall Street Crash (October 1929), a worldwide economic crisis developed.
  • The USA halted further loans and began calling in many of the short-term loans already extended to Germany, triggering a crisis of confidence in the currency and a run on the banks, many of which had to close.
  • The preceding industrial boom had led to worldwide over-production, and German exports — like those of other nations — fell sharply. Factories closed, and by mid-1931, unemployment approached 4 million.
  • Tragically for Germany, Stresemann, the politician best equipped to handle the crisis, died of a heart attack in October 1929.

Steps Taken by the German Government and Their Impact

• The German government reduced social services, unemployment benefit, and the salaries and pensions of government officials, and suspended reparations payments.
  • High tariffs were introduced to exclude foreign foodstuffs and thereby assist German farmers, while the government purchased shares in factories affected by the slump.
• These measures failed to produce quick results: unemployment continued to rise, reaching over 6 million by the spring of 1932.
  • The government came under criticism from almost all sections of society, particularly industrialists and the working class, both of whom demanded more decisive action.
  • The loss of much working-class support — owing to rising unemployment and reduced unemployment benefit — dealt a serious blow to the Republic.
• By the end of 1932, the Weimar Republic had been brought to the verge of collapse. Even so, it might still have survived had there been no viable alternative on offer.

(4) The Alternative — Hitler and the Nazis

• Hitler and the Nazi Party offered what seemed to be an attractive alternative precisely when the Republic was at its most ineffective.
  • The fortunes of the Nazi Party were closely linked to the economic situation: the more unstable the economy, the more seats the Nazis won in the Reichstag.
  • In the election of July 1932, with unemployment standing at over 6 million, the Nazis became the largest single party, winning 230 seats out of 608.
• The rise of Hitler and the Nazis, fostered directly by the economic crisis, was one of the most important causes of the Republic’s downfall.

What Made the Nazis So Popular?

• They offered national unity, prosperity, and full employment, by ridding Germany of what they claimed were the real causes of her troubles — the Marxists, the “November criminals” (those who had agreed to the November 1918 armistice and the subsequent Versailles Treaty), Jesuits, Freemasons, and Jews.
  • Increasingly, the Nazis sought to place the blame for Germany’s First World War defeat, and all her subsequent problems, on the Jews.
  • Nazi propaganda made great use of the “stab in the back” myth — the idea that the German armies could have fought on, but were betrayed by traitors who had surrendered unnecessarily.
• They promised to overthrow the Versailles settlement, so unpopular with most Germans, and to rebuild Germany into a great power once again — including bringing all Germans (in Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland) into the Reich.
• The Nazi private army, the SA (Sturmabteilung, or Storm Troopers), proved attractive to unemployed young people, offering a small wage and a uniform.
• Fear of communism: wealthy landowners and industrialists encouraged the Nazis, fearing a communist revolution and approving of the Nazi party’s hostility toward communists.
• Hitler himself possessed extraordinary political abilities:
  • He had tremendous energy, willpower, and a remarkable gift for public speaking, enabling him to advance his ideas with great emotional force.
  • He employed the latest communication techniques — mass rallies, parades, radio, and film — and travelled across Germany by air; many Germans began to view him as a kind of Messiah figure.
  • His views and aims were set out in full in Mein Kampf, written in prison after the Munich Putsch.
• The striking contrast between the Weimar government — respectable, dull, and unable to maintain law and order — and the Nazi Party, which promised strong, decisive government and the restoration of national pride, impressed many Germans.
• Without the economic crisis, however, it is doubtful whether Hitler would have had much chance of attaining power.
  • It was widespread unemployment and social misery, combined with fear of communism and socialism, that gained the Nazis mass support — not only among the working class, but also among the lower middle classes: office workers, shopkeepers, civil servants, teachers, and small-scale farmers.

Hitler Becomes Chancellor (January 1933)

• In July 1932, though the Nazis were the largest single party, Hitler failed to become Chancellor, partly because:
  • the Nazis still lacked an overall majority (holding only 230 of 608 Reichstag seats); and
  • Hitler was not yet considered quite “respectable” — the conservative President Hindenburg viewed him as an upstart and refused to appoint him Chancellor.
• Given these circumstances, was Hitler’s rise to power truly inevitable?
  • Some historians believe that, by the autumn of 1932, nothing could have saved the Weimar Republic, and consequently nothing could have kept Hitler out.
  • Others argue that the first signs of economic improvement were already visible, and that it should have been possible to block Hitler’s progress — a view supported by the election results of November 1932, when the Nazis lost 34 seats and about 2 million votes, a serious setback for the party.
  • It seemed, briefly, that the Republic might weather the storm and the Nazi challenge would fade.
• However, at this point a further influence came into play — one that ultimately killed off the Republic by letting Hitler into power legally.

Political Intrigue Brought Hitler to Power

• In the end, it was political intrigue that brought Hitler to power.
  • A small clique of right-wing politicians, with support from the Reichswehr, decided to bring Hitler into a coalition government with the Nationalists. The main conspirators were Papen and General Schleicher.
• Their reasons for this momentous decision included:
  • fear that the Nazis might attempt to seize power through a Putsch;
  • the belief that Hitler could be better controlled inside the government than outside it, and that a taste of power would moderate Nazi extremism;
  • the fact that the Nationalists held only 37 seats in the Reichstag following the July 1932 elections — an alliance with the Nazis’ 230 seats would go a long way toward securing a majority; and
  • the Nationalists’ own lack of belief in genuine democracy — they hoped that, with Nazi cooperation, they could restore the monarchy and return to the Bismarck-era system, in which the Reichstag held far less power.
• Though this arrangement would destroy the Weimar Republic, these right-wing politicians proceeded regardless, believing it would give them a better chance of controlling the communists, who had just won their best-ever result in the July election — 89 seats.
  • Following complicated manoeuvring involving Papen and a group of wealthy businessmen, President Hindenburg was persuaded to dismiss Brüning and appoint Papen as Chancellor.
  • They initially hoped to bring Hitler in only as Vice-Chancellor, but he would accept nothing less than the Chancellorship itself.
• In January 1933, they persuaded Hindenburg to invite Hitler to become Chancellor, with Papen as Vice-Chancellor — even though the Nazis had by then lost ground in the November 1932 elections. Papen still believed Hitler could be controlled.
  • Hitler was thus able to come to power legally, because all the other parties, including the Reichswehr, were so preoccupied with the perceived threat from the communists that they failed to sufficiently recognise the danger posed by the Nazis, and consequently failed to unite in opposition.
  • It ought to have been possible to keep the Nazis out — they were losing ground and nowhere near an overall majority. Instead of uniting with other parties to exclude them, the Nationalists made the fatal mistake of inviting Hitler into power.

Analysis of the Weimar Republic

Could the Weimar Republic Have Survived?

• Although there were signs of economic improvement by the end of 1932, it was perhaps inevitable, at that point, that the Weimar Republic would collapse — since the powerful conservative groups and the army were prepared to abandon it and replace it with a conservative, nationalist, and anti-democratic state similar to the one that had existed before 1914.
  • It can, in fact, be argued that the Weimar Republic had already effectively ceased to exist in May 1932, when Hindenburg appointed Papen as Chancellor responsible to himself rather than to the Reichstag.

How Did the Weimar Republic Survive (1923–1929)?

• The Weimar Republic was beset by problems in its early years, but the stability and prosperity Germany enjoyed during 1924–1929 suggest it was, to a degree, successful.
  • In 1923, the Republic stood on the verge of collapse — hyperinflation, attempted revolutions, and public discontent pushed it to the brink — yet, surprisingly, this crisis marked the start of a period of stability and success.
  • The period 1923–1929 was one in which the economy boomed and cultural life flourished in Germany.
• This dramatic turnaround occurred largely because Germany was saved by two individuals: Gustav Stresemann and Charles Dawes.

Gustav Stresemann

• Gustav Stresemann, though originally a nationalist, came to realise that decisive action was needed to save Germany.
  • His most important contribution in 1923 was organising the Great Coalition of moderate, pro-democracy parties in the Reichstag — at last giving Germany a government capable of passing laws.
  • Under Stresemann’s guidance, the government called off the general strike, persuaded the French to leave the Ruhr, and even secured Germany’s admission to the League of Nations in 1926.
  • Stresemann also introduced reforms to help ordinary people, including job centres, unemployment pay, and improved housing.

Charles Dawes

• Charles Dawes, the US budget director, was sent to Europe in 1923 to help resolve Germany’s economic crisis.
  • Under his advice, the German Reichsbank was reformed, and the old currency was called in and burned — ending the hyperinflation.
  • Dawes also arranged the Dawes Plan with Stresemann, giving Germany longer to pay reparations, and secured an American loan of 800 million gold marks, which kick-started the German economy.

Was Weimar Stable During 1923–1929?

• Despite these successes, many historians believe the Republic’s apparent stability was largely illusory:
  • The Great Coalition collapsed before the end of 1923, and the Reichstag returned to chaos — leaving it unable to respond effectively when the next crisis arrived.
  • The nationalists and fascists won few seats in the Reichstag during this period, but were nonetheless allowed to exist and campaign, effectively waiting for the right opportunity to attempt another takeover.
  • Everything depended on American money — had it stopped, Germany stood ready to slip back into crisis at any moment.

What Did National Socialism Stand For?

• In 1919, Adolf Hitler joined a small right-wing group called the German Workers’ Party. He soon took over as its leader and renamed it the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazis).
  • The party developed a 25-Point Programme, which Hitler further elaborated — after the failure of the Munich Putsch — in his book Mein Kampf.
• Despite its name, National Socialism did not mean nationalisation or the redistribution of wealth.
  • The word “socialism” was included primarily to attract the support of German workers, though it must be admitted that Hitler did promise a better deal for them; in practice, the movement bore many similarities to Mussolini’s fascism.

The Movement’s General Principles

• All the various facets and details of the Nazi system sprang from four basic concepts.

A Way of Life Dedicated to the Rebirth of the Nation

• National Socialism was more than just one political party.
  • All classes in society had to be united into a “national community” to restore Germany’s greatness and national pride.
  • Since the Nazis claimed theirs was the only correct path to achieve this, it followed that all other parties — particularly the communists — must be eliminated.

A Totalitarian and Efficient State

• Great emphasis was placed on the ruthlessly efficient organisation of every aspect of the masses’ lives under central government, to achieve national greatness — with violence and terror employed if necessary.
  • The state was supreme; the interests of the individual always came second to those of the state — that is, a totalitarian state, in which propaganda played a vital role.

Militarisation

• Since national greatness could, in Nazi thinking, only be achieved through war, the entire state had to be organised on a military footing.

Racial Theory

• Racial theory was central to Nazi ideology: mankind was held to be divided into Aryans and non-Aryans.
  • The Aryans — the Germans, ideally tall, blond, blue-eyed, and handsome — were considered the “master race,” destined to rule the world.
  • All others, including Slavs, coloured peoples, and particularly Jews, were considered inferior, and were to be excluded from the “national community” along with other groups deemed unfit to belong, including gypsies and homosexuals.
  • The Slavs, specifically, were destined to become the “slave race” of the Germans.

Other Nazi Ideologies

• Lebensraum — the belief that the German nation required “living space” in which to expand.
• Führer — the idea that Germany should be governed by a single leader with complete power, rather than through democracy.
• Social Darwinism — the doctrine of “survival of the fittest” and the necessity of struggle for national life, applied by the Nazis to the life of the nation-state, and closely bound up with their racial doctrine.

Debate Regarding the Development of Nazism

• There has been considerable debate among historians as to whether National Socialism represented a natural development of German history, or was instead a one-off distortion of normal historical development.

View I: Nazism as a Natural Extension of Prussian Militarism

• Many British and American historians have argued that Nazism was a natural extension of earlier Prussian militarism and terror (dating back to the 18th century) and broader German traditions.
  • Some point to Germany’s African colonies before the First World War, which were difficult to control and prone to rebellion; Prussian militarism there led to the killing of several Africans, some through deliberate starvation.
  • Similar trends emerged during the First World War itself: after Germany defeated Russia and gained control of former Russian territories, German troops — in the few months before Germany’s own surrender — suppressed nationalist movements in these territories with great brutality, treating the Slav inhabitants as second-class citizens.
  • Nazi brutality in eastern Europe during the Second World War, on this view, was a revival and continuation of pre-First-World-War German attitudes.

View II: Marxist Views

• Marxist historians held that National Socialism, and fascism more broadly, represented the final stage and culmination of Western capitalism — a system bound to collapse due to its inherent, fatal flaws.

View III: The Personal Contribution of Hitler

• Many German historians instead stressed Hitler’s personal contribution, arguing that he was striving to break away from the past and introduce something entirely new.
  • On this view, National Socialism was a grotesque departure from normal and logical historical development. This is the majority view, and one that found particular favour in Germany, since it allows the German people to be absolved from most of the blame.

Conclusion

• Elements of both View I and View III can be found in Hitler’s career.
  • The mentalities that conditioned the behaviour of both elites and masses, and which made Hitler’s rise possible, were themselves products of strands within German political culture.
  • However, Hitler was not the logical, inevitable product of long-term trends in German culture and belief. Without the unique conditions in which he rose to prominence, Hitler would have amounted to nothing — but he exploited those conditions brilliantly.

Hitler Consolidates His Power

• Hitler was, by birth, an Austrian. In Munich, he had joined the tiny German Workers’ Party (1919), which he soon took over and transformed into the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP).
  • By January 1933, he was Chancellor of a coalition government of National Socialists and nationalists, but remained dissatisfied with the extent of his power — the Nazis held only three of eleven cabinet posts. He therefore insisted on a general election, hoping to secure an overall majority.

The Election of 5 March 1933

• The election campaign proved extremely violent. Now in government, the Nazis could deploy the full apparatus of the state — including the press and radio — to try to whip up a majority.
  • They held a decisive advantage in that Hermann Göring, a leading Nazi, had been appointed minister of the interior for Prussia, the largest German state — giving him control of the police.
  • Göring replaced senior police officers with reliable Nazis, and 50,000 auxiliary policemen were called up, most drawn from the SA and the SS.
• Meetings of Nazis and nationalists proceeded without interference, while communist and socialist political meetings were violently disrupted.
  • The nationalists went along with this, determined to use the Nazis to destroy communism once and for all.

The Reichstag Fire

• The climax of the election campaign came on the night of 27 February, when the Reichstag was badly damaged by fire, with the blame placed on the communists.
  • Hitler exploited the fire in two key ways: it allowed him to imprison many communist leaders, halting their election campaigning, and it allowed the Nazis to portray the country as under communist threat during the campaign.
  • Both actions helped the Nazis win additional seats. When the courts convicted only a Dutch communist and failed to convict other communist leaders, an enraged Hitler replaced the courts with the Nazi People’s Courts.
• In spite of all their efforts, the Nazis still failed to win an overall majority, taking 288 of 647 seats; the nationalists again won 52 seats, leaving Hitler still dependent on the support of Papen and Hugenberg (the nationalist leader).
  • This proved to be the Nazis’ best performance in a “free” election — they never won an outright majority. Even at the height of their electoral triumph, the Nazis were supported by only 44% of the voting electorate.

The Enabling Law (23 March 1933)

• Dissatisfied with the election result, Hitler was determined to be dependent on nobody but his own Nazi party.
  • While President Hindenburg remained shaken after the Reichstag fire, Hitler persuaded him that emergency legislation was vital to prevent a communist uprising.
• This legislation, known as the Enabling Law, was forced through the Reichstag on 23 March 1933, providing the legal basis for Hitler’s power. It stated that:
  • the government could introduce laws without the Reichstag’s approval for the next four years;
  • it could ignore the constitution; and
  • it could sign agreements with foreign countries independently.
• This meant Hitler was to be, in effect, complete dictator for the following four years — and since his will was now law, he could extend that period indefinitely.
  • He no longer needed the support of Papen and Hugenberg; the Weimar constitution had, in effect, been abandoned.
• Such a major constitutional change ordinarily required a two-thirds majority, which the Nazis did not even have as a simple majority — so how did they secure the Enabling Bill’s passage?
  • On 23 March, the day of the vote, the Reichstag meeting was surrounded by Hitler’s private armies; MPs had to push their way through solid ranks of SS troops just to enter the building.
  • Having already arrested all the communist deputies, and with the remaining parties intimidated by the SA, Hitler secured the Act’s passage.
• With the Enabling Law passed, the Nazi aim of destroying parliamentary democracy had been achieved — by means that could in no sense be called “legal.”
  • The Papen/Schleicher/Hindenburg plan to control Hitler had failed completely.
  • When Hindenburg died, Hitler declared himself jointly president, chancellor, and head of the army, formally making him the absolute ruler of Germany, thereafter styled the Führer.

Gleichschaltung (Forcible Co-ordination)

• Having effectively muzzled the Reichstag, Hitler immediately set about controlling every aspect of German life.
  • This was achieved through a policy known as Gleichschaltung (“forcible co-ordination”), which transformed Germany into a totalitarian, fascist state, maintained through a mixture of propaganda and intimidation.
  • The government sought to control as many aspects of life as possible, employing a huge police force and the notorious State Secret Police (Gestapo). It became dangerous to oppose or criticise the government in any way.

Terror as a Method of Control

• The Nazi state intimidated and terrorised its opponents through:
  • the SS and Gestapo;
  • the mass arrest of thousands of people, sowing terror among opponents;
  • the establishment of Nazi People’s Courts; and
  • concentration camps.

Main Features of the Nazi Totalitarian State

Control over Government (Political)

• The way Hitler consolidated power in 1933–1934 gave the Nazis absolute control of both national and local government, achieved through:
  • the Enabling Act; and
  • the reorganisation of local government.
• One-party system: all political parties except the National Socialists were banned, making Germany a one-party state, with no further state, provincial, or municipal elections held.

Control over Workers

• The following measures illustrate how the Nazis took control of workers’ lives:
  • The RAD (National Labour Service) sent young men to work on public projects; after conscription was introduced in 1936, most men subsequently moved from the RAD into the army.
  • The KdF (“Strength through Joy”) movement regulated workers’ leisure time.
• Trade unions, a likely source of resistance, were abolished: their funds were confiscated and their leaders arrested.
  • They were replaced by the DAF (German Labour Front), to which all workers had to belong, and which controlled working conditions. The government handled all grievances directly, and strikes were banned.

Control over Education and Youth

• The lives of young people were controlled both in and out of school, in order to turn them into fanatical Nazis. Measures included:
  • the dismissal of non-Nazi teachers and university professors, with remaining teachers required to join the National Socialist Teachers’ League;
  • the rewriting of school textbooks to align with Nazi theory — history was distorted to fit Hitler’s belief that great achievements could only be won through force, while human biology was dominated by Nazi racial theory;
  • a strong concentration on physical fitness; and
  • a gendered curriculum, with girls taught cookery and boys taught science and mathematics.
• Indoctrination through youth organisations:
  • The Hitler Youth was compulsory for boys, indoctrinating and preparing them for war.
  • The Nazi Girls’ youth organisation was compulsory for girls, preparing them for church, children, and cooking.
  • Children were taught that their first duty was obedience to Hitler — the Führer — under the slogan “the Führer is always right,” and were even encouraged to report their own parents to the Gestapo, which many did.

Population Policy

• The Nazis pursued a special policy concerning the family, worried by the declining birth rate, and encouraged “racially pure” and healthy families to have more children.
  • Family planning centres were closed and contraceptives banned, while mothers who bore more children were awarded medals.
• Conversely, those deemed “undesirable” — including Jews, gypsies, and people considered physically or mentally unfit — were actively discouraged from having children.
  • In 1935, marriages between Aryans and Jews were forbidden, and many deemed “unfit” were forcibly sterilised to prevent them from having children.

Propaganda

• Josef Goebbels controlled the Propaganda Ministry, which aimed to brainwash the population into obeying the Nazis and idolising Hitler.
  • Techniques included mass rallies, and close supervision of radio, newspapers, magazines, books, theatre, music, and art.
  • The government made cheap radios widely available, effectively turning them into an instrument of propaganda; films were controlled to glorify war and vilify the Jews, most famously through the propaganda film Triumph of the Will, designed to showcase the power, strength, and determination of the German people under Hitler’s leadership.
  • Loudspeakers in public places blared Nazi propaganda, and a cult of personality ensured Hitler’s image was everywhere, portrayed as Germany’s saviour.

Culture (Social)

• Hitler ordered Nazification — the imposition of Nazi values — across all aspects of German life, dictating what people were permitted to do in their social and private lives:
  • Artists were required to produce paintings portraying Nazi values.
  • Jazz music was banned, and books written by Jews and socialists were publicly burned, along with thousands of paintings and drawings.
  • Hitler sought to promote a new form of “German art,” free from Jewish, left-wing, modernist, and foreign influence.
  • Homosexuals were persecuted, as they did not fit the Nazi ideal of the family.
  • The 1936 Olympic Games proved a major Nazi propaganda success.
  • Women were expected to remain at home, raise children, and manage the family; women doctors, teachers, and civil servants were forced to abandon their careers.

Economic Policy

• The country’s economic life was closely organised. Though the Nazis, unlike the communists, had no distinctive economic ideology, they pursued certain basic aims:
  • to eliminate unemployment; and
  • to make Germany self-sufficient by boosting exports and reducing imports — a policy known as “autarky.”
• The underlying idea was to place the economy on a war footing, ensuring all necessary war materials could, as far as possible, be produced within Germany itself — guarding against the kind of trade blockade the Allies had imposed during the First World War.

The Four-Year Plan

• The centrepiece of this policy was the Four-Year Plan, introduced in 1936 under the direction of Hermann Göring. Its measures included:
  • directing industrialists on what to produce based on current national needs, closing factories whose products were not required;
  • relocating workers to areas where jobs existed and labour was needed;
  • encouraging farmers to raise agricultural yields;
  • controlling food prices and rents;
  • manipulating foreign exchange rates to avoid inflation;
  • launching large public works schemes — slum clearance, land drainage, and motorway building;
  • forcing foreign countries to buy German goods;
  • manufacturing synthetic rubber and wool, and experimenting with producing petrol from coal, to reduce dependence on foreign countries; and
  • sharply increasing expenditure on armaments — by 1938–39, the military budget accounted for 52% of total government spending, an extraordinary figure for “peacetime.”
• This programme stemmed from Hitler’s ambition to turn Germany into an economic and military superpower before the rest of the world could catch up.

Religious Policy

• Hitler viewed religion as a threat to Nazi control over people’s minds, and the churches as a potential source of opposition, so he sought to reduce their influence.
  • Religion was brought under state control; initially, Hitler moved cautiously with both Roman Catholics and Protestants.

The Roman Catholic Church

• In 1933, Hitler signed a Concordat with the Pope: he promised not to interfere with German Catholics, while German Catholics agreed to dissolve the Catholic Centre Party and withdraw from politics.
  • Relations soon became strained, however, when the government broke the Concordat by dissolving the Catholic Youth League, which it viewed as rivalling the Hitler Youth; when Catholics protested, their schools were closed.
  • By 1937, Catholics were thoroughly disillusioned with the Nazis, and Pope Pius XI issued an Encyclical — read aloud in all Roman Catholic churches in Germany — condemning the Nazi movement.
  • Hitler remained unmoved, and thousands of priests and nuns were subsequently arrested and sent to concentration camps.

The Protestant Churches

• Since a majority of Germans belonged to one or another Protestant denomination, Hitler attempted to organise them into a “Reich Church”, with a Nazi appointed as the first Reich bishop.
  • Many pastors protested to Hitler about government interference and his treatment of the Jews. The Nazis responded with equal ruthlessness — several pastors were sent to concentration camps, and many were forced to swear an oath of obedience to the Führer.
  • Hitler established a state Reich Church, which banned both the Bible and the cross. Though persecution eventually appeared to bring the churches under control, resistance continued — some Catholic bishops, for instance, protested the Nazi policy of killing the mentally handicapped and mentally ill.

Police State

• Germany became, in effect, a police state.
  • The police, assisted by the SS and Gestapo, worked to prevent all open opposition to the regime; the law courts were far from impartial, and “enemies of the state” rarely received a fair trial.
  • The concentration camps introduced by Hitler in 1933 were filled with “political” prisoners — communists, Social Democrats, Catholic priests, and Protestant pastors — alongside other persecuted groups, including homosexuals and, above all, Jews.

Anti-Semitic Policy

• The worst aspect of the Nazi system was Hitler’s anti-Semitic (anti-Jewish) policy.
  • There were just over half a million Jews in Germany — less than 1% of the total population — but Hitler chose to use them as scapegoats for everything: the humiliation at Versailles, the Great Depression, unemployment, and communism.
  • Hitler spoke of “racial purity” — the Aryan race, especially the Germans, must be kept free from contamination by non-Aryan Jews, which he claimed justified their removal from Germany. He asserted the existence of a “world Jewish/communist plot” to seize control, apparently assuming communism was a Jewish movement, likely because many leading Russian Bolsheviks were themselves Jewish.
• Many Germans, in a state of desperation, were prepared to accept this propaganda, and were not sorry to see thousands of Jews removed from positions as lawyers, doctors, teachers, and journalists.
  • Many ordinary Germans actively participated in atrocities against the Jews, appropriated stolen Jewish property, and readily took jobs vacated by Jews — cooperating in genocide because they benefited from it materially.
• The anti-Jewish campaign within Germany was given legal status through the Nuremberg Laws (1935), which:
  • deprived Jews of their German citizenship; and
  • forbade marriage between Jews and non-Jews, to “preserve the purity” of the Aryan race.
• Until 1938, Hitler proceeded relatively cautiously with the anti-Jewish policy, likely out of concern for unfavourable foreign reaction; the campaign later became far more extreme.
  • In November 1938, Hitler authorised what became known as the “Night of Broken Glass” — a vicious, coordinated attack on Jewish synagogues and property throughout the country.
• When the Second World War began, the plight of the Jews deteriorated rapidly: their property was attacked and burnt, shops looted, synagogues destroyed, and they were herded into concentration camps.
  • Eventually, the terrible nature of what Hitler called his “Final Solution” of the Jewish problem became clear — his intent to exterminate the entire Jewish race.
  • As Germany occupied countries such as Czechoslovakia, Poland, and western Russia, non-German Jews too fell within reach of this campaign.
• It is believed that, by 1945, out of a total of 9 million Jews living in Europe at the outbreak of the Second World War, approximately 5.7 million had been murdered — most of them in the gas chambers of Nazi extermination camps.
  • The Holocaust, as it became known, was the worst and most shocking of the many crimes against humanity committed by the Nazi regime.

Hitler’s Policies Were Popular with Many Sections of the German People

• It would be wrong to suggest that Hitler retained power simply by terrorising the entire nation.
  • While Jews, communists, socialists, or persistent critics of the Nazis certainly ran into trouble, many people with little interest in politics could generally live quite comfortably under the regime — largely because Hitler took care to please many important groups in society.
• Even as late as 1943, when the fortunes of war had turned against Germany, Hitler somehow retained his popularity with ordinary people, in part through his stated ambition to raise living standards and enrich the German people.
  • His arrival in power in January 1933 triggered a great wave of enthusiasm and anticipation, following the weak and indecisive governments of the Weimar Republic.
  • He carefully fostered this enthusiasm through military parades, torchlight processions, and firework displays — most famously the huge annual Nuremberg rallies, which held strong mass appeal.

Eliminating Unemployment

• Hitler’s success in eliminating unemployment was probably the single most important reason for his popularity with ordinary people.
  • When he came to power, unemployment stood at over 6 million; by the end of 1935, it had dropped to just over 2 million, and by 1939 it was negligible.
• This was achieved through several means:
  • a huge programme of public works, including forest planting and the building of hospitals and schools, as well as public buildings such as the 1936 Olympic Stadium, all of which created jobs for men;
  • a rapidly expanding party bureaucracy, which created thousands of extra office and administrative posts;
  • purges of Jews and anti-Nazis from the civil service and professions connected with law, education, journalism, broadcasting, theatre, and music, leaving large numbers of vacancies;
  • the dismissal of many women from their jobs, with positions handed to men;
  • the reintroduction of conscription in 1935, and rearmament, begun in 1934 and gradually accelerated, which created jobs in the armaments industry.
• In this way, Hitler delivered precisely what the unemployed had demanded during their marches of 1932: work and bread. He also stopped paying reparations, redirecting the funds into German companies.

Keeping the Support of Workers

• Care was taken to retain the support of workers once it had been won through the provision of jobs — important, since the abolition of trade unions still rankled with many of them.
  • The Strength through Joy organisation offered benefits such as subsidised holidays in Germany and abroad, cruises, skiing trips, cheap theatre and concert tickets, and convalescent homes.
  • The Nazis also passed numerous laws expanding social security provision, doubling paid holiday entitlement for workers, and making it harder for landlords to raise rents or evict tenants.

Wealthy Industrialists and Businessmen

• Wealthy industrialists and businessmen were largely pleased with the Nazis, despite government interference in their industries.
  • This was partly because they now felt secure from the threat of communist revolution, and were glad to see trade unions abolished.
  • They were also able to buy back, at low prices, shares they had sold to the state during the 1929–32 crisis, and could look forward to substantial profits from public works schemes, rearmament, and other government contracts.

Farmers

• Farmers, though initially doubtful about Hitler, gradually warmed to the Nazis once it became clear they occupied a specially favoured position within the state, given the Nazi commitment to food self-sufficiency.
  • Prices for agricultural produce were fixed to guarantee farmers a reasonable profit.
  • Farms were declared hereditary estates, meaning a farmer could not be forced to sell or mortgage his land to pay off debts — a welcome protection for many farmers heavily indebted following the financial crisis.

Gaining the Support of the Army

• Winning the support of the Reichswehr (army) was crucial to Hitler’s security in power, as it was the one organisation capable of removing him by force. By the summer of 1934, however, Hitler had won it over.
  • Although some generals privately viewed Hitler as a contemptible upstart, the officer class as a whole was well disposed toward him, given his publicly stated aim of setting aside the restrictions of the Versailles Treaty through rearmament and expansion of the army.
  • There had also been a steady infiltration of National Socialists into the lower ranks, gradually working its way up through the junior officer corps.
  • The army leadership was, further, deeply impressed by Hitler’s handling of the troublesome SA in the notorious Röhm Purge — also known as the “Night of the Long Knives” — of 30 June 1934.

The Night of the Long Knives

• Some SA leaders had begun demanding that the Nazi party carry out its socialist agenda in full, and that the SA itself take over the army.
  • Unwilling to alienate either the business community or the army, Hitler had the SS murder several SA members, including its leader Röhm.
• This purge destroyed all internal opposition within the Nazi Party, transferred power decisively to the brutal SS, and also revealed to the wider world the full extent of Hitler’s ruthlessness as a tyrant.
• Finally, Hitler’s foreign policy proved a series of brilliant successes; with each new triumph, more and more Germans came to regard him as infallible.

Who Opposed Hitler?

• Opposition came from the Catholic and Protestant Churches, as already discussed.
• The White Rose group, formed by students at Munich University, published anti-Nazi leaflets, but were discovered and executed in 1943.
• A paramilitary wing of the Social Democratic Party sabotaged railway lines and acted as spies; during the war, “swing” groups also emerged — young people who rejected Nazi values, drank alcohol, and danced to jazz.
• More violent resistance came from groups known as the Edelweiss Pirates, who daubed anti-Nazi slogans, sheltered army deserters, and beat up Nazi officials — in 1944, they killed the local Gestapo chief.
• In 1944, a group of army officers and intellectuals attempted to assassinate Hitler with a bomb; the bomb exploded, but Hitler survived, and 5,000 people were executed in retaliation.

How Successful Was Hitler in Domestic Affairs?

• Historians hold conflicting views on this question.
  • Some argue that Hitler’s regime brought genuine benefits to the majority of the German people.
  • Others believe his entire career was a disaster, and that his so-called successes were largely a myth created by Josef Goebbels, the Nazi minister of propaganda.
  • Taking this scepticism further, some German historians have claimed that Hitler was, in fact, a weak ruler who never truly initiated any policy of his own.

Successful?

• One school of thought holds that the Nazis were successful up to 1939, having delivered many of the benefits discussed above and developed a flourishing economy — explaining Hitler’s great popularity with the masses, which endured well into the 1940s despite the hardships of war.
  • According to this view, had Hitler succeeded in keeping Germany out of war, his Third Reich might genuinely have lasted, as he boasted, “a thousand years.”
  • Note: the “Third Reich” (Third Empire) was the name the Nazis gave to their government in Germany. The First Reich was the Holy Roman Empire; the Second Reich was the German Empire formed by Chancellor Bismarck in the 19th century.

Only Superficially Successful?

• The opposing view holds that Hitler’s apparent successes were superficial and could not withstand the test of time.
  • The so-called “economic miracle” was, on this view, an illusion — Germany carried a huge budget deficit and was, technically, bankrupt.
  • Even this superficial success was achieved through methods unacceptable in any modern, civilised society: full employment was secured only through a brutal anti-Jewish campaign and a massive rearmament programme, while self-sufficiency depended on Germany exploiting large areas of eastern Europe belonging to Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Russia.
  • Permanent success, therefore, depended entirely on success in war — meaning there was never a realistic possibility of Hitler keeping Germany out of conflict.
• There is also little evidence of genuine improvement in ordinary living standards, one of Hitler’s stated main aims: as rearmament intensified, shortages of food and other essential goods emerged, and any wage increases came about only through longer working hours.
  • Even the policy of preparedness for war ultimately failed — Hitler’s plans were designed for completion by the early 1940s, and in 1939 Germany’s economy was not yet ready for a major war, though strong enough to defeat Poland and France.
  • Some historians argue Hitler resisted pressure from his advisers to prepare for a prolonged war, believing Germany had no realistic chance of winning one.

Was Hitler Genuinely Popular?

View I: Hitler Was Genuinely Popular

• Hitler’s achievements in foreign affairs proved extremely popular, with each new success — the announcement of rearmament, the remilitarisation of the Rhineland, the Anschluss (union) with Austria, and the incorporation of Czechoslovakia into the Reich — seeming to confirm that Germany was reasserting her rightful position as a great power.
  • This was where Goebbels’s propaganda arguably achieved its greatest impact on public opinion, building Hitler’s image as a charismatic and infallible Messiah destined to restore the Fatherland’s greatness.
  • Even amid limited enthusiasm for war itself, Hitler’s popularity reached new heights in the summer of 1940 with the rapid defeat of France.
• There is evidence that Hitler himself was genuinely popular, even where certain sections of the Nazi party were not; many people did not associate him personally with the excesses of the more extreme party members.
  • Ordinary Germans genuinely believed Hitler’s promise to raise their living standards, while the middle and propertied classes, grateful that he had restored law and order, even approved of the concentration camps — believing that communists and other “anti-social troublemakers” deserved to be sent there.
  • The propaganda machine reinforced this belief, portraying the camps as centres of “re-education” where undesirables were turned into useful citizens.

View II: Hitler Did Not Enjoy Widespread Support

• Many historians believe Hitler did not enjoy widespread genuine support after his first few years in power.
  • The endless propaganda, combined with restrictive educational reforms, narrow cultural limits, and constant military parades and Nazi celebrations, eventually led to boredom and escapism once the initial novelty wore off.
  • Fear of arrest and violence, on this view, remained the main reason the vast majority of the population simply tolerated the Nazis, rather than genuinely supporting them.
• It was during 1941 that Hitler’s image first became seriously tarnished: as the war dragged on, and Hitler declared war on the USA, doubts about his infallibility began to creep in, and the realisation gradually dawned that the war could not be won.
  • The general public, however, remained loyal to the bitter end — partly through fear of the consequences of appearing to turn against the Nazis, and partly through fatalism.

Was Hitler a Weak Dictator?

• Some historians argue that Hitler was, in effect, a “weak dictator”.
  • Despite all the propaganda surrounding the charismatic leader and “man of destiny,” Hitler is said to have had no special programme or plan of his own, but simply exploited circumstances as they arose.
  • Many of the policies attributed to Hitler were, on this view, actually instigated or pressed on him by others, and only subsequently adopted and championed by him.
• The opposing view holds that Hitler was an all-powerful dictator — genuinely “master in the Third Reich.”
  • In practice, he hardly behaved like a “weak dictator”: his early foreign policy successes, the suppression of the SA in 1934, and the decisions he took during 1939–40 at the peak of his popularity show nothing weak about his leadership.
  • Clearly, Hitler could not have carried out Nazi policy without the support of many influential groups in society — the army, big business, heavy industry, the law courts, and the civil service. But equally, without Hitler at the head, much of what unfolded during the terrible twelve years of the Third Reich would have been unthinkable.

Hitler’s foreign policy, the policy of appeasement, and the Second World War are discussed separately in the topics covering the World Wars.