Rise of Nazism Following Germany's defeat in 1918, the democratically elected Weimar Republic replaced the monarchical rule of the Kaiser. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the new German government not only had to pay billions in war reparations, but it also was not allowed to have an army. The Weimar Republic, appearing weak to the demoralized German people, became especially unpopular during the Great Depression. The rolls of the unemployed swelled due to the weak German economy. Large numbers of young men, including many World War I veterans, found themselves with few job prospects. Such an environment fostered alienation and bitterness. Many Germans perceived the Weimar Republic to be too weak
|
To solve the country's problems, Germans looked to right-wing political parties that promised strong action. Hitler had declared his extreme anti-Semitic views in his book Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"), which he began writing in 1924 while in a Bavarian prison after a failed coup attempt. The National Socialist German Worker's Party, or the Nazis, came to power legally after the party did well in the 1932 parliamentary elections. In early 1933, the president of Germany, Paul von Hindenburg, invited Adolf Hitler to form a government as chancellor, which he did. Hindenburg died in 1934, giving Hitler the opening he needed to declare himself president. Through manipulation, the Nazi Party instilled fear and panic in the German people, making them believe that they were in a state of emergency. For example, the Nazis staged a burning of the Reichstag, the German parliament building, and blamed communists for the act. Using domestic security as justification, Hitler outlawed all other political parties and all forms of resistance to his rule.
|
Hitler’s Germany was a totalitarian Fascist state. Fascism is a political ideology usually characterized by authoritarianism and nationalism. Hitler openly promoted ultranationalism and scientific racism, a pseudoscientific theory that claimed that certain races were genetically superior to others. He also advanced an extreme form of anti-Semitism, or hostility toward Jews. He filled his speeches with accusations against German Jews, whom Hitler claimed were responsible for the nation's domestic problems. Nazi propaganda emphasized a need for a "pure" German nation of "Aryans," purged of "outsiders"—not only Jews, but also Slavs, communists, Roma (also known as Gypsies), and gay men and women. Hitler suggested that the only way for Germany to live up to its potential was to eliminate the corrupting influence of these erotic's. Particularly the Jews.
Hitler used the idea of corporatism a theory based on the idea that sectors of the economy- employers, trade unions, the government - are seen as separate organs of the same body. Each sector is supposed to work for its own benefit but also for the benefit of the whole society or the body. Using the idea of corporatism the German state began to take an active role in the German economic recovery. Hitler banned all unions, froze wages. They also established a policy of increasing state investment and control across a variety of high-employment areas, from agriculture, to small businesses. Germany had to reduce its military by over 99%, which humiliated the once powerful Germany. Adolf Hitler promised to rebuild the military and the idea that having an industrialized and effective military illustrates the strength and power of the German nation. Hitler’s main goal was economic self-sufficiency, and removing dependence on foreign investment, imports and trade.