This covers pages 152 – 159 of the 9^th grade text book:’GCSE Modern World History’ by Ben Walsh.

THE RISE OF HITLER

In 1929 the American stock market (money market) crashed and lots of American businessmen lost money. America now had a very bad economic situation. This was called the DEPRESSION. This affected other countries, too. American banks had lent money to other countries – now they wanted their money back. Germany had borrowed money from America. They had to pay it back. Lots of German banks and businesses went BANKRUPT (they had no more money). Lots of people lost their jobs and became UNEMPLOYED.

Governments all over the world had similar problems and didn’t know what to do. Germany’s Weimar government didn’t know what to do either. The Depression affected Germany more than other countries because they’d borrowed so much from America and also because they had to pay back the reparations. Also, Germany’s CONSTITUTION had a very careful balance of power and it wasn’t easy for the Weimar government to pass laws to try and solve the country’s economic problems. (A CONSTITUTION is the system of laws and rules that say how a country should be governed. Each country has its own CONSTITUTION.) This made the Weimar government seem weak.

Enter the Nazis!

Hitler’s ideas now seemed very important to many people. He said:

· Do you think the Weimar government is weak and can’t make decisions? Germany needs a strong leader!

· Are reparations keeping the country poor? Then kick out the Treaty of Versailles!

· Is unemployment a problem? Then give the unemployed (people who have no job) some work to do. Let them join the army, make weapons so we can protect ourselves and build big new roads!

Hitler had written down Twenty-Five Points which were all the things he thought Germany should do. (See p.148 of your book:’GCSE Modern World History’ B.Walsh.)  These ideas now seemed very good to some people in German society. These were the people who were very weak and could be easily affected by money problems e.g. the unemployed, the elderly (old people), and the middle classes. Hitler told them who they should blame for Germany’s troubles: the Allies, the Germans who had signed the Treaty of Versailles and the Jews. People had heard him say this before and they hadn’t listened to him but now it seemed that the Weimar government, a democratic party, could not get Germany back to work so people started to listen to Hitler.

The Nazis began to get more popular. In the 1930 election, the Nazis got 107 seats in the government. In November 1932, they got almost 200. They were now the biggest single party in Germany, even though they didn’t yet have an overall MAJORITY in the government.

Why did the Nazis get so many votes in the elections?

In the 1930s, the Nazis had lots of power in Germany. They had a PROPAGANDA chief called Josef Goebbels. (PROPAGANDA is ideas or information which is given out to make people agree with something. Usually, this is to make people agree with a particular political idea. Often, the information is false or exaggerated – made ‘bigger’ than it really is. Propaganda is usually given out through posters, radio, newspapers or television.)  Goebbels was very good at getting across the Nazi message to the German people.

Nazi campaigning.

When there is an election in a country, each political party has a CAMPAIGN. This is a lot of planned activities which will make people vote for them and not the other parties. The Nazi campaigns were modern and worked very well. They talked about bringing the people of Germany together behind one leader. They talked about going back to an old ‘traditional’ way of life – although they didn’t give a lot of details about this. They didn’t give a lot of details about lots of their policies (plans). This meant that it was difficult for people to criticize them (disagree with them). They just kept repeating that they believed Jews, Communists, Weimar politicians and the Treaty of Versailles were to blame for all Germany’s problems. They said that the Weimar government was too weak to solve Germany’s problems. The Nazis had big, loud meetings called RALLIES. They also made lots of posters and pamphlets which told people about their ideas.

At this time, there were lots of street fights between the Communists and the police. Also, large groups of unemployed men would meet on street corners and often make trouble. The SA and the SS (both were groups of Hitler’s private soldiers and bodyguards) seemed very well-disciplined. People felt that the country needed ordered, disciplined men like these – not the loud men on the street corners. The SA often had fights with the Communists. They were better organized than the Communists and the police and ordinary soldiers were often happy to let them beat up the Communists. The SA also broke up Communist meetings and rallies.

The Nazis also organized soup kitchens for people who had no jobs. (A soup kitchen is a place where poor people can get free food.)

The Nazis biggest advantage in their campaigns, however, was Hitler. He was a very powerful speaker. He made people listen to him. He travelled all over Germany by plane He seemed to be a man with lots of energy and lots of modern ideas leading a modern party. He appeared as a

‘man of the people’ (an ordinary man) - someone who could understand an ordinary man’s problems.

More people started to support the Nazi party. However, not all of them agreed with what the Nazis said. Some people supported them because they had the same fears and dislikes as the Nazis. This is called NEGATIVE COHESION (people coming together because they DON’T like the same things – not because they LIKE the same things.) They joined together because of negatives not positives. They thought:’ if you hate what I hate, then you can’t be all bad!’

People were not happy with democracy.

One of the things that people disliked the most was the democratic Weimar government. The politicians did not seem to be able to solve the problems of the Depression. People were also very frightened of the Communists becoming too powerful. Middle-class small business owners had read about what had happened in Russia when the Communists had come to power. They had taken the businesses away from the middle-classes. The industrialists (big factory owners) were also worried that the communists would take away their businesses too and bring them under state control (control by the government).The industrialists were also worried about the trade unions which were getting very powerful (a TRADE UNION is a group of workers who join together and try to get more pay and a better working life for its members).The industrialists thought that the Nazi party would be good at controlling them. They started to give money to the Nazi party. All farmers were worried about the communists. They had heard that in Russia, the Communists had taken over all the farms and controlled them. They began to support the Nazis, too.

The Social Democratic Party thought that the German people would not listen to the Nazi talk and promises. They were wrong – they didn’t realize how unhappy people were with the Weimar government.

HOW DID HITLER BECOME CHANCELLOR IN 1933?

After the elections in 1932, the Nazis were the biggest single party in Germany. They were not, however, a majority party (they didn’t have more seats in the Reichstag - parliament – than any other party.)

In Germany, there was the post (job) of President and then there was also the post of Chancellor. The President had more power than the Chancellor. He could choose who got the job of Chancellor. The President of Germany in 1933 was a man called Hindenburg. Hitler went to Hindenburg and said he MUST give him the job of Chancellor. Hindenburg was not sure if Hitler was a good man and said no. A man called von Papen was already the Chancellor and Hindenburg let him carry on with the job. The President could also pass ‘emergency laws’ if necessary and he didn’t have to ask anyone else for permission to do this. Hindenburg now used this power to pass emergency laws to try and solve the unemployment problem.

However, this didn’t work. The Chancellor, von Papen, saw that he had almost no support for these laws in the Reichstag (parliament) and he called another election in November 1932.  The results of this election were that the Nazis were still the biggest party in Germany but the actual number of votes they got had fallen.

Hitler was very angry about this. He had lost more than 2 million votes and 38 seats in the Reichstag. The Nazis started to run out of money. Hitler said he would kill himself!

Again, Hindenburg refused to give Hitler the job of Chancellor. Instead, he gave the job to a man called von Schleicher. However, in only a month, von Schleicher had to resign (give up his job) as Chancellor. It was clear to everyone that the Weimar system of government was not working. Hindenburg had already used his emergency powers. This was not a very democratic way of running a country – already democracy in Germany was dying. Hindenburg needed a Chancellor who had a lot of support in the Reichstag. Hitler had this support.

Hindenburg and von Papen had lots of meetings with army leaders, big businessmen, industrialists and politicians. On January 30^th, 1933, Hindenburg said offered Hitler the post (job) of Chancellor.

Why did he do this? He believed that with the help of the other politicians, army leaders, industrialists, etc. he could control Hitler. He could decide what laws should be passed and how the country should be run. Hitler would make sure that these laws were passed and that Hindenburg’s plans would be followed. Hitler could do this because he had so much support in the Reichstag. So Hitler got the post of Chancellor. He didn’t get this because most German people voted for him. He got it because of Hindenburg’s secret plans and deals. Hindenburg and the others thought they could control Hitler. They were both wrong.

HITLER’ S DICTATORSHIP.

Hitler began to get more and more power. By summer 1934, he was a DICTATOR (he had complete control and did not allow anyone to disagree with him). He did this in several different ways.

The Reichstag Fire.

In March 1933, Hitler called another election. Once again, there were a lot of rallies, speeches and street fighting. Hitler now had control of the newspapers and control of the streets. However, it still was not clear if the Nazis had got enough seats in the Reichstag. On 27^th February, something happened which got the Nazis more support. The Reichstag building burnt down. Hitler said that the Communists had done it. He said that the fire was the beginning of a Communist revolution. He said he wanted special ‘emergency powers’ to deal with the Communists. President Hindenburg gave him these special powers. The Nazis used these powers to arrest Communists, break up meetings and frighten voters. Today, we still don’t know why the fire started. Some people say it was an accident, some people say a madman did it and some people say it was a Communist plot. Many Germans at the time thought that the Nazis had started the fire themselves so that people would become frightened of the Communists and vote for them.

In the election, the Nazis won more votes than ever before. He now had complete control in the Reichstag. He used the SA and the SS and frightened the Reichstag. He made the Reichstag passed the ‘Enabling Act.’ This was very important because it meant that he could pass laws without asking the Reichstag if they agreed with them. Only the SPD voted against him. The Communists had been banned (they were not allowed to be a political party in Germany any more).

Hitler still didn’t feel as if he had control, however. He has seen how the army, the lawyers                   and other groups had not supported the Weimar government – he didn’t want the same thing to happen to him. He wanted to get rid of ALL the people who might be against him.

The Night of the Long Knives.

    Hitler banned all other political parties in Germany – the Nazi Party was now the only one allowed. Anyone who was against them had either left Germany or had been put in special concentration camps (like prison camps) run by the SS. Hitler still didn’t feel safe, though. The top army officers did not like him and they didn’t trust the SA and its leader, Ernst Roehm. The SA was a rough group with very bad discipline. Roehm had talked about making it into a second German army.  Hitler didn’t like this. He didn’t trust Roehm either. Roehm had control over the 4 million SA men and Hitler thought that this made him very dangerous. He thought that maybe Roehm would try and take his power away from him.

     Hitler decided to act quickly. On the weekend of 29^th – 30^th June teams of SS men broke into Roehm’s home and also the homes of other SA leaders. They arrested them. Hitler said that they had been plotting (planning) to overthrow him (push him out of power) and murder him. Over the weekend, Roehm and about 400 others were executed (shot). This weekend became known as the Night of the Long Knives.

    Hindenburg thanked Hitler for stopping this ‘plot.’ The army was very happy about it, too. The SA was not split up but from this point it was always less important than the SS. It lost a lot of its power. Many of the men in it joined the regular army or the SS.

   Der Fuehrer.

     Soon after this, Hindenburg died. Hitler became Supreme Leader (Fuehrer) of Germany. The army promised that it would support him and the army leaders said they would stay out of politics. In return for this, Hitler spent lots of money on weapons, brought back conscription (this is when men MUST join the army – they have no choice) and started to make Germany into a strong military power again.