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Hitler - Rise to power

Hitlers Rise to Power


The War Guilt Clause
1. Field Marshall von Hindenburg said that the Weimar Republic politicians had stabbed Germany
in the back by agreeing the Paris Peace.
2. Nationalists labelled the politicians who signed Versailles as the November Criminals.
3. Clause 231 stated The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the
responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied
and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the
war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.
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2.
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3.
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3.

WWI Reparations
In April 1921 reparations were set at 132 billion gold marks.
In early January 1923 the Reparation Commission declared Germany to be in default of
payments of timber and coal.
This resulted in the French occupation of the Ruhr, despite British opposition.
i. Occupation of the Ruhr resulted in a brief return of the spirit of 1914
(patriotism that united German people at the outbreak of WWI).
Reparation payments were suspended and Ruhr workers showed passive resistance by refusing
to work for the French.
i. Ultimately these tactics worked and deliveries to the French were
reduced significantly.
To subsidize the strikers and to make up for lost tax revenues during the Ruhr occupation, the
German government printed money.
This resulted in hyper-inflation and by August 1923 the mark was virtually valueless.
i. One dollar was worth 4.2 trillion marks in October 1923.
The Young Plan of 1929 reduced reparations from 6600 million pounds to 200 million pounds.
Unemployment in Germany
Unemployment rose to 6 million in 1932.
By 1932 almost one in three workers were officially registered as unemployed.
In industrial areas such as Silesia and the Ruhr, the proportion was even higher.
Many of the younger unemployed attempted to escape the tedium of unemployment by joining
paramilitary forces. This included the rights SA or the lefts Rotfront under the KDP.

Weak Weimar Leadership


1. Article 48 of the Weimar constitution stated that the president could declare a state of emergency
and use special powers to rule by decree.
a. This would by-pass the Reichstag and was a potential weakness of the Weimar Republic.
2. The Weimar constitution employed proportional representation.
a. This facilitated the growth of various small parties and resulted in weak coalition governments.

b.
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4.
a.

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a.
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a.

4.
a.

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2.
a.

In 1919 elections the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Catholic Centre Party (ZP) and the
German Democratic Party (DDP) gained 76 per cent of the vote, 1920 elections, this dropped to
48 per cent.
A legal obligation of the government required it to call a referendum if a tenth of the voters
demanded it.
This was a destabilizing factor and prevented the government from efficient action.
During the Kapp Putsch of March 1920, right-wingers under Wolfgang Kapp tried to seize
government after the government tried to disband the Freikorps.
Though the revolt was ultimately a failure, the Weimar Republics lack of control over the army
was demonstrated since the army refused to actively suppress the revolt.
Role of the SS
In July 1921 the Nazi Partys own paramilitary force, the Strumabteilung (SA), a Freikorps
group, were founded.
Also called brown shirts, were an imitation of Mussolinis black shirts.
Hitler led 600 armed SA men during the Beer Hall Putzsch to try and take over government
buildings.
Despite its failure, the Putzsche gave Hitler revolutionary credentials.
Threat of Communism
The Spartacus Union, led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, and the left wing of the
USPD advocated a socialist Germany.
They wanted a socialist parliament, a red army or workers militia, and the nationalization of
all medium to large-sized farms and key industries.
The Spartacus Union and the Bremen left-wing radicals united to create the German Communist
Party (KPD).
The uprising organized by the KPD in January 1918 was ruthlessly crushed by the military and
Freikorps units. Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg were murdered.
The failure was called the revolutions battle of the Marne. (E. Kolb, The Weimar Republic.
1988.)
i. The German advance on Paris was stopped at the Marne in September
1914.
For four months following the January attempt at uprising by the KPD, strikes and riots broke
out throughout the Reich and soviet republics were declared in Munich, Bremen, Muhlheim
and Halle.
The army and the Freikorps units brutally crushed the revolts, which caused an increasing
polarization in German society.
Fascist Ideology
Nazism employed volkisch nationalism, which was an extreme form of nationalism. It was based
on extreme forms of racism.
The white race was superior to all others, and the purest form of the white race was the blondhaired and blue-eyed Aryan who inhabited the forests of Germany during the Dark Ages. The
formed the master-race, Herrenvolk.
Social Darwinism was used to justify the Aryan superiority over Jews.
Aryans were the master race and the Jews were a universal scourge.

3. Nazi philosophy was outlined in Hitlers Mein Kampf.


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a.
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3.
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a.

Stock Market Crash


In July 1931 the German banking system plunged into crisis when the Austrian bank, the
Kreditanstalt, collapsed in Vienna.
This triggered a large scale withdrawal of deposits from German banks, from individuals who
feared a similar collapse.
On July 13 1921 the Darmstadter und Natoinalbank (DANAT) stopped all payments, and two
dats later it was joined by the other German banks.
The German government immediately invested 1 billion marks into the banks.
This allowed the mark to float separate from the gold standard. It was key in avoiding a total
banking
crash.
Cult of Personality
After establishing the National Socialist German Workers Party in February 1920, it also
incorporated a new design created by Hitler. This was a black swastika on a white and red
background.
The Nazi Party had their own newspaper, the Peoples observer in Munich following December
1920.
After his arrest following the Beer Hall Putzsch, Hitler was allowed to make speeches in his
defence which received nationwide publicity in the newspapers.
Despite its failure, the Putzsche gave Hitler revolutionary credentials.
Hitler wrote the first volume of Mein Kampf in 1924, outlining his view of history and the
future.
This outline the philosophy of Naziism: Volkisch nationalism.

Three Quotes
1. Hans Frank, who later became Governor-General of German-occupied Poland in 1939, stated:
Hitler alone would be capable of mastering Germanys fate.
Historiography
1. David G. Williamson. The age of dictators. 2007. The Weimar Republic was the seedbed of
Nazism.
2. Detlev Peukert. The Weimar Republic: The Crisis of Classical Modernity. The Depression was
a trigger to the abandonment of a political system which had already lost its legitimacy.
3. Wolfgang Mommsen. Imperial Germany, 1867-1918. 1995. The fate of the Weimar Republic
was sealed from the start.

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