CLASS IX- NAZISM & THE RISE OF HITLER
KEYWORDS
1. Nuremberg Tribunal
2. Genocidal war
3. Reichstag
4. Weimar Republic
5. War Guilt Clause
6. Catholics
7. Trench Life
8. Spartacist League
9. Hyperinflation
[Link] Street Exchange
[Link] Representation
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[Link] Propaganda
[Link] Camps
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19. Jungvolk
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Weimar Republic
In the early years of the twentieth century, Germany fought the First World War (1914-1918)
alongside the Austrian empire and against the Allies (England, France and Russia.). All
resources of Europe were drained out because of the war. Germany occupied France and
Belgium. But, unfortunately, Allies, strengthened by the US entry in 1917, won, defeating
Germany and the Central Powers in November 1918.
At Weimar, the National Assembly met and established a democratic constitution with a
federal structure. In the German Parliament, deputies were elected on the basis of equal and
universal votes cast by all adults including women.
Germany lost its overseas colonies. The War Guilt Clause held Germany responsible for the
war and damages the Allied countries suffered. The Allied armies occupied Rhineland in the
1920s.
The Impact of the War
The war of guilt and national humiliation was carried by the republic and was financially crippled
by being forced to pay compensation.
Socialists, Catholics and Democrats, supported the Weimar Republic and they were mockingly
called the ‘November criminals’.
The First World War left a deep imprint on European society and polity.
Democracy was a young and fragile idea, which could not survive the instabilities of interwar
Europe.
Political developments
The Weimar Republic birth coincided with the revolutionary uprising of the Spartacist League on
the pattern of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. They crushed the uprising with the help of a
war veterans organisation called Free Corps.
The high prices of commodities led to a critical condition. This crisis came to be known as
hyperinflation, a situation when prices rise phenomenally high.
Economic Depression
The years between 1924 and 1928 saw some stability. The support of short-term loans was
withdrawn when the Wall Street Exchange crashed in 1929. Great Economic Depression started
and over the next three years, between 1929 and 1932, the national income of the USA fell by
half.
The economy of Germany was the worst hit. Workers became jobless and went on streets with
placards saying, ‘Willing to do any work’. Youth indulged themselves in criminal activities.
The middle class and small businessmen were filled with the fear of proletarianisation, anxiety
of being reduced to the ranks of the working class or unemployment.
Politically also the Weimar Republic was fragile. The Weimar constitution due to some inherent
defects made it unstable and vulnerable to dictatorship. One inherent defect was proportional
representation. Another defect was Article 48, which gave the President the powers to impose
emergency, suspend civil rights and rule by decree.
The Rise of Hitler
Hitler was an Austrian who had fought in the First World War. He joined a small group called the
German Workers’ Party in 1919. He took over the organisation and renamed it the National
Socialist German Workers’ Party, which later came to be known as the Nazi Party.
Germany was economically and politically battered. In such a situation, Nazi propaganda stirred
hopes of a better future.
Promises Made: Hitler was a powerful speaker and his words moved people. In his speech, he
promised to build a strong nation, undo the injustice of the Versailles Treaty and restore the
dignity of the German people. He also promised employment for those looking for work and a
secure future for the youth. He promised to weed out all foreign influences and resist all foreign
‘conspiracies’ against Germany.
Style: Hitler started following a new style of politics and his followers held big rallies and public
meetings to demonstrate support. According to the Nazi propaganda, Hitler was called a
messiah, a saviour, as someone who had arrived to deliver people from their distress.
How Hitler destroyed Democracy
President Hindenburg offered the Chancellorship, on 30 January 1933, the highest position in the
cabinet of ministers, to Hitler.
The Fire Decree of 28 February 1933 suspended civic rights like freedom of speech, press and
assembly that had been guaranteed by the Weimar constitution.
On 3 March 1933, the famous Enabling Act was passed which established dictatorship in Germany.
The state took control over the economy, media, army and judiciary.
Apart from the already existing regular police in green uniform and the SA or the Storm Troopers,
these included the Gestapo (secret state police), the SS (the protection squads), criminal police and
the Security Service (SD).
Reconstruction
Economic recovery was assigned to the economist Hjalmar Schacht by Hitler who aimed at full
production and full employment through a state-funded work-creation programme. This project
produced the famous German superhighways and the people’s car, the Volkswagen.
Hitler ruled out the League of Nations in 1933, reoccupied the Rhineland in 1936, and integrated
Austria and Germany in 1938 under the slogan, One people, One empire and One leader.
Schacht advised Hitler against investing hugely in rearmament as the state still ran on deficit
financing.
Nazi view of the World
Nazis are linked to a system of belief and a set of practices. According to their ideology, there
was no equality between people, but only a racial hierarchy.
Racism of Hitler borrowed from thinkers like Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer. The argument
of Nazi was simple: the strongest race would survive and the weak ones would perish. The Aryan
race was the finest who retained its purity, became stronger and dominated the world.
The other aspect of Hitler’s ideology related to the geopolitical concept of Lebensraum, or living
space. Hitler intended to extend German boundaries by moving eastwards, to concentrate all
Germans geographically in one place.
Establishment of the Racial State
Nazis came into power and quickly began to implement their dream of creating an exclusive
racial community of pure Germans. They wanted a society of ‘pure and healthy Nordic Aryans’.
Nazis had condemned to death many Germans who were considered mentally or physically
unfit. Germany occupied Poland and parts of Russia, captured civilians and forced them to work
as slave labour.
Jews remained the worst sufferers in Nazi Germany. Hitler hated Jews based on
pseudoscientific theories of race. From 1933 to 1938 the Nazis terrorised, pauperised and
segregated the Jews, compelling them to leave the country.
Youth under Hitler
Hitler was interested in the youth of the country. Schools were cleansed and purified.
Germans and Jews were not allowed to sit or play together.
Children were taught to be loyal and submissive, hate Jews and worship Hitler.
Youth organisations were responsible for educating German youth in ‘the spirit of National
Socialism’.
At the age of 14, boys had to join the Nazi youth organisation where they were taught to worship
war, glorify aggression and violence, condemn democracy, and hate Jews, communists, Gypsies
and all those categorised as ‘undesirable’.
Later, they joined the Labour Service, at the age of 18 and served in the armed forces and enter
one of the Nazi organisations. In 1922, the Youth League of the Nazis was founded.
Women and Motherhood in Nazi Germany
In Nazi Germany, children were told women were different from men. Boys were taught to be
aggressive, masculine and steel hearted and girls were told to become good mothers and rear pure-
blooded Aryan children.
Girls had to maintain purity of the race, distance from Jews, look after their home and teach their
children Nazi values.
But all mothers were not treated equally. Honours Crosses were awarded to those who encouraged
women to produce more children.
Bronze cross for four children, silver for six and gold for eight or more. Women who maintained
contact with Jews, Poles and Russians were paraded through the town with shaved heads,
blackened faces and placards hanging around their necks announcing ‘I have sullied the honour of
the nation’.
Propaganda
Nazis termed mass killings as special treatment, final solution (for the Jews), euthanasia (for the
disabled), selection and disinfections. ‘Evacuation’ meant deporting people to gas chambers. Gas
chambers were labelled as ‘‘disinfection-areas’, and looked like bathrooms equipped with fake
showerheads.
Nazi ideas were spread through visual images, films, radio, posters, catchy slogans and leaflets.
Orthodox Jews were stereotyped and marked and were referred to as vermin, rats and pests. The
Nazis made equal efforts to appeal to all the different sections of the population. They sought to win
their support by suggesting that Nazis alone could solve all their problems.
Nazism and the Common people
People started seeing the world through Nazi eyes and spoke their Nazi language. They felt hatred
and anger against Jews and genuinely believed Nazism would bring prosperity and improve general
well-being.
Holocaust
The war ended and Germany was defeated. While Germans were preoccupied with their own plight,
the Jews wanted the world to remember the atrocities and sufferings they had endured during the
Nazi killing operations – also called the Holocaust. When they lost the war, the Nazi leadership
distributed petrol to its functionaries to destroy all incriminating evidence available in offices.
