Emergence of Hitler

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Emergence of Hitler Part II
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Hitlers Early Years

• Born in the Austrian town of Braunau on April 20,
  1889
• He dropped out of school when he was 16
• He attempted to gain entrance into the Academy of
  Fine Arts in Vienna, but was rejected
• He instead picked up on the anti-Semitic and
  racialist ideas in Vienna at the time
• Volunteered for the Bavarian army as a dispatch
  messenger, but was never promoted beyond the rank
  of corporal

Hitler
Hitlers sketch of himself
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Hitler In WWI

• When the war ended, Hitler was in a hospital
  recovering from the effects of a poison gas
  attack that had left him temporarily blinded
• He was angry with what he thought was apathy back
  at the home front
• His interest in politics and loyalty caused the
  army to retain him in a division for military
  education. One of his tasks was to investigate
  and infiltrate dubious, possibly left-wing,
  political groups
• In this way, he came to join Anton Drexlers
  small German Workers Party

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German Workers Party

• Being a naturally skilled political agitator and
  an orator, he moved up in the party quickly. In
  1921, Hitler led that party, renamed the National
  Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP or Nazis).
  In 1923, there were 55,000 supporters
• At this point, Hitler saw himself as the
  propagandist to help to power the extreme
  nationalists who would rescue Germany from
  Bolshevism, the Jews, and the Versailles Treaty

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Beer Hall Putsch

• In November 1923, Hitler sought to seize power
  and attempted the Beer Hall Putsch (coup)
• Hitler fled when the police opened fire.
  Ludendorff, who was with him, stayed and marched
  through the cordon of police
• Hitler had expected that he would seize power
  without bloodshed and that the police and army
  would rally to the Ludendorff-Hitler alliance
• The coup failed when the police and army didnt
  join Hitlers putsch

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Hitler In Jail

• His trial was conducted in Bavaria by judges who
  sympathized with his cause
• He was sentenced to a minimum of 5 years
  imprisonment, but he actually only served a few
  months
• While in prison, he wrote Mein Kampf (about his
  beliefs), and after his release began to rebuild
  the party
• The trial gained him popularity the book became
  popular only after he rose to power

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Gaining Power Legally

• In 1925, Hitler judged that the government was
  too strong to be seized by illegal force, so he
  would follow the legal path to power
• He never showed anything but contempt for the
  Reichstag, and though leader of the majority
  party, would never himself take part in its
  proceedings
• During the period from 1925 to 1928, he built up
  his party and made a propaganda machine
• Party membership reached 97,000 in 1929. The
  economic crisis helped the Nazis

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Reichstag Fire

• After a series of ineffective chancellors,
  Hindenburg granted Hitler the chancellorship in
  1933
• Occurred on February 27, 1933, probably by
  Dutchman Marinus van der Lubbe alone (he was a
  little crazy). Historians arent sure if he was
  the only one involved, but he probably was
• The Nazis blamed the Communists and used this
  charge to crack down on Communist party
  officials, but to suspend civil rights as well

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New Elections

• As a condition for accepting office, Hitler had
  insisted on new elections, intending to gain an
  absolute majority
• Because of the Reichstag fire and under cover of
  emergency decree, the Nazis terrorized their
  opponents. Joseph Goebbels manipulated the press
  and radio to help secure a Nazi victory
• However, the Nazis didnt gain a 2/3 majority
  needed to pass an Enabling Bill that would give
  Hitler dictatorial powers in times of emergency
• With the Nationalist Party, the Nazis could gain
  a majority, but not 2/3

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Enabling Act

• All communists were arrested by the Gestapo
  (secret police) or were being hunted down. In
  addition, more than 20 Socialists were under
  arrest or prevented from attending
• On the day the vote took place, SS personnel
  surrounded the building in which the Reichstag
  met, while SA troopers stationed themselves
  inside and chanted, We want the bill or fire and
  murder!
• Eventually, the Center Party gave in to Hitler
  and agreed to vote for the Enabling Act
• Only the Social Democrats voted against the bill.
  It passed by 347 votes on March 23, 1933
• Hitler proclaimed the Third Reich 1st was the
  medieval Holy Roman Empire and the 2nd was WWI

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Gleischaltung

• Means coordination (firmly established a
  dictatorship)
• Nazi bodies were set up to supervise all the
  activities of society, which were to be forcibly
  subordinated
• Government
• Administration
• Press
• Trade unions
• Education
• Hitler insisted on his own final say and to
  maintain some of the traditional structures of
  German society if he needed to overcome doubt
• He decided not to interfere with the army at
  first, but later applied Gleischaltung to them as
  well

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Not Being Too Bold

• Knew the German people would need to accept the
  harshness and brutality of his regime in stages
• Would use euphemisms
• Becoming dictator an act for relieving the
  distress of the nation
• Invading a country protecting it
• Destroying a town pacifying it
• Concentration camps preventative detention or
  reeducation
• Death camps final solution or resettlement
• Although he was breaching civil rights against
  Jews with the Nuremberg Laws, he gave the outward
  appearance of acting mildly and reasonably, and
  always in conformity with proper laws

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Consolidating Power

• German states - In March 1933, Hitler abolished
  independent powers of the federal states
• Jews - In April, a decree purged the civil
  service unreliable elements - Jews and those of
  Jewish descent
• Political parties - By the summer, the remaining
  parties were disbanded. Communist leaders were
  already in the new concentration camps
• Religion - The Vatican decided to conclude a
  treaty the Concordat with Hitler in an effort
  to protect Catholic interests

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Consolidating Power

• Labor unions - The trade unions were quickly
  suppressed, and the workers enrolled in the Nazi
  Labor Front
• Mass media - The press and broadcasting were
  placed under Goebbels direction
• Education
• The universities did not put up any resistance.
  Many professors out of opportunity and for the
  sake of their careers supported the Nazis
• Curriculum from the elementary through the
  university level fell in line with Nazi ideas
  stressed character building and physical skills
  the Nazi way (volkisch themes)

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Book Burnings

• Academics participated in the famous burning of
  the books by Jewish and anti-Nazi authors
• Scientists, writers, and artists joined the
  national revolution of the Nazis
• Theologians made Christ an Aryan

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Heinrich Himmler

• Dachau was the first concentration camp,
  established near Munich in 1933
• It was headed by Heinrich Himmler, head of the
  Bavarian political police
• It became a model for others. By the end of the
  summer, 30,000 Germans were held in concentration
  camps
• Himmler soon advanced to become the head of the
  SS and the police throughout the Reich
• Knowledge of concentration camps was a deterrent
  to any thought of opposition from all except the
  courageous

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Nazi Groups

• Gestapo secret police that tracked down enemies
  of the regime
• SS original purpose was to serve as Hitlers
  bodyguard later took the SAs place
• SA (Brownshirts or Stormtroopers) paramilitary
  group that was to
• Discourage opposition with
• violence
• Staff concentration camps
• Protect the Nazi party

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Night of the Long Knives

• Hitler decided to get rid of some sources of
  opposition
• He feared Rohm might use the SA to seize power
• Some SA members were still keen on the original
  ideas of the Nazis a Socialist Revolution
• They wanted rich landowners and big businesses to
  be swept away or taken over

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Ernst Roehm

• Ernst Roehm, the leader of the SA, also clashed
  with Hitler
• Hitler wished to draw on the young stormtroopers
  (SA) who would be trained as a large armed force
  that could quickly augment the regular army in
  time of crisis
• Roehm wanted his Brownshirts to become the new
  German army. With him in charge, of course

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Getting Rid of the SA

• He got his friends to compile hit-lists of
  disloyal SA men.
• Himmler, Heydrich and Goering were keen to do
  this.

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Night of the Long KnivesJune 30, 1934

• The SS and the police arrest dozens of SA
  leaders.
• Many are shot dead in their homes, others are
  taken to camps for execution.
• Rohm is jailed, and shot the next day.
• Strasser is also shot dead.
• Hitler even takes the opportunity to have von
  Schleicher, the ex-chancellor, killed.
• Over 1,000 opponents were killed.

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Hindenburg

• On August 2, 1934, Hindenburg dies. He was the
  only other man still more popular than Hitler
• After Hindenburg died, Hitler announced that the
  offices of president and chancellor were merged
  in one person, Hitler, who now became Fuhrer and
  Reich Chancellor
• This violated Article 48, but the people approved
  through a plebiscite
• Hitler also had the army on his side because he
  promised to increase the size of the army and
  provide it with modern equipment
• As a result, they took an oath of allegiance and
  loyalty to Hitler

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Hindenburgs Burial - Tannenberg, East Prussia
(today Stebark, Poland) His coffin was dug up
as the Soviets approached and was later found by
American troops at a salt mine
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The Fuehrer Oath
I swear by almighty God this sacred oath I will
render unconditional obedience to the Fuehrer of
the German Reich and people, Adolf
Hitler, Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht, and,
as a brave soldier, I will be ready at any time
to stake my life for this oath.
Now the army was voluntarily to serve Hitler