Nazi Germany

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Nazi Germany

• Global History and Geography IV

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INTRODUCTION
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Anti-Intellectualism

• A sentiment of hostility towards, or mistrust of,
  intellectuals and intellectual pursuits
• Attacks merits of science, education, literature
• Not just about hating intellectualism also about
  what values fill its place

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What would be the consequences of
Anti-Intellectualism?

• A society where --
• individual thought is compromised
• the preservation of truth is minimal
• authorities have more power
• there is no challenge to the state

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Consequences of Anti-Intellectualism

• Emergence of Pseudoscience
• (i.e. Eugenics)
• Rewriting of History
• Destruction of Literature

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NAZI BOOK BURNINGS
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Why?

• A way of venting anger
• Symbolic transition of cultural values
• Intellectualism to radical emotionalism
• Unity through ritual
• Intimidates intellectual community

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State Policy

• May 10, 1933
• Nazi Party declares that any book which acts
  subversively on our future or strikes at the root
  of German thought, the German home and the
  driving forces of our people... is to be burned.
• Who would be the target of such a policy and why?

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The Burning Spectacle

• Students marched through the streets rampaging
  libraries, synagogues, and even private homes to
  loot books

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Some Authors of Books Burned on 5/10/33

• Albert Einstein
• Havelock Ellis
• Lion Feuchtwanger
• Sigmund Freud
• André Gide
• Franz Kafka
• Erich Kästner
• Helen Keller
• Alfred Kerr
• Jack London
• Heinrich Mann
• Thomas Mann
• Karl Marx

• Hugo Preuss
• Marcel Proust
• Walter Rathenau
• Erich Maria Remarque
• Margaret Sanger
• Arthur Schnitzler
• Upton Sinclair
• Jakob Wasserman
• H. G. Wells
• Stefan Zweig
• Emile Zola

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EDUCATION INTHE THIRD REICH
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Nazi Education

• The Curriculum
• Racial biology and eugenics
• Celebratory German history
• Discipline, duty, obedience, courage
• Physical trainingBody over mind
• No concern for the spirit of academics

The Jewish Nose is Wide at the End and Looks
like the Number Six
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The Nazi Classroom

• Task of the Educator
• Strengthen the soul and spirit of youth
• Instill nationalism in younger generation
• Root out values of
• Liberal individualism
• Rationalism
• Intellectualism
• Trained children
• to be good soldiers
• to benefit the state

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Adolf Hitler on Education

• "Universal education is the most corroding and
  disintegrating poison that liberalism has ever
  invented
• -Adolf Hitler
• "Through clever and constant application of
  propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as
  hell, and also the other way round
• Adolf Hitler

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The Hitler Youth
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Clip From Triumph of the Will

• Click image to see video on YouTube
• Notice direction of film
• Shows how admired Hitler is
• Promotes radical emotionalism
• Notice serious faces, militarism of young boys

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Necessity of Hitler Youth

• Future of Nazi Germany was in its children
• Composed of a generation that knew only Nazism
• No need to suppress individual thinking
• Trained
• Children for roles as Nazi citizens
• Men for Wehrsport (Military training)
• Women for Aryan motherhood

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The weak must be chiseled away. I want young men
and women who can suffer pain... -- Adolph
Hitler
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Nazism
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Nazi Populism

• Whoever can conquer the street will one day
  conquer the state...
• Joseph Goebbels
• Struggle against privileged elite
• Intellectuals are elitists and tricksters

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The Volksgemeinschaft

• The Peoples Community
• Established collective national spirit
• Based on racial and national pride
• Subliminal influence on culture
• Bureaucratization of censorship
• propaganda
• PEOPLE CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO THINK FOR THEMSELVES

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The Reichskulturkammer

• Reich Culture Chamber
• Managed by Hans Hinkel
• Goals
• Promote Good Culture
• Root out, ban Bad Culture
• Compulsory membership for all members of German
  media

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Ministry of Propaganda

• Spread and enforced Nazi ideology
• Antithesis of intellectual-based culture
• Rampant anti-Semitism
• Infected all mediums of art and literature

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Goebbels The Big Lie Theory

• If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating
  it, people will eventually come to believe it.
  The lie can be maintained only for such time as
  the State can shield the people from the
  political, economic and/or military consequences
  of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for
  the State to use all of its powers to repress
  dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the
  lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the
  greatest enemy of the State.

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What is the Purpose of Nazi Propaganda?

• public opinion must be molded to fit the state
• Undo Intellectualism
• No marketplace of ideas
• No tolerance of dissent
• No ability to question authority
• No independent thought
• No formulation of rational ideas

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The Nuremberg Laws (1935)

• Denaturalization Laws
• Placed severe restrictions on Jews
• Could not marry non-Jews
• Not allowed to attend or teach at German schools
  or universities
• Prohibited from government jobs, practicing law
  or medicine or publishing books

• Established a pseudo-scientific basis
  identification
• Only those with four German grandparents were of
  "German blood."
• Jewish is who descends from three or four Jewish
  grand-parents
• In the middle stood people of "mixed blood" of
  the "first or second degree."

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KristallnachtNight of the Broken Glass

• The mob trumps individualism

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The Rise of Hitler The Expansion of the Nazi
StateThe Holocaust