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THE ROAD TO DICTATORSHIP: GERMANY 1933-1939. Leaving Cert History. The Weimar Republic 1919-1933. January 1919 at Weimar. Liberal and democratic. Reichstag and Reichrat (like senate) Crushed the Spartacist rebellion the same month. The Treaty of Versailles. Not negotiated
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THE ROAD TO DICTATORSHIP:GERMANY 1933-1939 Leaving Cert History
The Weimar Republic 1919-1933 • January 1919 at Weimar. • Liberal and democratic. • Reichstag and Reichrat (like senate) • Crushed the Spartacist rebellion the same month.
The Treaty of Versailles • Not negotiated • Article 231 ‘guilt clause’ and loss of land angered Germans • Weimar government blamed. • Wolfgang Kapp led extreme nationalists and soldiers (freikorps) in a march on Berlin. • A general strike supporting the government ended the Putsch. • £6,600 million Reparations • 1923 failure to pay French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr. • German workers went on strike. • Currency collapsed.
The Streseman Era • Foreign Minister 1923-29 • Believed they should try to fulfil Versailles to make Germany ‘acceptable’ again. • Ended passive resistance and brought in a new currency (Rentenmark) • 1924 the American Dawes Plan eased repayment schedule and gave a loan. • 1929 the Young Plan reduced the amount to £2000 million. • Signed Locarno Pact accepting Germany’s borders. • Germany accepted into the League of Nations. • The economy picked up but he died in 1929
The Great Depression • US loans stopped. • The government cut expenditure. • Unemployment soared to over 6 million. Tenants evicted. Shops empty. • Democracy was blamed. Germans not used to it. • Weak coalition governments contrasted with Bismarck’s days. • President Hindenburg sacked the PM Heinrich Bruning and Franz Von Papen took over. • In 1933 Hitler took over. He promised a lot.
Hitler’s Early Years (listed) • Braunau in Austria • Failed to get into Vienna art college • Iron cross for the corporal • War ended while he recovered from gas attack. He felt betrayed.
Nazi Party • Sent to investigate Anton Drexler’s German Workers Party and joined it. • His fanatical right wing views and mesmerising speeches gathered support. • He became leader and renamed it the National Socialist German Workers’ Party.
The Brownshirts • SA or Stormtroopers were gangsters who protected Hitler’s rallies and broke up others. • By 1923 they numbered 15,000 and were armed. • The Swastika was party of the effort to create a religious aura.
The Beer Hall Putsch • 1923 economy bad. Hitler thought it a good time for rebellion. • Had General Ludendorff’s support. • Police killed 16 and they gave up
Landsberg Prison • Got 5 years and served 9 months. • Used trial well • Wrote Mein Kampf
Nazi Ideas • Aryan master race • Jews to blame for Germany’s ills • Lebensraum • Communism evil • Treaty of Versailles torn up • Totalitarianism
The Nazis Seize Power • 1920s economy improved and the Nazis were banned. • Hitler seemed to become democratic and the ban was lifted. • He reorganised the party. • Sections for women and children were established. • His team: • Goebbles. Propaganda • Goring. Second in command • Hess. Hitler’s secretary • Himmler Law and order • Alfred Rosenberg. Party philosopher.
The Breakthrough • 1928 got only 12 seats. • The Depression struck. • Hitler promised jobs, land to tenants, government contracts to business and to build up the army. • 1932 they had 230 seats out of 650. • Hindenburg didn’t like Hitler but Von Papen and then Von Schleicher did not have the support of the Reichstag and eventually had to make Hitler chancellor in 1933.
1933 Election • 1933 H called another election • Goring turned 50,000 SA into police and opposition disappeared. • Reichstag fire blamed on a Dutch socialist. • Hindenburg issued an emergency decree and Communists were banned and jailed. • Did not get an overall majority • March 1933 the Enabling Act allowed Hitler to act without parliament. • All other parties banned. • State governments dismissed and replaced with Reich governers. • The Nazi run Labour Front replaced the trade union movement. • 1934 Hindenburg died and H became Fuhrer.
The Night of the Long Knives • Rohm in charge of 2 million SA and criticised H for taking employers side. • 30th June 200 killed by the SS led by Himmler.
The Nazi Economy • Minister for Finance Hjalmar Schacht. His aim was autarky (self-sufficiency) • Public works such as Autobahn created jobs • Rearmament created jobs and iron industry boomed. • Conscription • Industry encouraged (Volkswagen) • Imprisonment of Jews, communists and other opponents created jobs
Hitler’s Foreign Policy • Main aims were to get rid of the Treaty of Versailles and Lebensraum.
Rearmament • Began by asking that other countries disarm as Germany could not defend itself. • When they refused he left the Disarmament Conference and the League of Nations in 1933. • 1935 Goring was forming the Luftwaffe and Conscription was introduced. • 1935 Naval Agreement with Britain allowed Germany to have 35% of Britains ships and the same number of submarines. Versailles was at an end. • 1935 Italy invaded Abyssinia and the Stresa Front was at an end.
Invasion of the Rhineland • 1936 3 battalions sent in with orders to retreat if they met resistance. They did not. • Now Hitler would continue to gamble
Rome-Berlin Axis • 1935 after Abyssinia Hitler ignored the League’s sanctions. • Hitler promised not to claim German-speaking Tyrol • Both helped Franco. • 1936 Rome-Berlin axis signed. Vague support of each other. • 1937 Anti Comintern pact with Japan. • 1939 Pact of Steel a military alliance.
Anchluss • Once part of Germany and German speaking. • Anchluss forbidden by Versailles. • 1938 the Nazi, Seyss-Inquart, replaced Schuschnigg as PM. • He ‘appealed’ to Hitler to send in troops to prevent civil war. • France and GB protested but did nothing.
The Sudetenland • 2 million Germans • Hitler told Sudeten leaders to make complaints about discrimination. • Chamberlain believed that if all Germans were in Germany, Hitler would stop (appeasement).
Munich Conference 1938 • Mussolini agreed to try to persuade Hitler. • Mussolini, Chamberlain, Daladier and Hitler met. • Neither Czechoslovakia nor USSR invited. • 1st October 1938 Germany took Sudetenland • Chamberlain claimed ‘peace with honour’ • March 1939 Hitler took the rest of Czechoslovakia.
Polish Guarantee • Britain and France armed and introduced conscription. • Both countries gave Poland a guarantee that they would help if Poland were attacked.
The Nazi-Soviet Pact • Hitler believed a deal with Stalin would frighten Britain and France from helping Poland. • Also he did not want war on 2 fronts. • Stalin felt that he would be left alone against the germans. • Stalin also wanted time. • Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. • To outsiders it was a10 year non-aggression pact. There were secret clauses dividing Poland between them and giving USSR the Balkan States.
War • 31 August 1939 Germany claimed a radio station had been attacked by Poles. • 1st September Germany invaded Poland • 3rd Britain and France declared war.