The Rise of the Nazi Dictatorship From the Weimar Republic to Adolf Hilter,

Weimar Republic, Republic was alien to German political culture. “November criminals” had created republic. Tepid support came from “Centrist” parties Left and Right (40% of electorate) wanted to destroy Weimar Republic LeftCenter Right KPD Liberals, German Democrats, SPD, Catholic Center Party Nationalists, NSDAP

Problems of Weimar Republic Sparticists Rebellion/execution of Wilhelm Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg Kapp Putch Ruhr Occupation (1923) Hyperinations (1923) Street violence: left vs. right Of 376 political murders between 1919 and 1922, 354 committed by right wingers. Beer Hall Putsch (1923)

A Glimmer of Hope, Gustav Stresemann ( ) Dawes Plan/Young Plan Fulfillment Admission to League of Nation Intellectuals drift toward Weimar: “Where they burn books, they will one day burn children.”—Thomas Mann, Magic Lantern.

Stresemann, Chancellor, 1923, Foreign Secretary,

Great Depression High unemployment Right blames Weimar Government for Depression; Left sees it as the end of capitalism. Nazi Party Grew in Numbers—largest party in Reichstag in Elections see Communist Party gains: Big Business supports Hitler From Heinrich Brüning to Adolf Hitler; Jan 30, 1933

DateVotes%age Seats in Reichstag Background May 19241,918, Hitler in prison December , Hitler is released from prison May , September ,409, After the financial crisis July ,745, November ,737, March ,277, After Hitler had become Chancellor

Adolf Hitler, Rassenpolitik und Lebensraum Hitler’s contradiction: Use of Technology to bring back a Medieval social order

HITLER and Nazi Party June 1934—purge of Ernst Röhm and Sturmabteilung Schutzstaffel und Geheimestaatspolizei 1934 Nuremburg Party Congress Kristallnacht, November 9, 1938 Horst Wessel/Horst Wesel Lied Wehrmacht oath (August 2, 1934) "Ich schwöre bei Gott diesen heiligen Eid, daß ich dem Führer des Deutschen Reiches und Volkes Adolf Hitler, dem Oberbefehlshaber der Wehrmacht, unbedingten Gehorsam leisten und als tapferer Soldat bereit sein will, jederzeit für diesen Eid mein Leben einzusetzen." ("I swear by God this sacred oath that to the Leader of the German state and people, Adolf Hitler, supreme commander of the armed forces, I shall render unconditional obedience and that as a brave soldier I shall at all times be prepared to give my life for this oath.“)

Undoing of World Order Japanese invasion of Manchuria, 1933 Italian invasion of Ethiopia, 1935 German conscription resumes, 1936 Spanish Civil War, Anschluß mit Austria, 1938 Sudetenland/Munich Conference, 1939

Blitzkrieg into Poland, Sept. 1, 1939