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{{Infobox Former Country| native_name =
Großdeutsches Reich| conventional_long_name = Greater German Reich| common_name = Germany| continent = Europe| country = Germany| year_start = 1933| year_end = 1945| date_start = July 29| date_end = July 5| event_start =
Hitler's rise to power| event_end = Allied Control Council| p1 = Weimar Republic| flag_p1 = Flag of Germany (2-3).svg| p2 = Saar (League of Nations)| flag_p2 = Flag of Saar 1920-1935.svg| p3 = First Austrian Republic| flag_p3 = Flag of Austria.svg| p4 =
History of Czechoslovakia (1918–1938)| flag_p4 = Flag of Czechoslovakia.svg| p5 = Free City of Danzig| flag_p5 = Gdansk flag.svg| p6 = Second Polish Republic| flag_p6 = Flag_of_Poland.svg| p7 =
Luxembourg| flag_p7 = Flag_of_Luxembourg.svg| p8 = Kingdom of Yugoslavia| flag_p8 = Flag of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (civil).svg| s1 = Allied Occupation Zones in Germany| flag_s1 = Flag of Germany (1946-1949).svg| s2 = Allied-administered Austria| flag_s2 = Flag of Austria.svg| s3 =
History of Czechoslovakia (1945–1948)| flag_s3 = Flag of Czechoslovakia.svg| s4 = People's Republic of Poland| flag_s4 = Flag_of_Poland.svg| s5 = Luxembourg| flag_s5 = Flag_of_Luxembourg.svg| s6 =
Socialist Republic of Slovenia| flag_s6 = Flag_of_SR Slovenia.svg| image_flag = Flag_of_Germany_1933.svg| flag = Flag of Nazi Germany| image_coat = Reichsadler.svg| symbol_type = National Insignia| symbol_type_article = Coat of arms of Germany| image_map = NaziGaue.png| image_map_caption = Nazi Germany in 1941, prior to the invasion of the Soviet Union.| national_motto =
"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer.""One People, one Empire, one Leader."| national_anthem = "Das Lied der Deutschen" "Horst-Wessel-Lied"]| government_type = Dictatorship| title_leader = Führer| leader1 = Adolf Hitler| year_leader1 = 1934 – 1945| title_representative =
President of Germany| representative1 = Paul von Hindenburg| year_representative1 = 1933 – 1934| representative2 = Karl Dönitz| year_representative2 = 1945| title_deputy = Chancellor of Germany| deputy1 = Adolf Hitler| year_deputy1 = 1933 – 1945| deputy2 = Joseph Goebbels| year_deputy2 = 1945| deputy3 = Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk| year_deputy3 = 1945| era = History of Germany#Third Reich| event1 =
Gleichschaltung| date_event1 =
February 27,
1933| date_event2 = [March 31, 1933| date_event3 = [September 15, 1935| date_event3 = [April 10,
1938| date_event4 = [May 2, 1945| date_event5 = [May 8,
1945| footnotes = a From 1943 – 45. From 1933 to 1943: [Deutsches Reich ("German Reich"). The German state is identically the very same because it exists as a nation state since 1871. In 1949, at
German Democratic Republic –
West Germany division there was no foundation of a new Germany, instead of that there were only formations or reorganizations. The
German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) alleged an own foundation, and it saw itself as a
succession of Germany (but in fact it only was part of it like West Germany).b Only first stanza was used.c Office declared vacant upon Hindenburg's death, allowing Chancellor Hitler to name himself "Führer and Chancellor".-->
Nazi Germany, or the
Third Reich — officially called
Deutsches Reich ("
German Reich") and later
Großdeutsches Reich ("Greater German Reich") — refers to
Germany during the period from 1933 to 1945, when it was governed by the
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party, or "
Nazi Party"), with
Adolf Hitler as
Chancellor of Germany and, from 1934, as head of state called the
Führer (Leader).
The term
Nazi Germany is not politically correct as it does not reflect the historic dates. In Germany, it is not a term used to describe that era. Rather it is the Third Reich.
The policies pursued by Nazi Germany were, based on the concept of
Lebensraum; "Aryan race"
racial purity;
anti-Semitism; revenge for Germany's territorial losses at the Treaty of Versailles and the perceived loss of pride because of it; and anti-communism directed at the
Soviet Union were among the leading causes of the World War II and the Nazi regime's systematic mass murder of millions of Jews, political opponents, and other minorities in the
genocide known as the Holocaust or Shoah. By the end of the war, Germany's major infrastructure was destroyed — and many of its major cities were in ruin as the result of Allied bombings and intense urban warfare (especially in
Berlin in 1945).
Under the Nazi regime, Germany, from a military and territorial standpoint, became the dominant nation state in Europe by the early 1940s. After the annexation of Austria in 1938, Nazi Germany became the first united German state since the Holy Roman Empire to include
Austria within its boundaries which was ended after the Nazi regime's defeat in 1945. The fall of the Nazi regime also saw the complete dissolution of Prussia as a regional component of Germany.
Name
The official name of Germany did not change after the Nazis came to power in 1933. It remained
Deutsches Reich (literally translated as German Empire), the same as it had been since 1871. It was only in 1943 that the Nazi government officially modified the name of Germany, calling it
Großdeutsches Reich (literally translated as Greater German Empire), which remained in use until the defeat of Nazi Germany in May, 1945.
The Nazi Party used the terms
Drittes Reich ("Third Empire") and
Tausendjähriges Reich ("Thousand-Year Empire") to describe the greater German ethnic empire they wished to forge. The term
Tausendjähriges Reich was used only briefly and also dropped from propaganda in 1939, officially to avoid mockery and possibly to even avoid religious connotations. In speeches, books and articles about the Third Reich after 8 May
1945, the phrase has taken on a new meaning and the early Nazi professions about a "thousand-year" empire are often juxtaposed against the twelve years that the Third Reich actually existed.
The term Das Dritte Reich referred to the Nazi recognition of former incarnations of German empires while alluding to envisioned future prosperity and the new nation's alleged destiny. But on 10 July 1939, it was dropped from propaganda at Hitler's behest. The
Holy Roman Empire ("Heiliges Römisches Reich," later with the appendage "Deutscher Nation"), deemed the
First Reich, had lasted almost a thousand years, from 843 to 1806, hence the Nazi reference to the 1000 year Reich.
Second Reich was the Prussian-ruled monarchy called the
German Empire and the first firmly unified German state which existed from 1871 until its replacement by the Weimar Republic following the abdication of Kaiser
Wilhelm II in 1918, and the abolition of the Empire in the wake of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The term was taken by the Nazis from the 1923 book
Das Dritte Reich ("The Third Reich"), by the cultural historian and writer Arthur Moeller van den Bruck — who was an anti-Versailles German nationalist, but far from enthusiastic about Hitler, whom he met in 1922.
Territory
In addition to Weimar-era Weimar Republic, the
Reich came to include areas with ethnic Germans populations such as
Austria, the
Sudetenland and the territory of Klaipėda region in the years leading up to the war.
Regions were acquired after the outbreak of conflict include
Eupen-et-Malmédy, Alsace-Lorraine, Free City of Danzig and territories of
Second Polish Republic. In addition, from 1939 to 1945, the Reich ruled
Czech Republic as a
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, subjugated and annexed prior to the start of the world war. Although considered a part of
Greater Germany, the protectorate had its own currency.
Czech Silesia was incorporated into the province of Silesia during the same period. In 1942 Luxembourg was directly annexed into Germany. Central Second Polish Republic and Polish Galicia, were run by a protectorate government called the
General Government. The
Poles were to be eventually "removed" and Poland itself being populated by 5 milion Germans. By late 1943, Germany not only seized South Tyrol and
Istria which had been under Austrian rule before 1918, but also seized Venezia from its erstwhile ally Italy after it capitulated to the Allies. The states composing Germany were restricted in sovereignty by the Nazi regime and replaced in their political rights by Gau (country subdivision), districts led by representatives called
Gauleiter who were completely loyal to the central government. In the majority of cases that Gauleiter was responsible in
personal union for the
Reichsgau, too. These administrative changes dismantled the regional political hegemony which had been held by
Prussia over German affairs since 1871. However the title of the Prime Minister of Prussia, used by Hermann Göring from 1933-1945, and other titles still remained in use.
Outside of what was directly annexed into Germany, were regional territories created in occupied land. In the occupied areas of the Soviet Union, occupational territories were called
Reichskommissariat. These included
Reichskommissariat Ostland and
Reichskommissariat Ukraine, which were designed to foster German colonization of eastern Europe. In northern and western Europe, occupation authorities aided by Nazi sympathizers ran the governments of
Belgium, Denmark, the
Netherlands,
Norway, and northern
France (after 1942, all of France). In parts of northern France, travel restrictions were imposed by the Nazi occupation authorities, as the Nazi regime intended to colonize those areas with German citizens.
The Reich's borders had changed
de facto well before its military defeat in May 1945, as the German population fled westward from the advancing
Red Army and the
Western Allies pressed eastward from France. By the end of the war, a small strip of land stretching from Austria to Bohemia and Moravia — as well as a few other isolated regions — were the only areas not under Allied control. Upon its defeat, the Reich was in a state of debellation and was replaced by occupation zones administrated by France, the Soviet Union, the
United Kingdom and the United States. The prewar German lands east of the
Oder-Neisse line and Stettin and its surrounding area were set
Former eastern territories of Germany but factually sundered from Germany for annexation by Poland and the Soviet Union. These territorial changes resulted in the complete dissolution of Prussia as a German territorial component and was neither identified as a regional entity of Poland or the Soviet Union (Kaliningrad region). By signing the
Treaty of Warsaw (1970) and the
Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany (1990), Germany finally confirmed to abdicate any claims to territories lost during the Second World War.
Nazi ideology
From an international perspective, Nazism had much of the ideological basis of
fascism which originally developed in Italy under
Benito Mussolini. Both ideologies involved the political use of militarism, nationalism,
anti-communism,
holism, paramilitaries, and intended to create a
dictatorship-led state. However, the Nazis were far more racially-oriented than fascists in
Italy,
Portugal, and Spain and the Nazis were intent on creating a completely
totalitarian state, unlike Italian fascists who allowed a larger degree of private liberties for their citizens than the Nazis permitted, and allowed the
Italian monarchy to continue to exist and have some official powers.
("Leader") of the Nazi party and then Germany from 1934 to 1945. Photograph by Heinrich Hoffmann.The totalitarian nature of the Nazi party was one of its principal tenets. The Nazis connected that all the great achievements in the past of the German nation and its people were associated with the ideals of Nazism even before the ideology officially existed. Propaganda accredited the consolidation of Nazi ideals and successes of the regime to regime's "Leader", or
Führer, Adolf Hitler, who was portrayed by himself and propaganda as the genius behind the Nazi party's success and Germany's saviour. Hitler's ability to grasp the attention of audiences through his powerful speeches helped him earn a cult following by his Nazi followers. To secure their ability to create a totalitarian state, the Nazi party's paramilitary force, the Sturmabteilung (SA) "Storm Unit", used acts of violence against leftists, democrats, Jews, and other opposition or minority groups. The SA's violence created climates of fear in cities, with people fearing punishment and even death if they displayed opposition to the Nazis. The SA also helped attract large numbers of alienated and unemployed youth to join the party.
The Nazis endorsed the concept of "
Großdeutschland", or Großdeutschland, and believed that the incorporation of the Germanic people into one nation was a vital step towards their national success. Similarly, the "German problem", as it is often referred to in English scholarship, focuses on the issue of administration of Germanic regions within Northern and Central Europe, an important theme throughout German history.Bischof, Günter, “The Historical Roots of a Special Relationship: Austro-German Relations Between Hegemony and Equality”. In Unequal Partners, ed. Harald von Riekhoff and Hanspeter Neuhold. San Francisco: Westview Press, 1993 The "logic" of keeping Germany small worked in the favor of its principal economic rivals, and had been a driving force in the recreation of a Polish state. The goal was to create numerous counterweights in order to "balance out Germany's power". However it was the German passionate support of the
Volk concept that led to Germany's expansion, that gave legitimacy and the support needed for the Third Reich to proceed to conquer long lost territories with overwhelmingly non-German population like former Prussian gains in Poland that it lost to Russia in the 1800s, or to acquire territories with German population like parts of Austria, or "needed" as the Nazi regime claimed for Lebensraum (living space) for a growing population. Two important issues were administration of the Polish corridor and Danzig's incorporation into the Reich. As a further extension of racial policy, the Lebensraum program, pertained to similar interests; it was decided that Eastern Europe would be settled with ethnic Germans, and the Slavic peoples population who met the Nazi racial standard would be absorbed into the Reich. Those not fitting the racial standards were to be used as cheap labour force or deported eastward. Hitler's Plan, Dac.neu.edu.
Racism was an important aspect of society within the Third Reich. The Nazis also combined
anti-Semitism with anti-Communist ideology and regarded the leftist movement — as well as international market capitalism — as the work of "Conspiratorial Jewry". They referred to this so-called movement as the "Jewish-Bolshevistic revolution of subhumans." ess.uwe.ac.uk This platform manifested itself in the displacement, internment and later, the systematic extermination of an estimated eleven to twelve million people in the midst of World War II, roughly half of whom being Jews targeted in what is historically remembered as the Holocaust (Shoah), and another 100,000-1,000,000 being Roma people, who were murdered in what they call the
Porajmos. Other victims of Nazi persecution included communists, blacks, various political opponents, social outcasts,
homosexuals, religious dissidents such as Jehovah's Witnesses, unyielding Church-affiliated leadership (Confessing Church and resisting
Roman Catholic clergy), and
Freemasonry.
World War II officially began after Nazi Germany invaded
Poland on 1 September 1939, which led to France and the
United Kingdom both declaring war on Nazi Germany. The global conflict that followed left Europe in ruins and led to the deaths of roughly sixty-two million people.
Government
In the wake of the loss of land and perceived national humiliation imposed through the
Treaty of Versailles, civil unrest, the worldwide economic depression of the 1930s spurred by the stock market crash in the U.S., the counter-traditionalism of the
Weimar Republic period and the threat of Soviet-sponsored
communism in Germany, many voters began turning their support towards the Nazi Party, which promised strong government, an end to civil unrest, radical changes to economic policy, cultural renewal based on
traditionalism, military rearmament in opposition to the Treaty of Versailles, and to bring back national pride that the Nazis claimed was lost in the Treaty of Versailles and by
liberal democracy.. The Nazis also endorsed the
Dolchstosslegende ("Stab in the back legend") which figured prominently in their propaganda as it did in propaganda of most other nationalist-leaning parties in Germany.
From 1925 to the 1930s, the German government devolved from a democracy to a
de facto conservative-nationalist
authoritarian state under President and war hero Paul von Hindenburg, who opposed the liberal democratic nature of the Weimar Republic and wanted to find a way to officially make Germany into an authoritarian state. The natural ally of the foundation of an authoritarian state had been the German National People's Party (DNVP or "the Nationalists"), but increasingly after 1929, more fanatic and younger generation nationalists were attracted to the revolutionary nature of the Nazi party, to challenge the rising support for communism as the German economy floundered. By 1932, the Nazis were the largest party in the Reichstag. Hindenburg was reluctant to give any substantial power to Hitler, but worked out an alliance between the Nazis and the DNVP which would allow him to develop an authoritarian state. But Hitler consistently demanded on being appointed chancellor in order for Hindenburg to receive any Nazi Party support of his administration.
On
30 January 1933, Hitler was appointed
chancellor of Germany by Hindenburg after attempts by General
Kurt von Schleicher to form a viable government failed. Hindenburg was put under pressure by Hitler through his son Oskar von Hindenburg, as well as intrigue from former Chancellor
Franz von Papen following his collection of participating financial interests and own ambitions to combat communism. Even though the Nazis had gained the largest share of the popular vote in the two
Reichstag (institution) general elections of 1932, they had no majority of their own, and just a slim majority in parliament with their Papen-proposed Nationalist DNVP-NSDAP coalition. This coalition ruled through accepted continuance of the Presidential decree, issued under Article 48 of the 1919 constitution.
The Nazi attacks on the Jews in the early months of 1933 marked the first step in a longer-term process of removing them from German society.Richard Evans,
The Coming of the Third Reich (New York: Penguin Books, 2003), 441. By the summer of 1933, this process was on its way to becoming quite disastrous. This process also marked the core of
Adolf Hitler's "cultural revolution" whereby the Nazi mind had begun to transform in a manner conducive to anti-Semitism, anti-communism, and anti-
liberalism.
Consolidation of power
The new government installed a totalitarian
dictatorship in a series of measures in quick succession (see
Gleichschaltung for details).
On the night of February 27th, the
Reichstag fire and Dutch
council communist Marinus van der Lubbe was found inside the building. He was arrested and charged with starting the blaze. The event had an immediate effect on thousands of anarchists, socialists and communists throughout the Reich, many who were sent to the
Dachau concentration camp. The unnerved public worried that the fire had been a signal meant to initiate the communist revolution and the Nazis found the event to be of immeasurable value in getting rid of potential insurgents. The event was quickly followed by the Reichstag Fire Decree, rescinding
habeas corpus and other civil liberties.
The
Enabling act of 1933 was passed in March 1933, with 444 votes, to the 94 of the remaining Social Democrats. The act gave the government (and thus effectively the Nazi Party) legislative powers and also authorized it to deviate from the provisions of the constitution for four years. With these powers, Hitler removed the remaining opposition and turned the
Weimar Republic into the "Third Reich".
In order for Hitler to create the Nazi dictatorship in Germany, it had to become a one party state. This was achieved by the Nazis as by June 1933 the Social Democrats had been banned, the Communists had been banned and the German Nationalists (DNVP), German People's Party (DVP) and German Democratic Party (DDP) had all been forced to disband. The remaining Catholic Centre Party disbanded themselves on the 5 July 1933 after guarantees over Catholic education and youth groups. On the
14 July 1933 Germany officially declared a one-party state with the passing of the Law against the formation of parties.
Symbols of the Weimar Republic including as the black-red-gold flag (now the present-day
flag of Germany) were abolished by the new regime which adopted both new and old imperial symbolism to represent the dual nature of the imperialist-Nazi regime of 1933. The old imperial black-white-red tricolour, almost completely abandoned during the Weimar Republic, was restored as one of Germany's two officially legal national flags. The other official national flag was the swastika flag of the Nazi party. It became the sole national flag in 1935.
Further consolidation of power was achieved on 30 January
1934, with the
Gesetz über den Neuaufbau des Reichs (Act to rebuild the Reich). The act changed the highly decentralized federal Germany of the Weimar era into a centralized state. It disbanded state parliaments, transferring sovereign rights of the states to the Reich central government and put the state administrations under the control of the Reich administration.
Only the army remained independent from Nazi control. The German army had traditionally been separated from the government and somewhat of an entity of its own. The Nazi paramilitary Sturmabteilung expected top positions in the new power structure and wanted the regime to follow through its promise of enacting socialist legislation for Aryan Germans. Wanting to preserve good relations with the army and the major industries who were weary of more political violence erupting from the SA, on the night of
30 June 1934, Hitler initiated the violent
Night of the Long Knives, a purge of the leadership ranks of Röhm's SA as well as socialist-leaning Nazis (Strasserists), and other political enemies, carried out by another, more elitist, Nazi organization, the
SS.
At the death of president Hindenburg on
2 August 1934, the Nazi-controlled Reichstag merged the offices of
Reichspräsident and
Reichskanzler and reinstalled Hitler with the new title
Führer und Reichskanzler. Until the death of Hindenburg, the army did not follow Hitler. However, with the death of Hindenburg, the entire army swore their obedience to Hitler. The Nazis proceeded to scrap their official alliance with the conservative nationalists, and began to introduce Nazi ideology and Nazi symbolism into all major aspects of life in Germany.
The inception of the
Gestapo, police acting outside of any civil authority, highlighted the Nazis' intention to use powerful, coercive means to directly control German society. Soon, an army estimated to be of about 100,000 spies and informants operated throughout Germany, reporting to Nazi officials the activities of any critics or dissenters. Most ordinary Germans, happy with the improving economy and better standard of living, remained obedient and quiet, but many political opponents, especially communists and Marxist or international socialists, were reported by omnipresent eavesdropping spies and put in prison camps where many were tortured and killed. It is estimated that tens of thousands of political victims died or disappeared in the first few years of Nazi rule.
Social policy
Nazi social policy was dominated by the desire to create a "perfect" race and demanded a racially pure society. The effects of Nazi social policy in Germany was divided between those considered to be "Aryan" and those considered "non-Aryan", Jewish, or part of other minority groups. For "Aryan" Germans, a number of social policies put through by the regime to benefit them were advanced for the time, including: state opposition to the use of tobacco due to health risks), an end to official stigmatization towards Aryan children who were born from parents outside of marriage, as well as giving financial assistance to Aryan German families who bore children.Perry Biddiscombe "Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948", Journal of Social History 34.3 (2001) 611-647 For "non-Aryans", specifically Jews, Poles, Roma, and other kinds of minorities, they faced racist laws, lack of any form of social assistance or help, and ethnic persecution and later genocide. The Nazis declared different types of minorities. The treatment of specified minorities was so poor that animals had more rights than these human beings — harmful and cruel experiments on animals were banned in Nazi Germany while harmful and cruel experiments were allowed to happen to "shameful life" (, the Nazi term for Jews, Poles and Gypsies).
Racial and social persecution
See also: Racial policy of Nazi Germany
" required to be attached to clothing worn by Jews in public in Nazi Germany and occupied territories
The Nazi Party pursued its racial policy aims, and some related social aims, through persecution and killing of those considered "impure" or otherwise "enemies of the Reich." Especially targeted were minority groups such as
Jews, Roma (people) (also known as Gypsies), Colored, Slavs, Jehovah's Witnesses and the Holocaust , people with mental or physical
disabilities, and homosexuality.
In the years following the Nazi rise to power, many Jews fled the country and were encouraged to do so. By the time the
Nuremberg Laws were passed in 1935, Jews were stripped of their German citizenship and denied government employment. Most Jews employed by Germans lost their jobs at this time, which were being taken by unemployed Germans. Notably, the Nazi government attempted to send 17,000 German Jews of Polish descent back to Poland, a decision which led to the assassination of
Ernst vom Rath by
Herschel Grynszpan, a German Jew living in France. This provided the pretext for a pogrom the Nazi Party incited against the Jews on
9 November 1938, which specifically targeted Jewish businesses. The event was called
Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass, literally "Crystal Night"); the
euphemism was used because the numerous broken windows made the streets look as if covered with crystals. By September 1939, more than 200,000 Jews had left Germany, with the Nazi government seizing any property they left behind.
, Jewish shops vandalized.The Nazis also undertook programs targeting "weak" or "unfit" people, such as the T-4 Euthanasia Program, killing tens of thousands of disabled and sick Germans in an effort to "maintain the purity of the German Master race" (German:
Herrenvolk) as described by Nazi propaganda. The techniques of mass killing developed in these efforts would later be used in the Holocaust. Under a law passed in 1933, the Nazi regime carried out the
compulsory sterilization of over 400,000 individuals labeled as having hereditary defects, ranging from
mental illness to
alcoholism.
Another component of the Nazi programme of creating racial purity was the
Lebensborn, or "Fountain of Life" programme founded in 1936. The programme was aimed at encouraging German soldiers — mainly SS — to reproduce. This included offering SS families support services (including the adoption of racially pure children into suitable SS families) and accommodating racially-valuable women, pregnant with mainly SS men's children, in care homes in Germany and throughout Occupied Europe.
Lebensborn also expanded to encompass the placing of racially pure children forcibly seized from occupied countries — such as Poland — with German families.
concentration camp shortly after its liberationIn the 1930s, plans to isolate and eventually eliminate Jews completely in Germany began with the construction of ghettos, concentration camps and labour camps. In 1942, at the
Wannsee Conference, Nazi officials made clear their intention to elliminate the Jews of Europe as quickly as possible, when they discussed the "
Final Solution of the Jewish Question". Extermination camps like
Auschwitz used gas chambers to kill as many Jews as possible and cremated the bodies. By 1945, a number of concentration camps had been liberated by Allied forces who found the survivors to be severely malnourished from starvation. The Allies also found evidence that the Nazis were profiteering off of the mass murder of Jews not only by confiscating their property and personal valuables but also by extracting gold fillings from the bodies of some Jews held in concentration camps.
Social welfare
Recent research by academics such as Götz Aly has emphasized the role of the extensive Nazi social welfare programs that supposedly helped maintain public support for the regime that lasted long into the war. Heavily focused on was the idea of a national German community. To aid the fostering of a feeling of community, the German people's labor and entertainment experiences — from festivals, to vacation trips and traveling cinemas — were all made a part of the "Strength through Joy" (
Kraft durch Freude) program. Also crucial to the building of loyalty and comradeship was the implementation of the National Labor Service and the
Hitler Youth Organization, with compulsory membership. In addition to this, a number of architectural projects were undertaken. The construction of the
Autobahn made it the first
freeway system in the world. Between 1933 and 1936, Germany outpaced the United States in construction, automobile production and employment.
Public health
According to the research of Robert N. Proctor for his book "The Nazi War on cancer" Nazi Medicine and Public Health Policy Robert N. Proctor, Dimensions: A Journal of Holocaust Studies. Review of "The Nazi War on Cancer" Canadian Journal of History, Aug 2001 by Ian Dowbiggin, Nazi Germany had arguably the most powerful anti-tobacco movement in the world. Anti-tobacco research received a strong backing from the government, and German scientists proved that cigarette smoke could cause cancer. German pioneering research on experimental
epidemiology lead to the 1939 paper by Franz H. Müller, and the 1943 paper by Eberhard Schairer and Erich Schöniger which convincingly demonstrated that tobacco smoking was a main culprit in lung cancer. The government urged German doctors to counsel patients against tobacco use.
German research on the dangers of tobacco was silenced after the war, and the dangers of tobacco had to be rediscovered by American and English scientists in the early 1950s, with a medical consensus arising in the early 1960s.
German scientists also proved that asbestos was a health hazard, and in 1943 — as the first nation in the world to offer such a benefit — Germany recognized the diseases caused by asbestos, e.g., lung cancer, as occupational illnesses eligible for compensation. The German asbestos-cancer research was later used by American lawyers doing battle against the
Johns-Manville Corporation.
As part of the general public-health campaign in Nazi Germany, water supplies were cleaned up,
lead and
mercury (element) were removed from consumer products, and women were urged to undergo regular screenings for
breast cancer. Nazi Medicine and Public Health Policy Robert N. Proctor, Dimensions: A Journal of Holocaust Studies. Review of "The Nazi War on Cancer" Canadian Journal of History, Aug 2001 by Ian Dowbiggin
Women's rights
The Nazis opposed women's
emancipation and opposed the
feminist movement, claiming that it was Jewish-led and was bad for both women and men. The Nazi regime advocated a patriarchial society in which German women would recognize the "world is her husband, her family, her children, and her home." Hitler claimed that women taking vital jobs away from men during the
Great Depression was economically bad for families in that women were only paid 66% of what men earned. At the same time for calling for women to leave work, the regime called for women to be actively supportive of the state regarding women's affairs. In 1933, Hitler appointed Gertrud Scholtz-Klink as the Reich Women's Leader, who instructed women that their primary role in society was to bear children and that women should be subservient to men, once saying "the mission of woman is to minister in the home and in her profession to the needs of life from the first to last moment of man's existence." . Organizations were made for the indoctrination of Nazi values to German women. Such organizations included the
Jungmädel (Young Girls) section of the Hitler Youth for girls from the age 10 to 14, the
Bund Deutscher Mädel (German Girl's League) for young women from 14 to 18.
On the issue of sexual affairs regarding women, the Nazis differed greatly from the restrictive stances on women's role in society. The Nazi regime promoted a liberal code of conduct as regards sexual matters, and were sympathetic to women bearing children out of wedlock.Perry Biddiscombe "Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948", Journal of Social History 34.3 (2001) 611-647 The collapse of 19th century morals in Germany accelerated during the Third Reich, partly due to the Nazis, and partly due to the effects of the war. Promiscuity increased greatly as the war progressed, with unmarried soldiers often dating several women simultaneously. Married women were often involved in multiple affairs simultaneously, with soldiers, civilians or slave laborers."Some farm wives in
Württemberg had already begun using sex as a commodity, employing carnal favours as a means of getting a full day's work from foreign labourers."
After the war, with women now making up 56% of the population (1946) and the remaining men initially broken and bewildered, the women's emancipation movement returned after being repressed under Nazism. In the immediate post-war time period, women held political posts such as mayors and generally took on a more prominent role.
Animal protection policy
One of the first acts of the new regime was to enact an animal protection law. The implemented law on animal protection was stringent and restricted research. Hartmut M. Hanauske-Abel,
Not a slippery slope or sudden subversion: German medicine and National Socialism in 1933, BMJ 1996; p. 1453-1463 (7 December)
Economic policy
gained significant value during the Third Reich.When the Nazis came to power the most pressing issue was an unemployment rate of close to 30%. The economic management of the state was first given to respected banker Hjalmar Schacht. Under his guidance, a new economic policy to elevate the nation was drafted. One of the first actions was to destroy the
trade unions and impose strict Incomes policys.
The government then expanded the
money supply through massive deficit spending. However at the same time the government imposed a 4.5% interest rate ceiling, creating a massive shortage in borrowable funds. This was resolved by setting up a series of dummy companies that would pay for goods with Bond (finance). The most famous of these was the
MEFO company, and these bonds used as currency became known as MEFO bills. While it was promised that these bonds could eventually be exchanged for real money, the repayment was put off until after the collapse of the Reich. These complicated manoeuvres also helped conceal armament expenditures that violated the Treaty of Versailles.
According to economic theory, price control combined with a large increase in the money supply should have produced a large
black market, but harsh penalties that saw violators sent to
Nazi concentration campss or even shot prevented this development. Repressive measures also kept Volatility (finance) low, reducing inflationary pressures. New policies also limited imports of consumer goods and focused on producing exports.
International trade was greatly reduced remaining at about a third of 1929 levels throughout the Nazi period. Currency controls were extended, leading to a considerable overvaluation of the German reichsmark. These policies were successful in cutting unemployment dramatically.
Most industry was not nationalized; however, industry was closely regulated with quotas and requirements to use domestic resources. These regulations were set by administrative committees composed of government and business officials. Competition was limited as major companies were organized into cartels through these administrative committees. Selective nationalization was used against businesses that failed to agree to these arrangements. The banks, which had been nationalized by the Weimar Republic, were returned to their owners and each administrative committee had a bank as member to finance the schemes.
While the strict state intervention into the economy, and the massive rearmament policy, led to full employment during the 1930s, real wages in Germany dropped by roughly 25% between 1933 and 1938. Trade unions were abolished, as well as collective bargaining and the right to strike. The right to quit also disappeared: Labour books were introduced in 1935, and required the consent of the previous employer in order to be hired for another job.
The German economy was transferred to the leadership of
Hermann Göring when, on
18 October 1936, the German Reichstag announced the formation of a Four-Year Plan. The Nazi economic plan aimed to achieve a number of objectives. Under the leadership of Fritz Todt, a massive public works project, the
Reichsarbeitsdienst, was started, rivalling Roosevelt's New Deal in both size and scope. It functioned as a military-like unit, its most notable achievements being the network of
Autobahnen and, once the war started, the building of bunkers, underground facilities and entrenchments all over Europe.
Another part of the new German economy was massive rearmament, with the goal being to expand the 100,000-strong German Army into a force of millions. The Four-Year Plan was discussed in the controversial Hossbach Memorandum, which provides the "minutes" from one of Hitler's briefings. Some use the Hossbach Memorandum to show that Hitler planned a war in Eastern Europe in the pursuit of
Lebensraum, believing that the Western powers of the United Kingdom and France would not intervene, leaving him free to take over the USSR, the "natural enemy" of Germany. However, this functionalism versus intentionalism is disputed.
Nevertheless, the war came and although the Four-Year Plan technically expired in 1940, Hermann Göring had built up a power base in the "Office of the Four-Year Plan" that effectively controlled all German economic and production matters by this point in time. In 1942, the growing burdens of the war and the death of Todt saw the economy move to a full
war economy under Albert Speer.
Art and culture
Traditional and masculine values in German culture were sought to be restored by the regime. All attempts at "artistic experimentation" and "sexual freedom" were repressed. The visual arts were strictly monitored and traditional, focusing on exemplifying Germanic themes, racial purity, militarism, heroism, power, strength, and obedience. Modern abstract art and
avant-garde was removed from museums and put on special display as
"degenerate art", where it was to be ridiculed. In one notable example on 31 March
1937, huge crowds stood in line to view a special display of "degenerate art" in Munich. Art forms considered to be degenerate included Dada, Cubism, Expressionism,
Fauvism, Impressionism,
New Objectivity, and
Surrealism.
Literature made by Jewish, other non-Aryans, or authors opposed to the Nazis were destroyed by the regime. The most infamous destruction of literature was the book burnings of 1933.
Two major displays of Nazi German art and culture were at the
1936 Summer Olympics and at the German pavillion at the
Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937) or world fair in Paris. The 1936 Olympics was meant to display to the world the Aryan superiority of Germany to other nations. German athletes were carefully chosen not only for strength but for Aryan appearance. However one common belief of Hitler snubbing African-American athlete
Jesse Owens has recently been discovered to be technically incorrect — it was African-American athlete Cornelius Cooper Johnson who was believed to have been snubbed by Hitler, who left the medal ceremonies after awarding a German and a Finn medals. Hitler claimed it was not a snub, but that he had official business to attend to which caused him to depart. Hitler was criticized for this and the Olympic committee officials insisted that he greet each and every medalist. Hitler did not attend any of the medal presentations which followed, including the one after Jesse Owens won his four medals.Hyde Flippo, The 1936 Berlin Olympics: Hitler and Jesse Owens German Myth 10 from German.about.comRick Shenkman,
Adolf Hitler, Jesse Owens and the Olympics Myth of 1936 February 13, 2002 from History News Network (article excerpted from Rick Shenkman's
Legends, Lies and Cherished Myths of American History. Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st ed edition (November 1988) ISBN 0688065805)
Despite the official attempt to forge a pure Germanic culture, one major area of the arts, architecture, under Hitler's personal guidance, was neoclassical, a style based on Roman architecture.Scobie, Alexander.
Hitler's State Architecture: The Impact of Classical Antiquity. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1990. ISBN 0-271-00691-9. Pp. 92. This style stood out in stark contrast and opposition to newer, more liberal, and more popular architecture styles of the time such as
Art Deco. Various Roman buildings were examined by state architect Albert Speer for architectural designs for state buildings. Speer constructed huge and imposing buildings such as in the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg, and the new
Reich Chancellery building in
Berlin. One design that was pursued but never built, was a gigantic version of the
Pantheon, Rome in
Rome, called the Volkshalle to be the semi-religious centre of Nazism in a renamed Berlin called
Welthauptstadt Germania, that was to be the "world capital" (
Welthauptstadt). Also to be constructed was a
Triumphal arch several times larger than that found in Paris, which was also based upon a classical styling. Many of the designs for Germania were impractical to construct due to their size and the marshy soil underneath Berlin, materials that were to be used for construction were diverted to the war effort.
Environmental policy
In 1935 the regime enacted the "Reich Nature Protection Act", while not a purely Nazi piece of legislation since parts of its influences pre-dated the Nazi rise to power, it nevertheless reflected Nazi ideology; the concept of the "Dauerwald" was promoted, best translated as the "perpetual forest", which included concepts such as forest management and protection, and efforts were also made to curb air-pollution. JONATHAN OLSEN "How Green Were the Nazis? Nature, Environment, and Nation in the Third Reich (review)" Technology and Culture - Volume 48, Number 1, January 2007, pp. 207-208 Review of Franz-Josef Brueggemeier, Marc Cioc, and Thomas Zeller, eds, "How Green Were the Nazis?: Nature, Environment, and Nation in the Third Reich" Wilko Graf von Hardenberg, H-Environment, H-Net Reviews, October, 2006.
In practice, the enacted laws and policies met resistance from various ministries that sought to undermine them, and from the priority that the war-effort took to environmental protection. Environmentalism was in the end often sacrificed for the sake of other goals of the state.
World War II
The "
Danzig crisis" peaked in the months after Poland rejected Nazi Germany's initial offer regarding both the Free City of Danzig and the
Polish Corridor. After a series of ultimatums, the Germans broke from diplomatic relations and shortly thereafter, Invasion of Poland (1939) on 1 September 1939. This led to the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe when on 3 September 1939, the United Kingdom and France both declared war on Germany. The Sitzkrieg followed. On 9 April 1940 the Germans struck north against
Denmark and
Norway, in part to secure the safety of continuing iron ore supplies from Sweden through Norwegian coastal waters. British and French forces landed in Central Norway and
North Norway, only to be defeated in the ensuing
Norwegian campaign. In May, the Phony War ended when despite the protestations of many of his advisors, Hitler took a gamble and sent German forces into France and the Low Countries. The
Battle of France was an overwhelming German victory. Later that year, Germany subjected the United Kingdom to heavy bombing during the
Battle of Britain, and deliberately bombed civilian areas London in response to a British bombing of Berlin. This may have served two purposes, either as a precursor to Operation Sea Lion or it may have been an effort to dissuade the British populace from continuing to support the war. Regardless, the United Kingdom refused to capitulate and eventually Sea Lion was indefinitely postponed in favor of Operation Barbarossa.
Barbarossa too was briefly postponed while Hitler's attention was diverted to save his failing Italian ally in North Africa and the
Balkans. The Afrika Korps arrived in Libya in February of 1941. In what was to be one of many advances in the
North African Campaign, the Germans took back much of what the Italians had so recently given up. In April, the Germans then launched an
invasion of Yugoslavia. This was followed by the
Battle of Greece and the Battle of Crete. But, by the time North Africa and the Balkans were subdued, February, March, April, and May were lost. Because of the diversions in North Africa and the Balkans, the Germans were not able to launch Barbarossa until late in June. He III over London 7 Sep 1940.jpg|left|200px
{{Infobox Former Country| native_name =
Großdeutsches Reich| conventional_long_name = Greater German Reich| common_name = Germany| continent = Europe| country = Germany| year_start = 1933| year_end = 1945| date_start = July 29| date_end = July 5| event_start =
Hitler's rise to power| event_end =
Allied Control Council| p1 = Weimar Republic| flag_p1 = Flag of Germany (2-3).svg| p2 = Saar (League of Nations)| flag_p2 = Flag of Saar 1920-1935.svg| p3 = First Austrian Republic| flag_p3 = Flag of Austria.svg| p4 = History of Czechoslovakia (1918–1938)| flag_p4 = Flag of Czechoslovakia.svg| p5 = Free City of Danzig| flag_p5 = Gdansk flag.svg| p6 = Second Polish Republic| flag_p6 = Flag_of_Poland.svg| p7 = Luxembourg| flag_p7 = Flag_of_Luxembourg.svg| p8 = Kingdom of Yugoslavia| flag_p8 = Flag of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (civil).svg| s1 = Allied Occupation Zones in Germany| flag_s1 = Flag of Germany (1946-1949).svg| s2 = Allied-administered Austria| flag_s2 = Flag of Austria.svg| s3 =
History of Czechoslovakia (1945–1948)| flag_s3 = Flag of Czechoslovakia.svg| s4 = People's Republic of Poland| flag_s4 = Flag_of_Poland.svg| s5 = Luxembourg| flag_s5 = Flag_of_Luxembourg.svg| s6 = Socialist Republic of Slovenia| flag_s6 = Flag_of_SR Slovenia.svg| image_flag = Flag_of_Germany_1933.svg| flag = Flag of Nazi Germany| image_coat = Reichsadler.svg| symbol_type = National Insignia| symbol_type_article = Coat of arms of Germany| image_map = NaziGaue.png| image_map_caption = Nazi Germany in 1941, prior to the invasion of the Soviet Union.| national_motto =
"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer.""One People, one Empire, one Leader."| national_anthem = "Das Lied der Deutschen" "Horst-Wessel-Lied"]| government_type = Dictatorship| title_leader = Führer| leader1 = Adolf Hitler| year_leader1 = 1934 – 1945| title_representative = President of Germany| representative1 = Paul von Hindenburg| year_representative1 = 1933 – 1934| representative2 = Karl Dönitz| year_representative2 = 1945| title_deputy = Chancellor of Germany| deputy1 = Adolf Hitler| year_deputy1 = 1933 – 1945| deputy2 = Joseph Goebbels| year_deputy2 = 1945| deputy3 =
Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk| year_deputy3 = 1945| era = History of Germany#Third Reich| event1 =
Gleichschaltung| date_event1 = February 27,
1933| date_event2 = [March 31,
1933| date_event3 = [September 15, 1935| date_event3 = [April 10,
1938| date_event4 = [May 2,
1945| date_event5 = [May 8, 1945| footnotes = a From 1943 – 45. From 1933 to 1943:
[Deutsches Reich ("German Reich"). The German state is identically the very same because it exists as a nation state since 1871. In 1949, at
German Democratic Republic –
West Germany division there was no foundation of a new Germany, instead of that there were only formations or reorganizations. The
German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) alleged an own foundation, and it saw itself as a
succession of Germany (but in fact it only was part of it like West Germany).b Only first stanza was used.c Office declared vacant upon Hindenburg's death, allowing Chancellor Hitler to name himself "Führer and Chancellor".-->
Nazi Germany, or the
Third Reich — officially called
Deutsches Reich ("German Reich") and later
Großdeutsches Reich ("Greater German Reich") — refers to Germany during the period from 1933 to 1945, when it was governed by the
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party, or "
Nazi Party"), with Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany and, from 1934, as head of state called the
Führer (Leader).
The term
Nazi Germany is not politically correct as it does not reflect the historic dates. In Germany, it is not a term used to describe that era. Rather it is the Third Reich.
The policies pursued by Nazi Germany were, based on the concept of
Lebensraum; "Aryan race"
racial purity; anti-Semitism; revenge for Germany's territorial losses at the
Treaty of Versailles and the perceived loss of pride because of it; and
anti-communism directed at the
Soviet Union were among the leading causes of the
World War II and the Nazi regime's systematic mass murder of millions of Jews, political opponents, and other minorities in the
genocide known as the
Holocaust or Shoah. By the end of the war, Germany's major infrastructure was destroyed — and many of its major cities were in ruin as the result of Allied bombings and intense
urban warfare (especially in Berlin in 1945).
Under the Nazi regime, Germany, from a military and territorial standpoint, became the dominant nation state in Europe by the early 1940s. After the annexation of Austria in 1938, Nazi Germany became the first united German state since the Holy Roman Empire to include
Austria within its boundaries which was ended after the Nazi regime's defeat in 1945. The fall of the Nazi regime also saw the complete dissolution of Prussia as a regional component of Germany.
Name
The official name of Germany did not change after the Nazis came to power in 1933. It remained
Deutsches Reich (literally translated as German Empire), the same as it had been since 1871. It was only in 1943 that the Nazi government officially modified the name of Germany, calling it
Großdeutsches Reich (literally translated as Greater German Empire), which remained in use until the defeat of Nazi Germany in May, 1945.
The
Nazi Party used the terms
Drittes Reich ("Third Empire") and
Tausendjähriges Reich ("Thousand-Year Empire") to describe the greater German ethnic empire they wished to forge. The term
Tausendjähriges Reich was used only briefly and also dropped from propaganda in 1939, officially to avoid mockery and possibly to even avoid religious connotations. In speeches, books and articles about the Third Reich after 8 May 1945, the phrase has taken on a new meaning and the early Nazi professions about a "thousand-year" empire are often juxtaposed against the twelve years that the Third Reich actually existed.
The term
Das Dritte Reich referred to the Nazi recognition of former incarnations of German empires while alluding to envisioned future prosperity and the new nation's alleged destiny. But on 10 July 1939, it was dropped from propaganda at Hitler's behest. The
Holy Roman Empire ("Heiliges Römisches Reich," later with the appendage "Deutscher Nation"), deemed the
First Reich, had lasted almost a thousand years, from 843 to 1806, hence the
Nazi reference to the 1000 year Reich.
Second Reich was the Prussian-ruled monarchy called the German Empire and the first firmly unified German state which existed from 1871 until its replacement by the Weimar Republic following the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918, and the abolition of the Empire in the wake of the
Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The term was taken by the Nazis from the 1923 book
Das Dritte Reich ("The Third Reich"), by the cultural historian and writer Arthur Moeller van den Bruck — who was an anti-Versailles German nationalist, but far from enthusiastic about Hitler, whom he met in 1922.
Territory
In addition to Weimar-era
Weimar Republic, the Reich came to include areas with ethnic Germans populations such as
Austria, the Sudetenland and the territory of
Klaipėda region in the years leading up to the war.
Regions were acquired after the outbreak of conflict include
Eupen-et-Malmédy,
Alsace-Lorraine,
Free City of Danzig and territories of Second Polish Republic. In addition, from 1939 to 1945, the Reich ruled
Czech Republic as a Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, subjugated and annexed prior to the start of the world war. Although considered a part of
Greater Germany, the protectorate had its own currency.
Czech Silesia was incorporated into the
province of Silesia during the same period. In 1942 Luxembourg was directly annexed into Germany. Central Second Polish Republic and Polish Galicia, were run by a protectorate government called the General Government. The Poles were to be eventually "removed" and Poland itself being populated by 5 milion Germans. By late 1943, Germany not only seized South Tyrol and Istria which had been under Austrian rule before 1918, but also seized
Venezia from its erstwhile ally Italy after it capitulated to the Allies. The states composing Germany were restricted in sovereignty by the Nazi regime and replaced in their political rights by Gau (country subdivision), districts led by representatives called
Gauleiter who were completely loyal to the central government. In the majority of cases that Gauleiter was responsible in
personal union for the
Reichsgau, too. These administrative changes dismantled the regional political hegemony which had been held by
Prussia over German affairs since 1871. However the title of the
Prime Minister of Prussia, used by
Hermann Göring from 1933-1945, and other titles still remained in use.
Outside of what was directly annexed into Germany, were regional territories created in occupied land. In the occupied areas of the Soviet Union, occupational territories were called
Reichskommissariat. These included
Reichskommissariat Ostland and
Reichskommissariat Ukraine, which were designed to foster German colonization of eastern Europe. In northern and western Europe, occupation authorities aided by Nazi sympathizers ran the governments of
Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands,
Norway, and northern France (after 1942, all of France). In parts of northern France, travel restrictions were imposed by the Nazi occupation authorities, as the Nazi regime intended to colonize those areas with German citizens.
The Reich's borders had changed
de facto well before its military defeat in May 1945, as the German population fled westward from the advancing Red Army and the Western Allies pressed eastward from France. By the end of the war, a small strip of land stretching from Austria to Bohemia and Moravia — as well as a few other isolated regions — were the only areas not under Allied control. Upon its defeat, the Reich was in a state of
debellation and was replaced by occupation zones administrated by France, the Soviet Union, the
United Kingdom and the United States. The prewar German lands east of the
Oder-Neisse line and
Stettin and its surrounding area were set
Former eastern territories of Germany but factually sundered from Germany for annexation by Poland and the Soviet Union. These territorial changes resulted in the complete dissolution of Prussia as a German territorial component and was neither identified as a regional entity of Poland or the Soviet Union (
Kaliningrad region). By signing the
Treaty of Warsaw (1970) and the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany (1990), Germany finally confirmed to abdicate any claims to territories lost during the Second World War.
Nazi ideology
From an international perspective, Nazism had much of the ideological basis of
fascism which originally developed in Italy under
Benito Mussolini. Both ideologies involved the political use of militarism,
nationalism,
anti-communism,
holism, paramilitaries, and intended to create a
dictatorship-led state. However, the Nazis were far more racially-oriented than fascists in Italy,
Portugal, and Spain and the Nazis were intent on creating a completely totalitarian state, unlike Italian fascists who allowed a larger degree of private liberties for their citizens than the Nazis permitted, and allowed the Italian monarchy to continue to exist and have some official powers.
("Leader") of the Nazi party and then Germany from 1934 to 1945. Photograph by
Heinrich Hoffmann.The totalitarian nature of the Nazi party was one of its principal tenets. The Nazis connected that all the great achievements in the past of the German nation and its people were associated with the ideals of
Nazism even before the ideology officially existed. Propaganda accredited the consolidation of Nazi ideals and successes of the regime to regime's "Leader", or
Führer, Adolf Hitler, who was portrayed by himself and propaganda as the genius behind the Nazi party's success and Germany's saviour. Hitler's ability to grasp the attention of audiences through his powerful speeches helped him earn a cult following by his Nazi followers. To secure their ability to create a totalitarian state, the Nazi party's paramilitary force, the
Sturmabteilung (SA) "Storm Unit", used acts of violence against leftists, democrats, Jews, and other opposition or minority groups. The SA's violence created climates of fear in cities, with people fearing punishment and even death if they displayed opposition to the Nazis. The SA also helped attract large numbers of alienated and unemployed youth to join the party.
The Nazis endorsed the concept of "
Großdeutschland", or
Großdeutschland, and believed that the incorporation of the Germanic people into one nation was a vital step towards their national success. Similarly, the "German problem", as it is often referred to in English scholarship, focuses on the issue of administration of Germanic regions within Northern and Central Europe, an important theme throughout German history.Bischof, Günter, “The Historical Roots of a Special Relationship: Austro-German Relations Between Hegemony and Equality”. In Unequal Partners, ed. Harald von Riekhoff and Hanspeter Neuhold. San Francisco: Westview Press, 1993 The "logic" of keeping Germany small worked in the favor of its principal economic rivals, and had been a driving force in the recreation of a Polish state. The goal was to create numerous counterweights in order to "balance out Germany's power". However it was the German passionate support of the
Volk concept that led to Germany's expansion, that gave legitimacy and the support needed for the Third Reich to proceed to conquer long lost territories with overwhelmingly non-German population like former Prussian gains in Poland that it lost to Russia in the 1800s, or to acquire territories with German population like parts of Austria, or "needed" as the Nazi regime claimed for
Lebensraum (living space) for a growing population. Two important issues were administration of the
Polish corridor and Danzig's incorporation into the Reich. As a further extension of racial policy, the Lebensraum program, pertained to similar interests; it was decided that Eastern Europe would be settled with ethnic Germans, and the
Slavic peoples population who met the Nazi racial standard would be absorbed into the Reich. Those not fitting the racial standards were to be used as cheap labour force or deported eastward. Hitler's Plan, Dac.neu.edu.Racism was an important aspect of society within the Third Reich. The Nazis also combined anti-Semitism with anti-Communist ideology and regarded the leftist movement — as well as international market capitalism — as the work of "Conspiratorial Jewry". They referred to this so-called movement as the "Jewish-Bolshevistic revolution of subhumans." ess.uwe.ac.uk This platform manifested itself in the displacement, internment and later, the systematic extermination of an estimated eleven to twelve million people in the midst of World War II, roughly half of whom being Jews targeted in what is historically remembered as
the Holocaust (Shoah), and another 100,000-1,000,000 being Roma people, who were murdered in what they call the Porajmos. Other victims of Nazi persecution included communists, blacks, various political opponents, social outcasts,
homosexuals, religious dissidents such as
Jehovah's Witnesses, unyielding Church-affiliated leadership (
Confessing Church and resisting
Roman Catholic clergy), and Freemasonry.
World War II officially began after Nazi Germany invaded
Poland on 1 September 1939, which led to
France and the
United Kingdom both declaring war on Nazi Germany. The global conflict that followed left Europe in ruins and led to the deaths of roughly sixty-two million people.
Government
In the wake of the loss of land and perceived national humiliation imposed through the
Treaty of Versailles, civil unrest, the worldwide economic depression of the 1930s spurred by the stock market crash in the U.S., the counter-traditionalism of the Weimar Republic period and the threat of Soviet-sponsored
communism in Germany, many voters began turning their support towards the Nazi Party, which promised strong government, an end to civil unrest, radical changes to economic policy, cultural renewal based on
traditionalism, military rearmament in opposition to the Treaty of Versailles, and to bring back national pride that the Nazis claimed was lost in the Treaty of Versailles and by
liberal democracy.. The Nazis also endorsed the
Dolchstosslegende ("Stab in the back legend") which figured prominently in their propaganda as it did in propaganda of most other nationalist-leaning parties in Germany.
From 1925 to the 1930s, the German government devolved from a democracy to a
de facto conservative-nationalist authoritarian state under President and war hero
Paul von Hindenburg, who opposed the liberal democratic nature of the
Weimar Republic and wanted to find a way to officially make Germany into an authoritarian state. The natural ally of the foundation of an authoritarian state had been the
German National People's Party (DNVP or "the Nationalists"), but increasingly after 1929, more fanatic and younger generation nationalists were attracted to the revolutionary nature of the Nazi party, to challenge the rising support for communism as the German economy floundered. By 1932, the Nazis were the largest party in the Reichstag. Hindenburg was reluctant to give any substantial power to Hitler, but worked out an alliance between the Nazis and the DNVP which would allow him to develop an authoritarian state. But Hitler consistently demanded on being appointed chancellor in order for Hindenburg to receive any Nazi Party support of his administration.
On 30 January
1933, Hitler was appointed
chancellor of Germany by Hindenburg after attempts by General
Kurt von Schleicher to form a viable government failed. Hindenburg was put under pressure by Hitler through his son
Oskar von Hindenburg, as well as intrigue from former Chancellor Franz von Papen following his collection of participating financial interests and own ambitions to combat communism. Even though the Nazis had gained the largest share of the popular vote in the two Reichstag (institution) general elections of 1932, they had no majority of their own, and just a slim majority in parliament with their Papen-proposed Nationalist DNVP-NSDAP coalition. This coalition ruled through accepted continuance of the Presidential decree, issued under Article 48 of the 1919 constitution.
The Nazi attacks on the Jews in the early months of 1933 marked the first step in a longer-term process of removing them from German society.Richard Evans,
The Coming of the Third Reich (New York: Penguin Books, 2003), 441. By the summer of 1933, this process was on its way to becoming quite disastrous. This process also marked the core of Adolf Hitler's "cultural revolution" whereby the Nazi mind had begun to transform in a manner conducive to anti-Semitism, anti-communism, and anti-
liberalism.
Consolidation of power
The new government installed a totalitarian dictatorship in a series of measures in quick succession (see
Gleichschaltung for details).
On the night of February 27th, the
Reichstag fire and Dutch council communist Marinus van der Lubbe was found inside the building. He was arrested and charged with starting the blaze. The event had an immediate effect on thousands of anarchists, socialists and communists throughout the Reich, many who were sent to the
Dachau concentration camp. The unnerved public worried that the fire had been a signal meant to initiate the communist revolution and the Nazis found the event to be of immeasurable value in getting rid of potential insurgents. The event was quickly followed by the
Reichstag Fire Decree, rescinding habeas corpus and other civil liberties.
The Enabling act of 1933 was passed in March 1933, with 444 votes, to the 94 of the remaining Social Democrats. The act gave the government (and thus effectively the Nazi Party) legislative powers and also authorized it to deviate from the provisions of the constitution for four years. With these powers, Hitler removed the remaining opposition and turned the Weimar Republic into the "Third Reich".
In order for Hitler to create the Nazi dictatorship in Germany, it had to become a one party state. This was achieved by the Nazis as by June 1933 the Social Democrats had been banned, the Communists had been banned and the German Nationalists (DNVP), German People's Party (DVP) and German Democratic Party (DDP) had all been forced to disband. The remaining Catholic Centre Party disbanded themselves on the
5 July 1933 after guarantees over Catholic education and youth groups. On the
14 July 1933 Germany officially declared a one-party state with the passing of the Law against the formation of parties.
Symbols of the Weimar Republic including as the black-red-gold flag (now the present-day flag of Germany) were abolished by the new regime which adopted both new and old imperial symbolism to represent the dual nature of the imperialist-Nazi regime of 1933. The old imperial black-white-red tricolour, almost completely abandoned during the Weimar Republic, was restored as one of Germany's two officially legal national flags. The other official national flag was the swastika flag of the Nazi party. It became the sole national flag in 1935.
Further consolidation of power was achieved on 30 January 1934, with the
Gesetz über den Neuaufbau des Reichs (Act to rebuild the Reich). The act changed the highly decentralized federal Germany of the Weimar era into a centralized state. It disbanded state parliaments, transferring sovereign rights of the states to the Reich central government and put the state administrations under the control of the Reich administration.
Only the army remained independent from Nazi control. The German army had traditionally been separated from the government and somewhat of an entity of its own. The Nazi paramilitary Sturmabteilung expected top positions in the new power structure and wanted the regime to follow through its promise of enacting socialist legislation for Aryan Germans. Wanting to preserve good relations with the army and the major industries who were weary of more political violence erupting from the SA, on the night of
30 June 1934, Hitler initiated the violent
Night of the Long Knives, a purge of the leadership ranks of Röhm's SA as well as socialist-leaning Nazis (Strasserists), and other political enemies, carried out by another, more elitist, Nazi organization, the SS.
At the death of president Hindenburg on 2 August 1934, the Nazi-controlled Reichstag merged the offices of
Reichspräsident and
Reichskanzler and reinstalled Hitler with the new title
Führer und Reichskanzler. Until the death of Hindenburg, the army did not follow Hitler. However, with the death of Hindenburg, the entire army swore their obedience to Hitler. The Nazis proceeded to scrap their official alliance with the conservative nationalists, and began to introduce Nazi ideology and Nazi symbolism into all major aspects of life in Germany.
The inception of the Gestapo, police acting outside of any civil authority, highlighted the Nazis' intention to use powerful, coercive means to directly control German society. Soon, an army estimated to be of about 100,000 spies and informants operated throughout Germany, reporting to Nazi officials the activities of any critics or dissenters. Most ordinary Germans, happy with the improving economy and better standard of living, remained obedient and quiet, but many political opponents, especially communists and Marxist or international socialists, were reported by omnipresent eavesdropping spies and put in prison camps where many were tortured and killed. It is estimated that tens of thousands of political victims died or disappeared in the first few years of Nazi rule.
Social policy
Nazi social policy was dominated by the desire to create a "perfect" race and demanded a racially pure society. The effects of Nazi social policy in Germany was divided between those considered to be "Aryan" and those considered "non-Aryan", Jewish, or part of other minority groups. For "Aryan" Germans, a number of social policies put through by the regime to benefit them were advanced for the time, including: state opposition to the use of tobacco due to health risks), an end to official stigmatization towards Aryan children who were born from parents outside of marriage, as well as giving financial assistance to Aryan German families who bore children.Perry Biddiscombe "Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948", Journal of Social History 34.3 (2001) 611-647 For "non-Aryans", specifically Jews, Poles, Roma, and other kinds of minorities, they faced racist laws, lack of any form of social assistance or help, and ethnic persecution and later genocide. The Nazis declared different types of minorities. The treatment of specified minorities was so poor that animals had more rights than these human beings — harmful and cruel experiments on animals were banned in Nazi Germany while harmful and cruel experiments were allowed to happen to "shameful life" (, the Nazi term for Jews, Poles and Gypsies).
Racial and social persecution
See also: Racial policy of Nazi Germany
" required to be attached to clothing worn by Jews in public in Nazi Germany and occupied territories
The Nazi Party pursued its racial policy aims, and some related social aims, through persecution and killing of those considered "impure" or otherwise "enemies of the Reich." Especially targeted were minority groups such as Jews,
Roma (people) (also known as Gypsies),
Colored, Slavs,
Jehovah's Witnesses and the Holocaust , people with mental or physical
disabilities, and
homosexuality.
In the years following the Nazi rise to power, many Jews fled the country and were encouraged to do so. By the time the
Nuremberg Laws were passed in 1935, Jews were stripped of their German citizenship and denied government employment. Most Jews employed by Germans lost their jobs at this time, which were being taken by unemployed Germans. Notably, the Nazi government attempted to send 17,000 German Jews of Polish descent back to Poland, a decision which led to the assassination of
Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan, a German Jew living in France. This provided the pretext for a
pogrom the Nazi Party incited against the Jews on
9 November 1938, which specifically targeted Jewish businesses. The event was called
Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass, literally "Crystal Night"); the euphemism was used because the numerous broken windows made the streets look as if covered with crystals. By September 1939, more than 200,000 Jews had left Germany, with the Nazi government seizing any property they left behind.
, Jewish shops vandalized.The Nazis also undertook programs targeting "weak" or "unfit" people, such as the
T-4 Euthanasia Program, killing tens of thousands of disabled and sick Germans in an effort to "maintain the purity of the German
Master race" (German:
Herrenvolk) as described by
Nazi propaganda. The techniques of mass killing developed in these efforts would later be used in
the Holocaust. Under a law passed in 1933, the Nazi regime carried out the compulsory sterilization of over 400,000 individuals labeled as having hereditary defects, ranging from
mental illness to alcoholism.
Another component of the Nazi programme of creating racial purity was the
Lebensborn, or "Fountain of Life" programme founded in 1936. The programme was aimed at encouraging German soldiers — mainly SS — to reproduce. This included offering SS families support services (including the adoption of racially pure children into suitable SS families) and accommodating racially-valuable women, pregnant with mainly SS men's children, in care homes in Germany and throughout Occupied Europe.
Lebensborn also expanded to encompass the placing of racially pure children forcibly seized from occupied countries — such as Poland — with German families.
concentration camp shortly after its liberationIn the 1930s, plans to isolate and eventually eliminate Jews completely in Germany began with the construction of ghettos, concentration camps and labour camps. In 1942, at the Wannsee Conference, Nazi officials made clear their intention to elliminate the Jews of Europe as quickly as possible, when they discussed the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question". Extermination camps like Auschwitz used gas chambers to kill as many Jews as possible and cremated the bodies. By 1945, a number of concentration camps had been liberated by Allied forces who found the survivors to be severely malnourished from starvation. The Allies also found evidence that the Nazis were profiteering off of the mass murder of Jews not only by confiscating their property and personal valuables but also by extracting gold fillings from the bodies of some Jews held in concentration camps.
Social welfare
Recent research by academics such as Götz Aly has emphasized the role of the extensive Nazi
social welfare programs that supposedly helped maintain public support for the regime that lasted long into the war. Heavily focused on was the idea of a national German community. To aid the fostering of a feeling of community, the German people's labor and entertainment experiences — from festivals, to vacation trips and traveling cinemas — were all made a part of the "Strength through Joy" (
Kraft durch Freude) program. Also crucial to the building of loyalty and comradeship was the implementation of the National Labor Service and the
Hitler Youth Organization, with compulsory membership. In addition to this, a number of architectural projects were undertaken. The construction of the Autobahn made it the first freeway system in the world. Between 1933 and 1936, Germany outpaced the United States in construction, automobile production and employment.
Public health
According to the research of Robert N. Proctor for his book "The Nazi War on cancer" Nazi Medicine and Public Health Policy Robert N. Proctor, Dimensions: A Journal of Holocaust Studies. Review of "The Nazi War on Cancer" Canadian Journal of History, Aug 2001 by Ian Dowbiggin, Nazi Germany had arguably the most powerful anti-tobacco movement in the world. Anti-tobacco research received a strong backing from the government, and German scientists proved that cigarette smoke could cause cancer. German pioneering research on experimental
epidemiology lead to the 1939 paper by Franz H. Müller, and the 1943 paper by Eberhard Schairer and Erich Schöniger which convincingly demonstrated that tobacco smoking was a main culprit in lung cancer. The government urged German doctors to counsel patients against tobacco use.
German research on the dangers of tobacco was silenced after the war, and the dangers of tobacco had to be rediscovered by American and English scientists in the early 1950s, with a medical consensus arising in the early 1960s.
German scientists also proved that
asbestos was a health hazard, and in 1943 — as the first nation in the world to offer such a benefit — Germany recognized the diseases caused by asbestos, e.g., lung cancer, as occupational illnesses eligible for compensation. The German asbestos-cancer research was later used by American lawyers doing battle against the
Johns-Manville Corporation.
As part of the general public-health campaign in Nazi Germany, water supplies were cleaned up, lead and
mercury (element) were removed from consumer products, and women were urged to undergo regular screenings for
breast cancer. Nazi Medicine and Public Health Policy Robert N. Proctor, Dimensions: A Journal of Holocaust Studies. Review of "The Nazi War on Cancer" Canadian Journal of History, Aug 2001 by Ian Dowbiggin
Women's rights
The Nazis opposed women's
emancipation and opposed the feminist movement, claiming that it was Jewish-led and was bad for both women and men. The Nazi regime advocated a patriarchial society in which German women would recognize the "world is her husband, her family, her children, and her home." Hitler claimed that women taking vital jobs away from men during the Great Depression was economically bad for families in that women were only paid 66% of what men earned. At the same time for calling for women to leave work, the regime called for women to be actively supportive of the state regarding women's affairs. In 1933, Hitler appointed Gertrud Scholtz-Klink as the Reich Women's Leader, who instructed women that their primary role in society was to bear children and that women should be subservient to men, once saying "the mission of woman is to minister in the home and in her profession to the needs of life from the first to last moment of man's existence." . Organizations were made for the indoctrination of Nazi values to German women. Such organizations included the
Jungmädel (Young Girls) section of the Hitler Youth for girls from the age 10 to 14, the
Bund Deutscher Mädel (German Girl's League) for young women from 14 to 18.
On the issue of sexual affairs regarding women, the Nazis differed greatly from the restrictive stances on women's role in society. The Nazi regime promoted a liberal code of conduct as regards sexual matters, and were sympathetic to women bearing children out of wedlock.Perry Biddiscombe "Dangerous Liaisons: The Anti-Fraternization Movement in the U.S. Occupation Zones of Germany and Austria, 1945-1948", Journal of Social History 34.3 (2001) 611-647 The collapse of 19th century morals in Germany accelerated during the Third Reich, partly due to the Nazis, and partly due to the effects of the war. Promiscuity increased greatly as the war progressed, with unmarried soldiers often dating several women simultaneously. Married women were often involved in multiple affairs simultaneously, with soldiers, civilians or
slave laborers."Some farm wives in
Württemberg had already begun using sex as a commodity, employing carnal favours as a means of getting a full day's work from foreign labourers."
After the war, with women now making up 56% of the population (1946) and the remaining men initially broken and bewildered, the women's emancipation movement returned after being repressed under Nazism. In the immediate post-war time period, women held political posts such as mayors and generally took on a more prominent role.
Animal protection policy
One of the first acts of the new regime was to enact an animal protection law. The implemented law on animal protection was stringent and restricted research. Hartmut M. Hanauske-Abel,
Not a slippery slope or sudden subversion: German medicine and National Socialism in 1933, BMJ 1996; p. 1453-1463 (7 December)
Economic policy
gained significant value during the Third Reich.When the Nazis came to power the most pressing issue was an unemployment rate of close to 30%. The economic management of the state was first given to respected banker
Hjalmar Schacht. Under his guidance, a new economic policy to elevate the nation was drafted. One of the first actions was to destroy the
trade unions and impose strict
Incomes policys.
The government then expanded the
money supply through massive
deficit spending. However at the same time the government imposed a 4.5%
interest rate ceiling, creating a massive shortage in borrowable funds. This was resolved by setting up a series of dummy companies that would pay for goods with Bond (finance). The most famous of these was the
MEFO company, and these bonds used as currency became known as MEFO bills. While it was promised that these bonds could eventually be exchanged for real money, the repayment was put off until after the collapse of the Reich. These complicated manoeuvres also helped conceal armament expenditures that violated the
Treaty of Versailles.
According to economic theory, price control combined with a large increase in the money supply should have produced a large
black market, but harsh penalties that saw violators sent to Nazi concentration campss or even shot prevented this development. Repressive measures also kept Volatility (finance) low, reducing inflationary pressures. New policies also limited imports of consumer goods and focused on producing exports.
International trade was greatly reduced remaining at about a third of 1929 levels throughout the Nazi period. Currency controls were extended, leading to a considerable overvaluation of the
German reichsmark. These policies were successful in cutting unemployment dramatically.
Most industry was not nationalized; however, industry was closely regulated with quotas and requirements to use domestic resources. These regulations were set by administrative committees composed of government and business officials. Competition was limited as major companies were organized into
cartels through these administrative committees. Selective nationalization was used against businesses that failed to agree to these arrangements. The banks, which had been nationalized by the Weimar Republic, were returned to their owners and each administrative committee had a bank as member to finance the schemes.
While the strict state intervention into the economy, and the massive rearmament policy, led to full employment during the 1930s, real wages in Germany dropped by roughly 25% between 1933 and 1938. Trade unions were abolished, as well as collective bargaining and the right to strike. The right to quit also disappeared: Labour books were introduced in 1935, and required the consent of the previous employer in order to be hired for another job.
The German economy was transferred to the leadership of Hermann Göring when, on 18 October 1936, the German Reichstag announced the formation of a
Four-Year Plan. The Nazi economic plan aimed to achieve a number of objectives. Under the leadership of Fritz Todt, a massive public works project, the
Reichsarbeitsdienst, was started, rivalling Roosevelt's
New Deal in both size and scope. It functioned as a military-like unit, its most notable achievements being the network of
Autobahnen and, once the war started, the building of bunkers, underground facilities and entrenchments all over Europe.
Another part of the new German economy was massive rearmament, with the goal being to expand the 100,000-strong German Army into a force of millions. The Four-Year Plan was discussed in the controversial
Hossbach Memorandum, which provides the "minutes" from one of Hitler's briefings. Some use the Hossbach Memorandum to show that Hitler planned a war in Eastern Europe in the pursuit of
Lebensraum, believing that the Western powers of the United Kingdom and France would not intervene, leaving him free to take over the USSR, the "natural enemy" of Germany. However, this
functionalism versus intentionalism is disputed.
Nevertheless, the war came and although the Four-Year Plan technically expired in 1940, Hermann Göring had built up a power base in the "Office of the Four-Year Plan" that effectively controlled all German economic and production matters by this point in time. In 1942, the growing burdens of the war and the death of Todt saw the economy move to a full
war economy under
Albert Speer.
Art and culture
Traditional and masculine values in German culture were sought to be restored by the regime. All attempts at "artistic experimentation" and "sexual freedom" were repressed. The visual arts were strictly monitored and traditional, focusing on exemplifying Germanic themes,
racial purity,
militarism, heroism, power, strength, and obedience. Modern abstract art and avant-garde was removed from museums and put on special display as
"degenerate art", where it was to be ridiculed. In one notable example on
31 March 1937, huge crowds stood in line to view a special display of "degenerate art" in Munich. Art forms considered to be degenerate included Dada,
Cubism, Expressionism,
Fauvism, Impressionism,
New Objectivity, and
Surrealism.
Literature made by Jewish, other non-Aryans, or authors opposed to the Nazis were destroyed by the regime. The most infamous destruction of literature was the book burnings of 1933.
Two major displays of Nazi German art and culture were at the 1936 Summer Olympics and at the German pavillion at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937) or world fair in Paris. The 1936 Olympics was meant to display to the world the Aryan superiority of Germany to other nations. German athletes were carefully chosen not only for strength but for Aryan appearance. However one common belief of Hitler snubbing
African-American athlete
Jesse Owens has recently been discovered to be technically incorrect — it was African-American athlete
Cornelius Cooper Johnson who was believed to have been snubbed by Hitler, who left the medal ceremonies after awarding a German and a Finn medals. Hitler claimed it was not a snub, but that he had official business to attend to which caused him to depart. Hitler was criticized for this and the Olympic committee officials insisted that he greet each and every medalist. Hitler did not attend any of the medal presentations which followed, including the one after Jesse Owens won his four medals.Hyde Flippo, The 1936 Berlin Olympics: Hitler and Jesse Owens German Myth 10 from German.about.comRick Shenkman,
Adolf Hitler, Jesse Owens and the Olympics Myth of 1936 February 13, 2002 from History News Network (article excerpted from Rick Shenkman's
Legends, Lies and Cherished Myths of American History. Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st ed edition (November 1988) ISBN 0688065805)
Despite the official attempt to forge a pure Germanic culture, one major area of the arts, architecture, under Hitler's personal guidance, was neoclassical, a style based on Roman architecture.Scobie, Alexander.
Hitler's State Architecture: The Impact of Classical Antiquity. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1990. ISBN 0-271-00691-9. Pp. 92. This style stood out in stark contrast and opposition to newer, more liberal, and more popular architecture styles of the time such as
Art Deco. Various Roman buildings were examined by state architect
Albert Speer for architectural designs for state buildings. Speer constructed huge and imposing buildings such as in the Nazi party rally grounds in
Nuremberg, and the new Reich Chancellery building in Berlin. One design that was pursued but never built, was a gigantic version of the
Pantheon, Rome in Rome, called the Volkshalle to be the semi-religious centre of Nazism in a renamed Berlin called Welthauptstadt Germania, that was to be the "world capital" (
Welthauptstadt). Also to be constructed was a
Triumphal arch several times larger than that found in Paris, which was also based upon a classical styling. Many of the designs for Germania were impractical to construct due to their size and the marshy soil underneath Berlin, materials that were to be used for construction were diverted to the war effort.
Environmental policy
In 1935 the regime enacted the "Reich Nature Protection Act", while not a purely Nazi piece of legislation since parts of its influences pre-dated the Nazi rise to power, it nevertheless reflected Nazi ideology; the concept of the "Dauerwald" was promoted, best translated as the "perpetual forest", which included concepts such as forest management and protection, and efforts were also made to curb air-pollution. JONATHAN OLSEN "How Green Were the Nazis? Nature, Environment, and Nation in the Third Reich (review)" Technology and Culture - Volume 48, Number 1, January 2007, pp. 207-208 Review of Franz-Josef Brueggemeier, Marc Cioc, and Thomas Zeller, eds, "How Green Were the Nazis?: Nature, Environment, and Nation in the Third Reich" Wilko Graf von Hardenberg, H-Environment, H-Net Reviews, October, 2006.
In practice, the enacted laws and policies met resistance from various ministries that sought to undermine them, and from the priority that the war-effort took to environmental protection. Environmentalism was in the end often sacrificed for the sake of other goals of the state.
World War II
The "
Danzig crisis" peaked in the months after Poland rejected Nazi Germany's initial offer regarding both the
Free City of Danzig and the
Polish Corridor. After a series of ultimatums, the Germans broke from diplomatic relations and shortly thereafter, Invasion of Poland (1939) on 1 September 1939. This led to the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe when on 3 September 1939, the
United Kingdom and
France both declared war on Germany. The Sitzkrieg followed. On 9 April 1940 the Germans struck north against Denmark and Norway, in part to secure the safety of continuing iron ore supplies from
Sweden through Norwegian coastal waters. British and French forces landed in
Central Norway and
North Norway, only to be defeated in the ensuing Norwegian campaign. In May, the Phony War ended when despite the protestations of many of his advisors, Hitler took a gamble and sent German forces into France and the
Low Countries. The
Battle of France was an overwhelming German victory. Later that year, Germany subjected the United Kingdom to heavy bombing during the
Battle of Britain, and deliberately bombed civilian areas London in response to a British bombing of Berlin. This may have served two purposes, either as a precursor to
Operation Sea Lion or it may have been an effort to dissuade the British populace from continuing to support the war. Regardless, the United Kingdom refused to capitulate and eventually Sea Lion was indefinitely postponed in favor of
Operation Barbarossa.
Barbarossa too was briefly postponed while Hitler's attention was diverted to save his failing Italian ally in North Africa and the
Balkans. The
Afrika Korps arrived in Libya in February of 1941. In what was to be one of many advances in the North African Campaign, the Germans took back much of what the Italians had so recently given up. In April, the Germans then launched an
invasion of Yugoslavia. This was followed by the
Battle of Greece and the Battle of Crete. But, by the time North Africa and the Balkans were subdued, February, March, April, and May were lost. Because of the diversions in North Africa and the Balkans, the Germans were not able to launch Barbarossa until late in June. He III over London 7 Sep 1940.jpg|left|200px
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany section contains work on Nazi leader Adolf Hitler,senior Nazi figures such as Goering,Goebbels,Himmler. Nazi Germany also includes work on the 1936 Berlin Olympics ...
Nazi Germany
At the beginning of the 19th centuty there was a considerable amount of anti-Semitism in Europe. This was reflected in the speeches and writings of Adolf Hitler.
Nazi Germany
Graphic of the Nazi Flag. Kindly submitted by A Field of Schoolhistory.co.uk: Submitted by Vikki Allen: Submitted by Vikki Allen
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Weimar and Nazi Germany Online Lessons
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