The Rise of Hitler

Hitler and the German Workers' Party

• Hitler was sent to spy on the party as a member of the German police in 1919.
• He saw how hopelessly disorganised the party was, but agreed with many of its ideas, and so, he decided to join.
• By 1920, he was helping to draft the Party's program and re-named it the NSDAP.
• They used Bavaria as a base, as their ideas were popular there. They wanted to overthrow the Weimar Republic and openly proclaimed this. It was supported by the Bavarian government itself, who also wanted to overthrow the Weimar republic

Changes to the party 1920-22

• It was re-named the NSDAP
• Hitler organised the party along military lines, and so he created the SA.
• The SA were, on paper, meant to protect Nazi meetings. This was essentially Hitler's personal army and was made up of mainly young Freikorps men in brown uniforms. They were used, in reality, to intimidate opposition, and the SA often started the violence themselves.
• Hitler became party leader in 1921.
• He worked with Herman Goering, Ernst Röhm, Heinrich Himmler, Rudolf Hess and Joseph Goebbels to put the party's plans into action.

Causes, events and results of the Munich Putsch

Causes

• People were frustrated with the economic situation brought about by the occupation of the Ruhr
• Stressemann had called off the passive resistance in the Ruhr and the right-wing saw this as a humiliating climb down
• Many people wanted a dictatorship, but especially for the Kaiser to come back to power.
• Hitler thought it was the perfect time for a putsch

Events

• Hitler wanted the support for the army, but the leader of Bavaria, Gustav Kahr, wasn't sure this would work out.
• The night before the putsch, the Nazis marched into the Beer Hall, where Hitler made a speech. The audience still seemed unconvinced. The people were being kept in the room by force.
• He took Ludendorff and Kahr into the next room, and threatened to shoot them if they did not agree. They remained silent, so, in frustration, he threatened to shoot both of them, as well as himself, if they did not agree.
• He marched out of the room and announced that he had the support of both officials (not necessarily true) and made another speech which roused the support and applause of everyone in the room.
• He left, leaving Kahor and Ludendorff. This was his fatal mistake, as they went and informed the police
• On the day of the Putsch, they were met by the police force, and even though they outnumbered them, 14 Nazis and very few police were killed in a shower of bullets

Results

• Hitler was put on trial, where he made a massive and fantastic speech which captured the attention of many. It gave him a reason to speak in public, and his trial was already recieving quite a lot of media attention.
• He was imprisoned and wrote Mein Kampf, a book of his political ideas.
• He was banned from speaking in public
• Nazi meetings were banned

Reorganisation of the party 1924 - 28

• In Febuary, 1925, Hitler did a re-launch of the party, ironically, in the same place that the Munich Putsch had taken place (Burgerbrau Keller)
• 4000 people had come to watch him speak, and another 1000 had to be turned away. He was still very popular.
• He divided the party into region and appointed gauleiters to run each 'region'
• He turned to Germany's wealthiest for funding. They made generous donations, hoping that the Nazis would keep the Communists away as they promised.
• They had donations from Germany's largest industrial bodies, including Bosch and Krupp, by the early 1930s.

• Hitler used extra funds to strengthen the SA. However, they were just thugs, and he did not, and could not, trust them.
• As well as protecting Nazi meetings (and disrupting other meetings), they also gave the appearance of strength and order
• While Hitler was in prison, he thought the SA had gotten dangerously loyal to Ernst Röhm, their leader. As a result, he set up the Shield Squadrons (shutzstaffel), notoriously known as the S.S.
• The SS wore black uniforms and were soon feared due to their ruthlessness. They were initially led by Hitler's personal chauffeur, Julius Schreck, but the power was soon given to Heinrich Himmler.

Impact of the Wall Street Crash

Causes

• Share prices fell in Wall Street, New York
• People's investments fell in value, so they rushed to sell them before they lost value
• 13 million shares were sold (29 October, 1929)
• This panic sent prices plummeting further, and shares lost value even quicker

Effects

• Banks suffered huge losses, so people rushed to withdraw their money from the bank. However, because of the sheer amount of people trying to do so, some banks ran out of cash.
• Some German companies were mostly dependent on American loans. These had to either reduce operations or shut down entirely
• This led to a fall in industrial output :(((
• Less companies able to function = more people lose their jobs = rise in unemployment
• Unemployment meant less domestic spending because people didn't have as much money
• Domestic industries also adversely affected
• The middle class lost their savings, their companies, and sometimes even their homes
• People became extremely frustrated and turned to extreme right or left wing politics for a solution

• People called for political action, but the Weimar republic failed them - they were becoming increasingly disillusioned with them.
• Extremist groups such as the Communists and Nazis became increasingly popular
• The causes of suffering, were, in reality, far from government control, and Brüning's governing by decree was in vain, and only undermined the government further.
• Many joined the armies of extreme political parties, and this resulted in violent clashes in the streets.

Nazi methods to win support

Organisation:

• The SA and SS gave a sense of power and organisation
• Many members had previously worked in the military, so the whole party was organised along military lines
• They brought obedience and teamwork skills from the war front
• Skilled leaders at almost every level

Propaganda:

• Played a major role
• Gobbels had been working behind-the-scenes to churn out the perfect propaganda message since the early 1920s.
• Messages had little detail but a big message
• The Nazi message had already been on display before 1929, but as conditions worstened, people started to pay more attention to them
• Articulated Nazi message to all sectors of German society
• Presented Hitler as an ideal leader that would save the country from this mess
• Had a strong appeal for the middle classes: they would remove the communist threat, encourage savings and get their houses and properties back

WORK IN PROGRESS: To be completed.

Support of industrialists:

• They had the support of German industry giants such as Bosch
• This motivated the public to vote for them too

Goebbels and propaganda and the work of the SA

Events of 1923 to January 1933 including the role of Von Papen, von Schleicher and von Hindenburg.