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The Nazi Experiment: 1929 - 1949 - Coggle Diagram
The Nazi Experiment: 1929 - 1949
political authority 1929-45
collapse of weimar democracy
stock market crash in US october 1929 prompted a global depression
german economy ground to a halt due to loss of US loans and investment - banks collapses, industrial production fell businesses went bankrupt
unemployment soared from under 2m in 1929 to over 4.5m in 1931 and 6m by 1932, a 1/3 of germans had no wages
muller's grand coalition govt. collapsed in 1930 after being unable to meet increased demand for unemployment benefits
bruning replaced muller in 1930, and began using article 48 and presidential decree to lead, such as the new finance reform bill (deflationary fiscal)
in 1930 he asked hindenburg to dissolve RS in response to their requests to withdraw the finance bill
presidential government
bruning was reappointed chancellor and used A48 constantly, between 1930-32 109 emergency decrees were used with the RS passing only 29 minor bills
convinced allies to end reparation payments in 1932
banned Nazi SA in 1932, but his austerity programme drove voters into the arms of extremism anyway
presidential election in 1932 showed hitlers success as came close second to hindenburg, it increased nazi confidence and made previous ban on SA unworkable
papens government
elected in 1932 as a non-government party, acknowledged breakdown in democracy, as papen and his ministers were not part of the RS - could only rule by decree
lifted SA ban, curbed communist press and called new elections in july 1932 - extremists made further gains in these
hitler gained 230 seats, and refused papens offer of vice-chancellorship
schleichers government
opened negotiations with strasser for nazi support, but strasser was expelled from NSDAP in 1932 by hitler for this
papen opened negotiations with hitler in 1933, and offered hitler chancellorship with himself as vice-chancellor
schleicher was forced to resign in jan 28 1933 and hitler was called in on the 30th jan 1933
the establishment of a one-party state
27th february - reichstag fire blamed on communists allowed hitler to pass law 'for the protection of the people and the state' - search, arrest and censor anyone until further notice
1933 march elections did not give hitler a majority so he had to from coalition with DNVP and Zentrum - committed hitler to protecting spiritual interests of the catholic church
hitler passed enabling act in march 1933 allowing him to issues laws without consultation for the next four years
following enabling act hitler began 'gleichschaltung' where all organisations had to reform to align with nazi views
april 1933 - law for restoration of professional civil service - non-aryans forced to retire and jews purged from roles in administration, courts, school and universities
may 1933 - trade unions disbanded, workers forced to join DAF - no longer negotiate over pay and conditions
december 1933 - legalisation of hitler's one party state - 'law to ensure unity of party and state'
the night of the long knives
june 1934 - SS kill SA leaders and opponents to Nazism
SA were uncontrollable and violent - purging them secured hitlers' authority and guaranteed loyalty of army who hated SA and had power to remove hitler
following hindenburg's death in august 1934, hitler combined the role of president and chancellor to form 'fuhrer'
government and opposition 1929-45
nazi ideology was based on the belief of supremacy of the state and the superiority of the aryan race
nazism demanded total loyalty to the state and this was emphasised by the 'fuhrerprinzip' in which cult-like belief in a strong leader was necessary for success
the nazis were anti-communist, anti-democracy, anti-feminist and anti-semitic
superior aryans were awarded 'lebensraum' policy where they were given more living space at the expense of others, there was also the belief of 'volksgemeinshcaft' of tightly-knit aryan communities
hitler set up ministry for enlightenment and propaganda under josef goebbels in 1933 to spread nazi ideology through press, radio, theatre, music, creative arts and films
hitlers style of governance
hitler presided over a totalitarian regime, his authority was unchallenged and all powers vested in him alone - he did have a cabinet of loyal ministers and the lander had nazi-appointed reich governors to implement his will
was uninterested in routine government business and preferred to give speeches rather than listen to them - he was rarely involved in the formulation of policy, allowing his ministers to instead with his approval after
notion of subordinates formulating policy with the idea of 'working towards the fuhrer' - make policy they believed he would favour
terror state
SS acted as an auxiliary police force that dealt with political prisoners and creation of the 'racial community' - it was headed by himmler
himmler also headed the gestapo in 1934, which grew to become the largest security agency in the state, rooting out political enemies
himmler also controlled the SD, but heydrich was head of it - elite organisation for collecting intelligence
made chief of police in 1936
no independent judiciary and under the 1933 civil service law, judges whose political beliefs conflicted with nazism, were removed
lawyers had to be members of the nazi lawyers association - they interpreted the law according to the 'will of the fuhrer' and in the interests of the volk
obedience was enforced through fear by constant streams of informants and a 'block warden' who made regular visits to homes
between 1933-39, 225,000 germans were convicted of political crimes, and a further 162,000 were placed in protective custody in prison without a trial
repression included: censorship, intimidation, loss of job/ status, arbitrary arrest and imprisonment (1933 decree - any critical comment or unauthorised action could lead to arrest), confinement in concentration camp, execution
peace time opposition
gleischaltung eliminated mostly all institutions wiht potential to become focus for organised resistance, and the penalty for any level of protest was extremely harsh
low-level opposition included: reading banned literature or listening to banned music, protecting jews or enemies of the state, refusing to join nazi organisations, supporting non-nazi churches or organisations
in all, 1.3m germans were sent to concentration camps, and 300,000 left germany between 1933 and 39
martin niemoller broke away from the protestant reich church and formed the 'confessional church' - he was held in a camp from 1937-45 and 8000 other pastors were incarcerated in 1937
growth in catholic opposition as nazis began closing down catholic schools, youth groups and newspapers despite the 1933 concordat with the zentrum
16 army generals were dismissed or resigned over the firing of army-commander-in-chief and war minister in 1938, over their criticism of hitler's war plans at the hossbach conference in 1937
wartime opposition
youth
swing clubs - reject nazi values, dress british or american and listen to jazz - threatened their ideology, hitler emphasised the importance of winning the youth, as future generation of the 1000 year reich
edelweiss pirates - working-class youth who hiked and attacked hitler-youth patrols, some sheltered army deserters and escaped jews
munich uni - white rose movement in 1941 by hans and sophie scholl gave pamphlets attacking nazi policy to jews, and later painted anti-nazi slogans on public buildings, but were caught and executed
church
many priests and churchmen joined resistance groups like kreisau circle, and helped jews escape
1939 - pastor bonhoeffer joined army intelligence and secretly allowed a group of jews to escape (operation 7), and made contact with british for peace if hitler was overthrown
wannsee conference 1942 - final solution by heydrich, hitler was missing from this
politics and government 1945-49
post-war occupation and division
30th april - hitler kills himself, 8-9th may - karl donitz signs surrender
establishment of four occupation zones
yalta conference feb. 1945 - four zones, with joint control council, and equal share of berlin each
principles of 'four D's' - decentralisation, denationalisation, denazification, democratisation
from june 1945 they occupied the zones, the wehrmacht was disbanded and national socialism was outlawed
the USSR had control of berlin from april 1945, and were keen to embed communism quickly and firmly in their sector in hopes it would be the dominant government when germany unified again
western zones were anxious to prevent resurgence in nazism and spread of communism so prohibited political activity in their zones until september 1945
in september 1945, western powers allowed some political parties to contest local and lander elections such as the SPD, KPD, CDU/ CSU, LDP- SPD and CDU/ CSU = most popular
potsdam conference july - august 1945
USA, USSR and GB - reparations taken from own zones, but russia take more from both others in exchange for food and material deliveries; separate economic units; reaffirmation of four D's
marshall aid began in 1947
1945-47
USSR took extensive reparations, seizing lots of factories, the allies denied them further reparations from their zones in 1946
all powers cooperated in nuremburg trials in nov-oct 1946, all but 3/22 were convicted, 12 sentenced to death
USSR placed nazis into prison camps initially, and then in 1947 amnesty offered to those willing to promote a socialist society, in 1948-49 restrictions on former nazis removed
mass internment in west = abandoned, in favour of arbitration tribunals for individual cases - most regained positions due to no alternative elite
USSR zones - KPD and SPD merged to from SED (socialist unity party) in 1946, with all left-wing parties forced under the coalition of SED - in 1946 it became the GDR
democratically elected governments became an important part of western germany, appointed by the people
1946 - US invited other zones to form economic union, rejected by USSR and france - in 1947 british and us zones formed bizonia
1948 - trizonia - us refused marshall aid to french zones unless joined
trizonia formed the bank deutscher lander and new currency, deutschmark, for the 3 zones
soviets declared the economic union broke the potsdam agreement stipulating germany to be single economic unit
berlin blockade: june 1948 - may 1949
road/ railway passenger traffic to and from berlin halted and reduced - soviets issued 'otsmark' for all berlin zones and soviet occ. germany, western currency introduced in their berlin sectors, but allowed otsmark, est berlin refused to accept deutschmark
western allies forced to use airlifts of supplies to maintain their berlin sectors due to soviet blocking - continued for 11 months from 26 june
ended in may 1949 - west had cut off soviets from steel, chemicals and manufactured goods which adversely affected soviet economy
division of germany
FRG
'basic law' - drafted in 1948, came into effect in 1949 - council chaired by adenauer drafted it - provisional constitution for west germany only, extended to all of germany on reunification
first national elections in 1949 - adenauer elected - same year admitted to status of associate member of council of europe and direct representation given at OEEC
GDR
volksrat of 1948 drew up constitution, and in 1949 elections for a 3rd volkscongress were held, with the GDR established in 1949 by them
wilhelm pieck elected leader and in 1949, he reviewed the KVP set up in 1948
economy
impact of the depression
by 1929, the economy had surpassed 1913 levels, due to US loans and investment of dawes plan 1924
the wall street crash caused export markets to disappear, prices and wages to fall, and increasing bankruptcies - this was paired with mounting unemployment and falling tax revenues = budget deficit of 1700 million marks
bruning attempted austerity and cut salaries of public workers and decreased unemployment benefits
march 1931 - bruning set up customs union with austria without french/ british consultation, angering the french so much they withdrew foreign currency from both banks, leading to collapse of largest german bank danatbank
1931 - US president hoover agreed to moratorium of payment of reparations and wartime debts, and in 1932 (under papen) these were written off
in 1932 papen issued an emergency decree offering tax rebates to employers who hire employees, end of compulsory arbitration and relaxation of system of wage agreements - angered TU's and left-wingers
in 1932 schleicher tried to win the TU's and left-wing over by restoring wage and relief cuts, public work programme and price fixing, which annoyed industrialists and land-owners
Nazi peace-time economy
1933 - all peasant debts suspended, 'law for protection of retail trade' forbade new department stores, reich food estate laid down guaranteed food prices for farmers along with high tariffs for imported foodstuffs, the reich entailed farm law prohibited sale confiscation division or mortgaging of farms between 7.5 and 10 hectares if aryan owned - security of tenure for small farmers
shachts economy
1933 law to reduce unemployment - public work schemes, subsidies for private construction/ renewal, incomes tax rebates and loans
1933: emergency relief schemes, development of armaments factories, discourage of female labour by marriage loans, law for construction of 7000km of motorway (autobahnen) with no machinery
1935 - reintroduction of conscription, recruitment into Reich Labour Service (RAD) for 18-25 year olds unemployed
mefo bills - used to raise money for investment to stimulate economy, 50% of expenditure in 1934-5 was payback of mefo bills
schachts new plan of 1934 - increased government regulation of imports, development of trade with less developed countries, development of german trade with central and southeast europe
suppression of unions, banning of strikes and creation of DAF, propaganda to create success illusion, seizure of jewish property and austrian assets through anschluss in 1938
unemployment decreased until 1939 - jews and women excluded from figures though
bruning had ended reparations in 1932, work schemes had been in use before 1933, and unemployment had already started dropping from 1932
foreign currency reserves were low, BoP was in a deficit, worsening after 1936, rearmament strained economy, real wages rose but so did food prices
goerings economy
four year plan in 1936 - autarky, heavy machinery production, development of steelworks, and promotion of chemical industry
managed economy under goering in cooperation with big business - regulations implemented in regards to raw materials, labour and foreign exchange
by 1939 1/3 of raw materials still imported, insufficient foreign exchange to buy imports, production of synthetic materials = costly, the plan was superseded by inefficient bureaucracy
wartime developments
central planning board - 1942 - provided subs for raw materials, increased industrial capacity, placed bans/ limits on manufacture of unnecessary goods, set schedules, organise distribution of CELL
armament production rose by 50%, guns by 27%, tanks by 25% and ammunition by 97% in 6 months due to speer
in 1940, 3744 aircrafts made, but in 1944 25,285 were made along with 500 new planes in first 4 months of 1945
1943 (jan.) - agreement for female conscription
speer used 7m foreign workers to increase production
post-war economy 1945-9
soviet zones had loss of productive capacity of 15% compared to 21% in western zones
took extensive reparations, reducing productive capacity to 50% its 1939 level
1945 - centralised banking system, nationalisation of mines and factories began
1946 - 25 soviet-owned joint stock companies formed by amalgamating 213 firms
1948 - nazi businesses turned into VEBs (publically-owned operation), controlled 48% of industry - private sector forced out through harsh tax and and price
made a centralised command economy
1945 - 7000 large estates of over 100 hectares seized and turned into large collective state farms
western zones: 1946 level of industry plan - standard of living kept to 1932 level, industrial capacity should be 50% of 1938 level, 1546 plants should be dismantled, limits on output, war-related industries banned, coal output expanded
us believed reparations should only be paid when germany was economically self-supporting, also proposed economic merger of western zones
bizonia caused growth of british and us zones using marshall aid - production targets raised, rationalisation began and changes were made for efficiency rather than for breakdown of old nazi businesses
trizone economy grew by 30% between march and august 1948