The Rise of the Nazis

• Nazi Germany

  1933-45
• Hitler's consolidation of his power and his rise to become Führer (1933-4)


  1. Hitler called another election for March 1933

  2. The Communist vote was crushed through the Reichstag Fire and the following Emergency Decree

  3. The Nazis got 288 seats in the election, NOT a majority. They had to join with the DNVP/ Nationalists to get the majority

  4. Hitler then used this majority to quickly pass the Enabling Act which allowed him to make laws without consulting the Reichstag for the next 4 years

  5. Hitler then banned opposing parties and put leaders in concentration camps, banned Trade Unions, put Nazis in charge of all state governments, used fear and intimidation to make sure people didn't challenge the Nazis

  6. Hitler had 400 leaders of the SA shot on the Night of the Long Knives

  7. When Hindenburg died, Hitler made himself Chancellor and President combined and called his knew role Führer. The army were made to swear an oath of personal loyalty to Hitler
• No major group remained to challenge Hitler: he had TOTAL POWER in his One Party State
• Propaganda - Keeping people supporting the Nazis

  • Hitler set up the cult of the Führer, presenting himself as the greatest saviour of Germany
  • Goebbels (Hitler's Propaganda Minister) made sure that people were bombarded with information to keep them loyal to the Nazis
  • Posters, pictures, art exhibitions and films were all made to show how great the Nazis were
  • Hitler's speeches were regularly broadcast on the radio to remind people of how much the Nazis were improving their lives. Cheap radios were sold to people and connected up to loudspeakers so that everyone could hear
  • The newspapers were banned from printing anything that hadn't been checked by the Nazis first (censorship)
  • Great rallies were held, such as those at Nuremberg, to show people how organised and powerful the Party was
  • In 1936, Hitler used the Olympic Games to showcase to the world how efficient, modern and advanced the German nation was
• Intimidation - Keeping people supporting the Nazis

  • The concentration camps were used to imprison anyone who went against the Nazi state. These were run by the SS. In the camps, people were expected to work to benefit Germany. They were often worked to death with very long hours and insufficient rations
  • The Gestapo (secret police) would go round checking that people were being loyal to the Nazis. People who weren't would often be taken off in the middle of the night for torture or to be taken to a camp
  • Germany was subdivided into tiny blocks of about 30-40 houses. Each block would have a Nazi living there who would keep an eye on all the families and report to the police and the Gestapo if they noticed anti-Nazi behaviour
  • Children in the Hitler Youth were expected to spy on their parents and neighbours
• How the Nazis changed the lives of young people (1933-9)

  1. Hitler wanted to indoctrinate young people to become perfect Nazis through the Hitler Youth Movements and through Education

  2. The Hitler Youth Movements had 4 different groups, 2 for girls and 2 for boys. Boys trained to be soldiers, girls trained to be good mothers. Both groups trained in utter loyalty to Hitler

  3. The new curriculum promoted Nazi messages, History focused on the Nazi Party, Geography focused on the "Greater Germany", Biology focused on recognising the Aryan race. Story books were written warning children of the dangers of the Jews

  4. Boys were educated to be soldiers, girls educated to be mothers. They had separate timetables

  5. Teachers had to join the Nazi Teachers' Association or lose their jobs

  6. Jewish pupils were persecuted in lessons. They had to leave German schools in 1938

  7. Membership of the Hitler Youth became compulsory in 1939. About 7,500,000 children were members; about 1,000,000 refused

  8. Some young people chose to join anti-Nazi groups like the Swing Movement and the Eidelweiss Pirates
• How the Nazis changed the lives of women (1933-39)

  1. Women were expected to be mothers. Many women were forced to leave their jobs

  2. Medals were awarded for women who had large numbers of children

  3. People were encouraged to get married and have children by being offered marriage loans which were reduced each time a child was born

  4. Women were discouraged from wearing make-up, smoking and dieting
• How the Nazis changed the lives of workers (1933-39)

  1. Unemployment was tackled by creating massive public works programmes such as the building of the autobahns. Millions of men were given jobs through this, although they were paid poorly

  2. Men aged 18-25 were made to join the RAD (Reich Labour Service) for 6 months. They did hard manual labour such as tree felling and ditch digging

  3. All workers joined the DAF (German Labour Front) which controlled the workers and settled disputes between them and their employers. It persuaded employers to improve working conditions in factories

  4. The KDF (Strength through Joy) organisation was set up to organise the leisure time of the workers, providing them with cheap theatre tickets, cruises, skiing holidays and saving up for VW Beetles

  5. The government took control of prices, wages, profits and imports which stopped big businesses from running their affairs in their own way

  6. Jewish small businesses were closed down allowing other German small businesses to flourish

  7. Farmers were given help in paying off loans but were given quotas for production to meet which limited their freedom

  8. In the run up to WW2, German men began to be conscripted into the army and more and more factories were set up for arms production. Germany tried to achieve autarky (self-sufficiency) so that they could keep fighting when other countries stopped trading with them
• How the Nazis changed the Churches (1933-9)


  1. In 1933, Hitler signed the Concordat with the Pope. The Nazis and the Catholic Church agreed to keep out of each others' affairs

  2. The Protestant Church was reorganised into the Reich Church and given new Nazi bishops. Protestant pastors who opposed the Nazis were arrested and taken to concentration camps

  3. The Faith Movement was set up as an alternative to Christianity. It was based on pagan rituals

  4. Christmas carols and religious studies were phased out of schools. Church schools were closed
• How the Nazis changed the lives of minorities (1933-39)

  1. The Nazis believed in Aryan superiority. Anyone who didn't fit in with their idea of a top class human being had to be removed from society

  2. Vagrants and the homeless were taken to camps to be re-educated and taught how to work so that they could become useful German citizens

  3. Homosexuals were sent to concentration camps

  4. Blacks and the mentally ill were sterilised so that they couldn't reproduce or killed

  5. Gypsies were sent to concentration camps and later (during WWII) exterminated with the Jews

  6. Jews suffered badly in Nazi Germany: boycotts were placed on their shops, they were forbidden from using public services, they had to be identified by wearing a yellow Star of David. Key moments of persecution were the Nuremburg Laws in 1935 and Kristallnacht in 1938
• Life in Nazi Germany during WWII (1939-45)

  1. Rationing was introduced early on. People got used to a monotonous diet, a lack of clothes, little hot water and soap

  2. Propaganda increased, especially when Germany needed greater support for the war such as during the Russian campaign of 1941-45. Propaganda films were particularly important

  3. From 1942, Germans began to experience bombing raids on their major cities from British and American bombers. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed

  4. In 1944, all workers had to go into armaments production. Women were back into work; their children were in day care. People had to work longer and longer hours

  5. Jews, gypsies and other minorities began to be deported to Death Camps where they were exterminated
• Opposition to the Nazis

  1. Young people opposed the Nazis through the Edelweiss Pirates, the Swing Youth, and the White Rose movement

  2. The churches opposed the Nazis through the Confessional Church and Protestant pastors like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemoller

  3. The army opposed the Nazis, with Count von Stauffenberg attempting to assassinate Hitler in July 1944. Army officers became more and more critical of Hitler in 1943 as the war went very badly