Hitler and Nazi Germany Chapter 9 Section 3

Hitler and His Views  Adolf Hitler was born in Austria in 1889  He failed secondary school and art school and moved to Vienna  During these years, he developed his ideals  Racism and anti-Semitism were central to his ideas  He especially had a strong dislike for the Jews  At the end of WWI, he decided to enter politics  He joined a nationalist party known as the National Socialist German Worker’s Party, which he called Nazi, for short  Within two years he was able to take control of the party and created a party militia known as the Storm Troops  With this party, he tried to overthrow the gov’t, but was thrown in jail

Rise of the Nazis  While in prison, Hitler realized violently overthrowing the Weimar Republic was not the answer  After his release, he worked to spread the Nazi party throughout Germany  By 1932, the party had 800,000 members and become the largest party in the Reichstag, or German parliament  Germany was in serious economic trouble at this time and people looked to radical parties for help  Hitler promised to create a new Germany  He held rallies all over Germany and people would go to hear him  More and more gov’t officials looked to Hitler for leadership

 The German people were afraid of a communist takeover  German president Hindenburg allowed Hitler to become chancellor and create a new gov’t  On March, 1933, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act  -this law gave the gov’t power to ignore the constitution for 4 years to deal with Germany’s economic problems  Hitler worked quickly to bring all German institutions under his control  Germany was purged of Jews and democratic elements  Concentration Camps were created for all who opposed the regime  When Hindenburg died in 1934, he abolished the office of President  All officers and soldiers were required to make an oath to Hitler as the Fuhrer or leader

C. The Nazi State,  Hitler wanted to develop a totalitarian state  He wanted to develop an Aryan racial state to dominate Europe and the world  -Aryan is a term used to identify people speaking European languages  He said that he wanted Germany to have an empire like the ancient Romans  Nazis believed that two German empires or Reichs had already existed and they wanted to create the Third Reich

D. The State and Terror  Hitler’s reign brought terror  He created a secret police known as the SS and placed it under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler  The SS used secret police, criminal police, execution squads, and death camps to terrorize citizens into submission  Under Hitler the German econ. did get better  Nazis encouraged women to stay home and bear children

 In 1935, Hitler passed the Nuremburg Laws  These excluded Jews from German citizenship  Marriage of Germans and Jews was forbidden  Jews were required to wear yellow star of David patches and carry id’s at all times  On November 9, 1938, Nazis burned Jewish synagogues and destroyed 7,000 Jewish businesses  This was called Kristallnacht  Finally, under direction of the SS, the Jews were encouraged to migrate out of Germany