topic 10.3 the rise of Nazism 1919 to 1933 Benito Mussolini's ideology and methods of seizing control in Italy attracted the attention of a similarly disillusioned World War one veteran Adolf Hitler who would model his own political vision for Germany after Mussolini's early accomplishments in Italy consequently the emergence of Nazism in Germany followed many of the same patterns of fascism in Italy and of course the two movements shared a lot of common beliefs and values remember that Germany like Italy had struggled in the wake of World War one the German imperial government had collapsed during the revolution that ended the war and the Democratic Republic that replaced it was fragile it struggled under the combined weight of economic issues and the toxic legacy of the Treaty of Versailles thus even in the brief period of economic recovery before the onset of the Great Depression a general aura of discontent pervaded all ranks of German society radical right-wing groups persistently made the case that the German military forces had it really lost the war but that civilian socialists communists and Jews had betrayed the nation by surrendering it was within this context that fascism arose and took hold in Germany well the central organizing figure of the fascist movement in Italy was Mussolini in Germany it was Adolf Hitler Hitler like Mussolini was a veteran of World War one and after returning home in 1919 he began to participate in and organize small fringe political groups which initially seemed to tip in the direction of communism particularly he focused on a small movement of a few dozen men that called itself the National Socialist German Workers Party which would later be abbreviated as Nazi Hitler again like Mussolini soon became disenchanted with communism and socialism and determine instead to repurpose the National Socialist German Workers Party to his own ends taking his cues from Mussolini's organizational skills and rise to power in Italy Hitler deliberately followed similar patterns by reorganizing the nation Nazi Party he formed a paramilitary organization called the brown shirts to parallel the Italian black shirts he also acquired a newspaper to spread his still evolving fascist ideology and adopted the swastika a common good luck symbol as the party's emblem by the end of 1921 the new Nazi Party had several thousand members a significant improvement on the few dozen it contained in late 1919 Hitler's plans for the Nazi Party were temporarily sidetracked though when after a failed attempt to start an uprising in Munich in 1923 Hitler was arrested and thrown into prison the nine months that Hitler spent behind bars would prove to be the most intellectually fruitful of his life as he wrote the now infamous mine cuff or my struggle a memoir that also served to elaborate his political vision the ideas of mine Kampf represented Hitler's own interpretation of the same fascist values that were taking hold of Italy under Mussolini while incorporating all the same basic elements of fascism authoritarianism militarism and nationalism Hitler put his own interpretation on them for instance much like Mussolini Hitler was profoundly racist but he believed in a German racial and cultural superiority stemming from an ancient people known as the Aryans based on this somewhat strange belief Hitler argued that adopting fascist principles would make Germany great again by overturning the hated Treaty of Versailles and ridding Germany of the obligation to pay war reparations the German people would be free to thrive he also heavily promoted the notion that it had been primarily the Jews who had been responsible for Germany's embarrassing losses in World War one and for the continued economic struggles of the nation he argued that Germany's Jews were racially and ethnically distinct and inferior incapable of ever putting the needs of Germany first again following Mussolini's vision of a new Roman Empire Hitler envisioned a greater Germany achieved by noble military conquest in which all of Europe's german-speaking Aryans would reside in one powerful state he further made the case that the superior race was somewhat short on land in order to truly thrive they needed something to prosper something that he called Lehmann strong or a living space this he said could easily be acquired from the so called inferior peoples of Eastern Europe and Russia but although Hitler took his cues from fascist notions of ethnic superiority and the right of expansion he was far more obsessed with race and ethnic purity than most other supporters of fascism including Mussolini himself mine cough included long anti-semitic rants alongside support for the theories of eugenics a theory which had emerged out of the sort of next generation of scientific racism that was currently making the rounds in Europe proponents of eugenics and there were actually a lot of them claims that society would be improved by adopting policies of genetic hygiene which included compulsory sterilization of unfit races and euthanasia for the mentally ill or disabled upon Hitler's released from prison he and the Nazi Party began making their case to the German people largely based on promises of economic prosperity self-sufficiency and just total independence from the other nations of Europe the Nazis promised that they could create jobs for the unemployed and pull Germany out of the depression by promoting industry and rearming the military with new industrialized weapons produced in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles they touted a vision of a government managed economy in which private industry existed but was loyal to the needs and demands of the state the economic prosperity promised by Nazi propaganda also tied in with another key component of the fascist vision the return to traditional values Hitler's rhetoric often included references to the glories of the past including the medieval age of Knights and conquest and the 19th century when militarism and empire building had been key stones of German prosperity after their humiliating loss in World War one and the national identity crisis that it provoked most people welcomed the Nazi rhetoric which asserted German superiority and blame German difficulties on the already hated Jewish population Hitler promised that he would undo the hated Treaty of Versailles and free the German people to live up to their full potential it was an intoxicating vision and seemed a fresh new political option for the beleaguered and economically desperate German people it appealed especially to World War one veterans who saw and Hitler one of their own and a promise to return to the military glories of Germany's past the people of all social classes and backgrounds looked favorably on the Nazi vision of Germany's futures Hitler's rousing speeches usually delivered at rallies and accompanied by free beer identified and honed in on convenient scapegoats mostly those who had already been vilified for years in the right-wing press and as Hitler shouting for the punishment of those he blamed for Germany's troubles his enthusiastic audiences cheered him on it is worth pointing out though that most of Nazism and fascism in general while portraying itself as something new and exciting was decidedly not new we've encountered virtually every one of these ideas before fanatical nationalism social Darwinism scientific racism a military rearmament leading to war these were the ideas of the past of the 19th century and not of the future but while the Vimal Republic's struggle to come up with a coherent response to the depression Hitler and the Nazis offered a refreshingly direct approach and a whole slate of proposed solutions therefore by the late 1920s Hitler and the Nazis had moved from the margins of German politics and become a legitimate contender for political leadership by 1932 thanks in large part to the Great Depression the Nazis had gained a powerful contingent of elected representatives within the vomer government itself enabling them to negotiate to have Hitler installed as Chancellor in 1933 when the President of Germany died the following year Hitler combined the offices of Chancellor and president to make himself the Fuhrer or the leader of Germany once in power Hitler move fast to gain decisive control over Germany and within five years he had gained the support of a considerable majority of the population allowing him to transform the former Republic into a dictatorship under his sole control following the PlayBook of every dictator we've seen so far Hitler outlawed other political parties and purged the Nazi Party itself of any potential political rivals arresting and imprisoning thousands he also purged the German army creating a new army which would swear loyalty to him personally rather than to the German nation and one which did not abide by any of the restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles furthermore he shut down labor unions and placed the press and radio under state control he fully embraced the power of propaganda as a powerful tool to manipulate the populace to support him and his agenda he employed his considerable public speaking skills to energize massive crowds crucially for his success Hitler's economic policies which involved heavy investment in infrastructure and industry to support the revitalized military successfully brought Germany out of the depression but Hitler didn't only follow through on his promises of economic renewal in the spring of 1933 right on the heels of becoming Chancellor of Germany he rolled out a new series of policies which would target Germany's Jews working in Hitler's favor was the long vicious history of anti-semitism in Europe distrust of the Jews and the stereotypes associated with that distrust were not new to the 20th century for most of the educated peoples of Europe anti-semitism was condemned at this point as ignorant and regressive but it still persisted in people's minds even when they were told to be ashamed of it Hitler understood that if he could elevate anti-semitism to the level of acceptable public discourse if he could make people feel good feel okay about being anti-semitic then he can harness a powerful force in his favor did this end Nazi propagandists released a wave of anti-semitic material that took many forms yet revolved around consistent themes and those themes would that the Jews were greedy morally depraved and sneaky they were barely even human and they preyed upon trusting Germans Jewish bankers extorted money from ordinary Germans and hindered German prosperity the Jewish merchants and store keepers deliberately sold inferior products to German buyers and the Jewish artists worked to undermine Christian values and German morality as the Nazis tightened their grip on the press the anti-jewish propaganda campaign increased Jews were blamed for every undesirable aspect of German society murders and sexual assaults disappearances petty crimes street violence bagging prostitution pornography the sale of illegal drugs and alcohol and even pollution and alongside this rhetoric Hitler's regime enforced a series of increasingly restrictive laws targeting the German Jewish populations the first anti-jewish policies were if it's possible to say this about anti-semitic laws relatively moderate in that there were no clear legal guidelines about who was and was not Jewish the ultimate goal of these early laws was to remove Jews from important positions in business and society and they banned Jews from working for the government or holding certain positions and businesses in 1935 the new regime ramped up its oppression with the Nuremberg Laws which ended German citizenship for Jews and forbade them to marry or have sex with pure Germans in order to promote this eugenic vision of a purified Germany the implementation of this law was accompanied by a new wave of propaganda in the form of charts which offered visual explanation of people's ethnic statuses these laws were worded broadly enough to permit wide-ranging persecution of German Jews over the next three years sometimes this persecution was officially sanctioned and expressed in government regulation but many times it was not acts of violence and destruction against German Jews what we would today call hate crimes were rampant and the government tacitly endorsed these acts Jewish businesses were boycotted or intimidated into closing and then seized by the government to be resold employers and organizations refused to hire Jewish applicants for jobs by 1938 full ethnic segregation was in place thanks to a new collection of Nazi legislation Jews were banned from using public facilities like libraries parks and beaches they couldn't enter residential or business areas deemed to be quote Aryan zones they couldn't claim lottery winnings insurance paint outs or state pensions they weren't permitted to use state-funded hospitals or receive any education past the age of fourteen they were forbidden to own radios or keep pets Jewish names were erased from World War one memorials and in Munich the Town Council ordered the destruction of the city's largest synagogue declaring it to be a traffic hazard all of these steps made clear that the Nazis were determined to rid Germany of its Jewish population but it's worth pointing out that none of this made clear yet that this would ultimately come to the mass murder of Europe's Jews the rise of the Nazis signaled the moral collapse of Europe at least for a time Nazism and fascism more generally was essentially the culmination of every negative harmful strain of thought that had been developing in Europe since the Middle Ages even while it rejected every positive development like notions of Tolerance and human equality instead Nazism and fascism embraced notions of European superiority the social Darwinists belief in the right of the fittest to expand and eliminate the weak and co-opted modern science in the form of the scientific racism first popularized in the 19th century it embraced European beliefs in progress manifested in his efforts to perfect society but it was a progress that was narrowly focused exclusive and ultimately destructive