The Rise of Nazi Germany: From Post-War Crisis to Totalitarian State
Post-War Crisis
Two fundamental factors marked the first postwar years: the excessive harshness of the Versailles Treaty, by which Germany was treated as the sole culprit of the First World War, and peace terms that forced Germany to pay very high financial reparations. Harsh land concessions were imposed; much of Germany was divided between France, Belgium, and Poland. Politicians of the new Weimar Republic were considered traitors for having accepted the conditions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. The parliamentary system itself was seen as a foreign imposition.
The economic upturn since 1924, especially after the application of the Dawes Plan, was suddenly braked at the outbreak of the 1929 economic crisis, which caused devastating effects on the economy and society.
The Creation of Nazi Germany
Hitler’s 1920 entry into the embryo of the German Workers’ Party, the National Socialist party, saw his work programs contain all the objectives of National Socialism:
- No recognition of the Treaty of Versailles.
- Reset military expansionism and the constitution of Greater Germany.
- Semitism, xenophobia, and racism.
- Antiparliamentarism and anti-Marxism.
In August 1921, Hitler became head of the Nazi party and began the shift in strategy to achieve power through control of the streets through violence, with paramilitary groups responsible for repressing communists and socialists. In 1923, he launched the conquest of power, but the Munich coup was defeated, and Hitler was imprisoned. In prison, he wrote his ideas and concluded that his rise to power was to be made by democratic means. When the crash of ’29 was felt, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party was a minor force; three years later, Hitler was willing to take over as chancellor.
The Rise to Power
The indifference of conservatives and the left’s division, along with political maneuvering by the Nazis, hastened the collapse of the Republic of Weimar. In a divided society with a strong labor movement, the economic crisis of 1929 brought to mind the ghosts of post-war chaos, while the nationalist right and anti-democratic and communist left sought to end the democratic regime. Supported by anti-Jewish sentiment in revenge for the military defeat and the effects of the acute economic crisis, the Nazi party was increasing its support.
The SA increased the street violence to intimidate the population and kill their political enemies. The political crisis ended with the appointment of Hitler as chancellor of Germany in 1933.
The National Socialist State
Once appointed chancellor, Hitler launched a policy of destroying democracy. His assumption of full powers was conducted through a specific series of events:
- The Reichstag fire: The German Parliament building burned, and the act was used to accuse a former communist. The reality is that the fire had been caused by the Nazis themselves, who used this as an excuse to declare emergency rule and suspend democratic rights.
- New elections were held in parliament, and the Nazis seized absolute control of the House to pass the Enabling Act.
- All parties were outlawed, and thus began the persecution and imprisonment of political opponents, mainly from the leftist parties.
He created the Gestapo in 1933, along with the Hitler Youth, the assault sections, and the newly created Hitler’s SS bodyguard, led by one of his lieutenants, eventually imposing a climate of repression and social control. The swastika symbol was chosen as the central motive of the Nazi aesthetic, symbolizing a new era.
- Night of the Long Knives: SS members killed key leaders of the SA, and Hitler imposed absolute power in the Nazi movement.
After the death of the President in 1934, Hitler assumed presidential powers under the principle of Leadership, according to which Hitler was recognized as the representation of the German people and its destiny, giving him all power to be the customization of the values of the German nation.
Nazism had two goals:
- The whole nation’s autarky. For Nazism, the enemy was foreign.
- A very aggressive foreign policy.