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1. HI136 The History of Germany
Lecture 9
The Rise of the Nazis
and the Nazi Seizure of Power

2. The Origins of Nazism
• Interwar Germany a fertile breeding ground for radical right-wing
organizations.
• 1919: Anton Drexler founds the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (German
Workers Party, DAP).
• Adolf Hitler joined the DAP in Sept. 1919, quickly rising through the
ranks to become the party’s chief theorist and propaganda officer.
• Feb. 1920: Hitler heads a committee which draws up the Party’s ’25
Point Programme’ which remains the basis of Nazi ideology until
1945.
• April 1920: The DAP renamed the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche
Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party, NSDAP or
Nazi for short).
• July 1921: Hitler ousts Drexler & is appointed Party Chairman.

3. The Munich ‘Beer Hall’ Putsch
(1923)
• Inspired by Mussolini’s ‘March
on Rome’ the previous year.
• 8 November: Hitler held the
right-wing rulers of Bavaria
hostage in an attempt to
persuade to join him in a march
on Berlin to overthrow the
Republic.
• Initially they agreed, but once
free they turned their back on
Hitler and brought extra troops
into Munich.
• At a demonstration the next day
a Nazi shot a policeman and the
police returned fire, dispersing
the demonstration.
• Hitler, Ludendorff and other
leaders put on trial for high
treason but received lenient
sentences.
Defendants at the treason trial following the
Munich Beer Hall Putsch. Ludendorff is in
The centre. Hitler is on his left.

4. The Rise of Nazism
• 1925: Nazi party refounded with a new commitment to achieving
power through legal means.
• 1926: The Bamberg Conference – Hitler re-established his
supremacy in the Party, overcoming the challenge to his
leadership from Gregor Strasser, but was forced to concede that
the 25-Point Programme (with its socialist elements) remained
inviolable.
• Establishment of new efficient Party structure and youth and
women’s organisations led to a growing membership: 27,000 in
1925 increased to 108,000 in 1928.
• But still had little popular support – they won only 2.6% of the
vote in the Reichstag elections of 1928.

5. The German Ideology?
• Nazism is difficult to pin
down: it is easier to say what
the Nazis were against than
what they were for.
• Some have argued that
Nazism cannot be called an
ideology at all: it lacks
coherence & is intellectually
superficial and simplistic.
• Most of the ideas key to
National Socialism were
present in Germany in the
19th century.
• That is not to say that
Nazism is the logical result
of German thought: such
ideas also found receptive
audiences in Britain &
France.
• Key concepts:
– Race
– Führerprinzip
– Anti-Communism
– Nationalism
– Volksgemeinschaft
• The 25 Points:
– Creation of a Greater Germany
encompassing all ethnic
Germans
– Revocation of Treaty of
Versailles
– Demand for colonies
(Lebensraum)
– Only members of the Volk can
be citizens: no Jew can be a
citizens & all non-citizens to be
deported
– The primary duty of the State is
to provide a livelihood for its
citizens: introduction of profit
sharing & extension of welfare
state.

6. Who Voted for the Nazis?
• The Nazis had the greatest
support in Protestant rural North
Germany, and did badly in
Catholic areas of South Germany
and in the big cities.
• This was at least in part because
Catholics and urban workers had
their own well-established political
parties and social organizations.
• Traditional view = the Nazis a
party of the disaffected middle
class.
• But close analysis reveals that
support was much broader
(though not deep).
• By 1932 the Nazis could claim to
be a Volkspartei (People’s Party)
– they became a universal party
of protest.
Source: G. Layton, Democracy and
Dictatorship in Germany (2009)

7. Soucre: R. Overy, The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Third Reich (1996)

8. The Great Depression
• October 1929: the Wall Street Crash led to
a worldwide economic downturn.
• Germany was particularly hard hit – the
German economy was heavily dependent
on foreign loans and the banking system
was geared towards short-term credit to
finance long-term ventures.
• As foreign investment dried up and debts
were called in, German firms folded and
banks collapsed leading to mass
unemployment.
• 2 million Germans out of work by the
winter of 1929-30.
• Unemployment reached 3 million in 1931 &
had risen to 5.1 million by Sept. 1932. It
peaked at 6.1 million in early 1933.
• This led to material hardship, but also had
an important psychological effect – fear,
uncertainty, loss of pride and status,
feeling that the fabric of society was
unravelling.
• The economic crisis quickly became a
political crisis as the social insurance
system became overloaded.
Soucre: R. Overy,
The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Third Reich
(1996)

9. The Final Crisis, 1930-33
• March 1930: Hermann Müller’s Grand Coalition collapsed when the DVP
and SPD members of the Cabinet could not agree on how to solve the
crisis.
• Hindenburg appointed Heinrich Brüning, leader of the Centre Party,
Chancellor. His lack of charisma and unpopular deflationary policies (cuts in
public spending & tax rises) meant that he was unable to command a
majority in the Reichstag. Thus from the summer of 1930 onwards he was
forced to use emergency powers to pass any legislation.
• But the Depression had radicalized German politics and the parties of the
extreme left and right continued to gain support – a very real fear of
communist revolution amongst conservatives and the middle classes.
• By 1930 the Nazis were the 2nd largest party in the Reichstag.
• Oct. 1931: the Harzburg Front – anti-republican alliance between the Nazis,
Alfred Hugenburg’s DNVP and the Stahlhelm.
• 1932: Hitler confident enough to challenge Hindenburg for the Presidency.
• By May 1932 Brüning had lost the support of the President and his advisors
– his policies had not significantly solved the problems caused by the
Depression or stopped the escalating violence in the streets.
• June 1932: Franz von Papen head the right-wing ‘Cabinet of Barons’.

10. General Kurt von Schleicher
(Non party)
Dec. 1932 – Jan. 1933
Franz von Papen
(Centre Party)
June – Dec. 1932
Heinrich Brüning
(Centre Party)
March 1930 – May 1932
Chancellors, 1930-33

11. The Final Crisis, 1930-33
• July 1932: Preussenschlag – The illegal constitutional coup in which
the elected SPD government of Prussia deposed by the army on the
orders of von Papen. A Reich Commissioner was installed and
Social Democratic and liberal officials were replaced by
conservative civil servants.
• Nov. 1932: Papen replaced by General Kurt von Schleicher.
• Papen enters into secret negotiations with the Nazis, big business
and large landowners designed to bring about his return to power
with a majority in the Reichstag.
• Jan. 1933: Hindenburg reluctantly agrees to dismiss Schleicher and
replace him with Hitler.
• The Conservatives convinced that they would be able to control
Hitler and the Nazis – Papen was Vice-Chancellor and their were
only 3 Nazis in the Cabinet.

12. Hitler’s first Cabinet, 30 January 1933:
Seated (left to right): Hermann Göring, Hitler, Franz von Papen
Standing (left to right): Baron Konstantin von Neurath (Foreign Minister), Günther Gereke
(Commissioner for Job Creation), Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk (Finance Minister),
Wilhelm Frick (Interior Minister), General Werner von Blomberg (Defence Minister), Alfred
Hugenberg (Minister of Agriculture and Economics)

13. Reasons for the Collapse
of Weimar Democracy
• Domestic Factors:
– Lack of popular support
– Constitutional flaws
– Role of established elites
• International Factors:
– Legacy of Versailles
– World economic crisis (the Great Depression)
– General crisis of liberal democracy

15. The 1933 Election
• New elections called within 24 hours of Hitler becoming Chancellor.
• The election campaign took place in an atmosphere of violence and
intimidation.
• The Nazis used their access to the organs of the state to get their
message across & intimidate their opponents.
• 31 Jan. 1933: Hitler’s ‘Appeal to the German People’ – blamed
Germany’s problems on the Communists and presented his
government as a ‘National Uprising’ that would restore German
pride & unity.
• As Minister of the Interior of Prussia Göring recruited 500,000 extra
police in Germany’s largest state, most of them drawn from the
ranks of the SA and the SS.
• Violence & intimidation of political opponents – SPD and KPD
meetings broken up, voters intimidated etc. 69 people killed during
the 5 week campaign.

16. The Reichstag Fire
• 27 Feb. 1933: The Reichstag
burned down.
• An unemployed Dutch
bricklayer named Marius van
der Lubbe arrested.
• The Nazis claimed this was part
of a Communist plot.
• ‘Decree for the Protection of the
People and the State’:
suspended civil liberties &
increased the power of central
government – the Nazis
rounded up political opponants.
• Van der Lubbe & Bulgarian
Communist Georgi Dimitrov put
on trial for the fire.
• But on-going debate about who
was responsible.

17. Party Votes
NSDAP 43,90%
DNVP 8,00%
DVP 1,10%
BVP 2,70%
Zentrum 11,20%
Deutsche Staatspartei 0,90%
SPD 18,30%
KPD 12,30%
Other 1,60%
Election Results,
5 March 1933

18. The Enabling Law
(Ermächtigungsgesetz)
• Without the two-thirds majority in the Reichstag necessary to
change the Constitution, Hitler proposed an ‘Enabling Law’ that
would enable him the government to pass legislation without the
approval of either parliament or the President.
• 23 March 1933: ‘Law for the Removal of Distress from People
and the Reich’
– Article 1: In addition to the procedure prescribed by the
constitution [i.e. decision by parliament], laws of the Reich may also
be enacted by the government of the Reich. This includes laws as
referred to by Articles 85 sentence 2 and Article 87 of the
constitution.
– Article 2: Laws enacted by the government of the Reich may
deviate from the constitution as long as they do not affect the
institutions of the Reichstag and the Reichsrat. The rights of the
President remain undisturbed.

19. Gleichschaltung
• After the passage of the Enabling Law the Nazis acted to ‘co-
ordinate’ as many areas of German life as possible and bring them
into line with Nazi ideology.
• April 1933: Laws passed enabling Nazi-dominated State
governments to pass legislation without the approval of provincial
parliaments.
• Jan. 1934: State parliaments abolished & local government
subordinated to the federal Minister of the Interior.
• 2 May 1933: Leading Trade Unionists arrested & workers’
organizations merged to form the Deutscher Arbeitsfront (German
Labour Front, DAF).
• 22 June 1933: The SPD officially banned.
• June-July 1933: Other political parties dissolved themselves.
• 14 July 1933: The Nazi Party proclaimed the only legal political party
in Germany.

20. The Night of the Long Knives,
30 June 1934
• Pressure from the party rank-and-
file (and particularly from within
the SA) for a ‘second revolution’.
• Fears that the radicalism of the SA
would bring about a military coup
against the Nazis.
• This led to a purge of the party on
30 June 1934 – the SS carried out
raids against targets across
Germany. Critics of the regime
such as Vice-Chancellor Papen
were arrested, while old enemies
such as Gregor Strasser & Gustav
Ritter von Kahr were summarily
executed. Over 1000 people were
arrested & at least 85 killed.
Ernst Röhm (1887-1934)