Nazi Germany: History in an Hour. Rupert Colley

      NAZI GERMANY

      History in an Hour

      Rupert Colley

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

      About History in an Hour

      Introduction

      The German Revolution: The End of the Second Reich

The Treaty of Versailles: ‘An armistice for twenty years’

DAP: Member 555

The Nazi Manifesto: A Thousand Years

Munich Putsch: ‘The national revolution has begun.’

Mein Kampf: ‘Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice.’

The Ruhr: An Economic Downturn

The Great Depression: The Crash

Nazi Elections: ‘He can lick stamps with my head on them.’

       Enabling Act: ‘Fanatics, hooligans and eccentrics have got the upper hand.’

       The First Anti-Jew Laws: ‘Non-citizens’.

       Night of the Long Knives: ‘The Führer’s soldierly decision and exemplary courage.’

       The Führer: 99 per cent approval

       Nazi Germany and the Economy: ‘Guns will make us strong; butter will make us fat.’

       State Control: Guilty Before Innocent

       The Family: ‘I detest women who dabble in politics.’

       Propaganda: ‘Where they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people.’

       The Olympics

       Kristallnacht: The Night of Broken Glass

       Foreign Policy: ‘Germany will of its own accord never break the peace.’

       The Rhineland: ‘We have no territorial claims to make in Europe.’

       The Spanish Civil War: ‘Germany’s destiny for good or bad.’

       Anschluss: ‘I can strongly recommend the Gestapo to one and all.’

       The Sudetenland: ‘The last major problem to be solved.’

       Czechoslovakia: ‘That senile old rascal.’

       Poland – Guaranteed

       Germany’s War 1939: ‘This country is at war with Germany.’

       Germany’s War: 1940 to 1941

       Germany’s War: 1942 to 1945

       Appendix 1: Key Players

       Appendix 2: Timeline of Nazi Germany

       Copyright

       Got Another Hour?

       About the Publisher

       About History in an Hour

      History in an Hour is a series of ebooks to help the reader learn the basic facts of a given subject area. Everything you need to know is presented in a straightforward narrative and in chronological order. No embedded links to divert your attention, nor a daunting book of 600 pages with a 35-page introduction. Just straight in, to the point, sixty minutes, done. Then, having absorbed the basics, you may feel inspired to explore further.

      Give yourself sixty minutes and see what you can learn . . .

      To find out more visit http://historyinanhour.com or follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/historyinanhour

       Introduction

      ‘And so it had all come to this. Did all this happen only so that a gang of wretched criminals could lay hands on the Fatherland? Hatred grew in me, hatred for those responsible for this deed.’ The words are those of Adolf Hitler; the deed – Germany’s surrender in the First World War; and the wretched criminals – the politicians who had meekly accepted the surrender and the defeat of Germany.

      Germany had suffered during the war – not only on the battlefield but also at home. Starvation and fuel shortages, further aggravated by the ‘Spanish flu’ epidemic of 1918 that killed millions throughout Europe, had led to widespread discontent. Inflation and economic stagnation caused embitterment, and the increasing number of casualties as Germany had to fight a war on two fronts, had left the nation disillusioned.

       The German Revolution: The End of the Second Reich

      In October 1918, sailors at the port of Kiel disobeyed orders to fight the British fleet. It was, as they saw it, a pointless and suicidal mission. The revolt soon spread throughout Germany. The province of Bavaria went so far as to establish a socialist republic along Soviet lines. The Kaiser, William II, the unhinged grandson of Queen Victoria, abdicated on 9 November 1918, two days before the armistice, and the chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, appointed a left-wing coalition government and handed over the chancellorship to Friedrich Ebert.

      With the abdication of the Kaiser and the collapse of Imperial Germany (the Second Reich – or empire), Ebert proclaimed Germany a republic, formed a provisional government (a temporary arrangement until elections could be held) and, on 11 November 1918, signed the armistice that brought the Great War to an end.

      But the social unrest continued. In January 1919 the German Communist Party, the Spartacists, staged an uprising in Berlin. Rosa Luxemburg, leader of the movement, had opposed the uprising, arguing that the time was not yet right for communism. But she was unable to contain the fury of the left and Chancellor Ebert turned to the right-wing Freikorps, or Free Corps, for assistance. After three days of intense street fighting the Freikorps, a band of demobilized, nationalistic soldiers, had, with intense violence, crushed the rebellion. Luxemburg was arrested and killed while in police custody.

      The Weimar Republic: A Republic Is Born

      The first German democratic election took place the same month, January 1919, attracting an 83 per cent turnout and resulting in the formation of a National Constituent Assembly. The situation in Berlin was still volatile so on 6 February the Assembly met for the first time in the town of Weimar and there drew up a new constitution. Six months later the constitution was ratified and the Weimar Republic was born. However, disturbances continued, especially in Berlin and Bavaria, and Ebert again had to call in the Freikorps to keep order. In March 1919 the Freikorps went to work and the Socialist Republic in Bavaria was brought to a bloody end.

       The Treaty of Versailles: ‘An armistice for twenty years’

      On 28 June 1919, Germany reluctantly signed the Paris Peace Settlement in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles – exactly five years on from the assassination