Hitlers Early Life

Born in Braunau am
Inn, Austria 20 April
1889
His father was a
customs collector.
His family was
comfortably middle
class.

House at Leonding

Vienna Days
Hitler went to Vienna in hopes of studying
art.
Art school rejected him and suggested he
try Architecture.
He actually spent his Vienna days in
idleness.
His phobias and prejudices took concrete
shape in Vienna

Munich
Munich was a center for
artists as the time
A German City
Everything Vienna was
not
Avoided serving in the
Hapsburg military
The picture shows
Munich the day Germany
declared war on Russia.
Hitler is circled.

World War I
The picture is of Hitler
as a corporal in the
Bavarian Army.

The Stabbed-in-back Myth

Hitler called the surrender The
greatest villainy of the century.
In reality there had been no
treachery, no stab-in-back.
Because of the myth military
failure caused post-war unrest in
Germany.
Germany had been militarily
defeated.
Propaganda said otherwise
Stab-in-back myth is the second
cause

Treaty of Versailles

War Guilt
Clause
Humiliation
Reparations
Hurt Economy
Limited Army

Hurt The
Economy

Money lost its value in Weimar Germany due to

Hyperinflation
Increased dissatisfaction with the government
Such internal problems helped Hitlers rise

Before and After

1914

1918

Hitler the Politician

Charismatic
A Great Speaker
Used New Media Well
Campaigned by Air
Used Propaganda
Used Film

Nationalsozialistische
Deutsche Arbbeiterpartei
(NSDAP or Nazi for short)

Beer Hall Putsch

8 November 1923 Hitlers Kampfbund takes
over a meeting of the Bavarian Prime Minister at
a Munich Beer hall.
Erich Ludendorf and Hitler Declare a new
government
But the 3000 rebels are thwarted by 100 police.

Landsburg Prison and Mein Kampf

Hitler and others were
arrested.
He was sentenced to five
years but served only
eight months.
Dictated Mein Kampf
He was not deported
He now turned his efforts
to more legal means of
gaining power.

The Great Depression, 1929-1939

Caused dissatisfaction with the Weimar
Government.
Unemployment in Germany:

1929 stood at 1.3 million

1930 climbed to 5.8 million
January 1932 reached 6 million
October 1932: 8.7 million (about 50% of work force).

Industrial production fell by 42 percent from

1929 to 1932.

Germanys Left Wing Parties Split

Social Democrats
Communist (USSR backed)

Weimar Government Weak

Chancellor Bruning stuck religiously
to old-style economics, laissez-faire:
slashing government spending and
forcing down wages and prices.
Made Weimars leaders look stupid
and unsympathetic to plight of the
masses.

Chronology of Events
Communists started winning more support
among workers
Lower-middle class and middle class then
moved more and more right
Hitler seemed rough around the edges,
but was a man of action and order, and
anti-communist and a real patriot

Chronology (cont.)
1930 Reichstag elections: Nazis won 6.5
million votes and 107 seats (of 491)
1932 Reichstag elections: Nazis won 14.5
million votes (38 percent) of Reichstag
(230 seats; largest party in Reichstag)
Hitler also played down his anti-Jewish
ideas and extreme racism at this time.

Chronology (cont.)
Gained support from
some key people in Big
Business and the Army
Elites thought that they
could use Hitlers
popularity, manipulate
him.
January 30, 1933:
President Hindenburg
appointed Adolf Hitler
Chancellor of Germany

Burning Down the Reichstag

February 27, 1933:
German Riechstag
(Parliament) building
burned. Nazis blame fire
on communists
February 28, 1933: A
Presidential decree gives
Chancellor Hitler
emergency powers
All 100 Communist Party
members of the
Reichstag arrested.

Who Supported Hitler ?

Lower-middle-class: afraid of being
deprived of their social status
Substantial sections of the more
prosperous middle classes, who fell victim
to scare tactics that their businesses or
possessions were subject to imminent
expropriation by the Communists.
Disenchanted workers whose loyalty to the
nation exceeded their loyalty to their class

Who supported Hilter?

Nazis attracted a broad spectrum of
German citizens, apparently incompatible
groups
Hitlers appeal cut across class
boundaries
Countryside was very pro-Nazi, small
towns, not big cities
Protestant north more often supported
them than Catholic south

The Axis
The Rise of Mussolini in Italy
January 1936 Mussolini signaled Italy
would not object to Germany making
Austria a satellite.
Thus opening the path to the Axis
Italy also signaled Germany could re-enter
the Rhineland with impunity