AS Review by Madi Yaege https://padlet.com/mtyaege/uq0sc4eqmqvn en-us 2018-05-11 15:56:24 UTC 2025-12-02 21:26:16 UTC hello@padlet.com Origin and Emergence of the Regimes mtyaege https://padlet.com/mtyaege/uq0sc4eqmqvn/wish/262393106 In the aftermath of World War I, Germany remained in turmoil throughout the 1920s, providing an ideal setting for the rise of extremist ideologies and firebrand political leaders. To Germans burdened by reparations payments to war victors, and threatened by hyperinflation, political chaos, and a possible Communist takeover, Adolf Hitler offered scapegoats and solutions.
Germans were provided with an easy explanation to all their problems: Jews and democracy. It was the “International Jewry” that had been responsible for Germany’s defeat in World War I and the humiliating peace treaty. Democracy, i.e. the elected officials of the Weimar Republic, was responsible for the economic depression of the early 1930s. The Nazis cleverly played on the “political paranoia” of the middle class.
Following the meteoric rise of the Nazi Party, Hitler was appointed as chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. At the time, the other political parties were unhappy about letting Hitler, the leader of a paramilitary fascist party, become head of the government. But  some powerful figures in the German ruling establishment were of the opinion that Hitler could be controlled and effectively used against the communists, if he was made a responsible head of government.]]> 2018-05-21 15:11:02 UTC https://padlet.com/mtyaege/uq0sc4eqmqvn/wish/262393106 Consolidation and Maintenance of Power mtyaege https://padlet.com/mtyaege/uq0sc4eqmqvn/wish/262394597 He turned his chancellorship into a dictatorship by 1934
- Reichstag Fire - the Reichstag building is set on fire. A Dutch Communist, van der Lubbe, is caught red-handed in the burning building 
Hitler used the fire to his advantage in two ways:
  1. It gave him an opportunity to imprison many communist leaders, which stopped them campaigning during the election.
  2. It allowed the Nazis to say that the country was in danger from the communists during its election campaign.
Both these actions helped the Nazis to win more seats in the election.
When the courts convicted Dutch Communist van der Lubbe, but did not convict other Communist leaders, Hitler was furious and replaced the courts with the Nazi People's Courts.
- General Election - only 44 per cent of the population vote for the Nazis, who win 288 seats in the Reichstag.
Although it did not give the Nazis the majority that Hitler had hoped for in the Reichstag, it gave them enough seats - after Hitler had arrested all the communist deputies and the other parties had been intimidated by the SA - to get the Enabling Act passed, which is all Hitler needed to do.

]]> 2018-05-21 15:14:17 UTC https://padlet.com/mtyaege/uq0sc4eqmqvn/wish/262394597 Events mtyaege https://padlet.com/mtyaege/uq0sc4eqmqvn/wish/262396225 Enabling Act - the SA intimidates all the remaining non-Nazi deputies. The Reichstag votes to give Hitler the right to make his own laws.
Arguably the critical event - it gave Hitler absolute power to make his laws.
Local government is reorganised - the country is carved up into 42 Gaus, which are run by a Gauleiter. These Gaus are separated into areas, localities and blocks of flats run by a Blockleiter. Hitler sets up the Gestapo.
This put the Nazis in control of local government, and allowed the Gestapo to rule by terror.
Trade unions are abolished and their leaders arrested.
Abolishing the trade unions allowed Hitler to destroy a group that might have opposed him. It also gave Hitler the opportunity to set up the German Labour Front, which gave him control over German workers]]> 2018-05-21 15:17:29 UTC https://padlet.com/mtyaege/uq0sc4eqmqvn/wish/262396225 Economic Policies mtyaege https://padlet.com/mtyaege/uq0sc4eqmqvn/wish/262408025
  • Full employment - the idea that everyone should have a job. By 1939, there was virtually no unemployment in Germany.
  • Beauty of Work - the Nazis set up the SdA (Beauty of Work) to help Germans see that work was good, and that everyone who could work should. In fact - because the Nazis had abolished the trade unions, banned strikes, and given more power to the industrialists - real wages fell and hours were longer under Hitler.
  • Re-armament begun in 1935 - the idea of 'guns before butter'.
  • Autarky - there was an unsuccessful attempt at making Germany self-sufficient.

    • The good life in Nazi Germany

    Despite the loss of political and religious freedom, life improved in Germany for many ordinary people who were prepared to 'toe the line' and look the other way.

    ]]>     2018-05-21 15:46:58 UTC https://padlet.com/mtyaege/uq0sc4eqmqvn/wish/262408025