History : Year 11 - The Role and Impact of Significant Individuals in Weimar and Nazi Germany: Home

Between World War One and Two, Germany experienced several changes in government: from an emperor to a democracy to the rise of a new dictator, a Führer. Indeed, it’s this last leader, Adolf Hitler, who directly began the second of the twentieth century’s two great wars. The question of how Hitler took power is often tied to how democracy in Germany failed, and the following series of articles take you through the ‘revolution’ of 1918 to the mid-30s, when Hitler was unassailable.

In the 1920s, Germany faced social and economic problems. The Weimar Government was unpopular and faced opposition from both left and right. The Nazis were able to gain wide support and rise to power.

[...]the leader of the left regarded these people with contempt and viewed his party as the only authentic resistance to them. Thälmann and the KPD regarded fascists and Nazis as products and tools of capitalism. Since social democrats were also capitalists, it followed that social democracy, fascism and Nazism were simply different facets of the same oppression. In January 1919, after Germany's defeat in the First World War and the fall of the Kaiser, the new Social Democratic Party (SPD) government led by Friedrich Ebert used the far-right Freikorps militias to help suppress the Spartacist uprising, led by KPD founders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht.

Weimar Republic :
Constitutional republic in Germany from 1919 to 1933, which was crippled by the election of antidemocratic parties to the Reichstag (parliament), and then subverted by the Nazi leader Hitler after his appointment as chancellor in 1933.

In the 1920s, Germany faced social and economic problems. The Weimar Government was unpopular and faced opposition from both left and right. The Nazis were able to gain wide support and rise to power.

Adolf Hitler not only had enough support amongst the German people to take power and hold it for 12 years while effecting massive change in all levels of society, but he retained this support for several years during a war which began to go very wrong. The Germans fought until even Hitler had conceded the end and killed himself, whereas just a generation earlier they had expelled their Kaiser and changed their government without any enemy troops on German soil. So who supported Hitler, and why?

This timeline covers the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, from an obscure group to rulers of Germany. It is meant to support the narrative of Germany’s interwar period.

Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party took control of Germany in the early 1930s, established a dictatorship and started the Second World War in Europe. This article examines the origins of the Nazi Party, the troubled and unsuccessful early phase, and takes the story to the late twenties, just before the fateful collapse of Weimar.

Hitler was appointed Chancellor in January 1933. His rise to power was the result of many factors: the impact of the Depression, the weaknesses of Weimar democracy and the strengths of the Nazi party.

Adolf Hitler, byname Der Führer (German: “The Leader”), (born April 20, 1889, Braunau am Inn, Austria—died April 30, 1945, Berlin, Germany), leader of the Nazi Party (from 1920/21) and chancellor (Kanzler) and Führer of Germany (1933–45). He was chancellor from January 30, 1933, and, after President Paul von Hindenburg’s death, assumed the twin titles of Führer and chancellor (August 2, 1934).

It is still sometimes argued that Hitler's rise was not democratic. Although they outpolled any other German party in the Reichstag elections of July and November of 1932, the Nazis never received more than 37.3 percent of the total vote before Hitler became chancellor. The majority of German voters were therefore anti-Nazi, the argument goes.

Hindenburg was a senior military figure in Germany during World War One and second president of the Weimar Republic (1925 - 1934).

Paul Von Hindenburg (1847-1934) was a German World War I military commander and president. He fought in the Austro-Prussian War and in the Franco-German War, and retired as a general in 1911. Recalled to duty at the start of World War I, Hindenburg shared power with Erich Ludendorff as commander of the Eighth Army and then as chief of the General Staff. A national hero for his early victories, Hindenburg later drew the United States into battle with his use of submarine warfare. After retiring again in 1919, he became president of the Weimar Republic in 1925, and died shortly after naming Adolf Hitler the German chancellor.

Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg was a German general who gained renown during World War I and later as President of the Weimar Republic. He is most relevant to Holocaust history through his dealings with Adolf Hitler. Although he did not approve of Hitler or his politics, Hindenburg became the man who made him Chancellor of Germany, enabling the Nazis’ takeover of power.

1847 - 1934 German General and President

Adolf Hitler was a great admirer of Riefenstahl and in 1933 he appointed her as film executive of the Nazi Party. She made a series of films that reflected fascist ideology. This included Reichsparteitag (1935), a film of a party conference.

She was Hitler's favorite director. She was beautiful and talented. She was a woman in a man's field.

Leni Riefenstahl remains the most important female film director in history, and the most controversial. Riefenstahl--"Hitler's filmmaker"--must have hoped that her 100th birthday this past August would bring that final rehabilitation of reputation for which she has worked with awe-inspiring tenacity since the Thousand-Year Reich collapsed and took her career with it.

"Triumph of the Will," director Leni Riefenstahl's cinematic paean to Nazi aesthetics, is examined. It is possible not to see the film as a propaganda classic.

The Weimar Republic was a bold experiment. It was Germany's first democracy, a state in which elected representatives had real power. The new Weimar constitution attempted to blend the European parliamentary system with the American presidential system.

At the end of October 1918, the German navy mutinied. Rebellion spread throughout the country. In November Germany was forced to drop out of the FirstWorld War. Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated and fled the country.
A new Republic was declared. In January 1919, elections were held for a new Reichstag and in February 1919, in the town of Weimar, a new government was agreed.
Freidrich Ebert was elected President of the new Republic

This section offers only a sampling of key figures from Weimar Germany. The group represents a wide spectrum of political and social perspectives, individuals whose choices and actions helped shape the course of events.

Friedrich Ebert was born in Heidelburg in February 1871 and died in February 1925. Ebert was Weimar Germany’s first president and was instrumental in introducing Weimar’s constitution which was to play an important part in the downfall of the Weimar Republic.

Summary
Hitler's rise to power was based upon long-term factors - resentment in the German people, the weakness of the Weimar system - which he exploited through propaganda (paid for by his rich, Communist-fearing backers), the terror of his stormtroopers, and the brilliance of his speeches.

This who’s who contains biographical summaries of significant Weimar Republic politicians active between 1918 and 1933

In brief: Rudolf Hess (1894-1987), Deputy Führer and considered to be the number 3 man in Hitler's Germany after Göring. Hess was a somewhat neurotic member of Hitler's inner circle best known for his surprise flight to Scotland on May 10, 1941 in which he intended to negotiate peace with the British, but which resulted in his capture and long term imprisonment.

Rudolf Walter Richard Hess (Heß in German; 26 April 1894 – 17 August 1987) was a German politician and a leading member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) of Nazi Germany. Appointed Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler in 1933, Hess served in that position until 1941, when he flew solo to Scotland in an attempt to negotiate peace with the United Kingdom during World War II. He was taken prisoner and eventually convicted of crimes against peace, serving a life sentence until his suicide.

Rudolf Hess, the son of a wealthy German merchant, was born in Alexandria, Egypt on 26th April, 1894. At the age of twelve Hess was sent back to Germany to be educated at Godesberg. He later joined his father's business in Hamburg.

Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and an architect of Nazi genocide.

Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945) was the Reich Leader (Reichsführer) of the dreaded SS of the Nazi Party from 1929 until 1945. Himmler presided over a vast ideological and bureaucratic empire that defined him for many—both inside and outside the Third Reich—as the second most powerful man after Adolf Hitler in Germany during World War II. Given overall responsibility for the security of the Nazi empire, Himmler was the key and senior Nazi official responsible for conceiving and overseeing implementation of the "Final Solution," the Nazi plan to murder the Jews of Europe.

Heinrich Himmler was a devout follower of Adolf Hitler and believed that he was the Messiah that was destined to lead Germany to greatness. Hitler, who was always vulnerable to flattery, decided in January, 1929, that Himmler should become the new leader of his personal bodyguard, the Schutzstaffel (SS)

Gustav Stresemann, who served briefly as chancellor and then as foreign minister for most of the 1920s, was arguably the Weimar Republic’s greatest statesman. Unlike many of his fellow Weimar politicians, Stresemann demonstrated a thoughtful pragmatism, a passionate but rational nationalism and a capacity for getting things done. These qualities may have helped Germany endure the rocky political and economic waters of the early 1930s. As it was, Stresemann’s premature death in 1929 robbed Germany of one of the few political leaders not mired in self-interest, partisanship or extremism. Stresemann’s departure coincided with and perhaps opened the gates for Germany’s descent into dictatorship and totalitarianism.

With the support of the Social Democratic Party Stresemann became chancellor of Germany in 1923. He managed to bring an end to the passive resistance in the Ruhr and resumed payment of reparations. He also tackled the problem of inflation by establishing the Rentenbank.

Under Stresemann’s leadership, from 1924 onwards Weimar’s economy recovered. Germany regained international credibility and social change accelerated, until the disaster of 1929’s Wall Street Crash.

The career of Gustav Stresemann, a statesman who might have steered Germany safely through the Weimar era, is examined. Stresemann became Chancellor of Germany at a time when it seemed as though the state was about to break up in chaos.

In 1928 Goebbels, Hermann Goering and ten other members of the Nazi Party were elected to the Reichstag. Soon afterwards Goebbels became the party's Propaganda Leader. Hitler was impressed by Goebbels work. He wrote in 1930: "Years ago I dispatched you, dear Dr. Goebbels, to the most difficult post in the Reich, in hopes that your energy and vigor would succeed in creating a tight, unified organization. You have fulfilled this task in such a way that you are assured of the movement's gratitude and my own highest recognition."

Paul Joseph Goebbels was the Nazi Party's first and only minister for popular enlightenment and propaganda, serving from 1933 until 1945. He was the architect of Adolf Hitler's propaganda efforts and was a key official within the Nazi Party. He remained a dedicated supporter of the party, even after the tide of war turned against Germany.

In Germany between the 1920s and 1940s, the Nazi party pursued a systematic programme of propaganda, distorting facts and spreading lies to encourage particular attitudes. From 1933 the Ministry of Propaganda, under the direction of Joseph Goebbels, took the use of propaganda as a means of mass communication to new heights, and propaganda became the science of moulding opinion rather than a medium for reliable information.

Paul Joseph Goebbels was the Nazi Party's first and only minister for popular enlightenment and propaganda, serving from 1933 until 1945. He was the architect of Adolf Hitler's propaganda efforts and was a key official within the Nazi Party. He remained a dedicated supporter of the party, even after the tide of war turned against Germany.

Propaganda is the manipulation of news or information to suit the aims of the producer. The Nazis realized the value of propaganda from an early date. Propaganda is most effective when it is impossible for its viewers to receive any images or information which challenge its biased or false contents.

In 1931 Speer joined the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) and the following year he became a member of the Schutz Staffeinel (SS).

Albert Speer was born in Mannheim, Germany. He was educated in architectural studies at the Institute of Technology in Karlsruhe, and later at the Universities of Munich and Berlin. Inspired by Hitler's oratory prowess, he joined the National Socialist party in January 1931, where he developed a close friendship with Hitler. He believed Hitler and the Nazis could answer the communist threat and restore the glory of the German empire that he considered lacking under the Weimar Republic.

Albert Speer (About March 19, 1905 – September 1, 1981) was the Minister of Armaments and War Production in Nazi Germany during most of World War II. A close ally of Adolf Hitler, he was convicted at the Nuremberg trials and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Albert Speer, Adolf Hitler’s chief architect. From bold, looming edifices, to giant swastika banners, to the intimidating searchlights of the “cathedral of light” piercing the night sky around one of the Nazi Party rallies at Nuremberg, Speer’s designs became icons of Nazi megalomania.

Highlights the career of Albert Speer, Adolf Hitler's master builder. Speer joined the Nazi Party in 1932 as a taxi driver. In a meteoric rise, Speer was made German Inspector General of Construction at the age of 31, but Hitler was the looming architect manque. Speer built huge models of Hitler's dreams almost direct from Hitler's sketches. Speer was first and foremost deadly efficient at managing building work. He was a Modernist, just as the architecture of the Third Reich is Modernist; a machine for human annihilation. Speer ended up as the Minister of Armaments and War Production by 1943.

Born in Germany in 1893, Hermann Göring was a leader of the Nazi Party. He played a prominent role in organizing the Nazi police state in Germany and established concentration camps for the "corrective treatment" of individuals. Indicted by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1946, Göring was condemned to hang as a war criminal, but he took cyanide the night he was to be executed.

Hermann Göring was the second-most powerful man in the Third Reich. As Adolf Hitler’s ruthless right-hand man, Göring was instrumental in the Führer’s rise to power. He helped Hitler to secure the Chancellorship of Germany in 1933 and he created the infamous Gestapo — the Nazi secret police that not only suppressed any opposition to Nazism in Germany but also facilitated the Holocaust by helping to round up Jewish people.

Hermann Göring was born in Rosenheim, Bavaria on 12th January 1893. The son of a senior army officer, he was educated at a military school and became a member of the Prussian Cadet Corps.

At 11:45 p.m. on October 15,1946, Allied guards were preparing to escort top Nazis convicted of war crimes from their cells in Nuremberg to the prison gymnasium for hanging. The condemned included Joachim von Ribbentrop, Adolf Hitler's foreign minister, and General Alfred Jodi, chief of the German General Staff. The best known was Hitler's deputy, the Wehrmacht's highest-ranking officer, one of Europe's richest and most powerful businessmen, and head of the Luftwaffe: Reichsmarschall Hermann Goring.

In the 1930s, Gustav Krupp's unfaltering loyalty for his fatherland turned him onto the path to become a stern Nazi supporter

Alfried Krupp, the son of Gustav Krupp, was born in Essen, Germany, on 13th August, 1907. After studying engineering in Munich and Berlin he joined his father's company, Friedrich Krupp AG, that by the First World War was Germany's largest armaments company.

Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, original name (until 1943) Alfried Von Bohlen Und Halbach, (born Aug. 13, 1907, Essen, Ger.—died July 30, 1967, Essen, W.Ger.), German industrialist, last member of the Krupp dynasty of munitions manufacturers.