Germany, First World War, and Birth of the Weimar Republic

In the early years of the twentieth century, Germany fought the First World War (1914-1918) against the Austrian Empire and the Allies (England, France, and Russia). Due to the fighting, all the wealth in Europe was drained. Germany also took control of France and Belgium. Unfortunately, the Allies, strengthened by the US joining in 1917, won, defeating Germany and the Central Powers in November 1918. The National Assembly gathered in Weimar and created a democratic constitution with a federal structure. Members of the German Parliament were elected based on fair and universal votes cast by all citizens, including women. Germany lost its overseas colonies. The War Guilt Clause held Germany responsible for the conflict and the losses suffered by the Allied nations. Throughout the 1920s, Allied forces occupied the Rhineland.

Germany had fought the First World War against the Allies (England, France, and Russia).

1. However, it was defeated in 1918 and suffered great loss of life and property.
2. The emperor of Germany stepped down, and Germany became a republic known as the Weimar Republic.
3. But the Weimar Republic was weak and was ultimately replaced by Hitler, who became the dictator of Germany.
4. A humiliating and harsh treaty known as the Treaty of Versailles was imposed on Germany by the Allies.
5. Its overseas possessions and colonies were taken away.
6. It was forced to accept the ‘war guilt’ and had to pay a huge compensation of £6 billion to the Allies.
7. The Allies also occupied the resource-rich Rhineland.

Effects of the First World War
The war had a devastating impact on Germany both psychologically and financially.

1. The New Republic carried the burden of War Guilt and national humiliation.
2. It was financially crippled by being forced to pay compensation.
3. Supporters of the Weimar Republic, the Socialists, Catholics, and Democrats, were attacked by Conservatives and Nationalists.
4. The value of the German Mark fell. The US Dollar was equal to 24,000 marks in April 1923, and by August, it was equal to 46,21,000 marks. Prices soared, leading to an economic crisis in Germany.

Hitler’s Rise to Power

Hitler fought in the First World War, became a corporal, and won medals.

1. The humiliating Treaty of Versailles imposed on Germany made him angry.
2. In 1919, he joined the ‘German Workers Party’, took over its organization, and renamed it the National Socialist German Workers Party. This party came to be known as the Nazi Party.
3. During the Great Depression, Nazism became a mass movement.
4. Hitler was a powerful speaker; he was able to influence the minds of the people with his words.
5. He promised jobs for those looking for work.
6. He promised a secure future for the youth.
7. He won the support of common people by promising to undo the injustice of the Treaty of Versailles.
8. He won the support of landowners and industrialists by promising to oppose socialism and communism.
9. The Nazis held large rallies and public meetings to show support for Hitler and develop a sense of unity among the people.
10. Red banners with the Swastika and the Nazi Salute were part of the display of power.
11. Nazi propaganda skillfully presented Hitler as the messiah and savior of the people.
12. Anyone who opposed Hitler was sent to concentration camps.

Hitler’s World View

The Nazi ideology was closely linked with Hitler’s worldview.

1. According to Nazi beliefs, there was no equality among people, only a racial hierarchy.
2. In this view, blond, blue-eyed Nordic German Aryans were at the top, while Jews were considered the lowest and viewed as the main enemies of the Aryans.
3. Hitler’s racism borrowed ideas from thinkers like Charles Darwin.
4. Herbert Spencer introduced the idea of the survival of the fittest.
5. The Nazis argued that the strongest race would survive, and the weaker ones would perish.
6. The Aryan race was seen as the best. It had to keep its purity, become stronger, and dominate the world.
7. Hitler believed in the concept of Lebensraum or living space for the German people. Thus, he thought that new territories should be acquired for the settlement of Germans.
8. This would also increase the resources and power of the German state.
9. To create a superior Aryan racial community, the Nazis started to eliminate ‘inferior’ races like the Jews, Poles, and Gypsies.
10. Millions of Jews, Gypsies, Blacks, and even Russians and Poles were deemed undesirables and were to be killed.

The Youth in Nazi Germany

Hitler was very interested in the youth.

1. He believed a strong Nazi society could only be built by teaching children Nazi ideology.
2. All schools were ‘cleansed’ and purified, meaning teachers who were Jews or seen as ‘politically unreliable’ were removed.
3. Children were first separated, and German and Jewish children could not sit or play together.
4. Jewish and undesirable children were expelled from schools and later killed in gas chambers.
5. Good German children underwent a process of Nazi schooling, a time of ideological training.
6. School textbooks were rewritten, and Racial Science was introduced to justify Nazi ideas about race.
7. Children learned to worship Hitler.
8. Youth organizations promoted the spirit of National Socialism among young people.
9. Ten-year-old children had to join ‘Jungvolk’, and at 14 years of age, all children had to join the Nazi youth organization ‘Hitler Youth’. They were taught to be loyal and submissive, to hate Jews and other undesirables.
10. Youth around the age of 18 had to serve in the armed forces and join one of the Nazi organizations.

The Nazi Cult of Motherhood

In 1933, Hitler said, “In my state, the mother is the most important citizen.”

1. Girls were told they had to become good mothers and raise pure-blooded Aryan children.
2. Girls had to maintain the purity of the race, avoid Jews, and teach their children Nazi values.
3. Not all mothers were treated equally; women who bore racially undesirable children were punished, while those who had racially desirable children were rewarded and given privileges.
4. To encourage women to have many children, Honour Crosses were given. A bronze cross for four children, a silver cross for six children, and a gold cross for eight or more children.
5. All ‘Aryan’ women who strayed from the prescribed conduct were publicly condemned and severely punished.
6. Those who associated with Jews, Poles, and Russians were paraded through towns with shaved heads and blackened faces.
7. Many received jail sentences and even lost their civic honor, as did their husbands and families, for this crime.

The Art of Propaganda

The Nazi regime used language and media carefully and often effectively.

1. Media was used to gain support for the regime and popularize its worldview.
2. Nazi ideas were spread through images, films, radio, posters, catchy slogans, and leaflets.
3. Socialists and liberals were shown as weak and degenerate and attacked as foreign agents.
4. Propaganda films created hatred for Jews, referring to them as vermin, rats, and pests.

Ordinary People and Crimes Against Humanity

1. Many viewed the world through Nazi perspectives and spoke their mind in Nazi language.
2. Influenced by Nazism, they felt hatred and anger when they saw someone who looked like a Jew.
3. They marked the homes of Jews and reported suspicious neighbors to the police.
4. They genuinely believed that Nazism would bring prosperity and improve overall well-being.
5. Not all Germans supported Nazism.
6. Many Germans were too scared to oppose Nazism because they would be killed for doing so.
7. Because of Nazi propaganda, some Jews began to believe in the Nazi stereotypes about themselves, such as having hooked noses, black hair, and certain body movements.

Knowledge about the Holocaust

Information about Nazi practices and atrocities trickled out of Germany during the last years of the regime.

1. Only after Germany was defeated in the Second World War did the world begin to see and understand the horrors that had happened to the undesirables in Germany.
2. Jews wanted the world to remember the atrocities and suffering they had endured during the Nazi killings.
3. Many people wrote diaries, kept notebooks, and created archives about the Nazi atrocities.
4. When the war seemed lost, the Nazi leadership provided petrol to its workers to destroy all incriminating evidence in offices.
5. The memory of the Holocaust lives on in memories, fiction, memorials, and museums in parts of the world today.