SGQ 10

QW's:


Compare and contrast the economic and social policies of one left wing and one right wing single-party ruler.


By what methods, and with what success, did single-party rulers in power establish totalitarian regimes?


MWH 309-318


1. What did National Socialism stand for?
A. What were the movements four general principles?

i.it was a way of life dedicated to the re-birth of the nation "national community"

ii. emphasis on the ruthlessly efficient organization of all aspects of the lives of the masses "totalitarian stae"
.voilen, terror, and propagenda had a vital role to play in all of this)

iii.the entire state must be organized on a military footing

iv.race theory (Aryans and Non-Aryans)

B. What evidence suggests Nazism was a "natural development of German history"?
i. Many can argue that it was a natural extension of the Prussian militarism and German tradtions.


ii.Also another viewpoint could be that national socialism and facism in genral were the final stage of western capitlaism which was bound to collapse because of its fatal flaws.



C . What evidence suggests Nazism was a "distortion of normal development" of German history?

The personal contribution of Hitler was a in a great deal one of the atrributs that wasn't a normal devolpment. He was striving to break away from the old and introduce something new.

D . What evidence suggests Nazism was a bit of both?

Hitler only contributed to the German trends in culture and beliefs. It wasn't a mere incident that it came about because its a product of logical and inevitable products of the past affecting the future.


2. How did Hitler consolidate his power?
A. Actions leading up to the March election of 1933

i. The election of march 5, 1933 led to police forces being replaced with loyal nazis.

ii. Blaming the communists for the Reichstag fire, led to a fear of communism

iii.Hitler had a private armies and a press and radio to try and whipo up the majority of the votes
B. The Reichstag fire

i. what happened?

On Feburary 27'th a amn called van der Lubbe set fire to the Reichstag and the SA knew about the mans intentions. It burnt to the ground and the SA even might have started little fires.

ii. what did it mean?

Blaming it all on a communist led to a great fear and more votes for the Nazis. And later a pretext to the banning of the communist party.

3. How was Hitler able to stay in power?
A. What was the Enabling Law?
This stated that the government could introduce laws without the approval of the Reichstag for the next four years, could ignore the constitution and could sign agreements with foreign countries. All of this would be drafted in the forms of the Chancellor (Hitler). This meant Hitler was dicator for four years and it was possible to extend it.


B. How did the Enabling Law pass?
The atmosphere that the SA created caused the people to not want to get them angered or to bring up enough courage to vote against it or fear that they may be beaten if they opposed the bill.


C. What was gleichschaltung?
A policy which turned Germany into a totalitarian or facist state.The government tried to control as many aspects of life as possible.

D. What were the characteristics of gleichschaltung?
i. Germany became a one-party state because all other parties were banned

ii. There was no more state, provincial, or municipial elections. The seperate stae parliments still existed but lost all powers and the majority of that power went to the Nazi Special Commissioner.

iii. the civil services were purged ( all enemies of the state such as Jews where purged)

iv. trade unions, a likely cause of resistance, were anolished and they were replaced with the German Labour Front. The governemt instead dealt with the issues of the workplace.

v. The education system was closely controlled so children could be indoctrinated with Nazi opinions ( Hitler Youth and the League German Maidains)

vi. there was a special policy concerned with the family
* 'racially pure' and healthy families were encouraged to have more children

vii. all communications and the media were controlled by the Minister of Propagenda, Dr Joseph Goebbels


viii. How was the economic life of the country organized?

a. telling industrialists what to produce, depending on what the country needd at that moment

b. moving workers around the country to places where jobs existed and labour was needed

c. emcouraging farmers to increase agriculture yields

d. controlling food prices and rents

e. manipulating foreingn exchange rates to avoid inflation

f.introducing vast schemes of public works- highways, and land drainages

g. forcing foreign countries to buy German goods either by refusing cash for goods bought from those countries

h.reduce dependence on foreign countries (manufacturing synthetic rubber and wool)

i. increasing expenditure on armaments

ix. How was religion handled?

a. Catholics

Hitler signed an agreement which promised not to interfere with German catholics in any way. However when the Catholic youth league rivalled Hitler Youth. However when the CAthlic school got closed down it wasn't enough for Hitler so he sent nuns and preists to concentration camps.

b. Protestants

Hitler tried to roganze them into a Reich church, in which the bishop was a Nazi However when they bothered him he persicuted the church and sent many people to their deaths
x.



xi. Anti-Semitism

a. how was it legalized?

Theses were legalized by the Nuremberg laws

b. examples of the law being carried out

1.ruled that even a person with only one Jewish grandparent must be classed as a Jew.

2.forabde them to marry non-Jews

3.deprived Jews of their German citezenship



E. How popular were Hitler's policies?

i. personal appeal - He tried to entertain the republic with parades and rallies that caused great enthusiasm and anticicaption after the weak adn inecsive governments of the Weimer Republic.



ii. unemployment - One of the things that went towards Hitler's popularity. This was able to happen through public work schemes and then the large party bureaucrcy was expaninding providing governemtn jobs. The purges of the 'enemy of the people' gave vacant jobs.



iii. working people - Sicnce the abolition of trade unions was causing strife in much of the people Hitler provided benifits such as subsidized holidays and cruises, concert tickets,ect.



iv. upper class - The upper class felt safe from a communist revolution and they were happy that trade unions where abolished since they nagged them. Also they were able to buy back at low prices the shares they had sold to the state during the crisis of 1929-32, and there were great promises of great profits from the public work schemes



v. farmers - Farmers gradually warmerd up to Hitler and only because it was made vclear that they were in a specially favoured postion in the state because of the Nazi decalred self-suffiency in food production. Also prices were fixed so they were assured a reasonable profit. Another attribute was that farms were to be passed on to the enxt of kin so therefore farms could not be sold.



vi. the Army -
a. officers -well disposed towards Hitler because of much publized aim of setting aside th erestrictions of the Versailles Treaty by rearmment and expansion of the army to its full strength



b. lower ranks -this idea above was being brought into the lower classes as well since National Socialists were being brought in



c. Night of Long Knives - This elimenated a lot of enemies and competion or troublesome people to Hitler and he stated it was justified because those people where plotting against the state. Hitler was also thought to have killed many of those people to containe certain information that might be drawn out by the SA leader Rohm. Rohm wished to be general of the troops but the army looked at him as a ruffin and incompetant to lead the army, Hitler in order not to be embarassed had an SS member kill him.

vii. foreign policy -HThis was a huge success and many Germans began to think of him as infallible