Adolf Hitler

By: Kyle Murdoch

Political

Reichstag Fire – February 27, 1933

When the Reichstag burned down, Dutch communist Van der Lubbe was to blame. He was caught red-handed with matches and fire lighting materials inside the Reichstag. Hitler used this as an excuse to be given emergency power. He then proceeded to get rid of communist opponents and gain control of the state.

Above: A picture of the Reichstag burning Right: Dutch Communist Van Der lubbe sits in trial after burning down reichstag.

Above: This is the “Decree of the Reich president for the protection of the people and state” which gave Hitler total power in the event of an emergency.

General Election March 5 1933Hitler wanted majority in the Reichstag so he held a general election where the Nazis got 44% of the vote. He wasn’t able to gain the majority of seats so he arrested 81 communist deputies giving him the majority. Having the majority meant that the Nazis could pass any law they wanted while making it look like a democracy.

Above: A ballot for the Reichstag election in the Hesse-Darmstadt electoral district (the Nazis are at the top) Above: President Hindenburg coming out of one of the

many polling stations in Germany.

Above: Communist leaders after being arrested to give the Nazis the majority.

Enabling Act march 23 1933The Reichstag voted to give Hitler the power to make his own laws. No one had a chance to oppose because of the presence by the Stormtroopers who stopped opposition deputies going in and beat up anyone who dared to speak up. This act made Hitler the dictator of Germany along with the power to to anything he wanted legally.

Above: hitler in the Kroll opera house promoting the passage of the enabling act.

Above: the front and backside of the enabling act that had the signatures which included president hindenburg. Above: an image of hitler wearing his traditional ss outfit while

delivering the enabling act in the kroll opera house.

Above: Front page of the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung reading “Enabling Act adopted with 441 votes against the 94 votes of the Social Democrats….”

Gestapo – 26 April 1933After the Nazis took over the government and police, Hitler enforced the Gestapo (secret police) that made sure that there was no oppositions to Hitler and the Nazis. This secret police force put fear in the citizens heart showing them what would happen if they were to oppose. Tens of thousands of Jews, Communists, and any other kind of person that Hitler thought wasn’t pure German or anyone who did so called “crimes” were sent in to concentration camps.

Left: Gestapo headquarters in Berlin, Germany Above: Rows of dead bodies fill the yard of Lager Nordhausen, a Gestapo concentration camp.

Right: Gestapo search innocent person to see if they’re carrying any weapon

Above: Gestapo and the Security Police occupy and search the Berlin Headquarters of the German Communists.

Law against the Formation of parties – July 14 1933

This law abolished any opposition party and made the Nazi party the only party in Germany. Leaders from other parties were arrested and thrown in jail. Hitler was now the face of Germany.

Above: A group of leading socialists arrive at the Kislau camp including local democratic party leader Ludwig Marum.

Above: An all Nazi Reichstag saluting their Fuhrer.

Above: “Only Hitler.”

Night of the long knives – june 30 1934

The SA helped Hitler come to power in Germany by acting like his thugs, defending meetings and taking out opposition. On June 30th, Hitler turned on them by killing more than 400 SA men. He had heard about the SA leader Ernst Rohm planning on a socialist revolution and about taking over the army. Hitler couldn’t have someone like this leading his force so he took out the opposition.

Above: the leaders of the Nazi party who planned the purge (Hitler, Goring, Goebbels and Hess)

Above: Hitler and Rohm

Above: Cartoon showing SA men with their hands up “saluting” with an angry Hitler holding a smoking gun.

Above: A German newspaper justifying the purge with headlines like “The German People Saved from Serious Danger,”

Hitler becomes fuhrer – august 19 1934

After President Hindenburg died, Hitler took over his position as President and leader of the army. Because of the problems with loyalty from the previous SA, all soldiers had to swear an oath to die for Hitler. Hitler referred himself as “Fuhrer”.

Above: German soldiers swearing the Hitler Oath in front of the Nazi flag.

Above: President Hindenburg dead.

Above: A rally of people coming together to support their new Fuhrer.

Above: “We are taking the fate of the nation in our hands! Hitler becomes Reich President.

Economic

AutarkyHitler wanted Germany to be economically self-sufficient. He didn’t want to have to rely on foreign imports to keep Germany running. Autarky would allow Germany to wage war because if Germany was being supplied from Russia, Great Britain and France, if they went to war, Germany would lose whatever imports that were being supplied.

Above: Germany developed synthetic rubber or “Buna” which helped make tires among other things.

Above: Hjalmar Schacht (right) was Reich Minister of Economics and under his leadership, foreign trade came under almost complete state control.

“I consider it necessary that now, with iron determination, a 100 per cent self-sufficiency should be attained in all those spheres where it is feasible, and that not only should the national requirements in these most important raw materials be made independent of other countries but that we should also thus save the foreign exchange which in peacetime we require for our imports of foodstuffs.”

Adolf Hitler confidential Memo on Autarky

Public WorksTo address the unemployment issue in Germany, Hitler created construction of public works. All of the programs were administered by the National Labour Service. This service was established to handle unemployment, militarize the workforce, and indoctrinate Germans with Nazi ideologies.

Above: Young workers draining moors and heathlands to create new farmlands. Above: The RAD’s flag.

Above: Young workers draining moors and heathlands to create new farmlands.

Above: An RAD (Reich Labour Service) squad

RearmamentHitler also addressed unemployment by reintroducing conscription and the development of an air force. Doing this was against the terms of the Treaty of Versailles but Hitler didn’t seem to care. Conscription and an air force was also preparation to a war.

Above: A tank demonstration at a Harvest festival shortly after Germany’s rearmament.

Above: A Nazi regimental parade ground early on in Hitler’s rearmament.

Above: Poster for the “Luftwaffe” (German air force) which was formed in 1935.

Above: A squadron of Hienkel 111’s (Germany’s main bomber)

Left: Squadron of German fighter planes.

German Labour FrontHitler banned all trade unions; he closed all offices, confiscated money, and arrested leaders of trade unions. To replace this, the German Labour Front was formed. This was the only union allowed in the Reich. They set out wages, made compulsory deductions made for income tax and created the Strength through Joy Program which was to give workers holidays and more leisure activities. The image of Germans on holidays and enjoying themselves was great for Nazi propaganda.

Above: flag for the DAF (German Labour Front)

Above: Robert Ley, leader of the German Labour Front.

Above: Propaganda poster supporting the German Labour Front.

Above: Propaganda poster promoting Strength through Joy program.

Above: Volkswagens like this were given as a part of the Strength through Joy program.

Social

Youth organizationsHitler established youth organizations to instill Nazi ideas. He took the German youth at a young age and repeatedly injected the image of Hitler as a father to them which gave them extreme loyalty towards their Fuhrer. Boys were put in the Hitler Youth that focused on physical conditioning and girls were put into Bund Deutsher Madel that taught them how to be a good Nazi

Above: Hitler at a camp with Karl Gruber, the Founder of the Hitler Youth.

Above: Hitler Youth being taught the usage of Carbine Rifles.

Above: Hitler Youth being taught Racial Politics in school.

Above: Propaganda poster that says “ Build Youth Hostels and Homes”

Above: Young female BDM towards start of youth organizations.

Above: BDM group working on their fitness by going for a run.

ReligionHitler signed a Concordat with the Pope, agreeing to leave the Roman Catholic Church alone if it stayed out of politics. The Pope making a deal with the the Nazi’s showed that if the church accepted the ways of Hitler, then what they were doing was ok so most Catholics were happy to accept the Nazi regime. Other religious groups such as Protestants and Jehovah’s Witnesses were sent to concentration camps if they opposed the Nazis.

Above: Signing of the Reich Concordat (July 20,1933) Above: Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli

“His Holiness Pope Pius XI and the President of the German Reich, moved by the common desire to consolidate and promote the friendly relations existing between the Holy See and the German Reich, and wishing to regulate lastingly, in a manner satisfying to both parties, the relations between the Catholic Church and the State for the entire territory of the German Reich, have decided to conclude a solemn agreement supplementing the concordats concluded with individual German States and also ensuring for the remaining states a fundamentally uniform treatment of the questions to which it pertains.”

First statement in the “Concordat between the Holy See and the German Reich” document.

PropagandaHitler surrounded and immersed Germans to continuous propaganda which developed Hitler’s cult of personality. He assigned Joseph Goebbels Minister of Popular Entertainment and Propaganda to lead the way for propaganda. He gained control of newspapers, radio stations, and even production companies so he could put in Nazi ideas and Hitler. One of their biggest successes was during the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Germany where they showed nothing negative regarding Germany except for when the USA’s Jesse Owens won four gold medals and Hitler wouldn’t shake his hand because he was black.

Above: Hitler head Souvenirs from the “Reich Party Rally for Freedom” Above: Swastika flag flying during

the 1936 Olympics.

Above and Below: Two postcards, (top) swastika like the rising sun above the Reichstag and (below) Hitler kissing a little girl.

Above: Swastika placed on anything and everything like this baby carriage.

Above: A German street flooded with Nazi flags. Above: One of the many massive rally’s promoting Nazis

Kristallnacht – November 9-12, 1938

Right when Hitler came to power, he immediately isolated and discriminated the Jewish community; Hitler never liked the Jews. When a German diplomat was assassinated by a Jew, the Nazis brutally inflicted a night of terror on the Jews, destroying Jewish shops, homes and synagogues and arrested and sent 30 000 to concentration camps.

Above: Jews being taken from homes and sent to Concentration Camps. Above: Ernst vom Rath

Above: A burnt, and destroyed synagogue.

Above and Below: Morning after “Kristallnacht”

Nuremburg laws 1935-1939Between 1935-1939, the Nazis introduced a number of anti-Semitic laws that discriminated and denied Jews rights. Laws such as the Re-Establishment of the Career Civil Service excluded Jews from Government jobs or “No Jew can be a Reich Citizen…” and even laws that made it so Jews couldn’t get any health care (legal examinations, pharmaceutical examinations). These are only a few laws that were set to cripple all Jews.

Above: President of the District Court in Tilsit, East Prussia, sent this notice giving the news that a Jewish lawyer was being taken off the list of licensed lawyers.

Above: A park bench reading “For Aryans Only”

Above: Jews had to partake in public humiliation like scrubbing streets.

Above: Jewish business’ were boycotted because Hitler believed they were wrecking the economy.

Works Cited

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