Introduction to Der Fuhrer

April 20, 1889 in AustriaOlder abusive father, younger affectionate motherSmart but not a good studentVery religious, considered becoming a monkPretended to run off to art schoolNo real relationships with women—one imaginary?Avoided military service but liked to play war as a

kidMoved to Germany, very nationalisticFought in WWI and was deeply humiliated by

Germany’s loss and post-war treatment by Europe

State Secret Police(Geheime Staatspolizei)Had carte blanche to imprison people without

any judicial proceedingsPeople had to sign their own request for

imprisonment (out of fear?)Before the Gestapo was the SA, or Storm

Troopers, or the Brownshirts… the official military of the Nazi party

Then Hitler had the Night of the Long Knives in 1934 and purged…

Founded the GestapoWWI ace fighter pilot, stayed as head of the

Luftwaffe (air force) through WWIIGuided the German economy pre-WWIIHitler actually liked him for a successor one

day At the Nuremburg trials it was determined

that besides Hitler, he was 2nd in command of all atrocities and “was the leading war aggressor” and sentenced to death, but…

Military commander, leading Nazi party member

In charge of setting up and running the concentration camps under Hitler’s orders

At the end of the war he tried to go into hiding, but was captured by the British and…

Reich Minister of PropagandaVery anti-semitic, joined the Nazi

party during the big reaction to the French occupation of the Ruhr

Highly educated, slightly disabled,refused from WWI military service

1923, failure of the Weimar Republic to pay reparations to France, so the French invaded that Ruhr Valley, full of coal…

resulted in strikes and a rise in German nationalism

“My Struggle”Written while Hitler was in prison for the

failed 1923 Beer Hall PutschFull of antisemitic statements and his

process of concluding why all Jewish people should be eliminated

Speaks of “lebensraum”, or “living space” for the German people—territorial expansion

Hitler and the small group of Nazi followers attempted to overtake the German government at a bar

Ultimately, no one followed them and he was arrested.

Hermann Goring was there, and got shotGermany was not ready for the revolution

Hitler proposed

Listen to Goebbels and Hitler’s first speeches as official rulers in 1933.

What is your impression of Goebbels?What are Hitler’s messages, especially in

regards to WWI/post-war treatment?