![]() By late 1942, Germany and its European allies in the Axis powers controlled much of Europe and North Africa. ![]() Germany signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union and invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, launching World War II in Europe. In March 1939, the Slovak state was proclaimed and became a client state and the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was established on the remainder of occupied Czech lands. Germany seized Austria in the Anschluss of 1938, and demanded and received the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia in that same year. The Saarland voted to rejoin Germany in 1935, and in 1936 Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland, which had been demilitarised after World War I. The government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others.įrom the latter half of the 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands, threatening war if these were not met. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, and Hitler's hypnotic oratory to influence public opinion. The 1936 Summer Olympics showcased Germany on the international stage. ![]() Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed. Education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. ![]() Christian churches and citizens that opposed Hitler's rule were oppressed and leaders imprisoned. Jews, liberals, socialists, communists, other political opponents and undesirables were imprisoned, exiled, or murdered. The first concentration camps were established in March 1933. Discrimination and persecution of Jews and Romani people accelerated. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the " master race", the purest branch of the Aryan race. Racism, Nazi eugenics, anti-Slavism, and especially antisemitism were central ideological features of the regime. The return to economic stability boosted the regime's popularity. Financed by deficit spending, the regime undertook extensive public works projects, including the Autobahnen (motorways) and a massive secret rearmament program, forming the Wehrmacht (armed forces). In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment, using heavy military spending. The government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitler's favour. Power was centralised in Hitler's person, his word became the highest law. A 1934 German referendum confirmed Hitler as sole Führer (leader). Hindenburg died in August 1934, and Hitler became dictator by merging the powers of the chancellery and presidency. The Nazis began to eliminate political opposition and consolidate power. The Enabling Act of 1933 gave Hitler's government the power to make and enforce laws without the Reichstag (parliament) or president. The Reichstag fire was used to pass the Reichstag Fire Decree, leading to the suppression of civil liberties and mass arrests of political opponents. By the constitution of the Weimar Republic, in those circumstances the chancellor of Germany (the head of government) could be appointed by the president, Paul von Hindenburg, who appointed Hitler on 30 January 1933, at the behest of right-wing politicians and industrialists. Hitler refused to participate in a coalition government unless he was its leader. The Nazi Party became the largest in parliament following the July 1932 German federal election, but it did not hold a majority. The Third Reich, which the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945, after only 12 years, when the Allies defeated Germany and entered the capital, Berlin, ending World War II in Europe. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", referred to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918). Under Hitler's rule, Germany quickly became a totalitarian state where many aspects of life were controlled by the government. Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich until 1943, later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 19, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictatorship.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |