Hitler and Nazism and Nazi Beliefs?

B4: Nazi Germany, c.1930-39

Hitler, Nazism and Nazi beliefs

Why did Hitler develop such extreme beliefs?

Hitler was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1889. He served in the German army during the First World War and became convinced that the army had been betrayed by the November Criminals, the politicians who had signed the Armistice in November 1918.

In 1919 Hitler joined the German Workers Party and became the leader in 1921. He blamed the Jews and Socialist politicians for the problems facing Germany, claiming that German blood had been polluted. He set up a private army, the Sturm Abteilung, the SA or Stormtroopers, to attack his opponents.

In November 1923 Hitler tried to seize power in Munich, but was arrested and put in prison for five years.

While Hitler was in prison, he wrote ‘Mein Kampf’ (My Struggle), which was a cross between his autobiography and a list of his political ideas:

• The German people were a master race, a 'Herrenvolk'. All other races (Slavs, Jews, black people and gypsies) were inferior 'Untermenschen'.

• Germany should be re-united and seize land to the east, 'Lebensraum'.

• To make Germany great again, a new leader was needed. Democracy was a weak system and should be replaced by dictatorship. Communism should be destroyed.

German citizens should be prepared to subordinate themselves to the needs of the state.

• Men and women had separate roles in society, which they had to be prepared for from the earliest age.

The Nazi rise to power: the role of Hitler

Why did support for the Nazis increase in the late 1920s?

In 1928 the Nazis won support outside of Bavaria for virtually the first time. They began to win votes in farming areas of north Germany, as prices fell. But their big break came in 1929.

On 3 October 1929 Gustav Stresemann died. He had been responsible, more than any other politician, for Germany’s recovery in the 1920s.

On 24 October 1929 Wall...