Lit Review in progress

Germany and the Nazis

  In 1918, for the German soldiers out the front lines during WW1 it seemed like the war just stopped and some how they had lost.  Many Germans believed that they were in fact winning the war.  They believed that they were stabbed in the back by the marxes and the Jews.  Anti semitic views had a strong hold in Germany and were thought of as being all that was wrong in Germany.  The German government had become a democracy as a result of the Treaty at Versailles.  All of Germany was in turmoil, the economy was horrible and the newly formed democracy was failing.  It didn't take long for a small political party to capitalize on hardships of post World War 1 Germany.  The effects of the economy, the feuding political parties and the surrounding turmoil of that era creating a melting pot just perfect enough for the small party growing in southern Germany.

  In the town of Baveria the allies continued to blockade and millions of people were starving and thousands more were dying from tuberculosis  as well as influenza.  The political parties became polarized, with conservatives on the right and socialists on the left, in the face of crisis.  In 1919 the Munich Soviet Republic tried to create a Soviet styled government called the Raterepublik.  The Raterepublik was the start of the communist movement in Germany.  The controlling board was made up of mostly Jewish members.  It became  a widespread belief that communism equaled Judaism.  Goverment troops came in to try and squash the rebellion which resulted in a fire fight in the streets.  The troops were supported by Feikorp, a right-wing mercenary group, and there are cases of Feikorp members executing members of the Raterepulik. It was in this town of Baveria that the National Socialist German Workers Party, or Nazi for short, began.

  In 1919, many exsoldiers found it hard to keep a steady job and the treaty of Versaille forced Germany to give up land and pay reperations to the Allies.  By 1920 inflation spiraled out of control, this was mostly due to the fact that the German government just started printing off money to pay the reperations.  In some places a sausage and bread costs a billion Reichmarks.  People were unable to live like this and the cry for change grew larger.  All the different political parties in Baveria were basically saying the same thing.  Versaille was a crime and the Jews were to blame.  The Jews had become a scape goat for the rest of the German people.  

  January 1923, French troops marched into the Ruhr demanding reperations but only suceeding in alienating the already down trotted German people.  There was widespread hunger and poverty but the humiliation that the Germans suffered from the French was the worst part of all.  As a result the Nazi party joined forces with the rest of the right wing parties to march on the left wing controled Berlin.  The Nazis believed that the police would join their cause and march on Berlin as well.  This was not the case and a fire fight between police and the Nazis.  

  In the mid 1920's the economy recovered and and inflation was reduced to single figures.  By 1924, the Nazi party was irrelevant.  The government of Weimar borrowed money from the U.S. to pay off the reperations owed to France and Great Britian.  This was really a small band-aid on a deep gash.  Instead of owing three governments money they now only owed one.  This also allowed people a small economic relief and they could afford to go out party and have a good time.  Many, though, wanted to Germany to go back to a simplar way of life instead of the "Weimar decadense".   A movement started that was called Wandervogel, they were young "protesters" against the middle class way of living.  The Nazis recognized this young movement and the two became one which began Hitler Youth, a training program for future storm troopers.  The Nazis were never quiet about their plan to get rid of the german jews.  They believed that there was a conspiracy that the Jews were trying to take over the world.  

  Even with this support the Nazis recieved less than three percent of the votes in the 1928 election.  Meaning ninty-seven percent rejected the Nazis views.  A government report gathered right before the election claimed that the Nazi party has "no noticable influences on the great masses of Germany."  Five years later Hitler would be Chancellor and the Nazis would rule all of Germany.  This would not be though if they didn't get some help from a serious crisis on the way.

  A sudden drop in world agriculture prices dropped and poverty swept through the country side.  On top of that the Great Depression occurred and Germany quickly became the worst hit country in the world.  The U.S. called in their loans and unemployment grew to 5.5 million in 1931.  Every friday everyone would stand at the unemployment office to get five Reichmarks to feed their family with.  Needless to say many didn't have food.  Then in 1931, as if things couldn't get any worse, the five major banks in Germany crashed and more than twenty thousand buisinesses went under.  With all this happening people began to listen to the radical parties such as the Nazi and the Communists.

  In Neidenburg the Nazi party only got two percent of the votes, while in 1930 they got twenty-five of the votes without any visits from Hitler and without a Nazi organization in the city.  The Communists were also gaining votes and the new democracy seemed to split in two.  You had the radicals on the right and the radicals on the left.  Fist fights began to break out in the streets, typically around the unemployment office, between Communist and Nazi supporters.  And Hitler went on a a twenty city in seven days campaign spree.  People came to think that he would deliver them into salvation from the woes that ailed them.  Although Hitler lost to President Hindenburg in the election, it was believed that Hitler was a credible alternative leader for Germany.