A work of propaganda and falsehoods, the book laid out Hitler's plans for transforming German society into one based on race. The second volume outlined his plan to gain and maintain power. While often illogical and full of grammatical errors, Mein Kampf was provocative and subversive, making it appealing to the many Germans who felt displaced at the end of World War I.
With millions unemployed, the Great Depression in Germany provided a political opportunity for Hitler. Germans were ambivalent to the parliamentary republic and increasingly open to extremist options.
In , Hitler ran against year-old Paul von Hindenburg for the presidency. Hitler came in second in both rounds of the election, garnering more than 36 percent of the vote in the final count. The results established Hitler as a strong force in German politics.
Hindenburg reluctantly agreed to appoint Hitler as chancellor in order to promote political balance. Hitler used his position as chancellor to form a de facto legal dictatorship. The Reichstag Fire Decree, announced after a suspicious fire at Germany's parliament building, suspended basic rights and allowed detention without trial.
Hitler also engineered the passage of the Enabling Act, which gave his cabinet full legislative powers for a period of four years and allowed for deviations from the constitution. By the end of June, the other parties had been intimidated into disbanding.
Military opposition was also punished. The demands of the SA for more political and military power led to the infamous Night of the Long Knives , a series of assassinations that took place from June 30 to July 2, Rohm, a perceived rival, and other SA leaders, along with a number of Hitler's political enemies, were hunted down and murdered at locations across Germany.
The day before Hindenburg's death in August , the cabinet had enacted a law abolishing the office of president, combining its powers with those of the chancellor. Hitler thus became head of state as well as head of government and was formally named leader and chancellor.
As the undisputed head of state, Hitler became supreme commander of the armed forces. Fueled by fanaticism over what he believed was a superior Aryan race, he encouraged Germans to keep their bodies pure of any intoxicating or unclean substances and promoted anti-smoking campaigns across the country.
From until the start of the war in , Hitler and his Nazi regime instituted hundreds of laws and regulations to restrict and exclude Jews in society. On April 1, , Hitler implemented a national boycott of Jewish businesses. The law was a Nazi implementation of the Aryan Paragraph, which called for the exclusion of Jews and non-Aryans from organizations, employment and eventually all aspects of public life.
On April 1, , SA troopers urge a national boycott of Jewish businesses. Here they are outside Israel's Department Store in Berlin. The signs read: "Germans! Defend yourselves! Don't buy from Jews. Wehrt Euch! Kauft nicht bei Juden! The store was later ransacked during Kristallnacht in , then handed over to a non-Jewish family. Additional legislation restricted the number of Jewish students at schools and universities, limited Jews working in medical and legal professions, and revoked the licenses of Jewish tax consultants.
By , Jewish actors were forbidden from performing in film or in the theater. On September 15, , the Reichstag introduced the Nuremberg Laws, which defined a "Jew" as anyone with three or four grandparents who were Jewish, regardless of whether the person considered themselves Jewish or observed the religion. Nevertheless, things started to look up from the mids onwards. And then in , the global economic crisis hit. Germany could no longer pay the war debts stipulated in the Versailles Peace Treaty.
Millions of Germans lost their jobs. The country was in a political crisis as well. Cabinets were falling, and new elections were held all the time. It seemed impossible to form a majority government. When it was founded in , it was only a small party.
But Hitler used his oratory talent to attract more and more members. The party was characterised by extreme nationalism and antisemitism. In November , Hitler even led a coup attempt. It was a complete failure. At the end of , Hitler was released after serving a relatively short sentence. However, his political career was not over. In prison he had written Mein Kampf, setting out his plans for Germany.
From then on, the Nazis were to stick to the law and try to gain power by means of elections. They benefited from the economic crisis that began by the end of the s. The Nazis used the crisis to condemn the government and the Versailles peace treaty. Their strategy was effective. The party radiated strength and vitality. Moreover, the Nazi leaders were young, quite unlike the greying politicians of the established parties. In addition, Hitler's image as a strong leader appealed to people.
He was all set to unite the population and put an end to political discord. The Nazis focused on voters from all walks of life, rather than on just one group, such as the workers or Catholics. They also attracted many people who had never voted before. Still, in November the party seemed to be past its peak. The conservative parties did not manage to win enough votes. From this point in the war, Germany is continually retreating.
Hitler survives an assassination attempt by Colonel Stauffenberg, who places a bomb in a briefcase under a table close to Hitler.
As a result, Hitler purges the army of all possible suspects. Hitler commits suicide with his wife of two days, Eva Braun; their bodies are believed to have been cremated. Ian Kershaw, renowned as one of the leading experts on the Third Reich, unpicks the question of how history should view Adolf Hitler. This wide-ranging course will develop and deepen your knowledge of different periods of history from around to the late twentieth century.
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All rights reserved. The Open University is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in relation to its secondary activity of credit broking. Skip to content Study with The Open University. In the early s, the mood in Germany was grim. The worldwide economic depression had hit the country especially hard, and millions of people were out of work.
Still fresh in the minds of many was Germany's humiliating defeat fifteen years earlier during World War I, and Germans lacked confidence in their weak government, known as the Weimar Republic. Hitler was a powerful and spellbinding speaker who attracted a wide following of Germans desperate for change. He promised the disenchanted a better life and a new and glorious Germany. The Nazis appealed especially to the unemployed, young people, and members of the lower middle class small store owners, office employees, craftsmen, and farmers.
The party's rise to power was rapid. Before the economic depression struck, the Nazis were practically unknown, winning only 3 percent of the vote to the Reichstag German parliament in elections in In the elections, the Nazis won 33 percent of the votes, more than any other party. In January Hitler was appointed chancellor, the head of the German government, and many Germans believed that they had found a savior for their nation.
Hitler Comes to Power.
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