Cult of Personality

Develops around a person, usually

totalitarian leaders where
propaganda, mass media and
encouraged adulation creates an
idealized image which extends that
persons power
Example: Stalin who argued that the
Communist Party itself suffered from false
consciousness (and from spies and traitors
within its ranks) and therefore needed an

Remember
Propaganda is information that is
especially designed to influence
opinion and as such, it is usually of a
biased or misleading nature. The
information can be true or false but it
is always carefully selected and
deliberately framed.

Stalin
Stalin outmanoeuvred the
most popular and the
most brilliant within the
Communist elite after the
death of Lenin
Stalin purged the party
and implemented two five
year plans that resulted in
transforming the USSR
from being based in

Benito Mussolini
Dreamed of Italy being a great world
power like it had been in the time of
ancient Rome
Members of the lower middle classes
wanted security against the
economic uncertainties of inflation

Question
How could Hitler rally so much
support and seize power?

Weimar Republic

Goodbye Kaiser
Theconstitutionof the Weimar Republic
was very different from that the old
system as there would be nomonarch.
Instead there would be apresident,
elected every seven years and whose
power would be limited by theReichstag.
Achancellor, appointed by the President,
led the government of ministers from
within the Reichstag.
All adults over the age of 20 could now
vote.

Failure of the Weimar

Republic
Had a democraticconstitution but
some extremistgroups but was plagued
by extremist groups
The extreme right wanted to return to an
authoritarian system, with a strong military
leadership as the only way to keep society safe
Those on the left felt that communism was the
fairest form of government

Chaos and extremism reigned despite the

ideals

Between 1919 and 1923, extremist political parties

resorted to violent attempts to overthrow the
government and take over the country.

 Feeding off of and

encouraging hatred
of the Treaty of
Versailles
Many Germans
felt betrayed and
that they had not
lost the war and
were being
punished unfairly

Perspectives

Hyperinflation

Hyperinflation caused
desperation
Inflation is when
money loses its
value so you have
to pay more for the
same item
Hyperinflation is
inflation that is very
high and prices
increase so quickly
and by enormous

Hyperinflation

Astronomic price increases

November 1918 one loaf of
bread cost
1 mark
November 1922 one loaf of
bread cost
163 marks
September 1923 one loaf of
bread cost

Effective Use of Propaganda

and Psychology

Blaming scapegoats, in particular:

Communists, Socialists, and liberals
and Jews
Other targets included
homosexuals, people with
disabilities, Catholics, Roma and
Slavs

 This is a poster
from the antiSemitic movie,
The Eternal Jew
which was shown
in theatres
throughout
Germany and
depicted Jews in
the most appalling

Good to Know
Racism and anti-Semitism was not
new and in fact the Nazis cultivated a
connection between racism and
politics that had cultural precedents
In 1933 one of Hitlers early laws
decreed the sterilization of
undesirables in order to eliminate
inferior genes
400 000 men and women were forcibly

Pablo Picasso, Guernica

1937,349 x 776 cm
Museum Reina Sofia, Madrid

Before WWII there was

Spain
The Second Spanish Republic was the
democratically elected government
of Spain from April 1931
It was pro-labour, anti-Church and
lukewarm on monarchy. The new
constitution established women's rights,
allowed divorce, supported unions and
took education away from priests in
favour of professional teachers.

Conservative groups that lost power

fought hard to regain control

As you watch the video

Watch for the themes listed below.
You are responsible for knowing how
each contributed to the rise of
Nazism

Leadership
The economy
Treaty of Versailles.
The Military
The German nation
Communism

As you watch, keep note of any

 Hitler smiled very pleasantly and

had a sort of appealing and
affectionate look in his eyes. My
sizing up of the man was that
he...truly loves his fellow men and
his country.
William L. M. King as quoted in William Lyon Mackenzie
King: The Loner Who Kept Canada Together

 King thought that Hitler appeared to be

a man of deep sincerity and a genuine
patriot." (Diary, June29, 1937) King saw
similarities between himself and Hitler,
writing, "As I talked with him, I could not
but think of Joan of Arc. He is distinctly a
mystic .... He is a teetotaller and also a
vegetarian; is unmarried, abstemist in all
his habits and ways." (Diary, June29,
1937)

Nazi Goals
Lebensraum
Rearmament
Economic Recovery

Solidification
Hitler had legally come to power but
resorted to shady means of solidifying
power
Hitler claimed that Germany was
threatened from within by a Communist
revolution and persuaded the German
Parliament to pass emergency laws
2 months later Germany was a police state and Hitler
was a legal dictator

 Lebensraum
Living space in which Hitler believed it
was the right and duty of the German
master race to be the worlds greatest
empire
German domination of central and
eastern Europe at the expense of Slavic
peoples
Primary target was Russia and her vassal
border states

 Rearmament
The Weimar Republic had begun secret
rearmament and Hitler continued and
expanded this (1935 renounced Treaty
of Versailles)
23.5% of national income spent on
defense in 1937 (USSR 26.4, Japan 28.2,
US 1.5, British Empire 5.7)

 Economic recovery
Germany experienced full employment after
1936
Built on rearmament and consumer products
The state concentrated economic power in
the hands of a few strengthened big
businesses

War required full economic recovery

Actions Against Jews

Nuremberg Laws
1935 created to identify Jews, to deprive
them of citizenship, and to forbid
marriage etc. between Jews and nonJews

Kristallnacht
9 November 1938, Crystal night or night
of broken glass
Throughout Germany synagogues set on
fire, books and valuables confiscated
91 Jews killed, many beaten and 20 000-