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Nazi Germany or the Third Reich commonly refers to Germany in the years between 1933 and 1945, when it was under the firm control of Adolf Hitler's
dictatorship and the totalitarian ideology of National Socialism (a variant of fascism).
The term Nazi is a short form of the German Nationalsozialismus; the ideology was institutionalized in the
NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) , the National Socialist German Workers' Party, or Nazi Party for short.
The Third Reich is an anglification of the German
expression "Das Dritte Reich", and is used as a synonym for Nazi
Germany. The term was introduced by Nazi propaganda, which counted the Holy Roman Empire as the first Reich, the 1871 German Empire the second, and its own regime as the
third. This was done in order to suggest a return to alleged former German glory after the perceived failure of the 1919 Weimar Republic.
The Third Reich was sometimes also referred to as the "Thousand Year Reich", as it was intended by its founder, Adolf Hitler, to stand for one thousand years, as in the case of the Holy Roman Empire. The Nazi Party attempted to combine traditional
symbols of Germany with Nazi Party symbols in an effort to reinforce the perception of them as being one and the same. Thus the
Nazi Party used the terms "Third Reich" and "Thousand Year Reich" to connect
the allegedly glorious past to its supposedly glorious future. Initially Hitler's plans seemed to be well on their way to
fruition. At its height, the Third Reich controlled the greater part of Europe. However, due to the defeat by the Allied powers
in World War II, the Thousand Year Reich in fact lasted only 12 years (from
1933 through to 1945).
Chronology of events
Pre-War Politics 1933-1939
Adolf Hitler
On January 30, 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg after attempts by General Kurt von Schleicher to form a viable government failed and under heavy pressure from former Chancellor
Franz von Papen. Even though the Nazi Party had gained the largest share of the popular vote in the two Reichstag general elections of 1932, they had no majority in
parliament.
Consolidation of power
The new government installed dictatorship in a series of measurements in quick succession (Gleichschaltung for details). On February
27, 1933 the Reichstag building was burned out to a shell, of which the Nazis took advantage with the
Reichstag Fire Decree. The next Reichstag elections on
March 5, 1933, yielded 43,9 % of the vote for
the NSDAP giving them a slight majority. The Reichstag drove the final nails in Weimar's coffin by passing the Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz) on March 23, 1933, which formally gave Hitler the power to govern by decree and
in effect disbanded the remainders of the Weimar constitution altogether.
Further consolidation of power was achieved on January 30, 1934 with the Gesetz über den Neuaufbau des Reichs (act to rebuild the Reich). The act
changed the highly decentralized federal Germany of the Weimar era into a centralized state. It disbanded state parliaments,
transferred sovereign rights of the states to the Reich central government and put the state administrations under the control of
the Reich administration. At the death of president Hindenburg on August 2,
1934, the Nazi controlled Reichstag merged the offices of Reichspräsident and
Reichskanzler and reinstalled Hitler with the new title Führer und
Reichskanzler.
Social policy
The Nazi regime was characterized by political control of every aspect of society in a quest for racial (Aryan, Nordic), social and cultural purity. Modern abstract art and avant garde
art was thrown out of museums, and put on special displays of “Degenerate art” where it was ridiculed.
The Nazi Party pursued its aims through persecution of those considered impure, especially against targeted minority groups
such as Jews, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals, as well as political opponents. For political opposition during this period, see German resistance movement.
By the Nuremberg Laws passed in 1935, Jews were renounced from the German citizenship and denied government employment. Most Jews employed by Germans
lost their jobs at this time, their jobs being taken by unemployed Germans. On November 9, 1938, the Nazi party organized a pogrom against Jewish businesses called the Kristallnacht ("Crystal Night"); the euphemism was used
because the numerous broken windows made the streets look as if covered with crystal. The Nazis were no less cruel to their own
population, as they carried out the T-4 Euthanasia
Program which killed off dozens of thousands of disabled and sickly Germans in an effort to “maintain the purity of the
German Master race (German: Herrenvolk)” as described by Nazi propagandists. These efforts would later lead to the Holocaust.
Economic Policy
The economic management of the state was given to respected banker Hjalmar Schacht. Under his guidance, a new economic policy to elevate the nation was drafted, limiting
imports of consumer goods and focusing on producing exports. Massive loans and credits were issued by the Reichsbank to industries and the individuals.
Under the leadership of Fritz Todt a massive public works project was started,
rivaling the New Deal in both size and scope; its most notable achievement was the
Autobahn. Once the war started, the massive organization that Todt founded was used
in building bunkers, underground facilities and entrenchments all over Europe. Another part of the new German economy was massive
rearmament with the goal being to expand the 100,000-strong German Army into a force of millions.
World War II
In 1939 Germany's actions lead to the outbreak of World War II in Europe. Poland, France, Denmark, Norway, Belgium and the
Netherlands were invaded, United Kingdom came to the rescue of its European allies. After invading Greece and North Africa,
Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. It declared war on the United States in December of 1941 after the Japanese bombed
Pearl Harbor.
The prosecution of minorities continued both in Germany and the occupied areas, from 1941 Jews were required to wear a yellow
star in public and most were transferred to Ghettos, where they remained isolated
from the rest of the population. In January 1942, at the Wannsee
conference under the supervision of Reinhard Heydrich, a plan
for the "Final solution for the Jewish question" (German: "Endlösung
der Judenfrage") in Europe was hatched. During this period around 6 million Jews and sundry others (e.g. homosexuals, Slavs and
political prisoners) were systematically killed and more than 10 million people were put in slavery. This genocide is referred to as the Holocaust in
English, "Shoah" in Hebrew. (The Nazis used the euphemistic German term "Endlösung" -- the "Final Solution."). Thousands were shipped daily to the Death factories, concentration camps,
German: Konzentrationslager, KZ; originally detention centers, later mass-murder factories; designed for the killing of their
inmates.
Parallel to the Holocaust the Nazis conducted a ruthless program of “conquest, colonization and exploitation” over
the captured Soviet territory and its Slavic population called Generalplan Ost. It is estimated
25 million Soviet civilians, Including 11 million Red Army soldiers died under the
Nazi maltreatment in what the Russians call The Great
Patriotic War. The Nazi plan was to extend the German Lebensraum
"living space" eastward, but their public pretext for launching war on Eastern Europe was "defense from Bolshevism".
After losing the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943 and the Battle of Normandy in 1944, the regime started to disintegrate quickly,
losing ground to the Allied forces in the west and south and the Red Army and the Polish Army in the east. By spring of 1945 the
Allies had invaded German territory. In April, 1945, Hitler committed suicide and Germany finally surrendered in the first week
of May.
Aftermath
The winning allies first split Germany into occupation zones, At the Potsdam conference German borders within the Soviet occupation zone were moved westward, most given to
Poland while a half of East
Prussia was annexed by Soviet Union, and up to about 10 million ethnic
Germans expelled from those territories as well as Czechoslovakia,
Yugoslavia, Romania and Hungary. The French, US and British zones later became the future West Germany, while the Soviet zone became the communist East Germany. West Germany recovered by the
1960’s, but East
was not so lucky; it had to endure communist oppression until 1990.
After the war, surviving Nazi leaders were put on trial by the Allied tribunal at Nuremberg for crimes against humanity. Although a minority was sentenced to execution, most were released
by the mid 1950's “citing health and old age” reasons. Many continued to live
well into the 1970's and 80’s. In all
non-fascist European countries there were established legal purges to punish the members of the former Nazi and Fascist parties.
An uncontrolled punishment hit the Nazi children and the children
fathered by German soldiers in occupied territories, including the so-called lebensborn children.
Organizations in The Third Reich
The leaders of Nazi Germany created a large number of different organisations for the purpose of helping them in staying in
power. They rearmed and strengthened the military, set up an extensive state security apparatus and created their own personal
party army, the Wafen-SS.
Military
(Wehrmacht -- Armed Forces)
see also: Wehrmacht
Paramilitary organisations
State police
Reich Central Security Office (RSHA - Reichssicherheitshauptamt)
- Regular Police (Ordnungspolizei (ORPO))
- Schutzpolizei (Safety Police)
- Gendarmerie (Rural Police)
- Gemeindepolizei (Local Police)
- Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei (SIPO))
Political organizations
Prominent persons in Nazi Germany
For a listing of Hitlers cabinet see : Hitler's Cabinet, January 1933 - April 1945
Nazi Party and government leaders and officials
For the full list, see also Nazi
Party leaders and officials
Military
Other
Noted victims
Noted refugees
Terms closely related to Nazi Germany
Many of the following terms are German expressions that are now used as words in English -- a short english description is given here and the explanation can be found in the articles
themselves. See also List of
German expressions in English.
- Anschluss -- annexation (literally: "inclusion"), in particular the annexation of Austria in 1938;
- Blitzkrieg -- lightning war - quick army invasions aided by tanks
and airplanes;
- Ersatz - a substitute product. Germany did not have an easy access to some
strategic materials. German scientist had to research how to produce artificial rubber (Buna), for example.
- Fraktur -- a fashion of black letter popularly associated to Nazi Germany, though it was forbidden by Hitler in 1941 on grounds of it
being Jewish.
- Godwin's Law -- any perceived injustice is too often and too quickly
equated to one of the horrors of history
- Hakenkreuz -- swastika;
- Kraft durch Freude (KdF) -- "strength through
joy", state-sponsored programme intended to organize people's free time, offering cheap holidays, concerts, other leisure
activities, and (unsuccessfully) a car (Kdf-Schiff, KdF-Wagen);
- "Mit
brennender Sorge "
-- A letter by the Pope warning against the Nazis.
- Nacht und Nebel -- "Night and fog", code for some
prisoners that should be disposed of leaving no traces.
- Night of the Long Knives;
- Thule Gesellschaft -- "Thule Society". The Nazis sought themes for their ideology in the Occult and the Germanic and
Nordic traditions.
- V-1 and V-2 --
Missiles used to attack Britain and other countries liberated by Allied forces.
- Volkswagen -- "people's car". Conceived during the mid 30s but reached its
peak in the post war period.
- Zeppelin -- The rigid airships were a symbol of the German air technology.
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