Overview

Seeds of Bitterness—Origins of the Nazi Party

Photo: Paul von Hindenburg: elected President of the Weimar Republic in 1925.

The National Socialist Party (the Nazi Party) originated in the immediate aftermath of World War I. It was a time of bitterness among Germans who resented the loss of World War I and blamed it on internal enemies—Jews, Communists and Socialists. Much of the anger was directed against the newly constituted Weimar Republic that replaced the Kaiser and his Imperial regime. The Nazi Party was one among many small, right wing, nationalist parties, critical of the Weimar Republic. Its 25-point party program advocated the revival of a pure Germany free of foreign influences and ethnicities.

Adolf Hitler Joins the Nazi Party

Image: Cover of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

Early in the Nazi Party history, Adolf Hitler became a party member and soon emerged as the leader. In 1923, Hitler and other Nazi leaders organized the Beer Hall Putsch, a coup against the Weimar Republic. The failure of the coup led to a nine-month imprisonment of Hitler—a time when Hitler completed Mein Kampf, an autobiography and blueprint for the goals of the Nazi Party. The Nazi Party was reconstituted after Hitler’s release from prison and continued to have a small but loyal following between 1925 and 1928. The Nazi support in elections greatly increased in the late 1920s in response to the severe economic crisis brought on by the Wall Street Crash. By 1932, the Nazis had over 100 seats in the Reichstag—they had become a powerful political force in the Weimar Republic.

The Nazis in Power in Peacetime

Photo: Nazi Hierarchy: Hitler, Goering, Goebbels, Hess. Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Digital Archives.

On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of the Weimar Republic. He had come to power through the proper legal channels. Between 1933 and 1939, the Nazi Party infiltrated every aspect of national and local life. The Nazi ideology called for the creation of a perfect biological race of “Aryans” and the segregation of all groups that threatened the purity of the German state. Nazi propaganda and policies enforced the notion that German strength depended on the purity of race. The successful Nazi foreign policy that led to the rearmament of Germany and the restoration of lands lost to Germany after World War I endeared many Germans to the Nazi order.

Poster: Propaganda poster enticing young men to join the SS.

The Nazi police organizations and youth groups exercised control over dissidents. At times, young men and women in the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls reported parents and friends who were critical of the regime. The secret police and intelligence services gained powers to arrest individuals without due process. By the mid-1930s Nazi Germany had become a police state.

The Nazis in Power during Wartime

Photo: Czechoslovakians during the Sudetenland Crisis in September 1938.

During World War II, the Nazis expanded the Reich into much of western and eastern Europe. The Reich was at the apex of military might by 1942, but then a series of reversals challenged the Nazi sate and the Axis powers. Allied Forces from the west and east converged on the German borders by 1944-45, and Germany was forced to surrender on May 5, 1945. All during the war years, the Nazis conducted a war within a war against non-Aryan minorities. The Jews of Europe were the principle target. Other groups of victims included: “Gypsies”, Slavs, Russian P.O.Ws., mentally and physically handicapped, homosexuals, religious dissidents, political dissidents.

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