The Nazi Seizure of Power

“Lesson of 2 Novembers”  Emphasize humiliation of Versailles  Beer Hall putsch—failure and lesson  “legality strategy”—shift after 1928  Electoral tactics—”Hitler over Germany”  S.A.—rendering democracy impotent  Crisis of —Bruning, rule by decree, and von Papen

Political Consolidation  Reichstag Fire and Enabling Act  Election of March 1933  Civil service act, loyalty oath  Blood Purge—S.A. (Rohm) and army  Gleichschaltung  Terror—Gestapo, S.S., concentration camps  Propaganda—Nuremberg rallies

Economy and Labor  Reich Labor Front—Robert Ley  “pump-priming”—Autobahn, rearmament  Autarky—synthetic fuels, rubber  Support of industrialists  Membership of Nazi party—young, (lower) middle-class, teachers, farmers, civil servants

Education,Youth, and Society  Hitler Youth and League of German Maidens  “Strength Through Joy” (Kraft durch Freude)  Study of eugenics  Opposition of churches (Confessional Lutheran Church and Concordat)  Art patronage and “degenerate” art  Sports and 1936 Olympics

Racial Policy  “racial welfare state”  S.S. and “Aryan” race  Nuremberg Laws—1935  T-4 program and sterilization  Kristallnacht—1938  Shift after 1938  St. Louis—1939

Women and Family  Emphasized traditional female role— women pushed out of industry & workplace  League of German Maidens  S.S. officers and “breeding”  “race and space” & “feed and breed”  Lebensraum