1. Totalitarianism What is it? Historic Examples? Modern Examples?
Rule by Single Party & Individual in Party
Control Most aspects of life
Government, Schools, Press, Military
Historic Examples?
Fascism – Mussolini & Hitler (Extreme Right)
Totalitarianism w/ Private Enterprise
Stalinist Russia (Extreme Left)
Totalitarianism w/ Communism (no private prop.)
Modern Examples?
North Korea (Kim Jong Un)
Cuba (Raul Castro)

3. Retreat from Democracy: The Totalitarian States
Totalitarianism
By 1939 only France and Britain are Major European democracies
The modern totalitarian state
Active commitment of citizens
Mass propaganda techniques
Learned in WWI
High speed communication
Radio Broadcasting & Film

4. Weimar Germany Weimar Germany and the Rise of the Nazis
No leaders – no stability
Paul von Hindenburg elected president, 1925 – not in favor of republic
Hyperinflation
Prosperity from 1924 – 29 ended by Great Depression
Drove people to Rightist parties hostile to the Republic

5. Chronology, p. 832

6. Hitler and Nazi Germany
Adolf Hitler ( )
Vienna
Formation of Ideology
anti-Semitism
Need for struggle
Munich
WWI gives purpose
Dispatch runner on western front – distinguished for bravery
Returns to Munich after war to get into politics

7. Hitler and Nazi Germany
Weimar Germany and the Rise of the Nazis
Joins German Workers’ Party – assumes control
National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), 1921
Nazi for short
Create mass political movement – flags, badges, uniforms, newspapers, &
Sturmabteilung (SA), Storm Troops
Used to protect party at meetings & break up other parties

9. Hitler and Nazi Germany
Munich Beer Hall Putsch, November 8th 1923
Weimar Republic on verge of collapse
Other Right wings parties supposed to join, chicken out
Hitler goes ahead
Hitler imprisoned – a lenient 5 year sentence
Mein Kampf, (My Struggle)
Lebensraum (living space)

11. Hitler and Nazi Germany (cont.)
After imprisonment Hitler realizes he’ll need to compete for votes
Nazi party largest in the Reichstag after 1932 election
Switched from trying to attract working class to middle & lower middle class
‘Above class & political infighting’
Support from right-wing elites
Thought they could control Hitler
Fear of Communist Take over!
Becomes chancellor, January 30, 1933

12. Hitler and Nazi Germany (cont.)
Reichstag fire, February 27, 1933
“set by communists!” – Emergency powers given

13. Hitler and Nazi Germany (cont.)
Successes in 1933 election
Enabling Act, March 23, 1933
Stop constitutional procedure for 4 years to focus on laws to fix problems
No need for Reichstag or President after that!
Gleichschaltung, coordination of all institutions under Nazi control
Purge Jews and Democrats, abolish political parties
President Paul von Hindenburg dies, August 2, 1934
Has SA members killed & Reg. army agrees to Hitler’s succession – office of prez. abolished
“Knight of Long Knives”

14. Hitler and the Blood Flag Ritual.
In developing his mass political movement, Adolf Hitler used ritualistic ceremonies as a means of binding party members to his own person. Here Hitler is shown touching the ‘‘blood flag,’’ which had supposedly been stained with the blood of Nazis killed during the Beer Hall Putsch, to an SS banner while the SS standard-bearer makes a ‘‘blood oath’’ of allegiance: ‘‘I vow to remain true to my Führer, Adolf Hitler. I bind myself to carry out all orders conscientiously and without reluctance. Standards and flags shall be sacred to me.’’ The SS originated as Hitler’s personal bodyguard and later became a secret police force and instrument of terror in the Nazi state.
p. 828

15. The Nazi Mass Spectacle.
Hitler and the Nazis made clever use of mass spectacles to rally the German people behind the Nazi regime. These mass demonstrations evoked intense enthusiasm, as is evident in this photograph of Hitler arriving at the Bückeberg near Hamelin for the Harvest Festival in Almost one million people were present for the celebration.
p. 831

16. The Nazi State (1933-1939) Parliamentary republic dismantled
Mass demonstrations and spectacles to create collective fellowship
Constant rivalry gives Hitler power
Economics and the drop in unemployment
Heinrich Himmler and the SS

17. The Nazi State ( )
Churches, schools, and universities brought under Nazi control
Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth) and Bund deutscher Mädel (League of German Maidens)
Influence of Nazi ideas on working women
Aryan racial state
Nuremberg laws, September 1935
Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938
Restrictions on Jews

18. Review Q’s What tactics did Hitler use similar to Mussolini?
Appeal to people? Support from?
Anti-Communist, Nationalism
Fear mongering? (Reichstag Fire)
SA vs Black Shirts
What weaknesses allowed Hitler to take over in Weimar Germany?
Hyperinflation, Article 48, & lack of strong leadership