The Nazi party from its formation to the Beer Hall Putsch (A level History)
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Hitler's Early Years
Hitler was born in 1889 into a lower-middle class family on the Austrian side of the German-Austria border. His father was a customs officer and his mother was his father’s niece. His father was a bully and Hitler had a poor relationship with his father. His father died when Hitler was young (about 8) and Hitler was not upset. His mother died when he was 17 or 18. His mother was very protective of him when he was a boy.
Hitler decided to attend Art College in Vienna, but when he got there he was refused entry, Jews ran the university, and it is possible that this also added to his dislike of the Jews. Vienna was a very multi-cultural city and contained a large Jewish population. Anti-Semitism was rife in the city’s politics and the Mayor; Carl Luger was a noted anti-Semite.
Hitler’s rejection by the Vienna art establishment was a large blow to his self-esteem, and made him bitter, although he tried to deny that it had ever been that important to him. Hitler had a feeling of superiority over the working classes and he felt that entry into the art school would affirm this. Hitler was determined not to slip down the social scale, and become associated with the working classes, and so he avoided doing any manual work or any job that would associate him with that class. Some people who met Hitler described how he would show a picture of his father in his customs’ uniform to emphasise – in a rather insecure way - his middle-class background.
Hitler enjoyed operas by Richard Wagner, which showed the battle between good and evil in an eternal struggle. Hitler also believed in the German nationalism, which was preached on street corners and present in cheap pamphlets. Hitler saw life as a battle between the Jewish Demons and the German Superheroes. It was whilst Hitler was a young man, before the first world war, that he began to believe firmly in the two central ideas of his life – racialism and nationalism.
Hitler did not put himself forward to do his compulsory national service in the Austrian army in the summer of 1909 and in the autumn of 1909 he lived rough, mainly sleeping on park benches. It is not known exactly why he had to do this, but it is possible that his inheritance had run out, or that he knew he was eligible for conscription and was trying to avoid it. After his time in Vienna Hitler claimed that there had been two people who had had a great influence on his political “awakening” in Vienna: George von Schoenerer, leader of the Pan-German Nationalist Party, and Karl Luger, the leader of the Christian Social Party. Schoernerer was deeply anti-Semitic and he demanded special anti-Jewish laws to prevent the growth of Jewish influence in Austrian society. Hitler said that Schoenerer’s major fault, as a politician was his inability to gain support for his political ideas from the powerful institutions of the state, the army, church and bureaucracy.
In Luger, Hitler admired his great oratory abilities and his pragmatic approach to political problems. He was willing to exploit ideologies, even ones he did not believe in, in order to gain support. Hitler was very impressed with Luger’s ability to reach the ordinary voter through powerful slogans such as ‘We must do something for the little man!’ In August 1914 Hitler joined the German army and he spent most of the war on the Western Front as a dispatch runner, not a soldier. Hitler very much enjoyed his time in the army fighting for the country he loved. He received the Iron Cross (1st and 2nd class) and was considered a good soldier. In 1916 Hitler was injured and sent to a hospital in Berlin. After his discharge he noticed people ‘boasting of their own cowardice’ and a general atmosphere of defeat in the city. On a visit to Munich he noticed that ‘every clerk was a Jew’ and he became infuriated by Jews, Politicians and Journalists who constantly talked of defeat. He believed that these people were undermining the war effort. In October he was hospitalised after a mustard gas attack and it was here that he found out about Germany’s loss.
Hitler returned to Germany to Munich in 1918, maybe to attend Art College there. When he arrived he found the city in a state of crisis. The Bavarian monarchy had been toppled and the Bavarian People’s Republic, made up of socialist revolutionaries promised ‘government by kindness.’ A number of the leading politicians in the new government were Jewish intellectuals who were strongly attached to Marxist ideas. His anti-Semitism continued to increase as he saw the prominent position Jews played in the revolution there. Hitler began to believe that there was a Jewish conspiracy to destroy civilisation. Hitler tolerated the new government for the simple reason that he wanted to stay in the army. This is one of many examples of Hitler compromising his so-called “unshakable-principles” to do what he wanted.
German Politics to 1920
In 1914 the largest party in the Reichstag was the Social Democratic Party of Germany, which claimed to represent the increasing working class. There was a lot of tension between the socialists who supported abolishing the monarchy and turn Germany into a “real” democracy and the elite who felt threatened by the party who talked of revolution and Marxism. By 1914 the party was much less revolutionary but still wanted political change and was a threat to the Kaiser and the army.
The war seemed at first to solve the internal problems, uniting the politicians. The SPD rallied to the war effort, believing that the war had been forced on Germany by an envious coalition. This spirit of pride and unity was something the Nazis tried to capture after the war. As the war dragged on and the causalities increased the spirit of unity began to unravel. The British blockade of Germany caused great suffering and starvation. Germany’s loss saw morale in the army drop, there were numerous strikes in Germany, and the Kaiser was advised to appoint a new liberal government to seek peace.
Many Germans thought that generous peace would be offered by the Allies, but later felt tricked by the harshness of the treaty that was offered in 1919. There was a belief that the revolutionaries and strikers had stabbed Germany in the back. Jews were said to have paid an important part in this. It was easy to blame the defeat on the foreigners and politicians, those later described by Hitler as the “November Criminals”
After the revolution the Kaiser fled to Holland and a republic was declared. For many the republic was associated with national humiliation. In January 1919 a group of extremist socialists tried to seize power. The uprising was crushed by the freikorps. Whilst a similar uprising occurred Munich a new German constitution was formed. To avoid the uprising the delegates met in the nearby town of Weimar. The constitution stated that the president would be elected every 7 years, and the president appointed the chancellor who would head-govern the Reich. There would be elections every four years, with the result based of proportional representation. This encouraged the formation of a large number of political parties.
People to note up to 1920:
FRIEDRICH EBERT– was moderate socialist and leader of the SPD. He was the first president of the Weimar Republic. Cooperation with the army in 1919 helped to crush the extreme left-wing uprisings.
FIELD MARSHAL PAUL VON HINDENBURG – was a professional soldier who became a national hero after defeating two Russian armies. Was president until his death in 1934.
GENERAL ERICH VON LUDENDORFF – was a professional soldier. After the war he was associated with various right-wing causes and drifted into alliance with Hitler in 1923. He escaped prosecution for the Munich Putsch and criticised Hitler as he became suspicious of him.
Society During the Rise of the Nazis
The first four years of the Weimar Republic were beset with many problems. Many saw it as a disaster. Many of the army officers disliked the new republic, and preferred to keep to the traditions of the empire. Judges, civil servants and professors, for the most part, wanted a return to the monarchy.
The new republic was constantly threatened with revolt. In 1920 a group of ex-army officers, under Luttwitz, tried to seize power but were defeated by a General strike. At the same time a communist group of workers tried to seize power in the Ruhr, the army crushed this uprising. A year later there were new revolts in Hamburg and central Germany, although at the same time many property owners were terrified that Germany would end up the same as Russia, where the Bolshevik government was consolidating its power.
The German government was having trouble paying the reparations, gold and currency reserves were exhausted and in desperation Germany even resorted to paying with telegraph poles and coal, but the British already had enough of the latter, and French demand for the former was limited. In 1922 Germany had no choice but to declare that it could no longer pay.
The French took action when the telegraph poles promised to them were not delivered on time and the delivery of coal was also delayed. The French P.M. sent 100,000 French troops to collect the coal themselves in the Ruhr (the industrial heartland of Germany.) They faced no military opposition but the workforce they met did back a government policy of passive resistance. The workers refused to work for the French, but the French brought in their own workers. This led to a great deal of hostility and frequent outbreaks of violence. On one occasion German workers tried to stop French soldiers taking vehicles belonging to a German business. 13 workers were killed in the gunfire.
The striking workers created problems, as there was no one to pay them. The government treated it as their responsibility and paid out millions of marks to the workers. Meanwhile, tax revenue from the Ruhr decreased as did coal supplies. The government had the option to raise taxes bus chose to print more money, causing a rise in prices and a dramatic fall in the value of the mark.
The country suffered from hyperinflation, and many people saw their savings ruined to nothing. In November 1923 one US dollar was worth 42,000,000,000,000 marks . This economic situation brought disaster for the people, but for the government it meant that the vast amount of debt had decreased. The new currency brought in November 1923 helped to bring stability, but did not help those who had already been ruined by the previous events.
The NSDAP from 1920 to 1924
In January 1919 Anton Drexler founded a party called the German Worker’s Party, or DAP. Drexler felt that other parties lacked patriotism and social conscious. The small group of core activists met in the back rooms of beer halls and the members had a strong nationalist, anti-Semitic and anti-capitalist tone. The party had a democratic constitution with members voting for members of the executive committee and discussions took place on party issues.
Hitler returned from the war in 1919 to see the German Bolsheviks’ attempt to seize power. He remained with the army as a political intelligence officer, and Hitler was sent to observe Drexler’s meetings. Hitler was not initially impressed with the party. It was little different from many of the other Volkisch national groups in Munich at the time. What really attracted him to the party was the pamphlet given to him by Drexler that described Drexler’s idea of creating a new party by combining nationalism with some ‘socialist ideas’ and ultimately weakening the appeal of Marxism among the working classes. He joined in September, and Hitler left the army in March 1920. According to Hitler he was the 7th member of the party, although when his membership card was found it gave his number as 515.
Hitler’s motivations for joining the party must be treated with caution. He claimed to have wrestled with doubts over joining the party, although this seems highly unlikely when his army’s boss’s account is considered. He said Hitler was ‘ordered’ to join so the party could be used as a propaganda vehicle for the army and to bolster its drive to weaken the appeal of socialism among the workers. It also seems that army funds were also given to the party, to finance the hire of venues and newspaper advertisements. In fact between September 1919 and April 1920 Hitler still received his army salary and stopped his surveillance on other parties, suggesting Hitler had been planted in the DAP to build up its popularity.
Hitler managed to transform the party, as chief of propaganda. In October 1919 111 people attended a public meeting. Hitler’s speeches at meeting helped to increase the profile. It was Hitler’s manner when he spoke which separated the party from the numerous other right-wing hotheads. In his speeches Hitler presented himself as alienated and bitter towards the ‘new-Germany.’ He inspired the audiences to share his bitterness and frustration and inspired them to support his plans to rescue Germany from those who had betrayed them. Every soldier who fought in the war could relate to Hitler’s loathing against the ‘November criminals’ who had ‘stabbed Germany in the back.’ Hitler speeches built towards a hysterical climax often ending with ‘There is only one defiance and hate, hate and again hate.’
Hitler also managed to make the party more business-like. He rented an office for them and installed a telephone, safe, filing cabinet and typewriter. A rubber stamp bearing the party name was also made and cards bearing the party name were purchased. He was involved in the designing of the striking red posters and leaflets for the party that appeared around Munich. In 1920 the party’s largest meeting to date was attended by 2000 people. At the meeting the 25-points were outlined and not long after the party changed its name to the NSDAP that became the Nazi party and which adopted the swastika.
The 25 points of the party were declared as ‘unalterable’ although they were mostly ignored when Hitler came to power. The ‘nationalist’ elements of the party included plans to reverse the Treaty of Versailles, unite all German speakers into a greater Reich, and exclude all Jews from German citizenship and to take control of the press. The ‘socialist’ parts were plans to nationalise trusts, abolish land rents, restrict interest on loans, introduce profit sharing in industry, confiscate profit made be industry during war and create a people’s army. The Nationalist polices were not dissimilar from many other nationalist parties at the time, but what distinguished the party from the many others was the socialist and anti-capitalist policies. Many members of the party liked the socialist policies but to Hitler they were only there to attract the ‘dumb’ workers to the party. This is reinforced by Hitler’s failure to implement many of the policies after 1933.
By the end of 1920 party membership had risen to 3000 and in December 1920 the Nazi party bought a local newspaper for 180,000 marks, renaming it the ‘racial observer’ soon afterwards. The money for this purchase came from Eckart, a poet and publicist, so prominent Munich conservatives and secret army funds. By this time Hitler had created the nucleus of the party. Alfred Rosenberg was the self-styled philosopher who created the racial theories of the party, especially the anti-Semitic views. Max Amann, Hitler’s old army sergeant who was publishing manager. Earnst Roehm who recruited thousands of ex-soldiers and members of the paramilitary Freikorps into the Nazi SA. Rhoem and Goering were very useful at introducing Hitler to important figures in Bavarian society. Manny ex-soldiers were involved in the Nazi party and it was more like an army propaganda unit supported by a private army than a political party. Hitler pressed for the committee structure to be replaced by a command structure with a single leader. Under this proposal members wanting to challenge the leader’s views would immediately be expelled. Drexler claimed that Hitler’s desire for strong leadership was a disguised bid for leadership of the party and Hitler’s proposal was rejected.
In the spring of 1921 Drexler held secret talks with the DDP concerning a possible merger of the two parties, a move designed to weaken Hitler’s position. Hitler was strongly opposed to the merger and refused to discuss the situation. In July 1920, in prima donna style, he resigned from the party. The party responded by producing a leaflet describing Hitler as wanting to be a ‘party dictator’ and even suggested that Hitler was ‘the pay of the Jews.’ In response Hitler said he would only rejoin if he were elected party chairman with ‘dictatorial powers.’ The remaining members of the committee saw the damage to the party the loss of their most powerful speaker would be so the proposal the Hitler be give ‘dictatorial powers’ over the party was carrier 553 votes to 1.
Very quickly Hitler managed to take control over much of the Nazi party. He issued ‘directives’ to local branches of the party outside of the Munich area in an attempt to bring them under his control. In January 1922, Hitler won a large vote of confidence for a proposal that all branches of the party should be subordinate to the will of the leader. At the end of 1922 Hitler created the post of delegate in charge of a local branch whose job was to make sure that the decisions of the leader where enacted at a local level. Another development of 1921 was the formation of the SA. The key figure was Ernst Rohm, a former captain. He filled the SA with similar-minded ex-soldiers who enjoyed a fight with rival political groups.
By 1922 membership had risen to 6,000 but the party was confined to Munich. In 1922 the party started to expand into the North of Bavaria. The NSDAP were always willing to clash violently with any political opponents, as happened in Coburg, fighting with the supporters of the SPD. In 1922 the Nazis were also lucky to have a rival right wing party pledge their allegiance to the Nazi party.
From 1921 to 1923 the Nazi party became very vocal supporters of overthrowing the democratic Weimar republic by force. To help this aim, Hitler increased the role of the SA under Earnst Rhome. After Hitler took control of the Nazi party the SA became a strong paramilitary force. Under Rhome the SA also improved relationships with other paramilitary groups in the Munich region.
Hitler gave an impression that the party was highly organised through the use of uniforms, the swastika and the raised arm salute. Hitler also realised that there was a benefit to having a paramilitary side to the party.
1922 was the year in which Mussolini marched on Rome, in what was portrayed as a seizure of power. The idea of seizing power through direct action was one that appealed to the NSDAP. Before 1922 Hitler had described himself as the ‘drummer’ of the revolt against democracy, not as a future leader. He gave the impression that he would use the party and his speaking talent to serve the needs of Germany, however after 1922 Hitler began to see himself as the ‘dynamic leader’ who was needed by Germany. Nazi propaganda now started to portray Hitler as ‘Germany’s Mussolini.’ The comparison between the ‘leaderless democracy’ and the ‘great leader’ Hitler could be was an important part of Nazi propaganda. In December 1922 the Volkischer Beobachter started to subtly suggest that Hitler may be the leader that Germany needed.
The Munich Beer Hall Putsch
In 1923 the party’s membership was 20,000 but during this year of hyperinflation membership rose to almost 55,000. The invasion of the Ruhr increased nationalist support. In Bavaria an anti-republican government came to power and Hitler became convinced that he and other right wing supporters in Bavaria could lead a successful march on Berlin and seize power. He assumed that the army and the Bavarian authorities would support him as they were both sympathetic to the right-wing cause. Stood together Hitler’s supporters were a powerful coalition. In August 1923, a plan to overthrow the republic started to take shape. The intention was to overthrow the Weimar government and to establish an authoritarian nationalist regime that would allow Bavarian complete autonomy. Ammunition, weapons and transport were collected together in preparation for what was seen as an inevitable showdown with central government. Following orders, large numbers of armed conspirators would march north to the capital. The march was given further momentous when Gustav von Kahn was appointed state commissioner in Bavaria with ‘dictatorial powers.’ Kahr refused ban Volkischer Beobackter as he was requested to, and this suggested to Hitler that he had Kahr’s support.
By October 1923 the plans to overthrow the government had been finalised, but by early November problems were starting to arise. Some key figures in the army in Berlin had told high-powered conspirators that they would defend the elected government and this caused some conspirators to have second thoughts. On the third of November General Otto von Lussow, the commander of the army in Munich, told Kahr that any march on Berlin would be futile. On the sixth Kahr told representative of leading paramilitary organisations that the Bavarian government, the army and the police would not support the violence intended to overthrow the state. After this Kahr refused to meet with Hitler when Hitler requested.
Hitler had staked his political career on the march going ahead. The armed men who had supported Hitler for the last year were keen for the move to go ahead. Hitler was still unsure as to whether he had Kahr’s support, but deciding that his political career would not recover if he suffered the humiliation of abandoning the march, went ahead with now seemed as hopeless. On the 8th November Kahr was due to address a group of government officials in a beer hall in the centre of Munich. Hitler thought that Kahr was going to use the opportunity to announce his own ‘march on Berlin’ due to his lack of communication with Kahr and misunderstanding kahr’s motives. In fact, Kahr had already long abandoned the project, but had just not informed Hitler. Hitler entered the beer hall at 8:30pm, accompanied by SS men, and fired a bullet from his revolver towards the ceiling. He then announced that a national revolution had begun, and a ‘provisional’ Reich government had been formed. Kahr was led to the state police and Lossow to a small room to discuss the ‘national revolution.’ Kahr did not take the situation seriously, but Hitler offered him the post of regent of Bavaria, but the politician replied ‘Herr Hitler, you can have me shot, or shoot me yourself. Whether I die is of no matter. Hitler began to realise that things were not going to plan so asked that general Ludendorff be brought to the Beer Hall, hoping that his presence might sway Kahr. When Ludendorff did arrive he told Kahr he supported Hitler and this appears to have impressed Kahr to some extent. However, Ludendorff was surprised to see that he was leader of the army, and Hitler was ‘dictator of Germany’ in the new fictional government.
The events that followed are disputed. In court, Hitler claimed that Kahr Seisser and Lussow all agreed to the conspiracy, but others say that Kahr did return to the platform to say he would support the Putsch, but only because he was forced to at gunpoint. Kahr, Seisser and Lussow later said that they all intended to suppress the revolt as soon as they were free to do so. What they did not mention in court was that they had all planned a conspiracy in the precious months, just abandoned it at the eleventh hour. Ludendoff even went as far as to say he was taken by surprised at Hitler’s action.
Hitler left the beer hall at 10:30 to calm down a clash between the SA and troops that had erupted at a local barracks. Once he had departed Kahr took measures to suppress the uprising. He moved the Bavarian government to Regensburg and issued a proclamation which claimed his support for Hitler had been given at gunpoint. He also announced that the Nazi party and the paramilitary Kampfbund were now banned organisations. Meanwhile the Nazis had failed to take control of any important buildings or army barracks. At around midnight Hitler conceded that his attempt to overthrow the government had been a failure. This was mainly due to the failure of supposed partners failing to support him. As a last attempt Hitler agreed to a demonstration through Munich on the 9th of November in the hope this would encourage the army to support the ‘march on Berlin.’ Hitler led the demonstration along with 2000 Nazis, including 300-armed SA men. He intended to match to the War Ministry building and seize it but along the way they found there armed police blocking their route. Both fired several shots, and at the end of this short exchange (under two minutes) four police officers and fourteen Nazis were dead. In the middle of the mayhem Hitler fell and dislocated his shoulder. Once standing Hitler ran away leaving the dead and wounded behind, and escaped in an ambulance. Hitler later claimed he left because he thought that Ludendorff was dead, although surely this was a reason to stay. Some years later he managed to start a new story, that he had carried a child away to an awaiting ambulance. After it was all over, Hitler was arrested at the house of a wealthy friend and taken to Landsberg prison on 11th November to await trial for his charge or treason.
The Munich Beer hall Putsch was an embarrassing failure for the Nazi party. It failed because he had allowed his party to become to much of a paramilitary organisation and it had become subsumed in conspiracy with other right-wing forces over which Hitler had no control. Although Hitler has been seen of the instigator of the conspiracy, in reality it was the Bavarian right, composed of the government, the army and the state police who had flirted with the idea or a rebellion but finally pulled out when they found they had no support from the army high command. Hitler had never really been taken into the centre of the conspiracy, but had still whipped up his supporters into a state of frenzy over the potential overthrow of the government. Hitler’s insignificance is seen in that they did not consider him important enough to inform him of their change of heart. By November 1923 it seemed as though Hitler’s days as an extremely colourful politician were over.
More Important People
HERMANN GOERING - joined the Nazis in 1922. He had been an officer in the Air Force in WWI, achieving fame. In 1923 he became head of the SA, but was severely injured in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch. In 1933 he was appointed to Hitler’s Cabinet (as prime minister and interior minister.) Throughout much of the 30s he was one-man-down from Hitler.
ERNST ROME – was a captain in WW1 and joined the Nazis shortly after Hitler. He enjoyed violence and helped to develop the SA in its early days. After the Munich Putsch he fled abroad but returned to be made commander of the SA in 1930. Rome wanted the SA to be merged with the army, but Hitler disagreed and ordered a purge of many SA leaders, including Rome who was murdered in the Night of the Long Knives in 1934.
Nazi Ideology
Nazism built its support by tapping into the negative feelings if certain sections of German society towards things such as the Versailles treaty, high inflation, the instability of the government, the growth of a communist movement and the economic position of Jews in German society. Nazis pointed out the ‘enemies’ in Germany, the communists, Jews and then suggested that they needed to be removed to restore Germany’s powerful position.
Nazism has often been described as ‘fascism,; although a specific description for fascism is harder to find. Firstly. No great philosopher came up with such a thing as fascist ideology, hardly surprising as Fascism prides itself on being against rational and intellectual thought. Mussolini offered the explanation that a fascist was a fervent patriot for whom the preservation of the state is most crucial. An alternative description of Fascism was put forward by the Italian writer Antonio Gramsci (who was executed by the fascists) who suggested that capitalism in Europe was going through a crisis in the early part of the twentieth century, in which the dominant upper classes were finding it hard to manipulate the masses and were concerned that communism might take over in mass revolutions. In these circumstances fascism became one way of destroying the potential power of communism and the principles of mass democracy.
Seymour Lipsey, in his study A Political Man, described fascism as a revolt of the middle classes who felt trapped between the growth of big business and the revolutionary politics of workers and who felt that the liberal parties could not pull them out of the economic distress post-1918. Lipset’s interpretation has been discredited by some studies of German voting behaviour between 1918 and 1933 that showed that the Nazis did not gain votes from disaffected liberals, but gained support from small right-wing fringe parties, prosperous members of the middle class and a significant number of votes from agricultural workers who had previously not voted.
A definition for fascism is made more complicated by the presence of the concept of totalitarianism, which argues that the communist and fascist leaders were ‘two sides of the same coin.’ Totalitarian regimes of the communist or fascist variety made that masses conform to their rule or face dire consequences. A problem with the totalitarianism model is that is downplays the many difference between the Nazism and Bolshevism in failing to see the fundamental ideological differences, the real economic differences and the class relationships within the different societies. If is hard to come to a general description for fascism, as no single theory can describe all the characteristics of the regimes and parties that described themselves as fascists through Europe in the interwar period. Italian fascism and Nazism exhibited many differences, race being a central feature of Nazism but of comparatively little significance in Mussolini’s Italy.
History of Nazism
‘a man who has no sense of history is like a man who has no eyes and ears’
The Nazis frequently claimed to be indebted to past influences, shown in a famous Nazi postcard shows Hitler alongside Frederick the Great, Bismarck and Hindenburg. Hitler also claimed that the third Reich represented continuity with the first Reich (holy roman empire) and the second Reich (Bismarck).
Many of Hitler’s supposedly ‘unique’ policies turn out to in fact be no so novel. The ‘living space’ concept had infact been mentioned very frequently in pre-1914 pan-German league pamphlets. German dominance of Eastern Europe had also been a key aim of Frederick the Great in the eighteenth century, and also an aim of the Kaiser during WW1. Most conservative groups in Germany, even during the Weimar period, advocated most of Hitler’s foreign policies. Other ideas such as nationalism and social Darwinism were ideas imported from outside of Germany.
Philosophical Routes of Nazism
Many of Hitler’s ideologies were borrowed from other members of the party. An important figure in this aspect is Dietrich Eckart, a poet and playwright who was known to be a rather serious alcoholic. Hitler desciribed him as a ‘fatherly friend.’ Hitler claimed to have been greatly influenced by this man who regularly told his fellow party members to ‘keep your blood pure.’ Eckart wrote many early Nazi pamphlets from which Hitler drew inspiration., including ‘That is the Jew’ a bitter attack on the Jews. His anti-Semitism and his eugenic theories had a profound affect on Hitler. It seems that Hitler’s ideologies were found through second-hand hearing of ideas, rather than through deep philosophical reading.
The German historian, Heinrich von Treitschke, influenced Hitler through his view that ‘war was the highest expression of a man,’ Another man to influence Hitler was Neitzsche, a nineteenth century German philosopher who was deeply disturbed by the pace of change in European society and predicted that it would end in ‘the death of God’. What Hitler liked about his writings were his criticisms if democratic forms of government, his praise of violence and war, and his prediction of the emergence of a ‘master-race’ led by a powerful ‘superman’. Hitler throughout Mein Kampft, constantly uses the term ‘Lords of the Earth’, coined by Neitzsche.
Social Darwinism and the ‘survival of the fittest theory’ is something that Hitler strongly believed in, although there is no evidence that Hitler ever read any of Darwin’s works.
References
Germany 1919=1945 M.Collier and P. Pedley (Heinemann Advanced History)
Hitler and the Rise of the Nazi Party Frank McDonough (Seminar Studies)
Germany 1858-1999 Hope, Terror, and Revivar A.Kitson (Oxford Advanced History)
Links
Edexcel History Look at specification, teacher's guide and examiner's reports.
Contributors
L.Adams
