The handling of war economy was poorly coordinated and this accounts for the weaknesses in German war production in the years 1939 – 1945. How far do you agree? It is fair to say that the poor coordination contributed a significant amount in the weaknesses that were apparent in German war production between the years 1939 to 1945, but only to an extent. Poor coordination being a strong contributing factor, along with the idea that there was no central power, with different people controlling different areas of the Nazi party, for example, Goebbels heading up the propaganda machine and Himmler running the SS. There are both strengths and weaknesses that support the idea that the weaknesses in German war production was down to poor coordination within the war economy.
Hitler’s authority was derived from his personal qualities as opposed to being vested in the office which he held. “All authority within the Party was ultimately concentrated in the hands of the leader, Hitler.” The party was organised around the idea of the Fuhrerprinzip. This laid down that power was concentrated in the hands of one leader and that his authority was absolute. This gives the impression of a very ordered power structure, but in reality it was more complex. Even before 1933, the Nazi Party leadership, Hitler aside, was undermined by its inability to exert control over the regional Gauleiters, who saw themselves as Hitler’s personal representatives responsible only to him.
General von schleicher stopped supporting von papen and decided he himself should become chancellor, this triggered of a power struggle between von schleicher nd von papen, which ended with them handing power to Hitler. Hitler was made Chancellor in 1933 after von Papen persuades Hindenburg. Von Papen thought that as long as there were a limited number of Nazis in the cabinet then Hitler could be controlled. Von Papen was wrong. Another thing was there was the weakness of the Weimar government, which played its part.
Explain why Hitler tried to introduce the policy of volksgemeinschaft in Germany in the period of 1933-1939 This was Hitler’s and the Nazis idea of a people’s community. This was put into three categories ideological, biological, and social. Hitler and the Nazis what to remove any ideological threats of which they felt were going to threaten them getting into power. The main group of which Hitler was concerned about in this section was the communists. The Nazis felt like this political group was trying to undermine their “people’s community”.
They let Hitler rebuild and conquer again. One way that Hitler was able to rebuild Germany was by a society called S.A. The leader was Ernst Roehm and he was a very powerful leader during this time. The S.A was gaining too much power and was becoming a threat to Hitler’s power. Therefore Hitler had no other choice but to purge the Sturmabteilung or S.A. After World War 1 the Treaty of Versailles stated that Germany could have a standing army.
Therefore abstaining Hitler from having a grand design to put into effect. They deem Hitler to be more of an opportunist than a mastermind and that the eradication of the Jews became a convenient division of Hitler’s charming of the Jewish population. Extreme structuralists tend to believe that that Holocaust was initiated by the German bureaucracy, with Hitler having no place in its inception. They believe he merely capitalized on what would became an opportune occurrence for his winning over of the population. While Structuralists with a more passive view would believe that although effort was made by the Nazis to eventually remove all Jews from Europe, mass genocide was merely a last resort.
As well as the Depression, the collapse of the Republic can be linked to a large number of factors, including the influence of the army, political instability and constitutional weaknesses. One of the most consequential outcomes of the Depression was the opportunity that it provided Hitler. A majority of the citizens lost faith and belief in the current Social Democratic government, turning instead to the confident and dynamic leader of Hitler. As Evans asserts, ‘citizens began to see in the youthful dynamism of the Nazi Party as a way out of the situation’. What Evans means by this is that the desperation of the people led them to polarising their votes and seeing radical leaders like Hitler as a solution to the mess that Germany had become.
Several attempts from both the left and right sides of government tried to imbue the nationalistic beliefs that were embodied in Germany before they were destroyed by their humiliating defeat in WW1. These include the Spartacist uprising, the Kapp Putsch and the Munich Beer Hall Putsch. The disillusionment felt by the people and their need to restore pride in their nation influenced many factors that led to the failure of the democracy, and to the rise of the Nazi political party and its leader Adolf Hitler. In hindsight, a mixture of political, social and economic issues, combined with nationalistic goals give grounds to the reason that nationalism mainly brought about the fall of the democracy of the Weimar Republic in Germany. By the outbreak of WW1 in August 1914, Germany was well established as a major and prominent world power.
HY2 past paper d) How useful are sources A,E and F in understanding Nazi Germany 1933-1939?The three sources as a whole give a general idea on Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1939 but these sources – as bias material – don’t give a very well rounded view. The Czechoslovakian cartoon shows a very bias view of Germany in 1938, during this time Hitler was starting to invade surrounding lands and would have had a bad name among many European countries. The cartoon shows an SS officer controlling an artist which with my hindsight can see is a very useful source in understanding that others felt that the Nazis were controlling many aspects of Germany at the time. It is now a common opinion that Goebbels controlled all propaganda, including art, making sure that all media types were supporting the Nazi regime thus indoctrinating the German people. This source also shows that terror helped control the Germans and what they said or showed publicly.
Wilson stated, “No people must be forced under sovereignty under it does not wish to live. (Wilson, p. 71)” However, for Wilson’s plan to work scores of Germans in Prussia and in the West had to be displaced. Even though some areas were given plebiscites, he still had forced his vision on them. The creation of Yugoslavia out of many small ethnic states created a potential powder keg. As well, the only way that the Wilson plan would have survived the political intrigue of the Europeans was either through a league that had real teeth, or a super power willing to intervene as a worldwide police officer.