1.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
2.
Far-right politics
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Far-right politics are right-wing politics further on the right of the left-right spectrum than the standard political right. Far-right politics often involve a focus on tradition, real or imagined, as opposed to policies, right-wing populism, a political ideology often combines laissez-faire, nationalism, ethnocentrism and anti-elitism is often described as far-right. Right-wing populism often involves appeals to common man and opposition to immigration, far-right politics include but are not limited to aspects of authoritarianism, anti-communism, and nativism. Claims that superior people should proportionally have greater rights than people are sometimes associated with the far right. The far right has historically favoured an elitist society based on its belief in the legitimacy of the rule of a supposed superior minority over the inferior masses. However, right-wing populist ideologies which are described by commentators as far-right often use appeals to the common man as opposed to the appeals of the elites. Far-right politics sometimes involves anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are deemed inferior, hence, far right politics is associated with Othering. According to Christina Liang, this field is especially peculiar about its terminology. Each label carries with it a specific understanding of family of political parties as well as a particular set of assumptions regarding their origins. In an extensive survey of the literature, academic Cas Mudde found 26 definitions of right-wing extremism that contained 57 different ideological features, there is also debate about how appropriate the labels fascist or neo-Fascist are. Mudde lists nativism, authoritarianism, and populism as core elements of populist radical right political parties, in the United States, the term hard right and Alt-right have been used to describe groups such as the Tea Party movement and the Patriot movement. The term has also used to describe ideologies such as Paleoconservatism, Dominion Theology. The German political scientist Klaus von Beyme describes three phases in the development of far-right parties in Western Europe after World War II. From 1945 to the mid-1950s, far-right parties were marginalised, and their ideologies were discredited due to the recent existence and defeat of Nazism. Thus in the immediately following World War II, the main objective of far-right parties was survival. From the mid-1950s to the 1970s, the so-called populist protest phase emerged with sporadic electoral success, the most common demand-side theories are the social breakdown thesis, the relative deprivation thesis, the modernisation losers thesis and the ethnic competition thesis. The rise of political parties has also been viewed as a rejection of post-materialist values on the part of some voters. This theory which is known as the reverse post-material thesis blames both left-wing and progressive parties for embracing a post-material agenda that alienates traditional working class voters, another study argues that individuals who join far-right parties determine whether those parties develop into major political players or whether they remain marginalized
3.
Weimar Republic
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Weimar Republic is an unofficial, historical designation for the German state between 1919 and 1933. The name derives from the city of Weimar, where its constitutional assembly first took place, the official name of the state was still Deutsches Reich, it had remained unchanged since 1871. In English the country was known simply as Germany. A national assembly was convened in Weimar, where a new constitution for the Deutsches Reich was written, in its fourteen years, the Weimar Republic faced numerous problems, including hyperinflation, political extremism, and contentious relationships with the victors of the First World War. The people of Germany blamed the Weimar Republic rather than their leaders for the countrys defeat. However, the Weimar Republic government successfully reformed the currency, unified tax policies, Weimar Germany eliminated most of the requirements of the Treaty of Versailles, it never completely met its disarmament requirements, and eventually paid only a small portion of the war reparations. Under the Locarno Treaties, Germany accepted the borders of the republic. From 1930 onwards President Hindenburg used emergency powers to back Chancellors Heinrich Brüning, Franz von Papen, the Great Depression, exacerbated by Brünings policy of deflation, led to a surge in unemployment. In 1933, Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor with the Nazi Party being part of a coalition government, the Nazis held two out of the remaining ten cabinet seats. Von Papen as Vice Chancellor was intended to be the éminence grise who would keep Hitler under control, within months the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933 had brought about a state of emergency, it wiped out constitutional governance and civil liberties. Hitlers seizure of power was permissive of government by decree without legislative participation and these events brought the republic to an end, as democracy collapsed, a single-party state founded the Nazi era. The Weimar Republic is so called because the assembly that adopted its constitution met at Weimar, Germany from 6 February 1919 to 11 August 1919, but this name only became mainstream after 1933. To the right of the spectrum the politically engaged rejected the new democratic model, the Catholic Centre party, Zentrum favoured the term Deutscher Volksstaat while on the moderate left the Chancellors SPD preferred Deutsche Republik. Only during the 1930s did the term become mainstream, both within and outside Germany, after the introduction of the republic, the flag and coat of arms of Germany were officially altered to reflect the political changes. The Weimar Republic retained the Reichsadler, but without the symbols of the former Monarchy and this left the black eagle with one head, facing to the right, with open wings but closed feathers, with a red beak, tongue and claws and white highlighting. If the Reichs Eagle is shown without a frame, the charge and colors as those of the eagle of the Reichs coat of arms are to be used. The patterns kept by the Federal Ministry of the Interior are decisive for the heraldic design, the artistic design may be varied for each special purpose. The achievements and signs of movement were mostly done away with after its downfall
4.
German National People's Party
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The German National Peoples Party was a national conservative party in Germany during the time of the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the National Socialist German Workers Party it was the major conservative and it was an alliance of nationalists, reactionary monarchists, völkisch, and antisemitic elements, and supported by the Pan-German League. It was formed in late 1918 after Germanys defeat in the First World War and it combined remnants of the German Conservative Party, Free Conservative Party, German Fatherland Party and right-wing elements of the National Liberal Party. The party strongly rejected the republican Weimar Constitution of 1919 and the Treaty of Versailles which it viewed as a national disgrace, instead it aimed at a restoration of monarchy, a repeal of the dictated peace treaty and reacquisition of all lost territories and colonies. During the mid-1920s, the DNVP moderated its profile, accepting republican institutions in practice and participating in coalition governments on federal. It broadened its voting base—winning as many as 20. 5% in the December 1924 election—and supported the election of Paul von Hindenburg as President of Germany in 1925, at the same time it lost many votes to Adolf Hitlers rising Nazi Party. Initially, the DNVP had a number of ministers in Hitlers government but quickly lost influence and eventually dissolved itself in June 1933, the party was formed in December 1918 by a merger of the German Conservative Party and the Free Conservative Party of the old monarchic German Empire. Thus, the party united most of the formerly fragmented conservative spectrum of the Empire, as a result of the crisis atmosphere of late 1918, a very wide assortment of different parties came together to form the DNVP. We have a present, and God willing, a good future, the task of writing out a common platform acceptable to all fell to a committee headed by Ulrich von Hassell. Reflecting a strong anti-Semitic orientation, right from the start Jews were banned from joining the DNVP, in the elections on 19 January 1919 for the National Assembly that was to write the new constitution, the DNVP produced a pamphlet entitled The Jews—Germanys vampires. Generally hostile towards the republican Weimar constitution, the DNVP spent most of the period in opposition. Of the 19 cabinets between 1919 and 1932, the DNVP took part in two governments and their total period in office over this 13-year period was 27 months. More women than men voted for the DNVP, and despite the partys traditionalist values, the women in the DNVP tended to be most concerned with wiping out trash and dirt which was their term for pornography and prostitution. The Israeli historian Yehuda Bauer called the DNVP. the party of the traditional, the writer Kurt Tucholsky wrote in 1924 that Even in Jewish circles and even in merchant circles, this way of thinking prevails. Extremely nationalistic and reactionary and originally favouring restoration of the Hohenzollern monarchy and its supporters came from dedicated nationalists, the aristocracy, parts of the middle class and big business. The DNVP had little appeal to Catholics and almost its entire support came from Protestant areas, none of these had anything to do with the task at hand, namely to write a new constitution. The DNVP made no contribution to the drafting of the new constitution, in June 1919, the Reichstag had to ratify the Treaty of Versailles in the face of a warning from the Allies that World War I would resume if it was not ratified. The DNVP made certain that the parties in the Reichstag were going to vote for the treaty
5.
Alfred Hugenberg
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Alfred Ernst Christian Alexander Hugenberg was an influential German businessman and politician. A leading figure in nationalist politics in Germany for the first few decades of the twentieth century and those plans backfired, and by the end of 1933 Hugenberg had been pushed to the sidelines. Although Hugenberg continued to serve as a guest member of the Reichstag until 1945, in 1891, Hugenberg was awarded a PhD at Strassburg for his dissertation Internal Colonization in Northwest Germany. Later in 1891, Hugenberg co-founded, along with Karl Peters, from 1894 to 1899, Hugenberg worked as a Prussian civil servant in Posen. In 1900 Hugenberg married his cousin, Gertrud Adickes. At the same time he was involved in a scheme in the Province of Posen where the Prussian Settlement Commission bought up land from Poles in order to settle ethnic Germans there. In 1899 Hugenberg had called for annihilation of Polish population, Hugenberg was strongly anti-Polish, and criticized the Prussian government for its inadequate Polish policies, favoring a more vigorous policy of Germanization. Hugenberg initially took a role organising agricultural societies before entering the service in the Prussian Ministry of Finance in 1903. Krupp had been in search of a man of superior intelligence to run the finance department of Krupp AG and found that man in form of Hugenberg with his extraordinary intelligence. In 1902, Friedrich Alfred Krupp was outed and committed suicide after the Social Democratic newspaper Vorwarts published love letters he written to his Italian lovers, after his death, the entire firm of Krupp AG was left to his daughter Bertha Krupp. To solve this problem, the Kaiser had Bertha marry a career diplomat Gustav von Bohlen und Halbach. Gustav Krupp as he was renamed by Wilhelm did not know much running a business, at the time, Krupp AG was Germanys biggest corporation and Hugenbergs success in raising annual dividends from 8% in 1908 to 14% in 1913 won him much admiration in the world of German business. A more unwelcome appearance in the limelight occurred in the Kornwalzer affair where the Social Democrat MDR Karl Liebknecht exposed industrial espionage by Hugenberg. In 1912, the Kaiser Wilhelm II personally awarded Hugenberg the Order of the Red Eagle for his success at Krupp AG, saying that Germany needed more businessmen like Hugenberg. During the war, Hugenberg was an annexationist, who wanted the war to end with Germany annexing much of Europe, Africa and Asia to make the Reich into the worlds greatest power. Finally, the Hugenberg-Class memo called for a policy of colonization in Eastern Europe where the German state would settle thousands of German farmers in the land annexed from the Russian Empire. The Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg was actually an annexationist himself, under the constitution of 1871, the Reichstag had limited powers, but one of those powers was the right to pass budgets. In 1912 elections, the Social Democrats won a majority of the seats to the Reichstag, however, the Majority Social Democrats were opposed to the annexationists and to secure their co-operation in passing budgets, Bethmann Hollweg refused to support the annexationists in public
6.
Adolf Hitler
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Adolf Hitler was a German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party, Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and Führer of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. As dictator of the German Reich, he initiated World War II in Europe with the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and was central to the Holocaust, Hitler was born in Austria, then part of Austria-Hungary, and raised near Linz. He moved to Germany in 1913 and was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I and he joined the German Workers Party, the precursor of the NSDAP, in 1919 and became leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923 he attempted a coup in Munich to seize power, the failed coup resulted in Hitlers imprisonment, during which he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf. Hitler frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as being part of a Jewish conspiracy, by 1933, the Nazi Party was the largest elected party in the German Reichstag, which led to Hitlers appointment as Chancellor on 30 January 1933. Hitler aimed to eliminate Jews from Germany and establish a New Order to counter what he saw as the injustice of the post-World War I international order dominated by Britain, Hitler sought Lebensraum for the German people in Eastern Europe. His aggressive foreign policy is considered to be the cause of the outbreak of World War II in Europe. He directed large-scale rearmament and on 1 September 1939 invaded Poland, resulting in British, in June 1941, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. By the end of 1941 German forces and the European Axis powers occupied most of Europe, failure to defeat the Soviets and the entry of the United States into the war forced Germany onto the defensive and it suffered a series of escalating defeats. In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, Hitler married his long-time lover, on 30 April 1945, less than two days later, the two killed themselves to avoid capture by the Red Army, and their corpses were burned. Hitler and the Nazi regime were also responsible for the killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians, in addition,29 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European Theatre of World War II. The number of civilians killed during the Second World War was unprecedented in warfare, Hitlers father Alois Hitler Sr. was the illegitimate child of Maria Anna Schicklgruber. The baptismal register did not show the name of his father, in 1842, Johann Georg Hiedler married Aloiss mother Maria Anna. Alois was brought up in the family of Hiedlers brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, in 1876, Alois was legitimated and the baptismal register changed by a priest to register Johann Georg Hiedler as Aloiss father. Alois then assumed the surname Hitler, also spelled Hiedler, Hüttler, the Hitler surname is probably based on one who lives in a hut. Nazi official Hans Frank suggested that Aloiss mother had been employed as a housekeeper by a Jewish family in Graz, and that the familys 19-year-old son Leopold Frankenberger had fathered Alois. No Frankenberger was registered in Graz during that period, and no record has been produced of Leopold Frankenbergers existence, Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary, close to the border with the German Empire. He was one of six born to Alois Hitler and Klara Pölzl
7.
Nazi Party
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Its precursor, the German Workers Party, existed from 1919 to 1920. The party emerged from the German nationalist, racist, and populist Freikorps paramilitary culture, the party was created as a means to draw workers away from communism and into völkisch nationalism. Pseudo-scientific racism theories were central to Nazism, the Nazis propagated the idea of a peoples community. Their aim was to unite racially desirable Germans as national comrades, while excluding those deemed either to be political dissidents, to maintain the supposed purity and strength of the Aryan race, the Nazis sought to exterminate Jews, Romani, and the physically and mentally handicapped. They imposed exclusionary segregation on homosexuals, Africans, Jehovahs Witnesses, the partys leader since 1921, Adolf Hitler, was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. Hitler rapidly established a regime known as the Third Reich. The term Nazi derives from the name given in German to a party member Nationalsozialist and was coined in response to the German term Sozi, members of the party referred to themselves as Nationalsozialisten, rarely as Nazis. The term Parteigenosse was commonly used among Nazis, with the feminine form Parteigenossin used when it was appropriate, the term was in use before the rise of the party as a colloquial and derogatory word for a backward peasant, characterising an awkward and clumsy person. It derived from Ignaz, being a version of Ignatius, a common name in Bavaria. Opponents seized on this and shortened the name in intentional association to the long-time existing Sozi to the dismissive Nazi. In 1933, when Adolf Hitler assumed power of the German government, usage of the designation Nazi diminished in Germany, the use of Nazi Germany, and Nazi regime, was popularised by anti-Nazis and German exiles abroad. Thereafter, the spread into other languages and eventually was brought back to Germany after the Second World War. The party grew out of political groups with a nationalist orientation that formed in the last years of World War I. In 1918, a called the Freien Arbeiterausschuss für einen guten Frieden was created in Bremen. On 7 March 1918, Anton Drexler, an avid German nationalist, Drexler saw the situation of political violence and instability in Germany as the result of the new Weimar Republic being out-of-touch with the masses, especially the lower classes. These were all well-known themes popular with various Weimar paramilitary groups such as the Freikorps, though very small, Drexlers movement did receive attention and support from some influential figures. Supporter Dietrich Eckhart brought military figure Count Felix Graf von Bothmer, later in 1918, Karl Harrer, convinced Drexler and several others to form the Politischer Arbeiterzirkel. The members met periodically for discussions with themes of nationalism and racism directed against the Jews and they became one of many völkisch movements that existed in Germany at the time
8.
Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten
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The Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten was one of the many paramilitary organizations that arose after the German defeat of World War I. The Stahlhelm was founded in December 1918 by the industrialist and former German Army reserve officer Franz Seldte in the Prussian city of Magdeburg, the league was a rallying point for revanchist and nationalistic forces from the beginning. Its journal, Der Stahlhelm, was edited by Count Hans-Jürgen von Blumenthal, financing was provided by the Deutscher Herrenklub, an association of German industrialists and business magnates with elements of the East Elbian landed gentry. Jewish veterans were denied admission and formed a separate Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten, after the failed Kapp Putsch of 1920, the organization gained further support from dissolved Freikorps units. In 1923 the former DNVP politician Theodor Duesterberg joined the Stahlhelm and quickly rose to Seldtes deputy, with 500,000 members in 1930, the league was the largest paramilitary organization of Weimar Germany. In the 1920s the Stahlhelm received political support from Fascist Italys Duce Benito Mussolini, although the Stahlhelm was officially a non-party entity and above party politics, after 1929 it took on an open anti-republican and anti-democratic character. Its goals were a German dictatorship, the preparation of a revanchist program, for political reasons its members distinguished themselves from the Nazi Party as German Fascists. In 1931 they proposed another referendum for the dissolution of the Prussian Reichstag, facing a massive Nazi campaign reproaching him with a non-pure Aryan ancestry he only gained 6. 8% of the votes cast. After the Nazi seizure of power on 30 January 1933, the new authorities urged for a merge into the partys Sturmabteilung paramilitary organization, Franz Seldte joined the Hitler Cabinet as Reich Minister for Labour, prevailing against Duesterberg, who had already come running for his swearing-in. In April Seldte applied for membership in the NSDAP and also joined the SA, on 27 April 1933, Seldte had officially declared the Stahlhelm subordinate to Hitlers command. The remaining Frontkämpferbund veterans units were dissolved by decree of Adolf Hitler on 7 November 1935. Seldtes rival Duesterberg was interned at Dachau concentration camp upon the Night of the Long Knives at the beginning of July 1934, in 1951 a Stahlhelm successor organization was re-created in Cologne, West Germany. A year later, in 1952, even before his release from prison, the ideology was adopted by German neonazi and far-right activists. Several regional associations still exist, though without any political significance, Weimar paramilitary groups German History Museum, Berlin Page
9.
Bad Harzburg
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Bad Harzburg is a town in central Germany, in the Goslar district of Lower Saxony. It lies on the edge of the Harz mountains and is a recognised saltwater spa. Bad Harzburg is situated at the foot of the Harz mountain range on the edge of the Harz National Park. To the east of the borough is the boundary between the states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, the former Inner German Border, the small Radau river, a tributary to the Oker, has its source in the Harz mountains and flows through the town. Nearby are the towns of Goslar to the west, Vienenburg to the north, Braunlage to the south and Ilsenburg and Osterwieck in the east. According to legend, about 780 AD the Emperor Charlemagne, after the conquest of the area in the course of the Saxon Wars, had a built on the Burgberg a hill overlooking the town. It may have stood on the site of a sacred grove dedicated to a Saxon god named Krodo, whose statue Charlemagne had overthrown. King Conrad I of Germany is believed to have established a college of canons here in 916, king Henry III had it transferred to his Kaiserpfalz in Goslar in 1039. Henry managed to escape from the castle, which after the Peace of Gerstungen was badly damaged by its attackers, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa had it rebuilt after he had defeated his rival, the Saxon duke Henry the Lion in 1180. Henrys son Otto IV, crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1209, archaeological findings of a first, later abandoned, settlement beneath the castle called Schulenrode date back to the 10th century. Another locality nearby named Hartesborch was first mentioned in a 1314 deed by the Benedictine abbey of Ilsenburg, the present-day town itself, then called Neustadt, was first documented in 1338. About 1569, Duke Julius of Brunswick promoted the development of a water well to extract salt. The well was called Juliushall and since 1852 the brine has been used for saline baths as well as other medical purposes, in 1892 the townspeople changed the towns name from Neustadt to Harzburg. It was given the title Bad, received privileges in 1894 and has since become an important spa town. The election results for the Nazi Party in the Bad Harzburg district had been below-average so far, during World War II, military hospitals were established in several hotels. The town surrendered without a fight to the 83rd US Infantry Division on 11 April 1945, after the war, Bad Harzburg with the lands of Brunswick belonged to the British zone of Allied-occupied Germany and from 1949 was part of West Germany. Before reunification, its station was the eastern terminus of a major railway route just west of the Inner German border. The Harzburg castle was slighted in 1650 by order of Duke Augustus the Younger
10.
Free State of Brunswick
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The Free State of Brunswick was a state of the German Reich in the time of the Weimar Republic. It was formed after the abolition of the Duchy of Brunswick in the course of the German Revolution of 1918–19, the Duchy of Brunswick had been established after the 1814 Congress of Vienna, as a sovereign successor state of the German Confederation. The Brunswick territory was surrounded by the Prussian provinces of Hanover. From 1913 it was ruled by Duke Ernest Augustus of the House of Hanover, on November 8, Duke Ernest Augustus of Brunswick was forced to resign and went into exile. Two days later, a workers council proclaimed the Socialist Republic of Brunswick, on 22 February 1919, both parties formed a coalition government led by the USPD politician Joseph Oerter, that shifted the states constitution towards a parliamentary republic. However, the government had to deal with subsequent uprisings in the capital Braunschweig, led by the Communist Spartacus League, which on 9 April called a general strike. Four days later, the Reich government declared the state of emergency in Brunswick, the Freikorps troops left Braunschweig ten days later, and the Reich government officially lifted emergency rule on June 5. The Brunswick free state constitution was adopted on 6 January 1922, at the same time, the rising Nazi Party established first local branches in Braunschweig and Wolfenbüttel, until it was banned by the state government on 13 September 1923. Nevertheless, the party was represented in the Brunswick Landtag, when Sepp Oerter switched from left to right, the Social Democrats under Heinrich Jasper once again were able to form a government upon the 1927 elections, however, it lost its majority in the following elections of 1930. Klagges was instrumental for the dismissal of public servants and in organizing the anti-democratic Harzburg Front in October 1931. He is especially known for naturalizing the former Austrian citizen Adolf Hitler, there are no records of any activity by Hitler in this position. After his appointment as Reich Chancellor on 30 January 1933, he was officially dismissed, before and after the Nazi Machtergreifung, Communist and SPD politicians were persecuted and arrested in Brunswick. He nevertheless had to accept the power of Reichsstatthalter Wilhelm Friedrich Loeper. The last Landtag session was held on 13 June 1933, the legislature was dissolved on 14 October. On 12 April 1945, US forces took the city of Brunswick, the Brunswick territory became part of the British occupation zone, with the exception of the eastern Blankenburg and Calvörde areas, which fell to Soviet-administered Saxony-Anhalt. The Brunswick region remained a Lower Saxon Verwaltungsbezirk until its dissolution in 2004, the Brunswick state constitution of 1922 was not repealed until a 2011 resolution by the Landtag of Lower Saxony. Reinhard Bein, Braunschweig zwischen rechts und links, reinhard Bein, Im deutschen Land marschieren wir. Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Gerhard Schildt, Die Braunschweigische Landesgeschichte, appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2001, ISBN 3-930292-28-9
11.
Dietrich Klagges
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Dietrich Klagges was a National Socialist politician and from 1933 to 1945 the appointed premier of the now abolished state of Braunschweig. He also went by the pseudonym Rudolf Berg, Klagges was the youngest of a forest rangers seven children. He underwent training as a Volksschule teacher at the seminary at Soest. During the First World War he was wounded and therefore discharged from army service by 1916. In 1918 he joined the German National Peoples Party and stayed with the party until 1924, after the First World War he became a Realschule teacher in Wilster in Holstein. After leaving the German National Peoples Party, Klagge was for a time a member of the extreme rightwing German Nationalist Freedom Party. He soon left it, eventually joining the NSDAP in 1925, from 1926 until 1930 he worked as a deputy headmaster at a middle school in Benneckenstein, where from 1928 to 1930 he also served as the local Nazi Ortsgruppe leader. Because of his membership in the Party, he was dismissed from the Prussian school service, in the same year he first rose to prominence in Braunschweig, where he busied himself as a Nazi propaganda speechmaker. From 1921 on, Klagges was busy writing völkisch, antidemocratic, and anti-Semitic writings which appeared in right-wing newspapers and he wrote for example for Die völkische Schule or Deutschlands Erneuerung and was himself the publisher of the magazine Nordlicht. His partly theological publications were moulded by radical religious racism, in the municipal elections in the state of Braunschweig on 1 March 1931, the Nazi party against expectation emerged as the third strongest party behind the SPD and KPD. On 1 January 1931 Klagges was appointed Regierungsrat in the Education Ministry by Anton Franzen, the Interior and Education Minister of the Braunschweig Free State and a fellow member of the NSDAP. After long political quarrels and intrigues, however, Franzen had to step down only a few months owing to favouritism for a fellow party member. Franz Groh, chairman of the NSDAP faction, also had to step down, shortly thereafter, in 1932, Klagges also became a member of the Reichstag. Unlike in the City of Braunschweig, by 1930, the National Socialists were already quite politically influential in the Braunschweig Free State. For this reason, the Free States government – or more precisely its State Minister, joseph Goebbels referred to the matter in his diary on 4 February 1932, The intention is to appoint the Führer an associate professor. Klagges first tried to procure for Hitler an associate professorship in the position of Politics. This plan soon leaked out to the public and then failed miserably in the face of opposition from, among others, the plan had to be dropped. Without meaning to, Klagges had given the Nazi Party the very thing that they had wanted to avoid at all cost, their intentions had now made public
12.
Free State of Prussia
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The Free State of Prussia was a German state formed after the abolition of the Kingdom of Prussia in the aftermath of the First World War. It was the state of the German Reich during the time of the Weimar Republic, comprising almost 5⁄8 of its territory. Free state is another German term for republic that was coined in contrast to the Latin word, the democratic Free State of Prussia was rendered incapacitated when it was taken over by the Preußenschlag of 1932–33 and Otto Braun was forced from office. His government went to court over this ouster, but in 1933 the Nazi regime seized control of the Prussian government, from 1933, the Free State was deprived of parliamentary democracy and ruled exclusively under the leadership of the National Socialist German Workers Party. Initially, Prussia was administered by high-ranking Nazi Hermann Göring who was appointed Minister-President of Prussia, after the end of World War II Otto Braun approached US officials to reinstate the legal Prussian government. They and the other Allied Occupation forces, who had occupied all of Germany, were opposed to the idea, except for its overseas colonies, Alsace-Lorraine and the Bavarian portion of the Saargebiet, all German territorial losses as a result of World War I were Prussian losses. As specified in the Treaty of Versailles, the kingdom lost territory to Belgium, Denmark. The Saargebiet was administered by the League of Nations until 1935, the Rhine Province became a demilitarised zone. The bulk of Prussias losses were to Poland, including most of the provinces of Posen and West Prussia, Danzig was placed under the administration of the League of Nations as the Free City of Danzig. These losses separated East Prussia from the rest of the country, in particular, it was thought that the French would seek to annex the Rhineland. Both the Reich and Prussian governments in Berlin were dominated by traditionalist sentiment, essentially, apart from its territorial losses and having its government placed on a democratic footing, Prussia continued unchanged. It remained by far the largest state of the Reich, with more territory, during the 500 years of Hohenzollern rule, Prussia had been synonymous with authoritarianism. In contrast, Prussia was a bulwark of democracy during the Weimar Republic, the restrictive Prussian three-class franchise was abolished shortly after Kaiser William II abdicated. Power now passed from the Junker landowners and great industrialists to Red Berlin, Prussia now became a stronghold of the left. From 1919 to 1932, Prussia was governed by a coalition of the Social Democrats, Catholic Centre, unlike in other states of the German Reich, majority rule by democratic parties in Prussia was never endangered. Otto Braun, a Social Democrat from East Prussia, served as Prussian minister-president almost continuously from 1920 to 1932. A capable leader, he implemented several trend-setting reforms together with his minister of the interior, Carl Severing, for instance, a Prussian minister-president could be forced out of office only if there was a positive majority for a potential successor. This concept, known as the vote of no confidence, was carried over into the Basic Law of the FRG
13.
Communist Party of Germany
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The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956. In the 1920s it was called the Spartacists, since it was formed from the Spartacus League, during the Weimar Republic period, the KPD usually polled between 10 and 15 percent of the vote and was represented in the Reichstag and in state parliaments. The party directed most of its attacks on the Social Democratic Party of Germany, banned in Nazi Germany one day after Adolf Hitler emerged triumphant in the German elections in 1933, the KPD maintained an underground organization but suffered heavy losses. In East Germany, the party was merged, by Soviet decree, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the SED was renamed the Party of Democratic Socialism and subsequently merged into Die Linke. The KPD was banned in West Germany in 1956 by the Constitutional Court, before the First World War the Social Democratic Party was the largest party in Germany and the worlds most successful socialist party. Although still officially claiming to be a Marxist party, by 1914 it had become in practice a reformist party, in 1914 the SPD members of the Reichstag voted in favour of the war. In November 1918, revolution broke out across Germany, germanys Social Democratic government, which had come to power after the fall of the Monarchy, was vehemently opposed to the KPDs idea of socialism. The Party split a few months later into two factions, the KPD and the Communist Workers Party of Germany, following the assassination of Leo Jogiches, Paul Levi became the KPD leader. Other prominent members included Clara Zetkin, Paul Frölich, Hugo Eberlein, Franz Mehring, August Thalheimer, Levi led the party away from the policy of immediate revolution, in an effort to win over SPD and USPD voters and trade union officials. These efforts were rewarded when a section of the USPD joined the KPD. Through the 1920s the KPD was racked by internal conflict between more and less radical factions, partly reflecting the struggles between Zinoviev and Stalin in Moscow. Germany was seen as being of importance to the struggle for socialism. Eventually Levi was expelled in 1921 by the Comintern for indiscipline, further leadership changes took place in the 1920s. In 1923 a new KPD leadership more favorable to the USSR was elected and this leadership, headed by Ernst Thälmann, abandoned the goal of immediate revolution, and from 1924 onwards contested Reichstag elections, with some success. During the years of the Weimar Republic the KPD was the largest communist party in Europe and it maintained a solid electoral performance, usually polling more than 10% of the vote, and gaining 100 deputies in the November 1932 elections. In the presidential election of the year, Thälmann took 13. 2% of the vote. Critics of the KPD accused it of having pursued a sectarian policy – e. g. the Social Democratic Party criticized the KPDs thesis of social fascism and this scuttled any possibility of a united front with the SPD against the rising power of the Nazis. These allegations were repudiated by supporters of the KPD, the leadership of the SPD, it was said
14.
Young Plan
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The Young Plan was a program for settling German reparations debts after World War I written in 1929 and formally adopted in 1930. It was presented by the committee headed by American industrialist Owen D, the Inter-Allied Reparations Commission established the German reparation sum at a theoretical total of 132 billion, but a practical total of 50 billion gold marks. After the Dawes Plan was put into operation in 1924, it became apparent that Germany would not willingly meet the annual payments over a period of time. The Young Plan reduced further payments by about 20 percent. P, the Committee, which had been appointed by the Allied Reparations Committee, met in the first half of 1929, and submitted its first report on June 7 of that year. In addition to Young, the United States was represented by J. P. Morgan, Jr. the prominent banker, the report met with great objections from the United Kingdom but, after a first Hague Conference, a plan was finalized on August 31. The plan was adopted at a second Hague Conference, in January 1930. Amongst other provisions, the called for an international bank of settlements to handle the reparations transfers. The resulting Bank for International Settlements was duly established at the Hague Conference in January, between agreement and adoption of the plan came the Wall Street Crash of 1929, of which the main consequences were twofold. The American banking system had to recall money from Europe, moreover, the downfall of imports and exports affected the rest of the world. By 1933, almost two-thirds of world trade had vanished, a new trade policy was set with the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act. The latter was influenced by nationalism and the economic policy. Unemployment soared to 33. 7% in 1931 in Germany, under such circumstances, U. S. President Herbert Hoover issued a public statement that proposed a one-year moratorium on the payments. He managed to support for the moratorium from 15 nations by July 1931. But the adoption of the moratorium did little to slow decline in Europe. Germany was gripped by a banking crisis. A final effort was made at the Lausanne Conference of 1932, here, representatives from Great Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, Germany and Japan gathered to come to an agreement. By that time it was clear that the depression had made it impossible for Germany to resume its reparations payments. They agreed, Not to press Germany for immediate payments, to reduce indebtedness by nearly 90% and require Germany to prepare for the issuance of bonds
15.
Great Depression
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The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place during the 1930s. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, in most countries it started in 1929 and it was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. In the 21st century, the Great Depression is commonly used as an example of how far the economy can decline. The depression originated in the United States, after a fall in stock prices that began around September 4,1929. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide GDP fell by an estimated 15%, by comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession. Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s, however, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II. The Great Depression had devastating effects in both rich and poor. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%, unemployment in the U. S. rose to 25% and in some countries rose as high as 33%. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries, farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by about 60%. Facing plummeting demand with few sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as mining and logging suffered the most. Even after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 optimism persisted for some time, john D. Rockefeller said These are days when many are discouraged. In the 93 years of my life, depressions have come, prosperity has always returned and will again. The stock market turned upward in early 1930, returning to early 1929 levels by April and this was still almost 30% below the peak of September 1929. Together, government and business spent more in the first half of 1930 than in the period of the previous year. On the other hand, consumers, many of whom had suffered losses in the stock market the previous year. In addition, beginning in the mid-1930s, a severe drought ravaged the agricultural heartland of the U. S, by mid-1930, interest rates had dropped to low levels, but expected deflation and the continuing reluctance of people to borrow meant that consumer spending and investment were depressed. By May 1930, automobile sales had declined to below the levels of 1928, prices in general began to decline, although wages held steady in 1930
16.
German General Staff
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It existed unofficially from 1806, and was formally established by law in 1814, the first general staff in existence. Its rise and development gave the German armed forces a decisive advantage over their adversaries for nearly a century. The Prussian General Staff also enjoyed greater freedom from political control than its contemporaries, and it came to be regarded as the home of German militarism in the aftermath of the World War I, and the victors attempted to suppress the institution. It nevertheless survived to play its part in the rearmament of Germany. In a broader sense, the Prussian General Staff corps consisted of those qualified to perform staff duties. Their exhaustive training was designed not only to weed out the less motivated or less able candidates, General Staff–qualified officers alternated between line and staff duties but remained lifelong members of this special organization. For other European armies which lacked this professionally trained staff corps and this served as a check on incompetence and also served for the objecting officer to officially disassociate himself with a flawed plan. Only the most stubborn commanders would not give way before this threat, for these reasons, Prussian and German military victories would often be credited professionally to the Chief of Staff, rather than to the nominal commander of an army. Before the nineteenth century, success on the battlefield was largely the result of the competence of whichever king was in power. While Frederick the Great brought success in battle to Prussian arms, his successors did not have his talent, reformers in the army began to write and lecture on the need to preserve and somehow institutionalize the military talent that had brought martial glory to Prussia. For a small group of reformers, critical decision making had to be removed from arbitrary winds of chance, the country could no longer afford to wait until a war started to gather military staff talent. One carefully selected professional staff would do the work of planning logistics, from the last years of the eighteenth century, it became the practice to assign military experts to assist the generals of Prussias Army. This was largely at the instigation of comparatively junior but gifted officers such as Gerhard von Scharnhorst and August von Gneisenau. Nevertheless, such measures were insufficient to overcome the inefficiency of the Army, in 1806, the Prussian Army was defeated by French Emperor Napoleon I at the Battle of Jena, and in the aftermath of this defeat, the Prussian Army and state largely collapsed. In most non-Prussian military academies of the time, the emphasis of the syllabus was the preparation of junior artillery and engineering officers. Although Prussian commanders of forces were appointed by rigid seniority or royal patronage, each Army, Korps. Scharnhorst intended that they support incompetent Generals, providing the talents that might otherwise be wanting among leaders and commanders. The unlikely pairing of the erratic but popular Field Marshal Blücher as Commander in Chief with Lieutenant General von Gneisenau as his Chief of Staff showed this system to its best advantage, after the defeat of Napoleon, the General Staff was formally established
17.
Paul von Hindenburg
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Hindenburg retired from the army for the first time in 1911, but was recalled shortly after the outbreak of World War I in 1914. He first came to attention at the age of 66 as the victor of the decisive Battle of Tannenberg in August 1914. As Germanys Chief of the General Staff from August 1916, Hindenburgs reputation rose greatly in German public esteem. He and his deputy Erich Ludendorff then led Germany in a de facto military dictatorship throughout the remainder of the war, in line with Lebensraum ideology, he advocated sweeping annexations of territories in Poland, Ukraine, and Russia in order to resettle Germans there. Hindenburg retired again in 1919, but returned to life in 1925 to be elected the second President of Germany. In 1932, Hindenburg was persuaded to run for re-election as German president, although 84 years old and in poor health, Hindenburg was re-elected in a runoff. He was opposed to Hitler and was a player in the increasing political instability in the Weimar Republic that ended with Hitlers rise to power. He dissolved the Reichstag twice in 1932 and finally, under pressure, in February, he signed off on the Reichstag Fire Decree, which suspended various civil liberties, and in March he signed the Enabling Act of 1933, which gave Hitlers regime arbitrary powers. Hindenburg died the year, after which Hitler declared the office of President vacant. Hindenburg was embarrassed by his mothers non-aristocratic background and hardly mentioned her at all in his memoirs and his paternal lineage was considered highly distinguished, in fact, he was descended from one of the most respected ancient noble families in Prussia. His paternal grandfather was Otto Ludwig von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg, Hindenburg was also a descendant of Martin Luther and his wife Katharina von Bora through their daughter Margareta Luther. Hindenburgs younger brothers and sister were Otto, Ida and Bernhard, Hindenburg was proud that one of his ancestors, Colonel Otto Frederich von Hindenburg had lost a leg at the Battle of Torgau in 1760 and had been awarded an estate at Neudeck by Frederich the Great. Hindenburg received a typical Junker upbringing, being taught the virtues of duty, discipline, obedience to authority and loyalty to Prussia, Hindenburgs governess was known to shout Quiet in the ranks. Before entering the Prussian Cadet Corps in 1859, the 12-year old Hindenburg soberly wrote up his last will and testament in case he should die, Hindenburgs favorite reading materials were war and adventure stories with The Pathfinder by James Fenimore Cooper being his favorite. As a cadet, Hindenburg was admired for his commitment to duty, obsession with details, however, he was considered of mediocre intelligence and utterly lacking in a sense of humor, a dedicated if somewhat dull cadet. After his education at schools in Berlin and Wahlstatt, Hindenburg was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1866. He fought in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, during the Seven Weeks War of 1866, Hindenburg wrote his parents, I rejoice in this bright-colored future. For the soldier war is the state of things…If I fall, it is the most honorable
18.
Centre Party (Germany)
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The German Centre Party is a lay Catholic political party in Germany, primarily influential during the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic. In English it is called the Catholic Centre Party. Formed in 1870, it successfully battled the Kulturkampf which Chancellor Otto von Bismarck launched in Prussia to reduce the power of the Catholic Church. It soon won a quarter of the seats in the Reichstag, after World War II, the party was refounded, but could not rise again to its former importance, as most of its members joined the new Christian Democratic Union. The Centre Party was represented in the German parliament until 1957 and it exists as a marginal party, mainly based in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Many Catholics found themselves in Protestant dominated states and this led to serious aggressions against the Catholic population of the Rhineland and Westphalia and culminated in the arrest of the Archbishop of Cologne. The conflict relaxed after 1840, with Frederick William IVs accession to the throne, the Revolution of 1848 brought new opportunities for German Catholics. In October, the bishops had their first meeting in 40 years in Würzburg, in the National Assembly, which was convened to draw up a German constitution, a Catholic club was formed. This was not yet a party, but a loose union aimed at protecting the Churchs liberties in a future Germany. The later demise of the National Assembly proved to be a setback for Political Catholicism. In reaction this led to a doubling of Catholic representatives in the subsequent elections, in 1858, when the New Era governments of Wilhelm I adopted more lenient policies, the club renamed itself Fraction of the Centre in order to open itself up to include non-Catholics. This name stemmed from the fact that in the Prussian Diet the Catholic representatives were seated in the centre, faced with military and constitutional issues, where there was no definite Church position, the group soon disintegrated and disappeared from parliament after 1867. The main points were, Preservation of the Churchs autonomy and rights, defense against any attack on the independence of Church bodies, on the development of religious life and on the practice of Christian charity. Effectual implementation of parity for recognised denominations, rejection of any attempt to de-Christianise marriage. Preservation or founding of denominational schools, with such a manifesto, the number of Catholic representatives in the Prussian Diet rose considerably. In December 1870, they formed a new Centre faction, also called the Constitution Party to emphasise its adherence to constitutional liberties, three months later, early in 1871, the Catholic representatives to the new national parliament, the Reichstag, also formed a Centre faction. In the age of nationalism, Protestant Germans, whether Conservative or Liberal, after the First Vatican Council, Bismarck launched the Kulturkampf or cultural struggle against the Catholic Church. But the Catholics fought back vigorously and with near-unanimity, the Centre party gained greater support from the Catholic population
19.
Sturmabteilung
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The Sturmabteilung, literally Storm Detachment, functioned as the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitlers rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s, the SA have been known in contemporary times as Brownshirts from the color of their uniform shirts, similar to Benito Mussolinis blackshirts. The SA developed pseudo-military titles for its members, the SA ranks were adopted by several other Nazi Party groups, chief amongst them the Schutzstaffel, which originated as a branch of the SA before being separated. The SA became disempowered after Adolf Hitler ordered the purge of 1934. This event became known as the Night of the Long Knives, the SA was effectively superseded by the SS, although it was not formally dissolved until after the Third Reichs final capitulation to the Allied powers in 1945. The term Sturmabteilung predates the founding of the Nazi Party in 1919, originally it was applied to the specialized assault troops of Imperial Germany in World War I who used Hutier infiltration tactics. Instead of large mass assaults, the Sturmabteilung were organised into small squads of a few soldiers each, on 2 October 1916, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff ordered all German armies in the west to form a battalion of stormtroops. They were first used during the 8th Armys siege of Riga, wider use followed on the Western Front in the Spring Offensive in March 1918, where Allied lines were successfully pushed back tens of kilometers. The DAP was formed in Munich in January 1919 and Adolf Hitler joined it in September of that year. His talents for speaking, publicity and propaganda were quickly recognized, and by early 1920 he had gained authority in the party, the precursor to the SA had acted informally and on an ad hoc basis for some time before this. Some 70 people attended, and a second meeting was advertised for 13 November in the Eberlbrau beer hall. Some 130 people attended, there were hecklers, but Hitlers military friends promptly ejected them by force, the next year, on 24 February, he announced the partys Twenty-Five Point program at a mass meeting of some 2000 people at the Hofbräuhaus. Protesters tried to shout Hitler down, but his former companions, armed with rubber truncheons. The basis for the SA had been formed, a permanent group of party members who would serve as the ruffian Saalschutzabteilung for the DAP gathered around Emil Maurice after the February 1920 incident at the Hofbräuhaus. There was little organization or structure to this group, the group was also called the Ordnertruppen around this time. More than a later, on 3 August 1921, Hitler redefined the group as the Gymnastic and Sports Division of the party. It was by now recognized as an appropriate, even necessary. By September 1921 the name Sturmabteilung was being used informally for the group, Hitler was the official head of the Nazi Party by this time
20.
Heinrich Himmler
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Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel, and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Nazi Germany. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler briefly appointed him a commander and later Commander of the Replacement Army. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany, as a member of a reserve battalion during World War I, Himmler did not see active service. He studied agronomy in college, and joined the Nazi Party in 1923, in 1929, he was appointed Reichsführer-SS by Hitler. Over the next 16 years, he developed the SS from a mere 290-man battalion into a paramilitary group. He was known to have good skills and for selecting highly competent subordinates. From 1943 onwards, he was both Chief of German Police and Minister of the Interior, overseeing all internal and external police and security forces, on Hitlers behalf, Himmler formed the Einsatzgruppen and built extermination camps. Most of them were Polish and Soviet citizens, realising that the war was lost, he attempted to open peace talks with the western Allies without Hitlers knowledge shortly before the war ended. Hearing of this, Hitler dismissed him all his posts in April 1945. Himmler attempted to go into hiding, but was detained and then arrested by British forces once his identity became known, while in British custody, he committed suicide on 23 May 1945. Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was born in Munich on 7 October 1900 into a conservative middle-class Roman Catholic family and his father was Gebhard Himmler, a teacher, and his mother was Anna Maria Himmler, a devout Roman Catholic. Heinrich had two brothers, Gebhard Ludwig and Ernst Hermann, Himmlers first name, Heinrich, was that of his godfather, Prince Heinrich of Bavaria, a member of the royal family of Bavaria, who had been tutored by Gebhard Himmler. He attended a school in Landshut, where his father was deputy principal. While he did well in his schoolwork, he struggled in athletics and he had poor health, suffering from lifelong stomach complaints and other ailments. In his youth he trained daily with weights and exercised to become stronger, other boys at the school later remembered him as studious and awkward in social situations. Himmlers diary, which he kept intermittently from the age of ten, shows that he took a keen interest in current events, dueling, in 1915, he began training with the Landshut Cadet Corps. His father used his connections with the family to get Himmler accepted as an officer candidate. His brother, Gebhard, served on the front and saw combat, receiving the Iron Cross
21.
Reichstag (Weimar Republic)
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The Reichstag was a legislative body of Weimar Germany from 1919, when it succeeded the Weimar National Assembly, until the Nazi takeover in 1933. Constitutionally, the Reichsrat represented the governments of the federal German states, according to the 1919 Weimar Constitution, the members of the Reichstag were to be elected by general universal suffrage according to the principle of proportional representation. Votes were cast for party lists. Elections were to be held at the end of a session of four years. Because of some special requirements, there were inconsistencies between the total share of votes received by a party and its share of the seats. Hitler was not in power yet, there was no hard and fast threshold for winning a seat in the Reichstag. In practice, a party could do so with as little as 0.4 percent of the national seat for some 60,000 votes. While this provision was intended to reduce wasted votes, it resulted in a large number of parties being represented in the chamber. Combined with the nationwide party-list system, this made it difficult to form a stable government. Moreover, each party wanted to pull Germany in a different direction and parties often refused to compromise with, or even recognize. Whereas some looked at pocketbooks, others at the pigmentation of the skin or the index of the skull, when the speaker of one party indulged in his oratory, the others walked out. It was not worth while to listen to somebodys opinion when you knew that his premises were all wrong, the grim determination to silence the unconvincible enemy by execution or imprisonment already existed prior to 1933 in many parties. The parliament passed legislation and the government budget, as well as making declarations of war, the members of the German cabinet, or government, were responsible to the Reichstag, which could force the resignation of ministers or even the whole cabinet by a motion of no confidence. It could also revoke emergency decrees by the Reich President according to Article 48 of the constitution -—however, in contrast, the Reichsrat, the house of state representatives, had minor significance. The constitution also provided for the possibility of referenda, but the hurdles to overcome were high, there were only two plebiscites, which were both unsuccessful. All too often, when a Chancellor was removed from office and this was especially pronounced in the 1930s, when Chancellors had to resort to Article 48 just to conduct the ordinary business of government. In the election of 1928, the Nazi Party won only 12 seats in the Reichstag, however, over the following two years it gained another 95. At the election of 1932, the Nazis and the Communist Party, with this latter enabling act, the Reichstag formally gave up its exclusive responsibility for the exercise of the legislative power
22.
House of Hohenzollern
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The House of Hohenzollern is a dynasty of former princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenburg, Prussia, the German Empire, and Romania. The family arose in the area around the town of Hechingen in Swabia during the 11th century, the first ancestor of the Hohenzollerns was mentioned in 1061. They may have derived from the Burchardinger dynasty, the Hohenzollern family split into two branches, the Catholic Swabian branch and the Protestant Franconian branch, which later became the Brandenburg-Prussian branch. The Swabian branch ruled the principalities of Hohenzollern-Hechingen and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen until 1849, members of the Franconian branch became Margrave of Brandenburg in 1415 and Duke of Prussia in 1525. The Margraviate of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia were ruled in personal union after 1618 and were called Brandenburg-Prussia, germanys defeat in World War I in 1918 led to the German Revolution. The Hohenzollerns were overthrown and the Weimar Republic was established, thus bringing an end to the German monarchy, Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia is the current head of the royal Prussian line, while Karl Friedrich, Prince of Hohenzollern is the head of the princely Swabian line. Zollern, from 1218 Hohenzollern, was a county of the Holy Roman Empire and its ruling dynasty was first mentioned in 1061. The Hohenzollerns named their estates after Hohenzollern Castle in the Swabian Alps, the Hohenzollern Castle still belongs to the family today. According to the medieval chronicler Berthold of Reichenau, Burkhard I, Count of Zollern was born before 1025, the Zollerns received the comital title from Emperor Henry V in 1111. As loyal vassals of the Swabian Hohenstaufen dynasty, they were able to enlarge their territory. In 1218 the burgraviate passed to Fredericks younger son Conrad I, he became the ancestor of the Franconian Hohenzollern branch. 1150-1155 and 1160, Gotfried of Zimmern, 4th oldest son of Frederick I before 1171 – c,1200, Frederick III/I Count Frederick III of Zollern was a loyal retainer of the Holy Roman Emperors Frederick Barbarossa and Henry VI. In about 1185 he married Sophia of Raabs, the daughter of Conrad II, after the death of Conrad II who left no male heirs, Frederick III was granted Nuremberg in 1192 as Burgrave Frederick I of Nuremberg-Zollern. Since then the name has been Hohenzollern. The younger brother, Conrad III, received the burgraviate of Nuremberg from his older brother Frederick IV in 1218, members of the Franconian line eventually became the Brandenburg-Prussian branch. The Franconian line later converted to Protestantism, the cadet Franconian branch of the House of Hohenzollern was founded by Conrad I, Burgrave of Nuremberg. Beginning in the 16th century, this branch of the family became Protestant and decided on expansion through marriage, the family supported the Hohenstaufen and Habsburg rulers of the Holy Roman Empire during the 12th to 15th centuries, being rewarded with several territorial grants. He ruled the Margraviate of Brandenburg-Ansbach after 1398, from 1420, he became Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach
23.
Prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia
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Prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia was the second son of Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany by his first wife, Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein. He was born and died in Potsdam, Germany, on 27 February 1906, Prince Eitel married Duchess Sophia Charlotte of Oldenburg in Berlin. They were divorced on 20 October 1926 and had no children, raised at the cadet corps of Plön Castle, Prince Eitel was in the front line from the beginning of World War I and was wounded at Bapaume, where he commanded the Prussian First Foot Guards. He temporarily relinquished command to Count Hans von Blumenthal, but returned to duty before the end of the year, the following year, he was transferred to the Eastern Front. During the summer of 1915, he was out in a field in Russia when he had an encounter with Manfred von Richthofen. The two men were hiding in a tree line from what they thought was the advancing Russian army and who turned out to be the grenadiers, guardsmen. After the war, he was engaged in monarchist circles and the Stahlhelm paramilitary organization, in 1921, the Berlin criminal court found him guilty of the fraudulent transfer of 300,000 Marks and sentenced him to a fine of 5000 Marks. From 1907 to 1926, he was Master of the Knights of the Order of St. John and he received the Pour le Mérite order in 1915. His body is buried at the Antique Temple in Sanssouci Park, Hauptmann and commander of the Leibkompagnie,1. Garderegiment zu Fuß à la suite, Grenadierregiment König Friedrich Wilhelm IV, deutscher Kaiser und König von Preußen Nr.34 Hauptmann, Saxon Army à la suite,7. Königsinfanterieregiment Nr. Henry Two ships were named after Prince Eitel, the passenger ship Prince Eitel Friedrich and the Reich postal steamer Prince Eitel Friedrich. Iron Cross, Second Class, ca.1914 Iron Cross, First Class, ca.1914 Pour le Mérite, with Oak Leaves Schench, G. Handbuch über den Königlich Preuβischen Hof und Staat fur das Jahr 1908
24.
Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia
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Prince August Wilhelm Heinrich Günther Viktor of Prussia, called Auwi, was the fourth son of Emperor Wilhelm II, German Emperor by his first wife, Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. He was born in the Potsdamer Stadtschloss when his grandfather was still the Crown Prince of Prussia and he spent his youth with his siblings at the New Palace, also in Potsdam, and his school days at the Prinzenhaus in Plön. Later, he studied at the universities of Bonn, Berlin and he received his doctorate in political science in 1907 in an exceedingly dubious manner, as one author describes it. Prince August Wilhelm married his cousin Princess Alexandra Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg on 22 October 1908 at the Berliner Stadtschloss. The couple had planned to take up residence in Schönhausen Palace in Berlin, on 26 December 1912 their only child, Prince Alexander Ferdinand of Prussia, was born. Their Potsdam residence developed into a place for artists and scholars. During the First World War, August Wilhelm was made administrator of the district of Ruppin. His personal adjutant Hans Georg von Mackensen, with whom he had close friends since his youth. These pronounced homophilic tendencies contributed to the failure of his marriage to Princess Alexandra Victoria and they never undertook a formal divorce due to the opposition of August Wilhelms father, Kaiser Wilhelm II. After the end of the war, the separated and formally divorced in March 1920. August Wilhelm was awarded custody of their son and he took drawing lessons with Professor Arthur Kampf, and the sale of his pictures secured him an additional source of income. August Wilhelm joined the nationalist veterans group Stahlhelm, in the following years he had increasing contact with the National Socialists. To the unease of his family and against his fathers will, he joined the dangerous, revolutionary NSDAP on 1 April 1930, whereupon he received the low membership number 24, in November 1931, he was accepted into the SA with the rank of Standartenführer. In 1933 August Wilhelm was given a position within the Prussian state, thus in spring 1934 he was denied direct access to Hitler and by the summer after the Röhm affair, he found himself in the wilderness politically. This did not, however, reduce his adoration of Hitler, one of his high-profile visits took August Wilhelm to the Passau Hall of Nibelungs. On 30 June 1939 he was made an SA-Obergruppenführer, the second highest rank in the SA, from then on, he was completely sidelined and was also banned from making public speeches. At the end of the Second World War, on 8 May 1945, August Wilhelm was arrested by United States soldiers, at the denazification trial of 1948, to the question whether he meanwhile had at least repudiated National Socialism, he asked uncomprehendingly, I beg your pardon. He was thus categorized as incriminated by the court of the internment camp of Ludwigsburg
25.
Wilhelm II, German Emperor
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Wilhelm II or William II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was the eldest grandchild of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and his leading generals, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, dictated policy during the First World War with little regard for the civilian government. An ineffective war-time leader, he lost the support of the army, abdicated in November 1918, and fled to exile in the Netherlands. Wilhelm was born on 27 January 1859 at the Crown Princes Palace, Berlin to Prince Frederick William of Prussia and his wife, Victoria, Princess Royal, the eldest daughter of Britains Queen Victoria. At the time of his birth, his great-uncle Frederick William IV was king of Prussia, a traumatic breech birth left him with a withered left arm due to Erbs palsy, which he tried with some success to conceal. His left arm was about 6 inches shorter than his right arm, historians have suggested that this disability affected his emotional development. In 1863, Wilhelm was taken to England to be present at the wedding of his Uncle Bertie, William attended the ceremony in a Highland costume, complete with a small toy dirk. During the ceremony the four-year-old became restless and his eighteen-year-old uncle Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, charged with keeping an eye on him, told him to be quiet, but Wilhelm drew his dirk and threatened Alfred. When Alfred attempted to subdue him by force, Wilhelm bit him on the leg and his grandmother, Queen Victoria, missed seeing the fracas, to her Wilhelm remained a clever, dear, good little child, the great favourite of my beloved Vicky. His mother, Vicky, was obsessed with his damaged arm and she blamed herself for the childs handicap and insisted that he become a good rider. The thought that he, as heir to the throne, should not be able to ride was intolerable to her, riding lessons began when Wilhelm was eight and were a matter of endurance for Wilhelm. Over and over, the prince was set on his horse. He fell off time after time but despite his tears was set on its back again, after weeks of this he finally got it right and was able to maintain his balance. Wilhelm, from six years of age, was tutored and heavily influenced by the 39-year-old teacher Georg Hinzpeter, Hinzpeter, he later wrote, was really a good fellow. Whether he was the tutor for me, I dare not decide. The torments inflicted on me, in this riding, must be attributed to my mother. As a teenager he was educated at Kassel at the Friedrichsgymnasium, in January 1877, Wilhelm finished high school and on his eighteenth birthday received as a present from his grandmother, Queen Victoria, the Order of the Garter. After Kassel he spent four terms at the University of Bonn, studying law and he became a member of the exclusive Corps Borussia Bonn
26.
Franz Seldte
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Franz Seldte was co-founder of the German Stahlhelm paramilitary organization, a Nazi politician, and Minister for Labour of the German Reich from 1933 to 1945. Born in Magdeburg in the Prussian province of Saxony, Seldte was the son of an owner of a factory producing chemical products and he attended the Wilhelm-Raabe-Gymnasium in Magdeburg and, after an apprenticeship as a salesman, he studied chemistry at the universities of Braunschweig and Greifswald. In 1908 he took over the business of his deceased father. As an officer of the German Army he was wounded in World War I and he then became a front reporter. Awarded with the Iron Cross 2nd and 1st class, he also was promoted to the rank of a Hauptmann in the 7th Reserve Division. According to Seldte, the organization was to use the spirit of the Frontsoldaten against the ‘swinish revolution’ taking place in Germany under the Weimar government. While he took charge of the Stahlhelm from 1923 onwards, he had to cope with the constant rivalry of his deputy leader, Seldte became a member of the national conservative German National Peoples Party and was a member of the Magdeburg city council. During the later years of the Weimar Republic the Stahlhelm became increasingly anti-democratic, however, Seldte hoped that the organization could become a leading organ of a united right-wing movement. In 1929 it united its forces with the DNVP under Alfred Hugenberg, the Pan-German League, the common goal was to denounce the Chancellor Hermann Müller and his ministers as traitors to their country, nevertheless the plebiscite failed to reach the quorum. In 1931 Seldte helped create the short-lived Harzburg Front, an alliance against the government of Müllers successor Heinrich Brüning. On the day of the Machtergreifung on 30 January 1933, Seldte joined the Hitler Cabinet as Reich Minister for Labour, nevertheless, Seldte obtained a seat in the Reichstag parliament as a DNVP guest. On 27 April 1933 Seldte finally joined the Nazi Party and merged the Stahlhelm into Ernst Röhms Sturmabteilung militia – de facto placing it at the disposal of Hitler. In March 1934 Seldte was made the leader of the German League of Front Fighters, an organization of the Stahlhem. In 1935 he requested to be released from official responsibilities, throughout his tenure as chief of the Labor Ministry, Seldte never enjoyed the full support of Hitler, who did not think he was worth much. As a result, members of the Nazi hierarchy began encroaching on his areas of responsibility, for instance, Hermann Goering’s Four Year Plan which he began to implement in late 1936, ran roughshod over Seldtes Labor Ministry altogether. Even after Hitler’s suicide and the nomination of Grand-Admiral Dönitz as his successor, Seldte kept his post, Seldte was captured and arrested in Mondorf-les-Bains at the end of the war. Seldte died in a US military hospital in April 1947 at Fürth, during the time of Nazi Germany, streets were named after him in several German cities, among them his hometown Magdeburg and Leverkusen. The German Dictatorship, The Origins, Structure, and Effects of National Socialism, New York, W. W. Norton & Company,2000
27.
Theodor Duesterberg
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Theodor Duesterberg was a leader of the Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten, in Germany prior to the Nazi seizure of power. Born the son of a surgeon in Darmstadt, Duesterberg entered the Prussian Army in 1893 after training in the cadet corps. In 1900, Duesterberg was part of the East Asian Expedition Corps that saw action in China during the Boxer Rebellion, two years later, Duesterberg became an officer and held a variety of army commands prior to World War I. During the war, Duesterberg served in the Prussian War Ministry, following the war, Duesterberg resigned from the army in protest over the Versailles Treaty, which Duesterberg viewed as being extremely unfair to Germany. Duesterberg subsequently decided to enter politics and joined the German National Peoples Party in 1919, Duesterberg quickly moved through the party hierarchy and by 1924 was one of two of its federal leaders. In March 1924, Maercker and Duesterberg forced Seldte to adopt the Aryan clause, under Duesterberg’s leadership, the Stahlhelm became Germany’s largest para-military groups. In the late 1920s, Duesterberg allied the Stahlhelm with the Nazi Party, in 1929 Duesterberg campaigned against the Young Plan in the referendum held in November 1929. In October 1931, Duesterberg allied the Stahlhelm with the Nazis, DNVP, after the dissolution of the Harzburger Front, Duesterberg continued to lead the Stahlhelm and maintained the organization’s alliance with the DNVP. That all Stahlhelm members swear on their word of honor that they had no personal, familial or business dealings with Jews in any form or way. That all Stahlhelm members present proof that their ancestors had fought in the “wars of liberation” against Napoleonic France and/or the wars of unification and on what side and that all Stahlhelm members present proof that they had fought in the World War and in what capacity. The revelation of Duesterbergs Jewish ancestry caused Duesterberg to poll poorly in the first ballot of the election, Duesterberg was so hurt by Darrés attacks that he challenged him to a duel, a challenge that Darré rejected because it was beneath him to fight a man with “Jewish blood”. Duesterberg then took up his dispute with Darré before the court of honor of the Former Officers of the 1st Hanoverian Field Artillery Regiment of Scharnhorst, the court of honor ruled in Darrés favor, stating that he was right to insult Duesterberg for having “Jewish blood”. Ironically, Duesterberg was offered a position in Hitler’s cabinet when Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, franz Seldte, however, did enter Hitler’s cabinet, which undermined the Stahlhelm and Duesterberg’s authority over the organization, and thus he resigned his leadership position in 1933. In 1934, Duesterberg was arrested by the Nazis during the Night of the Long Knives and sent to Dachau concentration camp, after being released, Duesterberg drifted into obscurity. He was known to have had limited contacts with the anti-Nazi Carl Friedrich Goerdeler in 1943, a year later, Duesterberg died in Hameln
28.
Reichswehr
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The Reichswehr formed the military organisation of Germany from 1919 until 1935, when it was united with the new Wehrmacht. At the end of World War I, the forces of the German Empire had mostly split up, many of them joined the Freikorps, a collection of volunteer paramilitary units that were involved in suppressing the German Revolution and border clashes between 1918 and 1923. The Vorläufige Reichswehr was made up of 43 brigades, on 30 September 1919, the army was reorganised as the Übergangsheer, and the force size was reduced to 20 brigades. About 400,000 men served in the armed forces, in May 1920 it was downsized to 200,000 men and restructured again, forming three cavalry divisions and seven infantry divisions. On 1 October 1920 the brigades were replaced by regiments and the manpower was now only 100,000 men as stipulated by the Treaty of Versailles and this lasted until 1 January 1921, when the Reichswehr was officially established according to the limitations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. The Reichswehr was an organisation composed of the following, The Reichsheer, an army consisting of, seven infantry divisions. General Command 1 at Berlin supervised 1st Division, 2nd Division, 3rd Division, general Command 2 at Kassel supervised 5,6,7 and 3rd Cavalry divisions. The Reichsmarine, a navy with a number of certain types of ships. The Reichswehr was limited to an army of 100,000 men. The establishment of a staff was prohibited. Heavy weapons such as artillery above the calibre of 105 mm, armoured vehicles, submarines and capital ships were forbidden, compliance with these restrictions was monitored until 1927 by the Military Inter-Allied Commission of Control. Despite the limitations on its size, their analysis of the loss of World War I, research and development, secret testing abroad and planning for better times went on. In addition, although forbidden to have a staff, the army continued to conduct the typical functions of a general staff under the disguised name of Truppenamt. During this time, many of the leaders of the Wehrmacht — such as Heinz Guderian — first formulated the ideas that they were to use so effectively a few years later. Reflecting this position as a “state within the state”, the Reichswehr created the Ministeramt or Office of the Ministerial Affairs in 1928 under Kurt von Schleicher to lobby the politicians. The biggest influence on the development of the Reichswehr was Hans von Seeckt, after the Kapp Putsch, Hans von Seeckt took over this post. After Seeckt was forced to resign in 1926, Wilhelm Heye took the post, Heye was in 1930 succeeded by Kurt Freiherr von Hammerstein-Equord, who submitted his resignation on December 27,1933. The reduction of the strength of the German army from 780,000 in 1913 to 100,000 enhanced the quality of the Reichsheer because only the best were permitted to join the army
29.
Hans von Seeckt
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During the years of the Weimar Republic he was chief of staff for the Reichswehr from 1919 to 1920 and commander in chief of the German Army from 1920 until he resigned in October 1926. During this period he engaged in the reorganization of the army and laid the foundation for the doctrine, tactics, organization, and training of the German army. Seeckt served as a member of parliament from 1930 to 1932, Seeckt was born in Schleswig on 22 April 1866 to an old Pomeranian family, which had been ennobled in the eighteenth century. Though the family had lost its estates, Seeckt was an aristocrat and his father was an important general within the German Army. Seeckt followed his father into service, joining the Army in 1885 at the age of 18. He served in the elite Kaiser Alexander Guard Grenadiers, then joined the Prussian General Staff in 1897, in 1913, Seeckt became the Chief of Staff of the III Corps based in Berlin. At the outbreak of the First World War, Seeckt held the rank of lieutenant colonel, on mobilisation, III Corps was assigned to the 1st Army on the right wing of the forces for the Schlieffen Plan offensive in August 1914 on the Western Front. He was promoted to colonel on 27 January 1915, in March 1915, he was transferred to the Eastern front to serve as chief of staff to General August von Mackensen of the German Eleventh Army. He played a role in the planning and executing Mackensens highly successful campaigns. Here Seeckt implemented a change in handling the thrust of the offensive and this was a break from the established method of securing flanks by advancing along a uniform front, using reserve formations to assist in overcoming strong points. By pressing the reserves forward into the Russian rear areas the Russian positions were destabilized, for his contributions he received the Pour le Mérite, Prussias highest military honor. In June 1915, Seeckt was promoted to the rank of Generalmajor, as was the case in the Gorlice offensive, Seeckt played a major role in the planning and execution of the operations in Serbia between 6 October and 24 November 1915. The saying spread through the German army Where Mackensen is, Seeckt is, for his achievements he was awarded the Oak Leaves to the Pour le Mérite. In June 1916 he became chief of staff for the Austro-Hungarian Seventh Army in Galicia, in 1917, Seeckt was sent to Central Power ally the Ottoman Empire to replace Colonel Friedrich Bronsart von Schellendorff as Chief of Staff of the Ottoman Army. In choosing Seeckt Germany was sending a first rate staff officer, the alliance between the Ottoman Empire and Germany was weak. Since the start of the conflict German efforts to influence Turk strategy met with limited success, neither Bronsart nor Seeckt were able to get much consideration for grand strategy for the Ottoman Empire. Though Enver Pasha would take counsel from the German officers, he would disregard their opinion if it differed from his own view, a common view in the German high command was that internal division in a nation undermines a nations ability to successfully conduct a military campaign. Seeckt held this view, even to the point of supporting the leadership of the Ottoman Empire as they conducted a genocide of the Armenians along their border in 1915
30.
Fritz Thyssen
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Friedrich Fritz Thyssen was a German businessman, born into one of Germanys leading industrial families. Thyssen was born in Mülheim in the Ruhr area and his father, August, was head of the Thyssen mining and steelmaking company, which had been founded by his father Friedrich and was based in the Ruhr city of Duisburg. Thyssen studied mining and metallurgy in London, Liège, and Berlin, on 18 January 1900 in Düsseldorf he married Amelie Helle or Zurhelle, daughter of a factory owner. Their only child, Anna, was born in 1909, Thyssen again joined the army in 1914, but was soon military discharge discharged with a lung condition. Thyssen was a conservative and a German nationalist. He was arrested, imprisoned and received a fine for his activities. Through the 1920s the Thyssen companies continued to expand and he played a prominent role in German commercial life, as head of the German Iron and Steel Industry Association and the Reich Association of German Industry, and as a board member of the Reichsbank. In 1923, Thyssen met former General Erich Ludendorff, who advised him to attend a given by Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party. Thyssen was impressed by Hitler and his opposition to the Treaty of Versailles. In this he was unusual among German business leaders, as most were conservatives who regarded the Nazis with suspicion. Postwar investigators found that he had donated 650,000 Reichsmarks to right-wing parties, mostly to the Nazis, Thyssen remained a member of the German National Peoples Party until 1932, and did not join the Nazi Party until 1933. In November,1932, Thyssen and Hjalmar Schacht were the organisers of a letter to President Paul von Hindenburg urging him to appoint Hitler as Chancellor. Thyssen also persuaded the Association of German Industrialists to donate 3 million Reichsmarks to the Nazi Party for the March,1933 Reichstag election. As a reward, he was elected a Nazi member of the Reichstag and appointed to the Council of State of Prussia, Thyssen welcomed the suppression of the Communist Party, the Social Democrats and the trade unions. In 1934 he was one of the leaders who persuaded Hitler to suppress the SA. Thyssen accepted the exclusion of Jews from German business and professional life by the Nazis, the breaking point for Thyssen was the violent pogrom against the Jews in November 1938, known as Kristallnacht, which caused him to resign from the Council of State. By 1939 he was also bitterly criticising the economic policies. On 1 September 1939, the invasion of Poland marked the commencement of World War II, Thyssen sent Hermann Göring a telegram saying he was opposed to the war, shortly before leaving for Switzerland with his family
31.
Hjalmar Schacht
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Hjalmar Horace Greeley Schacht was a German economist, banker, liberal politician, and co-founder in 1918 of the German Democratic Party. He served as the Currency Commissioner and President of the Reichsbank under the Weimar Republic and he was a fierce critic of his countrys post-World War I reparation obligations. While he never joined the NSDAP, he became a supporter of Adolf Hitler, as such, Schacht played a key role in implementing the policies attributed to Hitler. His views in this regard led Schacht to clash with Hitler and he was dismissed as President of the Reichsbank in January 1939. He remained as a minister without portfolio, and received the same salary, after the war, he was tried at Nuremberg but acquitted. In 1953, he founded a private banking house in Düsseldorf and he also advised developing countries on economic development. Schacht was born in Tingleff, Schleswig-Holstein, Prussia, German Empire to William Leonhard Ludwig Maximillian Schacht and baroness Constanze Justine Sophie von Eggers, a native of Denmark. His parents, who had spent years in the United States, originally decided on the name Horace Greeley Schacht, however, they yielded to the insistence of the Schacht family grandmother, who firmly believed the childs given name should be Danish. He joined the Dresdner Bank in 1903, in 1905, while on a business trip to the United States with board members of the Dresdner Bank, Schacht met the famous American banker J. P. Morgan, as well as U. S. president Theodore Roosevelt. He became deputy director of the Dresdner Bank from 1908 to 1915 and he was then a board member of the German National Bank for the next seven years, until 1922, and after its merger with the Darmstädter und Nationalbank, a board member of the Danatbank. Schacht was a freemason, having joined the lodge Urania zur Unsterblichkeit in 1908, during the First World War, Schacht was assigned to the staff of General Karl von Lumm, the Banking Commissioner for Occupied Belgium, to organize the financing of Germanys purchases in Belgium. After Schachts dismissal from service, he had another brief stint at the Dresdner Bank. In 1923, Schacht applied and was rejected for the position of head of the Reichsbank, in 1926, Schacht provided funds for the formation of IG Farben. He collaborated with prominent economists to form the 1929 Young Plan to modify the way that war reparations were paid after Germanys economy was destabilizing under the Dawes Plan. In December 1929, he caused the fall of the Finance Minister Rudolf Hilferding by imposing upon the government his conditions for obtaining a loan. After modifications by Hermann Müllers government to the Young Plan during the Second Conference of The Hague, during 1930, Schacht campaigned against the war reparations requirement in the United States. By 1926, Schacht had left the small German Democratic Party, which he had helped found, though never a member of the NSDAP, Schacht helped to raise funds for the party after meeting with Adolf Hitler. Close for a time to Heinrich Brünings government, Schacht shifted to the right by entering the Harzburg Front in October 1931
32.
Reichsbank
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The Reichsbank was the central bank of Germany from 1876 until 1945. It was founded on 1 January 1876, the Reichsbank was a privately owned central bank of Prussia, under close control by the Reich government. Its first president was Hermann von Dechend, before unification in 1871, Germany had 31 central banks – the Notenbanken. Each of the independent states issued their own money, in 1870, a law was passed that forbade the formation of further central banks. In 1874, a banking law was introduced in the Reichstag. After several changes and compromises, the law was passed in 1875, despite the creation of the Reichsbank, however, four of the Notenbanken – Baden, Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg – continued to exist until 1914. The history of the Reichsbank was volatile, until World War I it produced a very stable currency called the Goldmark. The expenses of the war caused inflationary pressure and the mark started to decrease in value, the mark, formerly backed by gold, evolved into the Papiermark, backed by nothing. One of the key reforms caused by the Dawes Plan was the establishment of the Reichsbank as an independent of the Reich government. On 30 August 1924, the Reichsbank began issuing the Reichsmark, the seizure and consolidation of power by the Nazis during the years of the Third Reich also greatly affected the Reichsbank. The defeat of Nazi Germany in May 1945 also resulted in the dissolution of the Reichsbank, along with other Reich ministries, the explanation of the disappearance of the Reichsbank reserves in 1945 was uncovered by Bill Stanley Moss and Andrew Kennedy, in post War Germany. Similarly the Abwehr cash reserves were hidden nearby in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, shortly after the American forces overran the area, the reserves and money disappeared. Funk would be tried and convicted of war crimes at the Nuremberg trials, not least for receiving money and goods stolen from Jewish, gold teeth extracted from the mouths of victims were found in 1945 in the vaults of the bank in Berlin. The Allied occupation authorities became responsible for German monetary policy in the postwar years. In this role, the Allies continued to issue Reichsmarks as the German banking system was gradually restored, in 1948, the Reichsmark ceased to exist owing to the introduction of the Deutsche Mark in the West and the East German mark in the East. In West Germany, monetary policy was taken over by the Bank deutscher Länder and later by the Deutsche Bundesbank, in East Germany, this role was assumed by the Deutsche Notenbank (later renamed as the Staatsbank der DDR
33.
German presidential election, 1932
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The 1932 German presidential elections were held on 13 March and 10 April. They were the second and final elections to the office of President of the Reich. The incumbent President, Paul von Hindenburg, first elected in 1925, was re-elected to a second term of office. His major opponent in the election was Adolf Hitler of the Nazi Party, under the Weimar system, the presidency was a powerful office. Hindenburg, who distrusted and personally detested Hitler, had been motivated to run for a second term primarily by a desire to stop Hitler from winning the presidency. Nevertheless, following his re-election, Hindenburg failed to prevent the Nazis from assuming power, Two successive federal elections left the Nazis as the largest party in the Reichstag and anti-democratic parties in control of a majority of its seats. Under this political climate, Hindenburg reluctantly appointed Hitler as Chancellor of Germany in January 1933, incumbent President Paul von Hindenburg was 84 years old and in poor health. Never enthusiastic about the presidency, Hindenburg had planned to stand down after his first term, however, the prospect of Adolf Hitler being elected President of Germany persuaded the reluctant incumbent to seek a second term. However, both party leaders, unified in the Harzburg Front alliance of October 1931, rejected his proposals, in the 1930 federal election, the Nazi Party had dramatically increased its number of seats in the Reichstag. Despite becoming a German citizen only on 25 February 1932, Hitler hoped to use the presidency to overturn the Weimar Constitution, however, in 1932, this part of the political spectrum decided to unite with the moderate right in supporting Hindenburg to prevent Hitlers election. Brüning recognized that only a support from the right would induce Hindenburg to announce his readiness for candidacy. The liberal German Peoples Party and the German State Party also declared their support, on the far-right, the Harzburg Front collapsed, when the DNVP nominated the Stahlhelm leader Theodor Duesterberg as its own candidate. Duesterberg immediately faced a massive campaign by the Nazis, who, however. The problem was settled by Dietrich Klagges, Nazi state minister in Brunswick, as in 1925, the Communist Party nominated Ernst Thälmann. Backed by the Communist International, it was hoped that he would support from left-wing Social Democrats disgusted by Hindenburgs character. Under the electoral law, a candidate who received a majority of votes in the first round was elected. If no candidate received a majority, then a round would be held. In the second round, the candidate receiving a plurality of votes would be elected, a party was permitted to nominate an alternative candidate in the second round, but in 1932 this did not occur
34.
Hitler Cabinet
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Originally a coalition of Hitlers Nazi Party and the national conservative German National Peoples Party, it became an exclusively Nazi cabinet when the DNVP was intimidated into dissolving itself. The Enabling Act of 1933, passed two months after Hitler took office, gave the cabinet the power to make laws without consent for four years. In effect, this power was vested in Hitler, and for all intents, after the Enabling Acts passage, serious deliberations more or less ended at cabinet meetings. It met only sporadically after 1934, and last met in full on February 4,1938, nonetheless, it grew immensely in size on paper, due to the addition of the commanders of the armed services and several ministers without portfolio. The Reich cabinet consisted of the following Ministers, March 1933, april 1933, Franz Seldte becomes a member of the NSDAP, Göring takes a portfolio as Minister of Aviation. June 1933, Kurt Schmitt succeeds Hugenberg as Minister of Economics, richard Walther Darré succeeds Hugenberg as Minister of Food. December 1933, Ernst Röhm and Rudolf Hess enter the Cabinet as Ministers without Portfolio, may 1934, Bernhard Rust enters the Cabinet as Minister of Science and Education. June 1934, Hanns Kerrl enters the Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio, Röhm, Minister without Portfolio, is murdered. July 1934, Göring takes another portfolio as Minister of Forestry, august 1934, Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen leaves the cabinet. A new Vice-Chancellor is not installed, Hjalmar Schacht succeeds Schmitt as Minister of Economics. December 1934, Hans Frank enters the Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio, March 1935, Göring takes yet another portfolio as Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe. May 1935, The title of Minister of Defense is replaced by that of Minister of War, july 1935, Hanns Kerrl takes a portfolio as Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs. April 1936, Werner von Fritsch, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, February 1937, Wilhelm Ohnesorge succeeds Eltz as Minister of Posts. Julius Dorpmüller succeeds Eltz as Minister of Transport, november 1937, Hermann Göring succeeds Schacht as Minister of Economics. December 1937, Otto Meissner enters the Cabinet as Minister of State, January 1938, Walther Funk succeeds Göring as Minister of Economics. February 1938, Joachim von Ribbentrop replaces Neurath as Minister of Foreign Affairs, blomberg resigns as Minister of War and his office is abolished. His role is taken by General Wilhelm Keitel as Director of the OKW, Walther von Brauchitsch succeeds Fritsch as Commander-in-Chief of the Army. May 1939, Arthur Seyss-Inquart enters the Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio, March 1940, Fritz Todt becomes Minister of Armaments and Ammunition
35.
Otto Braun
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This article is about the Prime Minister of Prussia. For the German Communist and once the Comintern military adviser to the Chinese Communist revolution see Otto Braun, Otto Braun was a German Social Democratic politician who served as Prime Minister of Prussia for most of the time from 1920 to 1932. After the Nazis seized power in 1933, Braun went into exile in Switzerland, born in Königsberg, East Prussia, as the son of a railway employee, Braun attended Volksschule and then completed an apprenticeship in lithography. In 1888, he joined the Social Democratic Party, illegal at the time and he advanced in the typical manner for a local functionary, chairman of the local Arbeiter-Wahlvereins and later publisher, editor and printer of the party newspaper Volkstribüne. Braun was active in supporting the rights of labourers in East Prussia. From 1909-20, he was a member of the board of the Deutscher Landarbeiter-Verband, a farmworker association and he also became an expert on agricultural issues within his party. Braun rose to chairman of the East Prussian Social Democratic Party, in 1911 became a member of the board of the national SPD, during World War I he supported the Burgfrieden policy of the majority SPD. His only child died in the war, his son had volunteered for service, after the German Revolution Braun became Prussian Minister for Agriculture. In 1919, he was elected to the Weimar National Assembly, following the abortive Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch in March 1920, Braun became Minister President of Prussia, a position in which he served from 1920 and 1932, except for brief periods in 1921 and 1925. He also held a seat in the Prussian Landtag and in the Reichstag and he was the Social Democratic presidential candidate in the first round of presidential elections in 1925, coming second. He then withdrew his candidacy during the run-off in order to help the Centre Partys Wilhelm Marx defeat Paul von Hindenburg, Marx was eventually defeated by Hindenburg. During his tenure, the Prussian government enacted a land reform as well as a school reform. Prussia became a modern Free State, based on civil servants, Braun managed to introduce a temporary Reichs-wide ban on the Nazi-Sturmabteilung. However, these resulted in the enmity not just of the far-right. He was not a revolutionary, says Holborn, but was a determined democratic reformer. His government lost its majority in the April 1932 Prussian elections, however, while the Communists and National Socialists between them had a majority, they would not agree to form a new government or work with the other parties. Braun, however, remained de jure Prime Minister and continued to represent the state of Prussia in the Reichsrat until January 1933, hermann Göring then held the office for the next twelve years until 1945. As an opponent of the Nazi regime, Braun decided to leave Germany, brauns wife Emilie was terminally ill and he followed her to Ascona on 4 April 1933, after being warned of his imminent arrest
