Week 2: The Death of a Democracy

I. Why Did the German Republic Fail?
1) The Weimar Republic was born into a long-term social and economic crisis
2) The consequences of economic difficulty were felt throughout the political system
3) The political system was ill-equipped to deal with these stresses

Image right: Voters in Berlin-Dahlem line up to cast their ballots in the March 5, 1933, Reichstag election. Standing in the middle is Alfred Hugenberg (1865-1951), a far-right media mogul and who, as leader of the German National People's Party, formed a coalition with Hitler's NSDAP in 1933.

Graph: Hyper-Inflation
Excursus: The Burden of Reparations
Image: The banner of the "Rural People's Movement" (Landvolkbewegung)
Graph: Unemployment and Radical Votes (1928-1931)
Image: An Emergency Soup Kitchen in Berlin-Oberschönweide, 1931

Graph: Reichstag Delegations, 1919-1932
Graph: Proportional Composition of the Reichstag, 1919-1932
Map: Reichstag Elections by Electoral District, 1919-1933
Graph: Composition of the Last, Freely-Elected Reichstag, December 1932

II. Who Became a Nazi, and Why?
A. Some Substantive Explanations
1) The Great Depression?
2) Wounded Pride in Nation?
3) Antisemitism?
B. Social Variables: Three Hypotheses
1) Mass Psychology
2) Middle Class Panic
3) Political 'Confessionalism'
C. A Mass Movement

Map: Germany's Territorial Losses, 1919
Map: Reichstag Elections by Electoral District (Wahlkreis), 1920-1933
Map: Election returns in Bavaria, July 1932
Map: Catholicism in Germany (1871-1918)

Image: Swearing in of the SS-Leibstandarte, Hitler's Lifeguard Regiment, Munich, 9 November 1933. Source: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek/Fotoarchiv Hoffmann; Dokumentation Obersalzberg/Institut für Zeitgeschichte München-Berlin,

1) Mass Psychology
a) Age of new NSDAP members, 1925-1933
b) Unmarried new NSDAP members, 1925-1933
c) Residence of new NSDAP members, 1925-1933

2) Middle-Class Panic
a) New NSDAP members, yearly by class, 1920-1944
b) New NSDAP members, by occupational group, 1925-1933
c) New NSDAP members, male and female, by occupational group, 1925-1933
d) New NSDAP members, by class, 1925-1933

3) Political 'Confessionalism'
a) New NSDAP by confessional context, 1925-1933
b) Social composition of the NSDAP, 1942

4) A Final Note: Women and National Socialism

Gleichschaltung =  “Coordination”; i.e., the process by which social and political insitutions were realigned to conform with National Socialist principles.

Hermann Göring, Minister without Portfolio, Prussian Interior Minister
Ernst Röhm, SA Chief
Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer-SS and Chief of German Police
Reinhard Heydrich, Chief of Security Police and SD
Heinrich Müller, Head of the Gestapo