The Rise of Hitler – German Fascism

The Rise of Hitler

Ø      Hitler was an Austrian

Ø      He served in WWI and was awarded medals for combat

Ø      He became very angry about the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles

Ø      He did not believe the Weimar Republic would have any success

Ø      He organized the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 – also called the Munich Putsch

Ø      The Beer Hall Putsch was a failure due to the lack of support, Hitler was jailed for one year where he wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle) – a book which outlined his racial beliefs and future for Germany

Mein Kampf:

Ø      In his book Hitler divides humans into categories based on physical appearance, establishing higher and lower orders or types of humans. At the top, according to Hitler, is the Germanic man with his fair skin, blond hair and blue eyes. Hitler refers to this type of person as Aryan. He asserts the Aryan is the supreme form of human, or master race

Ø      Hitler goes on to say that subjugated peoples actually benefit by being conquered because they come in contact with and learn from the superior Aryans. However, he adds they benefit only as long the Aryan remains absolute master and doesn’t mingle or inter-marry with inferior conquered peoples.

Ø      But it is the Jews, Hitler says, who are engaged in a conspiracy to keep this master race from assuming its rightful position as rulers of the world, by tainting its racial and cultural purity and even inventing forms of government in which the Aryan comes to believe in equality and fails to recognize his racial superiority.

Ø      “The mightiest counterpart to the Aryan is represented by the Jew”

Ø      Once out of jail, Hitler forms the NSDAP – the National Socialist German Workers Party – Nazi’s

Ø      His program denounced Versailles, communists, Jews and the Weimar Government

Ø      The Nazi’s are organized under military lines – uniforms, the Swastika, the SA (Brownshirts) and the SS (Secret Police).