Nazism and the Rise of Hitler: Ideology, Propaganda and Society

In 1928, the Nazi Party won just 2.6 per cent of the vote in Germany. Four years later, it was the largest party in the Reichstag. By 1933, its leader was Chancellor. What the Nazis did next led to war and to genocide.

In this lesson, we follow Hitler’s rise and the ideas behind it. We see how the regime used terror and propaganda. Then we look at how it reached into the lives of children, women and ordinary Germans.

1Who was Hitler before he came to power?

Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau, in Austria-Hungary. He moved to Germany in 1913. In the First World War, he served in the German army as a dispatch runner. He won the Iron Cross.

Germany’s defeat in 1918 angered him. The peace that followed made many Germans bitter. Hitler used that anger in politics.

• Born 1889 in Austria-Hungary. Moved to Germany in 1913.
• First World War: dispatch runner, won the Iron Cross.

2How did a fringe party become the largest in Germany?

In 1919, Hitler joined the small German Workers’ Party. In 1921, he became its leader. It was renamed the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, or Nazi Party.

On 8 and 9 November 1923, Hitler tried to seize power in Munich. The plan was to march on Berlin afterwards. It failed. He was charged with treason and sentenced to five years in Landsberg Prison. There he began writing Mein Kampf.

The Nazis stayed small in the calm years. In 1928, they won just 2.6 per cent of the vote. Then the Great Depression hit. Banks failed and jobs vanished. Voters turned to extreme parties.

In July 1932, the Nazis won 230 seats, with about 37 per cent of the vote. They were the largest party. They still lacked a majority. On 30 January 1933, President Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor. On 23 March, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act. It began the end of democracy.

• 8-9 November 1923: Munich putsch fails. Hitler jailed.
• 1928: 2.6%. July 1932: about 37%, 230 seats.
• 30 January 1933: Hitler named Chancellor.
• 23 March 1933: Enabling Act.

3What did the Nazis believe?

Nazi ideas rested on race. They claimed that people were not equal. In their false ranking, so-called Aryans stood at the top. Jews were placed at the bottom and treated as enemies.

The Nazis misused science to defend this. They borrowed the slogan “survival of the fittest”. Historians note that this social Darwinism is linked mainly to Herbert Spencer. It twisted Charles Darwin’s biology and does not follow from it.

Lebensraum, or living space, was another core idea. The Nazis wanted to take land in Central and Eastern Europe for Germans. Their plan for the east was called Generalplan Ost. It meant forcing out local people.

• A false racial hierarchy. Jews at the bottom.
• Misused social Darwinism, linked to Herbert Spencer.
• Lebensraum: land in the east for Germans.

4How did the Nazi state use terror?

Hermann Göring created the Gestapo in 1933. It was the secret police. Along with the SS and other forces, it could detain people without a proper legal process. Camps held opponents and many other groups.

The worst crime was the Holocaust. From 1941 to 1945, the Nazis and their collaborators murdered about six million Jews. That was around two-thirds of Europe’s Jews. Senior officials met at the Wannsee Conference on 20 January 1942 to plan the “Final Solution”.

Others were also targeted. At least 250,000 Roma and Sinti were killed, and the true figure may be as high as 500,000. Soviet prisoners of war and Polish and Soviet civilians also died in great numbers. Disabled people were murdered in the Aktion T4 programme.

• Gestapo: created by Göring in 1933.
• About six million Jews murdered, 1941-1945.
• Wannsee: 20 January 1942.
• Also killed: Roma and Sinti, Soviet prisoners, Polish civilians, disabled people.

5How did Nazi propaganda work?

In April 1930, Hitler put Joseph Goebbels in charge of party propaganda. Goebbels later became Reich Minister of Propaganda. He used posters, films, radio and rallies.

Spectacle was a key tool. At the Nuremberg rallies, architect Albert Speer designed the Cathedral of Light. It used 152 searchlights pointed at the sky. Marches, banners and the swastika made crowds feel united.

Propaganda also spread hate. The 1940 film The Eternal Jew was an antisemitic film made to look like a documentary. And the language of the regime hid its crimes. “Final Solution” was a euphemism for mass murder.

• Goebbels: propaganda chief from 1930.
• Nuremberg rallies and the Cathedral of Light (152 searchlights).
• The Eternal Jew (1940): hate film.
• Euphemisms hid the killings.

6How did Nazism reach children and women?

The Hitler Youth trained young people for the regime. Boys aged 10 to 13 joined the Jungvolk. Those aged 14 to 18 joined the Hitler Youth proper. By 1936 it was the only official boys’ youth group. In December 1936, membership became compulsory for Aryan youth. A 1939 law reaffirmed it.

Schools were changed too. Jewish teachers were dismissed. School books were rewritten to teach “racial science”.

Women were urged to be mothers of “pure” children. From 1939, the Cross of Honour of the German Mother was given in three classes. Bronze, silver and gold went to mothers of at least four, six and eight children.

• Jungvolk: ages 10-13. Hitler Youth: ages 14-18.
• December 1936: membership compulsory for Aryans.
• Cross of Honour: bronze 4, silver 6, gold 8 children.

7How did Germans and the world respond?

Many Germans stayed silent. Some resisted at great risk. The pastor Martin Niemöller is linked to a famous warning. It says that when the Nazis came for one group after another, few spoke up. In the end, no one was left to speak for the last group.

Some places did resist. In October 1943, Danish citizens and the resistance moved about 7,500 of Denmark’s 8,000 Jews by sea to Sweden. In the Warsaw Ghetto, a group led by Emanuel Ringelblum buried a record of daily life in milk cans and metal boxes.

The regime also won support by action at home and abroad. Work began on the Reichsautobahn in 1933, presented as a cure for unemployment. Germany left the League of Nations in 1933. It sent troops into the Rhineland on 7 March 1936. On 12 March 1938, it annexed Austria.

In July 1939, Mahatma Gandhi wrote to Hitler. He appealed to him to prevent a war. He wrote again in December 1940. Hitler never took up his plea.

• October 1943: about 7,500 of 8,000 Danish Jews reach Sweden.
• Ringelblum archive: buried in milk cans in Warsaw.
• 1933: League left. 1936: Rhineland. 1938: Austria.
• July 1939: Gandhi’s first letter to Hitler.

8What are the exam traps?

• Hitler became Chancellor by appointment in 1933. The failed putsch was 1923.
• The Nazis won 2.6% in 1928, not 37%. The 37% came in 1932.
• Know the difference: what Nazism did (Enabling Act) and what it believed (race, Lebensraum).
• The Holocaust killed Jews above all. Other groups were also persecuted and murdered.
• Gandhi’s letters came in 1939 and 1940, not after the war began in earnest.