Domestic control by Nazis in Germany

• Army and Infrastructure Developments
  • Hitler eliminates unemployment through a massive rearmament and infrastructure program.
  • The Army, Navy, and Air Force and constructed. Autoban is an interstate highway system with no speed limit.
  • All east-west and a few North-South for two front contingencies. Late 1930s the German economy was booming under severe deficit spending.
  • Theory is that Hitler went to war to cover his financial misdeeds.
  • By Mid 1938, the Spanish Civil War and the failure of the League in Ethiopia has firmly bound Italy and Germany together in the Pact of Steel.
  • This places Austria in a difficult position. Hitler, an Austrian would like to reach close economic union with Austria as was attempted in 1931.
• Hitler consolidates powers by the creation of fear, which leads to solidarity.
• Nazis aim to blame Jews, gypsies, Communists, Homosexuals, mentally disabled people, aged people, and Masons.
• Nazi Propaganda machine controls knowledge through the press, radio broadcasts, and movies, which all perpetuate the theory of German Aryan greatness.
• There are mass propaganda events: torchlight parades, Party rallies, and general celebration of Nazi greatness create the illusion of success.
• Nuremberg Laws (1935) are the Jim Crow Black codes of Anti-Semitism
  • Define what a Jew is: having one Jewish grandma.
  • Jews were prohibited from marrying Aryans, and could not be teachers, professors, or governmental employees.
  • There were travel restrictions, and identification requirements with the yellow star of David.
• There is a mass exodus of Jews from Germany (600k left in Germany from 90 million).
• Einstein, Henry Kissinger, and many scientists and artisans come to the US. The Manhattan Project probably would have failed without the help from these Jewish scientists.
• By 1937, the Jews in Germany are ghetto-ized restricted to certain areas. In 1937, the German ambassador to France is assassinated by a 16 year old French Jew. This will trigger an organized terror of Jews (called pogroms).
• Kristallnacht is The Night of Broken Glass: synagogues, businesses, and homes were targeted by the SA and German police. This is basically an opportunity to burn and loot.
• This completes the exodus of Jews from Germany. Now is when we see a movement towards Palestine/Israel.
• Driving out "evil" made the Germans feel better about themselves.
• Hossbach Memorandum: Hitler still has issues with the Army, old junker conservatives, and capitalists inside Germany.
  • Hitler's aggressive foreign policy and rearmament in being held back by these groups. Rearmament and infrastructure development began to become troubling
    • Economically since the deficit spending is causing inflation
    • Diplomatically Hitler's policy is severely expansionist demonstrated by the Stresa Front, Rhineland and
    • Militarily the army is growing too rapidly for the Prussian Generals who feared the road to war
  • He has a meeting in 1937 with leading industrialists and generals. He says that they are on the road to war and outlines all the potential threats to Germany
  • Major Hossbach took the notes for this violent verbal encounter: the result is that Hitler will purge (nicely) some of the old leadership inside Germany:
    • The German foreign minister Count von Neaurath is replaced with Joachim Ribbentrop, a Nazi
    • German Finance Minister was an established industrialist Hjalmar Schacht (financed Nazi boom times) is replaced by the Reich's führer Herman Goring and plenipotentiary for the 4 year plan.
    • The War Minister Fritsch was replaced by Wilhelm Keitel
    • The Head of the German Army, Blomberg was replaced by Hitler