Hitler wanted to reunify the party, and set out a plan for the next few years. Whilst some small differences remained, Hitler was largely successful in reuniting the socialist and nationalist sides of the party. Firstly, the Nazi Party adopted a new framework, which divided Germany into regions called Gaue.
Each Gaue had its own leader, a Gauleiter. Each Gaue was then divided into subsections, called Kreise. Each Kreise then had its own leader, called a Kreisleiter. Each Kreise was then divided into even smaller sections, each with its own leader, and so on.
Each of these sections were responsible to the section above them, with Hitler at the very top of the party with ultimate authority. The Nazis also established new groups for different professions, from children, to doctors, to lawyers.
These aimed to infiltrate already existing social structures, and help the party gain more members and supporters. These political changes changed the Nazi Party from a paramilitary organisation focused on overthrowing the republic by force, to one focused on gaining power through elections and popular support.
Initially most members were ex-soldiers or unemployed men. If Hitler was to gain power democratically, he needed to reform the SA. He set out to change their reputation. A new leader, Franz von Salomon, was recruited. Rather than the violent free rein they had previously enjoyed, Salomon was stricter and gave the SA a more defined role. In , Hitler also established the Schutzstaffel , otherwise known as the SS. The SS were a small sub-division of the SA with approximately members until In , Heinrich Himmler took over the organisation, and expanded it dramatically.
By , the SS had 35, members. They terrorized and aimed to destroy any person or group that threatened this. The SA and the SS became symbols of terror. The Nazi Party used these two forces to terrify their opposition into subordination, slowly eliminate them entirely, or scare people into supporting them.
Whilst the SA and the SS played their part, the Nazis primarily focused on increasing their membership through advertising the party legitimately.
They did this through simple and effective propaganda. The Nazis started advocating clear messages tailored to a broad range of people and their problems.
Jews and Communists also featured heavily in the Nazi propaganda as enemies of the German people. Joseph Goebbels was key to the Nazis use of propaganda to increase their appeal.
Goebbels joined the Nazi Party in and became the Gauleiter for Berlin in Goebbels used a combination of modern media, such as films and radio, and traditional campaigning tools such as posters and newspapers to reach as many people as possible.
It was through this technique that he began to build an image of Hitler as a strong, stable leader that Germany needed to become a great power again. Goebbels success eventually led to him being appointed Reich Minister of Propaganda in Germany was particularly badly affected by the Wall Street Crash because of its dependence on American loans from onwards. As the loans were recalled, the economy in Germany sunk into a deep depression.
Investment in business was reduced. People in full time employment fell from twenty million in , to just over eleven million in In the same period, over 10, businesses closed every year. As a result of this, the amount of people in poverty increased sharply. The Depression associated economic failure and a decline in living standards with the Weimar democracy. By , Germany had reached breaking point.
The economic crisis, which in turn had led to widespread social and political unrest in Germany, meant that it could no longer afford to pay reparations. This concession helped to give the economy a small boost in confidence. One example of this was the work creation schemes which began in the summer of Anyone who stands in our way will be cut down.
It formed the basis for the dictatorship. The civil rights of the German people were curtailed. Freedom of expression was no longer a matter of course and the police could arbitrarily search houses and arrest people. The political opponents of the Nazis were essentially outlawed. In this atmosphere of intimidation, new elections were held on 5 March The streets were full of Nazi posters and flags. Nevertheless, the great victory hoped for by the Nazis did not materialise.
With Meanwhile, the arrests and intimidation were on the increase. The government banned the Communist Party. By 15 March, 10, communists had been arrested. In order to house all these political prisoners, the first concentration camps were opened. The circumstances in the camps were atrocious. People were ill-treated, tortured, and sometimes killed. Jews and well-known Germans in particular had a rough time of it. SS guards at the Dachau camp, near Munich, for instance, took four Jewish prisoners outside the gates, where they shot them dead.
The guards then claimed that the victims had tried to escape. On 23 March , the Reichstag met in Berlin. The main item on the agenda was a new law, the 'Enabling Act'. It allowed Hitler to enact new laws without interference from the president or Reichstag for a period of four years. The building where the meeting took place was surrounded by members of the SA and the SS, paramilitary organisations of the NSDAP that had by now been promoted to auxiliary police forces.
In his speech, Hitler gave those present the choice between 'war and peace'. It was a veiled threat to intimidate any dissenters. The process was by no means democratic. With votes in favour and 94 against, the Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act. It was to form the basis of the Nazi dictatorship until Now that Hitler had become so powerful, it was time for the Nazis to bring society in line with the Nazi ideal.
The process was known as Gleichschaltung. Many politically-suspect and Jewish civil servants were dismissed. Trade unions were forcibly replaced by the Deutsche Arbeitsfront. This allowed the Nazis to prevent workers from organising any opposition. All existing political parties were banned. From mid-July onwards, Germany was a single-party state. Books written by Jewish, left-wing, or pacifist writers were burned. While the Nazis took over, their destructive energy was mainly directed against their political opponents.
Hitler used this episode to convince President Hindenburg to declare an emergency decree suspending many civil liberties throughout Germany, including freedom of the press, freedom of expression, and the right to hold public assemblies. He expanded the army tremendously, reintroduced conscription, and began developing a new air force—all violations of the Treaty of Versailles.
His regime also suppressed the Communist Party and purged his own paramilitary storm troopers, whose violent street demonstrations alienated the German middle class. In , Hitler began his long-promised expansion of national boundaries to incorporate ethnic Germans.
The Czechs looked to Great Britain and France for help, but hoping to avoid war—they had been bled white in World War I—these nations chose a policy of appeasement.
The following year, the German army swallowed up the remainder of Czechoslovakia. I believe it is peace for our time. After being released from prison, Hitler vowed to work within the parliamentary system to avoid a repeat of the Beer Hall Putsch setback. In the s, however, the Nazi Party was still a fringe group of ultraextremists with little political power.
It received only 2. But the worldwide economic depression and the rising power of labor unions and communists convinced increasing numbers of Germans to turn to the Nazi Party. The Nazis fed on bank failures and unemployment—proof, Hitler said, of the ineffectiveness of democratic government. Hitler pledged to restore prosperity, create civil order by crushing industrial strikes and street demonstrations by communists and socialists , eliminate the influence of Jewish financiers, and make the fatherland once again a world power.
As an adult, Janine Simone Hopkins was encouraged by her family to record her experiences and reflections of her life in Paris during the German occupation. Attached to Canadian and British forces, the first Americans to see ground combat in Europe witnessed disaster at Dieppe.
This article examines how World War II marked an important moment in the political history of modern zoos.
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