Lecture: World War II
Hitler's Germany 
A corporal in the Great War, Hitler was a man who embodied the frustrations of post-war Germany. His concepts regarding future glory for Germany, to be achieved through military expansion and racial cleansing, were rooted in his earlier years.
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| The swastika was an image
associated with Indian/Aryan myths, and thus with
Aryan ethnic superiority. |
Like other Europeans, Hitler was influenced by diverse trends of anti-Jewish, anti-foreign, and anti-communist ideas popular through much of Europe. One influence was Lanz von Liebenfels, a mystic who believed in the purity of the Aryan race.
The Nazi (National Socialist) party was ultranationalist, and its precepts were based on Mussolini's fascism. Applying these ideas to the German situation (humiliation at Versailles, hyperinflation during the 1920s, total depression from 1929) was easy: fascism promised Germany glory, military expansion, and a leadership role in the world. Relying on history, the Nazis declared that a Third Reich, or empire, was coming (the First had been the uniting of the Germanic tribes under Charlemagne in AD 800, the Second the unification of Germany under Otto von Bismarck). After an unsuccessful attempt to take over the government, Hitler wrote about his struggle in jail.
Workbook
document: Mein Kampf
(1925)
After the Stock Market crash disposed
of the false prosperity of the 1920s,
the Nazis used the republican system to
their advantage. Hitler became Chancellor
legally in 1933, and immediately pulled
Germany out of the League of Nations
and began building up the military. More
information is at Germany
in the 20s: Rise of Hitler (BBC).
For information about life in Nazi Germany,
see Life in Germany (BBC) [sorry,
site removed].
Culturally, Hitler subjected the goals of modernists
to ridicule. One way was to invoke the twin spectres of
fascism in western Europe: Jewishness and communism. Anything
that wasn't in line with nationalism according to fascist
definition was unacceptable. Because Jews had international
connections to other Jews, Hitler considered them traitors
to Aryan culture who possessed no culture of their own.
Because communists wanted a communal utopia that would
cross national boundaries, they were traitors to the state.
Realizing
their common goals for expansion, Hitler and Mussolini
allied as the Axis powers in 1936. The concept was one
of an "axis" or line running from Berlin to
Rome, around which the world would turn. Though the two
men were extremely different personalities, and both considered
the other ultimately expendable, the alliance meant military
goals would be met quickly.