1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:04,280 --> 00:00:06,360 In the chaos of post-World War I 3 00:00:06,440 --> 00:00:09,480 Germany, a fragile democracy crumbled under the weight 4 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 5 00:00:09,560 --> 00:00:14,120 of economic despair, political infighting, and national humiliation. 6 00:00:14,760 --> 00:00:16,880 From the ashes of the Weimar Republic, a 7 00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:21,160 man emerged, ambitious, calculating, and ruthless, promising to 8 00:00:21,240 --> 00:00:24,680 restore glory, but leading the world to the brink of destruction. 9 00:00:25,160 --> 00:00:27,360 The Nazi party kind of growing in the 10 00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:30,320 background, but actually not very popular during that 11 00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:32,960 period of the sort of early to mid 1920s. 12 00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:35,000 And the time that the Nazi party really 13 00:00:35,080 --> 00:00:37,720 comes to the fore is in the aftermath 14 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:40,000 of the Wall Street crash with the impact 15 00:00:40,080 --> 00:00:42,440 of the world depression on Germany too. 16 00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:44,280 The political leadership of the party will take 17 00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:48,560 the stage and then these two institutions together 18 00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:52,000 will raise the German people, and establish, and 19 00:00:52,080 --> 00:00:57,120 carry on their shoulders the German state, the German Reich. 20 00:00:58,080 --> 00:01:01,520 Adolf Hitler's meteoric ascent to power, exposing the 21 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:05,240 manipulative propaganda, the fervent nationalism, and the eerie 22 00:01:05,320 --> 00:01:07,800 cult of personality that fueled his regime. 23 00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:26,720 The head of state, he's now dead and gone. 24 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:31,960 It now means that one man can take on all the top roles for himself. 25 00:01:32,160 --> 00:01:34,280 That man, of course, is Adolf Hitler. 26 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:53,840 The First World War was a catastrophe for Germany. 27 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:58,600 Huge casualties affected morale, shortages and starvation plagued 28 00:01:58,680 --> 00:01:59,520 the home front. 29 00:01:59,960 --> 00:02:03,000 And on November 9th, 1918, after a series 30 00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:06,200 of mutinies by German sailors and soldiers, the 31 00:02:06,280 --> 00:02:08,600 Kaiser had abdicated and fled the country. 32 00:02:11,720 --> 00:02:14,760 The following day, a provisional government was announced, 33 00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:17,080 made up of members of the Social Democratic 34 00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:20,560 Party and the Independent Social Democratic Party of 35 00:02:20,640 --> 00:02:23,520 Germany, shifting power from the military. 36 00:02:26,040 --> 00:02:29,040 With peace declared and the Kaiser gone, Germany 37 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:31,920 needed to establish a new constitution that would 38 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:35,960 move the country forward after accepting responsibility for World War I. 39 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:41,920 It's effectively gone from a monarchy with Kaiser 40 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:46,040 Wilhelm having almost absolute power to a world 41 00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:48,600 in which the Allies are saying, listen, you 42 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:50,800 need to have a more liberal form of 43 00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:52,520 government like we have in France, the United 44 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:56,520 States, Great Britain, and what the Allies call 45 00:02:56,600 --> 00:03:00,320 for is for the Germans to adopt a form of liberal democracy. 46 00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:03,760 This is the start of what's known as the Weimar Republic. 47 00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:07,320 It is now a Germany without a monarch. 48 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:09,440 It's a Germany with a president. 49 00:03:09,520 --> 00:03:14,280 It's seen as a new form of stable, grown-up governance for Germany. 50 00:03:14,600 --> 00:03:18,240 Unfortunately, as we'll see, it simply doesn't work. 51 00:03:20,680 --> 00:03:24,680 On February 6th, 1919, the National Assembly met 52 00:03:24,760 --> 00:03:28,080 in the town of Weimar and formed the Weimar Coalition. 53 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:32,920 They also elected SDP leader Friedrich Ebert as 54 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:34,800 president of the Weimar Republic. 55 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:39,880 The basic format of the government was based 56 00:03:39,960 --> 00:03:42,600 around a president, a chancellor, and a parliament, 57 00:03:42,920 --> 00:03:44,200 known as the Reichstag. 58 00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:51,360 The president was elected by a popular vote to a seven-year term, 59 00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:55,040 and held real political power, controlling the military and having 60 00:03:55,120 --> 00:03:57,920 the ability to call for new Reichstag elections. 61 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:04,240 New constitutional elements were added, such as Article 62 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:07,840 48, which allowed the president to assume emergency 63 00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:11,320 powers, suspend civil rights, and operate without the 64 00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:14,280 consent of the Reichstag for a limited period of time. 65 00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:19,920 The chancellor was responsible for appointing a cabinet 66 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:22,040 and running the day-to-day operations of 67 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:27,040 the government, ideally, the chancellor was to come 68 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:29,840 from the majority party in the Reichstag, or 69 00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:32,480 if no majority existed, from a coalition. 70 00:04:35,400 --> 00:04:37,800 The Reichstag, in turn, was also elected by 71 00:04:37,880 --> 00:04:41,120 a popular vote with its seats distributed proportionally. 72 00:04:42,120 --> 00:04:44,600 This meant when the Social Democratic Party won 73 00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:51,920 21.7% of the popular vote in 1920, it was allocated roughly 21.7% 74 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:54,600 of the 459 seats available. 75 00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:00,560 This system ensured that Germans had a voice 76 00:05:00,640 --> 00:05:02,960 in government that they had never had before, 77 00:05:03,240 --> 00:05:05,320 but it also allowed for a massive proliferation 78 00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:07,480 of parties that could make it difficult to 79 00:05:07,560 --> 00:05:10,120 gain a majority or form a governing coalition. 80 00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:22,800 The most important issue facing the government was 81 00:05:22,880 --> 00:05:24,360 the terms of the peace treaty. 82 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:27,560 Throughout the war, the German propaganda machine had 83 00:05:27,640 --> 00:05:29,960 stressed to the German people that Germany was 84 00:05:30,040 --> 00:05:32,480 fighting a just war against the aggression of 85 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:36,000 the Entente powers, Russia, France, and Great Britain. 86 00:05:37,640 --> 00:05:40,280 The transition to democracy had given hope to 87 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:42,480 the German people that their country would be 88 00:05:42,560 --> 00:05:45,200 treated leniently and that the final peace settlements 89 00:05:45,280 --> 00:05:47,360 after the war would be acceptable. 90 00:05:48,680 --> 00:05:52,640 On June 28th, 1919, the Treaty of Versailles 91 00:05:52,720 --> 00:05:55,720 was signed, outlining peace terms between the victorious 92 00:05:55,800 --> 00:05:57,160 Allies and Germany. 93 00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:02,520 The treaty ordered Germany to reduce its military, 94 00:06:02,960 --> 00:06:06,160 take responsibility for the World War I, relinquish 95 00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:09,800 some of its territory, and pay extortionate reparations to the Allies. 96 00:06:11,880 --> 00:06:15,680 It also prevented Germany from joining the League of Nations at that time. 97 00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:21,800 The First World War had an absolutely devastating effect on Germany. 98 00:06:22,080 --> 00:06:25,000 Well, the first simple reason is that she lost the war. 99 00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:28,400 You know, if you lose wars, you never end up in a particularly happy place. 100 00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:32,480 But actually, the First World War was particularly punishing. 101 00:06:32,960 --> 00:06:36,000 Why? Because the Allies gathered together at the Palace 102 00:06:36,080 --> 00:06:40,080 of Versailles to sign what was known as the Treaty of Versailles. 103 00:06:40,320 --> 00:06:44,280 Now, in that treaty, they took away a lot from Germany. 104 00:06:44,360 --> 00:06:46,720 It wasn't just going, you lost too bad. 105 00:06:46,800 --> 00:06:49,640 It was actually saying, you've lost and some. 106 00:06:49,760 --> 00:06:52,560 What we're gonna do is to take away your colonies. 107 00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:55,280 We're gonna take away some of your coalfields. 108 00:06:55,360 --> 00:06:57,360 We're gonna make you demilitarized. 109 00:06:57,440 --> 00:07:00,320 So we're gonna strip your army and navy right down. 110 00:07:00,400 --> 00:07:01,840 You're not allowed an air force. 111 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:05,520 All these massive punishments were inflicted on the Germans. 112 00:07:05,600 --> 00:07:10,680 And then to make it even worse, the Allies said, and you've got to pay for 113 00:07:10,760 --> 00:07:11,440 the war. 114 00:07:11,680 --> 00:07:13,360 This was known as reparations. 115 00:07:13,560 --> 00:07:17,240 And in today's money, it was worth about half a trillion. 116 00:07:17,440 --> 00:07:19,960 And there was one big problem. 117 00:07:20,280 --> 00:07:22,480 Germany had no money. 118 00:07:22,600 --> 00:07:25,120 So you're basically asking a beggar if he 119 00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:28,040 can lend you or give you back half a trillion dollars. 120 00:07:28,120 --> 00:07:29,000 He doesn't have it. 121 00:07:29,080 --> 00:07:31,120 And Germany certainly didn't have it. 122 00:07:32,240 --> 00:07:35,280 Reactions from the German people were extremely negative. 123 00:07:36,080 --> 00:07:38,920 There were protests in the Reichstag and out on the streets. 124 00:07:39,920 --> 00:07:41,760 Along with the loss of land and overseas 125 00:07:41,840 --> 00:07:44,760 colonies, Germany had to deal with the humiliation 126 00:07:44,840 --> 00:07:47,920 of accepting responsibility for the war, which the 127 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:49,840 German public didn't agree with. 128 00:07:51,400 --> 00:07:53,400 The Treaty of Versailles was very much seen 129 00:07:53,480 --> 00:07:56,520 by the Germans as a diktat, a dictated treaty. 130 00:07:56,720 --> 00:07:59,960 So this sense that the army perhaps wouldn't 131 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:02,880 have lost the war had they had the chance to go on on the battlefield. 132 00:08:04,600 --> 00:08:06,080 One of the other effects of the First 133 00:08:06,160 --> 00:08:10,680 World War on Germany was it totally polarised political life. 134 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:12,520 You had a lot of soldiers coming back 135 00:08:12,600 --> 00:08:14,120 from the front feeling that the war had 136 00:08:14,200 --> 00:08:16,560 been going well, and yet suddenly the government 137 00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:19,000 back home in Berlin had surrendered. 138 00:08:19,280 --> 00:08:20,240 Well, why had it done that? 139 00:08:20,320 --> 00:08:22,160 Why had the Kaiser let them down? 140 00:08:22,400 --> 00:08:27,640 And so you have what arises is something called the stab in the back myth. 141 00:08:27,720 --> 00:08:29,880 This idea that all those brave soldiers at 142 00:08:29,960 --> 00:08:32,320 the front didn't lose to the Allies, they 143 00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:35,040 actually lost to their leaders back home who 144 00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:36,960 supposedly stabbed them in the back. 145 00:08:37,160 --> 00:08:39,960 Now, those soldiers come back and they form 146 00:08:40,040 --> 00:08:43,440 lots of very militaristic units, which are known 147 00:08:43,520 --> 00:08:45,880 as the Free Corps or the Freikorps. 148 00:08:46,040 --> 00:08:48,960 And it's from that kind of groundswell, a 149 00:08:49,040 --> 00:08:53,000 very nationalist, very angry, very resentful opinion, that 150 00:08:53,080 --> 00:08:57,320 you start seeing these little parties like the Nazi Party being formed. 151 00:09:00,440 --> 00:09:03,000 The Weimar government was then associated with failure 152 00:09:03,080 --> 00:09:05,480 in World War I, since it had signed 153 00:09:05,560 --> 00:09:08,440 the Treaty of Versailles, which had ended the war. 154 00:09:09,720 --> 00:09:12,600 Many nationalists believed the government had sold Germany 155 00:09:12,680 --> 00:09:15,280 out to its enemies, ending the war too 156 00:09:15,360 --> 00:09:17,880 soon and allowing the country to be controlled. 157 00:09:19,200 --> 00:09:21,280 Due to the public unhappiness with the Weimar 158 00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:24,840 Republic, many German citizens looked towards radical and 159 00:09:24,920 --> 00:09:28,920 extremist parties who were opposing the political situation in Germany. 160 00:09:31,280 --> 00:09:32,680 What you start to see in the early 161 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:35,520 1920s is this sort of development, almost like 162 00:09:35,600 --> 00:09:37,680 a kind of fungus on the ground, of 163 00:09:37,760 --> 00:09:40,480 all these small political parties from different parts 164 00:09:40,560 --> 00:09:42,200 of the political spectrum. 165 00:09:42,320 --> 00:09:44,920 You know, you've got Communist Party growing up 166 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:46,320 on the left, you've got things like the 167 00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:49,400 Nazi Party growing up on the right, and 168 00:09:49,480 --> 00:09:52,000 you've got tonnes of these little parties, many 169 00:09:52,080 --> 00:09:55,360 of which have extremely vicious agendas. 170 00:09:55,640 --> 00:09:58,760 They didn't like the Kaiser, or some of 171 00:09:58,840 --> 00:10:00,480 them liked the Kaiser, some of them want 172 00:10:00,560 --> 00:10:03,680 democracy, some of them want communism or fascism. 173 00:10:03,880 --> 00:10:05,920 There is a whole kind of maelstrom, a 174 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:10,240 mixture of very radical, very defined, very virulent 175 00:10:10,320 --> 00:10:12,320 type of politics emerging in Germany. 176 00:10:12,400 --> 00:10:15,520 It's a very poisonous cocktail indeed. 177 00:10:16,440 --> 00:10:20,840 One party in particular was beginning to surface, the Nazi Party. 178 00:10:23,200 --> 00:10:26,320 The National Socialist German Workers' Party, better known 179 00:10:26,400 --> 00:10:28,760 as the Nazi Party, had been established in 180 00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:32,040 1919, and were promoting radical views. 181 00:10:33,160 --> 00:10:35,440 One theory that the Nazi Party had developed 182 00:10:35,520 --> 00:10:37,760 was the stab-in-the-back theory, which 183 00:10:37,840 --> 00:10:41,080 regarded the loss of World War I, and who was to blame. 184 00:10:42,920 --> 00:10:47,760 What any extreme movement needs is a kind of legend, or a kind of myth, or 185 00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:49,560 a kind of enemy to kick against. 186 00:10:49,880 --> 00:10:53,120 And the Nazis and Hitler created plenty of 187 00:10:53,200 --> 00:10:55,440 enemies, some of which were actual enemies, like 188 00:10:55,520 --> 00:10:57,120 the Communists, you could say that they were 189 00:10:57,200 --> 00:10:59,440 genuine enemies of the Nazis, because they were 190 00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:01,800 at different ends of the political spectrum. 191 00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:04,800 But also, what Hitler also whipped up, and 192 00:11:04,880 --> 00:11:07,240 what he encouraged, was this idea that the 193 00:11:07,320 --> 00:11:09,280 German soldier who had fought in the First 194 00:11:09,360 --> 00:11:11,520 World War had been stabbed in the back 195 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:14,360 by his political masters in Berlin, and that's 196 00:11:14,440 --> 00:11:19,520 why the war was lost, and that's why Germany faced this shame of defeat. 197 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:22,640 And so what Hitler's saying is, listen to 198 00:11:22,720 --> 00:11:27,120 those soldiers, those former soldiers, I can actually reverse this. 199 00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:31,560 I can not only put a rifle or a spade in your hand and make you 200 00:11:31,640 --> 00:11:33,880 feel proud, but I can also get Germany 201 00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:38,280 back her pride, and her wealth, and her status in the world. 202 00:11:38,760 --> 00:11:43,320 At the end of the First World War, there was a lot of social and economic 203 00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:47,080 dislocation and upheaval in Germany, and there was 204 00:11:47,160 --> 00:11:49,760 a sense, particularly by groups on the far 205 00:11:49,840 --> 00:11:53,160 right, and there were a lot of them, so the Nazi Party was just one of 206 00:11:53,240 --> 00:11:54,600 dozens, actually. 207 00:11:55,120 --> 00:11:57,160 And there's a sense on the far right 208 00:11:57,240 --> 00:11:59,160 in particular, but in other groups in society 209 00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:01,640 too, that the army had been stabbed in the back. 210 00:12:01,720 --> 00:12:03,800 So this whole myth or legend arose called 211 00:12:03,880 --> 00:12:05,720 the Dolchstoss, the stab in the back. 212 00:12:05,800 --> 00:12:09,920 And there was this sense that the army had been stabbed in the back by this 213 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:12,000 group, what the Nazis and the others on 214 00:12:12,080 --> 00:12:14,960 the far right called the November Criminals, who 215 00:12:15,040 --> 00:12:18,600 signed the Treaty of Versailles in the aftermath of the First World War. 216 00:12:23,240 --> 00:12:26,360 Although many different variations of this theory existed, 217 00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:29,480 the Nazi Party proclaimed that Germany was betrayed 218 00:12:29,560 --> 00:12:33,840 by those on the home front, which led to the loss of the war, rather than 219 00:12:33,920 --> 00:12:35,600 their defeat on the battlefield. 220 00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:39,240 Shifting the blame to what they referred to 221 00:12:39,320 --> 00:12:42,520 as the November Criminals, Adolf Hitler and the 222 00:12:42,600 --> 00:12:45,040 Nazi Party bought into the myth that Jews 223 00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:47,760 and communists had betrayed the country and brought 224 00:12:47,840 --> 00:12:51,360 a left-wing government to power that had wanted to throw in the towel. 225 00:12:53,080 --> 00:12:55,640 Providing the country with a scapegoat meant more 226 00:12:55,720 --> 00:12:58,280 and more individuals supported the Nazi Party. 227 00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:01,200 They had established the enemy and had a 228 00:13:01,280 --> 00:13:02,720 full plan for how they were going to 229 00:13:02,800 --> 00:13:05,360 remove them and make Germany great again. 230 00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:11,320 By blaming the Jews for the defeat, Hitler 231 00:13:11,400 --> 00:13:14,600 had created a stereotypical enemy, someone to point 232 00:13:14,680 --> 00:13:18,080 the blame at and encourage the party supporters to do the same. 233 00:13:19,120 --> 00:13:21,360 Getting rid of the Jews would solve all 234 00:13:21,440 --> 00:13:23,880 of Germany's problems, or so he claimed. 235 00:13:25,560 --> 00:13:28,160 With economic struggles and no positive way of 236 00:13:28,240 --> 00:13:30,720 life, the German people liked the policies that 237 00:13:30,800 --> 00:13:34,440 the Nazi Party was outlining and support continued to grow. 238 00:13:57,560 --> 00:13:59,840 One of the overlooked successes of the Weimar 239 00:13:59,920 --> 00:14:03,800 government was skillfully renegotiating and restructuring its debts 240 00:14:03,880 --> 00:14:06,360 and bringing the economy back under control. 241 00:14:07,680 --> 00:14:10,720 Article 48 was used frequently by liberal chancellors 242 00:14:10,800 --> 00:14:13,760 to take immediate action to stabilise the economy. 243 00:14:14,920 --> 00:14:17,720 However, the high reparations payments and costs of 244 00:14:17,800 --> 00:14:20,000 war had devastating consequences. 245 00:14:21,640 --> 00:14:23,720 The cost of living in Germany rose 12 246 00:14:23,800 --> 00:14:30,080 times between 1914 and 1922, compared to three in the United States. 247 00:14:32,680 --> 00:14:36,080 The German government faced the classic dilemma, cut 248 00:14:36,160 --> 00:14:38,360 government spending in an attempt to balance the 249 00:14:38,440 --> 00:14:41,800 budget or increase it in an attempt to jumpstart the economy. 250 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:47,600 When the government sought to pay reparations simply 251 00:14:47,680 --> 00:14:50,040 by printing more money, the value of German 252 00:14:50,120 --> 00:14:53,520 currency rapidly declined, leading to hyperinflation. 253 00:14:57,320 --> 00:14:59,800 The early period of the Weimar Republic was 254 00:14:59,880 --> 00:15:03,760 beset with quite a lot of economic, social and political problems. 255 00:15:03,880 --> 00:15:06,960 So there's inflation, there's all sorts of economic 256 00:15:07,040 --> 00:15:09,360 difficulties, and they really rose to a peak 257 00:15:09,440 --> 00:15:12,760 in 1923 with the hyperinflation. 258 00:15:13,120 --> 00:15:15,960 So very common is the image of a 259 00:15:16,040 --> 00:15:18,240 German person in the street literally carrying a 260 00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:22,520 wheelbarrow full of money to pay for an everyday item like a loaf of bread. 261 00:15:22,680 --> 00:15:24,560 So just this sense of the devaluation of 262 00:15:24,640 --> 00:15:28,000 the currency and the hyperinflation brought about in this period. 263 00:15:28,080 --> 00:15:29,760 So there were lots and lots of different 264 00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:32,600 problems in those early years of the Weimar Republic. 265 00:15:34,520 --> 00:15:38,000 In January 1920, the exchange rate was 64 266 00:15:38,080 --> 00:15:39,800 .8 marks to $1. 267 00:15:40,880 --> 00:15:44,240 In November 1923, it was way over 1 268 00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:45,680 billion marks to $1. 269 00:15:46,960 --> 00:15:50,680 This economic disaster had social consequences as well. 270 00:15:52,920 --> 00:15:55,280 Since Germany couldn't keep up with repayments of 271 00:15:55,360 --> 00:15:58,680 the reparations, the French and Belgian armies invaded 272 00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:02,760 the Ruhr region of Germany, the main area of industrialism. 273 00:16:03,640 --> 00:16:06,640 The French aimed to extract the unpaid reparations 274 00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:10,600 and therefore took control of key industries and natural resources. 275 00:16:11,360 --> 00:16:14,240 The Weimar government instructed the Ruhr workers to 276 00:16:14,320 --> 00:16:16,840 go on strike instead of helping the French. 277 00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:21,080 The occupation of the Ruhr worsened the economic crisis in Germany. 278 00:16:24,040 --> 00:16:25,520 One of the things that particularly sticks in 279 00:16:25,600 --> 00:16:28,000 the craw of Hitler and other politicians like 280 00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:30,360 him is the fact that the French have 281 00:16:30,440 --> 00:16:35,520 seized the Ruhr, this important and absolutely vital industrial area. 282 00:16:35,680 --> 00:16:40,600 Now, without the Ruhr, it helps to cripple Germany's economy still further. 283 00:16:40,760 --> 00:16:43,080 And of course, it benefits the French economy enormously. 284 00:16:43,200 --> 00:16:45,760 It's just yet another kick in the teeth 285 00:16:45,840 --> 00:16:47,840 for the Germans, who are thinking, you know, 286 00:16:47,920 --> 00:16:50,000 we've lost the Ruhr, we've lost the coalfields 287 00:16:50,080 --> 00:16:53,240 of the Tsar, we've had the Rhineland demilitarised, 288 00:16:53,320 --> 00:16:56,520 we've lost our colonies in China and Africa, 289 00:16:56,600 --> 00:16:58,720 and we're having to pay lots of war 290 00:16:58,800 --> 00:17:01,280 loans back, which we don't have any money to do so. 291 00:17:01,400 --> 00:17:04,520 You know, if you look at it, it seems to be a complete disaster. 292 00:17:04,600 --> 00:17:06,280 Of course, that's what it became. 293 00:17:08,040 --> 00:17:11,240 Many Germans who considered themselves middle class found 294 00:17:11,320 --> 00:17:12,640 themselves destitute. 295 00:17:14,240 --> 00:17:17,800 Heinrich Brüning, who became chancellor in 1930, chose 296 00:17:17,880 --> 00:17:21,200 the deeply unpopular option of an austerity programme, 297 00:17:21,360 --> 00:17:24,280 which cut spending, and those programmes designed precisely 298 00:17:24,360 --> 00:17:26,160 to help those most in need. 299 00:17:27,400 --> 00:17:29,840 Prices ran out of control, and many people 300 00:17:29,920 --> 00:17:31,800 couldn't afford to live or survive. 301 00:17:32,840 --> 00:17:34,840 Poverty was at an all-time high. 302 00:17:37,520 --> 00:17:40,280 By autumn of 1923, it cost more to 303 00:17:40,360 --> 00:17:42,920 print the money than the notes themselves were worth. 304 00:17:43,440 --> 00:17:47,800 During the hyperinflation crisis, workers were often paid twice per day. 305 00:17:47,960 --> 00:17:50,520 Because prices rose so fast, their wages were 306 00:17:50,600 --> 00:17:52,560 virtually worthless by lunchtime. 307 00:17:54,720 --> 00:17:58,160 Unsurprisingly, the impact of hyperinflation dissolved a lot 308 00:17:58,240 --> 00:18:00,480 of support for the government, and people began 309 00:18:00,560 --> 00:18:03,840 looking towards uprisings and extremist parties to deliver 310 00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:05,400 the answers to their crisis. 311 00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:12,040 As the currency collapsed, so did the policy of passive resistance. 312 00:18:12,800 --> 00:18:16,320 The Nazi Party continued to grow support within this time. 313 00:18:17,240 --> 00:18:21,280 Once again, Hitler expressed his anti-Semitism, declaring 314 00:18:21,360 --> 00:18:23,520 that since Jews ran the banks, they were 315 00:18:23,600 --> 00:18:27,040 responsible for the economic mess Germany found itself in. 316 00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:33,920 The German economy had completely crumbled, although this 317 00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:36,600 didn't result in the collapse of the Weimar Republic. 318 00:18:37,240 --> 00:18:39,480 However, it shook the faith of many Germans 319 00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:42,280 who began looking towards radical parties to drag 320 00:18:42,360 --> 00:18:44,080 them out of the economic rubble. 321 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:49,160 The confusion caused by hyperinflation led Adolf Hitler 322 00:18:49,240 --> 00:18:50,960 to believe that he could take power in 323 00:18:51,040 --> 00:18:55,240 Munich in November 1923, leading the Beer Hall Putsch. 324 00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:57,960 However, the attempt failed. 325 00:18:59,920 --> 00:19:02,520 In 1923, Hitler thought that he was in 326 00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:04,880 a strong enough position with a lot of 327 00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:07,240 different kinds of patronage and support from military 328 00:19:07,320 --> 00:19:12,320 circles to stage a coup, so a putsch, a kind of takeover of power, and he 329 00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:16,640 decided to do this in the city of Munich, so that it became known as the 330 00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:18,240 Munich Beer Hall Putsch. 331 00:19:18,520 --> 00:19:21,400 However, it was a crisis and a fiasco, 332 00:19:21,480 --> 00:19:24,520 and the Nazi Party actually fell apart afterwards. 333 00:19:24,600 --> 00:19:26,720 Some of its members wounded, some of them 334 00:19:26,800 --> 00:19:29,840 becoming martyrs too, but essentially Hitler was placed 335 00:19:29,920 --> 00:19:32,440 into jail at Landsberg, so he was imprisoned 336 00:19:32,520 --> 00:19:35,440 in Landsberg, and that was where he wrote Mein Kampf. 337 00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:38,600 Hitler believed that the government of Germany was 338 00:19:38,680 --> 00:19:41,600 so unpopular that many Germans would support him. 339 00:19:42,080 --> 00:19:46,120 He was even planning a march on Berlin after his success in Munich. 340 00:19:47,120 --> 00:19:49,760 Hitler was arrested and tried for high treason. 341 00:19:50,360 --> 00:19:53,360 He was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison. 342 00:19:53,760 --> 00:19:57,120 This seemed like the end for Hitler and for the Nazi Party. 343 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:06,640 In April 1925, former war veteran Paul von 344 00:20:06,720 --> 00:20:09,480 Hindenburg was elected as president of the Weimar. 345 00:20:10,040 --> 00:20:13,600 Hindenburg was instinctively conservative and anti-socialist. 346 00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:15,840 It's hard to imagine a more kind of 347 00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:20,760 old-school, aristocratic, Prussian-stroke German figure than 348 00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:21,920 old Hindenburg. 349 00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:23,440 You know, he looks the model of this 350 00:20:23,520 --> 00:20:27,600 kind of bewhiskered president, and he regards Hitler 351 00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:29,840 as what Hitler was in the First World 352 00:20:29,920 --> 00:20:31,760 War, a little corporal, and that taught a 353 00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:35,080 lot of people from Hindenburg's Junker class, as 354 00:20:35,160 --> 00:20:36,840 it was called, referred to Hitler as. 355 00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:39,200 So as Hitler starts climbing the ladders of 356 00:20:39,280 --> 00:20:41,000 power, as he gets nearer and nearer to 357 00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:43,520 the top, and indeed, when it comes to 358 00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:45,600 the stage in which Hitler is gonna actually 359 00:20:45,680 --> 00:20:50,520 take the chancellorship, Hindenburg still thinks, this man's 360 00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:51,600 a little corporal. 361 00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:54,720 This man is someone we grandees can still 362 00:20:54,800 --> 00:20:57,400 control, but what they don't know is that 363 00:20:57,480 --> 00:21:00,320 they basically let the most dangerous animal into 364 00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:02,720 their zoo imaginable, and Hitler is just gonna 365 00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:06,000 basically eat everyone alive, even Hindenburg. 366 00:21:06,080 --> 00:21:08,920 They have no defense once they've let Hitler in. 367 00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:12,800 From the very beginning of his presidency, Hindenburg 368 00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:15,440 used his presidential powers and therefore had a 369 00:21:15,520 --> 00:21:18,200 far greater influence than Ebert ever had on 370 00:21:18,280 --> 00:21:20,160 the membership of coalition governments. 371 00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:22,200 He made it very clear that he did 372 00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:25,160 not wish for any constraints on his presidential power. 373 00:21:27,960 --> 00:21:31,120 A new foreign minister, Gustav Stresemann, brought new 374 00:21:31,200 --> 00:21:34,840 life to the Weimar Republic, bringing economic stabilization. 375 00:21:37,960 --> 00:21:42,560 After 1923 into 1924, things seemed to settle down a little bit. 376 00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:48,400 So the period from 1924 to 1928 of the Weimar years were very much a period 377 00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:51,920 of progress that the Weimar government had a 378 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:55,320 chance to put into place a recovery of Germany. 379 00:21:55,400 --> 00:21:57,720 So in terms of both her position at 380 00:21:57,800 --> 00:22:00,200 home, but also how Germany was regarded in 381 00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:03,200 Europe kind of as a European nation as well. 382 00:22:03,280 --> 00:22:05,880 So that sense of what Germany's international reputation 383 00:22:05,960 --> 00:22:10,120 was like changed as well during the course of the mid 1920s. 384 00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:12,320 So then it's a period of more stability. 385 00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:15,040 We've got a situation in Germany where there's 386 00:22:15,120 --> 00:22:17,200 quite a lot of progressive life going on. 387 00:22:17,280 --> 00:22:21,720 So women have got the vote for the first time since 1919 and they can be 388 00:22:21,800 --> 00:22:23,080 elected to parliament. 389 00:22:23,160 --> 00:22:26,640 Lots of progressive, different kinds of policies in 390 00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:30,080 education, but also lots of progress in the 391 00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:34,600 arts and in cultural life, the Bauhaus movement in architecture as well. 392 00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:36,280 So those kinds of things, we see quite 393 00:22:36,360 --> 00:22:40,480 a lot of progress in German society in the 1920s and a lot of hope. 394 00:22:40,840 --> 00:22:42,080 But at the same time, and I think 395 00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:44,080 this is quite interesting, at the same time, 396 00:22:44,360 --> 00:22:47,200 we've got the Nazi party developing kind of 397 00:22:47,280 --> 00:22:48,720 in a sense, almost in the background. 398 00:22:48,800 --> 00:22:50,560 So not at the forefront of anyone's attention 399 00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:54,400 during these years, because the popular attention's kind 400 00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:56,560 of enjoying the 1920s, the kind of swinging 401 00:22:56,640 --> 00:23:00,320 1920s, you know, with the cabaret lifestyle and 402 00:23:00,400 --> 00:23:02,920 the women now taking jobs in the cities 403 00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:05,560 as typists and in office jobs and these 404 00:23:05,640 --> 00:23:08,880 kind of new glamorous jobs that hadn't been open to them before. 405 00:23:09,080 --> 00:23:10,280 And at the same time, we kind of 406 00:23:10,360 --> 00:23:12,640 got this sort of conservative and right-wing 407 00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:17,000 backlash against that kind of progress that typified Weimar society. 408 00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:19,320 So it's kind of quite an interesting time. 409 00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:22,080 And then the Nazis, in a sense, they're 410 00:23:22,160 --> 00:23:24,080 sort of in the background in this way, 411 00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:26,600 but very, very busy building themselves, building up 412 00:23:26,680 --> 00:23:29,760 the party and building up its propaganda and its profile. 413 00:23:33,040 --> 00:23:35,640 Payments of reparations continued and the Ruhr was 414 00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:37,600 no longer controlled by the French. 415 00:23:38,120 --> 00:23:41,480 A new currency, the Rentenmark, was established, which 416 00:23:41,560 --> 00:23:43,280 brought worth back to the currency. 417 00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:49,680 Industry began moving again and unemployment decreased slightly. 418 00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:52,640 Stressormen borrowed money from the US to help 419 00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:56,800 pay back war reparations, a scheme known as the Doors Plan. 420 00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:00,960 He also managed to get Germany a place in the League of Nations. 421 00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:04,800 Morale in Germany was looking up. 422 00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:08,120 Resistance was decreasing and more people were moving 423 00:24:08,200 --> 00:24:09,840 on with their lives peacefully. 424 00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:14,200 However, in 1929, the Wall Street crash in 425 00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:16,680 the US came to affect the German economy 426 00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:20,360 once again, sparking the beginning of the Great Depression, 427 00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:25,280 The global economic downturn created by the 428 00:24:25,360 --> 00:24:28,760 Great Depression in America had devastating repercussions for 429 00:24:28,840 --> 00:24:30,080 the Weimar Republic. 430 00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:33,280 As the panic hit Wall Street, the US 431 00:24:33,360 --> 00:24:36,760 government pressed its former allies, Britain and France, 432 00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:38,320 to repay their war debts. 433 00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:41,640 Not having the money, Britain and France pressed 434 00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:45,600 Germany for more reparations payments, causing an economic depression. 435 00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:48,960 If you ask someone with no money to 436 00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:52,120 pay you lots of money, they're really not going to be able to do it. 437 00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:54,080 And in order to do it, they're then 438 00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:57,240 going to have to borrow money off someone else to pay you back. 439 00:24:57,440 --> 00:24:59,160 Now, that's what Germany does. 440 00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:03,720 America offers Germany loans to pay back the 441 00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:08,640 war reparations to America and to Britain and to France. 442 00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:10,440 So what you have is this sort of 443 00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:12,920 circle of income going across the Atlantic to 444 00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:15,000 Germany and then some of which ends up 445 00:25:15,080 --> 00:25:18,240 trickling back to France and Britain and the United States. 446 00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:23,280 Now, that might work fine if the world's economy is OK. 447 00:25:23,680 --> 00:25:25,600 But what happens in 1929? 448 00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:28,960 You have Black Thursday, you have the depression, 449 00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:32,000 the slump, the Wall Street index go crashing 450 00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:35,400 through the floor in almost a matter of hours. 451 00:25:35,560 --> 00:25:37,440 And you have one of the greatest depressions 452 00:25:37,520 --> 00:25:39,560 the world's economy has ever seen. 453 00:25:40,080 --> 00:25:41,440 Now, of course, what does that mean? 454 00:25:41,520 --> 00:25:43,120 The Americans are going to go, ah, well, 455 00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:45,320 we're no longer going to loan Germany any 456 00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:48,680 money and actually any money we want back. 457 00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:50,920 And the Germans are going, but if we 458 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:54,720 don't have this money, we can't keep our industry going. 459 00:25:55,080 --> 00:25:57,240 And then Britain and France and other countries 460 00:25:57,320 --> 00:26:00,920 around the world are going, we need these markets to sell things to. 461 00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:03,000 That's collapsing, that's collapsing. 462 00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:04,760 Everything's starting to collapse. 463 00:26:05,040 --> 00:26:07,000 Now, of course, that's going to have a 464 00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:10,080 devastating effect on even the most stable form 465 00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:13,920 of political system, as you have, say, in Britain or the United States. 466 00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:16,360 But even in those countries, you had a 467 00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:19,240 lot of political instability as a result of 468 00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:21,320 the depression, this worldwide slump. 469 00:26:21,440 --> 00:26:24,160 But in Germany, it's far, far worse, because, 470 00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:27,120 of course, what you're mixing there is basically 471 00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:30,240 bankruptcy with political extremism. 472 00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:32,920 And that is a very poisonous brew indeed. 473 00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:36,400 And this is what gives rise to more 474 00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:38,880 and more votes going to extremist parties. 475 00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:39,920 Why? 476 00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:44,600 Because they're saying, Weimar has failed and we can offer the solutions. 477 00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:48,440 We've got something definite that these old men simply don't have. 478 00:26:52,120 --> 00:26:54,400 A crucial factor in the rise of Nazism 479 00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:56,720 was the ability of the party to expand 480 00:26:56,800 --> 00:26:59,560 and provide a political home for those discontented 481 00:26:59,640 --> 00:27:01,000 with the state of the Weimar. 482 00:27:02,320 --> 00:27:04,680 Two months after Adolf Hitler was released from 483 00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:07,600 prison, the Nazi party was re-established and 484 00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:09,360 growing in numbers once again. 485 00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:13,360 The roots of Adolf Hitler's rise to power 486 00:27:13,440 --> 00:27:15,960 lie in the disaster of the economic crash 487 00:27:16,040 --> 00:27:19,120 on 1929 and the subsequent depression. 488 00:27:21,320 --> 00:27:23,360 The Wall Street crash and the rise in 489 00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:27,680 unemployment had the important effect of further dividing German politics. 490 00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:31,240 During the Weimar years, the Nazis very much 491 00:27:31,320 --> 00:27:33,680 in the background, but very much building their 492 00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:36,880 profile and their propaganda and their organisation. 493 00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:40,640 But it's really after 1929, with the impact 494 00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:42,720 of the Wall Street crash and the Great 495 00:27:42,800 --> 00:27:46,000 Depression on Germany, that the Nazi party really 496 00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:48,160 came into its own and really, from that 497 00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:50,880 point, managed to attract very, very large numbers 498 00:27:50,960 --> 00:27:52,600 of voters and supporters. 499 00:27:52,680 --> 00:27:57,800 And the reason for this is that in that period, so with the height of the 500 00:27:57,880 --> 00:28:01,440 depression in Germany, a lot of economic distress, 501 00:28:01,520 --> 00:28:06,000 really despair, accompanied really too also by political chaos. 502 00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:08,480 So the succession of short governments, one after 503 00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:11,960 another, including a grand coalition government, unable really 504 00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:14,200 to deal with the economic crisis. 505 00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:17,760 Article 48, which was the presidential decree, was 506 00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:21,200 called into place and used quite a number of times in this period. 507 00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:22,400 So it's kind of a sense that the 508 00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:25,560 normal workings of governments just weren't working. 509 00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:27,920 And then the use of presidential decree, this 510 00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:30,680 kind of emergency use, being called into use 511 00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:33,760 more and more often is signifying these very 512 00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:37,000 difficult political and economic circumstances. 513 00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:42,960 On March 29th, 1930, the finance expert Heinrich 514 00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:45,720 Brüning had been appointed the successor of Chancellor 515 00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:48,760 Müller by Paul von Hindenburg, after months of 516 00:28:48,840 --> 00:28:51,800 political lobbying by General Kurt von Schleicher on 517 00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:52,920 behalf of the military. 518 00:28:56,800 --> 00:28:58,680 The new government was expected to lead a 519 00:28:58,760 --> 00:29:02,240 political shift towards conservatism based on the emergency 520 00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:05,040 powers granted to the president by the constitution, 521 00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:08,160 since it had no majority support in the Reichstag. 522 00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:12,760 The economic downturn lasted until the second half 523 00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:16,720 of 1932, when there were first indications of a rebound. 524 00:29:18,040 --> 00:29:20,320 By this time though, the Weimar Republic had 525 00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:23,000 lost all credibility with the majority of Germans. 526 00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:27,120 The bulk of German capitalists and landowners originally 527 00:29:27,200 --> 00:29:30,800 gave support to the conservative experiment, not from 528 00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:33,480 any personal liking for Brüning, but believing the 529 00:29:33,560 --> 00:29:35,960 conservatives would best serve their interests. 530 00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:40,440 As the mass of the working class and 531 00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:43,000 also of the middle classes turned against Brüning, 532 00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:45,960 more of the great capitalists and landowners declared 533 00:29:46,040 --> 00:29:49,720 themselves in favor of his opponents, in particular, Adolf Hitler. 534 00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:55,560 After Hitler came out of prison, he picked 535 00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:57,720 up the pieces of his party that was 536 00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:00,680 in disarray and really forged his position once 537 00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:02,840 again as the leader of the party and 538 00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:06,600 indeed developing from that to be the leader of the nation. 539 00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:08,280 So this kind of whole cult of the 540 00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:10,800 Führer, cult of the leader surrounding him from 541 00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:13,320 this point during the mid 1920s, that once 542 00:30:13,400 --> 00:30:15,480 he comes to power, that cult of the 543 00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:17,760 leader just expands to the whole nation. 544 00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:20,560 So certainly at this point in the mid 545 00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:22,960 1920s, he's sort of rebuilding the party now, 546 00:30:23,040 --> 00:30:27,120 very much trying to make sure that it was very well organized. 547 00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:29,520 So he organized the party into the different 548 00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:31,960 regions, so the different Gau, each region with 549 00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:34,160 its own regional leader or Gauleiter. 550 00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:38,120 And then he also organized the party very cleverly, horizontally as well. 551 00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:41,360 This idea that there were Nazi organizations right 552 00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:46,480 across different sectors of the economy or of profession or occupation. 553 00:30:46,720 --> 00:30:49,200 So for example, there was the Nazi Teachers 554 00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:53,680 Association, the Nazi Jurists Association, the Nazi Doctors 555 00:30:53,760 --> 00:30:57,840 Association, as well as students associations, women's groups 556 00:30:57,920 --> 00:30:59,600 and youth groups as well. 557 00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:01,560 So there's this kind of buildup, this kind 558 00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:04,080 of groundswell of buildup of support for the 559 00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:07,680 party through the mid 1920s, that once the 560 00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:11,400 depression hits, that in that period from 1929 561 00:31:11,680 --> 00:31:13,920 up until he comes to power in 1933, 562 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:16,640 he's really able to manipulate that basis of 563 00:31:16,720 --> 00:31:19,240 support that's already been established. 564 00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:25,560 The Reichstag general elections on September 14th, 1930, 565 00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:28,160 resulted in an enormous political shift. 566 00:31:29,280 --> 00:31:34,960 18.3% of the vote went to the Nazis, five times the percentage compared to 567 00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:36,040 1928. 568 00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:39,560 This had devastating consequences for the Republic. 569 00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:44,000 The other thing that's really important is the 570 00:31:44,080 --> 00:31:45,920 extent of the economic despair. 571 00:31:46,080 --> 00:31:48,480 So we've got to remember that there's 5 572 00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:51,520 million unemployed in Germany by the winter of 573 00:31:51,600 --> 00:31:57,360 1930 to 31, and that goes up another million to 6 million by 1932. 574 00:31:57,440 --> 00:32:00,800 So that's a very, very huge unemployment statistic. 575 00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:04,040 And of course, Hitler's really putting himself forward 576 00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:07,760 as a leader who will get Germany out 577 00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:11,040 of these very, very dire economic circumstances, who 578 00:32:11,120 --> 00:32:12,600 will make Germany great again. 579 00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:16,040 There was no longer a majority in the 580 00:32:16,120 --> 00:32:19,400 Reichstag, even for a great coalition of moderate parties. 581 00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:22,440 And it encouraged the supporters of the Nazis 582 00:32:22,520 --> 00:32:26,520 to bring out their claim to power with increasing violence and terror. 583 00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:30,720 After 1930, the Republic slid more and more 584 00:32:30,800 --> 00:32:32,960 into a state of potential civil war. 585 00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:37,920 By late 1931, conservatism as a movement was 586 00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:40,440 dead, and the time was coming when Hindenburg 587 00:32:40,520 --> 00:32:43,320 would drop bruning and come to terms with Hitler. 588 00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:48,120 Hindenburg himself was no less a supporter of 589 00:32:48,200 --> 00:32:51,840 an anti-democratic counter-revolution represented by Hitler. 590 00:32:56,120 --> 00:33:00,200 On May 30th, 1932, Bruning resigned after no 591 00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:02,160 longer having Hindenburg's support. 592 00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:06,200 Five weeks earlier, Hindenburg had been reelected as 593 00:33:06,280 --> 00:33:09,800 president with Bruning's active support running against Hitler. 594 00:33:12,040 --> 00:33:15,360 Hindenburg then appointed Franz von Papen as the new chancellor. 595 00:33:16,480 --> 00:33:18,320 Von Papen lifted the ban on the SA 596 00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:21,400 imposed after the street riots in an unsuccessful 597 00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:24,640 attempt to secure the backing of Hitler and the Nazi party. 598 00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:29,680 Papen was closely associated with the industrialist and 599 00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:32,960 land-owning classes and pursued an extreme conservative 600 00:33:33,040 --> 00:33:35,240 policy along Hindenburg's lines. 601 00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:39,560 This government was to be expected to assure 602 00:33:39,640 --> 00:33:41,600 itself of the cooperation of Hitler. 603 00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:45,360 Since the Republicans and socialists were not yet 604 00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:47,760 ready to take action and the conservatives had 605 00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:51,000 shot their political bolt, Hitler and Hindenburg were 606 00:33:51,080 --> 00:33:52,520 certain to achieve power. 607 00:33:57,360 --> 00:34:00,280 Majorities and even coalitions in the Reichstag were 608 00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:02,880 difficult to form among an increasing large number 609 00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:05,400 of extremist parties, left and right. 610 00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:10,160 Elections were held more and more frequently. 611 00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:13,760 Since most parties opposed the new government, von 612 00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:17,320 Papen had the Reichstag dissolved and called for new elections. 613 00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:23,080 The general elections on July 31st, 1932 showed 614 00:34:23,160 --> 00:34:25,800 major gains for the Nazis who won 37 615 00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:28,840 .2% of the vote, overtaking the Social 616 00:34:28,920 --> 00:34:31,760 Democrats as the largest party in the Reichstag. 617 00:34:35,200 --> 00:34:38,840 In the July 1932 elections, that was when 618 00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:42,120 the Nazi party reached the height of its electoral success. 619 00:34:42,200 --> 00:34:45,960 Actually, by November 1932, they'd lost 2 million votes. 620 00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:49,000 So it was kind of those last months were kind of a difficult moment for the 621 00:34:49,080 --> 00:34:50,320 party, but it kind of all sort of 622 00:34:50,400 --> 00:34:53,080 fell into place with the political manoeuvrings and 623 00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:55,320 the machinations just in time, really, in a 624 00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:57,080 way, because I think maybe some of the 625 00:34:57,160 --> 00:35:01,680 popular support for the Nazi party was declining by the end of 1932. 626 00:35:04,440 --> 00:35:07,640 July 1932 resulted in the question as to 627 00:35:07,720 --> 00:35:10,400 now what part the immense Nazi party would 628 00:35:10,480 --> 00:35:12,120 play in the government of the country. 629 00:35:13,240 --> 00:35:16,160 The Nazi party owed its huge increase to 630 00:35:16,240 --> 00:35:20,080 an influx of workers, unemployed, despairing peasants, and 631 00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:21,240 middle-class people. 632 00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:27,120 They wanted a renewed Germany and a new organization of German society. 633 00:35:28,440 --> 00:35:32,000 Therefore, Hitler refused ministry under Papen and demanded 634 00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:36,160 the chancellorship for himself, but was rejected by 635 00:35:36,240 --> 00:35:39,400 Hindenburg on August 13th, 1932. 636 00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:43,800 There was still no majority in the Reichstag for any government. 637 00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:47,720 As a result, the Reichstag was dissolved and 638 00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:49,920 elections took place once more in the hope 639 00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:51,800 that a stable majority would result. 640 00:36:02,520 --> 00:36:06,200 A combination of political and economic dissatisfaction, some 641 00:36:06,280 --> 00:36:07,840 of it dating back to the founding of 642 00:36:07,920 --> 00:36:11,760 the republic, helped create the conditions for Hitler's rise to power. 643 00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:16,120 By drawing together the fringe nationalist parties into 644 00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:18,720 his Nazi party, Hitler was able to gain 645 00:36:18,800 --> 00:36:20,840 a sufficient number of seats in the Reichstag 646 00:36:20,920 --> 00:36:22,680 to make him a political player. 647 00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:28,120 I would strongly suggest that the vast, overwhelming 648 00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:31,360 majority of people who voted for Adolf Hitler, 649 00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:33,960 who looked at Adolf Hitler in the late 650 00:36:34,040 --> 00:36:38,520 1920s, early 1930s, suspected that the person they 651 00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:41,920 were electing would end up committing one of 652 00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:44,280 the worst genocides the world has ever seen. 653 00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:50,120 Yes, of course they knew he was anti -Semitic, but then a lot of people in 654 00:36:50,200 --> 00:36:53,880 Europe and America and elsewhere were anti-Semitic. 655 00:36:53,960 --> 00:36:56,800 It was a pretty standard prejudice. 656 00:36:56,960 --> 00:36:58,800 It's not acceptable, of course, but it was 657 00:36:58,880 --> 00:37:02,920 out there and it was just almost part of life. 658 00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:05,080 You have something called drawing of anti-Semitism 659 00:37:05,160 --> 00:37:08,520 in which people were even in the politest society were anti-Semitic. 660 00:37:09,320 --> 00:37:12,520 The anti-Semitic nature of the Nazi party 661 00:37:12,600 --> 00:37:14,880 wasn't hidden, but I think there was never 662 00:37:14,960 --> 00:37:18,080 a sense that it would unleash the kinds 663 00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:21,120 of policies that came about during the 1930s 664 00:37:21,200 --> 00:37:23,640 and indeed, of course, during the war with 665 00:37:23,720 --> 00:37:27,800 the eventual genocide or attempt to genocide of European Jews. 666 00:37:28,840 --> 00:37:31,320 If Hitler was anti-Semitic, that wasn't necessarily a problem. 667 00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:33,600 And of course, just because someone's a racist 668 00:37:33,680 --> 00:37:36,840 doesn't necessarily mean they actually want to go around murdering people. 669 00:37:37,040 --> 00:37:39,520 So I think that, you know, Hitler, yes, 670 00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:42,480 was unpalatable in an enormous number of ways, 671 00:37:42,560 --> 00:37:45,640 but your average voter in Germany before the 672 00:37:45,720 --> 00:37:50,320 Nazis came to power, he looked like someone who had some solutions. 673 00:37:50,600 --> 00:37:53,120 He looked like someone who had vigour, relative 674 00:37:53,200 --> 00:37:57,240 youth, strength, will, this important word, will. 675 00:37:57,360 --> 00:37:59,680 Hitler refers to the triumph of the will often. 676 00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:03,320 And so you think, well, actually, Weimar's not doing much. 677 00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:04,640 You know, you've got all these sort of 678 00:38:04,720 --> 00:38:07,960 crusty old useless Democrats not doing very much. 679 00:38:08,120 --> 00:38:10,000 Why not make Germany great again? 680 00:38:11,280 --> 00:38:15,080 Eventually, conservatives hoping to control him and capitalise 681 00:38:15,160 --> 00:38:18,000 on his popularity brought him into the government. 682 00:38:18,760 --> 00:38:21,480 However, Hitler used the weaknesses written into the 683 00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:25,280 Weimar constitution, like Article 48, to subvert it 684 00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:27,200 and assume dictatorial power. 685 00:38:28,400 --> 00:38:33,360 In 1932, the Nazi party became the largest political party in parliament. 686 00:38:34,720 --> 00:38:37,960 It's the 1932 election when the Nazis take 687 00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:41,800 230 seats in the parliament that actually makes 688 00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:47,000 everybody turn around and realise this isn't just a kind of rabble. 689 00:38:47,320 --> 00:38:50,600 This isn't just some kind of bloke who's 690 00:38:50,680 --> 00:38:55,000 good at making speeches and, you know, foam flecked oratory. 691 00:38:55,120 --> 00:38:56,640 This is something more than that, that this 692 00:38:56,720 --> 00:38:59,760 party has got an appeal right across the board. 693 00:38:59,840 --> 00:39:04,040 It's seen first as a bulwark, as a barrier against communism. 694 00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:07,520 Many Germans have seen what's happened in Russia 695 00:39:07,600 --> 00:39:11,480 and becoming the Soviet Union, and they fear for that greatly. 696 00:39:12,040 --> 00:39:13,840 But another thing that Hitler also appeals to 697 00:39:13,920 --> 00:39:16,640 is not just kind of the man in the street, if you like. 698 00:39:16,760 --> 00:39:18,920 What he's also done is had a lot 699 00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:23,240 of very, very secret and important meetings with German industrialists. 700 00:39:23,320 --> 00:39:26,200 And he said to the captains of industry, 701 00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:30,240 you know, he said to various financiers, you know, I'm not a threat to you. 702 00:39:30,320 --> 00:39:35,440 You know, I am not someone who wants to sort of rip apart factories. 703 00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:37,200 You know, I want to work with you guys. 704 00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:39,320 You know, I need your industrial might. 705 00:39:39,400 --> 00:39:40,880 We all need your industrial might. 706 00:39:41,040 --> 00:39:44,000 And so what he's doing is he's appealing to both rich and poor. 707 00:39:44,120 --> 00:39:48,560 So you see a lot of the kind of Junker old school class have quite a 708 00:39:48,640 --> 00:39:51,480 lot of respect for the Nazi party and happily vote for him. 709 00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:56,320 Franz von Papen stepped down and was succeeded 710 00:39:56,400 --> 00:40:00,040 by General von Schleicher as Chancellor on December 3rd. 711 00:40:01,360 --> 00:40:04,120 Schleicher's bold and unsuccessful plan was to build 712 00:40:04,200 --> 00:40:06,960 a majority in the Reichstag by uniting the 713 00:40:07,040 --> 00:40:09,800 trade unionist left wings in the various parties, 714 00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:13,160 including that of the Nazis led by Gregor Strasser. 715 00:40:13,520 --> 00:40:15,760 This did not prove successful either. 716 00:40:18,280 --> 00:40:20,800 Adolf Hitler learned from von Papen that the 717 00:40:20,880 --> 00:40:23,360 general had no authority to abolish the Reichstag 718 00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:26,600 parliament, whereas any majority of seats did. 719 00:40:28,560 --> 00:40:31,320 The cabinet, under a previous interpretation of Article 720 00:40:31,400 --> 00:40:34,800 48, ruled without a sitting Reichstag, which could 721 00:40:34,880 --> 00:40:36,800 vote only for its own dissolution. 722 00:40:38,640 --> 00:40:41,480 Hitler also learned that all past crippling Nazi 723 00:40:41,560 --> 00:40:44,600 debts were to be relieved by German big business. 724 00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:48,160 Outmaneuvered by von Papen and Hitler on plans 725 00:40:48,240 --> 00:40:51,000 for the new cabinet and having lost Hindenburg's 726 00:40:51,080 --> 00:40:53,800 confidence, Schleicher asked for new elections. 727 00:40:55,520 --> 00:40:59,080 On January 28th, von Papen described Hitler to 728 00:40:59,160 --> 00:41:02,120 Paul von Hindenburg as only a minority part 729 00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:05,000 of an alternative von Papen-arranged government. 730 00:41:05,800 --> 00:41:10,480 On January 30th, 1933, Hindenburg accepted the new 731 00:41:10,560 --> 00:41:13,680 Papen-nationalist Hitler coalition with the Nazis holding 732 00:41:13,760 --> 00:41:15,800 only three of 11 cabinet seats. 733 00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:22,600 So Hindenburg himself was not fond of Hitler. 734 00:41:22,680 --> 00:41:24,160 He sort of very much regarded him as 735 00:41:24,240 --> 00:41:27,840 this upstart, didn't particularly like or trust him. 736 00:41:28,400 --> 00:41:29,960 But I think what's important in this period 737 00:41:30,040 --> 00:41:32,840 in the early 1930s is that Hitler's got 738 00:41:32,920 --> 00:41:36,800 this entree to Berlin high society, to those 739 00:41:36,880 --> 00:41:39,760 people who have influence with the president. 740 00:41:40,240 --> 00:41:42,680 And they're, if not exactly bending his ear, 741 00:41:42,760 --> 00:41:46,440 they're kind of making Hitler's path to leadership 742 00:41:46,520 --> 00:41:48,800 a little bit easier in that way. 743 00:41:49,040 --> 00:41:51,480 So that by the time that January 1933 744 00:41:51,560 --> 00:41:56,080 comes and that Hindenburg offers Hitler the chancellorship, 745 00:41:56,240 --> 00:42:00,120 because not much earlier on he'd rejected the vice chancellorship. 746 00:42:00,200 --> 00:42:02,440 So Hitler wasn't having the second position. 747 00:42:02,520 --> 00:42:04,000 He wanted the top position. 748 00:42:04,080 --> 00:42:07,040 So by the time that January 1933 came 749 00:42:07,920 --> 00:42:10,600 and Hindenburg offered him that position of chancellor, 750 00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:13,160 he'd sort of accepted that this was going 751 00:42:13,240 --> 00:42:15,000 to be the case because he wanted to 752 00:42:15,080 --> 00:42:18,720 use the popular support that the Nazi party had. 753 00:42:18,880 --> 00:42:20,240 And again, I think the other thing about 754 00:42:20,320 --> 00:42:22,400 Hindenburg and some of the other sort of 755 00:42:22,480 --> 00:42:24,720 more conservative and the kind of military elites 756 00:42:24,800 --> 00:42:27,280 in German society, I think they thought that 757 00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:30,880 they would be able to keep Hitler in control somehow. 758 00:42:30,960 --> 00:42:33,040 So it was kind of almost wanting their 759 00:42:33,120 --> 00:42:35,080 cake and eating it, but of course they couldn't. 760 00:42:35,160 --> 00:42:36,680 So they kind of thought they could use 761 00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:40,680 Hitler's massive support in this great electoral wave, 762 00:42:40,760 --> 00:42:43,880 the kind of popular support of the German people for this party. 763 00:42:43,960 --> 00:42:47,240 So they kind of wanted to harness and use that, but at the same time to 764 00:42:47,320 --> 00:42:49,720 harness in the more violent side of the 765 00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:54,040 party or the kind of ugliest sides of the party and somehow to tame Hitler. 766 00:42:54,120 --> 00:42:56,000 There's this idea that they'd be able to 767 00:42:56,080 --> 00:43:00,000 assimilate him into what they wanted him to be and to tame him out of the 768 00:43:00,080 --> 00:43:02,600 worst excesses of the party. 769 00:43:05,160 --> 00:43:08,440 Hindenburg, despite his misgivings about the Nazis' goals 770 00:43:08,520 --> 00:43:11,560 and about Hitler as a person, reluctantly agreed 771 00:43:11,640 --> 00:43:14,440 to Papen's theory that with Nazi popular support 772 00:43:14,520 --> 00:43:17,640 on the wane, Hitler could now be controlled as chancellor. 773 00:43:21,080 --> 00:43:23,680 After a brief struggle for power, Hitler was 774 00:43:23,760 --> 00:43:26,120 named chancellor in January 1933. 775 00:43:26,840 --> 00:43:29,160 This would be the end of the Weimar Republic. 776 00:43:31,960 --> 00:43:35,160 When Hitler's appointed chancellor in January 33, it's 777 00:43:35,240 --> 00:43:39,480 very tempting to suppose that's it, he's in power, he's totally in control. 778 00:43:39,960 --> 00:43:41,840 You've got to remember that for the first 779 00:43:41,920 --> 00:43:45,160 few years of the Nazis being in power, 780 00:43:45,480 --> 00:43:51,920 they never really felt as in power as we may today think them to be. 781 00:43:52,120 --> 00:43:53,760 Of course, by the time the war broke 782 00:43:53,840 --> 00:43:59,600 out, they had absolute control of Germany and indeed other places too. 783 00:44:00,160 --> 00:44:01,680 But actually, you only have to look at 784 00:44:01,760 --> 00:44:03,920 the diaries of people like Goebbels, the propaganda 785 00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:06,600 minister, Albert Schwer, who ended up becoming the 786 00:44:06,680 --> 00:44:09,080 armaments minister, people like that to realise they 787 00:44:09,160 --> 00:44:11,640 were very worried and Hitler was very, very 788 00:44:11,720 --> 00:44:14,880 worried about public opinion because he was worried 789 00:44:14,960 --> 00:44:16,680 that if public opinion turned against him, he 790 00:44:16,760 --> 00:44:19,600 would lose power like any conventional politician. 791 00:44:20,080 --> 00:44:21,920 So even though he had passed things like 792 00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:23,880 the Enabling Act, which had given him absolute 793 00:44:23,960 --> 00:44:26,240 power and made him head of state and 794 00:44:26,320 --> 00:44:28,680 had given him enormous powers to do what 795 00:44:28,760 --> 00:44:31,440 he liked, he still worried that the German 796 00:44:31,520 --> 00:44:35,680 people, if he put a foot wrong, would turn against him and boot him out. 797 00:44:38,840 --> 00:44:43,360 The Reichstag fire on February 27th, 1933 was 798 00:44:43,440 --> 00:44:46,200 blamed by Hitler's government on the communists and 799 00:44:46,280 --> 00:44:48,920 Hitler used the emergency to obtain President von 800 00:44:49,000 --> 00:44:52,880 Hindenburg's assent to the Reichstag fire decree the following day. 801 00:44:55,440 --> 00:44:58,440 The Reichstag fire is still somewhat shrouded in mystery. 802 00:44:58,840 --> 00:45:00,640 Who burned it down? 803 00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:03,120 It doesn't really matter in the end because 804 00:45:03,200 --> 00:45:06,280 what happens is that Nazis use the burning 805 00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:09,040 down of the Reichstag in order to say, 806 00:45:09,600 --> 00:45:12,120 there's a national emergency, we need more powers 807 00:45:12,200 --> 00:45:14,280 to deal with these sort of, you know, 808 00:45:14,360 --> 00:45:16,840 Reds and communists and all these sort of 809 00:45:16,920 --> 00:45:18,800 very dangerous figures who are burning down the 810 00:45:18,880 --> 00:45:19,960 Reichstag and things like this. 811 00:45:20,040 --> 00:45:20,960 What will happen next? 812 00:45:21,040 --> 00:45:22,120 We need more powers. 813 00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:25,920 The Fuhrer, the leader, Adolf Hitler, he needs more powers too. 814 00:45:26,120 --> 00:45:27,200 And so what you have as a result 815 00:45:27,280 --> 00:45:29,960 is the Enabling Act, which ultimately gives the 816 00:45:30,040 --> 00:45:32,880 Nazi party and Hitler absolute power. 817 00:45:33,200 --> 00:45:36,880 But even then, they're still worried about what people think about them. 818 00:45:37,320 --> 00:45:38,760 You know, this is not a government that 819 00:45:38,840 --> 00:45:41,880 actually wants to do everything in defiance of the people. 820 00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:45,040 It wants to do things for the majority of the people, but it wants to do 821 00:45:45,120 --> 00:45:46,920 it in a very Nazi way. 822 00:45:50,600 --> 00:45:53,360 The decree invoked Article 48 of the Weimar 823 00:45:53,440 --> 00:45:57,040 Constitution and suspended a number of constitutional protections 824 00:45:57,120 --> 00:46:00,280 of civil liberties, allowing the Nazi government to 825 00:46:00,360 --> 00:46:03,360 take swift and harsh action against political meetings, 826 00:46:03,720 --> 00:46:07,400 arresting, or in some cases, murdering members of the communist party. 827 00:46:10,160 --> 00:46:13,360 Within weeks, Hitler invoked Article 48 of the 828 00:46:13,440 --> 00:46:16,520 Weimar Constitution to squash many civil rights and 829 00:46:16,600 --> 00:46:18,680 suppress members of the communist party. 830 00:46:21,400 --> 00:46:25,360 In March 1933, Hitler introduced the Enabling Act 831 00:46:25,440 --> 00:46:27,400 to allow him to pass laws without the 832 00:46:27,480 --> 00:46:29,720 approval of Germany's parliament or president. 833 00:46:30,320 --> 00:46:32,640 This act would and did bring Hitler and 834 00:46:32,720 --> 00:46:35,800 the Nazi party unfettered dictatorial powers. 835 00:46:38,440 --> 00:46:41,280 This bill, which receives the necessary two-thirds 836 00:46:41,360 --> 00:46:44,040 majority with the aid of the center party, 837 00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:47,240 grants full legislative powers to the cabinet without 838 00:46:47,320 --> 00:46:49,440 requiring the assent of the Reichstag. 839 00:46:51,320 --> 00:46:53,320 It is the formal basis of Hitler's power 840 00:46:53,400 --> 00:46:55,400 for the remainder of the Third Reich. 841 00:46:56,840 --> 00:46:59,360 To make sure the Enabling Act was passed, 842 00:46:59,600 --> 00:47:02,920 Hitler forcibly prevented communist parliament members from voting. 843 00:47:03,440 --> 00:47:05,640 Once it became law, Hitler was free to 844 00:47:05,720 --> 00:47:08,160 legislate as he saw fit and establish his 845 00:47:08,240 --> 00:47:10,800 dictatorship without any checks and balances. 846 00:47:13,280 --> 00:47:18,200 Once Hitler has come to power, he consolidates his rule extremely quickly. 847 00:47:18,640 --> 00:47:20,440 And again, it's sort of very unexpected from 848 00:47:20,520 --> 00:47:24,040 the idea that they were going to be able to tame this politician. 849 00:47:24,520 --> 00:47:26,440 So it's a sort of sense of underestimation, 850 00:47:26,520 --> 00:47:32,800 both of Hitler and of the Nazi party as well, as something that was new and 851 00:47:32,880 --> 00:47:35,400 that had a widespread appeal. 852 00:47:35,680 --> 00:47:37,720 What Hitler did very quickly after he came 853 00:47:37,800 --> 00:47:40,440 to power was to consolidate his control. 854 00:47:40,520 --> 00:47:42,000 And he did this in a number of ways. 855 00:47:42,080 --> 00:47:45,120 First of all, by what they call coordination 856 00:47:45,200 --> 00:47:47,320 or the streamlining of society. 857 00:47:47,720 --> 00:47:51,240 So again, it was, if anyone wanted to belong to a youth group, it had to 858 00:47:51,320 --> 00:47:52,280 be an Nazi youth group. 859 00:47:52,360 --> 00:47:54,880 So all of the others were destroyed or banned. 860 00:47:55,320 --> 00:47:58,520 Destruction of the trade unions as well, astonishingly quickly. 861 00:47:58,600 --> 00:48:02,240 And that was the strongest and biggest trade union movement in Europe. 862 00:48:02,640 --> 00:48:04,880 And that's replaced by the German Labour Front. 863 00:48:05,320 --> 00:48:08,840 So this kind of process of coordination, streamlining 864 00:48:08,920 --> 00:48:11,720 society, trying to get people on side, and 865 00:48:11,800 --> 00:48:15,640 then the other really important developments through 1934 866 00:48:15,720 --> 00:48:18,280 was, first of all, that the army had 867 00:48:18,360 --> 00:48:22,160 to swear an oath of personal loyalty to Hitler himself. 868 00:48:22,640 --> 00:48:24,720 So it's not to the state anymore, but 869 00:48:24,800 --> 00:48:27,480 a personal oath of loyalty to Hitler himself. 870 00:48:28,000 --> 00:48:30,080 And then of course, when President Hindenburg died 871 00:48:30,160 --> 00:48:33,160 in August 1934, it's kind of the last 872 00:48:33,240 --> 00:48:38,280 sort of element of restraint or possible control has now disappeared. 873 00:48:38,920 --> 00:48:42,720 Hindenburg's death is kind of the final nail 874 00:48:42,800 --> 00:48:45,680 in the coffin of any semblance of sort 875 00:48:45,760 --> 00:48:49,840 of the Weimar Republic or any hope of liberal democracy. 876 00:48:50,160 --> 00:48:55,040 He represents a kind of a hangover from the Weimar period. 877 00:48:55,600 --> 00:48:58,400 He was still the head of state. 878 00:48:58,560 --> 00:49:00,960 He's now dead and gone. 879 00:49:01,160 --> 00:49:02,600 So after all of the things that have 880 00:49:02,680 --> 00:49:05,520 been put into place, like the Enabling Act 881 00:49:05,600 --> 00:49:09,960 and other policies in those first months, the Nazis came to power. 882 00:49:10,160 --> 00:49:14,200 So now after Hindenburg's death, Hitler's position is unchallenged. 883 00:49:14,280 --> 00:49:18,120 He's the Führer, he's Chancellor, and President all 884 00:49:18,200 --> 00:49:19,240 rolled into one, as it were. 885 00:49:19,320 --> 00:49:22,400 So he is the ultimate power and the ultimate authority. 886 00:49:23,320 --> 00:49:28,520 It now means that one man can take on all the top roles for himself. 887 00:49:28,640 --> 00:49:30,600 That man, of course, is Adolf Hitler. 888 00:49:45,120 --> 00:49:48,160 The change in political tactics and organization in 889 00:49:48,240 --> 00:49:51,200 the mid-1920s allowed Adolf Hitler and the 890 00:49:51,280 --> 00:49:54,240 Nazi Party to take advantage of legislation and 891 00:49:54,320 --> 00:49:56,320 gain the support of the German public. 892 00:49:56,640 --> 00:49:59,560 The collapse of democracy and the circumstances under 893 00:49:59,640 --> 00:50:02,960 which Hitler was made Chancellor in 1933 paved 894 00:50:03,040 --> 00:50:05,640 the way for a dictatorship in Germany, and 895 00:50:05,720 --> 00:50:08,640 the Nazi Party would consolidate their power, leading 896 00:50:08,720 --> 00:50:10,440 to a totalitarian state. 897 00:50:11,560 --> 00:50:14,600 If you want to be a dictator and your party wants to be the only party 898 00:50:14,680 --> 00:50:15,840 in charge, what are you going to do? 899 00:50:15,920 --> 00:50:18,200 Well, you've got to ban every other political party. 900 00:50:18,280 --> 00:50:20,040 So that's what Hitler does. 901 00:50:20,320 --> 00:50:22,880 What else represents a bigger threat to Nazism? 902 00:50:22,960 --> 00:50:26,640 Well, communism and also the trade union movement, 903 00:50:26,720 --> 00:50:28,760 which is obviously traditionally quite leftist. 904 00:50:29,040 --> 00:50:30,080 So what does Hitler do? 905 00:50:30,240 --> 00:50:31,680 He bans that as well. 906 00:50:31,760 --> 00:50:34,280 So that's basically got rid of two massive 907 00:50:34,360 --> 00:50:36,320 power blocks that can threaten him. 908 00:50:36,520 --> 00:50:38,600 Now, what he does is he replaces things 909 00:50:38,680 --> 00:50:41,520 like the unions with his own kind of 910 00:50:41,600 --> 00:50:44,520 Nazi form of unionism, and you have all 911 00:50:44,600 --> 00:50:47,000 these kind of labour fronts and various of 912 00:50:47,080 --> 00:50:50,720 these sort of Nazi bodies and functionaries who 913 00:50:50,800 --> 00:50:52,600 run them who are all obedient to Adolf 914 00:50:52,680 --> 00:50:55,160 Hitler rather than potentially rivals to him. 915 00:50:55,240 --> 00:50:58,640 Or they don't even represent any other form of political thinking. 916 00:50:58,960 --> 00:51:03,680 Everybody has got to feel and think in the same way. 917 00:51:03,920 --> 00:51:05,600 This is called coming together. 918 00:51:05,800 --> 00:51:07,200 This is called Gleichschaltung. 919 00:51:07,520 --> 00:51:11,320 And this is a really important part of the kind of Nazi dream, if you like. 920 00:51:11,400 --> 00:51:16,720 Everybody's marching in the same direction, doing the same thing together. 921 00:51:16,960 --> 00:51:20,400 This is not a place in which individualism is to be encouraged. 922 00:51:20,680 --> 00:51:23,400 With Adolf Hitler considered the saviour that Germany 923 00:51:23,480 --> 00:51:26,320 needed, the support and political backing he obtained 924 00:51:26,400 --> 00:51:29,040 allowed him to take over an entire country 925 00:51:29,240 --> 00:51:32,640 with its people unaware of the horrors that were about to unfold.