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The beginning...
→ The story begins at the end of World War 1 with the successful Allied advance.
→ Germany realized the war was unwinnable and signed an armistice ending the fighting. -
Weimar Republic
→ Civil unrest and worker strikes spread across the nation because its imperial government collapsed.
→ Fearing a Communist revolution, major parties joined to suppress the uprisings, establishing the parliamentary Weimar Republic. -
The Allies
→ One of the new government's first tasks was implementing the peace treaty imposed by the Allies. -
Adolf Hitler and his obsession
→ For Hitler, the views became an obsession, and his bigotry and paranoid delusions made him blaming Jews. His words found resonance in a society with many anti-Semitic people, as by this time, hundreds of thousands of Jews had integrated into German society, and a lot of Germans were still perceiving them as outsiders. -
Hitler's political party
→ Hitler joined a small nationalist political party, and his manipulative public speaking launched him into its leadership and the quantity of people who voted him increased a lot.
→ The Nazis denounced both Communism and Capitalism as international Jewish conspiracies to destroy Germany. -
Economy
→ In addition to losing over a tenth of its territory and taking apart its army, Germany had to accept full responsibility for the war and pay reparations, what debilitated even more its already weakened economy. This was seen as a humiliation by many nationalists and veterans who wrongly believed the war could have been won if the army hadn't been betrayed by politicians and protesters. -
Prison
→ After they made an unsuccessful attempt at overthrowing the government, the party was banned, and Hitler was sent to prison for treason. -
Hitler's return
About a year later, when he went out of prison, he immediately began to rebuild the movement. -
The Great Depression
→ The Great Depression happened. German economy collapsed overnight as American banks It led to American banks removed their loans from Germany.
→ Hitler took advantage of the people's anger, and offered them convenient scapegoats and a promised to restore Germany's greatness. -
The loss of elections
→ Hitler ran for president but he lost the election to General von Hindenburg. However, with 36% of the vote, Hitler demonstrated the extent of his support. -
The Chancellor
The following year, Hindenburg was convinced to appoint Hitler as Chancellor, hoping to channel his popularity for their own goals.
→ Hitler steadily expanded the power of his position.
→ Hitler raised fears of a Communist uprising and argued that only he could restore law and order.
→ Hitler used convinced the government to grant him emergency powers and in some months, freedom of the press was abolished, other parties were disbanded, and anti-Jewish laws were passed. -
Hitler's support
→ Many of Hitler's early radical supporters were arrested and executed, along with potential rivals, and when President Hindenburg died in August 1934, it was clear there would be no new election.
→ His speeches exploited people's fear and ire to drive their support behind him and the Nazi party.