The German Reich

Part One: The Interwar Period: 1919-1939

At the end of the Great War the German Empire imploded following a communist mutiny in the Imperial Navy. Kaiser Wilhelm was forced to flee, and the Social Democrats, desperate to prevent a Russian style revolution, declared a Republic and surrendered to the Entente. As the men of the former Imperial Army marched home to find fighting in the streets between socialists and the police, it became quite clear that this would not be a true peace for Germany.

Spartacist revolutionaries in the streets of Berlin

Following the example of Lenin and the Bolsheviks in Russia, a socialist movement known as the Spartacus League (Spartakusbund) attempted to seize control of Berlin and topple the new post-Imperial government in a manner similar to that of Lenin in the November Revolution of 1917. Unlike in Russia, however, the returning troops were not so inclined toward the communist ideals of the revoltuionaries, and quickly reformed into paramilitary units known as Freikorps, which operated nominally under the authority of the new government, but were generally more like reactionary militias. They quickly suppressed the Spatacist Uprising, controversially summarily executing Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht. The government was thus secure, with forces available to protect it, and by the end of 1919 the country had been secured.

At Versailles the Germans were humiliated by the vengeful Entente Powers, losing all of their overseas possessions as well as portions of Germany itself, including parts of the newly created Poland and Czechoslovakia in the east along with Alsace-Lorraine being returned to the French. In addition, the industrial regions of the Rhineland and Ruhr were demilitarized and placed under occupation. The German Military was also dismembered, with the new Reichswehr being limited to a mere 100,000 men, along with bans on tanks and the creation of an air force and the massive reduction of the navy. The greatest lasting damage would come from being saddled by massive war debts by the victorious powers, with Germany being forced to pay for all involved nations.

Ten million Mark banknotes used as notepaper, such was their low value in 1923

The result was an economic crisis, as the a Germany almost bankrupted by the blockades and spending during the Great War, now led by a much less stable newly minted government, attempted to pay for these massive debts. By 1923 the situation came to a head as the Mark entered freefall and began hyperinflation, devaluing to such an extent that it cost the average citizen billions of marks to buy a loaf of bread.

During this period various political extremist movements would vie for control and make attempts to overthrow the government. One such group was the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP), led by a former Army corporal named Adolf Hitler. Commonly refered to as the Nazi party, they were a fusion of socialistic economic policies with right wing nationalism, and soon became a notable force, particularly in Bavaria. They were opposed primarily by the Communist Party of Germany, but also clashed with a variety of other right and left wing groups, as well as with government authorities.

In 1923 Hitler and the Nazis, having secured an alliance with right wing movements led by WWI leader General Erich Ludendorff, attempted a putsch (coup d’etat) in Munich, but encountered armed resistance from both police and army forces, and the coup collapsed, with Hitler, Ludendorff, and several other arrested.

Nazi stormtroopers during the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923

The highly publicized trial of Hitler for the putsch resulted in Hitler being given a light sentence of only five years in prison due to a sympathetic local judiciary, and he used his time in prison to write his manifesto: Mein Kampf. He was released in December of 1924, after serving only nine months.

Despite the shortness of his incarceration, Hitler emerged to find a changed nation. The economy was stabilizing, and the popularity of extremist movements, including the Nazis, was declining sharply. Thus began a period known as the Goldene Zwanziger Jahre, or Golden Twenties, during which the Weimar Republic was stable and the economy rebounded. The country had an experience similar to that of the United States, with a general relaxation of culture and a spirit of optimism. Loans from the United States were taken to offset the costs of the reparations, and with US aid the German economy stabilized with support from the prosperous United States.

Potsdamer Platz in Berlin during the late 1920s

All would come to a screeching halt in 1929, as the US stock market crashed and plunged the world into the Great Depression. The flow of US money to the world abruptly ceased, and the German economy did as well. Political instability returned, and the radical movements began to reassert themselves. Unlike their actions of a decade earlier, Hitler and the Nazis were determined to ascend to power using legal means, with mass election campaigns, and in early 1933 Hitler was named Chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg, along with the party holding a majority of 196 seats in the Reichstag (the German legislature).

The Reichstag burns in 1933

Following the burning of the Reichstag building under suspicious circumstances, the government moved to ban opposition parties, and Hitler, now Chancellor, took yet more control. Soon the Federal German states were dissolved and unified into a new central system, with the Nazis in ever increasing control. Needing to gain the support of the military, which was still controlled by the monarchist leaning Prussian Junker class, Hitler ordered the purging of the more militant persons within the NSDAP, including the liquidation of the brownshirts of the SA. With the death of President Hindenburg in 1934, and the leadership of the armed forces now behind him, Hitler merged the two offices of president and Chancellor into his new title: the Führer.

Hitler meets President Hindenburg at the Garrison Church in Potsdam, in an elaborate display to win over German conservatives

With the Nazis now in complete control they began to enact their agenda throughout the country. Firstly they rejected the Treaty of Versailles and defaulted on the war debts, and then proceeded to rebuild the military, rechristened the Wehrmacht. In 1936 the Rhineland, the industrial region along the French border, was occupied by German troops, in direct violation of the treaty mandate that the area be completely demilitarized. They also began to rebuild the navy, create an ultramodern air force as well as a tank force. At the Berlin Olympics in 1936 the new military was unveiled to the world, along with an idealized “New Germany” at the Berlin Olympics, showcasing the new economic prosperity of the regime.

SA on parade during a Nazi Party rally in Nuremburg

This all disguised a dark underbelly; one of excessive corruption, authoritarianism, and violent repression of Jews, political dissidents, and others targeted as scapegoats for the defeat of 1918, the so called “November Criminals”. Jews were stripped of their civil rights, their businesses looted, their homes and synagogues burned by the Nazi stormtroopers, now backed by the Police and the courts. The first of a new system of forced labor camps had been opened at Dachau in 1933, and had rapidly evolved from a simple internment camp into a death camp where inmates were worked to death and tortured by the SS, the NSDAP’s private army and security service, which now had control of all law enforcement in the Reich. All aspects of German life were brought under increasing control of the party, with the Propaganda Ministry of Joseph Goebbels controlling all media in the country, the new Reich Labor Service (RAD) replacing trade unions, and Strength Through Joy (KDF) being set up as an incentive program to encourage productivity and loyalty. These were but a few of the changes made as the NSDAP fully integrated itself into the government of Germany, retaining party control over these organizations but giving them the force of the law as de facto government agencies.

German troops enter Austria, meeting only cheering crowds

In 1938 the Austrian wing of the Nazi party was able to seize control of that country as well and immediately ordered a referendum on whether to join the German Reich, which passed with an overwhelming majority, despite evidence of fraud. As a result, Austria was taken over by Germany in what was called the Anschluss, or Union. This caused worry throughout the world, particularly Britain and France. In order to prevent another European war, both of them called a conference in Munich, Germany to settle the question of the ethnically German regions of Czechoslovakia. Without allowing the Czechs to even attend the meeting, the British and French gave all of the territory in question to the Germans. This would cause Czechoslovakia to collapse within a year, and Germany to annex the rest. They then set their sights on Poland, and finally the western powers stood their ground.

German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop meets with his Soviet counterpart Vyacheslav Molotov in 1940

On August 23rd, 1939 a secret treaty of alliance would be signed between Germany and the Soviet Union, safeguarding the Reich from attack from the East, and allowing them to move against Poland while still being able to resist the West.