Hitler and Nazi Germany

A straight path bordered by barbed wire fences and brick buildings on both sides, with trees visible in the distance

Adolf Hitler is one of the dominant figures of the 20th century. He and the Nazis changed the lives of most Europeans during his years in power and the consequences of their defeat were far-reaching. This course will explore, among other things, how the Nazis rose to power, their apparent popularity in Germany in the 1930s and Hitler’s determination to unleash a war which led to the death of millions and to genocide.

Course Dates

Key Features

Welcome week (Week 0)

Purpose:

personal introductions
introducing the course
useful reading
personal objectives

Learning outcomes:

By studying this week, the students should have:

become familiar with navigating around the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and from VLE to links and back
test your ability to access files and the web conferencing software and sort out any problems with the help of the Technology Enhanced Learning team
learn how to look for, assess and reference internet resources
contribute to a discussion forum to introduce yourself to other students and discuss why you are interested in the course and what you hope to get out of your studies

Week 1: Kampfzeit: the rise to power, 1918 – 1933

Purpose:

The course will begin by looking at Hitler’s early life and the influences upon him up to and including his service on the Western Front in the First World War. From there we will consider the state of Germany after the defeat of November 1918 and the formation of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (NSDAP). We will look at the abortive Munich Putsch of 1923 and its consequences, the struggles for power within the Nazi Party and the emergence of Hitler as undisputed ‘Fuhrer’ before considering the ways in which the Depression transformed the political landscape within Germany and how the Nazis exploited this situation to become the largest single party in the Reichstag by 1932. We will end by considering the process by which Hitler became Chancellor in January, 1933. Was it, as Nazi propaganda asserted, a ‘seizure of power,’ or was he manoeuvred into power by non-Nazi forces around him.

Topics to include:

Hitler’s life until the First World War
defeat and revolution in Germany, 1918-1923
the Munich Putsch
the ‘wilderness years, 1923-29’
leadership struggles within the Nazi Party
creating the ‘Fuhrer’
the effects of the Depression on the Germany economy and society
why and how did the Nazis benefit from the Depression?
manoeuvred into power – January 1933

Learning outcomes:

By studying this week the students should have:

an introduction to the early life of Adolf Hitler to 1918
some understanding of the state of Germany in the years after the First World War
some appreciation of the development of, and the struggles within the Nazi Party before 1933
some understanding of why and how Hitler came to power in January, 1933

Week 2: Title: Volksgemeinshaft – Germany under the Nazis, 1933 - 1939

Purpose:

This Unit will consider life in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, beginning with the initial measures to establish the régime and neutralize opposition. From there, we will look at how the régime won the acquiescence of the majority of the German people by reducing unemployment, providing for a rising standard of living and restoring German power and pride. We will also consider the power of the ‘Fuhrer myth’ and the charismatic role of Hitler both as a method of making the régime popular and as an illustration of the ways in which policy was made in the Third Reich. We will also consider Nazi policies towards specific groups such as women and young people, the power of propaganda and the development of persecution aimed at Jews and other groups deemed by the régime as either a threat or expendable.

Topic to include:

establishing the dictatorship
creating the terror state
‘the Night of the Long Knives’
economic miracles
the propaganda stateHitler worship
the Nuremburg rallies and Leni Riefenstahl
Hitler’s Olympics, 1936
Nazi art and architecture
Nazis and women
Nazis and young people
the racial state
resistance to Hitler
the T4 project – precursors of genocide?
Kristallnacht and the persecution of the Jews

Learning outcomes:

By studying this week, the students should have:

some insight into how the dictatorship and the ‘terror state’ was established
some appreciation of how Nazi policies affected women, young people, the workplace etc
appreciated the power of propaganda in moulding opinion and perceptions and the various uses of the ‘Fuhrer myth.’
some understanding of the development of racial policies towards the Jews and the significance of the T4 euthanasia project

Week 3: Deutschland Erwache! The road to war, 1919-1939

Purpose:

This unit will concentrate on the study of events in Europe in the 1930s which led to the German invasion of Poland and the outbreak of war in September, 1939. We will begin by looking at the impact of the Treaty of Versailles on Germany in the 1920s, and the opposition the Treaty generated within Germany. On taking power, Hitler soon pursued policies which broke the provisions of the Treaty and we will discuss the reasons why the allies, France and Britain in particular, failed to enforce the Treaty after 1933. From there we will look at the foreign policy successes Hitler achieved in the Rhineland, Spain, Austria and Czechoslovakia, the latter involving the notorious Munich Agreement of 1938. This unit will end by looking at the Nazi-Soviet Pact of August 1939 – why did these two opposing ideologies sign a treaty of friendship and co-operation. The Unit will end by posing the question: did Hitler end up fighting the wrong war in 1939

Topics to include:

Germany and the Treaty of Versailles 1919-1933
early steps: the entry into the Rhineland and conscription
Hitler’s plans for war
Hitler and Mussolini – from adversary to ally
intervention in Spain
appeasement and ‘non-intervention’
Anschluss, Austria 1938
the Sudetenland and the Munich Agreement
the Nazi-Soviet Pact
the wrong war?

Learning outcomes:

By studying this week the students should have:

some appreciation of the effects of the Treaty of Versailles on Germany between 1919 and 1933
considered the ways in which Hitler repudiated the Treaty after 1933
some insight into why Britain and France responded with the policy of appeasement
an introduction to the narrative of events from Germany’s withdrawal from the Disarmament Conference in 1933 to the occupation of Prague in March 1939

Week 4: Vernichtungskrieg! A different sort of war, 1939-1945

Purpose:

The war that Hitler unleashed in September 1939 was intended from the beginning to be a different sort of war. After considering the narrative of events of 1939-40 (the invasion of Poland, the conquest of western Europe in May-June 1940 and the ‘Battle of Britain’) this week will concentrate on the war in the east and the plans the Nazis had for large-scale ‘ethnic cleansing’ and resettlement in Poland, the Baltic States, the Ukraine and European Russia, territories Timothy Synder has called ‘the bloodlands. This ‘war of annihilation,’ as Hitler called it, was the prelude to the creation of a vast Germanic empire in the east stretching to the Urals. Hitler had written and spoken of this war since the 1920s and we will examine the ways in which Nazi policies in the east were implemented, first in Poland, then in the Soviet Union. We will also consider the role of the Einsatzgruppen murder squads and of allies and collaborators from across Europe who volunteered to fight in Russia as part of a European ‘crusade’ against ‘Bolshevism’. The week will conclude by detailing the ways in which the Germans and their allies were finally forced to retreat by the Red Army after the defeat at Stalingrad and the consequences of the Bomb Plot against Hitler of July 1944. Finally, we will consider the question: why did the Germans fight to the bitter end in 1945 when it was clear that the war was lost?

Topics to include:

Germany’s war, September 1939-September 1940
did Hitler ever intend to invade Britain?
Germany turns east – the plans for German rule in the east
‘ethnic cleansing’ and resettlement
the siege of Leningrad
collaborators and allies in the east
the battle of Stalingrad
on the back foot – the Soviet advances
the Bomb Plot and its consequences
why did the Germans fight to the end in 1945?

Learning outcomes:

By studying this week the students should have:

some insight into why the war in the east was described as ‘a war of annihilation’;
some appreciation of the manner in which this policy was put into effect and its consequences;
some understanding of why nations and individuals fought for, or alongside, Nazi Germany.

Week 5: Endlosung: the Final Solution of the Jewish Question

Purpose:

The final week follows on from week 4, as the attempted extermination of the Jews took place within the broader concept of the ‘war of annihilation’ in the east. We will begin by looking, briefly, at anti-Semitism before 1933 and, in particular, how a religious prejudice changed in the nineteenth-century, under the influence of pseudo-science, into a biological racial theory, which, after 1917, was linked to a fear of Communism. From there we will look at ways in which the Nazi state sought to exclude Jews from all aspects of German cultural, social and economic life and how, in the 1930s, a policy of forced emigration was favoured. With the outbreak of war the situation changed, emigration was no longer an option and, with the conquest of Poland, the Ukraine and European Russia millions of Jews found themselves under Nazi control. The ways in which, and the reasons why, Nazi policy towards the Jews evolved so rapidly in late 1941 and early 1942 is an important part of this week. At some point in the autumn of 1941 a decision appears to have been taken at the highest levels that the Jews of Europe should be systematically shipped to the east and exterminated, we will look at the evidence for this and the work of historians, such as Ian Kershaw, who have written on this question. This period witnessed Nazi policy move away from mass shooting towards experiments with gas, particularly when the first extermination camp was established at Chelmo in December 1941. We will also consider the Wansee Conference of January 1942 and its place in the radical escalation of killing seen at this time. From there we will examine the evolution of Auschwitz from a concentration camp to an industrialized centre of extermination and how this was achieved. We will also consider the role of Germany’s allies and collaborators in the Holocaust, what the British and Americans may or may not have known about what was going on, and the fate of Roma and millions of Russian prisoners-of-war in related Holocausts. The week will end by considering the attempts to bring the perpetrators to justice, asking the question why this process has so often failed and the significance of those who deny that the Holocaust ever took place.

Topic to include:

anti-Semitism before 1933
Nazi persecution of Germany’s Jews before 1939
Eichmann in Vienna, 1938
Nazi treatment of the Jews of Poland and the Soviet Union
when did Hitler decide on genocide?
escalation, Chelmo and the Wansee Conference
Operation Reinhard
Hungary 1944
jews for sale – Himmler and the allies
other Holocausts – the Roma and Russian POWs
justice against the perpetrators
Holocaust denial

Learning outcomes:

By studying this week the students should have:

an introduction to the varied roots of anti-Semitism in pre-war Europe
some understanding of Nazi policies towards German and Austrian Jews prior to 1939 and their consequences;
an appreciation of how Nazi policy concerning the ‘Jewish Question’ evolved over 1941-42;
some insight into the varied roles played by allies and collaborators in the Holocaust;
some understanding of why post-war attempts to bring perpetrators to trial have been so difficult.