History of The Modern World
History of The Modern World
I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my teacher, Dr. Rachna Sharma, for her guidance
and encouragement in carrying out this project work.
Avik Aggarwal
2
RAJIV GANDHI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF LAW, PUNJAB
SUPERVISOR’S CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the Project on Nazism and Germany submitted to Rajiv Gandhi National
University of Law, Patiala, in partial fulfilment of the requirement of the B.A.LL.B (Hons.)
Course is an original and bona fide research work carried out by Mr. Avik Aggarwal under
my supervision and guidance. No part of this project has been submitted to any University for
the award of any Degree or Diploma, whatsoever.
3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CH-1 INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………5
CH-3 CHARACTERISTICS OF
NAZISM…………………………………………………..11
CH-6 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………..17
CH-7 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………..18
4
CH-1 INTRODUCTION
“Nazism or National Socialism was a totalitarian movement led by Adolf Hitler (1889-
1945) as head of the Nazi Party in Germany. In its intense nationalism, mass appeal, and
dictatorial rule, Nazism shared many elements with Italian fascism. However, Nazism was far
more extreme both in its ideas and in its practice. In almost every respect it was an anti-
intellectual and a theoretical movement, emphasizing the will of the charismatic dictator as
the sole source of inspiration of a people and a nation, as well as a vision of annihilation of all
enemies of the Aryan Volk as the one and only goal of Nazi policy.1
Under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party,
or Nazi Party, grew into a mass movement and ruled Germany through totalitarian
means from 1933 to 1945. Founded in 1919 as the German Workers’ Party, the group
promoted German pride and anti-Semitism, and expressed dissatisfaction with the
terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the 1919 peace settlement that ended World War I
(1914-1918) and required Germany to make numerous concessions and reparations.
Hitler joined the party the year it was founded and became its leader in 1921. In 1933,
he became chancellor of Germany and his Nazi government soon assumed dictatorial
powers. After Germany’s defeat in World War II (1939-45), the Nazi Party was
outlawed and many of its top officials were convicted of war crimes related to the
murder of some 6 million European Jews during the Nazis’ reign. 2 ”
1
Nazism, BRITANNICA, https://www.britannica.com/event/Nazism.
2
Nazi Party, HISTORY (Nov. 9, 2009), https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/nazi-party.
5
CH-2 ESTABLISHMENT OF NAZISM IN GERMANY
“Revolts against the ruling power had started in Germany even during World War I. The
condition of the German people became very miserable towards the end of the War. Emperor
William II being unable to control the situation abdicated the throne and fled to Holland.
On this very day a very violent revolution erupted in Berlin. It was led by a disciplined, self-
regulated, respectable and gentle middle class. They soon declared Germany a republic.
German Chancellor Prince Mex handed over the reins of the government to the socialist
leader Freidrick Ebart, President of the Social Democratic Party. He formed an interim
government signed to Armistice on November 11, 1918 and brought World War I to a close.
The government of Ebart had to face opposition both from the monarchists and the
communists. Freidrick Ebart initiated the process of the formation of a national constituent
assembly. He declared elections for this purpose on January 19, 1919. Out of the 421 seats in
the Constituent Assembly, the Social Democratic Party won a majority by capturing 163
seats, but no party was able to secure an absolute majority.
The first session of this Constituent Assembly was held at a place called Weimar. As no party
enjoyed an absolute majority, the Social Democratic Party formed an interim government
with the help of the Centre Party and the Democratic Party. This is known as the Weimar
coalition. This Assembly elected Ebart as the first President of the Republic and his colleague
Philipp Scheidman was appointed Prime Minister. The Draft Constitution prepared by Hugo
Preuss, the Home Minister was accepted by all the parties in Germany.3”
3
HUKUM CHAND JAIN & KRISHNA CHANDRA MATHUR, A HISTORY OF THE MODERN WORLD
364 (Jain Prakashan Mandir, 14th ed. 2018).
6
According to the new Constitution the German empire (Reich) consisted of 18 federated
States. The sovereignty vested in the German people and all citizens above the age of twenty
were given the right to vote. In a charter the citizens were granted individual freedom as well
as freedom of expression and religion. The Prime Minister and his cabinet were made
accountable to the Reichstag or the Parliament. Signing the treaty with the Allied Powers
proved to be the most painful experience. When the German government received a copy of
the terms and conditions of the treaty in the middle of May, all political parties in Germany
expressed their resentment against them. On July 31, 1919 the National Assembly passed the
final draft by 262 votes against 76 and put it into practice on August 14, 1919. According to
this Constitution, the President was the head of the executive and had the right of appointing
his cabinet of ministers. The tenure of the President was 7 years and he was the Supreme
Commander of Army, Navy and the Air Force.4
He was given decisive rights in foreign affairs. He had a council of ministers which was
accountable to the Reichstag. The Parliament had two houses, the Reichstag which was
elected for four years on the basis of proportionate representation and the Reichsrat which
had the representatives of the 18 states of the union. During the last years of the republic, the
Reichsrat had sixty-six members. Its rights were limited and its main function was to put a
check on the hastiness of the Reichstag.
“A constitution had been ready for Germany but for about twelve years the socialist,
democratic government of the Weimar Republic struggled hard against the ethical, political
and economic problems of the country. The German people had no love for parliamentary
government and were totally unaware of the difficulties of the party system.
Besides this a grave inflation had aggravated the economic problems of the common people
and created anarchy in industries. The value of German currency was declining fast. Because
of her deplorable economic condition Germany requested the Allied Powers to put a
moratorium on the repayment of damages by her for two years, but France, Belgium and Italy
4
Id. at 364-65.
7
turned down her request. Not only this, Monarchists, Militarists and other Right-wing Parties
wanted to put an end to the Republic.
The Republican government failed to control rising prices because of growing unemployment
and inflation in the country. On March 13, 1920, the communists made an unsuccessful
attempt and overthrow the Republican government. In 1923, the Monarchists made another
attempt to overthrow the Republican government. Hitler supported them but this attempt also
fell through. The Republicans arrested and punished Hitler.
In the field of international politics Germany was treated as an outcaste. She had been greatly
humiliated by the Treaty of Versailles. Finally, the Treaty of Locarno in 1925 reduced tension
between France and Germany. She was admitted a member of the League of Nations in 1926.
Germany tried to win over the cooperation of the Allied Powers, yet she maintained
friendship with Russia whom the Allied Powers detested.
The World Depression deeply affected Germany. Now it became impossible for her to pay
the installments of war damages. America also refused to advance her loans. The rise of
Hitler and the Nazi revolution took place against this historical background.”
Adolf Hitler was chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, serving as dictator and leader of
the Nazi Party, or National Socialist German Workers Party, for the bulk of his time in
power. Hitler’s fascist policies precipitated World War II and led to the genocide known as
the Holocaust, which resulted in the deaths of some six million Jews and another five million
non-combatants.
“Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of
eternal struggle do not deserve to live.”5
--- Adolf Hitler
Hitler was the Chairman of the Nazi Party. He was born on April 20, 1889 in a middle class
family at Bruno in Austria. In 1908 he went to Vienna to study Architecture. He became a
5
Adolf Hitler, BIOGRAPHY (Feb., 17, 2017), https://www.biography.com/dictator/adolf-hitler.
8
draughtsman and decorator. He joined the German army as an ordinary soldier during World
War I. When he heard about the fall of Germany, abdication of throne by Kaisar William and
the formation of a new republican government, he was greatly shocked. In May 1919 he got
an opportunity of working in the information and broadcasting department of the territorial
army. Here he came into contact with German Workers Party founded Anton Dracksler. He
joined this party and began to work enthusiastically to raise its membership. In 1920 this
party was renamed as National Socialist German Workers Party or Nazi Party in short. The
same year he captured all power and strengthened the party with the help of Hess, Goering,
Rozenburg and Goebbels. His efforts attracted people towards this party. In 1923, the Nazi
Party under the leadership of Hitler and Leudendorff made an unsuccessful attempt to
overthrow the German republic. Hitler was put behind the bars for this. He utilized his time in
prison in writing a book Mein Kampf, which outlined his programme for building a Nazi
Germany and establishing domination over the world.
Hitler was imprisoned in 1923 for five years. In prison he realized that it was not right to use
force to overthrow the government but attempt to capture power in a constitutional way. He
criticized the parliamentary form of majority government and expounded the concept of his
pure German democracy which consisted in free election of the leader and leaving everything
at his discretion. He described the origin and evolution of the Nazi Party and explained its
future programme. Presenting the programme of German expansion, he emphasised the
principle of self-determination and wrote that all German speaking people should form part
of the German empire. He also propounded the principle of eternal justice which meant that
Germans should get a place to live on. He wrote, “We should fill the mind of the German
people with antagonism and animosity against Weimar Republic and mould it in favour of
Nazi Party.”6
6
JAIN & MATHUR, supra note 3, at 366.
9
“Though Hitler was condemned to prison for five years he was set free by the end of 1924.
The Nazi Party was not in a good condition then. It had been declared illegal in November
1923. From 1925 to 1929 he made efforts to reorganize and expand the Party in accordance
with his ideas. First of all, he strengthened his personal control over the Party. Then he
organized a military force which had two wings the S.A. (Sturm Abteilung) consisting of
aggressive armed forces, and S.S. (Schuiz Stafflen) consisting of selected security guards.
The situation in Germany was in his favour. The members of the Nationalist Party mostly
belonged to the upper classes. They agreed with him as long as he opposed the Treaty of
Versailles and the policy of appeasement of France. The members of the middle class who
had been ruined by the German economic crisis of 1922-23 had turned into proletariat
economically and socially and extremists politically. It was natural for such persons to join
the Nazi Party which was working for national regeneration, was sympathetic towards
workers and was against those who enjoyed special privileges. In 1923 the Nazi Party
established two branches of the central organization. The function of the first branch was to
criticise the policies of the present government. The chief function of the other branch was to
prepare ground for the establishment of the Nazi government. Goebbels was in charge of the
department of propaganda. On behalf of the Party, Hitler brought out a newspaper called the
Volkischer Beobachter. The Republican government was facing a lot of difficulties at this
time because of the World Depression. Nazi Party took advantage of it. Hitler appealed to the
people to extend their support to the Nazi Party and promised that his Party would restore the
national honour and prosperity of Germany. In the elections of the Reichstag held in 1930 he
polled 6.44 million (20%) votes. This was a remarkable achievement for a new party. In
March 1932, Presidential elections were held in Germany. There were three candidates
including Adolf Hitler who polled 30.1 percent votes and won great popularity. This year in
the Parliamentary elections the Nazi Party won 230 out of 576 seats. Though Hitler did not
get an absolute majority, yet he established his totalitarian government.7”
7
JAIN & MATHUR, supra note 3, at 366.
10
CH-3 CHARACTERISTICS OF NAZISM
“Like Fascism, Nazism was an ad hoc ideology that came into being in the circumstances that
prevailed in Germany after the World War I. It rose in the mind of extremist leaders of
Germany. It was mainly based on reactionism. It developed in reaction to democracy,
liberalism and communism and had no organised philosophy behind it. Nazism is chiefly a
movement and a programme of political activity. It lasted in Germany only for a short period
of 12 years. During the last six years Germany was involved in a fierce world war and after it
Nazism came to an end. And during the first six years the Nazis were so busy in
strengthening their power, implementing their programme and preparing Germany for
international wars that they could not develop any philosophy of national socialism or
Nazism.8”
“Nazism does not approve of a theoretical discussion of the concept of state, but admits the
supremacy of the nation. For it nation is all in all, it is the end and state is just its means. Thus
under Nazism nation state is supreme. The Nazis used the word Volk for nation which stands
for a concept somewhat higher than ‘people’ or ‘nation’. It denotes a human group bound by
blood relations and racial unity and is conscious of its superiority. For Nazis, nation is
spiritual concept.
For Hitler and other leaders of Nazi movement, the ultimate value of a human being lay not
in his or her individuality, but in his or her membership in a racially defined collective group.
The ultimate purpose of a racial collective was to ensure its own survival. Most people would
agree that humans have an individual instinct for survival, but Hitler went on to assume a
collective instinct for survival centred on membership in a group, a people, or a race (using
these terms interchangeably). For the Nazis, this collective instinct for survival always
8
JAIN & MATHUR, supra note 3, at 367.
11
involved safeguarding the purity of the “race” and the struggle with competing “races” for
territory.
Maintaining race purity was important, according to Hitler and others, because mixing with
other races would over time lead to bastardization and degeneration of a race to the point
where it lost its distinguishing characteristics and, in effect, lost the capacity to effectively
defend itself, thus becoming doomed to extinction. Territory was vital, Hitler insisted,
because the expanding population of a race required it. Without new territory to support an
expanding population, Hitler believed the race would ultimately stagnate and face eventual
disappearance.9”
Nazi racial ideology also included the idea of a qualitative hierarchy of races, in which not all
races were equal. Hitler believed that Germans were members of a superior group of races
that he called “Aryan.” The German “Aryan” race was gifted above all other races, Hitler
asserted, with this biological superiority destining the Germans to rule a vast empire across
Eastern Europe.
“Like Fascism, Nazism also opposes liberalism, democracy and communism. Hitler believed
that democracy was the harbinger of communism. The Nazi leaders had no faith in people’s
common sense and competence to rule. They thought that in a democracy power did not
remain in the hands of the people but was grabbed by a few clever people who used it to
grind their own axe. They consider the principle that democracy functions on the consensus
of the people misleading. Same is the ease with the division of powers in democracy. They
hold that the masses are never anxious to rule. They wish for a leader who can run the
government according to his discretion and power to fulfil their ambitions, to strengthen the
nation and to maintain its integrity. Such a leader always commands willing obedience of the
people. According to them natural law demands that power should flow from top to bottom
and responsibility from bottom to top. This concept is definitely against democracy.
9
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Victims of the Nazi Era: Nazi Racial Ideology,
ENCYCLOPEDIA, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/victims-of-the-nazi-era-nazi-racial-
ideology.
12
3.5 Nazism and Women
Plato pleaded equal rights for women in public activities. His communism treats women
equal to men in every respect except gender. The Nazis who supported racism and racial
superiority restricted the sphere of women's activities. Their sole duty was to bear children,
raise good citizens and give brave soldiers to the nation.
Women were expected to bear as many children of good breed as they could. This would
expand the German race. The Nazi leaders were so much concerned about bearing children of
pure breed that they explained and expanded Plato’s concept of communism in a new form.
For raising the children of fine breed, Hitler proposed that a large number of women should
kept in camps where they should mate with strong and well-built men of pure blood. Then in
a year they would have as many children of good breed as they wanted. For this Nazism
approved even illegitimate sex relations. Nazis did not envisage any role for women in
political and public spheres.10”
4.1 Dictatorship
The chief aim of Nazism was the reconstruction of Germany in order to make it the most
powerful nation in the world. A programme with this end in view was prepared by Nazi
leaders and implemented by a strong political party which held the whole authority of the
nation in its hands. All other political parties were repressed. With this objective the Nazi
party was formed and when it came into power it controlled whole authority in the state and
crushed the opponents ruthlessly. It advocated militarism.
4.2 Propaganda
The Nazis primarily focused on increasing their membership through advertising the party
legitimately. They did this through simple and effective propaganda. The Nazis started
advocating clear messages tailored to a broad range of people and their problems. The
10
JAIN & MATHUR, supra note 3, at 369-70.
13
propaganda aimed to exploit people’s fear of uncertainty and instability. These messages
varied from ‘Bread and Work’, aimed at the working class and the fear of unemployment, to
a ‘Mother and Child’ poster portraying the Nazi ideals regarding women. Jews and
Communists also featured heavily in the Nazi propaganda as enemies of the German people.
Joseph Goebbels was key to the Nazis’ use of propaganda to increase their appeal. Goebbels
joined the Nazi Party in 1924 and became the Gauleiter for Berlin in 1926. Goebbels used a
combination of modern media, such as films and radio, and traditional campaigning tools
such as posters and newspapers to reach as many people as possible. It was through this
technique that he began to build an image of Hitler as a strong, stable leader that Germany
needed to become a great power again. This image of Hitler became known as ‘The Hitler
Myth’.11
Dictatorship makes the greatest use of spy system for the success of its programme. It was
widely used under Nazism too. It is said that Nazi education and propaganda had been
instilled among the people to this extent that a member of the family worked as a spy on
others. The spy system made all government activities terrorising. Nobody knew who was
spying on whom and where.
11
The Nazi Rise to Power, THE HOLOCAUST EXPLAINED, https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/the-nazi-
rise-to-power/the-nazi-rise-to-power/propaganda/.
14
CH-5 CAUSES OF THE SUCCESS OF THE NAZI PARTY
“Germany’s economy suffered badly after the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Germany was
particularly badly affected by the Wall Street Crash because of its dependence on American
loans from 1924 onwards. As the loans were recalled, the economy in Germany sunk into a
deep depression. Investment in business was reduced.
As a result, wages fell by 39% from 1929 to 1932. People in full time employment fell from
twenty million in 1929, to just over eleven million in 1933. In the same period, over 10,000
businesses closed every year. As a result of this, the amount of people in poverty increased
sharply. The Depression associated economic failure and a decline in living standards with
the Weimar democracy. When combined with the resulting political instability, it left people
feeling disillusioned with the Weimar Republic’s democracy and looking for change. This
enhanced the attractiveness of the Nazis propaganda messages.12
The rise of the Nazi Party can be attributed significantly to the growth of communism within
Germany. The middle class, fearing an upheaval in the political structure of the state, flooded
unreservedly to the only leader apparent to them that would prevent the communists from
attaining power. It was the monetary contributions of the middle class that significantly
funded the functioning of the Nazi Party, including the storm troopers fighting against
communists in the streets, as well as the elaborate propaganda program that gave the Nazi
Party the edge over the other parties.13
5.3 Anti-Semitism
From the time of German defeat in World War I the feeling that the Jews were responsible
for it had gained currency among the people of Germany. The Jews dominated politics,
business, trade and the arts. They were the most prosperous community in Germany. The
12
Ibid.
13
Influence of Communism on Hitler’s Rise to Power, UK ESSAYS (Dec. 5, 2016),
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/history/influence-of-communism-on-hitlers-rise-to-power-history-essay.php.
15
common people hated them as exploiters. Hitler took advantage of this anti-Semitic feeling
and promised to expel the Jews from the country and to hand over their factories to the
unemployed. So the unemployed began to support the Nazi Party.
The people in Germany had no liking for the democratic/republican form of government.
They accepted it only to win the sympathy of President Wilson, but when it failed the Nazi
Party reaped its advantage. They convinced the people that the parliamentary system had
completely failed. Hitler assured the people to give them a strong government. Therefore a
large number of people were convinced that only he was the person who could restore the lost
prestige and prosperity of Germany.
Hitler's rise to power was attributable, at least in part, to an unholy fusion of his own peculiar
nature and the urgent desire of the German people in the interwar years for a messiah figure
to save them from their malaise. Germans desperately projected their desires on to Hitler,
while his arrogant, inflexible nature appeared to confirm that he was, indeed, someone on a
mission.14
Hitler had a magnetic personality. He has all the qualities required of a popular leader. He
was a very shrewd politician, a powerful orator, and a brave soldier. He was endowed with an
extraordinary quality of moulding the political manoeuvres in his favour according to the
circumstances. Besides it, he made full use of all the means of propaganda to impress the
people. Hitler denounced defeat in war as the national humiliation and promised to restore the
national glory. For this he aroused bellicosity in the people.
CH-6 CONCLUSION
14
Roger Moorhouse, The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler, By Laurence Rees, INDEPENDENT (Oct. 14, 2012),
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-dark-charisma-of-adolf-hitler-by-laurence-
rees-8210242.html.
16
Nazism did not propound any clear cut principles of government or administration. It was a
revolution born to fulfil the emotional needs of the Germans. But Nazism was not only a
political ideology; social and economic ideas were so intermingled with it that it seems
proper to call it Hitlerism rather than Nazism.
Among the thinkers who influenced Nazism the name of German metaphysical thinkers like
Kant, Fichte, Hegel etc. comes first. Besides them H.S. Chamberlain and Mussolini also
contributed to it. There may be some similarity between the circumstances in which Hitler
and Mussolini assumed the reign of government in their hands but at their inception there was
no resemblance between Nazism and Fascism. Fascism was formulated after grabbing
authority but Nazism had evolved long before the Nazis captured power.15
Hitler wanted to expand the German empire and for this he signed treaties of friendship with
many countries. A treaty of friendship which does not aim at war is useless, he believed. His
objective was to strengthen the nation through increasing its military prowess. Oppressed
people are never freed and unified in a common empire by organizing protests. This can be
done through a sharp unsheathed sword and the task of forging the sword is the task of the
leaders of domestic policy. He considered a decisive war with France necessary to snatch the
provinces of Alsace and Lorraine etc. Thus Hitler’s foreign policy was based on animosity
towards France, elimination of Jews and Communists and capturing Russian territories for
the subsistence of the German people on this earth.16
It is clear that the people dissatisfied with the spoils of the World War I attempted to grab
power through revolutions. No doubt they succeeded in it but they paved way for the World
War II which tolled the knell of totalitarianism.”
15
JAIN & MATHUR, supra note 3, at 367.
16
JAIN & MATHUR, supra note 3, at 377.
17
CH-7 BIBLIOGRAPHY
7.1 Books
Paul Madden, Some Social Characteristics of Early Nazi Party Members, 1919-23, 15
CENTRAL EUROPEAN HIST. 34, (1982).
Edward J. Kunzer, The Youth of Nazi Germany, 11 THE JOURNAL OF EDU.
SOCIO. 342, (1938).
7.3 Internet/Websites
https://www.britannica.com/event/Nazism.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/nazi-party.
https://www.biography.com/dictator/adolf-hitler.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/victims-of-the-nazi-era-nazi-racial-
ideology.
https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/the-nazi-rise-to-power/the-nazi-rise-to-
power/propaganda/.
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/history/influence-of-communism-on-hitlers-rise-to-
power-history-essay.php.
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-dark-charisma-
of-adolf-hitler-by-laurence-rees-8210242.html.
18