2.3 Hitler's Dictatorship

• History
• Middelbare school
• havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 3

2.3: Hitler's dictatorship

AGE 9. The Time of World Wars

What is this lesson about?

Because of the economic crisis of 1929, the Nazi Party became the biggest party in Germany. In 1933, Hitler was appointed as Reichskanzler. After the Reichstag Fire, he used the fear of the Germans to get dictatorial powers. Through propaganda, Hitler secured his power, indoctrinating the population and especially the youth. The SS and the Gestapo arrested Hitler’s political enemies and send them to concentration camps.

people in this lesson

Paul von Hindenburg

president

(head of state) 

Heinrich Himmler

leader of the SS

and Gestapo

Adolf Hitler

chancellor

(prime minister) 

Josef Goebbels

minister of 

Propaganda

Word Duty

NSDAP: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, or Nazi Party

Reichstag: German parliament

Enabling act: act through which Hitler obtained dictatorial power

SS: abbreviation for Schutzstaffel; security and military organisation controlled by the Nazi Party

Night of the Long Knives: purge used by Hitler to eradicate the critics of his regime in the SA 

nazification: measures taken by Hitler to turn Germany into a totalitarian state

indoctrination: process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically

Hitler Youth: organisation in Nazi Germany for children aged 10 to 18

Gestapo: state secret police of Nazi Germany (geheime staats polizei) tasked with hunting down people who opposed or were critical towards Hitler and the Nazis.

Führer: literally: Leader. The title Hitler adopted after president Hindenburg died in 1934.

concentration camp: camps were a government forces many people to live, sometimes under terrible conditions

KEY WORDS

Important dates in this lesson:

1925:  founding of the SS

1929:  start economic crisis in Germany

1933: 

          January: Hitler appointed Reichskanzler

           February: Reichstag Fire

           March: new elections + Enabling Act

1934

           April: founding of the Gestapo

          June: Night of the Long Knives

           August: Hindenburg dies. Hitler becomes Führer.

           

7b. Which of these reasons for the Night of the Long Knives is wrong?

1. SA leaders wanted to turn the SA into the new German army
2. The SA was not purely Aryan anymore.
3. Several members focused too much on the socialist aspect of the SA
4. SA leaders had become critical towards Hitler