Rise of the Third Reich Summary
The Rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party is Germany is one of history’s most studied events. Today, as we learn about it in mostly free, democratic societies, it can seem baffling that a dictator as cruel and evil as Hitler was able to assume power in a democratic society not so different from our own.
The story begins with World War I. The Treaty of Versailles punished Germany, destroying their economy and pinning upon them the entire blame for the war. Even before the Great Depression in the United States, Germany was already experiencing rising unemployment and skyrocketing inflation. On November 8th, 1923, Adolf Hitler tried to take over the German government, planning his revolution in a Munich beer cellar. The revolution failed and Hitler was put in prison. However, the “Beer Hall Putsch” made Hitler a national figure, even if he wasn’t nationally popular.
Upon his release from prison, Hitler began to campaign for the Nazi Party, becoming one of its leaders. By the end of the 1920s, Nazi Party membership had grown. On August 2nd, 1929, 100,000 Nazis attended a rally in Nuremburg. Germans were enraptured by Hitler’s charisma. It was impossible to describe. Some professed that Hitler almost appeared to them in their dreams. However, most Germans saw Hitler as too radical.
The Great Depression changed everything. The German economy went from bad to worse, deepening the misery of the German people. Hitler emerged, promising a better way. The German people were looking for change. In 1932 Germany, those who wanted change either supported the Communists or the Nazi Party. Hitler was so encouraged that he ran for German President in 1932. He won 11 million votes, but lost the election. German intellectuals believed that Hitler’s ungainly appearance, wild gestures, and shifty and frightening eyes were actually holding the Nazis back. However, the Nazis were the largest political party in Germany. The Nazi majority in Parliament installed Hitler as Chancellor.
Hitler soon made his move. On February 28, 1933, German woke to find the Reichstag, the German Parliament building, burned to the ground. Today, we still do not know who was responsible for the fire, but we do know that Hitler took advantage of the situation. Nazis, who had before seemed thuggish, now seemed strong. Hitler’s propaganda machine blamed the fire on the Communists. He eliminated his opponents, arresting thousands of German Communists. Freedom of speech, petition, and assembly were “suspended” until the crisis had passed.
Many Germans were astonished and repulsed by the new order of things. Free speech and most civil liberties were gone. Barbaric and inhumane opinions were tolerated. People were beaten or shot in the streets. However, most of the “average” Germans allowed themselves to be fooled by the propaganda and bought into the new regime, even if the German intellectual elite were beyond concerned.
On March 23rd, 1933, the Nazi majority in Parliament passed the Enabling Act, which consolidated executive power in Adolf Hitler, effectively making Hitler Dictator of Germany. Germany and the world were set on a path towards World War II and the Holocaust. Author Sebastian Haffner, after witnessing those who opposed the Nazis tortured or killed, wrote that it was “better… to howl with the wolves” than suffer that fate. Thus, the German people abdicated their power to Hitler, who now controlled all of Germany.
Benito Mussolini-Germany
Mussolini was the founder of Fascism and leader of Italy from 1922 to 1943. He allied Italy with Nazi Germany and Japan in World War Two.
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was born on 29 July 1883 in Predappio in northern central Italy. His father was a blacksmith. Employment prospects in the area were poor so in 1902 Mussolini moved to Switzerland, where he became involved in socialist politics. He returned to Italy in 1904, and worked as a journalist in the socialist press, but his support for Italy's entry into World War One led to his break with socialism. He was drafted into the Italian army in September 1915.
In March 1919, Mussolini formed the Fascist Party, galvanizing the support of many unemployed war veterans. He organized them into armed squads known as Black Shirts, who terrorized their political opponents. In 1921, the Fascist Party was invited to join the coalition government.
By October 1922, Italy seemed to be slipping into political chaos. The Black Shirts marched on Rome and Mussolini presented himself as the only man capable of restoring order. King Victor Emmanuel invited Mussolini to form a government. Mussolini gradually dismantled the institutions of democratic government and in 1925 made himself dictator, taking the title 'Il Duce'. He set about attempting to re-establish Italy as a great European power. The regime was held together by strong state control and Mussolini's cult of personality.
In 1935, Mussolini invaded Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) and incorporated it into his new Italian Empire. He provided military support to Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Increasing co-operation with Nazi Germany culminated in the 1939 Pact of Steel. Influenced by Hitler, Mussolini began to introduce anti-Jewish legislation in Italy. His declaration of war on Britain and France in June 1940 exposed Italian military weakness and was followed by a series of defeats in North and East Africa and the Balkans.
In July 1943, Allied troops landed in Sicily. Mussolini was overthrown and imprisoned by his former colleagues in the Fascist government. In September, Italy signed an armistice with the Allies. The German army began the occupation of Italy and Mussolini was rescued by German commandos. He was installed as the leader of a new government, but had little power. As the Allies advanced northwards through Italy, Mussolini fled towards Switzerland. He was captured by Italian partisans and shot on 28 April 1945.
Japanese General and Prime Minister
Wartime leader of Japan's government, General Tôjô Hideki, with his close-cropped hair, mustache, and round spectacles, became for Allied propagandists one of the most commonly caricatured members of Japan's military dictatorship throughout the Pacific war. Shrewd at bureaucratic infighting and fiercely partisan in presenting the army's perspective while army minister, he was surprisingly indecisive as national leader.
Known within the army as "Razor Tôjô" both for his bureaucratic efficiency and for his strict, uncompromising attention to detail, he climbed the command ladders, in close association with the army faction seeking to upgrade and improve Japan's fighting capabilities despite tight budgets and "civilian interference." Tôjô built up a personal power base and used his position as head of the military police of Japan's garrison force in Manchuria to rein in their influence before he became the Kwantung Army's chief of staff in 1937. He played a key role in opening hostilities against China in July. Tôjô had his only combat experience later that year, leading two brigades on operations in Inner Mongolia.
Seeing the military occupation of Chinese territory as necessary to force the Nationalist Chinese government to collaborate with Japan, he continued to advocate expansion of the conflict in China when he returned to Tokyo in 1938 as army vice minister, rising to army minister in July 1940. He pushed for alliance with Germany (where he had served in 1920-1922) and Italy, and he supported the formation of a broad political front of national unity. In October 1941 he became prime minister.
Although Tôjô supported last-minute diplomatic efforts, he gave final approval to the attacks on the United States, Great Britain, and the Dutch East Indies in December 1941. Japan's early victories greatly strengthened his personal prestige and his assertion that there were times when statesmen had to "have faith in Victory."
When the war intensified, Japan's losses mounted, and its fragile industrial foundations threatened to collapse. Tôjô characteristically sought to gather administrative levers into his own hands. Serving as both prime minister and army minister, at various times he also held the portfolios of home affairs (giving him control of the dreaded "thought police"), education, munitions, commerce and industry, and foreign affairs. In February 1944, he even assumed direct command of army operations as chief of the Army General Staff. Yet despite all his posts, Tôjô was never able to establish a dictatorship on a par with those wielded by Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. He served constitutionally at the behest of the emperor, without support of a mass party, while crucial power centers, such as the industrial combines (known as zaibatsu), the navy, and the court, remained beyond his control. After the island of Saipan fell to American forces in July 1944, he was forced from power, despite arguments raised by some officials close to the throne that Tôjô should be left in office to the end to accept responsibility for the loss of the war so that a court official could "step in" to deliver peace.
After Japan's surrender the next year, Tôjô attempted suicide when threatened with arrest by occupation authorities, but he was tried and hanged as a war criminal on December 23, 1948. At his trial, he asserted his personal responsibility for the war and attempted to deflect attention from the emperor. In 1978, despite the protest of many citizens opposed to honoring the man they felt had brought disaster on Japan, Tôjô's name, along with those of thirteen other "class A" war criminals, was commemorated at Yasukuni, the shrine in Tokyo dedicated to the memory of warriors fallen in service to the imperial family.
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