Detailed History notes from a 44/45 student (7 in history) on the IB World history subject 10: Authoritarian States
(more specifically, for Hitler's Nazi Germany and Castro's Cuba)
Authoritarian States: Case Study 1 - Hitler’s Nazi Germany
German Foreign Policy
Nazi Ideology
- Nazism (National Socialism) had an ideology and political manifesto
- However, as they were a single-party dictatorship, technically Nazism was whatever Hitler wanted at the time
- This lead to contradictions, but also allows flexibility
- Eg. initially women were not allowed to work (believe that their purpose was only to give birth),
however near the end of the war they were allowed to work due to shortage of workers
- The only consistency was Fuhrerprinzip - Hitler was the Fuhrer and had absolute power and obedience
Nazi Terminology and Beliefs
Fuhrerprinzip - ‘leader principle’
- Belief that the leader (Hitler)’s will is the fundamental basis of all political authority
- From this developed the ‘cult of the leader’
Gleichschaltung - ‘co-ordination’
- The process of Nazification - the Nazi Party taking control over all aspects of Germany, creation of a co-ordinated
society free of challenges to social order, with institutions as Nazi-fied as possible - a ‘Volksgemeinschaft’
Volksgemeinschaft - ‘people’s community’
- The ideal German society - a racially pure, unified and hierarchically organised body in which the interests of
individuals are strictly subordinate to those of the nation, achieved through Gleichschaltung
Herrenvolk - ‘master race’
- The Nazis believed that Germanic people of northern European origins are a ‘master race’, the Herrenvolk, and
are considered superior to others
- Believed that all of humanity are separated into two categories
- Übermensch (superhuman) - Hitler, the Herrenvolk or Aryan race
- Üntermensch (subhuman) - mostly Jews, Marxists, ‘out’ groups (blacks, gipsies, asians etc.)
- This lead to social Darwinism, social unity and a racially separated society
Aryn race - race concept/racial grouping term
- The concept of a 'pure German race' or Herrenvolk, that had a duty to control the world
- 'Aryan', linked with the German word 'Ehre' (honour), depicted their image of 'the honourable people
- The Nazis believed that the Aryans had the most "pure blood" of all the people on earth - the ideal Aryan had
pale skin, blond hair and blue eyes (germanic features)
- Lebensborn - program to breed ‘Aryan’ children from people deemed ‘racially pure/valuable’ to create
Volksgemeinschaft
- “Hereditary courts” ordered abortions and sterilisation of people of not “good racial stock”
- Germans prohibited from marrying “Übermensch”
- Originally, ‘Aryn’ was a ethnic label referring to the noble class from Āryāvarta parts of India
Blut und Boden - ‘Blood and Soil’
- The belief that the blood of the community is rooted in the soil
- A nationalist slogan expressing Nazi Germany's ideal of a "racially" defined national body ("blood") united with a
settlement area ("soil") - tied to the concept of Lebensraum
Lebensraum - ‘living space’
- The belief that it is the right of the superior Germanic people to acquire living space for its people
- This concept was the main drive behind much of Hitler’s foreign policy and military conquests (invasion and
expansion) - believed that eastern Europe had to be conquered to create a vast German empire (Ein reich), and
as land expansion was essential to the survival of a people
,Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer - ‘One people, one empire, one leader’
- One of the most repeated political slogan/motto of Nazi Germany
Kinder, Küche, Kirche - ‘Children, Kitchen, Church’
- Nazi policy for women - to breed and look after men and children, not work
Social Darwinism
- The acceptance that life is a constant struggle and, without interference, the strongest (Übermensch) will always
win; this was indirectly derived from Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest
Anti-democracy - The conviction that democracy gives undue weight to weaker peoples and mediocrities
Anti-feminism - The belief that a woman’s role is soley as the bearer and carer of future aryans
Anti-Marxism - Hostility to Marxism as an international creed that weakens nations, very anti-communist
Anti-semantism - A belief that Jews are the lowest race in the social hierarchy and should be persecuted
German Foreign Policy
Hitler’s Foreign Policy
Hitler outlined his foreign policy vision in his book Mein Kampf, written while he was in prison in 1924
● Volksgemeinschaft
○ To reunite the German Volk and create Volksgemeinschaft
○ After country boundaries were redrawn following WW1, millions of Germans found themselves living
outside German borders (in Denmark, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary etc.)
○ This was the reason for his invasion/expansion into some of these countries later on, as well as to
reclaim territory lost from the TOV
○ Linked to racial theories of Nazism and the belief that the Aryan race was superior to others
● Lebensraum (living space) in eastern Europe
○ Essential to the creation of Volksgemeinschaft - need land and resources to sustain ethnic Germans
○ Constant expansion was also needed in maintenance of power in authoritarian states
○ Ultranationalism and belief in superiority of the Aryn race meant the Nazis believed that it was their
right to acquire land (colonisation) for its people
○ Led to ethinic cleansing of other groups (Jews and communists) to free land for German
● Destroy the Treaty of Versailles and restore national pride
○ The harsh terms of the TOV were very humiliating and unfair to the German people, who had expected
to be treated as equals at the PPC (Wilson’s 14 points), but instead were made to shoulder all the blame
(War Guilt Clause) and had heavy reparations and territory losses
○ Reinforced the notion that the politicians who had signed it were traitors - “November Criminals”
● Destroy Communism
○ Hitler was very against communism, attacking them during his early rise and using the fear of
communism to gather support from industrialists and businessmen
○ The expansive Soviet Union was also prime land for Lebensraum
Conditions of emergence
The Weimar Republic (1918-1933) had three main phases
1. 1918 – 1924: Post-War crisis and survival
2. 1924 – Sep 1929: “Golden Twenties”, Stability and acceptance in the international communities
3. Oct 1929 – 1933: Great Depression, Instability and the end of the Republic
Impact of WW1
Conditions in Germany 1918
,The living conditions in Germany during the war was extremely poor
- Spanish Flu - the pandemic throughout Europe led to thousands of deaths
- Widespread poverty - a British naval blockade during the war cut off most of their resources, with extreme grain
and food shortages, causing widespread poverty and malnutrition amongst civilians and soldiers
- Civil unrest - due to the long war and starvations, there were many riots and uprisings
“Stabbed in the Back”
- ‘Dolchstoss Myth’ – a widespread belief after the war amongst Germans that Germany had been ‘stabbed in the
back’ by people within Germany, corrupt and incompetent politicians that were Marxists or Jewish
- Started being officially used by Army General Ludendorff, as an excuse for why he lost the war
- This is as in traditional war, a total victory consists of invasion of enemy territory and forcing their capital to
surrender - the Allies did not achieve this, as Germany signed an armistice of agreement at the end of WW1
- Many in the German Army, and civilians, therefore felt that as they had not been ‘defeated’, and so that their
losing the war must have been because they were ‘stabbed in the back’ by enemies within Germany
- The abrupt abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm also contributed to this - a year ago the Russian revolution killed its
royal family, so that there was conspiracy that Marxists in Germany had done the same to the Kaiser (this was
not true, he just ran off to Netherlands)
- This led to increased discrimination against Jews and Marxists, who were seen as the traitors in Germany
“Diktat” - The Treaty of Versailles
- The Treaty of Versailles signed at the Paris Peace Conference after WW1 was very harsh towards Germany
- Blame - Article 231, the “War Guilt Clause”, put all the blame of the war on Germany
- Reparations - Germany was made to pay 132 billion gold marks for reparations
- Army - the German army was restricted to 100,000 men, and navy to 15,000
- Territory - Germany had to give up a lot of territory (especially Alsace-Lorrainem, which had the second
largest iron deposit)
- As the Germans did not feel that they had lost, the terms of the Treaty of Versailles were very humiliating and
harsh to them, it was called a “diktat” (dictated peace, dictated to them without consultation)
Political relations
- Due to the war, Germany’s international relations were bad, as other countries were wary or held grudges
- Countries such as France, which had suffered heavily in the war at the hands of Germans, pushed for much
harsher terms in the TOV, later invaded the Ruhr
Impact of domestic issues
Political Radicalisation
- Poor social conditions (poverty and unemployment due to hyperinflation) caused highly polarised views
- Demobbed soldiers returning to Germany, angry about being “stabbed in the back”, and to such conditions, led
to increase in violence as they joined extremely polarised militant groups (due to reduction in army from TOV)
- The political radicalisation led to more violence and civil unrest, with open fighting in the streets from attempted
coups and uprisings, leading people to want a “strongman” to bring stability and order
The government faced opposition from both extreme right and left-wing groups
- Far left
- Sparticists uprising - a general strike in Berlin by a communist group, against the government and the far
right, the later murders of the founders Karl Liebnicht and Rosa Luxemborg inspired violence that led to
death of thousands of the KPD, civillians and others
- Bavarian Soviet Republic - a breakaway state formed in Munich by the German Communist Party (KPD)
- Far right
, - Freikorps - vigilante paramilitary groups formed by former soldiers who were against the government
and the far left, government sponsored them weapons to fight the Bavarian Soviet Republic, they
destroyed them and caused open fighting in the streets
- Kapp Putsch - government attempt to demobilise the Freikorps led to an attempted coup against the
Government by Wolfgang Kapp, which failed when the government called a strike
- DNVP, German National People's Party - major nationalist party in Weimar Germany (before the Nazis)
- NSDAP, National Socialist German Workers Party - a far right political party founded by Anton Drexler
(who mentored Hitler as his successor), later became the Nazi Party
Weakness of the Weimar Government
“November’s Criminals”
- The Weimar government lacked public support of the masses, as they were forced to sign the TOV, which caused
public disapproval and branding of the government as traitors
- The lack of public support contributed to political instability and led to frequent attempts at revolution
(opposition from both sides of the political spectrum)
Proportional Representation
- A systemic weakness of the Weimar Government was the type of democracy used, proportional representation,
- This made it hard for any group to have a majority and results in coalition governments which are inefficient and
frequently collapse
- Compromises had to be made within the coalitions, so that people who had voted for them were sometimes not
represented
- Moreover, the people were used to being under authoritarian rule, and so were unused to democracy
Article 48
- Another systemic weakness is Article 48, an emergency decree which allowed a person to take power in an
emergency, however, this does not define “emergency” and thus can be abused and used for dictatorship
Poor management of economic issues
- The government attempted to alleviate poverty by mass printing money, causing hyperinflation which only
worsened the economic issue, devaluing the Reichsmark and increasing poverty
- Poor handling of the economic issues also lead to loss of (any remaining) faith in the Government
Social Divisions
- Weimar Germany experienced an artistic and cultural renaissance after the war, becoming increasingly
Westernised with Jazz (“The Devil’s music”), Cabaret clubs and films etc.
- Rural regions, mainly reliant on agriculture and more socially conservative, did not benefit from these changes,
causing cultural and economic resentment towards urban areas
- Rural regions viewed the German urban cities as full of morally degenerate and decadent behaviour
- Increase in groups which yearned for a more traditional German society, which Hitler exploited in his early rise
Impact of economic issues
Economic effects of WW1 and TOV
Due to inherited issues from the war, the economy was extremely unstable and overwhelmed with debt
- Increasing debt
- War spending - the government was bankrupt due to the massive economic costs during WW1
- Reparations - according to the TOV, Germany was required to pay huge reparations they could not afford
- Decreased production - huge war casualties reduced the workforce substantially, declining industrial production
- Hyperinflation (1921-1923) - excessive printing of money in an attempt to alleviate poverty and deal with the
increasing government debt led to hyperinflation
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