“The Seeds of War” Video Notes

German Government Post WWI

  • near anarchy
  • monarchy ends
  • republic starts
  • republic is unprepared
  • groups fight for control
  • WeimarRepublic organized
  • 1st president = Hebert
  • groups on fringes continue to rebel
  • left wing = Communists
  • right wing =

German Economy

  • Germany behind on payment of war reparations
  • FranceBelgium invade Germany’s RuhrValley
  • European countries start economic blockade of Germany
  • Inflation runs wild!
  • 1 billion marks (German currency) = loaf of bread
  • 4 trillion marks = one US dollar
  • 300 billion marks = ½ pound of apples
  • real estate speculators and industrialists get rich
  • Rise of extremist groups
  • In Bavaria – National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazis)
  • Leader of Nazis = Adolf Hitler
  • 1923 a failed attempt to overthrow government = Munich Beer Hall Putsch
  • Hitler arrested and sentenced to 5 years in jail – released after only 9 months
  • While in jail H. wrote Mein Kampf (translation = My Struggle)

Mid 1920s

  • Economy gets stronger
  • 1925 presidential election
  • winner = Paul von Hindenburg (77 years old)
  • Industry booms
  • Germany becomes friends with former enemies
  • Germany stands for “Peaceful Progress”
  • On the surface all is good, underneath, not so much
  • Artists/ writers, etc. show what is really happening
  • Cultural rebirth
  • Artists = Kandinsky, Pachstein, Kollewitz, etc.
  • Writers = Mann, Brecht, etc.
  • Scientists = Einstein, etc.
  • Music, theater, films
  • Hitler bides his time waiting for prosperity to end

Rise of Hitler

  • an oddity, a style of his own
  • stormtroopers = Hitler’s followers
  • 1929 = Worldwide economic depression = German depression
  • In Germany unemployment soars
  • 1932 = presidential election
  • Hindenburg (82 years old) vs. Hitler
  • Hitler focuses on Jews as “scapegoats” for Germany’s problems
  • Hindenburg wins, but Hitler gets lots of votes
  • deal is made for Hitler to become Chancellor of Germany
  • Jan 1933 – Hitler takes over as Fuhrer (leader) when Hindenburg dies

Mid 1930s - German expansion

  • Germany’s military build-up
  • 1938 = Annexation of Austria (Anschluss)

Czechoslovakia

  • Country created by Treaty of Versailles
  • democracy
  • ally of France, Britain, and Russia
  • nation of minorities
  • 3 ½ million ethnic Germans living in Sudetenland (western part of Czech.)
  • Loyal to “The Fatherland” (Germany)
  • Hitler wants to invade Sudetenland
  • Britain and France want to appease Hitler – giver him Sudetenland
  • Nazi troops on Czech border
  • Czech say NO to Hit
  • Nazis start propaganda campaign to get support of Sudetenland
  • Hitler tells Sudetens to fight
  • Sept 15 1938 – British leader Chamberlain meets with Hitler
  • Chamberlain believes Hitler, so does French leader de Ladier
  • Britain and France desert Czechoslovakia
  • Sept 29 – Munich Conference
  • “Czechoslovakia is sacrificed”
  • 4 men sign agreement: Hitler, Chamberlain, de Ladier, Mussolini (No Czech leader)