History Brief: The Nazification of Germany

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This video gives a brief description of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party's Nazification of Germany during the 1930s.

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Music for this video was provided by: Adrian von Ziegler

-Song: Into the Shadow Realm

In this video:

Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933. How did he change the nation of Germany? What policies did he implement?

In 1934, Adolf Hitler combined the offices of president and chancellor into one position and gave himself the title Fuhrer. He proclaimed that the Weimar Republic, the old government, no longer existed, and announced the creation of The Third Reich.

The new government then began Nazifying Germany. The Nazi Party held huge bonfires at which books by Jewish and non-German authors were burned. These events, which were organized by Hitler’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, were typically led off by torch-lit parades.

Through Goebbels’ strict policies, the Nazi Party controlled every aspect of German culture. For example, all persons who worked in certain fields, such as teaching, were required to join the Nazi Party. All art and literature, the press, radio, and films were controlled to serve Hitler’s regime. The manuscript of every book or play had to be submitted to the Propaganda Ministry before it could be approved for publication or production.

Hitler emphasized that winning over and training the youth in the service of the state was the most important function of German schools. Every level of school from kindergarten, up through university was Nazified. Textbooks were rewritten to fit the beliefs of Nazi ideology, including false scientific theories which portrayed Germans as a master race.

The main emphasis of Nazi education came via the Hitler Youth. From the age of 6, up through the age of 18, boys and girls were organized into various levels of the Hitler Youth. As part of the program, children participated in camping, sports, classes in Nazi Ideology, and soldiering. Children went on long hikes, practiced drills, and played war games. By 1938, almost 8,000,000 children had participated in the Hitler Youth.

Despite the Treaty of Versailles, which stated that Germany could only have a 100,000 man army, Hitler began rebuilding the German military. As part of their training in the Hitler Youth and other organizations such as the Labor Service, young men practiced military drills and marksmanship. Also, the Nazi government would routinely train 100,000 soldiers before sending them home, only to bring in 100,000 more.

In 1935, Hitler increased the size of the German army to 300,000 men. Despite the open defiance of the Treaty of Versailles, the League of Nations failed to intervene, noting that the buildup had a positive impact on Germany’s economy by reducing unemployment. Hitler’s government also introduced the League of Air Sports, a social flying club where pilots practiced aerial maneuvers and dogfighting tactics as a way to train without having an air force.

As Hitler’s grip on Germany tightened, the last of his critics were eliminated in a string of murders that came to be known as the Night of the Long Knives. Over a three day span in the summer of 1934, up to 300 political opponents were assassinated by the Schutzstaffel (SS) and the Gestapo (Hitler’s secret police). The murders solidified Hitler’s control of Germany and silenced any remaining opposition.