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official end to World War 1
The end of World War 1 was official when the Treaty of Versailles was signed in June of 1919. The treaty, for Germany, was a huge factor that destroyed Germany socially, militarily, economically, and disrupted their government. Economically, Germany was unsteady and was on the verge of bankruptcy after having to pay the reparations close to 30 billion dollars. The military of Germany was severely downsized due to the treaty. The government was abolished, introducing communism. -
The rise of the Nazis
By this time, Hitler brought the Nazi party from 3,000 members to 15,000 and organized a private army composed of ex-military also making the swastika the popular symbol of the Nazi party. This happened when he had very little power but had influence that would later cause him to have power. -
Relying on each other
During this time, Germany and other countries economies had stated to come back from being close to complete destabilization. But the way they did that is by relying on the United States. The money that was being used from America was sent to Germany to pay off the reparations to other European countries, then some of that money was used by the other countries to pay off debts they had toward America, causing a loop. And if anything happened ti the American economy, all the others would suffer. -
Beginning of a new era
The beginning of a new era started when Hitler was appointed leader of the National Socialist party in 1921. And during this time, he rose through the ranks by introducing his ideas of extreme nationalism and antisemitism. After a while, Adolf's rise to power "ended" on 30th of January when he was appointed the Chancellor of Germany. After this in 1935 he defied the treaty all together after multiple violations of the treaty in previous years. To capitalize on this, they attacked Poland. -
Crossroads
Before Hitler could continue with his plan of suppressing all other political parties and diverting from the constitution as needed, president Hindenburg said that if he didn't do something about the SA ("brownshirts" enforcing the Jewish business boycott) he would have to declare martial law and stop his little "experiment" thus leading to the "Night of Long Knives". -
1934 New leader appointed to Germany
In the summer of 1934, the at the time president of Germany, Paul Von Hindenburg was dying. Adolf was already Chancellor at this time, and he wanted to use President Hindenburg's imminent death as an opportunity to seize power. So seeing this, he went to claim the title of Führer. -
Night of Broken Glass
Antisemitism erupted into pure violence on this night which was called Kritallnacht or the "Night of Broken Glass". On that night at least twenty thousand Jews were sent to concentration camps, more than five thousand Jewish businesses were robed and vandalized and at least around two hundred synagogues were burned and destroyed. -
re-militarization
During this time, Hitler began his reoccupation of the Rhineland. It worked out in his favor because the French were having elections during this time and did not want to start a war with Germany so there was little resistance. Hitler had to re-militarize the Rhineland because the French could invade if they wanted to due to Hitler violating the treaty. -
Nazi Euthanasia
In October of 1939 during when the war was blowing up, Hitler ordered the deaths of sick and disabled people. The Nazi Euthanasia program went out to seek and kill who they deemed "life unworthy of life". They started requiring doctors to register infants and children (at this time up to age 3, but they eventually increased it) who showed "signs of mental retardation" and any other symptoms in a questionnaire. and after, 3 medical experts would decide whether or not to kill the child. -
surprised agreement
Germany and the Soviet Union decide to split Poland into German influential and Soviet influential halves. The two had very different beliefs but found common ground on anti- capitalism. So even though there was fighting between both sides in the past they decided to make amends.
