-
Narrator: Where we left
off in the last video,
-
in 1924, Hitler was in jail,
-
his famous coup d'état in 1923,
-
his famous Beer Hall Putsched
in Munich had failed.
-
He's now in jail, he's writing Mein Kampf.
-
When he gets out of jail, so
this is when he's in jail,
-
the Nazi party is banned
and a lot of the economic
-
turmoil that made the
possibility of overthrowing
-
the government more
likely, that we saw in the
-
early 20's, that hyperinflation
in Weimar Germany,
-
this was now under
control by the time Hitler
-
comes out of jail.
-
They had issued new currency,
it was far more stable.
-
To a certain degree the
Nazi's and Hitler were
-
starting from scratch,
although even at this point
-
Hitler continues to be an
ever growing influence.
-
He's a famous speaker,
there are more and more
-
people who are knowing about him
-
and who are following him.
-
Over the next few years
his book does get published
-
and it sells, actually,
tens of thousands of copies
-
over the next several
years, but for the most part
-
he's still a relatively small
actor in German politics.
-
But then we fast forward
as we get to the late 20s,
-
the Nazi's are gaining some influence,
-
but then in 1929,
-
(writing) in 1929,
-
you have a global change for the economy
-
of the world and that's the beginning of
-
The Great Depression.
-
In particular, what's often the first sign
-
that The Great Depression
was at hand is you have
-
the U.S. stock market
crashes in October of 1929,
-
famous Black Tuesday.
-
That was the mark of the beginning of a,
-
not just American Depression,
-
but a global depression.
-
So you have the whole world
going into a depression.
-
Anytime you have economic
turmoil it tends give more
-
energy to the more extreme parties,
-
whether it is the parties like the Nazi's,
-
who one could consider maybe to be on the
-
extreme right, or often considered to be
-
on the extreme right,
or maybe you could say
-
very nationalistic, or even the extreme
-
left parties who are obviously against
-
capitalist systems and whatever else.
-
So, by the election of 1930,
now we're talking about
-
Parliamentary elections and the Parliament
-
in Germany is the Reichstag.
-
(writing) The Reichstag, and I know
-
I'm mispronouncing it.
-
In the Reichstag
elections, the Nazi party,
-
for the first time is able to
have a significant showing.
-
It gets 18, it gets
roughly 18% of the vote
-
and a proportional
representation in the Parliament.
-
Now all of a sudden, this
kind of marks the beginning
-
of the Nazi's being significant,
-
significant players in German politics.
-
Then we get to 1932 and the economy is not
-
improving, it is only getting worse.
-
(writing) 1932.
-
Adolf Hitler actually
makes a run for President.
-
The current President at that point
-
is Paul von Hindenburg,
famous for the Hindenburg
-
line, later for the Hindenburg,
-
the Zeppelin, the famous
exploding Zeppelin disaster.
-
He was, with Ludendorff,
one of the two leaders
-
of the German military
effort during World War I.
-
He's President of the
Weimar Republic since 1925
-
and in 1932 he is able to get re-election,
-
but Hitler has a fairly good showing.
-
Hitler is able to get 35% of the vote.
-
(writing) Hitler gets
35% of the presidential
-
election votes, (writing) of the vote.
-
The Weimar Republic had
this strange system.
-
It wasn't quite a Presidential
system like the U.S.
-
and it wasn't quite a
pure Parliamentary system
-
like the current-day Germany.
-
The President was independently elected
-
and had some powers,
and then the Parliament
-
was also independently elected
-
and then they would
try to build coalitions
-
to have a ruling government.
-
Needless to say, 1932
Hitler is now a major actor,
-
the Nazi's also have a many, many, many
-
seats in Parliament.
-
Now, you have several
Parliamentary elections
-
as well in 1932 and as
we just talked about
-
two in particular.
-
In order for a government
to form in Parliament,
-
in order to find the
Cabinet and the Chancellor,
-
who essentially is the Prime Minister,
-
you have an election and
the different parties
-
get different amounts of votes.
-
If no party has a majority,
the parties have to form
-
a coalition that can make a majority.
-
There's a lot of horsetrading going on
-
with parties negotiating,
hey why don't we form
-
a coalition with each other, if we do that
-
maybe someone from my party can be
-
Minister of the Interior,
someone of your party
-
could be the Chancellor
and maybe we can get
-
a coalition together to
rule over the government.
-
But you have two Parliamentary elections
-
and no majority coalition forms.
-
(writing) So, two, two elections.
-
So this is Parliamentary.
-
So this is in the Presidential election,
-
Hindenburg is still President,
-
but Hitler has a good
showing and then you have two
-
Parliamentary elections.
-
(writing) Parliament elections,
-
or Reichstag elections
where you have no majority,
-
no coalition.
-
(writing) no majority, majority coalition.
-
The Nazi's continue to
be a major actor here,
-
they continue to have
more and more of a showing
-
inside the Reichstag.
-
Then by 1933 it's a bit of crisis.
-
So as we get in to early
1933 we have a little
-
bit of a crisis.
-
We have no government,
we have no Chancellor,
-
we have no Cabinet to
essentially be the executive,
-
the government of the
country because there's been
-
no major coalitions.
-
The Weimar Constitution
allowed a strange thing,
-
it allowed the President
to appoint a government,
-
appoint a Cabinet, a
Chancellor that might not
-
even be representative of what's
-
going on in Parliament.
-
So, Paul von Hindenburg
is convinced that ...
-
hey look, he was no fan, he
was no fan of Adolf Hitler
-
but he's convinced that look,
-
Adolf Hitler was your opponent if you make
-
Adolf Hitler the head of
an interim Government,
-
the head of an interim
Cabinet then that might
-
be a way to create some national unity
-
and then maybe we could
have some Parliamentary
-
elections that there can
be a majority coalition
-
and you could have, I guess you could say,
-
a more legitimate government take hold.
-
So, Paul von Hindenburg is convinced
-
and so he does, even
though the Nazi's are still
-
a minority party, even
though they weren't part of
-
any type of a majority coalition,
-
Paul von Hindenburg who is
not a fan of Adolf Hitler
-
appoints him as Chancellor.
-
This is in January.
-
So in January, Hitler,
-
(writing) Hitler is appointed Chancellor,
-
Chancellor, which is
essentially the Prime Minister
-
of the Reichstag of Germany.
-
Then we get to February
and events get really,
-
really, really interesting.
-
In February of 1933 you have a fire in the
-
Reichstag building in Berlin.
-
This is the Reichstag
building right over here
-
and it is on fire.
-
They find this gentleman
here on the scene,
-
Marinus van der Lubbe,
he is a Dutch communist.
-
It is essentially the blame is placed
-
as this was some type
of a, the beginning of
-
some type of a communist revolution.
-
This is used as a pretext.
-
Hitler then advises Paul von Hindenburg
-
to essentially use some
of his emergency powers
-
as President, which is
another strange thing
-
that the Weimar Constitution allowed for,
-
it allowed the President
under emergency conditions
-
to start to suspend civil rights.
-
This was an emergency situation
-
and so Paul von Hindenburg does that.
-
He essentially issues ...
once you have the Reichstag
-
fire (writing) Reichstag fire,
-
and then Hindenburg is
convinced by the Nazi's
-
to pass the Reichstag Fire Decree.
-
(writing) Fire decree,
which essentially suspends,
-
it gives the government emergency powers
-
and it suspends civil liberties,
which everything up to
-
this point now is actually legal,
-
this was actually allowed for in the
-
Weimar Constitution.
-
(writing) Suspends, suspends
civil, civil liberties.
-
And since there's no
coalition, the whole point that
-
Hitler's Cabinet was going
to be an interim one,
-
you have another Parliamentary election
-
coming in March with the hope of maybe
-
a majority coalition forms, but that March
-
election, especially with
civil liberties suspended
-
you could imagine that the Nazi's ...
-
and they have their paramilitary troopers
-
started intimidating other parties,
-
making sure that they had a better showing
-
at the polls, they started intimidating
-
other candidates.
-
The March election start to swing hugely
-
in the Nazi's favor, so
in the March election
-
they're able to get 44% of the vote,
-
which is still not enough, by themselves,
-
to form a government.
-
It's still not a majority,
but they're able now ...
-
they're now the largest
part in the Reichstag,
-
in the Parliament.
-
They're able to now form
a majority coalition,
-
and I guess you could
say more legitimately ...
-
although this was a
election of intimidation,
-
they were able to now form a government,
-
they're able to now form a government
-
based on a majority coalition
-
and Hitler remains Chancellor.
-
But then, this new Parliament passes the
-
Enabling Act in March.
-
(writing) Enabling Act, Enabling Act,
-
which is essentially an amendment
-
to the Weimar Constitution
which gives the Cabinet,
-
especially the Chancellor,
effectively the Chancellor
-
who's the head of the Cabinet,
-
legislative powers,
unlimited legislative powers
-
for the next four years.
-
So, it gives legislative powers
-
and remember we already have suspended
-
civil rights.
-
So, the Reichstag is
essentially giving over the
-
legislative powers,
-
(writing) legislative
powers, to the Chancellor
-
who happens to be, who
happens to be Hitler.
-
There was some check on
this by the President,
-
but then we have Hindenburg
dying the next year.
-
After this, after the
suspension of civil rights
-
and then the Enabling
Act shortly afterwards,
-
Hitler is essentially in full control,
-
Hitler and the Nazi's are
essentially in full control
-
of the German government.
-
At this point, Hitler is the dictator,
-
(writing) the dictator of, he
is the dictator of Germany.
-
They start to act fast,
they start to intimidate
-
other parties, they use violence,
-
they start to imprison
people and by July of 1933
-
... so they're acting very,
very fast, by July of 1933
-
Nazi's are the only legal party.
-
(writing) only legal Pot party
-
and they essentially have full control.
-
Now, this is how Hitler came to power
-
and the question that's probably circling
-
in your mind is, "Who did this fire?"
-
This fire was the catalyst,
although Hitler was
-
already Chancellor and
maybe he would have found
-
some way to get to power regardless,
-
but this fire, even
though there was evidence
-
that it looked like maybe
Marinus van der Lubbe
-
did it, it was blamed on the communist,
-
it was the pretext that was used to give
-
the government even more power,
-
especially the Nazi's even more power.
-
This is an open question,
one of those great
-
open questions, one of
those great open questions
-
of history.
-
Some people feel that maybe it was just a
-
communist plot, maybe it
was Marinus van der Lubbe
-
acting on his own and maybe
it just happened to fall
-
into the hands of Hitler and
they were able to use it,
-
while other historians
think that this was actually
-
a plot by the Nazi's to
create this emergency state
-
and Marinus van der Lubbe
was kind of a puppet
-
in this whole plot.
-
So, open question of
history, but needless to say
-
as we go from 1919 to
1933, Hitler goes from
-
a fairly unknown individual
to full dictator of Germany.