Germany’s WWII story 1919-1945
Ein Volk, Ein reich, ein fuhrer
One people, one empire, one leader
Fuhrer- Leader
Swastika- it was a peace sign borrowed from egypt and india
Axis powers- Germany, italy, japan.
Treaty of Versailles- June 28, 1919
Territorial
The following land was taken away from germany
Alsace-lorraine (given to france)
Eupen and malmedy (given to belgium)
Northern schleswig (given to denmark)
Hultschin (given to czechoslovakia)
West prussia, posen and upper silesia (given to poland)
The league of nations also took control of germany’s overseas colonies
Germany had to return to russia land taken in the treaty of brest-litovsk
Some of this land was made into new states:estonia, lithuania and latvia. An enlarged poland also received some of this land.
Military
Germany’s army was reduced to 100,000 men;
German army was not allowed tanks
Germany was not allowed to have an air force
Germany was allowed only 6 capital naval ships and no submarines
The Rhineland was made into a demilitarized zone (DMZ)
No german soldier or weapon was allowed into this zone
The allies were to keep an army of occupation on the wests bank of the rhine for 15 years
Financial
The loss of vital industrial territory would be a severe blow to germany’s economy
Coal from the saar and upper silesia in particular
Germany had to pay $33 billion to the allies (GB/France)
General Consequences
1. Germany had to admit full responsibility for starting the war. This was Clause 231- the infamous “war guilt clause.”
2. Germany was forbidden to unite with austria
3. a league of nations was set up to keep world peace
United states never signed the treaty of versailles.
The German Reaction to the Treaty of Versailles
There was anger throughout germany when the terms were made public
The treaty was bseen by many germans as being forced on the nm and the germans had no choice but to sign uit
German representatives in paris knew that they had no choice as germany was incapable of restarting the war again
Many right wing groups such as the nazis believed in the dolchstoss, theory (stab in the back theory)
Blamed the “November criminals” (the weimar republic) for accepting treaty
Adolf Hitler
Born in 1889 in austria
Failed artist
Loner
Both parents died by time he was 18
Family moved to germany when he was three
Had five siblings-three died In infancy
Mom-klara dad-alois
His brother, edmund, died in 1900
After his brother’s death, hitler changed and became more moody and withdrawn
Had more issues at school and with his dad
His dad died in 1903 and his mom died in 1907
All three of these deaths had a huge impact on the young hitler
In mein kampf, hitler said he first became anti-semitic(hating jews) during his time in Vienna, Austria.
Hitler failed to get into the academy of fine arts in vienna two different times
Started selling paintings in the streets of vienna
Failed his examination to get into the austro-hungarian army in 1914
Moved to munich, germany and joined the german army when ww 1 broke out in 1914
Hitler in WW1
Hitler was wounded twice while serving
Injured by a shell explosion
Temporarily blinded by a mustard gas attack
There is a story that hitler could have been shot by the french soldier, henry tandy, but was spared.
After WW1
Hitler starts spying on the new nationalist socialist german workers party (nazi_ for the german military
Hitler quickly realized that this group discussed topics that he believed in
Hitler dropped out of the military and joined the nazi party and quickly rose to become the leader
Hitler found out that he had the power of speech and persuasion during this time
Beer Hall Putsch- 1923
Marched capital to get control
Hitler’s Trial- 1924
Sentence for 5 years
Served 9 months for good behavior
Hitler’s rise to power
Hitler is appointed chancellor in 1933
President paul von hindenburg dies shortly after and hitler dissolves the weimar republic
Early actions of hitler:
Drops out of the league of nations
Starts rearming germany
Rearms the german rhinelands area
Anschluss with Austria- 1938
Sudetenland crisis- 11938
“Re-uniting german speaking peoples”
Munich conference
Neville chamberlain- great britain
Adolf hitler - germany
Benito mussolini- italy
Edouard daladier- france
Munich conference- chamberlain: “peace for our time”
Hitler was given the sudetenland of czechoslovakia
Hitler promised that he was done taking over territoires
Hitler wanted to reunite all german speaking people
Became known as the “policy of appeasement”
Winston Churchill- opposed the appeasement
Czech President Hacha meeting with hitler - march, 1939
Nazi- Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact
August of 1939
Russia gave raw materials to germany in exchange for money and weapons
Both agreed to stay neutral if the other entered the war
Secretly agreed to invade and split poland. German would get the western half and ussr the eastern half
Russia would get finland, estonia and latvia and germany would get lithuania
How did the world react to this pact
Shocked
Poland was stuck “between a rock and a hard place”
Hitler thought it would force great britain and france to back out of their promise to help poland if attacked
Sitzkrieg- the phony war- winter 1939/1940
Phony war ends spring , 1940. Takes over denmark , norway, belgium, netherlands, luxemburg
French and German Plans for the Battle of France 1940
France’s “Impenetrable” Maginot line
Miracle of Dunkirk
Dunkirk evacuated June 4,
German Advances until the Armistice- Battle of France” June 4-22,
France surrenders June , 1940
A divide france- the vichy government lead by henri petain
The French Resistance- the free french underground(based in london and leader was general charles degaulle)
Tripartite pact is signed-- Axis powers - 1940
Axis invasion of the balkans (yugoslavia) in - 1941
Nazi goals for battle of Britain
Destroy the royal air force (before invasion was possible-hopefully by 9-15)
Attack and destroy the british navy
Attack british troops
Once air control was gained, the invasion of great britain would begin
**Germany never succeeded in achieving #1
**German bombmers did so poorly against the RAF that they started bombing at night only
**Great Britain was aided heabily by the radar and Ultra
Battle of Britain- The Blitz - September 1940- May, 1941
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