The Third Reich

by Williamson, David G.

• ISBN13: 9781408223192
• ISBN10: 1408223198
• Additional ISBN(s): 9780582368835
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-04-04
• Publisher: Routledge
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

One of our best-selling Seminar Studies titles, The Third Reich#xA0;was both revised and substantially enlarged in a third edition in 2002, yet much new research has appeared in recent years. The new fourth edition will incorporate new findings and#xA0;with an#xA0;additional section on the German Home Front will become the most up-to-date introduction in the field.

Author Biography

David G. Williamson has written extensively on modern German and European history. Among his recent publications are Poland Betrayed: The Nazi Soviet Invasions of 1939 (Pen and Sword, 2009) and, also in the Seminar Studies series, Bismarck and Germany, 3rd edition (2010). Formerly head of history at Highgate School, he is now a writer and freelance lecturer.

Table of Contents

Publisher's acknowledgements	p. xiii
Chronology	p. xv
Who's who	p. xx
Glossary	p. xxxv
Maps	p. xlv
Introduction	p. 1
The Historical Debate	p. 3
Can the Third Reich be 'historicised'?	p. 5
Analysis	p. 7
The Origins and Rise of National Socialism	p. 9
The ideological roots	p. 9
The Bismarckian Reich: an incubator of National Socialism?	p. 10
The German revolution, 1918-19: a turning point that did not turn?	p. 11
the formation of the NSDAP, 1919-24	p. 12
The renaissance of the Nazi Party, 1925-30	p. 14
Nazi voters, 1930-32	p. 17
The road to power, September 1930-January 1933	p. 18
The Legal Revolution and the Consolidation of Power, 1933-34	p. 21
The dissolution of the Reichstag and the election of 5 March 1933	p. 21
The 'revolution from below' and the Enabling Act	p. 23
The process of Gleichschaltung	p. 25
The churches	p. 27
The defeat of the second revolution	p. 28
State, Party and Führer: The Government of Nazi Germany, 1933-39	p. 33
Ministries and 'Supreme Reich Authorities', 1933-38	p. 33
Himmler and the SS state	p. 35
The centralisation of the Reich	p. 37
The civil service	p. 37
The Party	p. 38
The role of Hitler	p. 41
The Economy, 1933-39	p. 43
Work creation and economic recovery, 1933-35	p. 43
Agriculture	p. 45
The Mittelstand	p. 47
Schacht and the financing of German rearmament	p. 48
The Four Year Plan	p. 49
The industrialists and the Four Year Plan: winners and losers	p. 51
Rearmament and the German economy, 1937-39	p. 52
The People's Community: German Society and the Third Reich, 1933-39	p. 55
The work of the Reich Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda	p. 55
Education and youth	p. 57
The peasantry	p. 60
Women and the family	p. 61
The workers	p. 64
Policing the Volksgemeinschaft	p. 67
The Hitler myth as a factor of integration	p. 68
The Racial State	p. 69
Nazi health and eugenic policies	p. 69
The 'asocials' and homosexuals	p. 71
Gypsies, part-Africans and the Slav minorities	p. 71
The Jews	p. 72
The Germans and the Jews	p. 77
Foreign Policy, 1933-39	p. 78
Hitler's priorities, 1933-37	p. 80
The Anschluss	p. 84
The destruction of Czechoslovakia	p. 86
The Polish crisis and the outbreak of war	p. 89
Germany, Europe and the World, 1939-45	p. 92
The British problem, 1940-41	p. 93
The decision to attack Soviet Russia	p. 95
From European to world war, 1941-45	p. 96
Europe under German occupation, 1939-44	p. 97
'Ethnic cleansing' and settlement policies in Eastern Europe	p. 102
The Holocaust	p. 104
The Home Front, 1939-45	p. 108
Disintegration of the Führer state	p. 108
The increasing power of the Nazi Party and the SS	p. 109
The war economy	p. 112
Food supplies and rationing	p. 115
Solving the labour crisis in the war industries	p. 115
The impact of war on the German people, 1942-45	p. 118
The end of the Hitler regime	p. 120
Postscript to the Third Reich: the Dönitz government	p. 121
The German Opposition	p. 123
Resistance and Resistenz	p. 124
Opposition from the Churches	p. 125
Opposition on the Left	p. 127
The challenge of youth culture	p. 128
Resistance by the military and conservative elites	p. 130
The road to 20 July 1944	p. 132
Why was there no German revolution in 1945?	p. 134
Assessment	p. 137
The Third Reich in Retrospect	p. 139
Hitler's rise to power	p. 139
The Nazi regime	p. 140
How 'modern' was the Third Reich?	p. 141
The legacy of Nazi Germany	p. 142
Documents	p. 145
The nature of fascism	p. 146
Hermann Rauschning on the aims of Nazism, 1938	p. 146
The party programme	p. 147
Hitler's powers as an orator	p. 150
Working within the constitution	p. 150
Hitler as saviour	p. 151
Why the Centre Party voted for the Enabling Bill	p. 151
Goebbels and the Reich Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda	p. 152
Hitler's speech to the Reichsstatthalter, 6 July 1933	p. 153
Hitler's plans for the army	p. 153
Papen warns Hitler on 17 June 1934	p. 154
Hitler's lifestyle	p. 154
'Working towards the Führer'	p. 155
A British view of Hitler	p. 156
The number of unemployed (in millions)	p. 156
The Four Year Plan	p. 156
Achievements of the Four Year Plan, 1936-42	p. 158
Gross national product and military expenditure in Germany, the USA and Britain, 1933-45	p. 159
A Nazi history syllabus	p. 160
The League of German Girls	p. 161
Women's place in the Nazi state	p. 161
Population statistics	p. 162
The egalitarian state	p. 162
'Do-it-yourself' wage bargaining	p. 163
Labour relations and the Gestapo	p. 164
The impact of the 'Beauty of Labour' and 'Strength through Joy' schemes	p. 164
Development of wages and cost of living index, 1929-40	p. 165
Average gross hourly earnings in selected industries, 1935-38	p. 166
Hitler on the racial state	p. 166
Himmler's circular on the 'gypsy nuisance'	p. 167
Hitler and the Jews	p. 168
Hitler threatens the Jews with annihilation	p. 169
Hitler's thinking on foreign policy in Mein Kampf	p. 169
The Hossbach Memorandum	p. 170
Hitler surveys the international situation, 22 August 1939	p. 172
Hitler gives the order to prepare for an attack on the USSR	p. 173
The Einsatzgruppen	p. 174
German treatment of Russian prisoners of war	p. 174
Resettlement policies in Poland	p. 175
Hitler's racial priorities	p. 176
The Wannsee Conference	p. 176
Comparison between the British and German war efforts	p. 177
The inefficiencies of labour conscription	p. 177
The strains of war on the family	p. 178
The Swing Movement	p. 179
The Confessing Church emphasises the Fifth Commandment, 1943	p. 179
Individual acts of opposition	p. 180
General von Tresckow on the significance of the opposition	p. 181
Contrasting attitudes towards Hitler in March 1945	p. 182
Guide to Further Reading	p. 183
References	p. 190
Index	p. 196
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