PDF file: History - Advanced Higher - Germany - Education Scotland

SECTION FIVE: NAZISM IN THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC - 1918-1933
Source A
Part of the Programme of the Nazi Party, February 1920
1. We demand the union of all Germans in a Greater Germany on the basis of the
right of national self-determination.
2. We demand equality of rights for the German people in its dealing as with other
nations, and the revocation of the peace treaties of Versailles and Saint-Germain.
3. We demand land and territory (colonies) to feed our people and settle our surplus
population.
4. Only members of the nation may be citizens of the State. Only those of German
blood, whatever their creed, may be members of the nation. Accordingly no Jew
may be a member of the nation.
Source B
The nineteen year old Hans Frank hears Hitler speak for the first time in January
1920.
I was strongly impressed straight away. It was totally different from what was
otherwise to be heard in meetings. His method was completely clear and simple. He
took the overwhelmingly dominant topic of the day, the Versailles Diktat, and posed
the question of all questions: What now German people? What’s the true situation?
What alone is now possible? He spoke for over two-and-a-half hours … Everything
came from the heart, and he struck a chord with all of us… He concealed nothing …
of the horror, the distress, the despair facing Germany … When he finished, the
applause would not die down … From this evening onwards, though not a party
member, I was convinced that if one man could do it, Hitler alone would be capable
of mastering Germany’s fate.
(from Hitler 1889 –1936, I Kershaw, Allen Lane, 1998)
Source C
Part of Hitler’s closing speech at his trial, 27 March 1924.
The fate of Germany does not lie in the choice between a Republic and a Monarchy
but in the content of the Republic or the Monarchy. What I am contending against is
not the form of a state as such, but its ignominious content. We wanted to create in
Germany the precondition which alone will make it possible for the iron grip of our
enemies to be removed from us. We wanted to create order in the state, throw out the
drones, take up the fight against international stock exchange slavery, against our
whole economy being cornered by trusts, against the politicising of the trade unions,
and above all, for the highest honour and duty which we, as Germans, know should
be once more introduced - the duty of bearing arms, military service. And now I ask
you: Is what we wanted high treason?
History: Germany: Versailles to the Outbreak of World War II - 1918-1939 (AH) 67