10/30 Paper 2 Outline

Evaluate the successes and failures of one ruler of a single-party state.

During his rule in Germany from 1933 to 1935, Hitler showed a particularly inconsistent level of judgment regarding both domestic and foreign policies. Although he was a strong dictator in many ways, he made a few poor decisions which ultimately kept him from becoming a truly successful ruler. One can see a strong contrast between cautious foresight and seemingly thoughtless actions in matters ranging from Hitler's management of his own country to his negotiations and conflicts with others.

Domestic Policy Aim: Indoctrination

• Hitler aimed to use propaganda to spread the popularity of Nazi beliefs.
• Placed Joseph Goebbles (Minister of Propaganda) in charge of propaganda and censorship. About 4000 books were banned within a year of Hitler's rise to power.
• Education was closely controlled by the government. Textbooks were rewritten to fit Nazi ideals, and teachers had to be Nazi-approved.
• Youth organizations such as the Hitler Youth (all boys had to join at 14) and the League of German Maidens prepared children for their future roles as ideal German men and women (soldiers and mothers)
  

Domestic Policy Aim: Employment

• Hitler aimed to decrease the rate of unemployment in Germany
  
• Unsuccessful- though records do show that unemployment decreased dramatically (over 6 million were unemployed in 1932, full employment was achieved by 1939), it stayed mostly consistent after it changed. This was because the reason for this increase in employment was that Hitler did not count enemies of the state, women, or people in the military as being unemployed, and because censorship had caused many people (writers, teachers, artists) to lose their jobs.
  

Domestic Policy Aim: Uniting Germany under a single political party

• Hitler aimed to turn Germany into a single-party state under the Nazis (Gleichschaltung, or forcible coordination)
  
• Methods: Enabling Law (1933, Hitler did not have to ask the Reichstag for consent to make laws), establishment of a Police State
  
• Seemed successful, but at what cost? This was mostly done through the use of fear and violence (Gestapo, Concentration Camps). Didn't actually unite Germany, but eliminated his opposition
  

Foreign Policy Aim: Overrule the Treaty of Versailles

• Increased the size of Germany's military to 550,000 troops by 1935 (Treaty of Versailles only allowed 100,000) with no tangible opposition from Britain or France
• Remilitarized the Rhineland in 1936 - sent in 30,000 troops, French did not react
  
• Anschluss with Austria in 1938 - Germany was forbidden from making alliances, but again France and Britain did nothing to stop it.
  

Foreign Policy Aim: Create a "great German Reich"

• Made an Anschluss with Austria, Annexed Czechoslovakia (1939), no reaction from France/Britain (appeasement)
  
• Invaded Poland (1939), France and Britain declared war
• Betrayed the Nazi-Soviet Pact w/ Russia
• Unsuccessful: opened a two-front war with enemies it was not ready to fight, Hitler commits suicide in 1945, loses everything
  

Not a successful ruler; Hitler's successes often relied more on the weaknesses of others than on his own strengths. In addition, these successes did little to benefit the state of Germany, mostly serving only to improve the image of the Nazis.