 Hello and welcome to our video summarizing all you need to know about Hitler and Nazi Germany. My name is Barbara and in this video we'll be examining who were the Nazis. Now do you remember that this is a second of a four-part video summary series where we examine Hitler's life, his leadership, who the Nazis were, but also in our upcoming video we'll examine the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany and in our fourth and final video we'll look at life in Nazi Germany and how it specifically impacted women, young people and the Jews. This video is really useful if you're studying this topic for your coursework or exams. So let's get started. Now, when it comes to who the Nazis were, it's really important to understand the major ideas that underpinned their ideology. Now, many of the Nazi party's ideas came from Hitler's book Mein Kampf, which was written in prison. Now, these are the main ideas of the book which of course influenced Nazi party policy. Firstly, life is a constant struggle between races. This is a crude form of Darwinism, in other words, life is a survival of the fittest and those who are deemed unfit will die. The second idea is that Germans need to maintain healthy racial blood as a way to take over the world. The third idea is Germans need Lebenstrom. In other words, this is a German word for living space and Germany as the territory was at the time was not enough. Germany needs to expand to give the Germans more living space, especially expand eastwards by conquest of Slavic lands. Fourthly, another important idea was to do with anti-Semitism. In other words, a dislike and hatred for the Jews. So the Nazis believed that Jews were the enemy and they must be eliminated and they really promoted this idea. The fifth idea, which came from the Mein Kampf, is that the Treaty of Versailles that Germany was forced to sign was a crime. It had to be reversed and Weimar Germany, which was being led by the SPD, which was the leadership that took over after the end of the First World War, was too weak and it had to be replaced by the Nazis. If you want to know about Treaty of Versailles, by the way, and indeed any other of the First World War treaties, we do have a video on that called World War treaties. So do make sure you check that out if you want to get an idea of the different provisions of the Treaty of Versailles and indeed other treaties signed after the First World War. Now going back to this. The Nazi Party, of course, really didn't do well initially. So do bear in mind that Hitler was really bitter after the end of the Second World War or rather the end of the First World War. The end of the First World War, of course, was 1918 and he was disgusted not only at Germany's loss, but also its agreement by the Weimar government that came in power to sign the Treaty of Versailles. However, the Nazi Party didn't really prove very popular with voters, particularly during the golden years of Weimar Germany, which lasted between 1924 and 1929. Weimar Germany did struggle initially after the First World War to rebuild itself. However, once it managed to secure lots of loan and finance, especially from America in 1924, with the help of a man called Gustav Strassmann, it really did well. And the Nazis, as a result of these golden years, when Germany was really thriving between 1924 to 1928, didn't really do well. There were marginal party and there were several factors that affected their performance in the golden years. The first factor that affected the Nazis' performance and especially why they stayed a marginal party during this time was they were in disarray. They were completely fragmented during the 13 months that Hitler was in prison. It was only after Hitler's release in December 1924 that he became a leader of the Nazi Party and he unified it and it started to slowly do well. However, a second reason why the Nazis were a marginal party during this period is because of splinter groups. Now, authorities were prepared to allow the GVC, which is the Greater German National Community, to function as a follow-up, in other words, as a successor to the NSDAP party in the Bavaria area. And of course, remember the NSDAP party is a Nazi party. But in other areas, a variety of right-wing groups did spring up to replace the Nazi party, especially during, of course, the time that Hitler was in prison. These groups formed a block in the parliamentary elections and did quite well in 1924. However, they didn't have one unifying leader. That therefore means, of course, they did all these different far-right groups did take away support from the Nazis. Thirdly, the other reason why the Nazis were a really marginal party between 1924 to 1928 is that many people didn't really care to vote for them when the country was doing so well. They didn't see a reason to change leadership, especially between 1924 to 1929, which is the Golden Years. Therefore, there was no electoral district in Germany where the Nazis polled over 10% of votes. Do bear in mind that the NSDAP was refounded in 1925, and it was allowed by the authorities to still continue functioning because it wasn't really seen as a threat. So even if Hitler had tried to overthrow the government, the government put him in prison, but once he was released, they didn't ban his party. So they just refounded in 1925 when he came out. However, do bear in mind that during this period, Hitler was still banned from speaking in public until 1927. Now, of course, the Nazis started to do well between 1928 and 1932. Now, they emerged to become the single largest party in the Reichstag by 1932, with approximately a third of all Germans supporting them. This is because, first you remember, the Golden Years ended in Germany in 1929 with the result of the Great Depression, and again, we do have a video outlining the Great Depression, so do make sure you check that out. However, as a result of Germany going through a lot of hardship, Nazis started reemerging, people started voting for them as a way out. Also, do bear in mind people voted for them, and they were appealing because of the following reasons. Firstly, a lot of Germans did hate the Treaty of Versailles, and of course, going through a lot of economic hardship, kind of reminded them that they didn't really like the present government which had signed the Treaty of Versailles, which was the SPD government. Also, the Nazis were appealing because they offered a scapegoat, one main enemy, and they used this enemy as a way to say, if you vote for us, this enemy can be eliminated and everybody will be rich again. And of course, this was based on antisemitism, the main enemy portrayed and the scapegoat was the Jewish community. Also, the Nazis were really popular because their appeal was based on anti-capitalism. So Hitler really skillfully played on hating American capitalist system. Don't forget that it's the Americans that were one of the major reasons that Germany did really well during the Golden Years. Germany did borrow quite a lot of money from the Americans, but of course, once the Great Depression happened, it originated in America, Germany was hit by this. So Hitler used this as a way to say that the Nazis are anti-American and anti-capitalist and also as a way to deride the current government. Furthermore, the Nazis were really appealing to a lot of Germans because they promoted a strong Reich, a strong leader. In other words, they pointed to the SPD which was in disarray and all the other different parties who were splintered and Hitler promoted himself as a strong man who can really guide Germany through all the problems, through leading a strong Reich. Also, of course, the Nazis were really appealing because Hitler positioned himself and portrayed himself as a messianic figure who'd lead Germany out of chaos. And in addition, tied to the anti-capitalism, they had a really successful anti-Young Plan campaign in 1929 where people really started also seeing, in addition to seeing the Jews as enemies, they also started seeing that Americans as enemies and as responsible for the Germans' own suffering. Do bear in mind also that the Nazis had a great propaganda system which was designed by a man called Joseph Goebbels which had really simple and easy to remember slogans which made them all the more popular. Now, these are the following groups of people who supported the Nazis. So firstly, the farmers and the fishermen suffered from a collapse of world food prices and bad harvests, high interest in debts and high taxes especially during the Great Depression, so they supported the Nazis. Secondly, white-collar workers and middle-class workers felt really frustrated by the collapse of the German economy, the erasure of their savings as well as the rise of the socialist far left threat so they supported the Nazis. Thirdly, small businesses also really suffered as demand dried up so they looked to the Nazis as a solution to the problem. Fourthly, the artisan class were really resentful of powerful trade unions. These skilled workers were not unionized and they were threatened by the forces of mass production and cheap imports that these trade unions posed. Fifthly, young people actually supported the Nazis during the time because they tended to vote for extreme parties that were disillusioned by the dull, orderly politicians of the Democratic parties and the Nazis skillfully exploited what they saw as a generation gap presenting themselves as more older brothers than father figures. Do bear in mind that the prominent politicians during the time of Weimar Germany were quite old, even Hindenburg himself who was president when by the time Hitler became chancellor was in his 80s so Hitler was able to present himself as quite young, quite spritely and young people looked to him almost like an older brother. Sixthly, Protestants were another important group that supported the Nazis and they were more likely to vote Nazis than Catholics because the Lutheran Church had a strong nationalistic tradition. Finally, big businesses were another important source of support for Nazis. They supported right-wing groups generally, not just the Nazis because they hated high taxes, high labour costs and they felt trade unions had too much power so they really saw the Nazis as one of a good solution to the left threat.