Nazi germany

The National Socialist German Workers’ Party, or Nazi Party, grew into a mass movement and ruled Germany through totalitarian means from 1933 to 1945 under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. Founded in 1919 as the German Workers’ Party, the group promoted German pride and anti-Semitism, and expressed dissatisfaction with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the 1919 peace settlement that ended World War I. Hitler joined the party the year it was founded and became its leader in 1921. In 1933, he became chancellor of Germany and his Nazi government soon assumed dictatorial powers. After Germany’s defeat in World War II, the Nazi Party was outlawed and many of its officials were convicted of war crimes related to the Holocaust. Founded earlier that same year by a small group of men including locksmith Anton Drexler and journalist Karl Harrer, the party promoted German nationalism and anti-Semitism, and felt that the Hitler soon emerged as a charismatic public speaker and began attracting new members with speeches blaming Did you know? Sales of Hitler's political autobiography “Mein Kampf,” sometimes referred to as the bible of the Nazi Party, made him a millionaire. From 1933 to 1945, free copies were given to every newlywed German couple. But after World War II, the publication of “Mein Kampf” in Germany became illegal. Through the 1920s, Hitler gave speech after speech in which he stated that unemployment, rampant inflation, hunger and economic stagnation in postwar Germany...

• • • • The last remaining World War II Nazis are living comfortably at home in Germany, leading normal lives and, in some instances, are still proud of their participation in one of world history’s biggest atrocities. In the chilling new documentary “Final Account,” out Friday, British director Luke Holland, whose grandparents were killed in Deemed functionaries rather than war criminals by the German government, these former medics, SS officers and concentration camp guards were able to return to their communities From age 10, German children became part of either Jungvolk, and eventually Hitler Youth, or the League of German Girls. Courtesy of Focus Features For many of them, “nothing” is the operative word today. “The majority of those under Naziism said after the war, again and again, firstly ‘I didn’t know,’ secondly ‘I didn’t take part,’ and thirdly, ‘If I had known, I would have acted differently,’ ” Klaus Kleinau, a remorseful member of the Waffen-SS, the military branch of the SS, said in the doc. Kleinau believes this to be a widespread delusion. “Everybody tries to distance themselves from the massacres committed under Naziism, especially those of the final years. And that’s why so many said: ‘I wasn’t a Nazi.’ ” Klaus Kleinau is one of the surviving remorseful members of the Waffen-SS. Courtesy of Focus Features LLC. The interviewees mostly began their participation with the Nazis when they joined the Jungvolk, a mandatory program for boys between the ages of ...

Nazi Germany After Mein Kampf (1925–27; “My Struggle”) had hinted at his plans for broad educational exploitation. The Ministry of Public Enlightenment and The Changes after World War II Immediately after Land (state) governments. Although efforts to strengthen the federal government’s presence waxed and waned, Land governments remained independent and divided along political lines on educational reforms. The two main political issues dividing the states had always been confessional schooling and the tripartite division of secondary schooling, with Gesamtschulen) existed, they usually incorporated separate secondary paths. Nevertheless, the effective extension of common schooling through an “orientation stage” between elementary and secondary schooling, the attempt to develop each level so that it better served more youth—even if differentially—and the functional Education was compulsory from age 6 to 18. In general, pupils spent four years in the elementary school ( Grundschule), six years in one of the lower secondary branches, and two years in one of the upper secondary branches. The first two years of the lower secondary school In the late 20th century about 25 percent of secondary-school-age children entered the Gymnasium, which, with different academic emphases, remained the successor to its Classical ancestor. Roughly 40 percent attended the nonselective Hauptschule (“main school”), which offered basic subjects to grade 9 or 10 and was followed by Realschule (former...

A prominent figure in the far-right Alternative for Germany party has been charged over his alleged use in a 2021 speech of a slogan used by the Nazis' SA stormtroopers, German prosecutors said Monday Nazi Party, byname of National Socialist German Workers’ Party, German Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), Founding of the Nazi Party and the Beer Hall Putsch The Nazi Party was founded as the German Workers’ Party by Anton Drexler, a

Consider, if you will, a fraught military standoff. A soldier from the German army receives an order from a superior to fire his gun, but he puts it down and walks away. In the United States, he would have just committed the unforgivable and illegal act of insubordination, even if the superior officer weren’t from the same service branch. But in this scenario, the German soldier didn’t break the rules—he followed them. Military disobedience is actually baked into the German Bundeswehr, or armed forces. And the reasons why can be found in the country’s sinister past. American military law states that an order can only be disobeyed if it is unlawful. However, the German military manual In practice, that means that a soldier or armed forces administrator can ignore a superior officer’s order—even if it’s in the midst of combat or is given by a high-ranking official. That’s not how it used to be. Unconditional obedience to military orders was once a norm going back to the kingdoms that preceded Germany before it became a nation state in 1871. During READ MORE: After World War I, this discipline softened thanks to the Allied forces, which blamed the country’s strict military hierarchy for the ruthlessness of World War I. Under the Hans von Seeckt watching as troops march by, 1936. (Credit: Ullstein Bild via Getty Images) However, Germany had no intention of following the treaty’s military provisions. Soon after the treaty was signed, German general Hans von Seeckt began to reor...

In his bestselling book, “Der Totale Rausch” (The Total Rush)—recently published in English as “Blitzed”—Ohler found that many in the Nazi regime used drugs regularly, from the soldiers of the Wehrmacht (German armed forces) all the way up to Hitler himself. The use of methamphetamine, better known as crystal meth, was particularly prevalent: A pill form of the drug, Pervitin, was distributed by the millions to Wehrmacht troops before the successful invasion of France in 1940. Developed by the Temmler pharmaceutical company, based in Berlin, Pervitin was introduced in 1938 and marketed as a magic pill for alertness and an anti-depressive, among other uses. It was briefly even available over the counter. A military doctor, Otto Ranke, experimented with Pervitin on 90 college students and decided, based on his results, that the drug would help Germany win the war. Using Pervitin, the soldiers of the Wehrmacht could stay awake for days at a time and march many more miles without resting. Nazi leadership, c. 1940. Theodore Morell is fourth from right. (Credit: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R99057 / CC-BY-SA 3.0) A so-called “stimulant decree” issued in April 1940 sent more than 35 million tablets of Pervitin and Isophan (a slightly modified version produced by the Knoll pharmaceutical company) of the pills to the front lines, where they fueled the Nazis’ “Blitzkrieg” invasion of France through the Ardennes mountains. It should be noted that Germans were not alone in their use of perf...

While innovation in Nazi Germany is often associated with its weapons of mass destruction, there are also a number of surprising products people take for granted on a daily basis that can trace their origins to Nazi Germany. The 10. Volkswagen Beetle The Beetle was designed by automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche. Image credit: wikimedia.org An iconic vehicle today, the Volkswagen Beetle was commissioned by Hitler in the 1930s as the “peoples car”, designed as a practical, affordable car for German families. The Beetle was designed by the Austrian-German automotive engineer Ferdinand Porsche, a member of the Nazi Party. First manufactured in 1938, the Beetle was discontinued in the 1970s, only to be revived in 1998. Due to declining sales, Volkswagen announced that it would discontinue production of the Beetle in 2019. 9. Anechoic Tile Anechoic tiles were designed by Nazi Germany’s Navy. Image credit: reddit Used on the outer hulls of military ships and submarines, anechoic tiles are rubber or synthetic polymer tiles designed to absorb and distort sonar sound waves and dampen noise to avoid detection. Anechoic tiles were designed by Nazi Germany’s Navy in World War II, and first applied on a German U-boat in 1940. Today use of anechoic tiles on military submarines is common, though there are problems with the tiles falling off of vessels. 8. Anti-ship Missile The effectiveness of anti-ship missiles against Allied vessels in 1943-1944 prompted other countries to develop th...

Consider, if you will, a fraught military standoff. A soldier from the German army receives an order from a superior to fire his gun, but he puts it down and walks away. In the United States, he would have just committed the unforgivable and illegal act of insubordination, even if the superior officer weren’t from the same service branch. But in this scenario, the German soldier didn’t break the rules—he followed them. Military disobedience is actually baked into the German Bundeswehr, or armed forces. And the reasons why can be found in the country’s sinister past. American military law states that an order can only be disobeyed if it is unlawful. However, the German military manual In practice, that means that a soldier or armed forces administrator can ignore a superior officer’s order—even if it’s in the midst of combat or is given by a high-ranking official. That’s not how it used to be. Unconditional obedience to military orders was once a norm going back to the kingdoms that preceded Germany before it became a nation state in 1871. During READ MORE: After World War I, this discipline softened thanks to the Allied forces, which blamed the country’s strict military hierarchy for the ruthlessness of World War I. Under the Hans von Seeckt watching as troops march by, 1936. (Credit: Ullstein Bild via Getty Images) However, Germany had no intention of following the treaty’s military provisions. Soon after the treaty was signed, German general Hans von Seeckt began to reor...

A prominent figure in the far-right Alternative for Germany party has been charged over his alleged use in a 2021 speech of a slogan used by the Nazis' SA stormtroopers, German prosecutors said Monday Nazi Party, byname of National Socialist German Workers’ Party, German Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), Founding of the Nazi Party and the Beer Hall Putsch The Nazi Party was founded as the German Workers’ Party by Anton Drexler, a

In his bestselling book, “Der Totale Rausch” (The Total Rush)—recently published in English as “Blitzed”—Ohler found that many in the Nazi regime used drugs regularly, from the soldiers of the Wehrmacht (German armed forces) all the way up to Hitler himself. The use of methamphetamine, better known as crystal meth, was particularly prevalent: A pill form of the drug, Pervitin, was distributed by the millions to Wehrmacht troops before the successful invasion of France in 1940. Developed by the Temmler pharmaceutical company, based in Berlin, Pervitin was introduced in 1938 and marketed as a magic pill for alertness and an anti-depressive, among other uses. It was briefly even available over the counter. A military doctor, Otto Ranke, experimented with Pervitin on 90 college students and decided, based on his results, that the drug would help Germany win the war. Using Pervitin, the soldiers of the Wehrmacht could stay awake for days at a time and march many more miles without resting. Nazi leadership, c. 1940. Theodore Morell is fourth from right. (Credit: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R99057 / CC-BY-SA 3.0) A so-called “stimulant decree” issued in April 1940 sent more than 35 million tablets of Pervitin and Isophan (a slightly modified version produced by the Knoll pharmaceutical company) of the pills to the front lines, where they fueled the Nazis’ “Blitzkrieg” invasion of France through the Ardennes mountains. It should be noted that Germans were not alone in their use of perf...