Hitler's Reign: Impact On Bavarians

The period of Hitler's rule in Germany, from 1933 to 1945, was marked by the transformation of the country into a totalitarian dictatorship, with far-reaching consequences for Germans in Bavaria and across the nation. Hitler's rise to power was facilitated by the global economic crisis, which left millions of Germans unemployed, and his talent for oratory, which attracted a large following. Once in power, Hitler and the Nazi Party swiftly moved to eliminate opposition and consolidate their grip on the country.

In Bavaria, the impact of Hitler's regime was felt keenly. The state witnessed the opening of the first Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, near Munich, and the persecution of Jews, who saw their rights systematically stripped away. The region also served as a favourite retreat for Hitler, who spent considerable time at his residence in the Bavarian Alps.

Hitler's rule in Germany was characterised by the suppression of dissent, the glorification of Aryan racial purity, and the pursuit of world conquest. This dark chapter in German history ended in 1945 with the defeat of Nazi Germany and Hitler's death by suicide.

Hitler's rise to power

Hitler's control over the Nazi Party went unchallenged, and in 1923, he attempted a coup, known as the Beer Hall Putsch, in Bavaria. The coup failed, and Hitler was arrested and put on trial. However, the trial brought him national fame, and he used the opportunity to spread his message. He was sentenced to five years in prison but served only nine months. During his time in prison, Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, which became the guiding text of National Socialism.

After his release, Hitler switched tactics, opting to pursue power through legal and democratic means. He began campaigning furiously, running on a platform of anti-communism, antisemitism, and ultranationalism. The Nazi Party vociferously criticised the ruling democratic government and the Treaty of Versailles, while expressing their desire to turn Germany into a world power. Initially, most Germans were indifferent to Hitler's rhetoric, as the German economy was beginning to recover, largely due to loans from the United States.

However, Hitler's fortunes changed with the 1929 Wall Street Crash, which severely impacted Germany's economy. The Great Depression polarised German politics, and Hitler and the Nazis exploited the crisis to criticise the ruling government. During this tumultuous time, the German Communist Party also began campaigning and calling for a revolution, alarming business leaders who began to support the Nazi Party to counter the threat of communism.

Hitler ran for the presidency in 1932 but was defeated by the incumbent, Paul von Hindenburg, although he achieved a strong second-place finish. In July 1932, the Nazis became the largest party in the Reichstag but fell short of a majority. Hitler continued to negotiate with Hindenburg and other conservative leaders, and on January 30, 1933, he was formally appointed Chancellor of Germany.

Hitler's path to dictatorship was accelerated by the Reichstag fire in February 1933. Blaming the communists for the arson, Hitler convinced Hindenburg to pass the Reichstag Fire Decree, severely curtailing the liberties and rights of German citizens. He used this decree to eliminate his political opponents and argue for more drastic measures, eventually proposing the Enabling Act of 1933. This law gave the German government, with Hitler as Chancellor, emergency powers to pass and enforce laws without parliamentary oversight.

The Beer Hall Putsch

The Background

Hitler had served in the German Army during World War I and still held Austrian citizenship at the time. Like many Germans of the period, he believed the Treaty of Versailles, which ended the war, to be a betrayal, with Germany having been "stabbed in the back" by its own government. For the defeat, Hitler scapegoated civilian leaders, Jews, and Marxists, later called the "November Criminals".

In 1923, Hitler was 34. He had been a high-school dropout and a failed artist before the war. He joined the German Workers' Party in 1919 and soon became one of its leaders. By 1921, he was addressing crowds of several thousand people in local beer halls, which were common places for Bavarians to gather for political meetings. The German Workers' Party changed its name to the National German Socialist Workers' Party, or Nazi Party, and elected Hitler as its leader in July 1921.

By November 1923, Hitler and his associates had concocted a plot to seize power from the Bavarian state government and thereby launch a larger revolution against the Weimar Republic. The plan involved kidnapping Gustav von Kahr, the state commissioner of Bavaria, and two other conservative politicians. Hitler intended to use Erich Ludendorff, a right-wing World War I general, as a figurehead to lead a march on Berlin to overthrow the Weimar Republic. The putsch was inspired by Benito Mussolini's successful March on Rome, which had brought the Fascists to power in Italy in October 1922.

The Putsch

Hitler and his followers, numbering around 2,000, marched on the Feldherrnhalle in the Munich city centre but were confronted by a police cordon, resulting in the deaths of 15 Nazis, four police officers, and one bystander. Hitler escaped immediate arrest and was taken to safety in the countryside. After two days, he was arrested and charged with treason.

The putsch brought Hitler to the attention of the German nation for the first time and generated headlines around the world. His arrest was followed by a 24-day trial, which was widely publicised and gave him a platform to express his nationalist sentiments. Hitler was found guilty of treason and sentenced to five years in Landsberg Prison, where he dictated Mein Kampf to fellow prisoners Emil Maurice and Rudolf Hess. On 20 December 1924, having served only nine months, Hitler was released.

The Aftermath

Once released, Hitler redirected his focus towards obtaining power through legal means rather than by revolution or force, and accordingly changed his tactics, further developing Nazi propaganda. The Beer Hall Putsch had several significant consequences. Firstly, it led to a split between Hitler and Ludendorff, who considered Hitler a coward for sneaking away after the police had begun to fire. Secondly, Hitler decided that armed revolution was not the way to obtain power in Weimar Germany. After the failure of the putsch, he and the Nazi Party worked to manipulate the political system rather than plan another violent seizure of power. Thirdly, the putsch brought the Nazi Party to national attention in Germany, and the deaths of 16 party members became a propaganda victory. The men became martyrs, remembered in the foreword to Mein Kampf and entombed in two "temples of honour" in downtown Munich.

Mein Kampf

Hitler began writing Mein Kampf in 1924 while imprisoned in Landsberg after his failed Beer Hall Putsch coup in Munich in November 1923. The first volume, entitled Die Abrechnung, or 'The Settlement' or 'Revenge', was written during his nine-month prison sentence. It covers Hitler's youth, his experiences in the First World War, and the "betrayal" of Germany's collapse in 1918. It also expresses his racist ideology, identifying the Aryan as the "genius" race and the Jew as the "parasite", and declares the need for Germans to seek Lebensraum, or living space, in Eastern Europe at the expense of the Slavs and Russians.

The second volume, Die Nationalsozialistische Bewegung, or 'The National Socialist Movement', was written after Hitler's release from prison in December 1924 and outlines the political program and terrorist methods that National Socialism must pursue in gaining and exercising power.

Hitler originally wanted to call the book Viereinhalb Jahre (des Kampfes) gegen Lüge, Dummheit und Feigheit (Four and a Half Years [of Struggle] Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice), but it was shortened to Mein Kampf, or 'My Struggle', by his publisher, Max Amann. The first volume was published in 1925, and the second in 1926.

In 2016, the copyright held by the Bavarian government expired, and Mein Kampf was republished in Germany for the first time since 1945, prompting public debate and divided reactions from Jewish groups.

Nazi rule in Bavaria

Bavaria, a state in the southeast of Germany, has a distinct culture largely due to its Catholic heritage and conservative traditions. The region was settled by Celtic tribes during the Bronze Age and was later incorporated into the Roman Empire in the 1st century BC. In the 6th century AD, it became the Duchy of Bavaria, and in the centuries that followed, it changed hands several times, eventually becoming part of the Holy Roman Empire.

During the rise of the Nazi Party in the 1920s and 1930s, Bavaria, like the rest of Germany, underwent significant political changes. Here is an overview of the impact of Nazi rule in Bavaria:

The Rise of Nazism in Bavaria

In the 1920s, Bavaria was a largely Catholic and conservative region, and initially, the residents of places like Oberstdorf, a village in the Allgäu region, ignored Hitler and his new party. However, the global economic crisis that began in 1930 changed this. The Nazis capitalised on the economic woes, using them to condemn the government and the Versailles Peace Treaty. This message resonated with many Bavarians, who began to support the Nazi Party.

The Impact of Nazi Rule

When Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, the Nazis began consolidating their power and transforming German society according to their ideology. This had a profound impact on Bavarians, even in remote villages like Oberstdorf. The Nazis aimed to control every aspect of people's lives and reshape long-standing Catholic traditions to align with Nazi ideals.

The new regime affected not just those who were Jewish, Roma, or disabled but also those who were not part of any targeted outsider group. For example, the Nazis interfered with local governance, stripping Bavarians of their autonomy over their affairs. Additionally, anyone who criticised the regime risked being sent to the newly established concentration camp at Dachau.

Dachau Concentration Camp

Dachau, located near Munich, was the first concentration camp established by the Nazis. Initially, it housed prisoners who had made anti-regime jokes, expressed defeatist sentiments, or illegally slaughtered farm animals. Later, during World War II, Dachau supplied labour for factories that sprang up in the area.

Resistance and Passive Opposition

Despite the pervasiveness of Nazi rule, there were instances of resistance and passive opposition in Bavaria. The White Rose, a well-known resistance group, operated in Munich, and even in Oberstdorf, there were those who quietly opposed the regime. For example, Ludwig Fink, the village's second Nazi mayor, saved the lives of several Jews and supported others who ran afoul of the Nazi legal system.

The End of Nazi Rule in Bavaria

With the end of World War II in 1945, Bavaria was occupied by US forces, bringing an end to Nazi rule in the region. The state was reestablished, and in 1949, it became part of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The White Rose resistance

The Scholl siblings, along with other students at the University of Munich, including Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, Christoph Probst, and a professor, Kurt Huber, formed a small collective of Christian students who secretly wrote and distributed leaflets across Germany. They also used graffiti to spread their message. The Scholl siblings had initially been enthusiastic supporters of the Nazis, but their experiences of the war and the regime's tightening grip on freedom of expression led them to become active resisters.

The group's leaflets called for sabotage of Hitler's war machine and urged people to take action against the National Socialist Party. They wrote:

> "Our current 'state' is the dictatorship of evil...Why don't you act? Why do you tolerate these rulers gradually robbing you, in public and in private, of one right after another, until one day nothing, absolutely nothing, remains but the machinery of the state, under the command of criminals and drunkards?"

The White Rose's activism was short-lived. In February 1943, Hans and Sophie Scholl were arrested by the Gestapo after being caught distributing leaflets at their university. They were tried and sentenced to death for treason, along with Christoph Probst, and executed by guillotine on 22 February 1943. Other members of the group were also arrested and put to death or given long prison sentences.

The White Rose's actions had a powerful impact, both at the time and since. Their leaflets were smuggled out of Germany and reprinted, with copies dropped over the country by Allied planes in July 1943. In post-war Germany, the group has been revered, with schools, streets, and awards named after its members. The White Rose has become a symbol of civic values and a model of resistance and civil disobedience.

Frequently asked questions