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Nazi Germany

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: World War II

   CAPTION: Großdeutsches Reich ^1
   Greater German Empire


   ←
      1933 —  1945 →

   Flag Coat of arms
   Flag National Insignia
   Motto: "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer."
   (English: "One people, one empire, one leader.")
   Anthem: Das Lied der Deutschen^2, Horst-Wessel-Lied
   National animal: Eagle and Tiger
   Location of Germany
   Nazi Germany at its fullest extent prior to the start of World War II
   Capital Berlin
   52°31′N 13°24′E
   Language(s) German
   Government Value specified for "government_type" does not comply
    - 1934-1945 Adolf Hitler
    - 1945 Karl Dönitz
   Chancellor
    - 1933-1945 Adolf Hitler
    - 1945 Joseph Goebbels
    - 1945 Ludwig von Krosigk
   Historical era Interwar
    -  Election January 30,  1933
    -  Establishment February 27, 1933
    -  Enablement March 31, 1933
    -  Capture May 2, 1945
    -  Surrender May 8, 1945
    -  Disestablished^3 July 5,  1945
   Area
    - 1939 633,786 km^2
   244,706 sq mi
   Population
    - 1939 est. 69,314,000
        Density 109.4 /km²
   283.3 /sq mi
   Currency Reichsmark
   ^1From 1943-1945. From 1933 to 1943: Deutsches Reich, German Empire.
   ^2Only first stanza is used.
   ^3Was technically the same state from 1919 through 1949, at East- West
   Germany division.

   Nazi Germany or Third Reich, officially called the German Reich
   (Deutsches Reich), and later the Greater German Reich (Großdeutsches
   Reich), refers to Germany in the years 1933 to 1945, when it was
   governed by the National Socialist German Workers Party
   (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP), with Führer
   Adolf Hitler as chancellor and, from 1934, head of state. Nazi Germany
   precipitated World War II.

   In addition to Weimar-era Germany proper, the Reich included areas with
   ethnic German populations such as Austria, the Sudetenland and the
   territory of Memel, all added before the war.

   Other regions were acquired only after the outbreak of conflict, but
   had been part of Imperial Germany prior to the Treaty of Versailles and
   had varying German populations: Alsace-Lorraine, Danzig and parts of
   Poland. Others regions, particularly the rest of Poland, had never been
   part of a German state.

   Some other acquired regions, especially parts of Slovenia, had once
   been part of the Austrian Empire. In addition, from 1939 to 1945, the
   Reich ruled Bohemia and Moravia as a Protectorate, peacefully
   subjugated prior to the start of the world war. Czech Silesia was
   incorporated into the province of Silesia during the same period.

   The Reich's borders had changed defacto well before its military defeat
   in May 1945, as the German population fled westward from the advancing
   Red Army and the Western Allies pressed eastward from France. By the
   end of the war, a small strip of land stretching from Austria to
   Bohemia and Moravia - as well as a few other isolated regions - were
   the only areas not under Allied control. Upon its defeat, the Reich as
   a state was declared suppressed and was replaced by occupation zones
   administrated by the United States, France, the United Kingdom and the
   Soviet Union.

Background and terminology

   Nazi Germany signed the Tripartite Pact with Imperial Japan and Fascist
   Italy during World War II. The three principal nations in this
   alliance, collectively referred to as the Axis Powers, fought against
   the Allies of World War II, which were led at first by the United
   Kingdom but after 1941 joined by the Soviet Union and the United
   States.

   Third Reich is often used as a near- synonym for Nazi Germany. In
   German, the regime was and is sometimes referred to as Drittes Reich.
   Despite the interchangeable status of these terms, "Drittes Reich" is
   never referred to as the "Third Empire", the rough English translation.
   Evolution of the territorial expansion of Nazi Germany from 1937 until
   September 1st, 1939.
   Enlarge
   Evolution of the territorial expansion of Nazi Germany from 1937 until
   September 1st, 1939.

   The Nazi Party used the terms Drittes Reich and Tausendjähriges Reich
   ("Thousand-Year Empire") in order to connect the German empire they
   wished to forge to the ones of old (the Holy Roman Empire and the
   Second German Empire) while alluding to envisioned future prosperity
   and the new nation's alleged destiny. The Holy Roman Empire, deemed the
   First Empire or First Reich, had lasted almost a thousand years from
   843 to 1806. The term Tausendjähriges Reich was used only briefly and
   dropped from propaganda in 1939, officially to avoid persiflage and
   possibly to even avoid religious connotations. In speeches, books and
   articles about the Third Reich after 8 May 1945, the phrase has taken
   on a new meaning and the early Nazi professions about a "thousand year"
   empire are often juxtaposed against the twelve years that the Third
   Reich actually existed.

   The official name of Nazi Germany, in use after the 1933 German
   National Socialist Revolution, varied until 1943. However, the Nazis
   did not refer to their State as "Nazi Germany" or "National Socialist
   Germany", and such titles never appeared in official publications.
   Rather, they intensified the use of the official name of the pre-1945
   German state: Deutsches Reich, a term officially used in Imperial
   Germany until 1919 and afterwards within the Weimar Republic. In 1943,
   however, the government decreed a change of official state name to the
   more expansionist name Großdeutsches Reich (Greater German Empire),
   which remained in official use until the collapse of Nazi Germany in
   May, 1945.

Ideology

   A 1941 map of Nazi Germany and its administrative regions.
   Enlarge
   A 1941 map of Nazi Germany and its administrative regions.

   Ideologically, the Nazis endorsed the concept of "Großdeutschland", or
   Greater Germany, and believed that the incorporation of the Germanic
   peoples into one nation was a vital step towards their national
   success. While the Nazis proposed the creation of an all-encompassing
   German ethnic State, others, particularly non-Germans, were in strong
   opposition to the idea, believing that a very large and powerful
   Germany would be to the disadvantage of the rest of Europe. Similarly,
   the "German problem", as it is often referred to in English
   scholarship, focuses on the issue of administration of Germanic regions
   within Northern and Central Europe, an important theme throughout
   German history. The "logic" of keeping Germany small worked in the
   favour of its principal economic rivals, and had been a driving force
   in the recreation of a Polish state. The goal was to create numerous
   counterweights in order to "balance out Germany's power." Regardless of
   one's position on these matters, it was the love affair with the Volk
   concept that led to Germany's expansion, culminating in World War II.
   Two important issues were administration of the Polish corridor and
   Danzig's incorporation into the Reich. As a further extension of racial
   policy, the Lebensraum program, adapted in the midst of the war,
   pertained to similar interests; it was decided that Eastern Europe
   would be settled with ethnic Germans, and the Slavic population who met
   the Nazi racial standard would be absorbed into the Reich. Those not
   fitting the racial standards were to be used as cheap labour force or
   deported eastward.

   Racialism was an important aspect of society within the Third Reich.
   The Nazis also combined anti-Semitism with anti-Communist ideology and
   regarded the leftist movement - as well as international market
   capitalism - as the work of "conspiratorial Jewry". They referred to
   this so-called movement as the "Jewish-Bolshevistic revolution of
   subhumans." This platform manifested itself in the displacement,
   internment and later, the systematic extermination of an estimated six
   million European Jews in the midst of World War II. Other victims of
   Nazi persecution included Slavic populations in and outside of Slavic
   countries, blacks, Gypsies (viewed as subhuman), political opponents,
   social outcasts, homosexuals, religious dissidents such as Jehovah's
   Witnesses and Freemasons, and unyielding Church-affiliated leadership (
   Confessing Church of German Lutherans and resisting Roman Catholic
   clergy). One could argue that a war with the Soviet Union was
   inevitable based on the Third Reich's precepts. However, World War II
   officially began after Nazi Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939,
   which led to France and the United Kingdom both declaring war on
   Germany. The global conflict that followed left Europe in ruins and led
   to the deaths of roughly sixty-two million persons.

Chronology of events

       History of Germany
   Ancient times
   Germanic peoples
   Migration Period
   Frankish Empire
   Medieval times
   Holy Roman Empire
   East Colonisation
   Building a nation
   Confederation of the Rhine
   German Confederation
   North German Confederation
   Imperial Germany
   German Empire
   Germany during World War I
   Weimar Republic
   Weimar Republic
   Nazi Germany
   Nazi Germany
   World War II
   Post-war Germany
   Since 1945
   Occupation and Division
   Expulsion
   East Germany
   West Germany
   German reunification
   Present day Germany
   Modern Germany
   Topical
   Military history of Germany
   Timeline of German history
   History of German
                            []
     * Weimar Republic (includes the events leading to Hitler's
       appointment as Chancellor of Germany in 1933)
     * Hitler's rise to power
     * Gleichschaltung (the legal measures taken by the Nazis to establish
       their dictatorship)
     * Reoccupation of the Rhineland
     * Anschluss
     * Axis Powers
     * World War II (with a focus on military events)

Pre-War Politics 1933-1939

   In the wake of the frustrations imposed through the Versailles Treaty,
   the worldwide economic depression of the 1930's, the
   counter-traditionalism of the Weimar period and the threat of
   Soviet-sponsored communism in Germany, many voters began turning their
   support towards the Nazi Party, which made great promises of an
   economic, cultural, and military renewal. The Dolchstoßlegende figured
   prominently. On 30 January 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor of
   Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg after attempts by General Kurt
   von Schleicher to form a viable government failed. Hindenburg was put
   under pressure by Hitler through his son Oskar von Hindenburg, as well
   as intrigue from former Chancellor Franz von Papen following his
   collection of participating financial interests and own ambitions to
   combat communism. Even though the Nazi Party had gained the largest
   share of the popular vote in the two Reichstag general elections of
   1932, they had no majority of their own, and just a slim majority in
   parliament with their Papen-proposed Nationalist DNVP- NSDAP coalition.
   This coalition ruled through accepted continuance of the Presidential
   decree, issued under Article 48 of the 1919 constitution.

Consolidation of power

   Street Decoration for Mussolini's state visit to Berlin in September
   1937, which was left in position until the beginning of World War Two.
   Enlarge
   Street Decoration for Mussolini's state visit to Berlin in September
   1937, which was left in position until the beginning of World War Two.

   The new government installed a dictatorship in a series of measures in
   quick succession (see Gleichschaltung for details). On 27 February 1933
   the Reichstag was set on fire, and this was followed immediately by the
   Reichstag Fire Decree, which rescinded habeas corpus and civil
   liberties.

   A further step that turned Germany into a dictatorship virtually
   overnight was the Enabling Act passed in March 1933 with 444 votes, to
   the 94 of the remaining Social Democrats. The act gave the government
   (and thus effectively the Nazi Party) legislative powers and also
   authorized it to deviate from the provisions of the constitution. With
   these powers, Hitler removed the remaining opposition and turned the
   Weimar Republic into the "Third Reich".

   Further consolidation of power was achieved on 30 January 1934, with
   the Gesetz über den Neuaufbau des Reichs (Act to rebuild the Reich).
   The act changed the highly decentralized federal Germany of the Weimar
   era into a centralized state. It disbanded state parliaments,
   transferring sovereign rights of the states to the Reich central
   government and put the state administrations under the control of the
   Reich administration.

   Only the army remained independent from Nazi control. The German army
   had traditionally been somewhat separate from the government. The Nazi
   quasi-military SA expected top positions in the new power structure.
   Wanting to preserve good relations with the army, on the night of 30
   June 1934, Hitler initiated the Night of the Long Knives, a purge of
   the leadership ranks of Röhm's SA as well as other political enemies,
   carried out by another, more elitist, Nazi organization, the SS.

   At the death of president Hindenburg on 2 August 1934, the
   Nazi-controlled Reichstag merged the offices of Reichspräsident and
   Reichskanzler and reinstalled Hitler with the new title Führer und
   Reichskanzler. Until the death of Hindenburg, the army did not follow
   Hitler. However, with the death of Hindenburg, the entire army swore
   their obedience to Hitler.

   The inception of the Gestapo, police acting outside of any civil
   authority, highlighted the Nazis' intention to use powerful, coercive
   means to directly control German society. Soon, an army estimated to be
   of about 100,000 spies and infiltrators operated throughout Germany,
   reporting to Nazi officials the activities of any critics or
   dissenters. Most ordinary Germans, happy with the improving economy and
   better standard of living, remained obedient and quiet, but many
   political opponents, especially communists and some types of
   socialists, were reported by omnipresent eavesdropping spies, and put
   in prison camps where they were severely mistreated, and many tortured
   and killed. It is estimated that tens of thousands of political victims
   died or disappeared in the first few years of Nazi rule.

Social policy

   The Nazi regime was characterized by political control of every aspect
   of society in a quest for racial ( Aryan, Nordic), social and cultural
   purity. Modern abstract art and avant-garde art was thrown out of
   museums, and put on special display as " Degenerate art", where it was
   to be ridiculed. In one notable example on 31 March 1937, huge crowds
   stood in line to view a special display of "degenerate art" in Munich,
   while a concurrent exhibition of 900 works personally approved by Adolf
   Hitler attracted a tiny, unenthusiastic gathering.

   The Nazi Party pursued its aims through persecution and killing of
   those considered impure, targeted especially against minority groups
   such as Jews, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals.

   In the years following the Nazi rise to power, many Jews fled the
   country and were encouraged to do so. By the Nuremberg Laws passed in
   1935, Jews were stripped of their German citizenship and denied
   government employment. Most Jews employed by Germans lost their jobs at
   this time, which were being taken by unemployed Germans. Notably, the
   Nazi government attempted to send 17,000 German Jews of Polish descent
   back to Poland, a decision which led to the assassination of Ernst vom
   Rath by Herschel Grynszpan, a German Jew living in France. This
   provided the pretext for a pogrom the Nazi Party incited against the
   Jews on 9 November 1938, which specifically targeted Jewish businesses.
   The event was called Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass, literally
   "Crystal Night"); the euphemism was used because the numerous broken
   windows made the streets look as if covered with crystals. By September
   1939, more than 200,000 Jews had left Germany, with the Nazi government
   seizing any property they left behind.

   The Nazis also undertook programs targeting "weak" or "unfit" members
   of their own population, such as the T-4 Euthanasia Program, killing
   tens of thousands of disabled and sick Germans in an effort to
   "maintain the purity of the German Master race" (German: Herrenvolk) as
   described by Nazi propagandists. The techniques of mass killing
   developed in these efforts would later be used in the Holocaust. Under
   a law passed in 1933, the Nazi regime carried out the compulsory
   sterilization of over 400,000 individuals labeled as having hereditary
   defects, ranging from mental illness to alcoholism.

   Recent research by academics such as Götz Aly has emphasized the role
   of the extensive Nazi welfare programs that supposedly helped maintain
   public support for the regime that lasted long into the war. The German
   community was nationalized and labor and entertainment - from
   festivals, to vacation trips and traveling cinemas - were all made a
   part of the "Strength through Joy" ( Kraft durch Freude) program. Also
   crucial to the building of loyalty and comradeship was the
   implementation of the National Labor Service and the Hitler Youth
   Organization, with the former being compulsory and the latter
   consisting of nearly six million boys and girls. In addition to a
   number of architectural projects that were undertaken, the construction
   of the Autobahn made it the first National Motor Highway system in the
   world. It should be noted that between 1933 and 1936, Germany outpaced
   the United States in construction, automobile production, unemployment
   and employment. All in all, the New Reich gave Germans confidence and
   naturally instilled loyalty.

   Other issues in Nazi Germany were Animal rights , Environmentalism , ,
   and Public health ,

Economic policy

   The Reichsmark gained significant value during the Third Reich.
   Enlarge
   The Reichsmark gained significant value during the Third Reich.

   When the Nazis came to power the most pressing issue was an
   unemployment rate of close to 30%. The economic management of the state
   was first given to respected banker Hjalmar Schacht. Under his
   guidance, a new economic policy to elevate the nation was drafted. One
   of the first actions was to destroy the trade unions and impose strict
   wage controls.

   The government then expanded the money supply through massive deficit
   spending. However at the same time the government imposed a 4.5%
   interest rate ceiling, creating a massive shortage in borrowable funds.
   This was resolved by setting up a series of dummy companies that would
   pay for goods with bonds. The most famous of these was the MEFO
   company, and these bonds used as currency became known as mefo bills.
   While it was promised that these bonds could eventually be exchanged
   for real money, the repayment was put off until after the collapse of
   the Reich. These complicated maneuvers also helped conceal armament
   expenditures that violated the Treaty of Versailles.

   According to economic theory, price control combined with a large
   increase in the money supply should have produced a large black market,
   but harsh penalties that saw violators sent to concentration camps or
   even shot prevented this development. Repressive measures also kept
   volatility low, reducing inflationary pressures. New policies also
   limited imports of consumer goods and focused on producing exports.
   International trade was greatly reduced remaining at about a third of
   1929 levels throughout the Nazi period. Currency controls were
   extended, leading to a considerable overvaluation of the Reichsmark.
   These policies were successful in cutting unemployment dramatically.

   Most industry was not nationalized, however industry was closely
   regulated with quotas and requirements to use domestic resources. These
   regulations were set by administrative committees composed of
   government and business officials. Competition was limited as major
   companies were organized into cartels through these administrative
   committees. Selective nationalization was used against businesses that
   failed to agree to these arrangements. The banks, which had been
   nationalized by Weimar, were returned to their owners and each
   administrative committee had a bank as member to finance the schemes.

   While the strict state intervention into the economy and the massive
   rearmament policy led to full employment during the 1930s, real wages
   in Germany dropped by roughly 25% between 1933 and 1938. Trade unions
   were abolished, as well as collective bargaining and the right to
   strike. The right to quit also disappeared: Labor books were introduced
   in 1935, and required the consent of the previous employer in order to
   be hired for another job.

   The German economy was transferred to the leadership of Hermann Göring
   when, on 18 October 1936, the German Reichstag announced the formation
   of a Four-Year Plan. The Nazi economic plan aimed to achieve a number
   of objectives. Under the leadership of Fritz Todt, a massive public
   works project, the Reichsarbeitsdienst, was started, rivaling
   Roosevelt's New Deal in both size and scope. It functioned as a
   military-like unit, its most notable achievements being the network of
   Autobahnen and, once the war started, the building of bunkers,
   underground facilities and entrenchments all over Europe.

   Another part of the new German economy was massive rearmament, with the
   goal being to expand the 100,000-strong German Army into a force of
   millions. In comparison, a military buildup had also been a part of the
   New Deal (regarding the Navy) and Stalin's First Five Year Plan. The
   Four-Year Plan was discussed in the controversial Hossbach Memorandum,
   which provides the "minutes" from one of Hitler's briefings. Some use
   the Hossbach Memorandum to show that Hitler planned a war in Eastern
   Europe in the pursuit of Lebensraum, believing that the Western powers
   of the United Kingdom and France would not intervene, leaving him free
   to take over the USSR, the "natural enemy" of Germany. However, this
   intentionalist view is disputed.

   Nevertheless, the war came and although the Four-Year Plan technically
   expired in 1940, Hermann Göring had built up a power base in the
   "Office of the Four-Year Plan" that effectively controlled all German
   economic and production matters by this point in time. In 1942, the
   growing burdens of the war and the death of Todt saw the economy move
   to a full war economy under Albert Speer.

World War II

   German conquests and allies in Europe during World War II.
   Enlarge
   German conquests and allies in Europe during World War II.

   The " Danzig crisis" peaked in the months after Poland rejected Nazi
   Germany's initial offer regarding both the Free City of Danzig and the
   Polish Corridor. After a series of ultimatums, the Germans broke from
   diplomatic relations and shortly thereafter, Germany invaded Poland on
   1 September 1939. This led to the outbreak of the Second World War in
   Europe when on 3 September 1939, the United Kingdom and France both
   declared war on Germany. The Phony War followed. On 9 April 1940 the
   Germans struck north against Denmark and Norway, in part to secure the
   safety of continuing iron ore supplies from Sweden through Norwegian
   coastal waters. British and French forces landed in the north, only to
   be defeated in the ensuing Norwegian Campaign. In May, the Phony War
   ended when despite the protestations of many of his advisors, Hitler
   took a gamble and sent German forces into France and the Low Countries.
   The Battle of France was an overwhelming German victory. Later that
   year, Germany subjected the United Kingdom to heavy bombing during the
   Battle of Britain. This may have served two purposes, either as a
   precursor to Operation Sea Lion or it may have been an effort to
   dissuade the British populace from continuing to support the war.

   Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 and on the eve of the
   invasion, Hitler's former deputy, Rudolf Hess, attempted to negotiate
   terms of peace with the United Kingdom in an unofficial private meeting
   after crash-landing in Scotland.

   Nazi Germany declared war on the United States on 11 December, 1941,
   four days after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour. This allowed German
   submarines in the Atlantic to fight US convoys that had been supporting
   the United Kingdom and although Nazi hubris is often cited, Hitler
   presumably sought the further support of Japan. He was convinced of the
   United States' aggressive intentions following the leaking of Rainbow
   Five and hearing of the foreboding content of Franklin Roosevelt's
   Pearl Harbour speech. Before then, Germany had practiced its own policy
   of appeasement, taking drastic precautions in order to avoid the United
   States' entry into the war.

   The persecution of minorities and "undesirables" continued both in
   Germany and the occupied countries. From 1941 onward, Jews were
   required to wear a yellow badge in public and most were transferred to
   ghettos, where they remained isolated from the rest of the population.
   In January 1942, at the Wannsee Conference and under the supervision of
   Reinhard Heydrich, a plan for the " Final Solution of the Jewish
   Question" (Endlösung der Judenfrage) in Europe was hatched. From then
   until the end of the war some six million Jews and many others,
   including homosexuals, Slavs, and political prisoners, were
   systematically killed. In addition, more than ten million people were
   put into forced labor. This genocide is called the Holocaust in English
   and the Shoah in Hebrew. Thousands were shipped daily to extermination
   camps (Vernichtungslager, sometimes called "death factories") and
   concentration camps (Konzentrationslager, KZ), some of which were
   originally detention centers but later converted into literal
   mass-murder factories, or death camps, for the purpose of killing of
   their inmates.Eighteen months earlier, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
   had transferred the United States Fleet to Pearl Harbour as a presumed
   deterrent to Japanese agression. The Japanese military, deeply engaged
   in the seemingly endless war it had started against China in mid-1937,
   badly needed oil and other raw materials. Commercial access to these
   was gradually curtailed as the conquests continued. In July 1941 the
   Western powers effectively halted trade with Japan. From then on, as
   the desperate Japanese schemed to seize the oil and mineral-rich East
   Indies and Southeast Asia, a Pacific war was virtually inevitable.

   Parallel to the Holocaust, the Nazis conducted a ruthless program of
   conquest and exploitation over the captured Soviet and Polish
   territories and their Slavic populations as part of their Generalplan
   Ost. According to estimates, 20 million Soviet civilians, three million
   non-Jewish Poles, and seven million Red Army soldiers died under Nazi
   maltreatment in what the Russians call the Great Patriotic War. The
   Nazis' plan was to extend German lebensraum ("living space") eastward,
   a foreseen consequence of the war in Eastern Europe and the Soviet
   Union, said by the Nazis to have been waged in order "to defend Western
   Civilization against Bolshevism". Due to many of the atrocities
   suffered under Stalin, the Nazi message was interpreted by many to be
   legitimate. Many Ukranians, Balts and other disillusioned Soviets
   fought with the Germans, not to mention other Europeans enlisted in
   numerous Schutzstaffel divisions.

   By February 1943 the Soviets had defeated the Germans at Stalingrad and
   began the push westward, winning the tank battle at Kursk-Orel in July.
   The German Army was pushed back to the borders of Poland by February
   1944 following the great success of Operation Bagration. The Allies
   opened a Western Front in June 1944 at Normandy, a year and a half
   after the Soviets turned the tide on the Eastern Front. Soviet troops
   moving westward met Allied troops moving eastward at Torgau at the Elbe
   on April 26, 1945 (Cohen).

   On April 30, 1945, as Berlin was being taken by Soviet forces, Hitler
   committed suicide. He was succeeded by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, whose
   caretaker government sought a separate peace with the Western Allies.
   On 4 May– 8 May 1945 German armed forces surrendered unconditionally.
   This was the end of World War II in Europe and, with the creation of
   the Allied Control Council on 5 July 1945, the four Allied powers
   "assume[d] supreme authority with respect to Germany" ( Declaration
   Regarding the Defeat of Germany, US Department of State, Treaties and
   Other International Acts Series, No. 1520).

The Post-War Period

   The Potsdam Conference in August 1945 created arrangements and outline
   for new government for the post-war Germany as well as war reparations
   and resettlement. All German annexations in Europe after 1937, such as
   the Sudetenland, were reversed, and in addition Germany's eastern
   border was shifted westwards to the Oder-Neisse line, effectively
   reducing Germany in size by approximately 25% compared to her 1937
   border. The territories east of the new border comprised East Prussia,
   Silesia, West Prussia, and two thirds of Pomerania. These areas were
   mainly agricultural, with the exception of Upper Silesia which was the
   second largest centre of German heavy industry. France took control of
   a large part of Germany's remaining coal deposits. Virtually all
   Germans in Central Europe were subsequently over a period of several
   years expelled , affecting about seventeen million ethnic Germans. Most
   casualty estimates of this expulsion range between 1 to 2 Million dead.
   The French, US and British occupation zones later became West Germany
   (the Federal Republic of Germany), while the Soviet zone became the
   communist East Germany (the German Democratic Republic, excluding
   sections of Berlin). The initial repressive occupation policy in
   Germany by the Western Allies was reversed after a few years when the
   Cold War made the Germans important as allies against communism. West
   Germany recovered economically by the 1960s, being called the economic
   miracle (German term Wirtschaftswunder), mainly due to the currency
   reform of 1948 which replaced the Reichsmark with the Deutsche Mark as
   legal tender, halting rampant inflation, but also to lesser degree
   helped by economic aid through the Marshall Plan which was extended to
   also include West Germany in 1949, and upheld thanks to fiscal policy
   and intense labor, eventually leading to labor shortages. Allied
   dismantling of West German industry was finally halted in 1950. In 1955
   the military occupation of West Germany was ended. East Germany
   recovered at a slower pace under Communism until 1990, due to
   reparations paid to the Soviet Union and the effects of the centrally
   planned economy. Germany regained full sovereignty in 1991.

   After the war, surviving Nazi leaders were put on trial by an Allied
   tribunal at Nuremberg for crimes against humanity. A minority were
   sentenced to death and executed, but a number were jailed and then
   released by the mid 1950s due to poor health and old age. In the 1960s,
   1970s and 1980s, some renewed efforts were made in West Germany to take
   those who were directly responsible for "crimes against humanity" to
   court (e.g. Auschwitz trials). However, many of the less prominent
   leaders continued to live well into the 1980s and 1990s.

   In all non-fascist European countries legal purges were established to
   punish the members of the former Nazi and Fascist parties. Even there,
   however, some of the former leaders found ways to accommodate
   themselves under the new circumstances. An uncontrolled punishment hit
   the children of Nazis and those fathered by German soldiers in occupied
   countries, including the " Lebensborn" children.

Military structure

   The Nazi war flag and Ensign of the Kriegsmarine
   Enlarge
   The Nazi war flag and Ensign of the Kriegsmarine

   Wehrmacht — Armed Forces

          OKW — Armed Forces High Command

                Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces - Field
                Marshal Wilhelm Keitel

                      Chief of the Operations Staff - Colonel General
                      Alfred Jodl

   Heer — Army

          OKH — Army High Command
          Army Commanders-in-Chief

                Colonel General Werner von Fritsch (1935 to 1938)
                Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch (1938 to 1941)
                Führer and Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler (1941 to 1945)

                      Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner (1945)

   Kriegsmarine — Navy

          OKM — Navy High Command
          Navy Commanders-in-Chief

                Grand Admiral Erich Raeder (1928-1943)
                Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz (1943-1945)
                General Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg (1945)

   Luftwaffe — Airforce

          OKL — Airforce High Command

                Reichsluftschutzbund (Air Force Auxiliary)

          Air Force Commanders-in-Chief

                Reich Marshal Hermann Göring (to 1945)
                Field Marshal Robert Ritter von Greim (1945)

   Abwehr — Military Intelligence

          Rear Admiral Konrad Patzig {1932-1935)
          Vice Admiral Wilhelm Canaris (1935-1944)

   Waffen-SS — Nazi Party military branch

Organization of the Third Reich

   The leaders of Nazi Germany created a large number of different
   organizations for the purpose of helping them stay in power. They
   rearmed and strengthened the military, set up an extensive state
   security apparatus and created their own personal party army, the
   Waffen SS. Through staffing of most government positions with Nazi
   Party members, by 1935 the German national government and the Nazi
   Party had become virtually one and the same. By 1938, through the
   policy of Gleichschaltung, local and state governments lost all
   legislative power and answered administratively to Nazi party leaders,
   known as Gauleiters, who governed Gaue and Reichsgaue.

   The organization of the Nazi state, as of 1944, was as follows:

Head of State and Chief Executive

     * Führer and Reich Chancellor (Adolf Hitler)

Cabinet and national authorities

     * Office of the Reich Chancellery ( Hans Lammers)
     * Office of the Party Chancellery ( Martin Bormann)
     * Office of the Presidential Chancellery ( Otto Meissner)
     * Privy Cabinet Council ( Konstantin von Neurath)
     * Chancellery of the Führer ( Philip Bouhler)

Reich Offices

     * Office of the Four-Year Plan ( Hermann Göring)
     * Office of the Reich Master Forester ( Hermann Göring)
     * Office of the Inspector for Highways
     * Office of the President of the Reich Bank
     * Reich Youth Office
     * Reich Treasury Office
     * General Inspector of the Reich Capital
     * Office of the Councillor for the Capital of the Movement ( Munich,
       Bavaria)

Reich Ministries

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                                                       Politics Portal

     * Reich Foreign Ministry ( Joachim von Ribbentrop)
     * Reich Interior Ministry ( Wilhelm Frick, Heinrich Himmler)
     * Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda ( Joseph
       Goebbels)
     * Reich Ministry of Aviation ( Hermann Göring)
     * Reich Ministry of Finance ( Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk)
     * Reich Ministry of Justice ( Franz Schlegelberger)
     * Reich Economics Ministry ( Walther Funk)
     * Reich Ministry for Nutrition and Agriculture ( R. Walther Darre)
     * Reich Labor Ministry ( Franz Seldte)
     * Reich Ministry for Science, Education, and Public Instruction (
       Bernhard Rust)
     * Reich Ministry for Ecclesiastical Affairs ( Hanns Kerrl)
     * Reich Transportation Ministry ( Julius Dorpmüller)
     * Reich Postal Ministry ( Wilhelm Ohnesorge)
     * Reich Ministry for Weapons, Munitions, and Armament ( Fritz Todt,
       Albert Speer)
     * Reich Ministers without Portfolio ( Konstantin von Neurath, Hans
       Frank, Hjalmar Schacht, Arthur Seyss-Inquart)

Occupation authorities

     * Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories ( Alfred
       Rosenberg)
     * General Government of Poland ( Hans Frank)
     * Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( Konstantin von Neurath)
          + Deputy Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia ( Reinhard
            Heydrich)
     * Office of the Military Governor of France

Legislative Branch

     * Reichstag
          + President of the Reichstag ( Hermann Göring)
     * Reichsrat (disbanded February 14, 1934)

   It has to be considered that there is little use talking about a
   legislative branch in a totalitarian state, where there is no
   separation of powers. For example, since 1933 the Reichsregierung
   (Reich cabinet) was enabled to enact Reichsgesetze (statute law)
   without respect to the constitution from 1919.

Paramilitary organizations

     * Sturmabteilung (SA)
     * Schutzstaffel (SS)
          + Allgemeine SS
          + Waffen SS
          + Germanische SS
     * Deutscher Volkssturm
     * Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrerkorps (NSKK)
     * Nationalsozialistisches Fliegerkorps (NSFK)

National police

   Reich Central Security Office (RSHA — Reichssicherheitshauptamt) Ernst
   Kaltenbrunner
     * Order Police ( Ordnungspolizei (Orpo))
          + Schutzpolizei (Safety Police)
          + Gendarmerie (Rural Police)
          + Gemeindepolizei (Local Police)
     * Security Police ( Sicherheitspolizei (Sipo))
          + Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo)
          + Reichskriminalpolizei (Kripo)
          + Sicherheitsdienst ( SD)

Political organizations

     * Nazi Party — National Socialist German Workers Party (abbreviated
       NSDAP)
     * Youth organizations
          + Hitler-Jugend — Hitler-youth (for boys and young men) Baldur
            von Schirach
          + Bund Deutscher Mädel (for girls and young women)
          + Deutsches Jungvolk (for very young boys and girls ages 6-8)

Service organizations

     * Deutsche Reichsbahn (State Railway)
     * Reichspost (State Postal Service)
     * Deutsches Rotes Kreuz (German Red Cross)

Religious organizations

     * German Christians
     * Protestant Reich Church

Academic organizations

     * National Socialist German University Teachers League
     * National Socialist German Students League

Prominent persons in Nazi Germany

   For a listing of Hitler's cabinet see : Hitler's Cabinet, January 1933
   - April 1945

Nazi Party and Nazi government leaders and officials

     * Artur Axmann — Reich Youth Leader (successor of Baldur von Schirach
       in 1940)
     * Ernst Wilhelm Bohle — Under-Secretary of State, Head of the NSDAP
       Foreign Organisation (1933-1945)
     * Martin Bormann — Head of the Party Chancellery (Parteikanzlei) and
       Private Secretary to Adolf Hitler
     * Karl Brandt — Reich Commissioner of Health and Sanitation
     * Alois Brunner — SS Lieutenant Colonel and Adolf Eichmann’s most
       important assistant
     * Otto Dietrich — Under-Secretary of State, Reich Chief of the Press
     * Adolf Eichmann — recording secretary at the Wannsee Conference,
       facilitator of the Final Solution
     * Fatos Von Pristina - Reich Ministry Of Albanian Teritory
     * Karl Fiehler — Nazi Lord Mayor of Munich and Head of the unity
       organization for local politics
     * Hans Frank — Minister, Head of the German Law Academy
     * Roland Freisler — Under-Secretary of State at the Reich Ministry of
       Justice and President of the Volksgerichtshof
     * Wilhelm Frick — Minister of the Interior
     * Hans Fritzsche — senior official of the Reich Ministry for
       Propaganda
     * Walter Funk — Minister of Industries
     * Joseph Goebbels — Minister of Propaganda, became Chancellor of
       Germany for one day following Hitler's death, was named his
       immediate successor by Hitler himself.
     * Hermann Göring — Reichsmarschall and Minister-President of Prussia.
       Air Minister. Minister of the Interior. President of the Reichstag.
     * Franz Gürtner — Minister of Justice
     * Karl Hanke — Under-Secretary of State, Propaganda Ministry
     * Rudolf Hess — the Führer's Deputy
     * Reinhard Heydrich — Head of Reich Main Security Office and
       Protector of Bohemia and Moravia
     * Konstantin Hierl — Head of the Reich Labour Service
     * Heinrich Himmler — Reich Leader SS
     * Adolf Hitler — Führer and Reich Chancellor
     * Ernst Kaltenbrunner — Chief of the RSHA (1943-1945)
     * Hanns Kerrl — Reich Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs (1933–1941)
     * Karl Otto Koch — SS Colonel and commandant of the concentration
       camps at Buchenwald and Majdanek
     * Hans Lammers — Head of the Reich Chancellery
     * Herbert Lange — SS Major, chief inspector of the Posen State Police
       Headquarters
     * Robert Ley — Leader of the German Labour Front
     * Viktor Lutze — Chief of Staff of the SA (1934–1943)
     * Otto Meissner — Head of the Reich President’s Office
     * Alfred Meyer — Under-Secretary of State at the Reich Ministry for
       the Occupied Eastern Territories
     * Konstantin von Neurath — Head of the Secret Cabinet
     * Hans Nieland — Head of the NSDAP Foreign Organisation (1931-1933)
       and Lord Mayor of Dresden (1940-1945)
     * Erich Priebke — SS Captain, participated in the massacres at the
       Ardeatine caves near Rome
     * Joachim von Ribbentrop — Foreign Minister (1938–1945)
     * Ernst Röhm — Chief of Staff of the SA (1931–1934)
     * Alfred Rosenberg — ideologist of National Socialism, Reich Minister
       for the Occupied Eastern Territories
     * Bernhard Rust — Minister of Education
     * Carl Schmitt — expert on constitutional law and political
       philosopher, who affected Nazism with his anti-Semite and
       antidemocratic theses
     * Fritz Sauckel — General Plenipotentiary for the Employment of
       Labour (1942–1945)
     * Baldur von Schirach — Leader of the Hitlerjugend (Nazi Youth
       Organisation), Gauleiter of Vienna
     * Franz Seldte — Reich Minister of Labor (1933–1945)
     * Arthur Seyß-Inquart — Reichsstatthalter in Austria, Commissioner
       for the Occupied Netherlands
     * Albert Speer — First Architect, Minister for Armament from 1942
     * Julius Streicher — Gauleiter of Franconia (1923-1940), publisher of
       Der Stürmer
     * Josef Terboven — Reichskommissar for Norway (1940–1945)
     * Fritz Todt — Inspector General for German Roadways, Reich Minister
       for Armaments and Munitions (1940-1942)
     * Hjalmar Schacht — Minister, Governor of the Central Bank
       (Reichsbank) (1933-1939)
     * Gertrud Scholtz-Klink — Reich Leader of Women (1934-1945)
     * Hans von Tschammer und Osten — Under-Secretary of State and Reich
       Sports Leader (1933-1943)

Military

     * Karl Dönitz-Commander of the German U-Boat force, later the German
       Navy. Was named as Hitler's successor as Reich president (not to be
       confused with Chancellor of Germany).
     * Gerd von Rundstedt
     * Erwin Rommel
     * Wilhelm Keitel
     * Claus von Stauffenberg
     * Wilhelm Canaris
     * Alfred Jodl
     * Erich Raeder
     * Robert Ritter von Greim
     * Albert Kesselring
     * Erich von Manstein

Other

     * Gottfried Benn
     * Eva Braun
     * Wernher von Braun
     * Houston Stewart Chamberlain
     * Anton Drexler
     * Gottfried Feder
     * Friedrich Flick
     * Theodor Fritsch
     * Arthur de Gobineau
     * Hans Friedrich Karl Günther (not to be confused with Hans Günther)
     * Karl Harrer
     * Willibald Hentschel
     * Alfred Hoche
     * Armin D. Lehmann
     * Lanz von Liebenfels
     * Guido von List
     * Karl Lueger
     * Alfred Ploetz
     * Ferdinand Porsche
     * Traudl Junge
     * John Rabe
     * Geli Raubal
     * Leni Riefenstahl
     * Oskar Schindler
     * Rudolf von Sebottendorf
     * Richard Sorge
     * Johannes Stark
     * Walter Thiel
     * Richard Wagner
     * Winifred Wagner
     * Konrad Zuse
     * Otto van Hinbrick
     * Walther Sommerlath

Noted victims

     * Dietrich Bonhoeffer
     * Georg Elser
     * Anne Frank
     * Hana Brady
     * Janusz Korczak
     * Erich Mühsam
     * Carl von Ossietzky
     * White Rose (Sophie and Hans Scholl and others)
     * Bruno Schulz
     * Ernst Thälmann

Noted refugees

     * Hannah Arendt
     * Albert Bassermann
     * Johannes R. Becher
     * Rudolf Belling
     * Walter Benjamin
     * Bertolt Brecht
     * Marlene Dietrich
     * Albert Einstein
     * Lion Feuchtwanger
     * Sigmund Freud
     * Erich Fromm
     * Kurt Gödel
     * Walter Gropius
     * Friedrich Hayek
     * Heinrich Eduard Jacob
     * Theodor Kramer
     * Fritz Lang
     * Heinrich Mann
     * Thomas Mann
     * Lise Meitner
     * Ludwig von Mises
     * Solomon Perel
     * Erich Maria Remarque
     * Anna Seghers
     * Kurt Tucholsky
     * Walter Ulbricht
     * Kurt Weill

Noted survivors

     * George Brady
     * Bruno Bettelheim
     * Viktor Frankl
     * Eugen Kogon
     * Primo Levi
     * Martin Niemöller
     * Kurt Schumacher
     * Franz von Papen
     * Roman Polanski
     * Elie Wiesel
     * Simon Wiesenthal
     * Arnulf Øverland
     * Trygve Bratteli
     * Hella Taichman Zaltz Weinreb

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