Germany

After the First World War Germany colasped into economic strife as the 1919 Treaty of Versailles leveid heavy reparations payments upon the German state. Hyperinflation sent the price of basic nessecities through the roof, resulting in food riots. In 1923 the German state defaulted on reparation payments because of the economic chaos, in responce France and Belgium marched troops into the Ruhr and occupied the industrial heartland of Germany. The arrogance of the occupation forces clashed with the local people, as German civilians responded with civil disobedience.

Eventualy in 1924 France and Belgium accepted an internationaly backed plan to restructure German reparations paymanets, and withdrew their troops the following year. But the damage had already been done, 130 people had died during clashes with occupation forces and radical political groups were growing as a responce to the occupation.

The German Weimar Republic struggled with the economic situation, but the greatest danger arrose in the form of far-right political groups who blamed the ruling centre-left Weimar coalition for being unable to resolve the French occupation of the Ruhr. Curiously left wing political groups remained realativly inactive during the French and Belgium occupation of the Ruhr, as the Soviet Politburo and the Comintern instructed the far-left Communist Party of Germany to remain silent.

But political confrontations were now inedible and street fighting between political groups griped the streets, as each organisation rallied their own foot troops to intimidate the masses and disrupt political opponants.

The National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) arose during this time of chaos, their army of Brown Shirts protecting their own rallies while raiding those of far-left communist groups. The Nazi's as they were known rejected the Treaty of Versailles and stood on a platform of antisemitism and anti-bolshevism, calling for the rejuvination of Germanic pride and culture, along with a strong centralised government. The scapegoat of the Nazi's were the Jews, blaming the decline of the Germanic peoples upon infiltration by Jews and their Bolshevic lackies.

In 1929 the Wall Street Stock Market crashed and the world plunged into the Great Depression, in Germany millions of people were suddenly out of work as major banks started to colapse. The desperation of the people was leveraged by the Nazi party who campaigned on a platform of restoring public security and jobs. This lead to the Nazi party securing 37% of the popular vote in the 1932 federal election, gaining 230 seats in the Reichstag to become the largest party in government.

Although the Nazis won the greatest share of the popular vote in the two Reichstag general elections of 1932, they did not have a controling majority. This resulted in political impass as the leader of the Nazi Party, Adolf Hitler, refused to join a coalition government unless he was its leader. President Paul von Hindenburg was lobbied by various politicians and key industrialists from the business community to make Hitler Chancellor, which he did on the 30th of January 1933.

The industrialists belived they had tamed Adolf Hitler, plus secretly they looked forward to his plans for major construction projects throughout Germany, which would regenerate Germany while making themselves wealthy.

Under Hitler the German state pushed forwards with major construction efforts in order to rebuild the shattered German econemy. Projects such as the constriction of the Autobahn that crisscrossed the nation, and the secret military rearmaments programs poured millions of Reichsmarks into the economey.

But Nazi political and racial idelodgy contaminated everything it came into contact with. During the night of the 27th of February 1933 a Dutch communist, Marinus van der Lubbe set the Reichstag on fire as a protest against fascist rule. The Nazi's claimed that this attack on the Reichstag was part of a wider communist plot, arresting Marinus van der Lubbe and the leadership of the Communist Party of Germany. The following day the Reichstag Fire Decree revoked civil liberties such as the right of assembly and the freedom of the press. The police were given extra powers permitting the indefinite arrest of citiciens without charge. Over the next month with the help of the Brown Shirts the police arrested over 4,000 members of the Communist Party of Germany, ultimatly the Communist Party of German was banned.

The Reichstag Fire Decree was then followed by the Enabling Act on the 23rd of March 1933, this amendment to the Weimar Constitution effectivly turned Hitler into a dictator. It granted the Chancellor the ability to pass laws without the consent of the President or the Reichstag.

German Communists were already being herded into concentration camps - the Social Democrats were next on the hit list - their assets were seized on the 10th of May and then the party was banned on the 22nd of June. Starting with the German National People's Party on the 29th of June, the remaining political parties in germany were disbanded until the 14th of July 1933 when Germany became a one-party state with the passing of the Law Against the Formation of Parties whihch made the founding of new political parties, illegal. All remaing political parties that had not already disbanded, were banned.

Elections in November 1933, 1936, and 1938 were conducted under Nazi party control, with only Nazi Party members and a handful of independents being elected. Meanwhile the leadership of civilian organisations were replaced with party members or Nazi sympathisers, or faced being merged with the Nazi Party or dissolution. For example the German chapter of the Boy Scouts, was co-opted into the Hitler Youth.

May Day 1933 was declared a "Day of National Labor" and trade union delegates were invited to Berlin, the following day Brown Shirt stormtroopers demolished trade union officers across Germany. The leaders of trade unions were arrested, and the unions were dissolved.

The passing of the Law of Restoration of the Professional Civil Service banned Jews from civil service positions such as Teachers, professors, judges, magistrates and any position in the government. Ultimatly the only institutions that were outside the control of the Nazi party, was the Church.

The only real political advasaries Hitler now faced were from his own ranks, this came in the form of Gregor Strasser, a former Nazi party leader and leader of the Strasserist faction of the Nazi Party. But the greatest threat came from the leader of the Sturmabteilung (the Brown Shirts or SA), Stabschef (Chief of Staff) Ernst Röhm. On the night of the 30th of June 1934 operation Hummingbird (Unternehmen Kolibri in German) was put into effect by the Gestapo and Hitlers personal body guard, the Schutzstaffel (SS). From the 30th of June to the 2nd of July, the leadership of the Sturmabteilung (SA, or Brown Shirts) was arrested and executed. Over 200 people were executed, including Strasser and Röhm, as well as the anti-Nazi and former chancellor, Kurt von Schleicher.

In September 1935 the symbols of the old Weimar Republic were officialy discarded and replaced with the Swastika Flag of the Nazi Party, and the party anthem "Horst-Wessel-Lied" became the official national anthem.

As the Nazi party was consolidating its grip on the political and civil hirachey of the state, Germany was still in an economic shambles with six million people out of work. Starting in 1934 the infrastructure projects the Nazi's had campaigned upon were put into action, creating 1.7 million new jobs by the end of the first year.

The German state had already been set on the path of rearmament, with clandestine projects across europe to cercomvent the restrictions of the Versailles Treaty. Although many of these covert operations had taken shape before the rise of the Nazi party. For example, as the ink was drying on the Treaty of Versailles, the Soviets signed the Treaty of Rapallo with Germany in 1922. The treaty lead to the establishment a joint training and development facility inside Soviet Russia, where German and Soviet soldiers, engineers and scientists took part in the development of armoured warfare vehicles and aircraft. These vehicles and aircraft became the founding genesis of vehicles such as the Panzer I and II.

Nine months after Hitler became Chancellor, meutual mistrust between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia lead to the closeur of a majority of the experimental training facilities, until the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

On the 17th of May 1933 during a speech to the Reichstag - in which Hitler laid out his plans for world peace - he also accepted an offer from American President Franklin D. Roosevelt for military disarmament, on the condition that the other nations of Europe would do likewise. But as the nations of Europe refused to accept the offer Hitler withdrew Germany from the League of Nation's World Disarmament Conference. Claiming that the disarmament clauses were unfair if they only applied to Germany.

Obtaining Lebensraum or "living space" had always been a part of Hitlers political idelodgy, in 1934 Hitler informed his military advisers that the German state must be ready for a war of conquest by 1942 in order to obtain more territory. The build up of the German Armed forces was now out in the open, with Hitler announcing the creation of an air Force in March of 1935, an increase to the Reichswehr to a size of 550,000 men, and the signing of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement on the 18th of June 1935 that saw British agreement with Germany building a naval fleet.

Having seen the meager protests by the British and French governments of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia - and in reaction to the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance - Hitlermarched 3,000 troops into the demilitarised zone of the Rhineland in violation of the Versailles Treaty. The French and British governments protested the move, but given the territory was a part of Germany did not see much value in attempting to enforce the crumbling Versailles Treaty and thus risk war in doing so.

In 1936 Germany held a one-party election on the 29th of March with the Nazis obtaining 98.9% of the vote in support. Following the vote Hitler signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan, and a non-aggression agreement with Mussolini.

The first test of the German war machine came in the form of the Spanish Civil war which started in july of 1936, a conflict between the Nationalist and Republican factions. The Soviet Union was supplying the Republican forces and Hitler sided with General Francisco Franco's Nationalists, sending military supplies and the German Condor Legion.

The Legion included a well armed air flotilla and an armoured contingent. In 1937 the Legion destroyed the city of Guernica, the entire conflict was seen as a testing ground for tactics and Germany equipment. In 1939 the Nationalists went on to be victorious, although Franco owed his victory to German support he managed to keep Germany at arms length and never became a full Ally of Nazi Germany. An act that may have saved Spain from the ravages of the Second World War had Spain joined the Axis.

Next came the Anschluss with Austria. Although the populace of Austria greeted the union of Germany and Austria with enthusiasm, behind the scenes Hitler had threatened the Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg with a German invasion. Instead German troops marched into Austria one day before a plebiscite regarding Austrian independence.

Having returned Austria to the German fold, Hitler now turned his attention to the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia. Supporting separatist groups within Czechoslovakia, and by a combination of clever political manouvering and military threats - which were themsevles bluffs as the German High Command had informed Hitler that Germany was not yet ready for war - the Western Powers, which feared another European war, railroaded Czechoslovakia into handing over the Sudetenland to Germany. The Republic of Czechoslovakia was then erroded further into competeing nationalist regions, eventualy Germany swept into what was left of Czechoslovakia.

At this point in March 1939, Hitler now demanded the return of the Free City of Danzig and the Polish Corridor, a strip of terratory which seperated East Prussia from the restof Germany (which had been taken from Germany as a part of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles). Having seen their folly in trusting Hitler about Czechoslovakia, the British now stood firm and declaired their support for Poland. Hitler gambled that the British would not act upon their threat and prepaired to invade Poland.

In preperation Germany secured a non-aggression agreements with Denmark, Estonia, and Latvia. While agreements for raw materials to fuel the German war machive were secured with Romania, Norway, and Sweden. Shockingly in August 1939, Hitler and Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. A non-aggression pact that contained a secret protocol for the division of Poland and the Baltic states between Nazi Germany and the Soviet union.

On the 1st of September 1939 Germany invaded Poland and captured the Free City of Danzig, in responce the French and British governments issued an ultimatum for German forces to leave Poland. Asthe German forces continued their attack, France and Britian declaired war upon Germany and comenced mobilisation.

The Soviet Union invaded Poland upon the 17th of September, following the battle of Kock on the 6th of October Poland was effectivly defeated, although the Polish Republic never formally surrendered.

By the 28th of September Soviet and German forces meet each other along the Narew, Bug, Vistula and San rivers, completing their capture and division of Poland. Now came the destruction of Poland. The Red Army and the NKVD executed almost all members of the Polish officer class that fell into Soviet captivity, while communist inspired partisans and groups such as the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists turned upon Polish civilians with localised revolts.

But Poland was the first step on Hitlers march for Lebensraum, Hitler set the aparatus of the State and military to work in an attempt to extinguish Poland's nationonal identity. Under the leadership of Reinhard Heydrich chief of the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police) and Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service), all Polish Jews were rounded up for deportation. While Polish noblemen, clergy, and teachers were also rounded up for execution acording to lists that had been prepaired before hand. By the end of 1939 some 65,000 members of the Polish intelligentsia had been murdered.