Great Depression under the NSDAP | The Abyss Ep. 3 | Full Documentary

[Music] the nightmare of a new order his people and race crimes against humanity a world of chaos and destruction [Music] this is the story of Humanity's Darkest Hour [Music] the abyss [Music] foreign [Music] German forces overrun Europe match of France has been occupied in Paris the German Army is in control political opponents of the National Socialist regime have taken Refuge here live in fear of their lives Social Democrat Rudolf hufferding is one of them in 1929 he was the Weimar Republic's Finance Minister on Hitler's seizure of power he flees abroad social Democrats in Exile are frantic inside the Nazi Reich there's virtually no opposition to the new regime hilfiting contributes from exile to their secret reports on Nazi Germany by 1937 they conclude for the few of us who have kept up close friendships life has become hell there are times when some of us completely lose hope the vast majority of Germans seem to support Hitler in February 1941 hilfording is arrested in France Hitler's henchmen take out their hatred on this Jewish Social Democrat he dies in this Paris prison under unexplained circumstances in Germany his death attracts no attention the thing that's really important to understand about how quickly democracy failed in Germany is that it didn't die it was killed and the process of killing it really starts in 1928 when some very powerful groups and people in German society decide that the time has come to start rolling back the Democratic changes that had come in 1918-1919 and they They seized that moment and they start actively trying to destroy the democracy foreign [Music] twenties the golden years between 1925 and 1928 are a time of relative stability in Germany living standards improve partly thanks to a remarkable building boom Tire new districts rise in the cities social housing in the Bauhaus Style 1928 is probably the year when the future of the Weimar Republic looks most promising many of the crises hyperinflation and other serious problems seem to have been overcome Democratic parties have a majority in Parliament Democrats have every reason to be optimistic as they look to the Future Germany in 1928 a liberal Democratic and modern country the pleasure palaces are typical of the times so are the young women self-confident independent short hair and above especially in big cities like Berlin but not every German is thrilled by modernity Berlin was certainly not all of Germany and outside of Berlin particularly in rural areas you have people who are much more rooted to traditional forms of life much more hostile to Modern liberal politics much more hostile to changing gender roles for women being more active in the workplace in politics so that's a real urban rural divide that actually really marks the politics and Society of the Weimar Republic and that divide is growing as the dynamism of the Cities draws in more and more people from the country for many farmers the golden twenties are anything but golden the flight to the cities has created a labor shortage costs are rising and foreign competition is ruining their business German agriculture was inefficient it wasn't competitive in World Markets because in Imperial times it had always been protected by tariffs and since 1927 worldwide overproduction has meant lower prices especially for meat many farmers take out loans to modernize but interest rates are high increasing taxes and other deductions are a further burden the dancers put farmers in a very difficult position it led to bankruptcies and forced sales the farmers of schroederich Holstein in Northern Germany take to the streets in protest they call for tax relief and a cap on interest rates in vain the farmers felt there was no party particularly in North Germany that represented their interests and so they started their own protest movement a rural and nationalist people's partnership the rural people's movement starts in schlesby Coach line one of its leaders is Wilhelm humkens a cattle breeder from either State who'd been forced to mortgage part of his land he writes an open letter in 1928 anyone who mortgages or sells his land or livestock to pay his taxes or calls for others to do so is betraying himself his family and the state and he's contributing to the downfall and enslavement of the German people when people begin to believe that state institutions aren't working then there starts to be unrest people defend themselves and they try to take justice into their own hands it doesn't stop at calls for a tax boycott Farmers respond with violence to the economic pressure they see coming from the state some release their oxen so they can't be taken in U of taxes others assault public officials or set up barricades to stop the forced auctions the protest against the Weimar Republic really should have been directed against technological progress because the problem wasn't the Weimar Republic but the invention of refrigerated ships and transatlantic Freight the broad agricultural produce from America and so undercut European farming and caused an existential crisis around 1929 Farmer's protest movements are growing in several European countries in Finland members of the Lapua movement feel threatened by communism and the Soviet Union the lapowers claim that strikes called by socialists simply worsen finland's powerless economic situation in July 1930 12 000 Farmers from all over Finland march on the capital Helsinki rapper's aim is to put pressure on the government which they say is too soft on the Communists [Music] they demand more radical anti-communist policies and in that sense the farmer's March was successful because immediately afterwards The Finnish government did introduce more conservative policies but as Finland turns more conservative the Lapua movement loses momentum meanwhile in schleswick Holstein parts of the rural population are radicalizing in 1929 several Farmers attacked Regional tax and government offices with bombs no one is hurt all the rural movements leaders are prosecuted including hamkins even though he has no direct connection with the bombers but he still believes that no people ever voted itself healthy they had to fight their way back to health hamkins is fined and the bombers receive long jail sentences from this point on the activities of the rural movement decline hamkins withdraws from politics that the nsdap has benefited from their activities the rural people's movement worked as a kind of warm-up act for the nsdap and it was gradually taken over first locally then regionally by nsdap members who then changed it to suit their plans three years later a few months after the seizure of power in 1933 the nsdap stages the Reich Harvest Festival at brookerberg near Hamilton with one clear propaganda aim to flatter the farmers into line by 1937 the annual Harvest Festival is one of the Nazi's greatest mass events as a celebration of the new sense of community it's especially close to the fuhrer's heart the nsdap have been quoting dissatisfied Farmers since 1929. they're an important voting block perfect for the party's new apparently legal guys [Music] at the end of the 1920s Hitler adopts a new strategy to attain power Hitler drew the lesson that he and his party could never come to power violently or illegally through a revolutionary change he realized that the only way the Nazis could come to power was constitutionally through elections the nsdap's regional leader or gaolita in Berlin Brandenburg is Joseph Goebbels this fanatical speaker journalist and diarist is Hitler's senior representative in the capital city writing in a party newspaper he explains Hitler's new tactics with unmistakable clarity We are Becoming reichstag deputies to paralyze the Weimar ethos with its own support we come not as friends nor are we neutral we are enemies like wolves stalking a flock of sheep at the reichstag elections of 1928 the nsdap is some distance from its goal with 2.6 percent of the vote they're an insignificant Splinter party in Parliament the Nazi's main base is still in Bavaria many young men joined the party there in 1928. the Mena van a lot of these men had been in the war that experienced life on the front lines they remembered the sense of camaraderie in the trenches where everyone should pretty much equal apart from when there were directors is one of those men he fought on the front lines in the Great War and as a 20 year old in 1919 he supposedly joined in the bloody suppression of Munich's Soviet Republic like many others buchner believes that the German Army was not defeated in the world war but was betrayed on the home front by scheming backstabbing criminals marxists revolutionaries and Jews Buckner joins the nsdap as early as 1922 starting a local branch in Steinberg he's a fervent supporter of Hitler Hitler is so attractive for these young men because he is an unconventional politician he isn't part of the establishment wildest establishments his dramatic way of expressing himself sets him apart from other politicians and of course that's attractive to young people Hitler comes across this may seem paradoxical today as a modern politician in their paramilitary groups especially the sa the Nazis practice what they call a warrior masculinity they celebrate toughness and the comradship of War compromise is weakness so is Sympathy for the enemy in 1929 the nsdap gathers hundreds of thousands of supporters for the Nuremberg rally Franz Bookner is one of the men marching past Hitler Buckner sees himself as a political Warrior fighting for votes with words instead of fists Hitler believes in passing on the message from man to man he had a very sophisticated in many ways very cunning and modern approach to electoral politics part of this was based on an understanding that people could be reached through emotional appeals almost entirely devoid of policy content and certainly devoid of logic and not necessarily honest in 1928 the nsdap begins to train speakers France Buckner is one of the first to take part in a distance learning correspondence course in a 1938 Memoir he describes the aims of this speaker's School it's not about being an actor but about becoming a national socialist speaker that means you need to be familiar with all the questions you have to drive into the brains of our fellow Germans and you yourself must be steeped in idealism [Music] and Trident is significantly the nsdap trained its speakers more thoroughly than any other political party a favorite theme of Nazi agitators are the reparations for which they directly blame Democratic politicians in 1929 reparations come up again a commission headed by American Banker Owen Young is to adjust the duration and the level of Germany's compensation payments to the victors of the Great War German nationalist associations and parties aim to use a nationwide referendum to block this young plan meeting for example the referendum against a young plan became a campaign against the Weimar Republic because they said this will enslave our grandchildren this for example in fact the referendum against the young plan failed but it laid the ground for the increasing radicalization and destabilization of the Republic [Music] the nsdap uses opposition to the young plan to spread its message and to attract a new constituency the middle classes the nsdap suddenly became more respectable in the eyes of many people it became more visible and of course it helped that even in the most distant corners of the Weimar Republic people suddenly knew about this very militant energetic and would-be revolutionary movement foreign the Nazi party senses it has the wind in its sails in 1929 it celebrates its first real electoral success it more than doubles its share in several Regional votes and joins its first provincial government in thuringia in a coalition with middle-class parties December 1929 sees an electoral success for the Nazis in Steinberg in Bavaria as the first two local councilors are elected one of them is Franz pukner he has no doubt what this means now they can't ignore us and they want to negotiate we'll put the fear of God into them from about 1928. you can see the atmosphere changing in Germany that takes on new momentum in the global economic crisis in the USA the 1920s seemed to be a time of permanently increasing prosperity production of consumer goods and cars has been rising for years fueled by unceasing demand the real estate market is booming too skyscrapers are a proud symbol of economic growth it's a credit-fueled expansion which extends to the stock market were unprecedentedly large numbers of American families are betting their family's savings and taking out loans so as to engage in stock market speculation so it is a credit fuel boom which is really waiting to bust in the late 1920s the crash comes in autumn 1929. share prices stagnate suddenly growth filters Panic bear Market sends Wall Street tumbling on black Thursday in October 1929 an entire generation says goodbye to its future the Wall Street Crash affected all Western economies Germany crashed furthest and fastest this was in part because it was heavily reliant on American short-term loans and so when America withdrew these short-term loans the German economy went crash the German financial crisis dominates reichstag debates at the end of 1929. the cost of unemployment insurance explodes as more and more Germans lose their jobs the issue of financing unemployment benefits brings down the broad coalition government led by the social Democrats actually it was about something else the parties in the great Coalition weren't prepared to make substantive compromises with each other that was typical of the system people stuck rigidly to their own party's position and the idea that democracy can only work if you accept big compromises with other parties again and again were simply not part of the political thinking of those times foreign since any government has seen out a complete legislative cycle in Germany the average government lasts eight months stable government seems impossible in many other places too eight months is also the average in France and in Austria Finland it's less than 10 months is a continent in crisis three days after the great Coalition collapses Reich president Paul Von Hindenburg steps in he appoints Heinrich Bruning Reich Chancellor he has the constitutional right to do so the serious blow for democracy the husbands the right president ignores Parliament and the parties that makes the Bruning government the first presidential government that is a government created without parliamentary consultation and so at least potentially it's a direct challenge to the Parliamentary principles pruning wants to cut public expenditure wages and Social Security in defiance of parliament his power only comes from 82 year old president Hindenburg in a state of emergency the Constitution lets the president rule by decree the people around the president want to move from democratic parliamentary government to an authoritarian system Hindenburg can even dissolve parliament if it doesn't recognize his emergency decrees he does that in the early summer of 1930. he hopes that elections called for September will strengthen the conservative parties until then Bruning is entirely dependent on the right president foreign [Music] calls for a strong state are heard throughout Europe hardly any of the democracies founded after the Great War are still there in 1930. many countries have had authoritarian or Fascist governments or a military dictatorship since the early 1920s the global economic crisis now threatens to bring down the remaining democracies [Music] foreign [Music] by 1930 over 3 million Germans are unemployed thousands of companies cut back on production or filed for bankruptcy the Nazis have a simple explanation for this grave crisis they blame Jewish scheming intrigues and manipulation [Applause] will jury explained the corruption of the Weimar Republic and the manipulation of the Global Financial system which has enslaved Germans in generations of debt slavery that is the bracket with which the Nazis make sense of what is after all a disrupted chaotic extraordinarily complex Global crisis however in the 1930 election campaign the nsdap attacks not the Jews but the social Democrats they are to blame for the young plan and the crisis since the campaign masterminded by Joseph Goebbels he has risen far in the party and is now right head of propaganda Nazis concluded that the fatigue of emphasizing anti-Semitism in the Electoral propaganda was actually not working so they played it down they put more into a positive message we will rebuild Germany we'll make Germany great again this new tactic works [Music] thousands of people come to election meetings to hear Hitler and other Nazi leaders speak this is an era where the big public Mass meeting still is a central aspect of political campaigning and Hitler was absolute Master at rabble rousing raising a crowd to a fever pitch of Hysteria with his oratory by 1930 1500 nsdap officials have completed the party's speaker training the nsdap organizes far more public events than all the other political parties from 1928 onwards the nsdap gradually spreads across the country by creating more and more local groups the members they attract are very very active the Nazi party is still largely self-financed members buy their own uniforms and they pay to attend events where Hitler appears [Music] in 1930 most of the members are young men few women have joined 30 violence between National socialists and the left increases markedly where once they had met with revulsion from the middle classes the Nazis are now increasingly welcomed as a force of order in a chaotic world part of the tactic was quite simply to use violence to stop opponents from campaigning but there's a secondary point with propaganda the Nazis are able to use violence to project an image of how forceful and effective they really are and many Germans who don't approve of Street violence necessarily could nonetheless conclude well the Nazis are crude but they are beating up the right people they are beating up Communists and no one else seems to have the strength of character to do that in their propaganda the Nazis present themselves as the victims of communist violence in fact they often provoke confrontations by holding marches in working-class areas there are dozens of deaths on both sides on February 23 1930 a local sa leader host vessel is shot dead in his Berlin apartment by a communist Joseph Goebbels records the event in his diary Horst vessel died this morning another martyr for the Third Reich human when someone dies for the beliefs your group holds they become a powerful symbol of those beliefs and that reinforces how you should behave in the interests of the group as head of propaganda Goebbels turns sa Thug Hoss vessel into a martyr a song vessel wrote about the sa becomes The Unofficial anthem of the of the Nazi Reich the nsdap's appeal is a consciously emotional one solidarity Community New Beginnings the promise of a better future one of the Nazi's many slogans is community before self that sounds comfortingly familiar to a lot of workers The New National Community is to be a society where class struggle no longer exists it's a fatal illusion many simply can't see the murderous core of this ideology yes the Nazis are radical but they present themselves as the party of Law and Order [Music] the results of the elections of September 1930 demonstrate how effective the new image of Hitler's party has become thank you in 1928 the nsdap only scored 2.6 percent now two years later they have 18.3 percent that means there are nearly nine times more Nazis in the reichstalk than before they're the second largest party after the SPD which has lost votes the national conservative parties have lost even more support the nsdap is strictly speaking the nsdap was a popular party with a slight bias towards the middle classes that's the new middle classes white collar workers and later on civil servants too it was more broadly based socially than any other Weimar party the rejection of democracy and the Versailles treaty replacing them with a robust nationalism and catchy sloganizing the combination is going down better and better with Germany's middle classes and the Nazis also find approval in the very highest echelons of society in 1930 August Wilhelm Von poison a fourth son of the last German Emperor comes out in open support of the nsdap Bella Fromm is a society reporter for the Berliner cycle one of the capital's leading deities in February 1930 before the election she writes celebrating their silver wedding with top Banker xiaomashat president of the Reich Central Bank and his wife during the evening shot says to me why not give the national socialists a chance they seem to cut quite a dash it certainly was happening severely in Germany that the democratic system seemed utterly unable to meet the crisis of the depression and it seemed unable to deal with the weakness of Germany's position in the world and therefore the loss of faith in the state became more and more serious workers and white collar employees are turning their backs on democracy Irish from a social psychologist decides to research attitudes in Greater detail in 1929 his team distributes a questionnaire throughout Germany [Music] from the answers they noticed that many correspondents are attracted to left-wing parties but at the same time their attitudes diverge profoundly from those parties policies one of the respondents is a 37 year old technician married with one child he's a volunteer Trade union organizer with no party affiliation but he votes Social Democrat from the questionnaire it becomes clear he would support a socialist Revolution affecting the ownership of resources ask for his thoughts on rationalization policies within companies he answers sarcastically they work out very well for the employers other left-wing policy points like peace freedom and equality are less attractive this trade unionist husband and father believes that far from needing more equality as the social Democrats propose A Woman's Place is in the kitchen many workers who traditionally support left-wing parties actually hold rather conservative views and are receptive to National Socialist slogans living in a society where things are constantly up and down like the Weimar Republic where politics is so polarized you get drawn into it you no longer hold consistently socialist or national socialist views you select out the elements that happen to suit the way you feel the Nazis refrain from spouting anti-jewish slogans in public but deep down Hitler and his associates remain fanatical anti-semites the nsdap's reichstag deputies appear in uniform on the first day of the new parliamentary session after the 1930 elections Bella Fromm remembers attacks on Jewish businesses on the way to the reichstag they celebrated their Victory with assaults on several department stores curiously no one saw them and not a single person was arrested coincidentally the missiles had only non-aryan targets that was a strange coincidence in 1934 Bella Fromm like all Jewish journalists is banned from practicing her profession in 1938 she flees Germany in 1944 she publishes a book in New York about her experiences in Berlin urging the Free World not to give up in the fight against Nazi Germany legally Jews have full equality in the Weimar Republic but in many sectors of society they are certainly not fully accepted discrimination is visible everywhere long before 1933 before the Nazis came to power Jews were barred from certain areas of public life today we'd call them exclusion zones for Jews for example they're a Baltic and North Sea Resorts that openly promote themselves as jew-free not the traditional Cosmopolitan spas of the Empire such as Herring staff but small up and coming Resorts that bar Jewish guests to attract non-jewish clientele as early as 1931 as the economic crisis worsens the Promenade at cinovitz sports a swastika flag [Music] in July 1931 the first bank's default as thousands of panicking account holders try to withdraw their savings Chancellor Bruning closes all banks for two days the economic crisis is now a systemic crisis in 1931 it becomes clear that normality is not coming back that the system is broken the financial system of Germany is on its needs the banks are closed people have to come to terms with the fact that their savings are not safe in banks that the entire credit system won't restart that even very good businesses can't get credit rice Chancellor Heinrich Bruning doesn't divert from his line he reduces public expenditure increases taxes and cuts Social Security payments the budget must be balanced but the austerity measures only deepen the crisis by 1931 there are four and a half million unemployed one of them decides to record the moment nineteen-year-old Walter balhauser in Hanover has just finished training as a laboratory technician but there's no job for him to keep himself busy he wanders through the city with his camera photographing people in crisis Surplus people he calls them Millions live off welfare payments others big in the streets or rifle through the leftovers of the weekly markets our self-taught photographer documenting life in the economic crisis one in three households are suffering the effects of unemployment and that leads to a sense of desperation Devastation increasing criminality stealing youth gangs people hanging around on the streets Despair and search for a savior figure obviously someone who will get us out of this mess the sense that politics just doesn't work around the world most governments resort to US Territory measures to try to combat the crisis the USA Cuts itself off from World Trade since the summer of 1930 the United States has taken a radical protectionist line import tariffs have risen as high as 60 percent France follows in 1931 raising its tariff to 38 percent in Czechoslovakia it's 50 percent in 1932 Britain breaks with its tradition of free trade with a general import duty of 10 the global economy is suffocating Stalin's Soviet Union goes down a different route A Five-Year Plan is to turn this agricultural land into a modern industrial state the transformation is to be financed via grain exports farmers are dispossessed to create collectives millions are forcibly resettled especially in the Ukraine and Kazakhstan all in the name of modernization they do so much huge human cost with mass starvation across the countryside through to the uh 1933-1934 and convulsive change in the urban centers of the Soviet Union where millions of people find themselves living in Shanty towns working extraordinary long hours and new factories new cities and Industrial complexes rise up apparently out of bare Earth the Soviet Union overtakes many European countries in industrial production while Millions starve in the countryside was that the Soviet Union had suddenly become an industrialized Nation and that was very attractive to a certain segment of the German population for whom the Soviet Union was a role model and so large numbers of young German Workers many of them unemployed vote communist in 1929 Germany's Communist Party comes out in favor of Stalin's policies and that makes them the enemies of the social Democrats installing continued right up to 1935 to tell Communists everywhere that the Socialists were actually their worst enemies because they were taking away support of the working class from the Communist party and that the fascists the Nazis were only a passing phenomenon a kind of last convulsion of dying Monopoly capitalist system but communist hostility is not the only problem for the social Democrats they're caught in a dilemma if they support pruning's austerity policy they'll alienate voters who'll defect to the Communist party but if they oppose the chancellor they risk new elections and better results for the nsdap [Music] this was a sort of Devil's bargain the social Democrats felt they had to make but it really sapped their appeal it sapped a lot of appeal for the system as a whole because it seemed that the democratic system then could only deliver pain in 1932 the crisis reaches its peak now 6 million Germans are unemployed [Music] 1932 is a year of Elections in some parts of Germany citizens have to vote five times the Prelude is the election of the Reich president in March president Hindenburg now 85 years old is standing again the Rival candidate with the best prospects is Adolf Hitler his Chief propagandist Joseph Goebbels now uses all his skills gibbles copied the techniques of advertisers adapting their principles to political propaganda it was all about simple arguments originality omnipresence and brand recognition the social Democrats don't feel the candidate of their own to defeat Hitler they support Hindenburg on Election Day a third of Voters choose Hitler but it isn't enough Hindenburg remains right president thanks to Chancellor bruning's Alliance of convenience with the SPD but Hindenburg is humiliated by having to rely on political enemies for his re-election he's no longer prepared to support Chancellor Bruning of course Hindenburg had noticed pretty quickly that ruining's unpopularity after all austerity is always unpopular we're starting to rub off on him too because Bruning was relying entirely on his presidential decrees in May 1932 Hindenburg sacks Bruning and appoints former Army officer Franz von papen Chancellor he draws closer to Hitler the German conservative establishment the right-wing party is the representatives of big business in the army they have a really interesting problem with Hitler they don't like him they don't approve of him they think he's crude and possibly dangerous but on the other hand Hitler's movement is clearly a nationalist it's clearly militarist and it's clearly anti-left anti-socialist anti-communist and these are all things these groups like and so they conclude however crude this man and his party might be this could be the Electoral base to carry our agenda believing that the nsdap will back his government in Parliament funpapan dissolves the reichstag and calls new elections the eight-week election campaign ends in open violence parts of Berlin experience a state close to Civil War in the summer of 1932 more than 300 Germans die in shootings and street fights it's extraordinary level of political violence and that's the atmosphere of mass poverty externally even to aspects of middle class life violence on the streets that's what creates a sense of terminal crisis the nsdap does most to provoke the troubles all the while proclaiming that they alone can restore order throughout the campaign Hitler promises to abolish democracy [Music] Hitler comes across as more modern than any of his political opponents he crisscrosses the country by plane and is filmed everywhere Goebbels creates the image of Hitler as the fewer over Germany on his four flights through Germany Hitler holds no less than 150 rallies three to four a day to audiences of thousands [Applause] the nsdap leader visits regions that have never seen a national politician voter approval Rises exponentially and in 1932 more women are attending the rallies many are interested in Adolf Hitler's message others are curious about the man himself who is officially still single in fact Hitler has a girlfriend she is the laboratory assistant of his staff photographer Heinrich Hoffman Ava Brown is in her early twenties she will remain his secret companion to the end of their lives [Music] Hitler believed that as the fuhrer who aimed to conquer the hearts of the German people he couldn't be married to a woman and so the relationship was kept secretary in 1932 the relationship becomes closer Ava tries to kill herself with her father's pistol life without Hitler is unthinkable [Music] from now on this unequal couple has a strangely distanced relationship he the adored politician she the lover waiting in the shadows after 1936 she stays at Hitler's Alpine residence the belkov but even there only a few of the visitors know that Ava Brown is more than the housekeeper she is made out to be [Music] Hitler will drag the world to the abyss and Ava Brown will stay loyal to him to the end Hitler's first victim is German democracy [Music] we say the only way is to kill the devil while he's still small you have to nip something like this in the butt the fact that in 1930 the Nazis only had 18 of the vote that 82 weren't yet Nazis shouldn't have reassured the majority of Germans at the reichstag elections in July 1932 a striking number of people who've never voted before support Hitler in spite of the violent campaign more Germans go to the polls than ever before the result is a political earthquake the two Catholic parties the center and the bvp gain some seats but the conservative nationalist parties are almost wiped out the Social Democrat vote holds up reasonably well and they Remain the second largest party in the reichstag the KPD the Communists record small gains but the clear winner with more than 37 percent of the vote is the nsdap they succeeded far more than any German party had done previously in putting together a big and very diverse social Coalition that was one thing that propelled them into power the nsdap wins support in every region and from every social grouping two years before in 1930 it was the largest party only in East Prussia now in 1932 there are only eight electoral districts where it does not get most votes they include the capital Berlin and a number of predominantly Catholic regions Germany's voters have made the nsdap the country's strongest political force as the winner of the election Hitler demands the post of Chancellor against all prior agreements and he has made it abundantly clear that he is not afraid to use Force to achieve his ends in August 1932 in the upper site Legion town of potempa national socialists brutally murdered a worker suspected of communist sympathies he is trampled crushed killed in an absolutely barbaric Manner and what does Hitler do he expresses solidarity with the murderers there have been and there still are times when a politician has lost all support by siding with political murderers that wasn't the case foreign president Hindenburg commutes the murderer's death sentences to life imprisonment but Hitler does not become Chancellor Hindenburg calls new elections for November for the first time since 1928 the nsdap loses votes from 37.4 percent to 33.1 it's still the largest party in the reichstag but suddenly the prospect of power is receding in the November elections Hitler's vote had gone down by four percent and it seemed that national socialism was on the Wane that it had passed its peak and at precisely this point the right president's advisors urged him to appoint this man Chancellor since this was the right moment to keep him under control the forces of conservative nationalism are now playing a dangerous game trying to use Hitler as their puppet to achieve their aims pompan then persuades the Aging increasingly senile president Hindenburg that he can tame Hitler that he can use Hitler that what Hindenburg should do is appoint Hitler Chancellor in a mixed cabinet the old Elites the conservative nationalists will harness his energy his support and yet use him to put through their projects their particular desires on January the 30th 1933 Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler Reich Chancellor much of Germany is taken by surprise as our most foreign diplomats like Camille Hoffman press attache of the czechoslovak embassy who writes they have rushed to form a cabinet Hitler's there with Dr Frick and Gering but hoogenberg papin and army Minister blomberg are also there as John Dames so it's not a national socialist or a revolutionary government even though it comes with Hitler's name attached this is no Third Reich it's barely a second Reich in a bid the new Vice Chancellor Franz von papen believes he has outmaneuvered Hitler and his uncouth brown shirts Poppin famously said we have hired him within six weeks we'll have pushed him so far into the corner he will squeak these of course are famous last words because Hitler was not as it turned out trapped at all what these aristocratic gentlemen had done was they had failed to grasp how cunning and how ruthless Hitler was and how willing Hitler was to exploit every possible tool to really turn the tables on these Elite actors and move himself into a position of absolute power from papin's historic misjudgment will cost the lives of Millions Hitler drops all pretense and just six months later he cynically declares Hitler turns Germany into a dictatorship there is barely any resistance Czech Diplomat Kamil Hoffman who joked about the seizure of power dies in Auschwitz in 1944.

Channel: criminals and crime fighters

Views: 161,480

Keywords: the abyss, ww2, world war, adolf hitler, nationalism, full documentary, nazi history, nazism, third reich, nazis ww2, history documentary, nazi documentary, nazi hitler, germany, history, nsdap doku, nsdap, political system, politics, radicalization, nazis in germany, rise of hitler, German Wehrmacht, hitler power, global power, global power germany, industrial power, nazi ideology, democracy vs dictatorship, democracy, dictatorship, end of democracy

Id: FBtXbvGtvpY

Length: 52min 36sec (3156 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 20 2023