Germany 1919-1990

1935

In 1933 Adolf Hitler and his fiercly anti-democratic and antisemitic National Socialist Party led a coalition governement that did away with Germany's democratic institutions and its constituent states and provinces. Democracy had failed in Germany, not in the least because the other European democracies failed to welcome Germany into their European state system. The Great Depression, a world wide economic crisis that was partly caused by new technological abilities to increase agricultural and industrial production, thus saturating the world markets (too much offered too little demand), did the rest. Germany was not the only failed democracy in Europe. Other countries in South and Eastern Europe (notably Italy) became dictatorships too.

In 1923 the Memel area, a free city under the rule of the League of nations, formerly German, was annexed to Lithuania. The Allies had evacuated their zones of occupation in the Rhineland by 1925 in the Locarno Pact. The territories west of the Rhine would remain demilitarised. The Saar Basin, that had remained a part of Germany formally, but was under a French protectorate had its plesbiscite in 1935. It chose to remain with Germany, and the French protectorate was abolished. Hitler risked a war by occupying the Rhineland in 1936. The allies weakened by the crises and thoughtfull of the fact that they had been to harsh on Germany in Versailles in 1919, let the matter rest. The allies didn't want another war since the trauma of the previous war was very great. Hitler however, was planning for war. He wanted a revanche.

Hitler did away with all the limiting provisions of the Versailles treaty. He built an army a navy and an airforce. The allies did nothing to stop him. Hitlers programs effectually ended the economic crisis in Germany making his regime very popular. He was also seen to be the vindicator of humilliated Germany's honour as a great player on the European stage. In the meantime political opponents, Jews, Gypsies, and other minorities were fiercly percecuted.