Third Realm

Third Realm

Nazi Germany, also known as the Third Reich, is the common name for Germany during the period from 1933 to 1945, when its government was controlled by Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP; Nazi Party). Under Hitler's rule, Germany was transformed from a republic into a dictatorship using the process of Gleichschaltung (coordination). The country was a totalitarian state after August 1934. Nazi Germany ceased to exist after the Allied Forces defeated the Wehrmacht in May 1945, thus ending World War II in Europe.

On 30 January 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic, Paul von Hindenburg. Hitler's appointment began the process of systematic elimination of all political opposition and consolidation of power, resulting in Hitler becoming the sole leader of Germany. On 2 August 1934, upon the death of President Hindenburg, Hitler became the dictator of Germany with the merger of the powers and offices of the Chancellery with the Presidency of the Weimar Republic. This legislation was affirmed by a national referendum on 19 August 1934, and Hitler became the sole Führer (leader) of Germany. The state idolized Hitler as its leader, centralizing all power in his hands.

Under the Führerprinzip (leader principle), the Führer's word was above all other laws. Top officials reported to Hitler and followed his policies, but they had considerable autonomy. The government was not a coordinated, cooperating body, but rather a collection of factions struggling to amass power and gain favour with the Führer. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazi government restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending and a mixed economy. Extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of high speed highways (Autobahns). The return to economic stability gave the regime enormous popularity. All opposition to Hitler's rule was ruthlessly suppressed, with the leadership killed, imprisoned, or in exile. The Christian churches were oppressed, with many of their leaders imprisoned.

Racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the Nazi regime. The Gestapo (secret state police) and Schutzstaffel (SS) under Heinrich Himmler destroyed the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition, and persecuted and murdered Jews and others deemed undesirable. The Germanic peoples—who were also referred to as the Nordic race—were considered to be the purest representation of the Aryan race, and therefore the master race. Education focused on racial biology, population policy, and physical fitness. Membership in the Hitler Youth organization became compulsory. The number of women enrolled in post-secondary education plummeted, and career opportunities were curtailed. Entertainment and tourism were organized via the Strength Through Joy program. The government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific forms of art and discouraging or banning others. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, and Hitler's hypnotizing oratory to control public opinion. The 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage.

Germany made increasingly aggressive demands, threatening war if they were not met. Britain and France responded with appeasement. Austria was annexed in 1938, and the Sudetenland was taken via the Munich Agreement in 1938, with the rest of Czechoslovakia seized in 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939, starting World War II. In alliance with Benito Mussolini's Italy, Germany conquered France and most of Europe by 1940, and threatened its remaining major foe: Great Britain. Reichskommissariats took brutal control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in Poland. Concentration camps, established as early as 1933, initially detained political prisoners and opponents of the regime. The number of camps quadrupled between 1939 and 1942 to over 300, as slave labourers from across Europe, Jews, political prisoners, criminals, homosexuals, gypsies, the mentally ill, and others were imprisoned. The system that began as an instrument of political oppression culminated in the mass murder of Jews and other minorities in The Holocaust.

Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide turned against the Third Reich in the major military defeats of the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Kursk in 1943, the largest land battles in history. Large-scale systematic bombing of German cities, rail lines, and oil plants escalated in 1944, shutting down the Luftwaffe (German Air Force). Germany was overrun in 1945 by the Soviets from the east and the Allies from the west. The victorious Allies initiated a policy of denazification and put the surviving Nazi leadership on trial for war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials.