
Source: Bundesarchiv, Bild 119-0289 / Unknown authorUnknown author / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en, via Wikimedia Commons
Inquiry Question: What were the beliefs and values of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (NSDAP)?
Viewing Instructions: While you watch the video, take notes on some main points or ideas of social darwinism.
Note to self: Maybe use this next year instead of WW2 in Colour doc.
Video: World War 2 in Colour – The Gathering Storm
- Describe the “dangerous myth” that started in Germany at the end of World War One.
- What happened to Germany and Austria-Hungary after WWI? Why does the video call this a “time-bomb”?
- The video claims that street battles between nationalists and communists and hyperinflation was “fertile ground” for politicians like Hitler. What does this mean?
- Describe Hitler’s book Mein Kampf.
- What did Hitler do when he got out of prison? In other words, how did he plan to gain control of Germany?
Primary Source Analysis: The Program of the NSDAP
A. Reading the Program of the NSDAP (Download from the WordPress)
While you read, record the following;
- Points that many people might have liked or agreed with.
- Points that some people might not have liked or agreed with.
B. Checking Understanding
Use the true/false checklist (on the WordPress) to check your understanding of the NSDAP Platform.
C. Reflection
Do you need to like everything about a political leader or a political party to support them?
Key Terminology
| Adolf Hitler | Born in Austria, Hitler joined the German army in 1914 and fought during all four years of World War One. Deeply bitter about Germany’s defeat in the war, Hitler joined the DAP (German Worker’s Paryt) a small radical political party on the orders of his commanding officers to spy on them. Attracted to the party’s antisemitic views, Hitler left the army to become a full time party member. By 1921 he was the undisputed leader of the party which he renamed the NSDAP. Hitler would later become the dictator and absolute ruler of Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945. His views on race and antisemitism inspired the Holocaust and the murder of six million Jews. |
| Social Darwinism | The erroneous belief that humans are divided into “races” or “sub-species”. Social darwinists were inspired by Darwin’s theory of natural selection and believed it could be applied to human societies. Human races, social darwinists believed, were locked in a struggle for survival and some were in a higher state of evolution than others. Beliefs about racial purity and superiority inspired the Nazis and their racial laws during the 1930s. |
| Natural selection | The theory Charles Darwin articulated in his book The Origin of Species published in 1859. Animals, Darwin theorized, were locked in a struggle for survival. Members that could adapt to their environment survived to reproduce. Weaker or less fit animals died out and did not reproduce. In this way, nature “selected” the most capable organisms and the less fit died out. Social darwinists applied to the same thinking to human societies. |
| Nazi Party (NSDAP) | The National Socialist German Worker’s Party (NSDAP), or Nazi Party, was a German political party founded in 1921 by Adolf Hitler. It expressed extreme antisemitic views coupled with the belief that Germany did not lose WWI but instead was betrayed by communists and Jewish interests. They wanted a racially pure state which would result in the expulsion of non-German people from the country. |
| Hyperinflation | A period of rapid increase in the price of goods and services. This generally happens the currency loses value very quickly. This happened in Germany in 1923-24 when the Weimar government started printing money to pay off its war debt to France, Britain, and Belgium. |