World War II: Nazi Germany

• German History in Documents and Images

  The GHDI is a comprehensive collection of original historical materials, including documents, images and maps. The site has a link to Weimar Germany (1918/19 - 1933).

• German History

  Eric Solsten, ed., "Germany: A Country Study", Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1995.

• Germany: 1919-1939

  Overview of Germany during the period between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Second.

• The Hitler Youth - In 1920, Adolf Hitler, authorized the formation of a Youth League of the National Socialist Workers' Party (NSDAP) based upon the principles of an earlier German youth group known as the Wandervögel.  Wandervögel (translated as "Migratory Bird") were the German equivalent of the Boys Scouts.
• Hitler Youth - Kurt Gruber formed the first group of young members of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) in 1926. Rudolf Hess suggested the name of the Hitler Youth (Hitler Jugend) and later that year transferred the leadership of the movement to Franz Pfeffer von Salomon of the Sturm Abteilung (SA). Pfeffer's main intention was to train young men to fight against members of left-wing youth groups.
• Hitler's SS: Private Army of the Third Reich - The blackshirted SS (Defense Detachment) of Heinrich Himmler, which fulfilled certain "defense" and intelligence/security functions in and for Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party, numbered only around 10,000 members until 1932, the year before Hitler's installation as Chancellor. Their numbers paled in comparison to the 3 million brownshirted members of Ernst Röhm's SA (Stormtroops), the Nazi street thugs who had already intimidated, brutalized, hospitalized, or murdered so many Germans who opposed the Nazis. Yet, Hitler chose the core cadre of the SS to murder hundreds of his presumed opponents inside and outside the SA—including the Chancellor who preceded him, Gen. Kurt von Schleicher—on June 30, 1934, the "Night of the Long Knives."
• Germans against Hitler: Who resisted the Third Reich and why did they do it? - An article from 'New perspective', Volume 3, Number 3, March 1998. Housden defines ‘resistance’ and discusses groups and individuals who resisted through disillusionment, necessity or political, religious or moral principles.

• Documents - The rise of the Nazis - From "German History in Documents and Images" [GHDI], a comprehensive collection of original historical materials documenting the rise of the Nazis.
• National Socialism - From Fordham University's "Modern History Sourcebook". Topics include Hitler, Elections, the Church and the Nazis
• Nazi Archive - Documents on National Socialism - Documentation of the National Socialist movement and dictatorship, including such sections as the path to power (including the Ermächtigungsgesetz), the war, medical experiments, persecution and the Shoah, among others. (1930 - 1945; facsimiles and German-language transcriptions)
• Nazi Germany Documents | Alpha History - A collection of documents and documentary extracts relating to the Nazi party's views, policies and rise to power from 1914-1941.
• Nazi Propaganda: 1933-1945 - Propaganda was central to Nazi Germany. This page is a collection of English translations of National Socialist propaganda for the period 1933-1945. Includes speeches and writings by Nazi leaders; anti-semitic material; visual material; war propaganda - 1939-1945; miscellaneous propaganda; and material for propagandists.
• Appeal to the Nation - Hitler's verbal attack on the leadership of the Weimar Republic. Also available in original German (July 15, 1932; English translation).
• Proclamation to the German Nation - Hitler's inaugural address as chancellor. Text of Joseph Goebbels' opening remarks also available in English and German. (February 10, 1933; English translation)
• The Reichstag (Weimar Republic / National Socialism) 1918 - 1942 - Session Proceedings of the Reichstag from the Treaty of Versailles to the beginning of World War II. A digitization project of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (1919-1939; German transcriptions).

Nazi Party Rally Grounds (1934)

• Culture in the Third Reich: Overview - National Socialism (Nazism) represented much more than a political movement. The Nazi leaders who came to power in January 1933 wanted more than just political authority. They wanted to change the cultural landscape: to promote what they considered to be traditional “German” and “Nordic” values, to remove Jewish, “foreign,” and “degenerate” influences, and to shape a racial community which aligned with Nazi ideals.
• Ministry of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment - Following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Hitler established a Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda headed by Joseph Goebbels. The Ministry's aim was to ensure that the Nazi message was successfully communicated through art, music, theater, films, books, radio, educational materials, and the press.
• Nazi Approved Music - Under the Nazi regime, all music produced had to fit within certain standards defined as "good" German music. Suppression of specific artists and their works was common, yet musicians were permitted limited artistic freedom. The Nazis attempted to create a balance between censorship and creativity in music to appease the German people.
• Degenerate Art (Entartete Kunst) - The years 1927-37 were critical for artists in Germany. In 1927, the National Socialist Society for German Culture was formed. The aim of this organization was to halt the "corruption of art" and inform the people about the relationship between race and art. By 1933, the terms "Jewish," "Degenerate," and "Bolshevik" were in common use to describe almost all modern art.