German State from 1933 to 1945
"Drittes Reich" and "Third Reich" redirect here. For the 1923 book, see Das Dritte Reich. For other uses, see Reich (disambiguation).
German Reich
(1933–1943) Deutsches Reich Greater German Reich • (1943–1945) Großdeutsches Reich 1933–1945
[Flag (1935–1945)]
[Emblem (1935–1945)]
Anthems: • "Das Lied der Deutschen" ("The Song of the Germans") • "Horst-Wessel-Lied" [a] ("The Horst Wessel Song")
Germany's territorial control at its greatest extent during World War II (late 1942): • German Reich [b] • Civilian-administered occupied territories • Military-administered occupied territories Show map of Europe
Nazi Party administrative divisions of the Greater German Reich (red line is border), 1944 Show administrative divisions
Capital and largest city Berlin 52°30′40″N 13°22′47″E / 52.51111°N 13.37972°E / 52.51111; 13.37972
Common languages German
Religion • 54% Protestant • 40% Catholic • 3.5% Gottgläubige • 1.5% irreligious • 1% other
Demonym German
Government Unitary Nazi one-party fascist state under a totalitarian dictatorship
Head of state • 1933–1934 Paul von Hindenburg [c] • 1934–1945 Adolf Hitler [d] • 1945 Karl Dönitz [c]
Chancellor • 1933–1945 Adolf Hitler • 1945 Joseph Goebbels [e] • 1945 Lutz von Krosigk [f]
Legislature Reichstag • Upper house Reichsrat (dissolved 1934)
Historical era Interwar • World War II • Seizure of power 30 January 1933 • Enabling Act 23 March 1933 • Nuremberg Laws 15 September 1935 • Anschluss 12/13 March 1938 [g] • Invasion of Poland 1 September 1939 • Death of Hitler 30 April 1945 • Fall of Berlin 2 May 1945 • Surrender 8 May 1945 • Flensburg Government arrested 23 May 1945 • Berlin Declaration 5 June 1945
Area • 1939 [h] 633,786 km2 (244,706 sq mi) • 1940 [2] [b] 823,505 km2 (317,957 sq mi)
Population • 1939 [3] 79,375,281 • 1940 [2] [b] 109,518,183
Currency Reichsmark (ℛℳ)
Preceded by [Weimar Republic] [Federal State of Austria]
Succeeded by [Allied-occupied Germany] [Allied-occupied Austria]
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Ideologues Pre- Machtergreifung • Arndt • Burnouf • Chamberlain • Drumont • Eckart • Fritsch • de Gobineau • Grant • von Liebenfels • von List • Löns • Lueger • Marr • Nietzsche (contentious) • Ratzel • Riehl • Ruskin • Wagner Post- Machtergreifung • Anacker • Baeumler • Bergmann • Berndt • Darré • Eggers • Eichrodt • Feder • Ford • Grimm • Günther • Hauer • Haushofer • Heidegger (contentious) • Hentschel • Hoche • al-Husseini • Jung • Krannhals • Kriek • Lindbergh • Müller • Plenge • Rahn • Rosenberg • Saadeh • Schäfer • Schmalenbach • Schmitt (contentious) • von Sebottendorf • Schwarz • Stapel • Wirsing • Zimmermann
Literature • The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century (1899) • The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (1903) • The Passing of the Great Race (1916) • Prussianism and Socialism (1919) • "25-point Program" (1920) • The International Jew (1920s) • Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes (1922) • Mein Kampf (1925) • Hitlers zweites Buch (1928) • Michael (1929) • The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930) • Gelöbnis treuester Gefolgschaft (1933) • I Fight (1942)
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Nazi Germany [i], officially designated as the German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and subsequently as the Greater German Reich [k] until its collapse in 1945, marks a period in European history where Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party seized absolute control, transforming the nation into an unparalleled totalitarian dictatorship. The term "Third Reich" [l], a chilling prophecy that promised a "Third Realm" or "Third Empire," was coined by Arthur Moeller van den Bruck in his 1923 book, Das Dritte Reich. This nomenclature positioned Hitler's Germany as the supposed historical successor to the venerable Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and the more recent German Empire (1871–1918). The Nazis, with their characteristic blend of grandiosity and delusion, ambitiously dubbed their regime the "Thousand-Year Reich" [m]. Yet, this self-proclaimed eternal empire crumbled ignominiously in May 1945, a mere 12 years after its inception, when the Allies decisively defeated Germany and marched into its devastated capital, Berlin, thus ending World War II in Europe.
The trajectory from a struggling republic to a genocidal empire was alarmingly swift. After Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany in January 1933, the Nazi Party wasted no time in systematically dismantling all political opposition and consolidating its iron grip on power. This rapid transformation was rubber-stamped by a 1934 German referendum, which confirmed Hitler as the singular Führer (leader) of the German nation. In this new order, power was ruthlessly centralized around Hitler's person, rendering his capricious will the ultimate law of the land. The government, far from being a cohesive and cooperative administrative body, devolved into a chaotic collection of competing factions, each vying for greater influence and proximity to the Führer's favor.
To address the profound economic crisis inherited from the Great Depression, the Nazis implemented aggressive fiscal policies. These included massive military expenditures, extensive public works projects—such as the ambitious construction of the Autobahnen (motorways)—and a colossal, clandestine rearmament program that resurrected and expanded the Wehrmacht (armed forces). All these initiatives were financed through rampant deficit spending, a strategy that, while economically unsound in the long run, provided a temporary illusion of prosperity. The immediate return to a semblance of economic stability and the dramatic reduction of mass unemployment significantly bolstered the regime's initial popularity among a weary populace.
emboldened by domestic support and the perceived weakness of international powers, Hitler embarked on an increasingly aggressive foreign policy, characterized by escalating territorial demands. In 1938, he orchestrated the seizure of Austria through the Anschluss, a move celebrated by many Austrians. Shortly thereafter, he annexed the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. Demonstrating a cynical mastery of realpolitik, Germany then signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union in August 1939, a shocking diplomatic maneuver that cleared the path for the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, thereby igniting World War II in Europe. In a brutal alliance with Fascist Italy and other Axis powers, Germany rapidly conquered the majority of Europe by 1940 and posed a dire existential threat to Britain.
At the rotten core of the Nazi regime lay a virulent and expansive ideology. Racism, Nazi eugenics, anti-Slavism, and above all, rabid antisemitism, were not mere peripheral features but the very sinews of its existence. The Nazis propagated the fantastical notion that Germanic peoples constituted the "master race](/Master_race)," the purest and most superior branch of the Aryan race. This twisted worldview justified the systematic persecution and eventual extermination of those deemed "inferior" or "undesirable." Jews, Romani people, Slavs, homosexuals, liberals, socialists, communists, other political opponents, Jehovah's Witnesses, Freemasons, those who refused to work, and numerous other groups were subjected to imprisonment, deportation, torture, and ultimately, industrial-scale murder. Even Christian churches and individual citizens who dared to oppose Hitler's rule faced relentless oppression and imprisonment, their faith deemed a threat to the state's total control.
Education under the Nazi regime was warped into an instrument of indoctrination, focusing heavily on racial biology, population policy, and rigorous physical fitness designed to prepare young men for military service. Educational and career opportunities for women were severely curtailed, pushing them back into traditional roles. The omnipresent Nazi Propaganda Ministry tirelessly disseminated films, vile antisemitic canards, and orchestrated colossal mass rallies, meticulously crafting a pervasive cult of personality around Hitler to manipulate and control public opinion. Artistic expression was rigidly controlled by the government, which promoted specific, ideologically aligned art forms while ruthlessly banning or discouraging anything deemed "degenerate."
The regime's racial policies reached their horrifying apotheosis in the Holocaust, an unprecedented act of genocide where mass murder and large-scale forced labour became its defining, indelible characteristics. After invading the Soviet Union in 1941, Nazi Germany unleashed its war of extermination in Eastern Europe, implementing the brutal Generalplan Ost and Hunger Plan, which aimed to depopulate and Germanize vast swathes of land.
The tide of war irrevocably turned against Germany in 1943, following the tenacious Soviet resurgence and the decisive entry of the United States into the war. By late 1944, German forces were relentlessly pushed back to their 1939 borders. Escalating, large-scale aerial bombing campaigns pulverized German cities and industries, while the Axis powers were systematically driven back across Eastern and Southern Europe. Germany was ultimately conquered by the Soviet Union from the east and the other Allied forces from the west, leading to its unconditional capitulation in May 1945. Hitler's fanatical refusal to concede defeat in the final months of the war resulted in catastrophic destruction of German infrastructure and an astronomical number of additional war-related deaths. In the aftermath of the war, the Allies embarked on a policy of denazification, bringing many surviving Nazi leaders to trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials, a necessary, if insufficient, attempt to grapple with the regime's unfathomable atrocities.
Name
The German state during the Nazi era is commonly referred to in English as "Nazi Germany" or the "Third Reich." This "Third Reich," a term steeped in historical revisionism and apocalyptic ambition, was further embellished by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis as the "Thousand-Year Reich" (Tausendjähriges Reich) [5]. This moniker, a direct translation of the Nazi propaganda term Drittes Reich, did not originate with Hitler but was first articulated in Das Dritte Reich, a 1923 book by the German conservative revolutionary Arthur Moeller van den Bruck [6]. Van den Bruck's work, a rather self-important historical categorization, posited the Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) as the "First Reich" and the subsequent German Empire (1871–1918) as the "Second" [7]. The Nazis, ever keen to appropriate and distort history for their own narrative, embraced this framework, positioning their regime as the glorious, final, and enduring iteration of German imperial power – a millennium of racial purity and dominance, which, as we now know, barely lasted a decade. A testament to the fragility of grand pronouncements, wouldn't you say?
Background
The seeds of the Nazi regime were sown in the fertile soil of post-World War I despair and economic chaos. Germany, reeling from its defeat, faced crippling economic setbacks, exacerbated by the punitive reparations payments demanded under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles [8]. The government's desperate attempt to meet these obligations and service its burgeoning war debt by printing vast quantities of money predictably triggered catastrophic hyperinflation. This economic maelstrom led to skyrocketing prices, widespread financial instability, and desperate food riots across the nation [9]. When Germany inevitably defaulted on its reparations in January 1923, French troops occupied German industrial areas along the Ruhr river, further fueling civil unrest and national humiliation [9]. A perfect storm, if you appreciate the irony of human suffering.
It was into this cauldron of discontent that the National Socialist German Workers' Party, more commonly known as the Nazi Party, emerged, formally founded in 1920 [10]. Their political platform, laid out in the "National Socialist Program," was a toxic brew of grievances and radical promises. It called for the outright destruction of the fragile Weimar Republic, a defiant rejection of the detested Treaty of Versailles, virulent antisemitism, and uncompromising anti-Bolshevism [11]. The Nazis promised a strong, centralized government, the acquisition of increased Lebensraum ("living space") for the supposedly superior Germanic peoples, the formation of a racially pure national community, and the active suppression and racial cleansing of Jews, who would be stripped of their citizenship and fundamental civil rights [12]. Their vision of national and cultural renewal was deeply rooted in the Völkisch movement, a romanticized, ethno-nationalist ideology that glorified a mythical German past and saw society as an organic, racially defined whole [13].
The party, especially its brutal paramilitary wing, the Sturmabteilung (SA; Storm Detachment), infamously known as the Brownshirts, was not shy about employing overt physical violence to advance its political agenda. They routinely disrupted the meetings of rival political organizations, launched vicious attacks on their members, and perpetrated street violence against Jewish people [14]. Such far-right armed groups, often operating with impunity, were particularly prevalent in Bavaria, where they enjoyed a disturbing degree of tolerance from the sympathetic, far-right state government led by Gustav Ritter von Kahr [15]. A pattern of escalating radicalism and unchecked aggression, entirely predictable to anyone paying attention.
The global financial crisis that began with the Wall Street crash of 1929 delivered a devastating blow to Germany, plunging millions into unemployment and triggering the collapse of several major banks [16]. Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, ever opportunistic, were perfectly positioned to exploit this national emergency, skillfully leveraging public fear and desperation to garner support for their party. They promised to stabilize the economy, restore national pride, and provide jobs for the masses [17]. Many disillusioned voters, desperate for order and a return to perceived greatness, came to believe that the Nazi Party was the only force capable of quelling civil unrest, revitalizing the economy, and elevating Germany's tattered international reputation. This public sentiment propelled the party to become the largest in the Reichstag after the federal election of 1932, securing 230 seats with a formidable 37.4 percent of the popular vote [18]. A clear illustration of how easily desperation can be weaponized against a populace.
History
Nazi seizure of power
Adolf Hitler, a man whose name would become synonymous with unparalleled destruction, ascended to the position of Germany's Head of State, adopting the chilling title of Führer und Reichskanzler, in 1934. His path to this absolute power was a calculated and brutal exercise in political maneuvering.
Despite winning the largest share of the popular vote in both Reichstag general elections of 1932, the Nazis never achieved an outright majority. Hitler, with characteristic inflexibility, stubbornly refused to participate in any coalition government unless he was unequivocally at its helm [19]. Under immense pressure from a diverse array of influential figures—including industrialists, opportunistic politicians, and the anxious business community—President Paul von Hindenburg, an aging and increasingly senile former field marshal, reluctantly appointed Hitler as Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. This pivotal event, a seemingly legal transfer of power, is chillingly remembered as the Machtergreifung ("seizure of power") [20]. One might argue it was less a seizure and more a willing handover, a tragic testament to political short-sightedness.
The path to dictatorship was paved with manufactured crises and swift legislative action. On the night of February 27, 1933, the historic Reichstag building was engulfed in flames. A Dutch communist, Marinus van der Lubbe, was quickly apprehended, tried, and found guilty of initiating the blaze. Hitler, seizing the moment with theatrical precision, immediately declared the arson a clear signal of an imminent communist uprising, a convenient fabrication if ever there was one. The very next day, February 28, 1933, the draconian Reichstag Fire Decree was imposed. This decree systematically rescinded most fundamental civil liberties, including the vital rights of assembly and freedom of the press. Crucially, it also granted the police sweeping powers to detain individuals indefinitely without formal charges, effectively suspending due process. This repressive legislation was deftly accompanied by a relentless propaganda campaign that skillfully manipulated public fear and paranoia, generating widespread support for the measures. The immediate consequence was a violent, nationwide suppression of communists by the SA, resulting in the arbitrary arrest of 4,000 members of the Communist Party of Germany [21].
The final nail in the coffin of German democracy was driven on March 23, 1933, with the passage of the infamous Enabling Act. This amendment to the Weimar Constitution was pushed through the Reichstag by a vote of 444 to 94 [22]. It granted Hitler and his cabinet the unprecedented authority to enact laws—even those that flagrantly violated the constitution—without requiring the consent of either the president or the Reichstag itself [23]. To secure the necessary two-thirds majority, the Nazis employed a combination of blatant intimidation tactics and the powers granted by the Reichstag Fire Decree, physically preventing several Social Democratic deputies from attending the vote. The Communists, of course, had already been conveniently banned [24] [25]. The Enabling Act thus became the legal cornerstone upon which the Nazi dictatorship was constructed, providing a veneer of legality to an utterly lawless regime [26].
The systematic dismantling of political pluralism continued unabated. On May 10, 1933, the government seized the assets of the Social Democrats, who were then officially banned on June 22 [27]. The following day, June 21, the SA launched raids on the offices of the German National People's Party—ironically, their former coalition partners—which subsequently dissolved itself on June 29. Other major political parties, sensing the inevitable, quickly followed suit. By July 14, 1933, Germany had been irrevocably transformed into a one-party state with the passage of the Law Against the Formation of Parties, which explicitly decreed the Nazi Party as the sole legal political entity in Germany. The establishment of any new parties was forbidden, and all remaining political organizations that had not already capitulated were outlawed [28]. Subsequent elections in November 1933, 1936, and 1938 were, predictably, entirely controlled by the Nazis, with only members of the Party and a token handful of compliant independents being "elected" [29].
The process of Gleichschaltung, or "coordination," extended to every facet of civil society. All civilian organizations saw their leadership replaced with Nazi sympathizers or party members, and were either forcibly merged with the Nazi Party or summarily dissolved [30]. In a cynical display, the Nazi government declared May Day 1933 a "Day of National Labour" and invited numerous trade union delegates to Berlin for what appeared to be celebrations. The very next day, however, SA stormtroopers brutally ransacked union offices across the country, forcing all trade unions to disband and arresting their leaders [31]. The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, enacted in April, systematically purged all teachers, professors, judges, magistrates, and government officials who were Jewish or whose loyalty to the party was deemed questionable [32]. This meant that, with the exception of the churches, virtually every non-political institution in Germany had been brought under the direct or indirect control of the Nazis [33].
The regime, eager to erase any vestiges of the Weimar Republic, abolished its symbols, including the black, red, and gold tricolour flag. Instead, they revived the previous imperial black, white, and red tricolour as one of Germany's two official flags. The second, and ultimately dominant, flag was the infamous swastika flag of the Nazi Party, which became the sole national flag in September 1935. The Party anthem, "Horst-Wessel-Lied" ("Horst Wessel Song"), was elevated to the status of a second national anthem, a morbid duet with "Das Lied der Deutschen" [34].
Despite the political consolidation, Germany remained in a dire economic state, burdened by six million unemployed citizens and a daunting balance of trade deficit [35]. The Nazis, however, understood the power of visible action. Employing aggressive deficit spending, they initiated ambitious public works projects starting in 1934, which, by the end of that year alone, generated an impressive 1.7 million new jobs [35]. Average wages, a crucial indicator for public morale, also began to show a deceptive upward trend [36]. A temporary fix, perhaps, but one that bought them invaluable time and popular approval.
Consolidation of power
The initial seizure of power was just the first act in the Nazi drama. The Sturmabteilung (SA) leadership, swollen with numbers and a sense of their own importance, continued to agitate for even greater political and military influence, a situation Adolf Hitler found increasingly intolerable. His solution was as brutal as it was decisive: he deployed the elite Schutzstaffel (SS) and the insidious Gestapo—his secret police—to purge the entire SA leadership [37]. Hitler specifically targeted SA Stabschef (Chief of Staff) Ernst Röhm, who had become a rival, along with other prominent SA figures. In a terrifying display of ruthless efficiency, these men, alongside a number of Hitler's political adversaries (such as the prominent left-wing Nazi Gregor Strasser and the former chancellor Kurt von Schleicher), were arrested and summarily executed [38]. This bloody episode, which saw up to 200 people murdered between June 30 and July 2, 1934, became chillingly known as the Night of the Long Knives [39]. It effectively eliminated any potential internal threats to Hitler's absolute authority and signaled that the regime would not hesitate to turn on its own.
Barely a month after this purge, on August 2, 1934, President Paul von Hindenburg finally succumbed to his ailments and died. Astoundingly, just the day before, the cabinet had enacted the "Law Concerning the Head of State of the German Reich," a piece of legislation so convenient it almost writes itself. This law stipulated that upon Hindenburg's death, the office of Reich President would be abolished, and its powers seamlessly merged with those of the Reich Chancellor [40]. Thus, Hitler became both head of state and head of government, formally adopting the title of Führer und Reichskanzler ("Leader and Chancellor"), though the "Reichskanzler" part was eventually quietly dropped, leaving him simply "Führer" [41]. Germany was now, unequivocally, a totalitarian state with Hitler as its singular, unquestioned head [42]. As the new head of state, Hitler also assumed the mantle of Supreme Commander of the armed forces. The new law cunningly introduced an altered loyalty oath for servicemen, requiring them to pledge personal allegiance to Hitler himself, rather than to the abstract office of supreme commander or the state, cementing his personal control over the military [43]. On August 19, the merger of the presidency with the chancellorship was approved by a staggering 90 percent of the electorate in a hastily arranged plebiscite [44]. A public endorsement, of course, entirely free from coercion or manipulation.
Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, was the architect of the regime's public image. Most Germans, exhausted by the constant conflicts and street fighting that characterized the Weimar Republic era, initially experienced a sense of relief. They were relentlessly bombarded with sophisticated propaganda orchestrated by Goebbels, who masterfully promised peace, prosperity, and unity in a country purged of Marxism and liberated from the humiliating constraints of the Treaty of Versailles [45]. The Nazi Party had skillfully acquired and legitimized its power, first through its early, violent "revolutionary" activities, then through a cynical manipulation of legal mechanisms, the ruthless application of police powers, and the systematic takeover of both state and federal institutions [46] [47]. As a stark indicator of the regime's true nature, the first major Nazi concentration camp, initially intended for political prisoners, was opened at Dachau in 1933 [48]. By the end of the war, hundreds of such camps, varying in size and function, would scar the European landscape [49].
From April 1933 onwards, a barrage of measures began to systematically define and restrict the status and rights of Jews in Germany [50]. These discriminatory decrees culminated in the establishment of the infamous Nuremberg Laws in September 1935, which stripped Jewish citizens of their most basic rights [51]. The Nazis would progressively confiscate Jewish wealth, revoke their right to intermarry with non-Jews, and bar them from numerous professions (such as law, medicine, or education) [52]. Ultimately, the regime openly declared Jews undesirable, systematically working towards their complete removal from German society. A chillingly efficient process of dehumanization and dispossession, laying the groundwork for unimaginable horrors.
Military build-up
The ink on the Treaty of Versailles was barely dry, yet Adolf Hitler was already planning its undoing. As early as February 1933, he began to hint at the imperative of rearmament, initially demanding it be conducted in utmost secrecy to avoid international outcry over the blatant violation of the treaty. On May 17, 1933, in a masterful display of disingenuous diplomacy, Hitler delivered a speech before the Reichstag, eloquently articulating his purported desire for world peace. He even went so far as to accept an offer from American President Franklin D. Roosevelt for military disarmament, with the convenient proviso that all other European nations would follow suit [53]. When the other European powers, predictably, failed to embrace this rather obvious trap, Hitler seized the pretext. In October, he dramatically withdrew Germany from the World Disarmament Conference and the League of Nations, indignantly claiming that the disarmament clauses were fundamentally unfair if they applied solely to Germany [54]. In a referendum held in November, 95 percent of German voters, no doubt swayed by a relentless propaganda machine, enthusiastically supported Germany's withdrawal, further legitimizing Hitler's aggressive stance [55].
By 1934, Hitler's true intentions were laid bare to his military leaders: rearmament was to be completed by 1942. By this arbitrary deadline, he declared, the German people would require more living space and resources, necessitating a brutal war of conquest to acquire additional territory [56]. The Saarland, a region that had been under League of Nations supervision for 15 years after World War I, voted in January 1935 to rejoin Germany, a popular decision that further boosted Hitler's prestige [57]. In March 1935, he openly defied the Versailles Treaty by announcing the creation of a new German air force and declaring that the Reichswehr (the interwar German army) would be expanded to a formidable 550,000 men [58]. Britain, in a diplomatic blunder that would have catastrophic consequences, tacitly approved Germany's naval rearmament by signing the Anglo-German Naval Agreement on June 18, 1935, allowing Germany to build a fleet up to 35% of the size of the Royal Navy [59].
The international community's muted response to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia emboldened Hitler further. On March 7, 1936, he used the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance as a flimsy pretext to order the Wehrmacht to march 3,000 troops into the demilitarized zone of the Rhineland, a direct and audacious violation of the Versailles Treaty [60]. Since the territory was nominally German, and given the perceived risk of war, the British and French governments, paralyzed by indecision and a desperate desire for peace, chose not to enforce the treaty. A fatal miscalculation, as history would brutally confirm [61]. In the subsequent one-party election held on March 29, the Nazis, unsurprisingly, claimed 98.9 percent support, a figure as credible as any other outcome from a totalitarian state [61]. In 1936, Hitler solidified his burgeoning alliances, signing an Anti-Comintern Pact with the Empire of Japan and a non-aggression agreement with the dictator of Fascist Italy, Benito Mussolini, who soon began to speak ominously of a "Rome-Berlin Axis" [62].
The eruption of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936 provided Hitler with a perfect testing ground for his newly rearmed military. He dispatched substantial military supplies and assistance, including the formidable German Condor Legion, to support the Nationalist forces of General Francisco Franco. This legion comprised a formidable array of modern aircraft and their highly trained crews, along with a contingent of tanks, providing invaluable combat experience to the burgeoning Luftwaffe and Panzerwaffe. The aircraft of the Legion achieved infamy by destroying the historic city of Guernica in 1937, a brutal preview of the aerial warfare to come [63]. The Nationalists ultimately emerged victorious in 1939, becoming an informal, yet significant, ally of Nazi Germany [64]. The world watched, and largely did nothing, as the stage was meticulously set for a far grander, far more devastating conflict.
Austria and Czechoslovakia
The year 1938 proved to be a pivotal one, marked by Adolf Hitler's increasingly brazen territorial demands, each met with a spineless international response that only served to embolden him further.
In February 1938, Hitler met with Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg, where he, with characteristic bullying, emphasized Germany's "need" to secure its frontiers. Schuschnigg, attempting to preserve Austrian independence, scheduled a plebiscite for March 13. However, Hitler, unwilling to risk a democratic outcome, issued an ultimatum on March 11, demanding that Schuschnigg immediately hand over all power to the Austrian Nazi Party or face an invasion. German troops, predictably, entered Austria the very next day, a move met, disturbingly, with widespread enthusiasm by a significant portion of the populace, marking the Anschluss – the annexation of Austria into the German Reich [65]. A textbook example of manufactured consent, if you're into that sort of thing.
Next on Hitler's agenda was the Republic of Czechoslovakia, a nation home to a substantial minority of ethnic Germans residing primarily in the Sudetenland region. Under relentless pressure from separatist groups within the Sudeten German Party, the Czechoslovak government, in a futile attempt at appeasement, offered economic concessions to the region [66]. Hitler, however, harbored far grander, and far darker, ambitions. His objective was not merely to incorporate the Sudetenland into the Reich, but to utterly destroy the independent state of Czechoslovakia [67]. The Nazis launched a furious propaganda campaign, designed to demonize Czechoslovakia and generate domestic support for an invasion [68]. Tellingly, many top German military leaders, recognizing the nation was not yet fully prepared for a large-scale European conflict, voiced their opposition to the plan [69].
The escalating crisis plunged Europe to the brink of war. Britain, Czechoslovakia, and France (Czechoslovakia's formal ally) initiated war preparations. In a desperate bid to avert conflict, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain arranged a series of meetings, culminating in the infamous Munich Agreement, signed on September 29, 1938. Under immense pressure and without any representation, the Czechoslovak government was brutally forced to accept the annexation of the Sudetenland into Germany. Chamberlain, upon his return to London, was greeted with cheers, proclaiming that the agreement had delivered "peace for our time" [70]. A phrase that, in retrospect, sounds like a cruel joke.
The economic consequences of these annexations were immediate and devastating for the conquered nations. The Nazi regime swiftly seized Austrian and Czech foreign exchange reserves, along with vast stockpiles of raw materials such as metals, and completed goods, including invaluable weaponry and aircraft, all systematically shipped back to Germany. The colossal Reichswerke Hermann Göring industrial conglomerate, a state-owned enterprise, rapidly asserted control over critical steel and coal production facilities in both countries, further bolstering Germany's war economy [71]. The spoils of appeasement, neatly packaged and delivered.
Poland
In January 1934, Germany, in a fleeting moment of diplomatic normalcy, had signed a non-aggression pact with Poland [72]. However, by March 1939, Hitler's insatiable appetite for territory resurfaced. He brazenly demanded the return of the Free City of Danzig and the Polish Corridor, a vital strip of land that inconveniently separated East Prussia from the rest of Germany. In a rare display of resolve, the British government announced it would come to Poland's aid if it were attacked. Hitler, however, dismissed this as mere posturing, confident that the British would not truly intervene, and swiftly ordered an invasion plan to be prepared for September 1939 [73]. On May 23, he articulated his grand strategy to his generals: not only the seizure of the Polish Corridor but a massive expansion of German territory eastward at Poland's expense. This time, he fully expected armed resistance [74].
While preparing for the inevitable conflict, Germany meticulously strengthened its diplomatic and economic ties. It reaffirmed its alliance with Italy, forming the nascent Axis powers, and signed non-aggression pacts with Denmark, Estonia, and Latvia. Trade links were formalized with Romania, Norway, and Sweden, securing vital resources and strategic advantages [75]. In a move that shocked the world, Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop orchestrated a secret non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, signed in August 1939 [76]. This cynical treaty, a temporary marriage of convenience between two ideological enemies, also contained secret protocols that chillingly divided Poland and the Baltic states into German and Soviet spheres of influence [77]. The stage was now set for the opening act of humanity's greatest tragedy.
World War II
Foreign policy
Germany's foreign policy during World War II was a cynical exercise in resource extraction and puppet mastery, meticulously designed to fuel its insatiable war machine. The strategy involved the creation of a network of allied governments, either directly controlled or indirectly manipulated from Berlin. The primary objective was straightforward: secure vital resources. From allies like Italy and Hungary, Germany sought to obtain soldiers to bolster its fighting ranks. From other compliant partners, such as Vichy France, it extracted labor and crucial food supplies [78].
Hungary, eager to align itself with the rising power, became the fourth nation to officially join the Axis, signing the Tripartite Pact on September 27, 1940. Bulgaria followed suit on November 17, expanding the Axis footprint in the Balkans. Germany's relentless pursuit of oil, a critical wartime commodity, led to negotiations for a guaranteed supply from its new ally, Romania, which signed the Pact on November 23, alongside the newly formed Slovak Republic [79] [80] [81]. By late 1942, the sheer scale of this alliance was evident on the Eastern Front, with a staggering 24 divisions from Romania, 10 from Italy, and 10 from Hungary fighting alongside German forces [82]. As the war progressed, Germany tightened its grip, assuming full control in France by 1942, Italy by 1943, and Hungary by 1944. While Japan was a powerful, if geographically distant, ally, the relationship was marked by a distinct lack of genuine coordination or cooperation. A telling example: Germany stubbornly refused to share its closely guarded formula for synthetic oil derived from coal until the very late stages of the war, prioritizing its own interests over collective Axis strength [83].
Outbreak of war
The long-anticipated storm finally broke on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland and simultaneously captured the Free City of Danzig, marking the unequivocal beginning of World War II in Europe [84]. Britain and France, honoring their treaty obligations, reluctantly declared war on Germany two days later [85]. Poland, tragically outmatched and strategically encircled, fell swiftly, especially after the Soviet Union launched its own attack from the east on September 17, a grim fulfillment of the secret clauses of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact [86].
The invasion immediately unleashed a wave of systematic brutality. Reinhard Heydrich, the ruthless chief of the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo; Security Police) and Sicherheitsdienst (SD; Security Service), issued orders on September 21 for Polish Jews to be rounded up and concentrated into cities with efficient rail links. The initial, chilling intention was their eventual deportation further east, or perhaps even to Madagascar, an early glimpse into the regime's genocidal ambitions [87]. Utilizing meticulously prepared lists, approximately 65,000 Polish intelligentsia, noblemen, clergy, and teachers were systematically murdered by the end of 1939 in a calculated effort to eradicate Poland's national identity and leadership [88] [89].
While the Winter War saw Soviet forces advance into Finland, and German naval forces engaged in limited action at sea, the Western Front remained eerily quiet. This period, characterized by a lack of major ground offensives, became infamously known as the "Phoney War" [90].
From the very outset of the war, a British blockade severely impacted Germany's economy, particularly its critical reliance on foreign supplies of oil, coal, and grain [91]. Thanks to a combination of trade embargoes and the naval blockade, imports into Germany plummeted by a staggering 80 percent [92]. To safeguard the vital shipments of Swedish iron ore, which were crucial for its armaments industry, Hitler ordered the invasion of Denmark and Norway, launched on April 9, 1940. Denmark fell in less than a day, a humiliating capitulation, while most of Norway was subdued by the end of the month, though resistance continued [93] [94]. By early June, Germany had effectively occupied all of Norway, securing its northern flank and access to crucial resources [95]. The strategic chess pieces were moving, and the world was about to witness a Blitzkrieg on a scale never before imagined.
Conquest of Europe
Defying the cautious counsel of many of his senior military officers, Adolf Hitler unleashed his forces in May 1940, ordering a lightning-fast attack on France and the Low Countries [96] [97]. The German war machine swiftly overwhelmed Luxembourg and the Netherlands, demonstrating a terrifying efficiency. In a brilliant, audacious maneuver, they outflanked the Allied forces in Belgium, culminating in the desperate evacuation of hundreds of thousands of British and French troops from the beaches of Dunkirk [98]. France itself rapidly collapsed, surrendering to Germany on June 22 [99]. This stunning victory in France sent Hitler's popularity soaring to unprecedented heights at home and ignited a fervent wave of war fever across Germany [100].
In flagrant disregard for the provisions of the Hague Convention, German authorities immediately repurposed industrial firms in the newly occupied Netherlands, France, and Belgium, forcing them to produce war materiel for the Reich [101]. The scale of plunder was immense. The Nazis seized thousands of locomotives and rolling stock from the French, along with vast stockpiles of weapons and critical raw materials such as copper, tin, oil, and nickel [102]. France, Belgium, and Norway were subjected to crippling payments for the costs of occupation [103]. The imposition of trade barriers led to widespread hoarding, the proliferation of black markets, and a pervasive sense of economic uncertainty about the future [104]. Food supplies across much of occupied Europe became precarious, with agricultural production plummeting [105]. Famine, a brutal companion of war, became a grim reality in many of the conquered nations [105].
Hitler's subsequent peace overtures to the new British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, were resolutely rejected in July 1940. Grand Admiral Erich Raeder had prudently advised Hitler in June that achieving air superiority over the English Channel was an absolute prerequisite for a successful invasion of Britain [n]. Consequently, Hitler ordered a series of intense aerial attacks targeting Royal Air Force (RAF) airbases and critical radar stations, followed by devastating nightly air raids on major British cities, including London, Plymouth, and Coventry. The German Luftwaffe, however, failed to break the indomitable spirit of the RAF in what became known as the Battle of Britain. By the end of October, Hitler was forced to concede that air superiority, that crucial precondition, could not be achieved. He permanently postponed the invasion, a plan which, it must be noted, the commanders of the German army had never taken entirely seriously to begin with [106] [107]. Several historians, among them Andrew Gordon, argue persuasively that the primary reason for the failure of the invasion plan was not solely the heroics of the RAF, but rather the enduring superiority of the Royal Navy [108].
In February 1941, the German Afrika Korps arrived in Libya to bolster the struggling Italians in the North African Campaign [109]. Shortly thereafter, on April 6, Germany launched a dual invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece [110] [111]. The entirety of Yugoslavia and significant portions of Greece were subsequently dismembered and divided among Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Bulgaria [112] [113]. Europe was being carved up, piece by bloody piece.
Invasion of the Soviet Union
On June 22, 1941, in a monumental act of treachery that would ultimately seal its fate, Nazi Germany launched a massive invasion of the Soviet Union, flagrantly contravening the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Approximately 3.8 million Axis troops, the largest invasion force in history, surged across the border [114]. This colossal offensive, code-named Operation Barbarossa, was driven by far more than Hitler's stated purpose of acquiring Lebensraum (living space). It was a gargantuan, ideological gamble intended to utterly destroy the Soviet Union, eradicate Bolshevism, seize its vast natural resources, and pave the way for subsequent aggression against the Western powers [115]. The reaction among ordinary Germans was a mixture of surprise and profound trepidation; many were deeply concerned about the prospect of a protracted war on two fronts, or harbored quiet suspicions that Germany could not possibly emerge victorious from such a colossal undertaking [116].
The initial thrust of the invasion swallowed a colossal expanse of territory, including the Baltic states, Belarus, and western Ukraine. Following the successful Battle of Smolensk in September 1941, Hitler, in a decision that would prove strategically disastrous, ordered Army Group Centre to halt its relentless advance toward Moscow. Instead, he temporarily diverted its powerful Panzer groups to aid in the encirclement of Leningrad and Kiev [117]. This critical pause, a fatal miscalculation of Soviet resilience, provided the beleaguered Red Army with an invaluable opportunity to mobilize fresh reserves and reorganize its defenses. When the Moscow offensive finally resumed in October 1941, it ended in a disastrous, frozen stalemate by December [118]. Then, on December 7, 1941, Japan, Germany's distant Axis partner, launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Four days later, Germany, in a gesture of suicidal solidarity, declared war on the United States [119].
Food supplies became critically scarce in the conquered territories of the Soviet Union and Poland, partly because retreating armies had scorched crops in many areas, and much of the remaining produce was ruthlessly diverted back to the Reich [120]. Back in Germany, rations for civilians were drastically cut in 1942. Hermann Göring, in his capacity as Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan, aggressively demanded increased shipments of grain from France and fish from Norway to sustain the German populace and military. Despite these pressures, the 1942 harvest was unusually good, ensuring that food supplies remained, for a time, adequate in Western Europe [121].
Germany, along with the rest of Europe, faced an almost total dependence on foreign oil imports, a critical vulnerability [122]. In a desperate attempt to resolve this chronic shortage, Germany launched Fall Blau ("Case Blue") in June 1942, a massive offensive aimed squarely at seizing the oil-rich Caucasian oilfields [123]. However, the Red Army, demonstrating incredible resilience, launched a powerful counter-offensive on November 19, meticulously encircling the Axis forces. These forces found themselves catastrophically trapped in the ruins of Stalingrad by November 23 [124]. Göring, with typical overconfidence, assured Hitler that the beleaguered 6th Army could be adequately supplied by air, a promise that proved utterly infeasible [125]. Hitler's fanatical refusal to permit a strategic retreat led directly to the horrific deaths of 200,000 German and Romanian soldiers. Of the 91,000 men who finally surrendered in the city on January 31, 1943, a mere 6,000 emaciated survivors ever returned to Germany after the war [126]. Stalingrad became the epitaph for Hitler's eastern ambitions, a turning point written in blood and ice.
Turning point and collapse
The catastrophic losses at Stalingrad marked an irreversible turning point, triggering a precipitous decline in the Nazi Party's popularity and a palpable deterioration in public morale [127]. Following the failed German offensive at the Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943—the largest tank battle in history—Soviet forces relentlessly pushed westward, systematically reclaiming their lost territories. By the close of 1943, Germany had forfeited the vast majority of its hard-won eastern gains [128]. Simultaneously, in North Africa, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's vaunted Afrika Korps suffered a decisive defeat at the hands of British forces under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery in October 1942 [129]. The Allies landed in Sicily in July 1943, and by September, their boots were firmly on the Italian peninsula, forcing Italy's capitulation [130].
Meanwhile, American and British bomber fleets, operating from bases in Britain, initiated increasingly devastating operations against Germany. Many sorties were deliberately aimed at civilian targets, a controversial strategy intended to break German morale [131]. The bombing of critical aircraft factories and the Peenemünde Army Research Center—where the terrifying V-1 and V-2 rockets were being developed and produced—were also deemed particularly vital targets [132] [133]. German aircraft production, despite desperate measures, simply could not keep pace with the relentless losses, and without effective air cover, the Allied bombing campaign became even more destructive. By targeting oil refineries and synthetic fuel plants, they effectively crippled the German war effort by late 1944, strangling its ability to move and fight [134].
On June 6, 1944, a date forever etched in history, American, British, and Canadian forces successfully established a new front in France with the epochal D-Day landings in Normandy [135]. Back in Germany, on July 20, 1944, Adolf Hitler miraculously survived an assassination attempt orchestrated by disaffected military officers. His response was a brutal, vengeful crackdown, resulting in 7,000 arrests and the execution of more than 4,900 people, further solidifying the regime's paranoid grip [137]. The failed Ardennes Offensive (December 16, 1944 – January 25, 1945) represented Germany's last desperate gamble on the Western Front. By January 27, Soviet forces had breached Germany's pre-war borders, signaling the beginning of the end [138].
Hitler's fanatical refusal to admit defeat, his insistence that the war be fought to the last man, woman, and child, led to unimaginable, unnecessary death and destruction in the war's closing months [139]. Through his Justice Minister Otto Georg Thierack, Hitler issued chilling orders: anyone unwilling to fight was to be court-martialed, a directive that led to the execution of thousands [140]. In many areas, civilians, utterly exhausted and terrified, chose to surrender to the advancing Allies, often in defiance of local leaders' exhortations to continue fighting. In a final act of nihilistic rage, Hitler ordered the destruction of all German transport infrastructure, bridges, industries, and other essential facilities—a "scorched earth" decree. However, Armaments Minister Albert Speer, recognizing the utter futility and long-term devastation, deliberately prevented this order from being fully carried out [139].
During the harrowing Battle of Berlin (April 16 – May 2, 1945), Hitler and his dwindling staff huddled in the claustrophobic underground Führerbunker as the Red Army closed in, street by bloody street [141]. On April 30, with Soviet troops just two blocks from the ruins of the Reich Chancellery, Hitler and his newly wed wife, Eva Braun, committed suicide [142]. On May 2, General Helmuth Weidling unconditionally surrendered Berlin to Soviet General Vasily Chuikov [143]. Hitler had, in his last will, appointed Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as Reich President and Joseph Goebbels as Reich Chancellor [144]. Goebbels, however, alongside his wife Magda, committed suicide the very next day after brutally murdering their six children [145]. Between May 4 and May 8, 1945, most of the remaining German armed forces across Europe unconditionally surrendered. The German Instrument of Surrender was formally signed on May 8, marking the definitive end of the Nazi regime and the conclusion of World War II in Europe [146]. A long-overdue closure to a nightmare.
As the war reached its bitter conclusion, popular support for Hitler and his regime vanished almost entirely [147]. Suicide rates across Germany surged, particularly in areas where the Red Army was advancing. Among soldiers and party personnel, suicide was often romanticized as an honorable, heroic alternative to the humiliation of surrender. First-hand accounts and chilling propaganda regarding the barbaric behavior of the advancing Soviet troops, especially toward women, ignited widespread panic among civilians on the Eastern Front [148]. In one particularly harrowing example, over a thousand people (from a population of approximately 16,000) committed suicide in Demmin around May 1, 1945, after the 65th Army of the 2nd Belorussian Front broke into a distillery, then rampaged through the town, committing mass rapes, arbitrarily executing civilians, and setting buildings ablaze. Similarly high numbers of suicides were recorded in other locations, including Neubrandenburg (with 600 deaths) and Stolp in Pommern (1,000 deaths) [149], and in Berlin, where at least 7,057 people took their own lives in 1945 alone [150]. A grim testament to the utter despair and terror that engulfed the nation in its final hours.
German casualties
The human cost of Nazi Germany's ambitions was staggering, leaving an indelible scar on the nation. Estimates for the total number of German war dead range horrifyingly from 5.5 to 6.9 million persons [151]. A meticulous study by the historian Rüdiger Overmans places the number of German military dead and missing at a staggering 5.3 million. This figure grimly includes 900,000 men who were conscripted from outside Germany's 1937 borders, forcibly drawn into a conflict that was not their own [152].
Beyond the battlefield, civilians bore a heavy burden. Richard Overy estimated in 2014 that approximately 353,000 German civilians perished in the relentless Allied air raids [153]. Other civilian deaths include a further 300,000 Germans (including Jewish citizens) who fell victim to the Nazi regime's brutal political, racial, and religious persecution [154]. Additionally, a chilling 200,000 individuals were systematically murdered in the horrific Nazi euthanasia program [155]. The regime's internal terror also claimed its toll: political courts, ominously named Sondergerichte, sentenced some 12,000 members of the German resistance to death, while civil courts condemned an additional 40,000 Germans to their demise [156]. In the chaotic aftermath of the war, widespread mass rapes of German women also tragically occurred, adding another layer of trauma to a broken nation [157].
Geography
Territorial changes
The geographical footprint of Germany underwent radical and often brutal transformations throughout the Nazi era, directly reflecting the regime's expansionist ideology and the consequences of its military actions. The seeds of these changes were sown even before the Nazis came to power, with the punitive terms of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. As a direct result, Germany was stripped of significant territories, including Alsace-Lorraine, Northern Schleswig, and Memel. The Saarland was placed under French protectorate with the promise of a future referendum, and a newly independent Poland was granted access to the sea via the creation of the Polish Corridor, which inconveniently (for Germany) severed East Prussia from the rest of the German heartland. Danzig was controversially declared a free city [158].
Hitler, upon gaining power, wasted no time in systematically reversing these perceived injustices and aggressively expanding German territory. Through a carefully orchestrated referendum, Germany regained control of the Saarland in 1935. This was followed by the audacious annexation of Austria in the Anschluss of 1938 [159]. The infamous Munich Agreement of 1938, a monument to international appeasement, handed Germany control of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. Six months later, with blatant disregard for international agreements, Germany seized the remainder of Czechoslovakia [70]. Under the thinly veiled threat of a naval invasion, Lithuania was forced to surrender the Memel district to Germany in March 1939 [160].
The outbreak of World War II dramatically accelerated this territorial expansion. Between 1939 and 1941, German forces launched invasions across Europe, conquering Poland, Denmark, Norway, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Greece, and finally, in a colossal gamble, the Soviet Union [99]. In April 1941, Germany annexed parts of northern Yugoslavia [112] [113]. Later in the war, in 1943, Benito Mussolini, then a mere puppet, ceded the Italian territories of Trieste, South Tyrol, and Istria to Germany [161]. The map of Europe was redrawn with sickening rapidity, reflecting the transient, brutal dominance of the Third Reich.
Occupied territories
The territorial gains of Nazi Germany were not merely about expanding borders; they were about imposing a new, brutal order across Europe. Many of the conquered territories, particularly in the east, were earmarked for eventual incorporation into Germany as part of Adolf Hitler's grandiose, long-term vision of establishing a Greater Germanic Reich. This was not integration, but a systematic process of Germanization and exploitation.
Some areas, such as Alsace-Lorraine, which had been part of Germany until 1919, were directly absorbed and placed under the authority of an adjacent Gau (regional district), essentially becoming extensions of the Reich. More distant conquered nations often saw the establishment of Reichskommissariate (Reich Commissariats), a form of quasi-colonial regime designed for ruthless exploitation. These included the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (the remainder of Czechoslovakia), Reichskommissariat Ostland (encompassing the Baltic states and Belarus), and Reichskommissariat Ukraine [162]. These were not meant to be temporary; they were the foundations of a new, racially pure empire.
Conquered areas of Belgium and Northern France were placed under the authority of the Military Administration in Belgium and Northern France. Belgian Eupen-Malmedy, historically German, was directly annexed. A significant portion of Poland was incorporated directly into the Reich, while the brutal General Government was established in occupied central Poland, a region explicitly designated as a reservoir of slave labor and a dumping ground for "undesirables" [163].
In contrast, the governments of Denmark, Norway (Reichskommissariat Norwegen), and the Netherlands (Reichskommissariat Niederlande) were placed under civilian administrations, often staffed largely by local collaborators [162] [o]. Hitler's ultimate ambition, however, remained the eventual, full incorporation of many of these territories into the expanding Reich [164]. Further south, Germany occupied the Italian protectorate of Albania and the Italian governorate of Montenegro in 1943, and installed a puppet government in occupied Serbia in 1941 [165] [166]. The logic was simple: conquer, exploit, Germanize, and eliminate any inconvenient populations. A truly efficient, if utterly monstrous, system.
Politics
Ideology
The Nazi Party was not merely a political movement; it was a radical, far-right fascist political party that festered and grew amidst the profound social and financial upheavals that engulfed Germany after World War I [167]. For years, it remained a fringe group, marginalized and largely ignored, managing to secure a mere 2.6% of the federal vote in 1928. Then, the Great Depression struck in 1929, a godsend for the opportunistic. By 1930, the Party's electoral fortunes had dramatically reversed, garnering 18.3% of the federal vote and transforming it into the Reichstag's second-largest political party [169].
While languishing in prison after the pathetic failure of the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, Adolf Hitler penned Mein Kampf, a rambling, venomous manifesto that chillingly laid out his blueprint for fundamentally transforming German society into one based on a perverted concept of race [170]. The core of Nazi ideology was a toxic cocktail of virulent antisemitism, pseudoscientific racial hygiene, and grotesque eugenics. These abhorrent ideas were then fused with an aggressive pan-Germanism and an insatiable territorial expansionism, all aimed at securing more Lebensraum ("living space") for the supposedly superior Germanic people [171].
The regime's pursuit of this "new territory" was predicated on the brutal invasion of Poland and the Soviet Union. Their intention was not merely conquest, but the systematic mass murder or forced deportation of the Jews and Slavs inhabiting these lands. These groups were deemed inherently inferior to the Aryan "master race" and falsely implicated in a vast, fabricated Jewish-Bolshevik conspiracy [172] [173]. The Nazi regime harbored the deluded belief that only Germany possessed the strength and racial purity to defeat the forces of Bolshevism and save humanity from the perceived existential threat of "International Jewry" [174].
But the circle of victims extended far beyond these primary targets. The Nazis, in their chillingly clinical dehumanization, designated other groups as "life unworthy of life." This included the mentally and physically disabled, Romani people, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and various "social misfits" [175] [176]. Additionally, Freemasons were subjected to intense surveillance and severe persecution, their secret societies deemed a threat to the totalitarian state [177].
Deeply influenced by the anti-modernist Völkisch movement, the regime actively opposed cultural modernism and championed the development of a vast, militarized state at the expense of intellectual pursuits [13] [178]. Creativity and artistic expression were ruthlessly stifled, permitted only if they could be twisted to serve as propaganda tools for the regime [179]. The party meticulously employed potent symbols, such as the venerated Blood Flag, and orchestrated elaborate rituals, like the colossal Nazi Party rallies, to foster a manufactured sense of national unity and relentlessly bolster the regime's popularity [180]. A cynical manipulation of human psychology, expertly executed.
Government
Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, Joseph Goebbels, and Rudolf Hess posed together during a military parade in 1933, a visual representation of the nascent power structure. However, the inner workings of the Nazi government were far more chaotic than this polished image suggested.
Hitler ruled Germany with an iron fist, asserting the Führerprinzip ("leader principle"), which demanded absolute and unquestioning obedience from all subordinates. He envisioned the government as a rigid pyramid, with himself—the infallible leader—at its unquestionable apex. Party rank was not determined by democratic elections but by direct appointment from those of higher rank, creating a hierarchical system based on loyalty rather than competence [181]. The party, through its relentless propaganda machine, meticulously cultivated a pervasive cult of personality around Hitler, portraying him as a messianic figure [182]. Historians like Ian Kershaw emphasize the profound psychological impact of Hitler's undeniable skill as an orator, a master manipulator of crowds [183]. As Roger Gill observed, "His moving speeches captured the minds and hearts of a vast number of the German people: he virtually hypnotized his audiences" [184]. A truly terrifying talent.
While top officials were expected to report to Hitler and adhere to his overarching policies, they paradoxically enjoyed considerable autonomy within their own domains [185]. Hitler's expectation was that officials would "work towards the Führer"—meaning they were to take initiative in promoting policies and actions that aligned with party goals and Hitler's perceived wishes, often without his direct involvement in day-to-day decision-making [186]. The reality was a government that functioned less as a coordinated body and more as a disorganized collection of warring factions, each led by ambitious party elites who constantly struggled to amass power and curry favor with the Führer [187]. Hitler's leadership style, rather than fostering efficiency, deliberately created an environment of distrust, competition, and infighting among his subordinates by issuing contradictory orders and assigning overlapping duties and responsibilities [188]. This calculated chaos served to consolidate and maximize his own ultimate power, ensuring no single rival could gain too much influence [189].
A series of successive Reichsstatthalter decrees, issued between 1933 and 1935, systematically abolished the existing Länder (constituent states) of Germany. These traditional administrative divisions were replaced by a new system of administrative divisions known as Gaue, each governed by a local Nazi leader, the Gauleiter [190]. This change, however, was never fully implemented, leading to a bewildering bureaucratic tangle where the old Länder continued to function as administrative units for certain government departments, such as education. This created a classic example of the overlapping jurisdictions and conflicting responsibilities that characterized the notoriously inefficient, yet brutally effective, administrative style of the Nazi regime [191].
The purge of civil servants began immediately. Jewish civil servants lost their jobs in 1933, with the sole, temporary exception of those who had served in the military during World War I. Members of the Nazi Party or loyal party supporters were swiftly appointed to fill these vacant positions [192]. As part of the pervasive process of Gleichschaltung, the Reich Local Government Law of 1935 abolished local elections, with mayors now appointed directly by the Ministry of the Interior, effectively eliminating any remaining vestiges of local democracy [193].
Law
The legal system under Nazi Germany was systematically perverted to serve the regime's ideological and political ends, transforming justice into an instrument of oppression. In August 1934, civil servants and members of the military were compelled to swear an oath of unconditional, personal obedience to Adolf Hitler [194]. These oaths became the foundational principle of the Führerprinzip, the chilling concept that Hitler's word superseded all existing laws. Any action sanctioned by Hitler—even outright murder—was thus retrospectively declared legal [195]. To further centralize power, all legislation proposed by cabinet ministers required approval from the office of Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess, who also possessed the authority to veto top civil service appointments [196].
While much of the judicial system and legal codes from the Weimar Republic remained nominally in place to handle non-political crimes, their application was increasingly brutalized [197]. The courts, now under ideological pressure, issued and carried out a far greater number of death sentences than in the preceding era [197]. Individuals convicted of three or more offenses—even minor infractions—could be arbitrarily labeled as "habitual offenders" and confined indefinitely, a stark illustration of the erosion of legal protections [198]. People such as prostitutes and pickpockets were no longer seen merely as criminals but were judged to be inherently defective and a threat to the community, leading to thousands of arrests and indefinite detention without trial [199].
The regime also created new legal instruments of terror. A new type of court, the Volksgerichtshof ("People's Court"), was established in 1934 specifically to deal with political cases [200]. This court, a grotesque parody of justice, handed down over 5,000 death sentences before its dissolution in 1945 [201]. The death penalty could be imposed for offenses as broad and ill-defined as being a communist, printing "seditious" leaflets, or even daring to make jokes about Hitler or other officials [202]. The Gestapo—the secret state police—was charged with investigative policing, relentlessly enforcing Nazi ideology by tracking down and confining political offenders, Jews, and anyone else deemed "undesirable" [203]. Political prisoners, even after being officially released from prison, were frequently immediately re-arrested by the Gestapo and summarily confined in a concentration camp, trapped in a revolving door of persecution [204].
The Nazis skillfully employed propaganda to propagate the vile concept of Rassenschande ("race defilement"), a pseudoscientific justification for their increasingly draconian racial laws [205]. In September 1935, these efforts culminated in the enactment of the infamous Nuremberg Laws. These laws initially prohibited sexual relations and marriages between "Aryans" and Jews, and were later chillingly extended to include "Gypsies, Negroes or their bastard offspring" [206]. The legislation also forbade the employment of German women under the age of 45 as domestic servants in Jewish households, a measure designed to prevent any perceived "racial mixing" [207]. The Reich Citizenship Law, another component of the Nuremberg Laws, explicitly stated that only those of "German or related blood" could be citizens [208]. This insidious legal framework systematically stripped Jews and other non-Aryans of their German citizenship. The law also conveniently permitted the Nazis to deny citizenship to anyone deemed not sufficiently supportive of the regime, a broad and subjective criterion [208]. A supplementary decree issued in November further clarified the definition of "Jewish," extending it to anyone with three Jewish grandparents, or two if the Jewish faith was actively practiced [209]. Thus, the legal system became a meticulously crafted scaffold for genocide.
Military and paramilitary
Wehrmacht
The unified armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945, a formidable and terrifying instrument of conquest, were known as the Wehrmacht (defense force). This grand military apparatus encompassed the Heer (army), the Kriegsmarine (navy), and the Luftwaffe (air force). A critical shift in allegiance occurred on August 2, 1934, when members of the armed forces were compelled to pledge an oath of unconditional obedience directly to Adolf Hitler personally. This was a radical departure from the previous oath, which had required loyalty to the constitution and lawful state institutions. The new oath chillingly obligated military personnel to obey Hitler even if his orders were illegal, cementing his absolute, extralegal control over the military [210].
The Wehrmacht was not merely an instrument of conventional warfare; it was deeply complicit in the regime's genocidal crimes. Hitler explicitly decreed that the army would not only have to tolerate but also actively provide logistical support to the Einsatzgruppen—the mobile death squads responsible for the systematic murder of millions in Eastern Europe—whenever it was tactically feasible [211]. Moreover, Wehrmacht troops themselves directly participated in the Holocaust, engaging in the mass shooting of civilians and committing acts of genocide under the guise of anti-partisan operations [212]. The official party line, a grotesque fabrication, was that Jews were the primary instigators of the partisan struggle and therefore had to be "eliminated" [213]. On July 8, 1941, Reinhard Heydrich issued a chilling directive: all Jews in the eastern conquered territories were to be considered partisans, and all male Jews between the ages of 15 and 45 were to be summarily shot [214]. By August, this genocidal order was broadened to include the entire Jewish population, regardless of age or gender [215].
Despite concerted efforts to prepare the country for war, the German economy, built on a foundation of debt and plunder, could not realistically sustain a lengthy war of attrition. Consequently, a military strategy known as Blitzkrieg ("lightning war") was developed. This doctrine emphasized swift, coordinated assaults designed to bypass enemy strong points and achieve rapid victory. Attacks typically commenced with an overwhelming artillery bombardment, followed by intensive bombing and strafing runs from the Luftwaffe. Next, the formidable tank divisions of the Panzerwaffe would spearhead the advance, with infantry moving in behind to secure the captured territory [216].
These Blitzkrieg tactics yielded spectacular victories through mid-1940, but the failure to decisively defeat Britain marked the first major turning point in the war. The fateful decision to invade the Soviet Union and the subsequent, devastating defeat at Stalingrad irrevocably shattered German military might, leading to the relentless retreat of its armies and the eventual, inevitable loss of the war [217]. The sheer scale of military service was immense: approximately 18.2 million soldiers served in the Wehrmacht between 1935 and 1945, of whom a tragic 5.3 million ultimately perished [152].
SA and SS
The Sturmabteilung (SA; Storm Detachment), or Brownshirts, founded in 1921, constituted the very first paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party [218]. Their initial, rather simple, assignment was to provide protection for Nazi leaders at rallies and assemblies. However, their role rapidly expanded, and they became notorious for their active participation in violent street battles against the forces of rival political parties, as well as for their brutal actions against Jews and other perceived enemies of the regime [219]. Under the leadership of Ernst Röhm, the SA swelled to an alarming size, boasting over half a million members by 1934, with an additional 4.5 million in reserves. This was at a time when the regular German army was still severely restricted to just 100,000 men by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles [220].
Röhm, emboldened by the SA's massive numbers, harbored ambitions of absorbing the regular army into the ranks of the SA and assuming command of this combined force [221]. This posed a direct threat to the traditional military establishment and to Adolf Hitler's supreme authority. Both President Paul von Hindenburg and Defence Minister Werner von Blomberg issued stern warnings, threatening to impose martial law if the SA's disruptive and increasingly independent activities were not curtailed [222]. Consequently, less than a year and a half after seizing power, Hitler orchestrated the brutal purge of the SA leadership, including Röhm himself. After this bloody event in 1934, the SA was effectively neutered, no longer a major force in Nazi Germany [39].
From its humble beginnings as a small bodyguard unit operating under the shadow of the SA, the Schutzstaffel (SS; Protection Squadron) rapidly ascended to become one of the largest, most powerful, and utterly terrifying organizations in Nazi Germany [223]. Led by the insidious Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler from 1929, the SS had grown to over a quarter of a million members by 1938 [224]. Himmler initially envisioned the SS as an elite cadre of loyal guards, Hitler's ultimate and unyielding last line of defense [225]. Over time, the Waffen-SS, the military branch of the SS, evolved into a second army, distinct from the Wehrmacht. While it relied on the regular army for heavy weaponry and equipment, most of its units were under the tactical control of the High Command of the Armed Forces (OKW) [226] [227]. However, by the end of 1942, the stringent selection and racial purity requirements that had initially defined the SS were increasingly abandoned in the face of wartime exigencies. With recruitment and conscription driven solely by the demand for expansion, by 1943, the Waffen-SS could no longer credibly claim to be an elite fighting force [228].
SS formations, particularly the Waffen-SS, were responsible for countless war crimes against both civilians and Allied servicemen [229]. From 1935 onward, the SS spearheaded the systematic persecution of Jews, orchestrating their roundups, forced confinement in ghettos, and subsequent imprisonment in concentration camps [230]. With the outbreak of World War II, the SS Einsatzgruppen units, mobile death squads, followed closely behind the advancing army into Poland and the Soviet Union. Between 1941 and 1945, these units murdered more than two million people, including a staggering 1.3 million Jews, primarily through mass shootings [231]. A third of the Einsatzgruppen members were recruited directly from Waffen-SS personnel, blurring the lines between military action and genocidal atrocity [232] [233]. The SS-Totenkopfverbände (death's head units) were specifically tasked with running the concentration camps and extermination camps, where millions more were systematically murdered [234] [235]. Up to 60,000 Waffen-SS men served in these horrific camps, directly facilitating the regime's genocidal machinery [236].
In 1931, Himmler established an SS intelligence service, which would become known as the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; Security Service) under his ruthless deputy, Reinhard Heydrich [237]. This organization was tasked with the chilling mission of locating and arresting communists and all other political opponents of the regime [238] [239]. Himmler, ever the empire-builder, also initiated the creation of a parallel economic empire under the umbrella of the SS Economy and Administration Head Office. This vast holding company controlled housing corporations, factories, and publishing houses, further solidifying the SS's power and financial independence [240] [241].
Economy
Reich economics
The most immediate and pressing economic crisis confronting the Nazis upon their seizure of power was the staggering 30 percent national unemployment rate [242]. To tackle this, the astute economist Hjalmar Schacht, then President of the Reichsbank and Minister of Economics, devised an ingenious, if ultimately unsustainable, scheme for deficit financing in May 1933. Capital projects, primarily infrastructure and rearmament, were funded through the issuance of promissory notes known as Mefo bills. When these notes were presented for payment, the Reichsbank simply printed more money, effectively deferring the true cost. Hitler and his economic team, with a chillingly opportunistic foresight, fully expected that the impending territorial expansion and conquest would provide the necessary resources to repay the rapidly soaring national debt [243]. Schacht's administration, for a time, achieved a remarkable and rapid decline in the unemployment rate, arguably the most significant of any country during the Great Depression [242]. However, this economic recovery was inherently uneven, characterized by reduced working hours and an erratic availability of basic necessities, which, as early as 1934, began to sow seeds of disenchantment with the regime [244].
The rearmament drive was immediate and aggressive. In October 1933, the Junkers Aircraft Works was expropriated, brought under state control. Working in concert with other aircraft manufacturers and under the direct command of Aviation Minister Hermann Göring, aircraft production was rapidly ramped up. From a mere 3,200 employees producing 100 units per year in 1932, the industry exploded to employ a quarter of a million workers, manufacturing over 10,000 technically advanced aircraft annually less than a decade later [245].
An elaborate and suffocating bureaucracy was meticulously constructed to regulate imports of raw materials and finished goods. The explicit intention was to eliminate foreign competition from the German marketplace and, crucially, to improve the nation's precarious balance of payments. The Nazis aggressively encouraged the development of synthetic replacements for critical materials such as oil and textiles, striving for autarky [246]. For instance, recognizing that the market was glutted with cheap petroleum, in 1933 the Nazi government struck a profit-sharing agreement with IG Farben, guaranteeing them a 5 percent return on capital invested in their synthetic oil plant at Leuna. Any profits exceeding this amount would be funneled directly to the Reich. By 1936, Farben, realizing they had made a Faustian bargain, regretted the deal, as excess profits were indeed being generated and seized [247]. In another desperate attempt to secure an adequate wartime supply of petroleum, Germany resorted to intimidation, forcing Romania to sign a disadvantageous trade agreement in March 1939 [248].
Major public works projects, lavishly financed through deficit spending, included the construction of an impressive network of Autobahnen (motorways) and the provision of funding for housing and agricultural improvement programs initiated by the previous government [249]. To further stimulate the construction industry, credit was extended to private businesses, and subsidies were made available for home purchases and repairs [250]. In a move clearly aimed at boosting the birth rate of "racially suitable" Germans, young couples of Aryan descent intending to marry could access a loan of up to 1,000 Reichsmarks, on the condition that the wife would withdraw from the workforce. The amount to be repaid was then reduced by 25 percent for each child born [251]. This caveat, however, that women remain unemployed outside the home, proved unsustainable and was quietly dropped by 1937 due to a burgeoning shortage of skilled laborers [252].
Envisioning widespread car ownership as a cornerstone of the new Germany, Hitler personally commissioned designer Ferdinand Porsche to develop plans for the KdF-wagen (Strength Through Joy car), an automobile intended to be affordable for every German family. A prototype was proudly displayed at the International Motor Show in Berlin on February 17, 1939. With the outbreak of World War II, however, the factory was swiftly converted to wartime production of military vehicles. None of these "people's cars" were actually sold to the public until after the war, when the vehicle was famously renamed the Volkswagen [253].
When the Nazis seized power in 1933, six million Germans were unemployed. By 1937, that number had plummeted to fewer than a million [254]. This dramatic reduction was partly achieved by the systematic removal of women from the official workforce, skewing the statistics [255]. However, real wages for workers actually dropped by 25 percent between 1933 and 1938 [242]. Following the brutal dissolution of independent trade unions in May 1933, their funds were seized, and their leaders arrested [256], including those who had naively attempted to cooperate with the new regime [31]. A new, state-controlled organization, the German Labour Front, was established under the Nazi Party functionary Robert Ley [256]. Many unemployed individuals were forcibly conscripted into this organization, given uniforms and tools, and put to work on state projects. The visible effect was the disappearance of unemployed people from the streets, contributing to the public perception that the Nazis were genuinely improving economic conditions [257]. The average work week, already 43 hours in 1933, increased to 47 hours by 1939, a testament to the regime's drive for productivity [258].
By early 1934, the regime's economic focus had irrevocably shifted towards aggressive rearmament. By 1935, military expenditures accounted for a staggering 73 percent of the government's total purchases of goods and services [259]. On October 18, 1936, Hitler appointed Hermann Göring as Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan, an ambitious initiative designed to rapidly accelerate rearmament and prepare the nation for total war [260]. In addition to demanding the swift construction of steel mills, synthetic rubber plants, and other crucial factories, Göring instituted strict wage and price controls and severely restricted the issuance of stock dividends [242]. Massive expenditures continued to be poured into rearmament, despite mounting deficits [261]. Plans unveiled in late 1938 for colossal increases to the navy and air force proved utterly impossible to fulfill. Germany simply lacked the financial resources and raw materials to construct the planned units, let alone the necessary fuel to keep them operational [262]. With the reintroduction of compulsory military service in 1935, the Reichswehr, which had been capped at 100,000 men by the Versailles Treaty, expanded to 750,000 active service members by the start of World War II, with an additional million in reserve [263]. By January 1939, unemployment was down to a seemingly miraculous 301,800, dropping further to just 77,500 by September, a stark, yet misleading, indicator of the war economy's full mobilization [264].
Wartime economy and forced labour
The Nazi war economy, far from a pure ideological construct, was a disturbing mixed economy that blended elements of a free market with ruthless central planning. The historian Richard Overy aptly described it as occupying a chilling middle ground between the rigid command economy of the Soviet Union and the ostensibly capitalist system of the United States [265]. A hybrid of exploitation, if you will.
In 1942, following the death of Armaments Minister Fritz Todt, Adolf Hitler appointed Albert Speer as his replacement [266]. Speer, a brilliant organizational mind devoid of moral compass, dramatically improved war production by centralizing planning and control, ruthlessly cutting back on the production of consumer goods, and, most heinously, systematically using forced labour and slavery on an unprecedented scale [269] [270]. Wartime rationing of consumer goods inadvertently led to an increase in personal savings, funds which were then cynically lent to the government to finance the insatiable war effort [267]. By 1944, the war had become an economic black hole, consuming a staggering 75 percent of Germany's gross domestic product, a higher proportion than the Soviet Union (60 percent) or Britain (55 percent) [268].
The wartime economy, in its final, desperate stages, became utterly dependent on the large-scale employment of slave labour. Germany systematically imported and enslaved an estimated 12 million people from 20 different European countries, forcing them to toil in factories and on farms [271]. Approximately 75 percent of these unfortunate souls were Eastern European, reflecting the regime's racial hierarchies and genocidal ambitions. Many of these slave laborers became tragic casualties of Allied bombing raids, as they received woefully inadequate air raid protection. Appalling living conditions in the camps and workplaces led to horrific rates of sickness, injury, and death, as well as desperate acts of sabotage and criminal activity [272]. The wartime economy was also fundamentally built upon large-scale robbery, initially through the state's systematic seizure of the property of Jewish citizens, and later by ruthlessly plundering the resources of all occupied territories [273].
Foreign workers brought into Germany were classified into four distinct categories, each subjected to different regulations and levels of brutal treatment: guest workers, military internees, civilian workers, and the most dehumanized, Eastern workers. The Nazis, obsessed with racial purity, issued a strict ban on sexual relations between Germans and foreign workers [274] [275].
By 1944, over half a million women were serving as auxiliaries in the German armed forces, though their roles were largely supportive and non-combatant [276]. Despite the immense demands of the war, the overall number of women in paid employment increased by a mere 271,000 (1.8 percent) from 1939 to 1944 [277]. As the production of consumer goods was drastically curtailed, women shifted from those industries to take up employment in the war economy. They also filled jobs traditionally held by men, particularly on farms and in family-owned shops, demonstrating a pragmatic adaptation to necessity [278].
The relentless and very heavy strategic bombing campaigns by the Allies mercilessly targeted refineries producing synthetic oil and gasoline, as well as Germany's vital transportation system, particularly rail yards and canals [279]. This sustained assault began to critically cripple the armaments industry by September 1944. By November, vital fuel coal was no longer reliably reaching its destinations, rendering the production of new armaments virtually impossible [280]. Historian Overy argues that this bombing campaign placed immense strain on the German war economy, forcing it to divert up to one-fourth of its manpower and industrial capacity into anti-aircraft defenses, a diversion that very likely shortened the war [281]. A truly inefficient way to run an empire, as it turns out.
Racial policy and eugenics
Racism and antisemitism
At the very bedrock of the Nazi Party and the entire Nazi regime lay an insidious and pervasive ideology of racism and antisemitism. These were not peripheral tenets, but fundamental, defining features. The racial policy of Nazi Germany was built upon a pseudoscientific, utterly baseless belief in the existence of a superior "master race." The Nazis, in their twisted worldview, postulated an inherent, existential racial conflict between this supposed Aryan master race and all "inferior" races. Their particular venom was reserved for Jews, whom they demonized as a "mixed race" that had insidious infiltrated society, and whom they falsely blamed for the exploitation and repression of the Aryan race [282]. This was the twisted logic that justified unimaginable atrocities.
Persecution of Jews
Discrimination against Jews, far from being a gradual process, began almost immediately following the Nazi seizure of power. After a month-long series of violent attacks by members of the SA on Jewish businesses and synagogues, Adolf Hitler officially declared a national boycott of Jewish businesses on April 1, 1933 [283]. Just six days later, on April 7, the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service was passed, brutally forcing all "non-Aryan" civil servants, including those in the legal profession, into retirement [284]. Similar legislation swiftly followed, systematically depriving other Jewish professionals of their right to practice their professions. On April 11, a chilling decree was promulgated, explicitly stating that anyone with even one Jewish parent or grandparent was to be considered "non-Aryan," expanding the net of persecution [285]. As part of the fanatical drive to