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Hitler appointed German chancellor, gets dictatorial
powers. Reichstag fire in Berlin; Nazi terror begins. Germany and Japan withdraw from League of Nations. Giuseppe Zangara
executed for attempted assassination of president-elect Roosevelt in which Chicago mayor Cermak is fatally shot. Roosevelt
inaugurated (the only thing we have to fear is fear itself); launches New Deal. Prohibition repealed. USSR recognized by U.S.
The term Nazism or National Socialism (German:
Nationalsozialismus) refers primarily to the ideology and practices of the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler; and the policies
adopted by the government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, a period also known as the Third Reich. The official name of
the Nazi party was the National Socialist German Workers' Party, (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterparteior
NSDAP). Nazism was the main form of National Socialism that emerged after World War I, and is generally considered by scholars
to be a form of fascism.
Nazism
was not a monolithic movement, but rather a (mainly German) combination of various ideologies and groups, sparked by anger
at the Treaty of Versailles and what was considered to have been a Jewish/Communist conspiracy (known in the vernacular as
the Dolchstoßlegende or "Stab-in-the-Back Legend") to humiliate Germany at the end of the First World War
October 29, 1929, was a dark day in history. "Black
Tuesday" is the day that the stock market crashed, officially setting off the Great Depression. Unemployment skyrocketed--a
quarter of the workforce was without jobs by 1933 and many people became homeless. President Herbert Hoover attempted to handle
the crisis but he was unable to improve the situation. In 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president and he promised
a "New Deal" for the American people. Congress created The Works Progress Administration (WPA) which offered work
relief for thousands of people.
The end to the Great Depression came about in 1941 with America's entry into
World War II. America sided with Britain, France and the Soviet Union against Germany, Italy, and Japan. The loss of lives
in this war was staggering. The European part of the war ended with Germany's surrender in May 1945. Japan surrendered
in September 1945, after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Nazi ideology drew on the racist doctrines
of the comte de Gobineau and Houston Stewart Chamberlain, on the nationalism of Heinrich von Treitschke, and on the hero-cult
of Friedrich Nietzsche, often transforming the ideas of these thinkers. Nazi dogma, partly articulated by Hitler in Mein Kampf,
was elaborated by the fanatical Alfred Rosenberg. Vague and mystical, it was not a system of well-defined principles but rather
a glorification of prejudice and myth with elements of nihilism. Its mainstays were the doctrines of racial inequality and
of adherence to the leader, or Führer; its constant theme was nationalist expansion.
Prohibition in the United States refers to attempts
to legally ban alcohol sales and consumption. The term often refers specifically to the period from 1920 to 1933, during which
alcohol sale, manufacture and transportation were banned throughout the United States as mandated in the Eighteenth Amendment
to the United States Constitution. Prohibition can also encompass the antecedent religious and political temperance movements
calling for sumptuary laws to end or encumber alcohol use
The Enigma machine is any of a family of related
electro-mechanical rotor machines that have been used to generate ciphers for the encryption and decryption of secret messages.
The Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I It was used commercially from the early
1920s and was adopted by military and governmental services of a number of countries — most notably by Nazi Germany
before and during World War II A variety of Enigma models were produced, but the German military model, the Wehrmacht
Enigma, is the version most commonly discussed.
The machine has gained notoriety because Allied cryptologists were
able to decrypt a vast number of messages that had been enciphered on the machine. The intelligence, consequently codenamed
ULTRA, was a substantial aid to the Allied war effort. The exact influence of ULTRA is debated, but an oft-repeated assessment
is that decryption of German ciphers hastened the end of the European war by two years
Wallis Simpson was the American divorcee for whom
King Edward VIII gave up the throne of Great Britain. She met the future king (then Prince of Wales) early in the 1930s and
a few years later they became lovers, though she remained married to her second husband, businessman Ernest Simpson. Matters
came to a head when Edward became king in 1936. Simpson filed for divorce from her husband, but the royal family and the British
government would not allow Edward to marry her. In December Edward stepped down as king, saying in a radio broadcast "I
have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to
do without the help and support of the woman I love." They were married in France on 3 June 1937, becoming the Duke and
Duchess of Windsor, and spent the rest of their lives in exile from England, living mainly in France and the United States.
In 2003 the British government released documents showing that while she was involved with Edward in the years before he became
king,
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Nazis lead in German elections with 230 Reichstag
seats. Famine in USSR. In U.S., Congress sets up Reconstruction Finance Corporation to stimulate economy. Veterans march on
Washington most leave after Senate rejects payment of cash bonuses; others removed by troops under Douglas MacArthur. U.S.
protests Japanese aggression in Manchuria. Amelia Earhart is first woman to fly Atlantic solo. Charles A. Lindbergh's
baby son kidnapped, killed. (Bruno Richard Hauptmann arrested in 1934, convicted in 1935, executed in 1936.)
The 1930s were described as an abrupt shift to more
radical and conservative lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression, also known as
the World Depression.
The decade started off economically unsteady, with the stock market dropping late in 1929. However,
late in 1930, stocks and the economy dropped more, and this time it didn't become better. Many people blammed then President
Herbert Hoover for the things that were happing in the economy, along with the GReat Depression. People began to feel the
effects of the plunging stock market in 1931, and the situation grew progressively worse until reaching the low point in 1933.
The gloomy conditions that arose led to a rise of political extremes btween ultra-conservatism and radical political particies.
After 1933, the economy began a gradual recovery which wouldn't reach the level of prosperity of 1930 until World War
II. In both Central Europe and Eastern Europe, Fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism dominated as the solution to these problems:
the first two adopted war-oriented economic policies while the latter adopted sweepinf industrialisation programmes such as
Stalin's Five Year Plans, all of them described as totalitarian regimes. In East Asia, the rise of militarism occurred.
In Western Europe, Australia and the United States, more progressive reforms occurred as opposed to the extreme measures
sought elsewhere. Roosevelt's New Deal attempted to use government spending to combat large-scale unemployment and severely
negative growth. Ultimately, it would be the beginning of World War II in 1939 that would end the depression. According to Nazi dogma, races could be scientifically
classified as superior and inferior. The highest racial type was the Nordic, or Germanic, type of the Aryan race, while blacks
and Jews were at the bottom of the racial ladder. Intermarriage contributed to the deterioration of the superior race, and
the Jews, knowing this, had furthered prostitution and seduction to defile the Germans. Consequently only small islands of
the pure remained, but it was their destiny to govern their inferiors and, through scientific breeding, to extend the master
race and limit inferior races.
All Quiet on the Western Front is an Academy
Award-winning film based on the Erich Maria Remarque novel All Quiet on the Western Front. It was directed by Lewis Milestone,
and stars Louis Wolheim, Lew Ayres, John Wray, Arnold Lucy and Ben Alexander.
Released
in 1930 (see 1930 in film), it is considered a realistic and harrowing account of war and World War I, and was named #54 on
the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies. However, it was removed from the top 100 list in the 2007 revision. Also, in 1990,
this film was selected and preserved by the United States Library of Congress' National Film Registry as being deemed
"culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
The end to the Great Depression came about in 1941
with America's entry into World War II. America sided with Britain, France and the Soviet Union against Germany, Italy,
and Japan. The loss of lives in this war was staggering. The European part of the war ended with Germany's surrender in
May 1945. Japan surrendered in September 1945, after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The Nazis produced a number of films to promote
their views. Themes included the virtues of the Nordic or Aryan type, German military and industrial strength, and the evils
of the Nazi enemies. On March 11, 1933 The Third Reich established a Ministry of Propaganda, appointing Joseph Goebbels as
Minister of Propaganda. On September 22, a Department of Film was incorporated into the Chamber of Culture. The department
controlled the licensing of every film prior to production. Sometimes the government would select the actors for a film, financing
the production partially or totally, and would grant tax breaks to the producers. Under Goebbels and Hitler, the German film industry
became entirely nationalised. The National Socialist Propaganda Directorate, which Goebbels oversaw, had at its disposal nearly
all film agencies in Germany by 1936. Occasionally certain directors, such as Wolfgang Liebeneiner, were able to bypass Goebbels
by providing him with a different version of the film than would be released. Such films include those directed by Helmut
Käutner: Romanze in Moll (Romance in a Minor Key, 1943), Große Freiheit Nr. 7 (The Great Freedom, No. 7, 1944),
and Unter den Brücken (Under the Bridges, 1945).
Triumph of the Will, by filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, chronicles
the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg. It features footage of uniformed party members (though relatively few German soldiers),
who are marching and drilling to classical melodies. The film contains excerpts from speeches given by various Nazi leaders
at the Congress, including portions of speeches by Adolf Hitler.
The Enigma machine was a cipher machine used to
encrypt and decrypt secret messages. More precisely, Enigma was a family of related electro-mechanical rotor machines, comprising
a variety of different models.
The Enigma was used commercially from the early 1920s on, and was also adopted
by the military and governmental services of a number of nations most famously by Nazi Germany before and during World War
II.
The German military model, the Wehrmacht Enigma, is the version most commonly discussed. The machine has
gained notoriety because Allied cryptologists were able to decrypt a large number of messages that had been enciphered on
the machine. Decryption was made possible in 1932 by Polish cryptographers Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Róycki and Henryk
Zygalski from Cipher Bureau. In mid-1939 reconstruction and decryption methods were delivered from Poland to Britain and France.
The intelligence gained through this source, codenamed ULTRA, was a significant aid to the Allied war effort.
Edward VIII, 1894 1972, king of Great Britain and
Ireland (1936), known in later years as the duke of Windsor; eldest son of George V. He attended the naval colleges at Osborne
and Dartmouth and Magdalen College, Oxford. In 1911 he was made prince of Wales. During World War I he served as a staff officer
in France, Italy, and Egypt. Between 1919 and 1936 he made state trips to the United States, Japan, South America, and the
dominions. On the death of his father (Jan., 1936), Edward succeeded to the throne. He enjoyed immense popularity with his
subjects until the crisis precipitated by the announcement of his intention to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson
Coal-mining
reached a peak in Durham in 1923 when 170,000 miners were employed, but many industries in the North-East experienced hard
times in the 1920s and 1930s. Demand for industrial products was fading and the Great War had provided only a temporary boost.
In 1926 places like Middlesbrough had unemployment rates of 45 per cent. A worse situation could be found at Jarrow in 1936
when there was 80 per cent unemployment. The men of that town set out on their famous 274 mile hunger march to London. The
older industries still had a part to play - one of their great achievements was the building on the Sydney Harbour Bridge
in Australia - and new industries like plastic at Billingham were beginning to emerge.
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