Adolf Hitler's Terror

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler played a large role in the history of Germany and what he did in his time or rule. By the mid-1933 only one party existed in Germany, the party of Adolf Hitler (pg 249). Hitler wanted a totalitarian dictatorship, but one cannot firmly be established until it also controls the minds of the people. The first people who were forced into concentration camps were liberal, democratic, and socialist intellectuals and artists. Their books were publically burned, their paintings or music declared “un-German” and attacked as “degenerate” (pg 251-52). What Adolf Hitler was trying to do was get rid of anyone who could possibly pursued the people of Germany, or produce anything, that could speak out against him and make people not want to follow what he was trying to create. However, resistance increased within the Roman Catholic Church as news spread of the Nazis’ euthanasia plans, reaching its heights with issuance of the papal encyclical Mit brennender Sorge (With deep anxiety) in 1937 (pg 253).

In Adolf Hitler’s mind, there was an inferior race, and that race was the Jews.  The National Socialists had no difficulty in identifying a group to occupy the position of outsider, given Europe’s thousand-year tradition in this respect: It was the Jews (pg 254). The remaining rights of Jews were greatly reduced with the proclamation of the Nuremberg Laws on September 15, 1935, which made proof of Aryan decent a prerequisite for exercising the rights of citizens or holding elective office; they deprived Jews of full citizenship, and prohibited marriage between Jews and non-Jews (pg 256).

 Hitler wanted to work on destroying all of the Jews that were in Europe. Some Countries were hit with a devastating blow because of Hitler. Poland for example had 90%, or 3,000,000 Jews, exterminated. Yugoslavia’s and Greece’s Jewish population was also diminished greatly by Hitler’s attacks, losing 81% of their Jewish population (map on pg 268). It is shocking to learn just what percentage of Jewish people was exterminated in all of these different countries in Europe. In total, ten different countries were affected by what Hitler was doing to all of the Jews.  The only country that was not affected at all was Bulgaria. There can also be the questions raised, if at some points, people who were not Jewish were mistaken for people who were and were taken to the concentration camps.

Map of Concentration Camps
 during Hitler's time

 Another shocking map to look at is the one that shows the main concentration camps, death camps and other camps, outposts, and forced labor camps that were being used at this time. Looking at the map, it is amazing to see that there were nine main camps out of the fourteen, that were running, were located all throughout Germany. All of the death camps were located in Poland, along with one main camp. Even though Hitler began this in Germany it makes sense that the death camps were located in Poland because that was the first place that he went and cleared out of the Jewish people. All of these different sorts of camps were located in Germany, Poland, Sudetenland, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, France, Netherlands, and Lithuania (map on 269-69). Hitler was effecting the population of these countries dramatically besides for a couple of them where there was only a one percent difference, but that was still taking people out of that country for being a certain race.

The star that all the Jewish people had to
wear to identify themselves

 It seems impossible to get rid of this many people but Adolf Hitler managed to do it. His war was not a battle for hegemony of the type Europe had known from time immemorial; it was a racial war. As soon as Poland was conquered, the Germans had begun rounding up millions of Jews and confining them to ghettos in the major Polish cities, just as they had earlier compelled Jews within their own country to wear identifying badges (pg 273). The Jewish people were being pointed out and led away from the countries that they had grown up in and called home. Because of their race they were being treated differently and badly.

Great vs. Small Germany

One of the compelling facts that I found interesting was when new Germany began decided on which regions it would include. It seems like a simple process to go through but this question had never had agreement upon. When it did come time to discuss this issue there ended up being a couple proposed solutions. It was interesting to see how “Great Germany” seemed to fail while “Small Germany” strived.

Different ways that Germany go split up

The first was Großdeutschland or “Great Germany”. If this option was to be chosen; “Great Germany” would consist of all German regions including Austria and be headed by a Hapsburg emperor, as described on page 125. The addition of Austria to Germany could be seen as a good or bad for Germany. By choosing “Great Germany”, it would expand German territory and make it larger. The downside to the addition of Austria would be that, if Germany ever went to war they would not have other country as their allies. However , there were other problems that Great Germany suffered through. In the rebellion of 1848 there was a goal to get Great Germany to be a national state based on popular sovereignty and human rights. This, however, failed. Two reasons that this failed was from the resistance from the major powers, and lack of unity within the revolutionary ranks. Out of the two options that could have been chosen, Great Germany seemed like the one option that was failing more than rising to the task. The other option, as described on page 126, was Kleindeutschland or “Small Germany”. This proposal would exclude Austrian areas from Germany and be ruled by a Hohenzollern emperor. I found deciding this problem interesting because I would have thought that it would be easily decided if Austrian territory would be included in new Germany or not based on the past experiences that Germany has had with Austria. If Germany had experiences a good relationship “Giant Germany” should have been the vote, but if the experiences were voted on as bad “Small Germany” should have gotten the vote. Out of the two Germany’s, Small Germany was the one that prospered fastest because their goal was already met because they were in an area with a good economic policy.

Prussian Territories-Blue
Austrian Territories-Yellow
Independent German Confederation Stats-Grey
Red bborder shows the limits of the
Confederation

However, there was a third option that southwest Germany was taking and that was democracy. After a while an assembly managed to adoption a constitution, one that much resembled the America, French, and Belgian models.

It was also very interesting to learn about how, by being divided into these two groups affected Great Germany and Small Germany’s trade. The Prussian-led Customs Union had a more forward-looking economic community, as described on page 130, and it was experiencing continual growth. It was also gaining attraction on neighboring states. I found this interesting because it was the opposite deal with the other half of Germany at the time. I would have thought that, because Germany had been split into two sections that they would still have the same trade and economic situation. So if one prospered, then the other would and vice a versa.

The last section of this that I found very interesting that in the end new Germany ended up getting a central government, but it ended up having no power. In 1848 there became a worry among Europeans of a unified German state in the heart of the continent because they thought it would disrupt the overall balance. This was because of the spread of German nationalism to the possession of the Danish crown.

Chapter 2: The Thirty Years' War

The aim of the Thirty Years' War
was to regain the Catholic unity
of Europe

The peace treaties of Münster and Osnabrück, was one of the most interesting facts I learned about while reading. This was very interesting to me because it talked about everything that they had to go through before they decided that the war needed to be ended and to create a treaty in order to get matters resolved. It seems having to take things to a full on war, the Thirty Years’ War, to notice that there has to be some resolution takes everything to new levels because I do not think that it should have had to gone that far.

This was not only one huge war that was happening, there were multiple wars that were going on during this thirty year span of time. There was also the fact that over the years more treaties were created to do different things such as to ensure the stability of the European nation-state system. I think that it was a good idea to get everything resolved like this for the Europeans since the war that they had been fighting in before mainly consisted on Europeans. The first thing that the treaties did however was to end the looting and pillaging that was going on.

This would help to make sure that nothing like that war happened again. It also helped that every European state was recognized by every other state. I think that this was a good plan because this way, if something bad starts to happen again, the other states can have a part in helping to stop it before it progresses into something larger. The other states could also provide help if there was no other choice but to go to war again.

The Holy Roman Empire where the
 Thirty Years' War took place
(outlined in red)

With these treaties this could reveal that Germany is up for change for the sake of the people who are living there since the treaties, not only stopped to war, created outcomes that would help to benefit the people. One of these benefits was the political order that was created. By creating a political order I think it would help to keep the peace more so than before without one. Also by not letting the center have all of the power could reveal that it was giving some more power to the people of Germany and not only to the people who were more in charge.

I think that the peace treaties of Münster and Osnabrück was important because it helped to create the right amount of power for Europe so that everything could be taken under control and become more orderly. It was also very important because it brought the Peace of Westphalia and also political order which would include everyone. By creating these treaties many problems were resolved for the European states.

Martin Luther: Reluctant Revolutionary

Throughout his life, Martin Luther played an important part as a cultural, political and religious revolutionary.  Because Martin Luther did not give up, I think, is one of the main reasons why his beliefs got so far and reached out to so many different people. 

A picture of
Martin Luther

 Martin Luther was a part of the cultural revolutionary because through his writings he was able to persuade all types of people that what the church was saying was wrong and that what he was writing about was true. The video even mentioned that once he managed to get people to believe what he was saying, it was hard for them to go back to what they had been thinking before about the church and the Pope. Martin Luther’s thoughts even went farther than only in Germany. Different places, such as, Geneva, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium were soon reading what he had to say about the church. Having his word spread to different location in Europe, I think, was a large step because now word was getting out even more about his thoughts and what needed to change.

The 95 Theses Martin Luther wrote
and posed on the church doors

 I believe Martin Luther was seen as a political revolutionary when he first wrote the 95 Theses and nailed it to the church, which made attacked toward the church and the Pope. I also see this as political because Luther knew how to write so that he could communicate with all of the different types of people who were reading his writings. He even went as far as to make illustrations for those who could not read so that they too could understand the points he was trying to get across. Later on Martin Luther also published his words into books and pamphlets by using the printing press to get his word out even more. He was doing anything he could to get his word out to try to get people to see the same way that he was seeing and to get them on his side.

Wartburg Castle where Luther
translated the bible to German

One of the huge reasons that Martin Luther was part of the religious revolution was because translated the Bible into German while he was captive in a castle. He did this so that everyone would be able to see what the Bible was saying and so they could understand it. I think that by doing this he was reaching out even more for everyone to see that what he was saying about the church was true when they actually had the chance to read the Bible to see what it was saying. Martin Luther also did not like the idea that the church was telling everyone one that they had to come there to be safe or that there had to be a middle man between the people and God. I think that this was a big deal to Luther because in the religion Lutheran there is not a priest that you have to go and confess to, it is only the people and God. I think that the Lutheran religion might be like this because one of Martin Luther’s goals was to set down a new system of faith.

I think that the main reason Martin Luther was important to the German speaking lands was because he was the person who translated the Bible into German for everyone to see what the church was really saying. He also found that there were only two original sacraments when there was said to be seven. Luther pointed out that the other five sacraments were placed there so that it would force everyone to come to church so that they could be accepted into Heaven. The church was forcing people to do things that they came to believe were a necessity when really they were not. With Luther pointing this out it brought

A map showing where Martin Luther
was from in Germany

Hello! (:

Hello, my name is Allison. I am Freshman at North Central Collge and I am really looking forward to going on the D-Term trip to Germany! I am majoring in Elementary Education with a minor in Reading. I have always been interested in German history so I think that this is a great opportunity for me to get to learn more and to see some of Germany's history first hand. I am excited to have the opportunity to go to another country that I have never been to before. I am also half German so I believe that this will be a great chance for me to learn more about my heritage. Not everyone gets the chance to go to another country so I find myself very fortunate to gain such a great experience to go to Europe.