The Third Reich

David G. Williamson has written extensively on modern German and European history. Among his recent publications are Poland Betrayed: The Nazi Soviet Invasions of 1939 (Pen and Sword, 2009) and, also in the Seminar Studies series, Bismarck and Germany, 3rd edition (2010). Formerly head of history at Highgate School, he is now a writer and freelance lecturer.

CONTENTS

Introduction to the Series

Acknowledgements

Chronology

Who’s Who

Glossary

Maps



PART ONE: INTRODUCTION



1. THE HISTORICAL DEBATE

Can the Third Reich be `Historicised’?



PART TWO: ANALYSIS



2. THE ORIGINS AND RISE OF NATIONAL SOCIALISM

The Ideological Roots

The Bismarckian Reich: An Incubator of National Socialism?

The German Revolution, 1918–19: A Turning Point that did not Turn?

Adolf Hitler and the Formation of the NSDAP, 1919–24

The Renaissance of the Nazi Party, 1925–30

Nazi Voters, 1930–32

The Road to Power, September 1930–January 1933



3. THE LEGAL REVOLUTION AND THE CONSOLIDATION OF POWER, 1933–34

The Dissolution of the Reichstag and the Election of 5 March 1933

The `Revolution from Below’ and the Enabling Act

The Process of Gleichschaltung

The Churches

The Defeat of the Second Revolution



4. STATE, PARTY AND FÜHRER: THE GOVERNMENT OF NAZI GERMANY, 1933–39

Ministries and `Supreme Reich Authorities’, 1933–38

Himmler and the SS State

The Centralisation of the Reich

The Civil Service

The Party

The Role of Hitler



5. THE ECONOMY, 1933–39

Work Creation and Economic Recovery, 1933–35

Agriculture

The Mittelstand

Schacht and the Financing of German Rearmament

The Four Year Plan

Industrialists and the Four Year Plan: winners and losers

Rearmament and the German Economy, 1936–39



6. THE PEOPLE’S COMMUNITY: GERMAN SOCIETY AND THE THIRD REICH, 1933–39

The Work of the Reich Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda

Education and Youth

The Peasantry

Women and the Family

p; Nazi Health and Eugenic Policies

The `Asocials’ and Homosexuals

Gypsies, Part-Africans and the Slav Minorities

The Jews

The Germans and the Jews



8. FOREIGN POLICY, 1933–39

Hitler’s Priorities, 1933–37

The Anschluss

The Destruction of Czechoslovakia

The Polish Crisis and the Outbreak of War



9. GERMANY, EUROPE AND THE WORLD, 1939–45

The British Problem, 1940–41

The Decision to Attack Soviet Russia

From European to World War, 1941–45

Europe under German Occupation, 1939–44

`Ethnic Cleansing’ and Settlement Policies in Eastern Europe

The Holocaust



10. THE HOME FRONT, 1939–45

Disintegration of the Führer State

The Increasing Power of the Political Party and the SS

The War Economy

Food Supplies and Rationing

Solving the Labour Crisis in the War Industries

The Impact of War on the German People, 1942–45

The End of the Hitler Regime

Postscript to the Third Reich: The Doenitz Government



11. THE GERMAN OPPOSITION

Resistance and Resistenz

Opposition from the Churches

Opposition on the Left

The Challenge of Youth Culture

Resistance by the Military and Conservative Elites

The Road to 20 July 1944

Why was there no German Revolution in 1945?



PART THREE: ASSESSMENT



12. THE THIRD REICH IN RETROSPECT

Hitler’s Rise to Power

The Nazi regime

How 'modern'as the Third Reich

The Legacy of Nazi Germany

PART FOUR: DOCUMENTS nbsp; Guide to Further Reading

References

Index