The Third Reich 1919-1939

The Nazis' Rise to Power

Andrew Rawson

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9780752455709
• eBook ISBN:
  9780750980586
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

The rise of Hitler's Nazi Party is one of the defining phenomena of the twentieth century. The manner in which National Socialist ideologies took over life in Germany is difficult to comprehend over 75 years later. This fully illustrated book is a single volume encyclopedia on all aspects of this period in modern history. It starts with a shattered post-war Germany and charts the violent political tactics used by the Nazis to seize political control in 1933. The subsequent consolidation of power and brutal suppression of opponents followed as they took over all areas of society, introducing a new festival calendar to celebrate their takeover. The various military, political and youth organisations are considered, the Nazis' warped methods for maintaining law and order and their use of the press and propaganda to control the people and introduce their racial ideals. Chapters also cover art, culture, education, the economy, resistance, the leaders themselves, and more.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

MILITARY HARDWARE

At the end of the First World War, the German armed forces were stripped of many of their heavy weapons. Tanks and military planes were banned and only a small number of old warships were allowed. The secret development of new weapons and secret training of crews progressed slowly under the Weimar Republic but they were accelerated under the Nazis. By the 1935 Nuremberg Rally, Germany was ready to show the world that it had a strong army and air force, while the navy was preparing to build new ships.

THE TANKS, PANZERS

The Treaty of Versailles had banned the design, manufacture and deployment of tanks but a secret study of First World War tactics concluded that the German army needed a range of tanks for different roles. The first tank prototype, called the ‘Large Tractor’, was tested in 1926 and it was armed with a 75mm gun. Two years later the ‘Light Tractor’ prototype appeared armed with a 37mm gun.

General Oswald Lutz and his chief of staff, Lieutenant-Colonel Heinz Guderian, developed the theory of mechanised warfare. Guderian was a First World War veteran who thought that radio communications were essential to control the fast moving armoured battles proposed by ‘lightning war’, Blitzkrieg.

Guderian wanted a mixture of tank designs supported by armoured halftracks carrying infantry and armoured cars carrying out reconnaissance. He initially wanted two designs. A slow moving tank, armed with a 37mm cannon and machine guns, would support the infantry. A fast tank, armed with a 75mm cannon and thick armour, would break through enemy lines. He later asked for a main combat tank combining the best features of the two designs. The breakthrough tank would be the Panzer IV while the main combat tank would be the Panzer III. He also asked for a heavy tank armed with a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• One: Post-War Chaos in Germany
• Two: The Rise to Power
• Three: Adolf Hitler – The Führer
• Four: The Party
• Five: The Seizure of Power
• Six: Securing Power
• Seven: The Nazi State
• Eight: The Nazi Calendar
• Nine: Law and Order
• Ten: The Economy and Labour
• Eleven: Religion and Science
• Twelve: The Press, Radio and Propaganda
• Thirteen: Culture
• Fourteen: The Family, Welfare and Health
• Fifteen: Education, Youth and Sport
• Sixteen: Reclaiming Germany’s Borders
• Seventeen: Creating a Greater Germany
• Eighteen: Germany’s Armed Forces
• Nineteen: Military Hardware
• Twenty: The Storm Divison, Sturm Abteilung, SA
• Twenty-One: The Protection Echelon, Schutzstaffel, SS
• Twenty-Two: Enemies of the State
• Twenty-Three: Resistance