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Documents - The Destruction of the Weimar Republic
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1.   Joseph Goebbels, Why We Are Enemies of the Jews (July 30, 1928)
The Nazis did little to add to the litany of terms already in use by the conservative and radical Right to describe its version of Germanness and its enemies. Volkstum (suggesting the unity....
2.   Hitler Warns of a Bolshevist Germany in an Interview with The Times (October 15, 1930)
The Russian Revolution had loomed large in the minds of many Germans following the First World War. It provided a beacon of hope to the Spartacists....
3.   Wilhelm Groener on Banning the SA (1932)
The 1932 presidential election made for strange political bedfellows – for instance, it saw the parties of the moderate left (SPD, Catholic Center) show their support for conservative incumbent Paul....
4.   Rudolf Hess Warns against Alienating the Middle Classes (1932)
Hitler’s failure to form a Nazi government following the Reichstag elections of July 1932 had dealt the movement a significant blow. Seeking to capitalize on the lowered morale of the Nazi Party,....
5.   Reelection of Paul von Hindenburg (August 13, 1932)
Paul von Hindenburg’s first term as president came to an end in the middle of severe political and financial crisis. Now 84 years old, the old field marshal’s health was worsening and he relied....
6.   Otto Meissner's Minutes of the Second Meeting between Hitler and Hindenburg (August 13, 1932)
The July 1932 Reichstag elections witnessed a significant Nazi victory. The Nazis received 37% of the votes: the most of any party, but still shy of an absolute majority. Rather than use these newly....
7.   Hitler Rejects Hindenburg's Offer of a Conference (November 24, 1932)
By the fall of 1932, Hindenburg was seeking ways to bring the Nazis into a coalition government and temper their radicalism. On various occasions, Hindenburg invited Hitler to come and speak with....
8.   Banker Kurt Baron von Schröder’s Report on a Meeting between Hitler and Franz von Papen at Schroeder’s House in Cologne on January 4, 1933 (Retrospective Account from the Postwar Period)
Franz von Papen had Reichswehr Minister Kurt von Schleicher to thank for his chancellorship. At first, Schleicher used his position as a gray eminence to operate in a background role. But when Papen....
9.   Otto Meissner, State Secretary in the Office of the Reich President, on the Developments Leading to Hitler’s Appointment (Retrospective Account, November 28, 1945)
Over the course of January 1933, Reich Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher became – politically speaking – increasingly boxed in. Schleicher had previously pursued a Querfront strategy, attempting....
10.   Hamburg Schoolteacher Louise Solmitz on Hitler’s Seizure of Power (January-February 1933)
Hamburg schoolteacher Louise Solmitz’s enthusiastic response to the news that a cabinet of “national” concentration had been formed with Hitler as chancellor was characteristic of the attitude of....
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