DBQ Sources: Rise of the Nazi Party
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT1200/ LESSON7.8ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: THE RISE OF THE NAZI PARTYUnless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Credit: “DBQ Sources:The Rise of the Nazi Party”, OER Project, https://www.oerproject.com/1PurposeUse a variety of primary and secondary sources to deepen your understanding ofthe rise of the Nazi Party.ProcessAnalyze the following sources. If you are using these sources to respond to an essay prompt, you should underlineor highlightany evidence that will support your claim. You can also use theQuick Sourcing Tool.Document 1Source:Map illustrated by J.F. Horrabin “Germany after the Peace Treaty of 1919” on page 572 of Wells, H.G. The Outline of History: Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind. London: Cassell and Company, Ltd., 1923ment 1.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1200/ LESSON 7.8ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: THE RISE OF THE NAZI PARTY2Document 2These excerpts are by the American zoologist and eugenicist, Madison Grant (1865–1937). In response to Grant’s book, The Passing of the Great Race, or, the Racial Basis of European History, Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) sent him a fond letter noting that this book was his “Bible.”The resurgence of inferior races and classes throughout not merely Europe but the world, is evident in every dispatch from Egypt, Ireland, Poland, Romania, India and Mexico. ... it is everywhere the phenomenon of the long-suppressed, conquered servile classes rising against the master race. ... if the valuable elements in the Nordic race mix with inferior strains or die out through race suicide, then the citadel of civilization will fall for mere lack of defenders. ...Those who read these pages will feel that there is little hope for humanity, but the remedy has been found, and can be quickly and mercifully applied. A rigid system of selection through the elimination of those who are weak or unfit—in other words, socialfailures—would solve the whole question in a century, as well as enable us to get rid of the undesirables who crowd our jails, hospitals and insane asylums.Source: Madison Grant, The Passing of the Great Race, or, the Racial Basis of European History, 4th ed. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1936), xxxi, 50–52. Note: The first edition of this book was published in 1916. https://archive.org/stream/passingofgreatra00granuoft/passingofgreatra00granuoft_djvu.txt.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1200/ LESSON 7.8ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: THE RISE OF THE NAZI PARTY3Document 3This telegram is a report on German election results in 1930. It was sent by the US Chargé in Germany (Gordon) to the US Secretary of State, Henry L. Stimson (sent from Berlin, September 15, 1930).Election results up to 5 o’clock this morning constituting substantially complete returns give following approximate results in round figures: 35,000,000 votes cast by eligible electorate of 43,000,000.Approximate popular votes:Social Democrats8,600,000National Socialists (Hitler, Fascist)6,400,000Center and Bavarian Peoples Party combined5,200,000Communists4,600,000Nationalists (Hugenberg)2,500,000Peoples Party1,600,000Economic Party1,400,000State Party (former Democratic Party)1,300,000... The first strong impression from the election is that the predominant factors were disgust and recklessness. The enormous gains made by the Hitler supporters and the Communists indicate this. The Hitler vote, which in 1928 was 800,000, reached 6,400,000 yesterday resulting in an increase in Reichstag [Parliament] seats from 12 to 107. This is ... an indication that a multitude [many] of voters are so disgusted at the failure of both the coalition of moderate parties and the Social Democrats to run the government machinery smoothly and to relieve the economic depression that they are ready to try anything else for a change, even giving their support to a party whose leaders and promises are irresponsible.Source: Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), 1930, Volume III, 862.00/2509: Telegram, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1930v03/d49.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1200/ LESSON 7.8ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: THE RISE OF THE NAZI PARTY4Document 41. We demand the unification of all Germans in the Greater Germany on the basis of the right of self-determination of peoples.2. We demand equality of rights for the German people in respect to the other nations; including breaking the peace treaties of Versailles and St. Germain.3. We demand land and territory (colonies) for the sustenance of our people, and colonization for our surplus population.4. Only a member of the race can be a citizen. A member of the race can only be one who is of German blood, without consideration of creed. Consequently no Jew can be a member of the race. ...8. Any further immigration of non-citizens is to be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans, who have immigrated to Germany since the 2August 1914, be forced immediately to leave the Reich. ...23. We demand legal opposition to known lies and their spread through the press. Publications which are counter to the general good are to be forbidden. We demand legal prosecution of artistic and literary forms which exert a destructive influence on our national life, and the closure of organizations opposing the above made demands.Source: Robert Ley, ed., “The Program of the NSDAP [Nazi Party].” Originally published by Central Publishing House of the NSDAP. “The 25 Points 1920: An Early Nazi Program,” reproduced in the Modern History Sourcebook, Fordham University, https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/25points.asp.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1200/ LESSON 7.8ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: THE RISE OF THE NAZI PARTY5Document 5This excerpt is from a speech by Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) given in Berlin at the Reichstag (Parliament) on March 23, 1933....the elimination of communism in Germany is a purely domestic German affair. Simultaneously with this political purification of our public life, the Government of the Reich will undertake a thorough moral purging of the ... nation. The entire educational system, the theater, the cinema, literature, the Press, and the wireless—all these will be used as means to this end ... They must all serve for the maintenance of the eternal values present in the essential character of our people.Source: The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, 1921–1941 (Open Source Collection at The Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/TheSpeechesOfAdolfHitler19211941), pages 40–41.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1200/ LESSON 7.8ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: THE RISE OF THE NAZI PARTY6Document 6There were many illustrations of the “stab-in-the-back” myth in German propaganda. This myth blamed military defeat in World War I on betrayal or a lack of support for the war effort. The persecution of Jewish people and other groups within the Nazi regimein the 1930s and 1940s revived the “stab-in-the-back” myth.Source: “Sueddeutsche Monatshefte”, Munich. © Archiv Gerstenberg/ullstein bild via Getty Images.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1200/ LESSON 7.8ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: THE RISE OF THE NAZI PARTY7Document 7This image is of firefighters at the Reichstag fire in Berlin, February 1933. The fire in the German parliament building broke out a month after Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Source: US National Archives and Records Administration, Item from Record Group 208: Records of the Office of War Information, 1926–1951, February 1933, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reichstagsbrand.jpg.