Word: germanism
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...start was less than auspicious. He joined a tiny Bavarian outfit that called itself the German Workers Party. He began making speeches, denouncing Bolsheviks, capitalists, the Jews, the French. Germany had lost the war only because it had been betrayed at home by a "stab in the back." By 1923, as the new Weimar Republic was sinking into deep economic troubles, Hitler staged an absurd "beer-hall putsch" and led a march through Munich. He was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison (he served nine months). "You may pronounce us guilty a thousand times over," he declared...
Larger forces were aggravating the conflicts that Hitler would eventually exploit. In 1923 the Germans stalled on their reparations payments and the French seized the industrial Ruhr to compel payment. The German mark, declining ever since the war, began plunging: 7,000 to the dollar in January, 160,000 in July, 1 million in August. A kind of madness swept the country. People carried suitcases of money to a store to buy a sausage. And the mark kept falling, to an all-time low of 4.2 trillion that November. Everything was for sale, all savings were destroyed, and nothing seemed...
Recovery did come eventually, with lots of American and British loans, but the Wall Street Crash of 1929 started a worldwide depression to which the shaky German economy was especially vulnerable. Unemployment soared. The feeble Social Democratic coalition government collapsed. And Adolf Hitler, whose Nazi Party held an insignificant twelve seats in the Reichstag, suddenly became a voice that attracted attention. He was one of the first 20th century figures to master radio as an important political medium. His message: Down with the system. Vote for a leader who will bring us back to greatness...
...secret, Hitler had already told his generals that he wanted to triple the German army from the Versailles ceiling of 100,000 men to 300,000 by October 1934. The navy, which was not supposed to have any ships of more than 10,000 tons, got orders to start building two 26,000-ton battle cruisers. In the spring of 1935, Hitler announced that he was reintroducing universal military service to create an army of 500,000 men. The Allies protested but did nothing...
...asked Germany to send troops to restore order. On March 12 the Wehrmacht came streaming across the border -- not only unopposed but warmly welcomed by thousands of Austrians who genuinely wanted union with Germany. Next day, Seyss-Inquart issued a decree that announced, "Austria is a province of the German Reich." Hitler returned in triumph to the Vienna where he had once lived as a virtual derelict. Papen described him as being "in a state of ecstasy...