| abstract | - Nazi Germany was determined to take over all of Europe, the world, and the whole universe!
- Nazi Germany is one of the chief members of the Axis during World War II and is the country in which the television series, Hogan's Heroes, takes place. During the series, it is controlled by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Colonel Hogan and his men work undercover inside Germany to retrieve information which they would then send to London via radio, help fellow prisoners and others to escape Germany and to sabotage the enemy's war effort.
- Nazi Germany, also known as the Third Reich, was a neoconservative nation which existed from 1933 to 1945. It was led by Adolf Hitler. The Nazi regime was responsible for the death of over twelve million people which included Jews, homosexuals, Roma, Jehovah's witnesses etc, see Holocaust. Hitler's policy of worldwide German domination led to World War II which saw the death of more than sixty million people. During the establishment of the Nazi Germany, far right political parties in various European nations supported the Nazi regime. Nazi Germany operated several tools of political repression like the Gestapo. Nazi Germany was a master of propaganda. They used this extensively to draw public opinion towards them. The evil regime collapsed at the end of the World War II. However, the Nazis were just a little bit liberal in one restricted area. The Nazi Germany intentionally did away with the system of aristocratic class privilege present in the Second Reich though this hardly compensated for the terrible harm they did in other areas. Hitler intentionally avoided contact with the former Crown Prince Wilhelm when Germany occupied the Netherlands in 1940, reportedly calling him an idiot for thinking that the Nazis had any intention of restoring the old German monarchy. Of course, this sense of revolutionary egalitarianism was channeled through the limitations of its racial criteria so well attributed to the Nazis. In any case, Nazi Germany was also reactionary in the sense that it intended to restore Germany to imperial dominance, and certainly in its reinstatement of slavery for "inferior races", to say nothing of their barbaric use of extermination camps. All that stuff aside, the Germans had one of the most incredible military organizations the world has ever seen! They had Panzers, Stukas, Type VIIC U-boats, Erwin Rommel, MP-40s, Bf109s, SS-Panzer Divisions, etc. It is really interesting stuff. But they lost anyway. Warning: Being interested in this stuff might make conservatives label you a Nazi to cover their own misgivings.
- Nazi Germany, as well as all of Europe, has been shaped to look as it did during Pre-WWII. This means Germany has not yet annexed Austria or any other nation. It's military ranks first place in Land and Air power, and is a single party democracy.
- This explanation is by no means meant to be totally inclusive of everything that defines Nazi Germany, but just to give an overview of what it is and the reasons it's important here on All The Tropes (mainly because of Godwin's Law). Nazi Germany is the name commonly used to refer to the German nation when it was ruled by Adolf Hitler in the years 1933-1945, also known as the Third Reich. (The First being the Holy Roman Empire, and the Second being Imperial Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm.) During this time, Germany's policies were dominated by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi (National Socialist German Workers' Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)) Party's racist ideology, directed particularly (but not exclusively) toward those of Jewish descent. Though this is by no means the only policy adopted by the Nazi Party, it was so prominent that it has become one of their defining characteristics. The belief in the superiority of what Hitler called the Aryan race would ultimately culminate in The Holocaust -- the deliberate, industrialized mass murder of millions of ethnic minorities, dissenters, political malcontents, and social "undesirables" as defined by the Nazi Party; a period of horror and monstrosity that would claim the lives of at least eleven million people, six million of which were Jews, and would give rise to the word "genocide." Nazi Germany also pursued aggressive territorial expansion. Hitler believed that Nazi Germany and the Aryan race should be the rightful rulers over not just all the German-speaking peoples, or even the Germanic states, but all of Europe. This pursuit of territory led to the annexation of the Austria and the Sudetenland, the invasion of Poland, and ultimately the start of World War II -- the single most destructive war in human history. However, this is subject to Alternate Character Interpretation, as some historians - most infamously A.J.P. Taylor - dispute this and assert that Hitler's foreign policy was opportunistic and the incompetence of his enemies was as responsible for German gains and the war as himself, while others even believe that Hitler had a Stufenplan (step-by-step plan) for total world domination that would have ended in a global showdown, with the United States on one side and the British Empire, Italy, Japan and Greater Germany on the other (although why all these warring states would ever unite together is puzzling). This latter view was most avidly proposed by the now heavily discredited historian Andreas Hilgruber. Since Hilgruber first proposed it in the 1960s, the Stufenplan belief has largely died down, although Taylor's assertions that the annexations of Austria and Czechoslovakia were as much to do with diplomatic blunders as Nazi foreign policy has yet to catch on. Because of Nazi Germany's involvement in World War II and the unambiguous "evil-ness" of their racial policies, they make convenient enemies in fiction and Video Games. Unfortunately, this has also resulted in people (at both ends of the political spectrum) using the term "Nazi" as an insult towards anyone with whom they may disagree. This practice is strongly discouraged in intelligent debate and is now considered a sign that the name-caller has no actual argument for their case. It's also important to note that just because the Nazis did something doesn't mean that thing is inherently evil purely on account of that association. For example, the Nazis built the first modern highway network (the Autobahn), and it's safe to say that highways are not evil. While there are literally thousands of books and other sources of information on Nazi Germany and the historical consequences, here are some brief points of interest: Nazi Germany was heavily into "racial purity", believing in the superiority of the Aryan race, despite that:
* "Aryan" was a synonym for Indo-Europeans, who originated from just over the Caspian Sea, though today the term is usually used in reference to the specific group (Indo-Aryans or Indo-Iranians) who inhabit parts of India and most of Iran (which means "home of the Aryans"). Let's just say that the whole "racial purification ideology" was not the most coherent mental construction ever imagined.
* Hitler, despite having blue eyes, wasn't "Aryan" in the slightest. The ideal body image for Germans was supposed to be tall and athletic with blue eyes and blond hair. Ironically, perhaps the three most enthusiastic proponents of "Aryan" racial superiority were Adolf Hitler (of medium height and with dark brown, almost black hair), Henrich Himmler (tiny, thinning black hair, pudgy, glasses) and Joseph Goebbels (also short, black-haired, and had a limp). The only well-known Nazi who actually lived up to the ideal (for very screwed-up values of 'ideal') was Reinhard Heydrich, who was super tall, had platinum blond hair, blue eyes, was a champion athlete and a renowned violinist. Heydrich, though, suffered the indignity of being killed by Czech (Slavs, thus subhuman) assassins. Some of the lesser-known facts on the place:
* It was the world's first country to run regular TV services.
* It was the first country to engage in a major anti-smoking campaign.
* It was the first country to develop ballistic missiles and use them on an enemy city.
* As mentioned before, it was the first country to develop an interstate highway system.
* Hitler, mass butcher of human beings that he was, was a non-smoker who loved animals and never went near any of the prison camps and death camps himself. He's often described as a vegetarian and teetotaler, but several people who knew him described him as eating and drinking at least some meat and sometimes alcohol. The Nazis, however, didn't give vegetarian organizations exemption from banning, though they did introduce very tough anti-cruelty to animals laws by the standards of the time, with the implications that Jews were naturally cruel to animals while "Aryans" loved them.
* While homosexuality and interracial relationships were strictly outlawed, the attitude towards straight sex between "Aryans" was quite relaxed in the Third Reich. Nude bathing was legalized in 1942. This may have been less about liberated morals and more about filling the vast swaths of eastern Europe the Nazis intended to capture and depopulate. The Nazis lauded "Aryan" fertility and their idea of the woman's place leaned heavily towards "barefoot and pregnant."
* Its trains ran on time, although history tends to overstate this. Hitler liked fostering competition among his underlings -- even at the expense of efficiency. Towards the end, the only trains running on time were those heading to Auschwitz...
* It banned Gothic (Blackletter) writing in 1941 when they were declared to be "Jewish letters," in spite of its pop-cultural association with Nazi propaganda (which was arguably true until that point in time).
* The display of Nazi Germany as "most effective/well-organized/hard-working society ever created" that abounds in older fiction has been convincingly disproved; Hitler created a confusing mass of bureaucracies all hampering each other and spying on each other, which also prevented any one of them from gaining enough power to be a danger to himself. They were, however, amazingly anal-retentive. It has been guessed this helped the International Criminal Court a lot during the Nuremberg Trials. It's probably why the term Grammar Nazi exists.
* The 1936 Olympics were the first to feature the Olympic torch relay carrying the Olympic flame from Olympia, Greece to the host city (in this case Berlin).
* Everyone knows Jesse Owens won the 1936 Olympic gold medals for the 100m sprint, the long jump, the 200m sprint, and the 4x100m relay, but the first blow to the idea of European eugenically-bred super-athletes was the 1912 Olympics. Oddly, Owens himself is quoted as saying "Hitler didn't snub me; it was FDR that snubbed me." Although when you factor in the fact that, at the time, America's racial policies and attitudes weren't a million miles off from those of Nazi Germany, and that Owens never received any kind of official acknowledgement of his achievements until Eisenhower's administration in the 1950s, this ire becomes a bit more understandable.
* There was very little to any rationing in the first half of the war. You know how Americans had victory gardens, were encouraged to recycle everything (scrap metal, kitchen grease, etc)? Yeah, Germany had none of that up until Stalingrad. To the average German, it wasn't obvious there was even a war on.
* It is often brought up that "socialist" was in the Nazi Party's full name. In truth, this gets complicated. Back then, socialism was seen as good and people flocked to any group that called themselves socialists (like the Social Democrats). The Nazi Party did originally have some strongly socialist policies but had abandoned them by the time the Party became a major political force. They had a more socialist faction that wanted to nationalize industry, but it was strongest in the SA under Ernst Rohm, who was purged in the Night of Long Knives. The Nazis were in fact partly a reaction against the failed socialist German Revolution, suppressing the socialists of the Social Democratic and Communist factions. They did, however, oppose laissez-faire capitalism, along with the Italian Fascists. Like Italian Fascism they advocated a so-called "third way" or "fusionist" economic system, in between state socialism and laissez-faire capitalism, so it's economy, though not directly owned by the state, was heavily planned and tightly regulated. (While the Nazis were fascist, they didn't want to use the term "fascist" because they felt it sounded too Italian. Essentially, Hitler wanted to establish his own German blend of fascism). Price and wage controls were placed on the economy, industries cartelized, the work force strictly controlled in the government Labor Front when unions were banned, with Four-Year Plans to rival the Five-Year Plans of the Soviet Union. So many regulatory hoops had to be gone through that it severely hampered production. Also, the Nazis in fact never ended unemployment-even with military service and people working in munitions factories, they still had it, but changed the way they counted the unemployed to make it appear better. This gave them a pragmatic reason, along with their imperialist aims, for invading other countries to make up for a lack of resources that had rendered their desire to make Germany self-reliant impossible. Thus it was a kind of "looter's" or "vampire" economy, as one book about it was titled. It all ended very, very badly. Way, way, way too big to be an Elephant in the Living Room. For a trope-centric discussion, see Those Wacky Nazis, Godwin's Law, Godwin's Law of Time Travel (two different tropes) and Stupid Jetpack Hitler. For a full index of tropes associated with Nazi Germany, see Reichstropen. If you want to read about more about the regime, the most acclaimed modern comprehensive survey of its era is The Third Reich Trilogy by Richard J. Evans which includes the books, The Coming of the Third Reich, The Third Reich in Power and The Third Reich at War, which are also available in audiobook at Audible.com.
- Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are common names for Germany during the period from 1933 to 1945, when its government was controlled by Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), commonly known as theNazi Party. Under Hitler's rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist totalitarian state which controlled nearly all aspects of life. Nazi Germany ceased to exist after the Allied Forces defeated Germany in May 1945, thus ending World War II in Europe. File:NaziGermanyCoatOfArms.png After Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933, the Nazi Party began to eliminate all political opposition and consolidate their power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany when the powers and offices of the Chancellery and Presidency were merged. A national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer (leader) of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitler's hands, and his word was above all laws. The government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but rather a collection of factions struggling to amass power and gain Hitler's favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending and a mixed economy. Extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahns (high speed highways). The return to economic stability boosted the regime's popularity. Racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. TheGermanic peoples—also referred to as the Nordic race—were considered to be the purest representation of Aryanism, and therefore the master race. Jews and others deemed undesirable were persecuted or murdered, and opposition to Hitler's rule was ruthlessly suppressed. Members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or forced into exile. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned. Education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed. Recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, and Hitler's hypnotising oratory to control public opinion. The government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and discouraging or banning others. Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands, threatening war if they were not met. Austria and Czechoslovakia were seized in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939, launching World War II in Europe. In alliance with Italy and other Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940 and threatened Great Britain.Reichskommissariats took brutal control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned and murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps. The implementation of the regime's racial policies culminated in the mass murder of Jews and other minorities in the Holocaust. Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide turned against the Third Reich, and major military defeats were suffered in 1943. Large-scale bombing of German cities, rail lines, and oil plants escalated in 1944. Germany was overrun in 1945 by the Soviets from the east and the other Allies from the west. Hitler's refusal to admit defeat led to massive destruction of German infrastructure and unnecessary loss of life in the closing months of the war. The victorious Allies initiated a policy ofdenazification and put the surviving Nazi leadership on trial for war crimes at theNuremberg Trials.
- The flag of Nazi Germany was a red flag with a white disc featuring a right-facing tilted swastika.
- Nazi Germany is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1934 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party. The Nazi state idolized Hitler as its Führer ("Leader"), centralizing all power in his hands. Nazi propaganda centered on Hitler and was quite effective in creating what historians call the "Hitler Myth" – that Hitler was all-wise and that any mistakes or failures by others would be corrected when brought to his attention. In reality, Hitler had a narrow range of interests and decision-making was diffused among overlapping, feuding power centers; on some issues he was passive, simply assenting to pressures from whoever had his ear. All top officials still reported to Hitler and followed his basic policies, but they had considerable autonomy on a daily basis. Hitler's foreign policy during the 1930s used a diplomatic strategy of making seemingly reasonable demands, threatening war if they were not met. When opponents tried to appease him, he accepted the gains that were offered, then moved on to his next goal. That aggressive strategy worked as Germany pulled out of the League of Nations, rejected the Versailles Treaty and began to re-arm, won back the Saar, remilitarized the Rhineland, formed an alliance ("axis") with Benito Mussolini's Italy, sent massive military aid to Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War, annexed Austria in the Anschluss, took over Czechoslovakia after the British and French appeasement of the Munich Agreement of 1938, formed a peace pact with the Soviet Union (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) in August 1939, and finally invaded Poland in September 1939. Britain and France declared war, resulting in the start of World War II - somewhat sooner than the Nazis had prepared for or expected. During the war, Germany conquered or controlled most of Europe and North Africa, intending to establish a "New Order" in Europe and elsewhere of complete Nazi German hegemony. The Nazis also persecuted and killed millions of Jews, Romani people and others in the Holocaust. Despite its Axis alliance with other nations, mainly Italy and Japan, by 8 May 1945 Germany had been defeated by the Allied Powers, and was occupied by the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain and France. Some 40 million Europeans may have died as a consequence of the war. Hitler, the Nazis and their Holocaust became the symbol of evil in the modern world. Newman and Erber write, "The Nazis have become one of the most widely recognized images of modern evil. Throughout most of the world today, the concept of evil can readily be evoked by displaying almost any cue reminiscent of Nazism. Amy and Dan Cahill had to go to Nazi, Germany in A King's Ransom.
- The Greater German Reich, also known as Nazi Germany or simply the Third Reich, was the name of Germany during the period from 30 January 1933 to 8 May 1945, when the Nazi Party was the primary and single political and governmental party in Germany, led by the dictator Adolf Hitler. They are main antagonists in the World War II Call of Duty games.
- However, despite having most the world in their fingertip, the Nazis face heavy resistance due to their brutal and ruthless doctrine where systematic harassment and genocide of those they deem "inferior" is central. The Kreisau Circle is only one of many movements worldwide that oppose the Nazi regime. Germany is the main setting in Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Wolfenstein, and Wolfenstein: The New Order, and most gameplay are within Germany or areas otherwise occupied by the Nazis.
- The state was a major European power from the 1930s to the mid-1940s. Its historical significance lies mainly in its responsibility for escalating political tensions in Europe by its expansionist foreign policy which was the most significant cause of World War II, its occupation of most of Europe during the war, its disastrous invasion of the Soviet Union, and its commission of large-scale crimes against humanity, such as the persecution and mass-murder of Jews (the genocide known as the Holocaust), millions of Slavs, Romani and others. The state came to an end in 1945, after the Allied Powers, succeeded in seizing German-occupied territories in Europe and in occupying Germany itself.[5] In 1935, Germany was bounded on the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Lithuania, The Free City of Danzig, Poland and Czechoslovakia; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and the Saarland, which joined in 1935. These borders changed after the state annexed Austria, the Sudetenland, Bohemia and Moravia and Memel, and after subsequent expansion during World War II. The name Third Reich (Drittes Reich, ‘Third Empire’) invoked a historical reference to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German Empire, 1871–1918.
- Nazi Germany, also known as the Third Reich, is the common name for Germany during the period from 1933 to 1945, when its government was controlled by Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP; Nazi Party). Under Hitler's rule, Germany was transformed from a republic into a dictatorship using the process of Gleichschaltung (coordination). The country was a totalitarian state after August 1934. Nazi Germany ceased to exist after the Allied Forces defeated the Wehrmacht in May 1945, thus ending World War II in Europe. The shortened footnote template creates a short author-date citation in a footnote. For use with Shortened footnotes. On 30 January 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic, Paul von Hindenburg. Hitler's appointment began the process of systematic elimination of all political opposition and consolidation of power, resulting in Hitler becoming the sole leader of Germany. On 2 August 1934, upon the death of President Hindenburg, Hitler became the dictator of Germany with the merger of the powers and offices of the Chancellery with the Presidency of the Weimar Republic. This legislation was affirmed by a national referendum vote on 19 August 1934. Through this legislation and referendum Hitler became the sole Führer (leader), of Germany. The shortened footnote template creates a short author-date citation in a footnote. For use with Shortened footnotes. . The state idolized Hitler as its leader, centralizing all power in his hands. Under the Führerprinzip (leader principle), the Führer's word was above all other laws. Top officials reported to Hitler and followed his policies, but they had considerable autonomy in deciding how those policies would be applied. The government was not a coordinated, cooperating body, but rather a collection of factions struggling to amass power and gain favour with the Führer. The shortened footnote template creates a short author-date citation in a footnote. For use with Shortened footnotes. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazi government restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending and a mixed economy of free-market and central-planning practices. The shortened footnote template creates a short author-date citation in a footnote. For use with Shortened footnotes. Extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of high speed highways (Autobahns). The return to economic stability gave the regime enormous popularity. All opposition to Hitler's rule was ruthlessly suppressed, with the leadership killed, imprisoned, or in exile. Racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of Nazi Germany in terms of ideology, propaganda, and daily practice. The Gestapo (secret state police) and SS under Heinrich Himmler destroyed the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition, and persecuted and murdered Jews and other "undesirables." The Germanic peoples—who were also referred to as the Nordic race—were considered to be the purest representation of the Aryan race, and were therefore the master race. Education focused on racial biology, population policy, and physical fitness. Membership in the Hitler Youth organization became compulsory. The number of women enrolled in post-secondary education plummeted, and career opportunities were curtailed. Calling women's rights a "product of the Jewish intellect," the Nazis practiced what they called "emancipation from emancipation." The shortened footnote template creates a short author-date citation in a footnote. For use with Shortened footnotes. Entertainment and tourism were organized via the Strength Through Joy program. The government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific forms of art and discouraging or banning others. The Nazis mounted the infamous Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition in 1937. The shortened footnote template creates a short author-date citation in a footnote. For use with Shortened footnotes. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, and Hitler's hypnotizing oratory to control public opinion. The shortened footnote template creates a short author-date citation in a footnote. For use with Shortened footnotes. The 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Germany made increasingly aggressive demands, threatening war if they were not met. Britain and France responded with appeasement. The shortened footnote template creates a short author-date citation in a footnote. For use with Shortened footnotes. Austria was annexed in 1938, and the Sudetenland was taken via the Munich Agreement in 1938, with the rest of Czechoslovakia seized in 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939, starting World War II. In alliance with Benito Mussolini's Italy, Germany conquered France and most of Europe by 1940, and threatened its remaining major foe: Great Britain. Reichskommissariats took brutal control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in Poland. Concentration camps, established as early as 1933, initially detained political prisoners and opponents of the regime. The number of camps quadrupled between 1939 and 1942 to over 300, as slave labourers from across Europe, Jews, political prisoners, criminals, homosexuals, gypsies, the mentally ill, and others were imprisoned. The system that began as an instrument of political oppression culminated in the mass murder of Jews and other minorities in The Holocaust. Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide turned against the Third Reich in the major military defeats of the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Kursk in 1943, the largest land battles in history. Large-scale systematic bombing of German cities, rail lines, and oil plants escalated in 1944, shutting down the Luftwaffe (German Air Force). Germany was overrun in 1945 by the Soviets from the east and the Allies from the west. The victorious Allies initiated a policy of denazification and put the surviving Nazi leadership on trial for war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials.
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