Religion and social development- Case study of Nazi Germany

Abstract

Nazi German/ The Third Reich refer to Germany during the reign of Hitler and his ruling Nazi Party also called the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party). In 1933, the Nazi party took over Germany and started running the political, social and economic sectors of the country. Between the years 1933 to 1945, they rearmed Germany, defeated their neighbors and eliminated over 20 million people, including 6 million Jewish civilians whom they saw as worthless. Adolf Hitler believed that Germany lost in World War 1 as a result of disloyal elements in the society like the Jews and the Marxists. He strongly held on to the idea that the German army did not lose in the field but rather from getting a stab in the back, so to say, by the traitors at home.
The Nazi Party started out as The Committee of Independent Workmen started by Anton Drexler, the locksmith, in 1918 to protest the Marxism of free trade unions. In January 1919, The Committee of Independent Workmen merged with the Political Workers' Circle to form The German Worker's Party (DAP for Deutsche Arbeiterpartei). Hitler joined the party in late 1919 as head of propaganda.

He then transformed the small DAP into the much larger NSDAP, or the Nazi Party as commonly known, through his exemplary leadership skills and his calculated speeches. The Nazi Party had its infamous storm troopers who were brown dressed men who served protective functions. For instance, they got rid of hecklers from Nazi meetings and broke-up other meetings to favor Nazi ones. The Nazi adopted a blood-red flag with a hooked cross at the middle to represent them. Hitler rose to party chairman in July 1921 and established himself as leader (Mosse 45).