European Tensions Build from 1919 – 1939

· With the potential for conflict increasing in Europe the German people are starving for strong leadership

· Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 in a small Austrian town

· His father was a postmaster who was hard on Adolf, while his mother was very loving

· When Hitler was 17, his mother died so he left home and did not finish high school; his grades were low and he was often in trouble

· Against his father’s wishes, he left for Vienna, Austria to apply to an art school. His application was rejected because his work was not very good and he had no high school diploma

· He lived in poverty, living in youth hostel and eating in soup kitchens

· When WWI started he was 25 years old and he joined the German army; he was a dispatch runner in the trenches; he was decorated for bravery with the “Iron Cross”.

· When Germany lost the war Hitler was disillusioned, he could not believe Germany h ad lost

· Hitler needed to vent his anger so he blamed all of Germany’s problems and failures in the war on certain things. Most of these were not true:

o Jewish Plots – Jews prevented him from becoming an artist as well they helped finance the allies during WWI. They are always plotting against hard working Germans.

o Communist Plots – Communist spies and politicians from Russia wanted to take over Germany when it was vulnerable. They want to control German businesses and industries.

o Weimar Germany – the new democratic government is corrupt, working with the allied governments – France and Britain, to crush the German economy. The new President Ebert had done nothing to help German people recover from the war.

o Treaty of Versailles – Hitler claims that this treaty has destroyed any opportunity for hard working Germans to ever have a good standard of living; Germans are now slaves to the allied powers.

Many people in Germany believed in Hitler and his ideas. (many, not all!!!)