Rise and Fall of Third reich
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
The Third Reich, the name given to Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime in Germany from 1933 to 1945, stands as one of
the most catastrophic and defining periods in modern history. Emerging from the ashes of the First World War
and the political instability of the Weimar Republic, the Nazi regime transformed Germany into a totalitarian
state driven by aggressive nationalism, racial purity, and imperial ambitions. The Reich not only plunged the
world into the most destructive conflict in human history—World War II—but also perpetrated genocide on an
industrial scale through the Holocaust. The rise and fall of the Third Reich were shaped by a convergence of
political, economic, social, and ideological factors. To get a better understanding of the picture it would be
significant enough to analyze in detail the conditions that facilitated Hitler's rise to power, the methods through
which he consolidated a totalitarian regime, the expansionist policies that led to global war, the atrocities
committed under Nazi rule, and the factors that contributed to the eventual collapse of the regime in 1945.
1) To understand the rise of the Third Reich, it is necessary to begin with the Treaty of Versailles (1919),
the punitive peace settlement that ended World War I. Germany was forced to accept full responsibility
for the war under Article 231, the "war guilt clause," and to pay enormous reparations amounting to
132 billion gold marks. Furthermore, the treaty imposed severe territorial losses and military restrictions
on Germany, such as the demilitarization of the Rhineland, loss of Alsace-Lorraine, and the prohibition
of a German air force and submarines.
● Germany lost 13% of its territory, including Alsace-Lorraine to France, the Polish Corridor, and all
overseas colonies.
● The German army was limited to 100,000 men; conscription was banned, and the navy and air force
were virtually dismantled.
These humiliating conditions bred resentment among the German population, fostering a pervasive
sense of betrayal and injustice, often referred to as the "stab-in-the-back myth."
● In the immediate aftermath of the war, Germany became a democratic republic under the Weimar
Constitution (1919). However, the Weimar Republic was born in crisis and continued to face
unrelenting challenges throughout its existence. Although its constitution included progressive
elements such as proportional representation and civil liberties.But it also had structural flaws, like
Article 48, which allowed the President to rule by emergency decree — a provision that Hitler would
later exploit.
● Hyperinflation in 1923, brought on by passive resistance to the French occupation of the Ruhr. When
Germany defaulted on reparations, France and Belgium occupied the Ruhr industrial region, worsening
economic paralysis. Also, massive printing of money, wiped out the savings of the middle class.
● In 1929, the Great Depression devastated the already fragile German economy. The U.S. recalled loans
under the Dawes Plan, and Germany’s economy collapsed.Unemployment soared to over six million by
1932, and public confidence in democratic institutions eroded.
● Political extremism flourished, with the Communist Party (KPD) on the left and the National Socialist
German Workers' Party (NSDAP), or Nazi Party, on the right attracting disaffected voters.
2) Adolf Hitler, emerged as the leader of the Nazi Party by the early 1920s. In 1923, Hitler and his
followers attempted a coup in Munich known as the Beer Hall Putsch. The putsch failed, and Hitler
was arrested and sentenced to prison, during which time he wrote his ideological manifesto, *Mein
Kampf*. In the book, Hitler expounded on his core beliefs: anti-Semitism, anti-Communism, German
nationalism, and the need for Lebensraum (living space) for the German people in Eastern Europe.
The Nazi Party remained on the fringes of German politics throughout the 1920s. However, the economic
despair of the Great Depression provided fertile ground for Hitler’s message. By promising national
rejuvenation, jobs, and a restoration of Germany's lost greatness, the Nazis gained rapid electoral support. In the
July 1932 elections, the Nazis became the largest party in the Reichstag with 37.3% of the vote. Despite internal
resistance among conservative elites, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor on January
30, 1933, believing he could be controlled within a conservative coalition.
Once in power, Hitler moved swiftly to dismantle the democratic institutions of the Weimar Republic. The
Reichstag Fire on February 27, 1933, was used as a pretext to pass the Reichstag Fire Decree, which suspended
civil liberties and allowed for the arrest of political opponents, especially Communists. The pivotal moment
came with the passage of the Enabling Act on March 23, 1933, which granted Hitler the power to legislate
without Reichstag consent. This marked the beginning of the Nazi dictatorship.
In the ensuing months, the Nazis carried out a policy of *Gleichschaltung*, or coordination, aiming to bring all
aspects of German society under Nazi control. Trade unions were abolished, opposition parties were banned,
and the state took control of education, the press, and cultural institutions. The SS (Schutzstaffel), originally
Hitler’s personal bodyguard, under Heinrich Himmler, expanded its power and became the principal
instrument of terror. The Gestapo (Secret State Police) monitored and eliminated dissent.
In June 1934, Hitler orchestrated the Night of the Long Knives, a purge of the SA (Sturmabteilung) leadership
and other political rivals. With this move, Hitler secured the loyalty of the German Army, which viewed the SA
with suspicion. Upon President Hindenburg’s death in August 1934, Hitler merged the offices of Chancellor
and President, declaring himself *Führer* and solidifying his total control over the German state.
3) Nazi Ideology and Society
● Central to the Nazi worldview was the belief in racial hierarchy, with the so-called Aryan race at the top
and Jews, Slavs, Roma, and other groups deemed inferior. The regime promoted a cult of personality
around Hitler, emphasizing loyalty, sacrifice, and militarism. Propaganda, orchestrated by Joseph
Goebbels, saturated the public sphere through films, posters, newspapers, and radio broadcasts.
Education was manipulated to indoctrinate youth with Nazi ideology, while organizations like the
Hitler Youth and League of German Girls prepared children for roles as soldiers and mothers in service
to the state.
● Anti-Semitism was institutionalized with the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, which stripped Jews of
citizenship and prohibited intermarriage. Violence against Jews escalated with Kristallnacht on
November 9-10, 1938, during which synagogues were burned, Jewish businesses destroyed, and
thousands of Jews arrested. By this time, Jews were being systematically excluded from public life,
paving the way for the genocidal policies of the coming war.
● From the outset, Hitler’s foreign policy aimed at revising the post-World War I settlement and
expanding German territory. In 1933, Germany withdrew from the League of Nations. In 1935,
conscription was reintroduced in violation of the Versailles Treaty. The remilitarization of the
Rhineland in 1936 went unchallenged by Britain and France. That same year, Hitler supported Franco
in the Spanish Civil War, gaining a testing ground for his military.
● In 1938, Hitler annexed Austria in the *Anschluss*, again without resistance from the Western powers.
Later that year, he demanded the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia, claiming to protect ethnic
Germans. The Munich Agreement (1938), championed by British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain, granted this demand in a failed attempt at appeasement. In March 1939, Hitler violated
the agreement by occupying the rest of Czechoslovakia.
● On August 23, 1939, Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with the Soviet Union, a
non-aggression treaty that secretly divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence. On September 1,
1939, Germany invaded Poland. Britain and France declared war two days later, marking the start of
World War II.
● In the early years of the war, German forces employed a strategy known as Blitzkrieg, or “lightning war,”
combining fast-moving infantry, tanks, and air support to overwhelm enemies. Poland fell quickly, and
in 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. In May 1940, the Wehrmacht struck westward,
defeating Belgium, the Netherlands, and France in a matter of weeks. Paris was occupied in June. Only
Britain remained, and despite the Luftwaffe’s massive bombing campaign in the Battle of Britain
(July-October 1940), the Royal Air Force held firm.
● In 1941, Hitler made his gravest strategic error by launching Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the
Soviet Union, on June 22. Initially successful, the campaign bogged down as Soviet resistance stiffened
and the German advance stalled outside Moscow in the brutal winter. Meanwhile, on December 7,
1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Germany declared war on the United States, bringing another
industrial superpower into the conflict.
4) The Holocaust
Even as Germany waged war, the Nazi regime pursued the systematic extermination of Jews and other targeted
groups. The invasion of the USSR marked a radicalization of this policy. Einsatzgruppen, mobile killing units,
followed the Wehrmacht and conducted mass shootings of Jews. On January 20, 1942, the Wannsee Conference
formalized the “Final Solution”—the plan to annihilate European Jewry.
Death camps such as Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Sobibor were established in occupied Poland. Jews were
deported from across Europe to these camps. By 1945, approximately six million Jews had been murdered. In
addition, hundreds of thousands of Roma, disabled persons, Poles, Soviet POWs, and others were also killed.
5) The Collapse of the Third Reich
Following the Blitzkrieg victories in Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Low Countries, and the swift conquest of
France, Adolf Hitler stood as the most powerful man in Europe. However, Hitler’s decision to invade the Soviet
Union in June 1941—Operation Barbarossa—was a catastrophic strategic overreach. Though initially successful,
the German advance stalled as the harsh Russian winter, the vastness of the Soviet terrain, and the resilience of
the Red Army ground the Blitzkrieg to a halt. The failure to capture Moscow in 1941 and the subsequent
defeats at Stalingrad (1942–43) and Kursk (1943) marked a turning point in the war. Also, in December 1941,
Hitler declared war on the United States following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which proved to be a
blunder for Germany.
Between 1943 and 1945, Germany experienced a relentless series of military defeats on both the Eastern and
Western Fronts. It shattered the myth of German invincibility. In North Africa, the Axis forces under Erwin
Rommel were defeated by British and American forces in the Tunisia Campaign (1943).
The final phase of the military collapse came in 1945. The Soviet Red Army launched the Vistula–Oder
Offensive in January, reaching the Oder River within weeks and preparing for the final assault on Berlin. In the
West, the failed German counteroffensive in the Ardennes—the Battle of the Bulge—was the last major German
offensive of the war.
Germany had sustained its war effort through the exploitation of occupied territories and the use of forced labor.
However, as the Allies reclaimed territory, these resources dried up. The Anglo-American strategic bombing
campaign devastated German cities, crippled transportation networks, and destroyed industrial centers. By 1944,
key cities like Hamburg, Dresden, and Cologne had been destroyed.
Efforts to streamline war production and increase output even in the midst of destruction, Germany's economy
was ultimately overwhelmed. Raw material shortages, labor depletion, and the sheer scale of bombing raids
meant that production could no longer meet the demands of the military.
Civilians endured starvation, homelessness, and constant fear of bombing. The Nazi promise of a glorious
thousand-year Reich was exposed as a delusion, and disillusionment spread, even among once-fervent
supporters.
In the war’s final years, this fragmentation worsened. Adolf Hitler’s own leadership declined significantly. He
increasingly issued delusional commands, often ordering non-existent divisions into battle or forbidding retreats
in hopeless situations.
Dissent within the regime culminated in the July 20 Plot of 1944, an assassination attempt led by Claus von
Stauffenberg and other Wehrmacht officers who hoped to negotiate peace with the Allies. The failure of this plot
led to a brutal purge; thousands were executed, and Hitler became even more paranoid and repressive.
The once-feared Nazi bureaucracy began to disintegrate. As defeat loomed, Nazi officials abandoned their posts,
fled, or committed suicide. The cohesion of the government and party apparatus collapsed. Local leaders often
acted autonomously, and communication with the central command became increasingly erratic.
Time’s up!!!
By April 1945, Berlin was encircled by the Red Army. In a final act of desperation, Hitler ordered children and
old men to defend the city. The Battle of Berlin was fierce and bloody, with over 70,000 Soviet soldiers and tens
of thousands of Germans killed in street-to-street combat.
Inside the Führerbunker beneath the Reich Chancellery, Adolf Hitler lived out his final days in a haze of denial
and despair. On April 30, 1945, with Soviet troops a few blocks away, Hitler committed suicide alongside his
mistress Eva Braun, whom he had married the day before. His suicide marked the symbolic end of the Third
Reich.
Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister, briefly succeeded him before also committing suicide after
poisoning his six children. The remnants of the German government attempted to negotiate surrender, but on
May 7, 1945, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allies.
