The Rise of the Third Reich

Name: Kenzo C.S
Class: 8C

After World War 1 or the Great War, the winning nation made a peace sign named “Treaty of Versailles”. The treaty includes this:

• War Guilt Clause (Article 231): Germany was forced to accept full responsibility for causing the war.
• Reparations: Germany had to pay huge financial reparations to the Allied powers, especially France and Belgium, to compensate for war damages.
• Territorial Losses: Germany lost significant territories:
• Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France.
• Parts of Prussia were given to Poland (the creation of the Polish Corridor).
• The Saar Basin was placed under the League of Nations administration.
• Germany also lost all of its overseas colonies.
• Military Restrictions: Germany's military was significantly reduced:

• The army was limited to 100,000 troops.
• Germany was forbidden from having tanks, submarines, or an air force.
• The Rhineland was demilitarised to serve as a buffer zone between Germany and France.
• League of Nations: The treaty established the League of Nations, an international organisation aimed at maintaining peace, although Germany was initially excluded from the League.

After signing the treaty, the German Empire collapsed, and the Weimar Republic was formed. Paul Von Hindenburg, a generalfeldmarschall, led the Weimar Republic and became its chancellor from 1919 until 1932. But in 1929, the Great Depression attacked every nation's economy, including the Weimar Republic, whose one dollar at that time was equal to one trillion marks.

On 20 February 1920, the “Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei,” or what we called the Nazi Party, rose. The Weimar Republic asked Adolf Hitler to spy at the party. But Adolf Hitler loved the party, so he joined it and became its leader. The Nazi Party attacked the anti-socialist party, mainly the communist party. But in 1932, Paul Von Hindenburg resigned from his duty and chose Adolf Hitler as the chancellor. After Adolf Hitler rose to power, he changed the country's policies, rules, code, and name and became the Third Reich. He forced all opposing parties to disband and made the Nazi party the only party.

After he rose to power, he broke the “Treaty of Versailles;” he invaded the Rhineland, didn’t pay war reparation, and built a lot of heavy vehicles, tanks, submarines, large warships, aeroplanes, and armies. He also started the German Olympics in 1936.

After his army strengthened, he Anschluss Austria, took the Sudetenland, annexed Czech, and forced Slovakia to become its puppet country. He made an alliance called the “Pact of Steel,” which included Germany, Italy, and Japan. After that, he helped Franco to overthrow the Spanish Republic to become a fascist nation. The allies nations, which included the British and France, asked Germany to stop attacking other neutral nations or they would attack Germany; the Germans agreed after annexing Checko. But on the first of September 1939, in the middle of the night, Germany invaded Poland, which started World War 2, and Germany lost the war.