Includes a biography of the author, a course scope, and bibliographical references.

"In these 12 lectures, we will trace the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and his Nationalist Socialist party (the NSDAP). Although we will address a wide variety of issues, these lectures pose two fundamental questions: First, how could Adolf Hitler and the Nazis come to power in such a highly educated, industrially developed country at the very heart of Western culture and civilization? This question leads to a variety of important issues: What did Germans think they were getting when they voted National Socialist? How did the Nazis present themselves to the German public? What did they seem to stand for? The second basic question deals with the Nazis in power. How were the Nazis able to establish the foundations of a totalitarian regime in such a short time and hurl Europe – and the world – into a devastating war that would consume millions of lives and change the very basis of international politics in the 20th century? Why was there apparently so little resistance? What made the regime popular at home? How were the Nazis able to seize control of the press, the radio, the courts, and the police with so little trouble?
The first six lectures of the course will be devoted to the rise of the Nazis between 1919 and 1933. We will begin our examination with a look at what might be called long-term factors that shaped German political culture in the 20th century. Specifically, we will focus on the problematic nature of German national unification in 1871 and on the deep cleaves – religious divisions, lingering regional loyalties, and growing social or class tensions – that made nation-building in the new Germany difficult. In this vein, we will also explore the impact of World War I on this young German state. Until the very end of the war in 1918, Germany, despite enormous casualties and sacrifices on the home front, seemed to be winning. Then, in November 1918, the roof suddenly caved in. Inexplicably to many Germans, Germany had lost the war! The new democratic government, the Weimar Republic, was forced by the victorious Allies to sign a humiliating treaty and begin its political life carrying a staggering society, and the new regime would have to deal with those potentially revolutionary forces as well.
The lectures then turn to more short-term factors and development examining, in particular, the grave economic problems of confronting the Weimar governments – the chaotic hyperinflation of 1923, the harsh stabilization in 1924, and the Great Depression, with its failed businesses and skyrocketing unemployment. We will see how the NDSAP, using negative campaigning and revolutionary propaganda techniques, was able to exploit this series of devastating economic developments and the failure of a Weimar government is to deal effectively with them. We will analyze the party’s appeal to the electorate. Then we will attempt to determine what sort of person supported the party and why.
The second half of the course deals with the NSDAP in power, the Third Reich. These lectures begin by treating the Nazi seizure and consolidation of total power in 1933-1934. In particular, they focus on the step-by-step process by which resistance was broken and the major institutions of state and society were brought with surprising speed under Nazi control. We examine the system of terror and propaganda that solidified the new totalitarian state, a state that did not recognize the distinction between public and private and whose claim on the individual was total. By 1935, with power now firmly a Nazi hands, the ideological core of the National Socialist movement began to reveal itself. At this juncture, we will examine Hitler’s racial ideas and the policies to adopted to transform hose ideas into reality. The focus here is largely on the Nazis’ mounting repression of the Jewish population and the role of Heinrich Himmler’s SS in shaping and regime’s anti-Semitic policies.
The lectures also address the sources of Hitler’s popularity, especially his conduct of foreign policy between 1933 and 1939. We will examine Hitler’s views on foreign policy and his systematic destruction of the Treaty of Versailles. We will show how and why he was able to outmanoeuvre the apprehensive Western European powers and how he entered into accommodation with his rival, Stalin, on the eve of World War II. The closing lectures are focused sharply on the coming of the Second World War II, its course on the battlefield, and finally, the Holocaust. Hitler’s war was not simply a traditional geopolitical conflict - a grab for land and resources - it was a racial war as well. Revealed most obviously in the ideological war against the Soviet Union, Hitler saw his enemy as a “Judeo-Bolshevist” conspiracy, which he was called on to eliminate. This meant not only a war of annihilation of the Soviet Union, but the destruction of the European Jewish community. We will follow Hitler’s war against the Jews from Mein Kampf to Auschwitz and, finally, examine how, after so much death and destruction, his evil empire was destroyed."

DVD CONTENTS: Disc 1

1 The Third Reich, Hitler, and the 20th Century
2 The First World War and Its Legacy
3 The Weimar Republic and the Rise of the Nazi Party
4 The Twenties and the Great Depression
5 The Nazi Breakthrough
6 Hitler’s Assumption of Power
Disc 2

7 Racial Policy and the Totalitarian State
8 Hitler’s Foreign Policy
9 Munich and the Triumph of National Socialism
10 War in the West, War in the East
11 Holocaust – Hitler’s War Against the Jews
12 The Final Solution

"In these 12 lectures, we will trace the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and his Nationalist Socialist party (the NSDAP). Although we will address a wide variety of issues, these lectures pose two fundamental questions: First, how could Adolf Hitler and the Nazis come to power in such a highly educated, industrially developed country at the very heart of Western culture and civilization? This question leads to a variety of important issues: What did Germans think they were getting when they voted National Socialist? How did the Nazis present themselves to the German public? What did they seem to stand for? The second basic question deals with the Nazis in power. How were the Nazis able to establish the foundations of a totalitarian regime in such a short time and hurl Europe – and the world – into a devastating war that would consume millions of lives and change the very basis of international politics in the 20th century? Why was there apparently so little resistance? What made the regime popular at home? How were the Nazis able to seize control of the press, the radio, the courts, and the police with so little trouble?
The first six lectures of the course will be devoted to the rise of the Nazis between 1919 and 1933. We will begin our examination with a look at what might be called long-term factors that shaped German political culture in the 20th century. Specifically, we will focus on the problematic nature of German national unification in 1871 and on the deep cleaves – religious divisions, lingering regional loyalties, and growing social or class tensions – that made nation-building in the new Germany difficult. In this vein, we will also explore the impact of World War I on this young German state. Until the very end of the war in 1918, Germany, despite enormous casualties and sacrifices on the home front, seemed to be winning. Then, in November 1918, the roof suddenly caved in. Inexplicably to many Germans, Germany had lost the war! The new democratic government, the Weimar Republic, was forced by the victorious Allies to sign a humiliating treaty and begin its political life carrying a staggering society, and the new regime would have to deal with those potentially revolutionary forces as well.
The lectures then turn to more short-term factors and development examining, in particular, the grave economic problems of confronting the Weimar governments – the chaotic hyperinflation of 1923, the harsh stabilization in 1924, and the Great Depression, with its failed businesses and skyrocketing unemployment. We will see how the NDSAP, using negative campaigning and revolutionary propaganda techniques, was able to exploit this series of devastating economic developments and the failure of a Weimar government is to deal effectively with them. We will analyze the party’s appeal to the electorate. Then we will attempt to determine what sort of person supported the party and why.
The second half of the course deals with the NSDAP in power, the Third Reich. These lectures begin by treating the Nazi seizure and consolidation of total power in 1933-1934. In particular, they focus on the step-by-step process by which resistance was broken and the major institutions of state and society were brought with surprising speed under Nazi control. We examine the system of terror and propaganda that solidified the new totalitarian state, a state that did not recognize the distinction between public and private and whose claim on the individual was total. By 1935, with power now firmly a Nazi hands, the ideological core of the National Socialist movement began to reveal itself. At this juncture, we will examine Hitler’s racial ideas and the policies to adopted to transform hose ideas into reality. The focus here is largely on the Nazis’ mounting repression of the Jewish population and the role of Heinrich Himmler’s SS in shaping and regime’s anti-Semitic policies.
The lectures also address the sources of Hitler’s popularity, especially his conduct of foreign policy between 1933 and 1939. We will examine Hitler’s views on foreign policy and his systematic destruction of the Treaty of Versailles. We will show how and why he was able to outmanoeuvre the apprehensive Western European powers and how he entered into accommodation with his rival, Stalin, on the eve of World War II. The closing lectures are focused sharply on the coming of the Second World War II, its course on the battlefield, and finally, the Holocaust. Hitler’s war was not simply a traditional geopolitical conflict - a grab for land and resources - it was a racial war as well. Revealed most obviously in the ideological war against the Soviet Union, Hitler saw his enemy as a “Judeo-Bolshevist” conspiracy, which he was called on to eliminate. This meant not only a war of annihilation of the Soviet Union, but the destruction of the European Jewish community. We will follow Hitler’s war against the Jews from Mein Kampf to Auschwitz and, finally, examine how, after so much death and destruction, his evil empire was destroyed."

DVD CONTENTS:

Disc 1
1 The Third Reich, Hitler, and the 20th Century
2 The First World War and Its Legacy
3 The Weimar Republic and the Rise of the Nazi Party
4 The Twenties and the Great Depression
5 The Nazi Breakthrough
6 Hitler’s Assumption of Power

Disc 2
7 Racial Policy and the Totalitarian State
8 Hitler’s Foreign Policy
9 Munich and the Triumph of National Socialism
10 War in the West, War in the East
11 Holocaust – Hitler’s War Against the Jews
12 The Final Solution