The Second World War
Cornell Readers
Many historians say that the end of the First World War eventually led to the start of the Second World War. Thirteen million people lost their lives in the First World War and the victorious countries decided that Germany must be punished for the suffering and loss of life.
In 1919, Germany was ordered to pay for the damage caused during the war and soon the country’s economy was in collapse. The German people became more angry. The German government printed more and more money to pay the other countries and soon it became almost worthless, even things like a bag of food shopping became too expensive for many people! In November 1919 100,000 workers marched to the Royal Palace and Kaiser Wilhelm was forced to leave Germany.
Germany had become poor and powerless.
In 1920 Adolf Hitler was part of a group which formed the German National Party (DAP). It started with just 190 members but by the end of the year it had 2,000 members and he had become its leader. In January of 1922, Hitler interrupted a government speech and was arrested. Worse was to follow for Hitler after he tried to take control of parts of Germany using force and he was arrested again. This time he spent eight months in prison during which time he wrote a book called Mein Kampf (My Struggle). While in prison he realised that if the German people were to follow him his rise to power must be peaceful.
By 1931 there were four million German people without jobs and many people were looking to the Nazi Party to make things better. In a vote in 1932 the Nazis won a majority of seats in the German Government. Hitler rose quickly in Government and in 1933 he became Chancellor of Germany. He didn’t think that Germany should have been punished for WWI and so he stopped paying other countries; he also banned all other political parties. When the president died in 1934 he made himself ruler of both Government and the Army.