Disciplines

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HITLER’S DISCIPLES Unit III The Third Reich


Hitler’s Disciples 

The Men behind The Man  Hitler relied upon the support of thousands of followers to build and manage the National Socialist movement  For help in planning and managing the Nazi “state,” Hitler selected the friends and party members he felt were most loyal and dedicated  Top party leaders were given positions of power with the promised incentive of future wealth

Hitler’s Disciples  Hermann Goering  Rudolf Hess  Josef Goebbels  Alfred Rosenberg  Heinrich Himmler


Hitler’s Disciples 

Hermann Goering 

Background  Son of a wealthy judge  Popular and decorated WWI “ace” pilot  Joined the Nazi party as a prize recruit in 1921  Becomes addicted to morphine after being shot in Beer Hall Putsch

Pre-Third Reich leadership  Appointed by Hitler to command the SA in December 1922.  Used his aristocratic background and warhero status to recruit political and financial support from conservative business and army elites


Hitler’s Disciples 

Rudolf Hess  Background  Son of a wealthy German merchant  Twice-wounded WWI vet who reached the rank of lieutenant  Joined the Nazi party in 1921 after hearing one of Hitler’s first speeches  Became one of Hitler’s closest friends  Pre-Third Reich leadership  Helped Hitler write Mein Kampf while both were imprisoned at Landsberg  Served without official party rank as Hitler’s personal secretary


Hitler’s Disciples 

Joseph Goebbels 

Background  Born into a strict, working-class Catholic family in 1897  Studied history and literature at the University of Heidelberg  Rejected from service during WWI because of a crippled foot/leg  Joined the NSDAP into 1922

Pre-Third Reich leadership  Regional business manager  District leader  Reich Propaganda Leader  Designed propaganda posters and articles, staged parades, organized street and beer-hall brawls


Hitler’s Disciples 

Alfred Rosenberg  Background  Born in Russia in 1893 where he joined a eventually joined a pro-German group  Supported the Russian monarchists during the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia before escaping to France and moving to Germany in 1918  Rosenberg joined NSDAP in 1923 and became Hitler’s close friend  Pre-Third Reich leadership  Served as editor of Nazi-sponsored paper Voelkischer Beobachter  Founded the League for German Culture in 1929, then appointed to coordinate NSDAP ideological training and education programs


Hitler’s Disciples 

Heinrich Himmler 

Background  Son of a very religious Catholic teacher who had once tutored the Bavarian Crown Prince  Served as an officer cadet at the end of World War I  Joined the NSDAP in 1923 and participated in the Beer Hall Putsch

Pre-Third Reich leadership  In 1929, Hitler appointed Himmler to head his personal bodyguard, the blackshirted Schutzstaffel (SS),  Himmler worked to make his small force of 200 men a superior organization within the Nazi “state”


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