Hitler and Nazi Germany

Aims of the course:

1.  To provide a narrative of the life and times of Adolf Hitler.
2.  To explore the reasons why the Nazis came to power in 1933.
3.  To examine what life was like in Nazi Germany.
4.  To look at the various forms of resistance to the Nazis and why they failed.
5.  To discuss the reasons for and the meaning of the Holocaust in the context of the war in the East.

Course content overview:

• This course aims to give a general narrative of the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazis, exploring why such a party could gain around 34% of the popular vote in 1932. We will look at the features of life in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1939, and the nature of resistance to the Nazis, before looking at the events which led to WW2 in 1939.
• The last two units will deal specifically with Nazi policies in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, in particular the ethnic cleansing of Poles and Russians in ‘a war of annihilation’ and the ways in which this created the context for the implementation of the ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Question.’
• There has also been a large amount of new research on the Nazis which has resulted in some impressive new histories and biographies from such people Robert Gerwarth, Ian Kershaw, Peter Longerich and Michael Burleigh, etc. Guiding students towards some of the excellent sources now available will be an important part of this course.

Schedule (this course is completed entirely online):

Orientation Week: 27 October-2 November 2025 

Teaching Weeks: 3 November-7 December 2025

Feedback Week: 8-14 December 2025

 

Week 0 - Preparing to study this course

Purpose/Learning outcomes

By studying this week the students should have:

•Become familiar with navigating around the VLE and from VLE to links and back

•Tested their ability to access files and the web conferencing software and sorted out any problems with the help of the eLearning Helpdesk

•Learnt how to look for, assess and reference internet resources

•Used forums to introduce themselves to other students

•Contributed to a discussion forum to introduce themselves to other students and discuss why they are interested in the course, what they hope to get out their studies and also to respond to News item sent out on behalf of tutor

 

Week 1 - Kampfzeit: the rise to power, 1918 – 1933

Purpose:

The course will begin by looking at Hitler’s early life and the influences upon him up to and including his service on the Western Front in the First World War. From there we will consider the state of Germany after the defeat of November 1918 and the formation of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (NSDAP). We will look at the abortive Munich Putsch of 1923 and its consequences, the struggles for power within the Nazi Party and the emergence of Hitler as undisputed ‘Fuhrer’ before considering the ways in which the Depression transformed the political landscape within Germany and how the Nazis exploited this situation to become the largest single party in the Reichstag by 1932. We will end by considering the process by which Hitler became Chancellor in January, 1933. Was it, as Nazi propaganda asserted, a ‘seizure of power,’ or was he manoeuvred into power by non-Nazi forces around him?

 

Topics to include:

• Hitler’s life until the First World War
• Defeat and revolution in Germany, 1918-1923
• The Munich Putsch
• The ‘wilderness years, 1923-29’
• Leadership struggles within the Nazi Party
• Creating the ‘Fuhrer’
• The effects of the Depression on the Germany economy and society
• Why and how did the Nazis benefit from the Depression?
• Manoeuvred into power – January 1933

 

Learning outcomes

By studying this week the students should have:

•An introduction to the early life of Adolf Hitler to 1918;

•Some understanding of the state of Germany in the years after the First World War;

•Some appreciation of the development of, and the struggles within the Nazi Party before 1933;

•Some understanding of why and how Hitler came to power in January, 1933.

 

Week 2 - Title: Volksgemeinshaft – Germany under the Nazis, 1933 - 1939

Purpose:

This Unit will consider life in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, beginning with the initial measures to establish the régime and neutralize opposition. From there we will look at how the régime won the acquiescence of the majority of the German people by reducing unemployment, providing for a rising standard of living and restoring German power and pride. We will also consider the power of the ‘Fuhrer myth’ and the charismatic role of Hitler both as a method of making the régime popular and as an illustration of the ways in which policy was made in the Third Reich. We will also consider Nazi policies towards specific groups such as women and young people, the power of propaganda and the development of persecution aimed at Jews and other groups deemed by the régime as either a threat or expendable.

 

Topic to include:

• Establishing the dictatorship
• Creating the terror state
• ‘The Night of the Long Knives’
• Economic miracles
• The propaganda state
• Hitler worship
• The Nuremburg rallies and Leni Riefenstahl
• Hitler’s Olympics, 1936
• Nazi art and architecture
• Nazis and women
• Nazis and young people
• The racial state
• Resistance to Hitler
• The T4 project – precursors of genocide?
• Kristallnacht and the persecution of the Jews

 

Learning outcomes

By studying this week the students should have:

•Some insight into how the dictatorship and the ‘terror state’ was established

•Some appreciation of how Nazi policies affected women, young people, the workplace etc

•Appreciated the power of propaganda in moulding opinion and perceptions and the various uses of the ‘Fuhrer myth.’

•Some understanding of the development of racial policies towards the Jews and the significance of the T4 euthanasia project

 

Week 3 - Deutschland Erwache! The road to war, 1919-1939

Purpose

This unit will concentrate on the study of events in Europe in the 1930s which led to the German invasion of Poland and the outbreak of war in September, 1939. We will begin by looking at the impact of the Treaty of Versailles on Germany in the 1920s, and the opposition the Treaty generated within Germany. On taking power, Hitler soon pursued policies which broke the provisions of the Treaty and we will discuss the reasons why the allies, France and Britain in particular, failed to enforce the Treaty after 1933. From there we will look at the foreign policy successes Hitler achieved in the Rhineland, Spain, Austria and Czechoslovakia, the latter involving the notorious Munich Agreement of 1938. This unit will end by looking at the Nazi-Soviet Pact of August 1939 – why did these two opposing ideologies sign a treaty of friendship and co-operation? The Unit will end by posing the question: did Hitler end up fighting the wrong war in 1939?

 

Topics to include:

• Germany and the Treaty of Versailles 1919-1933
• Early steps: the entry into the Rhineland and conscription
• Hitler’s plans for war
• Hitler and Mussolini – from adversary to ally
• Intervention in Spain
• Appeasement and ‘non-intervention’
• Anschluss, Austria 1938
• The Sudetenland and the Munich Agreement
• The Nazi-Soviet Pact
• The wrong war?

 

Learning outcomes

By studying this week the students should have:

•Some appreciation of the effects of the Treaty of Versailles on Germany between 1919 and 1933;

•Considered the ways in which Hitler repudiated the Treaty after 1933;

•Some insight into why Britain and France responded with the policy of appeasement;

•An introduction to the narrative of events from Germany’s withdrawal from the Disarmament Conference in 1933 to the occupation of Prague in March 1939.

 

Week 4 - Vernichtungskrieg! A different sort of war, 1939-1945

Purpose

The war that Hitler unleashed in September 1939 was intended from the beginning to be a different sort of war. After considering the narrative of events of 1939-40 (the invasion of Poland, the conquest of western Europe in May-June 1940 and the ‘Battle of Britain’) this week will concentrate on the war in the east and the plans the Nazis had for large-scale ‘ethnic cleansing’ and resettlement in Poland, the Baltic States, the Ukraine and European Russia, territories Timothy Synder has called ‘the bloodlands.’

This ‘war of annihilation,’ as Hitler called it, was the prelude to the creation of a vast Germanic empire in the east stretching to the Urals. Hitler had written and spoken of this war since the 1920s and we will examine the ways in which Nazi policies in the east were implemented, first in Poland, then in the Soviet Union. We will also consider the role of the Einsatzgruppen murder squads and of allies and collaborators from across Europe who volunteered to fight in Russia as part of a European ‘crusade’ against ‘Bolshevism’. The week will conclude by detailing the ways in which the Germans and their allies were finally forced to retreat by the Red Army after the defeat at Stalingrad and the consequences of the Bomb Plot against Hitler of July 1944. Finally, we will consider the question: why did the Germans fight to the bitter end in 1945 when it was clear that the war was lost?

 

Topics to include:

• Germany’s war, September 1939-September 1940
• Did Hitler ever intend to invade Britain?
• Germany turns east – the plans for German rule in the east
• ‘Ethnic cleansing’ and resettlement
• The siege of Leningrad
• Collaborators and allies in the east
• The battle of Stalingrad
• On the back foot – the Soviet advances
• The Bomb Plot and its consequences
• Why did the Germans fight to the end in 1945?

 

Learning outcomes

By studying this week the students should have:

•Some insight into why the war in the east was described as ‘a war of annihilation’;

•Some appreciation of the manner in which this policy was put into effect and its consequences;

•Some understanding of why nations and individuals fought for, or alongside, Nazi Germany.

 

Week 5 - Endlosung: the Final Solution of the Jewish Question

Purpose

The final week follows on from week 4, as the attempted extermination of the Jews took place within the broader concept of the ‘war of annihilation’ in the east. We will begin by looking, briefly, at anti-Semitism before 1933 and, in particular, how a religious prejudice changed in the nineteenth-century, under the influence of pseudo-science, into a biological racial theory, which, after 1917, was linked to a fear of Communism. From there we will look at ways in which the Nazi state sought to exclude Jews from all aspects of German cultural, social and economic life and how, in the 1930s, a policy of forced emigration was favoured.

With the outbreak of war the situation changed, emigration was no longer an option and, with the conquest of Poland, the Ukraine and European Russia millions of Jews found themselves under Nazi control. The ways in which, and the reasons why, Nazi policy towards the Jews evolved so rapidly in late 1941 and early 1942 is an important part of this week. At some point in the autumn of 1941 a decision appears to have been taken at the highest levels that the Jews of Europe should be systematically shipped to the east and exterminated, we will look at the evidence for this and the work of historians, such as Ian Kershaw, who have written on this question.

This period witnessed Nazi policy move away from mass shooting towards experiments with gas, particularly when the first extermination camp was established at Chelmo in December 1941. We will also consider the Wansee Conference of January 1942 and its place in the radical escalation of killing seen at this time. From there we will examine the evolution of Auschwitz from a concentration camp to an industrialized centre of extermination and how this was achieved. We will also consider the role of Germany’s allies and collaborators in the Holocaust, what the British and Americans may or may not have known about what was going on, and the fate of Roma and millions of Russian prisoners-of-war in related Holocausts. The week will end by considering the attempts to bring the perpetrators to justice, asking the question why this process has so often failed and the significance of those who deny that the Holocaust ever took place.

 

Topic to include:

• Anti-Semitism before 1933
• Nazi persecution of Germany’s Jews before 1939
• Eichmann in Vienna, 1938
• Nazi treatment of the Jews of Poland and the Soviet Union
• When did Hitler decide on genocide?
• Escalation, Chelmo and the Wansee Conference
• Operation Reinhard
• Hungary 1944
• Jews for sale – Himmler and the allies
• Other Holocausts – the Roma and Russian POWs
• Justice against the perpetrators
• Holocaust denial

 

Learning outcomes

 By studying this week the students should have:

•An introduction to the varied roots of anti-Semitism in pre-war Europe

•Some understanding of Nazi policies towards German and Austrian Jews prior to 1939 and their consequences;

•An appreciation of how Nazi policy concerning the ‘Jewish Question’ evolved over 1941-42;

•Some insight into the varied roles played by allies and collaborators in the Holocaust;

•Some understanding of why post-war attempts to bring perpetrators to trial have been so difficult.

 

 

Week 6 - What Next?

Purpose

•Assessment of student learning

•Assessment of student satisfaction

•Encouragement of further study

 

Each week of an online course is roughly equivalent to 2-3 hours of classroom time. On top of this, participants should expect to spend roughly 2-3 hours reading material, etc., although this will vary from person to person.

While they have a specific start and end date and will follow a weekly schedule (for example, week 1 will cover topic A, week 2 will cover topic B), our tutor-led online courses are designed to be flexible and as such would normally not require participants to be online for a specific day of the week or time of the day (although some tutors may try to schedule times where participants can be online together for web seminars, which will be recorded so that those who are unable to be online at certain times are able to access material).

Unless otherwise stated, all course material will be posted on the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) so that they can be accessed at any time throughout the duration of the course and interaction with your tutor and fellow participants will take place through a variety of different ways which will allow for both synchronous and asynchronous learning (discussion boards,etc).

Certificate of Participation

A Certificate of Participation will be awarded to participants who contribute constructively to weekly discussions and exercises/assignments for the duration of the course.

What our students say: 

"It was lively and informed and the tutor contributed hugely to this."

"I appreciated how Andrew took the time to interact with the forums, offer interesting advice and different perspectives on the subject as well as fascinating materials promoting further enquiry and study."

"Very personalized approach. I enjoyed it very much"

Entry requirements

This course is open to everyone, and you don’t need any previous knowledge or experience of the subject to attend.

Our short courses are designed especially for adult learners who want to advance their personal or professional development. They are taught by tutors who are expert in both their subjects and in teaching students of all ages and experiences.

Please note that all teaching is in English. You should have near-native command of the English language in order to get the maximum benefit from the course.