Hitler certainly enjoyed a great deal of success in these years and I feel that it was due to a mixture of the above factors. I will explore how each contributed to Hitler’s success and also how, in some cases they presented a hindrance.

   The Geneva disarmament conference in February 1933 presented a favourable opportunity to Hitler as the British prime minister Ramsay Macdonald suggested after Hitler urged disarmament for all that the French army be reduced to 200 000 men and the German army be increased to 200 000 putting Germany on par with the French, a basis for his first goal in foreign policy, to isolate France. Whether this is counted as circumstance or skill is debatable as it is hard to say how much influence Hitler actually had in Macdonald’s proposal but how Hitler reacted after the French rejection of this  was certainly very skillful on his part. He was given the opportunity to walk out of the conference and subsequently out of the League of Nations on the grounds of being unfairly treated. This aroused more international support for Hitler and less for France which helped a great deal in Hitler’s subsequent actions as they suddenly became less radical. It was also another step towards isolating France.

Germany’s departure from the League of Nations also meant that they could not keep as close an eye on what they were doing and they couldn’t step in as heavily if they stepped out of line. This was mostly Hitler’s doing but would also fit the category of circumstance too as if France had accepted the proposal maybe public support would not have dwindled for France at all which was not favourable to Hitler, as it happens though France helped a great deal by being stubborn. To contribute even more to the circumstantial side of the argument, Hitler had always intended to take this course of action and so it was not quick thinking on Hitler’s part at all, it was the circumstances that made the situation much more favourable.

    Hitler’s next course of action was to sign a non-aggression pact with Poland for 10 years. It is hard to consider this move as anything other than a well thought out diplomatic move on the part of Hitler as this had many favourable consequences, but also I feel, one major problem. Poland was an old enemy of Germany for many reasons and to make and alliance with them presented Hitler as a fair diplomatic person. It was met with admiration from other countries such as Britain who Hitler, at the time, hoped to ultimately ally with. Yes it was a smart move in this sense but an even smarter move on a personal level for Hitler. He had cooled the interest in Germany’s infringements of the Versailles treaty as well as gaining support while further declining support for France who were still skeptical of Hitler. Looking further into the situation he had also started to undermine the alliance between the other European countries encircling Germany. Poland was allied to France and Germany’s attachment started to diminish France’s influence.

Looking even deeper, this provided the foundations for Hitler’s overall aim in foreign policy which when laid out very plainly looks something like this: to take over Rhineland, Anschluss with Austria, Sudetenland and finally Poland. This shows a very smart move thinking way ahead. Poland now would not expect Germany to invade and provided an easy opportunity for Hitler to invade in 1939. It can be argued that this was not so smart as it made the invasion of Poland, the main trigger of the war , so much more criminal in the eyes of the world as he had effectively stabbed them in the back, but for the meantime this was a very smart move.

     The next factor is not so much a success as it is a terrible failure as it proved that despite his efforts Hitler was still diplomatically weak. Hitler’s façade of a Nazi overthrowing the Austrian government by assassinating Chancellor Dollfus was met with anger from the Italian government off the fear of Anschluss between Germany and Austria. Hitler was therefore forced to claim no involvement in the events at all which made him seem weak and isolated.

     A major propaganda success happened in 1935 regarding the control of the Saar coalfields returning to Germany after 15 years. Hitler and Gobbels helped this campaign with very well administered propaganda but ultimately it was the people of the Saar region who voted for the return to German control. This was a handy piece of diplomacy as it was a morale booster for the people of Germany that part of their country was returned and also as Hitler was slowly but surely gaining trust and slowly putting together the empire Germany had sought after for centuries. It was also a step towards loosening the tight grip of the Treaty of Versailles.

   In the years of 1933-35 Hitler had succeeded in perceiving Germany in a positive light and France in a negative light. Cleverly, all of Hitler’s actions appeared to be confined to the stipulations of the Versailles treaty so he was effectively doing nothing wrong in trying to gain favour for Germany which gained international support.

   The Manchurian crisis of 1933 presented another favourable circumstance to Hitler. Germany had absolutely no involvement in this crisis at all and, to Hitler’s favour, neither did the League of Nations. They saw no reason to waste good time and money on a country on the other side of the world when it could be used much more effectively back home. This action was certainly food for thought to the resident dictators of Europe.

We now see a great deal of confidence in Hitler’s motives. It is now that the major rearmament begins and he has no second thoughts on boasting about it.

   Hitler subsequently announced on the back of these circumstances, it is hard to say whether he would have dared to do this otherwise, basically that he had increased the size of the army and he had now formed a considerable Luftwaffe. The announcement had the cocky sound of “so what is anybody going to do about it?” the answer was nothing and so it continued until finally the Stresa front stepped in. However, they seemed to do little more than tell him off and it was hardly effective as most of the countries, Russia included, wanted no part of it which was just further encouragement for Hitler to act.

Whatever little sanctions were enforced were soon broken when the Anglo-German naval agreement was signed. This may seem like a smart piece of diplomacy but in reality the agreement itself was not entirely favourable to Germany as it allowed a navy 35% the size of Britain’s. The major factor in it was the allowance to build submarines. It is the perception of this that made it more circumstantial. Britain thought of it as a way of taming Hitler while Germany saw it as an opportunity to rearm further as it was now approved of by others. Either way I’d say this was more circumstantial as it may not have favoured Hitler, or indeed may never have happened if Hitler had not appeared as a reasonable person at the time.

The problem was that this had a knock-on effect that caused even more circumstantial favour for Hitler as now Mussolini decided that if Hitler could take advantage of a situation to expand, so could he.

   Italy’s invasion of Abysinnia was a major circumstantial factor in Hiter’s success as the situation was so poorly dealt with that Hitler thought that there was nothing he now could now do which would be severely dealt with.

   Italy invaded and eventually a deal was reached called the Hoare-Laval pact which was met with disgust from both Abysinnia and Italy as for what Italy gained out of it was hardly worth the effort and for all the trouble it caused was certainly not worth it.

   I can imagine Hitler was overjoyed that Mussolini decided to act at this time as it could not have been any worse an idea. I say this as Abysinna was a respected, Christian country with a highly respected emperor and so the sudden invasion was greeted with contempt by other nations including, significantly, those in the Stresa front. So without lifting a finger Hitler had seen the Stresa front, a key aspect in isolating Germany crumble before his eyes and to add to it had seen the League of nations do next to nothing about it. They imposed meaningless sanctions on Italy, they still had access to oil, coal and the Suez canal so they could effectively go on as normal.

   These favourable circumstances certainly allowed Hitler to take action unopposed which is why they are so important.

With all eyes on Abysinna Hitler, and Hitler alone as it happens, decided that it was time to begin his true aims of foreign policy and remilitarise the Rhineland. Fortunately, due to a minor piece of diplomacy that was very effective the army now answered to Hitler alone allowing him to bypass the high-command and continue with the invasion.

There was a degree of skill in the invasion as it was not a full-on all guns blazing assault but a small army marching into the territory with very little resistance, the idea being to pull back if they encountered any from France. As it happens they didn’t which can also be considered as a circumstantial reason for success as they might never have succeeded had France opposed. It also paved the way for further action as Britain decided to appease Hitler rather than step in at this point. This undermined French influence on Germany as they were not prepared to fight Germany alone.

So at this point Hitler had now achieved his primary goals. He had perceived himself as a fair, diplomatic person while slowly undermining French influence in Europe so despite a few snags along the way Hitler was very successful.

    In conclusion I can say that it was mainly circumstantial that Hitler achieved success but it would not have happened on it’s own. The main reason for the success was Hitler’s ability to act at the right moment and to turn the circumstances in his favour through diplomacy. However the key point is that hardly any of his actions would have been possible were it not for the circumstantial background on which they were based.

At Stalingrad in 1942 the Russian army, divided and starving were hanging by a thread and the line between victory and defeat was extremely narrow. Despite these odds the Red army would succeed in driving their enemy out of Stalingrad and eventually out of Russia.

There were obviously some major tactical decisions made in this success but were they alone the main reason for this remarkable victory?

   The background to the battle is very important as it contributes suggestions as to how the opportunity for a Russian victory came about.

   In 1939 the Nazi-Soviet non aggression pact was signed by both parties in Moscow. This agreed to a policy of non violence in any way towards each other but their were always going to be personal flaws in this plan.

Hitler saw this as an opportunity to divert Stalin’s attention elsewhere while he came up with a way to catch Russia off guard and invade. Stalin’s attention was diverted but only to forming an alliance against Germany with Britain and France. This conflict that was secretly brewing was unsettling for both nations. Hitler had always strived for Lebensraum, living space for the German citizens and the only way to achieve it was to invade Russia. He believed that with Stalin’s attention distracted and his army immobile he would quite easily be able to take territory around the German border.

The result was operation Barbarossa which Hitler launched in 1941 to attempt to take Russian territory. The plan failed due to Stalin predicting the point of attack. Here Russia’s supply line was immaculate. The allies provided backup aircraft and tanks and all Soviet factories were hard to get to and miles away from German reach. Stalin knew this and it was a major tactical move which also played a part in the main battle the year after. Stalin’s policy of scorched earth where everything in the path of the retreat was incinerated proved vital as well as the German army had no cover and no food supply. Aggressive soviet tactics and brutal combat also proved successful. This laid the basis for a full invasion of Russia in 1942 and the tactics deployed in 1941 also came in handy in the next year.

The German army advanced into Russia in persuit of the vast oil fields that occupied the area and the invasion was officially underway.

    Firstly, I will look at the Russian tactics side of the argument and argue how each instance both helped and hindered the Russian cause.

Fundamentally the Russian tactics were tried and tested policies from past experiences and they proved very effective against an army unfamiliar with the terrain and necessary tactics.

  Upon meeting the German army the tried and tested Scorched earth policy was engaged as the army defending the border retreated which rendered useless any objects that may have proved helpful to the German cause. This had worked before and certainly helped this time as supplies to the German army were terminally slowed down which bought precious time for the Red army throughout the conflict. The problem was that the Germans had almost played them at their own game with the policy of Blitzkrieg which destroyed most of the terrain and was a great deal more deliberate and calculated than scorched earth. It also made it hard for the Russians to hide as wherever they went they left a trail of burning destruction!

   Another policy used to massive effect originated from the days of Lenin and Trotsky and were used in the victory of the Bolshevik army in the Russian civil war in 1921. This was the policy of War Communism which concentrated all food production towards supplying the army and set all factories on mass production of weapons and ammunition as well as recruiting volunteers to produce the above. This was a very effective process and ensured that the army could keep going at all costs. The main problem was that in 1921 it had caused widespread riots and famine which meant that if any more troops were needed in the form of volunteers they would only get starving, disgruntled peasants which was a major disadvantage. The same happened this time around but the policy was so crucial that the plight of the peasants had to be ignored, not that Stalin was too bothered about peasants anyway. The policy of war Communism was also very hard to enforce in a country the size of Russia and there were problems with collection and transport of the mass produced goods, especially in winter when the trains were practically useless due to frozen tracks.

    Once the Red army had retreated as far as Stalingrad they felt the time was right to dig in and defend their country. This strategy of defending Stalingrad at all costs was very beneficial to the Russian army as there were many points in the city which could be much easily defended than a wide open space. However, it was not necessarily out of choice, at least not Soviet choice, that Stalingrad was chosen as the point to stay put which I will explain about later.

The general tactic here was to prevent the fall of Stalingrad at all costs. This proved to be very successful and Stalin’s attitude towards human resources, shown very plainly in the quote from Stalin himself that:

“one death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic” was very morbid but also crucial to the success at Stalingrad and elsewhere.

Stalin’s orders were to send waves of soldiers to their deaths as suicide bombers or to act as a decoy while others attacked. This attitude made for a successful defence of his country but no matter how great a victory this was Stalin would always be seen as a tyrant in the eyes of the world which gave Russia a bad reputation. His immaculate use of Russia’s most prized military asset, the “Gods of War” their massive artillery divisions. The artillery had a larger range and was more accurate than the German equivalent which was effectively redundant for the reasons I explained above. Kuichov, the Russian general in charge was also, by orders of Stalin, allowed to risk his soldiers lives by aiming it close to where the close contact fighting was taking place. The belief was that they would hit the enemy as well as their own troops.

   Following on from the previous, the combat was ordered to be carried out at very close quarters with the enemy, preferably vicious hand to hand combat. The theory was that Paulus, the German Major General, would be conservative in his use of deadly artillery as his army off 200 000 men, miles from shelter and supply needed to be helped as much as possible, not be depleted by his own artillery. This worked a treat as the Russian army were more determined and vicious than the German soldiers. One instance quoted from a soldier known as Tanya says that “we saw the German soldiers not as human beings but as monsters” this led her to lead a group of evacuees through the sewers of Stalingrad all the way behind enemy lines savagely killing any German troop that got in her way. She was captured but a Russian cooperative explained that she was working for him. She was very lucky.

   The individual acts of bravery can also be described as a positive point to say that it was Russia who won rather than Germany lost this battle. There were many who had to act independently as the army at Stalingrad was hiding in any available building cut off from their generals. The most famous case was the defence by a small group of Russian soldiers of a block of flats on the outskirts of Stalingrad for over 50 days. The leader was a man named Pavlov and their main weapons were home made Molotov cocktails, light machine guns and an anti tank gun which proved the difference maker. The gun was on the roof, out of the reach of any threat. The German tanks could not raise the barrel to that height and so the gun destroyed any armoured vehicle in range. They eventually were relieved by another unit and amazingly many of them survived.

The German army was exhausted and starving yet the Russian’s were fairly well prepared as Kuichov had stored warehouses full of chocolate and Vodka. The chocolate certainly helped but the Vodka was probably a bad idea as many troops decided to drown their sorrows with it! It might well have helped to raise moral as it was a way of keeping warm and helped with nerves as well as being an effective disinfectant. It could also be used as a makeshift molotov.
The German army had no such supplies and were not prepared as Hitler had anticipated a swift and speedy victory over the red army. This lack of preparation is perhaps one of the deciding factors in the battle.

   The superb timing of Russia’s final counter attack is said to be the main reason for Russia’s victory and it is reasonable to assume that this was the turning point. They held out until winter which they knew from experience the German army would crumble to after the Soviet victory at Moscow in winter 1941. The main problem was that the Russian army hadn’t anticipated that the winter was not as harsh as normal. The usually frozen rivers, a great supply line and a death trap for enemies were dangerously flowing with ice which made them impossible to transport supplies by foot or boat and it would be suicidal to attempt to retreat over them. It could be argued that the Russians had no choice but to attack now. The fighting was heavily concentrated to the right of the city. When relief arrived those relieved headed left. The Russian spy aircraft had seen a weakness in Paulus’s left flank and this was the main focus of the Russian offensive. The offensive was seen very late by Germany who were on the back foot by the time they sent reinforcements and it was possibly too late to do anything about it.

Name:    Adolf Hitler
Country: Germany
Born:      20/4/1889  
Died:      30/4/1945
Title(s):   Reichsfuhrer, chancellor, commander-in-chief

The infamous Fuhrer of Germany throughout the war.
Having joined the fledgling Nazi party in 1920 after serving as a messenger in the great war of 1914-1919 Hitler held strong beliefs that the German army was "stabbed in the back". He never accepted that the German army was soundly defeated and he would exclaim that the "November criminals", that is the people who signed the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 were traitors to Germany.
This formed the basis of his manefesto, to destroy the evil treaty and to bring the November criminals to justice.
This appealed to many people, not just the public but also powerful people like President Paul Von Hindenburg who shared Hitler's military roots having been a field marshal in World war one.
In 1923 Hitler decided that his root to power was by force. In a plot inspired by the success of Mussolini's March on Rome in 1920, Hitler attempted a Coup de etat in the Munich Beerhall Putsch. It was a disaster as the resistance they encountered was much too strong for the Nazi soldiers. Hermann Goering was shot in the leg and the man next to Hitler was shot dead.
Hitler was sentenced to 4 years in prison.
His sentence was cut to a mere 6 months due to sympathy from president Hindenburg and the other old conservatives. It was while in prison that he wrote his famous book Mein Kampf or "My Struggle".
Germany in the 1920's was under the control of the Weimar republic, so called due to it's place of establishment in the Weimar region due to the chaos sweeping the capital Berlin in 1919. This republic was something new to Germany and was not overly successful, most say it was a disaster for Germany and was a factor in the rise of Hitler to power. Hitler's dictatorship was echoing of the glory days of the second Reich before the disasterous democracy had taken over.
In the 20's Germany was under the leadership of Gustav Stresemann who brought peace and short lived prosperity to a troubled nation. Under Stresemann Germany stopped the hyperinflation threatening the economy in the early 20's and took out loans from the USA to help ease the crippling debts brought on by the Treaty of Versailles. It also joined the league of nations placing Germany back on the world stage once more. His death in 1929 is now seen as a disaster to the
world.
The Nazi party at this time was largely insignificant averaging about 3% of votes and only a few seats in the Reichstag. Things were soon to change.
In 1929 the Wall street crash crippled Germany due to the US loans. The USA demanded them back and Germany simply couldn't pay. This threatened a return of the hyperinflation which ruined the German economy in the 20's and people started to seek alternatives to the democracy.
In January 1933 Hitler was made chancellor by Hindenburg who believed he could keep Hitler under control by placing Von Papen as Vice Chancellor.
This plan was an initial success but was doomed to failure in February. The Reichstag fire in Feb 1933 is rumored to have been started by the nazi's themselves in a ploy to creat chaos. Hitler ceased this opportunity to pursuade Hindenburg to pass Article 48 of the constitution. This allowed that in an emergency the chancellor could rule without the consent of the Reichstag. Hitler blamed the fire on a young Dutch communist named Van Der Lubbe. This was, according to Hitler, the sign of an imminent communist takeover, the kind that had threatened the western world for 2 decades. this was to be avoided at all costs so Hindenburg issued the decree "for the protection of people and the state".
Immediately Hitler ordered the arrest of all communists in Germany. The SA savagely beat and arrested any communist they could find.
Communists were also banned from the Reichstag which meant they couldn't vote against the Nazi party.
The Nazis needed a 2 thirds majority to be able to pass laws. They achieved 44 percent on their own. To make up the 66 percent needed they combined their votes with the SPD's to give them the power to make laws.
Hitler was now in a real position of power. Hindenburg passed the Enabling act allowing Hitler dictatorship powers for 4 years, Von papen was removed and the Chancellor soon became Fuhrer with Hindenburg's death in 1934.
Hitler soon ridded himself of all opposition, in June 1934 Hitler purged his party of key opposition figures such as Gregor Strasser and Ernst Roehm.
Hitler would then turn his attention to setting up his state while building a foreign policy for the future. Hitler set up a party with men of loyalty over ability. His system of "working towards the Fuhrer" where promotion and power was gained on the basis of impresing Hitler, it allowed him to be very lazy in his approach to office. Hitler would often sleep until noon and turn up at work at around 2 in the afternoon. His working day finished at 5. He worked only 3 days a week and spent much of his time in his mountain retreat watching films and pouring over maps.
His understudies did all of the work which allowed them to shape their own personal empires.
In 1935 Hitler made Hermann Goering head of the Luftwaffe which he unveiled in late 1935. Hitler intened to take over Europe but cautiously. He had gained the favour of many powers with his "peaceful" approach. They didn't care how he ran his state...that was his problem.
In 1936 Hitler decided to take his first step in conquering Europe by seizing back the Rhineland which was a demilitarised zone on order of the Versailles treaty.
It was a plan which met opposition from the conservative generals who were still in place, and even from Hermann Goering. The order was to invade but turn back at the first sign of opposition. They met none whatsoever and were given a hero's welcome when they marched into the region.
The western powers chose to ignore it. The USA was isolationist and didn't care to interfere and Britain merely adopted a policy of appeasement. France was undergoing a political crisis and was trowing all of it's money and resources into the Maginot line, a defencive line between it and Germany.
From here, Hitler decided that Anschluss with Austria was his next aim. Again, in defiance of the Versailes treaty. This plan was carried out differently. A previous attempt at Anschluss in 1934 had been thwarted. Hitler had tried to force his way into power after the chaos insued by the assassination of Austrian emperor Dolfuss but Hilter was thwarted by Mussolini who moved to counter Hitler's invasion at the Brenner pass. There was no military action but Hitler realised he needed Mussolini on his side.
This was remedied by march 1938 when the second attempt at Anschluss occured.
Hitler ordered the Austrian Nazi Leader Syess-Enquarz to stir up trouble in the Austrian Heirarchy and to rally support for Anschluss. It was met with huge popularity and Hitler's invasion was again cheered by the Austrian peoples. It was clear that the invasion wasn't intended to be forceful. Most of Hitler's tanks broke down and even had to refuel at public petrol stations! Austria now bacame Ostmark, a province of the reich.
The next target, the Sudetenland on the border of Germany and Czechoslovakia was home to many Germans. Hitler's proposed invasion was carried out and this time Britain chose to step in. Neville Chamberlain, PM of Britain carried out his shuttle deplomacy on three visits to Germany. He agreed that Hitler should be appeased once more and he agreed that the Sudetenland, due to it's German population should be handed over to Germany. Hitler had not forseen this, Hitler at this point was ready for a "nice little war" to further test his army having supported general Franco in the Spanish civil war. The Sudetenland had been handed to him on a plate. Hitler now knew that Chamberlain was not inclined to stop him with force and he threw caution to the wind.
With the Sudetenland gone Hitler took over the rest of Czechoslovakia as it was rendered defenceless. This time no real action was taken but for the first time US president Roosevelt condemned the Nazi actions.
Hitler now had his sights on his final target, Poland. He knew that he may have gone too far and so his tactics were altered again. Hitler had not planned an invasion of Poland until 1941-3 but seeing as everything had fallen so easily he decided that there was no time like the present.
Hitler used propaganda as a tool, he sent German troops into Poland to shoot some Polish troops and switch their uniforms to German ones. Photographs were then taken and published to show that Poland had shot dead some German troops. This was an excuse for war. Before he could invade however, Hitler needed to make sure that the main threat from the east, the USSR would not be opposed to him. Hitler could not fight a 2 front war...he wasn't ready. Hitler agreed to meet Stalin to discuss what was billed as "trading", in reality it was an agreement to carve up Poland between them in exchange for none aggression against each other. This agreement was to prove was loyal as the "piece of paper" between Hitler and Chamberlain a few months earlier.
Hitler invaded Poland and encountered resistance. Subsequently, agreements with Britain and France resulted in Hitler's little war becoming a full blown European conflict.
Hitler invaded France and defeated the British Expeditionary force resulting in them having to evacuate to Dunkirk in 1940.
France surrendered on the 22nd of June 1940.
The battle of the Atlantic was still going on between Canada, Britain and Germany long after this.
Hitler finally bit off more then he could chew when his planned invasion of England was thwarted on the Kentish coast by the RAF. The Luftwaffe's pounding of the radar stations and bases on the south coast had given heed of an imminent invasion. Britain's superiority in the skys as well as in the water was clear and the invasion was repelled by late 1940.
It was downhill from here for the Axis. In 1941 Hitler again made a poor decision. His invasion of the Soviet Union was an initial roaring success seising huge amounts of land in the Baltic and southern Russia. However, Hitler couldn't prolong the invasion due to the harsh winter, his defeat at the battle of Moscow in 1941 pushed his army back.
Also in 1941 Hitler declared war on the USA believing his army to be mighty enough to cope.
Hitler's war in the USSR was ended in 1943 when his army found themselves surrounded at Stalingrad, they had no choice but to withdraw.
Germany was now in a bad position having lost at Stalingrad and in Al Alamein.
Hitler's army was on it's way to defeat in June 1944 when the allied forces invaded France. Soon after Cherbourg was liberated and then Paris while opperation Market garden liberated several key points in Holland and Belgium.
With the Allies marching on Berlin and the Soviets closing in from the East Hitler finally accepted that he was defeated.
On the 30th of April 1945 Hitler committed suicide in his Fuhrerbunker having witnessed the collapse of his empire.
This ended the war in Europe.

 

 

Name: Heinrich Himmler

Country: Germany

Born: 7/10/1900

Died:  23/5/1945

Title(s): Reichsfuhrer of SS, Gestapo and police, organiser of holocaust

Himmler was born into a middle class Bavarian family on the 7^th of May 1900.

In his early days he was a chicken farmer in the country side near Munich but he had enlisted as a cadet prior to World War 1 and joined the 11^th Bavarian regiment.

Himmler was present throughout the war training to become an officer, he never actually fought on the frontline and was discharged from the military after the war ended in November 1918.

His military background would later lead him to sympathise with Hitler’s “stab in the back theory” and would lead to his admiration of the Nazi party which he joined in 1923.

His motive for joining, apart from his belief in the November criminals was the development of the early SA stormtroopers. Both Hitler and Himmler had been admirers of the German Stormtroopers fighting in the trenches of world war 1.

They were a revolution, they were quick and nippy as opposed to the average soldier who had to carry a heavy pack weighing upwards of 30 kilos.

They carried no backpack, their purpose was to raid the enemy trench as quickly as possible and they were highly trained in close combat.

They wore brown uniforms as opposed to the grey uniforms of the German soldiers, this would be the inspiration for the infamous “brown-shirt” tag of the SA.

At the time the Nazis were looking for ex-soldiers to join and help command the new SA division. Himmler fitted the bill well and he would go on to show a keen interest in bettering the SA ranks. He helped to recruit many members of the Freikorps, a group of ex soldiers who had formed a vigilante group to help divert and avoid another ordeal such as the Spartacist coup, an attempted takeover of the fledgling Weimar government by Marxists.

They were anti-communists as well as ex soldiers who had experienced the “premature” surrender of Germany. They were perfect for the Nazi party.

Himmler was one of the earliest Nazis and was a participant in the failed Beerhall Putsch or 1923, he would remain loyal to his fuhrer despite this failure.

Himmler would go on to join the newly formed SS (the Schutzstaffel) in 1925 and was made deputy Reichsfuhrer SS in 1927. He dropped the deputy tag soon after in 1929 and was made head of the SS. The SS were Nazi through and through. They had strict regulations about who could join and who members could marry. They had to be of Aryan descent. They were the main tool of advertising and boosting the Aryan race.

Himmler was a great admirer of the medieval period and many have compared his SS to a medieval knightly order. There was a great mysticism surrounding them, their headquarters was in Wolfsburg castle and they met under a round stained glass window reminiscent of the knights of the round table from the Arthurian myths. They even used ceremonial robes for meetings of the hierarchy.

Himmler now strove to free the SS of SA control. He discarded the brown shirt and introduced the black uniform which became synonymous with them.

On the Night of the Longknives (30th June 1934) he finally disposed of his rival, the head of the SA Ernst Rohm and took control of the Gestapo away from Hermann Goering. Though they were rivals the two would co-operate for the good of the party.

He was made head of all police in 1936, again taking the title of Chief of Bavarian police away from Goering.

Himmler had built quite the empire, the SS was divided into so many different departments that it looked as if he had a great deal more authority than he actually did.

Himmler led his own campaign of hatred and terror against the Jews and other “heathens” such as homosexuals. He established the first concentration camp at Dachau in 1933, although it wasn’t the same as the later death camps of Auschwitz or Belsen, it was still a means of detaining fugitives. The camp would imprison far less people than the later camps.

His part in the holocaust has led him to be known as one of the most extreme and vicious Nazis. He made many speeches utilizing Nazi ideals and propaganda to justify the extermination of impure peoples. He would often watch through viewing windows in the gas chambers while people were being executed to see his work in action.

During the second world war Himmler would prepare for a “crusade” against the Jews and communists in the east. This idea of a crusade against bolshevism has led many to believe that Himmler was a crazed fantasist and out of touch with reality. This exploit seems like something from a romantic medieval fantasy and not a serious plan, but Himmler was very serious indeed!

During the war Himmler was made interior minister and had almost achieved his hopes of true power had he not displeased Hitler through an attempt to reduce the power of the civil service.

Towards the end of the war Himmler was made a field commander, a role which he was totally out of place in. Yes he had been a soldier, but he never made it to the rank of officer and so had no experience of tactics or warfare.

Needless to say his campaigns were disasterous and his failings contributed to the downfall of the German army, if it wasn’t doomed already.

Himmler’s faith in the German army was damaged, he knew now that peace was the only way around a disasterous defeat.

His negotiations were not a success and his involvement meant that Himmler was stripped of all of his positions by Hitler before he died.

Himmler refused to accept that he was a traitor and again tried to convince the allies that he wanted to surrender.

His attempts were futile and he was captured and imprisoned by the allies.

He committed suicide rather than stand trial for war crimes which would probably see him executed anyway. He was found dead in his cell on the 23^rd of May 1945 after taking a poison thought to be cyanide.