Nazism and the Rise of Hitler Class9 History Solutions: NCERT Solutions of the questions given the chapter exercises. Comprehensive answers to all questions are given here for the chapter ‘Nazism and the rise of Hitler’. Where possible, proper headings are associated with the answers.

Nazism and the Rise of Hitler: Solutions Class 9 History

1. Describe the problems faced by the Weimar Republic.

The Weimer Republic was beset with problems from its very beginning. It was blamed for accepting the Treaty of Versailles and defeat of Germany. Economic depression deepened the problems of people. The result was the failure of Republic and the rise of dictatorship of Hitler.

Political Crisis: The proportional representation made it impossible for a party to secure majority in the German Parliament. Coalitions were formed and govts fell on an average every 249 days.

Article 48 gave the President the power to impose emergency and rule by decree. This article was used to suspend civil liberties.

Economic crisis: The German government had fought the war on loans. The war reparations had to be paid in gold leading to depletion of its reserves.

The value of Mark fell drastically during Years of Great Depression leading to soaring food prices. People were fed up of the Republican Government which was failing to solve their economic problems.

Treaty of Versailles (War guilt and Reparations): The German nationalists hated this treaty. It was considered as the treaty of humiliation as Germany lost all its major resource areas to the allied powers and had to pay a compensation of 6 billion dollars.

This treaty was used by nationalists and opposition to raise the issue of national Pride and Dignity of German people. It was also seen as the root cause of problems of the German people.

2. Discuss why Nazism became popular in Germany by 1930.

Failure of Weimar Republic: After the defeat in the First World War a lot of social and political instability took place like the treaty of Versailles, there was starvation, devastation, unemployment. Weimar Republic failed to solve the economic crises of the country and which later led to the Great Economic Depression. This provided a golden opportunity for the Nazis to launch a campaign in its favour.

Nazi propaganda was unique: Red banners with the Swastika, Nazi salute and the rounds of applause attracted the people making Nazism very popular.

Hitler’s Personality: Hitler was a powerful speaker, an able organizer, resourceful person and a man of actions. He could mobilize the mass in his favour by his passionate words. He promised to build a strong nation, undo the injustice of the Versailles Treaty and restore the dignity of the German people. In fact, his personality and actions contributed maximum to the popularity of Nazism in Germany.

3. What are the peculiar features of Nazi Germany?

The Nazi ideology was based on Hitler’s worldview. This ideology had two core features – racial inequality and the concept of Lebensraum or living spaces. These two core features were adopted to make Germany an empire with the best Aryan races of Germans.

Racial Hierarchy

• Nordic German Aryans were the finest race while Jews were at the lowest rung.
• Jews were considered arch enemies of The Aryans.
• There was also a category of undesirables put between the healthy Aryans and the Jews.
• Hitler borrowed his racism from Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection and Herbert Spenser’s ‘Survival of the Fittest’.

Geopolitical Lebensraum

• Hitler believed in acquiring new territories to concentrate all the Germans geographically in one place.
• Acquiring territories would enlarge the area of the mother country.
• New material resources would be available for economic prosperity and food supplies.
• He aimed eastward for expansion and Poland became the laboratory for this experiment.

Q. 4. Explain why Nazi propaganda was effective in creating a hatred for Jews.  

Ans. Nazi propaganda was effective in creating hatred for the Jews –  

• Language and media were used effectively and with great care by the Nazis following the racial theory that the Jews belonged to a lower race and considered undesirable.  
• To justify their hatred towards the Jews, they promoted and exploited people with the idea of traditional Christian hatred for the Jews, because they were accused to have killed Christ, in order to make the Germans pre-judicial against the Jews.  
• The Nazis injected hatred against the Jews even in the minds of the children through schools where they were taught to be aggressive and conservative about the purity of their race. The teachers who were Jews were dismissed and Jews children were thrown out of the schools. Such methods and new ideological training to the new generation of children went a long way in making the Nazi’s propaganda quite effective in creating hatred for the Jews.  
• Propaganda films were made to create hatred for the Jews. Orthodox Jews were stereotyped and marked. For example, one such film was ‘The Eternal Jew’.  

Q. 5. Explain what role women had in Nazi society. Return to Chapter 1 on the French Revolution. Write a paragraph comparing and contrasting the role of women in the two periods.  

Ans. The role and status of women appear in contrast during the two periods.

Role of Women in Nazi Society: It followed the rules of largely patriarchal or male-dominated society. Hitler hailed women as ‘the most important citizen’ in his Germany, but this was true for only Aryan Women who bred pure-blood, ‘desirable’ Aryans. Medals were given to the women considering how many kids she has, from gold, silver and bronze. Girls from childhood were only taught the goals of being a good and obedient wife.  

Role of Women during the French Revolution: There is a major contrast to the role of women in the French Revolution where they led movements and fought for their rights to education and equal wages. They were allowed to form political clubs and schooling was made compulsory for them after the French Revolution.   

Q. 6. In what ways did the Nazi state seek to establish total control over its people?

Ans. The Nazis established control over its people by various means as listed below:

• They used different propaganda methods through posters or films to glorify their behaviour.  
• They were very careful with their language in the media especially with words like kill or murders were not used.  
• Media was carefully used to win support for the regime and popularise it.  
• Special surveillance and security forces to control and order society in ways that the Nazis wanted, was created.  
• The police forces had powers to rule with impunity.  
• Holocaust also created an atmosphere of fear and repression which helped them to establish total control over its people.