Germany was accused for starting world war one, and therefore had to accept sole responsibility in 1919. The peace conference was held in Versailles where the allies (Lloyd George- Britain, Clemenceau-France, and Wilson-USA) also known as the 'Big 3' presented their negotiations. Clemenceau, the prime minister of France, however wanted revenge and to punish the Germans bitterly for the damage they had caused in during the war. France won the argument in this peace conference, so therefore Germany lost 13 percent of their land, pay heavy reparations of £6,600 million and lost 10 percent of their industry, along with 15 percent of agriculture. Germany lost their overseas empire, the Rhineland was now occupied by the French and on top of that had to sign an embarrassing war guilt clause. The treaty of Versailles was signed with much protest that many promised to overthrow it and this brought about the identity of the Nazis. The Nazi gave Germany hope as they promised to regain power and honour by abolishing this treaty, and not abide by the punishments laid upon them like reoccupying Rhineland.
When Germany got rid of the Kaiser's system of government, a new constitution named as the Weimar Republic was formed. This constitution was an attempt to set up a democratic government but it encountered alot of problems like proportional representation. Proportional representation favored alot of small parties and therefore no party got a majority as each got a small number of MPs. This meant that governments had to form coalitions and at times disagreed with each others views. This made the Weimar Republic very weak as it could never be a strong government. The constitution also gave the President, the states and the army too much power, whilst the proportional voting divided the Reichstag. Political crimes and violence escalated during this political instability and both the left and right wing political parties rioted and attacked the state. Nazi identity emerged by taking advantage of the weakness of the Weimar Republic to create their own fascist form of government. The Nazi promised to bring strength and stability, law and order and strong leadership against weak government. Hitler's strong personality and powerful ideas seemed to be just what Germany needed as the Weimar republic appeared indecisive and incompetent.
When the German government did not have enough money to pay for the reparations, the printed more and more money that the government did not have. This meant that the value of money was much less and prices rose higher. Hyperinflation occurred in 1923 which made living very hard as money became worthless and there were extreme poverty. The onset of the Great depression also put Germany in an economic slump. The American loans used to rebuild Germany's economy was now stopped. Taxes were raised, wages were cut and employment arose. People who had lost their jobs suffered poverty, hunger and homelessness. The people of Germany were now very desperate and would listen to any political figure who would promise them a better future. The economic collapse enabled the Nazis to demonstrate their distinctive sense of identity by providing an explanation or promise for every problem. For unemployment the Nazis promised to get people work on road-building and public works. He also promised to abolish reparations which was a burden that Germany could no longer afford to pay. This gave the people of Germany hope and therefore led to the rise of the Nazis.
The Nazi's Racial Policy mostly affected the Jews living in Germany. Hitler believed that the Aryan people who were blue eyed, blond Germans were superior to other races. Hitler claimed that Germany's past problems were due to the fact that the country was not run by racially pure Aryans. Anti semitism was a factor that enabled the Nazis to demonstrate the distinctive sense of identity. The idea was to get rid of Jews especially the ones from positions of power and isolating them from pure Aryans. Jewish homes, shops and synagogues were destroyed all in the means of making Germany a united racially pure Aryan state. Many Jews were persecuted at concentration camps were mass genocide took place. The 'Night of the Broken Glass' is a good example of anti semitism in Germany. Hundreds of synagogues were burnt, and thousands of Jewish businesses were trashed and looted. Jewish people captured were killed as police stood and fire brigade stood by and did nothing. It was called the 'Night of the Broken glass' because of the shattered glasses that littered the streets. So in this identity Hitler and the Nazis used the Jews as a scapegoat because many Germans blamed them for Germany's defeat in World War One.
One of the characteristics of Nazism was the belief of anti democracy. Democracy generally involves elected officials, fair elections, right to run for public office, freedom of expression and the right to form opposition groups. Hitler had no interest in democracy because so far the democratic system of the Weimar government had been a failure and believed that Germany will thrive under one leader only; himself, Adolf Hitler with his fascist ideas. After failing to gain power by force in 1923, the Nazis went on campaigning in a more democratic way and the people of Germany responded well to the intelligent and intimidating speeches of Hitler. As soon as Hitler was elected democratically in 1933, he succeeded in destroying democracy and replaced it with dictatorship. Hitler believed that what Germany needed was a dictator who knew what was best for Germany and this characteristic made the Nazis sense of identity distinctive as Hitler carried out decisions which everyone had to obey with loyalty and any form of opposition was dealt with by the SA, whom were Hitler's special police force.
The national leaders of the Nazis were masters of propaganda and trained local groups in propaganda skills. The Nazis claimed that communism was a threat to the well being of the nation because of its support for class divisions and hostility towards businessmen. An example of propaganda to extend fear and hatred towards communist is the Reichstag fire. On the night of February the Reichstag building was set on fire and inside police found a Dutch communist who was arrested and charged with arson. That same night Prussian police arrested and imprisoned thousands of communist leaders. The next day Hitler persuaded President Hindenburg to pass an emergency decree suspending all articles in constitution for personal liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of press and freedom of assembly were banned. So the anti communist characteristics of Nazism eliminated opposition to their idea of a true fascist state by means of propaganda.
Another characteristic of Nazism was Nationalism. The Nazis believed that Germans were of pure Aryan master race with features of blond hair, blue eyes and certain dimensions of the shape of head and skull. The Nazis wanted all racially pure Germans to feel they were part of the 'Volk' or the 'people's community'. To create this community, churches, political parties or any other organisation which might divert people's attention from being involved in the Volk was abolished by the Nazis. Hitler wanted to win the hearts and minds of the people to do what he wanted them to do. This characteristic made the Nazis distinctive as there was no room for free speech and Nazis made sure that any ideas that opposed Nazism was banished. As the 'master race' Germans were encouraged to have more children in the other means of Nationalism. Since more than a million men had been killed in the First World War, they encouraged the nation to have more children by giving medals such as gold, silver and bronze to the family with the most children. The other races living in Germany such as the Jews, however did not fit this idea of nationalism as they were considered 'pests' and taken to concentration camps. Life was a struggle and the German Aryans were believed to be physically and mentally healthy.
The distinctive sense of identity for the Nazis was successfully established through the harsh Treaty of Versailles, the incompetent Weimar government, the collapse of the economy that caused lots of hunger and poverty. Anti Semitism was also a factor as Hitler believed that the Jews were behind Germany's humiliating defeat in World War One.m Characteristics such as Anti democracy, Anti communism and Nationalism made the Nazis sense of identity distinctive as they used terror such as sending Jews to concentration camps and propaganda such as the Reichstag fire to eliminate communists.



