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After the Nazi rise to power in 1933, one of Adolf Hitler's most overt and bellicose moves was to establish the Wehrmacht, a modern offensively-capable armed force, fulfilling the Nazi regime's long-term goals of regaining lost territory as well as gaining new territory and dominating its neighbours.
After the Nazis came to power, they sought to control all aspects of civil society and the state, including the military. Historically, the German armed forces had operated with a great deal of autonomy, which was steadily eroded until they were under the direct control of the Nazis.
The German Army (German: Heer, German: ⓘ; lit. ' army ') was the land forces component of the Wehrmacht, [b] the regular armed forces of Nazi Germany, from 1935 until it effectively ceased to exist in 1945 and then was formally dissolved in August 1946. [4]
In addition to the already extant Weimar government, the Nazi leadership created a large number of different organizations for the purpose of helping them govern and remain in power. They pursued a policy of rearmament and strengthened the Wehrmacht , established an extensive national security apparatus and created the Waffen-SS , the combat ...
Non-Nazi parties were formally outlawed on 14 July 1933, and the Reichstag abdicated its democratic responsibilities. [109] Hindenburg remained commander-in-chief of the military and retained the power to negotiate foreign treaties.
The courts issued and carried out far more death sentences than before the Nazis took power. [198] People who were convicted of three or more offences—even petty ones—could be deemed habitual offenders and jailed indefinitely. [199] People such as prostitutes and pickpockets were judged to be inherently criminal and a threat to the community.
The NSDAP briefly adopted the designation "Nazi" in an attempt to reappropriate the term: an example of this is the serie of articles published by Leopold von Mildenstein on the Völkischer Beobachter under the title Ein Nazi fährt nach Palästina in 1934; [25] but it soon gave up this effort and generally avoided using the term while it was ...
German militarism was a broad cultural and social phenomenon between 1815 and 1945, which developed out of the creation of standing armies in the 18th century. The numerical increase of militaristic structures in the Holy Roman Empire led to an increasing influence of military culture deep into civilian life.