A Warm Welcome

Welcome to our team's website on "The Third Reich". We chose this topic because our entire team was fascinated with this topic. To find out more about our team's fascination with this topic please visit our section "Our Site"

In a nutshell, the Third Reich is one of the most fascinating reigns in history. Why? Its dramatic rise to power is probably the shortest reign (12 years) in history that had so much impact on the world. Many millions of people were affected and this world would have been a vastly different world had the Third Reich succeeded. The Third Reich's central role in World War II, its policies such as the Holocaust had also resulted in many repercussions and changed the face of world history. The fall of the Third Reich was equally dramatic

Why The THIRD REICH?

This was the official name for the Nazi Germany - or Nazi period of government from January,1933, to May, 1945. The term "reich" is a German term to mean reign or rule. During this brief reign, it was under the firm control of Adolf Hitler's dictatorship and the totalitarian ideology of National Socialism. The Third Reich is the English term of the German expression "Das Dritte Reich", and is used to refer to Nazi Germany

The term Nazi is a short form of the German Nationalsozialismus.  The Nazi Party is the short form for the NSDAP (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) or the National Socialist German Workers' Party

The Third Reich was sometimes also referred to as the "Thousand Year Reich", as it was intended by its founder, Adolf Hitler, who believed it would last 1,000 years, as in the case of the Holy Roman Empire. The Nazi Party attempted to combine traditional symbols of Germany with Nazi Party symbols in an effort to reinforce the perception of them as being one and the same. Thus the Nazi Party used the terms "Third Reich" and "Thousand Year Reich" to connect the glorious past and its belief that the reign will last a thousand years.

Initially Hitler's plans seemed to be doing very well. At its height in Spring 1942, the Third Reich controlled the greater part of Europe. However, due to the eventual defeat by the Allied powers in World War II, the Thousand Year Reich in fact lasted only 12 years (from 1933 through to 1945).

The First Reich was the Holy Roman Empire period of the German Nation begun in A.D. 962 when Otto the Great was crowned in Rome.

The great Otto von Bismarck was credited for the founding of the Second Reich (or Reign) during which he became the first Chancellor of Germany from 1871 to 1890. The Hohenzollern dynasty collapsed in 1918 with the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who reigned from 1888-1918. Wilhelm II’s ambitions contributed to the involvement of Germany in World War I. His abdication ended the family's rule in Germany. The Second Reich thus came to an end.

This was followed by the Weimar Republic which lasted from 1918 to 1933. The Weimar Republic was deemed to be a failure in the eyes of Germans. As a result, the next great reign was conceived by Hitler to be the Third Reich which he regarded as an empire that would last a thousand years. Hitler adopted the term 'Third Reich' in the early 1920s after the German writer Arthur Moeller von der Bruck used it as a title for one of his books

Objectives

•To raise awareness about the shortest reign that had the most profound impact in the world - even today

•To enhance the whole learning process by providing comprehensive coverage on the “Third Reich” in concise, easy to understand language.

•To enhance the whole learning process and attract more people to our site by providing a visually appealing platform with many interactive features

•To cater to a wide audience and attract more people to our site by providing a Spanish version as well as a low bandwidth version.