There had been a constant Jewish presence in the Germanic areas since the Roman era, when Jewish traders followed the Roman legions into the region and then stayed on. During the 1600 years of Jewish life in Germany, Christian anti-Semitism had been rampant, and Jews had been the victims of blood libels, pogroms, and massacres. After the Catholic Church lost ground to the Protestants, Jews thought things would improve. But Protestant leader, Martin Luther, referred to Jews as "parasites" and a "plague" after they rejected his reformed version of Christianity.

By the 1800s, the winds of the "Enlightenment" had swept Europe, and even in Germany, specifically religious anti-Semitism had been largely supplanted by a new and more embracing concept, racial anti-Semitism. Racial theories were popular, and amongst Germans, they took the form of speculation about the nature of the "Aryan" race, which was considered superior to all others.

Amongst German intellectual circles, there was also an embracing of the concept of a return to the pagan origins of the German people, including a worship of nature and of the "natural man." Many intellectuals were blatantly antisemitic. Nietzche, although not especially antisemitic himself, deplored many of the things which Jews stood for, such as protecting the weak, admiring humility, and chiefly, absolute morality based on Divine Law. Nietzche's philosophy later was used by the Nazis as a support for their position. Hermann Ahlwardt, a member of the German Parliament wrote a book called, The War of Desparation between the Aryan People and Judaism -- in 1890, years before Hitler stepped onto the scene.

Most of this anti-Semitism took the form of editorials, publications, discussions in academic circles, or even in youth group activities. It stayed largely within the confines of thought and speech, but not action.

When Hitler started out as a politician, he soon saw that antisemitic vitrolic was a great crowd pleaser. The time of hatred had come.

Hitler's political career took off when he joined a small group called the German Worker's Party. They were representative a large body of German thought which was right-wing, suspicious of the Weimar regime, afraid of Communist influence, and rabidly antisemitic.

The party's first success at attracting attention came when they offered an evening of antisemetic speeches. On a platform combining antisemitic tirades with a romantic image of the Great German people, betrayed by external forces (communists, politicians, Western countries, etc. their popularity grew.

A failed "revolution" attempt in 1923 when his storm troopers surrounded a beer hall full of government officials landed Hitler in prison. He only served 9 months of his 5 year prison sentence, during which he summarized his goals in Mein Kampf (My Struggle). Many right-wing perpetrators of anti-government activity were similarly granted leniency, since a majority of the country shared similar frustrations and unhappiness with the current regime.

Hitler was busy building his support network over the rest of the 1920s. When the 1929 depression hit, Germany was further sunk into economic dissaray. The Nazi's capitalized on this, saying, "We told you so." In the elections of 1930, the Nazi party won 6.5 million votes, to become the second largest party in Germany.

Go on to Nazis Triumphant:1930-1939.