So Much Can Happen in 100 Days, Just Look at 1933
In 1933, the US embarked on the New Deal while Germany transformed a republic into a reich - all within 100 days
Nineteen thirty-three was truly an extraordinary year for the world. Decisions made by leaders in the United States and Germany not only set a course for an unavoidable global conflict, they also established a foundation that would change the trajectory of these two nations for decades to come. And in both countries, the first 100 days became indicative of their respective futures.
In America, the continued struggle to recover from the Great Depression ravaged the nation. Unemployment had reached staggering levels of 25%, prices deflated by 20%, and manufacturing output was down 33%.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, determined to save the economy set forth his New Deal program centered around relief for the unemployed and poor, recovery of the economy, and reformation of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression (the 3 R’s).
Meanwhile, in Germany, also struggling from the effects of the Great Depression, the National Socialist Party (Nazi) which had been gaining in popularity through the 1920s, had finally gained enough power and influence in the Reichstag. As a result, the parliamentary 1932 elections failed to produce a majority government. Then President Paul von Hindenburg reluctantly appointed Adolf Hitler to Chancellor.
Hindenburg did so making the mistake of thinking that by placing Hitler as Chancellor, a man so polarizing he had already avoided assassination attempts, the President could better tame the Nazi Party. He was wrong; and following the Reichstag fire in late February of 1933, Hitler was made dictator of Germany.
FDR’s New Deal, The Beginning of the Third Reich
FDR’s New Deal was underway in March of 1933. He created a Federal Emergency Relief Administration and spent $500MM on soup kitchens, blankets, nurseries, and employment opportunities. He helped create the Civilian Conservation Corp which set out to put unemployed men to work on conservation projects throughout the summer of 1933.
The New Deal helped farmers through setting quotas and adjusting price limits. It also created the Tennessee Valley Authority, which dammed up sections of the Tennessee River to create hydroelectricity - the first time federal government competed against private companies in providing electricity.
While these programs set out to restore prosperity in America, they were met with a fair amount of criticism. Similar to tones of today, Democratic reformists felt the New Deal wasn’t aggressive enough, and Republicans felt that FDR had overstepped his authority and was spending too much and inserting the federal government into too many walks of private industry.
Across the Atlantic Ocean, the German transformation was far more sinister. Hitler had declared the Third Reich and its first concentration camp, Dachau, was opened in March. Press that showed any contempt for his government were censored. Jewish-owned business are boycotted, and the Law for Restoration of the Professional Civil Service is passed requiring all ‘non-Aryans’ to retire from both legal professions and civil service.
By May, massive public book burnings littered the German landscape and the Gestapo, Germany’s secret state police, were on full patrol targeting church organizations that did not accommodate, collaborate, or comply with the Nazi Party. They increased the arrests of political opponents, trade union members, and homosexuals. With the end of May approaching, the Nazi Party introduced a law to legalize eugenic sterilization.
Leaders on the Airwaves
The Nazi propaganda machine kicked into high gear under Joseph Goebbels as the idea of Volsgemeinschaft (‘the people’s community’) saturated the radio waves across Germany. Having seized control of the media, Hitler and the Nazis had direct channels to its citizens, aiming to deliver maximal emotional effect.
FDR too deployed the power of the radio back in America. He started a series of fireside chats. From 1933 through 1944, he gave 30 presidential radio addresses directed to the American people.
For the first time in the history of the United States, a large segment of the population was able to hear directly from the President. Through this medium, he addressed his policies directly to the American people, combatted any rumors that sprung up, and helped garner support for his progressive policies.
According to some historians, the fireside chats generated a remarkable turnaround in the public’s confidence in the economy. Within two weeks of a chat explaining the creation of federal deposit insurance, half of the cash that had been hoarded made its way back into the financial system.
As Americans listened intently to its president, FDR would successfully lead the passing of 76 laws within his first 100 days. Many of these, not surprisingly, were directed towards economic recovery. His extraordinary productivity during this time garnered him tremendous popularity and became the standard by which subsequent presidents measure their first 100 days.
In Germany, the airwaves also increased its population’s sentiment towards its political leaders - the Nazi Party. So much so that as summer approached, the republic that was once Germany had disappeared. Under a permanent ‘state of siege’ issued by the Nazis as an emergency decree, the Nazi’s had seized control of nearly everything.
Germans enraptured by Hitler and the Nazi Party embraced the Third Reich. Many, fully aware and actively participating in some of the atrocities targeting German Jews. And others may have quietly sympathized with their plight, but refused to break step. Blinded by their belief that no matter how vile, they were requisite actions needed to restore Germany.
One Hundred Days Later
As FDR’s first 100 days came to a close, the United States had taken steps towards economic recovery. Though the economy would limp along until the Second World War, his improvisation and imagination to restore America was not focused on cleansing the system; but rather using the system to better American lives.
Additionally, FDR unified a nation through well thought out fireside chats aimed at bringing the nation together as a collective whole with focus around restoration.
Inversely, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party had spent their first 100 days building the foundations of the Third Reich. They aggressively worked to cleanse and destroy the prior political and social systems and consolidate power.
Hitler too sought to unify the German nation, but did so by drawing a line in the sand. He vilified those who did not meet his vision of a people’s community and his “master race.” He aimed to intentionally divide the country into friend and enemy whilst delivering a message of reckoning to those deemed enemies.
On the heels of this German transformation came some of the most wicked acts the world has ever seen. It would bring about a global conflict that would result in the deaths of some 75 million people and cost over $4 trillion (adjusted for inflation).
Both FDR and Hitler shared surges in popularity for very different reasons. They engaged the men, women, and children of their country in very similar manners. They sought to unify their nations, albeit centered around very different goals and objectives.
My father often reminds me that change is both incredibly slow and dramatically rapid. He sums it up well saying, “things happen slow over time and then all at once.”
For FDR and Hitler, their first 100 days brought about a great deal of change. One extended the federal government further then had ever been done in an effort to save the economy. The other radically changed the fabric of a country, setting its people on a course for extreme violence and global conflict.
What stands out more than what and how both leaders enacted changed within their respective country’s, is the short amount of time in which they achieved it. And it should cause us to wonder, what events took place in the years or decades prior that would have set the table for such an occurrence? In the eyes of history, even little things bring about magnificent consequences.