Unit 5: The Popularity and Efficiency of the Nazi Regime



Unit 5: The Popularity and Efficiency of the Nazi Regime

How popular was the Nazi regime?

|Support/Sympathy/Consent/Dictatorship by Consent |

|The widely perceived threat of a Communist seizure of power, the Nazis going out of their way to portray |Other political parties could never be allowed due to Nazi aspirations for authoritarian rule within a |

|their regime as respectable (thus opposition to a legitimate state unthinkable) and the use of propaganda|one-party state. The Communists had been outlawed since the Reichstag fire, the Social Democrats assets |

|(which portrayed this legal seizure of power) all explain why many non-Nazi groups were willing to go |were seized and the party banned and most of the remaining party’s willingly agreed to dissolve themselves.|

|along with the initial phase of Gleischaltung. Germans were happy to disband their institutions |Thus there was no opposition to the decree on the 14th July that proclaimed the Nazi party the only |

|voluntarily or reform them under the Nazi banner. |political party |

|National Socialism involved a rejection of communism, liberalism and Christianity and in their place | |

|uphold the concept of volkgemeinschaft. The purpose was to overcome the old German divisions of class, | |

|religion and politics and to bring about a new collective identity by encouraging people to work together.| |

|This new social mentality aimed to bring together various elements and create a German society built on | |

|the Nazi ideas of race and struggle, uniting traditional German values with this new ideology. The ideal | |

|German image was that of the classic peasant working on the soil in the rural community | |

|Historians are divided over the impact of the Nazi regime on the working class. Others argue that they |Some argue that it was minimal and say that much of Nazi ideology was empty rhetoric and that far from |

|did dislocate existing class structure which can be described as revolutionary |loosening social hierarchy, the regime strengthened class divisions by favouring the interests of big |

| |business |

|6 million jobs were created which attracted working class support. Unemployment fell from 25.9% in 1933 to|However real wages only rose above 1929 levels in 1938, those in consumer goods industries struggled to |

|7.4% in 1936 |maintain real incomes, working hours increased and the fall in unemployment owed much to the removal of |

| |women and Jews |

|The regime could not assume that the workers would be won over to the promised ideals of Volksgemeinschaft|The regime established its authority over the working class by closing down established trade unions and |

|as many workers had belonged to independent trade unions and had generally voted for the Social Democrats;|only allowing them to join the German Labour Front. Membership increased to 22 million in 1939 and it set |

|they had now lost their representative institutions. Thus Workers were compensated for their loss of |wages, dealt with disobedience and ran training schemes. |

|rights by state paternalism | |

|Beauty of Labour: Persuade employers to improve working conditions. This was done by promoting better | |

|lighting, cleanliness and the benefits of good meals | |

|Strength through Joy: Rewarded loyal workers with evening classes, theatre trips, sporting competitions | |

|and package holidays | |

|Kershaw argues that the grumblings of material dissatisfaction did not signify a rejection of Nazism which| |

|stood outside this day to day normality; he refers to this as the ‘Hitler Myth’. Peukert agrees and says | |

|that this grumbling increased as time went on but Hitler was exempt from this criticism. Burleigh argues | |

|that state paternalism provided enough compensation for the exploitative capitalist bosses. | |

|The ideology of ‘Blood and Soil’ suggested real sympathy for the peasants; it portrayed them as the purest|At first all farmers benefited from an increase in prices but by 1936 peasant disillusionment set in. This |

|racial element, the provider of Germany’s food and the symbol of traditional German values. Many farm |was because wages were higher in the towns and the regulations of the Reich Food Estate were resented |

|debts and mortgages were written off, small farmers were given low interest rates and the government | |

|maintained extensive tariffs. The 1933 Reich Food Estate supervised every aspect of agricultural | |

|production and distribution especially food prices and working wages. | |

|Landowners lived quite comfortably as the large landed estates were not redistributed; in order to | |

|increase efficiency | |

|Mittesland: Money from the confiscation of Jewish businesses was used to offer low interest rate loans, |However they were eventually squeezed out because the Nazis needed the big business to solve the depression|

|the opening of new department stores was banned and new trading regulations were imposed to protect small | |

|craftsman. | |

|Big business benefited from the Nazis’ economic programme. The value of German industry steadily increased| |

|from the share price index and the improvement of salaries of management | |

|To save the economy financial benefits were given to groups such as farmers and small businesses and this | |

|both stimulated economic growth and regarded the loyal supporters in the recent elections. The measures | |

|included tariffs on imported produce and the allocation of grants for house repairs. Of greater | |

|significance was the great spending by the state on investment projects. This investment was directed to | |

|work creation schemes that included reforestation, motorisation and building; meaning that by 1936 the | |

|economic recovery was well advanced | |

|Most women’s organisations were happy to become part of the Women’s Front as they were pleased to support |By 1937 Nazi ideological convictions were threatened by the pressures of economic necessity; the rearmament|

|a regime that was nationalistic and supportive of the traditional role of women (Gleischaltung) |boom led to an increasing shortage of labour, thus the decline in female employment was reversed. In 1939 |

| |it was decided to end the marriage loan scheme for women who withdrew from the labour movement. |

| |Improved welfare services made life easier for women but Nazi views were idealistic and impractical. The |

| |teaching profession felt its status to be under threat as the crude indoctrination alienated many. |

| |Standards in academic subjects fell by the start of the war. |

|Boys were trained as fearless soldiers in the ‘German Young People’ (10-14) and the Hitler Youth (14-16). |A minority of young people rebelled against the brutality of the regime. Working-class dissidents joined |

|By 1935 60% of all young people belonged to the Hitler Youth and it was made compulsory by the Hitler |pirate groups such as the ‘Edelweiss Pirates’. Disillusioned middle-class groups joined ‘Swing groups’ to |

|Youth Law (1939) |celebrate American style culture |

|Girls were taught to be loyal, submissive and prolific mothers. At age 10 they joined the ‘League of Young| |

|Girls’ and at 14 the ‘League of German Girls’. Membership became compulsory in 1936 and an oath of |However it suffered from over rapid expansion and the leadership was often inadequate. The increasing |

|allegiance to Hitler had to be sworn from 1939. The majority of Germany’s youth remained loyal to the |emphasis on military drill and discipline was resented by many adolescents |

|dictatorship because the Hitler Youth emphasised teamwork and extracurricular activities and the provision| |

|for sports, camping and music excited many youngsters. | |

|To replace Christianity the Nazis aimed to cultivate a Teutonic paganism which became known as the German | |

|Faith Movement. This would publicise ‘Blood and Soil’, replace Christian ceremonies with pagan | |

|equivalents, reject Christian ethics and use the cult of Hitler’s personality | |

|The protestant church was sympathetic to the Nazi revolution. The churches remained silent when |Dissident Protestants formed the Confessional Church led by Pastor Niemoller and Pastor Barth. They were |

|Kristallnacht took place. The German Christians (branch of Protestantism) advocated the wholesale |not opposed ideologically to Nazism; they just wanted to remain independent. In any case leading dissidents|

|restructuring of German Protestantism to embrace Nazi ideology. Muller led the German Christians and he |were imprisoned and over 700 priests were arrested in 1935 for condemning the teaching of paganism in |

|was Hitler’s nominee for national bishop, he thus won widespread support |schools |

| |The Nazis achieved only limited success in their policy. |

| | |

| |The German Faith Movement was a disaster as only 5% of the population were members in 1939. The Churches |

| |were handicapped but not destroyed. |

|The army enthusiastically took part in the Night of the Long Knives and in the wake of this the army were | |

|happy to swear an oath of personal allegiance to Hitler | |

|Shaped Consent |

|The German people were deluded due to control of all means of communication. Propaganda was successful in |Reports suggest that the working class became bored by the flood of propaganda. There was no enthusiasm for|

|that it cultivated the Hitler myth, portrayed the Nazi regime as a stabilising force and played on |the Anschluss as few wanted war and thus did also not support actions in the Sudetenland. Most were |

|frustrated German nationalism. For many it was easier to believe the propaganda than question it, many |appalled by Kristallnacht which forced Hitler into acting more secretly in the future. |

|also could push to one side their doubts because of its perceived successes; especially compared to | |

|Weimar. | |

|The cult of the Fuhrer was developed alongside the desire for national rebirth. Hitler was placed above |Many Berliners remained unmoved by the strutting columns of the SA and many were horrified by the parade to|

|the day to day hustle so that illegal actions could be attributed to subordinates |celebrate his appointment; believing him responsible for the Reichstag fire. Some were unmoved by Potsdam |

| |day believing it a put up job |

|To sustain the widest possible audience the government introduced the ‘people’s radio’ which cost a little|Local studies have raised serious doubts over the effectiveness of propaganda. Propaganda succeeded in |

|more than a weekly wage. They allowed Hitler to command authority whilst establishing a fireside intimacy |cultivating the ‘Hitler Myth’ of him as an all-powerful leader, strengthened the regime and reinforced |

|with his people. After 1933 the Nazis enforced communal listening in factories, schools, offices and |established family values and German nationalism. However it failed in denouncing the Christian churches, |

|shops. Loudspeaker pillars were erected in public places |seducing the working class away from their established identity through the ideal of Volksgemeinschaft and |

| |developing a distinctive Nazi culture |

|The cinema offered an ideal medium to propagate its ideology. The excitement of the big screen was |2500 writers left Germany during the Nazi years; demonstrating how sadly German writers viewed the new |

|cleverly exploited. Triumph of the Will (1935) showed the Nuremburg Rally and Olympia (1938) showed the |cultural atmosphere. Their place was taken by a lesser literary group who either sympathised with the |

|Olympic Games. Hitler only appeared sparingly to preserve his myth like status |regime or accepted the limitations. |

|The regime skilfully managed the events of the Reichstag fire which condemned the Communists and led to | |

|their leaders being arrested. It projected an image of a legal seizure of power which allayed conservative| |

|misgivings Potsdam Day consolidated Hitler’s alliances with the moderate conservatives | |

|Holy days were replaced with celebration days. Nazi ritual became so commonplace that it ceased to be | |

|identified as propaganda, the best form of propaganda. | |

|Terror |

|The SS had been previously formed as Hitler’s bodyguard. By 1933 it numbered 52,000 and had established a |However many local studies of Germany have drawn attention to the limitations of the Gestapo’s power. The |

|reputation for blind obedience and total commitment to the Nazi cause. In 1931 Himmler also created the |manpower was limited (40,000 agents for the whole of Germany), most work was prompted by public informers |

|SD, to act as the party’s internal security police, Heydrich was its leader. Himmler assumed control of |(much was gossip which generated extreme paperwork for limited return) and it had relatively few ‘top |

|all the local police in 1933-1934 and in 1936 all police powers were unified under his control; including |agents’ and so relied on the Kripo. Historian Johnson, through a study of the Rhineland, argues that the |

|the Gestapo. This SS-Police system served four main functions. The first was intelligence gathering by the|Gestapo did not impose a climate of terror and instead it concentrated on surveillance and repression of |

|SD. The second was policing by the Gestapo and the Kripo. The Gestapo used surveillance and repression and|specific enemies. He claims that the population turned a blind eye to the Gestapo’s persecution and in |

|had a reputation for brutality; it could arrest anyone without trial. The third was disciplining the |return the Nazis overlooked minor transgressions of the law by ordinary Germans. The camps only housed |

|opposition. Torture chambers and concentration camps were created in 1933 to deal with political opponents|4,000 inmates by 1935; there were high rates of appeal (many of which were successful) and little active |

|and this became formalised after 1936; anyone who did not conform was rounded up. The final was military |resistance to them. There were many jokes made about Hitler and these were less liable for denunciations; |

|action by the Waffen SS; patrolling concentration camps. In effect Himmler controlled a massive police |they were mainly kept to private settings. |

|apparatus and in the words of Kogon became a ‘state within a state’. | |

|The Gestapo were not the only instrument of control. There was the Hitler Youth, Nazi party, railway | |

|clerks, block wardens (on every street) and the police. The whole legal system assumed the role of terror | |

|and it was not just the SS after 1933. The Block wardens, for example, made sure that people listened to | |

|speeches and raised the Nazi flag. In 1935 there were 5,000 convictions for high treason, showing that | |

|this terror was legal and that the state played a major role. Malicious gossip was an offence and it was | |

|treason if you tried to change the constitution. The open voting at polling stations furthered this | |

|intimidation. Thus it is wrong to refer to the regime as dictatorship by consent; the consent was enforced| |

|Certain people were not allowed to be part of the Volksgemeinschaft and thus were discriminated against | |

|and persecuted. ‘Ideological opponents’ was a term associated with socialists, communists and anyone who | |

|did not politically accept the regime. The ‘biologically inferior’ covered all races that were subhuman | |

|such as Gypsies, Slavs and Jews. It also included the mentally and physically disabled. ‘Asocials’ was a | |

|term used to cover anyone whose behaviour was not viewed as acceptable. These included alcoholics, | |

|prostitutes, criminals, tramps and the work-shy. ‘Orderly’ asocials were organised into a compulsory | |

|labour force and the ‘disorderly’ were imprisoned and sometimes sterilised or experimented upon Homosexual| |

|men were seen as breaking the laws of nature ad between 10,000 and 15,000 were imprisoned and those sent | |

|to camps were forced to wear pink triangles | |

|Operation Hummingbird was the purge of the 30th June 1934 and was directed primarily at the SA leadership.| |

|Rumours of an SA plot had been fed to Hitler (by Himmler) and he was prepared to believe them. Hitler and | |

|a detachment of the SS travelled to Tegernsee (near Munich) where Rohm and leading SA members were | |

|staying. Rohm was arrested. Across the country as many as 200 people were killed. These actions were made | |

|legal with the introduction of the Law Concerning Measures for the Defence of the State. This law made | |

|murderous action legal as long as it was taken in self-defence. Hitler justified the murder of so many | |

|leading political figures to the Reichstag on the 13th July. The events became known as the Night of the | |

|Long Knives. | |

|The communists believed the rise of the Nazis to be a signal of the imminent collapse of Capitalism and |Communist opposition did not disappear completely. In 1934 the authorities seized 1.25 million communist |

|thus would lead into a workers revolution to bring about communism. Thus they decided to nothing and wait.|leaflets and Gestapo figures suggest that there were 5000 active Communists in Berlin in 1935. |

|This was a gross misjudgement and by the time they decided to reverse their stance, it was too late |Gleischaltung prevented this from turning into active opposition. Up until 1935 anti-Nazi material was |

|following the Reichstag fire. They were rounded up and placed in concentration camps; 10,000 by 1933 |still distributed; this was mainly the ‘Red Flag’ newspaper |

|Most Socialists remaining in Germany kept their heads down. An SPD report of 1936 claimed that the | |

|abolition of collective bargaining had destroyed worker solidarity. Workers felt increasingly isolated and| |

|threatened by spies and informers. Another report of 1938 concluded that workers were afraid of saying too| |

|much | |

|Tensions grew as Hitler broke the Concordat: crucifixes were banned from schools in 1935 and youth groups |However once again dissent was not caused by an objection to Nazism but by a desire to exist and remain |

|were banned in 1936. |independent. There were many examples of Catholic support including for the Anschluss and the seizure of |

| |the Sudetenland. |

|In 1937 at the Hossbach Conference Hitler clarified his thoughts on foreign policy. However leading | |

|members of the armed forces were sceptical about his plans including the Reich war Minister (Blomberg) and| |

|the Commander-in-Chief of the army (Fritsch). In their view Germany was not ready to go to war against | |

|Britain or France. In January 1938 the Gestapo tipped off to Hitler that Blomberg (recently married) used| |

|to be a Prostitute; he was sacked. There were rumours that Fritsch used to be involved with a rent boy; he| |

|faced military trial. Consolidation of power had been completed. | |

|A group of Catholic conservatives (including von Papen) did form an opposition group. There most decisive |Few chose to actively oppose the regime. |

|action was the Marburg speech of June 1934. This was a rallying call to the army to act against the | |

|‘second revolution’. Within days the regime crushed the circle and the purge of the SA satisfied the | |

|majority of any opposition. | |

| | |

|Opposition: |

|Opposition is active resistance to the regime. Some historians have attempted to include passive |This concept has been questioned by some historians and says that this indifference only existed because |

|resistance within this. For example women wearing make-up and young people listening to jazz. This shows |they were indifferent to politics as a whole. Women wore make-up not because they dissented from the regime|

|dissent from the regime without gaining a reaction from the security forces. This could also include the |but because they wanted to look good. Mallmann and Paul have instead coined the term ‘Loyal reluctance’. |

|level of grumbling throughout the 1930s. In the 1930s Brozat termed dissent and non-conformity as |The non-conformity that existed did not challenge the regime or mean disloyalty to the regime. Discontent |

|Resistenz. He argued that this indifference limited the authority and impact of the regime. |did not lead to rebellion. For example the peasants and working class who were primarily interested in day |

| |to day economic issues. |

How efficient were the Nazi regime?

| |INTENTIONALISM |STRUCTURALISM |

|Definitions |At the heart of the Nazi state was the ideology, personality and leadership of Hitler |The key to explaining domestic and foreign policy developments was the context within which |

| |Hitler had a clear world view and the aims of it were defined in Mein Kampf |Hitler and other decision makers operated |

| |He remained consistent to these aims throughout his political life |There were agencies, power blocs and individuals that competed in a chaotic structure |

| |There were moments when there was deviation from Hitler’s programme but they were only for |This chaos existed because Hitler was unwilling to create an ordered system of government and|

| |pragmatic reasons |because there was a lack of clear planning and direction |

| |Hitler was all powerful and central to all events from 1933-1945 |This chaotic competition explains the radicalisation of policy up until 1945 |

| |All political decisions were made by Hitler; the Nazi state was a monocratic state | |

| |There was political infighting and chaos but this was a deliberate policy of divide and rule | |

|Hitler’s Bohemian | |Hitler was by instincts an artist and from 1935 he lived in a way that did not conform to |

|Lifestyle | |normal patterns |

| | |He spent next to no time on administration of the government |

| | |When ion Berlin he would take lunch and then meet with dignitaries for no more than an hour |

| | |in the afternoon. He would then take a walk, eat supper and watch films (his favourites |

| | |included Disney cartoons). |

| | |Guests would often be subjected to a lengthy monologue on Hitler’s favourite themes before he|

| | |retired to bed, sometimes as late as 2am. |

| | |Hitler did not like Berlin, preferring the mountain air and sensational views from his |

| | |retreat in Bavaria. There his routine was none too strenuous. He would emerge just before |

| | |noon to read extracts from the newspapers. A lengthy vegetarian lunch would be followed by an|

| | |afternoon walk down the hill for tea and cakes, before the same evening and night time |

| | |routine as in Berlin. |

| | |During the day he would occasionally deal with matters that were brought to his attention, |

| | |but they would often be trivial, for example deciding on the punishment of traffic offences. |

|Economy |Intentionalists would explain the events with regards to the management of economical changes|Hitler allowed Schacht free reign from 1933-1936 to reduce unemployment. However Hitler |

| |by saying it was part of the policy of ‘Divide and Rule’ |undermined him when he sanctioned the Four Year Plan led by Goring. |

| | | |

| | |In 1936 it became clear to Schacht that as the demands for rearmaments and consumption goods |

| | |increased that the German balance of payments would go deeply into the red; thus he suggested|

| | |a reduction in arms expenditure to increase the production of industrial goods which could be|

| | |exported to earn foreign exchange, this was unacceptable to the Nazi leadership. In a secret |

| | |memorandum by Hitler in 1936 he concluded that the German armed forces must be operational in|

| | |four years and that the economy must be fit for war in four years. Thus Goring was put in |

| | |charge of the New Four Year Plan to bring about autarky. Schacht realised that his influence |

| | |was declining and thus resigned in 1937. The plan was not successful in the sense that when |

| | |war broke out Germany still depended on foreign supplies for one third of its raw materials. |

|Party vs State |Intentionalists would explain the events with regards to the struggle between the party and |The relationship between the structure of the party and the apparatus of the German state was|

| |the state by saying it was part of the policy of ‘Divide and Rule’ |never clarified; this clash has been given the term dualism: the co-existence of two forces. |

| | |Many wanted party control of the civil service in order to smash the traditional organs of |

| |Hitler was prepared to intervene and side with those most effectively interpreting his world |government. However the Nazi leadership did not do this. This was because the bureaucracy of |

| |view, for example in 1936 when he put Himmler in charge of the German police. |the German state was well staffed by educated and effective people, thus the ‘Law for the |

| | |Restoration of the Professional Civil Service’ (April 1933) only called for the removal of |

| |The party did improve over the years because Hess (Deputy Fuhrer) was granted special powers |the Jews and well-recognised opponents. The ‘Law to ensure the unity of Party and State’ |

| |and developed a party bureaucracy. In 1935 he was given the right to vet, appoint and promote|issued in December 1933 proclaimed that the party is ‘inseparably linked within the state’ |

| |all civil servants and to oversee the drafting of all legislation. By 1939 it became |but this explanation was so vague that it was meaningless. Two months later Hitler declared |

| |compulsory for all civil servants to be party members. The other key figure in the changing |the party’s responsibilities as implementing government measures and propaganda but later in |

| |fortunes of the party was Bormann. Working alongside Hess he created two new departments with|September 1934 he told the party congress that ‘it is not the state which commands us but |

| |the aim of strengthening the party’s position. The Department for Internal Party Affairs had |rather we who command the state’ and a year later he specifically declared that the party |

| |the task of exerting discipline within the party structure and the Department for Affairs of |would assume responsibility for the tasks that the state failed to fulfil |

| |State aimed to secure party supremacy over the state. | |

| | |The Reich Chancellery was responsible for co-ordinating government and became increasingly |

| | |important as the role of cabinet declined from 1934. Its head was Lammers and he drew up all |

| | |legislation and became the vital link between Hitler and all other institutions; he |

| | |controlled the flow of information. It became impossible to co-ordinate the growing number of|

| | |institutions. |

| | | |

| | |Government ministries (transport/education/economics) were run by leading civil servants. |

| | |They were under pressure from growing Nazi institutions; for example the Economics Ministry |

| | |was affected by the Four Year Plan. And the Foreign Office lost its position of supreme |

| | |control to Ribbentrop-Bureau. |

| | | |

| | |The judiciary were co-ordinated but not often replaced. However over the years it felt the |

| | |increasing power of Nazi organisations. In 1933 special courts were set up to try political |

| | |offences without a jury and in 1934 the Peoples Court was established to try cases of high |

| | |treason with a jury composed of Nazi party members. All legal authorities soon lost influence|

| | |to the power of the SS-police system who increasingly behaved above the law. The judiciary |

| | |continued to function but was subverted. |

| | | |

| | |Hitler was not concerned to protect the interests of state or party. He was happy to support |

| | |the civil service as it provided the legitimacy his regime needed and at the same time he |

| | |allowed party organisations, such as the SS, to develop. These became mini-states and their |

| | |influence depended on their ability to interpret the Fuhrer’s will. Agencies were allowed to |

| | |fight amongst themselves and the strongest prevailed. |

| | | |

| | |The civil service then became increasingly challenged by the emergence of National Socialist |

| | |agencies that ran in parallel to the traditional state. However state institutions were never|

| | |destroyed; internal rivalries within the part were never overcome and the independence of the|

| | |Gauleiters was one of the main obstacles of control |

|Hitler and the |Gauleiter were unquestioning in their support of the Fuhrer, they fought off all local |The Nazi party had been created to gain political power and it was remarkably well designed |

|Gauleiter |opposition and thus were the backbone of Hitler’s power. |for this purpose. However it was not a unified structure and not geared to the task of |

| | |government. It was a mass of specialist organisations (Hitler Youth/SA/NS Teachers’ League) |

| | |and all groups wanted to advance their political interests. Various other organisations |

| | |became created when power was achieved which splintered the party even more; such as the |

| | |propaganda machine and the Four Year Plan Office. A final problem was that the structure was |

| | |based on Fuhrerprinzip in a major hierarchy but this did not work in terms of an effective |

| | |government. It led to the dominating role of the Gauleiters who believed that their |

| | |allegiance was to Hitler and thus resisted the authorities of state and party. |

| | | |

| | |In 1934 the Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich meant Frick tried to put the newly |

| | |created Reich Governors under his control as head of the Ministry of the Interior; thereby |

| | |centralising control. It did not work because most of the governors were also Gauleiter with |

| | |large local power bases. In the end Hitler agreed to place them nominally under Frick’s |

| | |control but in reality they could appeal directly to the Fuhrer. |

| | | |

| | |Rauschning was one of Hitler acquaintances up until 1934. To him Hitler was not a dictator |

| | |but depended on the Gauleiter for his power; he said that he never had an opinion contrary to|

| | |their wishes. It must be remembered that Rauschning fell out of favour with the regime and |

| | |this would have clouded his views. |

|Hitler’s Decisions |Hitler’s power as head of party, state and military was unassailable. The ‘Triumph of the |From 1934 Hitler showed little interest in decision making. The number of cabinet meetings |

| |Will’ showed him as a demigod worshipped by the German people and it was this propaganda that|declined from 72 in 1933 to none in 1938. Hitler rarely read important documents before |

| |distanced him from the need to be involved in day to day decisions. The crucial peacetime |making a decision and disliked signing official papers. Instead subordinates sought a verbal |

| |decisions were made by Hitler; most notably the Night of the Long Knives. |agreement or a nod of the Fuhrer’s head. (Fuhrer’s orders). Sometimes contradictory orders |

| | |led to confusion, for example when contradictory orders were given for and against Jewish |

| | |emigration in November 1935. |

|Foreign Policy |Hitler made all the key foreign policy decisions: | |

| |Clear explanation of aims in Mein Kampf | |

| |Pragmatic diplomacy between 1933 and 1935 which support to revise the Versailles treaty | |

| |Introduction of rearmament and conscription which strengthened Germany’s position by 1935 | |

| |Reoccupation of the Rhineland in 1936 | |

| |Anschluss with Austria in 1938 | |

| |Negotiation of the gaining of the Sudetenland with Britain and the seizing of Czechoslovakia | |

| |between 1938-1939 | |

| |The decision to invade Poland in 1939 | |

Working towards the Fuhrer:

• Hitler had a world view

• Hitler hated bureaucracy and saw himself above the day to day politics

• In failing to focus on routine matters he left a vacuum for others to fill

• Therefore power and influence was up for grabs

• You gained this power and influence if you successfully worked towards the world view in the right way for that particular time

• This led to cumulative radicalisation as Hitler (one of the most radical Nazis) would increasingly prefer and accord power to those that adopted an increasingly more radical position

• Hitler was a strong dictator in a state where all were ‘working towards the Fuhrer

• This explains how policies emerged

This can evidently be seen in how the policy towards the Jews and disabled developed:

• Following Hitler becoming Chancellor in 1933 there was spontaneous attacks against the Jews on the streets

• Streicher demanded a boycott of Jewish businesses in response to the American and European threat of a boycott in response to the violence. Hitler decided that it could only last a day as he was worried about international backlash.

• The unease about street violence resulted in the decision to introduce discriminatory laws instead. Ministers framed laws including Frick who framed the ‘Law for the Restoration of the Civil Service’ which prohibited Jews. ‘On the hoof’ racial policy continued because on the same day a law banned Jewish lawyers.

• Spontaneous violence broke out again in 1935. Once again it was still deemed necessary to adopt a legal approach to the Jewish question instead; thus in august Hitler ordered an end to the random attacks. In September Wagner (Reich Doctors’ lawyer) made a speech indicating that a law banning mixed marriages was imminent. Civil servants presented four drafts to Hitler and Hitler chose the most conservative (Draft D) which made marriage between Jews and Aryans illegal. This was followed by a law that removed citizenship from German Jews and both of these became known as the Nuremburg Laws

• The Anschluss with Austria incorporated 195,000 extra Jews into the Reich. This caused a resurgence of street violence, much worse than had been seen before. This was followed by Goring’s law that demanded Jewish property to be valued and registered to the state. In this atmosphere agencies competed to draft further legislation and in June 1938 Jewish doctors were forbidden from treating Aryan patients. Hess claimed credit for the January 1939 law which forced all Jews to adopt the names Israel and Sarah and for their passports to be stamped with a ‘J’. In 1938 Eichmann created the ‘Central Office for the Emigration of Austrian Jewry.

• By 1938 Goebbels had fallen out of favour due to his affair with the Czech actress and thus he used his position as Gauleiter of Berlin to cause agitation against the Jews, in order to gain approval. Shops in Berlin were attacked with ferocity. In November 1938 an official in the Germany Embassy in Paris was shot by a Polish Jew and the press seized upon this as evidence of a nationwide Jewish conspiracy. This gave Goebbels the green light for further radicalisation and violence against the Jews on Kristallnacht was widespread and extreme. Hundreds of Jews were murdered, 8000 businesses and synagogues were destroyed and over 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Himmler and Heydrich were not aware of the pogrom and Goring was angry due to the effects on the economy. Goring chaired the November 1938 meeting to discuss the next measures and it was decided that to pay for the damage that a huge fine would be levied on the Jewish community and the Jews were forbidden from economic life.

• By January 1939 Goring had set up the Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration

• In early 1939 a father of a severely disabled child petitioned the Fuhrer asking that he allow his son to be killed. Hefelmann (an official responsible to Bouhler in the Reich Chancellery) took the petition to Hitler. Out of this was born a policy of child ‘euthanasia’ under the direction of Bouhler. The organisation to be responsible was nicknamed Aktion T4. The result was the death of up to 90,000 children.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download