National Studies GERMANY 1918 – 1939 Nazism in Power Hitler’s Role
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Transcript of National Studies GERMANY 1918 – 1939 Nazism in Power Hitler’s Role
National StudiesGERMANY 1918 – 1939
Nazism in PowerHitler’s Role
ByS. AngeloHead Teacher HistoryEast Hills Girls Technology High School2009
Where did power lie in the 3rd Reich?
• How powerful was Hitler?– Relationship with German people
• All powerful because he represents the will of the people (Huber, 1935; Frank, 1938)
Ian Kershaw: The Hitler Myth
Why did it develop and gain credence?•Reaction to Weimar•Satisfied German emotional need for strong gov’t•Reinforced authoritarian leadership tradition•Developed from Nazi Fuhrerprinzip•Sustained by Hitler’s successes•Enhanced by propaganda
What was it?* carefully cultivated image
personified nationunselfishunderstood German peoplearchitect of Germany’s economic recoveryrepresented popular justicedefended Germany against enemiesresponsible for major successes
Effects???•Hitler’s personal popularity•90% in late 1930s•Sustained Nazi regime•Inherent instability•Military failures led to a declining belief in myth
What role did Hitler play in decision making in the Nazi regime?
• Leader principle = Fuhrerprinzip• Führer und Reichskanzler • Total authority
Mein KampfVolkischer Beobachter
• Haphazard, unbureaucratic approach• Spent much of his time in Berchtesgaden in the Berghof• Peterson: The Limits of Hitler’s Power
– The man who does not decide – surrounded by an anthill of aspiring and fearing people trying to please “the great one”
– Regime divided into thousands of little empires of ambitious men, domains largely unchecked by law
• Dietrich: Twelve Years with Hitler (memoirs)– Hitler produced the biggest confusion in government that ever existed in a
civilized state– He systematically disorganised the upper echelons of the Reich leadership in order
to develop and further the authority of his own will until it became a despotic tyranny
The operation of Hitler’s government
Why were Nazi policies implemented?
Was Hitler an all-powerful dictator?
View 1: Tradition (Rich, Bracher)
• Hitler makes all the decisions• He is a strong leader
View 2: Revisionist (Mommsen)
•Hitler is a weak dictator•Not very involved in most gov’t directives•Allows others to decide•Unwilling to make decisions
View 3: Complex picture (Kershaw)• Key activator•Policy reflects Hitler’s vision•No effective opposition to his will•Mobiliser, legitimiser of policies, does not initiate many policies
Decision Making in the 3rd Reich
1935 Nuremburg Laws• Anti-Semitic views of Hitler• Few moves against Jews until
1935 with SA attacks• Hitler intervenes in the dispute
between radicals an moderates on the Jewish question
• Anti-Semitic Nuremburg speech • This led to the hastily written
Nuremburg laws passed in 1936• Hitler also intervened to stop
street violence against Jews for the Olympics in 1936
Kristallnacht 1938
• 1938 anti-Semitic violence erupted on the streets again
• 8/11/1938 a Polish Jew assassinates a Nazi official in Paris
• Goebbels suggests to Hitler that the anti-Semitic violence should increase
• Hitler assents• Kristallnacht was the result
Radicalisation of 3rd Reich
Lack of formal restraints
• Collective system of government decays
• Institutional constraints have been removed Hitler’s popularity
• Successful policies• Successful propaganda• Shifts responsibility for
failures and less savoury aspects onto others
Traditional Power Structures??
Reichstag
• Enabling Act– Legislative power given to
Hitler– Renewed every 4 years– Reichstag rarely met
Cabinet• Retained but lost purpose• Had legislative power but
laws really issued by Hitler• Reich Chancellery drew up
laws
Reich Chancellery• headed by Lammers•Roles expanded•Responsible for co-ordinating responses of departments to new legislation•Bureaucratic centre•New Party & state sections created
Civil Service•Traditionally conservative• committed to serving the state•Transferred happily to the 3rd Reich• compulsory membership of the Nazi Party 1939•Wearing of uniform 1939•Lost influence by end of 1930s
Local Government• Taken over by Nazi appointed
officials• Agents of central government• Gauleiter held power
Courts & Legal System• Franz Gurtner – non-Nazi
Justice Minister 1933 – 1941• Supported authoritarian state
operating within the law• Nazi ideas penetrated• SS& Gestapo gain power• People’s Court and Special
Courts – March 1933
Foreign OfficeRemained largely intactKonstantin von Neurath Foreign Minister to 1938Foreign policy taken over by Goering, Goebbels, Ribbentrop, special missionsBecame more nazified
ArmyHitler weakened the SAPersonal Oath sworn to HitlerArmy could pose a potential dangerGenerally co-operated and was left structurally unchanged until 1938Army policies changed to reflect Nazi policiesHitler took direct command in 1938
Role of the Nazi Party
Gauleiter• Regional party leaders
– Karl Hanke – Lower Silesia– Kark Kaufmann – Hamburg– Fritz Sauckel – Thuringia
• Gau = Reichstag electoral district
• Gauleiter = Reich Governor– Ensure people in his
district “toe the line”– Ran a hierarchical party
machine
Illustration showing Nazi Organisation
Key Leaders
Hans Heinrich LammersThe BureaucratChief of the Reich Chancellery
Martin BormannHitler’s FixerHitler’s secretaryHead of Party Chancellery
Rudolf HessSycophant or flattererDeputy Fuhrer