How Important was German Opposition to the Nazis?

Authors Avatar by packo456 (student)

“Opposition to the Nazi regime made very little impact on the German people as a whole between 1933–1939”
Explain why you agree or disagree with this view


There were several different opposition groups within the period up to the war within Nazi Germany, in this question I am going to assess whether or not the different opposition groups made any impact within the German population at time. However, this question is difficult to answer; there were no opinion polls meaning the people’s attitudes were never truly represented, so we cannot get an accurate picture of the population’s actual feelings. Also reports from Sopade or Gestapo cannot be seen as completely valid as they would be biased and would not provide a true insight.
For opposition to have a real impact on the people, it needs to be active – meaning that you openly go out of your way to oppose Hitler and not just non-conformity. Not all non-conformist behaviour can be interpreted as opposition. The term ‘loyal reluctance’ means that you support the regime as a whole, but there is one certain issue that you didn’t agree with. This was the case within many groups within Germany.

The workers in Germany were becoming depoliticised and the propaganda didn’t really work in convincing workers that their best interests were supported by the DAF. Workers had many reasons to complain but they had few outlets in express their discontent and no independent organisation to press their case – since the abolishment of trade unions.
Nevertheless, workers found the means to express their dissatisfaction even under the conditions of the regime. The main weapon the workers deployed was to withdraw from their labour and demonstrate, even though this was very risky business. In 1935, 37 strikes were reported. Also, Gestapo reports for 1935 (which are not a very reliable source) show that there were a total of 25,000 workers out of a total workforce of 16,000,000. This is a very small and insignificant number to really affect the way regime and the lives of the German people. The DAF reported that there were 40 out of the 250 stoppages in 1937 involved some political content, but needless to say this was crushed accordingly and didn’t cause much of a challenge, also only 4000 of the 25,000 workers who demonstrated 1935 were imprisoned. In 1936 at the Opel works, the Nazis crushed the strike within 17 minutes; this shows that little impact was really made by the workers. The 250 strikes in 1937 seems like a lot at first, but in reality they made little impact as workers wanted to keep their jobs regardless of the situation.
The majority of strikes were reactions to low wages and poor working conditions.
However, there were less overt ways of expressing their discontent. Absenteeism became a theme among the workforce and they also purposely ‘sabotaged’ the machinery. However, this was made a criminal offence and there were an increased number of prosecutions in 1938-1939. In reality workers did not pose much of a threat to the regime, they weren’t willing to completely risk losing their job – even how little it was and thus meaning the opposition of workers had little impact on the German people. The term loyal reluctance comes into play, the workers supported the regime, however they were just dissatisfied with the conditions they worked in but weren’t willing to risk losing everything they had, so they provided little opposition and not a big threat.

Join now!

In many ways, the HJ in the early years of the regime were able to channel the energies and the rebelliousness of the youth into officially approved activities. By the mid 1930’s there was growing disillusionment amongst the young people within the official youth movements. Membership was made compulsory and it made great demands on a teenager’s free time. The intention on the policy of Gleichschaltung was based that individuals should have little free time and no independent activity. A lot of activies provided by the HJ were becoming unpopular, especially activies such as gymnastics, sessions on Wednesday evenings, all day hikes ...

This is a preview of the whole essay