Hitler’s overall aim was to create Volksgemeinschaft. In order to do this he needed the support of various institutions and individuals in Germany, but this was a failure because “propaganda did not achieve its ‘revolutionary’ goal of destroying class and religious loyalties.” This portrays that Hitler could not destroy the churches and ‘class loyalties’. Although, Hitler did manage to gain control of the Protestant church because it had many branches and so the Nazi’s could form their own branches and eventually replace the Protestant churches. The churches faced serious attempts by the regime to establish effective ideological control through the Reich Church under Bishop Ludwig Muller. In September 1933, the Confessing Church under the leadership of Martin Neimoller was set up. Despite increasing Gestapo harassment, the Confessing Church managed to defeat the attempts to control worship and Hitler abandoned Muller’s Reich Church.
The Catholic Church also faced increasing aggressiveness and many Nazis begun seeking ways to remove crucifixes from churches and to stop Catholic Youth movements. Although the Catholics resisted effectively their resentment never developed into political opposition to the regime. But it did defend its independence and after 1939 effectively opposed. Hitler wanted to control the Catholic Church and eventually replace them with the German Faith Movement. However, failed because the Catholic Church was increasingly powerful and too big to control.
The Nazis failed to destroy the ‘class loyalties’ in the workers and were futile in gaining their support. This was because the worker’s lost their trade unions and bargaining points. They were forced to work longer hours for lower wages. Additionally, the strength through joy scheme was expensive and a big scam as the Volkswagen was very expensive to create and not one car was ever built. Hence, Hitler could not succeed in creating a unified Volksgemeinschaft because he could not gain the support of the various organisations within Germany as they all had reasons to oppose the Nazi regime.
On the other hand, some may argue that Hitler did succeed in creating a genuine Volksgemeinschaft because the Hitler Youth were enthusiastic about life under the Nazi regime because it “provided wide-scale opportunities for advancement.” This suggests that the German youth were offered exciting activities such as sporting events and trips to the countryside. Such activities appealed to many because they had never experienced this before. Furthermore, they also enjoyed hiking, singing and camping, which was away from home and school. This appealed to the German Youth because “the regime had brought about real change.” This emphasises that they had never experienced such enjoyment before and therefore, the introduction of such activities was both overwhelming and thrilling hence, they fuelled their support for the creation of the Volksgemeinschaft. However, I disagree with this because not all youths conformed to the Nazi ideals as “until late 1943…increasingly negative attitudes are recorded.” This clearly demonstrates that Hitler did not have a positive response from all youths, for example The White Rose Group. The group distributed pamphlets attacking the lack of freedom and detailing the atrocities against Jews.
In spite of this, others argue that the Nazi regime did have successes because it “heightened national awareness, and that this was in itself sufficient to secure for the regime a considerable degree of stability and social integration.” This implies that the regime brought about changes by securing the stability of social issues, for example women were encouraged to give birth to Aryan babies and they were rewarded this. Additionally a number of welfare schemes were introduced to support women and children. This resolves the social issues that women may experience hence some argue that Hitler succeeded in creating a genuine Volksgemeinschaft because he got the support of women. Yet, I still believe Hitler did not succeed because not all women gave birth to loads of Aryan babies. Moreover many women, especially from the late 1930’s onwards had to struggle to manage families and work therefore, the regime was not stable hence, Hitler did not succeed in creating a genuine Volksgemeinschaft.
In conclusion, I believe that Hitler did not succeed because; he failed to gain the support of the various institutions and individuals in Germany. His aims of controlling the churches had failed; he failed to gain the support of the workers because he did not meet their demands. Furthermore he faced increasing opposition from youth groups and he did not resolve the social problems that women faced when managing families. These are all evidences that Hitler did not succeed in creating a genuine Volksgemeinschaft although it did grip “all areas of public life,” but it did not receive a positive response from the German citizens.
