Did Nazi rule in Germany result in a social revolution.

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DID NAZI RULE OF GERMANY RESULT IN A SOCIAL REVOLUTION?

B.

In order to respond to this question, we first have to consider a number of factors. The Nazis targeted specific groups to impose their ideas on, with varying levels of success. They succeeded in the areas of anti-Semitism, eugenics and workers. They succeeded to a lesser extent with churches, youth groups and education. Least successful for them were women.

A social revolution for the Nazis was a ‘Volksgemeinschaft’, literally a ‘people’s community’. Only people of pure German blood were allowed to be a part of this community as the Nazis wanted to breed a pure Aryan race, which excluded certain groups of people e.g. Jews, mentally ill, etc. From 1920 when the 25 Point Programme was outlined, point 4 stated the Nazi ideal of society ‘none but those of German blood may be members of the Nation’ (Hite & Hinton, 2000, p52). Members of this nation would all be genetically healthy and committed to Nazi regimes. They wanted to achieve ‘Gleichschaltung’, coordination, to rid the nation of all non-Nazi groups and coordinate them into one pure Nazi one.

Different Historians have different views as to whether or not a social revolution was actually achieved. David Schoenbaum author of ‘Hitler’s Social Revolution’ (1960) and Ralf Dahrendorff both say that yes, the Nazis did achieve a social revolution. Schoenbaum argues in his book that there were profound changes in the structures of society. Some Historians such as Tim Mason, author of ‘Nazism, Fascism and the Working Class’ (1995), say that the Nazis did not achieve a social revolution. Mason was a Marxist so only believes that a social revolution occurs if it is a Communist one which therefore means that in his opinion the Nazis couldn’t have achieved this, as they were not Communists. This is probably the main reason why Mason feels this way. Other Historians may also base their judgements on their own personal definition of what a social revolution really is and also on their own bias. This means then that there is not a clear answer as to whether or not a social revolution occurred in Nazi Germany. Another problem with deciding whether or not the Nazis succeeded is the fact that not all the evidence is available, some has been destroyed and some is just not truthful.

Other Historians such as M. Roseman, Hughes and I. Kershaw believe that the Nazis partly achieved a social revolution. Roseman believes that one did occur but class remained, Hughes believes the Nazis only succeeded with the Jews and Kershaw believes that a social revolution did not occur but it did to some extent with the youth. These are the most logical theories.

Now let us turn to the actual areas of society the Nazis tried to control and decide individually if the Nazis managed to impose their ideals successfully.

Anti-Semitism is the first topic we will be looking at. The Nazis wanted to get rid of the Jews for three main reasons. Firstly, Nazi racial theories stated that Aryans were at the top and the Jews were thought to be inferior. The Nazis wanted a pure German race which excluded Jews. Right from the start the Nazis views on the Jews were clear and were shown in the 1920 25 Point Programme in which point 4 states that ‘no Jew may be a member of the Nation’ (H&H, p52). Secondly they thought that the Jews wanted to take over the world, thus competing with the Aryan race. (www.historylearningsite.co.uk/jews_nazi_germany.htm). Thirdly, the Jews were successful at business. After January 1933, the Jews became known as the ‘Untermenschen’, the sub-humans (www.historylearningsite.co.uk/jews_nazi_germany.htm). Most Germans were already anti-Semitic and were for getting rid of the Jews. Page 345 in Hite and Hinton shows some of these views. For example, a civil servant comments on how a rapid dying out of the Jews is ‘desirable’. The Nazis used different methods to get rid of the Jews. These were Stigmatisation 1933-34, Degradation 1935-37, Kristallnacht and Emigration 1938-39. In July 1933 a law was made for compulsory sterilisation of Jews. We cannot be sure if this was actually carried out and it would be impossible for all Jews to be sterilized, as not all Jews were known. Jews were excluded from most things in society and from some professions. The Nazis were successful in getting rid of the Jews, as they were able to commit mass murder of the Jews with little opposition. This was because anti-Semitism was already widespread.

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Next, we will be looking at eugenics, another policy the Nazis were successful in. To achieve their Volksgemeinschaft of well-bred Germans they needed to eliminate all threat towards it. They wanted a master race so could not have any weaknesses in society. This relates to Hitler’s theories on ‘social Darwinism’ and ‘survival of the fittest’. Here are a few quotes from Hitler which show this:

In the 1933 Nuremberg party rally, Hitler proclaimed that ‘higher race subjects to itself a lower race …a right which we see in nature and which can be regarded as the sole conceivable ...

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