­­How much support was there for the Nazi regime between 1933 and 1939?

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Hector Guinness                03/05/2007

History Coursework

How much support was there for the Nazi regime between 1933 and 1939?

a)        Source A is the pronouncement of the Catholic Teachers Association of 1933, in support of the Nazis. It is a very patriotic statement, proclaiming how they are going to help to build the new Reich, and denouncing “un-German spirit”. They say that they will put their trust in Hitler, and praise him, “and his movement”.

This is a public pronouncement, and is clearly aimed to please the Nazis, so that they the catholic teachers would be treated well by the new regime. What they are saying is incredibly similar to the Nazi propaganda, and Nazi ideas, so this suggests that they may not have wholeheartedly believed it, and were just sucking up to the new power. However, this was written before Hitler had established complete control of the country. He had passed the Enabling Act, but had not yet banned all other parties; this suggests that they may believe much of what they say. However, I think that this is not a perfectly true representation of what you average catholic teacher would have felt about the new regime. Hitler interfered a lot with education, and so many teachers eventually came to dislike him, but this was written before he had had much of an opportunity to do too much to the system. He also was not universally liked in the church, however, at first he tried to cooperate with them, and signed a deal with the Catholic Church in 1933 allowing them to keep their schools and churches so long as they didn’t interfere with politics. This means that the catholic teachers would have had no major reason to dislike Hitler in spring 1933.

Source B is a poem in praise of Hitler written by a German woman in her diary in 1934. It shows complete devotion to Hitler, saying that she would put her life at risk to follow his orders. She calls for him to daily let them hear his voice, and to command them all. She says that his name “makes our enemies shudder”, and that his will is law on earth.

This was written in a private diary, so probably would have been what she actually believed. But it was written in 1934, when Hitler did have complete power, and anyone criticising him would have been sent to the concentration camps. However, that dies nit mean that everyone would have to write poems about him in their private diaries. I think that this is almost certainly what she believed, and it shows the utter devotion that Hitler received as Führer. This was written by a “German woman” so this could be representative of a very large proportion of society.

I think that both sources are useful, because although source A may not be a totally true representation of what most catholic teachers thought, it does illustrate what they would have to have said in public. I think that source A is a combination of their actual sentiments for Hitler, and an attempt to get in his good books. Source B was written in a private diary, so is much more likely to be her actual feelings, and was written by a “German woman”, so this represents a much larger proportion of society than catholic teachers. Therefore, I think that source B is more useful in discovering what people actually thought, but source A also has some use in seeing the way that all parts of society had to praise Hitler to keep any power. On balance, I think that source B is more useful.

b)        The author of this source thought that there was not really much actual support for the Nazi regime in 1936. He says that the “messianic belief” in Hitler has died out, and that people feel “uncertain” about the economic future. He clearly thought that it was only a matter of time before people would start to openly criticise Hitler, I gather this from the fact that he says that Hitler is “still” out of the line of fire of criticism, which implies that the negative feelings are growing. He suggests that there is a negative support for the Nazis overall because he talks about how Goebbels is hated and how people are uncertain about the future, and suggests that Hitler will soon be criticised, yet only mentions any support, or positive factor at the end. This positive factor is that many newly employed people regard the new work through rearmament as a “great feat”.

The question says “What did the author of this source think was the extent of support for the Nazi regime by autumn 1936?” What he said might not have been an accurate representation of what he thought, or what was true. However, he said this to a Social Democratic Party agent in the summer of 1936. The SDP were opposed to Hitler, but by this time, they had been forced underground, so this would have been said in secret. This means that the teacher would not have had to restrain himself in fear of the Nazis. Teachers did not like the Nazis because they interfered so much with education, so this would mean that the view of the teacher would not be representative of the whole population. The author is also half-Jewish, so this would also mean he was biased against the Nazis, for obvious reasons. This might mean that this person was friends with other teachers and Jews who were opposed to the Nazis, so his view of Nazi support would be distorted. However, the question asks for what he thought was the case, not what was. He may have played down the support for the Nazis so that their opposition would feel stronger, and more confident, however, I think that the views he wrote down were representative of his feelings.

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c)        Source D is a report by the Gestapo about the efforts of the Communist and Social Democratic Parties towards propaganda. It details the types of propaganda, and how they are spread. It says that propaganda was spread by distributing lots of pamphlets until 1936, but now (1937), it is spread by word of mouth, and from bases in factories or sports clubs. The report says that the Social Democratic Party works by spreading news, on small bits of paper, whereas the Communists used to use many pamphlets, but have now switched to word of mouth. This source suggests that ...

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