“ It is inconceivable that Hitler could ever have come to power had not the Weimar republic been subjected to the unprecedented strain of the world economic crisis”.
Overall both the growing economic problems and the great depression of 1929 were significant aspects to the collapse of the Weimar republic. After the Weimar republic’s failure to seize power the socialist party (nazi party) took advantage of these venerable economic circumstances to appeal to German voters. The rise of the nazi party was due to 3 main factors - the crisis of the Weimar republic. Hitler depended directly on the vulnerability of the Weimar republic. Secondly, the role of President Hindenburg. On advise President Hindenburg appointed Hitler as chancellor in 1933. This was significant in establishing the nazi party. And thirdly their expertise in convincing millions of dissatisfied Germans that they were the way to recovery. Hitler managed to promise all the class sectors hope and turned resentment of the Weimar shame into support for the nazi party, which was rapidly growing. The elite groups around Hindenburg who had secured Hitler’s appointment hoped to use him to secure their positions and avoid a communist threat and then discard him. The vice chancellor Papen said,
“ I have Hindenburg confidence, within two months we will have pushed Hitler so far into a corner that he’ll squeak”.
This of course is one of the most disastrous misjudgements in history, for Hitler was to consolidate his position in power so far that it was impossible to remove him. Using his position as chancellor Hitler had turned himself into a dictator and the Nazis could now use the power of the state machine. Political threat had been removed. The only potential threat could come from the army but they had already committed themselves to the new one-party government. The process by which Hitler gained control of Germany was called ‘gleichschaltung’ (co-ordination), a vital ingredient of a totalitarian state.
The use of propaganda reduced the amount of opposition. It was weakened further by the speed and ruthless nature of Hitler’s consolidation of power.
The general impression of resistance towards the nazi party was little. Many Germans supported nazi regime out Hitler’s personal popularity. On the other hand you could argue that the reason for the lack of opposition was through fear of consequences. Ewald Von Kleist-Schmenzin, a Prussian landowner quoted,
“ Do you think that when you board an express train, the driver of which is deranged you can somewhat take over the controls?”
The probable answer is obviously no. The quote just reinforces how rigid Hitler’s position in power was and how he found most support through fear. Hitler’s ability to make people feel secure and safe encouraged his popularity to grow. Emmi Bonhhoffer (Sister- in- law of Dereich Bohnhoffer, interviewed in the 1989 TV programme Fűhrer) alleged,
“There was no resistance movement and there couldn’t be. Nowhere in the world can develop a resistance movement when people feel better from day to day”.
Thus Hitler was able to extend and secure his leadership party making it even harder for other parties to oppose and win. Hitler was supported truly by the upper-middle class. He offered them a security blanket towards communism. However the majority of germane citizens were middle-class. The middle class saw through the projection of Hitler’s image as an apparent moderate. The inefficiency of the nazi system also allowed for more forms of opposition. Other factors that encouraged opposition were, rising unemployment rates, food shortages, the general perception that the country was going downhill and free elections. However these factors weren’t seen as effective resistance. Factors such as the powerful secret police, arbitory imprisonment, tradition for respect of authority, a loyal army and the use of propaganda made opposition unsuccessful. By 1934 Hitler had banned opposing activity and managed to make it illegal to remove him. There is great deal of information suggesting that opposition was limited but also suggestive of how popular Hitler really was.
Overall there has been a recent shift in the interpretation about the extent to which the population voluntarily supported the regime. More weight has been reflected on the level of compliance imposed at all levels. There was opposition but its effectiveness was too weak to overthrow Hitler and his nazi regime. However Kershaw has argued that,
“The acute perception of social injustice, the class conscious awareness of inequalities changed less in the third Reich than is often supposed”.
It is therefore impossible to measure the extent of opposition and true support because of the fact that the Gestapo was so cruel in the destruction of most opposition. All in all Hitler’s opposition was that of a minority. Many historians at the time assumed all Germans supported Hitler when that was not the case. The only true and vital support Hitler had was the army.
During Hitler’s time in power he implemented many policies known as the nazi economic policies. His earlier policies showed to be successful. Unemployment was on the downturn (1932 5.6 million unemployed compared to 1933 4.8 mill unemployed), and he was able to claim for the recovery of the depression of 1929. However it can be argued that the recovery of Germany was aided by a worldwide recovery after the Wall Street crash of 1929.
The implementation of the four-year plan in 1936 was not as successful as his earlier policies. There were three aims of the four- year plan. The first aim was to recover Germanys depression, which would later reduce unemployment levels and consolidate and reinforce his position politically. The second aim was to increase rearmament and mould Germany into a self-sufficient state using the policy of autarky. And the third aim was to prepare Germany for future war with the creation of the wehrwirtschaft (defence economy). Nationalist circles and the army due the memories of failure in WW1 heavily supported this policy. They didn’t want lose again!
Military expenditure increased from 1.9 billion marks in 1933 to 5.8 billion at the start of the four-year plan, rising to 18.4 billion marks in 1938 and 32.2 billion in 1939. This rapid increase was very successful in reducing unemployment rates and strengthening Germany’s position in Europe. Reducing unemployment was an important factor for nazi success. A quote from a German worker who explains why he joined the nazis in the 1930’s reflects why many Germans supported Hitler and his regime voluntarily merely for the benefit of being employed and not because they truly supported his views;
“I was unemployed for many years. I’d have made a pact with the devil to get work. Hitler came along and got me work, so I followed him”.
Even though the nazi economic policy was successful the question to the extent of which it lasted for is questionable. His later policies (four-year plan, autarky policy) were geared mainly to rearmament for future war and not for the welfare of Germanys society. The autarky policy was not achieved and the process of rearmament was too excessive and disorganised. Even though unemployment levels had fallen, Germanys economic growth rate was still below the average. A quote by R. Overy, from the nazi economic recovery 1932-38, agrees with this debate;
“It was the exceptional decline of the depression years from 1929 to 1932 which gave the subsequent revival its rosy complexion…. the policies actually pursued in 1933 had much in common with these adopted countries, and with the policies of pre-Hitler governments….
By any long-term measurement the achievement of the 1930’s was not very remarkable. Even by 1937 the economy was only jus above the level reached some 25 years before. From 1936 onwards all the indices of growth began to slow down. If the short-term recovery had been achieved with remarkable speed, the longer-term prospects for growth were more muted. The switch to war preparation did not produce any real crisis in the economy before September 1939, but did increasingly compromise the achievements already made”.
Other methods Hitler used to impose his values, was the use of propaganda in society through social systems such as schools and colleges. The Nazis hunted the minds of the young from the age of four to indoctrinate them with their beliefs and to build them up to use as defence. Both boys and girls were trained to be obedient, to idolise the fuhrer, to be physically fit, to became a martyr for the national good. However the only difference between the training of boys and girls was that boys’ aims were to become strong dominant fighters and girls were to bear as many children as possible for the good of the nation. A quote Robert Ley, a leader of the labour front states,
“We start our work when the child is three. As soon as it begins to think, a little flag is put into its hand. Then comes school, the Hitler youth movement, the storm troop… we never let a single soul go, and when they have gone through all that, there is the labour front, which takes them when they are grown up and never lets hold of them… whether they like it or not”.
Although the Nazis had a great deal of success with the youth, they did not have total control over this area. This is a contradiction over what a totalitarian state is.
The creation of the Hitler youth organisations aimed to offer the young with a variety of activities that were fun as well as being indirectly geared towards military training. This programme became compulsory to all the youth, but many found a way of avoiding it by joining other youth programmes, which the Gestapo failed to restrain. Hitler’s youth organisation became less successful, because it included less committed youngsters and their conscious awareness of Hitler’s main aims (to prepare country for possible war), which were not to improve the welfare of society.
Overall it is hard to determine if the Nazis succeeded in indoctrinating the minds of German youth. Some youth rebelled against it whilst other obeyed it.
The Nazis policy towards women’s was that of “kinder, kuche, kirche”. Women were encouraged to domestic work in society. Many women were supportive of this policy with the creation of the women’s front in 1933. However women who worked professionally were attacked by this policy. For instance from 1936 no women could serve as a judge and women were no longer accepted for jury duty. Even though the regime tried to take away women’s’ professional working rights it was not as strict in making women inferior to men. During the 1930’s five percent of all doctors were women, by 1939 this figure had risen to seven per cent. In general the number of women in employment remained low in the first few years of the regime but during the labour shortages women were encourage to go back to work. Between 1933 and 1939 the number of women working increased from 11.6 million to 14.6 million. This shows a huge contradiction between nazi ideology and reality!
Another part of society that Hitler wanted to control with his regime was the churches. He aimed to control them and then reduce their influence, and the finally to replace them with a faith reflecting nazi values and beliefs. However this proved to be more difficult than Hitler had thought. His main aim now was to agree with the churches and then steadily reduce their influence. One of the ways Hitler tried to reduce the influence of the churches on the young was the creation of the Hitler youth. Again this was a hard challenge as the churches had a strong link with the people of Germany, which was hard to break. There was evidently a big difference between the nazi state and the churches, which are illustrated in source 16.15 in the Weimar and nazi textbook, page 312.
A quote from a police report in Cologne, March 1934 illustrates how far the Nazis went to reduce the hold of religion;
“Politically, it is noteworthy and illuminating that the catholic population of Cologne…in recent times have banded together strongly. They are taking part in church celebrations and events in numbers of such a size that have hardly been seen in previous years… the reason is that people who disapprove of the measures taken against catholic organisations want to make a show in public that they are loyal to the catholic church”.
The nazi party certainly attempted to use force and domination to control the people’s everyday lives and Hitler was an extremely charismatic leader who gained support whether it was through true support of fear. The essay reflects the oxford dictionary meaning of a totalitarian state. The nazi regime was a one-party government, which monopolized the country through the use of propaganda, terror and technology. However it can be argue that even though the nazi Germany was a one-party state, the nazis weren’t adequately organised enough to control the whole country 100%. The Nazis failure to control the economy, and the limited powers they had in social aspects of life (e.g. women and youth and churches) also show that they didn’t have complete control. Nonetheless nazi Germany was a one-party state with a very powerful secret police (the Gestapo), which influenced the values into everyday aspects of life. Overall Hitler’s Germany is a very good example of what a totalitarian state is/was.