“An official ideology imposed by the state, with no alternative viewpoints permitted”
The ideology imposed by the state through the mass of propaganda and by terror with the Gestapo was the ideal of Volksgemeinschaft. It wanted the people to work togehter in a community with the breakdown of social classes. Hitler also believed that you could not be a dedicated Nazi and a Christian, and so Hitler decided to set up his own religion- the German faith movement. However, the Nazis had to be careful when tackling the German churches as they were long established and had a rival ideology and in fact more members than the actual Nazi party. (2/3 of Germans was Protestants). They devised a approach to deal with the churches ultimately known as control, weaken and replace. This strategy was not successful at Nazifying the churches, and during the war more people went to the churches. This meant that there were alternative viewpoints in Germany as well as the Nazi ideals. Other Aryan opposition included the youth (the Swing pirates) the workers at the lack of consumer products and the banning of trade unions, the women who had to leave their professional careers to go and be a German mother, shopkeepers who were being overlooked in favour of big industries, and the farmers who couldn't improve their land due to the Entail law opposed upon them by the Nazis.
“ A government monopoly of the media and culture used for propaganda.”
Undoubtedly, propaganda was vitally important to the Nazis and the German people were constantly subjected to it, whether it was during Hitler’s rise to the top or when he was trying to indoctrinate the people of Germany. The propaganda was very organised, spreading the Nazis views and policies, and creating the ‘ideal’ that was the Volksgemeinschaft.
However, looking back at that time, it is hard to establish whether or not the propaganda was entirely successful. This is because Hitler wanted propaganda to be everywhere, and he took away the basic rights that the people had, so there are no opinion polls available, and no neutral newspapers. Historians cannot fully justify that the mass of propaganda produced at that time actually worked. Indeed many people seemed to support the Nazi regime (or perhaps had no other alternative) but how many were actually serious hard-core Nazis?
The role of the propaganda in Hitler’s view was that it must be the link between the government and the people, thus, it was touching on ideals and beliefs that were already popular with them. So, it concentrated on the media, arts and social propaganda such as the radio, buildings for the thousand years Reich, and the banning of degenerate art. There was a limited impact of propaganda. It was hugely successful when it was touching on hugely popular beliefs such as the undoing of the Treaty of Versailles, or the Foreign policy. Its success was limited when it challenged deeply held opinions such as the church (as we have already seen). It is now not suggested that the propaganda brainwashed the German people into becoming Nazi citizens.
“ Secret police and a vast repressive machinery”
The Nazi State did have terror organisations like the SS and Gestapo, and the myth surrounding them is one of repression, finding enemies of the state, such as political opponents and asocial. However this is indeed a myth. The fact of the terror network is that it wasn't the omnipresent organisation (‘the all seeing and all doing‘) that everyone thought it was or led to believe. Gestapo members were low for total German population (approx 30,000 members) most of the investigations stemmed from the voluntary denunciations (80%) from Germans! However most of this did not come on support for the nazi regime, most of it came from hate, greed, and spite of other people. Because of this, people believed the myth of the Gestapo but it was in fact, their neighbours who were telling on them.
“ Government control of all key institutions, such as the army, youth movements and the workers’ organisations.”
The Nazis achieved control of key groups by creating central organisations in the country, such as the Nazi Teachers league, Hitler youth movement, women's movements, the KDF and the DAF. These were established to control what was going on inside Germany, and also to indoctrinate the people. Hitler controlled the army by purging commanders and the Wehrmacht oath in 1938. The latter was a gradual approach of the control as he only did this after the success of the Rhineland in 1936. The army did give some opposition; General Becks for example, planned to arrest Hitler because he felt that Hitler was being overly ambitious. This was thwarted when Hitler was successful at the Munich conference. The control of the workers unions led to 400 strikes between 1933-1935, so we can see that this takeover was not always welcome. Hitler didn't overhaul the traditional power structure- he let them remain but they were virtually powerless. The Reichstag had its power voted away in the Enabling law in March 1933. It rarely met and when it did it acted “ as the applause machine for Hitler's speeches” As Hitler didn't like collective decision making, the cabinet rarely met. The Reich Chancellery had its workload increased as it officials drew up laws after the Enabling law was passed. It was headed by Lammers who controlled the flow of information to and from Hitler. The civil service had supporters of authoritarian government and a majority continued to work for the Nazis.
“ The law and the courts dominated by the government, not acting independently”
Hitler kept the existing legal code but new laws favouring Nazi beliefs were passed and judges were expected to interpret all laws according to nazi values. Some judges defied the government’s wishes in their verdicts, so they were increasingly bypassed with the new people’s court and special courts created in March 1933.lawyers were co-ordinated in the German Lawyers Front. In October 1933, 10,000 lawyers gave the Nazi salute and swore “ by the soul of the German people...to strive as German jurists to follow the course of the Furher to the end of our days” Under a new penal code, judges were to act “according to popular feeling”. From 1936 the eagle and swastika had to worn on judges’ robes. So the existing law was debased, and authorities outside the law took arbitrary actions.
“ Government control of the economy”
The state intervened in the economy to end unemployment and basic economic issues. It didn't get rid of the government department and so created a sideline department. The control that the Nazi party had led to popular policies and successes such as the drop in unemployment. There was disagreement in who was in control of the economy between Schacht the founder of ‘the new plan’ and Goering’s ’four year plan’ which shows that the control was not centralised in one department.
By looking at these points we can see that the Nazi party were successful in controlling certain areas but were not successful in everything as Historian Stephen Lee says:
“ In theory the Nazi state was totalitarian in that it eradicated institutions allowing of the formal expression of dissent and opposition and then proceeded to use the SS and Gestapo to pick off individual acts of anti Nazi behaviour. By and large this combined process was successful. Yet, the fact that oppositions did develop in such a variety of forms indicates that totalitarianism was only party successful”
I believe this statement is true, as the evidence clearly shows. Hitler was not the tyrant that everyone believed him to be, especially when there is opposition to his party and their ideals. It shows that even with all the propaganda, and control of institutions, people cannot easily be dictated.
