Propaganda was important to the Nazis as a way of convincing the people to support them. Goebbels used the press, posters and radio broadcasts to spread Nazi ideas and organised big party rallies, which made the Nazis, look good. Education was also used to spread Nazi ideas about race and war, but it was particularly important because this was a way of making future generations into Nazi supporters. Force was used where propaganda and education had failed. If the people could not be convinced that the Nazis were right then they were punished or removed from society so that they could not oppose Hitler. Therefore, force was important as a back up if propaganda failed. The three ideas worked together so that all groups of society would follow Nazi ideas but the use of force was probably the most important, since it meant that those who did not accept Hitler's ideas would be too frightened to do anything and therefore no one would actually oppose the Nazis.
Another thing that Nazis did was the control of young people, this was everywhere, first it’s in the schools the curriculum was changed to being a Nazi curriculum, for example history lessons were changed, and children were taught that the Nazis built the pyramids! All the teachers at school were supporting the Nazi party (they were all biased). And extra curricular activities were set-up for example the Hitler youth movement. Here is what Dr Robert Ley, who was chief of the labour front and in charge of making ‘good citizens’ out of the German people said “Our state is an educational state…it does not let a man go free from the cradle to the grave. We begin with the child when he is 3 years old. As soon as he begins to think, he is made to carry a little flag. Then follows school, the Hitler youth, the storm troopers and military training. We don’t let him go; and when all that is done, comes the labour front, which takes possession of him again, and does not let him go until he dies, even if he does not like it.” This says that a German will not die until he is a Nazi and it all starts at childhood. If this were to be me I wouldn’t know how to cope the Nazi attitude being thrown at me all the time I think I would get sick of it. In fact some people had that exact attitude and refused the Nazi opinion. These people who opposed the Nazis were a group of underground people who met up together in a social group. They had to be underground because otherwise the Gestapo or the S.S would come and ‘take them away’ (kill them). These are some of those groups
The White Rose group of students at Munich University, who printed pamphlets about Nazi crimes. (They were arrested and executed.)
The Edelweiss Pirates, who at the end of the war helped army deserters and refugees and stole armaments - one group attacked the Gestapo but 12 of the leaders were publicly hanged.
The Swing movement, who met to dance, listen to forbidden jazz music and welcomed Jews to their social clubs (this was one of the more successful groups).
The church was a very big issue in the control factor it replaced any other religion, to form a Hitler religion which represented Hitler being great. There were lots of problems with the churches in Germany when the Nazis were taking them over. Hitler had signed the concordat however there were still problems with the churches some were smashed up by the S.S and beat up several clergy and threw one out of a window. Hitler tried to set up the Reich church to replace the protestant churches. He ordered a copy of Mein Kampf and a sword to be placed on the altar, and that only official nazi speakers were allowed to preach. The Germans also tried to set-up a pagan-style alternative to Christianity called the German faith movement.
The Nazi police state “the big bullies” in other words; I say this because in my opinion that is what they were. Their job was to help create a totalitarian state, in which only Nazis ruled. The S.S the police led by Heinrich Himmler, to carry out the Nazis racial policies. Split up into two parts the Death’s head units and the Waffen S.S. the deaths head units were in charge of the concentration camps and the slaughter of the Jews. The Waffen S.S was the special S.S armoured regiments, which fought alongside the regular army.
Then we have the Gestapo ‘the secret state police’ the most feared by Germans, they were in command of Reinhard Heydrich, the Gestapo agents had sweeping powers. They could arrest citizens on suspicion and send them to concentration camps without trail or any explanation. How harsh was that some people were really bad and tipped of the Gestapo about their next door neighbours or sometimes their own parents conversing with Jews. People used to do it to prove that they were German or just do it so that they don’t get taken away. They would come to your house in the middle of the night and take you away and you are never to be heard of again.
Then you have the police courts, they helped to prop up Nazi dictatorship. Of course they were all supporters of Nazis. As magistrates, judges and the courts were all controlled by Nazis so therefore their opponents in court would hardly get a fair trail in the court.
The concentration camps one of the biggest forms of control Nazis came up with, these places killed Jews by the thousands. It was the ultimate sanction against their own people; they were set up in the early days when Hitler had just come to power. Isolated rural areas filled with large warehouses (makeshift camps) were used frequently, led by the S.S death heads. Prisoners where faced with hard labour, limited supply of food, beatings and disease. In the late 1930’s these camps now purposely built were used so frequently as a method of control that the number of Jews in the country must have at least dropped by 90%. This was a method of control because it was used to scare people, into making them want to be Nazi supporters, mainly because they didn’t want the option of the camps instead to the option of the Nazis.
The Rallies these were some magnificent examples of control, the first reason why is because if you just look at them they are so organised, like as if they are all brainwashed. The best example is the Nuremberg Rally, which was very impressive; this rally convinced not just the people taking part but also the people watching to join the Nazis because they are so powerful and strong. It was such a hitting rally that it convinced people to support them just by the sight of the march. The people taking part in the rally felt the joy of marching the large procession; they all felt a feeling of belonging and a feeling of leadership. If I was in that march I would feel proud to be part of it and I would definitely feel that feeling of leadership, and pride. The Nuremberg rally just show the world how powerful Germany was and how many Nazi followers they really had. This showed control not just to people of the country, but people of the world, and people of the future!
In conclusion I believe that Hitler and the Nazis gained control in 5 main ways, propaganda, the method of driving Nazism into Germans through several different ways. There was the young people control by their Nazi school, friends, actors; also the youth groups which taught children how to be a Nazi. The church and it’s Reich church and Hitler faith movement, in control of everyone’s religion. The police state, which control people by scaring them into being Nazi. The awesome rallies which controlled people by the sheer amount of dedicated followers, and their control. In my opinion Hitler was very clever to set-up these tactics which most of the time didn’t fail, and kept control of Germany until the end of WW2.
