Download Policy and Practice in Fascist Germany 1933

Policy and Practice in Fascist
Germany 1933 - 1941
“Working Towards the Fuhrer”
“Working Towards the Fuhrer”
• “Very often, and in many places, it has been the
case that individuals, already in previous years,
have waited for commands and orders.
Unfortunately, that will probably also be so in
future. Rather, however, it is the duty of every
single person to attempt, in the spirit of the Fuhrer,
to work towards him. Anyone making mistakes will
come to notice it soon enough. But the one who
works correctly towards the Fuhrer along his lines
and towards his aim will in future as previously
have the finest reward of one day suddenly
attaining the legal confirmation of his work”
– Werner Willikens – Prussian State Secretary of
Agriculture
Hitler’s Style of Government
• Emergency powers of Enabling Act meant that Hitler
had to sign laws into being
• Access to Hitler crucial
• Bureaucratic competition
– Hitler liked the Darwinist competitive element and felt that it
made for better laws
– Radicalisation of Fascist program as years passed
• Foreign Affairs Preference
– Liked to Appear ‘Above’ Domestic squabbling
• Gleichschaltung
– Co-ordination of State Control
• Diagram page 188 of Hite, Hinton
Hitler’s Lackadaisical Style
• Hitler alone made all the important decisions
– he never involved himself in details and let other get on
with carrying out his ‘big decisions’.
• He almost never wrote things down –
– he would gather other top Nazis together at lunch or for
late evening chats and they would have to listen – then go
away and try to carry out his wished as best they could.
• Hitler did not work hard
– he got up late (10am), had a long lunch, some afternoon
appointments and then watched films in the evening.
• Hitler rarely stayed in one place for long
– he moved between his ‘Reichschancellory’ in Berlin and
his house on BERGHOF in Bavaria.
• Favouritism
– Access to the Fuhrer was the key to power
Divining Hitler’s Will?
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Consolidate regime
Rearmament
National Revival
Foreign Affairs
Volksgemeinschaft
Lebensraum
Racial Purity
Self-sufficiency
Write a paragraph
outlining the Fuhrers will
for each of these priorities
Hitler’s Totalitarian Contradictions
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Keeping the Reichstag
Sign Laws as per the Enabling Act
Renew the Enabling Act every Four Years
Huge Advertising and Election Campaigns
Use of Plebiscites
Courting of Foreign Correspondents
Guns and Butter
If Hitler and the Nazis were
– Darre’s ‘Fat’ Climbdown
so in control of Germany,
explain why they bothered
with any of these
Hitler’s Diplomatic Revolution
• Plan something Audacious
– Eg Break a Treaty of Versailles Condition
• Ignore cautious traditional naysayers
• Maintain Absolute Secrecy until everything is ready
• Present the Fait Accompli
– In Reichstag for added legitimacy
• Propaganda offensive
– Present Germany as the wronged nation
• Hold a Plebiscite to Confirm Triumph
• Case Studies
– Re-introduction of Conscription
– Saar
– Rhineland
Dr Hans Heinrich Lammers
1879 - 1962
• Chief of Reich Chancellery
– 1933 – 1945
• National Conservative Civil Servant
– DNVP to 1932
– Nazi from 1932
• Hitler’s Legal Adviser
• Controlled access to Hitler
– Could promote or Kill any proposals
– All draft legislation had to go through Lammers
• De Facto leader for months at a time
Rudolph Hess
1894 - 1987
• Sycophantic and Loyal
– Edited Mein Kampf
• Deputy Leader of Nazi Party
• Minister without Portfolio
• Deputy Fuhrer from 1933
– Third behind Goring from 1939
• Overloaded with responsibilities
– Became meaningless
– Treated with suspicion
• Flew to Britain in 1941
Heinrich Himmler
1900 - 1945
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Head of SS 1929
Head of Political Police 1933
Head of Prussian Gestapo 1934
Head of Police 1936
Set up Dachau 1933
Huge influence with Hitler
– Pandered to racial purity prejudices
• Loyal, brutal and ambitious
• Terrorised Opponents and Allies alike
• Built SS into a huge State within a State
Himmler Speech to SS Officers, 1943
• "Our principle must be absolute for the SS
man: we must be honest, decent, loyal, and
comradely to members of our own blood and to
no-one else. What happens to the Russians,
what happens to the Czechs, is a matter of utter
indifference to me. Such good blood of our own
kind as there may be among the nations we
shall acquire for ourselves, if necessary by
taking away the children and bringing them up
among us. Whether the other people live in
comfort or perish of hunger interests me only
in so far as we need them as slaves for our
culture. Whether or not 10,000 Russian women
collapse from exhaustion while digging a
trench interests me only in so far as the tank
ditch is completed for Germany."
Hermann Goering
1893 - 1945
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Prussian Prime-Minister and Minister of Interior
Head of Luftwaffe
Ostentatious and Corrupt
Head of Four Year Plan 1936
– Re-armament
– Autarky
– Cuts across existing ministries
• Economic, foreign exchange, labour, raw materials, prices,
– Competed with Hess, Himmler & Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
1897 - 1945
• Minister of Enlightenment & Propaganda
– “If you tell a lie, tell a big one”
• Experimental
– Colour film
– Parades
• Womaniser
– Chastised by Hitler for bringing Nazis into disrepute
• Many Rivals and enemies within Nazi Party
– ‘Poison dwarf’
• Loss of some influence once Nazis achieved power
• Hence anti-Jewish campaigns
• Krystalnacht 1938
Reinhard Heydrich
1904 - 1942
• Head of SD
– SS Security Service
– Intelligence and counter-intelligence
– Competed with Military Intelligence
• Himmler’s Second in Command
• Blonde Aryan
– However, doubts over Jewish ancestry
• Used by rivals to undermine him
– Virulently anti-semitic
– Chaired Wannasee conference
• Einsatzgruppen Commander 1939
• Assassinated 1942 in Czechoslovakia
Martin Bormann
1900 – 1945?
• Hess’s Deputy
– In charge of Nazi Finances and
Administration
• Behind the scenes
– Frequently close to Hitler
• Replaced Hess when Hess went AWOL
• Hitler’s Secretary in 1943
– Capable of preventing Himmler, Goebbels
and Goering from seeing Hitler
Dr Fritz Todt
1891 - 1942
• Civil Engineer to SS Colonel 1931
• Inspector General of German Roads and Highway
System 1933
– Grew it into Ministry of Construction
• “Todt Organisation”
– All Transport
» Autobahns
– Military Fortifications
» Seigfried Line
– Forced Labour Camps
• Minister of Armaments and War Production 1940
• Became Pessimistic with War with Russia
– Declining confidence of Hitler
– Frustrated at equipment inconsistencies and poor
planning
• Killed in Air Crash 1942
Albert Speer
1905 - 1981
• Hitler’s Architect
– Hitler an architectural enthusiast
• Designs for Berlin and for Nuremburg
– Speer promoted into inner circle
• Minister for Armaments and War
Production, 1942
– Responsible for remarkable increase in war
production despite round the clock bombing and
all out war
– Used Hitler’s confidence in ministerial bickerings
Robert Ley
1890 - 1945
• Nazi Party Chief of Organisation 1932
– Succeeded Strasser
• Headed DAF on break up of Trade Unions
• Frustrated at having power of DAF pulled
from under him
– Hitler more interested in Re-armament and
production levels
• Conditions and pay whittled away
• The Reich Drunkard
– Loud, coarse and alcoholic
Wilhelm Frick
1877 - 1946
• Reich Minister of the Interior
– Responsible for Racial Laws
– Advocated Administrative Reform and Clarification
• Ignored by Hitler
• Lost power to Himmler’s Police Department
– Officially replaced by Himmler in 1943
• Became Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and
Moravia
• “Everything which is useful for the nation is
lawful; everything which harms it is unlawful”
Joachim von Ribbentrop
1893 - 1946
• Wealthy wine exporter
– Purchased ‘von’ from a relative
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Late Nazi - joined in 1932
Lent his Berlin home to Hitler in 1933
Incompetent and Vain
Special Plenipotentiary to Britain
– Infuriated career diplomats
– To break Stresa Front
• Naval 35% deal
• Ambassador to Britain in 1936
• Foreign Minister 1938
• Nazi-Soviet Pact 1939
– Shocked the World
• Influence
Bernard Rust
1883 - 1945
• Dismissed as teacher 1930 for molesting a
student
• Reich Minister of Science, Education and
Popular Culture 1934
• Purged educational establishments of
undesirable teachers
– Made Nazi party membership compulsory for
teachers
• Extensive redesign of curriculum to conform
with Nazi volksgemeinschaft
• Deeply loyal to Hitler
Hjalmer Schacht
1877 - 1970
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Hitler’s Banker
Respected Nationalist Economist
President of Reichsbank
Minister for Economic Affairs
Rehabilitated Nazi Economics
– Mefo Bills p 216
– Allowed re-armament to be undertaken
– Not an Anti-Semite
• Jews an important economic sector!
– Resigned in 1937 when full war preparation was
undertaken
• Implicated in Hitler assassination plot 1944
– Ends war in concentration camp
Richard Darre
1895 - 1953
• Reichsminister of Food and Agriculture
• Friend of Himmler
• Idealised Peasant
– Instrumental in turning Nazis from an Urban to a Rural
party
– Blood and Soil
• Difficulties supplying food
– World Wide Depression
• Markets cut off
– Guns and Butter problem
• Brought Hitler problems not solutions
– Relieved of position 1942
Debate Topic
• Hitler was an effective Dictator!
– Open For (1)
– Open Against (2)
– Rebuttal For (3)
– Rebuttal Against (4)
– Cross Examination For (5)
– Cross Examination Against (6)
– Conclusion For (7)
– Conclusion Against (8)
Nazi Government
• Nominally maintained Weimar Ministerial
System
– Cabinet meetings held – but declining p195
– Hitler disliked collegial government
– Discouraged meetings between ministers
• Ministries re-organised
– All Ministers Nazis by 1937
– Conservatives eased out
• Access to Hitler essential
– Lammers – Head of Chancellery
– Hess – Head of Nazi Party
• Force of Character essential to promote
own Ministery
The Radicalisation of Nazism
• Consolidation needs to be completed
– Hindenburg
• Weimar Institutional Restraints Removed
• Competitive Government
– No Collective Responsibility
– Favouritism Rewarded
– Radical Proposals more likely to be noticed by Hitler
• Hitler’s Rising Popularity
– Foreign Affairs
– Takes Credit, avoids blame
• Nazi Hubris
– Believe own propaganda and infallibility
– Believe Plebiscite results
• Intimidation
– SS, Gestapo
• Lack of Concerted Opposition
– Internally and externally
The Regime’s External Critics
Group
Jews
Sopade
Churches
Youth Groups
Foreign
Governments
Grievances
Advantages
In Opposing
Nazis
Disadvantages
In Opposing
Nazis
The Regime’s Internal Obstructionists
Were there any brakes on Nazi Radicalisation?
Group
Some Army
High
Command
Some Career
Diplomats
Some Civil
Servants
Traditional
elite
Grievances
Advantages
to Slowing
Nazis
Disadvantages
to Slowing
Nazis