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Hitler’s Volksgemeinschaft
The Volksgemeinschaft was the Nazi ideal of a perfect Aryan society.
This new world order was intended to bridge and supercede traditional
class and social divisions.
The key question is
Did Nazism create a social revolution?
Historiography provides three main interpretations:
1.
Traditional view: Changes in social structure and attitudes were
fundamental
2.
A (predominantly) Marxist view: that argues that whilst there was
a transformation of institutions and social appearances, Nazism
essentially reinforced capitalist practises and social class divisions
and so society remained unchanged.
3.
A middle-ground approach: Nazism did produce a transformation,
not immediately, but in terms of the consequences for post-war
Germany
Writing in the 1960s, Dahrendorf and Schoenbaum both concluded that
the Third Reich had produced a social revolution. They argued that the
Nazis modernised society, although this was never the intention. They
broke down traditional loyalties and created a classeless society.
David Schoenbaum claims,
“The Third Reich was a double revolution. It was at the same time a
revolution of means and ends. The revolution of ends was ideologisedwar against bourgeois and industrial society. The revolution of means
was its reciprocal.” [i.e the methods of propaganda and policy were
revolutionary methods of achieving the revolutionary aims of the
ideological war the Nazis were waging]
AJORDAN
THE VOLKSGEMEINSCHAFT
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Kershaw argues that ‘Nazism did not produce a social revolution' during
the twelve years of power
There are a number of difficulties with studying how far society was
transformed?

Confusing propaganda with reality. The ideal German was the
traditional peasant, working the homeland, but the reality of Nazi
Germany was of an industrial economy at war

If we accept that change occurred, we have the difficulty of
deciding whether war or Nazism was the force for change

Difficulty of identifying long-term and short-term, direct and
indirect change
AJORDAN
THE VOLKSGEMEINSCHAFT
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How did the Nazis try to create a National Community?
Creating a Racial State – politically

Elimination of opposition
o
Purge of SA
o
Anti-communist sweeps (1936)
o
Expansion of the penal code (1935) resulting in what could
be termed ‘everyday criminality’

Gleischaltung
o

elimination of unions and creation of Day of German Labour
Establishment of new national institutions and programs that took
people from the cradle to the grave within a National Socialist
framework, and covered all aspects of life within a nation
o
Boys – Deutsches Jungvolk, Hitler Youth, Reich Labour
Service, Army
o
Girls –Jung Madel, Bund Deutscher Madel, (BDM) Faith and
Beauty, NS Frauenwerk (NSF)
o
For both boys and girls, German Students’ League, German
Labour Front, NSDAP as institutions, plus Beauty of Labour
and Strength Through Joy programs

Policies that directly altered the lives of various groups within the
nation
o
Reich Labour Service
o
Creating a Racial State – symbolically
Propaganda:

Posters
o

KDF
Kulturpolitik – art becoming political rather than aesthetic
o
Exhibitions of Degenerate and German art
AJORDAN
THE VOLKSGEMEINSCHAFT
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o
Prevalence of Nazi ideology in ‘art’ – paintings of happy,
large, Aryan, peasant families

Creation of myths and heros for this new ‘nation’ – Horst Wessel

Generation of slogans
o
Volksgemeinschaft (community of the people)
o
-Gemeinnutz vor Eigennutz (common good before
individual good)
Ritual:

Party rallies

The replacement of traditional German greetings of ‘Good Day’,
or, in South Germany, ‘God be with you’ with ‘Heil Hitler’.

Participation in party oriented public holidays was expected: 24
February to commemorate the founding of the Party in 1925, April
20 Hitler’s birthday, 2nd Sunday in May Mothering Sunday. May Day
1933, the Nuremburg Party Rally 1934; Olympic Games 1936,

Contributions were expected towards Nazi charities such as the
Winter Relief Programme. Families were expected to have one
Eintopf (one pot) Sunday lunch per month in winter. The money
they would have spent was donated to collectors. Badges were
given to each household that contributed, to be displayed on front
doors.
Contributions were:
‘voluntary but [they are] an expression of political reliability, they
are proof of loyalty to the Fuhrer”
From a statement of the Gau official in Gau Hessen-Nassaux 28
November 1939
Non-participants could expect public exposure in the press or even
violence from Nazi mobs.

The ‘nation of listeners’ to Goebbels’ Volksempfanger (People’s
Receiver – radio), reinforced by community listening and radio
wardens
AJORDAN
THE VOLKSGEMEINSCHAFT
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You have probably already spotted that propaganda in this area reflected
the mantra of Nazi propaganda
1. Simplicity
2. Ubiquity
3. Repetition
AJORDAN
THE VOLKSGEMEINSCHAFT
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How successfully did the Nazis create a Volksgemeinschaft?
The following are SUMMARY ARGUMENTS (level 1).
Using the presentations of your peers and your own
reading you will need to
a) substantiate these arguments (find evidence
to back them up or contradict them
b) add in references to relevant historiographical
debate and / or the work of specific historians
You may notice that, if you were answering a question
such as ‘how successfully did Nazism create a
Volksgemeinschaft?’ all/some of these assertions could
be used as paragraph starters. Aren’t you clever for
noticing that!?! Wouldn’t it be a good idea to plan such
an essay now, whilst all the material is in your head? I
think so too. If you wanted to be really diligent, you
could go through the past papers you have and plan
answers to all questions relating to this topic. Yes, I am
an optimist.
Of course, you don’t have to follow this structure, you can split ideas
up, merge them and re-organise them as you see fit. This is just a
starting point.
AJORDAN
THE VOLKSGEMEINSCHAFT
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The organisations which supported traditional loyalties were
destroyed, but this didn’t destroy people’s actual loyalties, only their
outward expressions.
This contradiction between outward behaviour and inner opinion
undermined the ‘community’ ideal of the volksgemeinschaft and lead,
instead, to the ‘atomisation of society’ (Peukert).
Opposition existed, although not necessarily in the form of armed
uprising, because formal rebellion was neither easy to organise, nor
likely to be effective.
The Nazis did not create a classless community. There remained a
significant difference between classes.
There were changes to the roles of different groups within the
Volksgemeinschaft but these changes were often changes in
appearance only, and were undermined by the practical requirements
of war.
War resulted in increasing quantity and decisiveness of dissent from
the Nazi vision of the Volksgemeinschaft.
There was a huge gap between the propaganda of the
Volksgemeinschaft and the reality of life in Nazi Germany, increasing
with the advent of war.
In many cases there was, in reality, widespread continuity with
policies under Weimar, rather than a revolutionary new ideology.
Any changes that were made were short-term and ended with the
collapse of the Nazi regime in 1945.
AJORDAN
THE VOLKSGEMEINSCHAFT
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The only long-term transformation was in the exclusion of certain
groups from the Volksgemeinschaft.
This transformation was made possible by war, although it was
obviously predicated on (founded on) Nazi ideology.
Overall conclusion:
Volksgemeinschaft was an ideal not a reality
Continuity with Weimar not total break with tradition
Any real changes undermined by war and vanished in 1945 therefore
short-term
Only long-term change negative – destruction of minorities and
‘asocials’
AJORDAN
THE VOLKSGEMEINSCHAFT
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