Lesson 6 - Research and presentation assignment - Hitler
Although its important that you don't get bogged in the events of the 1920s, 137-149 are certainly worth reading through to help you understand the origins on the Nazis and the beginning of Hitler's political career. The following short films provide you with a brief overview:
|
|
|
|
|
1. The rise to power
Textbook unit 6 (137-157) deals the rise to power of the Nazis, but only the last section (152-7) should be central to your analysis. As with all the most significant events in history, there is a tendency to require a highly complex explanation that goes to the roots of the problem. (cf. WWI) The problem with Hitler is that it is easy to get bogged down in the events of post-war Germany and the biographical psycho-history of Hitler's personality. But as Hitler's biographer Alan Bullock says 'Hitler may well have gone to his death as a bore in a bar' were it not for the socio-economic situation that made people willing to listen to the 'ideas of a crank'. |
|
By 1924 Hitler's political career looked over and in the 1924 and 1928 elections the Nazi's made little impact with the voters. It was the onset of the depession from 1929 that changed everything. It is this period that should be your focus. End your analysis with the electoral success of the Nazis in January 1933. See John D Clare on rise to power and the end of democracy extract taken from James Mason Modern World history to GCSE.
Structural Factors
It is certainly worth considering the whole PESC (+W) list of structural factors but some are clearly more important than others in Germany in the late 1920s. Politically, consider the extent to which Weimar Germany was a 'failed state' by 1932 but also whether the German political system itself made authoritarian government more likely. The electoral system of proportional representation made coalition government more likely and had given the Nazis some representation (and therefore a parliamentary presence) in the 1920s. Why is coalition government a problem in a crisis? Have a look at the stuctural problems of Weimar Germany as explained by John D Clare. Also follow the links on his page for further reading.
Structural Factors
It is certainly worth considering the whole PESC (+W) list of structural factors but some are clearly more important than others in Germany in the late 1920s. Politically, consider the extent to which Weimar Germany was a 'failed state' by 1932 but also whether the German political system itself made authoritarian government more likely. The electoral system of proportional representation made coalition government more likely and had given the Nazis some representation (and therefore a parliamentary presence) in the 1920s. Why is coalition government a problem in a crisis? Have a look at the stuctural problems of Weimar Germany as explained by John D Clare. Also follow the links on his page for further reading.
|
|
Of course the central challenge facing the Weimar government (and all governments in the 1930s) was the economic impact of the Great Depression. You should be able to find a graph that shows a correlation between the unemployment and the collapse in the support for the democratic parties of the Weimar republic in the elections of 1930 and 1932. Other factors worth considering are the long-term impact of the First World War (the experience of the war on the young men who survived and the injustice of Versailles) the lack of a democratic political culture and the deep socio-cultural divisions (Berlin as artistic and cultural capital v. relgious rural conservatism). The film opposite is a good place to start.
|
Human Agency
A good way to divide the importance of agency is to (i) look at what Hitler and the Nazis did to exploit the advantageous structural factors and (ii) to consider what those who opposed the Nazis didn't do to stop them.
The first thing we need to explain is the genuine popularity of the Nazis (consent). The Nazis were able to put together a programme of manifesto commitments that were very popular to a wide range of people. Have a look at their election promises, remember they were a National Socialist Party. What promises appealed to the nationalists? What about the socialists? How important was the fact that they were new party promising a break from the past. Compare this to Mussolini's appeal. Look at John D Clare on the Nazi Party in the 1920s.
The first thing we need to explain is the genuine popularity of the Nazis (consent). The Nazis were able to put together a programme of manifesto commitments that were very popular to a wide range of people. Have a look at their election promises, remember they were a National Socialist Party. What promises appealed to the nationalists? What about the socialists? How important was the fact that they were new party promising a break from the past. Compare this to Mussolini's appeal. Look at John D Clare on the Nazi Party in the 1920s.
|
|
This 1980s BBC documentary with Christopher Andrews focuses on Hitler's ability as an orator and his charisma. Leni Riefenstahl, 'Hitler's favourite director' also speaks about the personal appeal of Hitler, but remember to consider the post-war context in which she speaks.
|
|
The organisational transformation of Nazis after the failure of 1923 created a national party well enough organised to contest democratic elections and party membership grew. In Goebbels the Nazis had one of the leading propagandists of the age and in Hitler a peerless orator (persuasion). But also remember that the Nazis never completely abandoned their violent revolutionary roots. The SA was enlarged and the SS created. Violence and the threat of violence (coercion) was a common feature of political meetings in the early 1930s.
|
|
In January 1933 it was the fear that the army would not be able to guarantee civil order between the communists and Nazis that persuaded the German political elite to take a chance of the Nazis. The behind the scenes decision making by Von Papen, Schacht and others persuaded Hindenburg that Hitler could be controlled. It was very much a calculated risk. In addition to the failure of the political elites, we most also draw attention to the failure of the political left to unite in opposition to the Nazis. Stalin insisted that communist parties throughout Europe ignore appeals to create a united front of left wing groups against fascism. He denounced democratic socialist parties as 'social fascist'. In Germany this meant that Communist (KPD) and Socialist (SDP) were unable to coordinate their opposition to the Nazis.
|
2. Consolidation and maintenance of power
|
The period of consolidation begins when the Nazis come to power in January 1933 and ends when Hitler becomes Fuhrer in August 1934. The key turning point is the Reichstag Fire and the March elections that followed. The day after the fire Hitler persuaded President Hindenburg to issue an emergency decree which allowed for the preventative arrest of political opponents. After the March election, the Enabling Act was passed allowing Hitler to rule without the restraint of the President nor the legislature (Reichstag). The film opposite is an edited extract from the 2003 mini-series Hitler: The Rise of Evil. The historian Ian Kershaw is said to have withdrawn from his role of historical advisor because of the number of inaccuracies. Der Spiegel called the film a 'soap opera' and 'Hitler for stupid people.' In contrast, as a teaching device I have always found it to be very useful!
|
|
|
Textbook pages 158-9 deals with the chronology of this consolidation or gleichschaltung – 'Bringing into line' - which gradually saw the Hitler concentrate power and eliminate or neutralise sources of potential opposition: parliament, regional government, other political parties, trade unions, Nazi party and the army. (cf. Factfile textbook p.159) The short film opposite deals with the 1934 Night of the Long Knives which was an excellent example of the use of coercion during the period of consolidation. See John D Clare on consolidation.
The actions which helped with the maintenance of the regime are spread throughout the time of Hitler's rule. See John D Clare on maintenance. |
|
Coercion – Formal social control.
Coercive legal methods are most notable during the period of consolidation - gleichschaltung - that begins after the Reichstag Fire. Laws to purge the civil service, ban the formation of new parties or ban Trade Unions are all good examples of typical authoritarian law. In the textbook the theme of coercion can also be found in 160-3 where you have some examples of the creation of the prerogative state (People's Courts), authoritarian appointments and other examples of formal social control. The first film below gives you a graphic explanation of how the early concentration camps were used for the Nazis political opponents: socialists, communists, trade unionists and other groups who suffered as a result of the policy of gleichschaltung – 'Bringing into line'. (See Spartacus on concentration camps.) To this list can be added Rohm and the members of the SA that were purged in the Night of Long Knives in August 1934. The second film is a short interview with the historian Robert Gellately, one of those examples of 'modern researchers' referred to in the textbook. Gellately has shown that the power of the Gestapo was exaggerated and that 80-90% of crimes reported to the Gestapo came from ordinary German citizens.
|
|
|
Persuasion - Informal social control.
|
|
Informal social control of propaganda and censorship are covered by pages 164 to 166, but the attempt to neatly put the past into boxes of factors is never easy and the division between formal and informal social control is sometimes hard to maintain. For example, there is also a degree of formal social control here with the laws passed to limit the independence of the media when Goebbels was appointed head of the new Ministry of Propaganda. The same might be said of education which is a powerful form of informal social control but is also covered as a social policy in presentation three below. Pages 167-8 deal with education. Remember to consider the extent to which the propaganda was designed to mobilise the masses in enthusiatic support for the regime e.g. The Nuremberg Rallies (p164) and the fact that most films produced in Nazi Germany were examples of evasion - 'bread and circuses' - and meant to entertain.
|
The personality cult of the individual leader was certainly a very important part of the propaganda campaign in Nazi Germany, but it was more important than simply an image of charismatic personality. As the historian Ian Kershaw and others have shown Hitler was a lazy dictator who presided over an extraordinarily inefficient 'system' of government. (See 'Weak dictator' below) Hitler was not interested in the details of governing, he asked for solutions, listened to proposals and left his rival acolytes to fight it out amongst themselves. The form of government based around the cult of personality is best understood as the Führerprinzip, a very simple concept: that the will of the Führer was above the law and all legal institutions. The Führer’s will was the essence of the prerogative state because all government offices and policies were required to bend to that will, even if that will was vaguely defined and in need of interpretation. The horrific consequences of such a form of governance can be see in the film in the section below about the mentally disabled.
|
|
|
3. Aims and results of policies - economic, social, cultural and foreign policy.
As is the case with all totalitarian regimes there was a distinctive ideological basis to the aims and policies of the Nazi regime. Although in many respects very similar to the generic fascist form we saw exhibited in Mussolini's Italy, Nazi Germany would also reflect the personal world view (Weltanschauung) of Adolf Hitler.
As is the case with all totalitarian regimes there was a distinctive ideological basis to the aims and policies of the Nazi regime. Although in many respects very similar to the generic fascist form we saw exhibited in Mussolini's Italy, Nazi Germany would also reflect the personal world view (Weltanschauung) of Adolf Hitler.
|
As is all forms of fascism, the vague idea of a national revival was central to Nazism. Germany was to rebuilt, made great again, as a Volksgemeinschaft or ‘folk community’ (textbook p.175), a romantic imagined community and the rejection of the urban modern world.
Whereas Mussolini harked back to the Roman Empire, Hitler mythologized about a medieval Europe of chivalrous knights, feudal hierarchy and the peasants' attachment to the soil. |
|
The most important idea was an almost quasi religious belief that modern Germans were the descendents of this 'pure' medieval Aryan race. Drawing on the pseudoscience and social Darwinism we saw in our study of imperialism (Matu 6), Nazism argued it was the destiny of the 'superior' Aryan race to subject 'inferior' races to their will internationally through war and domestically through 'racial hygiene' or eugenics. The ‘Aryan’ nation needed living space (Lebensraum), an empire like that of the British, a small nation who had become a world power through slavery and exploitation of subject peoples. (See films below on social Darwinism and foreign policy).
For good clear information on life in Nazi Germany see John D Clare on policies and John Simkin's Spartacus website.
For good clear information on life in Nazi Germany see John D Clare on policies and John Simkin's Spartacus website.
|
|
On economic policies your textbook pages 172-4 covers the essentials but also see John D Clare. As the video opposite makes clear, the aims of Hitler's economic policies were pragmatically tied into the goals of foreign policy and therefore underwritten ideologically by his Weltanschauung. Preparing for war provided a significant economic stimulous. The role of Hjalmar Schacht and Reich Labour Service (RAD) need to be considered as public works projects and conservation programmes similar to those we saw in Italy and the USA. As in Italy, independent trade unions were replaced by a state run organisation (DAF - General Labour Front). Also consider the ideological reasons behind policies targetting farmers, big business and the middle classes. (p.174)
|
Social policy needs to consider the concept of Volksgemeinschaft (p175) before looking at how women, children and religious groups were treated. (pp.167-171). For women in Nazi Germany as in Italy, the social conservatism of fascism was aimed at instilling the principles of Kinder, Küche, Kirche and the ‘Aryan’ archetype: blonde, beautiful, tall, slim and strong. Education and the role of Hitler Youth need to be dealt with separately (see Spartacus on Education and Hitler Youth) and Nazi's attempt to co-opt the various Christian churches needs to be considered. There were those in the Nazi Party ‘Blut und Boden' (Blood and Soil) section who supported the pagan ‘German Faith Movement’, which had some influence but not with Hitler. Hitler signed a Concordat (agreement) with the Catholic Church in July 1933 and attempted a similar policy of co-optation with the Protestant Church when Hitler established the Reich Church in May 1933. A Reich bishop was appointed and ‘German Christians’ were appointed to key positions in the church. Over time, the Nazis policy of co-optation was replaced by attempts to actively interfere with the running of both main Christian denominations, which in turn led to more significant opposition from individual (rather than institutional) Christians. (See Spartacus for more.)
|
|
|
The persecution of minorities is well covered in your textbook in pages 179-181 and the films above. For the Nazis, not all humans were equally worthy, useful or deserving Volksgenossen (social compatriots) and, consequently, had to be treated differently. Nazi concepts of racial degeneracy and social deviance (behaviour that violated social norms) were rooted in a similar pseudoscientific explanations that ultimately reduced everything to the importance of ‘blood'. They believed that, because of their hereditary bloodline, Germans were the ‘Aryan’ Herrenvolk (master race), as were other Germanic peoples, including the English and Scandinavians. The French and northern Italians were considered to be Germanic. However, Slavs (including Poles, Serbs, and Russians) and Jews were described as Untermenschen, ‘subhumans’, who were destined to be enslaved or eliminated by the Herrenvolk. Your presentation should refer to the Nuremberg Laws and Kristallnacht.
|
|
Cultural policy needs to go beyond the textbook with its narrow focus on propaganda. Central to the Nazi Weltanschauung was a belief that cosmopolitan, ‘Jewish’, Weimar culture had corrupted the German national psyche and must be removed. The most famous example of this was the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) Exhibition in Munich in 1937. The exhibition presented 650 works of art, that according to the Nazis ‘insult German feeling, or destroy or confuse natural form or simply reveal an absence of adequate manual and artistic skill’. Otto Dix who we studied last year was one of the artists featured.
|
|
Other artistic aspects worth considering include architecture (Hitler spent significant time with Albert Speer on his plans for rebuilding Germany) and cinema, especially the controversial role of Leni Riefenstahl that we looked at in a previous lesson. As we have already seen, filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will was a massive logistical exercise, well beyond the possibilities of any commercial studio at that time. Both the form and content of her work exemplified the celebration of authoritarianism and also made it possible for her to pioneer cinematographic techniques that are still admired and continue to influence filmmaking, including George Lucas’ Star Wars.
|
|
Finally, ‘Strength Through Joy’ (Kraft durch Freude, KdF - modelled on the Dopolavoro programme in Fascist Italy) provided a range of benefits and ‘middle-class’ activities to German working-class families. These included subsidised holidays (including the world’s first package holidays at purpose-built resort at Prora), and operatic and orchestral performances. For more on the KdF see the Spartacus website
|
Hitler's foreign policy (p.256) - extraordinarlily 'successful' until 1941 - was very important in winning support for his regime in the 1930s. Undoing the Treaty of Versailles was a consistent and popular foreign policy goal of the Nazis. As we have seen above, Hitler's Weltanschauung was driven by his racism and anti-semitism and this guided his desire to create empire and the living space (Lebensraum) for German peoples of central Europe at the expense of the Jews and slavs of the east. The film opposite is relatively long but covers the main events of the period 1933-39, the ideological underpining of the policy and reasons why it was so popular.
We will study this topic in more detail as part of Matu 11 as the causes of the Second World War and Paper 1 for IB. |
|
Complete films and documentaries
|
|
|
BBC Schools - History File
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
BBC - Nazis a warning from history - episodes 1-3
|
|
|
|
History Channel on Nazi propaganda
|
|
|
|
Christopher Andrew's classic 1980s documentary.
|
|
|