Nazigovernment

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?

• 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

• 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

– Darre’s ‘Fat’ ClimbdownIf Hitler and the Nazis were 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 Lammers1879 - 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 Hess1894 - 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 Himmler1900 - 1945

• 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 Goering1893 - 1945

• 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 Goebbels1897 - 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 Heydrich1904 - 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 Bormann1900 – 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 Todt1891 - 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 Speer1905 - 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 Ley1890 - 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 Frick1877 - 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 Ribbentrop1893 - 1946

• Wealthy wine exporter– Purchased ‘von’ from a relative

• 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 Rust1883 - 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 Schacht1877 - 1970

• 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 Darre1895 - 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 Grievances Advantages

In Opposing Nazis

Disadvantages

In Opposing Nazis

Jews

Sopade

Churches

Youth Groups

Foreign Governments

The Regime’s Internal ObstructionistsWere there any brakes on Nazi Radicalisation?

Group Grievances Advantages

to Slowing Nazis

Disadvantages

to Slowing Nazis

Some Army High Command

Some Career Diplomats

Some Civil Servants

Traditional elite