The Rise and Rule of Nazi Germany: A Comprehensive Overview
Establishment of Single Party Dictatorship
Three Phases of Nazi Consolidation of Power
A) Control at the Center (Jan-March 1933)
The Reichstag fire in February (where the Parliament building was burnt down and Communists were blamed) led to Hindenburg declaring a state of emergency. Communists and trade union leaders were arrested, leading to the virtual destruction of the Communist Party (KPD). In March, Reichstag elections gave the Nazis 44% of the seats. The Enabling Act was passed, granting Hitler the power to bypass the Reichstag. A law to coordinate state parliaments was issued, ensuring Nazi majority in all.
B) Control Beyond the Center (April-July 1933)
In April, Hitler replaced all 18 state governors with Nazis. In May, Trade Unions were banned and replaced by the German Labour Front. In June, all parties except for the Nazis were banned, and in July, Germany became a single-party state with the Nazi Party as the sole legal party.
C) Final Consolidation of Power (Jan-August 1934)
State parliaments were abolished, and state governments were made subordinate to the Reich Government in Berlin. In June, the Night of the Long Knives brought the SA under control, as they desired a second revolution that would nationalize all businesses and see the army absorbed by the People’s Army led by the SA. In August, President Hindenburg died, and Hitler made himself Führer (chancellor and president). The army swore an oath of personal loyalty to Hitler.
State and Party Integration
State and Party weren’t fully integrated. Hitler didn’t create a new Constitution, and Weimar institutions remained (except for the Reichstag and state parliaments). Until 1937, a majority of Reich ministers were non-Nazis, though they were removed between 1937 and 1938. The army remained the same until 1938 when Hitler removed 18 senior generals.
The Führer Cult
The Führer Cult was established through various means, including the book “The Hitler No One Knows.” Hitler’s birthday was celebrated with mass rallies and parades. Hitler became a strong dictator, undermining orderly government by appointing several people to the same jobs, resulting in officials competing for Hitler’s favor. He added institutions and created the Supreme Reich Authorities, whose functions overlapped with existing ministries. Hitler destroyed collective government, becoming the single source of authority.
Nazi Ideology
In Hitler’s eyes, the Volk community was everything, the individual nothing. His aim was to create a society in which every individual saw the purpose of their life as contributing to the greater good of the German Volk. He attacked the idea of individual rights as damaging to the national community.
Hitler’s community, the Volk, was superior to all others, composed of pure Aryan Germans. There was no room for asocials, disabled, or non-Aryans.
Evidence of Ruling According to Ideology
A) Policy Towards Asocals
In 1936, an asocial colony was set up. Initially, the idea was to re-educate them, but they ended up being sent to concentration camps. 25,000 out of 30,000 gypsies died in camps during World War II.
B) Policy Towards the Disabled
Sterilization was made compulsory in July 1933 with the Nazi Sterilization Law for a wide range of hereditary illnesses: 320,000 were sterilized. 72,000 mentally and physically handicapped were killed.
C) Anti-Semitic Policies
- May 1933: SA organized a boycott of Jewish businesses.
- Soon after Hitler came to power, Jewish civil servants were purged.
- 1935: Nuremberg Laws deprived Jews of German citizenship.
- 1938: Attack on Jewish properties and synagogues: 20,000 Jews sent to the camps. Jewish doctors and lawyers were forbidden. Jewish children had to be taught in separate schools.
- 1942: The Final Solution was decided: extermination of Jews.
Terror of State
Germany became a police state with the Gestapo, SD, SS, a purged police force, and a manipulated legal system. There were 18 concentration camps and a harsh punishment code. In 1933, a decree allowed indefinite detention without trial, and the first concentration camp opened. 225,000 Germans were imprisoned for political crimes during 1933-1939. The Gestapo was also set up in 1933. The SS became powerful after the Night of the Long Knives, running concentration camps and enforcing racial policies. The SD monitored public opinion with intelligence. After 1933, judges could be removed for their political beliefs and were ordered to interpret the law according to the will of the Führer.
Control of Media and Culture
Media and arts were controlled. The Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda was set up by Goebbels in 1933. Radio was the most important medium, and all broadcasting was under Nazi control. Cheap radios were created and mass-produced. In 1932, less than 25% of households had radios; by 1939, more than 70% did. 66% of the press was controlled by the Nazis. In 1933, there were 4,700 daily papers; by 1944, only 1,000 remained.
Nazi rituals were created to celebrate the Nazi state, including Nuremberg rallies, celebrations of the Munich Putsch, and Hitler’s birthday.
Control of All Aspects of Citizens’ Lives
Leisure and work were controlled by party organizations: the German Labour Front, Strength Through Joy (which organized recreational activities for workers), and Beauty of Labour (which improved workplace amenities for workers). Non-Nazi recreational clubs were closed down.
A) Policies Towards Women
The Nazi slogan “Children, Church, Kitchen” represented what the Nazis wanted women to be like. Female employment was restricted, especially for married women. The number of women at university was also restricted. Women who left work to marry (an Aryan) received an interest-free loan, and the debt was reduced by 25% every time they had a child. Nazis wanted to increase birth rates, necessary for their expansionary aims: medals were introduced for prolific mothers (bronze for 4/5 children, silver for 6/7, and gold for 8 or more). However, from 1937, women started being recruited for jobs due to labor shortages.
B) Youth in Nazi Germany
In 1933, all youth groups, except those from the Catholic Church, were closed down and absorbed into the Hitler Youth (HJ). By 1939, 82% of all 11-18 year olds were in the HJ or the League of German Maidens (for girls). In 1939, membership became compulsory. Boys trained for war, and girls for motherhood. After 1936, illegal alternative youth groups appeared, such as the Cologne Pirates for working-class children (whose leaders were hanged in 1944) and the Swing Movement for middle/upper-class youth (who angered Nazis by wearing English clothes and dancing to American music).
C) Education
The main aim of education was to develop loyalty to the regime. In 1933, there was a purge of teachers. By 1937, the Nazi Teachers League represented 97% of them. History and biology were politicized. Teachers were disillusioned due to constant Party interference.
Nazi Economy
Hitler needed to rebuild the German economy by tackling unemployment and preparing for war. He used industrialists as he needed their support and rejected SA calls for the nationalization of businesses. Until 1936, Hitler followed fairly orthodox financial policies. The New Plan (1934) involved German control of foreign exchange and bilateral agreements. Peasant farmers were protected by tariffs on food imports and helped by cheap loans and tax exemptions.
Tackling Unemployment
- Spending money on public work programs
- Encouraging the expansion of the car industry (removing tax on luxury cars, cutting tax on petrol, and building a new motorway network)
- Offering cash incentives for women to leave their work
- Introducing a massive re-armament program in 1935, which created new jobs
- Re-introducing conscription in 1935, removing men between 18-20 from the job market
Economic Indicators
- **Industrial Output:** By 1937, Germany was producing more than in the most prosperous Weimar years.
- **GNP:** 1933: 44 billion Reichsmarks, 1938: 80 billion Reichsmarks.
- **Wage Levels:** Workers benefited from rising wages but never reached the levels seen in the best years of the Weimar Republic.
Four Year Plan (1936)
Introduced after the “Guns or Butter?” crisis, the Four Year Plan aimed to make Germany self-sufficient in raw materials. Germany imported too much food, fuel, and raw materials, and Hitler had to decide to reduce one. He couldn’t risk cutting down the availability of food. The plan consisted of making synthetic substitutes for imported oil and rubber and using Germany’s poor quality coal and iron. He wanted to prepare Germany’s economy for war in four years. Synthetic fuel production doubled, though other targets were not met. By the time of the war, Germany still imported fuel and raw materials.
Rearmament
In 1933, Germany had an army of 100,000 men, no tanks, no warplanes, and a small navy. By 1939, Germany had 1,200 bombers and 98 divisions in its army. The navy had 2 battleships, 2 armored cruisers, 17 destroyers, and 47 U-boats. However, Germany was not ready for a total war. Some argue Hitler never intended it; he just wanted blitzkrieg, short attacks.
Opposition to the Nazis
A) The Catholic Church
In 1933, the Concordat was signed between Hitler and the Pope. Catholic bishops had to take an oath of loyalty to the Nazi state. In 1936, the Nazis broke the Concordat by closing down Catholic Youth Organizations and closing monasteries. The Pope denounced the Nazi regime in his encyclical in 1937. In 1941, the Catholic press was closed down. However, the Church survived, and some clergy spoke out against the Nazis, such as Cardinal Galen, who denounced the murder of the handicapped.
B) Protestant Churches
The Nazis tried to infiltrate and control the Protestant Church from within. In 1933, a nationalist movement called the German Christians won the Church elections with 75% of the vote. Their leader, Muller, was made Reich Bishop. Some opposition still existed, such as Pastor Niemoller, who opposed the centralization of Protestant Churches into a single Reich Church and ended up being imprisoned in 1938.
C) Left-Wing Opposition
The working class was 45% of the population and tended to support the SPD and KPD before 1933. Nazis arrested socialists, though the SPD leaders operated from exile (SOPADE), gathering intelligence. The KPD had active opposition: in 1939, KPD organizations existed in 89 Berlin factories, fueled by dissatisfaction with the lack of wage increases. However, after the Reichstag fire, the KPD had been seriously weakened. The conflict between the KPD and SPD continued, debilitating the opposition.
D) Opposition from the Army
Some senior officers had serious misgivings about Hitler’s foreign policy, although the only opposition before World War II was when Ludwig Beck, Chief of Staff, conspired against Hitler during the Sudeten crisis. More significant opposition appeared when defeat in World War II seemed inevitable, such as the Bomb Plot of July 1944, which had significant backing from senior officers.
E) Opposition After 1939
Resistance groups emerged, such as the White Rose at Munich University, led by the Scholl brothers, who were sentenced to death for distributing pamphlets, and the Kreisau Circle.
Why Was Opposition So Limited?
- There was positive support for the Regime and Hitler, stimulated by Goebbels’ propaganda system and Hitler’s successes in tackling unemployment and foreign policy.
- Organized centers of opposition were destroyed in 1933: rival political parties, trade unions, etc.
- Opposition was illegal, and the terror imposed by the SS and Gestapo was effective, making the majority unwilling to speak out against the regime.