| State During The Third Reich Essay, Research Paper
To what extent was Germany a totalitarian state during the
Third Reich ??????????? In order to
answer this question it is important to first define the key phrase
?totalitarian state?.? According to
Fredrick, a totalitarian state must: attempt to control every part of people?s
lives, be a dictatorship with one party and one leader, have the country?s
media, economy and education system firmly under state control, and try to
control the social lives of its people. A totalitarian state may also tend to
be both militaristic and nationalistic. An alternative definition given by the Encyclopaedia
Britannica says: ?In the broadest sense,
totalitarianism is characterized by strong central rule that attempts to
control and direct all aspects of individual life through coercion and
repression. The state achieves popularity through a strong, charismatic
leader.? In order to answer the question,
each of the above points must be addressed and compared with the example of
Nazi Germany on order to decide to what extent Nazi Germany was a totalitarian
state. The Nazi Regime was unusual, and
far from being the well organised, disciplined regime it is often perceived to
be, Hitler ran Germany in a similar fashion to a medieval monarch.? Hitler was an all-powerful dictator but he
was lazy and ran the country from his mansion in Bavaria in a similar fashion
to a medieval court.? In order to get a
proposal passed as law, the party member would have to come to Bavaria, flatter
Hitler and then present his proposal.?
He despised paper work and often slept until midday, he thought of
himself as the visionary leader and he was quite content to be the visionary
figurehead and allow those under him to take care of the administration.? He never made appointments as he believed in
the principle of survival of the fittest and allowed a permanent battle to rage
beneath him.? He believed that if those
under him were allowed to fight for his approval then eventually the successful
group with a gifted leader would emerge victorious.? This group would, in Hitler?s opinion be the most talented as
they would have outwitted all their opponents.?
For this reason Hitler had four offices that claimed to represent him,
all of which fought for his attention and approval. This unusual system of
administration led to an unusual structure of individual power blocks, all
fighting for superiority.? This system
led to a limitation to the party?s control.?
The individual power blocks did not cooperate or communicate with each
other, and although the SS and the Gestapo were effective units of repression,
they were not as dominant in Germany as is often thought.? It was the reports given by the people of
Germany that allowed the Gestapo to make arrests and maintain effective
repression.? Through encouraging the
unsubstantiated gossip that spreads in any community and taking this as
concrete evidence, the Nazi party and more particularly the Gestapo were able
to maintain a degree of control over people?s everyday lives.? However, I would argue that the system was
only partially efficient as the reliance on unsubstantiated gossip and a lack
of real facts must inevitably lead to the conclusion that there were things
that the gossip missed within any community.?
The degree of control of people?s lives, therefore, was extremely limited.? However, the state certainly did set out to
control every aspect of people?s lives. The control the Nazis exercised
in other areas was also limited.? The
education system introduced by the Nazis was unusual.? The emphasis upon physical excellence and militarist drill was
resented by many, along with the blatant attempt by the party to indoctrinate
Germany?s youth through emphasising nationalist principles and showing the
party in a wholly positive light.? The
Hitler youth was often seen as positive, but in fact it has been shown that
education standards fell in Germany due to the increased emphasis on the
physical aspect.? Although in many ways
there was a strict control of the education system by the Nazis, the ability of
the system introduced to indoctrinate the youth of Germany was limited, and in
many cases succeeded only in isolating the new generation, the control here was
limited.? The economic ideas held by
Hitler, in general, lacked direction and purpose. He had no clear economic aims
and ambitions.? He concerned himself
little with economic matters; he was more concerned by ensuring that the
country was ready for war.? However,
initially he did have the insight not to attempt to run the economy himself and
left it up to the president of the Reichsbank, Schacht to fulfil this
role.? It is ironic that the area in
which the Nazi party itself had little or no input into was the area in which
they had the greatest success.? It was
Schacht who engineered the economic recovery of 1933-36, his policy of
encouraging public investment whilst lowering interest rates and taxes laid the
foundations for economic recovery.? His
later ?New Plan? solved the problem of increasing debts due to greater imports
than exports.? It was his insight and
expertise that allowed the economic recovery to take place; Hitler?s later
policies were not as successful. Schacht made the economic improvements
possible, however, the recovery in Germany was aided by a recovery worldwide
after the Wall Street crash of 1929.? At
this stage, the economy was controlled by the Nazis, but through non-Nazi
management. However, although the better economical management aided the Nazis
in their objectives, they were not essential to success.? Hitler essentially was willing to ignore
economical matters during the war as he felt that if he could gain enough
territory, Germany?s economic difficulties would cease to be a problem as he
would be able to drain capital from the territories that he intended to gain.
The introduction of 4 year plan showed that it was the war rather than the
economy that was the Nazis first priority.?
Essentially, Schacht had glossed over the real economic problems through
a series of financial tricks, in order to address the real problems the
government needing to raise taxes and more importantly, cut expenditure, and
with a growing military deemed vital to the survival of the Third Reich, the
good of the economy was of secondary importance. The result was that the
economy after temporary recovery was managed in a fairly shambolic manner after
the resignation of Schacht in 1937. The one area in which the Nazis
were in complete control was in the area of the media.? Goebbles was instrumental in the rise of the
Nazis and in the manipulation of public opinion whilst they were in power.? His censorship of the media and the
propaganda pumped out by his organisation was essential in the manipulation of
public opinion to be favourable towards the Nazi party.? His total control of the media was vital in
the total control of Germany.? In short,
his ability to organise and distribute propaganda was an essential factor in
the maintenance of Nazi control. It is interesting to note that
under these criteria, Nazi Germany can certainly be considered to be a
totalitarian sate to a certain extent.?
The State, under Nazi rule, attempted to control every element of the
lives of its people through brutal repression of certain types of people.? The allegations had very little substantial
evidence in support of them, however, through encouraging idle gossip and
treating it as factual evidence, the Gestapo were able to arrest many people
that may have resisted Nazi policy.?
Furthermore, the Nazis encouraged the Arian race to interbreed to make a
superior race whilst discriminating against homosexuals and Jews.? This again shows an attempt at control.? The Nazis, despite measures such as these,
were not wholly successful in their control of people?s lives and there remained
resistance to Nazi rule among the people of Germany.? If this resistance was limited, it was due to the fact that the
Nazis appeared to be bringing prosperity back to Germany when it was needed
most whilst inspiring the German patriotism that had been lost in the wake of
Versailles.? It was from this that
Hitler?s popularity stemmed.? However,
on the whole, people supported Hitler out of free choice rather than through
oppression and fear. Furthermore, in education and the economy, the Nazis
attempted complete control, but in many ways, despite their best efforts,
complete control was never obtained due to difficult circumstances.? In the case of education, the indoctrination
became increasing obvious and people rather than submitting to it, became
actively opposed to it.? In the case of
the economy, despite Schacht?s best efforts to hide the problems, increased
expenditure meant that the Nazis lost control.?
The media, however, remained firmly under the control of Goebbles. In
addition to these factors, Nazi Germany was violently Nationalist, very
militarist and concerned with patriotism.?
Nazi Germany was led by one party in the Nazi party, all opposition
having being abolished, and one strong leader in Adolf Hitler. Under the
criteria set out by Fredrick then, it is clear that one can conclude that the
Nazi party set out to achieve a totalitarian state, and although they were
largely successful, there were elements of Nazi rule that were far from
totalitarian due to a lack of unity and purpose within the party, the desire of
the party to stage a European war at all costs and the people?s resistance to
the totalitarian system due to a lack of control over peoples lives. However, it is difficult to
define a totalitarian state.? The phrase
came into being during the cold war, when sweeping statements defined Hitler?s
Germany, Stalin?s Russia and Mao?s China as ?totalitarian? states.? The meaning of the word is ambiguous and at
the beginning of this essay, two examples were given of slightly differing
definitions.? Under the second
definition, the Nazi party could not be described as ?strong central rule? as
their was limited unity of purpose, but in so far as there was one leader who
controlled the policies, the rule was centralised and to a certain extent
strong.? The Nazi party certainly
attempted to use coercion and repression to control people?s everyday lives and
Hitler was an extremely charismatic leader who gained much popularity within
Germany. Therefore, under this definition, the Nazi state can be considered
totalitarian to a greater extent. If one takes the definitions as
correct, Fredrick?s being the better definition, then the Nazi rule was
partially totalitarian and certainly set out to be so.? However, the phrase a ?totalitarian state?
is too general and too vague to be a satisfactory definition of Nazi
Germany.? It would perhaps be better to
look at Nazi Germany as a regime and analyse it in that respect rather than
attempting to force it into a mould for a certain type of state.? In this way Nazi Germany was different from
anything that had been before and different again from anything that has come
since, and therefore deserves to be analysed as a state in its own right rather
than being but in the ?box? of ?totalitarian states?. ? ?
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