The Nazi Government (1934-39) Flashcards
(39 cards)
1
Q
What were 2 ways that Hitler dealt with the existing bureaucracy, and why did he do this?
A
- He purged his opponents and Jews from it in 1933
- Hitler kept some ministers who weren’t Nazis, since they gave the people a sense of continuity
2
Q
List 5 defining aspects of the Nazi government.
A
- Führerprinzip
- ‘Working towards the Führer’
- Polyarchy
- Personal rivalries
- Terror
3
Q
What was Führerprinzip? Give 3 details.
A
- The ‘leadership principle’
- The idea of a strict hierarchical order
- It meant that Hitler had absolute power
- It also meant that leaders gave orders which were instantly followed (contrary to a democracy, where there would be discussion and consultation)
4
Q
What other idea did the Nazis use to support Führerprinzip?
A
- The idea of Volksgemeinschaft; that the whole nation would work together for the common good rather than for their own good
5
Q
What was ‘working towards the Führer’, and why did it exist?
A
- The Nazis implemented policies that they thought would please Hitler, as they did not have their own party programme, but rather were aware of what Hitler roughly wanted
- This would then give them more responsibility and power
6
Q
How was ‘working towards the Führer’ justified by the Nazis?
A
- Through the idea that Hitler perfectly represented the will of all Germans
7
Q
What was the issue that Nazi officials faced with ‘working towards the Führer’? Give 3 details.
A
- Hitler rarely set out his views clearly, but tended to say them in long monologues about various other topics
- Therefore, access to Hitler was the way to gain power
- However, access to Hitler was controlled by the Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Hans Heinrich Lammers and later Martin Bormann, Hitler’s private secretary
- This made Bormann more powerful than his own superior, Rudolf Hess, who was deputy Führer
8
Q
What 3 types of bodies existed within the government by 1936? Give one or two examples of each.
A
- Ministries: Hitler kept many of the traditional ones from Weimar, and created new ones such as the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
- Nazi Party departments: the party itself had departments that were intended to develop policies in certain areas, such as a department of economics
- Supreme Reich authorities: special agencies created by Hitler that came from neither the party nor the state, such as the Office of the Four Year Plan and the DAF
9
Q
What was the problem with the existence of these different bodies? Give an example.
A
- They overlapped, which made the regime polycratic (it had many centres of power)
- The economy; before 1933, the ministries of economics, agriculture and labour all played a role in economic policy
- In 1936, Hitler created the Office of the 4 Year Plan for the purpose of creating a new economic policy
- It had the power to organise labour, industrial production and even transport, which therefore interfered with the work of several other industries
10
Q
What were 4 reasons why Hitler ultimately created a polycratic regime, although it was chaotic?
A
- To create competition, which would cause ministers to want to please him and remember that they were dependent on him
- He even stopped groups from working on policies to prevent the formation of opposition
- He believed that this competition would lead to the creation of a better government (social Darwinism)
- Officials would ultimately have to come to him to solve disputes
11
Q
Give 4 details about a personal rivalry that affected the Nazi government.
A
- Himmler and Göring fought over control of the political (/secret) police after they purged Röhm
- From mid-1934, Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich (head of the SD) wanted to remove Göring’s influence from the Gestapo
- The dispute was taken to Hitler in 1936, and Göring no longer had control over the Gestapo
- Himmler’s power base grew as a result, and he expanded the Gestapo to monitor the whole of Germany
12
Q
What happened to political opposition under the Nazis?
A
- The Gestapo found any opposition
- Political prisoners were sent to concentration camps ran by the Gestapo
13
Q
What was Hitler’s lifestyle like as Führer?
A
- He spent a lot of time away from central government at his villa, the Berghof
- He was rarely awake before lunch, had irregular sleep patterns and spent most of his time doing leisure activities
14
Q
In what 7 ways did Hitler play an important role in the government?
A
- His will was the basis of the regime instead of the law
- He allowed the Nazi Party to play a bigger role in government
- He created new agencies
- He disliked being involved in the day-to-day affairs of government, unless it was foreign policy
- He used his authority to end disputes between senior Nazis
- His style of government caused the regime to be increasingly radical as Nazis came up with more extreme ideas to please him
- His presence actually made the regime more organised
15
Q
What proof is there that Hitler did not want to take part in the government’s daily affairs?
A
- While the cabinet had met 72 times in 1933, it only met 4 times in 1936
- It met for the final time in 1938
16
Q
When did Hitler tend to intervene in issues? Give an example.
A
- When it became a crisis
- The Night of the Long Knives; Hitler had previously refused to deal with Röhm
17
Q
What bit of legislation that was meant to be a temporary measure was never lifted by the Nazis? What were 2 powers it gave the Nazis?
A
- The Reichstag Fire Decree from February 1933
- It suspended individual rights and the freedom of the press
- The government could now imprison people without charging them with a specific crime
18
Q
In what 3 ways was Hitler presented to people, and why?
A
- Germany’s Messiah after the loss of WW1 and Versailles
- As representing the whole nation
- As being above politics
- Most people weren’t interested in Nazi ideology, so the Nazis created the ‘Führer myth’ to win themselves support
19
Q
What were 6 reasons why people supported the Nazis?
A
- Due to their economic achievements
- They rewarded conformity, such as mothers who had many children
- They were popular with people who shared the same prejudices as them
- They had the support of people who benefitted from them being in power, such as wealthy industrialists
- They had the support of people who wanted Versailles overturned and for Germany to be a dominant power within Europe again
- Their use of propaganda
20
Q
Give an example of the Nazis using propaganda to present their policies as correct.
A
- After 1939, the Nazis forced Jews into ghettos where there was a lack of food, electricity and water
- Images of this were then used to justify antisemitic propaganda
21
Q
How and when did the Nazis censor German culture?
A
- They set up the Reich Chamber of Culture under Joseph Goebbels in 1933
- This then had 7 other chambers that were each responsible for an aspect of culture
22
Q
How did the Nazis present the culture of the Weimar Republic?
A
- They claimed it was over-intellectual and Jewish-led, which was a disruption of German values
- They therefore called certain aspects of culture ‘degenerate’
23
Q
List 6 ways the Nazis controlled the German press.
A
- All journalists had to be members of the Reich Chamber of the Press in order to write for newspapers/ magazines
- ‘Unpatriotic’ journalists could be expelled from the chamber, which meant they lost the right to publish
- Goebbels created the German News Agency, which merged various news agencies and put them under the control of the government, so they became German journalists’ one main source of information
- The Nazi publishing company (Eher Verlag) bought up existing newspapers (Nazi ownership of papers increased to 82% in 1945)
- 1933 Editor’s Law: editors became responsible for the content of their newspaper/ magazine
- Specific newspapers were banned, such as the KPD newspaper, Red Flag, at the end of January 1933 (Göring also banned most SPD newspapers in Prussia in February 1933)
24
Q
How did the popularity of newspapers change under the Nazis, and why?
A
- There was a 10% drop in newspaper sales between 1933 and 1939
- The points of view available to Germans were extremely limited, and newspapers were dull
25
Other than the press, what 3 forms of culture were heavily censored?
- Radio
- Films (they banned some foreign films)
- Literature
26
List 4 ways that the Nazis controlled the radio.
- The Reich Radio Company (RRG) had already been regulating radio
- In 1933 they put Reich governors in charge of the RRG
- Mass production of the 'people's receiver', which was subsidised, and only had 1 station and limited range
- It was compulsory to listen to key speeches (radio wardens reported on attendance)
27
Give a figure on the people's receiver.
- 1939: 70% of households owned one
28
What proportion of the film industry was owned by the government?
- In 1933 the 4 major film companies were allowed to remain private so that they could continue to generate money through exports
- However, their shares were slowly bought up by the government
- In 1942 all film companies were nationalised
29
What proportion of films made under the Nazis were clearly meant to be propaganda?
- 1/6 of over 1000 films had a clear propaganda message
30
What films were released in 1940, and why? Describe one of them.
- 3 anti-Semitic films, with the purpose of stressing the Nazi view of Jews
- 'The Eternal Jew' presented Jews as parasitic
- It was extremely unpopular, and many even fainted watching it, as Jews were juxtaposed with rats, for example
31
How successful was the use of films as propaganda? Give 2 details.
- Films kept support for the regime, rather than indoctrinating people, as:
- only more subtle films were successful at delivering a message, as people tended to only see films as a form of entertainment
- newsreels were compulsory before films, and admission was not allowed after them
32
In what 3 ways was literature censored?
- In May 1933, the Burning of Books ceremony was held in Berlin
- 20,000 books were burned to 'cleanse' the new Germany
- This was then repeated in other cities
- Famous novelists either went into exile, were not allowed to publish books, or were imprisoned
- Authors had to either support the regime, or be neutral at the very least
33
List 4 other ways the Nazis spread propaganda.
- Sport
- Art
- Architecture
- Social policy
34
How did the Nazis use sport as a form of propaganda?
- The 1936 Olympics were treated as a way to display the physical superiority of Germans
- Germany won
35
What did Hitler do in 1937 in regards to art? How popular was this?
- 2 parallel art exhibitions were held to show what German art was meant to be against the art considered to be 'degenerate art'
- More than 600,000 people went to the Exhibition of Great German Art, while 2 million attended the Exhibition of Degenerate Art
36
What style of architecture did Hitler favour, and what were 2 reasons why? Give an example.
- Neo-classical style that was similar to the Ancient Greek style, but on a grander scale
- They represented the Thousand Year Reich the Nazis wanted to build
- It also gave the impression of absolute authority
- The new Olympic stadium built for the 1936 Olympics
37
Why was social policy used as a form of propaganda, and what did this extend to?
- It gave the idea that the people were working together while protected by the state
- Festivals and holidays were rearranged around important days in Nazi history
38
List 3 initiatives aimed at supporting the idea of Volksgemeinschaft.
- The people's car scheme
- The Winter Relief Campaign (Winterhilfswerk)
- Eintopf (one-pot meal once a week, and the money saved would go towards the Winter Relief Campaign)
39
Give an example of a festival that the Nazis changed, and 3 details about it.
- Mother's Day became an official holiday celebrated on Hitler's mother's birthday
- There were parades that usually ended with a propagandist speech
- From 1935, these parades became more military in some large cities
