The Characteristics of the Nazi State in Germany 1933-1939

The devastation and reparations of the First World War left Germany a broken and unstable nation, in need of a strong leader. The widely hated government of the Weimar Republic and the wrecked economy gave the people of Germany little faith in democracy and many came to believe that Hitler's Nazi Party would restore Germany to its former glory. The Nazi's promised cultural and economic renewal, and a desire to rebuild Germany. 

From the beginning of the Nazi Party's rise to power their main foreign policy aims were clear, they wanted to dismantle the Treaty of Versailles in order to increse the size of the German Army and to form Anchulus with Austria as part of their plan to untite all German speaking people in Europe through Grow-Deutschland. Finally, they planned to expand the borders of the Third Reich eastwards through their policy of Lebensraum, which would allow them to use the rich oil fields of Russia and grain fields in Ukraine to produce sufficient food and materials for the Aryan race through Autotarky. In 1935 Hitler openly declared his intention to rearm Germany by announcing the abolition of the disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles and reintroducing general conscription. Following his success in dismantling the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler decided that while Britain and France were preoccupied with Italy's invasion of Abyssinia he would send German troops into the Rhineland, which was declared a 'demilitarised zone' under the terms of the Treaty. And so, 0n the 7th of March 1936, 25,000 German soldiers occupied the Rhineland and when they were not met with any objection Hitler adopted a more aggressive foreign policy.

In April of 1938 Hitler created a crisis when he mobilised the German army on the Czech border. Czechslovakia responded quickly and decisively by mobilising the Czech Army and causing Germany to retreat. Hitler claimed that no aggression was intended however, he was enraged by the defeat and he claimed that it was now his 'unalterable intention to smash Czechoslovakia by military action in the near future'. As a result of the Allies policy of appeasement, Hitler sought to complete the next stage of his foreign policy plan by uniting Germany and Austrian through Anchulus. The Germans were invited into Austria to allegedly restore law and order and on the 12th of March the German Army marched into Vienna. Hitler was greeted with an enthusiastic welcome as he triumphantly returned to his homeland. The Nazis believed that German people were members of a superior race and developed their concept of Herrenvolk from the works of various European writers who believed that the 'Aryan' people of northern Europe were the superior race and were destined to rule over the 'lesser people' such as Jews and Slavs. Hitler believed that there was a Jewish conspiracy to spoil the purity of the Aryan race by 'cross-breeding'. Hitler wished to unite all Aryan German-speaking people under one leader and enslave the 'lesser' Slavs during Germany's eastward expansion of Lebensraum.

When Hitler came to power, a series of anti-Semitic measures were passed that targeted Jews. In 1933 a boycott of Jewish-owned shops was organised. Jews were later banned from working for the government, as teachers, judges and professors, and all legal and medical professions. In September 1935, Hitler announced the Nuremberg Laws which forbade marriage sexual relations between Jews and Aryans and deprived Jewish people of their German citizenship. It is estimated that nearly half of Germany's Jewish population left the country in the 1930s. On November 7th, 1938 a young Jew shot and killed a German embassy official in Paris and in response to this on November 9th, there was a violent outburst of anti-Semitism. The SA, SS and Hitler Youth burned down synagogues and Jewish-owned shops. Over 7,500 Jewish businesses and 200 synagogues were destroyed. Over 90 Jews were murdered in the event that became known as Kristallnacht. The Nazis fined the Jewish community 1 billion marks for the damage caused by the Nazis and their supporters.

Josef Gobbels was the cheif propagandist of the Nazi Party and one of Hitler's most loyal followers. When Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 Gobbels entered the cabinet as the head of the newly formed Reich Ministry of Information and Propaganda which had seven departments that were created to control every aspect of cultural life; The Reich Chambers of Fine Arts, Music, Theatre, Literature, Press, Radio and Film. The slogan of the Nazi Party was 'Ein Reich, Ein Volk, Ein Führer' and from 1933, Hitler followed a policy of 'Gleichschaltung' which brought the coordination and occupation of as many aspects of life as possible under the control of the Nazi Party. Radio played a major part in the Nazi propaganda machine as his introduction of the affordable, 'People's Receiver' in 1933, enabled the broad masses to become regular radio listeners. Hitler himself believed that 'All effective propaganda must be confined to a few bare necessities and then expressed in a few simple phrases. Only by constantly repeating will you succeed in imprinting an idea onto the memory of a crowd'. And so the People's Receiver was a cheap and widely used radio that was deliberately short-wave in order to only received deliberate Nazi propaganda and broadcasted a mixture of popular music, drama and political programmes. Strict censorship was enforced and newspaper editors in Berlin had to attend daily briefings at the Propaganda Ministry and those who failed to adhere to the Nazi's censorship were shut down. In 1933, Goebbels organised a book burning to destroy any books with anti-Nazi ideas. These included the works of Jewish, German and international writers like Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce.

The Nuremberg Rallies held in September coincided with the annual Nazi Party Congress. The annual rallies at Nurember were used very effectively to spread Nazi Propaganda, as Hitler would make up to twenty speeches throughout the week long event in front of an audience of approximately 500,000. The Nuremberg Rally in 1934 was significant as it celebrated the rise of Hitler to power and was the subject of Leni Riefenstahl's propaganda film, titled 'Triumph of the Will', in which she made use of the cheering crowds, precise marching, military bands and Hitler's closing speech to glorify Hitler and the Nazi regeime. The film paid tribute to the German soldiers of WWI and saw an aisle lined with thousands of faithful Nazi supporters standing silently to attention as Hitler marched by like a priest. Goebbels knew how effective cinema and film were and so anti-semetic films such as 'The Eternal Jew' and 'Jud Suss' were used to target Jews and promote racist Nazi ideas.

Hitler believed that 'the battle for the mind begins in the cradle', and so began the indoctrination of German children from as early as 10 years old, when boys joined the jungvolk and girls joined the jungmäden. At fourteen, boys would join the Hitler Youth which was formed in 1926 and girls would join the League of German Maidens, which was established in 1928. Like the education system of Nazi Germany, youth groups were similarly sexist and while boys involved themselves in military exercises, girls were taught domestic skills. The Hitler Youth placed emphasis on clean living, competition, teamwork, hiking, sports and weapons training in order to expand and strengthen the German army. When boys advanced to full membership of the Hitler Youth they were presented with a dagger inscribed 'Blood and Honour', which they accepted with great pride. The Nazi educational curriculum focoused on History, Biology and Physical Training, however history was rewritten to fit the Nazi ideologies and focoused on the origins of the Nazi party and the history of the Aryan race, and in Biology students were taught about racial purity. Physical training was seen as an important step in the building of the Nazi's Herrenvolk. All teachers had to attend training courses organised by the Nazi Party and by 1936 almost 32% of teachers were members of the Nazi Party. Hitlers attitude of 'Kinder, Kirche und küche' referred to the role of women as mothers and their place in the home and church, meaning that the education system of Nazi Germany was extremley sexist. Female enrollment in universities was limited to 10% and the emphasis that many girl's schools placed on subjects such as cooking and sewing, rather than technology and science, meant that it was more difficult for girls to enter higher education and women were encouraged to leave the workforce and stay at home.

As we can see, as Hitler rose to power he transformed Germany into a totalitarian Nazi State, that revolved around Nationalism, Anti-Semitism, propaganda, youth movements and totalitarianism. The Nazis aspired to control all aspects of German life for every individualand indoctrinate German society with Nazi ideology.