How effectvely did the Nazis control Germany?

Empire

Hitler wanted to create and reshape Germany, he wanted to create a strong Germany, a racially pure Germany and A Volk (A people’s community)

Racial state

Hitler believed in Aryan supremacy, Aryans were the racially pure germans. hitler planned to remove Jews and other non-Aryans from positions of leadership and later even went to the extent of not allowing Jews to have sexual relationships with Aryans.

Volksgemeinshaft (folks-ge-mine-shaft)

Volksgemeinshaft means a people community and basically meant that the Nazis wanted people to give their hearts and minds to Hitler. They produced constant propaganda and made sure to eliminate anything that stood in their way.

Totalitarian

A totalitarian state is a form of government that prohibits all sorts of opposition parties and basically tries to control all of what people do and think. Totalitarian states are ruled by one single party, take total control of the military, take total control over means of communication, control the economy and using terror as a tactic to scare people into being obedient.

Why do some Historians believe the Nazi government was weak, chaotic and disorganised

People believe that the Nazi’s were disorganised because in reality they were, usually the result was just a bunch of different organisations competing with each other and getting in each others way.

The SS

The SS was a huge organisation which virtually destroyed the SA in 1934 but it also had over 1 million staff by 1944. The SS was responsible for crushing opposition and carrying out Nazi racial policies.

Gestapo

The gestapo was the secret state police. They could for arrest citizens to send them to concentration camps without trial or explanation.

Informants

Informants were citizens of Nazi Germany who would pass on information to the Gestapo.

Law courts

Nazis controlled the magistrates, judges and the courts.They appointed all judges and sacked those they disapproved of. This meant that people of the Nazi opposition would rarely or never be given a fair trail.

Aims

The aims of the Nazi propaganda was to have citizens loyal to Hitler and the Nazis and also have them think that Hitler was the saviour of Germany.

Berlin Olympics

The Nazis thought that the Berlin olympics would be a great propaganda opportunity both within germany and internationally. They also thought that the olympics could be a showcase for their doctrine that the Aryan race was superior to all other races. the games appeared to present all the qualities they valued in the Nazis-a grand vision, efficiency, power, strength and achievement but to their dismay, a black athlete won four gold medals and broke eleven world records.

Reich chamber of culture

When Goebbels wanted to close down Anti-Nazi newspapers, silence an anti-Nazi writer, or catch someone listening to a foreign radio station the Gestapo and SS would do that for him.

Rallies

The rallies brought colour and excitement into people’s lives. They gave them a sense of belonging to a great movement. The rallies also showed Germans the power of the state and convinced them that every other German supported the Nazis.

Reich radio company

it was a radio company in Nazi Germany that focused on broadcasting hitlers speeches and those of other Nazi leaders.

Why controlled churches

Hitler needed to control the churches in Germany as they had so much power and influence people so easily that it could tear down the Nazi’s.

Concordat

The terms of the concordat was that the Catholic Church wouldn’t get into politics while Hitler would leave the Church alone. But Hitler broke the Concordat as they were still regularly shutting down catholic churches, interfering with catholic newspapers etc.

Reich church

The reich church was supposed to be a protestant church that was controlled by the nazis but many Germans felt that their true loyalties lie with their original churches and would rather stay in their local area rather than the state-approved church.

Opposition

Church leaders such as Bishop Galen constantly criticised the Nazi’s and even lead a protest to protect against Nazi’s killing the mentally and physically disabled.

Faith movement

the faith movement was a movement that tried to steer Christians away from christianity but rather to the confessing church. It was unsuccessful because again christians much rather liked their original churches rather than the confessing church.

Ideal Aryan

The ideal Aryan was a pureblooded Christian that wasn’t a Jew, disabled(mentally or physically), homosexual or a gypsy.

Disabled

The disabled were persecuted as Hitler thought they were a threat to the master german race. Hitler persecuted them by launching the euthanasia programme which basically murdered the disabled but it nded when there was a public outcry against it.

Gypsies

The gypsies were persecuted as they were seen as inferior to the Germans. Hitler persecuted them by attempted extermination but this time there was no public outcry so 5 out of 6 Gypsies were murdered.

Homosexuals

Hitler persecuted homosexuals because they were sen as a threat to the Nazi ideas of family life. organisations for homosexuals were shut down, Nazis exploited prejudice against homosexuals, books by gay authors were banned and many were sent to concentration camps where they were forced to wear a pink triangle to mark them out.

Jews

Jews were persecuted for many reasons. One, Hitler thought they were inferior to Germans. Two, he blamed Jews for Germanys defeat in the first world war Hitler banned Jews from civil service, organised boycotts against Jewish businesses, took away german citizenship from them, banned them from having sexual/romantic relationships with Aryans, bombarded Germans with anti-Jew teaching and had Jews face discrimination.