Nazi Germany - Consolidation of Power, Propaganda, and Racial Policy

Flashcards covering key figures, events, and policies of Nazi Germany from its consolidation of power to its collapse in 1945.

Gleichschaltung

The process of 'Coordination' ($1933–1934$) where the Nazis brought all German institutions under state control and eliminated independent civic life.

Reichstag Fire

The burning of the German parliament building on February $27$, $1933$, used by Hitler as a pretext to suspend civil liberties.

Reichstag Fire Decree

Directly following the parliament fire, this decree suspended Weimar Constitution articles protecting freedom of speech, press, and assembly.

Enabling Act (Ermchtigungsgesetz)

Passed on March $23$, $1933$, it gave Hitler the power to enact laws without the Reichstag for four years, effectively ending parliamentary democracy.

Night of the Long Knives (Rhm Putsch)

A purge from June $30$ to July $2$, $1934$, where Hitler killed the SA leadership and other opponents to secure military loyalty.

Paul von Hindenburg

President of Germany ($1847–1934$) who appointed Hitler as Chancellor and whose death allowed Hitler to merge the offices of Chancellor and President.

Joseph Goebbels

The Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda ($1933–1945$) who controlled all German media and masterminded the Nuremberg rallies.

Reichskulturkammer (Reich Chamber of Culture)

An umbrella organization established in September $1933$; membership was mandatory for creative professionals, while Jews and opponents were barred.

Volksempfnger

A cheap, mass-produced 'People's Receiver' radio designed to bring Nazi propaganda directly into German homes.

Leni Riefenstahl

The filmmaker who directed 'Triumph of the Will' ($1935$) and 'Olympia' ($1938$), presenting Hitler as a messianic figure.

Entartete Kunst

The 'Degenerate Art' exhibition of $1937$ that showcased confiscated modern art to suggest Jewish and Bolshevist cultural corruption.

Albert Speer

Hitler's personal architect and later Reich Minister of Armaments ($1942–1945$) who designed the Nuremberg rally sets.

The Dual State

A framework by Ernst Fraenkel describing the coexistence of the Normative State (traditional laws) and the Prerogative State (SS, Gestapo, and camps).

Nazi Polyocracy

The overlapping and competing system of authority between Party offices, SS agencies, and traditional ministries that left Hitler as the final arbiter.

‘Working Towards the Fhrer’

Ian Kershaw's concept that Nazi officials anticipated and enacted what they believed Hitler wanted, leading to radicalization from below.

Gestapo (Geheimstaatspolizei)

The secret state police that functioned primarily by processing citizen denunciations, with only $126$ officers serving $500,000$ people in Dsseldorf.

RSHA (Reichssicherheitshauptamt)

Established in $1939$, this office merged the Security Police and SD to centralize all Nazi security and intelligence functions.

SS (Schutzstaffel)

Originally Hitler's bodyguard, it became a vast racial-ideological empire under Himmler, overseeing the Gestapo, camps, and Waffen-SS.

Dachau

The first concentration camp opened in March $1933$ for political prisoners, later serving as a training school for SS guards.

People’s Courts (Volksgerichtshof)

A special court for political crimes established in $1934$ that operated outside normal judicial procedures with high execution rates.

Roland Freisler

The feared President of the People's Court ($1893–1945$) known for screaming at defendants during political trials.

Blockleiter

The lowest-level Nazi official who monitored a specific apartment block, representing the regime's penetration into daily life.

Redemptive Antisemitism

Saul Friedlnder's concept that Hitler viewed the annihilation of Jews as a quasi-religious act of world-historical redemption.

Arthur de Gobineau

Author of 'Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races' ($1853$), which claimed racial mixing caused civilization to decline.

Houston Stewart Chamberlain

Racial theorist whose work 'Foundations of the Nineteenth Century' ($1899$) argued for Aryan racial superiority.

Aryanization (Arisierung)

The systematic economic exclusion of Jews through the forced sale of businesses and liquidation of assets between $1933$ and $1938$.

Nuremberg Laws

Laws passed in November $1935$ that stripped Jews of citizenship and banned marriage between Jews and non-Jews.

Kristallnacht

The 'Night of Broken Glass' on November $9–10$, $1938$, a coordinated nationwide pogrom against Jewish businesses and synagogues.

Judenbusse

A penalty of $1$ billion Reichsmarks ($RM$) charged to the Jewish community to pay for the damage caused during Kristallnacht.

T4 Euthanasia Program (Aktion T4)

A secret program ($1939–1941$) using carbon monoxide to murder disabled Germans deemed 'unworthy of life.'

Wannsee Conference

A January $20$, $1942$ meeting chaired by Heydrich to coordinate the logistics for the murder of all European Jews.

Einsatzgruppen

Mobile SS death squads that followed the army into the Soviet Union, killing approximately $1.5–2$ million people.

Hjalmar Schacht

President of the Reichsbank ($1934–1937$) who engineered secret 'Mefo bills' to finance German rearmament.

Mefo Bills

A financial instrument used by a dummy company from $1934$ to $1938$ to fund the military while keeping debt off the official budget.

Four Year Plan

A $1936$ economic initiative by Hitler and Gring to prepare the German army and economy for war within four years.

Hossbach Memorandum

Minutes from a secret $1937$ conference where Hitler outlined plans for using force for 'Lebensraum' by $1943–1945$ at the latest.

Autarky

The goal of economic self-sufficiency, which Hitler concluded was impossible without conquering resources through war.

Hitler Youth (HJ)

A compulsory Nazi organization for boys aged $14–18$ focused on physical fitness and ideological indoctrination.

League of German Girls (BDM)

The female counterpart to the Hitler Youth for girls aged $14–18$, emphasizing domestic skills and motherhood.

Langemarck Myth

The glorification of student volunteers sacrificed in battle in $1914$, used by Nazis to inspire military idealism in youth.

Edelweiss Pirates (Edelwei
piraten)

Working-class youth groups who rejected HJ regimentation and engaged in cultural and active resistance.

Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche)

A Protestant opposition movement founded in May $1934$ that rejected Nazi state interference in church governance.

Barmen Declaration

A $1934$ document primarily written by Karl Barth declaring that the church's only Lord was Jesus Christ, not the Nazi state.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

A Lutheran theologian and co-founder of the Confessing Church who joined the resistance and was executed in $1945$.

Reichskonkordat

A July $1933$ treaty between Nazi Germany and the Vatican where the Church guaranteed political neutrality in exchange for protected rights.

Clemens von Galen

The Catholic Bishop of Mnster whose $1941$ sermons against the T4 euthanasia program led to its official suspension.

Lebensraum

The central Nazi ideology of 'Living Space' used to justify the conquest of territory in Eastern Europe for resources.

Commissar Order

A June $1941$ Wehrmacht order to immediately shoot Soviet political commissars upon capture.

Generalplan Ost

A secret SS master plan to ethnically reorganize Eastern Europe by killing or expelling $31–51$ million Slavs.

Reinhard Heydrich

The head of the RSHA and chair of the Wannsee Conference who was assassinated by paratroopers in Prague in $1942$.

Operation Valkyrie

The July $20$, $1944$ assassination attempt against Hitler involving a briefcase bomb placed by Claus von Stauffenberg.

White Rose (Wei
e Rose)

A non-violent resistance group of Munich students led by Hans and Sophie Scholl who distributed anti-Nazi leaflets.

Nero Order

A March $1945$ order by Hitler to destroy all German infrastructure to prevent it from falling into Allied hands.

Potsdam Conference

A July $1945$ meeting where Alled leaders determined postwar occupation and authorized the expulsion of ethnic Germans from the East.